"Biiiiig tummy"

The other day Shani was changing Landon and without prompting he says to her "Biiiig tummy." Two words we've used plenty, but never together. Of course Shani laughed, gave him a look of surprise, and then reminded him that it's because the baby is in there.  Landon knows there is a baby in Shani's belly and will give her tummy kisses and rub it without us asking, but apparently it's starting to get BIG.  Shani feels like the belly has become big and can't believe we still have 2.5 months to go because that's a lot more growing for the belly (she means baby) to go through.  Here is a comparison of her pregnancy with Landon to where she is currently. 

29 weeks pregnant with Landon

29 weeks pregnant with Baby #2

Hiking in the Snow

It's mid-January, the weather is beautiful but cold, what could be better than going hiking...in the snow?  NOTHING! (but warmth :-)  Shani is feeling rather large with this pregnancy (John rolls his eyes ans says she's the same as the last time) and she told John that she wants to try to be better with her sweet tooth and to exercise more. She has been exercising much less than when she was pregnant with Landon.  John's response, "Let's go for a hike."  We hiked a lot during Landon's pregnancy and as most of you know, we love this activity together so Shani agreed.  John then adds, "How about in the snow?"  Not exactly what Shani had in mind, but John did just get some new snow boots and we've been wanting to give them a try.  So within an hour of waking up on a Sunday, we were getting packed up to go hiking up near Donner Pass.  John found us a well-traveled snow-shoeing trail making it easier to hike in since we don't have snow shoes (yet!).  Like we said, it was a beautiful, sunny day, but very cold.  The car registered the outside temperature as 17 degrees when we got there.  We got our day pass, bundled up, threw Landon on John's back and started our hike at Castle Peak rd.

We passed quite a few snow-shoers on the trail as well as cross-country skiers.  We couldn't figure out if they thought were were crazy because we were hiking in just boots or because we were hiking with a toddler on our back.  Crazy or not it was fun.  Landon was very content in the pack and rather enjoyed passing all the people.  The way up was nice with very little wind.  Although we passed some people we also felt isolated which was nice.  We hiked for about 45 minutes before we decided to turn-around and head back down.  Down was a different story.  Although it wasn't tough to hike, the wind, although very slight, was much more noticeable.  This bothered Landon the most.  He was not having it being on John's back.  We think his poor exposed face was feeling very cold and his hands were a bit chilled too despite his mittens.  Landon wanted to be held which we think is so he could then look backwards so the wind wasn't bothering him as much.  Shani ended up holding him for a bit before getting tired and then John hiked the whole way back holding Landon in his arms.  Back at the beginning of the trail we ran into another outdoors couple with a toddler on his dad's back.  Turns out they are from Rocklin, their son is 2 weeks younger than Landon, and they are expecting another child  only a couple weeks after us.  Pretty crazy!

Once we were back in the car Landon was much much happier.  He was warm and could now eat the sushi he kept asking for.  Although we will probably make sure to have Landon's face covered more, this is something we definitely want to do again soon.  John loves his new boots, Shani loved getting out and exercising, and together we had fun doing something as a family.  Keep checking back because I'm sure we'll have more hiking adventures before this next baby arrives!

Shani and Landon in their "under-layers"- yes we put a diaper on Lando before we left

Daddy carrying Landon back down

Wrapping up December and 2012

Christmas with Andy and Tori:

We’ve been blessed with another great babysitter whom Landon loves.  We had a mini Christmas dinner with him and his sweet girlfriend (Landon loves her too!).  They spoiled him rotten with a wooden train, cute book, dinosaur comb, and play pots/pans and accessories.  They also spoiled John with bottles of beer from Loomis Basin Brewing Company and Shani with a photo album of pictures of Landon dating back to the first day Andy started babysitting Landon.  We had a great time together and are very thankful for them!

Landon and Andy

Landon opening another one of his presents

Landon and Tori

Christmas with the Buhs family:

We got to celebrate a very relaxing Christmas with John’s side of the family a few days before Christmas.  With Landon’s naps being in the middle of the day, running from one family to the next was going to feel insane. This plan made things so much less stressful for the day of as well as a wonderful time hanging out together.  Landon got an awesome balance bike from his cousin (its a bike with no pedals).  He loved being pushed around the house on it.  We think he enlisted everyone’s help (including Morgan’s) to ride it.  He has a tad bit more growing to do before he can officially do it on his own as his little feet don't reach the ground yet, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to ride.  John smoked a ham that was amazing and he and Kim drank a good variety of different beers (including splitting a $20 for a 12oz bottle of Westvleteren XII (a Belgium beer that was recently shipped to the US for the first ever)).  We ended the night with homemade coconut milk candy cane ice cream, Yum! 

Landon and cousin Morgan

Christmas Eve:

We had a fun day together as a family.  There were no big plans for us so it was nice.  We took Landon to the park to ride his bike.  He was such a trooper considering he took a good spill.  He did get back on though!  Shani was a little bummed because Landon was starting to get a little sick and she didn’t want to miss Christmas Eve service.  John said he thought it would be fine to take him to big service for as long as he could last.  Well Landon made it through the whole service (minus 5 minutes while John took him out during the sermon).  It was a very fun service and a great way to celebrate together.  We then headed to the Folsom Lake Estates for our annual drive to see the luminaries and Christmas lights.  We were bad and let Landon sit on Shani’s lap since we go so slow through there.  Landon loved the lights and really enjoyed being out of his car seat to see them.  Since then he asks for us to “hold you” while we are driving and have to remind him that we stay in our seat while driving (we know, so confusing).

Big Boy

 
Riding a bike with Daddy's help

 

Riding a bike with Mommy's help

Christmas:

Besides the fact that Shani slept on the floor in Landon’s room for 2 hours before getting up (John’s snoring was driving her crazy--in his defense he has had a cold), Christmas started out great!  We sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus  then opened stockings and presents at our house before heading to Shani’s family's.  Landon was definitely more into unwrapping the presents but would get fixated on a present and didn’t want to move on (especially a Leap Frog house from his Grandma and Grandpa Mac).  Santa brought him a scooter that we should have had him open before the house as he sat on it for a second before going back to playing with the house. Since then he’s definitely enjoyed the scooter (the house continues to be a top toy as well).  We finished getting ready then drove to Nonni and Papa’s.  We had a very relaxing Christmas including a good nap (for all of us!).  Landon got a toy kitchen from Nonni and Papa which kept him occupied the entire day!  It was a very Merry Christmas!

Baby #2:

We haven’t updated much on our next little one on the way but only because we’ve been so busy running after Landon that we kind of forget we are pregnant with another one.  It also helps that Shani continues to feel great and the pregnancy hasn’t slowed her down.  We had an ultrasound a couple weeks ago and everything looked good.  Baby was head-down already just like Landon's (yes that’s what Shani thinks) was at this time.  The midwives are keeping the DVD for us so that Shani isn’t tempted to watch it and it continues to be a surprise like she wants.  John is still trying to find reasons why we should find out early, but none have been good enough yet.  We just had another midwife appointment and everything still looks great.  The baby’s heartrate is 144 bpm (another reason why Shani thinks it’s a boy), the baby seems to be head-down still, and Shani’s belly is growing right on scale (although she feels it’s much bigger).  It’s so weird to think that in 3.5 months we are going to meet this new one.  Most of the time we feel like it was yesterday that we were having Landon.  So crazy and so much fun!

Snow day:

We headed up to the snow with Nonni and Papa.  We didn’t have to go too far and found a great area to play. Landon loved playing in the snow although he wasn’t too fond of walking in it.  Then again it was hard for all of us to walk in it so no wonder he didn’t enjoy it.  He had fun sledding and using his shovel.  The weather was absolutely beautiful and a perfect day to go.  Landon had so much fun that it gives us the incentive to go up more this winter especially since we are so close.  John is hoping he can find a few good trails for us to go hiking in the snow which will also be great fun.

Goodbye 2012:

This has been a great year for our family!  We’ve been busier than heck, suffered a couple loses, but have also had many joys.  Landon has gone from a baby to a big boy this year and we’ve fallen more and more in love with him.  He brings us so much joy and has brought so much laughter and love to our lives.  It’s crazy to us that soon he will be 2!  We made a small list of goals for 2012 and only accomplished one (a family trip together) but it was by far the best one!  We’ll see what goals we make for this coming year and how many we are able to do, but no matter what we are lucky to have each other and be going through this life together.  2013 will bring some very big changes in our family and we look forward to another great year.  We hope all our friends and family had a good 2012 and we wish you a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

December 17th...What??

How in the world did it get to be mid-December already?  Can time just slow down for a bit?  As we lay in bed the other night the thought crossed our mind that our little boy is going to be 2 in 2 months.  Then John proceeded to say that 2 months after that we are going to have 2 kids.  Yes, you may feel this is something that should be "duh" but it gave us the "holy crap" feeling.  It's also weird to think that Christmas is next week!  For those of you that were thinking, yeah yeah time goes by fast, the thought of Christmas next week surprised you, didn't it?  We are very excited for Christmas since Landon loves everything we've shown him about Christmas so far.  He loved decorating the house (especially putting the nativity scene up in this room) and he loves the lights (both inside and out).  He did great with Santa which wasn't surprising as he's pretty good with strangers, but Shani was a tad nervous he would all of a sudden be shy.  It helped that he had his baby cousin with him just in case.  He's been loving the music at church as well as the Christmas music we play around the house.  This is definitely going to be a fun year!  

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Landon putting the star on the tree

Yes he did it by himself, but we did end up fixing it.

Papa and Landon sharing raisins

Landon and the big bear John got as a white elephant gift

Nonni and Papa and the grand-babies

Landon loves his baby cousin