Family Fun

My family came down to visit this past weekend to belatedly celebrate my mom's birthday. She had a four day weekend for the Presidents Day holidays so the whole family came down to soak up some of our warm weather. We had a lot of fun, ate out at some great places, took the dogs to the beach at the Trump Gold Course and spent our Valentines day with 2/$25 tickets to Knotts Berry Farm. Too bad I didn't bring my camera to any of those things! We had a great time and are always sad to see them go. Here are my only pictures of the weekend off of my phone:

Dave amongst the Snoopys. (I think he was trying to scare my mom!)

Sarah and I enjoying the pop guns.

Thanks for coming to visit us! We love you and miss you already and our house is WAY too quiet now!

Colorado Fun

This past weekend, 10 of our close friends flew to Denver to visit the Blankenships! The Blankenships moved to Colorado six months ago and bought a magnificent house just outside of Denver. They welcomed us into their home, fed us yummy meals and entertained us for three days. We had so much fun and absolutely fell in love with Colorado!

Here is the whole group (plus a few extras) at the Blankenships annual Super Bowl party!

Adam and Dave hamming it up in the kitchen.

Me, Lacey and Angela exploring the Southlands Mall.

Dave and I at the ski resort.

The whole group skied on Saturday but still kept me company in the lodge.

Thanks to the Blankenships for a great trip to Colorado! We enjoyed watching the Saints win while eating our very first King Cake and sleeping in Adam's "Man Cave". We're already planning our next trip to Denver!

It's A Boy!

What are little boys made of?

"Snips and snails and puppy dog tails,

That's what little boys are made of!"

We went in for our elective sonogram on Saturday and they told us we are having a BOY! It was a pretty neat place in Redondo Beach. The room was large enough that we could have invited our entire families to come and find out the news with us and even watch the live sonogram on a flat screen tv on the wall. With there being a chance that we wouldn't find out and both of our families being from out of town, Dave and I went in by ourselves with the promises that we would call immediately with any news. The tech started looking around and figured it out pretty quickly, but our little guy was not completely cooperating for the picture taking process. He was hanging out pretty low and upside down! She asked us to walk around, have some lunch and drink some liquids and then come back. We came back with full bellies (and a very full bladder!) ready to take some good shots! She definitively said that we were having a boy and showed us some great views on the screen. We're still having a bit of hard time finding them again because it all just looks like blurry white blobs to us, but we just have to trust the professionals! We left with a handful of pictures in a bright blue bag and the knowledge that in five short months we'll be welcoming a little boy into our home.

I promise to post some more exciting things soon, but these pictures are just so amazing to us right now. This is not one of the ones with the view of our little guy's parts, but this is a cuter picture! He sure is getting big!

Ultrasound #2

On January 5th we got to go in for our second ultrasound. It was pretty amazing to see what a difference a month made in the size and development of our baby. Dave came with me to the appointment and we were both shocked by how big it was! The pictures don't really do it justice but when we saw it on the screen it was moving all around and Dave swears he saw it wave at us. (He also swears it was a very masculine wave, but we'll have to wait and see about that!) These brief glimpses into our baby's little world are so miraculous and help us to see the amazing power of God in this process. It is also special because I've had a pretty easy first three months so I don't always "feel" pregnant. I'm not complaining, mind you, I appreciate the fact that besides being exhausted I'm feeling pretty great but it's neat to go into these appointments and see that there really is something happening inside my body. So for now these little peeks are how we're experiencing what is soon to come!

On a side note, we found a place here in Redondo Beach that will do a gender check 3D sonogram at 14 weeks! That milestone happens for us this Saturday! We have an appointment at noon to see what we can see. It seems a little early to me, but they offer as many free trips back until we find out if we can't tell this first try. We'll see... I guess we could know what we're having by Saturday!

We're Pregnant!!!

That's right! The Lockridges are expecting a little Lockridge in the end of July.

We found out the good news the during our Thanksgiving trip up North. After traveling from Dave's parents house to my parents house, I ran upstairs to take a pregnancy test and sure enough it said "PREGNANT" instantly. I calmly called to Dave and asked him to come upstairs, which he protested a bit for my lack of reasons, then he entered the bathroom and in complete shock asked, "Whose is that?!" In hindsight, I could've come up with a better way to tell my husband that our lives are about to change in a big (but GREAT) way but then I wouldn't have his priceless reaction! We managed to keep the good news a secret until we told both of our families over our Christmas vacation.

We pulled a few strings and got into the doctor before Christmas so we could see our little baby before going home. Here is baby Lockridge's first picture at about 7 weeks.

We slyly wrangled a dinner with both sets of parents the Sunday before Christmas. This is the restaurant they met at right after Dave and I got engaged (in 2006) to celebrate. We thought it was appropriate to go to the same place to announce our news.

The two happy Grandmas!

We're so excited and are trying to catch up on all the great books that people have loaned us. Stay tuned, we'll find out if baby Lockridge is a girl or a boy in the end of next month!

Snow Trips

After Christmas we drove to Yosemite with Megan's family. We saw some snow, had lunch at the Ahwanhee hotel and enjoyed seeing this beautiful place in all of its winter glory. Can't wait to go back this summer and enjoy some of the hiking trails and bike paths!

Then we went up to North Tahoe to celebrate the New Year! About 16 of our good friends from LA met up at our friend Tim's cabin and we played a lot of games, ate some amazing food and skied. (And I need to mention that this cabin is a lot less "cabin" and a lot more beautiful house nestled up to a golf course covered in snow. WOW!) Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures with anybody in them but I promise that we had a ton of fun. Dave tried snowboarding for the first time and enjoyed himself. We both stayed at the cabin the second day and Dave needed to get out some energy so he spent most of the day building an elaborate snow fort on the front porch. Here are some examples of his architectural skills:

He constructed chairs and cup holders and decorated with icicles.

And for protection he needed a mound of snowballs.

Here he is very proud of his creation. A fire pit in the snow!

Thanks to Tim for an awesome end to our 2009! Can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us...

Christmas Vacation

This Christmas Dave and I headed up to Northern California to visit with our families and friends. We spent five days in Merced with the Lockridges and then five days in Modesto with the Hardens. We had yummy food and great laughs and we feel so blessed to have such amazing families that want to spend time with us.

Stockings are my favorite!

Chipotle gift cards! Santa knew exactly what we wanted! :)

We are always overwhelmed by our families' love and generosity and are so blessed to have them in our lives. We enjoyed our two weeks at home but it always goes by too quickly. Can't wait to go back and visit soon!