23 weeks & meeting the Reyes Family

Today Emma turned 23 weeks!

Our friends, the Reyes Family were in town for a visit, so they came over for dinner.

Douggie BBQ'd it up and we had a fabulous dinner.

Doug and Luis used to be room mates when they lived in New Jersey.

Doug has always had a special friendship with Luis and we couldn't be happier to have them over. Luis and Maria now live in Maryland with their family and decided to include a visit with us in their so cal trip.

Stephanie, Luis, Maria and Aden

Douggie also has a 'brother & sister' like relationship with Stephanie, he took her to her 1st concert, gave her guitar lessons and a little help in math. Now she is all grown up, and probably the smartest cookie around!

Aden and Emma.

She loved watching his every move, and this kid can move. I don't know how Maria keeps up with him, he is always on the go. :)

Emma and Maria

A little play time together.

Some more play time.

And Aden eating his uvas (grapes). I love that this little guy is bilingual!!! Hopefully Emma will be one day too.

Thank you for making time to come by and see us. We miss you guys already!

Happy 23 weeks Emma, what a great way to celebrate by meeting the Reyes family!

Emma, meet Uncle

My uncle Robert (known as 'uncle')

and Aunt Caubbie (Carmen) flew in from Lagos on Saturday. They spend half of their time living in Mexico and the other half here. Caubbie was here when Emma was born, but Uncle just missed it and hasn't been back since. They are here for the big trek to Texas this weekend for my cousin Lisa's wedding.

Emma was ALL smiles and loved Uncle and Caubbie.

She also enjoyed seeing the rest of the fam there, but these two were her favorites tonight.

My face lit up when I saw Caubbie answer the door in her apron, that meant she had been cooking!!! She made menudo, and sad to say but I had just eaten at home so I was too full to eat any. I will have to pop over again tomorrow for some leftovers, yummy.

I can't wait for our exciting weekend together!

Congratulations Claire!!!

So needless to say, we has a busy weekend...

Sunday afternoon we headed up to Huntington Beach for my cousin Claire's Graduation Bonfire.

The weather was perfect, which was strange because it was yucky and overcast, but as soon as we got there, BAM, it was magically sunny.

Jacob making a sand angel, which he remembered how to do from the snow.

We had yummy food, as you can tell I captured my mom, Cole and Douggie all enjoying it. :)

I love living in So Cal!

My pops and Uncle Ron.

One of their friends thought that my dad was actually Uncle Ron's dad. It made uncle Ron so happy and kinda pissed off my dad. He decided to get even by showing the lady that he had more hair then uncle Ron. She replied, "Oh wow, you do have lots more hair."

1 point for each of them, I'll call it a tie.

Daddy even let Emma bite down on a little bit of pineapple. I know we probably just worried all of you model parents by doing this, but she survived!

A little family photo op, with an incredibly wind blown mommy.

Claire, Emma and Jacob.

Emma loved the balloons!

We left before the bonfire really got started, because we had a bit of a drive home ahead of us.

Thanks for a great party.

Congratulations Claire!

Happy Happy to Papa!!!

On Sunday after church we headed over to the folk's house as usual for a BBQ.

We were celebrating a belated Birthday for my dad and an early father's day with him. He is working on father's day, and the rest of us will be in Texas.

When my dad went out to turn on the BBQ, to his surprise he found a shiny new one under the old cover. Surprise... here's your BBQ, now get to cooking!

I made some cupcakes and made sure to make spice ones for my dad and chocolate ones for Ebit.

And of course Jacob helped blow out the candles.

We are going to miss you this weekend, but we had a great time celebrating with you yesterday.

Oh Jacob, I love you so!

Jacob came over to play for a bit on Thursday afternoon, and I love that little guy!

Jacob and Corona joined Emma in her super yard.

She was so entertained by him, she just watched him.

Then this crazy kid made our day!

He was put in time out and Douggie put him on Rey's little round scratching house to serve his 3 minutes. After about 30 seconds Jacob yelled to us, "Can I sit some where else? This is hairy!!!"

Yes Jacob, you are right, the cat's scratching house is full of fur. I guess we will have to come up with a better place for time outs around our house.

Then he let me film this little gem of a video...

Like I tell you he cracks me up!

In case you didn't hear it in the video, he was asking where Corona's pooper was.

Crongratulations Breezy!

This afternoon we went to the graduation party for one of my employees Breezy.

She is such a fun girl with such a great personality. I am sure going to miss her when she goes off to school next year.

The party was at her grand parents fabulous house here in town. They have such a neat old house with an amazingly huge lot.

Breezy and her parents.

Isn't that a fabulous view!

Tyler and Breezy

Our family:)

And no I was not drunk, we were just on a steep hill so I was holding on tight.

Douggie and Noel

Bri feeding Noel one of the really yummy cupcakes.

Squash!!!

Yesterday we introduced squash to Emma. As can be expected she made a silly face for the first few bites, (seen in the 1st video), but then she seemed to really enjoy them, (seen in the 2nd video).

We also have discovered that along with the introduction of food, comes messy diapers. Emma even had a few blowouts yesterday. It is a good thing we have lots of dreft stain remover.

Wowza... 22 weeks!!!

Another week has passed and our little string bean just doesn't stop growing up.

She has really taken to eating her apples, and we plan to introduce a new food on Friday.

I will share more pictures of eating soon.

She also drinks from a sippy cup!

I know you may think I am rushing things, but I do have logic behind it.  The other day while out at dinner I gave her a drop of water while she was having teething pains.  I gave it to her in my straw and she LOVED it.  I think the icy water helped sooth her gums.

Then while I was at Target I found some playtex sippy cups for ages 4+ months.  So totally legit for little Emma. I thought that if I put cool water in it she would enjoy it.

And of course, mama was right and it was a hit! :)

She started to gnaw on it at first and then gave it one big suck and realized what refreshing goodness this pink and purple cup held and loved it even more.

She even began to hold it on her own.

She may make a mess with it, but it is worth it if she gets a little relief from her gums.  Poor thing has a bad time teething.  This has been going on for a few weeks now and I keep thinking that something should be popping through any day now, but nothing yet.  I do realize that she may teeth for a while before anything cuts through, but I guess for her sake I am hoping that they come through soon.

By the way, daddy picked out her bib, it happens to be his all time favorite.  I do have to say she makes a pretty cute little cow.

Happy Birthday Papa Bob!

Today is my dad's Birthday (well only for 40 more minutes, but you get the picture).

We aren't officially celebrating it until this weekend, but we did go out to dinner tonight with the folks.

My daddy and me! ;)

Emma and her papa! ;)

Thank you for being the best dad I could ever ask for.  I can't wait to see the trouble you and Emma will get into.  

We love you so much!

Hope you had a great day.

Love,

Doug, Marie and Emma

Guess who is 5 months...

...Emma is!!!

She woke up around 6 this morning, so mommy and Emma headed in to the living room so that daddy could get a little more sleep.

She had her bottle and then we had a little play time.

Such a happy girl :)

Ok, so I know I may have already worn out this headband today, but don't you just love it?!

What could be cuter then our string bean in jammies and a headband?

You can just tell by her smile that she knows she looks beautiful.

E is for... Emma.

It is also for Escondido.  I made this E for this year's miss esco pageant, and once it was over I recycled it and put it on Emma's door.

Since Emma is doing so well with her rice cereal, we decided that on her 5 month bday we would introduce real baby food.  Dr. McCormick said that she doesn't think that it matters whether we started with fruits or veggies. She said that it is an old wives tale that if you start them with fruit they will have a sweet tooth.

So we decided to take a chance and start with apples.

Looking a little unsure of what mama is about to give her.

"Mama, I don't know about these apples!"

Over all she may not have been the biggest fan, but she did pretty well.

We will have another go at it tonight.

Happy 5 month birthday kiddo!

We love you lots!

You better watch out Douggie!!!

The other day I was hanging out at the folk's house and chatting with my dad.  He said he had a story to tell me, and it went a little like this...

Papa Bob - "I was talking to Jacob earlier and telling him about how I became a grandpa.  I told him that I got married and had two babies and now those babies got married and had babies.  Then I asked him if he wanted to get married and become a grandpa some day and he said yes.  Then I asked him who he wanted to marry. Jacob, why don't you tell her what you said."

Jacob - (looking really shy, which is out of the norm) " You Tía Ree"

Tía Ree (Marie) - "Why Jacob, that is really nice of you but by the time you are ready to get married I will be an old lady.  You don't want to marry an old lady, you should find someone younger like you."

Jacob - "No, I wanna marry you."

Well kiddo I am flattered!

Kinda funny how he has no concept that it is illegal to marry your aunt, but I guess that innocence is what makes kids so funny.

P.S. Yes, this is a picture from Jacob's 1st soccer game, no worries, I will post more soon.

Temecula Valley Wine & Balloon Festival

Yesterday evening we headed out to the festival at Lake Skinner.

We have attended it several times, but this year was different, we brought our little one along.

Which by the way, is totally acceptable at a wine festival that has concerts, and did I mention...WINE.

No worries, I took one for the team and stayed sober so that one of her parents could still be functioning.  But much to my surprise, Douggie wasn't very drunk at all... wussy! :)

Last night was also Emma's 1st Concert, and I think she kinda likes country music.

We saw Chuck Wicks!!!

I think Dancing with the Stars made me realize how much I like his music.

Such a cute profile!

LOVE them!

We skipped out on James Otto and Lonestar and headed over to do some tasting.

Chuck Wicks, a little wine, kettle corn, some coconut macaroon's to take home, and a little family time, I'd say it was a successful night.

Sorry there aren't any pictures of the hot air balloons, but it started to get a little chilly so we headed out before the balloon glow. :( 

Happy Birthday Jessica!!!

Last night we celebrated our good friend Jessica's 30th birthday at Cafe Coyote in Old Town.

Happy Birthday Jessica and thank you for being such a great friend.

21 weeks

It's so hard to believe that our little girl is already 21 weeks old.

She has the most adorable smile and is getting really fond of the camera.

We have continued with the rice cereal and she is really starting to like it.

Here she is enjoying some dinner.

California Adventure

Before I get to all of the pictures, here is a little now and then.

Then...

Douggie and I with Sulley on my 24th Birthday, nearly 5 years ago.

Now...

Our happy family!

Except I think I would be a little bit happier if I was as tan and skinny as before, but oh well.

Jacob was a bit scared of Sulley!

Ok, more like a lot scared!

Cris, Anyssa and David with Brer Bear.

Props to Cris for being such a trooper, not many 7 month pregnant ladies would be able to take two whole days walking constantly!

Cris and Anyssa on the lady bug ride.

Don't worry, it was totally preggo lady safe!

The two love birds + Jacob!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad, we had a great weekend with you all!