Baby Bonanza

When you come to that realization that you are no longer going to have any more kids,  it's a bittersweet moment.  Because you realize that you'll never bring another baby home from the hospital, you'll never have night feedings again (which I love--I know, it's insane), you'll never have a lot of those monumental firsts again.  And for us it was a easy decision because we knew that we only wanted two kids and never questioned the fact that we didn't want to continue parenting being outnumbered by children.  As long as there were two of us, and two of them....Rich and I had a 50% chance of being right and in control.  If we had one more....my money's on the kids at this point.  It would be like the inmates taking over the insane asylum. 

And with this decision of not adding to the brood, I then turn to my friends.  The ones still having kids.  I need them.  I need them to have babies so I won't have one just for the purpose of smelling like throw up and rocking back and forth while standing.  I need to get my fix on other peoples babies because being around them and smelling them and loving on them is something that I need to do.  So, this weekend, two of my very dearest friends did the honors of letting me get my fix. 

On Saturday the boys and I headed to Pleasanton to go to Andersen's first birthday.  Emilie had a fantastic kid friendly party supplied with a bounce house and crafts...that made my boys' day!  It is so hard to believe that Andersen is already a year old!!!  He is absolutely darling!!!

Andersen stealing some ice.

Matthew and Ryan loved the craft area!  Huge score Emilie!

 Em and Andersen

 I think he likes it!

What a fantastic day!!

The other favorite part of my weekend was my dear friend Christie coming to California for the first time with her daughter Lauren.  I had to go and see her twice!!  Christie and her husband Brad live in Chicago and I am lucky her mom and dad are still here because she has to come back and see them...so I sneak over for my visits!
I could really just eat this girl up!  She is so sweet and loving and loves to cuddle and sleep...a girl after my own heart!  On Friday when I was holding her she spit up and I didn't change my shirt until bed.  I know that sounds repulsive and gross...but I loved the smell and couldn't bring myself to change it.

Just look at this girl.

Matthew was just a bit smitten.  He tried to play peek a boo with her.  Someday, not just yet!

Love.

Meemaw (Debi) with the girl.

 Debi and Mark.

Chris, Lauren and me.

 My favorite picture....I look at this and I think..."When did we turn into adults???"  We did good Chris!

 
To two of my dearest friends...Emilie and Christie.  My heart swells to watch you as mothers.  You both are so fabulous and I love seeing you with your beautiful children.  Andersen and Lauren have no idea how they lucked out in the mom department!  Congratulations to you both!

On Sunday we headed to Fog Willow Farms.  I am a newbie to this place.  It was my first time going and I will say that we will definitely be back!  I loved it!  I loved that it was inexpensive to get in, I love that it was so huge and spread out, I loved all the different areas that the kids could play in and I loved that it was a cool 60 degrees when we went...so it actually felt like FALL!!!!!

 Here's Ryan playing a pirate from Pirates of the Pearabean (that's Caribbean to EVERYONE else). 

 I loved that everywhere you looked, there were pumpkins covering the ground.

 There was a huge hay stack pyramid that the boys loved climbing.

 Let me explain these next couple of pictures.  Ryan had no fear going in and petting the goats.  He loved it.  As you can see in the second picture down he was even a little too close at times.   Right as he was just about to come out of the petting area, a goat charged him.  I think he charged Ryan's chest with his horns and then maybe knocked Ryan's leg with his hoof because Ryan complained that he bit him.  Needless to say when Ryan turned around the shear panic in his eyes told us to grab him and get the ^%$& out of there.  When he got over the initial shocked of what had happened...he started screaming.  I don't think there will be another petting zoo in Ryan's future.

 This might be my favorite picture of the day.  It is right after he had stopped crying and calmed down.  He was about 100 feet from the goat pin and you can just tell he is staring down that goat and saying...you just stay over there, and I am going to stay over here.  He never went close to the area again for the rest of the day.

 Pumpkin jumping always makes you feel better!

Fall...Or is it?

This will come as no surprise to those who know me best.  I am not a summer person.  My favorite season is fall and you have no idea how excited I was last month when the first day of fall came....and went.  It was 92 degrees in Lodi today.  That is not fall happiness for me.  I want my cool evenings and mornings!  I want my hair to look like a birds nest after the walk from my car to my classroom in the morning.  I want to leave my classroom door open so that leaves will fly in and scatter around the room.  That is fall to me.  This 92 degrees is %^&#$%^&!!!!!! 

So to get myself in the mood...I ignored the green trees and bushes in my front yard that have not yet turned colors and I put up my fall wreath!  That's right, I did it!!!  Take that FALL!!!!  I love this wreath.  More than just representing fall, it reminds me that was a gift from my sister after I went back to help take care of my niece Natalie right after she was born.  Yesterday she turned FIVE YEARS OLD!!!  So I love this wreath.  It is my fall and my Natalie love!

And then this next picture is just fun!  Matt and Ryan went with their Nana Sharon the other day to pick out pumpkins and they came back with these.  Matt's are the four small ones.  And Ryan is claiming the HUGE ones.

HAPPY FALL EVERYONE!!!

Team Natalie 2010 Walk Now for Autism!!!

What a gorgeous day we had today in Sacramento for the Autism Speaks Walk.  Even though Noelle and Natalie were not here to be with us, we still went to represent Natalie!!!  This year we walked down by the capital and it was a fabulous walk with even more people this year! 

Here is a journey through pictures!!!!