V is for VACATION...(and Pontiac VIBE)

Very tired baby will DEFINITELY wake up if you stop the car for any reason, no matter how tired he is! He will also wake up after falling asleep on Pirates of the Caribbean if you try to transfer him to his stroller.
Always ride with Grandpa and Nannu to Disneyland. Grandpa's the only one who has to stay awake on the way back to San Diego (besides Devon in the other car).
Churros con Chocolate....SO GOOD!
A double jogging stroller on the roof of the Yukon demands respect!
Trying to decide between Legoland and Disneyland? Do both to keep peace in the family!
I LOVE the matching green shirts, Michael and Joe...Devon totally wishes he had one.
Ocean water is very appealing to babies...Parker is the fastest crawler ever, so watch out...he's determined!
Nannu tells the best Family Home Evening stories! Chopsticks....

I'm sorry mom, you just can't keep sand off the babies when you're at the beach!

No matter how late Parker stays up, he will still wake up at 6:30 am while the rest of the world sleeps in. Central Air is FANTASTIC! I HATE swamp coolers!

Always call and tell Kimberly that you're all going to ride the train at Disneyland JUST IN CASE she's expecting you to come meet her first...oops!

Lagoon the day you leave for California is a great way to start the week out with a tired baby.

Isn't it nice watching dad actually relax and forget about work and church while on vacation?

Funtown at Legoland lasts all day...Michael doesn't yet understand the joys of having fun just because your kids are.

Ouch Parker! The new scream you've developed is DEAFENING!

Racing fire engines at Legoland is a GREAT workout!

Never try to find a McDonald's for breakfast between San Diego and the O.C. on I-15...even Gloria (the Navi System Lady) can't figure it out!

It's nice to be home...well, sort of...time for California (and Tennessee) to visit Utah!

Adios familia...now I miss you even more!

HERE (S)HE IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's true.....I FINALLY had my first doctor's appointment today and I am happy to say that I didn't leave crying! I didn't even feel like I was on the verge of tears...it was great! This must be a good sign. I didn't LOVE my doctor in California, and I remember crying after that first appointment. I obviously cried after my first two scheduled appointments here, but now I have a new doctor and LOVED HIM, LOVED THE OFFICE, but didn't LOVE waiting forEVER to see him. Oh well...you can't win them all, right? I'd rather wait than reschedule. Anyway, I'm really prego and there's only ONE baby in there. My official due date is February 4th, so I'm 11 weeks and 4 days along. Isn't (s)he cute????????

Happy Birthday Mandíque!

Today is the birthday of one of my best friends ever....Mandy! I was trying to find a picture of her on my computer...considering the BILLIONS of pictures we've taken together over the years, it's amazing that I couldn't find one. I guess most of them were taken before the wonderful world of digital photography appeared. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MANDY!!!! Here are some of my favorite Mandy memories.....

1. Going to "The River" with the Kershaw's...the first of many family vacations I got to attend! Mandy spent HOURS braiding my hair in tons of tiny braids. Good thing my hair looked cute because I had crazy allergies or pink eye or something and looked like Quasimoto!
2. The Dam(n) Tour
3. Trying out for Cheer together and practicing for 10 hours straight every night.
4. EFY--we met some FUNNY people...the Redlands boys AND John Fairbanks...(not to be confused with the REAL Jon Fairbanks)
5. Breaking our legs together...two TOTAL clutzes! (Unfortunately still....)
6. Early morning seminary and running at 4 am...what were we thinking?
7. Jumping on the swimming pool cover (and taking pictures...oops...total incriminating evidence)
8. TRAKSS
9. Being our English teacher, Mr. Dutcher's FAVORITES...he let us sit together, but made our other BF Stephanie sit somewhere else
10. Moving together to Utah right after High School (but never being roommates...)
11. Piling as many people as possible into Mandy's TINY Corolla (I call trunk) because she was the only one with a car.
12. Fake N Bake
13. Lots of Road Trips home to Cali
14. Mandy meeting THE REAL Jon Fairbanks...so much better than the first...it was a sign and he was perfect!
15. Having kids of our own and STILL being friends.

Love you, Mandy...Happy 27th BIRTHDAY...yikes!

You've GOT to be kidding!

So....yesterday was my RESCHEDULED doctor's appointment. It was supposed to be at 2:00, so I got there at 1:45 like a good patient. They checked me in and sent me to the waiting room, so I was sure that everything was going to go well. Joe was going to meet me there, but of course didn't leave work until about 1:59. I was certain that he was going to miss my appointment, but he swore he was going to make it. At about 2:15 the nurse called me back (Joe still wasn't there yet, but I was trying not to care or worry about it). As I walked back, she proceeded to tell me that THE DOCTOR JUST LEFT TO DELIVER A BABY, SO WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO RESCHEDULE YOU. I said, "Are you serious? This is the second time...." I couldn't really get anything else out because I was ready to start bawling and I was trying to stay composed. Luckily I had my sunglasses on my head, so I put them on as soon as I walked out so no one could see my ugly cry face (sorry Michael, I didn't have my camera so you could see it). I called Joe hysterically and told him not to bother coming. We were both really mad... Couldn't they have gotten me in to see a different doctor or something? GEEZ!!!!! At this rate I'm going to find out the baby's gender at my FIRST APPOINTMENT. Actually I decided to change doctors...not that I can be mad that he had to leave to deliver a baby...I would want him to deliver mine too. It's just that his office is far away and inconvenient and if I'm going to have to come back every other day for a rescheduled appointment, I'd rather go to someone close. My sister had a good recommendation from her sister-in-law for a doctor 5 minutes away, so I have an appointment NEXT WEDNESDAY. We'll see what happens.........

Anniversary, Independence, and DRAMA....

July 3rd marked our THIRD anniversary.... Joe surprised me with the WHOLE DAY OFF, so we celebrated with HAIRCUTS for him and Parker! Parker sat really still...he LOVES having his hair played with just like his daddy.
We dropped Parker off later at Joe's mom's house and enjoyed a baby-free night. Last year we ate Togos sandwiches at Tri-City Park and played Phase 10 while my mom watched Parker...this year we were happy to leave Parker for A LOT LONGER. (Notice my use of CAPS...just like Grandma Hand). Anyway, we went to dinner at Buca di Beppo, rented a movie, and went to a bonfire with Colby & Kandis and John & Wendy.
Can I just say that I LOVE having our anniversary the day before the 4th of July? Well, I love it! The 4th of July is probably my favorite holiday...(well, obviously I love Christmas, but for different reasons). I love having a whole day to spend with family, BBQ's, watermelon, and fireworks...they always make me feel really emotional (imagine that) and patriotic. We started the morning with a run to the parade. It was further than I thought (3.3 miles each way), but atleast we had the parade in between! THEN I got to go shopping BY MYSELF with a gift card from Joe-hubby...it was great! Later we went to Aunt Penni's for a BBQ. Parker had fun eating her dirt while we played croquet. We reluctantly decided that this year might not be the best year for late night fireworks...I was pretty bummed, but tired of chasing Parker around. Plus he HATED the fire engines at the parade...I can only imagine how he would have liked hearing all the explosions in the sky. So sad...I guess we would have gone if we'd had the Yorba Linda park to go to. I think we need to go there next year!
Here's Parker and Joe in their matching blue and white shirts...I forgot to get a picture of the three of us so you could see my complimenting red one. Oh well...enough of me!
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Feel free to read on if you're interested in more pregnancy drama...since my blog is basically my journal, I have to write ONE MORE CRAZY STORY. This deserves it's own post, but I hate posting more than one at a time...the first kind of gets lost in the mass of blogs.

OK, so Monday night after coming home from Joe's softball game, putting Parker to bed, etc., Joe was outside and saw our neighbor pulling weeds from her driveway. We've been trying to be friends with this girl, so he came and got me to go talk to her while he sprayed the weeds. We were talking for a while and I started feeling really light-headed. I didn't say anything because I don't know her super well, and I didn't want to interrupt. A few minutes later we were about to leave and I started feeling REALLY sick. I told Joe, so he grabbed my arm to help me walk across the street, but I said that I couldn't walk. Everything started getting really blurry and black. I said that I needed to go sit down. Our neighbor went to get me a drink of ice water and I guess at some point I PASSED OUT! I remember being asleep and dreaming and waking up all of a sudden to Kari and Joe staring at me and asking me if I was OK. I was soaking wet (from sweat AND from ice that Kari was rubbing on my face and neck) and super confused. I guess I was only out for maybe 10 seconds, but poor Joe was ready to call 911. I was really freaked out because I've never passed out before, but I called my doctor (that I've yet to meet) the next morning. The nurse told me that passing out is actually really common when you're pregnant...who knew? She said that because your circulation is really bad, it's easy to get light headed like that and even pass out. Plus it's been SO HOT and I'm probably not drinking enough water (even though I feel like I drink a gallon every day). Needless to say, I do think I've been kind of in denial that I'm pregnant, so I've been doing everything I normally do without taking great care of myself. Don't get me wrong...I'm really excited...BUT I don't want to slow down. I was planning on running a half-marathon in August, but I'm starting to think maybe it's not the best idea. We'll see.... OK...I'm getting bored with this post, so sorry for the long-windedness! Let freedom ring!

Crazy Emotional Girl

So if I hadn't taken a pregnancy test, I would definitely know that I'm pregnant now because my emotions are going crazy! I haven't told anyone in my ward that I'm prego yet, and yesterday I had to teach the lesson in Relief Society. I had Joe's cell phone with me before church started because he was waiting for a message from the missionaries to give him the dates that they need to be fed. He wanted me to send a sign-up sheet around for him if they called. Well, I saw that there was a message from them (are you wondering where this story is going?) so I said to the RS President that I was going to listen to the message so we could send the sign-up sheet around. I think she was a little stressed about all the other sign-ups we had, so she abruptly (at least in my mind) said to me, "Can that wait until next week?" I didn't know how to respond, so I just started crying. This caught her TOTALLY off guard. She asked me if she'd hurt my feelings and I said, "no...it's OK...I'm just really emotional." I hurried and went to the bathroom to try to compose myself for two minutes before I had to teach. Anyway, I knew that pretty much the whole Relief Society had seen me burst into tears, so I started my lesson by saying that whenever I have to give a talk or lesson, my emotions are right on the surface. I said that I had just been talking to Renette before we started and burst into tears and that she probably thought she'd totally offended me, but I was just on the verge of tears anyway. So that was PARTLY true, but mostly it's just that I'm a pregnant, hormonal, emotional girl. I guess I could've just announced it to the world, but I'll tell Renette later...I'm sure she'll get a good laugh. The lesson went pretty well...I cried a little bit, but it wasn't the big, ugly face cry (thank goodness). Joe was flattered that I was so determined to carry out his assignment (which the RS President announced FIRST after all...how embarrassing!)

So was that the end to my emotional outbursts? Oh no... Today was supposed to be my first doctor's appointment. I arrived 15 minutes early to fill out all the paperwork, etc. Joe was meeting me there. When I walked in, I found out that Dr. Yamashiro had just left to deliver a baby. I had to reschedule for NEXT MONDAY. I kept my composure, but when I walked out, Joe was walking up to the office and I started bawling (it was the big, ugly cry this time). It obviously ISN'T that big of a deal, but I was pretty disappointed. Thank goodness for a cute husband who has learned that I am an emotional girl anyway, but when pregnant it's magnified about 500 times. He probably just wanted to laugh when I started crying, but he didn't... ANYWAY, hopefully we don't have a repeat situation next week...I can't handle anymore "rejection".