So contractions started today, yikes.  Our family of 3 might be a family of 4 in the next couple of days, we'll see. 

This week we've done a lot of last minute stuff that I wanted to get on my blog before my life disappears! lol

First Hair Cut

We'll start from today.  So I gave Alyssa a bath this morning, got her dressed and we were brushing her teeth when I decided to trim up her bangs a little.  She migrated into the sink so I decided to cut the back too.  So then I had to give her another bath! But she really needed to get those long bangs out of her face.  Here's some pictures of her new hair cut...aw what a cute little boy. :) hehe

 

                         

                       Before

                         After

 

Family Studio Picture

I've been wanting to take a family studio picture for a LONG time now and well let's just say I was finally able to convince my family members to be in the picture. hehe  I had a coupon for a free maternity picture at Babies R Us and so Sunday we made the trek into the studio and got our free pictures.  Good thing it was free because the lady taking our picture was in training and although she cropped the pictures she printed for us, the original pictures have terrible centering to say the least!  Especially since they are supposed to be "Maternity" pictures and there is barely any of my belly.  lol But I really just wanted a nice picture of the three of us and the prints turned out great.  We printed the first picture and the one of Alyssa and me.

 

 

 

 

Last Family (of 3) Outing

Matt and Melissa are in town visiting Melissa's parents so on Saturday we went to the Locks to hang out, watch the boats come in and see the salmon swim up the ladders.  It was fun, but it totally wore me out...maybe that's why this baby is coming sooner than later.  But I guess I am due on Saturday, so it's not that early.

Alyssa wasn't in this picture because she was being a brat. hehe  Brats don't get to take pictures with Mommy & Daddy.  Hopefully she'll learn that soon.

 

 

 

 

She finally shaped up, so then we decided to let her be in some pictures.

They have this really cool art display above the fish ladder viewing room so we took lots of pictures in front of it. 

Here is Alyssa, Me, Rebeccah and Elliott

 

 

 

There was also a really large grass area outside of the botanical gardens where we let the babies play on the grass.  So cute - the boys had matching pacifiers and Alyssa couldn't get enough of touching Elliott's head...it's really soft. :) hehe

The grass was pretty uneven and so Alyssa had a hard time walking in it without falling down.  I love this picture of her where she looks like she's about to do a cartwheel...but she's just trying to keep her balance! :)

 

Finally Walking!

In the last week Alyssa has changed so much!  For one she began walking!  One day she just decided to take about 4-6 steps multiple times a day.  Then the next day it was a few more and by the 3rd day she was full on walking around the house without falling down.  I think she is really enjoying her new experience in the world above the knees. She still crawls once in a while, but for the most part she's up on two feet...except for when she first wakes up.  If you try to stand her up when she first wakes up her legs wobble and she walks like she just got off of a cruise ship.

She especially likes to walk and carry things.  She sometimes attempts to carry things that are too heavy for her.  For instance the white basket with the green liner usually holds her toys and so we have to help her dump them out so that she can carry around the basket. 

  

Snotty Attitude

Unfortunately I think it also makes for a more frustrated toddler.  I was in JoAnne's Fabric's a couple of days ago and she threw her first full on snotty fit in the store because she wanted to get out of the stroller and walk or crawl around.  I had to escort her out of the store on my hip with her wiggling and crying.  One lady walked by me and said, "Been there done that!" and gave me a 'bummer' look.  And I was thinking 'I'm too pregnant to be doing this.' lol  I think she actually might have been acting like this because it was a really busy day and she was super tired.  Once I got her to the car she fell asleep in like 30 seconds.  Serves me right to try to push her nap further out.  Ah well. 

Snotty Nose

OH!  Just the other day she found her nose.  I'm not talking about "Alyssa, where is your nose?"  She'll show you that, no problem.  I'm talking about "UH!  Alyssa get your finger out of your nose!"  I think she found it on accident.  She was sticking her finger in her mouth and then missed or something and once her finger was up her nose she looked at me like, 'uh, what's this?"  I laughed and probably shouldn't have because then she kept wanting to do it.  Yikes, I'm a bad mom. 

Then to make matters worse.  Today she was riding in the double stroller with Elliott, my friend Rebeccah's 1yr old, and she was attempting to feed him a cracker, but then decided instead to put her finger up his nose!  Wish I had pictures of that!

Playing With A Friend

I do have pictures of them playing together though.  Here they are holding hands and then waving to each other:

 

Elliott uses a pacifier when Alyssa saw him with something in his mouth she found something for her mouth.  She walked around with that ball putting it in and out of her mouth for a good 15 minutes!

We're also learning that boys are VERY different from girls.  They play with toys so much differently than girls!  I don't think Alyssa would have ever thought to try to get inside her walker. :)

I would first off like to apologize for those of you whom are receiving notice of my blog almost every day!  I don't know what's going on, but Luke is trying to figure it out.  So since my blog is being sent out I might as well try to write something new. :)

2 Weeks!

I'm now under the 2 week mark for the arrival of Evan Michael.  Yes, we've finally decided on a name...finally.  We've named him Evan after this guy who goes to our church and who is in our bible study and the middle name Michael is after my dad.  My dad was always glad he had girls because he didn't want our last name of Coco to be carried on, but we liked the idea and legacy of Michael carried on.  So here is a current picture of Me, Evan Michael and Alyssa:

                     

The church threw us a baby shower, which was very thoughtful, and one of the ladies made the cutest cake.  Here's a picture of that too:

Church Talk

Speaking of church.  Our pastor was out of town this week and so they asked a few people at the church to give a testimony or talk a little bit about how God is working in their lives and I was one of the ones they wanted to talk.  I was trying to convince Luke to do it with me, but he thought I should just do it.  I was kinda nervous, but I've spoken in front of lots of people before no problem.  Well so I get up there and I totally get all emotional talking about our transition from San Diego to Washington!  Uh! should have picked a different topic! I was actually feeling fine until one other lady was talking before me and started crying and it got me all emotional.  Uh! I hate these pregnant emotions (which is what I'm blaming it on).  Everyone said they really liked it despite my shakey voice, and I was actually surprised at how much people were laughing because I wasn't trying on purpose to be funny! lol Ah well, with them laughing it actually made me feel more confident. 

So I'm not sure if it's summer yet because today it was about 60 degrees and raining!

But what a better time to wipe away the cobwebs from my blog huh?

Apartment Lease

When I talked to the leasing manager a few weeks ago to try to get out of my lease she pretty much said that someone had to die.  So I began pondering, but alas there were no volunteers and apparently pets don't count.  I was pretty willing to kill a goldfish or reenact the water frog incident at my wedding.  hehe  BUT the good news is that she allowed me to change our lease date from December to October which was a blessing!  BECAUSE...

House!

We're buying a house!  Yup and if you couldn't tell I'm pretty excited about it.  We weren't really planning on buying anything, but we called up our realtor and he took us out one day and then whala - house.  He showed us about a dozen houses in our price range and they were all so tiny that we were thinking that we would just rent for a few years and then try again, but the very last house he showed us was seriously a diamond in the rough.  It was WAY out of the league of any of the other houses we had seen and so we pretty much jumped on the chance, well, but of course we attempted to bluff our way into the offer. :) We put in a really low offer the next day at like 6pm and then about 9:45pm our agent called us and said that they countered, but it was still such a really good deal that we took it.  So we bought a house at 9:45 at night - how crazy is that? 

The story behind our amazing deal is this:  The owner is also the agent for the house and she was attempting to "flip it" - like they do on T.V.  except for her contractor took way longer than she expected and she couldn't afford the payments anymore.  So just as she was about to go into foreclosure, she sold another house and paid it off and then was basically just trying to get rid of it, so we took full advantage of that.  The house was built in 1982, but it's fully remodeled and there are just a few little details that we'll have to finish up after we move in and I guess the biggest thing is that the yard needs to be landscaped.  So now we're just finishing up all the paperwork for the escrow process. 

Our house closes on August 28th...yup the same week our baby is due!  Yes, it'll be craziness, but fun and exciting craziness!  Plus both our moms are coming to help out with the baby and with the move, so that should make it way easier on us!  And Luke gets 4 weeks off (paid)!  Yeay, for awesome Microsoft paternity leave! I can't wait for that, I love hanging out with my husband!  I'm not sure if he's AS excited as I am, but I think he's looking forward to it too. hehe

Here are a few pictures of the inside of our house:

As you can tell Alyssa's favorite part of the house is the pantry. :)  Notice her bobo chin...she got that while planing with the kitchen cupboards here at our apartment.

And yes, that's my mom and cousin.  My cousin, Camila,  stayed with us for 11 days and my mom and dad came for 2 weekends in a row, so we were glad it worked out that the inspection on the house was during a time when they were all in town because it was fun to be able to show them our house.  For more pictures of our house see our smugmug pages:

http://foustfamily.smugmug.com/gallery/5497865_8y6jK#336303748_bMu62

http://foustfamily.smugmug.com/gallery/5451911_kxAMa#333293426_8hzDz

Aquarium

And speaking of my cousin's visit.  While she was here we took Alyssa to the Seattle Aquarium.  Alyssa thought it was "okay." She did have fun watching the sea otters and the yellow fish and touching the star fish.  Here are some pictures of our trip:

Oh and we found out the Alyssa and Camila have a lot in common...they both really enjoy naps!  hehe

So I just boldly stated to Luke and my parents "I think this was the best blueberry muffin that I've ever had!"  They gave me crazy faces, laughed and told me that I must just be hungry.  But seriously it was.  I tried to get my dad to side with me because he halved it with me, but he just gave me one of those crazy faces.  Then my mom said "It was from Starbucks at the airport and it's been in this brown bag squished in my luggage bag all day."  I don't care, it was the best blueberry muffin ever. 

I actually tried to make blueberry muffins from scratch last week.  It's just not the same.  Have you ever made blueberry muffins from scratch?  They taste weird.  Ironically they taste weird because of the fresh blueberries.  It was too real.   Luke loved them, but I was so disappointed.  I was hoping that the fresh berries would make the muffins even better than the box can, but it was sort of a toss up in looking for a recipe and I didn't know what I was going to get.  It was kinda like ordering strawberry lemonade at a restaurant.

I really enjoy fresh strawberry lemonade, NOT the kind made from a powder.  Sometimes restaurants serve the powder kind and try to pass it off as strawberry lemonade, but I can totally tell the difference and not just because the real kind usually has strawberry shavings in it.  It's like the difference of real fruit vs. strawberry candy.  Strawberry candy tastes nothing like real strawberries, so why is it named "strawberry?"  They should just call it "pink sugar candy." 

 

                  VS.

 

 

So anyway back to the muffin.  If anyone has a recipe for blueberry muffins that taste like the kind you get at a bakery OR even better the kind that you can get at Soupplantation (Christa can actually get pretty close at making those) then PU...LE...ZE share!  Because it hasn't quite hit summertime here so our oven is still in full time operation.

And speaking of recipe's I would love to have.  If anyone knows how to make strawberry lemonade (the real kind) OR the peach ice tea from Olive Garden then I would love to have those as well! 

So I'm going to try to get out of our apartment lease. 

Why?  Because I just feel so squished here and I might                go crazy if I have to live here for 6 more months. 

How?  I'm not exactly sure, but I have a few ideas.

First, I'm going to just inquire about how one would go about getting out of the lease.  I seem to remember the leasing agent saying that it was possible to get out of the lease without a penalty, but I don't remember exactly what the details were.

Then, if that doesn't work I'm totally going to play the Prego Card.  I'm going to state the facts that we're about to have another baby and I can't even fit another crib into our apartment without putting it in the middle of the living room and that we really need a three bedroom place to live when the new baby arrives. 

If that doesn't work I may have to revert to a formal complaint about how they are not holding up their end of the apartment lease by complaining about all the issues I have with this place. 

Such as:

Having to turn off all the lights and the T.V. to blow dry my hair so the power doesn't go out...which it still does consistently because I'm always forgetting.

Having to plunge the toilet once a week and just never knowing if the toilet's going to flush or need to be plunged.

Waking up at 3:30am when the Daddy Elephant jumps out of bed for work

Listening to the Elephants use the toilet from my kitchen table

Listing all of the appliances that have had to be replaced since we've lived here.

The list goes on and on, but I'll stop here because I hope not to have to use this list.

 

So wish me good luck...

So our friend Jake came to visit us this week.  He's the ideal houseguest because he's staying in a hotel. hehe  No really we did tell him he could stay with us, but he wanted to be close to all the touristy things, you know and be on vacation to the fullest (aka - sleeping in, etc). 

Yesterday we did the Microsoft tour and today we went to dinner at the Space Needle.  I'd have to say that I highly recommend it, it was way better than the view at the top because you have a clear window to look out of instead of looking through wires and such.  AND it's a rotating restaurant so you get to see the entire city while dining.  The service was pretty amazing and the food just as good, so it's worth the touristy price.   

         

But that's not why we don't have cable.

Before we went up in the Space Needle we were walking around the area down below which for San Diegans is similar to Bellmont park.  It has carnival rides a shop or two and is also next to the Experience Music Project building and the Seattle Science Center.  So as we're walking around this guy comes towards us and says to Alyssa "Hey little one, you're cute." AND then he says "Oh woah, another one on the way huh?  Wow, so I guess you guys don't have T.V. at your house?" and laughs as he walks away. 

Thanks random guy - that's too much information! lol 

In edition to the elephants that live upstairs and the car jackers who live across the way, we also have an intriguing neighbor that lives in the building next to us.  It's a girl who lives right in front of the parking lot and has 2 big corner picture windows facing the walkway from the parking lot. Anyone who parks their car and walks through the courtyard to their apartment, like we have to do, has a theatre viewing of her apartment - that is if the blinds are open which they are most of the time.  During the day there is not much to notice because although the blinds are open it's darker inside and you just mostly notice furniture or her cat sitting in the window, but in the evening when she has her lights on you can't help but notice what's going on as you walk from your car to your apartment. 

So when we get home after dark, Luke usually says "Well let's see what's going on in the Fishbowl tonight."  The usual things that go on in the fishbowl include the girl watching T.V. and sometimes eating dinner at her coffee table and sometimes hanging out with a guy or on the weekends sometimes there are several of her friends over, but nothing out of the ordinary. 

But the other night when we were returning from an evening out, Luke says to Alyssa "What do we have going on in the Fishbowl tonight?  Maybe some friends over?"  Then all at once we take a glance and then Luke says "Just walking to the kitchen with a chainsaw."  Then we both crack up laughing because there really was this girl, the girl who lives there, walking to the kitchen holding a chainsaw in the air.  So of course Luke continues to make chainsaw comments all the way home, "Yeah just taking my chainsaw to the kitchen for a snack." etc. It was the funniest thing.  What the heck is she doing with a chainsaw and at night none the less?! lol  

Elephants

Oh and for those of you following the elephant saga.  Last week I found peanut shells on the sidewalk and on the stairs leading up to their apartment.  How funny is that.  So I guess I picked a good name for them. 

My mom and grandma came to visit and help us celebrate Alyssa's birthday.  We had a mini party that included a 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 white cake with chocolate frosting that was "Alyssa Sized" and then a few cupcakes for the rest of us.

Here's a view of Alyssa's 1/2 white and 1/2 chocolate cake that I baked.  There was a minor fiasco in that I filled the cake pan with too much batter and it spilled over the pan into the oven.  We kinda freaked out when we smelt burning and I was glad it wasn't the actual cake that was burning.  So we opened the window which caused another fiasco.  All of a sudden I started sneezing like crazy and my nose started running and I was like what is going on.  We later realized that the light rain outside had stirred up the pollen and when we opened up the window to air out the burning smell it let in a lot of pollen and thus begun my allergy attack.  Well I guess it wasn't an attack per-se but I felt terrible all day because my allergy medicine has to be taken before the allergy "attack" is in full force or it doesn't work properly.  It was the worst allergy day for me - uh I hate Springtime.  But the show must go on right?! lol  Despite my allergy craziness I did manage to bake and decorate her cake.

We sat Alyssa on our table and set all of her presents around her.  She was able to reach into the bags and mostly pull out her presents which was pretty cool and she even liked opening up the cards.  And she seemed to enjoy all of the presents she was given as well...even the clothes (although she liked the tags on them the best).

Then it was time for the cake.  She wore the Princess Bib that my mom and dad had gotten her and you may recognize it from the pictures from her "First Cereal" photos. We lit her candle and sang Happy Birthday to her. 

                                  

Then we put the cake next to her on the table and right away she wanted to touch the candle.  But when we didn't let her touch it right away she cried.  So that was a bummer and we had to settle her down before we 'began again.' 

So then with the candle cooled down she was allowed to touch the cake.  She took a big touch, but then was like "uh - what is this on my hand?" 

 

I cut her a little piece and tried to get her to taste it, but after knowing that it was "sticky" she didn't even want to try it.  She didn't even want to try a polka dot sprinkle, but then when I had one she wanted to take it off my tongue.  Although it looks from the picture like she wanted me to lick her fingers.

 

 

Then Luke decided that he would give her a taste "Wedding Style" and so thus the chocolate face. :)  Then she started feeling tired and rubbed her nose and so then it got a little bit messier.  And then of course she got more icing on her hand and then the show was over.

                            

And so the birthday party ended with a nice warm bath and a happily ever after.

                Happy 1st Birthday Alyssa!

 

Well Alyssa has made it through the first year of her life.  Here are some highlights in case you missed them:

           

The first and last time she ever sucked her thumb

1 day old

 

 

 

The first thematic outfit she wore -4th of July

2 months old

 

 

 

 

 

First terrible family picture

3 months old

 

 

 

 

Best sad/crying picture

4 months old

 

 

 

 

Documentation of her foot and hand prints

4 1/2 months old

 

 

 

 

First time skinny dipping
(well almost)

and night swimming with the frogs

5 months old

 

 

All dressed up in her "Princess Bib" for her first taste of cereal.

Her reaction: "eh, it's okay"

5 1/2 months

 

 

When our floor cracked and flooded at our condo we drew our hand prints underneath the new flooring.  I free-hand drew Alyssa's because she didn't feel like participating. :)

6 months old

 

First and last sink bath given by grandma Linda (the other grandma Linda - not my mom- which by the way might be somewhat confusing - having two grandma Linda's...hmmm)

5 1/2 months

Alyssa's baby dedication at church.

She wore the same outfit that I was dedicated in - so cute.  I love the bonnet.

6  months

 

Alyssa's Halloween costume.  It's actually a dog costume because it was cuter and cheaper than some of the baby costumes. And it was more of a jacket so it was easy to put on and take off if she got too hot which was nice. :)

6 months

Attempting to eat her "Alyssa sized" pumpkin while sitting on the "Great Pumpkin."

6 1/2 months old

 

 

 

 

 

 

First 'mom made' costume! 

Dressed up as an Indian for Thanksgiving.

7 months

 

 

 

 

 

     

In awe of the screen saver with her mouth wide open - so funny!

7 1/2 months

 

 

 

Christmas Eve in her fancy Christmas Dress.

 

Christmas Morning Breakfast..mmm Rice Krispies

 

 

  

 

 

Opening her Big Gift - a Disney Princess Snow Globe that played music and flew snow.  She obviously thought it was the best gift ever.  Thanks grandpa Coco!

(We're also planning on giving it to her next year for Christmas! hehe)

8 months old

 

Alyssa talking to grandma Coco via webcam - she loves it, but wishes she could touch her! :) 

 

9 months

 

 

Oh so early! Eating breakfast after a good long night's sleep with crazy hair and crazy sleepy face.

10 months

 

 

 

Playing "Catch a Leprechaun"

St. Patrick's Day

11 months old

1st Bathing suit fashion show.  Trying to figure out which bathing suit to get.  We went with the third one, you know 'cause it was the most slimming...and it came with a built in skirt trim. :)

11 1/2 months old

Swimming in her "old" swimming suit with her swimming instructor. She loves the water, so it better be nice and sunny when we come to visit San Diego because we want to go swimming outside in the sun!

And now last, but not least a picture of her at 1 year old.

Yup, that's right.  For her birthday I scheduled her 1 year 'well baby' doctor check-up.  Luke said it was mean because it also meant she got her shots that day. But I have to say that she's a trooper and while she didn't exactly enjoy her shots it was a short lived sad cry and soon forgotten.

 

So birthday pictures on the next blog...stay tuned.