Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treat!

Sweet little Benny Boo has not been featured on the blog since he was born (I am currently working on a little "birth" day recap for my sweet little cherub), but until then please enjoy this picture!

Yesterday we had a friendly pumpkin carving competition at work and one of my coworkers suggested we carve a pumpkin and put Benjamin in it, I felt our pumpkin was a winner but instead we took third place!  Benjamin was a good sport about it and was a perfect baby while sitting in the pumpkin with a million strangers looking at him and taking photos!  Tonight he will turn into a pumpkin again and head to Korbin's school carnival for more Halloween fun!

What A Weekend!

I need a weekend to recover from this past weekend!  Friday started out with an uneventful morning doctor appointment for Benny and I, I am totally grateful for uneventful appointments but the 1.5 hour long wait to find out I have gained 20 lbs. was a bit painful.  Benny is doing great so that is all that matters. After my appointment I headed up to LA to meet up with my sister and niece because we had tickets to see Taylor Swift.  The concert was amazing, we (even Benny, who rocked out to the opening act) had such a good time together!  I rolled into Mission Viejo around midnight, it was a long day but so worth it.

Mari's first concert!

I had to crop myself out of this picture, I looked so tired and apparently I brought a couple chins with me!

Saturday was my second baby shower hosted by my Mom, sister Kathy and sister in law Shannon along with two junior hostess Mari and Caroline!  The shower was amazing, everything was perfect, I could not ask for anything more!  I took a few pictures before it started but did not take any during, it was just nice to enjoy the moment plus my mom hired a photographer to come take pictures so that took a lot of pressure off to capture every moment!  I couldn’t be more grateful/thankful for everyone who took time out of their weekend to come celebrate Benjamin!

Thank you to my Mom, Kathy & Shannon for everything, it was absolutely perfect!!!

My Mom made this really cute banner, I love the little police car that she included!

There were three tables for the guests and the overwhelming gift table.

Little gifts for the guests!

Caroline was the life of the party, she had one liners for everything!

This cake!!! 

I don't know what it is about it but it is one of the most amazing cakes I have ever seen!  It is simple but oh so perfect, I absolutely loved it! 

This is by far the best picture I have of my friends Elisse and Carrie!  I have known both of them for 30+ years (I feel soooo old typing that) and this just makes me smile looking at it!  Elisse flew down from Sacramento to be at my shower, I have no words to express how happy that made me!

The Sheriff's Tita Beth and cousin Jessica made the two hour trek from the Valley to come!

Cousins!

That is Benny's little BFF Aria in there!  Danielle and I are due exactly one month apart, Aria is due August 11th! 

The inspection crew!  

Gracie and Ebo had to check out all of the gifts and of course Gracie thought they were all for her!

After the shower Carrie and Elisse came over to my house and we went to dinner at Jimmy's Famous American Tavern in Dana Point, it was really good but they charged my credit card an extra $100, I'm now in the process of getting my $$$ back!

Sunday we had a memorial service to attend for one of the Sheriff’s coworkers, Willie Nelson passed away last weekend after a long battle with colon cancer, he was only 62!  Based on what everyone said about him, he was one heck of a nice guy.  I had only met him a couple times, once at the Harbor Patrol Christmas party and the time he stopped in to see the Sheriff in the hospital when he was recovering from his stroke.  Willie was there going through his treatment and made a point to stop in and see him!  

This is a terrible picture, but this is Willie when he came to visit the Sheriff!

Not sure who took this picture but I found it on FB, this was taken as the bag pipes were played in Willie's honor.

60 days left to GO!!!

60 days to go! Seriously, I am not sure how we got to the single digits in weeks to go!  Benjamin is still growing like a weed, my heartburn/acid reflux is still the worst part of being pregnant, bending over is a chore now but other than that all is good!   I had a not so fun kidney stone and kidney infection last week that resulted in several trips to the doctor and one trip to the ER because the pain was so unbearable, but after a round of IV antibiotics and one dose of very strong pain medication the kidney stone made its way to my bladder and I felt much better.  Mission Hospital took great care of us, Labor and Delivery paid us a visit, apparently that is protocol when you come to the ER pregnant, fine by me, that meant we got to listen to Benny’s heartbeat for 20 minutes and get the peace of mind that he was a happy camper in there. 

Whoa BELLY!! 31 weeks

We have been spending a lot of time outside enjoying our new grass and a lot less dirt!  The Sheriff’s Plumeria needed to be transplanted to larger pots so I have been doing that, I planted a bunch of sunflower seeds around our front yard and they are starting to pop up here and there.  Pregnancy brain has struck and I cannot remember where I planted them exactly so I have to water the entire front yard every day, lol! 

Today is Gracie’s 10^th birthday, I can’t believe I have had that naughty girl for 10 years and lived to tell about it!  She is a happy healthy pup who still loves her walks, swimming in the pool and belly rubs, she always has a smile on her face and is just the happiest dog on the block!  This morning I heard the Sheriff give her a cookie and sing happy birthday to her, it was the sweetest thing!

We also celebrated my nephew Cole’s 13^th birthday and my brother in law’s 50^th birthday, it was big birthday’s for the clan in the last few weeks!

And life is ever changing, we experienced a few sort of expected/unexpected unpleasant surprises this week that have kind of left us with a bunch or what if’s and what’s next which in turn always reminds us that everything happens for a reason and we need to be patient and roll with the punches and everything will be just fine.

Benjamin's Room - Part 2

Benny's Room part one!

Benjamin's room progress has been slow going the last few weeks, the weather has been so nice that I have been spending my free time outside cleaning up the backyard.  Last night I finally bit the bullet and had the Sheriff hang the last few things up above his crib, I was having a hard time committing to layout of the decor (It is a big decision when you are putting holes in the wall).  For the most part I am happy with the way things have turned out but something just doesn't feel right and I can't put my finger on it. It could be all the stuff on the walls, maybe a lack of a bookcase, I don't know, but honestly I don't think Benny will care! 

Here are a few pictures of where we are at with his room....

Before

After!  

The lighting is terrible, the deer and arrows need paint and either I need to add something above his name or move it up so it is centered on the wall.  And, yes, those are crib bumpers, I know they are a hot topic and there are many people who are anti crib bumpers, I hear you but I wanted them, they will be removed during the period of time they are considered really unsafe and no, I don't want to hear your opinion. :)

I found this sweet little rainbow on Etsy, Benjamin is our little rainbow baby and I wanted something to represent that!

That's it for now, we are done with his room!

Next up is packing my bag for the hospital, figure out the all important outfit for Benjamin to come home in, install his carseat and wait patiently for his arrival!

75 More Days to GO!

75 days until my due date but who is counting, lol!  Wednesday I was officially 29 weeks, I had the lovely glucose testing done that everyone dreads (it actually was not that bad), got my Tdap shot (I know a lot of people are not for vaccinations, I am and to each their own, no judgement here), had some blood work done and got a quick look at Benny!  Our little Benny boy is weighing in at 3lbs. 1 oz. and looks perfect from what we could see, he was head/face down and in a kind of twisted position so we did not see much of his face.  The last two weeks or so he has been camped out on my bladder which is really fun and the heartburn/acid reflux is horrible.   I had to venture out to CVS in the middle of the night to get some Zantac, while I was out I had to keep reminding myself that we live in a very safe city because the folks that were out at CVS at that hour are very odd!  I am starting to feel stronger kicks and punches, due to my anterior placenta I haven’t felt much but now that he is getting bigger and stronger I am feeling a lot more which is a huge relief.  A week or so ago I hadn’t felt him move in what felt like an eternity (more like a day) and I had pretty much convinced myself that something was really wrong, I was on the verge of a mental breakdown and spent way too much time contemplating what to do when I should have just gone to the doctor or to the hospital.  Everything was fine after I fed him everything spicy from Chipotle, drank some caffeine, laid down and cried, next time I am going straight to the doctor and they can check the crazy lady box on my chart.  I finally preregistered at the hospital, which turned out to be nothing since they had all my info, picked a pediatrician (thank you to a couple friends and the Residents of Aliso Viejo Facebook page for the recommendations) and signed us up for the new parent night on May 4^th.  And the most exciting part of this all drumroll please….I filled out my FMLA paperwork for my 14-15ish weeks of bonding with my new baby!  My coworkers are going to hate me, I am leaving them at the busiest time of the year, eeek!  Oh well, nothing I can do about that besides wish them good luck and hope I covered all things necessary in the manual I made for them, hopefully the newborn snuggles will make up for it when we visit.  I start my every two week appointments now, crazy, before we know it July will be here! 

This was taken a couple weeks ago, one day I just popped!

Glucose test! 

He still has huge feet, my little swimmer boy!

Not the best picture of his face, he was also showing us his biceps!

A Baby Shower For Benny!

Oopsie, I forgot to post this!

 My bestest paddling friends threw me and Benny a baby shower this past Sunday (April 15th, I know this was not last Sunday), it was a small group that ended with a lot of loot for the little guy.  It was perfect and a great time to see my people!  We met at Hennessy’s in San Juan Capistrano, sat out on the patio and enjoyed lunch together.

Benny will be our little rainbow baby so this cake was perfectly fitting for us!

(For the record, those little booties were made of fondant, Gracie found them in a bag, quietly took them into Mr. Pie's room and destroyed them along with a bunch of tissue paper, ugh!)

The most unflattering photo but I love it!

Colin was the perfect 3 year old party guest (seriously, he was so well behaved the entire time), he provided the entertainment towards the end of the shower and I have a funny feeling these shenanigans will be part of my life in three years!   

Thank you Ricki and Jackie for putting this together, it was perfect!!

Backyard Renovation!

I know I have said it before but I am going to say it again, this nesting thing is no joke!  Our backyard has needed some serious attention pretty much since they day we moved in but we have been preoccupied with a few other things and have not tended to it much.  The last two winters we have put a temporary band aid on the hillside/mudslide problem with large sheets of plastic, more than our fair share of free sandbags from the City of Mission Viejo and fingers crossed that the weatherman is wrong and it will not rain much.  Well enter in pregnancy and I could no longer sleep at night knowing that we really needed to get this done and it really needed to get done before Benny arrived!  So, several retaining wall quotes later, a lot of artificial turf homework and a palm tree removed we were ready to go!  I have to say it all happened a lot quicker than I had anticipated it happening and I could not be happier (and I can now sleep again at night, well kinda, I still want to get the house painted inside and out but I think the Sheriff will for sure have another stroke if I even mention the mere thought to him).  

This is before the project started, overgrown trees, the palm tree that needed to go because it was in the way of where the wall needed to go, concrete that needed to be chiseled out and plastic, sandbags  and dirt everywhere! 

I tried to get pictures of the entire process just for our records, I got a few  but I did not do a great job with that, but I tried! As you can see Ebo and Gracie were our stand in inspectors each day!

Everything was such a mess, we had these old railroad ties that were soaked in some poisonous chemical and my wood loving dog thought it would be a great idea to eat the wood, seriously have no idea how that damn dog is still alive! 

Here you can see the wall is DONE and the grass is starting to grow!  

And it is done!  A quick trip to Cost Plus World Market for a new umbrella, one of the workers broke our other umbrella when trying to close it up, I was not heartbroken, I have wanted a new one for awhile so it all worked out!

Our pool took a beating throughout the process, there was so much dirt and debris but thanks to our seriously amazing pool guy Bryan, it was all cleaned up Monday morning!  Seriously, he is amazing, he knew we were doing work in the yard and changed his schedule so he could come Monday instead of his normal day on Thursday.  If any of you need a pool guy, call me I will give you his number!

This is my daily view now, I could not be any happier, Benny and I are ready to spend our summer poolside!

The Name Game - Baby Francisco has a name!

 Baby Francisco has a name!  The Sheriff and I had three great girl names picked out, one I really liked, one he really liked and one that we both liked but put together we liked them all and I think we would have been happy with one of the three choices no matter which one we ultimately chose.  Actually, in my mind we really need to have three little girls so we could use them all, but that ship has sailed and it’s not happening.  Picking a boy name was a lot harder, I looked over tons of boy names, viewed the 100 most popular boy names online and kept going back to the first one we really discussed.  Since the baby is going to have a long last name I wanted him to have a long first name, I just like the way it looks and sounds.

So.....Baby Francisco's name is going to be....

His full name will be Benjamin Raphael Francisco, poor kid, his initials are going to BRF, thank goodness we do not live in the south where they monogram everything the kid owns.  The Sheriff really wanted to name him Raphael after his grandfather but I vetoed that right away, all I could think of was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and there was just no way that could happen.  After greatly offending the Sheriff I agreed to Raphael as the middle name and I think it flows nicely. 

I’m not big on nicknames, but baby Benny, Benny and Kenny or Ben and Ken just kill me! How cute are they going to be together?   Mr. Pie’s name goes well with Benny and Kenny when shortened but we rarely call him by a shortened name these days but I did not want anyone thinking we left him out (I try very hard to make sure he is included in everything).  The one name I will make sure he is never called is BENJI, I absolutely hate it, no offense to the Benji’s out there but that name is not for me! J

And just for the record Mr. Pie does not like the name Benjamin at all!  Lol!  Every time I ask him he groans!  Now that the little guy has a name I can order the final piece of decor for his room.

16 weeks to go before we meet baby Benjamin!

Baby Kicks!

23 weeks, well 22 weeks and 6 days to be exact seemed to be the magic number for me to feel little itty bitty baby kicks!  Baby Boy was kicking up a storm all day Tuesday, took a union break most of Wednesday until about 8 pm and was back at it Thursday morning.  Baby Boy had his first adrenaline rush on Thursday due to a bit of work place drama (it’s all fun and games until the cops show up) and jumped all around for hours.  He was quite exhausted and slept the rest of the day but he is back in action today and has been a busy little guy.  He seems to wake up about 8:30-9 pm and move around, I sure hope this is not going to be his normal routine when he is out cause his old parents start wrapping things up about that time and head to bed.  This is just a little tidbit for the archives, someone asked me the other day if I planned on making a baby book, it was kind of like when my doctor asked me if we had picked a pediatrician yet, ummmm, hmmmm, I hadn’t really thought about it/the thought never crossed my mind.  Doh!  #momfail 

Baby Boy's Room!

The nesting phenomenon is REAL folks!  A few weeks ago I "needed" to get Baby Boy's room ready for him ASAP (because July is "right" around the corner, dontcha know), so I paid my dear friend Pinterest a visit for a few ideas.  I had originally looked at Pottery Barn Baby and The Land of Nod but did not find anything that really caught my eye (probably because we are in between seasons of the catalogs & merchandise), after a quick google search I found Carousel Designs and found the little guy's bedding and a quick trip back to Pinterest I found wall art from Hobby Lobby.  

I currently spend way too much time on Instagram looking at cute little baby boutique feeds (originally for all the cute little girl things, because I was the one believer that I was having a girl, but now for all things boy!) and somehow ran across Bending Birch Designs, they make wood wall art and I found the "camp Beckham" sign that I thought would go perfect in Baby's room (we just need to give him a name and it can be ordered).  Target had the cloud mobile and then there is Cuddle and Kind who makes these ridiculously cute & expensive stuffed animals.  I created a poll on my in my instastories so everyone could vote, the puppy was the clear winner but in my opinion the bear goes better with the room, however I am seriously considering buying both, apparently I have won the lottery or have a second job that pays for all of this, who knew, I sure didn't!

 The wall color was the next project on the list, I had to wait patiently for the bedding samples to come in the mail so I could pick the paint out!  After much deliberation and many lighting changes in the baby's room, it was decided that Dunn Edwards "silver spoon" was the winner.  I had zero desires to get paint samples (because July is coming and I 'NEED" to get this room painted, lol), so I just went with it hoping that I made a good choice.

The Baby's room was a light yellow when we bought our house, I actually really liked the color but I just felt I needed to make it our own with a different color.  The white trim was full of scuff and crayon marks from the little girls that used to live there so everything got a fresh coat or two of paint, especially the closet doors that had never been painted.

Note to self, paint the top before painting the bottom, paint splatters!  I was so anxious to paint that I painted all of the white first a few weeks ago just to get it out of the way.  Thankfully we were fully stocked in plastic and I was able to cover it all up and avoid any splatter.  

Painting Tip: Never skimp on blue tape or plastic, the more the better, I promise you!

I am so happy with the way the painting came out, the room is hard to take pictures of and the lighting and different times of day change the color, it is much lighter in person. 

After all the painting was done and a quick trip to Home Depot for some nuts and bolts (my brother misplaced them when they moved) the Sheriff was able to get the crib put together.  The mattress looks really thin, it came shrink wrapped and needs 48 hours to completely expand.  The corners of the room have shelves that go in them,  I need to sand and paint them and then they will be ready!  The dresser is from Ikea and will serve as our changing table and the night light is from Target, I found it yesterday and thought it was super cute so into the cart it went.

That is it so far, after painting all day Friday, washing infant carseat covers and all the little things here and there, I was exhausted and literally spent the rest of the weekend on the couch.  Hopefully the wall decor will go up in the next week or so, I still need to make a decision about a small book case and possibly a teepee.  I can't wait to show you all the rest of the room!