Sister Time

About 3 weeks ago, I was talking to my sister Laura on the phone.  I told her, "I miss you, I want you to visit sometime!"  Then, she said, "Actually, I don't know if this is too short of notice, but I was talking to Jason (her husband) about the possibility of the boys (she has 2 boys) and me visiting during their spring break."  Their spring break was only about 1 1/2 weeks away, but I assured her that wasn't too short of notice; she could come visit anytime!  Anyway, as it got closer to the time when they were going to visit, her husband Jason then offered to take that week off of work so that he could stay home with the boys and let Laura come by herself!  I've always dreamed of Laura being able to come by herself so that we could have lots of quality time together, but never thought of it actually happening.  That was so nice of him!  :)  Thanks to him, Laura got a nice relaxing vacation and I got to enjoy my sister all to myself for 5 days.  :)

Julia loved her right away.

The day before Laura came, I had Julia "finger/hand paint" a poster to hang up on Laura's door as a "Welcome Poster."  Julia's a pretty cautious person about some things, but paint doesn't seem to bother her as you can tell.  :)  Thankfully, this is a plastic table and a plastic chair that was easy to wipe off... 

Aunt Laura with Julia

The weather was nice when Laura was here, so we enjoyed letting Julia play outside.

Too bad this picture doesn't have audio.  Laura had a little rock that she would hold up in the air and then drop onto the cement.  Julia thought that was the funniest thing in the whole world and would giggle and giggle.  It was super cute!

Okay, so this apple pie LOOKS super yummy.  Too bad it didn't taste as good as it looks.  It was soupy inside.  I was so excited to try a bake my first apple pie.  I guess I will just have to find a different recipe.

Julia loved her Aunt Laura

We tried making our own "Iced Caramel Macchiatos" like you get at Starbucks.  I don't have an espresso machine, so we just made our coffee strong.  Here's all the ingredients we used and the end product.  They actually turned out pretty yummy.  Not as yummy as Starbucks though...

On Saturday morning when I took Laura to the airport, we stopped at a place called "Porto's Bakery" which is close to the aiport.  We shared a breakfast sandwich and a yummy cheese role. 

I miss you, Laura!  Thanks for visiting.

16 months old

So, I was at Wal-Mart the other day and couldn't resist buying these outfits for our new baby due in July... Yup, we're having a boy!  :)  The jungle pajama set was the only thing that wasn't on sale.  It was $7.  The other 4 were $1.00 each!  So, I was super excited to get 5 outfits for only $11.00.  My first purchase for our son...  :)  It's gonna be so much fun having a son!  I just started feeling him kick at 20 weeks.  The first time I felt him kick, Ethan was sitting on the couch with me, so I let him try to feel it too and he felt 2 kicks!  It was a special moment to be able to experience that together.  Since then, I have been feeling him more and more.  I have a feeling he will be more active in the womb than Julia was.

Our Julia is already 16 months old!  Now that she has started walking, it seems like she is taking off in so many other areas too.  She is starting to follow directions and loves "helping" me close the refigerator door or throw things away for me (I just have to watch her to make sure she doesn't throw things away that don't belong in the trash!)  :)  She is able to eat with a spoon and fork now without making too much of a mess.  She is babbling a lot and even tries mimicking many words we say say.  The only words she says super clear are: "Mamma" and "Dadda."  The other words she tries to say are "balloon" (brrrr), "cheese" (chhhhh), "banana" (nana), "dog" (doh), etc.  I know there's more words, I just can't think of them at the moment.  She loves hugging her teddy bears and dolls (and kissing them) and rocking them in her arms (such a girl!).  When I read her books that have dogs or cats in them, she loves kissing the dog or cat.  She also loves playing with her toy firetruck, police car, and bus.  She will be a good sister to a brother since she seems to like "boy" toys.  She makes the fire engine sound for all 3 (I'm trying to teach her that not all vehicles make a firetruck sound :))

Here's Julia with her daddy, hugging her teddy bear.

I love her smile (she only has 7 teech (4 on the top, 3 on the bottom).  But, her mollars on the bottom are getting ready to come out.

After the superbowl, a lady at Ralphs offered Julia this superbowl balloon for free.  She loved it so much (she loves balloons and can spot them anywhere we go!)

It is such a blessing having a backyard!  The weather is starting to warm up and Julia loves going outside.  We found this slide at a garage sale for $5.00!  She enjoys it.

I love it that she can walk now.  She loves walking around our yard and also enjoys playing with the rocks in the dirt.

It's so cute how she walks with her arms up for balance.

Sweet girl

We also got this car at a garage sale for $5.00.

Uncle Phil got to visit the night before Shepherd's Conference.

My friend Johanna had a baby recently.  It is so fun to hold her!

Johanna has 2 other kids, Naomi and Nehemiah.  Julia had fun playing with them at their house.

Johanna came with her 3 kids this week for a playdate.  The kids had fun together.  :)

Taking turns going down the slide

San Francisco and Family Visit

Ethan, Julia, and I got a much needed family vacation.  We went to San Francisco for 2 nights and then spent 2 nights at my parent's house and got to hang out with my brother Phil & Jaime and their 5 kids.  It was a quick trip but such a blessing.

Just a few days before our trip, Julia started walking!  She had been taking steps for a few weeks before that, but only when we tried to encourage her to and she was not quite confident enough to walk on her own.  Then, one day I noticed that she was starting to walk on her own.  I would be standing in the kitchen, and I would look up to see her walking across the living room all by herself or she would start walking toward me in the kitchen rather than crawling...  :)  Since then, she has really taken off and walks more than she crawls.  I love how she walks with her arms out to steady her.  It's so cute.  :)  Here's a video clip of her walking on Sunday at church when we were visiting my parents.

If you know Ethan and me well, you know that our vacations consist of going to many great restaurants!  Ethan does a lot of research beforehand on chowhound.com or other sites to find the best places to eat.  We have gone to San Francisco several times, so there are several restaurants that we love to go to.  We also like to try a few new restaurants each time we go.  Papalote is one of our favorites - great Mexican food.

We had to walk down (and up!) many steep hills.

Julia loved Thai food (we only gave her the mild dishes, of course!)

Julia all bundled up after dinner one night.

After dinner one night, we decided to go get ice cream at our favorite ice cream place, "Bi-Rite."  Usually, I'm pretty strict about her bedtime and don't want to be out late, but I relaxed.  So, even thought it was already past her bedtime, we went and got ice cream.  Then, decided it would be fun to walk back to our hotel rather than ride a bus.  This would be a LONG walk (more than an hour) but we thought it would be fun an relaxing and we hoped if we leaned her back in her stroller that she would fall asleep.  It took her awhile, but she finally fell asleep on the walk home and Ethan and I enjoyed the walk and the talk on the way home.  This is Julia in her stoller when we got back to the hotel.  I think it's cute how she has her legs crossed.  It our 20 week ultrasound of her, she had her legs crossed in the womb.  :)

Julia loved sitting in the chair while daddy spun it around.  :)

We think one of the best things about vacation is that Ethan gets to spend a lot of time with Julia.  She prefers to be held by me, but while on vacation that starts to change and she gets closer to daddy.  It's very sweet.

Usually Julia will only cuddle with me, but like I said, vacation is good.  Ethan loved it that she started cuddling with him.  It was so sweet!

Our family

We tried a new restaurant where we had the most delicous pizza. 

Riding the bus back to our hotel

This is how Julia sucks her thumb.  We think it's hilarious.  She sucks her right thumb and tucks her left hand inside her right hand.

After San Francisco we visited my parents and also Phil and Jaime's family.  I got to meet Matteus for the first time.  He is such a sweet boy.  They adopted him 4 months ago and he is such a good fit into their family that they feel like he's always been there.  He is about 10 months older than Julia. 

Here he is Matteus and Adam holding Julia's hand while they all played "Ring around the Rosy." We had to tell the kids not to pull Julia down when they came to the part, "We all fall down!" 

Matteus, Julia, Adam, and Georgia playing "Ring Around the Rosy"

Matteus, Adam, Georgia, and Julia playing with Mega Bloks

Me with Adam and Matteus

Grandpa and Julia

Phil holding the 2 toddler cousins on his lap

Ethan playing "Mastermind" with Ella, Annalee, and Jaime

Julia's big cousin, Ella, holding her

Grandma and Julia

Pastor Phil/Uncle Phil holding Julia

January

So, it's been awhile since I've posted.  I have been meaning to post some pictures for some time now, but never quite got around to it.  So, I'll just do a recap of this month through pictures.

First of all, we are so excited to announce that Julia is going to be a...

I am 15 weeks pregnant.  At the beginning I felt nauseous and exhausted.  But, I am getting more energy and feeling pretty good now, so I'm so thankful for that.  I am so thankful to be at home because when I was teaching during my last pregnancy, I was on my feet all day and didn't get to rest at all during the day.  This time around, I am able to rest when Julia takes naps and I think I feel so much better because of that. 

Julia and her little brother/sister will be 21 months apart.  I am due July 19th.  We are so excited! 

I am hoping to have a vbac rather than another c-section, and I found a doctor who is willing to try for this (many doctors or hospitals won't try anymore).  There is no guarantee that I will be able to have a vbac, but I'm just so happy to be given a chance since our local hospital won't.  We'll see what God's will is. 

I have a few ultrasound pictures I wanted to share.  At the ultrasound it was so exciting to see the baby's heart beating and to see his/her arms moving.  It is so amazing to see God's hand in forming such a tiny baby.  The baby was about 10 cm in the ultrasound at my 15 week ultrasound.  Wow!

This was my first glimpse of the baby at my first doctor appointment (13 weeks)

Side view (15 weeks)

Another side view (amazing!)

View of his/her face

Play Dates

I've had a few play dates with friends at my house.  My first was with Sarah.  Her son, Jonathan, is about a month older than Julia.  It was cute to see them together.

I had another friend, Elizabeth, and her daughter, Sophia. visit.  We took the "Bradley" birthing classes together before our babies came.  We actually delivered within 2 days of each other at the same hospital!  So, Julia is just 2 days older than Sophia.  We have gotten together a few times and it is so fun to see the girls together because they are both little.

The 4 of us

Sophia and Julia

Mandy's Baby Shower

My good friend, Mandy, is having twins!  (boys)  She and her husband live in Northern California, so I didn't think I would get to see her before the babies came.  But, they came down for the Truth and Life Conference at Master's a few weeks ago.  My friend, Joanna, asked Mandy if we could throw her a baby shower while she was here.  So, that was super fun to see her and celebrate with her! 

This picture makes me laugh because you can see the little kids running around.  There were more kids than ladies at the shower.  But, Joanna was super great about opening up her home to all of us.  They have an awesome backyard where the older kids played (and Hal, Mandy's husband, was so sweet to watch all the kids during the shower!).  It worked out great, and I'm so glad so many of Mandy's friends could come.

Me, Mandy, and Joanna

Mandy and her sister

Jen, Malachi, and Mandy

Mandy, Lori, and Annie

Kristina and Mandy

Ethan, me, Mandy, and Hal.  After the shower was over, Mandy and Hal were so sweet and treated Joanna & me (and our families) to Stonefire.

Visiting my sister with my parents

My parents drove down from Northern California and spent one night at our house.  The next day, I drove with my parents and Julia to visit my sister in Arizona.  Ethan was so sweet to let me and Julia leave him for 5 days.  We had such a good time. I love my family.  :)

Julia, already comfortable on my mom's lap.  She was drawn to my mom.  It was so sweet.  :)

Sisters

The "Layton" women

Sandy (Laura's dog) snuck into the picture

This is a blurry picture, but I like it because we spent a lot of time hanging out and talking on the couch.  We didn't watch any t.v. or movies the whole time we were there.  It was so relaxing and fun.

Aunt Laura with Julia

Julia LOVES dogs.  The funny thing is that Sandy was a little scared of Julia even though Julia was gentle with her.  By the end of the week Sandy was happy to lick her and loved the attention she got from Julia.

Awww...

Us ladies enjoyed cooking meals together 

 Grandpa enjoyed feeding Julia

 Jason was on a business trip while we were there which was sad because we didn't get to see him.  But, he was super sweet and sent Laura these chocolate covered strawberries from Edible Arrangments.  The box of chocolate dipped fruit was for us.  :)  We enjoyed eating it all!

Aunt Laura reading to Julia

Julia and her Grandpa

Julia playing the piano  :)

Micah playing with Julia

Micah played us some songs on his saxophone.  He's very good!

Julia is still not walking, but getting quite close.  She is able to take a few steps and is always quite proud of herself.

We played a few games while we were there

I love this picture of Julia.  Laura was playing with her in the backseat and Julia was giggling so much.  It was so cute!

Pictures of our House

I finally feel like we are settled into our house.  It has taken awhile to completely unpack and get things put away.  We love our house and know that God is so gracious to allow us to live here.

This is the first room you see when you walk through the front door.  It is where our couch & t.v. is as well as our formal dining table.

A view of the couches & t.v.

The people who lived here before us left those shelves on the wall.  They are from Pottery Barn and I love them!  So, I bought some frames and put family pictures up.

Our den which serves as a play room/office.  This is where I spend a lot of time with Julia.  I love it because it is right next to the kitchen so she can easily crawl back and forth (and I can keep an eye on her if I'm working in the kitchen).

Our kitchen

Our dining area next to the kitchen

Our patio in the back.  Some friends from our Bible Study gave us the patio set!

 Backyard

Stairs

Bonus Area at the top of the stairs.  We keep all our books, movies, and games here.

Washer & Dryer!  This was one of my favorite rooms when we first moved here since we didn't have a washer & dryer in our old apartment.  Also, it's upstairs which is a blessing.  :)

Our "Ebay Room" as we call it.  Ethan stores the dvds and bluerays that he is selling on the shelves.  Eventually, this will need to be cleared out to make room for the baby (probably move Julia to this room).

Julia's room.  It's right next to our room.

Our bedroom.