Welcome Julia Jean!

Julia is here! And she's a cutie! She weighs in at 8 pounds, 12 ounces (an improvement from Blake's 10+) and she's 21 inches long. She has dark hair, if you can believe that! Amy had a good delivery, shorter and easier than Blake's. She feels so happy and relieved and she's pretty much glowing. Yeah, she has her girl!

Congrats to Mike, Amy and Blake!

















Proud daddy Mike and big brother Blake.

















Mommy Amy with her DAUGHTER!

















Look at those sweet, chubby cheeks! Beautiful Julia Jean.

This post was brought to you by Amy's guest blogger for the day, Rebecca :)

Belly Button Issues

I have an "inny" belly button, or maybe I should clarify and say that under normal circumstances, my belly button is an inny. When I hit about the 5th month mark in my pregnancies, somehow my belly button decides it wants to be an "outy". I really don't like this occurrence because it makes me feel like, a) I have a pig snout on my stomach and b) it is very sensitive. Compounding matters further is the fact that I often have to "shield" my "private part" belly button from people who just want to push it. What is it about being pregnant that gives people the feeling that they can touch you and or make comments about all of you swelling body parts. I can't tell you how many times I have had to stop someone's hand from reaching for the apparently alluring belly button. I don't touch your "private parts" don't touch mine. It's one thing if you want to touch my stomach but please please please don't aim for the pig snout. It really does kind of hurt when it is touched. Does anyone else have this issue or am I just a belly button freak?

p.s. 8 more days although the doctor told me yesterday that I could go into labor any day because I am at a 3.

What happened to my baby?

As the countdown gets closer I am becoming increasingly anxious about all that this entails. 11 more days until showtime. That is, if the doctor thinks my cervix is "ripe" enough to induce me. (that word ripe is just wrong to use in this way but that's what the doctor said)
Anyway, as I think about welcoming this sweet little girl into our home I can't help but feel a little sad that Blake will no longer be the baby. Is he already almost 2? It seemed like just yesterday that I was bringing him home from the hospital and now he is such a big boy and can do so many things by himself. I have his toddler bed all set up but I just can't bring myself to make the "transfer" yet. I also wonder if I will be able to love little Julia like I love Blake. I never knew I could feel such pure, unconditional love until I held that tiny infant in my arms 21 months ago. Will I feel that same love for this new baby? Will I be able to give Blake the attention he needs? I am so nervous about this endeavor and yet so excited.

Grave Digger was AWESOME

Now I can officially cross "monster truck jam" off of my lifetime list of things to do. It definitely was a cultural experience to say the least. I only wish that 2 things could have been different. 1st, I wish it hadn't been so freezing cold. Although we normally enjoy mild weather here in SoCal, Saturday night hit record lows and the event was held outdoors. All this to say that I think much of the classic "mullet style" got covered up by thick jackets and hats. 2nd, we should have sat in the cheap seat section. Mike purchased the more expensive tickets because knowing that this was a once in a lifetime event, he wanted me to have a good view. I think we would have found much more interesting characters in the cheaper seats.
That being said, it was definitely a satisfying experience. I was blown away by the fact that so many people do this professionally. Sorry, but no one I know has a child who says "I want to be a monster truck competitor when I grow up". There was smoke, crashes, and even an engine that became engulfed by flames. It was very weird that the crowd cheered louder when the trucks crashed. Is that strange to anyone else? Anyway, there were various events that took place; quad races, truck races, smash em up derby, and finally the grand finale of them all, the monster truck freestyle competition. 12 giant trucks each had an opportunity to show off their cool tricks for 90 seconds. Grave Digger won. He did awesome tricks; smashed a bus, popped a tire and got good air on the jumps. Cool man.
One embarrassing thing did happen during the evening. We didn't have a chance to eat dinner before we left, so we stopped by Chipotle for a quick dinner on the way. I was absolutely mortified to enter the restaurant dressed up in a my mullet apparel. I wanted to put a disclaimer sign on us , but alas I stayed silent.
And special thanks to Rebecca and Dave for outfitting me. Without further ado, here are some pictures of people and trucks for your viewing pleasure.

I love this guy!

Cool- It caught on fire

Could you smash that bus?

SO EXCITED -CAN"T WAIT

You might be thinking by the looks of the title that I am referring to our upcoming baby arrival in 3 weeks. But no....I'm talking about a dream that I've had forever that is finally coming true. Mike and I will be going to a MONSTER TRUCK RALLY on Saturday night. It all started many moons ago when I was on my mission and Alyssa told me she went to one of these "cultural" events with a bunch of friends. Apparently they got all dressed up in proper "mullet person" attire for the affair. (please note that I hate the expression white t__ so I prefer to call people in this genre mullet people) I have secretly desired to attend one of these shows, not because I care about trucks but because I think it would be a fascinating anthropological study. I mean who goes to these types of events and WHY on earth do they go? Who wants to see trucks destroy things? I really want to blend in so if any of you have any wardrobe tips please pass them my way.
When we were buying the tickets online this evening I had to laugh because the last thing we purchased through ticketmaster were Los Angeles Philharmonic tickets.....ah hmmmmm slightly different crowd don't you think?

Sorry if I poisoned you on Christmas

True confession time. As you know, Christmas fell on a Monday this year. The Friday before Christmas, Blake woke up with the stomach flu. I didn't think too much of it and figured it would be a 24 hour bug. I was careful about what he ate and he seemed to feel better as the day progessed. Saturday morning he awoke hungry and happy and full of life. I assumed he was better. I spent the entire day in my kitchen making Christmas treats to share with friends. Frosted sugar cookies, fudge, toffee, you get it. Anyway, on Saturday night we delivered these treats to 15 friends. We came home and I put Blake to bed. Well, around 11pm he awoke throwing up. And in the middle of the night, I woke up and had to throw up. My first thought was "oh great I just poisoned half of our ward." So the debate raging in my head was, do I tell my friends to throw away the treats or do I just hope they don't get sick. I must admit that I did not tell the 15 treat recipients that I may have spread the flu to them. I don't know, does the stomach virus get passed if you give someone cookies you've frosted the day before you got sick???? Anyway, to anyone who might be reading this who was a recipient of my treats I would like to offer my sincere apology if I did indeed poison you. And to everyone else, I'm curious to know your thoughts about what you would have done. So Merry Christmas and happy barfing.

Welcome to our Newest Family Member

I would like to announce the arrival of our newest family member. Although she was unplanned and not exactly what I wanted I am getting used to her being a part of the family. Parked in our garage is a GOLD 2003 Honda Odessy, our new car. Yes you read it right, I now own a mini-van and a gold one at that. It all started a few weeks ago when Mike's 20 year old truck decided it had had enough. Fixing it cost more than it was worth so we decided to just junk it We hadn't planned on purchasing a minivan for a few more years but seeing that we were left with only a small civic and a new child on the way we took the plunge. I about died when Mike informed me that the one he thought was the best deal in the classified ads happened to be GOLD. Identity crisis. I'm 31, I'm having my second child in a month, and I now drive a GOLD minivan. There really is no turning back. Middle Age Motherhood here I come.