March #thejzoo365

Okay, So I'm very behind in this but am catching up over the next 3 days. Today, March pictures of the day. I'm finally feeling somewhat normal and can look back and focus on this.

March was full of busy little boy's, lots of ice cream and frozen yogurt, lots of Easter fun! Although I was sick and not feeling like a good mom, we survived and had a lot of fun together!

We have a Tricky One!

So today we had our monthly baby check appointment and I decided that I needed to write down these moments so I don't forget them... That's what this blog is about anyways :)

So we went in, saw my wonderful, amazing doctor, asked our questions and was supposed to hear the heartbeat. So I lay down, she pulls out her doppler machine (which Max said looked ancient) and begins to check. And she kept moving it around, and around, and around. My worst fear as of late was happening. Something was wrong. I was freaking out inside my head and praying that crazy! Que fears from the 2 miscarriages but I was trying super hard to trust God in this as I have been the whole pregnancy. So she finally stops moving the doppler and says, "I'm going to go get the ultrasound machine because I'm having a hard time finding the heartbeat. I'll be right back."

At this moment, thank God Maxwell was with me or I may have had a breakdown! He said he wouldn't worry because the machine was super old and he was sure it was fine. The ultrasound machine was wheeled in and she got ready, seeming calm but slightly nervous, she proceeded with a smile. Something I've learned: she has a GREAT doctor face :)

So she does the ultrasound and the first thing we see are arms and legs flailing. My mommy heart sighed a big sigh of relief! She continued to move the ultrasound wand around showing us our sweet baby. It's brain looks great and healthy. It's little heart was going a million miles a minute and the images of it's little arms and fingers were amazing. The Whole time she was doing the ultrasound, baby was doing barrel roles. We saw the spine and ribs and everything looked great! Seriously one of the best gifts we could have gotten today.

Although, there was a moment of fear that went through my body, I think we learned a little bit about this little ones personality. It doesn't like to get poked. :)

I am and have been so thankful for my doctor. She spends so much time with us and really cares about her patients. I am very thankful for Dr. Elise Brown and am glad to be walking through this pregnancy with her! Praise God!

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Here is a little Hippo update: He is talking like crazy these days! Everything that he loves has a name and he is saying so many new words. He knows blue and purple, can point out and say letters like: O, A, S, N, I. He is running like a crazy boy now, which means a few more falls that are ucompanied by the cutest little "ohhh" you've ever heard. He just got a haircut and now really looks like a little boy! It is so fun watching him grow and change yet so sad that it goes by so fast! We just love spending our days with this sweet little boy!

We had a Yogurt Date tonight! So much fun with these guys!

This is Aston running with daddy! He was so giggly the whole time!

Easter 2013

This Easter was so much fun for us! Aston is at the perfect age to really get into all the holiday activities and is so excited about everything!

We started our festivities on Friday with dying eggs. Aston thought it was the best thing in the whole world! He kept exclaiming, "OOOOOOOO!" So much fun.

 Isn't it just the best thing ever! And check out that green hand!

Saturday morning, we did our Easter baskets since daddy wasn't going to be home on Sunday until later.

 Aston loved his pillow from Sarah and Abraham! It's just so stinkin' cute!

 Then on Easter, we went up to Maxwell's parents house for a late lunch when Max and his brother Sam got off work at the church. Here are some of our family pictures.

 My cute boys in their hats!

 After lunch we hunted Easter eggs. Aston discovered the candy right away!

 Grandma Betty gave him his Easter "basket."

 And chocolate. We have discovered that chocolate is his arch enemy. He did not sleep much that night :)

We had a great day celebrating that our Savior lives! We are so blessed to have Jesus in our lives!

Our 12 days of Christmas Tradition: Days 1 and 2

Four years ago, Maxwell and I celebrated our first married Christmas together. I was in school finishing up my teaching crediential and had some time to think about gifts, I started to wonder if he was a ones big gift person or lots of little gifts? He told me he liked getting to open LOTS of little gifts, so the idea came to me. Why not get a gift everyday for 12 days leading up to Christmas.

I became so excited with the idea that I had to do it. Well as time has gone on, budgets have changed and our family has grown, so have our 12 Days of Christmas fun.

The first year was very "newlywed" if you get my drift. It was all things specially for him with a few fun dates thrown in there.

The next year, I was a teacher with no job and our budget was tight, so we changed from having a gift every day to doing activities with a few gifts thrown in.

This year, with a little boy who is aware of activities and fun, we are doing family fun activities, most of which are free! Living in a big city like San Diego, there are tons of things that are going on to choose from. Plus tons of things that you can do at home as a family. I seriously love this tradition and will continue it throughout our lives.

We don't do an activities every day of the month like some do because it's just too busy for that but when December 14th hits, things are starting to wind down for Max at the church. Most Christmas programs are under way and the craziness is letting up a little. It becomes a time to spend intentional fun time together and extend the feeling of Christmas.
In years past, the activities have been a secret to Maxwell but this year he helped me to plan them. I do have a little plan up my sleeves for him. Check out the idea here. But now that kids are involved, it will be a secret for them more then us and that is totally fine with us!

Here is our plan:

• The 1st day of Christmas: Christmas in the Village
• The 2nd day of Christmas: Grinch Day
• The 3rd day of Christmas: Frosty Pizza and Movie plus the Patriot Game :)
• The 4th day of Christmas: Ice Skating at Viejas
• The 5th day of Christmas: Polar Express Night
• The 6th day of Christmas: Christmas Light walk
• The 7th day of Christmas: Garden of Lights date
• The 8th day of Christmas: Snowman Day
• The 9th day of Christmas: Rudolf Pancakes and Movie
• The 10th day of Christmas: Christmas Adam box and Christmas with my dads side of the family. (My friends family calls the night before Christmas Eve Christmas Adam and I loved it so we stole the title)
• The 11th day of Christmas: Christmas Eve Treat and Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family.
• The 12th day of Christmas: CHRISTMAS!!! 

1st Day of Christmas

Friday was the 1st Day of Christmas in our house. We spend the 12 days leading up to Christmas doing intentional Christmasy activities as a family.

I always have a plan in place, always hoping to get to everything, but life happens. The important part about these 12 days is that we spend the time we have together.

Friday was the 1st day of Christmas for us. We were rocked by the news and it kind of took the wind out of our sails. Then it started in rain.

We had plan to go to a little Christmas in the Village (in La Mesa, CA) but when it began to rain, we decided to make other plans. So we went and had a quick dinner at a local italian restaurant, then went to our local Target to let Aston roam. He was antsy from being stuck inside for two days of rain. Aston has a blast throwing balls down the isles and pushing a wagon around.

Even though it wasn't what we had planned, it was a great time together anyways.

2nd Day of Christmas

Yesterday was the 2nd day of Christmas. Maxwell works the evenings on Saturdays, so we did out activities before he went to work.

Yesterday was Rudolph day. After we returned home from swim lessons, we made Rudolph pancakes. I saw the idea of Pinterest (of course) and followed the link to Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons. I used a few different ingredients: instead of a strawberry, we used an ice cream sundae cherry. It was perfect because it really does glow. We also used real bacon instead of turkey because that is what we like.

Later that day we watched Rudolph and read the Rudolph book I have. We had fun and as Aston gets older, we will add some more Rudolph activities to the day. 

Pumpkin Time

This week was full of pumpkin/halloween fun. On Monday, we carved a pumpkin. Maxwell did the hard work and it turned out to be the best Mickey pumpkin ever. We began the process before Aston went to bed but he didn't make it long. 

 Aston was very curious about what was going on.

 He didn't know what to think about this whole ordeal.

He kept pulling the pumpkin to him, wanting to check out what was inside.

He was also fasinated by the lid. Would try to put it on and then take it off to look inside again. It was so cute!

There isn't anything in there!

 After Aston went to bed, we (Max) finished craving Mickey Mouse. Didn't it turn out great! We used a template, used a tack around the black parts, took the template off and carved on the punches. Fairly easy, just time consuming!

Yesterday, Halloween and we didn't do much. We dressed Aston up to take pictures, had dinner with the other Jardin's, Aston went to bed and we played Cranium as we answered the door. It was a nice low key night.

Aston was Baby Hulk. We bought some $5 girls sweatpants from Walmart and I took about 5 minutes and shredded them up. My hairdresser Angela, gave me some hair shadow and we used it to dye his hair and parts of his body. It turned out pretty darn cute for a homemade, quickly put together costume! Gotta love when that happens!

Baby Hulk

 He doesn't look so Hulkish with a smile but isn't he cute?

 Taking a little walk around the neighborhood.

Pumpkin SMASH!

He was done taking pictures at this point.

Our best Hulk face. Haha, he was tired of this game.

He finally gave up a smile! Yay for a good family picture!

I made Tamale Pie for dinner and it was cute before I baked it...should have taken a picture then but oh well, it was still good.

Aston went outside after his bath to look at the Mickey pumpkin and loved it. He then was begging to be in bed at his regular time and the night was done for our little Hippo Hulk!

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

On Thursday, we went to the Bates Nut Farm Pumpkin Patch. It was the perfect fall feeling day and we had so much fun! We went last year and had a lot of fun, even though Aston slept the whole time. This year, we had to go back and he was awake :-) We had fun looking at the farm animals, tracking a tractor ride, playing in the wheelbarrow and hugging pumpkins. 

The 3 of us on the Tractor Ride.

Aston didn't know what to think about the whole thing.

We couldn't get a smile out of him until the end.

We had to take a a picture with the same pumpkin as last year. I can't believe how big he has gotten in a year! It's crazy to see pictures side by side like this!

Wheelbarrow fun!

He loves pumpkins and loved these big ones. He was drumming on them and of course hugging them. So cute!

Towards the end of our time, it started to rain. Aston didn't know what to think of our hoods. 

We had so much fun spending the day together! We are enjoying checking things off our Fall Fun List!