Why Rodan + Fields?

Last Wednesday, September 16th, I joined Rodan + Fields. If you ever heard of Proactiv (which I'm sure the vast majority of you in the US have), the doctors that created Proactiv sold their company, used their research, and developed Rodan + Fields! Not only does Rodan + Fields have skin care products that fight acne, they also have three other lines that fight the most common skin care concerns: dullness and sun spots, sensitive skin, and wrinkles, pores, and loss of firmness.

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For as long as I can remember, I have had issues with my skin. It has always been prone to break outs. I've never really felt comfortable going out without any make up on to even out my skin tone, let alone covering up any blemishes that were guaranteed to be there. I've tried many things to help clear my skin from various over the counter skin care products, birth control, as well as using the drug Accutane. Even after being on Accutane, I still have break outs.

The big draw for me to start using Rodan + Fields was their 60-day empty bottle money back guarantee. You don't get that with other products. So really, what did I have to lose?

So what products am I using?

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With acne being my primary concern, I started using their Unblemish line right away. According to the product inserts, you start using this product slowly - only every other morning the first week of use. Since my products didn't come in until Monday (09/21/15), I have only used this product twice. Just like all skin care, it takes time to see results. My comments so far? It does take longer than what I was doing just before I started these products. Then again, what I was doing before was extremely simple: I used a Norwex body cloth followed by Jojoba oil infused with a variety of essential oils that support skin concerns.

One of my concerns with using Unblemish is that it does contain benzoyl peroxide (Step 3), which I have used in the past and has bleached clothes, sheets, towels, and comforters. With that in mind, I only plan on using Unblemish in the mornings to minimize the bleaching of my sheets and comforter. I just bought a new comforter a few months ago because our Siberian Husky decided that our old one needed some fluffing. With needing to cleanse my skin still, I decided that I was going to use the Soothe product when I wasn't using Unblemish.

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This line is perfect for those with sensitive skin, including eczema and psoriasis. So far it's been a nice complement, providing the skin cleaning I need without being too harsh. I do have plans to use some of the other product as my skin clears up. This one in particular I can't wait to try!

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This macro exfoliator is from the Redefine line. I need to hold off on using it for now as you can't have any active blemishes. So once my acne clears up, I'm taking this bad boy to my skin!

What skin issues have you been dealing with? What would you do to get the best skin in your life? Ask me what Rodan + Fields can do for you! Check out their products HERE.

Lavender Essential Oil

            Back in December of 2014 I lost my job through circumstances that I will not get into at this time. They are long and complicated, and honestly shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Since then I have been a stay at home mom to my two amazing boys and a yoga instructor. Even though we are “saving money” by not having to pay for daycare for two children 2 years old and younger, I still feel like I’m not pulling enough weight as far as finances are concerned.

With that in mind, I have been exploring different ways I can supplement our income while being a stay at home mom. For more than three years I have been using essential oils. I absolutely love what they have done in regards to supporting my family’s health and wellness! I use them singularly as well as in home made products. So I want to share with you what essential oils can do for you and your family. 

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I chose to work with Young Living for a couple of reasons. The first reason was simply because it was the first company I was exposed to.  Yes, that is rather petty, but you have to start somewhere. The second reason I chose to work with Young Living is their seed to seal commitment. This means they control the entire process of growing the plants, through harvesting, extraction, and bottling. I don’t know of any other company that can say the same. Young Living has farms all over the world so they can grow the plants in their native habitat. This is very important to ensure the highest quality plants.

So, now that there is some basic information on oils, I want to start going through some of my favorite oils as well as some of the most popular oils. 

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please consult with the appropriate healthcare providers before making any health decision.* 

 What I will do is go through scientific studies on the oils, body systems they support, safety precautions, and some of my personal favorite uses. In general, distillation is all around safe for all ages. You will dilute the oils 99% of the time. There are only a few reasons to use the oil neat (without a carrier oil), and I will make note of that at the appropriate times. I do NOT condone the internal use of essential oils without the supervision of an experienced and knowledgeable care provider. There is a time and place for internal consumption, but I do not have the credentials to say when it is appropriate and will not answer questions on internal use nor will I debate on internal use if you personally use oils internally.

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So here we go. I got the basics taken care of. Now to get into the specifics. I am choosing Lavender to start with as it is one of the most common oil that everyone has heard of.

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Common Name: Lavender
Scientific Name: Lavandula augustifolia
Part of the Plant Used: Flower
Extraction Method: Steam Distilled

Lavender is well known for its calming properties. You see many commercial products that are geared towards relaxation with lavender. The bonus of using Lavender essential oil over the other products is that you not only get the wonderful smell, but you also reap the benefits of the oil!

Lavender is a wonderful go-to if you have no idea what oil you should reach for. It supports so many of your body's systems. Lavender is wonderful for your skin, respiratory system, nervous system, and even the cardiovascular system.

However, as wonderful as Lavender can be, we do need to be careful when using essential oils. Like I stated above, oils can be diffused for inhalation, diluted and applied topically, or taken internally. Thankfully, it does take a large quantity of Lavender essential oil to cause significant damage. For the most part, continual use without dilution will cause irritation to the site. For further reading on the safety of Lavender and other essential oils, I highly recommend the book Essential Oil Safety by Robert Tisserand and Rodney Young, second edition. It is a wonderful book that has a plethora of references on the wide use of the various oils.

My favorite uses for Lavender are inhalation and topical application. When applying topically, I like using coconut oil for my carrier oil. Coconut oil is easily available and has a wide variety of uses as well. That may be another blog post - what can coconut oil do for you?! Anyway, back to the oil...I recently made this recipe for a night time lotion for Dan, as he still isn't sleeping well at night. I haven't seen a big difference in his sleep yet, but with how long he's been a poor sleeper, anything I try is going to take a little while to have any significant effect.

With inhalation, I usually combine Lavender with other oils. Cedarwood and Lemon are two oils that I have diffused with Lavender.

If you wish to purchase any essential oils, follow the link HERE. You can sign up as a retail customer and pay full price, or you can become a member and enjoy a discount on your oils! There are several packages you can choose from if you decide to become a member of Young Living. The best bang for your buck is the Premium Starter Kit (option 1, 2, 3, 4). The various options I linked vary by the diffuse type. Each diffuser has their own perks outside of the visual appeal. If you have any questions, I am happy to answer them! Just leave me a message below.

What else would you like to know about Lavender? Let me know and I will add to this post.

Big Happenings!

Recently I decided to join Rodan + Fields. They are a skincare line that was started by the creators of Proactiv. With a history of skin issues, and a 60-day empty bottle money back guarantee, there really wasn't a great reason to NOT try their products.

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So with this new endeavor, I'm also pursuing selling essential oils through Young Living. I have been using their oils for several years now and I love that I have more control over my health and the health of my family.

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In order to keep thing straight and to help promote both products, I'll be using this blog to not only update everyone on what's going on with the family, but to also share what these two companies can do for you and your well being. I hope to post once per week on both business ventures, as well as one post per week about the family and one post per week on yoga, as that is my other business that I've been a part of for over two years now. It won't be easy to keep up with two boys and two dogs needing near constant attention, but I know that I'm not the only parent that juggles family life with work.

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I am really looking forward to what these business ventures can do for me and the family! I hope that you will take the time to read my posts and I encourage you to ask me questions.

Look for my first post on essential oils in the next few days!

Take care!

Life with 2

In just a few more days Dan will officially be 2 years old! I can't believe how quickly these last two years have gone. Quite a lot has happened since he made his arrival. Besides all his milestones, we have lost family members (Great-grandpa Wester and (first) cousin (twice removed) Tom McClintick), and probably the biggest change is the arrival of Anthony!

Photo by McManigal Photography

Anthony made his debut on June 12th, 2015 - exactly 21 months after Dan arrived. He was 5 days "over due" when he arrived. Here's his birth story:

I was due on Sunday, June 7th. As subsequent births tend to end earlier I was expecting to go into labor before then. Alas, the 7th came and went and no baby. My next appointment with my midwife was on the 11th. We discussed options to help encourage labor to start as we didn't want me to go too far over due. Baby isn't getting any smaller and with Dan being born at 8lb 2oz, we expected at least another 8+ lb baby. I ended up agreeing to a "stretch and sweep" which is where you gently release (sweep) the membranes from the uterine lining and gently stretch the cervix a little bit wider. At 40+4 I was already 4cm dilated. She was able to stretch me to about 5cm. I left with the knowledge that it could still take a few days for things to get moving so I wasn't expecting much.

That evening I started feeling contractions. This wasn't anything new as I had been feeling Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks already. I took notice and tried not to think much about it. It didn't take long to realize that this may be the start of labor. Jason had a football meeting so it was up to me to get Dan to bed. Let me tell you, trying to read bedtime stories while contracting is NOT easy!

By 11 or so that night I let my midwife know that this was the real deal and I was needing to concentrate a bit more during contractions. She arrived around midnight and checked to see how I was progressing. I had hoped to have another water birth, but unfortunately with being a second pregnancy and how far along I already was, there wasn't time to get the tub set up for me. I ended up laboring for a little more than 4 hours in my own tub. Again, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into the position I needed to in order to push comfortably. Off to the bedroom we went. It was already set up with plastic under the sheets and chux pads on top of the sheets. After a few minutes, we checked to see where I was and I gave the go ahead to brake my membranes. I had been pushing through some of the contractions already and we wanted to make sure that I was dilated far enough so I wouldn't hinder my progress. Turns out I was far enough along and good to go for breaking my membranes.

Warning - a bit of TMI in this next paragraph. Skip it if you wish.

So you hear about how your water breaks and you get that big gush. Well, gush I did! I had to lay on my back for my midwife to break my membrane. Lots of water came out with the initial break. She then ran her fingers around my cervix in which even more water "escaped." Then a contraction came. I HATE LABORING ON LAND AND ON MY BACK!!! As soon as that contraction was done I was back on my hands and knees in a "child's pose" like you see in yoga. On my way over, even MORE water came out. This time I "leaked" on Jason. I later learned that he almost puked from that. I can't blame him. That's probably one of the last things you want to leak on you. Anyway, over the next 8 minutes, if I wasn't pushing my body was. Anthony made a splash into the world, coming out with EVEN MORE water!




OK - you're safe to continue reading now :) 

As soon as he was out, I took a deep breath and turned back over and took him into my arms and onto my chest. After a 10 hour labor, 4 hours of active labor, 8 minutes of real pushing, he was here. He needed some extra help getting all that fluid out of his lungs. He was breathing fine, but was very gurgly. They took 8mL of fluid out of his lungs through suctioning, knocked some loose through inverted palpitations, and further loosened some using a respirator mask and 5 artificial breaths. They also massaged his placenta which helped keep blood moving through his body keeping his oxygen levels up. I also noticed a broken blood vessel on his left eye just outside of his iris. This was from how quickly he came through the birth canal. There was no time for his head to mold, which would have prevented the bruise. After a few weeks he was all healed.

After making sure Anthony was taken care of, breathing fine and had his first nursing session we took all his stats. He weighed in at 8lb 2oz and was 20.5 inches long. In comparison, Dan was 8lb 2oz as well and was 20.75in long.

Welcome to our family!

 Dan has been fantastic adjusting as a big brother. The first few weeks he was so excited to help out. He would get diapers and wipes, look for a blanket if we asked for one, just being overall a big help. (as big a help that a toddler can be anyway :) ) Recently, Dan has been taking stuffed animals and treating them like his own "babies." It is so stinkin' adorable! It makes my whole being smile seeing him hold his "babies" close, wrapping them in blankets to keep them warm, gently laying them down on the couch or baby seat... He will even gently lay his hand on Anthony's head when he's crying. It really makes my heart melt. I can only hope that this lasts as they grow up and that there will be minimal fights between the two.

Jason was able to get two full months off for paternity leave, giving me lots of time to recover and adjust to having two boys. The first few weeks I took advantage of Jason's help and had him take care of Dan most of the time. By 6 weeks, I was ready and feeling confident to handle both on my own. Football season had already started so there had been some evenings where it was just me and the boys.

So while there are times throughout the day where Dan gets frustrated that I can't help him RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT, it's been great being home with both of the boys full time. Some days I just need to laugh at the chaos. There has been times where I'm trying to get Dan down for a nap and Anthony is fussing. Then as soon as Anthony settles down, Dan starts fussing. Then it goes back and forth for a few more minutes before both of them are now sleeping. There are times where I wish I was a better parent, but I think all parents have moments like that. I won't even begin to comment on keeping the house clean. As long as things are relatively orderly, the dishes get done every few days, there are plenty of clean clothes, and everyone still has all their hair/limbs/various body parts and are happy at the end of the day, I say the day was successful.

As of now, Anthony is outpacing Dan for growth. At two months, Anthony is already almost 2 full pounds heavier than Dan was at the same age. He is just as long, but we'll see how that progresses. It does seem like I have two linemen in the making!

Newborn

1 Month

2 Months

 As you can see we are using the moose again for the monthly pictures. I think it will be fun to have all the kids pictures done in a collage and set side by side to see how they are similar and different as they grow up.

 At this point, I'm about a week out of starting to teach yoga again. I'm so excited to get back on the mat! Not only am I returning to the Wednesday night class, I'm also teaching a postnatal mama/baby class every other week on Saturday mornings, teaching a core functional fitness class Sunday evenings, and starting a 12-week meditation/mindfulness series also on Sunday evenings! If you happen to be in the area, please come to my class! I would love to have you and show you how amazing yoga can be!

So we'll call it a night for now. I'll leave you with our new family picture. Love from all of us <3

It's Almost Time!

36 weeks!
#1 on the left vs. #2 on the right

A week ago Sunday marked 36 weeks in this pregnancy. This past Sunday marked the start of my "birthing window," or the 5 week window where normal-term babies are usually delivered. When you hear about pregnant women, you always ask "when are you due?" They usually oblige and tell you a specific date. For me, that date is June 7th. What mother nature tells you is different. The "average" length of a standard pregnancy is 280 days. However, 280 days is just the average. What the actual length of a pregnancy is depends on the woman, her family history, the health of the pregnancy, the number of children she's carrying, and even if this is her first pregnancy.

Most first time mothers who go into labor spontaneously go just over 41 weeks gestation. That means no external interventions such as membrane sweeping, induction, breaking the waters, etc. With my pregnancy with Dan, I was certain that I would go to 42 weeks as I have a strong family history of "late" babies. My Mother was induced 2 weeks past my due date (which I'm happy about, otherwise my birthday would coincide with tax day). My sister was also induced 10 days past her due date as the doctors were concerned about how big she was getting. Funny enough, I was 8lb 1oz and my sister was 8lb 14oz (I think I'm correct on the ounces with my sister). Anyway, we were both very normal sized babies at our birth. Today, the average weight of a newborn is 7.5 pounds or 7lb 8oz. The range is between 5lb 8oz and 10lb. With more and more women being induced no later than 41 weeks, I can only imagine that this average weight is a bit skewed toward being lower than what the average newborn weight was before we had all these medical inventions and interventions being used in the maternal healthcare setting.

Don't get me wrong. I am so grateful for how advanced our maternal care setting has become. I find it rather unfortunate that many of today's doctors end up relying on the technology instead of actually listening to the mother and child and work WITH mother nature instead of pushing mother nature along faster than what is intended in some cases. I am a strong advocate for evidence-based practices not only in medicine, but especially maternal care. Upwards of 80-90% of maternal healthcare practices are NOT evidence-based. We are doing our mothers a very sad disservice all for policy, whether that policy is coming from the hospital or from the insurance companies.

This last statistic is my motivating factor to plan home births for myself. Under the careful eye of an experienced midwife, home births are just as safe if not safer than a hospital birth for normal, healthy pregnancies. I've been told many times how "brave" I am for having home births. I could say the same to those who plan hospital births. The thing is, there is risk in everything we do in life. It is up to each individual to determine their own perception of each risk, research and discuss those risks with their spouse and care provider, and determine what course of action they wish to take; what risk to take and which risk to acknowledge and pass over.

So, with all that in mind, back to how I've been doing with this pregnancy. We had our home visit yesterday with our midwife. She checked to make sure we have all the supplies that we need and checked on my health and the health of baby. We did the standard pee test plus we tested for GBS, or Group Beta Strep. If that test comes back positive, then there is a protocol that we use to eliminate GBS prior to delivery. If that test comes back negative, well, no worries! GBS can cause some issues in newborns who are not properly treated in confirmed GBS positive mothers.

Baby's heart rate was strong at around 120pbm. We didn't get the fundal height as our midwife misplaced her tape measure. Baby's head is still sitting snugly in my pelvis. Unfortunately he's a bit more posterior than anterior which I hope doesn't cause back labor when labor does begin. My blood pressure is still stellar. I believe it was around 110/68. Somewhere around there. When I was pregnant with Dan, my blood pressure was inching towards pre-eclamptic. It never officially got there, thankfully. Still retaining just a small amount of fluid, but again, nothing like when I was pregnant with Dan.

At this point, baby can come any day. Dan ended up being born one day before his estimated due date. Typically, subsequent pregnancies end up with labor beginning earlier than the previous pregnancy. I have a feeling that will hold true for this pregnancy. The question now is, will baby be born at the end of May or the beginning of June? He may really throw me for a loop and come after his due date! I doubt that it will happen that way, but you never know. What I do know is that I can't wait to get into the birthing tub again!

I hope everyone is doing well. Both Dan and Jason are well, as are the dogs. Looking forward to meeting our new little one. Hopefully it doesn't take long for the new chaos of being a family of four starts to become routine.

Take care!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'M 30!!!!!!

OK - now that's out of my system, I must say I really don't feel that much older than I was just a few years ago. I definitely have gained wisdom over the years, along with extra responsibility that comes with being a wife and parent, but I really don't feel that much older than when I was in my early 20's. There's a saying that I see thrown around quite a bit on Facebook that has the general wording of you're only as old as you feel, or you may be a year older but you don't have to grow up. I don't do the quote justice.

Overall, the day of my birthday was very pleasant. I had gotten up early in hopes to bring Dan to the library for story time. Unfortunate for me, Dan slept in until 9am. With story time at 9:15am, there was no chance to make it in time. We had fun playing and watching sing-along videos that morning. Nap time was a bit later, around 1pm, as Dan slept in. For the last week I had not been napping with Dan so I could get some extra stuff done around the house. That day I decided to take a nap with him. Everything was all fine and dandy until we woke up. We both woke up around 4:25pm. It took me a few minutes to realize that I needed to be at the yoga studio 20 minutes away for my 5:15pm prenatal yoga class that I teach! So I ran as quickly as I could to get myself and Dan set to go. Jason had been held over at work so I had to bring Dan to class. Thank goodness for the front desk lady! She is such a sweet heart and kept an eye on Dan while I was teaching class and Jason was on his way to pick him up. After class we went out to eat at a local restaurant called Dublin's. Delicious food as usual. Oh, and Dan was such a ham! He flirted with all the female waitresses whenever they walked by.

One thing that has changed over the years are my gift preferences for birthdays and holidays. Usually there is one or two "fun" items, while the rest are practical. This year, Jason is gifting me a raised garden for the vegetables that I'm growing. Being that I'm a stay at home mom right now, even with another baby almost here, I have more time on my hands to tend to a larger garden than when I had last year. Additionally, it will save a bit on our grocery bill by growing some of our own veggies and it will be a great opportunity to start teaching Dan how to grow food, take care of plants, and all the other wonderful things you can learn while tending a garden. I'm not expecting much to stick at this point, but it's never too early to start learning!

So here are a few pictures of the progress of my garden. For my tomato plants, I'm using wash buckets - one bucket per plant. Half I got from the dollar store while the other half I got from Menards. After spray painting the outside of them, I punched several holes in the bottom of the buckets to allow for drainage. Side note - the dollar store buckets are much more fragile than the Menards ones. Some of the buckets may or may not have large cracks in the bottom. Drainage is drainage right?!

For the tomatoes

The seedlings along our back porch.

The rest of the plants are going into the raised garden. The one spot that gets just enough light is behind the tool shed, which is located behind the garage. As of this post, we're a bit farther along with the construction of the garden but I haven't gotten out to take pictures yet. So here's where we left off this past Sunday. We got 3 sides of the garden complete. The final shape will be a U with an additional square planter in the middle of the center opening. We'll have one gate to get into the middle and the outside will have wire mesh to help keep the rabbits out. I know we have at least 2 rabbits in the neighborhood. The tailor full of dirt was from a fellow officer who lives down the block. He just so happened to be working on a home project and dug up all this dirt. This will fill the majority of the raised garden which saves us a ton of money on getting dirt to fill the planter! As of Monday, we have the dirt transferred into the garden, but still need to do a little more construction before I can transplant the peas that I have growing. The rest of the veggies need to be started yet. If all works out, we'll have 2 kinds of tomatoes, peas, carrots, broccoli, red peppers, spinach, cucumber, zucchini, and summer squash. I may have left out one or two veggies, but this is what I remember picking up. We'll see how the garden turns out!

Here are the rest of the pictures of our garden project.

We are building this out of cedar and do not plan on staining or painting the wood. This outside frame has 4-1x6 planks. The inside portion will only have 3-1x6 planks. We also picked up a gutter to run along the side of the shed so the extra rain water that falls off the shed doesn't erode the soil directly under it.

As far as baby is concerned, he is still kicking and healthy. He's sitting pretty steady in my pelvis right now so who knows if he'll be early, on time, or late. Only time will tell! My home visit with the midwife is in 2 weeks. That is also the start of my birthing "window." A normal term pregnancy can last anywhere from 37-42 weeks, which is the birthing window. Of course there's a part of me that's really excited to see our baby, get to know him and all his quirks, introduce Dan to his baby brother, and so on. Then there's another part of me that's a bit nervous how the labor is going to go. Each labor and delivery is different, yet they all have similarities. How is this one going to be similar? How is this one going to be different? Same with the personality of our new little guy. Will he be an easy baby like Dan was? We'll find out soon enough! Then there's the happy part of having a new baby in the house, getting to experience all the "firsts" again. At the same time, there's a sadness as Dan will no longer be an only child. He will no longer get 100% of our attention. His life is going to drastically change with the addition of his baby brother. So many emotions!

I hope everyone is doing well. This coming Sunday will be my second to last belly picture. After Sunday, the next picture will be on Labor Day. 35 weeks down, 5 or so to go! Take care everyone :)

32 Weeks

Last Sunday marked 32 weeks of this pregnancy. My how time has flown! In less than a month we have our home visit with our midwife, and soon we'll be in the "normal birthing window" - weeks 37-42. Both baby and Mom are still looking and sounding healthy. Baby is head down, on the left side, but not quite anterior (baby's spine closer to the belly vs. the spine). You want baby to be in the LOA position (Left side of the body, Occipital Anterior) for the easiest labor and delivery.

Baby #1 (Left) vs. Baby #2 (Right)

As you can see, I got my hair cut! Seventeen inches is being donated to Children With Hair Loss. I had been wanting to cut my hair for a while. It was just way too long and getting in the way. I must say, this is probably the first shorter hair cut that I've had where I DIDN'T want long hair within a week of the cut. It has just enough sass and pzazz for me to fully enjoy the shorter length.

I have noticed recently that I've been getting crankier and more easily agitated lately. Reflecting on that I realized that I have had no bodily autonomy since December 2012, when we conceived Dan. Almost 2.5 years of being pregnant and/or nursing - part of that simultaneously! No wonder why I'm itching to get away and do something with just ME and FOR me. Not sure what I plan to do yet. I was thinking of catching a movie, but nothing looks interesting enough for the price (or I haven't seen the first movie of the series). So we'll see what I end up doing to do a little pampering for myself. Maybe just having a day to deep clean something in the house will be a good start. Bonus with that idea is that something gets cleaned in the house! That is something that doesn't happen too often with a husband, two dogs, and a toddler who is very "helpful" around the house.

Other than that, we are planning out our raised garden in our back yard. Right now this is one of the ideas we're working in. We definitely need fencing around the outside as there is at least one rabbit in the neighborhood. I also need to get some 5-gallon buckets for the tomato plants that I have going. I plan on painting those with spray paint so they don't look like 5-gallon buckets. I might do something fun with the paint. I have some spray paint already so I'm thinking paint them all black then take the silver and do an ombre effect with the solid sliver on the bottom and lighter on top. Could be fun.

Still waiting on Dan to pick up some adult words. Sometimes it sounds like he's trying, but it's not consistent. "Blueberry" is one word that he seems to try. I only say that because his most common sound is "da." Anything outside of that I'm thrilled with! I know that boys tend to develop language a bit later than girls on average, but my patience is starting to wear down and my worries are starting to mount. At least he does understand adult words, so really it's just a matter of time before he starts using them himself. I'm sure that as soon as he does start talking it will soon be constant (and I'm sure it will be defiant at times - can't wait until the "no" stage :/ ) and I'll be kicking myself for wondering why I wanted him to talk in the first place!

So I'll end with a few pictures from the last few weeks. Enjoy and take care :)

Easter 2015

All set for a family funeral.

Hanging out with Mom's cousins
(yes, these are my aunt's sons which makes them Dan's 1st cousins once removed)

Too funny not to post :)

My aunt Sara, my Mom, my Grandma, and me all wearing clothes my sister either got rid of from her own closet or gave as a gift. This was NOT planned!

California Vacation

Early March, Jason and I took a week long trip to San Diego and Los Angeles. Jason had a flight voucher that was expiring, which is why we took a vacation. We had originally thought about having a family vacation with Dan until one of Jason's coworkers suggested the (brilliant) idea of going on vacation with just the two of us. I had fully weaned Dan about a month before we made this decision, and with baby #2 on the way, this was a fantastic idea that I couldn't pass up!

Now, deciding where to go was a little bit of a challenge. I have been to just over half of the states in the US whereas Jason has been to far fewer. Combine that with the fact that we both wanted to go somewhere warmer to get us away from the Midwest winter weather. The places I thought of were Southern California and New Orleans. Florida was another option, specifically the Florida Keys area. Jason had already been to California and Florida where I have been to New Orleans and Florida. I don't remember exactly HOW we ended up with Southern California, but that's where we decided to go.

Now, who was to watch Dan? Grandma of course! When I called my Mom to ask if she wanted to watch Dan for the week we were gone, she mentioned that she was already thinking of coming for a visit so she could see him (of course it's all about Dan - once grandbaby comes along, daughter becomes chopped liver ;) ). It worked out really well for her to come down, house and dog sit, and have undivided attention with Dan without having to kick us out of the house.

The travel down to Southern California was quite the adventure. We decided to fly in and out of LA as it gave us the best prices and flight times. The night before our flight Jason checked our flight times to make sure that everything was still on track. Thank goodness he did! It turned out that our flight was changed. Instead of a layover in Chicago, we now had a layover in Denver - and our flight left an hour earlier than our original flight! So my Mom's boyfriend drove us down to the airport so we didn't have to leave a vehicle there for the week, saving us money. We had no issues getting through security - although the woman TSA agent I told I was opting out of the body scan wasn't too happy that I told her right before I was to go through the body scanner. (Seriously - when was I  supposed to tell her? when there were 10 people in front of me? while in the scanner itself?) Anyway, she was having a moment and we were not in a hurry so it didn't bother me I had to wait a whole minute for another female TSA agent to come give me the pat down.

I choose the pat down over the body scanner for two reasons. The first reason is that I'm pregnant. I don't need any extra radiation, no matter how small, hitting my body and baby than necessary. Second, the body scanners are just a big waste of money that make people think we are flying safer. That line of reasoning is a whole other post that I won't get into.

We ended up boarding the plane a little later than what was indicated on the flight board. Almost 2 hours later and 2 de-icings, we FINALLY lifted off for Colorado. Now, due to the delays in Milwaukee, we missed our connecting flight in Denver. Thankfully we were able to get on another flight just under an hour after we landed. There were no issues with our flight from Denver to LA. Now, after we got to LA we grabbed our bag and got our rental car. While we saved some on our rental, the service was SNAIL PACED! I think we waited almost an hour before we got our car. Thankfully the company knocked off one day of our rental cost as an apology. Off we went to our hotel just north of San Diego - a 2 hour drive! Along the way we stopped to grab supper at a local mall. I can't tell you which one it was, but it was really nice to sit outside after sundown and eat a meal. Definitely couldn't do that back at home that day, where they got around 1-2 inches of snow!

After almost 14 hours of travel time, we made it to our hotel.

 Our first day we went to the San Diego Aquarium, took a stroll along the shoreline, and had a night time dinner cruise along the bay. The aquarium had some pretty nice set ups for their sea life. One of my favorites were these eels. They look like grumpy old men!

So while I've been on the West coast before, I have never stepped into the Pacific Ocean. This trip gave the opportunity to do just that! It was a bit chillier than the Atlantic, but I expected as much due to the fact that the Pacific is MUCH bigger and deeper than the Atlantic. This was one of my favorite parts of the day - just strolling along, listening to the waves, and checking out the locals. There was a piece of kelp that washed ashore. The "flower" part of it is about the size of my hand. The entire plant was at least 20 feet long!

After the beach, we took the long way back to the hotel. Along the way we ran across a park with some fun trees and a little cove where a bunch of seals were relaxing with their pups! There were a lot of people watching the seals and the other wildlife that occupied the rocks and ledges along the shoreline.

Once back, we relaxed in the hotel room while waiting for the dinner cruise. After we checked in for dinner, we had a little bit of time before boarding. Along the boardwalk there were several of these benches with hand-painted tiles. Some of them were really elaborate while others were clearly done by children. The colors and variety were a lot of fun to look at.

The cruise was really nice and the food was delicious. I had the salmon - how could I not when it was local! It was ALMOST as good as the salmon I had years ago when I went on a family vacation with my Mom's family on an Alaskan cruise. Our port was in Seattle so we had dinner at the top of the space needle - which is where I had the salmon that still makes my mouth water thinking about it years later!

Anyway, the cruise was really nice. There were only 8 or 9 other couples aboard so plenty of room. We got a table next to the window which was very nice for viewing the city. Jason took some very nice pictures of the city while we were out. The only bummer about the cruise is that champagne was offered as part of the meal. I can't tell you how badly I have been craving adult beverages this pregnancy! I will admit I did have a small sip of his champagne. Otherwise it was sparkling cider and water for me.

The second full day (day 3 of our trip) we spent at the San Diego Zoo. Holy cow is that a large zoo! We spent 7.5 hours there and got through about 80% of it. The part we didn't go to included the children's fun zone and the petting zoo. I don't think we lost out. The most exciting part about the zoo was seeing giant pandas for the first time! The neat thing about these pandas is that the male is able to naturally fertilize the female. This is the only naturally mating pair of pandas in the US! If you know anything about giant pandas, this is a big deal. I would say the second most exciting part about the zoo was me getting through the whole day without my feet hurting! Yay for yoga and strong feet!

Needless to say, we were both happy to get back to the hotel and put our feet up after spending all day at the zoo.

The next day we spent touring the U.S.S. Midway. we got through most of the ship before we had to run out and put more money in our meter. The one section we missed was the tower on the flight deck. If we had more time we would've gone back to take a tour, but between a late start and lunch, there just wasn't the time.

The park next to the ship had the statue of the nurse and sailor kissing at the end of WWII. Jason checked - she wasn't wearing anything under the dress ;)

Our last day in San Diego was spent at Balboa Park. We wandered the gardens and checked out the art museum. The architecture was amazing! I won't bore you with too many pictures of it, but I simply couldn't get enough of the intricate details. There were several fountains scattered throughout the park and all but one were not running while we were there due to the drought conditions that Southern California is experiencing.

After we were done at the park we made our way up to LA. We took the scenic route, which added about 3 hours onto the trip. We went through a bunch of small towns split up between a bunch of beaches with lots of people sun bathing and surfing. The hotel room was a welcome site.

Our one full day in LA was spent at the Hollywood walk of fame, a one hour massage that Jason treated us to, and the Hollywood sign. Seriously, the valley that the Hollywood sign is in is gorgeous! I wish we had more time to explore the park that it was a part of.

All in all it was a wonderful vacation. It allowed us to reconnect and enjoy our time as a couple without worrying about taking care of Dan. We did call home once a day just to see how things were going, but we waited until the end of the day so we could enjoy "our time" before seeing how Dan was. Now with baby #2 coming in just under 2 months, who knows when our next "parent's only" vacation will be. Only time can tell.

Until then, take care!