HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Lately, I've been thinking about how the last 365 days that have flown by and all that I've been blessed with this year. Ryan and I have been reminissing about what we each think the highlights of the year were. These are my top 5:

1. Our trip to Paris

2. Mommy-daughter dates to Disneyland



3. Antoine Dodson

(he cheers me up every time)






4. Growing this little guy and the fact that he seems to be healthy and growing properly

5. Ryan going back to school, pulling A's & B's and actually enjoying it!

As for my new years resolution... of course there's the "lose weight" thing (for me it's more like, "Don't gain as much weight as I did when I was pregnant with Wendy and lose it faster than I did"). There's also the generic "Be more optimistic and patient," which I also want to do. But my cousin Cambi makes a REAL, do-able and measurable resolution each year (in 2010 she didn't drink any soda). So, this year, I think this year I'd like to do that. For 2011, I'm going to give up rated R movies. I haven't seen one in a long time, but I'd like to see if I could do it for a whole year. Then, who knows, maybe for the rest of my life.

GUESS WHAT?

*told ya she's been clingy.

she's also got her pacifier in her mouth & her "white blankie" in her hand - just like I said

It's a... BOY!

We are SO excited! We just aren't so sure what to name the little guy.
Any suggestions?

Where have I been all your life?

...Or, should I say, the last couple weeks. I've been sick. And tired. REALLY tired. Creating a human will suck the energy right out of you. Throw a 2 year old into the mix and there you have it, I'm gone. Luckily I'm into the good phase now (2nd trimester = no longer nauseous + not TOO uncomfortably fat... yet).

*how I told Ryan

I love telling Ryan, "I'm Pregnant." His face lights up so instantly and so genuinely that I know he feels the same excitement as I do. Maybe even more so. It makes me feel so close to him to know how much he loves our kids, even when they're not born yet.

*how we told our families

I'm trying to mentally prepare Wendy for what's going on, but I'm not quite sure how much of it she absorbs. I'd love to have her potty trained and off the pacifier before this baby comes, but I'm not sure it's gonna happen. She tells me she has a baby in her tummy too, a girl she is going to name "Princess Tinkerbell." When the waves of nausea hit me pretty bad, I sit down and close my eyes and take deep breaths. I've seen her do it once or twice and I wonder what she thinks is going on. She's very concerned. She'll put her hand on my shoulder and ask, "You got tummy hurts mom? You need some medicine?" She's been EXTRA clingy to me, her blanket, and her pacifier. Once or twice, out of nowhere, she's put her mouth to my stomach and talked to the baby. So I think she understands a little. If she treats this kid anything like she treats her dolls, she's going to be a great big sister.

Pregnancy #2 fun facts:

CRAVINGS

broccoli cheese soup

cottage cheese

chef boy-r-dee beef ravioli (nasty, I know)

homemade fruit smoothies

1 cup simply orange juice

1/2 cup silk vanilla soy milk

1 cup fat free vanilla frozenyogurt

1 over heaping cup of frozen fruit- usually strawberry, pineapple and mango chunks

Sometimes, if I crave this smoothie late at night after Wendy's asleep, I'll take the blender in the garage and plug it in there so I don't wake her up. To be honest, I'm probably out in the garage blending smoothies most nights of the week. That's how much I love them.

The Wendy of Oz...

One of Wendy's loves is The Wizard of Oz. You'd think a little girl of 2 years old would be afraid of that movie, but not her. She'll watch the whole thing and sing along with every song (she knows the words better than Ryan). So when I asked Wendy what she wanted to be for halloween this year, I wasn't surprised when she said "I wanna be DOROTHY!"

My incredible mother went all out and whipped up these coordinating costumes for the family. Wendy had been telling them this is what their costumes were going to be for the whole month of October. My mom surprised her and when we showed up to our church halloween party, it really made Wendy's night to see them all as Wizard of Oz characters. Her mouth was hanging open and she couldn't take her eyes off my mom.

(Some of our family is missing... Wendy didn't forget them. She wanted Aunt Vanessa to be the little mermaid because she has red hair, aunt Rachel to be Belle because she has brown hair, and uncle Aaron to be Muno because he's really tall).

;lk

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The Happiest Place on Earth

*her favorite rides: the carousel and it's a small world

Now that summer is over and our passes aren't blacked out anymore, Wendy and I have been going on a lot of mother-daughter dates to Disneyland! I've always enjoyed going to Disneyland, but getting to watch my little girl light up as she experiences it for the first time is a whole knew kind of wonderful.

Currently, her favorite part of going to Disneyland is getting to see the princesses. I really think she thinks they're the real ones. She does this slow motion running hug to them then caresses their face and hair as they talk to her. And MAN those girls are good. They do such a great job of returning the love and making her feel special. Whoever is hiring/training these girls deserves a raise.

Wendy knows EVERY Disney song and sings them to herself all day long. In her little voice and with her little lisp, it's the cutest thing I've ever seen/heard, but the girl WILL NOT perform for the video camera. I've tried everything: begging, bribes,sneaking up on her... nothing works. She always catches me because the flip beeps when it turns on. Then she stops. So no video.

The Plunge

*Harper, Wendy & Franco

The swimming lessons in Brea are somewhat of a local phenomenon. Parents camp out in line over night to get the time slots they want. I'm not that crazy, I just get up and get there by 5am with a bunch of my mom friends. Wendy's swim teacher, Brett, is amazing. He is the reason I get up and wait in that crazy line that goes all the way down Brea Blvd. We call him "The Baby Whisperer," like the dog whisperer, because of his calm/assertive ways with screaming toddlers. Like all the dogs on the show, by the end of swimming lessons, all the kids are broken in and happily swimming. This was our second year taking lessons from Brett at the Plunge. Last year, we did mommy n' me. But this year I got to watch from the sidelines while my daughter was "broken in" and taught this essential survival skill against her will.

I love the progression from terror to pure enjoyment. It was so depressing ignoring Wendy when she was sobbing for me to help her. I had to hide so she couldn't see me and call out. In the beginning, Harper kept escaping. But by the end, as you can see (if you made it that far into this long video) Wendy can't even wait for it to be her turn and Franco kept giving his mom the cutest thumbs up every time he did something cool.

P.S. vote for Wendy's amazing swim teacher BRETT MURDOCK for Brea City Council!

Summer Lovin'

This summer was Wendy's third summer on earth, but it was the first summer she really understood what it meant. She understood and really enjoyed what it meant to spend a day at the beach, at the pool, or at Disneyland.

This was also the first summer Wendy was able to play with her cousins. All three of them live in Arizona (pretty weak for a mormon/catholic family). Her cousin, Ruby, is 2 years older than her. So this was the first year they were kinda on the same level and able to hang out. At the beach house, they were pretty much joined at the hip. Wendy wanted to be just like Ruby - matching hair in pig tails, matching bathing suits, matching pajamas... I really wish they lived closer.

As they get older, two years will feel like less and less. I hope they can keep this relationship strong the way I did with my cousins who live far away. I think it's all about making family vacations a priority.

Ryan decided to go back to school. Today was his first day. I'm so proud of him because I know he's making a sacrifice to provide a better future for our family. I'm so excited. I'm nervous too. We will have to make some changes, some sacrifices, but it will be worth it. Is it weird that the thought of him going to school makes me even more attracted to him? Because it does.

*photo by Jenn King

The Evolution of my Apple Tree

I have lived in my current home for FIVE years and it was only this spring that I realized I have an apple tree in the back yard that grows edible apples. I always thought they looked too small and too green to be edible. Apparently, I only really look at them when they're not ripe yet. One day, my friend, Stephanie, came over and said, "You have an apple tree? I'm so jealous!" She walked over to the tree, picked an apple and took a big bite. "STOP!" I told her. "I don't think those apples are edible." She told me I was crazy and that they were delicious. I must be stupid, I think, not crazy. Who's ever heard of a poisonous-tiny-green-apple tree? I have been missing out all these years!

*March

*May

*July

I love having a fruit tree. Free produce that's organic and delicious and (did I mention)FREE! It makes me want to plant a garden. It also makes me feel safer knowing that my family will have fresh fruit to eat when "the big earthquake" hits and we're living back in the dark ages, living off our emergency food storage. You never know...

Heather's Favorite Apple Pie Recipe

Dough Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tps fine salt
3 tbsp granulated white sugar
12 tbsp butter (cubed, cold/frozen)
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Dough Instructions:
Freeze butter. Place mixer bowl and paddle in freezer as well.
Mix flour, salt, and sugar until mixed then add butter a little at a time. Add water 1 tbsp at a time. Stop adding water as soon as the dough comes together (it will form small, pea sized balls). Do not add too much water or your dough will be slimy. When it comes together sotp working it, otherwise the dough will get over-worked and tough. Divide the dough in half and flatten it slightly to form a disk shape. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 min (while you make the filling). On a floured surface, roll each disk out into a 10 - 11 inch circle to make a 9 inch pie.

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
6 - 8 medium tart cooking apples, pared, cored and thinly sliced
3 tbsp butter, cubed

Filling Instructions:Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; mix with apples. Divide pastry dough in half. Roll to 1/8 inch thickness and line 9 inch pie plate. Fill with apple mixture and dot with butter. Roll out remaining dough and place on top of pie. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 F for 50 min.

Au Revoir Paris

Leaving Paris was definitely bitter sweet. I could have stayed a lot longer, but by day 4 - 5 I started missing my sweet baby girl. If Wendy was with us, I could have happily stayed all summer. I probably would have HAD to stay all summer to get all the things we did in. Lugging a toddler around and sticking to nap and bedtime schedules to prevent a terrible-two-year-old-meltdown would have slowed us down a lot.

I was worried I might get the cold shoulder for leaving her for a week. She did just the opposite. She held me tight and let me smother her for a couple days. I felt like she grew up way too much while we were gone. She amazes me everyday with the things she says and how cute she is. I love this little girl so much.

* if you want your 2 yr old to be happy throughout an entire photoshoot, stash a sucker in your purse

Wendy's current quirks:

• She has cutest lisp ("S" and sometimes "P" becomes "th")
• She LOVES to sing all the time (any disney princess song, wizard of oz songs, happy birthday - which becomes "hattha birthday" with the lisp, little church songs, the horribly cheesy song one of her barbies sings when you press a button, every yo gabba song ever written, ABC's, twinkle twinkle little star, etc.)
• Like her dad, she's really good with names. I don't know how they do it.
• Speaking of names, she likes to call us by our other names when she's being silly. She knows daddy's other name is "Ryan," but she thinks my other name is "babe," because that's what Ryan calls me. This morning she was calling for me from her crib, "BAAAAAAAAAABE! I'm awaAAAAKE! BAAAAAAABE! Where ARE you?! Get me OUT babe!"

Paris, Day 7 - Final Day Mini Photoshoot

I want to say THANK YOU to my wonderful mom. She followed me around Paris to all the spots we found on our bike ride for this mini photo shoot. The metro line we were on shut down on our way to the Eiffel Tower, so we ended up having to walk... a lot. She was a trooper. So thanks mom! These pictures are my favorite souvenir.

*making friends while trying to get a cab after the metro shut down. no luck.