Birthday Surprises

Plans for today have been in the works for quite a while thanks to my sister, Amy. She is good at planning, gifting and celebrating among other things of course. She registered for her and me to run in a 5k race on this morning of my 38th birthday. That is perhaps THE thing that went according to plan today.
We drove up to Austin last night just so I could conveniently wake up in the same city of the morning's race. Good that that was our plan so our kids got some time to play together. Emaleigh and Olivia acted like they were presidents of each others fan club for two hours before we made very one settle down and go to sleep. This morning we got up, had a small breakfast and then started doing a series of things at the same time. My kids want to run too, can they register, do they even have shoes, we scrambled out the door to try to quickly get them registered. It takes cash only so Kevin and Emaleigh make a quick trip to pick up cash and hand it off and I register and they pin their bibs on just in time for the kids start. We race TO THE START just in time and then I check my phone. Kevin has texted me to say that Emaleigh just threw up. That is the thing that set the time for the rest of the day. I did finish the 5k with Amy. But after we got back to the Baltera home and hoped all was better and tries to move on with celebrate plans, Emaleigh let us know that it wasn't going to go that way by throwing up again. We drove back to San Antonio, but not before Uncle B picked up a sweet birthday cake with birthday wishes scripted in my favorite color for me. They sent it home with me. We were mostly home when Kevin and I decided to stop by Costco and pick up
birthday steaks to grill at home AND Emaleigh threw up again. OK, loud and clear. So we have been home most of the day with one sick but very sweet little girl and a boy who seems like it might be him before long and I think one kid still fully healthy. We did have steak, thanks to Kev, but we saved the cake til Emmy is better. The kids got together a gift for me. They wrote me a letter telling me to take a week off and they would do all the chores all week including washing my van. So sweet, I guess I may have to start another book.

Birthday Girls

The Birthday Party images were delivered today. Thanks Jack, we owe you more beer!

Emaleigh!

Today is Emaleigh’s first birthday. Happy Birthday baby! We had a birthday party for the girls last Saturday. Addie Belle turned 5 on June 14th. Our party was a Ballerina themed party and we did go for the bouncy castle in the backyard despite the elevated temperatures. That didn't bother any of the kids. For most of the duration of the party the bouncy castle was full of energetic ballerrinas and one fireman and a few other male friends that DO NOT wear tutus. Our kids had a great time. I think everyone did. Once the sun went down, we had a little Force family time in the boujcy castle before Royal moonbounce came to pick it up. The birthday party energy is such a great feeling. I love these kids. I love my big huge family.

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.

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.

Corpus Christi and a Great Birthday

I had a great 34rd birthday. Kevin and the kids surprised me with a trip to Corpus Christi. It was awesome. The kids had never been to the beach. The weather wasn't really beach weather but I was so glad we went. They loved digging their toes in the sand and chasing the water back and forth. We collected some tiny sea shells to bring back to Mrs. N. Kevin and I took turns holding Emaleigh until we realized she didn't want to be held, for once. She kept making this silly face that I think is just for the beach because I never saw it before or since.

Addie tired quickly of chasing water back and forth and had the bright idea to make sand angels. The neat freak in me (just a tendancy or preference not an actual description of my environment) started to say, "you're going to get sand on everything!!" And then I realized thay was why we were there. Lucas didn't like the beach as much, but I hope he changes his mind when it's warmer and he can actually get wet. I love the beach. Most of our beach vacations when I was little were to Gulf Shores and Destin Florida. The kids now are asking to go to Aunt Jennys and Uncle Nates Beach.

After our quick beach visit, We went to the hotel for a swim with cousins and then Aunt Ginny and Uncla Shane took all our kids to their house for the night and we had a no kids date. Kevin and I went to Outback for dinner. We talked about us a little more than we talked about our kids and remembered back when we were dating why we liked each other. That was a nice reminder. I love my big huge family.