Baby Shower for Aimee

I wanted to have a baby shower for Aimee, in part to celebrate her and in part to educate people in Lemoore on where I live. (And to party!!!)

I was going to do it all myself, but Tiffany Escalante volunteered to do games and Marianne volunteered to do the food. I did house cleaning and decorations. I decided I wanted a yellow and white/duck theme.

Duck decorations

So people could know gender and due date without asking.

The food! Oh, I did cookies and brownies. 

The party! Steve said, "You know, we could hang streamers from the top of the stairs". And they looked wonderful!

An icebreaker activity of decorating bibs.

There were four little babies (though one slept the whole time). Jenna is helping this three month old. Giving him blankets and toys. A proud momma moment.

The party favors Marianne made.

All of the gifts Aimee got! Ugh, picture is blurry!

Nesting With A Vengeance

Since moving into our home around February 17 we have sure been busy! I can't believe that we have been here almost four months. Amid all of the deep cleaning, unpacking and furniture buying and selling I have been nesting with a vengeance!

First I had to set up Jenna's new space:

For Jenna's room. I may make one for Aimee. (Idea via Pinterst)

Also for Jenna's room. Took forever! (Idea via Pinterst)

Then I had to make a spot for Aimee:

A wallflower - Pintrest win!

Butterfly mobile - Another Pinterest win!

We are having another girl, but in the summer and not the winter. So I wanted to make some clothes for her.

Small skirts. Cost about $5.

I made 14 crockpot freezer meals and froze them. We caved and bought a large freezer for the garage.

Freezer meals! I hope they are yummy.

 I also need some new toys to occupy Jenna with. So I spent some time making 20 busybags. I hope they work!

And all of the other projects that I am not going to do when she comes. Including:

• Catching up on scrapbooking. So far this has been the last half of 2011, 2012 and I've printed the pictures for 2013. 
• Making pillow covers for the living room. 
• Making a sewing cover for my sewing machine. 
• Repainting Jenna's play table. 
• Deep cleaning the house!

And of course we went to two trips out of state and had a few in-state vacations.We have one more trip to Oakland. Almost done!

San Antonio, TX

From May 10-18 we traveled to or were in San Antonio, Texas, visiting Matt and Sally Hamm who generously opened up their home to us. We had a great time. I feel like I did everything "Texas" that I wanted to do. Among the things we did:

• Two step country dancing (my pregnant body still tells me that doing this at 34 weeks may not have been a good idea)
• Ate BBQ
• Ate Mexican Food (including breakfast tacos - yum!)
• Attended a rodeo in the middle of nowhere (and got stuck in the mud!)
• Visited the Alamo
• Went to church and talked with people who said "ya'll"
• Survived an intense thunder/lightening storm. 
• Fed lots of animals, including: 
• Birds
• Ducks
• Geese
• Peacocks
• Ostrich
• Deer*
• Large rams/antelope/goats*
• Buffalo*

 *We fed by hand. The others had their food tossed to them!

• Drove by the LDS San Antonio Temple
• Visited the Institute of Texan Cultures, the Quadrangle on Fort Sam Houston Base, the Japanese Gardens, the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, Sea World and of course took the boat tour of "The Riverwalk".
• Pet an armadillo.

On the way home, United was desperate to bump a few people and we ended up getting $1,200 in airplane credits and we only lost 2 hours. I hope that will get us somewhere tropical!

Here are our adventures in pictures:

Woven owl basket at Institute for Texan Cultures

Feeding a buffalo!

Sea World whale show

At the Japanese Gardens

Walking with a peacock at the Quadrangle

A view on the Riverwalk

Easter 2014

We celebrated Easter with some new friends in our ward. The Escalantes hosted and we had a good time. Jenna found a lot of eggs. Then she unpacked them and repacked them. Of course she got to eat a few!

Unpacking the first one. A full basket!

Opening her eggs - too excited to sit!

Getting ready to re-pack her eggs.

Then we had Easter at Grandma and Grandpa Hamm's house.

Finding the first egg.



Gathering more... 

Eating chocolate!

My only regret with Easter this year was that we didn't focus more on the true meaning of Easter. We were so worn out after the Fresno reception, recovering from our trip to Utah, feeding the missionaries, having friends (old Deloitte co-workers) to dinner and Stake Conference. Next year...

Aunt Lizzy & Uncle Nate's Wedding

The second week of April we took a long road trip (12 hours!) to Utah to see Beth and Nate get hitched in the Salt Lake Temple. We had so much fun! We stayed with family one night, friends another night and new extended family the night after. Each experience was unique and we were grateful for all of the hospitality we received. By the time we got home Saturday night, we had driven for at least 31 hours. Jenna was a dream. And she even slept!

From SLC to Boise

Of course we prepared for our trip. Here is Jenna trying on her dress. She would not let me get a picture of the back.

From the left: Great Uncle Larry, Jenna, Olivia, Uncle Andy carrying baby Jack (from Jenna's perspective). People often thought Olivia and Jenna were sisters, which is so funny because none of us are related by blood.

The Hamm clan.

A little tired.

Talking with Aunt Lizzy.

Jenna got scared!

Congrats Beth and Nate! We wish you the best for your first year together!

January 2014

We sold our house on Cedar in December and the day after Christmas we moved in with my in-laws. They were so good to have us! As of today (February 12), we are still here, but hope to move out by the weekend. This weekend would be a good time to move because it is a three day weekend.

So we have lived in limbo a little bit. I have recently started crafting and will try to remember to take pictures and post what I have done.

But that doesn't mean we haven't had fun! In the last 6 weeks we have:

--Celebrated Steve's birthday (Dec 24), Suzanne's birthday (Jan 30) and our anniversary (Dec 29).

--Officially found out that we are having another girl in June (I am currently about 21 weeks):

--We went on a few play dates. Jenna really liked going to the park and feeding the ducks as well as going to the fish hatchery and feeding the fish. ("Jump, fish!")

--On January 25 we went to the Santa Anita racetrack and watched the horse races. Steve's boss breeds racehorses (among other things) and they had nice area reserved with a catered lunch that was accessible to the racetrack. It was fun to watch the horses run. And now whenever Jenna sees a horse (or a picture of one) she says: "Running horses, zoom!". Someone even placed a bet for us! (We didn't ask her, and no, we didn't win anything.)

--On February 11 Jenna got her first haircut! (I have cut her bangs, but I am not counting that.) She did a good job, though I am certain the Mickey show helped.

Coming up soon is Valentine's Day and moving. I am a little anxious to get things set up and comfortable in our new place. Then in March is Steve's little sister's endowment and bridal shower, April is going to her wedding and seeing "Wicked", May we will go to Texas to see his twin brother and his wife and in June (I am putting my money on early July), we will add to the family. Yikes! No wonder I haven't been sleeping. This year is already packed and it isn't even the middle of February!

Jenna sayings at two

Some silly things that Jenna says at 2:

bee bee = bee ("share beebee")
lum = some
used to say: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10!, can now count to 14 with help, 10 without help
you = me
gogo = turtle
lala = song/music ("no lala, mommy!)
pacer = pacifier
yet
"-ing"
almost
there
this
"brush teeth Jenna" when she want me to brush her teeth.
num num = watermelon
juice = anything not milk or water

"yawwhh" with eyes and mouth held wide open, meaning "very yes"

"biiiiig" = something that is very big

"oink, oink here, oink, oink here"for the Old MacDonald song

When did she get to be such a big girl???