Had a wonderful Christmas with Dh, J and N in Aptos...Went to the beach, dh surfed, ate, watched movies, ate, played board games, ate, opened presents, ate, saw sea otters, ate, watched tow-in surfing on the 20+ foot waves at Moss Landing, ate..fantastic.

I'm posting a photo of tow in surfing for those of you who are not addicted to FUEL tv, the adrenaline junkie channel. This is not a doctored photo, the surfer had to duck to avoid having his head taken off by the jet-ski.

New u/s pics of wacca!

Week 13 u/s pictures. No male genitalia evident but apparently it is still too early. If you click on the image you can see her/him much better!

Your wish...

Here are some pics of our house. Most of them were taken during our walk through in July so the place is empty. We bought appliances and C put in new pergo floor since most of the pictures were taken..oh, and we added furniture!

Good news! Our 12 week nuchal scan was normal. Baby looks to be developing normally. I would post our u/s but we didn't get any good pictures this time. S/he was sleeping during most of the exam. Entering the 2nd trimester in 4 days and I can't wait!

Top: pool with floating candles, C did an very romantic night for my b-day, lr, C on my birthday present, ur, napping on our couch--note floor!

Stairs (wallpaper must come down!) and master bedroom (this is about 1/2 of it) bathroom to left, walk in closet behind picture taker...

Kitchen (before we replaced/bought appliances, w/d in closet) Two views of the living room...carpet has been replaced with beautiful pergo flooring.

Our house...covered for termite eradication. We removed that nasty tree in the front....

Hunkering down for the big storm headed our way...the meteorologists are calling for 1 to 3 inches of rain this weekend! We are having such a great time with our " 1/2 cord" and fireplace. Why does anyone stick with gas when you can have a roaring fire?

C is having a good time on his Christmas gift. I know he'll enjoy the time in the water on his day off tomorrow...

I worked today and taught First Aid and CPR in the afternoon. I love my job, the students can be really fun.

Our Christmas Tree!!

 

Swell and cookie bakes...

Surf (swell) has been good here lately. Winter is the best time, storms in the Pacific generate big waves for us here in California, perfect conditions for C's Christmas gift, a "short board for big guys" called a fish. I'll have to post a photo, it is just beautiful! The bottom of the board looks like aqua marble. This is my big gift this year: www.capturedbycarrie.com I won't get my big gift until the end of June since it is family photos with an amazing professional photographer.

I went to a holiday cookie bake this week with a few friends. I made the G's favorite Land'o'lakes Sugar cookie recipe (available at www.landolakes.com) called Best Vanilla Cookies. We had "Minnesota Munchers" which are awesome--with toffee bits and she was sweet to leave the nuts out of one batch so I could eat them! Someone else made butter cookies, beautifully decorated, the hostess made an old family recipe, "Coconut Sno-balls" and another good friend made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip. C has been eating them for breakfast this week.

We spent the weekend listening to Christmas music, having a fires in the fireplace and wrapping gifts for the family. C is a MUCH better wrapper than me. It is scary! He can eyeball the wrapping paper and cut it exactly...his engineer precision really comes out this time of year.

Casey!

RIP Zack

My wonderful companion Zack who died in late May '05. He was 16 years old. He was one of a kind, gentle, great with people and a total chow hound. My dad nicknamed him the "gentle giant". Sometimes I imagine Zack and my dad playing ball where ever they are.

Helicopter ride on Kauai--I still look terrified!

C's favorite part of our Kauai wedding/honeymoon. That and when he pushed me into a wave on the surfboard and I lost my bikini top in the whitewater (or the bath tub incident, but that's another story). My favorite part was the ceremony on the beach and the kooky woman who did my makeup at the hotel who brought out a wand (!) like tinkerbell and sprinkled "fairy dust" on us.

The most beautiful (and inaccessible) beach in Kauai

 

Our beach wedding at Ke'e Beach in Kauai

 

Christmas nights....

Probably if I'd turned off the flash, these would've come out better. Note the palm tree to the left of the house, which C wrapped with colored lights. We're buying our Christmas tree next weekend. In other news, we just bought 1/2 a cord of wood, a mix of eucalyptus and avocado for the fire place (yes, we have fires in San Diego, sometime as night it gets down in the upper 30s, brrr....) which makes awesome firewood. The stuff burns super hot and smells nice to boot.

Since the 'Skins and the Eagles aren't looking to stellar for the playoffs, we're hoping our adopted team, the Chargers make it all the way.

Uterus pics!!

Well, after what seems like forever, we're finally pregnant! This is our 9 week u/s. S/he kinda looks like C, don't you think? Big headed =) It's December 2nd and we are 11 weeks pregnant today. My $$ is on a girl.

We're looking forward to our final Christmas as a family of three and will be going to J & N's northern California abode to celebrate the holiday...our new tradition, white AND colored lights on the tree!