my favorite day.

So this is what a 1 year old looks like! (Thank you to Michelle from Moments to Remember!)

Will is one. It has a rhyme to it doesn't it? If you were to ask me about the best day of my entire life, it would be the day Will was born. My wedding went right out the window on November 2 (sorry honey!) I could tell you play by play exactly what happened that sunny, crisp Monday morning (but I won't.) I'll leave you with my life was changed forever, in the best possible way.

We celebrated this past Tuesday with our family. It was a beatiful day. We jetted up to Yuba City where Michelle from Moments to Remember Photography captured our little family. I love knowing that when I look back on these pictures, I will be able to recall that day so well. It's funny how pictures can tell such a story. Both of our families came over for dinner & "dirt" for dessert on his real birthday. The grandparents were beyond generous & our house is turned upside down with toys. I think we might need to buy another house just for Will. Yesterday was party day & had all of our closest family & friends over. It was soooo much fun. I cannot thank everyone enough for celebrating with us!

eat. run. love.

I've never been a runner. I cringed since 6th grade at the thought of running. I got out of PE by befriending all my teachers. Then I weighed 220lbs. WOW. (cannot believe I just wrote that!) Okay I didn't really weight 220 - Will weighed 10lbs. of that. & by the time I left the hospital I was 190. & I stayed there until September. I've been doing Crossfit at DAC since April & LOVE IT. But the scale wasn't showing me the love. I knew it was my eating. I still had the mentality that I could eat anything I wanted whenever I wanted (& let me tell you that will NOT be my mantra for my next pregnancies)Show I started Weight Watchers. I lost 8lbs. That was a start. But do I really need middle-aged ladies pointing a finger at me when I gained .4 of a pound? Its definitly un-motivational. Not to mention dropping $40 to step on a scale for 3 seconds 1x/week? I decided to try on my own & have been pretty successful since quitting Weight Watchers. I started at 190, I'm now at 176. I was 172lb. when I got pregnant. We are makin' progress folks. K, now back to running. I still suck at it. But I really enjoy it. Crossfit helps with my running & running helps with my Crossfit. I ran the farthest I've ever run last week: 4.5 miles. My goal is a 10K on Thanksgiving morning & then a leg of the CIM Marathon which will be about 7 miles. Next year I want to run the Nike Women's Half Marathon in SF. Its fun to meet & surpass these goals & I love seeing the results on my body.

pumpkin patch.

Let me give you a little background on our luck. We re-scheduled our engagement pictures twice because of the rain & then it ended up raining on the day we picked, but we stuck it out. 2 days before our wedding we had the worst thunder & lightning storm N.California as seen in years. The morning of our wedding it was cloudy but somehow by 4pm the sun we peaking through. We decided to take our nephew to the Rivercats game & it POURED - in the middle of September, don't think its rained since. & most recently: we decided to head to the Pumpkin patch on Sunday. You guessed it: it rained = )

It was a lot of fun though. We met up (for about 4 minutes!) with Laryssa & baby Jack. This was not the way I had envisioned this post to go, but I had to as I came across these pictures! Laryssa & I have a bond that is so awesome from sharing our first pregnancy together. It was amazing to share the entire journey of starting to wear maternity jeans, to first kicks, to eating 4 pieces of chocolate cake at a wedding, to waddling around downtown Davis about to pop!




The pumpkin patch never seems to fail me, even if its raining. I think a make-up day is in order so we can stay a little longer!

& this coming weekend we have Will's first birthday pictures. outside. & its supposed to rain.

milk(shake) drunk.

I don't get a whole lot of "me" time. I kind of threw the towel in the day we got home from the hospital. We are constantly on the go. School, gym, MOPS, playdates, Grammys. The days cosume me & before you know it, its 7:15pm. I love our hectic life because it reminds me how we are constantly surronded by friends & family. The list of to-do's is constant around here: cleaning, laundry, picking up, dishes. I really enjoy my role as a stay at home mom, because I have some sick form of OCD where everything has to be perfect before I go to bed. But last night, I didn't do a thing. I sat. Completly mindless. Watched House. I knew Will wouldn't make a peep. Eric even went to In-N-Out for me & got a chocolate milkshake (I had two fillings & my mouth hurt!) & maybe some french fries.....
It was so nice letting go, leaving the house a disaster, taking a moment (or 2 hours) for myself. Just what I needed.

Now off to clean our entire house = )

doula.

I like these one-named posts.

Okay so I didn't want to jinx myself & write about this last week. But I'm ECSTATIC to say I can write about it now! This is ALMOST as cool as getting accepted into a RN program.

The hospital here in town has a top-notch Birthing Center. After Will was born, I have not gone a day I don't think about my birth story. & of course the hospital plays a HUGE role it that. I started volunteering there once a week: pretty simple stuff - filing, making charts, tearing down charts, delivering food trays, running specimens to the lab, etc. I loved it, but my heart was behind those closed doors where you can hear the vague screams of laboring moms. My sympathy for their pain, my joy for what their lives' were about to come. The unit secretary had told me I should look into the volunteer doula program if I wanted to be behind those doors. Coincidentally enough, American River was offering a 4 day intensive workshop through DONA (Doulas of N. America). So back in June I went to the workshop & loved every minute of it. I loved hearing that your birth can have a profound impact on your life forever & that I really wasn't crazy because I thought about November 2 every day since. A doula is a person who recognizes & respects everything about birth and recognize that this is going to be a key experience in a mother's life.

So the hospital here has a volunteer program like I said. I e-mailed the coordinators thinking, "shoot who wants to be a doula, it can't be that popular." Well apparently close to 100 people were interested in 20 spots. So when the application came this is a tiny bit of what I wrote:

I want to be a doula because I believe that every women should have a strong support system behind her during labor. Whether I am the key labor support person for a laboring mom or I am a warm body in the room to provide encouragement & reassurance to Dad, as a doula, I can make a women's labor a positive experience. I feel as though I was extrememly mis-informed on what a doula was when I was pregnant. I envisioned a 60 -something Jewish women chanting to me while I screamed for an epidural. I'm often told I have an old soul, but being 23, I feel as though there is a younger group of women who need to be informed about the support a doula can provide. I know I cannot pick & choose the moms I work with, but I think I bring a breath of fresh air & can provide excellent physical, mental, & informational support for the parents-to-be.

Well apparently they liked my shout-out to the 60 year old Jewish women because I just learned today that I was one of the 20 picked!!!!!

More to come...I have a sleepy head waking up = )

bar.

I swear this is not a fair represenatation of our life.

Last Friday I went out with Kaeley & the sissy Rosalind. It was a much needed girls night. We went to PF Changs for dinner & decided to go to a few bars in downtown Sac in hope of finding Kaeley a husband. We wander into Streets of London where I show the bouncer my Visa card instead of my ID & then we head down the street to Hamburger Patties.
I'm not quite sure why this is my luck, but we begin to look around while sitting at the bar in Hamburger Patties and realize that the guys all look gay. The bartenders are practically ignoring us...so weird. So I whip out the iPhone...google "Hamburger Patties," & sure enough I get a review on Yelp about it being one of "Sac's hottest gay bars." Sorry Kaeley.

Ok so fast forward to Saturday morning. Eric, Will & I are sitting on the couch & I begin to tell Eric about out night: "Well we walked into this bar, " & before I can go any farther with the story, Will looks up with his big blue eyes and says, "BAR." Clear as day. Mind you besides babbling constantly & saying Mama when he is tired/needy, this is the first real word. Go figure. I tell my sister in law & in between her laughter, her response is, "You guys are so NOT bar people!!"

So.not.fair. but it sure makes an excellent story = )

kelle.

I want to share with everyone a blog that I adore beyond words. Kelle Hampton writes "Enjoying the Small Things," she is an incredible photographer & always writes the such inspirational blogs. From her daughter Lainey's birthday party to lounging in PJ's all weekend to the birth of her daughter Nella who was born with Down Syndrome & they didn't know, she has such a way with words. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE start here and read this:
Nella's Birth Story.
I don't know whats wrong with if you your not crying tears of happiness afer that = )
After that you can check her daily updated blog at kellehampton(dot)com.

I love reading her blog every night after Will goes to bed. Its become a routine. It brings me back to the important things in life & really makes me cherish every single moment of every single day.

Just thought I'd share with ya'll.