Pickles for Pregnancy

Mickae fulfilled an old pregnancy cliche when we went out to dinner as a family and she ordered extra pickles with her burger. We picked on her incessantly and then added our pickles to her plate as well. She ended up with quite a pile of them! This picture was after she'd already eaten a couple of them!

Baby Shower!

'As I said, the main event for my trip to NY was my sister-in-law's baby shower. Mickae married my little brother almost 2 1/2 years ago, and I'm so glad. She's really wonderful and a good fit for my brother. They are expecting their first child sometime around December 17th and I can hardly wait. For three years now Roman has been the baby in my family and Jeff's. It's been fun, but I'm excited for there to be a new baby for me to squeeze! Jacob, I can't wait to meet you! :)

The shower was a big success. We had fun and great food. My mom planned a cool activity where everyone made birthday cards for Jake to open - one each year up to age 18! It was fun and very funny. Mickae was blessed with some great gifts, and I think she had a lot of fun too.

This is the diaper cake I made that we used as decoration, and Mickae got to take all the diapers home to use on Jake!


Here are Mickae and her mom, her mom made that blanket for baby Jake and I'm so glad she got to come up to this shower with us!


And, as is tradition, my mom made a beautiful blanket for her newest grandbaby too:

Blogger Friend

I headed to NY this past weekend with Trey. I was going to be at my sister-in-law's baby shower and Jeff and I decided to make it an opportunity for each of us to have extended one-on-one time with one of the boys. So, Trey came with me and Jeff and Roman stayed home. It was a cool experience breaking up the kids like that. I wouldn't want to do it all the time, but I think once in a while it's good for them.

Trey and I were hanging out with my mom on Friday doing various things and we spontaneously decided to stop at Lollipop Farm to see the animals when we were driving by. (Lollipop Farm is a humane society location with lots of cats and dogs for adoption, some rabbits and smaller animals and some sheep and goats too.)

We pulled in and parked in the half-empty parking lot and as we were getting out of the car a van pulled in and parked next to us. I did a double take when I recognized the driver as my friend Martha! I have known Martha for several years, she and her family are long-time family friends and former neighbors of the Riveras (my in-laws). We don't see each other often now, but regularly keep up on each others' blogs. Martha got out and we laughed and talked. I re-introduced her to my mom, whom she has met a couple of times over the last many years. She had also spontaneously stopped to get some information and hadn't even seen me until she was parked. I believe God has a sense of humor and thought it would be fun for all of us to run into each other. :)

Here are me and Martha in front of the horse statue inside Lollipop Farm:

Enjoying Fall

Despite the coming winter, we have been enjoying the fall.

Out in our back field:


And a fun trip to the zoo:

Cutest Marine Ever

And no, I don't mean my brother-in-law Chris! :)

The boys got their Halloween costumes this weekend and wore them to a Halloween party. Friends of ours, Dan & Kayla have two little ones who are friends with my boys and they put on a family-friendly Halloween party. Jeff missed it, but the boys and I had a blast playing games and eating treats. Check out my adorable Marine and his brother, Batman! (I don't think there are any full-costume pictures of Trey in the ones I'm posting, I'm sure I'll have some more in a couple of weeks!)

Birthday Boy!

My sweet little Roman turned 3 yesterday. Wow. It really does fly. We had a great day, so of course I've included pictures. A little aside about pictures though, my wonderful camera stopped working last week. I'm so upset about it. Because it was Roman's birthday we decided we had to get a camera right away and so we bought a cool little Casio. It's tiny and fits easily in my purse, which is nice. However, we had very little time to get used to it or try out any settings, so I feel like we didn't get all the best pictures from his day. But I did have a camera and did get plenty lots of cute ones, I shouldn't complain. Someday I'll have the amazing camera I dream of...

Anyway, back on track. We had a great day with Roman, he's such a sweet ball of energy... when he's not terrorizing anyone!

One of my favorite traditions we've had with our boys is that the birthday person (and only the birthday person) gets ice cream for breakfast on his/her birthday. So here's Roman, enjoying his special breakfast.


We had a super-cool firetruck birthday party at a REAL firestation. The firemen were great, they were all so nice to him (and us). They gave our group a tour and each kid got to sit in the a firetruck. We had some great friends with us, Roman was surrounded by his friends and their families. It was a blast! Here's Roman when he arrived at the party and put on his "Fire Chief" hat.


Daddy with his birthday boy:


And Roman in the truck. He got to go first as the birthday boy and he loved every minute of it.



As big brother Trey got to go second in the truck, and loved it! I've got to brag a little, Trey is an amazing boy. Like most boys his age though, I knew there was a possibility of jealousy while brother was getting all the attention and presents, etc. So I talked to Trey that morning. He told me he knew it was Roman's special day and that his would come soon. I was so proud of him as he spent the whole day looking out for his brother and celebrating with him. We never had any trouble with jealousy, and he was really able to enjoy the day as big brother.


And of course, a shot of Roman and his cake:


Happy birthday Roman! Every day of these three years has been a gift from God. Life would not be the same without you. I love you.

Bittersweet

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful. We're surrounded by trees turning all different colors. I was driving (I think it was Friday evening), the windows were open, the air was warm, the sun was bright and the leaves were every shade of red, orange and yellow. I was alone in the car (rare!) and had some good music on loud. (No Mom, it wasn't so loud as to damage my hearing, just loud enough that I didn't hear my phone when Jeff was trying to call me... oops.) It was perfect. The bitter part in my "bittersweet" is that I know winter is on it's way and I just don't look forward to the cold and snow and mud and feeling stuck indoors. I'm going to try to keep focusing on the beauty of fall though so that I don't miss it while I'm worrying about winter. I've been at the computer a lot today as I have some stuff going on this week with my internet business, and from my chair here I have a stunning view of trees. They are right outside the window and all afternoon the sun was hitting them making the oranges and yellows glow. Amazing. Too bad my camera isn't working.

So why haven't I been blogging? I don't know. Somehow it's become something I "should" do, which makes me not do it. Hmmm. I need to get my mindset back to it being a fun outlet... I'm going to work on that. :)

I hope you're all well, leave me a note and let me know you've stopped in to read!