What's Been Going On?

A LOT!

A trip to Red Bluff...
(Blake feeding the horses carrots)


A visit with Santa...
(Blake & Papa talking to Santa)


Melissa & Amira came to visit...
(Blake & Amira playing in the backyard)


A birthday...


And best of all my best friend Aimee had her baby...
(welcome to the world Cooper Teresi!)


And if you are interested here are all of the pictures from the past month...

November / December 2009

The Zoo

On Saturday we took Blake to the Oakland Zoo.



My mom made a last minute trip down and she came with us. It was a fun day. The weather was gorgeous! Blake wasn't quite sure about the animals. We did get some oohs and ahhs around the bigger animals - he liked the giraffs, the lion and the elephants. Probably still a little too young, but it was a nice/fun day.

The Zoo

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Blake had a great time yesterday. We went to our mom/playgroup party in the morning and then one of his little friends came over to trick or treat with him. He didn't quite get it - which was to be expected - but it was fun to take him and the neighbors enojoyed it too.



Want to see more - click here

Pre Halloween Festivities

To gear up for Halloween we went for a visit to the pumpkin patch

Here is the picture we took under the sign last year and then again this year. Different pumpkin patches - but look how big Blake is now!








and Blake's school had a halloween parade/party this morning. All the little kids were so cute running around in their costumes.



Want to see more....click here to see all the pictures.

Stay tuned - Tomorrow morning we will be going to our playgroup's halloween party and in the evening Blake will have one of his little friends over for trick or treating!

Happy almost Halloween!

Red Bluff Visit

Last weekend we headed up to Red Bluff for a quick visit so Chris could hunt with my dad and we were able to see Ashlei for her birthday. I can't believe she is 6 already. 6 going on 16. Funny story: My mom, Ashlei, Darcie and I had lunch on Friday afternoon and Darcie was telling us that a little boy that we know (who is i think probably 4) told his mom that he wanted to get married and his mom asked him who he would marry and this little boy said he wanted to marry Ashlei. So of course Ashlei is listening to her mom tell this story and she says, "WHAT?, Carson wants to marry me?" and then proceeds to say, "I think I just puked in my mouth". I seriously died laughing. She is 6. And she is a little diva! My poor poor brother.

We spent a lot of time hanging out with the horses on this trip which was fun. My parents bought a pony for the grand kids. Can you say spoiled! Of course Ashlei is the only one big enough to ride her now and she got to name her, Spirit. Blake loves the horses and wants to pet them and was fascinated by watching Ashlei and my mom ride. I can't wait for him to be old enough to ride too.

Wish I could have seen everyone while I was up - we always need more time!

Red Bluff Visit - October 2009

Baby Shower

A couple of weekends ago my friends Jill, Adrienne and I threw Aimee a baby shower. It was so much fun and I loved how it all turned out so I thought I would share some pics...

Can't wait to meet baby Cooper!

Jill, Me, Aimee & Adrienne


Elephant Rice Krispie Treat Favors


Cake


Elephant Banner


Baby Shower Game

I'm Back

So I realize I haven't posted in awhile. I'm hopefully going to make up for it tonight. Here is the first post of three. I thought I would share some random photos from the past couple of months - mostly of Blake. He is getting so big and is really a full blown toddler now - and almost 15 months old already. He has a new obsession with hats and wants to climb up on everything lately.

Here are the pictures. Hope you enjoy.

Sept/Oct 2009

Labor Day Trip to Washinton

Chris, Blake and I traveled up to Walla Walla Washington for the Labor Day holiday to visit Chris' family. His mom and stepdad live there as well as his sister and her family. We had a really great time with everyone and had a week filled of fun activities. Walla Walla knows how to celebrate the Labor Day holiday; Fair, Parade and Rodeo all that week. We participated in the parade and spent an afternoon at the fair. Colby and Damon had a nice BBQ at their house over the weekend so that we could meet all their friends. Good times! We also visited some wineries and did A LOT of EATING!!

The biggest and most eventful day was the morning we were set to leave. We woke up super early to catch our 6:50A flight. We are all dressed and ready to go; Blake is sitting on my lap and all of the sudden the poor little guy gets sick all over me. This is definitely one of those moments when you know you are a mom. It didn't gross me out, I only felt so sad for the little one in my lap. Needless to say we got cleaned up and still decided to head for the airport. We get checked in and are standing in line at the very small Walla Walla airport when Blake throws up all over me again. I swear everyone in that airport was staring at us. I could read their minds saying..."oh look at that poor little family"... We got Blake cleaned up and decided we were not destined to get on that flight. We headed back to Chris' parents house and let the little one sleep all day. We were on the last flight home and all worked out well. And Blake is feeling much better these days...That is one morning I won't soon forget.

So anyway...sorry for the ramble... Here are our pics from our trip

Washington Trip September 2009

First Day of School

Blake started the toddler program at Peppertree Schools of Los Gatos today. yay Blake! We dropped him off around 8:30AM, after a quick hug to my legs he immediately ran over to some toys and started playing. Chris and I signed him out and said good-bye. We walked out the door and as we looked back he had his face smashed up against the glass. It was SO cute! I wish we would have taken a picture. We picked him up around 2:30PM today and they said he did great. He cried a couple of times a little before his nap and when he woke up. Not to mention his nap was only 40 minutes long which is CRAZY! He takes a 2 - 3 hour nap at home. But all in all he did great. They told us to expect some more tears at drop off time tomorrow, so we will see. Here are some pics from the little guys first day.

First Haircut

About two weeks ago we decided it was time for the little guy to get a haircut. It was a hard decision only because he really didn't have that much hair to begin with. Chris just couldn't handle the wispy pieces that would fall over his ear from time to time. So we broke down and took Blake to one of those kiddie cut type places where the kids can sit in cars and get their haircut. The process took probably a total of 10 minutes.

Before Pic


We started off ok, I think he wasn't quite sure what was going on




Then there was a point when he was clearly not happy


All in all he did great and survived his first haircut.

Here is an after picture - which looks pretty similar to the before. ;)

Ouch!

So today was Blake's 1 year check up at the doctors office. He had four shots in his tiny legs and he was not happy about it. He screamed and I cried - but we both survived. He's a tough little guy.

So he weighs 22 pounds 4 ounces which makes him in the 50th percentile. Who would have thought since he was so big for so long. He is a skinny little thing now. He is very tall for his age though at 31 1/2 inches tall (90-95th percentile).

Again, happy 1 year Blake. Here is a little photo montage of Blake's first year - boy has he grown!

Other July Stuff

In addition to Blakes birthday we celebrated the 4th of July at home this year and also took a trip to Tahoe with some friends. Here are our other pictures from July.

Enjoy!

July 2009

Happy Birthday Blake!

Blake is ONE! That is just crazy to me. How did the year go by so fast. We have one lucky little boy because he had a whole week dedicated to his birthday with family and friends coming and going.

Our first visit was from blakes great aunt Vicki and great gramma and papa Einck. We had a nice bbq and blake got to open some fun gifts. It was nice to visit with them before their trip to Maui to celebrate my cousin's daughters second birthday.

The door was a revolving one with Grandma Mel and Grandpa Al arriving the next day. We had a really great visit with them and they got to spend Blakes actual birthday with him. We made a day out of it and took the little guy to the Children's Discovery Museaum in San Jose, came home and and lounged by the pool and then had a nice bbq and Blake got to experience his first birthday cake. Fun!



On Saturday we had the big party which was a lot of fun. A full day of great friends and family. Swimming, eating, celebrating. We want to thank everyone for coming. It wouldn't have been the same without you. Boy does a year fly by!



Here are all of the pictures from Blake's birthday week.

Look Who's 1

Summer is HERE!

We had a great month, I mean how can you not its SUMMER! We celebrated Chris' birthday and father's day, Blake started swim lessons, which is a lot of fun to watch, and to top it off my mom came to visit for a week to help us out while Kara was on vacation with her family. What a great help she was. Blake had a lot of fun too. Grandma played with him non-stop all week. Lucky boy! We caught a little playtime on video, Blake is cracking up. You can't help but laugh along with him.



Check out the pictures from the rest of the month!

June 2009

Baby Steps

In the past two weeks Blake has been slowly learning how to walk. We captured these short videos this evening and thought we would share. Definitely will be more to come.

Mom, I bet by the time you are here next weekend he will be cruising around.

Congrats Aimee & Kris!

So...I have to do a little shout out today to my bff. Aimee got ENGAGED yesterday to her now fiance Kris. YAY! I'm so excited for them. I love weddings and I LOVE Aimee and Kris, so I had to share this great news with you all. Here is a picture of the happy couple on their engagment day.

It's June...It's actually the 5th day of June...Chris' birthday. Chris and Blake are out having lunch and going to the park together. Now thats a great dad! So since they gone I have some time to post our update for the month of May. yay!

May was lots of fun!

Chris and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary in Big Sur. We had a great time. Aimee and Kris watched Blake for us so we could get away. So nice of them! We picked the perfect weekend to go. The weather was amazingly warm and clear. We drove down there on Saturday morning, had some wine and lunch on the beach and then headed to our hotel to sit in the river and enjoy some adult beverages. Chris of course met some new friends and we had a really great time!

Memorial Day weekend was also a lot of fun. It was Blakes first camping trip and I was a little nervous only because he puts everything in his mouth and i was just picturing him putting rocks, dirt, etc... in his mouth every chance he got and it was going to be a constant battle. Well I think I was over thinking the whole situation...which let's be honest, what is new. Blake was great. He LOVED it. He couldn't get enough of the dirt and the other kids that were there. More camping trips this summer are a must!

I will end this post by saying Happy Birthday Chris! Hope you are having a fun time with our little boy right now! To everyone else...enjoy our recent pictures and we hope you are all doing well. xoxo!

May 2009

Nine Month Check-Up

Blake had his nine month check up this afternoon. Everything looked really good. We still have a big boy on our hands. Blake weighs 21 pounds 13 ounces (75th percentile), is 30 inches long (97th percentile) and has a head circumference of 18 cm (70th percentile). No shots this time which was such a dream. However, the little guy wasn't home free. We were surprised with an anemia test which caused us to go to the lab right after our appointment for a blood draw. Yuck! Blake did great though, no tears. I think it was harder for me to watch than it was for him to endure. Good-bye for now Dr. Ahmann...see you at 1 year!

Happy Mother's Day!

It was my first official Mother's Day this year and it couldn't have been any better. Chris did a fantastic job of making my day very special. Chris made me breakfast and had a card for me from Blake. He even had Blake put a little scribble on it. So cute! Chris and Blake also got me a Flip Mino video camera that I love! Its so cute and tiny. I'm excited to start using it and will be posting more videos on here as soon as I get the hang of it. We spent the day working in the backyard. Chris helped me plant my garden and then made me a delicious dinner. I could get used to this Mother's Day thing. I think it might be one of my favorite days of the year.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms in our lives. I hope someone made your day as special as mine was!

Goodbye Infant...hello Toddler

Blake is 9 months old now and has been learning many new things...

He stands by himself


Eats finger foods


Drinks out of a sippy cup


He also has learned what "no" means, even though he doesn't listen most of the time and can wave bye bye. In addition to these great new things he can...

Make quite the mess when he eats by hitting the spoon out of your hand


and he gets into EVERYTHING!


Blake is a ton of fun, even when he is making messes and making us chase after him. I can't believe in three short months he will be 1 year old! CRAZY!

So long April, I wonder what exciting things May will bring. Enjoy the additional pics below from this past month.

April 2009

Happy Easter!

It was Blakes first Easter...so here are a couple pictures of the little guy! We went to Discovery Bay for the night and the Easter Bunny brought Blake a little basket. He didn't really know what to think.

It's only been a week

It has only been a week since little Blakester started crawling. Well well...the things that can happen in a week. He is now fully mobile, crawling all over the place. That didn't take long at all! He also has discovered he can pull up on things to stand up. This has made nap/bed time very interesting

We went from greetings like this...


to this...


and now...everytime we try to put him down for some sleep he stands up. So we go in and out of his room about a dozen times laying him down. And because he has discovered these great new things he can do he doesn't want to nap. Just when we finally got into a routine.

I wouldn't doubt if our next post is of him walking...stay tuned...

What's new

Well as you know from my last post, Blake is crawling. I guess my hopes from my last post in February came true. Now its time to baby proof the house! That is on my agenda this week. March was a lot of fun, the weather is starting to get better so we can spend more time outside. Thank goodness! My brother and his family came for a visit this past weekend and we had a fantastic time. The weather was gorgeous all weekend and we went to Monterey on Saturday to take the kids to the aquarium. It was fun to watch them but boy was it busy. Next time we will be visiting on a weekday. I think everyone else in the world had the same plan as we did. We spent the day by the beach which was so nice. Allison and Blake were a lot of fun to watch together. They interact more and more each time we get together. Can't wait for our next visit in a couple of weeks. Below are our pictures from the month. As always enjoy!

March 2009