Over the River and Through the Woods...

To grandmothers house we went!!
Every time I have tried to blog something has gone wrong and it hasn't posted so this blog is a little late.

A few weeks ago, I decided at the last minute to make a trip to my parents house (Now grandma and grandpa's). Since I was heading back to work soon, Mike was scheduled to work a 16 hour shift, and my parents hadn't seen Brandon since he was born I figured it was the best time to go visit them. So off we went!!

Brandon and I had a blast. Grandma and Grandpa were able to get in lots of snuggles!!



We spent Saturday shopping, going out to lunch and then to a Pampered Chef party at Bob and Cheryls where I was finally able to eat the infamous Bobcorn. Sunday we headed to Drake Park and took some pictures with my new camera. The only downside of the pictures is that 'Daddy' wasn't there to be in them. Here are some pictures of Brandon and me at Drake Park.





Since Daddy couldn't be in the pictures I made sure to get one at home


And here is one of my favorites because Brandon is looking at me (just ignore the fact that my eyes are half closed)


And we'll end with a happy baby picture and a family picture

Brandon James has arrived

So this is extremely late but time has truly escaped me lately and this is the first time I've even thought about blogging.

Brandon James Padilla was born January 16th weighing in at a whopping 7 pounds 11 ounces and 21 inches long. He was absolutely perfect. I woke up the morning of the 17th to find my water had broken. I called Mike and told him it was time to head to the hospital. We left for the hospital about 8:30 in the morning. As soon as we arrived at the hospital my first contraction hit and man oh man did it hurt!!!! Immediately my contractions were 2 minutes apart lasting a minute long. After about an hour of contractions, I broke down and asked for the epidural. I'm soooooo glad I did!!! It made the birthing experience much more enjoyable. After the epidural, the nurse came in to put a catheter in. When she went to do that, she had difficulties because Brandon's head was in the way. The doctor came in and said it was time to push!!! I pushed off and on for about 45 minutes and out came my beautiful baby boy!!!


Brandon had lots of visitors over the next week and we appreciate everyone who made the effort to come out and meet our baby boy.

A lot has happened since we brought our baby home. We have sort of adjusted to the lack of sleep. Mike went back to work after taking a whole month off, our baby now likes to play on his play mat and with rattles, he is smiling and starting to find his voice (other than crying) and coo's. The boy just melts my heart away. Here are a few pictures of him:

Anxiously waiting

Sorry for not blogging in awhile. Life isn't all that exciting on a day-to-day basis.
The last few months have been busy with the holidays coming, doctor appointments and just getting things ready for Brandon's arrival. I had 2 AMAZING baby showers! One with friends and family and the other with my church family. Mike and I are so incredibly blessed to have so many supportive and loving people around us and could not be more thankful!

Brandon's nursery is officially finished (for now). There are a few things I would like to get such as a dresser and changing table but all of that can wait until he's older and is actually sleeping in his room. The decorations are up, the clothes are washed, the blankets are organized and put away and his toys are in a toy basket.
We rearranged our bedroom last night and put his pack-n-play in our room. This turned into me cleaning out our closets and deep cleaning everything. I guess the whole nesting thing has started. So with that, I think everything is ready to go and Brandon just needs to make his appearance (yes there is still 3 weeks left but I'd be happy if he came early).

In the meantime while waiting for Brandon's arrival, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents house in Bend. It was a beautiful drive over the mountain! We left at 6 in the morning, loaded the dogs up and headed out. That will probably be the last time we'll want to get up and leave that early for an overnight trip. My brother, Matt, and his wife Jules, and their two adorable kids were at my parents house for most of Thanksgiving Day. It was nice spending time with the family, eating, laughing, watching football and seeing how our chocolate lab reacted around a 3 month old. Matt and Jules had to leave early and head back home. We left the Friday after Thanksgiving for Mike's brothers wedding festivities.

Mike and I were both in his brothers wedding, Mike was a groomsman and I was a bridesmaid. It was a lot of fun getting dressed up and being able to celebrate and be a part of Kevin and Heathers special day! It was a long but fun weekend.

As for Christmas, we didn't really celebrate. We did decorate the house and my parents came over on the 23rd and left early on the 24th. My mom cleaned my house, helped make some fudge and my dad took one of the dogs for a walk. It was nice having them over!!!!! :-) I definitely enjoyed spending time with my mom and I'm extremely thankful for her help on cleaning the house and putting things up on the walls. As for Christmas Day Mike worked an 8 hour shift so I spent the morning watching Christmas movies and made myself some cinnamon rolls. The afternoon I pretty much slept the day away and in the evening we went to Shari's for dinner. So exciting, I know... And that was our Christmas. It was quiet and relaxing.

I did, however, get Mike and myself a Christmas gift. Thanks to groupon we were able to get some pretty cheap Blazer tickets and will be heading to the Rose Quarter on Thursday. We have lower level seating, 2 hot dogs, 2 drinks, and will get 2 commemorative glasses at the game. It was a pretty sweet deal and I just couldn't pass it up.

So now that all of the exciting things such as baby showers, holidays, and weddings are over, I just have to wait patiently for this little boy of mine to arrive!!!!

Come on Brandon! Your mom and dad can't wait to meet you!!!!!!!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and have a very happy New Year!

Oh boy its a boy!!!

That's right! We are having a bouncin baby boy and couldn't be happier!!!!! We went in for our anatomy scan on September 2nd and all is well! He is growing at a perfect rate and he is very healthy! I don't seem to be getting much bigger in the belly but as long as he's growing and healthy then that's all that matters. The day after our appointment we decided to go do some shopping. :-)



We've decided to go with a monkey theme. We saw this stroller/carseat travel system and just couldn't resist!!



We were a little excited and bought our little boy his first outfits!


And here is his nursery so far! There is more to come but we did get a big chunk out of the way!!

All this baby stuff seems like our dogs have been a little forgotten so we headed off to the dog park. Abby had a BLAST playing in the pool! She was hopping up and down, splashing, and dunking her head in buckets.


And here are our pups! They sure do have some funny personalities.

Cleaning and Organizing

The last two weeks have been full of cleaning and organizing. I figured that while I'm going to be preparing one of our spare bedrooms for a baby's room that I might as well get the rest of the house organized. This seems to be a bigger task than I realized. I set out to Target to buy plastic tubs of all sizes to get my closets a little less cluttered. Let's just say I need more tubs!

Our guest room is all put together and mostly cleaned (again, I need a couple more tubs). We have a filing system finally set up! I've been trying to do that for months and just never got around to doing it. So I might be a tad lazy but that's about to change. As for the baby's room, we have a crib that is set up, a chair and a clean closet ready for lots and lots baby clothes!! We have a whole lot more to buy for the little ones room but we will save that for when we find out the gender (Sept. 2).

Mike and I went through both of our closets and ended up with 3 and a half garbage bags full of clothes we donated to Goodwill. About 90% of those clothes I haven't even worn more than once or twice. We also spent all of Saturday cleaning out the garage. We were able to take our old loveseat, a t.v, an end table, the clothes, and 2 boxes full of various items to Goodwill. The rest of the stuff in the garage either went into organized boxes or in the garbage. My garage looks good as new!! I can't believe how clean it is and I feel so much better about myself that it's all organized.

We have a long ways to go on our organization journey but have a pretty good chunk of it done! It's nice to know that things have a specific place and I can feel a little less cluttered. Next up is the kitchen. That's going to be a bigger task than I want to tackle but it needs to be done!

So what started out as getting one room ready for the baby has turned into getting our whole entire house cleaned out and organized. It feels wonderful and it's well overdue.

Back at it...

I know I have been totally sucking at this whole blogging thing for the last year but my life just hasn't been worth blogging about, until recently.

Most of you who read this already know but... We are having a baby!!!!! He/she is due in January and we couldn't be happier! It's been a fun and difficult year for us and this has been a true blessing to our lives. We will be finding out the gender September 2nd so stay tuned because I most definitely will be blogging about the anatomy scan results =)

As for other things going on in our lives, we did get a new puppy (thanks Desiree). She is a chocolate lab and is about 5 months old. Her name is Abby and she is quite a handful! She LOVES LOVES LOVES chewing on our other dog Kelly. Kelly is not a big fan of this new puppy but I'm sure with more time they will be the best of friends. Besides, they are both in for a rude awakening when the baby is born and realize they both have to share my lap. Abby thinks she's a lap dog... A really really big lap dog. As for Kelly... well, she would much rather play fetch.

The Legislative Session is now over so I finally have time for a life. This Session was pretty intense. The House of Representatives was tied at 30 Democrats and 30 Republicans while the Senate was close with 16 Democrats and 14 Republicans. It made for a long and rough Session. I'm glad to be back in the interim and able to take vacation time.

Mike and I decided not to use a whole lot of vacation time this summer and we'll be saving it for when the baby is born. However, we did take a week off to go enjoy some of our new toys. We bought 2 kayaks a couple of months ago and were dying to put them in the some of the High Lakes in Central Oregon. So, we set off to Bend for a week of "fun".

Our trip was a very very very wet one. Who knew it could be 45 degrees and pouring down rain in Bend 4 days in a row?!?! We decided to go kayaking anyway. We set out with my parents and their kayaks to Hosmer Lake and spent the afternoon freezing our butts off and soaked to the bone. Kayaking was followed by a picnic in the Jeep with the heaters on full blast. Although it was cold and wet, we still had a good time looking at all the massive fish sitting in the bottom of the lake. I don't think I've ever seen so many big trout grouped together like that. It was pretty amazing.

We ended up having to leave Bend a tad early. I caught a really bad cold (probably from wearing shorts in 45 degree weather and pouring down rain) and also Mike's brother came to visit from Montana and only had one day available to get together. I finally got to meet my brother-in-law and his wife! They are great people and I hope they come back for a visit soon!

Well, that's basically it for what's been going on in our lives for the past year. Not a whole lot to update on but I'm sure with a baby on the way I'll have a whole lot more interesting things to say in the future!

Holidays

Peppermint Mocha Creamer, Egg Nog and candy canes are in stores now and I couldn't be more excited! I love the holiday season! I have been listening to Christmas songs to and from work all week long. Mike and I have been drinking Egg Nog for at least the last month. With the holidays comes a time of joy and family.

This year for Thanksgiving Mike and I are having his family come to our house!! This is very exciting for me. I have always wanted to have my own home and have people over to MY house for the holidays. Family has always been important to me and by Thanksgiving Mike and I will be a married couple!!!! It will be our first married holiday with his family over to eat some good turkey, stuffing, potatoes and whatever else we will be having (the dinner list isn't complete yet).

My life couldn't be more happy. I'm happy with who I am, I am happy to have a fiance/soon to be husband in 2 weeks who loves me more than I could have ever imagined, his family being so supportive of us, my parents who are supportive and full of love!! =)