Jacob's 1st Christmas.

We celebrated Christmas and Christmas Eve at my sister's house this year, and well, like every year. I was a little bummed on Christmas Eve because Jess had to work from 6:30pm to 6:30am. But Jacob and I celebrated with my immediate family, and we still had fun. For the first time in years, and I mean years, we opened presents on Christmas Day. As far back as I can remember, we had always opened presents at midnight. It was a nice change, however we didn't open presents until noon. Also, last Christmas we did secret Santa and it took us a good hour, hour and half, to open presents. This year it took us around 3 hours maybe even more. I made out like a bandit this Christmas. We had a $20 limit for each person since no one really needed anything. But my brothers and sister went above and beyond that limit, and I got a ton of stuff I needed (I should say we, as in me and Jess). We got a lot of appliances for our new place, and we're almost all moved in now. We are just waiting on our TV, TV stand, and custom sofa, all of which will be here within the next month.

Jacob, being only 4.5 months, was oblivious to all of the Christmas chaos. But he was a good boy. We can't wait 'til next Christmas when he'll actually be excited to open gifts. Jesse, Jacob, and I have a nice holiday souvenir, too. A family cold. Jess started getting sick around Saturday, and Jacob and I both started on Sunday. Poor Jacob, it's his first cold, and can I just say, he's been a real trooper despite being so congested. And now, a little photo journey of Christmas...

Christmas Eve, just before Jess left for work.


Jacob opening his first present on Christmas Eve (my brothers and sister wanted the bow on him!)


My brother was messing with my camera...


I made a red velvet cake...


It was really sweet...


Finally, opening gifts Christmas Day....

Happy Holidays!

A few weeks ago I played photographer and took some pictures of Jacob for our Christmas card. I had an assistant, well okay, I had my sister, my BIL, my niece, and my nephew helping me take pictures of Jacob. They did anything they could to make him laugh, and tried to prop him up anyway they could. Here are some outtakes, and our card...

BFP!

That stands for Big Fat Positive. Exactly one year ago today, I found out I was pregnant. After only one month of trying, I got pregnant. Everyone "knew" it would happen right away, but I didn't want to get my hopes up so I gave myself 6 months. Well to my surprise, it didn't quite work out that way. But here's what happened one year ago today. I woke up early that morning. I had to use the restroom right away so I took a 99¢ Store pregnancy test. I let it sit for a few minutes. There it was...a super faint line, but a line. I was ecstatic. I ran back and forth from the bathroom to our room. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to tell everybody but I couldn't, just yet. My first thought was, "OMG I'm having a baby!" then I thought, "OMG I'm going to be responsible for someone!" But I quickly went back to, "OMG we're going to have a baby!" I continued on with the rest of my morning. I took Jasmine and Anthony to school and stopped by Target. Because the line was faint on the last test, I decided to get a pack of EPTs, a bib that said I love daddy, and pink and blue tissue paper. As soon as I got home I dropped everything and took the test. The line was there, now even darker. I wrapped Jess' gift and waited for him to get home from work. As soon as he walked in, I gave him the box, he opened it and the first thing he said was, "Oh what?!" He had a smile from ear to ear. He acted like he knew it was going to happen so soon (so did my sister). I think I was the only who thought it would take awhile. Who knew it would only take us 1 month of trying. Jess and I decided to wait a few weeks 'til Christmas to tell close family and friends. We told my parents and my siblings on Christmas Eve. I wrapped up bibs for my mom and dad that said "I love Grandma/Grandpa." What better gift than the gift of a child? Now here we are, one year later with a baby boy just a few days shy of turning 4 months old!

You can barely see the line...



It's really there...


How I told Jesse...


Telling my parents...


Baby Jacob almost one year after our BFP...

Thank you...

Oprah! So last month Oprah had a show where she gave away free Shutterfly books to everyone, including those watching at home. I was stumped at what theme to use for my book, and as I was looking through my pictures I thought, a book for Jacob. I decided to make a book for Jacob that tells a little story about the day he was born. I'm very proud of it, and here's a little preview of it...

The back cover, my favorite...

In other news, I'm still super busy. Just thinking back, I remember when times were slow, but things have picked up. Jacob is, of course, keeping us on our toes. We actually did a holiday photo shoot the other day with yours truly as the photographer. The pictures came out awesome, if I do say so myself. I will post our holiday card next week, as soon as they go out, and some outtakes.

We've also been working on our little house. It's coming along nicely. We're almost done painting, all we have to do now is put the floors in, buy some furniture, move in some existing furniture, and we're set. My goal is to be in there by the 1st or 2nd week of January, but we'll see.

And lastly, today is my last day of school. Yay! It's almost over. I just need to do my portfolio, that's due in April, and perhaps an internship, and I'm done. I cannot wait. I can see the light.

Thanksgiving Weekend.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I did! It was nice to just relax with family and friends. Our Thanksgiving was spent at my parents' house. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole (which I made), green salad, and rolls. Everything was exceptionally delicious. As a matter of fact, we only had leftovers the next day, and only for lunch. It was still delicious. Dessert included pumpkin pie, and my niece's homemade apple pie. It was all so tasty! The rest of the evening was spent chit-chatting about our lives and looking through Black Friday ads.

Here's my little turkey...


Speaking of Black Friday (BF), Jess and I decided to brave it and go out, and it was such a waste of time. Seriously, Black Friday is just a joke. We got a couple of things but only one of which was actually part of the BF madness. But I have a bone to pick with these stores and all of their LIES! So my sister and I decided to get GPS units. After looking through several ads and price comparing, we decided to go with a Garmin Nuvi from Walmart for $96. So the actual price was $96 + tax + shipping = around $108. Well we had waited up until midnight to buy them on Walmart's website. I also bought a walking toy for Jacob for $10, and I tried to get a 42" TV they were advertising for $600. The TVs sold out in like 1 minute, and the other stuff was fine. Anyway, that Friday night we go to Sam's Club (a Walmart affiliate) and what do we see when we walk in?! The same exact GPS system for $96! The total for that one, $96 + tax = around $103! I know it's only five dollars, but I could have had it in my hands saving sleep, time, and money. Lame.

Another big liar...Linens N Things (LNT)! They're going out of business and now I can see why. Last week my sister and I decided to go shopping and we stopped by LNT since they were advertising 40-60% off store-wide. We were in the store grabbing things off the shelf thinking we were getting awesome deals, but I started noticing that some of the things I was looking at had double price stickers. My first thought was, "Wow the prices are going down so fast they have to re-price them all the time, I bet!" I didn't give it another thought until I picked up an item and I could actually see the price under the top sticker. The top sticker's price read $44.99 and with 20% off that's a great deal, right? Well the price under the top sticker was $34.99!!! They're price gouging! We were so disgusted we just left our basket right there in the middle of the store and left. That's just horrible.

All in all, despite all of that shopping crap. We spent the rest of our weekend getting our new place together and doing some minor remodeling, and just hanging out.

Jacob's doing really well. His nights are not consistent yet. But he only gets up once a night, at most. And we've been getting more sleep than we have, since he's been born. He's started exploring a new toy, the Baby Einstein entertainer. He loves the colors and makes a grab at stuff, but he's still a little too young to really enjoy it to full capacity.

Jacob is 3 months old.

Okay, so he's actually going to be 3 months and one week old, but I've been busy. And as I mentioned in a previous post, Jacob's been doing a lot of things like talking a lot, wanting to sit up on his own, and he's found his hands. But he's also grabbing for things, and the big one...He's STTN! For those mommies, or anyone else, that don't know, STTN stands for SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! I was going to post this in the last thread, but I didn't want to jinx it since he just started, and I thought it deserved its own post. Don't get me wrong, Jacob would sleep well through the night eating and going right back to bed without problems. But his old schedule was bedtime at 8pm, wake to eat at 1am, sleep, wake to eat at 5am, sleep, and wake for the day at 7-8am. Now he goes to bed at 8pm and wakes to eat at 5-6am, sleeps, wakes for the day at 7-8am. He even naps throughout the day! And as I said before, I can't wait to see what new milestones he's going to reach. The next one I can't wait to witness, an actual giggle.

Where to begin...

So, I've been really busy the last couple of weeks. We've been helping my older brother move into his new place. I love his new house. It's only 4 years old and in a nice, quiet community. But since he moved out, we've been moving into his old place. And his place was old. There's a lot of cleaning and painting for us to do. But I can't wait to decorate Jacob's room, my kitchen, and living room. I've got tons of ideas already. We've just started, but when we're done I'll post some "Before & After" pics.

I've also been busy with school. I have less than a month to go in my final class. After that, I need to develop my portfolio. Ack. I'm almost done getting my master's, but Jesse and I have talked about some things we want in the next couple of years, and well, we'll see how things go on my career front.

This weekend was a crazy weekend. The weather has been hot and dry, and because of this, we've had several fires in our area. It truly is scary. The fire started in Corona, where Jess happens to work, and spread to Yorba Linda/Anaheim Hills where my cousin and his family live (they had to evacuate), then it went into Brea which is just the next city over, and is now moving into Diamond Bar and Chino Hills. I'm familiar with all of these places. They're either places I've been to regularly or have roads I used often. Actually, there is a hilly area (off Harbor Blvd/Fullerton Rd) just a few miles from my house, and with the fires being ridiculously close, there are fire engines parked on this hill just watching and making sure nothing happens. But when things like this happen, so close to home, you start to ask yourself, "What would I take with me if I had 5 minutes to get as much as I could?" Well first, my son. Then, my personal belongings, some memory stuff, and my computer hard drive. Everything else is replaceable. However, it's upsetting to think of one's belongings going up in flames, it just gives me chills thinking about it. I think I would be so depressed. And with the fires being so close, the air is horrendous. There's ash everywhere outside, and not just the little, snowflake ash but the big chunks. We did have the chance to get away for a little bit by going to my older brother's new house. It was bright and sunny at his place. Here are some pics of what we saw the first day of the fire...





And last, but certainly not least, Jacob has turned 3 months. He is no longer a newborn, but an infant. He's getting bigger every week, and it's remarkable to see and notice his new developmental achievements. He's found his hands and loves to munch on them. He talks up a storm when given the chance. He can turn over on his own, and I'm sure by next month he'll start walking. Okay, that last one is not exactly true, but hey, what can I say? He seems so ahead of the game. At the moment, he hates laying down, and loves to sit up like a big boy. I've tried to put him in his Bumbo chair, but after a few minutes, he tries to squirm out. I can't wait to see what the next month brings and witness it all...

Sittin' like a big boy...


Napping...

Halloween Recap.

Jacob was a monkey for Halloween! We got him dressed around 5:30p and we're out trick-or-treating by 6p. We only made it to a couple of houses before he conked out. One house said he looked like Monchichi. And he wasn't too thrilled about the costume and neither was I. We had fur everywhere. But we can't wait 'til next Halloween!





Our Halloween festivities actually started the weekend before the holiday. My cousins threw a Halloween party with a really cool set up. They built their own haunted maze. I didn't go in 'cause I'm a chicken and Jess didn't want to go in. Also, unfortunately, Jess and I didn't dress up. I was just not in the mood, but Jacob, sort of, dressed up. He was a little grumpy from the lack of napping, but we managed to get something on him.

The "graveyard" in front of the maze...


My nephew and Dad as Two Face...


Some kiddies as Ironman, a dinosaur, and a princess...



Jacob with his monkey ears...

The Grumpy Pumpkin...

would like to wish everyone a...

Goodies.

Tuesday night I had the chance to attend The Women's Conference: Night at the Village. It was the precursor event to the next day's The Women's Conference: The Village. It was a lot of fun. I got a lot of goodies from different businesses such as Lean Cuisine and Wachovia. We also got a lot of food like yogurt, soda, nuts. They had some guest speakers, too. We had the chance to hear Rachel Ray speak. She was interviewed by Valerie Bertinelli, and she seemed very real and down to earth. We also saw Rocco DiSpirito speak. Rachel and Rocco also singed their books along with several other authors such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Dr. Oz, Maria Shriver, and many more. However, the big day was the following day. The guest list included Condoleezza Rice, Jennifer Lopez, Madeleine Albright, Jenny McCarthy and so many more. I wish I could have went to both! Anyway, here are some goodies I picked up...



I got Jacob's car seat! His BIG car seat. I got him the Britax Marathon in Greystone. These seats are usually $280, but Amazon was having a sale on a couple of colors and I got it for $185 minus a $15 rebate = $170. That's a great deal! And I found this lovely deal on one of my favorite blogs, BabyCheapskate.com

Here it is...


Lastly, one of my favorite places to shop is now Etsy.com. I love all the adorable, handmade, cutesy stuff. I have a list of things I want to buy, but I've only bought one thing so far, and I'm truly satisfied. I bought a little, round disc pendant with the letter J (for Jesse and Jacob) and a little heart. And I love it, I think I'll get another one...

Big Day.

So, Monday was a big day! Not only did Jess and I celebrate our very first wedding anniversary, but my poor baby boy got his first set of shots. It was horrible. I felt like it was torture, but I'd rather have him vaccinated than not. He received a total of 6 vaccines. He's been a little grumpy and has had a fever here and there, but we're getting through it. We also got his stats. And it's not really news, but he's a BIG boy! He weighs 14.5 lbs and is 23.5 inches tall. He's only 2 months! The Doc said he's getting to be a chubs. Speaking of his doctor, I do not like her at all. I really wanted his vaccines spread out, but the Doc is against it and follows AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics)...whatever *insert eye roll*. But I don't know how to go about finding another pedi in my area 'cause, right now, our insurance sucks. But that will change in January. Yay!

My little chunky monkey...




And as I mentioned, Jess and I celebrated our anniversary. We went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Well, used to be. The food sucked. Big time. We were so disappointed. But look what I got...

I'm in love...

Our 1st Anniversary.

Exactly one year ago, October 20th, 2007, I married my best friend, and partner, Jesse. Our church wedding was at 3pm with a reception that immediately followed. We had approximately 140 guests, and our colors were pinks with white and chocolate brown accents. I planned it pretty much all by myself. I had my sister as my maid of honor, and my bridesmaids included Jesse's sister, my niece, and my cousin. Jesse's best man was his childhood friend, and groomsmen included my two brothers and my nephew. Everyone says that the first year is the hardest, but honeslty, this has been the best year of my life. Here we are, one year later and as happy as can be with an adorable, little boy. We finally have our little family!

A link to our wedding slide show...

Create Your Own

A link to my wedding web site...
http://jessesgirlx07.googlepages.com/weddingbio

Disconnected.

My Internet service had been out since Friday! I called my ISP and they, of course, gave me the runaround. They told me there was an outage in my area, funny since my sister, who lives a few houses down from me, had service! I knew something else was wrong, luckily I had an old router that belonged to Jess, and I plugged it in, and what do you know, it worked. I've got my Internet back. I was without it for a total of 3 days. I was peeved that my ISP didn't help after I had called a total of 4 times, so I called them back and got a new box and a discount on next month's bill. But I didn't miss anything. I was pretty busy. Friday I went to my niece's football game to see her perform. And guess what I had? My sister and I shared a funnel cake! Nope, they're not only available once a year at the Corn Festival, but at every home game! Woo hoo! Saturday I also went to another field show for my niece. Poor girls, they didn't do so good. They, unfortunately, got 4th place out of 4. But hopefully it will give them motivation to work harder. Sunday was boring, my brother and Chema came over bearing food and gifts. Yup, I had my favorite nachos, and they were sooo good. For dessert I made walnut brownies that we paired with vanilla ice cream. It was delish! And yesterday, Monday, Jess had the day off. We spent most of the day cleaning, and I caught up on my Internet time.

And here's a pic of Baby J to keep you entertained (it's also my wallpaper):

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THINGS I WANT:

Let's change the subject. So, the contract on my phone is up and I want a new one. What do I want? A Blackberry Curve in pink! Here it is:

I also want a Flip video camera. I want something compact and affordable, and the Flip meets all of my requirements. I've heard nothing but good things about them. I think I'll ask for it for Christmas. However, I'm not sure whether I want the pink or black, but here's the pink:

A Decade.

Exactly 10 years ago today, October 10th, 1998, Jesse and I became a couple. We met in August of '98 but didn't officially get together for a couple months. We've experienced a lot of ups and downs, but luckily we've shared more ups than downs. Our relationship hit a rough spot around the four year mark, but we recovered. We've never broken up, and have gone strong since. I was only 17 when we met and Jess was 20. I was a senior in high school and Jess was in his 2nd year of the Marine Corp. We were engaged in May of '06, and, in exactly 10 days, we'll be celebrating our very first wedding anniversary. Love ya, babe!


*Side note about this picture: It was taken only a few days before my 18th birthday. On this day, I also got my very first, and only (for now), tattoo.