Jenny's 40 weeks!

Well, technically she's 40 weeks pregnant on Sunday, but she's basically there. How great is this picture? I wish there were more. I love the big ol' grin on her face. Jenny couldn't be happier, more comfortable perhaps, but she's pretty happy. Ofcourse a whole new kind of happiness is about to come into her life. Baby pictures to follow as soon as I get any, after Zoe arrives ofcourse.

Emaleigh's Walking!!!!

I knew it was only a matter of time. Mark it dad, May 26th, 2009, Emaleigh steps up to conquer the world.

The Force Army is officially in training now.

Olivia Llewelyn

Amy's baby girl is here!!Olivia Llewelyn Baltera was born on May 13, 2009 at 4:19 pm.
She was a healthy 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 1/2 inches. The following is from an email from Amy. So here's how the last couple of days have gone in Amy's words:
My water broke at 1:30 PM, and she made her presence well known very quickly with a drug-free birth. She's an incredible baby--good nurser, sleeper and pooper! We are scheduled to be released from the hospital today around 5PM, and will finally be able to settle in and enjoy both of our wonderful children.
Dominic came to meet her yesterday and just thought she was his cousin, Emaleigh, since that's the only baby he knows. Guess he'll figure it out soon enough when she's home and Emaleigh comes for a visit. He kept asking Matthew to take him for a walk around the hospital during his visit, and one time he heard another baby crying, and starting looking for her and asked what was wrong with Emaleigh.
So cute!
The name--Matthew and I fell in love with Olivia fairly early on in the pregnancy, but struggled with settling on it because we felt we should use a family name. However, after spending some time with her, we have come full circle and love her and her name. Llewelyn is a family name on my side--both my parents first child's middle name (I never knew her, but I've always thought that if I had a girl I wanted to use her name, which was Kathryn Llewelyn) and my Great Grandfather's middle name as well.

Mother's Day

Lucky me, mom is in Texas!!! So for Mother's Day this year I actually got to spend a little bit of time with the woman who fooled me all my life making it look like such a breeze. Amy's baby is due this month so mom has been in the US for a couple of weeks helping with last minute preparation and just general everday things to try to make Amy's life easier. Mom is thrilled that she is greeting two new grandchildren within the next month or so. Jenny's due at the end of this month.
The Force family drove up to Austin on the morning of Mother's Day and Kevin kept the kids while mom Amy and I had a great LARGE lunch at Steiner Ranch Steakhouse. It was really awesome. Emaleigh joined us too because that little girl alone is a handful and I love my husband and hope to be married to him for the rest of my life. Our lunch was just perfect and we even got some great pictures of Amy's legs. Pregnant women are so beautiful.
I met Kevin and the kids back at Amy's where I changed clothes very quickly and headed back to San Antonio with my family to catch a Sunday afternoon missions game. We got there just in time to catch the last 30 minutes of the hottest part of the day. Man was it hot. Luckily the sun eventually dipped down and we got to enjoy the last half of the game in relative comfort. We got gloves for both kids and brought a baseball. Lucas eventually got restless watching the game and went over to the lawn over the outfield fence to throw his ball at kids hoping they would catch it and throw it back to him.

Hot Friday, Emaleigh's first Backyard Pool Day.

I think it's safe to say she loves the water. It's going to be a really fun summer.

Goal Setting

I used to pretty much cringe when asked to set some goals for myself. I seemed like I had to struggle to think of three when pressed to put them on my employee self review. Well this year was different. I set a goal to take and pass the PE exam. Half check, I won't find out if I pass until June. Now I am on to pursuing my next goal for the year. I have signed up to run the Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon in November of this year. I really wanted to do it. I am really really not a runner. PD is paying half of the entry and setting up training teams together as part of a copoerate get fit cjhallenge in our community. I hope it works. I am just excited about training for it. Will it change my perspective of running? That remains to be seen.

May Weekend in Austin with the Baltera's and Mima

We went to Austin on Saturday for a long overdue visit to Aunt B, Unlce B and cousin Mnoci. Mima got to US from Indonesia a week ago and her birthday was on Friday so we went up to have a little family celebration of her millionth time turning 21. What a blast. Rudy's is always a hit, but someone needs to remind mom that beer cools much better on ice than in the fridge alone. Addie Belle wasted no time letting aunt B know that she has grown into quite the prisspot. she sked Aunt B to do her hair pretty for her. She got a pony braid. Em B had her first motorcycle ride. And unless papa is around this is the only motorcycle her dad and I will let her climb on the back of until she's way older than I am now. Just kidding but now that I think of it, my dad's is the only motorcycle I have ever ridden. Emaleigh is pretty cute. She's not walking yet but that doesn't really slow her down.
Mom tried several times to get a picture of me and EMaleigh smiling together. We had to compromise because little Em was not happy without her teether.