20 weeks

How far along: 20 weeks today! HALFWAY!! (well, I am actually hoping that I was halfway either last week or the week before since CJ was born at 41 weeks)

Size of baby: approx 6.5 inches long, 10.6 oz. About the size of a cantaloupe.

Gender: Baby Girl!!! We have decided on her name and announced it to our families on Christmas!

Total weight gain/loss: +6 lbs (HELLO Christmas cookies!)

Maternity clothes: Yes!

Symptoms: Morning sickness (threw up one random morning this week?), tired, hungry

Sleep: About 9 hours a night, with about 3 trips to the potty.

Food cravings: Everything!!!

Movement: Yes! I feel her a lot usually first thing in the morning and in the evening. She is a wiggle worm and I love her for it.

Best moment this week: Christmas!

What I miss: Holding CJ as much. I've been trying to not carry him when it's not necessary.

What I'm looking forward to: A brand new year starts tomorrow!

Christmas Eve & Day 2011

Christmas is so much fun with a toddler!! (I LOVE his shirt that says "Dad's Greatest Gift" Now isn't that the truth?! He is definitely my greatest gift too!)

Since we're in the military and we're going to be continuing this nomadic lifestyle for the next, oh, 14 years or so...JT and I decided as a family that we want to do Christmases at our home. Wherever that home may be, so at least that will always be a constant for the kids in their constantly changing lives. (With the exception of CJ's first Christmas last year that we did in SC with the grandparents. But we figured he was too little to remember that one.) CJ was so lucky that his Oma & Grandpa (my parents) were able to fly out and be here for Christmas this year.

On Christmas Eve my Mom and I baked several different types of cookies. JT and my Dad watched football and did a little last minute shopping. We tried a new church for Christmas Eve service, because it was within walking distance from our house. They had live animals: camels, sheep and a cow. CJ LOVED that!

And because it was the "family service" we kept CJ with us. He did really great, and enjoyed getting to walk hay up to Jesus' cradle. Our little angel:

When we got home from church, we followed my family's tradition of having seafood on Christmas Eve. I made us Shrimp & Grits. (And I chose this also because I thought the green and red peppers made the dish all the more festive! I am a dork.)

This year we started a NEW tradition for our family. When I was growing up, I ALWAYS wanted to open a present on Christmas Eve. I remember my sister and I begging our parents. Well, every year the kids will get to open the family game for the year, that we will play together that night. Since CJ is still a little young to play a "structured" game with rules, our game this year was Memory Match. CJ had a blast just playing with the cards! :)

Opening his stocking from Santa on Christmas morning!
CJ was SOOO spoiled this year. I honestly can't think of many toys that this kid doesn't own. I'm glad baby sister is on her way to help teach some sharing and also because then I can start getting rid of extra "baby toys" we've been saving. CJ did a great job of savoring each present. If it was a book he would flip through the pages until we took it away to encourage moving on the the next present. He wanted to play with all the toys and seemed excited by everything he got. We are so thankful for our generous family and friends who love our sweet boy so much.
His favorite present was a Mack Truck that is also a carrying case for cars. It came with 15 cars. He hasn't stopped playing with it! Putting the cars in and out, vrooming Mack around the living room, and of course lining up cars!
I didn't get a picture of Christmas dinner, but we had Honeybaked Ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus, squash casserole & rolls. Our cutie on Christmas!
CJ got bath crayons in his stocking and REALLY enjoyed "color"ing in the tub! (I'll have to ask Dada how much he enjoyed cleaning the tub afterwards).
We had a GREAT Christmas this year! I can't believe next year we'll have two kiddos to celebrate with!

19 weeks

How far along: 19 weeks!

Size of baby: approx 6 inches long, 8.5 oz. About the size of a mango.

Gender: Girl!! :)

Total weight gain/loss: +3 lbs

Maternity clothes: Yes!

Symptoms: Tired, emotional, hungry, nauseous

Sleep: About 8 hours a night, with about 3 trips to the potty.

Food cravings: Fruit!

Movement: Yes! And JT got to feel her for the first time this week too!

Best moment this week: Finding out baby is a healthy little girl.

What I miss: Since it is Christmastime, I always miss my little sister this time of year. All the great memories of CSUMC, camping out in the same room, advent calendars, leaving cookies for Santa, matching Christmas dresses...the list is never ending. I am excited for CJ that he will have a little sister of his own!

What I'm looking forward to: Christmas tomorrow and the next week with my parents!! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Baby #2 is a...

...beautiful baby...
GIRL!!!

JT and I are so excited!! Her ultrasound went well and everything looked "normal." She was very active, and continues to be as I feel her moving right now. What a special day for our family!! When we got home from the ultrasound and asked CJ "Do you want a brother or a sister?" He thought and said "No..." HA HA HA. I still remember the day we found out he was a boy, and now...a little girl too?! Feeling SO incredibly blessed this Christmas!! And my parents arrive tomorrow!!! What a great week!

Christmas Cruise & More Santa!

This weekend we went to JT's Christmas Party. It was a night cruise around the San Diego harbor, held on the Hornblower. I was a little leery because I have a history of getting "seasick" and knew I couldn't take dramamine since I am pregnant...but it was dark and the water was flat so I felt fine, thankfully! The food was AMAZING (I cleaned my plate!) and the views of the city lit up for Christmas were so pretty.

The Coronado Bridge lit up. I was reenacting the scene from Titanic in my head (like the dork that I am) as I stood on the back of the boat taking this photo.

The next day, we went down to the Exchange on base to look around. CJ spotted "Tanta" and walked right up to him asking for a "treat". So funny!!

And later that same night, CJ got to see Santa #3 (and get another candy cane from him!) & Mrs. Clause when my Moms group met up at Bernardo Winery for Holiday Nights. They had a bunch of cute shops open, and JT got to taste a glass of wine.
Looking forward to celebrating Christmas some more when my parents arrive in TWO days!

18 weeks

How far along: 18 weeks!

Size of baby: approx 5.5 inches long, 7 oz. About the size of a sweet potato.

Gender: We find out if baby is a girl or boy on MONDAY!! (our appointment got moved up!) We will honestly be happy either way. It would be awesome for CJ to have a brother so close in age (not to mention already owning everything boy). But getting to have both a son and daughter would be equally amazing! We are just praying for the baby to be healthy!

Total weight gain/loss: +2.5 lbs

Maternity clothes: Yes, please.

Symptoms: Tired!

Sleep: About 8 hours a night, with about 3 trips to the potty, and I've taken a nap a few times this week which has been wonderful!!

Food cravings: Hot chocolate with whipped cream

Movement: Yes! After feeling the same thumps/flutters as I did last week, with increasing frequency, I know it's the baby I'm feeling! :) I've been feeling baby a couple of times everyday and I love it!!

Best moment this week: Getting to spend time with one of my best friends!

What I miss: Not being winded so easily.

What I'm looking forward to: Getting to see the baby again via ultrasound on Monday, hopefully finding out the gender then and the arrival of my parents on Thursday! Exciting week!! :)

Home for Christmas

I'm connecting up with Kelly's Korner's Show Us Your Life this week to show y'all our Christmas decorations for 2011. Since CJ is a very active, curious toddler, I've tried to make our decorations "family friendly" and kept some of our nicer, more breakable decorations in the boxes this year! ;)

I splurged a little on an "advent" present for CJ, but thought that this purchase was worth it! A Nativity he can play with. And Baby Jesus lights up and plays music. His favorites are the "king"s (wise men) and putting his Lightning McQueen car in the manger with Jesus.

Here is our completely decorated Charlie Brown Tree. We don't have a "theme" like some families, it's more of a hodge-podge, but every ornament has sentimental meaning. We have big colored bulbs because that is what I grew up with and LOVE them! Our ornaments are a mixture of beautiful beaded ones that JT's grandmother made, ones that were special to me when I was little, and ones that we've gathered together through our various travels and 6.5 years of marriage. The breakable and meaningful ones are on the top half of the tree, and on the bottom are ones we don't mind CJ playing with and potentially breaking. I love that we have a window at this new house for our tree to sit in front of, especially since we didn't do outdoor lights this year...at least we don't look TOTALLY like the neighborhood Scrooge.

Next to our tree, is our fireplace. Don't worry about a fire hazard, because we don't use our fireplace (due to safety!) This "coffee table" is the perfect size to sit in front of it (aka block CJ from it) year round, and I thought our nativity looked great there too. The pieces are plastic, so even when CJ does play with it, it's no big deal.

Since this fireplace doesn't have a mantle, our stockings are laying on the floor beneath the table holding the nativity. I'm excited because next year we can have cute monogrammed matching stockings because our family will be complete. :)
On our bar, my favorite picture frame of our family commemorating Christmas through the years. Mickey and Minnie and some desert plates (all out of reach for small hands!)
Our Christmas table setting in the dining room. (We normally eat in the kitchen so this is just for decoration!)
A little weak on the outdoor decorations this year. I'm waiting to get some more lights until they go on sale after the holidays! So it will be bigger and better next year! ;) We couldn't find our wreath, so the snowman will have to do until next year. I replaced our USC/Clemson football flag with this penguin one that CJ picked out. And please don't mind the ghettofabulous note above the mailbox. Just reminding our postmaster who lives here so they STOP giving us other people's mail.
I LOVE this table right next to our front door when you walk in! We have QUITE the Mr. Potato Head collection, so it's fun dressing a couple of them up for Christmas! CJ loves playing with them and changing them up too. And I really love seeing the pictures of BOTH :) of our kids. CJ with Santa, and "All I want for Christmas is you" Baby #2.
This tree hangs on the inside of our front door. It is special because my Mom made it for us. She is so talented and used to sew dresses for my sister and me for Easter and Christmas when we were little. And I love having this handmade piece to hang up every year.
I've gotten a new snow globe every year we've been married. This year I put them up (out of reach) on our TV cabinet. Each one has some sort of special meaning for that year, where we were or what happened. I so enjoy unwrapping them and reflecting on those memories each Christmas season.
This year we are displaying our cards on our giant cabinets in our kitchen! Makes me so happy seeing them all!

This is our Christmas card album. Every year after hanging our cards, I take all the photos and photo cards and put them in this album. It's fun looking back year after year at how families change and grow!

I label the year and who is pictured. And under our card, I put where we were.
We have two nativities sitting on our dresser in our bedroom. This hand carved one I've had for a long time.
And this ceramic one we got after our first Christmas (on sale of course!) when we needed more decorations.
Our guest bathroom is usually a "beach" theme, but I try to incorporate Christmas during the holiday season!
Hope you enjoyed this tour of our Christmas home decor. And I just realized I never took pictures of our house post move in (because I am always waiting to have the house "perfect"). That is clearly never going to happen, but at this point I'll probably just wait until we can show y'all the new nursery too! ;)

Christmas Card 2011

My blog friend, Faith, is hosting her annual Christmas Card Carousel and I thought it would be fun to link up (even though I'm a day late).

Most people have received my card by now because I sent it OVER two weeks ago on November 30th. (with at least one exception of my sister?! What in the world USPS?!) Sorry to spoil it sis, but this is our card this year, and I hope you eventually receive yours!

Since we had to take our family picture on self timer, we didn't have ANY of CJ looking or smiling, ha ha. Oh well, this definitely captures "real life". I'm especially proud of our card this year because in my former life (before becoming a Stay at Home Mom) I was a graphic designer in the printing industry and I created this card from scratch. (It isn't a template that I just stuck photos into). So it was really fun for me to get to do some "work" again! I really wanted to incorporate the themes of "believe" & "miracle", to reflect not only the Christmas season, but also the blessings our family is feeling this year. Hope you like our Christmas Card! :)

Santa & Sea World

Yesterday morning we took CJ to see Santa! There was no line at 10am on a Tuesday, so we walked right up and had "Tanta" all to ourselves. When we got to him, Santa gave CJ a candy cane. I asked him, do you want to sit with Santa? He said "No..." but didn't fight it when we sat him there. He was probably super confused because me, JT and our friends were all jumping around behind the photographer trying to make him smile. Here is this year's photo:

So proud of my boy. Eating his "treat".

In the parking lot with Dada still enjoying his candy cane.
It was a chilly and rainy day, so JT took CJ home for a "Stay-at-home Dad" day, while I went with our guests to Sea World. We made the best of our day, and had a great time despite the yucky weather. Grabbed an early lunch at the park, and I was worried that the killer bird was gonna steal my fries!
Best friends at the Turtle Reef!
Shark Cove!
Shamu Show!!
Boy are they brave. Ha ha! Seriously, how cute of a "Sea World" picture is this?! And NO photoshopping was involved! :)
CJ was happy to see one of us when we got home. Gee, thanks son, Mama missed you too. Ha ha!
Typical CJ personality, crazy faces!! Stinker pot.
Enjoying his last night with our visitors!!
Putting plastic tub "hat" on Dada. Ha ha!
Acting goofy and dressing up with holiday Mr. PotatoHead accessories. Yes, we're almost 30 and still act like we did when we met at age 19.
CJ eating his chocolate "treat" from the advent calendar last night.

I can't believe that it's already time for our visitors to leave. Makes me sad how fast time flies. I am so thankful for the time that we got together, and already looking forward to the next time we get to see each other.