Valentine's Weekend

Valentine's weekend was wonderful! We managed to squeeze in lots of relaxation & naps, time out on the town, time with both of our families and time with good friends. It was great.

Friday I met some of my girlfriends for breakfast at Blue Frog in Orange where we can sit upstairs on the couches and let the kids play together. Liv and Wallace liked to squeeze back here together.

And we caught them doing this too.

We left Wallace overnight at my parents house Friday for a much needed date... and maybe our last one before Skyler arrives. We ate dinner at Ristorante Mascarpone's... a small little Italian place in Orange. It's in the Entertainment Book, which always makes us feel better about the money we spend (save). Afterwards we watched a movie at MetroPoint, came home and had an awesome night of sleep. We ate breakfast at Surf & Sand (yes, again for me). Rian hadn't been there since our honeymoon (we spent our first night there before leaving for Cancun).

Over the rest of the weekend, we filled our time at Rian's parents house for dinner and a time to hang out with his Aunt, Uncle and cousin Laura from Oregon. Also, monthly dinner with Zeulner's and Hartman's (at Z's house). See pics below of the kids. Lastly, Rian made this meatloaf recipe he's been wanting to try. We took it over and ate with my parents Monday night, to close up the long weekend. The end. And I'm ready to rest again.

Emma, Wallace, and Taylor

Wallace and Taylor on her pink reading chair.

Early in the evening Wallace was super excited to have found Taylor's sunglasses.

This is the sleepy boy I get to hang out with after he wakes from his nap. Oooooh, he is so cute!

Rian riled Wallace up before bed the other night... having him run around like a superhero with toilet paper rolls on his arm.

On the last day of my birthday month (January), Juliana and Lara took me out to breakfast and then to get a pedicure. It was WONDERFUL and I felt so spoiled. We ate at Splashes... the restaurant at Surf & Sand Resort in Laguna Beach.

As I left to meet the girls, Rian left with Wallace and Gypsy to play at the park. I snapped a picture as I drove by in my car.

20 Things About Me… on my 18-month birthday
By Wallace Kennedy
January 22, 2009

1. I like to give out kisses to people I know. And also to people I don’t know…on the lips.

2. When I’m around my parents and their friends and they laugh hard at something, I like to join in also, as if I know what they’re laughing at.

3. I like making animal sounds like a snake, bug, lion, pig, goat/sheep, horse, dog, cow, and some others. My favorite is the snake, pig and horse, which I do VERY realistically.

4. I am very laid back, easy to please, and mellow (like my dad). I am also a perfectionist and like things to be clean, picked up and in their place (like my mom). This means I am very good at putting all my toys away by myself, picking up trash on the floor that I find and putting it in the trashcan, closing drawers that were left open, turning off lights that are on, taking out all of moms spices and organizing them back in the spice drawer, etc.

5. My hair is very blond and curly. My mom won’t cut it. Sometimes my bangs hang in my eyes and I sometimes it looks like I have a mullet. That’s because my hair doesn’t grow as fast on the sides. People ask my mom if I got a haircut and she says, “Do you really think I’d cut his hair like this?”

6. I love to watch my mom & dad kiss and it makes me laugh and squeal.

7. Sometimes when I meet new people, I’m not sure what to do. So I either start dancing or lift up my leg to show them my shoes.

8. I make people think I can count to 10, say the alphabet and point out about 5 colors, but I’m really just saying the same word each time. Sometimes people clap and are so impressed. Suckers.

9. I was breastfed until I was six months old. Then I had formula. Then I started eating organic food my mom would make for me. We shopped together at farmers markets. A few times when we were in a rush, my mom tried giving me jarred baby food. I hated it and my mom tried it and said it tasted like crap (yah, she said that) and smelled like cat food. Lately some of my favorite things to eat are frozen peas, bananas, tomatoes, smoothies, kidney beans, scrambled eggs, raisons, oatmeal, and toast with peanut butter. And especially whatever my mom and dad have on their plates, like a good tender steak.

10. I can say a lot of things: Mama, Dada, Gypsy, duck, please, more, Amen, teeth, GiGi, Poppa, Gramma, Grampa, Zeee (Uncle Z), Bubu (Uncle Bumble), Lala (Lara), choo-choo, Santa (mostly whenever we get to the old bearded man page in my Life of Jesus book), and some more that I can’t remember right now.

11. I used to run from my mom and laugh when I knew she was going to change my diaper. Then I got something called a spanking. And I got it the next day too when I didn’t come. Now, I run to mom when she calls me and flop on my back in front of her to be changed. It makes her so happy and I get cheers and kisses instead of a spanking!

12. But sometimes I get spankings for other things now. Like kicking the mirror frame on the wall over and over again. Or for whisking my moms face with a toy whisk after she told me not to 3 times in a row.

13. I love smelling flowers.

14. There are many friends my age I like to play with, but most of all I like to play in my yard with Gypsy & Oliver. I also like to run around like a warrior out front, waving big sticks.

15. The other day I was running like a warrior and tripped. I now have a scuffed nose and a bump on my forehead.

16. If you ask, I will give you some knuckles, a high five or politely shake your hand.

17. My moms friend, Sara Marashian, works at this place called Quiksilver and always hooks me up with new things to wear. I love her.

18. I take showers with my dad in the morning. And then I also usually cry when he leaves for work afterwards. I just miss him so much when he’s gone. But I get over it quickly.

19. My mom has a baby in her stomach called Skyler. I like pointing to the baby and lifting up mom's shirt to give Skyler a kiss.

20. I have a piggy bank and get to put coins in it almost every day. This is one of my favorite things to do.

More Pictures

For Christmas we give my grandparents coupons for a dinner/game night at our house. Below is Mimi helping Wallace count her raspberries. The next pic is of my Grandpa walking Wallace to the dining room. This year, we had dinner at THEIR place instead of ours, since they don't go out driving at night anymore.


THE BELLY. Am I really posting these on the world wide web? Here I am a week and a half ago... 33 weeks. It looks like I'm trying to suck it in in the second one... like that's gonna help.


Here are Wallace and Rian last weekend putting the crib into Skyler's room.

The New Bed

goodbye crib!

yesterday morning we took out wallace's crib and moved it into skyler's room (pictures coming soon). for now, wallace will sleep on a mattress on his floor, so that we won't have to deal with falling out of bed. we've got a safety door knob cover so that he won't sneak out of his room and wander around the neighborhood at night. i'll keep you posted on this new transition. so far, he has been AWESOME and i couldn't be more proud of him. we've made such a big deal about this new bed and how cool it is. he was so excited to be able to crawl into bed himself. he spent a good portion of the morning running back and forth from skyler's room to his room, flopping onto his bed and squealing. here's how the first day went down:

NAP
11:02am: put wallace in bed for nap with teddy and blankie. kissed him goodnight. sit at door.
11:02 and 30 seconds am: screaming at his door (from wallace, not me) and door nob shaking all around. go inside put him back in bed and remind him that he MUST stay on his bed during his nap. ask if he wants to pray (again). he puts his hands out to be held (meaning yes). we ask jesus to help wallace take a good (ie LONG) nap, to remember to stay on his bed, and to have sweet dreams. amen (wallace repeats the amen). i leave.
11:03-11:17am: screams, then cries, then soft hums, then silence. but ALL from his bed. i love this kid!
11:20am: rian and i peek in and he's asleep with his legs hanging off the mattress on the floor. this works.
1:20pm: wallace wakes up crying on his mattress and rian and i jump in bed with him and celebrate his first nap in his new bed.

BEDTIME
8:15pm (normally 7pm, but we were out): put wallace in bed, snuggle, pray, kisses, leave.
8:17pm: after some cries from his bed, he is silent. we peek in and he is spread eagle on his bed sleeping with teddy.
6:00am: i hear talking and the closet door opening and closing. i also hear running around in his room. hmmm. he's up. i think this weekend we'll celebrate sleeping all night in his new bed. next week i'll tackle the whole "you DO NOT get out of bed at 6am" part.

so far... so good. and very, very fun!

preggo update

belly pictures to come soon...
yes, it's 4:59 in the morning and i've been sitting in bed reading online news, other people's blogs, organizing photos, etc since 3:45am. i remember being pregnant with wallace towards the end and waking up in the middle of the night just not being able to sleep. i think it's good prep for the nightly wake-ups i'll be having with this new baby. as of last week, i have some other enjoyable preggo symptoms returning in the same fashion as my last pregnancy. friday i noticed my feet have become swollen. beautiful. next thing will be the cankles. on the same day, i was cutting up food for wallace and my hand went numb and tingly. pregnancy carpal tunnel. it's a real thing. i had it with wallace. i continue to have lower back pain, stomach tightness, and femoral nerve pain (sciatica but front of thigh, down to the knee). none of these symptoms, fortunately, are anything too horrible. i can still play with wallace, run errands (even if for only 10 minutes), and have a husband who has been bending over backwards serving me and treating me like a queen. i have nothing to complain about.

January

I've been trying to lay low this month as I prepare for Skyler's arrival and my last few weeks of it being (just) me and Wallace. We have anywhere from 4-7 weeks left. 6.5 weeks until the due date (March 11) or 4 weeks until our "be prepared" time that Dr. Zepeda warned us of. Since Wallace was early, he said there's a better chance of Skyler coming early too. I don't know if that is a bummer or really exciting. I'm ready to have my body back and lay on my tummy when I sleep. And I'm very excited to meet Skyler and add her to our family. But giving up my special time with Wallace and his full attention from me will be bittersweet. I think he will do really well though. He's been around a few different babies in the last few weeks and gets really excited about them. His first move is to go in for kisses, snuggles and toe tickling (where he makes a really loud scary tickle sound). Obviously, with these other babies, we've had to hold him back. But he will be such a snuggler to Skyler. I'm excited for that.

Here are some pics from the last few weeks:

Rian's parents took us to see "Barefoot in the Park" at the Glendale Theater. They have season tickets and have been able to see a bunch of cool plays with their friends.

Rian and Wallace spent some time cleaning out the garage.

I'm in a mama's group Thursday nights with these amazing young moms my age. We meet up late, after we've put the kids down, while our husbands stay home. It has been wonderful. I love each of them and their uniqueness as a mom and wife. I've learned so much from them and our discussions. Suzy's son, David, turned ONE and she had us over to celebrate.



Rian's grandparents from Oregon come down every year in January. Here are pics from dinner at his parents house.

Wallace was fascinated with the boys next door playing basketball.

Uncle Z playing with Wallace.

Mamo and Papa watching Wallace play with his Duplo's.

Papa Larabee reading with his great grandson.

Xander & Jax

Our very good friends Joe & Lara delivered their twin boys on December 21st. They were a little early but healthy and sooo adorable & tiny. Here is a pic of Xander and I in the hospital when he was a couple days old. The next pic is Rian holding Xander in the nursery after he was able to come home. Lara & Joe went out that night to bring Jax home too! It is so exciting. Wallace will have fun having two more guy friends around, but Skyler will be so close in age to them too. It is a very fun season of life to be in with our friends. These boys are very fortunate to have Lara & Joe as their mom and dad. They will make a great team and be wonderful parents.

christmas with the girls

we did our annual christmas dinner later this year, while liss would be down from concord. here we are at the melting pot in brea. they have a "girls night out" 4-course meal special which was super filling and tasty.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

i'm finally caught up on my blogging, i think. what a fun month we had celebrating christmas and teaching wallace about jesus being born on earth for us to be saved if we choose Him. and that being the symbolism behind the gifts we give to each other... Jesus being the ultimate gift to us. i also love reading the christmas story about the wisemen bringing gifts to Jesus at his home. christmas is such a fun, magical, and symbolic season. i'm sad to see it gone, but on this New Years day, look forward to another huge year ahead of us. we are so excited!

on new years eve we dropped wallace off with rian's parents to spend the night. we are SOOOOOO fortunate to have both of our parents living within 20 minutes, enabling us to get away whenever we need to for a couple hours, a whole night, a weekend, or HECK a couple months. not that we have, but sometimes that sounds awesome. we rang in the new year with some friends and i surprisingly lasted the whole night. it was very fun. rian and i slept in today, woke up and enjoyed being able to lounge in bed without a toddler coming in, crawling all over us and slobbering our face with kisses. actually we missed it a bit. we had breakfast at pacific whey down in crystal cove. we love going there. it was beautiful today and we enjoyed a slow breakfast and then our traditional time of making new years goals and looking over last years. rian and i are big goal makers and have so much fun doing this and encouraging each other in our different goals. we picked wallace up around 1:30 and stuck around the kennedy's to watch USC win big time at the rose bowl.

Christmas Morning and Lake Arrowhead

My parents have a tradition of taking us kids away for a long weekend trip after Christmas. This year we went to Lake Arrowhead where they had rented a cabin for us to relax in, eat, play games and just be together. It was wonderful. Before leaving, we spent Christmas morning looking through our stockings, opening gifts and enjoying my mom's amazing Christmas breakfast that she makes each year.

Here is Wallace enjoying some of his new gifts.


He loves his new teddy bear slippers from GiGi and Poppa.


LAKE ARROWHEAD AND OUR WHITE CHRISTMAS

Wallace wishing he could play out in the snow on the deck. And that he wasn't wearing that stupid hat.


Lauren and my mom working in the kitchen.

Rian and Brian shoveling snow off of the spa.

Lauren and Wallace watching them work.

The boys BBQing our dinner and playing baseball with snowballs.


Wallace's new rain/snow boots from Uncle Bumble (Brian) and Aunt LoLo (Lauren).

More Christmas

Wallace and Gypsy getting into the Christmas spirit.


Grandma & Grandpa Kennedy gave Wallace some magnet letters for Christmas. They're more of a gift for me as they keep him so busy in the kitchen while I cook!

Wallace and Aunt Bri snuggling on the couch.

Uncle Z (Rian's brother Joel) gave Wallace his first set of legos. He LOVES them.


The Wallace side of the family (my dad's side- "Wallace" being my maiden name) celebrates Christmas in a big way. LOTS of incredible food, a big gift exchange, and this year, my cousin Nina (and her girls, Zoe and Evy) playing Christmas carols for all of us to sing. As usual, this gathering was very special to us and a lot of fun.