More Jakey pictures

Love his sweet little face!

 Most of these were taken by my fabulous friend Mia at Emmy Cube. A few by my Mom too.  Thank you!!

Fun at Nana and Grandpa's

At the beginning of March, Luke and I started staying with my parents for the final stretch of pregnancy and to have baby Jake delivered here with medical staff we know and trust.  Jon had to continue working in Bakersfield during the week, but he was able to have three day weekends and at least see us almost half of the week.  It was tough to be apart, but we managed to have lots of fun here in Modesto also.  Luke loves Nana and Grandpa, and gets a kick out of chasing the dog and cat around ALL day long.  Uncle Cory is also staying here in Modesto right now and Luke has had fun getting to know him better since they hadn't seen each other much before this past month.  We are closer to all of our family, so Grandma has had fun visiting us as well.

Here are some of the highlights of Luke's time here so far:

For some reason, he would literally run around for hours with this box on his head.

 There are tractors at a construction site across the street.  Every little boys dream!

Luke has really enjoyed having a backyard to play in.  It makes me really want to move into a house.  He's entertained for hours and hours out here.

 Helping Daddy work on the spa.

Drawing helicops with Uncle Cory.

His first popsicle.  He wasn't too sure about it.  

Playing stickers with Grandpa, and "driving" Grandpa's non-working porsche.

We took a few trips to the mall, and this fountain was definitely the highlight.  He ended up soaked, but he had so much fun.

And of course, relaxing with his iPad like the lucky little man that he is.

Making Valentine's

This year I decided it would be fun for us to send out Valentine's from Luke.  I've never really made cards before, but a friend of mine makes some lovely ones ( Alisha from Creations by Alisha Rose) so I thought we would try it and see how it went.  I found this little kit of Valentine type papers and stickers on Steals.com, and a trip to Michael's allowed us to get the rest of the goodies for the cards.

 He enjoyed playing with the glue sticks and coloring on the cards, but that was about all the attention span he had for this craft.  That's ok though, he can't love everything.  So the cards were mostly made by me, but it was so much fun to make them pretty!

Luke decided to take a break to fly Buzz Lightyear around and climb on Mommy.  Excuse my fresh out of bed look, we did this at like 6am one day.

He did color the back of each card and pick out a special Toy Story sticker for everyone though.

Here is the final result!

Luke's 2nd Birthday!

Luke turned 2 on January 25th.  It's seems so short and so fast that two years have passed.  I'm so blessed that I've gotten to spend almost every single minute of the two years with him.    For his Birthday we decided to head down to San Diego and invite all the grandparents to join us.  Nana & Grandpa, and Papa & Yia Yia were able to meet us down there.  Grandma wasn't able to join on this trip, but we will see her soon.

We spent a lot of time looking at airplanes and helicops, definitely the favorites of the little birthday boy.  San Diego had a lot to offer.  We went to the Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park, as well as the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier.  We had a blast at both locations.

We even took a little break for M&M's.

Our family photo off the edge of the Midway:

Then it was time to celebrate Luke's Birthday with ice cream cake and presents.  He's been very into Toy Story these last few months, so we kind of stuck with that theme.

It was nice to get away from Bakersfield for a little bit and celebrate with our little man.  It was probably our last big trip before Baby Jake is born as well.  Then we might have to take it easy for a few months, or just get him started on vacationing early!  Luckily, Luke has always been pretty good on vacations and likes seeing new places too.

Happy Birthday to our handsome little 2 year old Luke!

Belly photos

I am not one of those women who feels super cute when I'm pregnant and wants to take lots of pictures of the baby belly, but I know we need to have at least a few so that I can show Jake someday.  Luke loves to cuddle my belly all the time and he even talks to Baby Jake in there some of the time.

I was about 30 weeks pregnant in these shots.  Not too much longer till we get to cuddle and kiss him in the outside world!

Big Brother Luke and Baby Jake

We've been trying to prepare Luke for becoming a big brother.  He's not even quite 2 yet, but he is a pretty smart kid- so he knows something is up with my belly.  We got him a little baby brother doll, just to give him the general idea of some things we might be doing with the baby.  He points out babies all the time when we are out, and he even seems to like them!  Luke is such a sweet boy, so I know he will be a great big brother.  Most days he kisses and hugs my belly all on his own, and says "Hi Baby Jake."

We pulled out the infant carseat so I could get it cleaned up.  Luke immediately jumped in- I think he is a little big now though... Then we practiced putting the baby in and buckling him up.

This one was completely his idea.  He wanted baby brother doll to ride the bike with him.  He was even trying to sit him on the seat and teach him by himself.

This will be Baby Jake's going home from the hospital outfit.  I thought it was adorable.

And here is the cutest little face that I just can't wait to see.  Ok, I can wait 2.5 more months for him to bake, but then I can't wait to see him!

And his little baby feets all curled up.  For the half a second that he wasn't kicking me and moving around in there.

We can't wait to be the parents of two crazy little boys.  Chasing each other around, playing with some sort of ball all day long, playing race cars, and hopefully lots of cuddling will continue!

Brown Sugar Body Scrub gifts

This year I wanted to make something for my female friends and family that was fun and easy and girly.  I also wanted to make it so I could use it myself!  I love using the sugar and salt scrubs in the shower.  Through the magic of Pinterest, I learned that they could be pretty easy to just make at home as well.  It took a few tests of different types of oil and different smells. 

I liked the smell of coconut oil in them, but in the shower it really smelled awful.  It could be the pregnancy nose, but there was no way I was going to give that to people I like.

So it turned out that I just used pure glycerin and Vitamin E oil for the moisturizing part of the scrub.

Here is the final recipe:

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

4 Tablespoons Pure Glycerin (I found it at CVS)

2 Tablespoons Vitamin E oil (Trader Joe's)

2 Tablespoons salt (to preserve)

A few drops of Jasmine oil to your smell preference.  

I found the little scoops through Etsy.  Got the jars from the Container Store.  I found the free printable labels through this site.

I was pretty happy with the way they turned out, and I use mine in the shower almost every day.  Feels especially good as a foot scrub.  I like that it's natural and not full of the chemicals you might find in store bought varieties.  It was really simple and easy to tailor to your own smell preferences as well.