Marital Bliss Times Five

From the beginning he put me first. We are a team. 

 He is hilarious. Every so often he will say something when the room has fallen quiet that sets us all laughing. Especially at home, he is always cracking me up. He has a special talent for poking fun at the wife, I think that's where he gets his best material.

copyright Apps Photography

copyright Apps Photography

He likes to cuddle with me even though he says I'm like a heater. The only part of him that ever gets cold are his feet.

He says the best part of being a Dad is the cuddling. He likes to take naps with Ben on the couch.


 I love that he had details he wanted when it came to our wedding. He wanted me in a big white dress, he wanted a veil. See more about that in my big wedding post.

I love that he chose the song for our first dance as husband and wife. We didn't have a song that was significant to us when we were dating. Broken Road by Rascal Flatts came on the radio one night as he was heading home from work and he said it made him think of us.

I love travelling with him. I just love that he always remembers things that I forget, and has a talent for noticing details and checking things in advance. He just makes everything that much easier. We both like the same kind of travel- a little bit of planning and a lot of flexibility. Scotland and Ireland, that was an epic adventure. We had such a great time together and saw so much. In addition to being crazy for each other, we truly are great friends.

Fourth of July in DC can't be beat. I love that we were both as excited as a couple of fifth graders to be up on a roof in DC watching fireworks. There was even ice cream! Ryan Yates may as well have been a movie star, the doors he was opening for us that night. So much fun.

Plus, I love that before we had kids, and we would stay with friends- he would play with their kids, and jumps in to help. He will read to them, help them get their shoes on, play made-up games with them, whatever.

copyright Dan Shaw Photography

I love that we have a system for shutting down the house when we go to bed. Hehe, yes, really. There are a sequence of lights that are turned on and off in a particular order, doors locked, things gathered. If he is first into the bedroom he never remembers to turn on his lamp, but that's alright. It's pretty ridiculous that we go climb in bed together at the same exact time and wait for the other person to finish what they are working on so we can turn out the lights and cuddle up together, too. I love it, it's cute.

Getting pregnant- now that was a challenge. I am so proud of us for getting through that with very little strain on our relationship. It's a heavy thing to go through and I know there are strong bonds out there that have been battered and broken by infertility. It was tough but it made us stronger and ultimately, happier. We learned a lot from that journey and Ben is such a sweet reward.

copyright Dan Shaw Photography

I love that he sings to our baby.

I love that he takes care of the cats and gives them medicine when they need it.

I love that he can take care of Ben for an entire weekend with no fear if needed.

I love that I can tell him absolutely anything. Anything.


Happy Anniversary, Babe. Five more seems easy. A lifetime doesn't sound long enough.

This is our happily ever after.

copyright Dan Shaw Photography

Five Years Ago...

My sister graduated from highschool.

I was so proud. She has since finished her bachelor's degree and half of her graduate degree. In just five years. Unbelievable.

Five years ago I had the most amazing bachelorette weekend in Lake Tahoe. Epic.

Five years ago we bought our house. We've since redone the front yard, but the rest is still home sweet home.

And five years ago, we got married. It was a very busy and wonderful year, and I think about it all the time...

Baptism Day!

It was a beautiful day, and went by like a blur. So many wonderful friends and family came out and showed their support, I wish I had an hour to talk to each of them. We got to catch up with a few that we hadn't seen in awhile, like Mike and Renee, so that was special, and we even ran into Deauna at church before the service! {all photos by Kerry Ko}

Ben loved it, no problems with the water, he seemed relaxed. Immediately afterward he took a nap. He loved seeing everyone smiling back at him from the pews behind ours.

A big thank you to everyone, there are a couple straggling thank you notes (address issues) but they are coming!

All our love.

New Family Photos!

The day before Ben was baptized, we met up with our great friend Dan, of Dan Shaw Photography, and took some new family photos at Lake Elizabeth in Fremont. These are most of my favorites.

It's really making me want to take down everything in my home, put in new pictures, spray paint frames, make new art, and put it all back up. Sounds exhausting.

With Mom and Dad and his Godparents, Scott (Smalls) and my sister Stephanie, who were also
our best man and maid of honor.

 This is squinch face. We see it a lot these days. I don't know where it comes from, but he will squeeze his eyes shut and breathe really fast in and out of his nose, its so adorable and funny. Check out the "gelled" hair (baby wipe gel). We had a little bit of crazy bedhead goin on before the photo shoot and had to slick that wispy stuff down.

My tired boy was ready for a nap the minute we got there. What you don't see is the five other people literally jumping up and down behind Dan, yelling and shaking toys in the air. Ben cracked about two smiles and was spent. Oh well!

Word To Yo Mutha

My Very First Mother’s Day was all that I had hoped it would be. On Saturday, Scott brought back a bouquet of flowers for the table and some chocolates, arranged in a heart.

Isn’t he cute and sappy? He knows I love it. On Sunday morning I got up early, feeling awake and energized, so I came downstairs, but Scott got up with Ben, and fed him breakfast. Then he made me a delicious breakfast sandwich, and he and the baby went out to get me some coffee. He even stopped by the store to get me my favorite freshly baked croissant, it was awesome. I took it easy all day and we went out to some wineries with the girls, it was cold and windy, but a gorgeous day.

Ben has been turning some serious corners lately. He is rocking forward but hasn’t tucked the legs under yet. He is obsessed with standing up but he hasn’t gotten the strength in his arms to pull up quite yet. That could change really fast. The other day I was imitating his screeching back to him and he tried to put his pacifier in my mouth! Haha he gets it.

Then yesterday we had an adventure with the tissue box.

I just needed a second of entertainment for him and thought he would pull out a few tissues and be done with it. Well, he pulled out a couple, and I picked one up and wiped some drool off his chin, and right after that, he picked up a tissue and wiped my pant leg! The kid is scaring me with his level of awareness right now. After that, I turned the box over so that he wouldn’t pull any more out, and this is what he did:

The kid is way ahead of me. What am I gonna do?

Benjamin's Birth Story

I labored for about 8 hours. I was having contractions 2 minutes apart for HOURS and my body wasn't getting a break. They put me on something to try to space out the contractions a bit, and it would help for a second, then they would speed up again. I walked. Then it was like... even when I wasn't having a contraction at all, I was having what they thought was radiating cervical pain. Like an ache so bad it was burning. Finally, after sobbing through a check from my doctor, we got the epidural at 6:30. I could still feel contractions and move my legs but I felt great. They started some pitocin, I talked to my family, slept and then around 3am my epidural stopped working on the left. The pain was slowly returning and we had trouble getting on top of the problem fast enough. Pain went from a 5 to a 9 in an hour and a half and while they were trying to solve the epidural issue, they put me on a little Fentanyl to hold me over. Thank God because I thought I was going to die. In the middle of that the baby kicked and broke my water. And someone finally turned off my pitocin. Finally around 5am I felt good again and went back to sleep. There was a shift change and our new nurse brought me some Jello. I had a couple of bites and promptly threw up! I had some warning, which was fortunate. After that she decided to check me around 730. Wo! She could see the baby's head! She ran out to call the doc and then said I should start pushing since it could be awhile. After pushing through two contractions she told me to stop because I was going to deliver right then! She ran out to get the doctor, and boy there was a big scramble to get ready to go.

I was feeling great, just a little pressure, like my butt was super heavy, that’s all. I pushed through a few more contractions, and the doctor said he was going to have to do an episiotomy. He said he rarely does this, but it was necessary. It was a tight fit and I was going to tear as it was. I felt the snip but no pain (so weird) and I wasn’t afraid. I pushed him out and they laid him on my chest and rubbed him down. It took a long minute for him to get pink and that was a little scary, but they didn’t take him away so I figured he was probably alright. Sure enough, he cried and pinked right up, and then we just stared at each other for over an hour while my doctor stitched away, with the husband of course right there at my shoulder. What an experience! I didn’t feel or even notice the placenta. I just stared at this baby that they said was mine. And he just stared back at me. It was wonderful.
It was almost two hours before they gave him a bath and weighed him (in our room). He was 6lbs, 2oz and 18 3/4 inches long. A tight fit?! He is the most miniature person I have ever seen! He's perfect and wonderful.

36 Weeks and Introducing Dean Schmalbach!

What a day!!! Last night Smalls and Heather had their new baby, a BOY! Dean Tyler Schmalbach. She was scheduled for a C-section in two weeks, her 39th week, so he came early. I am over the moon with happiness and can't wait to meet him. Today Scott helped me hang a shelf, and we are prepping some wall decals, and I am hoping to get some work done on the curtains. We ran some errands, picking up some rods for the curtains. Tonight is Stephanie Owen's birthday, so we get to go out to dinner at Guisseppe's and meet up with a bunch of friends, always a treat.

I packed our bag for the hospital finally, thanks to Kelly reminding me. I wasn't too worried about it, but its nice to have that organized and off my mind. I still need to pre-register at the hospitals. I hope thats easy. Every time we are there it will be a night or a weekend, so I may have to go in some other time. I weighed in at 149 this week, and have been feeling pretty good, except for a few things. I have been on some medicine which has some interesting side effects that you don't want to know about. And some totally awful back spasms! They last about 30 seconds and I try to relax through them but they are crazy awful.  This week we have an infant CPR class, another doctor appointment, I have a hair cut on Thursday, and then breastfeeding class on Saturday, whew! It will be full and busy.

I can't believe its getting so close! Dean Schmalbach is already here!

31 Weeks

This was last weekend at our little 4th of July celebration. We sang the anthem super loud and our neighbors joined in! We jumped and danced around with sparklers and just had a generally great time.

I am about 143 this week, and my belly measures 40"! I am super tired all the time and just want to lay on the couch. I can't fit very much food into my stomach so its tough to come up with tiny little meals that I want to eat. Its tough to muster the energy to do very much at all. Which is why it was so sweet of my husband to design a date at home for our 4 year wedding anniversary! Last night he made me a three course meal: bread with garlic dip, a fresh beautiful salad and then pistachio crusted chicken on mashed potatoes. It took him about an hour to cook it all, and he had looked up a recipe and everything! What a sweetie. We watched a movie and I got to lay on him and cuddle the whole time. It was very romantic and the ideal anniversary, in my opinion. I love that guy!

27 Weeks

Steph graduated from Cal Poly!!! It was a very fun day. The weather was fabulous, the food was fabulous, and we got to spend a long day relaxing at Steph's house with friends, making toasts in their honor. I am so, so proud of her. Under unbelievable pressure and stress in her personal life, she pushed through the GRE, application process, and senior project to graduate cum laude, with two minors, and an acceptance to graduate school. She has stuffed many years of growth into just ten months, and in my opinion, can clearly accomplish anything.

I did my glucose test on Friday. It was really easy, no big deal. I didn't mind drinking the stuff, but wow, 50 grams of liquid sugar made me feel drunk. I was lightheaded sitting in the lab chair waiting for my blood to be drawn. Wooo what a ride. Then I occillated between a light headache, stomach ache and dizziness for a couple hours. My body is definitely not used to that much sugar!
Eating: The same, no real change. Just eating as I normally do, although I have been working in a ton more fruit this week after an especially large grocery trip. This is the week of heart burn! I just can't seem to get rid of it. And acid reflux burns my throat, and then I forget about it. So then later on when I eat something like a piece of tomato, I feel like its suddenly on fire.
Energy: Great! I've been getting up with Scott around seven and throwing together his lunch before he leaves, and getting out of the house around nine thirty the last couple of days and I've been handling it well. If I don't come home for a mid-day rest, however, I feel really lousy the next day. I am so blessed that I don't have a job right now!
Weight: 141, here we go again. Gaining and losing three pounds every other week, now?
Belly: Still big. I've been catching drips on it, seeing marks on it in the mirror that I had no idea were there, and running it into people. Its definitely large. In the middle of the night Scott still thinks he can roll backwards and lean on me like he used to do. This morning I had to explain again why the belly is not a body pillow: This here? This is where my stomach is. All this is the baby (he kicks me when you lay on him). And all of my organs feel like they are in the wrong spots. You can't lay on it.   :) He just likes to cuddle. Also, even when I am sitting up straight, my back still hurts. And the belly blocks some of the stretches I really, really want to do!
Sleep: Eh. I got sick of sleeping with a body pillow so I went without for a little while. My back started hurting more often, so its back in again. I have been having to get up a lot at night. Other than that, its been fine.
Things I Did: I went to the beach with Bond last weekend, and even went down to the water in my bikini, waggling my big belly back and forth for an extremely big crowd at Pismo Beach. It felt great to lay in the sun, but the sand felt hard as a rock! Thursday night was my friend Amy's birthday, and we went to get foot massages with a small group, and then sushi at Yanagi's. It was so fun. And those foot massages are amazing.I am looking forward to some rest time, and helping the house recover from graduation, before another rollercoaster of events starts up!

Merry Mary Merry Mary Christmas!

Well, nothing much to report, but I LOVE Christmas! the house is decorated, the tree is up... the lights are on the front of the house. Its so cozy! I printed a bunch of winter-themed photos and framed them in silver for the mantle. I've always wanted to do that for Christmas.

I am building a website for a family friend, doing lots of painting and reading. We are spending Christmas Eve here at home, just the three of us, and then we are headed to the Bay Area and San Diego. We are doing a tour of California. I am especially looking forward to a cocktail party at a family friends house in SLO on Christmas Day. And also, I can't wait to see the Puccinelli's again. Zach has grown so much already!

Love to you all and have a Very Merry Christmas