It is common knowledge now that we are expecting baby number two! We are ecstatic! The good news is that means I will have another adorable baby for us to play paparazzi and cuddle with. The bad news is you guys will have to put up with more pregnancy and kid nonsense from me on this blog.

  • I wrote this entry a while ago, and am just now posting it. The indentations will be things I'm adding now or that have changed, etc.
How We Found Out

 For several weeks I though I had developed a lactose intolerance, but after I started avoiding dairy like the plague, the stomach pains persisted. But once the fatigue set in, I started to wonder if I was pregnant. Initially I thought there was no way, and assumed it would just go away with time. We had just begun talking about when to start trying for another one, and had agreed that we were ready very very soon. From this point on, I have realized that if we even think the words 'new baby' or 'pregnancy', we can expect to be pregnant that instant. Because that is basically how it went-just like last time. Haha, but we are so so happy about it all. 

Due Date Information/Etc

Anywho, so about a week later I decided to take a test, and of course the little lines showed up right away and confirmed that we were indeed expecting. After a few nerve wracking things happened that week, we were told that we were about 5 weeks, but everything looked good and to come back in at 8. When I came back in at 8, the doctor checked and rechecked and said either we got your due date wrong, or this baby is having a huge growth spurt, because you are measuring at 10 weeks. After moving the due date up two weeks, we now have a due date of July 31st-definitely a bit sooner then we expected but I am happy because that means less time of being pregnant, and I will get to hold this little one in my arms sooner.

  • At this point I am about 18 weeks, and we are scheduled for an ultra sound on March 10th, hopefully to find out the gender. I have no guesses as to which it is, bc my mind changes to consistently-one minute I am sure its girl, the next I know its a boy. So I guess we will just have to see!

2nd Pregnancy vs. 1st Pregnancy

 So far, this pregnancy has been a cake walk [comparatively speaking of course]. I have my rough days-morning sickness is never fun [as the patrons at the temple and some restaurants found out...yikes], and of course its hard to be tired while chasing around a rambunctious little person-but I am counting my blessings, because seriously its been easy living when I think about last time. 


  • Since writing this, I would like to add [for my records sake] that while I still feel like this pregnancy is worlds easier so far, it is still completely different. I throw up a lot more then last time, and it doesn't seem to have stopped with the second trimester like before either. But I am learning to have more of a sense of humor about things. Like when you are throwing up so violently so often that you find yourself impressed when you simultaneously throw up, pee your pants, and have it come out your nose. Or when your dr. scolds you for losing a total of 13 lbs in this pregnancy so far now that your trying to gain weight [what to they expect when I am throwing up all the time haha?] Or you realize you have rock hard abs finally-of course its bc you have a baby in there. Boy, I am a real winner aren't I haha! Still, for some reason I don't feel as consistently terrible as last time, even with all these things so I will most certainly take it!
Family Reactions/Feelings 

As I said, while we are a little surprised at how soon its all happening, from the get go, Lester and I were excited and happy. My family and friends seem to feel the same-honestly, I think my family and the people I see often already knew by the time we told them bc I had probably thrown up in their presence by then. But they are all very kind and happy!

I talked about this a few posts ago, but Addy has been, and continues to be extremely good about it all. I go from looking at her to the sonogram at times and thinking how fun it is going to be for her to have a little sibling. She is such a wonderful girl, and she seems to find every possible way to enjoy life and make me and Lester smile. I know that if she can do that for us cold blooded adults, she will definitely love doing so for this wee one. And I am sure that this new one will bring its own individual, wonderful little personality to the mix-as it already has. I know some people think we are crazy-you can see it on their faces when they hear we are expecting, or they very rarely say it-but its only been a handful, and I find myself feeling worse for them that they can't, or won't understand.

We just find so much joy in our ever growing family-there are no words for it. These are the things Lester and I used to dream about, and we often look at each other and can't believe its a reality, and this is our wonderful real life. He is such a good husband and Dad, and this allows me to be able to do my best to be a better person as a whole. 

I can't imagine life being any sweeter then this-but I am happily looking forward to being proven wrong come summer time when are numbers increase :) Life truly is sweet.

And now, bc I am not a huge fan of picture less posts on my blog, a few ones of Addy:

We say 'smile for the camera!' and we get these poses:



She loves these Swedish clogs from Auntie Maya, Malia, Brianne and Uncle Matt. Its good practice for her trying to steal my heels all the time:



I can't wait till I have this new baby to post too many pictures of!
This year marks mine and Lester's and 8th year as Valentine's [our 4th one married]! Where has the time gone? In reality when I look at where we were then and where we are now I am very happy with the results.

This year we knew Lester would be working the day of but we still wanted it to be special. So Addy and I spent the month getting ready. Of course, this involved quite a bit of fingerpainting, stickers, gluing and baths on her part-and alot of scissors and running after her with cleaning supplies on mine haha. But it ended up being a lot of fun! We also read alot of the Valentines books my Mom had picked up from the library and learned about the importance of showing our love for each other daily. You know-the corny, but still true kind of stuff. When the holiday finally came we sent Daddy to work with homemade red velvet cupcakes w cream cheese frosting to share and a specially made card. We gave our family members and a few friends Valentines and some goodies, and then had a fancy schmancy dinner with my family, and Grandma Chandler. We ended the night face timing with Daddy.

Then on Saturday Lester and I got to go out on a breakfast date and do some shopping. As usual, he spoiled us girls with Valentines gifts and we got to get him some manly presents. It was all good fun, and we appreciated my parents willingness to watch her-especially as we realize these date opportunities will be more far and between once this little on joins our cast.

I guess just in reflecting on love on a larger scale, I think about the years we've had so far and feel so overwhelmed with gratitude for all I've been given. Lester has always been such a thoughtful boyfriend-he would get me and all my family members little candy grams for Valentines when we were in high school, and randomly leave flowers on my doorstep. For prom he made sure to get all my sisters corsages when he came to get me, just because. Now that we are married, he is still a good example of teaching Addy how to laugh and not take yourself too seriously, but still being serious about showing the people you love how you feel. I am sure he would be embarrassed to know I am writing this, but this is for my memory and my kids as well, so he will just have to suffer. My parents too have always been a wonderful example of true, enduring love and friendship and I'm grateful for that.

People always say that we shouldn't wait for Valentines day to show others you love them. I agree with that-there is always someone out there to be loved and we should always be striving to find them. But I am still grateful for this day to make not just our carisposo's feel special, but everyone all the wonderful people in our lives. I hope you have felt the love, as I have this month. Love to you all.

[my family with the Valentine's Addy made for them-she did the stickers, finger painting and gluing and Mommy helped with the rest]

[My Valentine's-some oldies, but goodies!]


We recently announced that we are having our second baby! I have been journaling about it personally [I want to try to make as many special moments and memories with this one as with Addy] and I will be posting more details specifically about just this little one and how we found out within the next few days. I will say how much JOY has filled our hearts with this news. We can't wait to meet this new child and get to know him/her's individual personality. We also can't wait to see how our family dynamics change, and to watch Addy and this baby interact and develop sibling relationships.

As far as Addy goes, we feel like she is already stepping into her new big sister shoes whether she knows it or not. When I came home with our first sonogram and showed it to her, she smiled, humored me and pretended like she knew what I was talking about, even though we all know she didn't haha. But she has at least learned that when using Mommy as a jungle gym, she should avoid my tummy. She also has taken a new love with a toy my parents got her for Christmas. It is a doll version of the Genie from the movie Aladdin. For the last few weeks, she has taken to spending an extensive amount of time 'mothering' him. She tries so hard to put a diaper on him, she puts him to sleep with blankets tucked in, she walks around the house patting his back singing him songs, and my favorite, kissing him. The best part is the super proud smile she gives me when she succeeds in these things-like 'look Mommy! I can be just like you, I'm a big girl now' I feel like if this isn't good practice for her new role as a big sister, I don't know what is.

Anways, like I said, more details on this new baby later and other fun stuff later.





[good old Grandpa with her Genie]






Happy Chinese New Year! Today Addy and I spent the day running errands, reading stories, baking together, and finishing up Valentines-we wanted to make sure we had everything done by the time my Mom got home because we knew she had some fun planned for us all in honor of today. She is so creative!

We had a lot of fun watching Mulan and participating in making dinner. Luke made orange chicken, Samantha and my mom made fried rice and my friend Chelsea and I made pot stickers. While we ate my Mom put on one of her favorite shows, and her inspiration for the nights activities-an episode of The Amazing Race Season 18 where they are in China. We each were randomly assigned a team, and we got to watch our characters do their best in different tasks. With a few of them, my Mom would pause the show and we had to do our own version of the task here at home. For example, on the show they had to search for all 12 of the Chinese zodiac signs on plaques, and then put them in order on a hanging ornament thing. So my Mom gave us about 2 minutes to do the same on a piece of paper. Luke kicked our butts and got 11 out of 12 correct! Chelsea was a close second with 10. In another task they had to use hammers to pound out a traditional Chinese candy. My amazing Mom then brought out 2 trays of homemade peanut brittle and we all had to race to hammer it into good chips the best and the fastest. Lets be real, my pieces were the best, but I have to admit that Chelsea did finish first haha.


In the end, we combined our own scores with the scores of the team who represented us on the show. Once again, Luke won hands down and got to enjoy his reward of some yummy Pocky snacks. Of course, he shared with us. We ended the festivities by reading about our zodiacs [I for example am a dragon.]

It was so fun and I am so glad we are here to enjoy it! A very Happy Chinese New Year to all of you!


Hooray, first post of a new year-sure its a little delayed, but we have been busy! Busy filling our times saying goodbye to our visiting family, and trying to get back to a routine. Easier said then done, am I right?

As I said, we were lucky enough to be able to spend new years with all the siblings and family. We weren't sure when this would be a possibility as time and age has spread us out, so we were loving every second of it. The two little ones enjoyed a lot of play time, and it is fun watching them be able to spend time interacting and growing up some together. We played a lot of games, and did the usual stuff-which was exactly what we wanted. New Years itself we spent at the Porter's before moving the party back to our house with Andy and Melody. It was low key, and lots and lots of fun.

After that everyone started to trickle out-Mariah and bf headed back to their destinations. Friends left too, and then last of all the Dobbins family headed back to Utah. Its amazing how even with this many people still living here, the house seemed so much quieter. We are missing everyone, but that is life and we are going to enjoy it as best we can!

Now that everyone is back to school and work, it is just Addy and I most days. Although I enjoyed everyone being home, I will admit that I love being able to have some one on one time with my girl. We've been able to practice colors by painting with dyed pudding, and gotten back to our numbers and letters by doing our reading. We've had a few play dates, and gone on some walks and to the park and stuff.

I often find myself living the balance struggle, of feeling like when I am nailing motherhood, the chores are being neglected a little, or visa versa. But still-somehow everything manages to get pretty well done and I am finding satisfaction in that.

I think sometimes maybe people take their life experiences and apply them to others; for example, they think 'Oh I was so miserable or so happy when such and such thing happened in my life-they must be having the same experience.' Like the fact that we are living here with my family-so many people seem to have had negative experiences living with their parents after marriage, and they think that no matter what we say, it must be horrible and we are just putting on a nice face.

The thing is, I know its only been about 6 months, but they couldn't be more wrong. Lester and I are sincerely loving living here with my family, and they seem to be enjoying us being here as well. This is such a stark difference to how I was feeling this time last year in this post.

Like I said there, I think 2012 was a time of challenges, difficulties, break downs and a lot teaching moments. It was the year where the tide of my life ebbed more then ever before. But as I hoped when I blogged last year, in 2013 I experienced the peace, reassurance, blessings and happiness that came as a result of that. The tide of my life truly flowed full of the rewards that came through endurance, hard work and maintaining hope.

I don't know whether this year is going to be an ebb or a flow. I hope it is both. But at least right now, I know that I have all the tools I need to ride the tide no matter what it brings and come out the better for it. So far so good though-Lester has a job he is loving, with a schedule we are all loving, Addy and I have time just the two of us, but lots of friends and family as well. We have places to go, and people we love to see close by. We have several things to look forward to on our calendar this coming year-vacations, life events, etc. So even if there are hard times-at least we know for a fact there will be good ones to.

So I guess here is to a new year-to 2014 and all that it will bring, both the foreseen and the unexpected. I am ready to receive it all. Hopes and good wishes for all of you as well in this new year!




















This is going to be a quick catch up post, bc Christmas is over but I haven't had time to log all these fun memories in yet.

Among some of the fun Christmas activities we've enjoyed recently, some favorite were ice skating and checking out the decorations at Union Square and Embarcadaro. My siblings had never ice skated before and it was fun watching them make their way very slowly off the wall and onto the center of the ice.









We also have really enjoyed our ward parties, both in our ward and my in laws ward. In the Serramonte ward, they went all out with the food, decorations, presents and even photography so that was fun.


We were also really able to get into the giving spirit of Christmas this year. We have had so much fun picking out presents and shopping for everyone this year. We even got Addy in on the experience, by having her help decorate. I wanted her to be able to participate, even if she didn't fully get it, and she had a lot of fun finger painting, coloring and putting stickers on the presents we got. I loved that we were able to truly say the gifts were from all of us this way.







We went on a few walks, to the beaches and parks, which is what I am used to for Christmas time. That has been fun.



We of course went overboard on the baking, with cookies of every variety, frosting, cupcakes etc. I attempted my annual Christmas chocolate croissants this year, and ironically, I followed the instructions better this time, but they didn't turn out as perfectly. Still, I like to do it because its something I can give with my own time and effort, which is what Christmas is all about. Giving your all, as the sweet Christ child did. We also did the usual story and scripture reading, cuddling and playing.




We celebrated my sister's birthday, with cake, ice cream and lots of dancing. Addy has quite the moves, and Sam had a good day which is what we wanted.



All of these have become Christmas time traditions for us, whether on purpose or on accident, and we have loved every second of it. Now, we are looking forward to Hillary and family to come visit, and to starting a new year strong. Hooray!


Powered by Blogger.

The Pineda Family

The Pineda Family

Archives