Demboski Diary

Big kids go to the dentist

2012-02-08T20:08:00.000-08:00

Well I finally managed to make the appointment and get both kids in to see the dentist. I am not exactly why I waited until I had three kids to do it, but oh well, it made things a bit more tricky. As I was filling out paperwork in the waiting room, Ashely started crying, the lady waiting next to us was offering me advise on what might be wrong with her (thank you weird stranger for letting me know what is wrong with my baby), Allison is asking me to read her a book and Andrew wants to color. Just when I get Ashely out of the car seat and starting to breastfeed, they call Allison's name and she starts to cry. I asked if they can take Andrew first so I can finish filling out the papers, feed Ashely and then go back with Allison. They agreed to my brilliant plan and off Andrew went like such a brave big boy. Once I am done multi-tasking, I go back to see Andrew. They have already completed his x-rays and he was laying on this huge chair watching cartoons on the flat screen TV right above him. He told me that they took pictures of his teeth. The dentist then tells me that they found a cavity!!! I was so bummed! It just makes me feel like an awful mother, like I don't have my kids brush their teeth like they should, or I just let them eat candy for dinner, and anyone who really knows me, knows that is not me at all.

Anyways I agree to have them fill his cavity today and then I go in Allison's room. She flat out refused to do the x-rays, so they agreed that all she really needed at this age is a cleaning and exam. She started crying at first and was not too happy. From across the hallway, Andrew got up on his knees in his chair and yelled out "It's ok Allison, it doesn't hurt at all, just be brave". It was pretty cute. Once Allison is calm and ok with the dentist cleaning her teeth I went over to check on Andrew and they already finished filling his cavity! I was so surprised they did it so quickly and Andrew had no complaints! All he kept saying was how brave he was.

I can't believe they both did such a great job, they are growing up so quickly, I just want to enjoy and remember every moment.

Princess Ballerina

2012-01-07T20:52:00.000-08:00

Miss Allison Nichole has started a dance class. She is by far the cutest little girl in the whole class. She is so proud of herself and I must admit I am so proud of her too. It meets every Saturay for 45 minutes. On her first day of class, she sat there the whole time and didn't participate at all, but I was surprised that she even sat on the dance tape and listened to the teacher the entire time. After class I took her to buy a tutu and ballet shoes. Can I just say how excited I was to have my little girl all dressed up and looking so darn cute!! I can't take it, she is the most beautiful little girl in the world, and I must add she is the smartest girl as well. I love my daughter!

Andrew Transitions to his big boy bed!

2012-01-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

We are playing musical beds in our house this week in preparation of the arrival of Miss. Ashley Marie. We purchased Allison a twin sized bed, and before that gets delivered, we decided to transition Andrew from his toddler bed to his big boy full size bed. Paul was not a huge fan of taking out the carpet but with some persuasion he agreed that now is as good time as any. So we started by disassembling his toddler bed, then took out the carpet then built the bed. Andrew and Allison were both great helpers during the 8 hour project. Andrew did a great job pulling nails out of the floor and Allison volunteered to bring sections of carpet into the trash can that was in the backyard.

Once everything was completed, Andrew was beyond excited to sleep in his bed. Getting up into the bed was a bit of a challenge. His bed is actually taller than mine and Paul's. And I am afraid that Allison's bed that is being delivered later this week is just as tall. We may have to put a step stool at the end of the bed so they can get up easily.

It was bitter sweet putting Andrew into his new bed, but he only had about 2 inches of room left in this toddler bed, so I knew it was coming, but when he asked me to completely shut his door tonight is what really made me sad. He normally likes to have his door open a little so he can have some light in his room when he goes to sleep. Tonight he grew up and decided it was OK to have his door closed...all the way. Baby steps Andrew, baby steps please :)

Cute Things I don't want to forget

2011-12-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Allison says "Whobody". The other day we had an extra chair at the kitchen table and she asked us "whobody will sit over there?"

Andrew says that pirates are from the "care-a-bean"

I just put the kids to bed when Andrew came out of his room and crawled up on the couch to cuddle me. I told him he was laying on the charm to stay up later. After a few minutes of cuddle time, I told him it was time to go back to bed and he said "but I am not done laying on the charm".

I asked Allison the other day whose birthday we celebrate at Christmas time she replied "Baby Jesus, he is a boy and Jesus has a penis."

Halloween Fun

2011-10-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

We started off our Halloween celebrations with our annual trip to Pa's Pumpkin Patch. The kids enjoyed a few rides and taking silly pictures. We ended the night at the Crab Pot across the street. There are dinners that are very memorable for different reasons, this dinner was memorable because the kids were so well behaved and happy. They were polite, ate all of their dinner and made us laugh. We had a beautiful table on the indoor patio and watched a gorgeous sunset over the ocean. It was a perfect dinner.

Halloween at preschool was a great day. Allison had a ball playing with all the big kids and Andrew truly believed he was Optimus Prime. Each kid had their 5 seconds of fame when they got to stand up on the little "stage" and tell their friends and the parents who they dressed up as for Halloween. When Andrew stood up there he said "I am Optimus Prime and I kill the bad guys!" I quickly said in my best mom voice "Andrew!" and he corrected himself and said, "I am Optimus Prime and I get the bad guys". What am I going to do with this kid, I have no idea where he learns this from!

Allison stood up on the "stage" when all the big kids were all done and showed off her costume while I took pictures. I can't believe I wore that super girl costume when I was a little girl! She looked so darn cute!

We spent a whole Saturday at this great pumpkin patch in Irvine. They had everything from a petting zoo, corn maze, carnival games, a hay ride and of course food. We had fun running around the corn maze. Andrew increased the level of excitement by acting lost and running frantically around trying to find our way to the center, and of course Allison was running right along with him. We took the hayride to another section of the farm and fed the farm animals and ourselves. We had a delicious barbecued corn on the cob and a shaved ice. It was a warm day and walking around pregnant was a bit of a challenge, but I managed.

Our Halloween fun continued as we carved pumpkins. Both kids were so into this project, I wasn't sure if it would hold their attention, but they could have done this all day. They loved to pull the seeds out and squish it between their fingers. Paul had a blast as well. He is such a great daddy and helped both of them along the way and was so patient. Our Jack O'lanterns turned out great!

Halloween night, we had a yummy dinner of Jack O'lantern quesaillas with Mike, Becky, Mitch and Jackie. To get in the spirit, we decided to dress up the baby by painted my tummy like a pumpkin. Andrew and Allison loved that their little sister joined in with all the fun. After a fun special dinner we all went Trick or Treating around the neighborhood. We went to too many houses and got too much candy. The kids had a blast running (literally) from house to house yelling trick-or-treat! A good time was had by all.

Final Score: Boys 1 Girls 2

2011-10-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

We decided to be a little creative to find out the sex of our baby. We had the ultrasound tech write down the sex of the baby and put it in a sealed envelope, and then we took the envelope to a bakery and had them bake cupcakes with either pink or blue filling. We told a little white lie to both grandparents that we needed them to babysit but wanted to do lunch first at PF Changs. They all showed up and were surprised the other set of grandparents was there. I managed to sneak in and decorate our table with yellow roses and balloons. When Paul walked in with Andrew, Allison and all 4 grand parents everyone was surprised and was wondering what the occasion was. When they all sat down, I told them that we are going to find out the sex of our baby! It was like a surprise party for the grandparents (and Andrew and Allison, I knew if I told them, they wouldn't be able to keep a secret). We managed to make it through lunch without going too crazy wondering what color filling was going to be in the cupcakes. We all went around the table saying what we thought the baby was going to be. Everyone guessed a boy, except Paul and I, we guessed a girl. Once lunch was done, the waitress brought over the cupcakes that we brought in. We all bit into the cupcakes at the same time and saw... PINK! I shouted "we're having a girl!" Andrew and Allison were so excited. We had everyone in the restaurant cheering for us. It was truly a memorable day. Now we have to think of little girl names!

A Walk To Remember Angel

2011-10-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today was a very special day. We were joined by my parents, Paul's parents, Aunt Maureen, my newest cousin-in-law Becky, Aunt Nancy and her grandson Michael, Aunt Buny, Uncle Doug, and my dear friends from high school Michelle and Erin. We all gathered in Tustin to remember my dear son Angel and participated in Orange County's Walk to Remember. The walk is to remember babies who died during pregnancy and infant loss. The theme is to "take the steps our babies never got to take". It was a very emotional day to say the least. I did not think that I would be as emotional as I was. We had sun visors made for everyone who walked on our team. They had angel wings on the front, and said "Angel 2-6-11" on the side. The visors turned out great and I was very happy to see everyone wearing them. I saw a lot of my girlfriends that I met at my support group and it was very nice to see them all wearing their babies names on their shirts surrounded by their loved ones.
Before the walk started, there was a remembrance ceremony where they said the names of all of the babies. When they called out your baby's name, you walked up to the front to get a white rose. When Angel's name was called, Paul, Andrew, Allison and I walked up and received our white rose. After the name calling was completed they played a song about a baby dieing too soon. Truthfully I tried not to pay attention to the words because it was too hard. I was already crying and very sad. I don't think there was a dry eye to be seen. Thankfully Andrew and Allison kept things happy. They knew we were there to remember their baby brother up in Heaven and enjoyed sitting in the wagon as we pulled them along. Once the walk started, we decided it would be a good idea to only do the one mile course verses the 3 mile course because Paul was on crutches from falling off the ladder, and I was getting a side ache and my pregnant belly wouldn't have made it that far.
After the walk was over we all had lunch at Panera bread and had a lot of fun. It ended on a happy note and I am so thankful for my family who participated. We will never forget our son, Angel Demboski. He will always be looking down on us and his spirit will help us to remember that life is fragile and should never be taken for granted.

daddy fell off the ladder

2011-10-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today was an eventful day for our little family. It started off with me having a strong desire to decorate for autumn. So before Paul jumped in the shower to get ready to go to work, I grabbed him to go up into the attic in the garage and bring down the decorations. He was barefoot an in a hurry, never a good combination. He made it up the ladder safe and sound but coming down was a whole other story. He lost his balance and down he came along with a heavy box. I thought he may have hurt his back when he hit the ground, but he actually sliced his toe open on the foot of the ladder. There wasn't a lot of blood, so I didn't think it was that serious, until Paul told me that he thought he was going to be sick. I looked more carefully and notice that I could see the bone in his toe and that his toe had almost sliced off and was pretty much hanging. I had no idea what to do. I knew he had to get to a hospital, but wasn't sure how I would manage this with 2 kids an pregnant belly and a hubby who couldn't walk. Then Paul tells me he thinks he is going to pass out and his back is killing him. I knew I didn't have much of a choice and I had to call 911. I told Andrew what I was going to do and he was so excited and kept yelling an running saying "emergency, we have an emergency!". I told him I really needed him to be a good listener an get himself dressed and to help Allison get dressed, he ran off with such urgency that it made me laugh. In the meantime I dial 911 which I have never done before and ask for an ambulance.
The next thing I know there are 2 fire trucks on our street and a whole bunch of firemen standing on our driveway. They decided that Paul needed to be transported to the hospital. I loaded up the kids and called Paul's folks to meet us at the hospital.
Paul's parents pulled up to the hospital right at the same time as we did, so I was able to be with Paul the whole time. It was kind of sad because the paramedics down-played his injury when they brought him in and it wasn't until the doctor came in to see him that they noticed how close he was to amputating his toe. The called his a near glove amputation because the only thing left intact was the bone and almost all of the tissue was amputated.
After Zofran, Morphine, Solu-merol, prednisone, vicodin, Ancef and Ibuprofen, Paul started to feel better...slightly.
Now every time Andrew and Allison see a fire truck or an ambulance, they think someone has fallen off the ladder.

Yosemite aka Somebody

2011-09-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

So to celebrate my 30th and just to get away, we decided to go with my parents to Yosemite, or as Allison would call it, "Somebody". The day after Andrew's birthday party, I got home from work and helped Paul load up the car and off we all went. One word can describe our car... CRAMPEd!!! With 4 adults and 2 kids we were packed from floor to ceiling. We made the long journey to Yosemite valley and lucky pregnant me, who has been up for 30 plus hours was the only one who puked on the side of the road in a nasty road side bathroom. But we all survived thanks to the dvd players, snacks, naps and Papa's i pod player. We arrived just as the sun was going down. My parents were a bit taken back at our "cabin". It was truly a cement slab with 3 cement walls and a canvas roof and a fourth wall that was a canvas door. There was one full size bed, bunk beds and just enough room for my parents to place their air mattress. It was nearly freezing at night and thankfully we brought a space heater, which I am pretty sure blew a fuse and we were without electricity for one of the mornings, which wasn't a big deal since we only had one outlet and one light.

during our 3 night stay in one of the world's most beautiful places we managed to see pretty much everything. Our first full day was spent hiking up a nice little trail to the bottom of lower Yosemite falls with great views of upper Yosemite falls as well. We spent all morning taking in the views and had a great time taking pictures. We spent the rest of the afternoon back at camp in the river. We brought a large inflatable raft that we carried up the river and then the 4 of us floated downstream peacefully looking up at the mountains hanging over us and waterfalls cascading all around us. It was so peaceful that Allison fell asleep. My parent's sat on the shore an relaxed and took pictures of us making our way down the river. Paul was a trooper and pulled us back up the river in the ice cold water only so that we can go back down again. As he was pulling us back up for the second time, it started to rain and we could see lightning in the distance. We decided to make our way back to camp to dry off and head into town for dinner. It poured on us all night, but we stayed dry and had a lot of fun.

The second day we decided to make our way up an awuflly steep and difficult trail to Vernal Falls. Not realizing what we were getting ourselves into, we all struggled to catch our breath as we hiked up the ridiculous trail. The kids had no problem with their energy level or with the altitude but I must say the adults were struggling. Mom and dad had to turn around before we made it to the top. We were told the whole trail was 2 miles total, when in reality it was 2 miles one way with a huge incline that can nearly kill you. The demboski's kept going until we reached our destination which was a bridge that over looked the falls. Me being pregnant made it even more of a challenge. We survived and then ate our weight in lunch back in town. We made our way back to camp and took the bikes for a ride.

We managed to convince my poor mom to go down the river with us. My dad was not a fan of this idea, but it turned out to be a whole lot of fun. We laughed so hard at Paul running down the river chasing after his sandal as he was pulling us upstream so we didn't have to walk back up the river. My mom is such a good sport and I hope I am that willing to do crazy things like her when I am her age. during our stay, we also went a say a performace of John Muir which we all enjoyed and the kids slept through. Each night, Papa Bug would tell the kids bedtime stories and let the kids listen to his ipod. They learned the "yellow submarine" and the " All together now" song by the Beatles.

Our last morning we had an amazing breakfast buffet at the Ahwahnee Hotel. It was such a beautiful day with amazing food, the kids behaving like angels and Grandma Bug even ran around the hotel grounds singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music". I think the altitude was making her crazy :)

We ended our last night with a big kid bike ride around the village. Andrew, me, Paul and my dad took off and biked around and took some great pictures. Andrew was ridiculously good on his bike, going through mud puddles, balancing on trails that were way too steep for a 4 year old and giving mommy a heart attack. We managed to get to a great spot to take some amazing pictures of half dome. It was a great way to end our last night in Yosemite.

It is safe to say we all had an amazing time and I look forward to doing it again real soon.

Andrew has Transformed into a 4 year old!

2011-09-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

Yes that is right our little baby boy has turned 4 years old!! Where has the time gone?!?! I remember when we brought him home from the hospital one week after he was brought into this world. We were so afraid that he was not going to be the Andrew Clark that his Creator had planned. I am so blessed to have such an amazing little boy to call my own, he truly is our miracle. His birthday party was no surprise a Transformers theme and we invited every little kid he knows. All of his friends showed up for this wonderful celebration. We ate pizza, salad and of course cupcakes with pictures of Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee on them. The kids bounced all the energy our of their little bodies and had a ball.

Just a few facts about Andrew Clark Demboski

1. He wants to sing Jingle Bells every night before he goes to sleep.

2. He mixes up his "V" and his "B" sounds.

3. He is a pro at riding his big boy Buzz Lightyear bike.

4. His favorite foods are any type of fruit.

5. When he grows up he wants to be a Trash truck driver.

6. He asks almost everyday if we can go back to Maui.

7. When he sees a girl in a bikini he calls her "aloha"

8. He has a kind soul, truly a kind soul.

9. He still talks about how he misses our baby Angel.

10. He goes to bed each night cuddling "Fred", which was Paul's favorite cuddle animal when he was a boy.

11. He is my favorite little boy in the world.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

2011-08-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

Well it is official, I am a 30 year old. It's actually a nice feeling. I still feel like the same little girl living at my parent's house, except that I have a little girl and boy of my own. I think I am at peace with this because I am exactly where I wanted to be at 30. I am married, have a successful career and 2 amazing kids, one on the way and one looking down on me from Heaven. This year has been rotten, but I am over all very blessed.

For my birthday, Paul wanted to do have a super fun party. His parents graciously let us take over their backyard and he threw a big ho-down. Everyone dressed in their best cowboy/girl attire and bounced in a Horse bouncy house, played games and had a delicious barbeque. Paul even wore a blowup cowboy/horse suite to deliver me my birthday brownies. My parents, Paul's folks, the Merandi's, the Tannen's, John, Adrienne and their clan, Mike and Becky, Buny and Doug, and Donna were all there to celebrate my big day. We had a fabulous time and I can't think of a better way than to have celebrated... ME!

Soccer Anyone?

2011-08-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

We signed Allison up for daddy and me soccer this summer and Andrew for big boy Tot Soccer. Needless to say, Allison loved it and Andrew hated it. I think Andrew expected Paul to participate with him like he had done the previous summer, so when reality hit that Andrew had to fly solo, he wanted nothing to do with it. The first lesson went great until he slipped on the ball and went flying, and got super embarrassed. After that it was all down hill. We tried every approach: tough love, yelling, supportive, bribery, TLC, Paul even got out there with the other little kids and Andrew still refused to participate. We tried practicing at home, talking about it on a daily basis, building up his confidence, but nothing worked... the boy did not want to play.

Allison on the other hand loved it! She was by far the youngest one out there, and the cutest of course. She ran around and kicked the ball everywhere laughing the whole time. It was great to see her have some bonding time with daddy. I think I see a soccer girl in the future.

Movie Night in the backyard

2011-08-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to do this all summer and we finally made it happen. My perfect night was going to be warm, quiet, full of cuddles and a great movie blown up huge on the big white wall in the backyard. It turned out warm, restless, Liberty crawling all over the place, the sun not setting until well after bed time and a movie that we had to start too early because it was getting late. But all in all we had a great time. We set up our "half tent" and ate a picnic dinner on the grass, and around 8pm started the movie that we could barely see because the sun was still up. We watched The Land Before Time, and both of the kids loved it and had a ball. It got surprisingly cold considering it was a hot August day. We will defiantly be doing this again.

A day at Point Fermin

2011-07-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

We decided to go enjoy a beautiful Southern California day at the beach, but nearly got blown away so we headed up the hill to Point Fermin. We ate a yummy picnic lunch and took in the breath taking views.

How does your Garden grow

2011-07-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

This summer I planted my first real garden. I planted tomatoes, squash, basil and bell pepper. My squash was by far a big hit. We ate it at least 3 times a week. I was surprised how quickly it grew. It seemed everyday Andrew or Allison would walk into the kitchen with a new squash they just picked. They were super excited about it as well. I love that they can recognize basil and love to pick it for our dinners.

Concert in the Park

2011-07-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Friday nights are my favorite during the summertime because we have our local concert in the park. We have been going to these concerts since before we even had kids, and now with the 2 of them, they make it way more fun! We decided to ride our bikes this time. Me on my bike, Paul pulling the bike trailor filled with all of our picnic and dinner stuff along with Allison, and Andrew on his own big boy bike. I was a little nervous to have him bike all the way, he isn't that great at breaking quickly, but I knew he would have a blast. We all took off down the road and make great timing. We met up with the Corcoran's and had a yummy enchilada dinner and listened to the Long Beach Municipal Band under all of the massive trees at Eldorado Park.

We all had so much fun, but when it was over the sun was setting and we knew it would be dark before we made it home. I was nervous riding in the dark on the sidewalk and crossing the streets, but we managed to make it home safe and sound a little before 9:00pm. Andrew was exhausted and sweaty! We had so much fun and will defiantly do it again.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-08T14:21:00.001-07:00

This year instead of participating in our yearly block party, we decided to be a little more low-key and head on up to John and Adrienne's for the 4th of July. It has been rough week for many reasons but the only one I will be talking about in this post will be my Grandma Madeline. She suffered a perforated bowel on July 3rd which brought her into the hospital. She had to have emergency surgery and be placed on a ventilator. She had to have a colostomy and she is septic and super sick. I went with Paul and the kids to the hospital to visit her before her surgery. The kids made her a picture and were able to see her before she went into surgery. Paul brought the kids back to my parents house and I waited around with my mom to see Grandma in the ICU. She is on a few drips to maintain her blood pressure. She is stable, but critical. Not a great way to start our 4th of July plans.
We headed up to Santa Barbara early on the 4th and after a rather pleasant drive up we hopped in the pool and didn't get out til dinner time. They had a lot of friends over to celebrate the holiday. Andrew and Allison had a blast swimming. We decided to have them wear their life jackets the whole time, just to make it easier on us, since they both swim like bricks. Andrew really learned to maneuver in the water by kicking and using his arms, which is a great for him to learn but now he has a false sense that he can swim. We had a yummy barbecue, got changed and headed to the park to watch the fireworks. We had a great seats considering we got there 15 minutes before the show started. We watched the fireworks and listened to the patriotic music. The kids were in awe of the magical fireworks, but both were ready to head home and fall asleep in the car. We got them changed into their PJs and we hit the road. They were both asleep before we hit the freeway. I got sick on the way home, oh joy and we pulled in the driveway a little after midnight.

Last Minute Plans Work Out

2011-07-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening, we invited the Merandi's over for a last minute playdate and Barbeque. We were so happy when they said yes. All 5 kids played in the pool, and in the sand box and took turns getting their dad's with the nerfs. Later that afternoon, The Tannen's came over and joined in on all the fun. We had all 6 kids running around the backyard and the house until 10:00pm. A great time was had by all. We had a yummy dinner and topped it all of by roasting marshmellows in the fire pit and then the Merandi kids and the Demboski kids all took a bath. It was nice to catch up with old friends and make new memories.

Happy Birthday Grandma Bug

2011-07-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrated my mom's birthday. She has had a rough week with my Grandma still being in the hospital. A quick update, she is still in ICU, holding her own, she is breathing on her own, but now having rhythm issues. They are doing a good job and keeping a close eye on her.

So my mom has officially turned 59. Can't wait for next year, I think I see a very big party in the future :) My folks came over and played with the kids in the pool for a few hours until Paul got home from work. They made us laugh so hard, which is something we all needed. Allison's nickname by Grandpa Bug is "Allie Knievel". She would just fling her body in and out of the pool as if she is indestructible. Surprisingly she never got hurt. Andrew thinks he can swim now after the day spent with a life jacket on in John and Adrienne's pool. He does a pretty good job of swimming under water. They loved it when Grandma and I got in the pool with them, fully clothed. After swimming we dried off and went with Paul to George's and enjoyed a delicious Greek Birthday dinner.

NKOTB

2011-07-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

July 1st, my due date. I should have been scheduled for a C-section today, I should have been holding my baby boy. I should have been full of happiness and cuddeling my son. But God had other plans and thankfully my mom and dad made plans for me on this very difficulty day. They purchased second row seats to the New Kids On The Block concert. Rochelle brought her kids to my house for Paul and my mom to babysit while we sisters went out to dinner and headed to L.A. to spend the evening with Danny, Donnie, Joe, Jordon and Jon. We started the night going to East Side Mario's for a yummy dinner. We then headed to the Staples Center to meet up with our childhood dream boys. We could not believe the seats that our parents got us. They were amazing!! I have never been so close to the stage before. As you can see from the pictures we were able to read Donnie's underwear "Calvin Klein". Rochelle and I both were in heaven with all of the songs they sang and remembered every word to every song. I think it is safe to say that we made serious eye contact with each of the New Kids. Not only was it a NKOTB concert but they were touring with Back Street Boys, which we were never that into, but it was a lot of fun to see them perform as well. I must say the men from NKOTB have aged very nicely and it is strange to think they are just dads now, parents like Rochelle and I.

The Long Beach Demboski's have arrived!

2011-05-21T07:47:00.001-07:00

A couple days ago the four of us set out for Washington DC. We boarded the plane with Paul's folks and flew over this big beautiful country of ours and landed in Mayyrland. Paul sat with Andrew on the plan and me with Allison. They were both fantastic on the plane ride over. Andrew was the lucky one to get the DVD player that was charged, so he got to watch a movie, so that left allison and I to dress her babydoll, then undress her babydoll, they dress her babydoll then undress her babydoll. That lasted about 1 1/2 hours, then snack time then nap time. She managed to fall asleep and sleep for about 2 hours. Once we landed, we made our way to the hotel and only got lost 15 times.
the next morning Aunt Katie and Mike joined up with us and we hit the smithsonian museums and saw the air and space museum and the natural histroy museum. The kids liked both surprisingly. I thought they would get bored, but they managed to survive 6 hours of museums. The dinosaur exhibit was particularly exciting for the kiddos. Once they saw the big T-rex, they both couldn't help themselves. Andrew yelled "I don't believe it!!" To say they were excited would be an understatement. After looking at a lot of stuff behing glass, we went and picked up dinner at the Chillie bowl, which is a famous spot for people like President Obama, and Bill Cosby to eat at. He got our chillie dogs to go and brought them over to the mall and ate them in front of the lit up Lincoln Memorial with an awesome view of the Washington Monument. We made our way up to the top of the steps of the Lincoln memorial and took some great pictures. Both kids were super hyper and screaming and having a ball, despite it was 10:00pm, we had just eaten dinner. Once we starte headed to the car it started raining. We made it back to the hotel nice and safe and dry.
The next day Paul, the kids and I went off my ourselves while Paul's folks, Katie and Mike went back to D.C. to look at more monuments. We decided to drive into Baltimore. We stopped off at Fort McHenry where the Star Spangled Banner was written. We played around in the fort for about an hour and went into all of the "caves" and had a good time. We then made out way down to the water. We walked along their outdoor shopping area where there were tons of resturants and shops. It was a beautiful downtown area, a mix of seaport village in san diego and the pike in Long Beach. We ate lunch at this deli with a beautiful ocean view. After lunch we headed to the #3 kids museum in all of the U.S.A. Discovery Port. It was 3 stories of kid heaven. It was surprisingly empty. It had multiple rooms such as a pretend dinner, where the kids got to make the "pretend food" behing the counter, it was equipped with a stove, an oven, a sink for the dishes, cabinents to store all the dishes, and a cash register. Paul and I sat in the booth and orderd food from the kids and they made our meal, served us, washed the dishes and then checked us out at the cashe register. Another room was a water room where you could build your our water fountain, go inside a big bubble, or splash in a big water table where you could build dams or create waterfalls. There were about 12 rooms which kept us busy for 4 hours. In the middle of the bulding was a tall jungle gym with netting walkways, slides and tunnels. We were all exhausted after this awesome experience. We headed back to the hotel and met up with the rest of the family for dinner. Once again we ate dinner about 9:30pm. Andrew and Allison scarfed down oysters, clams and shrimp before they devoured their ribs.
Overall we are having a great time. 2 days down 11 more to go :)

2011-04-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

Last night as we were leaving the resturant, we saw a beautiful sunset. Andrew pointed to the sky and said "The sunset used to be in my heart" and then he put his hand on his heart. This kid is special!

Negative nelly

2011-04-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

I was running a few weeks ago and pushing Allison in the stroller and some homeless lady yelled at me "ya know anyone can have a baby!" REALLY? Why did you have to say that exact comment to ME??? Our baby DID NOT have Down's Syndrome. The chromosomes grew normal from Angel and from my placenta. Dr. Illeck suggested doing blood work on me to determine if I have a clotting problem. I did the test and it was negative. A lady at work was talking to me about a fellow nurse who is pregnant. She explained that she is going to start telling people because she is past the "miscarriage phase" of pregnancy. I BIT my tongue not to say, "well did you know babies can die at any point during the pregnancy and even sometimes shortly after they are born?" If I chose to have another baby, will I be able to love him or her for who they are, or will I be secretly wishing it is Angel in my tummy, not the new life? In a quiet moment of the day, will it ever be possible to think about something besides the hell I went through in February? Will I ever be that happy person I used to be?

oh andrew

2011-04-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

I went for a run today, pushing Andrew and Allison in the stroller. The entire time Andrew asks me questions. He saw a man doing squats and asked me, "mommy, what is that man doing?" I replied "Andrew, he is exercising". Andrew said "no he's not mommy, he is trying to sit down, but can't" I laughed and said "ohh Andrew!"

Allison's Conversations

2011-03-12T14:10:00.000-08:00

So in an attempt to get back in shape and to loose some of this baby weight, I started walking again. Last week I walked 4 days, about 3 1/2-4 miles each day. This week I kicked it up a notch and started running. I ran 4 days this week and walked one. Since Andrew is in preschool 3 days a week, that just leaves me and Allie alone for 40 minutes on the running path and this is what I hear during that time...

Lulu birthday, lulu birthday, lulu birthday, lulu birthday, papa, nama (aka grandma) matthew, papa, nama, papa, nama, juju drink in there, trisha baby trisha baby trisha baby trisha baby, tracktor broken fix it batteries, Andrew preschool Ms. Cori Paul preschool, daddy work, Andrew car seat, get it.

Then when I go up a hill she says "big hill, big hill, big, hill, big hill". Then I go down the hill and she says "WEEEEEE!"

She never fails me, she is always entertaining.

This week she is really pushing my buttons. She constantly throws her food or spits it out of her mouth or jumps on my bed, or climbs in her crib and falls out, and gets into the snack drawer to help herself to some pre-dinner crackers, hits her brother, hits me, hits Liberty, climbs in the bathtub, empties all of her clothes out of her drawers, takes her diaper off, dumps buckets of sand in the house, screams at the top of her lungs "NOOOO!!" for no reason, and my favorite she put her baby doll in time out. She is overall a little stinker! The problem is that he is so ridiculously cute when she is doing all of that!

But she redeems herself when she kisses me on the lips, then on the nose, then on the forehead, then on each cheek, then on each eye, then on each ear, and then on my hair. She also melts my heart when she rubs her little soft hand on my cheek and says "Ahhhh" in a little baby voice. Then she feeds her baby doll fake food and gives her a drink from the pretend bottle and then she puts Andrew's socks on, and then she puts my socks on and then she puts on daddy's shoes and walks around. Then one of my favorites is when she "cooks" us food in her playhouse, and unsets her dinner dishes.

She is such a mighty sweet little girl and brings me so much joy to my day. I am so happy to have a daughter and a friend for life.

Angel Demboski's Memorial

2011-03-09T23:40:00.000-08:00

Today we had a balloon memorial for Angel. My parents and Paul's parents came over early this morning for brunch. We cooked peiroges, eggs, cinnamon rolls, yogurt, fruit and juice. We had a wonderful time talking and laughing over brunch. It was nice to have our parents together to remember their grandson and to be happy. After we ate, we got our balloons ready. Andrew and Allison drew pictures for Angel, and the rest of us wrote a letter to him. We each attached our paper to a balloon. Once we were all ready, we went outside. It was a spectacularly clear and gorgeous day. The sky was bright blue with big fluffy while clouds. The sun was shinning, the kids were happy and there were no tears. We let the balloons fly up to heaven. It was nice to see Andrew excited about our baby getting the balloon and his picture up in heaven. I feel like it all made sense to him, which was really important to us. Allison kept saying "laboom" instead of balloon which was the cutest thing I think she has ever said. She would say "laboom, angel, heaven". It made my heart proud that my kids are getting to understand God and heaven. We watched the balloons fly up as high as possible until we were no longer able to see them anymore.
We then enjoyed laughing at both Papas playing with the kids. We all played in the backyard for hours. Allison and Andrew were digging for worms and both papas were being extra silly.

I am so happy that we did this. It really felt like closure, it needed to happen.

Later that day I showed our parents the memory box that he hospital gave us with the tiny hand and foot prints. They were amazed, just like we were.

Paul and I have been attending a support group for perinatal and infant loss. It has really helped. Ours is just one of many sad stories, and our little boy is one of many babies that lost their life too soon.

Our Broken Hearts

2011-02-21T13:55:00.000-08:00

This is our very sad story for February 2011.
I was 18 weeks pregnant. Almost half way through. It was a long hard week. We got a phone call from my OBGYN, Dr. Illeck on Tuesday February 1st and he told us news that would change our lives forever. We found out that the blood work I had drawn, had screened positive for Down's Syndrome. We had a 1 in 10 chance of having a baby with Down's. I was told to schedule an ultrasound and to think about having an amniocentesis scheduled. I was devastated obviously. Paul's parents happen to be over when I got the phone call because they had babysat Allison that morning while I worked at Andrew's preschool. I called Paul and told him the bad news and he came home from work early. I was so upset about the thought of our baby not being healthy, and couldn't stop thinking of all the health problems that Down's syndrome children had. I broke the bad news to the rest of our family and friends and the prayers started.
Once Paul got home we started discussing the risks verses benefits of having an amniocentesis. We spoke to a lot of our friends and family and ultimately we made the decision to go through with the amniocentesis. I made an appointment for Thursday.
After a long Wednesday waiting for our test, February 3rd was finally here. We had my parents babysit the kids while we went to the high risk OB office. After talking with friends and family, we heard of 3 different incidences where some moms had tested positive for Down's and it turned out to be a false positive, so we were very hopeful that we too would have a false positive. We had to meet with a genetics counselor before our appointment. We talked with the genetics counselor for approximately one hour and each minute that passed by we lost more and more hope. She told us that when they see lab values as high as mine, they "get very concerned". We were under the impression that we still had a 90% chance that the amnio would be negative since we only had a 1 in 10 chance for Down's according to my phone call with Dr. Illeck. But she informed us that the paper work stated " Greater than 1 in 10 chance" and that they don't know for sure, it could be 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 or 1 in 9. She really prepared us for a positive test result. She even called the state department where they completed my bood work and gave them measurements from my last ultrasound to add to the "equation" to get a more accurate result, but it didn't change the results. She also told us that the blood work that I tested positive for was 85% accurate and they very rarely see false positives when it come to results like mine. I felt like we were hit over the heads with a sledge hammer. We were devastated. Once we finished our appointment, we went back to the lobby to wait for the ultrasound and amniocentesis. While we were waiting, Paul stepped outside to call his parents and I sat there amongst the other pregnant women and watched on the office television a segment called "How to care for your infant" and I lost it. The baby on the TV was chubby and healthy and I had just been told basically that my baby had Down's Syndrome! I started crying, they called my name and Paul and I went back to the ultrasound room where I could not calm down and kept crying. The tech started the ultrasound and I didn't even want to look at the baby. The genetics counselor came in the room and they whispered a little and continued a little bit more with the ultrasound and then the technician left the room to go get the doctor. The genetics counselor told us that the ultrasound "didn't look good and to remember that we can test for other genetic disorders .... and please know that no matter the outcome, you didn't do anything wrong". I couldn't understand what she was talking about. I remember telling Paul that the baby must be really deformed because they seem so concerned. Dr. Asrat, the high risk OB, came in and looked a little bit more with the ultrasound and I didn't stop crying. He looked for 30 seconds or so before I asked him if the baby was dead. He replied "yes" and then turned off the machine. I lost it.
I couldn't talk, I couldn't move, I just wanted to die. Paul held me in his arms as the doctor left to give us a minute. We both cried. I remember thinking that this can't be real, what will we tell Andrew, now what do we do, I have a dead baby inside me, when did this happen, how did this happen, should I still have the amniocentesis performed. I just wanted to be drugged and wake up when it is all over.
Dr. Asrat came back in with the genetics counselor. He told us that is looked like the baby had died about 1-3 days ago. He explained to us why we might want to still do the amniocentesis. He told us that once I deliver the baby they can send tissue samples to grow in the lab to determine if the baby was positive for Down's, or we could do the amniocentesis to test the baby. I couldn't even believe he told me that I had to deliver the baby. I got even more upset and told him there was no way I was going to deliver a dead baby, and what a horrible thought. I just wanted them to put me to sleep, cut me open and take the baby out. We soon learned that that was not an option. I immediately said I did not want the amnio performed, the thought of having to undergo that procedure right now was just too much. Dr. Asrat explained to us our options... 1. Be induced and deliver the baby vaginally or 2. Have a D & E which stands for Dilation and Extraction, where they would physically dilate me and then evacuate the baby out. He told us that we didn't need to make a decision today, but we did have to go see Dr. Illeck today. They all said how sorry they were for our loss and we left. On the way home Paul called his mom and dad and told them the ultrasound didn't show a heart beat. They were driving up to Santa Barbara, and were in Camarillo when we called them. The immediately turned around and said they were coming over.
My parents were watching the kids at home and my dad was planning on leaving early to go see my Aunt Nancy at the hospital because she was scheduled for an amputation that day and he wanted to go see her. We called to tell him to not leave and to stay there with my mom, we didn't tell them why. We made our appointment with Dr. Illeck at 1:45pm that afternoon. That gave us enough time to go home, talk to my parents for about 30 minutes and then leave to go see Dr. Illeck.
When we got home, Allison was taking a nap and Paul brought Andrew out into the backyard. I sat down and told my mom and dad that the baby died. They were completely shocked. Nobody had even considered that this would have happened. They of course were upset and in disbelief.
Not long after we got home, we had to leave again to see Dr. Illeck. When we got there, he was kind and compassionate. He went over our options again with us as to what to do next. I told him that I didn't want to deliver the baby and I just wanted the D&E. He gave us the phone number of a doctor at Hoag that would perform this procedure. There are only 2 doctors at Hoag that do these procedures. We asked him if we could find out the sex of the baby and he said of course. He told us a little bit about what to expect with this procedure. They will insert these sticks inside of me to physically dilate me. He said that it could take a couple of days and a couple doses of this medicine before they can perform the D&E. He also warned me that is is very painful, and that they can give me narcotics to help with the pain. I then asked him if he could recommend any adoption agencies, he chuckled and told me not to even think about that right now. He went on to tell me that I should heal fine physically, it will just be very difficult emotionally for quite a while for the both of us. We called Dr. Agnew and made an appointment for the next day, Friday.
That night was filled with a lot of tears, devastating break downs, empty feelings and awful heartache. We decided to tell Andrew the sad news. We explained to him that we were not going to have a baby anymore and that God has the baby up in heaven. He looked at us while he wore his dinosaur jammies and with tears in his eyes as he sat on his knees on the couch he said "but I prayed". We said "I know you prayed Andrew, but God will take very good care of our baby". He cried some more and then we put him down to sleep and he said that we should go up to heaven and "take our baby back!" He was a mix between sad and angry. He then asked me if God was going to take Allison away, I reassured him that Allison was not going anywhere. It took what was left of my broken heart and just broke it into smaller pieces. I cried myself to sleep that night and slept until the sun came up.
I woke up exhausted. Paul's parents came over to watch the kids while we went to Dr. Agnew's office. I cried in the waiting room, and poor Paul had to deal with annoying clients on the phone while we waited. They called us back to the room, and I cried the whole way back to our exam room. The lady that called us back looked like a scary clown. She was older, maybe 60 something, with horrific make up, her eyeliner was drawn on about 1/4 inch below her eye and her eyebrow pencil was drawn above her eyebrow. It was ridiculous. She tried to comfort me at first and told us that we "were doing the right thing", which I thought was strange to say. I told her that I had a positive blood test for Down's syndrome and she went on to tell me how a life with a child who had Down's syndrome is so difficult and she knows a lady who is still taking care of her child who is 50 years old, and it has been her whole life caring for this man. This lady thought I was there to terminate my pregnancy! I couldn't believe it! I explained to her that my baby had already died. She said "oh I didn't know that". I was shocked at how unprofessional she was. She never even introduced herself. She explained to us how they would to the procedure. She showed me the "sticks" that they would insert into me on Sunday and then Monday we would do the procedure at 1:00pm. I asked her if my body would be ready, because Dr. Illeck had said that it could take a couple of days for the medicine to work and she was confident that just one dose and one day would be enough. She left to go get somehting and I just looked and Paul and said I don't want to do this anymore, I was so scared and upset with this stupid lady.
When she came back so did the doctor (finally) and he stood in the doorway, didn't come into the room. I told him that I was afraid of being put under anesthesia because I am afraid I wont wake up because I am so sad. He told me that that wouldn't happen. He went on to explain that he and his wife (the crazy lady) would see me on Sunday and the procedure would be for Monday. I asked him if we could find out the sex of the baby and he said maybe only because the baby doesn't necessarily always come out in one piece. That just broke my heart. It just seemed so inhumane. The doctor left. I asked his wife why he and one other Doctor were the only physicians to perform this procedure at Hoag. She told me that they are pro-choice. That explained a lot.
We left the doctor's office and completed my lab work and pre-op stuff. We decided to go to lunch. We talked over lunch for hours. It was really the first time since this whole thing started where Paul and I were calm and collected and alone. We discussed the procedure and our concerns. We agreed to call Dr. Illeck to ask him if he trusts Dr. Agnew and to get a little more information about him.
I called Dr. Illeck while Paul ran up to his office to finish up some paperwork. Dr. Illeck was on call and called me back within minutes. I told him I was not impressed with this doctor and I would feel much better if I could either get his blessing that he was going to do a good job, or maybe get the phone number of the other physician that also performs D & Es. Dr. Illeck said that he does feel confident in this doctor, and he is hesitant to give me the phone number for the other guy because he only performs abortions, his office is an abortion clinic. That gave me the creeps, so I thanked Dr. Illeck for his time.
Once we got home, Paul and I had a long talk. We talked together, with his mom, with my mom, with my sister. We were beginning to think that we should follow our instincts and not go to this doctor for this procedure. Once again we called Dr. Illeck to find out more about the induction and delivery. He called us right back and explained everything. We found out that there is a great fetal demise team at Hoag that would be caring for us. I would be induced Saturday morning and hopefully be going home that evening. Dr. Illeck was going to be on call, so he would perform the delivery. I also found out that the nurses take pictures of the baby, make little hand prints and foot prints that we get to take home. I felt so at ease when I heard all this. I felt like they were going to treat my baby with dignity. We scheduled our induction for 9:00am the next morning, Saturday.
I cried myself to sleep again.
Paul's brother Mike came over bright and early to watch the kids along with Paul's parents. We gave kisses to the kids and drove to Hoag. We checked in at Labor and Delivery, and they walked us to our labor room. I haven't been back to this floor since we delivered Andrew. It brought back a lot of frightening memories of that tragic day where we almost lost our first born. They gave us a huge corner room with panoramic views of the ocean. I changed into the gown and settled into the bed. My nurse was Kathy and she was amazing. She explained everything and answered all of our questions. We asked her if we can hold the baby, do we have to hold the baby, do people have funerals for babies, how long will it take to deliver, is it painful, do we have to have pictures taken, etc, etc. Dr. Illeck came in to put in the first dose of medicine. He explained that things progress pretty slowly at first and then all of a sudden it happens quickly. My parents were there and they watched a movie with Paul on our laptop, while I drifted in and out of sleep. Paul's parents showed up around 2:00pm after they helped Mike put the kids down for naps. They informed us that Paul's sister Katie was flying down and would be at our house to help Mike with the kids tonight. Four hours later the laborist doctor came in and gave me a second dose of the medicine. The nurse brought in a cart of food, coffee, cookies and beverages for my family. I thought I would be home by now, and I was told that I would be staying the night, things were moving slowly, my cervix was not responding very quickly. We called Katie and Mike to let them know, they both said they could stay the night with the kids, thank goodness. Katie kept sending us pictures of the kids via Paul's phone, which was nice to see them having so much fun. Both sets of grandparents were entertaining each other and talking and were in it for the long run. I couldn't believe they had been there for close to 12 hours at this point. After dinner, my contractions started getting pretty painful. I decided it was time for my epidural. We said good bye to the grandparents, they went down to the lobby to sleep, it was about 10:30pm at this time.
The anesthesiologist was very nice. She was compassionate and kind. After the epidural was in they gave me a dose of IV benadrly, which sent me to la-la land. I slept really good for what seemed like forever. They put a catheter in me and another dose of the medicine. Paul managed to sleep a while on the pull-out sofa. I thought my water had broken a few times throughout the night, but unfortunately it was my body reacting to the medicine and I was having diarrhea that I had no control over, talk about adding misery to an already horrible situation. My night shift nurse was amazing though and told me is was completely normal and not to worry. I was really hoping to deliver on her shift since she was probably the nicest person in the universe. Around 5:00am Sunday morning I was dilated to 10cm. She called Dr. Illeck. He told her to give it a couple of hours to give the baby time to move down the birth canal so I didn't have to push the baby down. At 7:00am, Dr. Illeck arrived, right at change of shift for my nurse. The day shift nurse came on and my night shift nurse stayed over to help. They prepped the room and we were ready.

With one small push our baby was born at 7:25 am. It was quiet in the room. Dr. Illeck said the baby was out and so was the placenta. He explained that the umbilical cord looked good, so that right there ruled out any problems with the cord being around the baby's neck and caused the death. Dr. Illeck felt confident that the placenta came out whole, but to make sure, he checked my uterus. It was the most painful thing I had ever been through, I was crying with pain and it was difficult to breath. My epidural was not helping with that kind of pain. It was horrible! Dr. Illeck took a piece of tissue from the placenta and from the baby t0 send to the lab to hopefully give us some answers as to what happened. The nurse asked if he could tell the sex and we heard him say "its a boy". I found myself momentarily excited that it was a boy, as if he were alive and we were going to be giving Andrew and Allison a little brother, but that didn't last long and I quickly thought, we have a dead son.
Dr. Illeck gave us some kind words and told us that the next few weeks are going to be very difficult for us and that he wants to see me in 2 weeks. He had to go to a funeral that morning, so he had to go. Talk about a depressing day.
The nurse took a long time to prepare the baby for us. I just kept staring at Paul and was very nervous to see what was going to happen next. Paul had called our parents to tell them the news. They had slept in the lobby all night long...crazy grandparents. They came up to the labor and delivery waiting room. Our nurse spent a lot of time over under the warmer with our son, making sure everything was just right for us. She wrapped him up in the hospital blanket and then wrapped him in a beautiful knit blue blanket that the hospital gave to us. She asked us if we were ready. I thought I was so I said yes. She walked over with him in her arms. I couldn't do it. I couldn't take him from her. She stood there for a few minutes, while I asked her what she looked like, I asked her if he looked like a baby, if he was scary looking, if he looked deformed. She told me that I don't have to hold him or look at him, and it was up to me. Paul decided he was ready and he took our son in his arms. He cried. He told me that he looked like a little baby, he was a nose, eyes, a mouth and Paul told me that his hands were beautiful and amazingly small. He continued to describe his features to me, all I could do was cry. I was afraid that if I looked at him that I would think he was scary and it would make me upset to remember him that way. Paul continued to hold him for quite some time. Our nurse gave us some time alone. As Paul held him, I decided to look at him, but not hold him. I looked and I couldn't believe it. He really looked like a fetus, his head was big and his hands were the size of the tip of my pinkie finger. It is weird to think that something so little could be moving inside of me and kicking me strong enough for me to feel him. The nurse came back in and we decided to put the baby under the warmer and asked her to bring the grandparents in. Once they walked in I slightly panicked and told them not to look at the baby. They all stood above my bed and cried. I didn't want them to look at the baby and think that he was scary looking. I was trying to protect my baby.

We made small talk for a little bit and then they said goodbye and went home around 9:30am. Once they left, Paul picked up our son again and brought him over to the bed and encouraged me to hold him. I didn't want to regret not holding him. Paul put him in my arms and we examined his little body together. His tiny legs and toes. He was definatly a boy and had a little penis. His belly was rounded and his skin was a dark brownish red. I couldn't belive that this was my baby, it just wasn't supposed to happen this way. We had a pastor from the hosptial come in to give him a blessing, which wasn't as comforting as I had hoped it would be. We decided it would be easier to say goodbye to our little guy and then let the nurse take him to get his measurements, foot and hand prints and photos taken, rather than leaving him in the room while I was discharged. We said goodbye and the nurse took him.
She showed us the mold that she made of his hands and feet. It was amazing! She did a fantastc job. She also gave us a certificate that said he weighed 3 ounces and was 6 1/2 inches long.

Looking back I wish we spent more than just a few hours with him, but we were so emotionally exhausted, not thinking clearly and we didn't know what we should do. I was discharged after lunch. The nurse gave me his blanket, a memory box with his little hand and foot prints inside as well as a CD with all of his photos. It was a horrible 29 hours that we spent at the hospital. The nurses couldn't have been nicer. They treated us with such respect. They treated us like parents, and were so gentle with our little man. It was bitter-sweet going home, I was so excited to see Andrew and Allison, but didn't look forward to starting this grieving process. I just wanted to be drugged for a few weeks and let the pain wear off, but life does not work that way. Once we got home, Katie and Paul's parents left. Katie had stocked our refrigerator with food and snacks. The kids were super excited to see us. It was wonderful to see them, but I just felt empty without having my baby in my belly. I wasn't pregnant anymore. I felt so sorry for myself.

Papa Bug Goes To Preschool!

2011-01-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

Today was a very fun day at Andrew's preschool. My dad came to talk to the kids about being a mailman! He was all dressed up and showed the kids his different hats and answered a bunch of questions that they had for him. The kids had made Valentine's for their parents and put it in an envelope. Ms. Cori addressed all of the envelopes and sealed them up. then my dad gave the kids stamps and put them on the envelope. Each child then put their letter into his satchel and my dad mailed them off to each kid's parents. I loved showing my parents Andrew's school and Andrew was pretty proud as well to have Papa Bug there.

Disneyland with The Demboski's

2011-01-13T22:49:00.000-08:00

Well today we enjoyed a fun-filled day at Disneyland with Paul's parents, John, Andrienne and thier clan and the famous Aunt Katie. We spent the day riding the rides and filling the kids up on sugar. The best part of the day was when Jessie and Woody walked right passed us and Jessie took Andrew's hand and walked with him until they got to their "stage" where they did the hokey pokey together. Andrew thought it was the coolest thing holding her hand and was in seventh heaven until she wanted to dance with him. He was a good sport and made it through the dance...well sort of.

We ended the night watching the firework show above the castle while sipping hot cocoa. It was a beautiful day and night.

Almost Halloween Treat

2010-10-31T19:57:00.000-07:00

I AM PREGNANT!!!! I took a pregnancy test yesterday actually and it was positive, but I didn't really believe it, so today my very pregnant friend Trisha brought over a test to use and as we were secretly analyzing the results, Paul walked in. I hid the test. Trisha went home and then we all went out to dinner. I was texting Trisha the whole time for her to tell me what a positive test would look like, so she peed on a stick when she got home to see what a positive test would look like and then she texted me "your test was positive". I was so relieved!! I whispered in Andrew's ear "tell daddy that mommy has a baby in her tummy". So once Paul got back to the table he said "Daddy, mommy has a baby in her tummy!!!" Paul was so elated!
This is exactly what we wanted at the exact right time. God has blessed us so much with our lovely babies, all three of them! I can't wait!
The next night we went over to my parents house and had dinner. And of course I had Andrew tell my parents the good news. They were thrilled to find out as well. There was a lot of tears and hugs. My mom immediately called Rochelle and had Andrew tell his Aunt Chelle. She was screaming and just as excited as my parents. Not only do I love knowing that I am pregnant and I am so happy for myself, but I am so happy for my family too!

Halloween at Andrew's preschool was tons of fun. Both Andrew and Allison were pirates and I must say they were the cutest pirates I have ever seen as well. I stayed the whole time and took pictures of their party and games. They had a pinata and as Andrew went up to hit the pinata, he slipped and I managed to get this great shot of him. I felt bad though, I think he got embarrassed in front of everyone and I am not sure he really knew what he was doing or why he was doing it. Poor dude!

Halloween night Paul's parents and Mike and Becky and Paul's cousins Carol and Mike came over for dinner and trick-or-treating. Before everyone got there we had Andrew tell Paul's folks the good news. He told them that mommy has a baby in her tummy. Once again we all turned into a puddle and celebrated baby #3. YIPPIE! Dinner was great and trick-or-treating was a blast. Andrew and Allison went up to every door and yelled as loud as they could "Trick-or-Treat!!" Allison would always ask for a sucker or look to grab one. Andrew showed off his skills as a pirate by singing "yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!". He of course made all of our neighbors laugh and I am pretty sure they stole the hearts of all of our neighbors.

We met up with Logan and Nixon at their house and took some time to eat candy and take pictures.We had a fantastic night and got way too much candy. I am sure we will be eating it well into 2011!

An Autumn Visit From Aunt Katie

2010-10-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

Katie came down for a weekend visit. We went to breakfast at Schooner or Later and then headed over to the pumpkin patch where the kids played games and fed the animals. I remember taking Andrew here when he was just a newborn and then Allison when she was just an itty-bitty!

Pizza with the Hunts

2010-10-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had my friend Trisha and her boys Logan and Nixon over for dinner. We decided to have all 4 kids make pizza. They all did a great job making the pizza and eating the pizza. So happy to have neighbors that have become friends. My sister and I grew up with our neighbors being our best friends for our entire childhood and we are still close to them as adults. Here's to many more pizza making nights with the Hunts!

Hanging out

2010-10-18T22:01:00.000-07:00

Most nights after dinner we play "downstairs" before bedtime. Here are a few pictures of our silly kids.

Mike and Becky Get Married

2010-09-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Mike and Becky's wedding this weekend in beautiful Temecula. Of course as luck would have it, our car's air conditioner breaks and it was the hottest weekend of the summer. We neglected to tell Katie and Mike H. this when we agreed to let them hitch a ride with us:)

Our first night of the wedding weekend, we went to the rehearsal and dinner. The Ponte is a beautiful winery that Mike and Becky chose to be the location of their wedding. We did the rehearsal thing and the kids ran amongst the grape vines and had a blast. We then headed to The Melting Pot for dinner. I was super excited about this dinning experience until I realized I had a 3 year old and a 16 month old right in front of multiple burners with hot bubbling cheese and sauces. Needless to say I cannot wait to go back with Paul, just us two. Katie had put together a tear-jerking slide show which was the best part of the dinner.

The next day Paul went golfing with the boys while I played at the hotel with Andrew and Allison. We met up with Adrienne and her kiddos for some pool side lunch and swimming, where Andrew almost drowned in the "hot pool" aka the spa. I turned around only to see the top of his hat, he was under water. It scared the you-know-what- out of me. After that horrible experience we went upstairs for naps. That evening we had a pool side party with all of the wedding guests staying at the hotel. We had a BBQ and cocktails and splashed in the spa, until Andrew and Allison had huge melt downs and we all went to bed.
Who do these kids belong to??

The wedding day was beautiful. Paul left early to go be the "best man" and me and the kiddos got ready at the hotel. Andrew was the cutest and most handsomest little 3 year old in the universe, and I am not over exaggerating in the least bit! He was so proud to wear his tux just like daddy. And of course Allison was so stinking cute with her two little pigtails.
The ceremony was beautifully performed by John. Becky was stunning and Mike was so handsome and nervous. My mom had to take Allison away during the beginning of the ceremony because she was going crazy and wanted to run around. Andrew walked down the aisle next to his big cousin Matt holding his pillow with the ring tied real tight to it. He was so casual and acted like it was no big deal to walk down the aisle in front of all these people. Once he got to the gazebo, he was supposed to come and sit down next to me, but instead he thought it would be a better idea to stay up in front with daddy. He was walking in between Paul's legs and acting quite bored, and that was about the time he decided to come sit with me. The ceremony was gorgeous and the environment was perfect.
After pictures were taken and after I was able to round up both kids, we joined the rest of the guests for the reception where we danced the night away. Andrew was dancing his little heart out and boogy-ing on down. Allison had one great move, bouncing up and down in one place, nonstop for hours. I managed to get a few slow dances in with my hubby and with my babies. As the night went on the kids got more and more deliriously hyper and tired. Allison was running everywhere and dodging Paul's dad and laughing hysterically. A fabulous time was had by all.

We drove home the next day in triple digit temperatures in our car with no AC and we all poured our water bottles over our head. Andrew thought it was hilarious, Allison not so much.

Happy 30th Birthday Daddy!

2010-09-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

For Paul's 30th birthday we spent the weekend at Newport Dunes. Our little family and Paul's parents arrived to Newport after naps and checked in to our beach front cottage. We "moved in" and set up camp, literally. Grandma Duck and Papa Razi brought a seafood feast for Paul's birthday. They cooked crab, lobster, and clams. They also cooked steak for me :) We stuffed our faces full! That night after dinner we walked about 100 yards onto the sand and watched A Goofy Movie on the beach. They set up a huge movie screen and we sat on a picnic bench in our pajamas and watched the movie under the stars.

The next morning we cooked a big breakfast and then went to an art and craft workshop where the four of us make a candle from salt that we colored with chalk and poured into a glass and then put a candle on top with a hot glue gun. It turned out really cute and all four of us contributed which was really fun!

After we made the candle we went swimming in the pool and jacuzi. Andrew had a blast jumping in the pool. He must have jumped in about 40 times. Allison is now a jacuzi junkie! She did not want to go in the big pool once she discovered the "hot pool".

After swimming we went back to the cottage fed the kids lunch and then put them down for naps and began getting ready for the big party! We checked into the cottage next door where we would sleep that night with my parents. We organized, chopped, sliced, and decorated. Once the kids woke up everyone started to arrive. We had Buny, Doug, Mom and Dad Clark , Mike, Becky, Mitch, Jackie and Natalie, Susan and Paul Sheldon, Mike Ray and his girlfriend Michelle, Dalora, Kelly, Lindsay and Addison. We had so much fun! Paul went kayaking with Andrew, Kelly, Lindsay and Addison. We barbecued brats, had a tomato, cucumber and onion salad, Barbecued corn and had lots and lots of pina coladas and wine. Paul then took out another group to go kayaking he went with Mitch, Jackie, Natalie, Papa Razi and Andrew. We sang happy birthday and cooked smores on the campfire. Right in front of our cottage where the movie played the night before was a jazz band that looked as if it was playing just for our party.
I think it is safe to say that everyone had a fabulous time. We stayed up talking around the campfire until 1:30am. We told stories and laughed with my dad, Paul's parents, Buny and Doug, and Mike.

We woke up the next morning, had a yummy breakfast of home made muffins and fruit, packed up and drove the 30 minutes down PCH back home.

Happy 30th Birthday Paul Andrew Demboski.

Andrew starts preschool

2010-09-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Today was a big milestone in our lives. Andrew had his first day of preschool. We managed to get him into Bayshore Co-op Preschool right on the beach. We went yesterday to meet his teacher and check it out, and Andrew loved it and didn't want to leave!
This morning we all went down to Belmont Shores to drop off our little dude. We signed him in and gave hugs and kisses. The teacher Miss Cori asked him if he wanted to go ride bikes and he said "YEAH" they held hands and walked to the bike yard, and that was it! There were no tears or anything! Paul, Allison and I watched him from the parking lot for a little bit as he biked around and showed one of the volunteer moms his shoes that has Buzz Lightyear on them. The bell rang and he walked with all of the other little kids into the little school house for circle time. And me being the crazy mom that I am, walked back up to the school and peaked in the door and saw him sitting down looking up at the teacher as she did role call. It was so cute! I was so relieved that he was happy.

Three hours later Allison and I picked him up. I got there about 15 minutes early and sat in my car and watched as him and all of the other kids ran out of the school house and onto the playground, Andrew screaming with excitement the whole way to the slide. I watched him running around with the other little boys, growling and climbing up the slide. I was surprised to see the girls and boys playing separately. I finally got out of my car and walked up to the playground to pick up my little preschooler. He was so excited to see me and yelled "mommy!!" and ran up to me and gave me a quick hug and then ran back to his friends. He did not want to leave and kept playing. I managed to peel him away from the playground. He had a great first day, but he had 2 peepee accidents. Andrew hasn't had an accident in probably 9 months! The teacher said he was having so much fun that he probably just forgot. I also forgot to show him where the bathroom is, which I am sure would have helped.

I can't believe this day has come! I look at him sometimes and see that little baby from the NICU. His eyes are the same, his hair is the same, and his heart is the same. It is hard to imagine just 3 years ago we were afraid he was never going to have the ability to think, speak or feel... and now he is going to preschool! I am so proud of my little man. He amazes me everyday with how grown up he is. He quickly learns all of the words to so many songs, he communicates like an adult with a huge vocabulary, he genuinely cares for others and understands people's feelings and truly wants everyone to be happy. He is my little boy and I am so in love with him. I am happy that he is growing up so healthy and that he is starting on this journey of school with such a positive attitude. This is where the foundation of education starts, and I am so excited that he gets to start this new chapter of his life at Bayshore co-op where I get to be involved and he receives the best start to an education.

Happy 3rd Birthday Andrew

2010-09-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Andrew's birthday this year, we decided to go to Disneyland instead of have a party. What started with a dinner at Goofy's kitchen, ended up a mini-vacation to the Disneyland hotel. We checked in to the Disneyland hotel and immediately I was impressed with just the lobby. There was a little couch and a mini entertainment system with a TV so the kids were able to watch Disney cartoons while we checked in. Once we made it to our room, I was even more impressed, not only did a pack-n-play come standard in every room, so did a refrigerator, little bottles of shampoo, conditioner and lotion with Mickey Mouse heads on the top, and a wood-carved headboard of the castle that lit up with fireworks and played "A dream is a wish your hear makes when your fast asleep". There was also a pullout couch with pillows in it that said the lyrics to the song. Our room overlooked the pool and we immediately met up with Grandma Duck and Papa Razzi (who booked a joining room to ours) and went swimming in the pool. The big pool had a water slide and a baby water slide that Andrew and Allison enjoyed. But we spent most of our time in the "Hot Pool" aka the jacuzzi. Andrew said that the "hot pool is hot like soup". We spent a couple of hours eating lunch at poolside and then made our way up to the room to nap the kiddos and then get ready for goofy's kitchen. My parents then joined up with us. Andrew and Allison were "sleeping" in our room while we all visited in Paul's folk's room, when all of a sudden we heard Andrew and Allison talking. I cracked open the door to our room only to find Andrew out of bed behind the curtain looking out to the pool with Allison in her pack-n-play pulling the curtain back and looking at Andrew. Andrew started to play peek-a-boo with Allison and they were both laughing in their little baby laughter, and I managed to get the whole thing on video.
We got the kids ready and dressed then sang Happy Birthday to Andrew and gave him a Rice krispies Treat Cake and then he opened his gifts. We all left to go to dinner at Goofy's kitchen. When we got there we were greated by Goofy and got to take a picture with Pluto. Our whole dinner experience was wonderful the food was great. They had everything from peanut butter and jelly pizza to new your steak. They had every kind of kid food you can imagine and all sorts of desserts. We had table visits from Minnie Mouse, Chip and Dale, Princess Jasmine and Aladdin, Pluto and Goofy. Andrew had no fear and took pictures, kissed, and gave hugs to all of the characters. They came to our table quite a few times and spent a great deal of time with us each time they made a visit. I was really impressed with how much one on one time we had with all of the characters. Allison on the other hand had a mini panic attack with each of the characters. Poor baby wasn't sure if she should eat the 12 cookies in front of her or if she should cry her brains out. She mainly combined the two options and cried with cookies falling out of her mouth. Gotta love that girl.
We went to Downtown Disney afterwards and shopped and listened to music. It didn't take long for all of us to become very exhausted and we headed back to the room after saying goodbye to my parents.
The next morning the kids woke up early and we scurried them on over to Papa Razzi and Grandma ducky's room and Paul and I enjoyed sleeping in for an extra 40 minutes or so. The fed the kids breakfast and then we headed into Disneyland park to continue celebrating Andrew's big 3! We did all of Andrew's requests which consisted of Small World and Tiki Room. We had lunch at Pizza Port, took the monorail back to the hotel, went home and crashed!
Note to self... a birthday party and a bouncy house is less work, but Disneyland is way more fun. I'll keep that in mind when Andrew turns 4 next year.
***pictures to come***

Vegas Ladies Trip

2010-08-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went on my first weekend away since I became a mom. I went to Las Vegas with Adrienne, Katie, Becky, Becky's sister Michelle and Becky's friend Carly for Becky's Bachelorette Party. I was nervous to leave the kids and a bit sad about it, until I got on the plane with Becky, then I was just excited! We stayed at the MGM Grand and had one of the best weekends ever! The first day we hung out at the pool and then took a limo cruise around the strip and took pictures at all of the landmarks around Vegas and drank Champagne. We went out to dinner and then went to a club called Tao. We had a lot of fun dancing and drinking, then decided to go to Tryst, another club that we all loved. It had a large outdoor section with a waterfall by the dance floor and we danced there til 6 o'clock in the morning! I was so proud of us! The next day was spent by the pool sleeping and recovering and preparing for another night out again. That night we had a yummy Italian dinner out, went to Thunder From Down Under where Becky was pulled up on stage and we all laughed our butts off. Then we headed to Vanity at the Hard Rock Hotel. That place was a lot of fun. We danced there until about 4 o'clock in the morning, then took a private cab that was this amazing SUV that was "pimped out" and cost the guys that was taking us to an after hours club about $40 to drive a few blocks away. This after hours club was called Dray's and they played house music till noon I think. We danced our butts off again until 6 o'clock. We managed to get a few hours of sleep before it was time to check out and lay by the pool until our flight back home. Overall we had an amazing time. This weekend away was just what I needed. I came back to 2 happy and dirty kids, and messy house and a stressed out hubby, but I was ready to take it on after such a wonderful weekend away.

Happy Birthday Papa Bug!

2010-08-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

We brought dinner over to my parent's house for my dad's birthday. We had black bean burgers with mango salsa. Super yummy! We went in the spa and had cupcakes. It was an Allison and Andrew dream come true night... full of grandparents, toys, swimming and sugar. Andrew dressed up as papa the mailman and had fun singing a duet with papa. We are so blessed to have my parents close by to enjoy a quick midweek dinner.

Pirate Allison gets a booboo

2010-08-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

So I must admit that I really don't know what happened. But my guess is that she hit her forehead on the kitchen cabinet door corner. She was alone in the kitchen, cried a little, and a few minutes later I noticed a HUGE black and blue bump on her forehead. She is one tough cookie. I tried to put ice on her, but you can only imagine how she reacted to that. She cried more with the ice than she did with the actual injury.

Little Miss. Allison is into a lot these days. She has learned the purpose of the stool in the kitchen. She is able to push the stool over to the counter top of her choice and climb up to get whatever it is that she is after. The other day she pushed the stool over to where we keep the fruit and helped herself to a tomato.

She is learning to put up with Andrew and stand up for herself. She never comes crying to us if he takes her toy or pushes her. She is able to handle the situation herself by screaming at him and taking back her toy and sometimes even pushes back (not that I am happy with this behavior, but happy that she isn't a pansy).

I really think that she will have a career in acting someday. I don't think she is good enough for big Hollywood movies, but I think she will do great as a soap opera star because she is great at drama and holding her poses. She likes to look down at the ground when she is mad at us and then ever so slightly creep her eyes up towards us, while keeping a look of hatred on her face! Boy if looks could kill!

Then there is the pirate face! One day at the dinner table, I was trying to teach Andrew how to wink using just one eye. Well I had no idea that Allison was paying attention and was just sitting there with one eye crunched closed as tight as she could close it. She looked ridiculous and I told her she looked like a pirate and I could not stop laughing. Ever since then, whenever I tell her to do the pirate face, she squishes her eye closed shut, and it is only the right eye that manages to close, her left eye always stays open. She keeps us laughing and sweating all day.

Andrew Plays Soccer

2010-07-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

This summer we have signed Andrew up for "Daddy and Me Soccer". Paul and Andrew go every Saturday morning for 30 minutes to play soccer with "Coach Cody". Both of them are having a lot of fun. Allison and I are having fun watching them from the sidelines. Andrew does a really good job at kicking the ball with his "little kick and big kicks". They play games where the ball is a shopping cart and you have to kick the ball to the "store" which are the cones. They also kick the ball to different color cones, and then there is "Goal Time". This is Andrew's favorite part of soccer. He gets to shoot the ball into the goal. It is funny to watch the kids cluttering around each goal and getting stuck inside the net trying to get their ball while the other kids are kicking their ball in the goal.

Of course both sets of Grandparents have come to watch our little soccer player. We all agree that he is the best kid in his class, and I don't think we are being biased, because Coach even said that Andrew is ready for Tot Soccer, which is for preschoolers without moms or dads with them. I am proud of my little athlete.

Summer Fun

2010-07-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

Today we had a backyard blowup pool play date with Logan and Nixon and mommy's play date partner Trisha. The boys bounced around, splashed, jumped and laughed in the pool, Miss. Allison splashed in her water table and Trisha and I lounged as much as we could. It is the first official hot day of the summer and the house heated up to 87 degrees. Paul worked all day today, came home for dinner where Andrew made his dreams come true. During dinner Andrew said "Andrew gets bigger, Andrew wanna be a knight and drive a horse" It was so cute, we all started to laugh. Paul took off after dinner to go meet up with some clients and I had a nice evening alone with the kiddos (and my blog).

Allison is now known as the girl with one million faces, mostly looks that would kill. My dad calls her a little spark plug. She really can give you the look of death if you tell her "no", I don't know where she gets it from. (ha ha). Yesterday, I was sitting down on the living room floor and Allison had just come in from playing outside, sat on my lap and said "Echhhh" which is what we tend to say when something is dirty or yucky. She kept saying it over and over and finally I looked down and she was holding a piece of dog poop! I couldn't believe it! She was right though, it was "Echhh". She is obsessed with her new baby doll. She can now say baby, but pronounces it almost like a southern belle. She has to go to bed with it every night, she is such a girl I love it!

Anyways back to tonight. I put Allison down with no problem and Andrew asked to watch a "mommy show" which is his way of trying to stay up later than he should. So being the overly tired mom that I am, I said OK. We watched "so you think you can dance" Andrew was sitting in Paul's spot on the couch and I laid down and put my head on his chest, just like I would do with Paul and Andrew put his arm around my neck and said "Andrew had fun swimming and laughing today, mommy you're my best friend". My heart melted. I never knew I would fall in love with any other male besides my husband, but I am head over heels in love with my little Andrew Clark.

Grandma Madeline's 81st Birthday at Disneyland

2010-06-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

For Grandma's 81st birthday I had the great idea to drag her to Disneyland for 13 hours! HaHa! Actuallly I had no idea that it would explode into a 13 hour day with 9 adults and 6 kids. We had a great time. Rochelle, Damon and their kids, mom and dad, Aunt Patti and Cassie with Isla and Paul and our kids went with Grandma Madeline last week. We had a great time. We went on Haunted mansion with Grandma as well as Peter Pan, Small World and we even stayed to watch Fantasmic, and then she started to nod off during the final fireworks show. We all had a great time. Just the four of us went to the Tiki room, where Andrew danced his butt of like he has never danced before. He was REALLY into it. We got the whole thing on video. We had a lot of people come up to us afterwards to tell us they had more fun watching Andrew than watching the show. Allison did her part too, she danced nonstop, we even had some Asian couple taking pictures of them.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-06-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Five years ago today Paul and I said "I do" at the Hacienda. It was such a beautiful day, and I remember every moment...
Waking up and shaving my legs for like 30 minutes
Driving to the hair salon with my mom and sister
Showing the stylist the Jessica Simpson book to show her how to do my hair.
Putting my dress on.
My dad crying
My mom crying
All of my bridesmaids fussing over me
My photographer taking pictures.
Hiding in the lobby so no one could see me.
The tram ride over to the Hacienda.
Waiting in the bride's room.
Watching the guest arrive.
My dad saying "son of a bitch" when we almost walked down the aisle without my veil down.
Hearing Mike Prebie sing "you fill up my senses like a knight in a forest"
Seeing Paul's face looking very nervous.
Saying a prayer, taking communion, drinking wine after motioning to Mike to start the next song.
Kelly fainting.
Repeating our vows and putting on our rings.
Walking back down the aisle and so excited to party!
Toast by John, I am afraid I don't remember.
Cutting the cake.
Eating dinner, showing off my flip flops, kissing Paul to the clank of glasses.
Dancing our first dance "Our love is unconditional I knew it from the start......I cross my heart and promise to give all I've got to give to make all your dreams come true..."
Dancing with my dad "Whatta Wonderful world" and crying and crying.
Paul dancing with his mom and recovering from dancing with my dad.
Dancing, dancing dancing.
Dedicating "I like big butts and I can not lie" to my mom from Rochelle and I.
Doing the chacha slide "One stomp this time, two stomps this time...hands on your knees, hands on your knees..."
Dancing with my new father-in-law to "Hey dad this could be the best day of my life, I've been dreaming day and Night of being like you...now it's me and her watching you and mom I've learned I'm the luckiest man alive, this is the best day of my life"
Running to the bride's room balcony to have Paul remove my garter and throw it off the balcony.
Paul scooping me up into his arms and running to our decorated car.
My mom running after me to tell me I forgot my overnight bag.
Driving to my surprise destination for our wedding night, with little wedding bells ringing all throughout the car that our friends tied Everywhere!!!
Cars honking at us the whole way.
Walking through the lobby of the Hyatt in Huntington Beach in my wedding gown and everyone saying hello, congratulations and smiling.
It was the happiest day of my life. All of my dreams were coming true!
I am so blessed to have found the man of my dreams. Paul has made me into the person that I want to be, he brings out the best in me, and most importantly he has made me a mother. I thank God for my husband everyday and look forward to the day where we celebrate our 50th wedding Anniversary! I can't imagine loving him more, but everyday my love grows and grows. Thank you Paul for the best 5 years of my life!

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Father's day this year just the four of us by going to the movies and had a picnic at the beach. We took the kiddos to see Toy Story 3, it was their first real movie at the movie theaters. Andrew did really good and sat and watched the whole thing. Allison on the other hand was not so easy. She was done after about 45 minutes, so I walked with her outside and tried about 5 times to get her back inside, but that didn't happen. I ended up letting her walk around the entrance to the theater so I could still watch the movie (sort of). The movie was great and we got home in time for naps. For dinner we picked up Enrique's and took it to the beach and had picnic. Andrew wore a shirt that said "My dad is rad" and Allison wore a onesie that says "My heart belongs to daddy".

I couldn't ask for a better father to my children. Paul is playful, loving, patient and a great teacher. Thank you Paul for being such a great daddy and dada.

Camping at Lake Cachuma

2010-06-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

Andrew found a worm!

Last weekend we went with Paul's parents, John, Adrienne, Matt, Natalie, Lexie, Mike and Becky up to Lake Cachuma to go camping. We arrived Friday afternoon to our cabin that we shared with Paul's folks. It was a cute little cabin with 2 bedrooms a little kitchen and a full bathroom. Liberty joined us on our journey. John and Adrienne had just arrived and were setting up their trailer. Grandma and Papa soon joined us and we are gathered to have a yummy barbeque dinner and roast marshmallows of course. Andrew was super excited because we had been talking about going camping for a while now. Within an hour of getting all set up in the cabin, or as Andrew called it the "cabinent", Allison fell and got a pretty bad booboo. We purchased her a princess camping chair for her birthday and was so excited to use it this weekend. Well she was sitting in it by herself and tried to get down and she couldn't reach the ground and instead she fell flat on her face and got a mouth full of dirt, a bloody nose and a bloody lip. She was scabbed and had road rash around her mouth all weekend. That was the first of many falls, trips and spills that she encountered that weekend.
Our first night there we realized we forgot Allison's pack-and-play for her to sleep in, so I jokingly said she can sleep in Liberty's cage. Well as the night went on we really had no idea with where to put Allison so we decided to just go for it and she slept in Liberty's cage! She didn't seem to mind, we laid down blankets and she slept for 10 hours! Andrew was a little confused and told us "that's Liberty's cage, not Allison's!" The first night we stayed up with Grandma and Papa belly laughing and telling stories. We had a great time.
The next morning Mike and Becky joined us, they arrived at 2:00am after their long drive up after work. The whole group walked down to the lake and went out on the pontoon boat that Papa had rented for us. It was a huge boat that sat us all comfortably. Andrew was super excited to go fishing for the first time. Everyone got their lines in the water and we scooted around the lake for a few hours while chit-chatting, laughing and enjoying the beautiful weather. Unfortunately nobody caught anything, but Andrew still had a blast. He was proud to be wearing his life jacket and camping hat. We decided to head back around lunch time. By this time the wind had picked up and we were quite a ways away from the dock so we decided to haul ass into the wind to get home at a reasonable time. Paul drove us back and had fun speeding into the wind and splashing us. Everyone was laughing and getting sprayed with water, but I think the one that enjoyed it the most was Allison. I finally took her out of my sling so she could exercise her little legs and she was standing by herself as we were flying over the choppy water, and she was dancing up and down and "riding the waves" like a true champ. Paul walked her up to the front of the boat where all of the water was spraying and a huge wave came and sprayed her real good, she was little baffled at first but then got a huge smile on her face and started dancing. She put on a show for us and entertained us all. We survived the boat ride back to the dock and headed back to the trailer for lunch. After lunch Allison went down for a nap in her cage and Andrew played with his cousin in the dirt with his trucks. He was in heaven. He spent a couple of hours scooping up rocks and dumping them into his dump truck, what more could he ask for? Grandma took all of the grandbabies to the general store and purchased a special ice cream treat for all of them.
We had delicious hamburgers for dinner and once again roasted marshmallows. Andrew had a lot of fun "playing" Bingo with Matthew, Mike and Becky. Andrew was excited about whatever Matt was excited about. He really looks up to his older cousin.
We all went to bed pretty early that night. The next morning, we packed up the car and headed out at an early hour because I had to work that night. Both kids slept the whole way home thank goodness, and then I went to work!

Happy Birthday Allison

2010-05-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is 1 year old!! May 15th 2009 I gave birth to our little precious princess pipsqueak! We celebrated all weekend of course. On her actual birthday we went to El Dorado Park with Paul's family. We enjoyed a picnic and went on the choochoo train. The kids had a fun time playing with their cousins Matthew, Natalie and Lexie. We went back home for naps and then over to Paul's folks house for dinner and more play time. We had a yummy Barbeque and birthday cake.

The next day May 16th was the big shindig. We had the bouncy house people drop off the luau bouncer at 8:00am and everyone arrived by 11:00. We had a ton of people and little Allison was as cute as can be. She had her little hula monkey outfit on and a flower in her hair. We all played in the bouncy house, Paul Barbecued cheeseburgers in paradise, had cake and opened presents. Allison loved her cake and that is probably an understatement. She got her own little cake to go crazy with and that is just what she did! She was pretty much throwing it in her mouth!
She received a lot of really nice gifts. Andrew picked out a pink car for her and Paul and I purchased her very own ladybug bean bag chair as well as a princess camping chair that she can bring to the beach. Overall we all had a great time. Allison fell asleep in Grandma Duck's arms for about 45 minutes and then she woke up to play some more.
I cannot believe my baby girl is 1 year old. It has been a great year.She has truly blossomed into a little girl with a sweet and silly personality. She is pointing at things and running all over the place and she loves to push her and her brother's cars all around the house. Whenever she hears music she starts to dance with a smile on her face, but the second you acknowledge her dancing she gets shy and tucks her little face behind something. Her favorite game is peek-a-boo. She plays it all the time. She will put her blanket or a wipey over her face and then pull it down with a big grin. Allison has brought so much joy and laughter to our lives. I can't wait to watch her grow into a 2 year old!

Life in Kaanapali

2010-05-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

The kids slept in! Yeah! 0730 was our wake up time yesterday. We had a quiet morning in the condo while Paul took care of some work stuff. I got the kids ready to go to the beach and once Paul was done we headed down to "our" beach in front of our condo. It really is the best beach we have been to. There are no waves, it is shallow, there is great snorkeling just 100 yards down the water and there is plenty of shade. We settled in to our shady spot on the sand and Andrew started his fort, Allison enjoyed watching the birdies. I went for a swim in the warm turquoise water and Paul played with the kids. Then it was Paul's turn and I stayed on the shore with the kids. We must have played for a couple of hours. Allison didn't eat any sand and Andrew made friends with 2 little girls on the beach. When it was time for lunch we packed up our toys etc and headed to the condo or "new home". I gave the kids a quick shower while Paul made lunch. We were all starving. Allison ate a huge slice of pizza and Andrew ate a whole slice plus a fruit cup. The kids went down without a peep and I went to the pool, while Paul played his computer game. I laid out and read a book that was left here in the room called "Here today, gone to Maui". It is an easy read and I got pretty into it. I sat in the pool and read and laid on the lounge chair and read. Before I knew it Paul was on our balcony calling me in. It had been 2.5 hours that I had been out there. The kids slept the whole time!

We took our time getting ready for dinner. Andrew wore his new tiki guy shirt with matching shorts and Allison wore the dress that my parents bought her on their trip to Mexico. We took the trolley into Whaller's village and had dinner at the Aloha Grill. It was right on the water and they had 2 guys playing the guitar and singing throughout dinner, which Andrew loved of course. Paul and I ordered cocktails, me a Mai Tai and Paul a Blue Hawaiian. Andrew got a mango smoothie. We enjoyed a very nice dinner and made our way over the stage area of Whaller's village where they do a hula show in the evenings. We did a little shopping before the show. Allison got a little Hawaiian girl dolly with a lei around her neck and Andrew picked out a tractor.

When the show started Andrew and Allison were both intrigued by the dancers. It held their attention for about 15 minutes and then they were done. It made us feel good about our decision to not do a luau. We didn't want to pay all that money to have them get bored only 20 minutes into a 2 hours show. Thankfully the trolley runs every 20-30 minutes and when we walked over to the trolley stop there was one coming up to pick us up. We got home around 800pm. Since Allison didn't eat much, I brought out the left over noodles from dinner the other night from the Aloha mixed plate restaurant. She inhaled the noodles. She looked so cute in her little Mexican dress bending over and squatting down to pick up noodles and then slurp them up. Then Andrew started eating the noodles. The stayed up an extra 30 minutes just eating the noodles. We had some good laughs and tickles then PJs then bed time. Paul and I stayed up watching trashy reality TV and then went to bed. Life is tough :)

Mother's Day in Maui

2010-05-10T23:36:00.001-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!
This morning Andrew and i went for a walk called grandma bug to wish her a happy mother's day. We had a great conversation and walked along the beach. We came back to an awake Allison and daddy. We cooked breakfast burritos and ate on the balcony, which Allison loved because she got to watch the birdies. We had no plans for the day so we went to the lobby to get some brochures. We saw one for a submarine ride. It is actually a partial submarine. The top part was available to go outside at any time. We thought the kids might get a kick out of this so we called and booked 4 seats on the 1100 ride. We packed ourselves up and headed to Lahina. We got there a few minutes early and walked round the craft fair that was under the big Banyon tree. (I still can't get over this tree). When it was our turn to get on the submarine we climbed down under into the cabin. There were windows everywhere and it was air conditioned and spacious, thank goodness! We "set sail" and headed off. Allison was quite bored and preferred to walk around rather than sit in one place. We drove for about 20 minutes and then stopped. They sent 2 divers into the water. There were about 3 type of fish that stayed with us and swam around the windows. Andrew was super excited at first, but he was more excited when the divers swam by. The divers would go find things and bring it up to the window to show everyone. This is when Allison started to get excited. She was bouncing up and down and pressing her nose up to the glass. It was so cute! Andrew's attention was held for about 30 seconds at a time, he was more interested in playing with the 2 little Russian boys that were right about his age. It was really funny because all 3 little boys were talking all at once to each other, the 2 Russian kids had accents and it was hard to tell if they were speaking English or not. Andrew had fun though. Once we were done and heading back into shore, we decide to go up top and get some fresh air. Allison seemed to like it, but Andrew just wanted to walk around, which obviously made me a nervous wreck, so I happily forced him to sit by me. Once we were on dry land, we walked over to Cheeseburgers in Paradise and had lunch. Our table was right on the water. The waves were crashing right under us. We left and came home and put the kids down for a nap and I too fell asleep on the couch.
When the kiddos woke up from their nap we went down to "our" beach. This was my #2 most favorite moment of our trip. We built a huge fort in the sand and put both kids in it. We went swimming and played for a couple of hours. We decided to stay and watch the sun set. We all sat on the shore line and let the waves come up and splash on us. Allison was in her little bikini and looked ridiculously cute. Andrew loved his fort and then the waves were about to crash on us, he would run back and jump/dive into his fort to stay dry, even though he was soaked from head to toe. The people from our hotel and neighboring hotels were all starting to make their way to the beach to watch the sunset. They were all dressed for dinner and looking sharp and here we were covered in sand, laughing and sun burned. We had a great time. We watched the sun slip into the water and decided it was time to go start cooking dinner since it was practically the kids bedtime and we were still swimming in the ocean.
I showered the kids while Paul made a special mother's day dinner of bratwurst, corn on the cob, and broccoli. It was a wonderful dinner and a wonderful mother's day. We had ice cream sandwiches for dessert and put the kids to bed.

Quiet Day

2010-05-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

I woke up not feeling good yesterday and it turned out to be my turn to get sick. Bummer! I managed to do a load of laundry with Andrew by my side at 0700 in the morning. We had another bonding morning over dirty clothes. Once Paul and Allison woke up we made breakfast in the condo and then I went back to bed and slept until the kids woke up from their nap around 2:30. We packed up suites and towels in hope to maybe find a new beach heading west towards Napili. Instead we found a playground on the beach. Andrew screamed he was so happy! We let the kids play on the slides and swings for quite some time. Andrew was in his glory and I was feeling better. Allison enjoyed her time on the swings and had fun crawling through the tunnels.
We continued our drive up the cost and stopped at an open house. This vacation home was 8 bedrooms and 9,000 square feet, and was situated along the water and was selling for $14.9 million. The house was so big that they couldn't open it up during the open house because it would take too long to show, so they only show the guest house which is connected to the house by an upstairs walkway over the driveway. The guest house was a million times nicer than our house. The realtor was very kind and we were able to walk the grounds.... someday maybe someday.
We went back to our condo changed and then headed for this restaurant call ed Aloha mixed plate. It was quite yummy. We dinned on the patio overlooking the water of course and with lots of plants and lush greenery around us. Andrew and Allison ate their whole dinner and had a lot of fun. We had many laughs with the both of them and nobody got sick!!!
After dinner we strolled along the waters edge and watched the sunset. It was quite beautiful and we got some great pictures. Our hope is to drive the road to Hana tomorrow. Let's hope we all wake up feeling good!

This is the life

2010-05-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Andrew woke up at the predictable 0600. Instead of watching a marathon of Oswald, I decided to take him for a walk. There is a wooden boardwalk that runs along the front of the Kaanapali hotels. We walked down a little bit and came back to our condo's grassy area that over looks our little beach. We laid on the lounge chairs and called both Grandmas to let them know what we have been up to. Andrew told them about the flowers and birdies and the ocean. We had a nice stroll just the two of us and then headed back to the condo to wake up Paul and Allison. We decided to go to the Pioneer Inn for some seaside breakfast. I had the famous macadamia nut pancakes and Paul had Hawaiian sweet bread french toast. Andrew scarfed down his pancake in the shape of Mickey Mouse and I think Allison ate her weight in pancakes as well. We walked around the Banyan tree park again and I did a little shopping in Lahina. We purchased Andrew a tiki guy shirt with matching shorts. He was pretty excited and started singing the tiki room song. So stinking cute!
Once we got back to the condo we decided to go down to "our" beach in front of the condos and went snorkeling. The water was so crystal turquoise and the sun was beating down with the trade winds blowing down the beach. Paul went out snorkeling first while Andrew, Allison and I played in the sand. Then it was my turn to go snorkeling. It was so beautiful! There is a reef bout 100 yards down the beach where there was a decent amount of fish. There were practically no waves which made getting in and out of the water easy. I spend quite some time just floating and watching the fish go by. When I was done, I bought Andrew into the water with me. We played in the little waves and looked for seashells. Every time we would find a seashell Andrew would say "Papa Razi would like this one!" We played and swam and built sandcastles and we all had a great time.
Beach time was over and it was time for lunch. I made super yummy sandwiches with Maui grown tomatoes and avocados. I put the kids down for a nap. They are now used to their beds and go down without a problem. Once the kids were asleep I went back down to the beach while Paul played his computer game and stayed with the kids. I laid down on my towel and drank a beer and just watched the world go by. It was fabulous weather and I went for a long swim and floated on my back watching the clouds linger in the sky. I sat on the shore and let the waves come up and splash on me. I literally was living the song "I've got my toes in the water and ass in the sand, not a care in the world and a cold beer in my hand, life is good today". I went into the spa for about 15 minutes and then made my way back to the condo to take a shower, just in time for the kids to wake up. We all got dressed and went for a walk down the boardwalk looking for the Sheratin hotel to see the torch lighting and cliff diving ceremony. We actually ended up walking 1.5 miles (we later clocked it) in the wrong direction and ended up taking he bus back passed our condo to the Sheratin at Whaler's village just in time for the ceremony to start.

We sat at the best table at the Sheratin's pool and ordered some cocktails since we didn't have to drive. Andrew even got a mango smoothie. We watched the man light all of the torches along the cliff and then he jumped off the cliff into the water. Andrew's favorite part was the band playing the ukulele. He was dancing with his shades on and turning everyones heads. We walked back to Whaler's village to the Aloha Grill and had a great dinner at the "waterfall table". We sat at a table with a waterfall all to ourselves. Andrew was in a mood to say the least, but after a walk with daddy, he came back to the table apologized and ended up having a great meal.
After dinner we walked passed a band playing and Andrew and Allison held hands and were dancing. It was definatly a great moment that we got on film. It was very precious! We walked around Whaler's village where all of the high-end shops are and then hopped back on the "trolly" bus and went back to the condo just in time to get jammies on and into bed.

It's just another day in Paradise

2010-05-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got a great night sleep, both kids slept well. Andrew woke up at 0600 which I can handle. Allison and daddy cuddled in bed together snoring until about 0800. We packed up our loot and headed out of town to Iao Valley to see the Iao needle. I had no idea what to expect but it is apparently the most photographed place in all of Maui for a reason. It was a short 30-40 minute drive and it lead us quickly into the lush rain forest looking land with huge steep mountain tops and cliffs everywhere. We parked our car and took the trails down through the little waterfalls and then took the big staircase up to the top where there was a great view of the needle. It is a huge steep rock that is 1250 feet straight up and was used as a look out point during battles. It was quite breathtaking. We spent an hour or more climbing along the trails and walking down the stream and were lucky enough to be crossing the small little bridge over a waterfall just in time to see some crazy local Hawaiian jump off the bridge into the small water hole that leads down into a shallow stream. I was so afraid he wasn't going to come out of the water alive, but I guess he knew what he was doing. We left Iao Valley and went into the little town of Iao and had lunch at the most popular noodle place in all of Maui (according to our tour book). And by the looks of the restaurant, I think they were right. We were by far the only tourists in the place and there was a line out the door. We had an excellent lunch of dry noodles, beef, chicken and rice. So amazing. Andrew and Allison had a lot of fun, but I am afraid not too much eating was done. About 5 minutes after we got into the car, Andrew got sick. So once again we were peeling off his clothes and busting out the baby wipes to clean him up. We are getting pretty good a cleaning up little kid "Yack" as Paul calls it.
Once we got Andrew all cleaned up he said "should we go get some ice cream?" He is the best at Puke and Rally :) So we found the most popular sherbet store (once again according to our tour book). And it too proved to be correct. It was inside a little mini mart place and the locals buy the sherbet by the quart to fly over to their friends on the other islands. We each got a big serving of the most delicious pineapple and strawberry sherbet we have ever had. We ate it at the Maui Mall, a large outdoor shopping center. We took the kids into a Fun zone and let Andrew play a few games and rest his belly before we strapped him back into the car.

We planned on napping the kids in the car so we could do a little side trip and drive along the coast to go see a "Garden of Eden view" that our tour book recommended. Thankfully the kids cooperated and the fell fast asleep. Which was a good thing. The tour book described the road we were about to go on as windy and they recommended honking your horn around the corners because it becomes very narrow. Well they weren't kidding. The road was along the clifftops about the ocean and it started off pretty innocent until the state highway came to an end and it was a little one land road that sure enough was so windy that you had to drive 5mph and honk your horn around the turns because you couldn't see the cars coming around the corner. So Damned Scary! I was a nervous wreck. What our book neglected to tell us about were all the locals that fly down the road and don't care about the tourists in their rental cars with sleeping kids in the back. Well with God looking out for us we made it to the view point and looked down only to see a massive waterfall that cascaded down into a stream that lead to another waterfall. It truly was magical and I am happy we made the trip.

The kids soon woke up and we listened to Allison cry for about 20 minutes while Andrew yelled "STOP CRYING BABY!" It just made up laugh. Gotta love our kids. We made it back to the condo about 6:00pm just in time to go for a quick dip in the pool and then have dinner at "our new house". Both kids are getting used to their beds, Allison in her crib and Andrew in his "fort" AKA the closet :)

Eating Sand, A Tough Lesson

2010-05-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well Day #2 in Maui proved to be a tough and beautiful day. We woke up at 0530, yes, 0530. Because that is 0830 California time and that is what time Andrew and Allison's time clocks tell them. We played in our "new home" as Andrew likes to call it for a couple of hours had breakfast and headed to the beach. We were surprised that we weren't the first ones there at 0830 in the morning. We spread out our blankets under the shade of a huge palm tree and played in the sand. Andrew was scooping up the sand and "tutending" (aka pretending) it was ice cream. We were having a great time until Allison saw up pretending to eat the sand and she got confused and actually took fist fulls of sand and put it in her mouth! It was awful! I quickly rushed her to the showers and rinsed her off and cleaned out her mouth as best as I could. After that we stuck the Binky in her little mouth and she didn't make that mistake again.
Andrew and Paul went swimming in the ocean. It was crystal blue and the waves were small but strong. They played in the water and looked for seashells. Every time Paul would find a pretty one he would give it to Andrew and Andrew would quickly throw it into the water never to be found again. It was pretty funny :)

After playing in the water and on the sand for a couple of hours we walked along the trail back to our hotel and showered off and went into the pool. We brought the kids over to the jacuzzi and took turns going in for a dip and even let Andrew put his feet in the warm water and he said "Ahhh this is life" (as in this is the life). I don't know where he gets this stuff from but Paul and I had a great time laughing at the little dude.

We went back to our "new house" and had lunch. Corndogs, Paul's choice. And what is amazing is Paul said that Maui corndogs don't have calories. If only that were true. We put the kids down for a nap and surprisingly they both slept for close to 2 hours and so did I. I slept on our balcony on the lounge chair overlooking the palm trees swaying and the pool. What a life.
We then got ready and headed to Lahaina to do some shopping and eating. There we saw the United States largest Banyan tree. It was amazing! He toured the old jail that hosted numerous whalers and took a bunch a gorgeous pictures of the kiddos in front of the water. We were walking around a store when all of a sudden Allison threw up everywhere! We quickly cleaned her up and took her clothes off. We went back to the car to head home when she threw up again. Except this time she threw up a lot of sand! Poor baby fell right asleep and we made it home in time for bath and dinner. We cooked pasta, Allison's favorite and that seemed to make her feel much better. She returned to herself again. I think she ate way too much sand earlier. Thankfully both kids went to sleep right away and Paul and I were able to lounge in the living room, Paul playing a computer game and I read our tour book.

Aloha!

2010-05-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we woke up at 0530 and packed up the car and sleepy kids and made our way to Grandma Duck and Papa Razi's house to catch a ride to LAX. Once we got there, Andrew threw up ( did I mention he threw up twice the day before as well?). Thankfully that was the end of the throw up drama. I think he may have been excited/carsick/anxious. He understood that we were going on an airplane ride up in the sky. That is a pretty big concept for a 2 1/2 year old. We made it through everything with no line and friendly people. I think people were extra nice to us because we are traveling with the 2 most beautiful children on the planet (not biased I promise). We loaded up on the airplane and found that we were seated in the bulkhead seats so we had more than enough room for our family and Paul's long legs. Allison sat comfortably in the snuggli on my lap and Andrew sat in his big boy chair. Take off made Andrew go crazy. I don't know what it was but he became a beast! Whining, yelling and crying. Once we were in the air, his whole mood changed and he was happy and silly again. We ate lunch and then both kids fell asleep. Allison slept in Paul's arms and Andrew fell asleep on me. They both slept for over 2 hours, which made our 5 hour and 15 minute flight much more enjoyable. Paul even got to watch the in flight movie. Once they woke up we whipped out Andrew and Allison's DVD player and Andrew watched Toy Story while he wore his Buzz Lightyear PJs. Allison was a little doll and played on our laps the rest of the way. I am proud to say that Andrew had no accidents the entire time and he told us each time when he had to go "daddy peepee". Once again when he change altitude, Andrew became a beast. Upon landing Andrew was whining, yelling, and crying. Once we touched down, he sad "look mommy, Andrew happy!" I don't get it, but at least it was only on take off and landing :) We finally made it to Maui! Andrew made conversation with all of our "neighbors" on the plane as we exited and he told them all about the "airplane going Maui". And once we got off the plane he even said "Aloha!" Then he asked if we could "go Disneyland" and I said there is no Disneyland there and he replied with "oh crap". hmmm where did he learn that from??
After a loooong time, Paul finally pulled up with our rental car and we squeezed 2 crying kids into their car seats and our luggage only to drive to Safeway to buy groceries and then shoved the bags of groceries all around us. We made it to the beautiful Aston Maui Kaanapali Villas where we had 10 condos to choose from. We chose the free upgrade to the loft style with a balcony overlooking one of the pools. The condo is gorgeous and brand newly updated with 2 bathrooms and a gorgeous view.
The first thing we did was make Andrew's much requested wish come true... we went swimming. They have a shallow toddler pool which is 1.5 feet deep and warm. We had the whole pool to ourselves and it was heavenly. We made our way to the other pool which is attached to the little kid pool and there is a bridge that goes over the pool that has a little waterfall underneath and we brought the kids under the waterfall which Andrew thought was the coolest thing ever!!! After swimming we came "home" took showers, had pizza and watched TV and went to bed. We decided to have the kids sleep upstairs with us. Andrew is basically in a little spot by the closet, but he choose to sleep in the closet AKA"fort" and Allison's crib blocks him in so he can't get up and fall down the stairs. His sleeping space is bigger than his bed at home and he seems to like it. They both cried for 5 minutes and the realized they were beyond exhausted and fell asleep. Paul and I stayed downstairs and not too much longer we went to bed as well.

Another night at Disnyeland!

2010-05-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight we met Kelly, Jason, Ryan and Jayden at Disneyland. We first went to the Alladin show at California Adventure. It was a great show, all 45 minutes of it. All 4 kids behaved throughout the whole thing! At the end of each scene when everyone would clap, Andrew would say "All Done!" and then soon realize that is was not over. After the show we walked over to Disneyland and ate some Mexican food and then went to Andrew's most requested ride...The Tiki Room! Andrew and Allison danced the whole time. Next was the Jungle Cruise, and then we literally raced to Small World and made it into the very last boat of the night. We closed out the park. Andrew and Ryan held hands down Main Street while Allison slept in the stroller. We had a great time. I think it is amazing that Kelly and I have been such good friends for so long and now we are taking our babies and hubbies to the very place we used to go to as kids. Life is good.

Painting Warhammer with Daddy!

2010-05-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

Paul takes ever chance he gets to play Warhammer with his kids, and this time he decided to have Andrew and Allison help him paint some of his models. Paul was so patient with Andrew as he smashed the paintbrush and put pink all over the knight and painted the horsey blue. Andrew then realized that is was a lot of un to paint the table.

This is what Andrew looks like when he tries to pull up his own underwear after he goes "daddy peepee"! So innocent!

Train Ride

2010-04-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Today we took Andrew and Allison to El Dorado Park for a train ride. After driving like a bat out of hell through the biggest park in Califonia (ok maybe not the biggest, but that place is ginormous) we made it just in time to catch the last train ride of the day. Grandma Duck came along as well. Afterwards we went to the Long Beach Town Cener for play time at the the playground, dinner at El Torrito, shopping at Old Navy, and soft serve at Foster's Freeze. Such a fun day!

The Welsh came to Long Beach

2010-04-17T13:48:00.001-07:00

Our dear friend Sarah came to visit us all the way from Wales! OK so she didn't come to just see us, she came for other reasons, but she made time out of her busy trip to come and have a visit with her old college buddies! Her and her friend Huw arrived at the bus station in downtown Long Beach, so the kiddos and I headed on down to pick her up. Andrew was a HUGE fan of the bus that the rode on, so therefore he started off on a great foot with Sarah and Huw. He immediately felt comfortable with them and talking to them and playing with them. And of course little Miss Allison is quite friendly with most people so she had no problems with them either. We came back to our house and had some chip, salsa and Coronas and waited for Paul to come home. Once Paul showed up with fired up the Barbecue and had a good old American traditional meal... hamburgers, corn and baked beans followed by cooking smores over the fire.

We put the kiddos to bed and busted out a board game and played Pandemic until the late hours of the night. The next day we hopped in the can and drove north to San Pedro and checked out the beautiful California coastline and headed towards Cabrillo beach. There we set up camp and played in the water and built sand castles. Andrew had a blast! He was dumping water and digging holes and driving his truck everywhere on the beach. Allison wasn't so sure about the sand. I was able to snap the first picture of her standing on her own. She stood on her own about 1 week ago and she got really good at it today because she was a little apprehensive about the sand. But she was a good sport and got into it as well, before I knew it she was practically eating the sand. That is my little Pipsqueak! We soaked up the sunshine for a few hours and then packed up the car and picked up Enrique's Mexican food. We rushed back to the house scarfed down the food and barely dropped off Sarah and Huw at the airport on time. We all had fun and I must say it felt like we were on vacation as well!

Barbeque and Playdate

2010-04-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

I have been friends with my neighbor Trisha for over a year now. We met when she was outside taking her son Logan for a walk, and I was taking Andrew for a walk. We were both pregnant and I thought I would be bold and introduce myself to her since we both looked like we were in the same place in our life. It turns out we have a lot more in common we are both registered nurses and even in high school we both swam and were lifeguards, I am even sure we probably swam against each other. Well over the past year or so we have had many play date and Disneyland days and now we are helping each other stay in shape by walking with each other in the mornings. Well we finally had their entire family over for dinner. Kyle, Trisha, Logan and Nixon all came over to play and eat. The boys had a blast in the backyard and little Miss Allison can't wait to join them I am sure. She sat and watched from afar. The dad's thought it would be a great idea for Andrew and Logan to eat their dinner in the playhouse, which made for some super cute pictures but not much eating occurred. We had a yummy Barbeque dinner and then cooked marshmallows over the fire inside the house and ate smores. I think it is safe to say a good time was had by all.

Happy Easter Egg

2010-04-17T13:29:00.001-07:00

Today was full of Easter madness! It all started yesterday when we colored Easter Eggs. Andrew had a ball! But for some reason almost all of his Easter eggs turned out blue. I think he had more fun breaking the shell and peeling and eating it that he did coloring them. Allison held an egg in her sweet little hand and watched from the other side of the table. That same afternoon we stuffed a bunch of plastic eggs with grass and a little note advertising Paul's business and passed it out to all of our neighbors and when Andrew would but the egg on some one's doorstep he would say "Happy Easter Egg!" It was priceless. Andrew and Allison set out their Easter baskets that night along with some carrots for the Easter bunny.
Easter morning came bright and early. Crazy Uncle Dude and Soon to be official Aunt Becky came over bright and early followed shortly by Grandma Duck and Papa Razzi. The kiddos looked through their Easter baskets and saw all of their little gifts, goodies and treats and then it was on to go do the Easter Egg hunt in the backyard. We managed to still have enough eggs for them to find after Liberty rummaged through them all. Andrew couldn't get to the eggs fast enough. There was absolutely no time to stop and take a picture of course :)

After the kiddos found all of the eggs, we made a feast! Paul and Mike cooked breakfast sausage, bacon and Kielbasi. We also had scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit! We had a great visit and then it was on to the next event.

We went to Aunt Carol and uncle Terry's house for lunch. We had a nice potluck and Andrew had a lot of fun playing with his second cousins Rachel and Dominic. He played and played all afternoon. We all had fun exploring the huge additions that Aunt Carol and Uncle Terry have completed on their property. The kiddos even had another Easter egg hunt, and at the end each kid got their own sand bucket filled to the brim with all sorts of goodies! Once we left both kids were asleep before we left the driveway. Such a blessed little family we have!

Snow Day

2010-03-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

The other morning when I got off of work, I went to bed and Paul woke me up around 12:00 Noon and said that we are going to the snow! I thought he was crazy. The next thing I know he is calling my mom and telling her to get ready because we are picking her up and heading to Wrightwood. We quickly packed up some clothes, snacks and the camera and headed to Chino Hills to pick up my mom. We grabbed a quick lunch at Bravo Burger and headed North to the "frozen north" (that is what Oswald calls the mountains). We made great timing and the next thing we knew we were surrounded by snowy grounds. Andrew thought it was the coolest thing ever and the coldest thing he had ever felt. His little hands were red and icy within minutes of playing in the snow. Allison had fun but made it very clear that she didn't want to sit in the snow. Grandma Bug held her most of the time while we played with Andrew. Andrew had a blast making snow Angels and even convinced myself and Paul to lay in the snow and make our own snow angel. Paul was determined to get Andrew to go sledding down the hill, so he took off trying to find a store to by a sled. Of course he was successful and he managed to find one. We had so much fun with Andrew sliding down the hill. Allison even went down too. Andrew had fun pushing us on the sled when we were sitting with Allison on our lap. We all had a great time and played for a couple of hours. We made it safely back to Grandma Bug's house just in time for Papa Bug to come home. We changed the kids into their jammies and ate dinner with Grandma and Papa Bug and headed home. My hubby had a crazy idea but it turned out to be a really great one and I had a blast!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

Well it has been over a month since I last wrote and that just goes to show how busy we have been. Paul has been working close to 7 days a week in this wonderful Real Estate market and I have been picking up extra shifts to help pay for our vacation to Maui which we will be taking in May. But amongst the huge work load we have managed to have a lot of fun. We have gone to Disneyland quite a few times. Andrew's favorite rides are Small World, Pirates and his #1 is the Tiki Room! He always requests the Tiki Room first, and when we are in the room, he dances from the first drum beat the last. Andrew and Allison were spoiled and went to Disneyland 2 times in one week. The first time was with Grandma and Papa Bug and then again went with Grandma Duck and Papa Razi.

Little Miss Allison is a crawling machine now! She is pulling herself up on furniture and starting to cruise around the coffee table. She is enjoying eating all sorts of table foods, we can pretty much give her what we are eating, with a few exceptions of course. She loves to bounce back and forth when we are dancing and she laughs at Andrew all of the time. The two of them can really entertain each other.

Mr. Andrew is now 2 1/2 and is acting like it! One of his favorite lines that he says is "Andrew do it!" He wants to dance at all times, when the music turns on he is standing up and bouncing his little knees and rockin it! He is doing great with potty training and has only about 2 accidents a week.

Paul and I were able to get out and have a hot date last week. Kelly watched both kids for us by himself along with his little girl Addison. He did a great job and all survived :). Paul and I went to this Italian Jazz restaurant and spent the evening as husband and wife and put our mommy and daddy titles on hold, which was much needed and we had a fantastic time.

Paul's business is doing great. We just went to his awards luncheon for ReMax and he earned the Executive Club for 2009. He was also recognized for his 5th Anniversary at ReMax Real Estate Specialist. Paul is keeping busy with his position on the Board of Directors for the Pacific West Association of Realtors and he is also helping to kick start the Young Professionals Network in the Long Beach area. I am proud of my realtor hubby!

As for me I have started "working out" again. In other words I have started walking about 2-3 mornings a week with my neighbor Trisha. It isn't a lot but it's a start and I look forward to getting a double jogger so that I can start running again. I am trying to get bikini body ready for Maui. So far I am off to a decent start...we'll see :)

Ok off to bed now, hopefully I can write again soon!

Allison is Crawling

2010-02-09T21:00:00.001-08:00

February 2nd 2010
Well this is my first entry of 2010. Obviously a lot has happened since the new year, but the most exciting thing is Allison is Crawling!!! It is so cute to see this 8 1/2 month old 13 pound little girl racing across the floor. OK so she isn't exactly racing, but she is learning to pick up speed very quickly. She has been crawling for only 7 days and she has already learned to climb up the stairs in the living room. She is certainly enjoying her new freedom and does a great job at getting into Andrew's toys, and for the most part, Andrew is pretty good about sharing.

They are learning to share quite a bit these days. We are now giving them a bath together, yes Allison has graduated from the little girl tub (and sometimes the sink in the bathroom) and she now has joined Andrew in the big kid tub. She has also joined Andrew in the bike trailer and has had a lot of fun going for her first bike ride with Andrew by her side.

She is enjoying yogurt, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, mango, applesauce, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, pears and she is even eating finger foods like puffs, cheerios and little peas. Hopefully all of this food will put some fat on her little tushy. She has fallen off of the growth scale again. She weighed 13 pounds 5 oz at her 8 month check up. She is healthy, but little.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-28T14:18:00.001-08:00

Christmas morning was so much fun! Grandma and Papa Bug showed up at our house at around 8:00, and Andrew was still sleeping, but Allison was wide awake. We woke up Andrew around 8:30 and he was so excited to dive into his gifts from Santa. We were all so surprised to see how much fun Allison was having tearing open the tissue paper wrapped gifts that she received. Andrew was starting to get so excited that he would help someone else unwrap their gifts and just throw the gift on the floor and go for the next one. I think that it is safe to say that Andrew's favorite gift from Santa was his music set... go figure. It came with a drum and drum sticks, maracas, a tambourine and a lot of other stuff to give mommy and daddy a headache. We happily snuck the little baby sized maracas into Allison's pile of gifts, they are just her size and Andrew could care less because he has his ever so loud drum. I think that Allison's favorite toy from Santa was a glow worm. She kept sucking on it's face and flapping it up and down.

Paul and I cooked a yummy breakfast of peppermint chocolate chip pancakes, eggs and of course kielbasa from back east. My folks left around noon and we put both kids down for a nap. Around 2:00 Paul's parents arrived with a car full of gifts and we had part 2 of our Christmas and opened up more presents. For dinner, Paul made a rotisserie chicken in our "big R" and we had all the fixings: cranberry sauce, dressing, mashed potatoes, and crescent rolls. Once we were stuffed full and had a house full of wrapping paper and toys, it was time for me to go to work. I was hoping for a Christmas miracle and they would cancel my shift, but that wasn't the case. I kissed my little family and off I went. Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-27T16:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was spent at my Aunt Pam and Uncle Mike's house. We got to see all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We ate dinner and caught up and then had a little rock session with all the little cousins dancing. Andrew of course had his guitar with him and was shaking his little tushy to the music. Isla and Rachael were right along side him as his back up dancers.

On our way home we looked for Santa up in the sky and we are pretty sure that we saw Rudolph's bright red nose. Allison fell right asleep in her car seat and Andrew managed to play his guitar the whole way home and fell asleep with the guitar in his hands once we pulled up onto Conquista Ave.

Andrew and Allison Meet Santa Claus

2009-12-27T16:05:00.000-08:00

We took the kids to meet Santa at the mall. We had a hunch that Andrew would want nothing to do with him, but we tried anyways. Andew refused to sit on his lap and we weren't going to force him, but he did give him a few high fives and knuckles. Allison on the other hand sat on his lap contently until she looked up and saw who was holding her, then she wailed out!

Disneyland Wonderland

2009-12-27T15:37:00.000-08:00

My parents bought us season passes to Disneyland as our Christmas gift this year! We are spoiled!! We met up with them for dinner and a couple of rides. We ate at Pizza Port and went to the Tiki Room. It just so happened that Katie and Mike went to Disneyland the same day so we were able to hang out with them afterwards as well. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean and stayed to watch the Christmas firework show over the castle. Once the firework show was over, snow started to fall over main street right on us! It was so magical that I had to wipe the tears away as I watched both of my children and husband reaching their hands out to try to catch the snow as it fell. Andrew absolutely loved the snow, the look on his face was priceless. Merry Christmas Disneyland!

The Demboski Family Christmas Party

2009-12-27T14:18:00.000-08:00

We had yet another wonderful Demboski Family Christmas Party. We had tons of yummy food and conversation. Although Andrew probably could have skipped the whole Santa visit. He really enjoyed the gift that he received, but not so much Santa himself, he started crying immediately. Allison on the other hand didn't really mind Mr. Clause. The gift exchange was a lot of fun as well. We ended up walking away with the movie Up and Andrew's favorite a remote control helicopter.

That night Paul and I and the kids stayed the night in Katie's room, Katie and Mike slept on an air mattress in the TV room, Mike and Becky slept on a bed in the den, Buny and Doug slept in Mike's room, Matthew, Natalie and Lexie slept in the grandkid room, and John and Adrienne slept in Paul's old room. There were people everywhere!!! Gramma and Papa were in heaven! We ate a huge breakfast and then opened up Christmas gifts. The kids are being spoiled appropriately by their aunts and uncles.

Allison sleeps in her crib

2009-12-27T11:58:00.000-08:00

Well it is official, Allison is a big girl sleeping in her own bed at night. We put her in her crib for a couple of nights about a month ago, but she developed a cold with a stuffy nose and a little cough, so being the paranoid mom that I am, I quickly aborted the whole sleeping in her room plan and put her back in the bassinet. But now it is official. She has slept in her room now for over a week and I think she likes it. She still continues to sleep throughout the night, and we bought her a heater for her room to make sure she stays toasty warm during these cold winter nights.

The things that Andrew says and the things that Allison eats

2009-12-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

~I caught Andrew eating a spoon full of butter and I took it away from him and said "Andrew No No! That is Yucky!" He replied "I like it! I like it! I like it!"
~Whenever I get ready for work and Andrew sees my uniform or my lunch box he says "mommy work, miss you."
~Whenever Andrew sees Paul getting ready for work he says "daddy work, diapers, food" because we tell him that daddy goes to work to buy food and diapers.
~One night when I was at work, I called Andrew to say goodnight and he said "mommy work, diapers, food, warhammer" Apparently he thinks I go to work now to also buy Warhammer.
~Andrew can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by singing "Twinkle Star...are" then he is so proud of himself and says "yeah!"
~When we ask Andrew what his guitar's name is he says "Johnny" because Uncle Johnny asked that Andrew name his guitar after him. When we ask where does Johnny live, Andrew says "heaven". ~When we ask Andrew to say God, he says "Grbarbgrargbgr" He refuses to say God, he just mumbles with a bunch of "Gr" sounds and laughs.

Allison is now eating bananas, pears, apples, yellow squash, carrotts, sweet potatoes, prunes, avocados and rice cereal. She is also breastfeeding 5 times a day. The other night Paul, Andrew and I made her baby food. Andrew was surprisingly a really big help. We steamed carrots, boiled sweet potatoes, steamed squash and pureed it all including a 5lb bag of pears. Our freezer is filled with baby food. I love making her food, it just feels like the right thing to do. Knowing what I am feeding her is a good feeling and knowing that her brother and parents made it for her with TLC makes it even better.

Andrew goes Pee Pee like Daddy!

2009-12-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

Andrew has developed a huge fear of public bathrooms ever since he was sitting on the toilet one day at a resturant and the automatic flusher went off on him while he was still peeing. Since then we have had to sit on the toilet and put him on our laps and then spread our legs and he wil pee. It sounds ridiculous, but that is the only way to get him to go to the bathroom without screaming like we are pulling his legs off and shaking like a leaf. It is really a sad sight to see. So our solution to this problem is to teach him to stand up and go pee pee like daddy.
The first time that Andrew stood up to pee was simply ridiculously precious. He was standing next to me and I was squatted down by his face and he was holding his pee pee in his hand and he started to aim and peed. Of course I yell out "Andrew you are doing it! Good job!" He immediatly got a smile on his face, looked at me and then tried to hide his smile as if he were embarrassed at how proud he was. When he tries not to smile, his lips push out and his eyes look down...oh my gosh it melts my heart. Ever since then when Andrew goes pee pee like a big boy, he says "Daddy Pee Pee!" because he is going pee pee just like his daddy

Decorating Allison's First Christmas Tree

2009-12-27T10:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight Allison got to decorate her very first Christmas tree! Daddy and Andrew went with Papa and Gramma Demboski to pick out a tree while Allison and I went to a meeting at my work. When we got home we had pizza waiting and a tree with lights on it waiting to be decorated. Paul's Uncle Mike was in town and joined in the festivities. Andrew was so excited! He would pick up an ornament and place it on the tree, not exactly on a branch, more like shoved it into the tree, and he would say "I DID IT! I DID IT!" Then we would run over to the box. grab another ornament and say "MORE MORE MORE!" He did that for about 4 ornaments and then he was done decorating the tree. Allison even helped out by holding ornaments and I would help her put them on a branch. We had Christmas music playing and drank cappuccinos. Can't beat that!

Andrew's first Run!

2009-12-27T10:15:00.000-08:00

Our first Christmas Celebration this month was at my parent's house AKA Grangra and Papa's house. We actually went the night before and had the grandparents babysit while Paul and I did some major Christmas shopping at Toys-R-Us. We all stayed the night at their house, the first time we have stayed there since Andrew was born. The next morning we all woke up at the crack of dawn and went to the Elves's Trott race in Loma Linda for Andrew's first run! It was supposed to be 1/4 mile, but it turned out to be about 100 yards. When we got there my dad registered Andrew and put his race number on his chest.

Paul and my dad each held one of Andrew's hands. They went over to the starting line and when they blew the whistle, they all took off... It was quite a sight! Andrew came in running like a champ. Once he reached the finish line they gave him a medal. But Andrew was upset when they tried to put it around his neck and he started to cry. Once he calmed down, he ran the race again for a photo opportunity. He was so proud of himself. After the race we went to the local sponsoring firehouse for a pancake breakfast.

Later that afternoon, after nap time, my dad's side of the family came over for an early Christmas celebration. We had a great time. Andrew and Allison wore their new Christmas outfits and entertained us all night. Andrew played the guitar and Allison was passed around from one aunt to another. Merry Christmas Clark Family!

Andrew and Daddy's shoe

2009-12-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

The other day Andrew walked up to Paul with one of Paul's work shoes in his hand and said "Daddy Dump it" then proceeded to say "Dirty PeePee". Paul looked in his show only to discover that Andrew peed in his Steve Madden shoe! Now how can you get mad at that?

Gingerbread Houses

2009-11-29T21:33:00.001-08:00

The night after Thanksgiving we all ended up back at our house to make gingerbread houses. Thankfully they were purchased pre-built, so all we had to do was decorate them. Andrew really enjoyed himself, I was surprised how long his attention span lasted putting little candies on the house and tree. Gramma bought Andrew, Matthew and Natalie matching aprons.

It wouldn't be a celebration without ice cream and brownies. Andrew decided it was taking too long and decided to help himself and dish out his own bowl of ice cream. Happy Birthday Uncle Doug!

Santa Barbara Demboski's

Long Beach Demboski's

Buny and Doug

Gramma and Papa

Katie and Mike

Soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Mike Demboski

Papa made some questionable X-rated parts to his little gingerbread man!

The final product!

Botanical Gardens

2009-11-29T20:57:00.000-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to walk around the Botanical Gardens to burn some pumpkin cake calories. It was a gorgeous day with the sun shining bright and butterflies galore. We had a long walk around the gardens and ended up playing in a big field next to the children's garden.

I could only get Paul, Katie, Mike and Buny to turn around for my photo shoot.

Andrew loved the children's garden. There were mini bridges, houses, ponds and even a wishing well.

We propped Allison up in front of this sign. How ridiculously adorable is this!!

Run Andrew Daddy is going to tackle you!

This is what it looks like before 2 little children fall backwards off a bench and smack their heads on the cement. I posed Andrew and Natalie on the bench thinking of what a great picture it would be, not thinking that they would put their arms around each other and fall backwards. There were many tears and boo boos that needed kisses afterwards.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-29T20:04:00.000-08:00

Happy first Thanksgiving Miss. Allison Nichole Demboski! This year was Paul's parent's turn for Thanksgiving. It was such a fun disastrous day. The sink in their kitchen clogged so we had to make use of the hose in the backyard to do some of the prep work like washing potatoes. As Paul and Mike were looking under the sink to see if they could fix it, all of the water that was backed up in the sink came flooding out of the bottom of the sink onto the floor. I was bailing out water through the kitchen window onto the patio. All of this was happening about an hour before dinner was ready. We were all having a lot of fun amongst the chaos.

Andrew and Allison had way too much fun with their cousins Matthew, Natalie and Lexie. The all played together so nicely.

Our Thanksgiving this year was extra special because Mike purposed to Becky FINALLY!! Pretty much everyone knew about the proposal except me, which made it extra fun when they announced it. I was smiling from ear to ear. I cannot wait for the upcoming wedding!! Congratulations Mike and Becky!

We went around the table like we always do and said what we are thankful for while Allison slept on the bean bag chair next to the table. Andrew said that we was thankful for Papa which doesn't surprise me, he really loves his papa.

After all the turkey and pies, Andrew fell asleep in Gramma's arms while daddy played a board game with Katie, Mike, Becky, and dad. I fell asleep on the couch with Allison.

Andrew's Crash and Burn & Allison is sitting up!

2009-11-16T14:11:00.001-08:00

Last week the kids and I were on our way to meet Paul for lunch at his work. As we were leaving, Andrew had his Juju in one hand and a cookie in the other and he fell from the top of our front porch steps down to the sidewalk and scraped his face and smacked his forehead on the cement. He instantly started to scream. His nose was bloody, so I rushed him inside to clean off his face when I saw his forehead with a huge bump the size of half a golf ball. I sat him down and put ice on his forehead and turned on Oswald. It is amazing what a big blue octopus can do for booboos.
Allison is now sitting up! She loves it, but when she gets too excited and happy about something, she loses all control and falls over. It is pretty funny. She certainly enjoys her independent time. She is still really teny tiny, but she manages to roll all over the living room floor, and she is really loving her rice cereal. I can't wait to start giving her fruits, hopefully at our next doctor's appointment we can get the green light.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T14:11:00.000-08:00

We celebrate Halloween with Gramma and Papa Demboski by carving pumpkins with them. Andrew colored his pumpkin, we thought it would be safer than handing him a knife and saying have fun. He helped Papa carve his, he mostly enjoyed taking out all of the guts. Paul and his mom did one together and Allison and I watched all the chaos. Andrew and Allison showed off their costumes to them as well.

The next day we went to the Long Beach Pumpkin Patch with Grandma and Papa Clark. Andrew went into the petting zoo with myself and Papa. Allison, daddy and Grandma showed off Allison's cute pumpkin costume to everybody, she was turning heads left and right. We had a great time.

Halloween night we got the kids all dressed up and went trick-or-treating. It didn't take long for Andrew to understand this concept. He would walk up to the door and say "Trickertreet" and then when the neighbor would give him candy, he would say "sucker!" because those are his favorite types of candy. Once we would leave that house, Andrew would say "more! run!" and he would run to the next house. We went around the block once together as a family, then Allison and I stayed back at the house to hand out candy while Paul and Andrew went back out for some more. Once we were all done, we went through all the candy and Andrew managed to sneak 2 suckers into his mouth.

I can't believe that both of my babies are getting so big! Andrew is starting to put together sentences and Allison is starting to learn how to sit up on her own, she is full on laughing now and she is eating rice cereal like a big girl! Where has the time gone...

Allison Nichole's Baby Dedication

2009-10-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we dedicated Allison at our church. Uncle Damon and Aunt Katie are her Godparents, and I must say we had a very nice party for her. We had her dedication at the 8:30am service on Sunday morning. Andrew has not been feeling good, so we decided to keep him in church with us. Usually he has been going to "sunday school". I was nervous about him getting bored in church for an hour, but he did great! Christian and Rebekah were there too and they were also very well behaved! When we got up on stage, Allison kept staring up at our pastor and Andrew kept saying "outside, outside outside". Overall it was really nice. We walked back home and had a yummy brunch of scrambled eggs, cinnabon cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit and turkey sausage. The weather was nice, the company was fantastic and Allison was a little princess baby angel girl :)

Aunt Fransisco

2009-10-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

After Scourtney's wedding, we drove up to San Fransisco to stay with Katie. We arrived Sunday afternoon into the heart of the business district where Aunt Katie lives. I was surprised at how much San Fransisco reminded me of New York. We only had to circle around for 10 minutes or so to find parking, which isn't that bad apparently. We made the hike up to Katie's apartment building and settled into her home. We went up to the roof to watch the blue angels, which Andrew thought he liked from far away, but when they flew over the building, he was "scared". We walked through China Town and all the way down to Pier 39 for dinner. Andrew loved the trolley cars and all of the people watching. There were some interesting sights to be seen. We were walking along the outside of the pier, when Andrew saw the carousel on the inside of the pier. Without hesitation he said "Horsey!" "Ride" "Hold it" as he passed off his pizza crust to me and went running toward the carousel. How could we turn him down... he had a blast riding the horseys! After our trip around the merry go round, we walked over to the sea lions. Andrew had fun watching them and even tried to talk like them Allison was too bundled up in her stroller to even realize where we were... it was very cold out!

We took the trolley all the way back up to Katie's apartment. The next day we packed up and went to Golden Gate Park where we had a nice picnic with the Golden Gate Bridge as our backdrop. It was so beautiful. The food was good, Andrew was happy and Allison defiantly enjoyed herself. We headed out of town with Katie with us and headed down highway 1 and drove along the coast and headed into Carmel. We had a great dinner and checked into our hotel room just in time for the storm to hit. It poured buckets all night.

We barely made it home the next night around 11:30 after and long scary drive down highway 1 in the pouring rain on the steep cliffs overlooking the ocean with wind gusts and Andrew getting car sick twice. Thankfully we were able to stop off at John and Adrienne's for a quick bite to eat before heading home.

Scourtney's Wedding

2009-10-22T20:32:00.001-07:00

We went on our first road trip as a family of 4 up to Lodi for Scott and Courtney's wedding. The long 7 hour drive up was pretty nice. We made a few stops and took our time. We got there just in time for the rehearsal dinner. Andrew stayed back at the hotel with Aunt Katie and Gramma and Papa Demboski. They had dinner and watched Oswald all night...go figure :) Paul, Allison and I went to the rehearsal dinner and prepared for the next day.

The wedding was so beautiful. Courtney made a stunning bride and Scott looked handsome as well. I was very nervous during the ceremony, and hoping that both kids were nice and quiet. Andrew sat on my lap. I had a JuJu cup of apple juice, a binky, coloring stuff and a lollipop to keep Andrew happy. Thank goodness for Katie. She held Allison the whole time and did a fantastic job keeping our little pipsqueak happy and quiet.

The reception was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Both kids kept me running. Gramma, Papa and Aunt Katie were life savers and really helped out so that Paul and I were able to dance for quite a few songs. Andrew danced his butt off...no surprise there. And he even played his guitar for us.

It was a beautiful day and we are so happy for our dear friends Scott and Courtney!!