Current changes mean that baby girl isn't a baby anymore....

I still can't believe that Faith is three years old!  Seriously!  Where has the time gone?

Well, back in July of last year, we moved Faith from a day care center to a preschool.  We had looked into this particular preschool before, but they wouldn't take kids until they were two.  When a spot finally opened up for her, we jumped and moved her immediately!

That being said, since the move, her daddy and I can see a HUGE difference in her.  She knew her alphabets at an early age, but she has since learned her numbers, her shaped, and her colors.  She talks like a child well beyond her years and is fairly smart for her age.

Since she knows her letters, we decided that it was time that she start learning to read and write words.  Daddy has been practicing with her on his days offs on how to perfect writing her name.  Last night she came over to me on the couch and showed me her latest piece of work.

Not bad for a 3-year old!

Daddy had written her name in the top corner of her board and she did her best to copy it.  She was all proud of herself.  He then started writing words on the board and had her reading them.  Like I said, smart girl!

Another transition in our household has been a long time coming.  You see, Faith was still sleeping in her crib.  And now that she's turned three, and we are talking about trying for another child, it was time to transition her from her crib to a toddler bed.  Since her crib is a convertible bed, it meant taking one of the sides off the crib.  Lucky for us, my brother had saved the bed wing that my nephews had used as little kids and gave it to us to use.

I came home from work yesterday to find that daddy had finally made the change.  Needless to say, Faith was excited.  On the other hand, mommy and daddy were afraid of what might happen, mainly about her getting out of bed and playing instead of sleeping or waking up early and coming into our room and waking us up.

Well, when it came time to put her to bed in her new big girl bed, she was excited.  We proceeded with our normal bedtime routine and put her to bed just like we did every night and left her room.  When I went to check on her about an hour later because I had thought I had heard a thump come from her room upstairs, we found her fast sleep.  Success on the first night. 

I just love watching my baby sleep!

Clovis Dynamos

Well, Faith had her first soccer practice/game on Saturday and she was so excited.  It was all she could talk about during the week.  We signed Faith up for the Clovis Little Kickers, which is for ages 3 to 5. 

Before the excitement wore off.

When we showed up, we sat through a brief parent's meeting to explain the process and meet the coaches.  Once the meeting was done, we were sent to our respective fields to meet our coaches and get our shirts and socks.  Faith has two coaches and is on the Dynamo team and her team color is orange.

In this league, they practice and play a game at the same time.  The coaches split the team in half and one team goes to play in the game while the other half stays and practices drills.

Yes, she's the tiny little girl drinking out of her sippy cup.

 Well, the first day didn't go as expected.  Once they broke up into two groups, Faith was in the group that stayed and practiced drills first.  She didn't want anything to do with the coaches or the other players or even the drill.  She just clung to me and threw a fit.  Eventually, one of the coaches came over to her and got her involved enough that I was able to walk away and let her take it all in.

Getting ready to work on her dribbling technique.

When it came to game time, it was a whole other story.  She cried!  And I mean cried...as in tears coming out of her eyes!  Why you ask?  Because she wanted to play the game with her own ball instead of the game ball.

Lesson number one for her first season of soccer....her own ball stays home on game days!

3rd Birthday

My baby girl turned three on Friday, March 1st.  My how time flies.  It just seems like we brought her home from the hospital yesterday!

 

I still cannot believe how much she has changed and grown in just three short years.  She is a great combination of both her daddy and her mommy.  She has momma's looks and daddy's temperament.  I love it!  I always tell Kevin that is she so much her father's daughter!

Since her birthday fell on Friday and a day which she has preschool, her Titi sent her a bouquet of balloons, which I'm told by her teachers was the hit of the day for the entire class, and I brought her entire class mini cupcakes to celebrate her special day.

On Saturday, we went shopping to finish up getting things for her birthday party and did a little shopping for Easter decorations for the house.  Before we started off on our momma/daughter shopping adventure, I treated her to a birthday mani/pedi.

Sitting in her princess chair. 
(Mani/Pedi at Aqua Nail Salon in Clovis)

I let her pick out whatever color she wanted.  Before we got there, she told me she wanted purple.  Well, it turned out that she wanted  my toes to be a shimmery purple and hers to be orange!  I let it be.  It was, after all, her birthday.

While we were planning her birthday, I asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted.  She looked at me and told me she wanted a "Dora the Explorer" birthday Party.  Well....Dora the Explorer party is what she got.  We sent out Dora invitations, had a Dora cake with Dora toys in it, Dora plates and napkins, and Dora wrapping paper.  I even made Dora's backpack as goody bags for all of the kids!

Hand made by me
(idea came from Pinterest)

 I also searched esty.com for some ideas on outfits.  I ended up ordering Faith this shirt.  She was so excited when she saw it for the first time.  (And yes, even the bow in her hair is Dora.) 

Shirt from etsy.com; skirt and shoes from Target;
bow from Best Kept Secret

 We decided to have her birthday party at Adventure Park in Visalia since all of our family lives in Visalia.  It tends to be easier to bring the party to our family rather than have them drive the way from Visalia.


Blowing out the candles on her Dora cake.
(Picture courtesy of Auntie Vicky!)

Needless to say, she had a great time with all of her cousins and friends that came to the party.  Everyone showered her with tons of gifts, most of which were Dora related.  (Go figure, right!) 

Future Team USA soccer star

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I used to tell my husband that she was going to be a soccer player because of all the kicking she did while inside of me.  Who knew that just a few years later, she'd be asking us to play!

Last October, two of my nephews played in the AYSO soccer league in Visalia and I took Faith to go see them play.  She loved it!  While one cousin was playing his game, she was kicking a soccer ball around with the other.  Needless to say, I needed to get her involved some how.

Back in January, I saw a banner posted at the elementary school down the street from us that the Clovis Unified offered a Little Kickers program for ages 3-5 and the spring season started on March 9th, the week after her third birthday.  I called to verify that she would be eligible to play and then signed her up!

She is beyond excited.  To get her ready, daddy and I took her to get some shin guards and to find her some soccer shoes.  We found the shin guards at Target, but couldn't find any cleats her size.  After asking around from friend and Facebook, we found that a local soccer shop carried toddler sized cleats.  So, off we went.

We found a pair of Addias cleats that were just her size and I ended up letting her walk out of the store with them off because she refused to take them off.

Well, she is so excited about playing soccer that I found her trying to put her cleats on by herself in the living room the other day.  It was so cute.  She looked up at me and told me, "I play soccer, momma!"  Her excitement just melts me heart. 

Trying to put her cleats on by herself

(Yes...I had to buy her her own soccer bag and it had to be Addias to match her shoes.)

Daddy and I have taken her out to the park a few time to kick the ball around a little to get her used to it, but I'm looking forward to watching her play with kids her own age.  I can only hope that she grows up loving the sport just as much as her mommy did when she was younger!

Looks like a natural!

Recent Finished Project

Quite a few years ago, I learned how to cross-stitch and took to cross-stitching baby blankets as an easy hobby to help myself relieve the stress of the day.  My first blanket took me over a year and a half to complete.  Since then, I have made quite a few, including one for my own daughter. 

I've tried to make one for each of my nephews (since I don't yet have a niece) and my own daughter.  In August 2012, my sister-in-law, Melissa, told me she was expecting her first child and I immediately started thinking of what I would do for her.  At first (I believe she was really hoping for a girl), she told he she was going to do an owl theme for the nursery.  Since the blankets take so long for me to do, I went to Joann's that same week and found my next project.



I immediately fell in love with this blanket.  I bought it and took it home to start working on with the hope of having it finished before the baby shower and before the little baby was born.

I started working on it in September 2012.  I worked on it as often as time would allow (I did have a full time job and was a full time wifey and mommy duties that took precedence, ya know). I took it on a weekend trip out of town with the hubby and worked on it all day on a Saturday while he was in a meeting all day.

Stitching while the hubby is sitting in a boring meeting.

As I worked the blanket, I had a lot of idea running through my head.  I wanted my sister-in-law to be able to actually use the blanket instead of just saying "it's too pretty to use". So many ideas and no clue as to what to do.

After almost four months of working on the blanket and praying that I would get it done before the baby arrives, I finished it just after Christmas.

The finished product

After I finished the blanket, I kept looking at it and told myself that it need something else.  I wanted it to be something special that my sister-in-law and new nephew would be able to use and treasure.  By this time, the baby shower was just around a few days away and while I wanted to give it to Melissa, I knew it wasn't as finished as I wanted it to be.  So, when it came time for the shower, I wrapped it up and gave it to her.

Melissa and I at her baby shower on January 21th

I brought the blanket home with me after the shower, still trying to figure out what to.  My hubby looked at it and told me that I should have the baby's name put on it to personalize it and then add a backing to it to hide the stitching on the back.  Thinking it was a great idea, I set out to do just that.  I ended up taking it to an embroidery place here in town and had them stitch my nephews name and birth year on it.

(Embroidery done by California Embroidery)

After I had it embroidered, I took it o Joann's to find some sort of fabric to put on the back of it to make it usable but at the same time, make it look more boyish.  I ended up finding a nice fleece fabric that was blue and white checkered.  Now, the fun part was trying to figure out how I was going to get the fabric onto the back of the blanket.  I had a sewing machine, but didn't know how to use it. (I know, brilliant, right?)

Well, a few weeks ago, with the help of my mother and stepfather and a friend of my mom's, I was finally able to finish it and get it done the way I was picturing it in my mind and exactly how I wanted to get it done. 

Got the backing sewn on!

I was so excited when it was done.  And the best part.  I had done all of it myself!  My sister-in-law is so excited to use it.  Hopefully soon, I will be able to add a picture of my new nephew with his new special blanket!

I'm back!

I know. It's been awhile since I last posted on this blog, but things are back to normal now and I hope that I can get back to posting on here. Over the next couple of days, I will update everyone on what has gone on the past few months.

First Solid Food

Faith had her first real taste of solid food today when Kevin fed her Carrots. She absolutely loved them! She tried to help daddy put the spoon in her mouth.

She loved the carrots so much that she started to cry when Daddy went and put the food away! She ate half of the jar in one sitting. We are so proud of her. She is getting so fast.

Oh, and the pink 'burns' on her cheeks...well, that's rug burn as she is learning the crawl...using her face. She will put her feet on the ground and push her butt in the air and push herself all over the carpet face first. Not sure where she learned that from, but if she keeps it up, she'll be crawling before long.

Oh, and she loved to giggle, especially when Daddy bounces her on his knee, like riding a horse, and singing the Bonanza song.

Rawhide Game and Country Music

Me and new country singer, Troy Olson. He performed before the Rawhide game and threw out the first pitch.

Faith at 4 months!

It's hard to believe that Faith will be four months old on Thursday! Time has flown by so fast!

Faith on Father's Day

My two favorite people in the whole wide world!

Faith has learned to roll over, hold herself up and will be crawling anytime now! She is so advanced for her age!

Update on the new house...

We've been very busy since we moved into the house. We've painted the whole inside of the house so far and we finally moved out of the garage!

The upstairs guest bedroom.

Faith's nursery...work in progress.

The kitchen and our new appliances.

The front of the house...after Kevin pulled out all of the ugly plants.

We still have to hang all of the pictures and make a few changes to make through out the house, like remodel the downstairs bathroom, but that will all be done in time. First we need to get the office organized and usable.

It's Been Awhile...

I know, I know. I haven't updated my blog in like, FOREVER! A lot has been going on the last two months and I will update you all on the new house, Faith and my travels. I have been extremely busy, but have a lot to share!

Faith is six weeks old

My little girl is growing so fast! It seems like just yesterday that we just brought her home from the hospital. She has done so much in the last six weeks. She gets to go to work with me and she got to go on her first trip to Visalia for Easter.

A few days later, I took her to her first baseball game....the Visalia Rawhide's opening day verses the Stockton Ports.Up next...this weekend Kevin and I are taking her to Monterey for the weekend while he attends a union training event and then we get to move into our new house in the next two weeks! So much to look forward too!

It's Official!

The house is ours!

We got the keys last Friday to our new 3,000 sq.ft., six bedroom, three bath house! We are so excited. Kevin and I have been spending every free minute at the new house we can to get it move in ready.
Kevin surprised me with the good news Friday evening after I got off work with a text message picture of Faith sitting in front of the stairs with a message saying, "Hi Mommy, I'm at my new home!" He had gotten the key earlier in the day and spent the rest of the evening changing all the locks on the house and even put a new handle on the front door.
On Saturday, Kevin and I spent most of the day cleaning the house and taking measurements of windows for blinds. Things were going well until we moved the old stove and found roaches. Yuck! We stopped cleaning, figuring it wasn't going to do us any good and decided we needed to bug bomb the entire house before we finish cleaning and painting. So we called it quits, packed everything up and went home.
On Sunday, Faith went and stayed with Aunt Poe while we went back to the house to get it ready to bug bomb. Kevin fixed a blocked gas line in the laundry room and the leaky sink in the master bathroom. Once we finished all the repairs we could, we got it ready to bomb and Kevin set the off.
On Monday, Kevin went back to the house by himself to fix some more stuff and clean up the first bug bomb mess while I stayed home with the baby. We are going to wait a few days and then bug bomb it one more time to make sure we get rid of all of the roaches.
Today, Kevin, Faith and I went to Lowe's to start the fun stuff. Picking out paint to the inside of the house! We picked a pretty light green for Faith's nursery, decided to paint two walls in the office/baseball room Green Monster Green, the kitchen will be a Medium Buff and the rest of the house will be Cream in my Coffee in color and all the doors in the house will be Roasted Coffee.
Can't wait to start the painting next week so we can start moving in next weekend!

Great News!

Well, Kevin and I have some exciting news to share...We are buying a house! After months of searching, we finally the house of our dreams for a great price.

We started are search just before Christmas. We looked at quite a few houses before we found our first dream house. Kevin found the home on an on-line home forclosure website and got really excited about it.

We contacted our realtor and asked if he could take us to see it because what we found seemed too good to be true. It was a two-story, six bedroom, three bathroom, 3,000 square feet home selling for less than $230,000. When we saw it, we fell in love with it immediately. We went back to the realtor's office and placed an offer on it that day. Well, a week past and we never heard back from the selling agent. Another week past and we still didn't hear back from the selling agent. We later found out that the house sold to someone else. Needless to say, we were devistated.

We ended up going to see another realtor and a month later, he found is an identical house just a few houses down from the one we originally put an offer on that had just come on the market. We jumped on the house and went and saw it. At this pointm it hadn't even been on the market for 24 hours. We knew going in to see this house that we wanted it and after we walked through it, we put an offer on it right then and there.

The good news is that we close escrow on the home sometime within the next week. Once we close escrow, was can started painting the inside and move in by the end of April. We can't wait!

Awaiting Baby's Arrival

On Sunday, February 28th, I arrived at Clovis Community Hospital, not really knowing what was going to happen. Kevin was hoping that all that was going to happen was that the nurses were going to check to see how the baby and I were doing and then be sent home. We didn't really expect to stay. Little did I know, Dr. Swanson had something else in mind for us.

When I checked into the hospital, I was taken to a room and told to put on the standard issue hospital gown, put into bed and hooked up to the fetal monitor machine. A nurse came in and explained to Kevin and I what all was going to happen. Apparently, Dr. Swanson was planning on inducing me the next day as a precaution because of the gestational diabetes.

Despite Kevin's hopes, we were spending the night at the hospital. Well, once I was given the medication that was going to help soften my cervix and was all settled into my room, Kevin went home to grab some things and to also get us something to east as we hadn't eaten since lunch time and I was not on a diet restriction just yet.

First thing the next morning, Dr. Swanson came to check on me. He told me the procedures od induction that was going to happen over the next few hours, which included breaking my water and administering the pitocin and then checking my cervix every couple of hours to see how far I had dilated. While we waited for the mediation to run its course, my mom and Melissa, Kevin's sister, arrived to spend the day with us as we waited for the baby's arrival.

I did pretty well for the first couple of hours after the pitocin took affect and the contractions started. From day one, I told everyone that I did not want to have an epidural done, so I opted for alternative pain medication that was administered through an IV in my hand. By mid-afternoon, the pain from the contractions became to bad for me to endure any longer (to the extent that I was told that at one point I flipped Kevin off for taking pictures of me in pain), so I eventually gave in and had the epidural done.

At around two or three in the afternoon, the nurse came in and checked on me and told us that I was dilated to about a six and that we should have the arrival of a baby sometime before 8 p.m. or so. At around 4:30 or so, Kevin decided that he needed to go home real quick and grab a bote to eat, take a shower as he had been with me all night the night before and bring me some things I wanted from home, and I was fine with that.

A couple of hours later, Dr. Swanson came into check on me and told me that I was still dilated at a five or six and I had not dilated any further since the nurse had come in and checked on me a few hours before. While Kevin was still at home, Dr. Swanson informed me that he was not happy with the progress that I had made and was going to have to deliver the baby by c-section. I had to ask home if could wait until Kevin got back and Melissa had to call her brother and tell him that he needed to get back to the hospital as soon as possible as the doctor wanted to take me in soon.

As soon as Kevin arrived, the nurses quickly prepared me for surgery and rolled me out of my room and into the operating room. At 7:21 p.m., Faith Catherine Westbrook arrived into this world by c-section, weighing in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and was 19.5 inches in length.

Preparing for Baby's Arrival

On Thursday, February 25, I went to see Dr. Swanson for my 38-week check up with Kevin in tow. Dr. Swanson did his usual exam and then checked my cervix to see if I was dialated yet, which, according to him, I was to a one. After he finished his exam, he looked at us and told me that he wanted me to check into the hospital Sunday night at 5 p.m. and he would meet with me at the hospital first thing Monday morning. Not really sure about what is going on, we said okay and went home.

Well, once Kevin and I got home, we realized that there was still quite a bit a things that we needed to do before the baby's arrival, like finish hanging up pictures in the nursery and going to have some maternity pictures taken.

On Sunday morning, Kevin and I went to the mall and had some maternity pictures taken of us before the baby came. This was the first time the two of us had had our pictures taken like that, aside from our wedding, was when we had first started dating, nearly twelve years ago. That task alone nearly took all afternoon. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the hospital on time, but when Kevin is involved, when are we ever on time!

27 weeks and counting

Well, a lot has happened over the last two weeks. Here's a recap:

On December 1, 2009, as I was laying on the couch watching TV while Kevin was getting ready to go to work. While lying down, the baby started to move and kick quite a bit for about 15 to 20 minutes or so. When Kevin came out in to the living room, I told him to come over to me. He looked at me funny and told me that he was getting ready for work. I told him to come over to me again, and he did. I told him to put his hand on the side of my abdomen and hold it there. He then put his hand where I told him to and waited a few seconds. He looked at me and said, I don't feel anything. I told him to have some patience. After a few seconds, he looked at me and had a big grin on his face, the baby had kicked him in the hand pretty hard a couple of time. He was so excited. I don't think I could have given him a better birthday present.

The next day was his birthday. With him being so hard to shop for because he never asks for anything, I decided to get him a "Family" photo frame and put a couple of pictures in it. I put one of the two of us together, a picture of my growing belly that he took and a picture of the last ultrasound that was done. We went out to dinner with him mom, step dad and sister that night. After dinner, I presented Kevin with his present.

Needless to say, Kevin loved the present. So did everyone else.

Also on December 2, 2009, I had to go to the lab to have my glucose test done to see if I have gestational diabetes. (I'm told that every pregnant woman has to do this test.) it is a test where they make you fast overnight and go in first thing in the morning, drink a really sugary flat orange soda tasting drink and then wait an hour before they draw your blood. Well, I go the test results back yesterday and was told that I have to go back and take the three-hour test because my glucose level was elevated. I was also told that my iron count was low, but all I had to do to fix that problem is take an iron supplement at night. I will be going back to the lab on Monday to have the long test done.

Yesterday, I also had my 27 week checkup with Dr. Swanson. Other than the glucose issue, my pregnancy is going great. The baby does not like the doppler that the doctor/nurses use to check the baby's heartbeat as it just moved around every time the doctor tried to get a reading. i go in and see him again on December 28th, then in January I start seeing him every two weeks and then in February its every one week until the baby's born.

Only 13 more weeks or so!

25 weeks.....

As of today, I am 25 weeks along in the pregnancy. That leaves me with 15 more weeks, give or take a few days, to go until our little bundle of joy arrives.

Yesterday, I went and had a maternity massage at Zena's Island Day Spa. It felt soooo good. I would love to have one of those pillow things they have that has a whole in the middle so you can lay on your tummy and not put any pressure on the baby. I think that it might help me sleep a little better at night as I have always been a tummy sleeper. I only had the 30 minute massage, but am thinking that if I go again, I will do the hour long one next time.

The baby has been moving quite a bit the last few days. I can feel it as it swims about. I can only imagine how big it is by now as it's movements are getting stronger everyday. My only concern about the baby moving this much at this point is it wrapping the umbilical chord around it's neck. I guess it's something that I can talk to my doctor about at our next visit.

Baby movements....

A few nights ago, Kevin and I were laying in bed watching TV when the baby started moving/kicking me pretty hard in my tummy. Kevin looked at me as I winced a little in pain as the movement had caught me off guard. I told him that the baby was moving and was kicking pretty hard.

He placed in hand on my belly and looked a me and said, "I don't feel anything." I told him to give it some time and he might feel something. After a few seconds, he looked at me again and smiled, "I still don't feel anything." I told him, give it some time.

After a few minutes, I felt the baby move and Kevin looked at me with a confused yet excited look on his face and asked me, "Was that the baby move? Did I just feel the baby? Did you feel it?"

I looked at him and just laughed and told him that that was in fact the baby moving. He thought it was the neatest thing to finally feel the baby.

Baby news!

Well, I guess the news is out to everyone...and I'm a little slow for posting on here. I'm pregnant with our first child! Kevin and I are so excited. Our little one is due March 5, give or take a few days.

Our little bundle of joy at 19 weeks, 3 days

Me at 23 weeks, 5 days - Starting to show....

The experience so far has been great. I never really had any morning sickness with the exception of the occasional bout of nauseousness. I started feeling the baby move at about 20 weeks or so and that alone has been entertaining. I have had a few nights where the baby would not let me get comfortable enough to fall asleep because it was moving so much. One of those times, Kevin laid down next to me and started talking to the baby and humming a lullaby. Amazingly it worked and the baby calmed down enough for me to get some rest that night. Recently, the baby has discovered how to push and bruise my ribs. I have never felt anything so painful in my life, but then again, I guess paybacks a bitch!

I'll continue to post more as we get closer to the due date with more pictures and funny stories should they arise. Until then...enjoy!