Home Again

We are finally back home from two wonderful vacations( 16 days total!) with a day in between them to repack etc! We got in last night from my cousin's wedding in MI ( pics to follow) and had a wonderful time. As promised, here are the pictures from our visit to Manteca. Miss you guys already :( What a joy is was to spend the last 16 days with both sides of my family. We are truly blessed and don't deserve the love that our family extends to us!

Yummy Tapas dinner at Nanni's house

Enjoying his cousins and the outdoors in the jumper

Uncle Brian came down for the day for our trip to the beautiful Lavender farm and grilled pizzas for dinner that night :)

The sweet Mendoza clan

After the Lavender farm we stopped by Andrew's grandparents ( Kerri's parents) grave site. Weston can't wait to meet them in heaven some day!

Sunday treat

This is one of my most favorite people: Jenny Lyon. During our visit
we were able to travel up to Walnut Creek and attend North Creek
church where a few Grace peeps have come from and gone back to,
including the Lyons. The Lyons used to live right next to Grace, and
now rent out that house to sem guys. How we miss them! We had so much
fun visiting their beautiful church and we heard an awesome message
from Philemon. They even have a coffee shop that is open all week as
a place to fellowship next to their bookstore. I enjoyed a cookies
and cream drink in between services :) we also heard a refreshing
message from Adam Chiapelone on our future with Christ in glorified
bodies! If ur ever up in that area, you must check it out. After
church we headed over to the Lyons home for some lunch and rest before
the drive back. What a blessed day!

Manteca fun!

We are sadly on our way home from a 10 day visit to our family in
Manteca. We had such a relaxing time and really got the royal
treatment...as always! Dinners, movies, pedicures, shopping etc etc :)
as you can see our 3 year old niece also enjoyed a pedicure! More to
come

Grateful for my guys and moms!

Mother's day morning I came into the kitchen and found a few of my favorite things on the table! Beautiful roses, sweet cards, sour candy, gift card to the Coffee Bean and some photo booth pics of my favorite boys! Andrew had taken Weston out on an "errand" with him the night before :) so sweet!

I feel so blessed to have been able to be celebrated on Mother's Day. I have always wondered what it would be like to be a mom- and now I am by God's grace. It is not the easiest job, he he, but it is by far the most rewarding thing I have ever done! To know that my sweet babies are in my care and responsibility is sometimes overwhelming, but God gives me the strength I need each day. Now more than ever I can truly appreciate my mom and mother-in-law and the lifelong sacrifice they have made for their children. Thank you to my moms! I am also grateful for the great examples I have in some of my mommy friends- Particularly I think of Julie Gebhards, Jenny Lyon and Juli Mckitterick who parent with such love and dedication to bring their children up in a Biblical way. They think and pray about the way they parent and are purposeful it seems in every interaction with their children. Thank you to you ladies too for your awesome example! I just feel so blessed to have been raised by a godly mother, to have married a man with a godly mother and to be surrounded by friends who are godly mothers.

In fact some of us new mommies have started meeting everyother week in order to challenge and encourage eachother down this path. We are reading through "Shepherding a Child's Heart" together and have had a wonderful time so far.

Happy belated mother's day to all you mommies out there and what a blessed role the Lord has given us!!

So the fun begins

I will be posting some pics soon from Mother's day- but just wanted to update and thank those for praying for us the last few days!

Mother's Day was eventful :) During worship Sunday morning after nursery duty I started experiencing low back pain, lots of it, and some contractions. I continued to have the same the symptoms the rest of the day and the next. I got into my doc Monday afternoon and everything is ok praise God! The baby is fine and bouncing around normally but I do have a small hemorrhage outside of the placenta in my uterus.

There is no risk to the baby as long as it remains small and should go away on its own. I just need to rest and take it easier. No more lifting 30 lb kiddos in the air!

Also on Monday my dear hubby had all 4 wisdom teeth removed- he is doing great and only a little puffy ( so cute). We are so thankful for dear friends to help us out during these times! Thanks to Justin for picking Andrew up from the doctor and for "cleaning him up" So his queasy wife could look at him without passing out :)

It's a....

On Thursday morning we headed out early to Dr. Frields with my mom while Andrew stayed behind to get some studying done for his final that day. At my last appointment the Dr. couldn't tell how far along I was since the baby is positioned in the back- so this appointment 4 weeks later was to determine how many weeks along I really am! My mom decided to stay an extra few days so she could come to this appointment and see a peek of her next grandbaby. Before the appointment we were joking around saying how fun it would be if we could already find out what sex the baby was! But knowing that I would only be between 10 and 12 weeks, it would be very unlikely since they normally don't check for gender until 22 weeks.

Well the ultrasound determined that I am 12 weeks along with a very active little one in there kicking all around! I even saw some cute little toes- but that's not all we saw :) Plain as day we could all see that the baby is a... BOY!!! We are so excited for a brother for Weston!

Since Andrew wasn't there we decided to surprise him in a fun way! So we headed to the hospital gift shop, picked up a few "It's a Boy!" things and headed to his office. I called ahead to the secretary and she agreed to go along with our little scheme :) When we got into the parking lot she came out and grabbed the loot to sneak and put on his desk for him to find. My mom, Weston and I then headed to breakfast to celebrate and wait for his call! About 45 minutes later he called and couldn't believe that we found out already! The girls snapped the pics of him finding the surprise- thanks guys! He said he was confused at first and wondered what all that was for on his desk :) None of us expected this blessing so soon! Thank you God for another blessing and a brother for Weston

Waiting patiently

Zoom in to see his surprised face :)

Hiding between cars in the parking lot in case Andrew was nearby!

Babies, bellies and the beach

Weston is now 10 months old and I have begun some plans for a small and simple first birthday party...I can't believe it! He loves eating in his big boy highchair and is very efficient with his one tooth- named "spike". He can now eat pieces of bread and cut up chicken and small pieces of fruits and veggies by gumming it all. We are amazed!

This past week we have also enjoyed a fun visit from my mom and sister who came into town for my sister's babyshower in Santa Barbara which took place on Sunday. It was a beautiful day for a drive up the coast and fun to see my sister and her little bug celebrated! We had dinner at the yummiest Italian place before coming home. While my mom was here we spent a day in Camarillo and went for a lovely walk on the beach near Pt. Mugu. So fun! Weston loved the sand but cried when I put his feet in the water :(

Baby #2 has been growing quite a bit as well and a little bump has emerged- see pic below where the cousins are saying hello in-utero (spelling?). We had a great check up today and a post will follow with some exciting news!... TO BE CONTINUED

Yes, he is eating sand

baby bellies