Family of Four

So we gathered our family (that lives in town) over for Superbowl Sunday.  During halftime Brendan had Harper come into the living room and told everyone he was wearing a special short announcing the team Harper thought was going to win and took off his sweatshirt and this was his shirt:

So needless to say Harper will be a big brother come August 2013!  We have been telling Harper about being a big brother and he is really good with the question:
Us: "Harper-what are you going to be?"
Harper: "A big brother."
Us: "What does mommy have in her belly?"
Harper: "A baby boy."
Here is a video with him:

Needless to say we did not know the sex of the baby and Harper just came up with it being a boy;)

We had an ultrasound scheduled for the Tuesday after Superbowl.  We decided we were going to find out the sex of the baby this time, though the surprise with Harper was sooo fun!  My friend Jen convinced me to do a little surprise of our own with our parents and close friends.  So in the ultrasound we didn't have the tech tell us the sex, but had her write it on two pieces of paper for 2 envelopes.  She put the ultrasound pics of the gender in our envelope as well. We took the other envelope to a bakery and picked out a cake and had the salesperson go into the back and open the envelope and write in either pink or blue what it was and then cover it all up to take home.  So, at this point we did not know the gender either.  I picked up some pink and blue balloons and called my parents and 2 of my oldest and dearest friends over for champagne and cake.  We had the balloons tied to stools on the different sides of the counter and asked people to stand on the side they thought it would be.  Everyone except for Brendan's parents and me were on the girl side.  Then Brendan and I opened the cake and it read:

I was shocked and Andrea said I just started screaming and jumping up and down and made her do the same before she even saw the pink!  Then everyone was hugging and it was such a great way to celebrate and find out our "surprise".  I would have been happy either way since 2 brothers would be special, and so will brother and sister.  On my side of the family we  have 3 boy grandchildren and 1 girl grandchild and we have never had a baby girl grandchild (since Kaila was already older when she came into our family;) so I think it was pretty exciting for my mom and me (and my mom's sisters, they were screaming it's a girl when I called them).  There are lots of girls on Brendan's side and only 2 boys (6 girls and 2 boys) so she will have lots of girls to play with:)  Also it will be so fun since Kaila will be having her baby boy in May, so baby Hudson will be 3 months older than our baby girl.  Now we are teaching Harper that he will have a baby sister and he is very quick with that now.  He even talks to my tummy, though I don't think he really understands it all.

Here a few more pics:

Our official due date is August 14th, the same as my niece Eireann's birthday, which is funny since Harper was born on my niece Kaila's birthday:)  I am not looking foward to being very pregnant in the hot summer heat of Fresno, but luckily I have a pool and will be off work and also I will try to escape and visit Chris and family in Monterey:)

Christmas '12

Christmas came and went for us super fast this year.  We had been doing quite a bit of traveling in the previous months so it was nice to stay in town a bit.  A few days before Christmas we headed to the Tweedy Christmas celebration with lots of goodies, appetizers, dessert and lots of fun!  Harper loves it because there are lots of little cousins to play with.  Santa made a visit and all of the children sat on his lap to tell him what they wanted.  Of course Harper was really excited to see Santa and go up for a look but there was no way he was going to sit on his lap! Christmas Eve was spent at our house for our annual paella dinner with immediate family.  Christmas morning we did crepes at our house (since Erin and her clan were headed to Hawaii they decided to focus on packing:) with out parents as well.  It came out great for our first time!  We did a traditional Christmas dinner the next night at my parents house in Kingsburg and it was delicious:)  Harper really understood Christmas a lot more this year so it was exciting to share some traditions with him.  He had a real choo choo train under the train and every night he wanted to see it move and even the real smoke that came out.  Andrea gave him Elf on the Shelf and even though he is pretty young he loved it, he wanted to read that book every night before bed.  He ended up naming him Bruce (aka Batman) and would look for him every morning after he woke up.  We also did the 25 days of Christmas calendar.  He also was very happy to open his Santa gifts on Christmas morning, all Santa gifts in our house are wrapped in gold. 

 

Kickin' back after breakfast

 

 

Stocking stuffers

 

Drawing on a pad from Auntie Pat

 

New chair from Katie

 

Wagon from Santa

 

 

Being so sweet at Mimi's

For New Years we planned to go to the family cabin in Shaver.  Katie drove up from LA and we all left on the 30th to drive up to the cabin.  The day before we left Harper had some explosive diarrhea and then threw up later that evening at our neighbors, The Roses, luckily they have little kids too.  It was the 1st time Harper had ever thrown up and we thought it might just be from all the extra rich things he had been eating through the holidays.  We headed up the next day to Shaver (Harper seemed fine and slept fine).  When we got there Brendan was not feeling well and ended up in the back room all night with the same symptoms Harper had the previous day.  We are sad to say it ended up getting my father in law that evening at about 9 and then hit Katie a few hours later.  (All of this linked back to who had been around Harper Sat afternoon).  I laid in my bed praying for it to pass me over (Brendan tells people I put lamb's blood on my door;) but at about 2 in the morning it hit me too:(  So tough to take care of a sick toddler (because Harper ended up with massive d all evening long) and be violently sick yourself.  The rest of the family left at dawn the next morning to try and escape the plague, though Regan and Donna ended up with it as well.  I have come to find out it was the norovirus (which the new strain is soooooo contagious it is a wonder anyone escapes it).  It took a few days to really recover:(  We ended up watching marathon episodes of the Walking Dead (as Harper slept or napped) to pass the time.  We are now addicted along with Katie.  So needless to say our New Years was quite quiet as we lay in our beds trying to recover (we did end up coming back home by the eve of Jan 31 so we could be in the comfort of our own house.  Also luckily Harper did get some snow play time in before we all fell sick.

Getting ready for the snow

 

 

Finally recovered and feeling good!

 

Enjoying being "KING" on Epiphany Day

The weekend before I went back to work my good friend Jenny from high school got married at the Awhahnee in Yosemite.  It was soooo beautiful with all of the snow in the background.  We took Harper with us since we thought he could have some more snow play.  The ceremony was at the chapel and was very sweet.  Harper was trying to be a good boy and kept whispering (in his loud toddler voice-shhhh), it was cute and he wasn't too much of a distraction, so everyone said.  The reception was back at the hotel and was set up to overlook the snowy gardens.  Lots of yummy appetizers and drinks to start and then dinner was fabulous.  We brought the kindle with Dora loaded to keep Harper contained during dinner and it def worked!  He met some new people and made fast friends, especially with our table and also with Jenny's uncle Tom.  When it came time to dance Harper was the first one on the dance floor and was cracking everyone up with his moves.  He has not a shy bone in his body.  We had to hold him back during Jenny and Pat's first dance and he did not appreciate that.  At the very end he managed to get over to them and dance around them a little, I think it worked though and broke the ice so more people wanted to join in.  There were times he kept trying to get on his head and everyone thought he was trying to breakdance but he was attempting his somersaults from gym class I think.  He danced strong for about 6-8 songs and was sweating and turning red, then all of sudden the yawn happened and we knew it was bedtime!  Luckily we just had to go upstairs to our room, so nice:)  One of the cutest aspects to the wedding was the favors, purple mugs with our names written on them and little spoons attached, they had a hot beverage bar with cider, coffee, tea and hot cocoa with marshmallows!  The next morning we had breakfast in the beautiful dining room and then had some snow play outside.