Three Month Letter

Dear Clara Jane,

Today you are 3 months old. Where the time has gone is beyond me. You, my dear, have absolutely filled our lives with so much joy and love, we hardly know what to do with ourselves. Your Daddy, Jenna, Irma and I will all bend over backwards and do whatever needs to be done to see your smile. And those dimples slay us. Often times, we just come out looking silly as you stare at us.

I went back to work this month. Before I did, we went to as many Mommy & Me groups as possible and I ate plenty of cupcakes for both of us. I can't help it, they're delicious and right across the street from Day One.
We had the opportunity to go up to Nanny & Poppie's house for a visit. You did absolutely wonderfully. I think you enjoyed the dry mountain air. Having Nanny there to spoil you helps tremendously as well.
Right before heading back to work, I wanted to get photos of you and Jenna among the beautiful daffodils in Livermore. I had great visions of you and her with smiles surrounded by flowers. You had other ideas:
Once I told Jenna it wasn't appropriate to try to hush you, you actually quieted down a bit.
Until you realized I had you in a basket, you had no pacifier and you weren't physically touching me.... We fixed all those problems:
You're so inquisitive. You don't hesitate to evaluate everything around you, size it up, and then decide whether you're going to smile or cry.... or just continue to stare with those ever active eyebrows.
You've been terrific at Irma's. For the first few weeks, she threatened to keep you. She said you were just the perfect baby, smiling all day long, only whimpering when you were hungry or needed to sleep. She adores you and we couldn't be happier to have you with your sister during the day. I love the faces that you give me. It makes me ache to come home and see what 'face' I'll be getting when I see you.
And then, when you're sleeping, I just want to smooch your sleepy baby lips. It's moments like this that I just want to hold on to. I know it's all fleeting and that makes me sad, however, the thought of you walking and talking and playing with Jenna makes me wish time moved faster. It's a strange dichotomy.
Your chubby baby toes... again, it's all fleeting. Soon you'll have stinky toddler feet. And painted toes. And as much as I try to deny the fact that now I'll have *two* teenage daughters, one day you'll be wearing heels and makeup and driving away.... It's those thoughts that make me grab my camera as much as possible and capture you now. New, fresh and squishy.

Your sister loves you so very much. Sometimes a little too much. She wants to hug and kiss and squeeze you. She tries to help you hold your rattle and gets excited when you look at her and smile at her. She's just as smitten as the rest of us.
You may be small (petite, really), but you've opened our lives to a love I didn't think was possible. You continue to enrich each of our lives with a sense of wonder. Thank you, CJ.

Love,

Mama

I've been holding out

So, it's been months. MONTHS since I've updated the blog. The new job is great, and keeping me beyond busy. Which I love. I haven't written on the blog for another reason, however.

I tried to document it in photos, though.

What's that, Jenna? What are you holding? Trying to take away? Ohhhh.... it looks like one from about 2.5 years ago.
She did eventually warm up to the idea. Well at least long enough to let me take a photo while she was eating in her new shirt.
AND I became an Aunt! To a beautiful baby girl, Annika.
And we got an opportunity to see our little one shortly thereafter.
And the belly shots began. Shortly after I was LAID OFF. Pregnant, unemployed and job hunting.
As the belly grew, so did my need for maternity wear (still unemployed here)
And still job hunting (hence the time available to shoot belly photos)
My last unemployed photo. I accepted a job shortly after this image was taken. Thank goodness. It's a fab position with a great company, too. I'm really, really excited and enjoying it.
And shortly after accepting, we celebrated with a trip down to Disneyland.
:)
And my most recent photo. I've been at the job about 3 months now, I'm happy as can be, the pregnancy is treating me really, really well. I continue to forget I'm pregnant. The fact that we're expecting another GIRL in January really blows my mind. I'm excited, anxious and nervous about the whole thing, but it feels good to be completing our family.

I hope to do another update shortly regarding life, Jenna, the household craziness... and I'll get there. Hopefully before this one is born :D

Jenna's 2nd Birthday Party!

OK. It's obvious I'm behind on blogging. We had a great time throwing Jenna's 2nd birthday party and I actually spent the majority of the party enjoying our friends and family instead of shooting pictures (shocking, I know!) I did snap one or two shots of the details, and Pop shot the photos of family and friends. Thanks, Pop!

The entry way. When I originally planned this party, I was going to heavily focus on pinwheels. When I was laid off, the budget was drastically pulled back, but we were able to still keep that essence. This, along with large pinwheels on the lawn and citrus colored balloons were what greeted guests to the party. I still have it hanging on my door because it's just too pretty to take down!

Favors for the kids.
This balloon is HUGE! And still floating in our living room. Jenna loves it.
The cake/favor/gift table. There's a banner hanging along with pinwheels and garland.
Jenna wanted to dig into the gifts early... umm not yet.
It's my party and I'll cry if I want to (after being scolded to stay away from the gifts and cake until later).
The jumpy house was a huge hit! A big thanks to a friend that had this hanging out in her garage. Ummm the kids all LOVED it! I think we may have to invest in one sooner rather than later.
Fiona!
Kellen had a blast in the jumpy house, too.
Although it looks like Landon was begging to come out, I think he was actually trying to entice Pop to come in and jump, too!
Grandma's dip was a hit with the adults and kids... it was addicting!
The pink car was a big hit, too. Which is good because Jenna NEVER plays with it!
Singing happy birthday!!!
getting down on her cupcake. Delish!
We had a great time. The weather was perfect, the company was great and Jenna continued to talk about her birthday for no less than 2 weeks. Actually, she wished me a happy birthday this morning, and proceeded to wish 'Jenna' a happy birthday, too. She's a bit obsessed!

Photo a day project. Day 1.

So I stumbled on Kristin Cook's website about 6 months ago. I fell in love with not only her photos and her style, but her photo a day project for a month of her loved ones. I really liked the idea, the black and white photos and hoped to recreate it with my family. Instead of starting off the new year with a photo a day, I decided to do it for June. June is a special month in our household as both Jenna and I have birthday's in June, as does Nanny, and Dad gets his special day with Father's Day, too. Plus, the fact that the sun doesn't set until ~ 8:30pm or so allows for plenty of light for the photos :)

I planned on doing this a couple of months ago, and I was so excited but nervous as to the time constraints with work and life in general. Well, life had a different plan for me. I was laid off just over a week ago. It was a complete surprise, and I wasn't prepared at all (more on that later). Last week I spent a couple of days feeling sorry for myself, being angry, hurt, sad again and then I put a plan into action. 1) I vamped up my resume.... it's lean and mean and I think adequately shows my talents and skills along with where I want to go with my career. 2) I pulled out all my suits. A couple were recently given to me *yay!) and were in much better shape than my old suit. My other suit was out of date and didn't fit all that well. Luckily these other suits fit great, the pants only needed to be extended a bit. I took my shoes in to be re-soled and I applied, applied, applied to a number of different jobs.

I know in the end this will be a VERY good thing for me, for my family, for my life in general. It was difficult initially, and I know it will continue to be difficult until my first day at my new job but I'm actually at a point where I'm super happy for this 'down time' with my little family.

So, I obviously have less time constraints in terms of this photo a day project, and I'm so, so excited to take it on. And, of course, today, I couldn't help but post two photos.

The first is Nick and Jenna pointing out the windows and doors on the newly constructed sand castle. This was taken at 3:45 pm on Tuesday, June 1, 2010.

Jenna absolutely loves the sandbox we picked up for her at a garage sale. She loves it when WE construct a sand castle, and moments later she crushes it and before she's lifted her hands, she says "AGAIN!?" This photo was taken at 3:48pm today.

Man she is tough to get on film

Jenna has always been active. From the time I was expecting and completing my kick counts in under a minute (to feel 10 kicks) to when she wasn't mobile yet, but would let you know of her displeasure in being stationary by being LOUD until now... my little half pint almost two year old.

Mind you, this is the ONLY photo I was able to catch with her face in it tonight. In order to get it, I had to stick her up in a window and take 3 steps back (yikes!)
The rest of the images look like this. My confident toddler leading the way on our walk around the block....

She was so excited when I let her lead the way, no hand holding required.

Until she realized I wasn't keeping up....

She's rather bossy.

And if you wait too long, she'll leave you in the dust.

Nothing will stop her.

Unless of course, you mention that Daddy and dinner are back at home.

March for Babies - 2010

We had a GREAT time walking for the March of Dimes this year. An awesome time. It was encouraging seeing the large numbers of strollers with birth weeks listed (26, 28, 30, etc.). It was emotional to hear the story of one woman discussing her loss in front of hundreds of people. It was inspiring to see the hundreds of people out and about for such a great cause. I was proud to be part of a group that was able to raise over $3400! Many thanks to Alison for getting the group together. We had a great time as a family walking together and I hope to make this an annual event.

Here's our family. I love this picture (thanks, Michelle for taking it!)
My stylin queen wearing the glasses Alison got for the kidlets...

Yeah, the glasses didn't last too long!

It was a beautiful day... Bright and sunny out!

This guy was too cute!

This line of people extended both directions as far as the eye could see. It was a beautiful sight.

It was so great to walk. It was so great to see some friends that inspired me to walk. Friends that have lost their babies far too soon, children that were born early but were celebrating their life, their birth. It was such a great event and I get goosebumps when I think of the impact of the March for Babies walks all across the country.

To those that donated, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of Nick's heart, from the bottom of Jenna's heart. We really appreciate it.

Now! Who's gonna join us next year for the March for Babies? ;-)