Gobble 'til you wobble

All ready for the thanksgiving day festivities with her "gobble 'til you wobble" turkey onesie

Julia hanging out with her cousin Krystina

Spending time with Grandma Reed

Julia with Auntie Suz and Gigi

Julia's 1st Thanksgiving! We spent thanksgiving at Grandma & Grandpa Reed's house with the crew. We had a delicious meal with three turkeys... oven baked, smoked and fried - DELISH! Then we drove to LA for a belated thanksgiving over the weekend with another yummy meal at Nana & Papa's. We ate, played games, relaxed, and watched the Chargers win!
I have so very much to be thankful for... especially this year! We have our health, wonderful family and friends and most of all our little miracle. I am also incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be a stay at home mommy. I have been given the precious gift of being able to share in each and every new moment Julia experiences. We are LOVING our newest addition. She brings us so much joy and keeps us laughing constantly! God Bless!

Julia's Tree...

...courtesy of Auntie Suz!
The Love Bird comforter that goes with Julia's Nursery

Auntie Suzanne has been working away in Julia's nursery to finish her tree - it compliments Julia's Love Bird bedding. It turned out so beautiful! Thank you Auntie Suz for sharing your amazing talent with us in Julia's nursery. Julia loves it, she looks at all of the colors and shapes, and 'talks' to it! :) She painted the tree in the corner of the nursery where the glider is... so it has become Julia's reading tree.

Trip to South Carolina

Beautiful Charleston sunset
The Citadel

Julia with her Auntie Suz, Gigi, Nana & Papa at Auntie Suz's race

Andy's Citadel reunion was in early November. This was our first trip without our little girl... boy was it hard to leave her! I knew it was best for her... but SUPER hard for me!!! She had so much fun with her Nana & Duke. Papa and GiGi came down over the weekend to hang out with them and go to Auntie Suz's race. It was a special time for Julia to spend some quality time with her Nana.

As for Andy and I, despite both of us getting sick (along with others we stayed with); we had a great time in South Carolina (minus missing our little one terribly!) I really enjoyed seeing Charleston and the Citadel. It was beautiful! We stayed in a beach house in Charleston with some of Andy's closest friends and their wives...we had a great time catching up, eating, drinking, and playing a lot of bean bag toss (aka; 'cornhole'). We made a lot of great memories!

Naa naa naa naa naa naa naa naa BATGIRL!

I know I am repeating myself but, we are having so much fun with all of Julia's firsts! Halloween was no exception... my parents came down and we spent Halloween at the Lilly's with two sets of Grandparents and some of Julia's cousins and Aunt Annette & Uncle Wayne. It was a good time had by all! We spent most of the evening around the fire pit handing out candy to the trick or treaters. We took a picture of Bat Girl and Bat Boy before the festivites...

Julia's Baptism

Such a happy girl and wearing the dress mommy wore for her baptism
Godfather Uncle J, Daddy, Mommy, Julia, Deacon John & Godmother Auntie Suz

Julia and her Godparents

On Sunday October 18th Julia was baptized. We chose to have her baptized at St. Max, the church I grew up in and have Deacon John baptized her, which made it that much more special! Deacon John and Paula conducted a beautiful baptism at St. Max! Julia did great, she LOVED the warm water and was mesmerized by Deacon John. She payed close attention and even gave up some smiles! Julia had a lot of family and friends celebrate with her on her special day; mommy & daddy, her Godmother Auntie Suz, her Godfather Uncle J, Nana & Papa and GiGi. Also, Grandma & Grandpa Reed and Auntie Meg, Chloe and Britton all made a special trip from San Diego to LA for her big day! We love and appreciate you all!!!

Great Uncle Gary & Great Aunt Carol's Visit

Andy, Julia and I met up with Uncle Gary, Aunt Carol and Aunt Carol's cousin Debbie and her husband Russ while they were in town and had a great time! We had dinner at Sunset Bar & Grill in Del Mar; it was delish. Julia had such a good time - especially when she got to play with her Great Uncle Gary!

Julia's 1st pumpkin patch trip

Daddy & Julia at the pumpkin patch

Halloween candy outfit with black cat beenie...

Julia, Daddy & the llama in the petting zoo :)

Snuggling with mommy after her big pumpkin patch experience

We took Julia to the Del Mar Pumpkin Station to get our pumpkin this year! They had a lot of pumpkins to choose from, a petting zoo and a lot of other activities for her to enjoy once she gets older. :) Andy strapped on the BabyBjorn and bundled Julia up and walked around the pumpkin patch with her... it was so cute! She was decked out in her halloween candy outfit and black cat beenie. We are so excited to experience these first holidays with our baby girl!!!

More pictures from Andy's celebration...

ANDY'S SURPRISE PARTY - Celebration of Life

All ready to go to daddy's surprise party...

Some of the boys...

On September 9, 2009 Andy celebrated 10 years since his bone marrow transplant!!! So.... Julia and I threw daddy a surprise party! It was a beautiful day that we shared with family and friends. Among those were some from out of town, Andy's brother Kenny and wife Joanna along with their three boys made the trip down from Northern California to help us celebrate! Andy's friend from high school DK and his wife were also there from Utah to surprise Andy. He was so thrilled to spend the day with everyone. It was held at Aviara Community park in Carlsbad. The kids played on the playground and the big kids played horseshoes, lawn darts (jarts) and bocce ball. It was wonderful and relaxing!!

The day was so amazing, my husband - celebrating this incredible milestone; with many more to come! The birth of our daughter - 10 years in the making... literally! Life is so precious, and it's nice to be pleasantly reminded how blessed and fortunate we are! Thank you to those of you that we able to celebrate this lovely day with us and for those of you that were there in spirit! We love you all! :) More pictures to follow...

Our little girl is all SMILES!

For the past couple months Miss. Julia has been flashing us her gummy grin all of the time... except for the camera that is! I get the camera out and once I attempt to capture the adorable grin I actually capture 'post grin' - she is so stubborn (I don't know where she gets that from)! After much due diligence I got her on camera smilin'! I know Andy and I are bias but she's just so darn cute! She is all smiles when she wakes up in the morning! No fussing... she just looks around, plays with her hands and 'talks' to herself and Duke too if he's around!

Finally... Our family website is up & running!

I've been trying to get this site up and running for over a month now... but with our little Julia - time is of the essence! So here we are! Yesterday was Julia's 8 week milestone :) She is doing wonderful! We are so lucky to have such a good baby; we are definitely bias and believe that she is absolutely beautiful BUT on top of that she is so HAPPY and reminds me how lucky we are, each and every day!!!

~ The Birth of Our Little Miracle ~

Eight weeks ago, on Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 9:26am Miss. Julia Jean Reed graced us with her presence, weighing in at 8 pounds 4.5 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long! It was an AMAZING birthing experience. I am still in awe of it all. Andy and I did a lot of birth prep with Lamaze, child prep and hypnobirthing classes in hopes of having the most natural child birth we could. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the whole birthing process which in turn made me much more comfortable and empowered about what my body was capable of and what was about to occur to both my little girl and myself. I stared dilating 3 1/2 weeks prior to her delivery; I was almost 7 centimeters dilated when we arrived at the hospital after my water broke at 12:30am that Sunday. We arrived at the hospital at about 1:30am; Andy couldn't get me out of the house - I was walking all over the house not really believing 'this was it'... IT WAS TIME! I got Duke food and water, went outside with him, threw more 'just in case' things in my hospital bag that had been ready for weeks... finally Andy was like "Honey, you need to put on some clothes - we have to go to the hospital - Julia is coming whether your ready or not". I was ready, I was SO excited we were finally going to meet our baby! We were off, got to the hospital and settled in. We had fabulous nurses! We used all of the techniques we had been taught and focused on relaxing and breathing. Andy was my rock; he was the best coach and partner... he was so supportive and kept me focused! I wouldn't have been able to have done it without him. It reaffirmed what a great team we are! After several hours of significant contractions 3 minutes apart the nurse checked me and unfortunately my dilation had tightened, back to 5 centimeters. That was demotivating, but Andy helped get me back on track and helped me intensely focus on my relaxation techniques. It worked beautifully. Three hours later we were back up to 8 centimeters and about an hour and a half after that and a few scares (Julia dropped and the umbilical cord was around her neck) our little miracle entered the world! It was intense and powerful... the most miraculous experience of my life. Andy & I celebrated the birth of our daughter; a ten year process in the making!