So much has happened in one year!

Visiting our little man in the NICU
Proud daddy
Big sis hugging her little "bra-thur" on Christmas day
Still amazed at how little he is
Big boy is 9 months and already trying to go places!
Our little Family of 4!
It's Boots and Dora!
They are such monkeys! Where one goes the other follows!

Ok, so I noticed that my last post was over 1 year ago! Well...as you all know so much has changed since then. I am going to keep it short before I begin to write a book. Ryan-John was born on December 21st of 2008, two weeks before my scheduled c-section (36 weeks) we were worried for a minute because he was considered premature, had some water in his lungs and rapid breathing. Thankfully his health improved within days and we got to come home on Christmas eve, the best present ever! He is now a little over 1 month away from his 1st birthday!!! Obviously our family dynamics have completely changed and it took me a minute to get used to juggling two kiddos but, I finally feel like I have it together (most days) and enjoy every moment spent with our growing babies. Kalea is almost 3 going on 30, she is so mature and advanced for her age and she never fails to amaze us. She started attending a Spanish preschool in September so that she can have more exposure to the Spanish language and she loves it! She is now speaking more Spanish to me on a regular basis and makes me so proud when we ride home and begins to sing Spanish songs that I once sang when I was her age. Ryan-John is the sweetest baby, he is almost 11 months and he is just such a good boy. He already looks up to his big sister and you can see in his eyes he can't wait for the day when he will be able to walk side by side with his partner in crime :) By the time he walks he'll probably be bigger than her,lol as he only weighs 4 pounds less than she does! Ryan and I had our wedding anniversary in August and are so thankful for our first 5 years of marriage; we are excited to see what is still yet to come.

WA trip Sept./Oct. 2008

 

We took our last WA trip before the baby's arrival this past September/October. and had a great time spending it with family and friends. Kalea loved the outdoors, especially abuelo and abuela's garden where she ate 3 whole tomatoes the first day she saw the tomatoe vines and couldn't resist picking the grapes from the grapevine in abuelo and abuela's backyard. We spent a lot of time at the playground the first half of our trip since the weather was unusually beautiful (no rain!) and got to meet cousin baby AJ for the first time, Kalea feel in love with him! We we also very happy to share the joy of Lenise and Eddie's first child with them. Kalea made a new friend, Tiki (Lenise and Eddie's pug), and couldn't stop following him around! We went to a cousins wedding where Kalea got to meet aunties, uncles, and cousins she hadn't meet before and she even got a hold of a little boy on the dace floor and wouldn't let him go! It was really nice just hanging out with family and spending quality time together, Kalea couldn't get enough of tio and tia (Claudia and Felix) and always asked for them while they were at school. I got to see my childhood friend, Dana, which was neat because we are both pregnant right now. Our time went by too fast and we wish we would of had more time to visit everyone but, there will always be a next time and hopefully in several more years we will bea ble to call WA our HOME again.

Welcome To The Family!

                     Proud uncle and cousin with baby Anthony Javier
                                         Kalea Lovin' on Baby AJ                          Proud Auntie and big sis with baby Irelynn
                                Kalea loves her new baby girl cousin

September was a month for babies in our family, we welcomed two!! Ryan's sister Lenise gave birth to Anthony Javier on Sept. 3rd and Ryan's brother's wife, Jackie, gave birth to Irelynn on Sept. 9th of 2008. The two baby cousins are only 6 days apart! They are both so precious and we are so excited to have them in our family. Kalea LOVES babies and was amazed and excited to meet her two little cousins. She just wants to hold them always and tries to play wiht them already, she doesn't realize they are not quiet her size yet! Hopefully being around them gives her enough practice for when she has her own baby brother in several more months. We love them both and their families and can't wait to watch all the little ones grow up together :)

THE BIG GIRL ROOM

 Kalea in her big girl bed

   Loves her big girl Mermaid room

Checking out her height

Can't wait to get fish in the aquarium!

Kalea is growing up so fast! We can't believe she's 19 months already! We decided that it was time for her to get a "big girl bed" (she still sleeps with us) in order to prepare her for the arrival of her baby brother and to help transition her into her own bed/room. We moved her to another room in the house and redecorated it to make it more appealing to her. She watched as Ryan painted it and was so excited to see a different and bright color on the wall. She enjoyed watching and helping us put her new toddler furniture together and liked helping me when we started to do some decorating. We decided to do a Mermaid theme and put a small fish aquarium in there for her to help her want to be in the room. We are slowly trying to ease her into the reality that she will be in a sepearate room from us soon; I have started putting her down for nap time in the new room and it has been successful! We think in a couple of weeks she'll be ready to attempt sleeping in it overnight, lets cross our fingers! So far she is loving it! Next on our list of projects, the nursery!

Baby Cruz #2

 Kalea and I on our way to the doctor's office!

              Kalea and Ryan waiting patiently to go in for the ultrasound

This is our little angel at 20 weeks, It's a BOY!!!!! We went in for an ultrasound on Aug.26th to find out what we are having and to our surprise we got what we were hoping for. We are so thrilled to know that Kalea will soon  have a little brother and can't wait until he is here. We are ecstatic and can't wait to embark on this wonderful experience with a boy this time. Kalea is excited to be having a "baby bra-thur"(as she calls him) and is always wanting to touch and kiss my ever so growing belly. She even says "morning" and "night night" to him already. We have started to think of baby boy names but can't decided on one yet...any suggestions?