8 Weeks-Rasberry

Your baby is growing like mad, putting on about a millimeter every day and continuing to straighten out in the trunk. Though you can't feel it yet, baby is moving those little arms, legs and (now only slightly) webbed fingers and toes like crazy.

Week 7 was not fun. I had a complete loss of appetite and could not keep anything down. Towards the end of the week I started feeling a little better, but still do not have my normal appetite back. All that sounded good was pizza, so I ate pizza for 3 days in a row. However, I could only manage to eat a slice per meal; very unusual to my 3-4 slices that I can easily eat any day! I got Nunie "The Expecting Father" book for his birthday and now realized what a mistake I did! He has picked up a part-time job as the "Pregnant Woman Police" so you can only imagine!

Our Family is Growing by........

Two feet!

Dear friends and family,
As some of you know (most do not) this has been our little secret for a while now and wanted to share with you that we are expecting our first baby in September. Nunie and I are very excited with this new chapter in our lives and we are embracing it every day! I am 8 weeks pregnant; as you read the posts below you can fill in about more details. I will try to capture every detail in this journey and write about it so I can be reminded of all the beautiful and not so beautiful moments in my pregnancy. You are more than welcome to come here from time to time and be updated about baby bean, as we like to call him/her! We ask that you keep us in your prayers so that we have a strong and healthy pregnancy and baby! For now I have to run to the bathroom for the gazillion time today......ahhh!

Love,
K

7 Weeks-Blueberry

Baby's brain both hemispheres is growing fast, generating about 100 new cells every minute. Arms and legs are emerging as joints start to form, and a permanent set of kidneys(baby's third!)is now in place.

I've been feeling pretty good, other than not being able to eat like I normally would. I have to eat small portions or else I start getting really nauseated. Funny thing is that I feel great in the mornings, it's the evening that this usually kicks in. So far week 5 has been the worse, when I was feeling really dizzy in the evenings, but that has thankfully subsided.

On another note, we went out to dinner with our families to celebrate Nunie's 28th birthday and we had decided to make our "big" announcement about baby bean that night. Nunie was really nervous but excited to share the news. Once everyone arrived and were situated he got their attention and he announced that I was 7 weeks pregnant! The look on everyone's face was priceles, and I wish I would've caught it on tape. Needless to say, baby bean took my poor hubby's glory for the night since the rest of the conversation was all baby:)

6 Weeks-Sweet Pea

The little bean is the size of a sweet pea today at 6 weeks.Growing like crazy, baby is starting to sprout eyes, ears, nose, cheeks and chin. Those little hands and feet-still webbed like paddles- might wiggle by week's end, the heart is beating (almost twice as fast as yours!), and blood is starting to circulate.

We've Got a Heartbeat!

We had our first appointment today at 5w4d and got to see our little bean. The Dr. performed a vaginal ultrasound (which by the way was no picnic) to time everything and he put us at 6 weeks, so we'll see...just a couple days off from what I originally had. Anyways our little bean is so tiny, we first saw the heart flickering and then we got to hear it at 108bpm! Nunie says s/he is definitely going to be a runner:) It was the most beautiful music to my ears and it just made everything so much more real. Nunie and I were ecstatic! We go back in two weeks to mark the progress, God willing my little bean is growing strong every day. To feed s/he well we went to Luby's for dinner-yum, since it's next door to the hospital. I had me fried fish, mac and cheese, tators, roll and sweet tea-yeah not so healthy but I treated myself. Oh and it was no luanne platter either!

Happy New Year!

My 2008 End of the Year Review

Started off the year pretty good Nunie turned 27 in January and we went to dinner with family and friends to Benihana's. It was a little hectic since he decided to invite everyone he knew, haha. But overall very yummy.

Continued striving towards the end of my first year teaching and was definitely getting more attached to the kids. Pablo, Kayla, and Richard will hold a special place in my heart, but really that whole group will because they were my first class.

In April Jose and Melissa got married and had a beautiful and fun wedding. That same month I was awarded Rookie Teacher of the Year. Nunie and I went to an award ceremony at Brady's Landing with the other Teachers of the Year from each school and the administrators. We bought our boat in April and became our closest companion all summer long. We had a blast boating, tubing, and swimming just about every weekend this summer.


For Easter my parents and us went to my aunt's lake house on Lake Conroe and took both of our boats out-came back to the lake house grilled burgers and did an Easter Egg hunt for the kids-although we intruded, ha.

Before I knew it, end of the year tests, parties, and kindergarten graduation were filing up the schedule. My kids looked so adorable in their caps and gowns. I was excited to have a whole summer off oh and our trip to Maui was coming up, but very sad to see the end of the year approaching.

June was here and the day after the last day of school we flew out to Maui. My favorite vacation spot yet. It was an amazing vacation as we got to enjoy the scenery of the mountains, our helicopter ride, the beautiful beaches, volcanoes-although not active, the sunset and sunrises, the luaus, and not to mention the romanticism felt around the entire city.





The rest of the summer was pretty laid back taking the boat out to either Lake Conroe, Lake Livingston, Lake Houston, or the river with friends or Uncle Mike and Aunt Mary-fun!

School started up again sooner than I thought and had a whole new group to have to mold and teach-very exciting though to meet new faces. We spent Labor Day on Lake Livingston with Jose, Meli, Jill, and Toto-such a fun day.

We weren't in school very long and hurricane season was booming with a hurricane warning just about every week. We lucked out from a few, but Ike was definitely coming our way. Although not our part of Baytown, the warning called for old Baytown to evacuate which made us panic a little. I helped Nunie board up the house, taking our most precious belongings-I just took my wedding pics, loaded up in the 4runner with Logan and Dora and headed to Kingwood with our friends Jose and Melissa. We didn't go to neither of our parents house because between Highlands and North Shore we might as well have stayed home. We wanted to go North. It was definitely a full house with about 12 people and 5 dogs. We were very fortunate that our house had no damage whatsoever, only left without power for about a week.

October came and we went to Los Cucos for my birthday with family and friends. We headed to Sam's Boat in the Woodlands, and spent the night at my aunt's lake house in Conroe. We went shopping at the Woodlands the next day. We also had a "Fall Pumpkin Carving Party" at our house for our nieces and nephews. I made homemade chili, frito pies, and stuffed baked potatoes.It turned out really good!







I started planning our fall getaway and as soon as they told us we weren't going to have to make up the days for the hurricane during Thanksgiving break I booked our flights. We headed to San Fran the Saturday before Thanksgiving and were there for 5 days-very fun vacation. We realized that this may be the last vacation for a while unless we take a babymoon because we wanted to start trying to have a baby soon. We spent a fun Thanksgiving at my MIL's and my parents and sisters joined us. So glad Karen came home. We hit up the stores on Black Friday-first and last time ever.


December quickly arrived and I soon put up our Christmas decor. I love this time of year and love seeing my house in the spirit of Christmas. Nunie had his company party at the Doubletree and we had a lot of fun especially with an open bar! We hosted Christmas Eve at our house with my parents, my aunt and her family, and us. Very fun thinking it may be the last Christmas spent just the two of us. We spent Christmas day at MIL's house. I hung out with some teachers during the break and had lunch and margaritas one day. The rest of December was spent with my aunt and cousins.






And then a very special thing happened on December 30th, I took a pregnancy test and got my BFP-what a great way to end and start the year. I couldn't feel more blessed. I am excited about the adventures in 2009 with a new baby!

We're having a Baby!

I woke up this morning as Nunie was leaving to work and decided to test since my period was overdue and I had been feeling a little weird. So I tested and went off to the living room, mind you it's 5:30 in the morning. Three minutes later I went back to the bathroom and there it was, TWO lines starring back at me.....and I didn't know what to do! I could not believe it, I started dancing around with Logan telling him "we're having a baby" he just tilted his head as dogs do when they seem confused. He was probably wondering why the heck I was so excited!

I didn't want to tell Nunie over the phone, so I decide to wait until he came home from work to tell him the great news (by the way it was hardest thing I've ever had to do)! In the meantime, I went to Target to buy a digital to confirm it with the actual word "PREGNANT", a bib that says "I love daddy", and a onesie to tell my mom. I wrapped up the bib along with a Marine Corps Baby onesie that I've had in the closet and included the digital test.

It was so hard not to call anybody to tell them the news. I got ready and headed to my mom's. She was still in bed when I arrived. I went upstairs and jumped on the bed with her and gave her the bag. She had no clue. As she opened it and saw the digital test she started screaming then crying then laughing-it was awesome. I've honestly never in my life seen my mom this overjoyed:) She's been wanting to be a grandma, but I had selfishly put it off. While we're in the middle of crying and hugging each other, Nunie calls and says he's heading home from work early-crap he's ruining the plan. I told him to come over my mom's for breakfast...little did he know he was getting a bun in the oven.

As soon as he showed up I opened the door, and just showed him the digital pregnancy test. I didn't have my original surprise so just handed over what I had. He looked at it and said you're pregnant???, he had a look of disbelief and excitement and a huge smile he could not wipe off his face. We decided to take our boat out to celebrate and enjoy some quiet time on the lake. It's still so surreal to us, but yet we are so excited. We're not telling the rest of the family until his b-day Jan. 25th. That should definitely be fun!
Our first doctor's appointment is on Jan. 14th. Until then I will keep updating the blog~
Thanks for reading......

Christmas decor

We are about more then halfway through with the Christmas decor. So far Nunie has put up the lights on the house and the bushes. He usually puts the lights around the front of the house, but this year I also want him to put some up all around the roof. I hope that make sense. I started decorating the inside last weekend, and did the mantle, the wreaths, the kitchen, and the dinning room first. I left the tree for last and we put it up last Sunday. As you will notice I still need a nice tree topper.

I'm thinking about buying another smaller tree that I saw at Target to put in our dinning room. It's about 3-4 feet but it's adorable and so full. That is still on the maybe list, we'll see. We are hosting Christmas for my family this year on Christmas Eve so I'm trying to make it special.

I still need to buy a couple more gifts and wrap everything! That I haven't started. Anyways well here are some pics of what I've put up so far.
Enjoy~

Thanksgiving 2008

In honor of Thanksgiving it has made me reflect on all the things that I am grateful for in my life.
My loving husband
My wonderful family
My health and my family's
My beautiful and loving furbabies
My job despite the crummy economy
Our awesome vacations that we took this year
And for all the things we've accomplished in 2008!

We had a very good Thanksgiving, especially since Karen was home with us. She wasn't able to come home last year, so it's never the same without her. Early Thanksgiving day my sisters and I went to go see 4 Christmases since we weren't having dinner until 6pm. I loved the movie by the way, very funny and cute and even better that it was filmed in San Francisco since we had just vacationed there!

Later that evening we went to my MIL's house where we've been having Thanksgiving for the past three years. My parents and sisters always join so it makes things easier, rather than visiting a million houses in one day and eating at each one. We had our traditional Thanksgiving dishes which included turkey,honey baked ham, broccoli and cheese casserole, my mom's cream of mushroom pasta, stuffing, mashed potatoes, homemade macaroni, green beans casserole, and rolls. For dessert there was pecan, pumpkin, and chocolate pie, empanadas, and Mexican wedding cookies-yumm! And believe me I had a little bit of everything well a lot rather.

After our Thanksgiving dinner we came home and watched movies. Karen and Karina spent the night since we were going to go shopping at 3:30am on Black Friday, aah yeah we joined the craze!
Here are some pics, enjoy-yes this is all for you Karina!

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

This year we decided to go to San Francisco for our annual fall trip. It's great to go this time of year because I like to see how different cities are adorned with Christmas decor. We had a great time in San Fran. It's definitely a city full of charm and personality. You've got the bay, mountains, bridges, hilly streets, and a diversity of people and cultures that are visiting from all over the world. I will write a review of what we did each day!

We flew in to SFO on Saturday at around 1pm, and were picked up by one of Nunie's old Marine buddies. The total drive is about 30 minutes from SFO to Union Square. We checked in to our hotel-the Parc 55 which I highly recommend. It's a beautiful hotel, nice staff, great location, and very very nice rooms with a great view of the city. We dropped off our bags and headed straight to Fisherman's Wharf to grab a bite to eat (at this point we were starving)! We ate the famous and delicious clam chowder in sourdough bread from Boudin's Sourdough which is another must do if you're in San Fran! We also stopped to see the entertaining sea lions.

On Sunday we started off the day by having breakfast at the hotel then headed to explore Union Square. Be ready to shop even if you weren't planning on it. Our hotel was right across the street from Westfield San Francisco- a mall that is over 5 stories-go figure! Among those there is Tiffany & Co., Bloomingdale's, Macy's, 5th Avenue Saks, Gap.....etc. etc. Practically every store you can think of. Oh and not to mention the huge Old Navy-it was awesome. We bought a 4 day pass from the MUNI transportation for $18 which allows you to use the buses, electric trolleys, and our favorite and most used the cable cars. It's really not necessary and more PIA to get a rental. We got one for only one day to go to Napa. That evening we went to Alcatraz and really enjoyed the tour. They give you a self guided audio tour with very detailed explanation and allow you to see everything in the cell house. After Alcatraz we had dinner at Fisherman's Grotto. The food was delicious and the restaurant is right in the middle of everything in Fisherman's Wharf. This was another restaurant that was recommened while I did my research, and I second that choice!

Monday we woke up and headed straight to pick up our bikes after breakfast to do our tour of the city and bike ride the Golden Gate Bridge. We picked up our bikes and headed off. We had to stop and get us a sweatshirt as it was very windy and cool. The bike ride was 8 miles from pick up to Saucalito and then you ride the ferry back. We explored the charming neighborhoods that all look like Full House and rode around the bay. You take a bike trail all the way through the bridge. The view is amazing from the bridge and I'm so glad we did this, it was quite fun! Once we arrived in Saucalito we had lunch al fresco in a very cute and yummy restaurant where we ate salmon over rice and salad and Nunie had fish tacos.

On Tuesday we headed straight to pick up our rental. We got a super cute convertible bug.

We headed top down to Napa Valley. The drive was very enjoyable and not long at all from Union Square. I had done some research and discovered that Domain Chandon was highly recommended by many people, so that is where I had my heart set on. We really did not have directions, but we figured once we got to Napa we would ask around. Sure enough we asked and they guided us to the right direction. I knew it was going to be beautiful and it was. We bought the tour and 3 tastings for $25 each and called it a deal! Domain Chandon specialized mostly in sparkling wine, yumm. In the tour they taught us how the blends are made and took us through the factory showing us the fermentation process. It was really neat to see all what happens behind the scene.Once we were done with the tour, the best part was to come. We headed to the tasting room and tasted away. We were supposed to get 3 tastings each but Joe hooked it up. My favorite was Pinot Nior Brut and good thing we brought some bottles home.




Wednesday we were heading back to Houston so we just had breakfast and shopped a little at the Ghirardelli Chocolate store to bring some home. We took a cab to SFO and departed at 2pm.
Over all we had an amazing time in San Francisco and would recommend it to anyone wanting to visit a city with a lots charm and a little romance!
Hope you enjoyed.

Spending QT with Family

So this past weekend was full of spending quality time with our family. It started out on Saturday when Karen came in. We met my parents and Karina at the airport to pick Karen up. I love going to the airport by the way. It just brings back so many memories of going to pick Nunie up at the airport with his family-so exciting.
Anyways, after we picked her up we headed to "Los Cucos" in Kingwood. Karen would have wanted to go hit up her favorite Mexican restaurant when in Houston, but it was a pretty long drive from Bush Intercontinental. Nevertheless, Los Cucos was delish and so was their Margaritas. We all chatted and laughed and ate and chatted some more....it was fun!

On Sunday we woke up early and I finished a few loads of laundry and baked a red velvet cake to take to the gathering. We headed out to Corrine's at noon where we had an early Thanksgiving to celebrate with my FIL. We arrived at around 1pm and even though we had left our house on time, we were still the last ones there. Nobody ever said that being fashionably late was wrong, right? So we had the usual Thanksgiving menu, and I say usual because my MIL helped prepare her yummy stuffing. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli and cheese casserole, rolls, red velvet cake, and cheesecake for desert......and we will have the same next week!
We decided on a gift giving arrangement for Christmas and agreed that this will be the last year we buy everyone a gift. Starting next year we will only buy for the kiddos....that means we better have ours by then to make it worth it, ha!
After leaving Splendora we headed to my mom's and hung out with my family and ate some more. Mom made "pozole", she usually makes it this time of year. We lounged around and tried to recooperate from the large meals. Needless to say it was a weekend full of family time, but also consumed more calories than I would have liked. Then again, that usually takes place around the holidays, bummer!

If you're wondering...

This is probably an irrelevant post, but if you're wondering why the dates don't match up (not that you will probably notice), but it makes me feel better to clear this out. There was a technical difficulty with my previous blog and I had to transfer everything over here. You can't say that I did not warn you on my novice blogging skills, so there. Ok I have to go complete my million things to do for the day. By the way this will be an exciting weekend as Karen comes home today for a month. I will update you on that and post some pics soon.
Goodbye for now,
Mrs. C

Happy Veterans Day

I wasn't thinking about writing a post today since I don't want to get addicted to "blogging", but I have to acknowledge this special day, November 11-Veteran's Day. So this blog is dedicated to all the courageous men and women like my husband and sister who have served our country and have given us the greatest gift-our freedom.
To my #1 hero my husband-I thank you for your service. And yes we're going out to dinner since it's "your" day!

My First Time

So this is the beginning of my blogging experience....and be patient as I am a virgin to this. I have been contemplating on starting a blog for a while now as it serves as a very accessible way to keep in touch with friends and family-so here it goes!
Nunie is loving his new job and I'm enjoying my new batch of kindergarteners! Dora and Logan are only getting bigger and more spoiled with every day that passes but whose to blame, right? We took them to my MIL's house this weekend to have them run around their huge yard, shhh....Logan left a big surprise for Oscar, if you know what I mean. Anyways they had a blast! Now we know what's a must on the list of our forever home-a huge yard!