Anthony's New Boat

After 7 months of intense daily online shopping and price checking, Anthony finally bought his new boat! Ever since he sold the aquarium his goal was to get his dream fishing boat, one that was bigger, more stable, and more comfortable for cruising and for fishing. He had finally decided on a brand of boat that he liked and was in his price range as long as he could find one used. In the entire 7 months that he has been looking, only one or two have been put up for sale in our area and those were still out of our price range. Awhile ago Anthony put up a post on a boat forum with the kind of boat he was looking for and what he could pay and two weeks ago a guy contacted him gave him a great deal on this one:

 The guy bought it brand new a few years ago and has only been able to take it out a few times since then. He decided that he just wasn't going to get any use out of it and decided to sell it. Anthony was so excited!!! He never thought he would be able to afford a basically new boat and motor, and since the guy was getting out of boating completely, he threw in a lot of extras which were awesome bonuses. Seriously, I don't know if I have ever seen Anthony this excited about anything. The day after we picked up the boat and brought it home, Anthony couldn't sleep and was up at 6am ready to play with the boat :)

We met the seller at the parking lot of Bass Pro Shops in Orlando, so we had to see the big aquarium that is in the middle of the store. It was a short viewing though, since it was WAY past James' bedtime and we still had the drive home to get through.

 Tuesday after we picked up the boat, we were able to take our maiden voyage. James was ready to use his fishing pole!

We cruised around for awhile and Anthony tried to see how fast the boat could go. I made him stop at around 20 mph, it was just too fast for me!! James had no problem with it, so I guess I'm the wimp of the family. After that, we found a place to fish and tried to see what we could catch. Anthony caught a tiny sheepshead and a tiny snapper and I caught a few tiny snappers. Mostly they just stole our bait :) It was still a lot of fun!

On the way back to the boat ramp, Anthony had me take over and drive the boat for awhile. It was a lot harder than it looks!

Anthony hasn't been able to take the boat out since then, but he has lots of plans for this week. He also spent all weekend planning the ways he is going to fix up and add to his boat to make it even more awesome. Boys and their toys!

Island Adventure

The Thursday before the Astorga's left, Anthony took the day off of work. The original plan was to go to Sea World, but we were all exhausted and wanted a fun outing that would be a little more low key. So we decided to pile into Anthony's fishing boat for a ride out to an island for a picnic! It was a little bit chilly out, but the wind made it freezing!!! We bundled up as much as we could and tried not to get wet. James was in heaven!! He loved every minute of it, that boy is obsessed with boats. He constantly points out boats everywhere we go and always talks about "Daddy's boat". Sometimes in the mornings he will ask for Daddy and when I tell him he is at work he responds, "In daddy's boat?". I think he thinks Anthony works on a boat   or takes a boat to work :)

Here we are all cozy in the boat: Anthony was in the back and Jared, Nolan, James, and I were in the middle:

Happy, Nolan, Dallin, and Teya were at the front. Poor Nolan, he was not a fan of the boat ride:

Anthony spotted a large conch on shore next to the boat, so he got it to show the kids:

 Anthony getting the fishing pole ready to throw out:

We found a spot on the beach that wasn't too windy and set up some lawn chairs. Anthony gave James his first official casting lesson with his new fishing pole!

James has become pretty particular about his clothing/accessories. If he is wearing a hoodie, the hood has to be on at ALL times regardless of the temperature, jackets and shirts must always be buttoned and zipped, and socks and shoes must always be on. When we got to the island, we tried to take his life jacket off so that he would be more comfortable but he immediately said, "No, no, NO" so we just let him keep it on rather than have a tantrum on our hands. Such a funny boy!

 After lunch, we set off to explore more of the island. It was much bigger than I thought it was!! One of the more surprising things was how much trash people had left behind! I've seen people camping on the island before, but I thought it was a given that you clean up after yourself and leave things cleaner than you found them!

Some of the trails on the island are pretty narrow and overgrown and on one section we had to just lift James and carry him through. It looked so funny to me, I had to get a picture of it:

 More exploring with the fishing pole:

 We took turns taking pictures at these palm trees overlooking the water. Isn't it a gorgeous view?

When it was time to go, we said something about getting in the boat to go home and James couldn't get to the boat fast enough! He was dying to get back in it, so we went ahead and put him in while Anthony maneuvered the boat so that it was deep enough for us to push off. I'm pretty sure that being the king of Daddy's boat, even for a few minutes, is this boy's version of heaven.

 On the way back to the dock I was thinking how disappointing it was that we hadn't seen any dolphins, when all of a sudden a few popped up! We saw them a couple of times before they took off down the channel and it felt like the perfect ending to a great outing!

Family Dinner

The Sunday after Happy and her family arrived, Anthony's sister, Beth, who lives in Georgia drove down to their parent's house in Merritt Island. It was the perfect day for a family dinner! All of Anthony's siblings were there, except for his sister Joje. Beth had never met James in person so it was great to get to see her.

Here is everyone getting ready to eat. I'm not sure where James is, as soon as he gets to a new place, he is off exploring and nothing can deter him. He won't even take time to eat! Of course, as soon as we get in the car to go home, he is starving and starts demanding his food :)

 Anthony's older sister and his Aunt Eileen didn't know we were expecting, so right before dinner we told everyone. Yay for us!

Happy got these pictures of James while he was running around, laughing at her trying to get him to stay still for a picture. I am amazed that she got these pictures, most of the time I can only get the back of him as he runs away!

 After dinner we realized that he hadn't heard from any of the kids in awhile and we opened the bedroom door to find this cousin pow wow. Doesn't it just melt your heart??? Anthony's parents seriously are the best grandparents ever (except for my mom who is equally as awesome), they love getting on the floor and playing with their grandkids:

Anthony's parents also bought kites for all the kids and took them all out to fly them. James loved watching everyone fly their kites, but he didn't quite get the concept of kite flying when he was holding it. I don't know what it is, but James' total obliviousness to the kite just cracks me up in this video!

Spending time with everyone was so great, I wish we could do it more often! Somehow we have to convince  all of Anthony's siblings and mine to move to New Smyrna Beach :)

The Astorgas come to visit

A few weeks ago Anthony's sister and her family made the trip from Utah to visit Florida friends and family and we got to have them stay with us on and off while they were here! We were so excited to have them come and stay with us because we always have so much fun when we get together. Anthony's sister, Happy, was pregnant with their third little guy, Nolan, when they moved away so this was the first time we got to meet him. He is so stinking cute!!!

I really wasn't feeling well for a lot of their visit (stupid pregnancy hormones!) so we spent a lot of time at home just hanging around in our pjs. Teya brought her violin with her so that she could practice and she is so good!! I loved hearing her play and having her show me the different parts of her violin. I couldn't believe how many songs she knew by heart! Being able to play things by ear and memorize music has always been so hard for me that I have always been amazed when I meet people who can do it.

We even got to play a duet at one point! Although I guess technically you could call it a trio, thanks to Brownie :)

James liked having people around to watch and play with, but he did get a little overwhelmed at times :) He definitely loves his routine! He needed to be holding a toy, his pacifer, and a sippy cup pretty much nonstop.

 Teya and Dallin throwing airplanes in the backyard:

 A day or so after they got here, Nolan seemed to be coming down with something, so they made an appointment for him to see Anthony and get checked out. So everyone got to see Anthony in action! It turned out that Nolan had a double ear infection, poor guy!

Dallin giving Anthony a hug:

 Looking in Nolan's ears. Anthony's face in these are funny, but I love Jared's. His is like, "What?...."

 I just love this picture, Nolan looks so curious and Teya is being so sweet, patting her brother on the back. She really is a little mama!

We had so much fun having them visit with us. Anthony and Jared seriously couldn't be better friends, and Happy and I stayed up for hours almost every night talking about everything under the sun. One night we even were able to sneak some dairy queen into the house without the kids realizing it :)

Family of Four!

We are going to be a family of four!!! That's right, another little baby will be joining our family!!!! I'm due September 29th, which is only a few days away from Anthony's birthday :)

We had our 12 week ultrasound yesterday and got our first glimpse at our new little guy:

We are so excited, but kind of nervous about doing the newborn thing again :) I also haven't been feeling well, so Anthony and I have both had a rough few months. Luckily, I am starting to feel better which makes it easier to feel excited. It is definitely true what they say about showing faster with second babies, my belly popped out almost right away! I have been crazy hungry lately, it is like I never feel full. More than a few times I have woken up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep because I was starving so I had to get up to eat before I could go back to bed. I seriously wondered if I was having twins because I was so hungry all the time, but the ultrasound definitely confirmed: just one cute little baby :)

The day I found out I was pregnant was definitely not how I expected it would go. Anthony wasn't there when I took the test with James, so he really wanted to be there when I took a test this time. I had a feeling that I was pregnant weeks before you can actually test for it. I didn't have any symptoms, I just had a gut feeling. I actually thought to myself a few times about "the baby" and "being pregnant" and had to remind myself to add in "if" mentally. So I had a plan that on the day when I was supposed to get my period, if I didn't Anthony would be there while I took a test before he went to work. I was pretty sure it would be positive, we would hug and it would be all puppies and rainbows. Yeah. That didn't happen.

So about four days before the "official" test day, I got a really bad migraine and woke up the next morning feeling really tired and sick. I remembered that I had the exact same thing right before I found out I was pregnant with James...and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I thought it was way too early to test, so I decided to get a pregnancy test and take it real quick just so that I could get a negative result and stop thinking about it. I really don't know what got into me, but I seriously was sure that it would be negative at this point. I got home from the store and took the test, which was pretty difficult to do with James running around trying to help me flush the toilet, check out what I was doing, etc.. I glanced at the screen and it was negative, so I put it down for a second while I cleaned everything up. I turned around to grab it and throw it in the trash and as I was throwing it away I realized there were two lines... it was positive!!!

Of course, I was freaking out so I called Anthony right away. He didn't answer, so I tried back two more times in a row. Finally he answered (he was in with a patient and had to step out) and when I told him, his first response was, "You were supposed to wait for me!!". I felt really guilty and Anthony was disappointed when we both should have been so excited!! Plus, when he went back into his patient, he felt like he needed to explain himself so he told his patient about me being pregnant. Of course, then the rest of his office found out that day and I felt kind of weird that a whole bunch of acquaintances and strangers knew that I was pregnant before our families and before I really had time to process it myself. Yeah. Not ideal. IF we do this again (and the past few months have been so miserable right now that is a BIG if :) I will definitely stick to the plan! 

My birthday weekend

Last weekend was my birthday!! I am so old now :) My mom came to visit and and we had a blast. James was in heaven, he loved having his Grandma here! (Although he keeps calling her "Papa", which is what he calls Anthony's dad...we can't figure out why). We were in the middle of watching Toy Story when she arrived so James cuddled up with her to finish watching it:

When James wants to watch TV, he will get the xbox remote and bring it to me and ask to watch a "show", I guess because that is what I call them. It is so cute! We had some grand plans for Friday afternoon that involved movie watching and getting Thai takeout for my birthday dinner. Unfortunately things didn't exactly go as planned... In the afternoon I had an appointment to get my blood drawn for some lab work and I thought I would be in and out, really easy. My body had other plans! I was totally fine while they were taking the blood, I made sure to look away and was talking to the lab tech and trying to distract myself. After they were done I made the mistake of looking at the basket of blood they had just taken out of me (it was a basket full of at least 8 tubes of blood) and after that it was downhill from there.

I started to get cold sweats and to feel kind of dizzy, so I put my head down and they put a cold compress on the back of my neck. After a few minutes I thought I was okay enough to walk out to the waiting room to sit down for a few more minutes. I knew they were really busy and I didn't want to take up the room I was using. As soon as I stood up and took a few steps, that was it. Lights out, on the floor, I fainted dead away. I remember hearing someone say "She's going down!" but I had zero control over my body. It was so weird! After a few minutes  I could see again and they helped me to a cot where I could lay down. Luckily Anthony was on his way home from work and swung by the lab to pick me up so I didn't have to drive home. It was all so embarrassing !! Especially since I had been joking with the lab technician just minutes before about all those wimpy people who can't handle getting their blood drawn! To add insult to injury, my birthday dinner had to be put on hold because I ended up getting a migraine in the evening and had to go to bed for the night. No fun!

Luckily the next day was much better :) We went shopping at Target and got my Thai dinner and it was delicious!! Sunday afternoon, Anthony's parents joined us for dinner and I got a birthday cookie cake and ice cream: 

                                                    

Anthony's dad caught this picture of us reading stories to James before bedtime:

All in all it was a great birthday, lots of fun and family and definitely one I will remember :)