Tree Farm

This year was the first year that I have ever not bought a Christmas tree at a tree farm! I've always been opposed to parking lot tree stores, and instead have justified spending lots more on a tree from the farm. However, Costco had a deal too hard to pass up and we couldn't resist saving $30.

Even though I caved and bought a parking lot tree (which ended up being very pretty!), it didn't mean we couldn't still enjoy the tree farm! We went a night- another first- and it was fun seeing Aubri run around. It was a little scary because it was pretty dark out there, and she soon became fearless running through the rows of trees.

Jose's brother Edu was visiting and he joined us too.

It doesn't qualify as a tree "farm", but I really wanted to take Aubri to the tree lot at the fairgrounds. It is a mile from our home and we drove by it everyday. Aubri loved seeing the huge blowup snowman and would yell "Hi Snowman" every time we passed it. We took a walk over there one afternoon. Aubri got to meet the reindeer (I was surprised they were back! Last year we saw on the news that one had escaped and ran into OUR neighborhood. Police couldn't catch them, so some local cowboys were called and they roped while riding their horses! Man, I wish we would have been home to see that excitement!), play in the cow train, and eat free popcorn. It doesn't get much better than that for our little girl!

Crafts and Cookies

Since our Fall crafts were a hit with Aubri, we continued to do arts and crafts together throughout December.

I made a paper chain countdown until Christmas. We called it "One day closer to Christmas" and every morning Aubri would remind me that we needed to do it. I was unsure if she would understand the concept, but after a couple of days I'm confident she did. She would tell us "It's getting smaller! Christmas coming!"

I was trying to figure out where to hang it, and temporarily set it over her toys. It ended up staying there the whole month and worked out great.

You can see a sample of our crafts and our tiny little chain in this picture that we took 3 days before Christmas. I forgot to take pictures while we made our little angels (can you tell which one Aubri put the wings on??) and snowman, and also didn't get a picture of our hand print Chrismas tree- somehow pulling the camera out when we had green paint everywhere didn't seem like a good idea!

One day Aubri and I glued together parts of a nativity (left over from a Sunday School craft). I helped a lot with one, and the other I let her do with me pointing her in the right direction.

Even though I'm not a perfectionist, I got to admit that it is hard to see a sideways heart and Mary hanging off the side! But when I see how proud of her work she is, it melts my heart!

One day I made gingerbread cookies and she helped decorate them. Neither of us are pros, but she sure had fun eating sprinkles! She actually did do a good job sticking the sprinkles for eyes and buttons, and realllly loves to shake the extra messy sprinkles over the frosting. I think she asked every day after to make more cookies.

I invited the girls from church over for a Holiday bake day. I did it last year, and aside from the huge mess it made it was a huge success. I tried doing the same this year, but no one could make it except for the two greatest bakers I know! Our niece Savannah and cousin Brandie came over and we baked all day. I forgot to take pictures, but trust me it was amazing! We sold the treats at the church bake sale the next day and the proceeds benefited children's and youth ministries. Even though other girls couldn't make it to help, we had several others contribute their baked goods for the sale too.

I didn't get any pictures of the bake day, but I caught Savannah hard at work a few days later! She and Grammy offered to make us dinner complete with appetizers and dessert. Look at her cute Fruity Pebbles Christmas tree!

Today when I told Aubri we were going to do something very special she asked "Make more snowman crafts?!" We are actually going to the children's museum, but it was a good reminder how much Aubri loves craft time. I need to think of some cute things to do in January!

Christmas Parades

Aubri loooved watching parades. She started the month off being very scared of Santa, but soon didn't seem to mind the guy so much (never warmed up enough to sit in his lap, but she at least gave him knuckles and stood next to him).


Her first parade was with my parents to the Arroyo Grande Parade. We missed out on the fun, but heard she had a great time.





We took her to the Santa Maria parade and she loved watching it with her favorite cousins. Little Jesse and Aubri loved running to collect the candy that was being thrown out to them. I'm always amazed at how well Aubri sits and watches the parade for so long! Having a warm Starbucks milk and candy canes probably helped a bit.

We also went to the Old Town Orcutt parade. It was cute and short, but it was fun to see lots of friends we knew.

Aubri asked often to go to more parades, but we will have to wait until next year!

Christmas Past

Wow! Christmas was amazing! I can't believe it is already over, but I'm content knowing we did all we could to make this season a memorable one! I can't wait to show you all the fun things we did over the last month. Aubri was the perfect age to enjoy everything, and seeing Christmas through her eyes made it extra special. It just may have been my best Christmas ever! Stay tuned for pictures!

27 weeks!!

Christmas is in a couple of days! We can't wait! Aubri loves talking about Baby Jesus, and makes a sad frown when she says "No room at the hotel!" She tells us "Baby Jesus born in manger!" She asks me every night at bedtime to tell her about Christmas day. She loves repeating and reminding me that she will wake up and open presents, say thank you, go to Nana and Papa's house to open more presents from "Uncle Jesse and Uncle Jasen", she wants to give them their little present she bought them, celebrate Papa's birthday (not only is it Jesus' birthday, but it's my dad's too!), then go to Nina and Nina's house to see her cousins.

Every day we do "One day closer to Christmas" (our paper chain). Today Aubri announced "Smaller Mama! It smaller!" I asked her why the chain has become smaller and she said "Christmas coming soon!" She has loved the Elf on the Shelf so much, and I'm glad I decided to start the tradition this year. She remembers every morning to look for the little Elf, and yells "There he is! I found him!" Throughout the day she will go up to him and tell him things, and if she is being naughty she yells out on her own "Little Elf, no presents for me! No listening to mommy and daddy!" Little stinker!

She is crazy about Christmas lights! After I took her to see one really decorated house, I told her to yell out the window to say bye (she didn't want to leave!). She started saying bye to Santa, to the penguins, to the reindeer....finally I said, "Say bye to everything." So of course she yelled out "Bye Everything!"A minute down the road she asked to go back and "see more everything!" This soon became the "Everything house" and she asked over and over to go back to the Everything house and take her friend Ella. After a week of asking, we took her and Ella to look at lights. The little girls giggled and chattered all around town. It was so cute!

This week our little man has started kicking much harder! I can feel his foot or hand stick out sometimes, and I watch my stomach wobble all around as he moves. I forgot how strong kicks can be! One night while I was sleeping, I had rolled over in bed and my stomach was against Jose's back. The baby kept kicking his dad all night! Aubri loves yelling at my stomach "Wake up little brother! Kick my hand little brother!" Sometimes if he isn't kicking, I fake a kick and she laughs and laughs! She also puts her head to the stomach and says "Kick my head!"

I gained about half a pound this week, wore maternity shirts exclusively, but am still in regular jeans (some pairs I use the belly band). I randomly started waking up with sore hips this week. It usually goes away as I get up and move around, but it is strange. Also, a couple of times after eating chocolate I think I got very mild heartburn! These are the first pregnancy complaints I've had sine the early weeks, so I'm counting myself very lucky that I had a perfect 2nd trimester! I can't believe we've entered the 3rd and final trimester!

26 weeks

We are in the double digits on the baby countdown! Only 98 days (more or less) until we meet our little man!

I had a doctors appointment a couple of days ago and everything looks great! We heard his nice strong heartbeat and were told he is measuring just right. I seriously can't believe how great this pregnancy is. I love being pregnant! It is so nice not having to worry about belly fat rolling over the top of jeans.

I've been comparing my blog posts from my pregnancy with Aubri. By this gestation with Aubri I said I felt like and old lady at the end of the day and my back and hip pain was unbearable most days. This time I honestly don't feel weighted down at all with this baby yet, and haven't had a hint of back pain since the first month. It must be that I still weigh significantly less than with Aubri- in fact only 3 pounds more than I was at the start of my last pregnancy. My total weight gain at this point is about 15 pounds. I gained 10 pounds though in the last 7 weeks, but my midwife was not the least concerned.

The last couple of weeks have been fun as the kicks are getting stronger. I can watch my stomach jump around as he kicks inside, and occasionally I'm already starting to feel a foot or hand under the side of my ribs.

Aubri loves to yell into my stomach and says "Wake up little brother! Kick me little brother!" At night or nap time she insists on lifting my shirt to kiss him goodnight. If you ask her what his name is she says "Guke" (Luke) , and if you ask what is the other name he might be, she says "Egwa" (Ezra).

The other day she came into the room as I was sorting some hand-me- down clothes for the little guy, and she said "Mama what you buy little brother?" She ran to the clothes and said "So pretty! Awww cute!" as she looked through the things. She doesn't seem to have any jealousy yet and she always points out boy things at the store and tells me "Buy for little brother please." She cracks me up!

(We haven't been so good taking the weekly pictures! We missed weeks 23 and 24 because of Thanksgiving, and then missed week 26. This is the picture from week 25)

Fall Fun

I just uploaded our camera with pictures from the last 8 weeks! Thought I would catch us up to speed on what has been happening around our house this fall season.

Aurbi had her first cup of hot cocoa. She loved the whipped cream most of all!

Jose taught Aubri how to make a fort while I was gone one evening. She loved it! Excuse her messy hair, that is what happens when she is running and rolling around!

The nights have been chilly!! We've taken a few evening walks and this is how Aubri gets bundled up to ride in her stroller.

Aubri and I made crafts together for the first time. She LOOOVED it. At first she didn't appreciate the paint on her hands for our handprint turkeys, but soon got in to it. She could have colored and glued all afternoon.

She was excited to show off her works of art. A couple of minutes after this picture was a completely different scene. It involved her kicking and screaming on the floor asking for "MOOORE CRAFTS!!!! NO NAP!!"

Since our first arts and craft experience was an overall success, we've been doing it weekly. Our next project was what we called our "craft/treat". I showed her acorns online and we read about them growing on trees (don't really have any acorn trees available to me) and squirrels eating them, then made our own acorn treats.

Anytime I make anything involving food, she insists on wearing her apron and sitting on the counter. She will sit and "bake with mommy" all day if she could. She was a great help unwrapping the candies and sticking the parts together. However every time I looked she was cramming the candy in her mouth in true chipmunk fashion.

Our finished product. Super simple, but super tasty!

Our latest craft was pom pom snowmen. She wanted to make one for herself and her two grandma's. They all look a little hunched back because she wasn't as concerned as I was for perfection. I think the one at our house is actually flashing gang signs at me as he cocks his head to the left.

And finally, possibly the best 24 hours I've had in a long time! A little getaway with my love! We celebrated our 4th anniversary with a night stay at Avila La Fonda (where we stayed our wedding night).


We could not believe the amazing weather! We walked up and down the beach in shorts enjoying the heat.

This hotel is our favorite ever. They offer so many fun little treats (we took advantage of it all!). Happy hour hors d'ouvers and appetizers, and late night dessert.


Isn't he cute?? We were excited and surprised they upgraded us, and we got the same room we had on our wedding night. I don't think we will wait 4 years to visit again! I'm already thinking V-day might need to include a stay here!