Disney Adventure!

We had originally planned on taking a trip to Disneyland in October right before Grayson's birthday to take advantage of their under 3 is free policy, and to experience the park decorated for Halloween.

God had other plans, and instead we will be welcoming our sweet baby 2 in October!

We had to decide pretty quickly what to do about our plan, and decided that if we wanted to still get a trip in before Gray turns 3 and make the off-season we were going to have to book a trip like.... now. Which meant that this is now my second trip to Disney in the last three years while pregnant. The one and only trip before that was when I was seven. 

We booked our trip through Costco Travel and got a bunch of really great perks but not any real discount on tickets or hotel.

We were totally that family on the flight and I won't lie... this prego was giving the side eye to the Bloody Mary on the Southwest drink menu from the second we boarded the plane. 

We decided to stay at the Paradise Pier on the property and upgraded to a premium view room so that we would be able to see World Of Color from our room and I'm so glad we did! Having the option to do that took away the pressure of feeling like we had to see everything else at night, knowing we could just go back to the room if we needed to and still see a show. 

The room was also adorably decorated. 

The view from our room was amazing. You just can't beat that. 

  

We had our Extra Magic Hour in California Adventure on Wednesday morning and headed straight to Cars Land. Gray absolutely loves Cars and Lightning McQueen and it was so much fun to see him look around Radiator Springs and actually recognize what he was seeing. 

Almost immediately after we got off of our first ride, Mater passed us walking down the road and we took off running after him to be first in line for a picture. Gray wasn't so sure but agreed to take a picture with him, but not by himself. 

We spent the rest of the riding as many rides as we could, met Lighting McQueen and after a few tantrums and absolute refusals to get in the stroller, we went back to the hotel to swim for a bit and nap. 

Boys from a family of plumbers... 

We played in the toddler pool for a little while and then my tiny two year old decided that he needed to go on this water slide. 

via

And then actually did it. Twice. And he would have kept going but we had to shut it down before I had a panic attack. Insert wide eyed emoji here. Seriously. My kid is such a bad ass.

After naps we headed over to the Disneyland side to watch the parade and positively blew Gray's mind. Our cousins from Utah were in town and we met up with them for the parade and then met up with them later again that night for the electrical parade which was such a special part of the trip. Gray loved meeting his big cousins, especially Landon who is "so so so big" and he was absolutely amazed by seeing Mickey and all his favorite characters in the parades.

He decided on this trip all of a sudden that he hates riding in the stroller. Which is super inconvenient and led to us either carrying him or dragging him, or chasing him for 50 miles a day. So that was fun. No matter that I just dropped a bunch of money on a new stroller right before this trip. Toddlers don't care about that kind of stuff.

We spent the rest of our first day frantically passing out snacks to avoid a freak out and waiting in line for rides. Gray did such a good job being patient in line and melt downs were relatively few.

Saying good morning to Mickey's house! 

Our second morning we woke up and had breakfast and headed over to the Disney side for our extra magic hour. We rode a few rides in Fantasy Land and then waited by the gates at Toontown to get in early to meet Mickey! 

Gray was so excited and shy but totally gave the big guy a hug and it was everything I could have hoped for.

Gray waited so patiently the whole trip to get to ride the Dumbo train and he was so excited to finally get on. He loves Dumbo and watches it all the time. Because "it's about a train!" except not...

At the end of the second day we let Gray pick out a prize from the store and he picked a light saber just like his big cousin Lando has. 

We had such a good time and I'm so glad we were able to make this memory with him before we become a family of four.

A New Home and A New Baby!

Things are changing around here! We have been just a little bit busy.

On a random Wednesday in February I got a notification from Redfin on my phone and texted our Realtor before I even texted Nick. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the listing and could have cried with excitement. We made arrangements to see the house the very next day and we all fell in love before we even walked in the door. Our Realtor actually told us she wanted the house if we didn't. Ha!

The weekend of the open house was rainy and gloomy and football playoffs so we crossed our fingers that our competition would all stay at home. We got our offer prepared and wrote a little letter to the owners hoping they would think we were just so cute they couldn't possibly deny us. It worked! They accepted our offer and after a few short days of negotiations we had a contract on the house signed sat back to wait to close escrow.

Then, just a few weeks into escrow I had a funny feeling on a Friday morning while I was making breakfast for Gray. I took a pregnancy test and yet again couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the result. My doctor had originally told us that it was very unlikely that we would ever be able to get pregnant on our own without Clomid, and wrote me a 5 year prescription (which I never filled after the first dose that got us Gray).  I just didn't believe that my body would never be able to do what it's supposed to do and we had decided to go ahead on a prayer and see what happened. Anyway, here we are!

So, I find myself at 6:15am with a positive pregnancy test and a WHOLE entire day ahead of me that I'm going to have to keep this secret. I asked Gray if he wanted to be a big brother and he said "mmmm.. no sanks." Welp... this should be fun. Once I got to work I got online and ordered a Big Brother shirt from Target and picked it up on my way home and then picked up Gray from school and went to get dinner started before Nick could get home. I put the shirt on him and decided to just let Nick figure it out on his own. When he walked in the door, Gray yelled "Daddy! BABY!!" which didn't get a response. And then 5 minutes went by and nothing.... and finally I had to tell Grayson to show Daddy his shirt and Nick just started laughing and asked me if it was real. Real as can be, babe. Here we go!

Life Lately

I'm really behind on this post. It's been in my drafts for months but things have been a little crazy around here. We have settled in nicely to our temporary home. It was a little rough at first but we are feeling more and more comfortable everyday. It's tough taking your life that's been spread out through at 1,900sq foot home and condensing down to two bedrooms and a bathroom with minimal closet space. I bought up all the plastic bins and under the bed boxes at Target and slowly have found a space for everything... almost.

We finally closed escrow  and said goodbye to our sweet little home for the last time the weekend after Thanksgiving. The final days were chaotic and stressful to say the least. We made it a point to keep Grayson and away from the house which added another element of complication. It took Gray weeks after we moved to Napa to stop asking for home so the last thing we wanted was to bring him back to an empty house and confuse him more. We are so thankful for a smooth sale, even though it seemed to drag on forever with delay after delay.

We started November with a trip up to Oregon to visit my sister's family and my mom. She retired this year and made the move up to Oregon to be closed to my sister and her grandbabies. We absolutely love where they live. Gray and Nayeli had so much fun playing together and we got to love on our sweet new nephew Arlo.

On the last day of our trip, on the way to the airport, we received a call that brought the world crumbling down on top of us. We learned that Nick's mom was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. The following months were a whirlwind of doctors appointments, meetings with surgeons, a hospital stay, and many tears. We cancelled plans for Thanksgiving and arranged for a quiet holiday at home with just the immediate family. Almost four months later, she is doing amazingly well. She is in good spirits and has been such an inspiration to our entire family.We are hopeful for the future and doing everything we can to remain positive and to reflect that positivity back on to her. It's so important to remember how, in an instant life can change.

Its easy to get caught up in the inconveniences of every day life. It doesnt matter how messy life feels, or how long our commutes are, or how chaotic dinner time is. Because together, we have everything.

Catching Up - The Move and Settling In

It has been an absolutely crazy three weeks since we started our move. The house in in contract and we are scheduled to close escrow in two weeks. We are so thankful that this has been such a smooth process! We have a ton to do before we can shut that door for the very last time. I left my job {can I get a THANK YOU sweet baby Jesus!} and I have been able to devote most of my time to taking trips back and forth between Napa and San Ramon to pack and I've been playing a giant game of tetris with our two storage units. We have one last big weekend of packing and we will be done and out!

Grayson has settled in nicely to his new school. He had a little bit of a tough time at first and cried a lot for the first few weeks when I would drop him off. He's connected with his teachers and likes his new friends, and even has a sweet little girl crush. This morning when I was smothering him with a million kisses after I dressed him, he said "No Emma! No Emma, no kisses!" uhhh... insert wide eyed emoji here. Apparently Emma has been kissing him. Heaven help us.

This is Gray's new "smile" ha! 

He was also having a super tough time sleeping. Gray has always been such a strong sleeper and even as a newborn we never really had those new parent sleepless night stories to tell.. until now. He is very much a creature of habit and this move has thrown his routine into a tailspin and he is just having such a hard time adapting. We finally brought his crib from the old house and things are starting to get better. He absolutely refused to sleep in the Pack & Play that we originally had him set up in. He watched me put it together in his room and was jumping up and down to climb in. As soon as it was all set up he jumped in and lied down and pulled his covers up.  He kept saying "my night night!" Sweet baby.

We've been settling into our new hometown and are so in love with Napa. We had our first free weekend last weekend and were able to spend some good quality time together with no real obligations. We went to the farmers market Saturday morning and got all of the fixings for the most delicious freshest burgers. Sunday we woke up early and drove up to Yountville to go to the park and then stopped at the St. Helena Fire Department for their open house. Gray got to see the fire fighters and all of their trucks. While he napped we continued the drive up valley to Calistoga and stopped for lunch at a sweet little deli with a giant train table where G played. We don't do restaurants and this point and we were both so happy to have a meal out where we were actually able to sit and eat and talk.

Grayson loved playing with the chalk at the farmers market! 

We spent the rest of the weekend sitting and snacking on the deck, exploring the property and playing with the bunnies and chickens. 

We were originally hopeful that we would find a house before the holidays. We said for months prior to the move that if we were sleeping in an air mattress with boxes all around us and eating off of paper plates on Christmas that we would endlessly grateful. It is sinking in that it's just not going to happen for us and we are looking at waiting until January. There is just nothing on the market in our price range that we have been interested in.

We are so lucky to have a beautiful place to call home for the meantime. I've said it before but I'll say it again... Nick's parents are saints for letting us take over their weekend house and throw off their own routine and quite space with smudgy finger prints on the windows and toddler toys strewn everywhere. We've loved being able to spend weekends with them!

 This view out of the kitchen window isn't so bad either.

Happy Halloween! We are hoping that the rain stays away for the trick or treat tonight! 

Pumpkin Patching

One of my favorite things about this time of year is going to the pumpkin patch. I have such good memories as a kid of going every year and picking a pumpkin, playing in the hay maze, buying fresh apple cider, and of course taking pictures on the pumpkins. :) 

Grayson's grams has a little pumpkin patch in her garden and so he got to practice picking pumpkins last weekend. I picked up some fun Halloween books and we have been talking about pumpkins and kitties and bats for weeks. We told him we were going to go to the pumpkin patch on Sunday morning when he woke up and he was so excited! 

Our pumpkin patch has a fun little hay maze and Gray loved it and almost walked the whole thing by himself. When he gets tired he says "mama hug" "hug mama hug!" He is such a little stinker. How can you turn down such a sweet plea for a hug? Even if you know he just doesn't want to walk anymore... 

One of G's favorite things in the entire world right now are tractors. He is obsessed with any kind of construction equipment and we are always watching diggers and tractors and dump trucks on you tube and reading every book we can find about tractors. He was so excited to see all of the old tractors at the pumpkin patch.

When it was finally time to pick his pumpkin, Gray was kind of over the whole thing. It was starting to get hot and he just wanted to go down the slide some more and he kept saying "pukin no!" but we picked him one anyway.

On the way out we stopped by the baby animals and fed the goats some hay which G thought was hilarious and then decided that he didn't want to leave, parked himself right outside of the cage and watched for a while.

After the pumpkin patch we drove around for a couple hours while G napped to check out some neighborhoods and drive by some houses we might be interested in seeing. This whole house hunting thing is pretty fun, but we are so ready to find our new home. In the meantime, I can't think of a better place to get to drive around on a Sunday morning. Every minute that we are here I am thankful for this life and this new chapter we are starting!

First Weekend in Napa - Harvest

What better way to kick off our first weekend as official Napa residents than harvest? We lucked out with perfect cool, fall weather on Saturday. Usually harvest weekend is blazing hot and so uncomfortable, but not this year!

Grayson ate his body weight in Cab grapes. He loved that they are so sweet and so much smaller than regular table grapes. 

Before we picked, Gramps did the blessing of the grapes blew the conch shell to the North, South, East and West, a thank you for the blessing of a plentiful harvest. Ever seen Walk in the Clouds? 

We like to blast old school Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin from the Bose speaker while we work in the vineyard and destem the grapes. When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...... :) 

We picked and destemmed {by hand} over 300 pounds of grapes this year. A record harvest by almost 100 pounds! Gramps read off his list from years past, and we couldn't believe that our first harvest in 2010 only yielded 25 pounds of grapes.  This little vineyard has come a long way.

After dinner we soaked our feet in Vodka {to kill the germs, not soak up a buzz} and then started stomping. Grayson thought it was hilarious at first and then started yelling Aw Done! Aw Done!

The next morning we went back to the garden and picked pumpkins from Gram's pumpkin patch and played on the tire swing. After Grayson went down for his nap Nick and I went out to meet our Realtor and started our house hunt! We found a few pretty good ones. Hopefully we are not too far off from completing this crazy transition and will find the perfect new home soon. In the meantime we are counting our blessings that we have such a beautiful family home to live in, and are endlessly grateful to Nick's parents {Grams and Gramps} for sharing their space, their little piece of heaven with us until we find our new house.

Monday morning was Grayson's first day at his new school. We had a really tough time leaving his old school and cried many tears with his teachers the last few days that he was there. We miss all of the awesome staff and all of Gray's sweet little friends, but we know that he will make friends quickly here and eventually he will love them just as much. He cried at drop off the Monday morning and looked at me like I was crazy when I started to walk out the door. He was so happy and having fun when I picked him up and he told us that he had a good day. Until Tuesday... when I pulled in the parking lot and he realized where we were and started shouting NO! NO! NO! NO! before we could even get out of the car.

He's sleeping like complete crap... unless one of us sleeps in his room, which means that all of us are sleeping like complete crap and we're doing everything we can to keep him comfortable and on his regular routine. It's hard knowing that he is having a tough time with the transition and when he asks for his friends at his old school or asks for home it is enough to break my heart. Everyday will get a little bit better, and just as soon as he's used to living here, we will be moving into our new forever home and that is exciting to think about. Even if it means we start all of this over again.