The Hansen's

Luke Richard Hansen!

2009-02-21T17:13:00.000-08:00

He's here!!! Luke arrived on Monday, February 16 at 11:40 PM. He was 9 days late but so worth the wait. He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz. and was 21 3/4 inches tall... big boy! He is such a good boy, his life consists of eating, sleeping, dirty diapers, and being doted on constantly by mommy, daddy and all of the guests that have been coming to see him. So far the adjustment with Luke in the house has been really easy. Mike is an amazing daddy and takes over whenever he can. We sleep a lot more than I thought we would and we have no problem being holed up in our house all day and night just playing with him and staring at him. He is perfect, we love him soooo much!

Luke looks just like daddy!

This is the face I usually am looking at, sleeping Luke

5 days left!

2009-02-02T16:57:00.001-08:00

Still no baby! I don’t know why I am being so impatient when really we have 5 more days until his due date. It’s just that we are so excited to see him and I am getting huge! We went to the doctor today, she said I am still 1cm dilated and the heads “a little bit” lower. She also spent some time trying to measure our baby from the outside and she said “Well he feels like a little baby…” I asked “How much do you think he weighs?” She said “My best guess would probably be around 7lbs 14 oz.” I was shocked! I said that that does not sound little! She said she mostly delivers 9lb babies so it felt little to her. Seeing that I was born 7lbs 6 oz and Mike was around the same I always just figured that’s how big Luke would be. But if we continue down this road of not having baby yet, I may just have one of those 9 pounders…ouch! She did tell us a few things we can do to move this in the right direction a little quicker. We already tried one…eating the Skipolinis Prego Pizza. This is pretty much just a pizza with every topping imaginable on it.

Here's the pizza, full of meat and veggies and GREASE!!

Mostly our Skipolini's outing was an excuse to hang out with these girls and their boys. I <3 them! Notice Luke already trying to sit on TJ's lap.

Well, still no baby after eating it. But it was successful in making me feel a little nauseous, all that grease. Well, off to one of Mike’s games. Maybe it will be a close one and the adrenaline will get it going!! (Its my mom’s bday tomorrow, I know a grandson would be the best present…come on Lukie!!)
PS Two weeks from now when I still haven’t had the baby, I will be laughing at this post

A Baptism... and maybe a birth coming soon!?

2009-01-26T19:27:00.000-08:00

Mike and I are so honored to be Ayla May Allocco's Godparents. It was such a wonderful day. Ayla was so good during the ceremony and she looked ADORABLE, as usual. Alix and Mike had us all over after the ceremony and put out a wonderful spread. Even my grandparents from New Jersey were able to come out for the event. Here are some pictures to document the day.

Ayla's Baptism cake...mmmm

The parents, godparents, and great grandparents with Ayla

Parents, godparents, Ayla and the priest. He was awesome!

I love this picture, as soon as the baptismal candle was lit, Ayla couldn't keep her eyes off it, good thing she is not old enough to blow it out.

Ayla and Grandpa!

Ayla and Grandma!

And now for the second half of this blogs title...I am officially due in 12 days! I kind of want to go earlier but at the same time don't want to go through labor. However last night at around 3am I came to the realization that there is a human being inside me and there is no possible way that he can stay in there forever and some how, some way he is coming out very soon! Scary! I went to the doctor today, of course she couldn't tell me when this is all going to happen but she did say that I am 1 cm. dialated which is good because she said lots of first time moms don't even start dialating until after the due date. Mike took a picture of me for my "pregnancy album" for 9 mos. Thought those of you who don't see me a lot (mainly NJ people) might find it interesting to see how huge I am!

(Yes I know it's the middle of January, but this is the only dressy dress I have that fits! Thanks Kimmy!)

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2009-01-21T16:31:00.000-08:00

I haven’t blogged in a really long time, Julie brought this to my attention. I guess I have just been busy. Here is a list of just some of the things I have been up to:

1. Preparing my students/classroom/sub for being out for a couple months
2. Teaching!
3. Weekly doctor visits
4. Basketball season- going to all of Mike’s DV games and trying to hit some DLS games.
5. Walking everyday (at least I try)
6. Making dinner almost every night because Mike is on a strict diet, while I just keep getting bigger and bigger.
7. Keeping up the house
8. Getting ready for baby!!!

There has been more, but I think those are some good excuses, right!? I can't believe someday soon I am going to have to be doing all of that in addition to taking care of Luke, is that even possible? I should ask my mom or Julie or Alix. They've got experience! Although, even with those 8 things, somehow I still have time to watch the tivo’d “View” almost every night, plus The Bachelor, 90210, and occasionally a Friends rerun (priorities right!?)

I wanted to share some pics too and the only thing I could think of to share about is Baby Luke’s room! I love how it turned out. It’s so cozy and cute. My two favorite compliments so far are from my mom and Mike. My mom said, “It’s just such a happy room!” Mike said, “Hey, this place could be in a catalog!” I am sure Mike was exaggerating a bit, but oh well, I’ll pretend it’s true :)

Notice the stripes on top of the wall, my mom and I did that ourselves! Very custom huh? :)

I put this pic up so you can see the rug, one of my favorite parts of the room.

This is Luke's bedding. It's little orange, white and brown monkeys on a blue background. They say "Monkey See Monkey Do" on them, so cute!

Another view with curtains and rocking chair.

I can’t believe the baby is going to be here in 2 weeks. (or maybe sooner!) I cannot wait to meet this little one who has been keeping me up all night. I guess he’ll be doing that when he gets here too. I have dreams about him almost every night. Last night, I had a dream he was in his carrier in a stroller, and I was wheeling him around the Stoneridge Mall. But there was a blanket over his carrier so I couldn’t see him. It’s so strange, I have no idea what he is going to look like but I can’t wait find out!!

New Year's Eve 2009!!!

2009-01-01T20:29:00.000-08:00

Well, 2009 is going to be a life changing year. We are going to be parents!!! Where better to celebrate the monumental occasion than HQ (headquarters ie. my brother's house). It's definitely interesting being completely sober on New Years, but I have to say it was still fun hanging out with everybody and really nice to feel great on New Year's day!! I didn't take as many pics as I wanted to but here are just a few to capture the essence of the evening

First off, the red personalized keg cups. My brother and Alix filled the keg with everyone's favorite:Bud Light. The kegs cups had a place on it where you can scratch on your name. This was my hubby's. He brought it home with us for some reason and I took the picture when we got home. The tally marks are for each time he had to refill his cup, he wanted to keep count. It say 7 1/2. I added the I heart above the Hansen..

Random pics from the night

Baby Shower and Week with Ayla

2009-01-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

My sister's in law, Kim and Veronica, and cousin Laurie threw me my second baby shower last Saturday. It was so much fun. Luke got tons of new cute clothes, toys, books and more! People are WAY to generous when it comes to babies! Here are some pics from the festivities...

Mom and me

Baby Luke's cake! (mmm...I love cake right now!)

The little ones helped me open presents, which was actually really nice because it's getting hard for me to bend over.

Kim and Payton. (how cute is she!?)

The first few days of this week I watched Ayla for Mike and Alix. It was so fun. Everyone told me that this would be a chance to see what it would be like to have my own, great practice! It really was. Of course I had a little help, Julie and TJ helped me the first day, and Julie and Isabella came by the day after. The third day I did it on my own! Isabella loved playing with the baby. We even had a mini photo shoot with them. This is the only one we got with Ayla looking at camera.

Two of the cutest girls on the planet!

I thought we might get bored because really I thought babies just sleep, eat and cry. Who knew how much fun a 6 month old could be!? We walked Rancho, tried rice cereal (well, Julie did and Ayla did not like it), watched a baby DVD, played in the exersaucer, layed on the bed and she grabbed my face, played pigs in space, basically had a great time...can't wait for mine to be here!!!

O Christmas Tree

2008-12-13T16:33:00.000-08:00

Mike and I finally got around to decorating our Christmas tree today. We actually got the tree last Sunday but have been too busy all week to decorate. For half the week it was lying on our front porch still wrapped up, then we brought it in I think on Thursday and put it on its stand. The tree, of course, fell after we thought it was in there good, and today was finally the day that we were both home and able to decorate, yay!

Mike’s team did a Christmas tree fundraiser this year for his program. They made lots of money and we of course felt like we should get our tree from them. Our family room is small and the smallest sizes they had were 5-6 foot trees. All of the trees were wrapped so we really couldn’t see it until we unwrapped it, but it actually turned out looking nice and fitting perfectly!
So, we put on some xmas tunes, (and a college game on mute) and decorated! Mike put up the lights first for us. He is convinced that the first strand of lights needs to wrap around the tree trunk all the way to the top so the light looks like it’s coming from the “inside of the tree”. I told him that’s a little ridiculous and a waste of the few light strands we have (who wants to make another trip down to longs?) Has anyone else heard of this? He does it every year and it does look nice, maybe that’s the way everyone does it and I have just never noticed…
As we were decorating, I was thinking about our ornaments. I have always wanted a beautiful and “classy” looking tree full of white lights, silver balls, and pretty ornaments. The kind you might see in a Pottery Barn catolog or something. Then I looked at our ornaments…no silver balls (Mike and I can’t help but laugh every time I say that), not too many lights (too lazy to go out and buy more) and all of our ornaments are either from when we were kids, from family, former players, friends, or students (sentimental). Then I realized that once Luke comes we’ll be putting up ornaments he has made and other sentimental ones and I probably won’t get that “beautiful” Christmas tree for another 20 years! Oh well, I guess that’s not the spirit of Christmas!!

Now, after way too much rambling, I would like to share a couple of our legendary ornaments.

Santa Claus aka ho ho- Pulling this little guy out of our decoration box was one of my favorite parts of decorating our tree when I was little. My mom made him when she was young and he has survived every Christmas ever since. He used to reside on the top of the tree in the Allocco household, but as a Hansen we got our Christmas angel from Mike's grandma so he had to be downgraded a bit. He is still as close to the top as I can get him. Please check out his arms and his legs. I love him.

Basketball ornaments- After decorating the tree this year, we decided that close to 80% of our ornaments have something to do with basketball. And I am not exaggerating. It's either Santa basketball player, or a hanging basketball or a reindeer holding a basketball...you get the picture. I decided to take a picture of the little boy with a basketball because he's so cute!

Soldiers- Always a favorite of my brother and I when we were young. We have soldiers in many colors. This one is injured, he is an amputee so I thought he deserved to be photographed and put on our blog for all his hard work through out the years.

Teacher/Coach ornaments- The other 20% of our ornaments pretty much can go in the gifts from students or players category. Here are a couple examples of those:

Well there you have it, our 2008 Christmas tree!

Train of Lights

2008-12-09T21:17:00.000-08:00

Every year we go on the Sunol Train of Lights. When you first see the train, it's a little bit cheesy looking. It has blinking lights, colored lights and white lights covering pretty much the whole train. But of course the kids (Jack, Ryan and Drew and last year Payton and Olivia) think its absolutely amazing. Next year Luke will be able to experience it too! Santa Claus ( who by the way was a little creepy) and Mrs. Claus make an appearance and give the kids a cookie. Carolers walk around and everyone sings Christmas carols. It actually really does a good job of getting me in the Christmas spirit. The kids (and me) enjoy hot chocolate and marshmallows while the adults enjoy Bailey's and Cream and red wine. Can't wait till next year when I can partake in that! The only downsides of the train ride is it is freezing cold and when the train drives back toward Pleasanton my seat all the sudden becomes backwards and I get a bit car sick. Wish we had more pictures, but my camera is dead and for some reason I refuse to charge it. Our cousin Matty sent us this one. I'll try and get some of everyone else too!

Thanksgiving- Part I

2008-11-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite holidays. First off, teachers get a week off of school which is absolutely fantastic. Second, has definitely got to be the food! Especially for a pregnant person. My Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Frank hosted our Thanksgiving dinner this year. Mike’s whole family is in Disneyland so we were over at my Aunt and Uncle’s the whole day. We started the day with a tradition Mike started two years ago. Pumpkin pie for breakfast. Then we went for a walk and over to Starbucks for a coffee. After that we did nothing. I mean nothing, we lounged on the couch, watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and football and basketball games. At one point, I went into our room and actually watched this movie.

It was one of my favorites as a kid. Sometimes I can’t believe the movies I watched over and over as a kid, I seriously think I watched this one 100 times. I don't think I ever really understood it though (I know it's so deep!) but there are a LOT of innuendos in it. I didn’t even know that the actress was Kim Cattrall!

Then we went to Concord to my Uncle Frank’s house. It was quite a different atmosphere this year. Lots of babies! Kristen and Chris brought their kids, Molly and Brady and my brother and Alix brought Ayla. It was so fun, I can’t wait for Luke to be able to play with all of his cousins! The meal was amazing as usual. My Aunt Phyllis is a great cook, we had Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, baked ziti, broccoli, corn, salad and lots more. My cousin, Kristen made a white chocolate cake and chocolate pecan candy. Needless to say, we all wanted to explode after dinner. I think I was even fuller than usual since Luke takes up the majority of my stomach. I think I made him grow and gain lots of weight yesterday though because I have never felt him move as much as I did last night. I guess that’s a good thing!
Here are some pics from the festivities.

Papa and Ayla

Auntie Meg and Ayla (please pay special attention to her outfit, yes she is wearing a cranberry colored tutu and matching bow!)

Ayla and her cousin, Brady.

Daddy and Ayla

Babymoon!

2008-11-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

Mike and I went on one. It was just an overnighter but was so great. Mike told me two days before to make sure I keep Sunday and Monday clear. He doesn’t have practice on Sundays and Monday he scheduled a late one. He wouldn’t tell me where we were going. It ended up being the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn. Picture above. After getting a little lost on the way there, we approached the hotel which was BEAUtiful!!!

We had such a great time on our last vacation as a single couple without child. :) We shopped in downtown Sonoma, did some wine tasting, ate good food and we had such a romantic hotel room! We even got to got in our morning walk Monday morning around Sonoma. The best part of the hotel room was the fireplace. They would bring up these “bags of wood” and all you had to do was put the bag in the fire, light a match and it became a perfect crackling fire! Mike was so cute, everytime he made the fire, he was so proud of it like he had chopped the wood and made the fire himself. :)
There was also a really nice spa at the hotel. We didn’t get any spa treatments though. We had planned on getting a couples massage, but for almost $400, I couldn’t do it in good conscience. (sp?) Hey, we need a rocking chair for the baby’s room! I do love my husband so much for being so thoughtful and taking me on this trip.

Here's the token pic of Mike and I taking a picture of ourselves because we don't want to ask anyone to do it for us...

Fireplace in our room with "bag of fire"...

Our room

So strange to think that our next vacation together will either involve a babysitter or little Luke himself!

Warrior Game

2008-11-22T09:33:00.001-08:00

Last night Mike, me and some friends went to the Warrior Game. They played the Chicago Bulls and lost. Oh well, we had fun. We sat in the Oracle box (a dad on Mike’s team works for Oracle). When we walked in we saw that we had a great view of the game. We were straight up from the Vistor’s bench. The box was also stocked full of food: caesar salad, chicken and pesto pitas, steak sandwiches, sausage and peppers, popcorn, chips etc etc. A pregnant girls dream!Not to mention a fridge full of bud lights, wine, sodas and water bottles. Her husbands dream! As Mike said this morning on the phone “It was great, I enjoyed some bud lights and Meg had some ice cold waters.” Oh well, I am getting used to being the designated driver. And I wake up each morning feeling chipper (yes I said it) and ready for our walk. They also had a dessert cart which I really had to use self restraint to keep myself from. Mmmm there was so much good stuff on that thing (check out someone's chocolate cake in the first picture). Everyone was taking shots of Bailey’s from shot glasses made out of chocolate. There is really no better way to watch a game. Now I am spoiled, I told Mike that from now on that’s the only way I will go to a NBA game. Another plus to the game is that Kim got to come! She and the girls are in town until Monday. Here are some more pics from the game.
PS I’ll be blogging again soon I’m sure because…I have the next 9 days off!!! Yeah, Thanksgiving Break for a teacher! Mike said tomorrow we are taking a trip somewhere (a babymoon?) but he won’t tell me where. I am begging him to tell me but I really do like being surprised.

Mike, Ed and Pat

Mike and Kim

Baby Shower

2008-11-19T18:05:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday Alix, my mom, Julie and TJ hosted a baby shower for me. It was so much fun! We had lots of good appetizers, amazing cupcakes, great friends and family! I can’t believe in about two months little Luke will be here. His nursery is almost ready and everyone that came to the shower were so generous! He already has so much. Thanks to everyone that came and were a part of the shower, it’s something I will never forget! Most of all, thanks to Alix, Mom, Julie and TJ for working so hard to make it such a great day. Here are some pics from the shower.

It seems like just yesterday we were having a shower for Alix for this little one. Now she is sitting up in her Bumbo chair. I love her!

The girls made a crossword puzzle about babies, Luke and us. Whoever completed it the fastest was the winner. Ashley won!

Mmmmm these are the cupcakes Alix got. So yummy!!!

Opening presents!

Me and Luke! (this is becoming our signature pose: see my last two blogs)

Date Night!

2008-11-10T07:29:00.000-08:00

Well, last night marked the last night before basketball season starts. To celebrate Mike and I had our “final dinner” before he will be gone every week night for practice and Friday nights for games. We still have Friday nights after games and all of Saturday nights but I think we just wanted an excuse to go out for a nice, romantic dinner. Seriously though, I am really excited for basketball season to start, I love the excitement of game days and watching Mike coach and get so into the games. It’s also great sitting in the stands and getting a chance to socialize with people I rarely see who come to Mike’s games to support him. This year, Mike’s school (Dougherty Valley High) finally has freshman, sophomores and juniors so they are going to have a Varsity team. It’s going to be tough playing against a bunch of schools that have seniors, but Mike is always up for a challenge.

Forbes Mill Steakhouse was really nice. We had never been there before, but Mike’s brother recommended it and we will definitely go there again. Mike got the Filet and veggies and I got the Chicken Penne and Vegetable Pasta. It was so good.

Then we came home and took some pics of ourselves marking the occasion. We need a tripod or automatic timer or something because these kinds of pics just aren’t cutting it. Here they are though.

Luke's getting bigger! (and so is mommy!)

We decided to watch Hoosiers after that to get us really in the basketball spirit. I had never seen this movie before but it is one of Mike’s favorites. It was really good and motivational.

It sure did the trick of getting Mike out of bed and out the door this morning by 7 to start bball tryouts! (on our day off by the way!)

I will keep the blog updated with Mike’s schedule and record this year, hopefully everyone can come out to a game and keep me company in the stands!

B.U.M.P (Baby Under Manufacturing Process)

2008-10-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

(don't I look really excited to be taking this picture?)

Okay, I feel very narcissistic putting up individual pics of me, but there are a couple reasons for it. One, I have not blogged in 6 weeks and people are getting annoyed, and two, I have had many requests for “baby bump” pics.
Each month, since month one, Mike has been taking pictures of me in the same sports bra and shorts from the side to see the growing bump. First few months you could see small changes, I don’t by any means love these pics, but I dealt with them, they were okay. Then, last week we take the 6 month pic… Mike shows me it and I was SHOCKED! I couldn’t believe that it was me (I know, I see myself everyday, but seeing it in picture form is way different and I must say a little scary). Didn’t want to put those up on the blog so we decided to take a couple pics of me with clothes covering my stomach. Much more tolerable than the bare belly pics.

The good thing about this expanding belly is that it means Baby Luke (as Julie calls him- I love it!) is getting bigger and bigger and growing into a healthy baby so I have to say I am happy about it. I cant believe how much I love him already. He kicks me all the time, especially when I am in the car by myself belting out “Womanizer” by Britney Spears. He must love her music just like his mommy or maybe he just loves to dance like his daddy! This morning Mike wouldn’t get out of bed and Luke was kicking, I was bored and I found myself wishing he would be out already so I could play with him. Okay, I am rambling…I hear that's normal
I also wanted to include my awesome husband (who spent the whole day cleaning out the babies closet with me!). He’s enjoying some frozen yogurt from the Yogurt Shack. My one craving during pregnancy is vanilla frozen yogurt with reese’s peanut butter cups on top. I probably have one at least once a week. Here’s Mike enjoying one of his own (while not being able to keep his eyes off the world series that's on TV)

What we have been waiting for...

2008-09-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

Our 20 week ultrasound! And it's definitely a boy! And a very cute boy. It was such a great day. Mike and I both had to leave school a little bit early for the appointment. We got there and the ultrasound tech had to do lots of measurements. Our boy was so active. It took her a lot longer than usual to get his heartbeat because everytime she would get it, he would move. I didn't mind, it meant I could watch him longer. Then, Mike got to come in. She announced that he was definitely a boy (I mean look at the picture below!) and we got some other good pictures too. He was so cute and was moving around so much. (Click on pics if you want to see them bigger)

Look at that strong backbone!

Can't wait to meet this little one that has suddenly made me not fit into any of my old pants! Oh well, he is totally worth it!

Wine Tasting!

2008-09-14T08:03:00.001-07:00

Haven't updated the blog in a while. A few weekends ago, Mike, me, Julie, Devin, TJ and Shane went up to Napa to go wine tasting. You may think for someone who is pregnant this might not be so fun...so the opposite! I had so much fun! We went to about 5 different wineries (the joy of having a designated driver while wine tasting!), ate lunch at a cute and very popular little deli, and enjoyed a gourmet meal. Napa is a beautiful place, as you can see by all the pictures. Can't wait to do it again!
Here's a pic of me and my handsome husband

The boys!

The designated driver. I loved it...I got to drive Devin's Tahoe!

The whole gang...fun fun!

For more details on the event, check Julie's blog. :)

Del Mar 2008

2008-08-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

Mike and I started a tradition about four or five years ago that every August, we make a trip down to Del Mar. The first two years it was just Mike and I (it was even a road trip the first time!), and it has gotten progressively bigger and bigger. This year there were 11 of us. Including Grammy Maher, who watched Ayla while we went to the races. We had so much fun. We broke even each day, thanks to Mike winning big races at the end.

Nakatani on the turf! Our favorite jockey, Corey Nakatani, always wins for us on the turf. They haven't been giving him such good horses lately, but he still places or shows. We be on him to Win Place or Show and he did! It's kind of a tradition (apparently we have lots of Del Mar traditions) that we take a pic with Corey and get his goggles. The ones in this picture that are on his head are mine now!

Out to dinner

The last day, Mom, Mike, Alix, Mike, Ayla and I all went to Seal World. It was fun and really hot! We all ended up getting sunburned that day.

All in all it was a great trip. A great way to end the summer. It was what may be Mike and my last time traveling before we have a baby. (Unless we go on the beach trip soon with Julie and Devin!) Luckily, mom said that next year she will come and watch both the babies while we go to the races! Yeah!!!!

One Year Anniversary!

2008-08-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Mike and my one year anniversary! Mike took me out to Ruth's Chris for dinner. It was so good. We were talking over dinner about how much has happened in one year. His grandparents passed away, we have two new nieces, Ayla and Olivia, Mike started a new job, I'm pregnant, TJ is married, all the little one's in our life- Isabella, Jack, Ryan, Drew, Payton are so much bigger...and on and on! Time really is flying! And whoever said the first year of marriage is the hardest was so wrong, for us it was definitely the best! After dinner we went shopping over at Nordstrom, I really wanted a watch. Well, I found my dream watch, after a lot of thinking we decided wer were going to buy it, then realized the price that we thought it was was just the price of the band! Oh well, we are saving for a house right? Then we came home and opened our cards to each other (my favorite part of the evening!) then we watched our wedding video and had a piece of our wedding cake. Everyone said the cake would taste like cardboard, but it was actually still pretty good! Although we both only had a little bite. It was kind of sad throwing the rest in the trash but it was definitely taking up too much room in our freezer. I'm looking forward to next year where we can actually open our bottle of Dom Perignon (before I got pregnant we had planned to open it on our one year) and drink it! Here are a couple pics from our romantic evening out!

Here is the pic the waitress took of us at Ruth's Chris. We had a nice private table.

Here is the top of our wedding cake. It held up well over the year!

My sweet husband posing with our cake.

More pics from wedding!

2008-08-06T08:25:00.001-07:00

Garter toss! Ben caught it, and Kristi caught the bouquet...awwww!

You'll rarely find a pic of Mike or me without one of us throwing up the dueces.

Wanted to stick this pic in earlier but didnt know how to put it where I wanted it, but I love this pic...JUST MARRIED!

Mike and Devin sat together.

Proud parents!

Juls and Dev

Cake cutting! Check out the cupcake tree :)
I'll add more pics later

The Baxter Wedding Weekend!

2008-08-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

MR. AND MRS. BAXTER!!!
What an amazing weekend! TJ and Shane's wedding was a blast. The bride was beautiful, the flowers were perfect, the ceremony was great, and the wedding of course was tons of fun. TJ and Shane are so in love and this weekend it became official...here are some pics from the weekend.

The rehearsal was at El Charro in Lafayette. The food was delicious and there was a nice patio outside for fun and picture taking. Above is the wedding party.

TJ and I. Bride and Matron of Honor!

TJ's dress was laced up in the back. It was kind of hard to tie up but the final result was worth it!

Bridesmaids.

Matron of Honor, Maid of honor, Flower Girl and Bride

From where we were getting ready in the church, there was a window into the church. We had a lot of fun peeking through to see guests arriving. This is a pic of TJ doing that, not to mention a good one that shows her dress!

This is the whole bridal party. All friends since high school.

On the way to the reception!

Bride and groom's first dance.

Video?

2008-07-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

So, I am still learning how to blog. I am testing to see if I can post videos. I just noticed the little icon when I was uploading pictures before. I used to think that my videos had to stay on my camera in order to view them. I am testing with a video of us from Yankee Stadium. Check out our seats!...(but try to ignore me talking)

New Jersey!

2008-07-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

Mike and I at Yankee stadium, below is my man, Derek Jeter!

My husband will find a track anywhere! Here we are at
Monmouth Racetrack in NJ

Legends- on the porch

Dinner in Little Italy

View of NYC from the top of the Empire State Building.

Dad and I on top of the Empire State Building

Mike Dad and I

I know... lots of pictures! But we went everywhere in NJ this year. We figured it was the last time we could freely travel without a little one! The trip was filled with lots of good homecooked Italian food, lots of visiting with family and lots of little day trips. It was so much fun! Highlights were: visiting the old Yankee Stadium for the last time, our trip to the shore, our trip to NYC, our trip to the Racetrack, sitting on the porch visiting with our family...and of course grandma's cooking.

DREAMS

2008-07-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

I had a very strange dream. I gave birth to triplets...3 boys! They put me out during labor so Mike had to name them. He named them Grant, Justin and January. January!!! When I asked him why, he said that was the month they were born in...very creative. I hope he does a better job with our real child than that. I am having dreams about babies almost every night. Maybe its because I am almost done with my first trimester and it's all becoming very real!

Bachelorette Party- Actual!

2008-07-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

We got back last week, but I have been a bit lazy in putting up the pictures. Mostly because it is so hard to find appropriate pictures to put up! It was a crazy weekend, but sooo much fun. TJ was such a good sport about the silly and ridiculous things she had to do. For instance, wearing a veil pretty much all weekend, at times she really didn’t want to like in the picture above.
But it got her lots of free drinks and hey, she’ll never be able to do it again!
We hung out at the house the first night and just had "girl time", until two unexpected strangers came over to join us!

We snuck into casino pools during the day

We went to a fabulous dinner right on the lake.

We got a VIP table at the Mont Bleu with bottle service, this was the night TJ accompished almost everything on her scavenger hunt!

What a great friend! This girl came home with me early every night because it's hard to stay out past midnight with only O'Douls and Cranberry Club Sodas in your system! She's the best!

All in all, it was a great group of girls and we had so much fun celebrating T's last weekend as a bachelorette. Cant wait till next summer, for yet another bachelorette party!!!

Best Picture Ever

2008-07-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

I had to post because I love it so much.

Bachelorette Party!

2008-07-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

We are leaving for TJ's bachelorette party today! We are going to South Lake Tahoe until Sunday. I know I cannot partake in any alcholic beverages this weekend because of the little one, but I am so looking forward to this vacation! We will be doing lots of BBQing, laying out by the lake, dancing at Club Vex, and dining at nice restaraunts. The first tiny little pic on the top it the restaraunt we are going to on Saturday night, the Riva. It has a huge deck right on the lake and the menus look DElicious! The rest of the pics of our cabin. It holds 12 people and looks so nice, it is right on the lake too! I'll post pics of us girls when we get back!

Our baby!!!

2008-07-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

We finally had our first doctor's appointment yesterday. It's amazing how long they wait to see you. It was such a good experience. We LOVE our doctor and it was so awesome seeing our baby. He/she (we think he) was so small but actually looked like a baby. Its little arms and legs were moving. Especially its legs! He dances like his daddy! Here is the picture from the ultra sound. It is kind of hard to make out, and looks a little like a teddy bear. But I can't help but stare at it every 10 minutes.

TJ's Shower

2008-06-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

Julie and I pulled it off! TJ's shower was great. It was full of great food, some bellini's, a couple games, gifts, funny photoshoots, some reminiscing, great family and great friends. We even had some girl time after. It was a HOT day, but turned into one of those nice summer nights. The young girls (yes, I still call ourselves that) sat outside in Julie's back yard and had some wine after people had left. Of course I could not partake in the wine drinking, but I did have a couple O'Douls in spirit of the evening. It was lots of fun! Can't wait for the bachelorette party!

PS I had to put the pic up of the bridesmaids with TJ where no one is ready, it was hysterical

Ayla!

2008-06-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

Ayla is here! I wanted to post some pics of my beautiful new niece! Alix was such a champ during labor. She was tough and made it look so easy! I pray that mine will be just like hers. Mike and Alix are going to make awesome parents. You can already tell that they share the responsibility and are loving every moment of parenthood!

Starting a blog!

2008-06-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

So, I decided to make a blog. My sister in law, Alix, started one months ago and I can't help but go on hers on a daily basis just to check if something is new. I also go on Perez Hilton's blog daily to check out what's new with celebrities. My life has just never been so exciting that I need to blog about it. However, recently Mike and my life has been thrown into excitement mode. First of all, my brother and Alix just gave birth to their daughter, Ayla. She is the cutest most perfect child on the planet. We also found out that we are expecting! So I know there will be some time spent thinking about our little one to come as well as learning more and more about our new niece and our other nieces and nephews. So I may finally have some things to blog about! Other things include having the summer off with my wonderful husband (the life of teachers!), being the the "matron" of honor in TJ's wedding with Julie and all the fun that brings with it, showers, bachelorette parties, and the wedding! My prayer now is that I am not showing August 2, TJ's big day!