For Your Viewing Pleasure

Here are a few videos to brighten your day.

ABC's

Disney Princesses

Days of the Week


Caty's Silly Show

Pregnancy Update!

So I figured I better do a little updating on my pregnancy. Most of you are up to date, thanks to Facebook, but some might not be.

I will be 20 weeks this coming Tuesday (January 27th). We found out at our ultrasound, this past Wednesday, that we will be awaiting baby girl #2. We are thrilled and Caitlyn is SUPER exited about having a little sister. All along she's been saying she wants a sister, not a brother. During the ultrasound, she announced that she "hopes it's not a boy!" She got her wish. Having a second girl will make life for us somewhat easier, at least financially, since we have literally a TON of clothes. My parents are housing about 6-8 HUGE plastic storage tubes for us, that are filled with clothes that Caitlyn has been through. These are the ones that we never had to alter - those altered ones get passed onto the Mallinsons. We're set on clothes until the child is 2! Then once she is wearing clothes bigger in size than Caty, Caty will become to recipient of hand-me-downs. It all works out! And we've got the toy department covered as well! Although Caitlyn has decided that 2 of her most special dolls are just for her and that she'll share the other ones with the baby. Sounds like a plan to me.

We're planning on having the ultrasound done through the genetics department during the first week of March, which will be my 25th week. After week 24, it would be visible if the limbs were not growing as they should be. The chances of us having another child with dwarfism is slim, but still slightly higher than before. The odds are 1 in about 25,000 births, but with a second pregnancy following one dwarf child, the odds are .02% higher. We'll let everyone know the results of that ultrasound.

I'm finally starting to look a little pregnant now, although my maternity clothes (at least my shirts) are still a little too big to wear. I'm feeling good, but REALLY tired. I can thank Caty for that! :) So not much more news here, all's well in pregnancy land!

Sucking her thumb already - Maybe Caty can teach her how to suck on her arm
Cool picture of her legs
It's a girl!

Tag..... I'm It!

Here are the rules:

1. Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer. No cheating {cropping, editing, etc.}!

2. Select the 4th picture in the folder.

3. Explain the picture.

4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

Here's Caitlyn just before she turned 6 months. She never took a binky, just her arm. Yes, I said "her arm." She would suck on it when she needed comforting and to help her fall asleep. And she did indeed leave little hickeys there. She did this for quite some time; I want to say that she was was well over a year when she finally stopped. It was so cute and incredibly funny to watch. At least we never had to worry about leaving her arm behind! :) If you look REALLY closely, you can see a tiny tear rolling down her cheek.

So now it's your turn! I must now tag 4 friends to do the same and I choose

Melisa, Michelle, Emily and Destini (sorry if you've already been tagged: it's late and I didn't feel like checking all the other Tag I'm It Blogs)

Our trip to Reno, NV

New Years Day we headed up and over the Donner Pass to Reno, where Scott's dad (Grandpa) lives. Along the way we decided that we'd stop and play in the snow. Caty's only experience with snow was last year when we made the same drive. But that time we stopped at a gas station and she felt the snow - that's about it. So we had different plans this time around. My mom luckily had this snowsuit at home. The size of the suit is 6-9 months, but it fit almost perfect - a little snug in the behind, thanks to that achon butt. We didn't have snow boots for Caty, but since the outfit was for such a young age, it came with feet, so she just had socks on. She stayed so warm and dry, and love playing in the snow. Unfortunately the snow was so hard, we weren't able to make a "nice" snowman or make snow angels, but she had fun anyways. Enjoy the pictures!

Posing for mommy

Attempting to make a snowman

Here's what the result was

READY, AIM, FIRE!!

Caty and Daddy

Caty and myself

Watching the older kids tobogganing

Testing it out, not too sure about walking on this hard, slippery snow

Having FUN!!

We made an "ice"man instead with some big chunks we found

Our beautiful Sierra Nevada's

Reno had gotten some snow the day after Christmas and there was just enough left
for me to write her name in it

Playing Go Fish with Grandpa

We're hoping to get up to the family cabin, so Caty can experience playing in soft snow!

Christmas Day Part 2

After spending Christmas morning at home, we headed toward my parents. They live down in the Bay Area in Redwood City, which is about 30 minutes south of San Francisco. We arrived early in the afternoon and Caitlyn wanted to jump right in and open presents. She sure had enough there to open too!!

Caty and her Baby Center that my parents gave her

She loves it!

Opening presents

A new outfit for Caitlyn her Cabbage Patch - yes, we actually have a CP doll named Caitlyn - she's even blonde haired and brown eyes

Opening presents with Uncle Todd and Auntie Erin

It's a game called Polar Bear A-B-C's (it's really cute)

Caty with my parents and the bird house she painted for them (she painted most of the bird house, I had to help with a little bit)

Opening more presents from Uncle Todd and Auntie Erin

A new Princess Bed set!

Uncle Todd getting his practice in - they will be becoming parents mid-May, just 5 weeks before us!

Sitting with Uncle Todd
Caty, Daddy and Boo
Caty's snowsuit, which came in very handy on our trip to Reno - another post to follow - she looked like a little marshmallow
Caty, Uncle Todd and Auntie Erin

Caty and Uncle Todd

Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas morning at our house, just the three of us. Caitlyn slept in until 8:00 or so, which was great for all of us! She asked Santa for a Cash Register and he didn't let her down. On Christmas Eve we had left cookies and milk out for Santa and sprinkled some Reindeer food on the lawn, but in the morning that was the last thing Caty was thinking of. I don't even think that throughout the whole morning she inquired about the plate of cookies. We had a wonderful Christmas together and Caty even surprised us with a gift she made at school!

Enjoy!

Christmas Eve

Caitlyn was so into everything Christmas related this year, especially the decorated house! We have a neighborhood not too far from us, that goes ALL OUT!! So on Christmas Eve we headed over there and once we arrived we noticed that everyone else had the same plans! Unfortunately it was raining, although is Caty wasn't getting over a cold we would have gotten out of the car for a little while. But we stayed inside, where it was nice and warm and I snapped pictures through the open window. It was hilarious listening to Caty, as at each new house, she would say "OH MY GOODNESS!!" We heard that during the 30 minutes or so it took us to drive through - yes there were that many cars; bumper to bumper, going about 5 miles per hour. I'm thinking that we'll need to make this an annual Christmas Eve event, as fun was had by all!

You can visit a web site with a short description of the neighborhoods - Lights of the Valley - Rocklin and Antelope.

Enjoy the slideshow!

Leading Up To Christmas

Alright, so I know that I've REALLY slacked on updating my blog, but we've just been so busy lately. And being pregnant doesn't help much either - I'd rather be curled up in the living room, resting, than on here. But today is a new day - Caty is back at preschool - YIPPEE!!! So I've got some free time (which I've had over the past 2 weeks with Scott home, but this is UNINTERRUPTED free time) so I thought that I'd better get to work.

Just a few days before Christmas our leaves finally decided to all fall of the trees, so Scott and Caty did a massive amount of raking. Okay, so Scott did the raking and Caty playing in the leaves.

Helping out with the leaves

Going for a swim in them

Look how many I can hold!

Throwing them!

This is what happened after the leaves; crashed on the couch for naptime

On December 23rd Caty had a doctors appointment to recheck her ears, which about a month ago, had some fluid built up. So we had our appointment at Kaiser, and afterwards we "were" planning on heading to the mall to visit with Santa. However, luckily during her appointment a nurse came in and said Santa was in the lobby. We headed out to see him and thank goodness I had my camera with me. He even passed out presents to the kids - Caty got a Barbie Beach Car and a little penguin. This was so great because now we didn't have to head to the mall, wait over an hour in line, pay $20 to sit on his lap for 2 seconds and get a candy cane!!

Caty and Santa with her penguin

Caty getting her Barbie Beach Car

We were invited over to some friends house for dinner and cookie making. Here are Caty and Lauren decorating their cookies for Santa.