How Lucky Am I...

...to get to wake up to this every morning.

He check son the doggies too!

Lake Balboa

We went for a walk to Lake Balboa the other day and Tyson was actually awake this time to be able to go in the sand for his first time ever. He was just touching it and looking at it on his hand. It was a new exciting feeling for him. He didn't go to much in the sand though. He was staying pretty close to mommy. A little girl next to him even let him play with her shovel. which lasted about 1 minute.
Lake Balboa is so pretty. Out of the 1.5 years i lived in the valley last year I never knew this existed until about 2 weeks ago. And from where we live now, it is literally in walking distance. I mean I will walk there if I know I'm only going to play at the park, but if I plan on walking around the lake, I will be taking my car. I mean maybe I was still sore from the canyon but walking around the lake did not seem possible after walking all the way from the house.
There a lots of ducks and geese too so I brought some bread and we got to feed them. There is also fishing allowed in the lake. By looking down you could seriously see HUGE fish. Maybe we'll try fishing for dinner one day.

Runyon Canyon

Ok so i know i haven't updated in a while but it has been crazy planning for Tyson's birthday party up north, especially since I am not up north to do so. But I finally found some time to download some pictures and start blogging again.

Last week we went on a hike to Runyon Canyon. It's a spot in Hollywood that is literally the EPITOME of LA. I have never seen so many people with their dogs walking or jogging all in the same spot at one time ever. of course we fit right in with the baby and the two dogs. I didn't have my cool Chanel glasses though to match. But it was a good excercise. After we parked and walked 10 minutes to the trail I was already hurting. Not only was a walking a dog but I was pushing a 23 pound baby (+ stroller) UPHILL the entire time. After a little bit I think I was just walking through the pain because I couldn't feel anything after that and felt like I could walk for miles. After a bit Justin and I traded and he pushed the stroller. When we got to the top it was a beautiful view of LA. One side was the Hollywood sign the other was the city.

I then walked the baby back down while Justin ran down with the dogs. Walking down became a lot harder then walking up. especially while pushing a stroller making sure you don't let go. and not to mention sore legs. Let's just say Justin had to wait a while before I made it all the way back down. Definitely a good way to spend a Saturday morning. Can't wait to go again

Happy St. Patty's Day

look at my little lepre-cutie! he had a st. patty's day party at daycare. He was so cute dressed in all green with his little hat!

Missed Out :(

So yesterday I was at the car dealership [we'll talk about that one later] and my friend and her boyfriend were watching Tyson for me. Well she calls me and askes "so how many steps have you seen Tyson take?" I was like "WHY?!" and she says "Because I have witnesses and we all saw him take 4 solid steps... we got the camera and got 2 steps on video"

WHAT!!!! The one night I decide to go to the car dealership and leave him with my friend he takes his first steps!!!! I mean of course though right. Isn't that always the luck. I know it'll kill Justin to miss his first steps too since he's in LA but I think he'll feel better knowing that I missed them as well. Of course I can't even get him to take a picture standing, how am I going to get him to take a picture walking...

Well tonight my mom and I had to bribe him to get him to walk. Sorry Justin, I had to see at least 1 step... and of course thats all we got.

Independent

so he has learned how to find and grab the baby stars

Opens them and opours them all out

And then stuffs like 10 in his mouth at one time... luckily they melt in your mouth

[this specific scene was staged for the sake of this blog]

Scrapbooking

I decided to write this blog because today I became a follower of a few people's blogs that are having or have babies. I see all of their pregnancy pictures and I just want to dedicate this blog to them. I love being able to go through friends and other people's pregnancys with them because it is an oh-so-exciting time in a couples life and it is just amazing to know that you and someone else created a human being and it grew inside of your body. [I know i sound a little mushy but that's how I feel]. I strongly advise each mother to make a scrapbook for their baby. It takes time and it gets VERY expensive but in the end it will last FOREVER if you take care of it. My word of advice though, is START NOW before your little one is here. Take some time out and make some pages with the pictures you have of your belly. Another word of advice is check out scrapbook books and get ideas and think of a theme for a page you want to make BEFORE you buy the materials for that one page. I made the mistake of going out and and just buying everything that I saw that had baby or boy on it and all blue pages at first and then saw other pages and realized that not all stickers have to do with babies or boy and not all pages had to be blue to make it go well. So after spending tons on supplies I found myself still having to go back after I got a better idea of how I wanted my page to look.

So as some of you know, for my baby shower I got a beautiful scrapbook and I have made it not only a promise but my mission to make sure I complete it with original pages made by yours truely. Well during my maternity leave when I thought I'd have some time I decided to start shopping around for stickers and paper and all the materials I needed to start.

Well, who would have known scrapbooking can be so darn expensive. And when I say that I am not lying. $3.99-$5.99 per pack of letters [which by the way once u use certain letters you need another pack if u want the same font] $0.39-$0.99 per sheet of 12X12 paper, $1.99-$5.99 per pack of stickers depending on if they are flat, 3d, or glittered etc, $14.99-$25.99 for letter stamps [which by the way i dont have], some stamps with just phrases could be $10 each.

Then if you want to get really into it with buttons and ribbons and a bunch of extras it could be $7.99-$22.00 depending on what u get. SO basically it's not hard to see that everytime I go into the scrapbook store or Michael's I spend AT LEASt $60 each time. I have spent well over $400 on supplies I have thus far and that might be an understatment.

Well the after product is well worth the money and it is something I will have forever as a memory of my son's first years. It is meaningful not only because it's pictures of him but because it was made by me, the woman who gave him life. [of course Justin was a part of that too] :) I made a scrapbook a very long time ago and it was nothing like what I am doing now. Before it was just cut and paste pictures and maybe write next to the picture what it was a picture of. Well walking through the scrapbook stores and seeing sample pages just blew me clear out of the water. I have nothing on some things that people do to make a single page it's incredible. Let alone the money to spend that much per page. But getting ideas and seeing how many different things you can do is definitely worth it when the after product is there. I had to get a special scrapbook book to get certain ideas for future pages. Well during my maternity leave I only made 3 pages and that was last June... now 8months later I began again making 6 more pages in the last two weeks. Mind you now it's even harder with a little one crawling around getting into things. BASICALLY i made this entry so I can share what I have done so far with you because I am oh-so-proud of myself. Click on them to see them larger and close up!

The pages I made for my pregnancy pictures was made mainly with a pregnancy kit I bought. It came with paper and stickers specifically for pregnancy. I also save my pregnancy test to put on the page. I didnt save it on purpose at first but after I found it I decided it was a good thing to save it for future memories aka my scrapbook.

The packet also came with stickers that described what was going on in each month. I copied my ultra sound pictures and added them on there as well.

I also pasted some writing from an online journal I had throughout my pregnancy to decribe my feelings during the times these pictures were taken.I skipped page for month 5-6 because its the page I like the least but thats the page when I found out I was having a BOY!!!

My printer is now broken so I had to leave some parts of the page blank so I can later add more journal entries.

It's cool to look through these and see how my stomach grew over time. Over course during the time and living with it it's hard to see how much it really grows over time. Looking back is when you really notice how small it really was. I remember when I was 16 weeks I thought I was so big at that time and now I look at that picture and it was nothing compared to what came after that. The last month is when it grew the most and when I got all my stretch marks. So beware girls, just because you make it to 8 months, it aint over yet. The bottom picture on thhat top page was 6 days before Tyson was born. The last picture I took pregnant. I wish I would have gotten more pregnant pictures with my actual face it em but then again I didnt really have anyone to take them for me. I had to take these with the timer on my camera.

This is one of my favorite pictures and pages that I made. I got the idea for the picture from another picture I saw. I love the made with love sticker because it is perfect for the picture. On the bottom I have a sticker with the definition of the word "create" since it similar to "made and on the right side there is a sticker with the definition of the word "love".

Now of course I skipped around and started making pictures with Tyson in them because I couldnt wait to use them. I still need to make pages for the hospital trip, my baby shower, and when he was smaller. This page is one of my favorite. I just love his little nakie booty.

I love the lettering on this page. The stickers that I used in RUB-A-DUB. They were perfect for the bathtime page. Also the stickers I used for "bath time" because they look like they are in bubbles.

This page I got from an idea of out the book I bought. Of course with different paper and stuff but I got the complete idea from the book. I like the lettering and how its a picture frame on a wall.

NEWAYS...I hope all of you find this inspiring and possibly start a scrapbook for your family. Hey if you dont have time, pay me and I'll make it for you. Trust me, if there were a way that I could do this for a living I totally would. So if you know anyone for weddings, babies, birthdays etc I can make theirs for them for a decent price. :)

so since i dont know how to tag people with my blog.... to all the new mothers and mother-to-be this blog is for you.