What A Week!

So in ONE week from today I get to find out my baby's gender! I'm getting more excited (and a little more nervous too) as it gets closer. I just want to KNOW! I don't know how people can wait the entire 9 months without knowing. The curiosity would just drive me wild! So everyone has to get their guesses in this week. What do you think I'm having???

I'm loving being in the second trimester! At 17 weeks, I'm feeling great and less tired than I was before. I haven't really felt the baby move yet, and I'm not in maternity clothes yet but my regular clothes are starting to feel a little tight. I'm still craving lemon EVERYTHING. I may or may not have made a pan of lemon bars and eaten every single one myself a couple of weeks ago. And then made a lemon cake the following week. :)

Kirsten thinks we're going to go get a new little baby from "the baby store". She's pretty excited about it. I decided not to put away the baby swing or the play mats, so they're taking up a bunch of precious floor space in my house. Really though, why put them away when I'll just need to get them back out in five months?

This post has two purposes, really.
1. I want to know what you all think I'm having!
2. I want to hear from other TV fans.

It's been a long time since I posted anything about TV shows, but there's just been TOO much great stuff lately to let it pass by without writing something about it. Of course. . . I'm going to start with the Lost finale. Wow, I thought it was a really amazing ending! I was definitely a latecomer to the whole Lost phenomenon. I had never seen an episode, but I borrowed Season 1 from my friend Miranda last year and started watching it with Stephen. We were hooked almost instantly! We totally got sucked into the plot and the characters and all the crazy questions. And it was nice. . . when we got to the suspenseful endings, we could just instantly start the next episode on the DVD. This last season was the first one I watched where we actually had to wait a whole week to find out what happened next.

Yeah. . . there's still a ton of unanswered questions. It's kind of annoying not knowing what really happened or what the point of a lot of stuff was. But I loved the finale anyway, and thought it was a really great way to end the show. So many emotional moments! My very favorite moments were when Charlie and Claire remembered, and then again when Sawyer and Juliette remembered. I sure will miss Sawyer. . . I mean, I'll miss ALL the characters. :)

It really was sad to have a Tuesday night with no Lost. And there will be no Lost on Tuesday nights, ever again. Gosh, I hate it when awesome shows have to end.

In the American Idol world. . . is there any doubt in anybody's mind that Crystal will be the winner? I thought it was obvious all season! She will definitely win, but I think Lee might sell more records than she will. His music is more my style than Crystal's is. Crystal has a very good voice, but am I the only one who thinks she's like a female version of Taylor Hicks?
I'm really going to miss Simon next year. I can't imagine the show without him!!!

It's also sad to have Thursday nights with no Survivor (especially after such an awesome season! Heroes Vs. Villains was GREAT), and Monday nights with no more 24. It's fun to see all the finales, but sad that all the good shows are ending. At least Survivor will be back in the fall.

The only summer shows I'm truly excited about are So You Think You Can Dance, starting this week, and the new season of the Bachelorette. Okay, who else watches the Bachelorette? I really liked Ali, so I'm looking forward to watching her this season. I watched the first episode today while the kids were napping, and here are my early favorites:

-One of the Chris's (seriously. . . I think there were THREE of them!)
This was the one from Cape Cod, with the really nice deep voice. I think he'll stick around for a good long time.

-Justin, even though the other guys didn't like him and he's a wrestler. I thought he seemed genuine, and he's very cute!

-Roberto
Yeah, I saw that first impression rose coming. She was swooning over him! He's by far one of the most attractive, that's for sure.

-Ty from Tennessee
The fact that he was divorced might be a red flag, but I thought he was cute and funny

There were some weirdos too, like "Shooter." I can't believe he told her the reason for that nickname! I'm glad she booted him.
My least favorite (of the ones she kept around) is Craig. Ugh. . . I never would have kept him!

If you watch the show, let me know who your favorites are too! A lot of you reading this probably think the Bachelorette is pretty dumb entertainment. . . but it sure is entertaining! After the kids go to bed, give me a blanket, a purring kitty, a lemon bar, and a good show to watch, and I'm happy!

Rio de Janeiro!!!

At last! I'm still working on getting all the vacation pictures edited and organized, but I'm excited to post now about the very first part of our trip!

We got the kids all settled in with my parents in San Diego, and then it was off to LAX for our LOOOOOOONG flight. And I do mean long! First there was the 9-hour leg to Lima, Peru. The plane stopped there, and then continued on for 5 more hours to Santiago, Chile, where the 30 missionaries on our flight were all getting off to serve in various parts of Chile. Unfortunately, we had a 12-HOUR layover in Santiago before continuing on to Brazil. By far the longest layover I have ever had! We wanted to take a shuttle and go see the city, but we found out that just to exit the airport U.S. citizens had to pay a fee of almost $200 per person. So, of course we ended up killing time and trying to sleep on the uncomfortable benches in the Santiago airport for 12 hours. Not the highlight of the trip. Funny fact about the Santiago airport: All the food options in the terminal were American. Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, and Ruby Tuesday of all things.

Finally, we boarded the next plane for our 3-hour flight to Sao Paulo, and then our short flight to Rio de Janeiro. By the time we got there, we had spent almost two full days flying and waiting around in airports. I wanted a bed so badly! A bed, any bed at all, just sounded amazing. Thankfully, we did get to Rio at night and were snoozing away in our beds at the hotel by 1 am. And we got to sleep in the next day! It was blissful!

So was it worth it to fly all that way to get to Rio?
You be the judge. . .

That was Ipanema Beach. SO stunning!

I had always read about Rio de Janeiro being the most beautiful city in the world. On our first full day there, we had a city tour and I got to find out for myself. We were supposed to go see the Corcovado statue of Christ the Redeemer, but the roads up the mountain had actually been wiped out by the floods from the week before. So we weren't able to go up, which was a bummer. But we saw no flood damage in the actual city.

My verdict is. . . I do agree that the setting for the city is among the most beautiful in the world. The beaches, mountains, rainforests, and everything the city is built in is just a complete paradise! But the buildings in the actual city, for the most part, are ugly. Seventies-looking concrete and lots of graffiti. Take a look at their cathedral. . .

After seeing all the ugly buildings, we got to the real highlight of the city tour and one of the things I was most excited about for the entire trip. . . riding the cable cars to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain!!! And it did not disappoint! It was truly spectacular! There were actually two mountains, and we rode two different cable cars from one to the other. Check out the awesome views of the city of Rio from the first mountain!

And this was the view looking from the first mountain to the second mountain. The cable cars were really big, and a lot of people fit into them. Stephen laughed when I told him I had imagined tiny little open-air cable cars like the ones at the San Diego Zoo. These ones were completely glass-enclosed.

We saw the CUTEST little tiny monkeys on the first mountain. I wanted to take one home with me!

We got to watch the sun set over Rio from the second mountain. It was such an unforgettable experience! Pictures don't do it justice, but enjoy the pictures anyway. It was really cool to see the sun gradually fading away and all the lights of Rio turning on.

It was SUCH a crazy amazing day that I will never forget! We loved it! We figured we'd end our awesome first day in Rio with a spectacular dining experience, so we went to one of the top-recommended Brazilian BBQ houses in the city, called Marius. This place was truly over-the-top! The meats they served us were SO tender they melted in our mouths, and I've never seen a more lavishly decorated buffet. We were definitely wowed!

The ceiling of this place even had all kinds of awesome stuff on it. No matter where you looked in this restaurant, there was tons of interesting stuff to see. When I travel, I love to find unique experiences that you can't find anywhere else in the world, and this was a dinner that fit the bill! It did not come cheap though! We were blown away by how expensive everything was in Rio. The dinner was incredible, but it cost over $100 US for the two of us!

Some other things I was surprised about in Rio, besides the extravagant prices on pretty much everything, included:

*I was really excited to have real Brazilian limeade there, like the kind you get at Tucano's or Rodizio. I LOVE that stuff, and we have an amazing recipe for it and Stephen makes it for us when we have tacos or enchiladas. So when we ate dinner at Marius we ordered it. Oh my gosh, it was nothing like our version. It was SO sour, pretty much straight lime juice with no sugar at all! I got a whole bunch of sugar packets and mixed them all into it, which made it tolerable. Brazil had lots of fresh juices, but you had to order ones that were already sweet (like orange or pineapple juice) because they didn't add sugar to anything! So I don't know where our American version of Brazilian limeade comes from, because it's not from Brazil!

*There were NO souvenir stores or handicrafts stores in Rio. Seriously! None! On the beaches a bunch of locals would walk around selling some things like jewelry, snacks, sunscreen, fresh coconuts, drinks, little sarongs that they lay on like beach towels, stuff like that. But I've never been to a big city like that with no places to buy cool stuff. So I didn't even get a Christmas ornament or anything cool from Brazil. Pretty disappointing and strange!

*We didn't meet a single other tourist from the US while we were there. All the other tourists were mostly from other parts of South America, and we did meet one couple from England. Stephen speaks Spanish, but not Portuguese, so we did have the most trouble with the language barrier there and couldn't always read the menus.

*Very weird thing: I saw NO seagulls in Rio at all. I thought they lived everywhere! Their beaches had a whole bunch of pigeons, but no seagulls!

We really enjoyed our three days in Rio! It was VERY nice, after all our time spent flying, to have free time to just relax on the beaches. Copacabana Beach and Ipanema Beach are both BEAUTIFUL! We spent most of our time on Copacabana Beach, because it was very close to our hotel and we liked it the best. The sand was SO soft and clean, and the water was really clean too! We were Brazilian beach bums for a couple days, and loved it! Wouldn't you?

I thought the water was a little too cool, even though it was clean, but Stephen went swimming in it!

Everything about staying in Rio was so enjoyable! We loved the food, the fresh juices (except for the sour ones!), and the gorgeous scenery!

I thought this sign was pretty funny. . . not a beach bathroom, but actually a little bar on the beach where you could buy drinks. They had these everywhere!

Livin' the beach life in Rio de Janeiro!

Little pizzerias were all over the place, so we finally tried some pizza on our last day in Rio. They actually don't put pizza sauce on them, so they serve ketchup with their pizzas. Weird! That big pitcher of fresh-squeezed orange juice was delicious, and we both liked Brazil's national soda, Guarana.

Our first day in Brazil we had perfect weather, a breezy but sunny day with temps in the 70's. But our last day it climbed to the 90's so we couldn't walk very far without getting wiped out. Oh, this was another cool thing about the beaches. . . they had a whole ton of sand sculptures and sand castles built along the walkways! And they also had places everywhere for people to rent beach umbrellas and chairs.

So if you are a lover of the beach, the ocean, gorgeous scenery, and delicious Brazilian meat, I highly recommend visiting Rio de Janeiro! It was seriously awesome!

We were sad to leave Rio, but also really excited to get to our next destination. . . Iguassu Falls! A place I had been wanting to go for YEARS! Stay tuned for that post and some of the most spectacular pictures I have ever taken anywhere in the world!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

In April, we had a really special birthday in our family. . .
Natalie turned 1!!!

We were down in San Diego, getting the kids settled in with my parents before our big vacation. I love these photos I got of Natalie climbing the stairs. I think they really capture her big personality!

It's been awhile since I posted about Natalie, so throughout this post I'm going to list a bunch of her recent milestones, likes, dislikes, and just random stuff all about her.

*Natalie has such a great laugh. It can be a little tough to get her to laugh, depending on her mood, but when she laughs she really laughs. It's great!

*Natalie LOVES animals. Since she was really small she has gotten a huge kick out of watching and chasing our cats around the house. Whenever she sees one of the kitties, she starts squealing and laughing and crawls over towards it as fast as she can go. Sometimes it seems like nothing makes her happier than the kitties do. She also loves it when dogs get really close to her, I'm talking right in her face. She laughs and thinks it's just the greatest thing in the world!

*She also loves taking baths with Kirsten. She's a champion splasher, and loves to splash as big as she can in the tub. I've gotten soaked by her plenty of times!

We had a little family birthday party for her, with all the California extended family (and some who were even visiting from Arizona too!)
Look at Natalie's adorable cake! Thank goodness my Aunt Lani was there to make it look this cute. I shudder to think of what it would have looked like if I had decorated it myself!

I love how she's out of focus behind her cake in this shot. I plopped her right down on the table behind her cake while we sang to her, to see what her reaction to it would be.

Hmmm, I think I'll just take a little taste. . .

And then she dug right in! She actually cried when I took her away from the cake and put her in the high chair so we could cut it up for everyone.

This was SO different from Kirsten's reaction to her first birthday cake. Kirsten barely picked at her cake, and didn't seem to know what to do with it. Natalie instantly knew!

*Natalie can stand up by herself without holding onto anything (even though she doesn't do it often and prefers to hold onto stuff), but she hasn't taken any steps yet without holding onto things. She's been cruising around the furniture for awhile now, but hasn't taken her own first steps yet. I'm completely fine with this. Crawling babies are so adorable, I'm never in a rush to want them to walk!

*A few things she's recently learned how to do, after her first birthday are:
-Clapping! It's so cute! We can either tell her to clap or start clapping and she imitates us.
-Waving! She waves the best from her car seat. I'll turn around at a stoplight and wave at her and she'll wave back at me.
-Playing peek-a-boo! We can say, "Where's Natalie?" and she'll cover herself up with something and then pull it off.

Whoa. . . she really was going for that candle flame!

As soon as we got her in the high chair, she cried until she got her piece of cake and then she ate pretty much the ENTIRE piece! Little piggie!

*Speaking of being a little pig. . . Natalie is a really good eater. She gobbles up pretty much anything we put in front of her, whether it's fruit, avocado, eggs, potatoes, meat, or whatever else. Sometimes she eats more than Kirsten does in a meal! Crazy!

*Lots of people have started telling me that Kirsten and Natalie look alike. I still think they look very different, but I can see similarities mostly when they laugh and smile.

*Right before her first birthday, Natalie said her first word: "Hi!" It's the cutest thing!

*Natalie LOVES car rides. She's always been one of the best-behaved babies in the car I've ever seen. With very few exceptions, she's quiet and happy no matter how long we're in the car. I guess she just likes riding around in her car seat! Some days I just have to put her in the car and drive somewhere, anywhere, just because it makes her happy and quiet.

There it is. . . all that remained of Natalie's piece of cake. She got her first taste of ice cream too!

She liked the ice cream. . . except when it got a little colder in her mouth than she was expecting. Isn't that a great reaction? Brain-freeze!

*It's so nice to dwell on the positive stuff, but lately Natalie has also been extremely difficult. She tries my patience in ways Kirsten never did. She's teething a lot and she's a really bad teether. She cries a LOT, and doesn't always cry for any particular reason. She's been really clingy and needy and if I try to put her down and go do anything (even fix her some food or a bottle!) she'll just crawl after me, sobbing and screaming. She throws temper tantrums already, and she's barely a year old! Sometimes no matter how much we hold her she still just keeps crying. And she's LOUD. She used to be such a happy, easy baby, sometimes I wonder what happened? Where did my sweet, easygoing baby go?

*Despite all that, I love Natalie so much. I realize that her personality is emerging, and she is VERY different from her sister. Natalie has a BIG, high-energy, center of attention, social butterfly personality. She refuses to be ignored, that's for sure! It'll be interesting to see what kinds of trouble she'll get herself into in the years to come. I think this one will be a trouble-maker!

So Happy Birthday, Natalie. . . We love you so much!!!

I'm Baaaaaaaack!!!

I hope you've all missed me. . . I'm back from vacation! Just give me some time to get the photos all edited and organized, and then get ready for some posts full of pictures of our adventures in South America!

In the meantime, I have just one teeny, tiny little announcement to make. . .

Baby #3 is due October 30'th!!!

I've prepared some Frequently Asked Questions that I know you're all dying to ask me:

Q #1: Didn't you, like, just have a baby?
A: Yes. Natalie just turned one, and she and the new baby will be 18 months apart.

Q #2: Did you plan to have another baby so soon?
A: Umm. . . no. I didn't plan on being pregnant for the big vacation, and I had thought that a fall baby would be really nice. . . for NEXT year!

Q #3: Are you freaked out by the thought of having two kids so close in age, when your oldest will only be 3 1/2 years old?
A: Absolutely! Oh my gosh, I wonder how I'm going to leave the house. It's hard enough with two, I can't even imagine doing it with three! How will I get them all in and out of the car? How will I keep track of them all? Will I go completely insane? Yikes! It's scary!

Q #4: How far along are you and how have you been feeling?
A: I'm 14 weeks now, so right at the beginning of the second trimester. This pregnancy has been SOOOOO different from my other two. With my other two, I was really sick and threw up every single morning for pretty much the whole first trimester. I've felt MUCH better this time and have hardly been sick at all! It's been wonderful! I feel tired a lot, and really I only have trouble with nausea when I'm too tired and need more sleep. On the big trip, I was pretty sick and miserable but only on the days when we were waking up at insane hours (3 and 4 in the morning, anyone?) and traveling on lots of buses and planes when I wanted to be asleep in a bed. Overall, this pregnancy has been SO much easier and better so far than my first two were! And I'm very grateful for that!

Q #5: Are you going to find out the gender?
A: Yes, and I always have the hardest time waiting and being patient until that day! I just got my ultrasound scheduled for June 1'st!!! I can't wait to find out! Start the guesses coming!

Q #6: Are you hoping for a boy this time?
A: YES.

Q #7: Are you excited for this baby, even though it wasn't expected?
A: I really am! I was shocked at first and sometimes still can't believe I'm having a baby this year, but I am really thrilled and excited too. I absolutely know that this baby is coming to us at the right time, and I'll somehow manage to do it. I'm excited to have a family of five!


I'm sure I've missed some questions, so please leave me comments and ask! I'll do a follow-up post later and answer your questions, I promise. Enjoy my surprising news and stay tuned for lots more blog posting to come!