Fall/Winter pictures

It's the time of year for Christmas cards and family pictures! Because nothing says I love you quite like giving someone pictures of yourself, right? The concept of pictures in/on Christmas cards is a little bit lost on me, except for when given to family members that rarely see you or your kids. But its a "thing" and my family all seem to love it, so we divulge and we took our Christmas pictures this past weekend.

We went up to a really pretty park. It has a railroad track running through it and has a ton of seasonal trees that give off a lot of leaves. It photographs really well. Well enough that there were about ten other families there taking family pictures the same time we were. I wish I was kidding or exaggerating, but I'm not. There was a lot of "watch out, we're gonna be in the background of these peoples pictures" or "just a sec there's someone in the background." But luckily everyone knew what everyone else was trying to do and was mostly courteous about trying to stay out of each others way.

I love photographing my family. In my completely unbiased opinion, my boys are pretty freakin cute and easy to photograph so its fun. The downside of it is that I'm never in any of the pictures. I have about 486,542,878 pictures of my boys together and my husband with them but about 20 of me and the boys and like 3 of the four of us together. I used the self timer to jump in a few of them, but I look a little beat from first taking pictures and the toddler chasing that entails, and then from running to try to beat the timer and get "posed" in time.

The shots I got of the boys were pretty good. I was really sad though, I got some really really cute ones of the two of them when we first got there, only to realize my 1yr old who was trying to play with my camera the night before had switched me from auto focus to manual focus and all of my favorite ones were not in focus. I was able to get a few that were in focus but the boys were over that spot so we had to move on. Sad me. Our day ended early when Anthony got stung by a bee and was in no mood to continue taking pictures. Through the timer beating, the bee stinging, and the manual focus I was able to get some really cute shots. So now, I share them!

This was my favorite spot, that was first out of focus then the boys were over it. As Anthony is demonstrating here.
 

 

 

Hey look! I'm in one! Messy hair and all.

 

After posting these an old friend from high school contacted me about taking some pictures for her family. So not this coming weekend, but the following I'll be taking pictures of someone elses family for the first time! Wish me luck!

Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Hands down. I love Christmas, I love Thanksgiving (really, who doesn't??) But there's just something about Halloween that I LOVE. I love the spooky, creepy, scarys. Its my thing. I was beyond excited when we moved into our new house earlier this month and were told by multiple neightbors that Halloween was a big deal around there. We found out on Halloween...they weren't kidding.

Brandon and I left work at noon and after a quick stop at the dentist (I got to have a root canal on Halloween, lucky me!) we were home getting everything ready for the night! My mom, my sister and her kids came over to join in the festivities. We set up the driveway with some chairs, the fire pit, and a cauldron full of dry ice. My brother in law stayed behind and passed out candy while we took the kids out to trick or treat.

Seriously it's been a dream of mine to live in a neighborhood like that. I enjoyed every second of not having to drive anywhere and of being able to host my family for my favorite holiday. Unfortunately all I took was a few pictures on my phone, but you can see how cute my boys are!

Noah was Hulk baby!

Anthony was a super studly superman!

He decided that Superman needed a mask, I dont know why. He INSISTED.

My trick or treating babies!

Brandon and I were the bad wolf and dead red riding hood. See? Im dead cause the wolf got me....get it???

Red riding hood needs to invest in an iron.

Our set up in the driveway

All that candy and we still ran out. We started handing out Noahs trick or treating candy haha

I can haz punkinz?

I spend far too much time in the humor section of pinterest. Unfortunately for my husband he has to hear me mutter the word "ermahgerd" way too often. I give credit to his genuis mind for this little piece of heaven right here.

 

Pumpkin patch!

In 2010 we made our first trip as a family to the Bates Nut Farm pumpkin patch. When Brandon was a kid he would go with his family every year and we have inherited the tradition. This year was our third year making the trip out there, and even though it is indeed a trip to get there, we always enjoy our time. Its a huge pumpkin patch with "big macs" that you pay per pound or your average sized pumpkin for a set price. There's rides and mazes and a little store where you can buy home made jams and all sorts of goodies. The weather was cool and drizzly, the boys were well behaved, and we got some good pumpkins. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!



My kid is crazy

I was that mom. I made me kids wear matching sweaters

Nono trying to move one of the Big Macs

Look at this stud muffin!

Coolest kids ever

family portrait

The boys runnin in the pumpkin field

look at this cool guy!

 There is a stack of pumpkins, a little picture prop they have out every year. The first year we took a picture with it just because it was there. But we've taken pictures with it every year since. It's kinda cool to look back and see how different your life can be just a year later.

2010 - our first trip out to the pumpkin patch. Ant was almost two and so small and cute and innocent!

2011 - Notice the little tiny newborn Noey here! This year it was super hot and miserable.

 

2012! We made a point to plan our trip around the weather this year, no more hot pumpkin patch trips!

Im embarassed to admit that im so out of shape, my legs were sore from squatting down to take pictures of my kids. But thats the ugly truth, people.

We have a sick little guy on our hands.. part two

Remember how I told you when Noah was born he needed to spend three days in the NICU where he was on oxygen and heart monitors? And then how about 6 months ago he got bronchiolitis and had to receive breathing treatments, steroids and an inhaler? Well I think this kid likes to get sick and scare me. I think its a hobby of his. That, and poking people in the eye.

Last Tuesday I noticed my normally happy, smiley baby was a clingy, fussy, warm little ball of cries following me around and knew he was getting sick. Wednesday morning he woke up sounding raspy with a clearly sore throat and a little bit of a cough. But with it being a week day and him not having a fever, we gave him some tylenol and sent him to daycare anyway. I was getting calls and texts all day about how his throat sounded worse and worse all day. He was getting raspier, he cough was getting deeper, his breathing was getting wheezy, and his voice was getting higher and higher like his throat was swelling.

I went to pick him up after work and did not find my baby, but found what sounded like a barking seal instead. So I dropped Anthony and Brandon off at home and Noah and I headed off to urgent care. We waited in the waiting room for about 20 minutes, watching people get called back, get their vitals taken and get sent back out into the waiting room to wait their turn.

They called us back for our turn to get his vitals taken and the nurse commented at least three times on how bad Noahs breating sounded. She took his vitals, asked a few questions, heard him cough and then told us we were being bumped ahead of everyone, and ushered us to our room.  Soon the doctor came in and told us what the nurse had already told us she suspected, that he had croup. They gave him a steriod and a breathing treatment and he sounded better by the time we left. They told us that it may have been because of his bronchiolitis that he got this, it left him with sort of a pre-disposition to respritory issues. And even more good news is that now that he's had croup once, he's more likely to get it again.

The real good news is that he's doing better. We've been running his humidifier and giving him ibuprofen to keep the swelling in his throat down. He still has a cough but it just sounds like a gunky cough, not a seal bark anymore. Lets hold out hope that this fall and winter dont bring us many more croup issues!

That one week I spoiled my kids

Last week the owner/operator of our daycare (who also happens to be my sister) took a vacation, leaving the daycare closed. A closed daycare meant no other means of childcare for me, which ended up resulting in me taking a week off of work. It didn't take much convincing to get me to take the time off.

I work, a lot. I drive a lot to get to and from work. I don't get a lot of time with my kids. So when I saw an entire week of time off just me and my boys, I pounced on the opportunity to go do fun stuff. Not only did I want to spend some time doing fun stuff with my boys, I also didn't want to stay in the house all week long with a bored 1 and 3yr old. That does not equal a fun time for mom or boys. So I made a little bit of a game plan and my boys and I got to have a seriously awesome week.

Our first stop of the week was to the happiest place on earth... that's right... we went to DISNEYLAND! We have annual passes so this really isn't that huge of a deal, we go about 8 times a year. But our passes are blacked out during the summer and this was the first week they were valid again, so after a summer of no Disneyland Anthony and I were pretty stoked to go. Last time Noah went he was about 6 weeks old (yes, I took a 6wk old to Disneyland, judge me!). The last two times we went we left Noah with Grandma so this was really going to be the first time Noah could experience any rides. It was....underwhelming? haha! He didn't really seem to care about any of the rides. The only two he had any reaction to were Small World, he danced and seemed to enjoy it! And Pirates of the Caribbean, where he had a death grip around my neck, whining... he hated it. Maybe next time he'll go to Grandmas again. Anthony had a great trip! Other than an accident on the Dumbo ride, (upcoming post for that!) it was an awesome day.

Getting ready to go on our first ride of the day: Peter Pan

Anthony and I on the rockets

Noah and I on Dumbo

Our next stop of the week was to the New Children's Museum. I had heard good things about this place but once we got there it was seriously awesome. We spent over three hours there without even realizing how long we had been there. Everything is child friendly (duh) and interactive. They have crafts and painting, building blocks, bubble blowing, a real car that the kids could paint, and best of all a giant bouncy tube thingy!

Painting the car! The color of the day was red. Clearly.

Looking like Dexter after painting

Noah playin drums

My little men!

Inflatable tuby thingy!

Playing on the giant love sack thing

Anthonoy rockin the rock wall!

Next stop on our tour de awesome was up to Grandmas house in Oceanside. We needed to escape the East county heat and where better to go than the beach!? So we made the trip up to Oceanside and made our way down to the beach. We enjoyed ourselves so much up in Oceanside we ended up staying two nights up there and making a couple trips to the beach!

Beach baby. He LOVED it at the beach

Beach baby 2.0

My boys and I out to lunch at my favorite restaurant in Oceanside - Cafe 101

After we packed up and finally left Grandma alone, we headed out to the San Diego Zoo to meet some friends who were in from out of town. The zoo is always a good day! But unfortunately we didn't take many pictures.

hippo sittin!

We left the zoo and went straight to a birthday party, fully equipped with a bounce house and cake! What more could a kid ask for!? The next day, my final day off work we spent at Grandpa's house, swimming, snacking, and relaxing.

It was a very busy. very exhausting, but awesomely fun week. I would do it all over again in an instant. I had so much fun getting to spend some good time with my boys, time like that is so rare in our house. They really enjoyed it too, they both definitely had a look of WTH this morning when I dropped them off at daycare rather than whisking them off to the next fun adventure.

One year - Noah's birth story

One year ago today I was sitting in the living room on my exercise ball, 36 weeks pregnant. I had been on maternity leave for all of four days. I had just laid Anthony down for his nap and had turned on my latest addiction - Ghost Adventures. I was bouncing on my exercise ball, minding my own business when I felt a gush. I was shocked and confused, thinking my water broke at only 36 weeks pregnant. I ran to the bathroom to find that it wasn't water, it was blood. I went into a full on panic, calling my mom to come over and watch Anthony and telling my husband to come home from work now, that I needed to go to the hospital. The bleeding was heavy and wasn't stopping. The contractions started pretty quickly after the bleeding started. The bleeding slowed and eventually stopped, but we went to the hospital anyway because my contractions were strong and about 3 minutes apart, I was in labor.  I got to the hospital to find that I was 4cm dialated and my placenta had ripped, causing the bleeding. Noah was in no danger though so they let me proceed with my labor. To my surprise they labeled me premature. I was under the impression that 36 weeks was term, but apparently its 37. Technically I was only about 4 days shy of "term" but they still labeled us preemie.

After 5 short hours of labor and a whole two pushes, on August 18, 2011 at 9:06 pm Noah Oliver was born at 5lbs 14oz! He came into this world screaming, but quickly showed that all was not okay. He couldn't breath correctly, he was gasping and grunting for air. He wouldn't latch to nurse, he didn't even show interest, it seemed as though he didn't have that instinct yet. They let us hold him for about a half hour before the nurses were too concerned with his breathing and called up a NICU nurse who immediately took him down to the NICU.  They said they believed his issue was a combination of not fully developed lungs and that he swallowed some fluid on the way out. Words cannot describe the heartbreak and guilt I felt having my baby taken from my arms and whisked off to the intensive care unit. Making matters worse, I was told to stay in my room and recover, that I couldn't see him until morning. The next morning I got a phone call that will forever remain in my memory. They called my room from the NICU and said that I could come see him, but that he had deteriorated over night and was now on oxygen and connected to a heart monitor. Again, words do not suffice to describe the fear, hurt, guilt, and heartbreak I felt seeing my tiny little newborn covered in wires and with oxygen tubes taped to his face. His stomach pulled and his body jerked when he took in a breath because he was fighting so hard to breathe. We tried to nurse and he still showed no rooting instinct, so I started pumping.  They let me hold him for only a short time, but touch made his heart rate drop. So I spent my time by his incubator, just watching him. I looked around at the other babies in the NICU; some that had been there for months and were still so much smaller than mine. I heard alarms ringing on other incubators, I saw babies whose parents I never saw visit, I saw a baby get transferred to Children's because this hospital couldn't give him the care he required, and worst of all, I heard a pastor get called in to give a baby his last blessing. I brought home memories from my time in the NICU that I never wanted to have. I knew that our situation wasn't ideal but it was so much better than some of the babies around us, and I was eternally grateful for that. Despite our struggles, we were very blessed.

Later that day we were able to give Noah some pumped breast milk through a feeding tube. Within hours you could see an improvement. I am no where near a "breast nazi" I believe everyone makes the choices that they feel are best for them, and I am no one to judge those choices. But it is impossible for me to argue with the improvements we saw after he got breast milk in him. His stomach no longer pulled when he tried to take a breath in, you could visibly see that he was fighting less to breathe. The next day his breathing had improved so greatly that we were able to remove his oxygen tubes. The Dr told me his stats looked great but he couldn't send him home until he could show that he could eat, which he couldn't. We spent all day trying to coerce him into nursing. We would put him up to the breast and put a feeding tube in his mouth so he could make the connection that milk came from the breast. We made a little bit of progress. Slow and steady would win this race, we were determined. I came at all hours of the night to nurse him, his sucking was still very weak so he got small amounts and nursed very often, but the fact that he was nursing at all was exciting. The next day the Dr was happy enough with his improvements to send him home! After three long, upsetting days in the NICU he was finally being sent home.

In the months that followed, our breastfeeding issues remained. His suck was just not strong enough to sustain him. I was pumping and feeding him breast milk bottles as well as nursing, but it was still not quite enough. When at his 3 month check up he was only 7 pounds (.2%ile. that's POINT two) his doctor told me that something needed to change, he was unhealthy and in danger of needing to be re-hospitalized if he didn't gain some weight. I visited lactation consultants, I bought expensive "supply enhancing" pills, I ate all the foods they told you to, I pumped and supplemented breast milk bottles, but despite my best efforts, it wasn't enough for him. He was unhealthy and I needed to push aside my nursing mom pride and put his health first. I started supplementing with formula bottles and the improvement was seemingly instantaneous. Within a few weeks he shot from the .2%ile to the 15%ile. I can say happily that he is sitting in the 45% ile now days and aside from a small bout with RSV has had no further issues.

Despite his rocky start, Noah is the happiest baby I've ever seen. That may be because his brother had colic so any baby that doesn't cry all day seems like the happiest baby ever. He's happy playing with the big kids or he's happy just sitting watching everyone else play. He's crawling at the speed of light and seems to be a bit lazy, not wanting to walk. He's happy walking if you hold his hands but just doesn't seem to care to do it on his own. He babbles and chats all day every day, and loves to poke people in the eye (don't ask me why!). Before he came into the world we loved our little family of three, but we knew we could stand to expand a little bit more. Now that he is here, I couldn't imagine our family without him. We're complete. He brings so much joy into our lives and reminds us to count our blessings. Happy birthday little man, I love you more than you know.

Little tiny newborn Noey!

Anthony meeting his brother

Going home! Wearing his Padres shirt, of course.

Now! Healthy and happy. We are blessed.