Twin Baby Shower

I cannot believe I haven't blog about this shower yet!!

A few weeks ago (almost a month) we had Jen's baby shower.  And it was fabulous.

My good friend Jeannett co-host with my Mom and I.  It was perfect, she was in charge of decor while Mom and I were in charge of food. 

We went with a woodland theme, since we had to be sensitive to both genders (she is having a boy and a girl).

Jeannett also took the job as resident photographer so I am linking to her blog post about the shower because she has all the pretty pictures and great descriptions of the party.  You must go see!!  Click Here: Woodland Theme {twin!} Baby Shower


Ok and then can I brag a minute?!? 

Yes I can.

Well you can also read about the shower here: Baby Lifestyles, Celebrating Baby's World.

Yes we were featured on a pretty cool lifestyle, party blog.

Thanks to Jen for letting us throw her shower, it was allot of fun and we can't wait to squish those babies!

One-Year-Ago...

today.. Antonio James enter the world. 

Our sweet little boy who came home from the hospital asleep:

 and then never slept again (for months):

turned one-month.  

He spent most of his time in the moby wrap.  It was a rare occasion he sat alone without screaming.

Two-months-old....Daddy slept in another room...because he had to function at work!

Three-months-old...AJ starts to smile all the time (when you are holding him and giving him your complete attention)  Still spends most of his time in the moby wrap...but Dad is back in the same room!

   

Four Months - getting stronger and enjoying more time on his own, because he can roll over in all directions!

Five months old....sweet as pie...loves his siblings...still loves his moby...still hates sleep!

Six-months-old...now he can army man crawl....its a whole new world!

 

Our boy can sit all by himself at 7 months old.

 

Eight months...we are finally sleeping through the night!

   

Nine-months-old.

Ten-Months-Old and we love to play on our own!!   Yeah for mommy.

Eleven-months-old...crazy man.

One-Years-Old

In no means has AJ been my easy baby.  

But as I look back at the last year, even with all the late nights, no sleep, screaming, colicky baby..

I wouldn't trade it for the world.  

Because I all ready miss his littleness. 

Looking at his baby pictures just makes me savory those babies days

Oh how fast the time flies.  

And every minute of lost sleep, and aching back, and spit stained shirt:

is worth it.  

AJ is sweet and lovable.  

He is strong willed and sensitive.

He made Matteo a big brother.

He made our family stronger.  

He is a gift from God and I can not wait to see what is in store for him over the next year. 

Happy Birthday Little Man

We love you.

AJ's First Birthday

On Monday AJ will turn one. 

I have realized over the years that all I really want from a first birthday is cute pictures of the birthday boy or girl.

So I called up our favorite photographer (Jamie Foster Photography) and we headed out to a local park for a picnic and cupcakes.  I made him a special quilt for birthday picnic and Jamie took tons of picture.  He was happy and smiley the whole time.

In one word it was perfect.

Here are a few pictures from the day.


Click here to see the rest

 

Cuteness.

 

Cuteness x 4

  

Standing {Joy}

Now head on over to see the rest: Click here

Week Wrap Up. {instagram Friday}

Last week I noticed the pictures were lacking in Matteo and AJ. This week they are the only two featured. Guess life can't always be fair.

Any who.....now it is time for our week in cell phone pictures.




We were so excited this week because Poppop arrived. Matteo was the most excited. He and Poppop have been spending lots of time working on the railroad.

Who doesn't love a rock table runner with fresh roses from the garden.

Our weekly trip to Costco include lunch! Yummy pizza.

Matteo got to have his buddy over to play. 

(which meant Mom didn't have to entertain him for a few hours, YEAH!)

The little boys earned their diplomas for swimming! Yeah..you can read more about their swim class here - baby seals and baby seals part 2.

REALLY? You live in Santa Maria.

Giddy Up Papa!

All tuckered out!

What did you do this week?
Link up

Family moments

This was the first weekend in a long strand of weekends where Matt was in town, there were no parties or plans, and no one was sick.

We spent the weekend as a family.

We cleaned out cars.

We sat around and read books.

We had friends over for dinner, and topped it off with chocolate cake.

We went to Church and listen to an awesome speaker on missions.

We spent the afternoon at the pool swimming and laughing.

We did art projects and crafts.

We spent the weekend with our little family, no sickness, no plans, no one missing.


Just our family.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Instagram Friday

I am so excited.

My friend Jeannette has been doing Instagram Fridays on her blog for the past few weeks and asking other blogs to link up.

I really wanted to join in the fun but atlas I do not have an iPhone therefore no instagram for me.

Tear.

But then I realized I do have an iPad. If I take a picture with my cell phone and send it to my iPad then tada....I can instagram!!!

So with no further ado...my week as seen through my cell phone camera!









On Saturday I had an opportunity to visit my favorite stroller company.  Six years ago when we had our first baby we bought one of these bad boys and 6yr later it is still my favorite stroller.

Oh yes...our weekly outing, I am consider just having our paycheck deposited here, why mess with it sitting in our bank account for a few days!! 

Don't you think a big fat A on your spelling deserves a photo!!  We do.

Serafina learning to multi-task.  This was her walking in from the car after gymnastics!! Crazy girl put your clothes in the bag.

School Friends.

On Wednesday it was track and field day at school.  There is Sam pulling up second.

And Serafina pulling into the lead!

Have to add the cute kid art work.  Done by Serafina.  Funny enough it is Jeannette and her girlies in a flower garden.

I don't know who's crazy kid this is.

Link up, its fun!

Car Seats

Today I would like to discuss car seats.  In light of the the new AAP recommendations, I am interested in what other parents are doing in terms of car seat use.

Basically the new recommendations are:

1. Children should be rear facing until 2yr old or until the child hits the maximum weight limit for rear facing on their car seat (some seats that is as high as 35lbs).

2.  Children need to be in  booster until at least 8yr old and reached the height of 4'9".

I completely recognize the fact that these are recommendations not laws and you can choose to follow them or not, but at the same time they are making the recommendations because lives have been saved.

Which leads me to my questions.   As a parent how do you make the right choices regarding car safety?  Do you follow the recommendations with out bending a bit?  Do you follow your state laws?  Do you do a little of both following your gut a bit and following the recommendations a bit.  And what you do for example when my 8yr old has been out of a booster for 2 years now, however has not reach the new height recommendation, do I put him back in a booster?  What if you have a 6.5 yr old you took out of the booster do you now fight to put them back in?  How about your 1.5 year old who has been forward facing for 6 months now, do you turn them back around?

I am telling you, parenting is not easy.

Then there are state laws which have so much variation it is really unbelievable.


For example:

In WY if you are 8 or younger you have to be in a car seat.  No questions asked period.

In FL if you are under 3 you must be in a car seat and other than that their is no other specifications.

(That's a five year age difference, what are you to do if you move from FL to WY with your 6yr old?  You have to put them back in a car seat?!?  And if you move from WY to FL with your 5yr old? Now he is safe without a car seat because he is in FL?!?)

Then there is states like CA where they govern weather or not the child is rear facing, or in  convertible seat or in a booster.  They also have laws governing at what age you can ride in the front seat.

Oh and can I mention it is really hard to find these laws on-line and when you do it is almost impossible to decipher them, as to weather they are laws or suggestions.  The site I linked to seemed to be the best.

Then you have the fine associated with not having your child properly restrained and again the variance is amazing.  All the way from Michigan where the fine is $10 dollars to Nevada where the fine is $500 plus you will get a point on your driving record!

As a parent, especially with multiple children it seems very over whelming.   If I was in WY all four of my children would still be in some form of car seat.  In other states I would have to have 3 huge Britax size car seats and a booster.  Then if I was in FL only AJ would have to be in a car seat?!?

Seriously as a parent it is a lot of information to process.  Obviously I want to follow my state law, and I want my kids to be safe but where do I draw the line.  Serafina, I know will not hit 4'9" by age 8.  So do I make her sit in a booster seat until she is an early teens?!?  It is so hard to imagine dropping her off in 6th grade and her climbing out of a booster seat!?  And when she goes home with a friend, does she have to carry her booster seat into school with her?   Really it seems weird.

With all this I would like to end with a little survey.  Not for any other reason then I am just curious what really world parents are doing regarding car seat safety.