It's a Boy

I know it's been a while since we found out and everyone has how heard, our new sweet baby is a boy. After seeing the ultra sound pictures, he is proud to show that off! So many things have changed since I was pregnant with Alexander, one major thing being a gender revel party. They have been happening for a couple years now and I was really excited to be able to plan one for Josh, Alexander and myself, and I am so glad we did. At the ultra sound we asked them to write the gender on a note card we brought with us. I then took it to Safeway and asked them to look at the card and fill an appropriate ballon. Once filled they put it in a bag and covered it with tissue so I couldn't see it. Then later that night we had several friends come over, my parents Skyped in from Bend. Everyone picked a gender and we pulled the tissue off the bag. The excitement was so much that I don't think that anyone really cared what color the ballon was, we just all wanted to see it. Below are some pictures from the night. I took a great deal of time planning the decor and with the help of Shirleen from Danner and Soli, my ideas came life so perfectly.

Funny thing, we picked a name that is not even on this list

Here you picked up your ballet and a lithe sweet treat from the candy bar

Team Boy

Team Girl

The genders in the bag

Showing my parents on Skype

The proud winners!

We couldn't be more excited about our little baby boy on the way. He is very active and strong, frequently waking me up at night kicking and wiggling around in my tummy. After many nights of looking up names, watching names at the end of movies and going over and over 1000's of names, we finally found one we both love. We chose Asher Theron Zuniga. There is no reason or meaning behind naming him after anyone, we just loved the name and after using it for a while it really sounds perfect and we wouldn't want any other name.

Fun for Alexander

Since the last few months we have been focusing on what needs to happen when the baby arrives, and since I have been doing a lot of planning for the nursery, I wanted to do something for Alexander. He has been so excited about his little brother and I didn't want there to be any reason for him to start getting jealous, at least not this early. I know eventually they are both going to have to learn that if one brother gets something that doesn't mean they both do. But for now, I wanted to do something special for Alexander.

In looking for something fun to do for him, that doesn't cost a lot of money, an opportunity came to us from some friends at church. Alexander has been asking for a bunk bed for a while. Since we really didn't have a need for a bunk, we have been saying no. Well our friends from church have a son who had out grown a loft bed and were trying to find a home for it so there son could use a different bed. This was a HUGE blessing to us and was really exciting for Alexander. He has also been asking for a long time to paint his room red, since red is such a hard color we have said no, until now. After the loft bed came up, we found a bucket of red oops paint at Lowe's, so excited about it, Alexander spent his own allowance on it, with a promise that he would not only help paint the bed, but also assemble it. All this to say, we had a fun, work-filled, family project ahead of us. Below you will see three pictures. The first was the bed in our friends son's room, the second is Alexander's room before the bed, and the third is his bed after two days of sanding, painting and assembling. It turned out to be something we all enjoyed working on together.

The bed when we went to see it at our friends

Alexander's bed before

Alexander's bed now

It's a...

We had a fun party on Monday to announce the gender of our expectant baby. We have several friends over and my parents Skyped in from Bend to be a part of the fun. I worked very hard to not copy anything I had seen on line, but be more inspired than anything. We have several great pictures I will share once I get them on my computer, but for now you can see the big moment thanks to Brenda for videoing it for us.

Alexander hearing the heartbeat

One advantage to having an older child when a baby comes along is that he understands a lot more what is going on. Although he is being camera shy, and a bit silly, I LOVE this video. I wished I had caught the very first part of what he says but the video cut in a few words in. At the very beginning of the video he is say, "There's a baby in there, yay" Then he notices I am filming and the silliness begins.

Baby #2 due December 20, 2012

7-weeks

As everyone is quickly finding out I am pregnant with Zuniga baby #2! We are so excited and really looking forward to having another little Z-baby in our home. Alexander is almost 5 now and he is growing up way to fast, it is going to be an adjustment having another baby in the house.

Some of my favorite memories so far have been revolved around sharing the news, no one but my mom was expecting it, and watching Alexanders excitement about becoming a big brother. He has been asking for a baby brother for a long time, and even though he knows we can't choose, he is still hoping for a boy. He has also taken on the big brother roll really quick. He is already setting aside clothes that he has grown out of saying, "the baby can wear this now" and by moving rooms so the nursery can be closer to our room. It's hard to believe we are getting close to two months into the pregnancy. This new little one is already showing me that he/she will be it's own person by giving just a few different pregnancy symptoms than Alexander did.

No Dairy

Well it has finally happened to me. All these years of bragging about not having any allergies has finally bit me in the butt. Over the last few months I have been having stomach pain after eating. I went to the doctor to start tying to figure it out. After LOTS of blood test, and more still in the works, we have boiled it down to dairy. We are trying to figure out exactly what part of dairy it is, whether it's lactose and/or milk proteins like whey and casein. My doctor wants me to be so strict with it right now that I am not suppose to eat anything where any of these are any place on the ingredient list. Absolutely no cow or goat's milk products for me until my next appointment.

As I went through my cabinets last night putting large black X's through everything I couldn't eat, I found something very interesting. Some of the same things do and don't have dairy. For example, we have two brands of spaghetti sauce in our cabinet, one did and one didn't. So where gluten people have to watch for cross contamination, I have to watch ingredients of different brands. I am hoping that once my stomach heals I won't have to be so careful, but only time, and testing will tell. I guess for now it's Soy Chai latte's for me!!

New linen closet

In the almost 10 years Josh and I have been married we have never lived in a place that had a linen closet. Even our new house that I thought had everything I ever wanted, didn't have a linen closet. (I didn't realize it until we had already put an offer in). So on our list of fun home projects we put a new linen closet at the top of the list.

Over Christmas break Josh spent time researching tools and technique and went to work. We were able to get everything done between Christmas and New Years except the trim. Sadly the trim was not a common store bought style so we had to contact the builder and have them bring us out a few pieces so it would match.

It is so wonderful having a place to put blankets, sheets, towels, our portable AC, even the toilet paper!!! I am so excited about our new addition. So without further adieu...

New projects

It's not secret that Josh and I don't over decorate our home, in fact, I think we should try to branch out and add a little more. The truth is we both can't handle clutter and sometimes to many chotchkies give us that feeling. Well over the holiday break we did some work on the inside of the house. We built a linen closet, I cleaned and repainted almost all the trim, and we updated several pictures we had/wanted to hang up.

When we got married in 2002, we had a very limited budget. Our guest signing matte was the cheapest frame and matting Josh could find at the framing store and until yesterday, we still had engagement pictures instead of wedding pictures in the frame. We had intended to get a new frame and switch out the pictures as soon as we "got some money" we all know how that ends up. So this Christmas my in-laws gave me a gift certificate to Michael's. Not intending to use it for anything particular Josh and I found a frame that we really liked that was the exact size of our guest matte. So we picked it up and spent the evening reframing and choosing wedding photos to replace the engagement ones. Now the pictures I have of the before and after are not the best quality, but at least you can see the AMAZING transformation. What a difference just a little care and planning can make.

What we have had for 9.5 years

What we have now!! Isn't it beautiful?

New Years Resolution

This year I decided to do my first new years resolution. I have been thinking about it for months trying to think of the best one that would mean a lot to me and my family. After many ideas, I decided to land on one based on food.

When we were in Portugal I had nothing but time to cook and with none of the convinces of home I had a lot of learning to do. Since we have been back life had more for me to do than cook and I really miss it. I remember Josh coming home from class excited to see what I came up with that day and when I might not go back to the exact structure of my cooking over there, I am going to focus more on cooking at home so that we are not as tempted to eat out.

My first strategy for this resolution is meal planning. Josh has agreed to sit down with me at the start of each week and plan 3-4 meals that we would like to have durning the week. I am giving myself a budget amount each week to purchase all the food (this way we are not eating salmon the first couple weeks and hot dogs with mac and cheese the last couple).

My second strategy is to try and make multiple meals out of one main dish. For example, tonight when we had taco's I made some extra meat and tomorrow we are having taco salad. I have no desire to make the same type of food each time, like Italian or Mexican. I hope to mix it up each meal. But since this is my first week I wanted to take it slow and do something I felt comfortable with.

At some point I plan to ask for ideas. Josh really likes to try new things, at least once a week it seems, so I can only come up with so much before I need to search for what other ideas are out that.

So hear I go, my first New Years resolution is in full swing!!!