Vince's "real" 3rd birthday

I see how it can be confusing for a kid to have a birthday party one day when their real birthday is another day. So I tried to explain beforehand that Vince's party was just his birthday party and his real birthday was on Monday. So Monday morning as he's waking up I asked him what today was.... and he said, my "real" birthday!

So for his real birthday, mommy took him to McDonalds for pancakes and playtime before school. He does things a little backwards though, goes up the slides and down the stairs. It's okay as long as there are no other kids there!!

Then it was off to school! On Mondays, Vince is the only boy with 5 girls in his class. They all sang him happy birthday while they had cookies! I picked him up from school and one of Vince's friend's came over to play with him all afternoon. By 5:30, daddy, grandma, and grandpa came over to open presents from the 4 of us and we sang him happy birthday one last time with the remaining cake from his party!

Then it was off to finish celebrating at Itz's, a nearby pizza and play place. It was totally dead there and we really had the run of the place. Vince enjoyed a ride with daddy on the go-carts... I love they had a pink one! Vince kept his hands up the whole time while having fun!

Next it was time to mini-bowl. Vince needed a little help to get the balls all the way down the lane so we gladly helped. I like this next picture because sneaky David is lurking in the background and is ready to roll a ball from behind us!

We hit up some more fun rides before retiring for the night. He had a great day and ended it at home playing his his new vtech book reader. He is one spoiled child with his parents and grandparents by his side as he reaches these important birthday milestones!

PS... I am 32 weeks pregnant here. I'm pretty big, but this white, fitted shirt makes me look "real" big!

3 year old party time!

Party like a 3 year old!!!

Vince had his 3 year old birthday party at a nearby bounce house this past weekend. I was a little worried that he wouldn’t fully enjoy the inflatables because lately he hadn’t been wanting to go down them, but once we saw his older cousins and good buddies do it, there was no stopping him!!

He had such a wonderful time! Family and friends came out to join us and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

Here is an attempt at a cousins picture... only thing is Elmo is blocking a head!

The party was short and sweet. Play time, pizza time, cake time and presents!

It's so fun seeing these kiddos grow up together.

Vince even had a king sized chair to open presents on!!

Best of all, I didn’t have a house to spend all day cleaning before and after the party and when it was over, it was over. The party was at least... Vince's birthday was a multiple day event!! More pics and posts to come!

Pregnancy - 31 weeks

I might not blog about it much, but our pregnancy is moving right along and will be over before I know it. I am 31 weeks but will have baby Carmen at 39, so 8 more weeks! Yikes and hooray at the same time!

My aunt Rosy did our sonogram 3d pictures a few days ago and we got to see a glimpse of our baby!! She’s precious!!

She has round cheeks, a round face, and a perfect little nose and lips. Technology is amazing… Vince was so cute. I showed him the picture on my phone and he kissed it, hugged the phone, and said, "I love you baby Carmen in mommy's belly"...

And here I am last week at 30 weeks.. with my #1 little boy.

I have always maintained I feel great and wouldn’t know I was pregnant if it weren’t for the big belly… but I’m starting to feel it. My feet hurt when I am on them a lot. It’s hard to bend down to get things. I have to use the rail to help climb stairs. And I am getting charlie horses which are the worst pains I’ve ever experienced behind labor! My calves feel like rocks now. I still don’t think I am waddling though… but I do have 8 weeks left so I’m sure I will get there.

Things are coming along on getting ready for baby girl. A dear friend gave me all her daughter’s under 2 wardrobe! Talk about being overwhelmed! Take a look at my living room… and at this point, I have already sorted and taken about a third of things upstairs! [Notice the 40+ shoes in bins stacked up by size!] We are so so lucky to have wonderful friends that want to give us their beautiful clothes. The closet is full of 0-12 month stuff and I am putting all 12+ away for later.

We still need some things... but one things for sure... she will be clothed!!

Baby Carmen's Room

Over the holiday break, David painted baby Carmen's room, beige and pink, and added a beautiful border inbetween. He also improvised on some decor for the room, even did some stenciling of flowers!

A great friend with a 6 month old baby girl gave me all the clothes her daughter has grown out of, so no kidding, I have a newborn and 0-3 month wardrobe already! I separated out Vince's unisex clothes and spent a lot of time washing and organizing everything.

We still have some things we need for the room and for her, but we are well on our way for being prepared for her arrival, which will actually be in about 11 weeks!

David actually painted the C brown and wrote her name in it..

I snuck in this pic to show off my growing belly!! Less than 3 months left!

Vince wanted in too!

Final room pics to come later!

Random vacation pics

David, Vince, and I got to spend almost a whole 2 weeks together at home during the holidays. It is so rare that we all hang out with no obligations and was a real blessing. During this time, we celebrated my birthday, Christmas, and New Years... got a ton of chores done, painted and decorated baby Carmen's room, frequented the movies a couple times, and potty trained Vince!!!

Here are a couple random pics from this precious time we had together...

Vince's New Years...

Us, as the clock just passed 12...

My birthday morning, at my mom's house... she made me homemade tortillas and tacos and then we had cake that Vince helped make!

Can you believe I went back to work refreshed? QT with my family, a clean house, nothing on my to-do-list, what else could a mom want?

Christmas morning!

We unexpectedly spent Christmas 2010 at home. It was Vince's 3rd Christmas. We were supposed to visit David's family in California but packed flights had different plans for us.

It gave us a chance to spend some quality time at home. Santa visited us Christmas morning and gave Vince some much wanted presents. He got 5 trains that he wanted, the "shake shake bridge" from Santa. Mommy and daddy bought him a neat basketball net that's a little too tall now but daddy likes playing it :). Grandma and Grandpa bought him a the V-tech Mobi-Go which is what I equate to a gameboy for 3-year olds. It has a touch screen and Vince is able to play most the games by drawing shapes and using the keyboard to find letters. Tia Jess bought him some tools. He tied the toolbox truck to his tricycle and rode it around the house making a ton of noise.

My parents came over Christmas morning and we all had a wonderful time watching Vince open and play with his toys. When all was said and done, he said thank you to us all and gave us kisses. I love that he understands Christmas now, well, as much as an almost 3 year old can!

Baby Myca

My first little niece was born on Dec. 14th, 2010. Vince and I headed to St. Louis the day she was born to meet her! She's a cutie and now takes after her father mostly. Vince stayed there all week and had fun seranading her with the guitar and running around with his older cousin, Myca's brother, who is almost 10.


Jessica and spent the weekend in St. Louis (yes, that's 3 trips there for me in a 3 week period!). It was nice just hanging around with family!! You can see I'm getting bigger as we are waiting for baby Carmen's arrival in 3 months. (I think this name is sticking!)