Houston with Amy and Abby

We are back from our trip to Houston where we had an awesome time with our friends and family. Traveling with the boys at this stage of pregnancy proved to be a bit of a challenge. They are awesome travelers but man, this mama was exhausted from all the traveling. I am so glad this is my last trip until my baby boy arrives in 2 months (let that simmer for a minute, wow).

My mom came with me on the trip as we were visiting one of her long time friend. We also took this opportunity to visit hubby's cousin and meet with Amy and Abby.

When Amy told me that she was going to be in Houston the same time as I was, I knew that a meeting had to be in order. I mean I have been following her blog since she started blogging about being engaged in 09. I feel like we've know each other for years. It definitely felt that way when we met. It was so nice and comfortable and fun.

Amy set up the play date at a local indoor play area, best move ever. She also invited other mommy friends with their toddlers, smart or what. My mom was smitten with Amy and her little Abby. She approved of the relationship and my future wedding plans for our kids :). She is funny like that my mommy.

When we got there, the kids needed some time to warm up. We took that opportunity to sneak in some pictures before they all got carried away

My mom and my boys with Abby

My mom, Amy and I with our little munchkins, I love this pic

We also got a pic with Amy's friends who brought their munchkins along for the ride

Then it was play time. In between chit chatting, we watched our kids play

Abby and Jbird was so fond of each other. My Jbird chasing Abby :)

Abby thought Jbird was a baby and she didn't want to let go of him, they were so cute together

Tman got a bit jealous and wanted to get in on the action, but most of the time he only cared about the slides. My Jbird is such a chilled baby, he just went with the flow

Abby started cying when we took Jbrid away from her (how sweet is this girl, yes you can have my son :))

The boys had a ball on this play date and so did the mamas

I am so glad that our trip to Houston coincided and I was able to meet Amy and Abby for the first time. There are definitely plenty of meetings in our future. Thanks for hanging out with us. It is so fun to meet bloggy friends in real life and they turn out better than you imagine they would :).

Family pictures

This year we decided to forego our traditional Fall family pictures since we were planning on doing maternity pictures in January. We decided instead to do an entire family photoshoot with the arrival of my niece and all, we wanted to update our 4 generations pictures.

I was bummed that my brother J was out of town and wouldn't be able to make it but that's ok since we plan on doing this again next Summer when our new baby is here. We went with the same color scheme and we ended up with some pretty good pictures.

We started by taking a family picture hoping that the boys would cooperate and we would get some good ones

4 generations and growing, I can't wait to add my newest baby to this picture next Summer

4 generations, how amazing right

We also got a few family pictures since we were here

My boys looking adorable

 My brother and his beautiful family, I really love this picture. My niece is the cutest, seriously

We attempted sibling pictures and Jbird was not having it

My other favorite picture, my mom and her granddaughter

I wish my brother J was here, this would have been the perfect picture of my mom with all her kids and grandkids. Good thing we are having  another photoshoot when my brother is back

One of my most favorite picture of the shoot is this pic of my brother and his daughter

Our family pictures were a great success. I am so looking forward to taking a whole family shot again next Summer. We might make this a yearly event while our family is growing, it would be so fun to see our family growing over the years.

Since the boys were dressed up and all, we went to the mall after the photoshoot to see Santa. Tman had been excited for days about it. He absolutely loved meeting Santa, he told him he wanted some trains for Christmas. Jbird on the other hand wanted nothing to do with good old St Nicholas.

Check out this gem, my boys with Santa, amazing

Yeah, we had a crazy full weekend but oh so worth it to capture all these awesome memories.

We are off to Houston tomorrow, woop woop. I am so excited for our trip because we not only get to meet family and friends but I also get to meet one of my favorite blogger in real life for the first time. Amy of Making Mrs Mauritz (http://themauritzfamily.blogspot.com/) is going to be there and we are going to hang out with her and her adorable Abby. I am so excited I can hardly wait.

Weekend fun - Friends Thanksgiving

Every year my friends and I host a Thanksgiving and a Christmas celebration. We usually make it happen the weekend following the main events so that it doesn't coincide with any family events.

This past weekend we had our Thanksgiving celebration and it was a great success. It was definitely a good times with great friends kind of event. I love that we make an attempt to all get together during the holiday season despite hectic schedules.

Not everyone could make it but there's always the Christmas celebration coming in a few weeks :). My friend HJ drove up from VA Beach so that she could be part of the festivities and she brought her new boyfriend so that he can meet everyone in the group. He definitely passed the test ;).

Jbird and his grandma, these two are slowly getting to know each other and getting along nicely

Me and my girls with Jbird, just a few weeks ago we were chilling in VA Beach sans Jbird of course

We decided that we should probably take advantage of the tree for our photo op

The food was so yummy. Everyone made a dish and it was tasty

Me and my BFF L and our youngest babies who are just 3 weeks apart. The story is that she needs to hurry up and get pregnant with baby #3 because both our kiddos are only a few months and a few weeks apart. We need to keep our tradition of having kids at the same time going :).

 It's time to eat, let's all dig in

When Jbird wasn't attached to my hip, he was attached to my hubby's hip :). Such a baby this little guy

Tman and his best bud E slowly becoming BFFs like their mothers

My mom made it on time to enjoy the food. She always makes an effort to come to our yearly get together so that she can catch up with the girls.

Tman and my hubby, this kid did not want to be part of any of our picture taking I tell you

Our attempt at a group picture before we all scarfed our faces down with the yummy food

I love these friends like family and I am so happy that we get to do these events as a family every year. It's so nice to see how much we've grown since we started this tradition more than a decade ago. Hope you all had a great weekend too.

Well hello third trimester

I am so happy and giddy with excitement right now friends. I can't believe that the third trimester with baby #3 is here. It's so surreal and awesome. In less than 3 months, we'll be holding our 3rd baby (God willing). Happy dance, giggles, and feeling of extreme happiness are overflowing over here. This is probably my favorite milestone of pregnancy.

I actually talked to my boss about maternity leave plans this past week and we are only 10 weeks away from maternity leave, wowzer. Considering how fast time goes during the holiday season, I know it won't be long before I am counting down the days until his arrival.

My glucose test came and went without any issues. Baby #3 is growing as he should and doing awesome in there. The belly doesn't seem that big but I am measuring right on target. I don't make big babies so it's no surprise. I am currently loving this belly and the baby growing inside :)

I am still exhausted all the time but that comes with the territory. I am also having a more difficult time carrying Jbird everywhere, dude that baby is 25lbs of delicious goodness and lately he's been attached to my hip from the moment I get home until he goes to bed. I don't want him to feel left out so I indulge but hopefully this season passes and he goes back to being an independent little boy

Tman is getting really excited. He felt the baby kick and now it's he's new addiction. All he wants to do is touch my belly to feel kicks. It is just so cute you don't even know. Jbird has no idea what is going on, or maybe he does and that's why he is so clingy.

I am so happy to be here, the 3rd trimester of our 4th pregnancy and hopefully 3rd baby. God is good, we continue to pray and hope that all goes well and come February, we bring our 3rd son home

In the morning before we took the belly pics, I was at home alone with both boys. Since Jbird has been super clingy and wants me to pick him up, I put my Ergo baby carrier to good use and put him on my back so that I could make pancakes for breakfast. How stereotypical is this, bare feet, pregnant with a baby on the back, a toddler running around cooking in the kitchen. I had to take a pic of this masterpiece as it is proof that I don't always look glamorous :).

"Children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them" Psalm 127 3-5

The Christmas tree is up

Our Christmas tree is finally up, YAY. Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year so I am always so eager to get things started. I couldn't wait to put the tree up. We had been busy the past few weeks so it totally got delayed beyond my normal timeline.

I wanted to get the boys involved and make it a fun family event as I do. Tman was all about it, Jbird not so much in the beginning then he got really into it. It was so much fun to watch.

So here we are starting our little expedition. Hubby was not really motivated because he wanted to watch football instead of taking care of the tree, men I tell you. I was able to convince him to get things done, good thing I am a pretty convincing person

My mom and grandma came over to hang out as they do every Sunday so this was definitely a family event. I love having my family nearby.

Working on the tree with my boys, Tman the helper, Jbird the destroyer and bean in the belly :).

Tman was really into it while all Jbird wanted to do was eat the ornaments

Jbird was fascinated by Tman in action

Jbird was stealing all the ornaments on the tree after Tman would put them up, lol

Tman's favorite part was probably putting the star on the tree

Hubby helped him and you should have seen the look on his face. Unfortunately, Jbird shook the tree and the star fell so we decided to forgo that until Christmas day. A destroyer that Jbird I tell you

  After all our work we were finally done. A family pic was in order of course :)

Tman got a special ornament from his grandma and was super excited about putting it on the tree

Jbird attempting to put his ornament on the tree too

After we got the tree up, it was time for advent calendar fun. Tman was so excited once he realized that there was chocolate under those doors

We allowed Tman to help Jbird open his advent calendar and let me tell you it was happy happy joy joy. The boys really loved the advent calendar and the treat under the door.

This year I really got my stuff together. I mean I got my Christmas card ordered by the first week of December. Dude, I am loving how organized I am with things this year. I really like how they turned out, now to put them all in the mail in a timely fashion

Well, my favorite time of the year is here and we are ready to get this party started :). I am so excited for this Christmas, the boys are so going to enjoy themselves and it is such a treat to watch them enjoy every little thing.

I am so happy that the tree is up, it finally feels festive around here and I am loving it. Are you putting a Christmas tree up this year? Any fun tradition you are starting with your family?