...mama, mama...

i think i hear the word "mama" about 5000 times a day. emery has entered the phase where she pretty much talks from sun up to sun down, and let's just say that "mama" is still a major player in her ever expanding vocabulary. everyday, but especially today, i am thankful to carry the title of mama. we had a great day celebrating mother's day as our little family of three. it is a blessing to be emery's mommy, and i'm so thrilled that by next mother's day, there will be another little human being in the mix [boy or girl? we still don't know!].

we started out the morning in del mar at poseidon for breakfast. yummy. it wasn't the most beautiful day, but we ventured up to powerhouse park afterwards, and beebs had a great time playing on the swings and slide. and i had a great time sitting off to the side and watching drew chase her around. i saw many a mom sitting and many a dad chasing the kids. it's like we all had that look on our face saying "it's my day off. you have fun now." because as we all know, the park may be fun for the kids, but at this age, it's a lot of work for the parents. :) we went home for naps [everyone!], took a quick trip to the mall and target, and then out for a quick [and cheap] dinner at chipotle. i just discovered how much i love their kids meals...cheese quesadilla, rice, beans, chips, and organic milk all for $2.95! since emery will pretty much eat rice and beans anytime, anywhere, this means a happy dinner was had by all.

i'd like to give a special shout out to my hubby who planned our day and who is an all around great guy and AMAZING daddy to emery. i was one lucky lady today, and i'll be one lucky lady tomorrow still because of my wonderful family. i am not only blessed by my husband and daughter, but by my own loving and supportive mom who has remained a constant encouragement to me over the years. it has been amazing to come into my own journey of motherhood and have such an incredible role model who has always been there to hear every detail of life as i know it. i also am lucky to have many other "mothers" in my life such as my MIL crystal and all my fabulous aunties, and the many mommies that i get to walk the path with as we raise our own little ones together. happy mother's day!

just ridin' the pelican

best friends

watching for the choo-choo train

...hope beyond hope - he is risen...

yesterday was a very good day. well, except for jellybean meltdown 2011.

i wasn't planning on having emery go through her easter basket first thing in the morning, but since we were going to be gone all day and i had set it out the night before, i guess it was hard to resist. she had her first egg full of jelly beans open in a jif, and she had scarfed down half of them while saying "mmmmmm, mmmmmm" before we could say otherwise. you can imagine the wails that came from the core of her being when we asked her to put the candy away and eat an actual breakfast...perhaps one with a little less sugar?

we were able to celebrate easter this year at our home church, north coast calvary chapel. beebs doesn't love the nursery, but the past two times she has made it through the service without us getting paged out. hooray! i was actually able to listen to the entire message, and i found it to be so relevant to this season of life for drew and me. it was a message of hope beyond hope, and an important reminder of where, or more importantly, in whom we place our trust. it made me truly thankful that we have a God who is bigger than our circumstances, a God who has defeated even death. amen!

afterwards, it was off to the olson's for a big lunch and easter egg hunt! kim and dust did a great job of hosting, and there was a huge spread and lots of fun. papa, yaya, and whit came down, along with dusty's parents chuck and pattie. it was a great time together, and the best part was watching beebs and dilly take part in the easter festivities.

sugary goodness

we rarely take family photos!

easter egg hunts are fun!

dilly and beebs inspecting their loot

fun, fun, fun

...eggcellent...

my mom just asked me if i remembered the pictures of my brother and me dying easter eggs back in the day. and i honestly don't. my [once-sharp-as-a-steel-trap-but-that-was-before-i-ever-was-pregnant] memory only goes as far back as college when i would go "home" to my aunt rae's house for the easter break and my cousins and i would make a big deal out of dying easter eggs. i wish i had a picture or two to post of that glorious era...

tonight, we gave beebs her first taste of the age-old tradition of coloring easter eggs. and she LOVED it. too bad i had only boiled eight eggs, three of which cracked in the pot, thus leaving us with just five precious eggs for her to stir around in the different colors. i think she liked trying to use the crayon to draw on them [while in the dye] more than anything. we then decided to pull out all the stops and brought out her minnie mouse stickers and let her go crazy with them. oh, how the "i hate all tacky things" part of me did cringe inside...

tomorrow we head to church for the most important tradition - the celebration of the resurrection of our savior. i've had a good week of reflecting on the loving sacrifice that was made for each of us, and i look forward to the many years of celebrating the unconditional love of christ with my family. happy easter to all!

getting ready to dye those eggs!

this smile is my favorite

hey, i want in on the fun!

the finished product

emery's easter baskets from both mama and birdie

...little lady...

at almost 20 months, emery has grown from a little babe to a little girl...right before my very eyes!

rocking her pigtails and pink shoes

emery LOVES her daddy

...mama in training...

emery has been obsessed with babies lately. and i'm excited because her motherly instincts are kicking in just in time! kim brought dillan and connor down for a visit today, and emery made it her personal mission to make sure connor had his blankie or his paci at all times...and she alerted us anytime the baby was "ki-ing." i'm sure she'll do the same thing when her new little sibling makes his/her entrance. i just love watching her love and care for little babes!

look at my adorable nephew. i love his face!

babies are the best! emery preparing for her big sister role.

...my little shopper...

today we took a trip up to the mission viejo mall to hang with les and havilah. we played at the playground, took a trip to the disney store, and beebs had her favorite fish tacos for dinner. also, les and i ended up purchasing matching pink TOMS for the girls. they were the only shoes in the past few weeks that i've tried on emery's feet that she hasn't immediately ripped off or waved her hand and said "nooooo" to - SOLD! on our way out, emery insisted on carrying the nordie's bag. she and havi were walking the length of the mall with their bags in hand. and while i do not consider myself world's biggest shopper, it did just melt my heart [and frighten me a bit] to watch beebs get in touch with her inner shopper.

...sunny days...

emery could not love the beach more. everytime we go, no matter what the weather, she makes a beeline for the water. she has no fear [although i certainly have plenty of fear about the fact that she has no fear!]. drew is awesome with her and spends as much time as she wants splashing around. we thought today would be a good beach day, but when we got down there it was pretty windy. and after beebs was soaking wet from a few topples in the waves, she got chilly pretty quickly. so it was a quick trip to the beach for us. but we're looking forward to plenty of sunny days at the beach this summer.

...sick days...

today we blew through practically every sesame street and mickey mouse that we had on our dvr. i figure when your baby is not feeling well, all rules are out the window...and it's just cheddar bunnies and juice for everyone! the blankie and paci were out all day, and none of us changed out of our pjs. there were lots of tears and kisses and hugs and snuggles. it was kind of a sweet day...it reminded me of the sick days of my childhood that were filled with chicken soup and snoozes and my mom checking in on me...only now i'm the mommy. and i love this sweet girl of mine more than anything. i'll happily spend hours nursing her back to health. it's exhausting, and i definitely don't want too many sick days around here, but i will take those snuggles where i can get them.

...crazy hair...

i just love the mornings when emery wakes up looking wild and crazy

...so, it's been a while...

let's try about 19 1/2 months.
so many times i have thought to myself, "i need to blog" followed quickly by the thought "um, where do i even begin?" rather than clue you into the incredible amount of guilt i feel for not capturing every moment on this blog, i'm just going to give a few glimpses into life over the past 19 or so months.
it has been nothing short of amazing to be emery's mommy. she is the joy of our lives, and we are the luckiest parents in the world to call this little "beebs" our own.

she has grown from this precious babe...

...to this bright eyed beauty...

...with this in between...

i set up an email account for emery so that i could write to her and keep track of her life along the way. but i also hope to be better about keeping up with this blog. it's a great way to document life...all those things that i think i'll remember but somehow quickly forget...because life just passes by too quickly. and all of the sudden, your sweet little baby girl is running around asking to use your lip gloss and trying to put on your bra. :)

...beba's birthday...

it's tomorrow! well, maybe the next day depending on how the induction goes...but i'm praying for a quick and easy labor! :)
tonight seems a night just like any other. i'm wasting time on facebook, drew is back in our room fiddling with something, the windows are open and we're just hanging out. or so it seems...
really we're mentally and emotionally preparing for the birth of our sweet daughter. a little girl who is sure to change the world. our world at least. and while drew and i share a pretty great world right now, we know that it's just going to get better and better. we can't wait to meet you miss _____ ___ davis!

...contraction, traction...what's your action?...

it seems to me that contractions seem to be the great mystery of the world. nobody can really describe what they feel like and you often get the nodding of the head and "you'll just know" explanation. which is one that i'm sure i'll be using once they've come and gone, done their job, and pushed beba out into the world. right now though, as i walk around my house experiencing "discomfort" and "tightening" and even a few "whoa! that hurt" pangs, i'm not really sure what to do. should i be timing them? should i ignore them? should i start re-washing every article of her clothing in hopes of her wearing them by tomorrow?

...my true love...

three years ago today, drew and i had our first kiss in del mar. two years ago today, drew and i had our first kiss as husband and wife. i've been looking over some of our wedding pictures, remembering back to that day and all that it entailed - waaaay too much preparation, but the blessing of so many friends and family coming alongside to support us in our choice of one another.
i feel truly honored to call drew my husband. marriage hasn't been warm fuzzies and bliss every second of the day [is it for you?], but it has been the most incredible experience of my life. i am thankful to have found such a man of integrity, a man who works hard to do the right thing and who tries his absolute best to love me well.

i was a little bit nervous that we would be celebrating the birth of a baby today. but don't worry, she's not here yet! so we're keeping august 5 as our special day...a day to celebrate our kisses and our life together. but we certainly won't mind if she wants to come soon after...especially since i told drew that this year for our anniversary i'm giving him a baby!

...back to the waiting game...

just wanted to share some great news...
my high blood pressure appears to have "resolved" itself. dr brody said that going on maternity leave and not working anymore seems to have done the trick! :) dr. brody's plan no longer is to induce me next week. we are back in the "when the heck is she going to come???" club. i am thankful that we won't have to coax her out artificially, and as it is, it looks as though she could come sooner rather than later anyway. i received all my instructions for heading to the hospital and was told to make an appointment for next week "just in case she hasn't come yet". of course, as we all know, little babes seem to be on their own schedule!
so there's the update. we're really excited for what's to come...

...beba daddy...

some of you may be wondering what drew has been up to during the course of the pregnancy. while i've been hard at work carrying our precious daughter, he's been hard at work prepping for her. i thought i'd give you a little peek into his life these days...

ah, the crib debacle. tried on 3-4 different weekends to put it together. after a million phone calls, PB Kids agreed to send us a brand new one. he put the new one together in 20 minutes.


for some reason, i was incapable of lining dresser drawers. drew knew these drawers were bugging me...and what a man! he got right down to it.


drew gave me the full tutorial on our new uppababy vista. thank you ellen!!!


in his endless quest for knowledge, drew read up on proper installation of an infant seat.


after all that reading, he needed a break.


and after all that baby gear assembly, he REALLY needed a break. he clearly had no problem snuggling up to my maternity pillow. aka: the snoogle. aka: mike noogle.


and once he felt very well rested, he was back in the game. drew = MJ.


i have the best husband ever! and on wednesday, we celebrate our 2 year anniversary! i am one lucky lady...and beba will be too. xoxo.

...cousins...

kimmie and dillan came down for a visit today. dillan is such a great babe!
at one point though, he was just a tiny bit grumpy so i put him on my belly.
beba calmed him right down. she rolled around and gave him a few kicks.
they were bonding! it was so, so sweet.
by the next time we see dillan, his cousin will be out of the womb and into the world!

...sooner rather than later...

well, in a major turn of events, we can now take most of the guesswork out of beba's arrival date.

35 week appointment - i went in to find that i had high blood pressure : 150/90-something. dr. brody ordered tests, i was put on "restricted activity" and told "the goal is to make it to 37 weeks". the concern was that i was developing a condition called preeclampsia. this of course caused me some anxiety, and i went home crying and thinking that there was no way i was ready for a baby in only 2 weeks. i had just gone on maternity leave the day before! then my blood tests came back normal, everything appeared to be okay, and i resumed getting ready for beba [hoping it would still be a month or so].

36 week appointment - went in for a visit with the midwife as dr. brody was out of town. i was expecting the best. high blood pressure again! this time i started bawling before the midwife could even make it in the room. they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and beba was happy as a clam - heart rate was great, and she was movin' and shakin' in her usual ways. the midwife ordered more blood tests and put me on "moderate bed rest" and sent me home. i straight up asked her if high blood pressure was a reason to induce. she said yes. my blood work came back normal but my urine test showed slightly elevated levels of protein.

37 week appointment - full term! dr. brody greeted drew and me, and then she went straight into our action plan. this relieved me greatly as i was hoping not to have to come up with one of my own! :) because of the high bp and elevated protein, i have put in the mild preeclampsia category. the good news is that my blood pressure has been low [probably because of my good bed rest skills] and i'm fine, but dr. brody does not want me going past 39 weeks.

soooooo, unless beba decides to come out on her own before august 12 or 13ish, i will be induced. that's less than 2 weeks away!!! although being induced was definitely not in my birth plan, i have found myself to be okay with the new plan. our top concern is the health of beba, and her coming just a week early is not a big deal. and the perks of knowing when she's coming are that my parents can make it out from colorado and drew can plan his time off of work. it does take away some of the anticipation - "when are those contractions going to start?...did my water just break?...why won't she just get here already?" but all in all, i'm okay with this. and, of course, there's always the possibility that she'll push her way out before then. these days, it does seem like she could pop out of my belly button at any moment.

please pray that my condition does not get worse before the 39 week mark, and that these last weeks are filled with peace and health before [and after!] her arrival. we're really looking forward to meeting her...

...beba love...

well, it's been over two months since i've updated. but let me make one thing clear, just because i've been bad at blogging doesn't mean i don't love my beba. :)

i often wish that i was a better communicator. sometimes you can't shut me up, and other times getting more than two words out of me is like pulling teeth. what can i say? it's a flaw. but more than anything, my lack of blogging can be attributed to the prego brain alien that has rendered me one part brain-dead mixed with one part non-stop nester...topped with two parts nervous nelly. and certainly, you don't want to hear about my first time mom anxieties day in and day out...that's what my fellow prego and cubicle mate jenna is for. she's been the one to hear about every ache and pain, rational and irrational thought, and many times the TMI that rolls off my tongue before i can stop it [i mean, does she really need to know the exact spot of each and EVERY one of my stretch marks???].

anyways, i'm going to focus on the joys of these last two months. here are some stellar highlights:

the house remodel. in may, we were fortunate enough to get new floors and a few other things in the place we are renting. it's 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and we're planning on staying another year before [hopefully] moving into a bigger place. our landlord was generous enough to revamp the place before beba arrives [without raising the rent - yeeeaaah!]. the good news: we got new floors, a new bathroom, new oven, microwave, and a dishwasher installed!!! the bad news: we were displaced on SHORT notice for a good 3 weeks, and our not-so-favorite contractor lurked about for another 2 or 3 weeks after that.

mom and me in the revamped kitchen.

beba's room! after the new stuff was put in, we figured it was a great time to get to work on beba's room. we had to switch our rooms - we moved into the bigger room so we could keep drew's office in with us, and beba will be in the smaller room. the catch - beba's room has the [much] bigger closet so it required some major purging on our part. fortunately, my mom was in town and she was the biggest blessing ever as she helped us shake and shuffle and reorganize all of our stuff. beba's room is still a work in progress...drew's been on the phone with PB Kids about 8 times a day trying to get them to own a mistake they made with the floor model crib we bought [newsflash - as i am writing this he just called to say they're sending us a BRAND NEW crib]...and yaya and papa bought us an amazing chair on craigslist for $115 only to get quotes that it's going to be $500 to recover [not including the fabric]. uhhh, i'm pretty sure we could have bought a brand new one for way less than that! :) all that being said, at this point, beba has no [finished] place to lay her sweet head so it's a good thing we still have over a month to go!

dillan is here! on thursday, june 4 our wonderful nephew dillan davis olson was born. and what a great little guy he is...i tear up just thinking about the amazing addition he is to the davis/olson fam. i was fortunate enough to be in with kim during his birth, and it honestly was one of the coolest experiences. i was so thankful to see a birth and be able to prepare myself for what's to come...and of course the fact that it was dillan's birth made it all the more special! kim and dust are making a great transition into parenthood, and drew and i can't wait to have beba here so we can join in the fun!



celebration! my mom came out in june, and not only did she go above and beyond to help us with our house, but she threw me a family shower up in orange county with the help of my aunts and grammy. it was [of course!!!] beautiful down to every detail - boxed lunches, unreal flowers, sweet touches. i love when both sides of the family are able to get together...add in crystal, whit, kim, dillan, leslie williams and her daughter havilah, and it was quite the group of special people! and the fact that they were there to celebrate beba was amazing...once again, tears. :) beba was blessed with many gifts some of which took hours and hours for people to make. my mom made some sweet shirts and outfits, my aunt adrian made her a beautiful quilt, and my cousin sandra gave beba a bucketful of homemade outfits and blankets. i hope beba gets their crafty skills...everything was so awesome!





daddy. oh man, more tears. i couldn't be more fortunate to have the husband that i do. he's working hard at both of his jobs. he's working hard around the house. and he's working hard to keep me happy! the demands of his jobs are nothing compared to the demands of his emotional wife who's carrying a few too many pounds and expects a 30 minute massage/tickle each and every night [along with very deep, meaningful conversation]. i'm madly in love with him, and i can't wait for beba to know and love her daddy. he's going to be amazing with her. he's certainly amazing with me.

drew practicing his soothing skills on dillan. so cute.


changes. and now to the joyous part of all my body changes. weeeelll, we don't need to get into the nitty gritty, but suffice it to say, while i am not quite ready to meet our little girl, i am DEFINITELY ready to not be pregnant anymore. my bras don't fit [in fact today i actually left work so that i could go home and change out of one...it was literally suffocating me!]. i am carrying straight out and LOW, so low that i had a week of being convinced that i was on the verge of pre-term labor...and i'm not joking either. that combined with a few other disconcerting symptoms sent me down to labor/delivery a couple of weeks ago. fortunately, i'm all sealed up, and beba is still cooking away [for now]. she rocks and rolls, and i love knowing that there is a small body and soul inside...such a miracle! so i deal with the back aches, pressure, and turning from side to side 80 times a night...hey, it's nothing that any other mommy to be doesn't have to handle!

ultrasound at 30 weeks. that's a white belly!

upcoming fun. we'll hit the six weeks and counting mark on thursday, and there is some great fun happening between now and beba's birth. i have a few showers coming up in mid-july. i just love when friends and family get together to celebrate life's beautiful seasons. beba is going to be surrounded by so much love, and we are truly blessed to have such quality people in our lives.
also, i go on maternity leave a week from tomorrow! really anyone who has ever met me knows i've pretty much been waiting my whole life for this. i absolutely love the people i work with and i am so thankful for my year and a half at north coast calvary. but not having to work [for how long, who knows?] is a dream!!! and i plan on eating up every day between now and her birth. the goal is to not be as white as the hospital bed sheets upon checking in for delivery. i know every inch of me will be seen by random people, and while that is heinous enough, there is no need to blind them unnecessarily with pasty, vampire skin.

so there it is. the scoop. the goal of course is to break my updates down into bite sized pieces, but i appreciate you sticking it out through this loooong update. you must really love beba. :) and like i said earlier, sometimes you just can't shut me up...

...best thing ever...

honestly, could i be any more excited? i don't think i'll sleep all week [and not just because my belly's poppin']. a REALLY big giveaway AND ryan seacrest? what more could an expectant mother hope for? beba's kicking with glee.

...celebrating life...

dillan is almost here, and we had a great time on saturday celebrating his upcoming arrival and his great mama kim!



pretty much everywhere i go these days, i am surrounded by pretty prego ladies. on may 7, steph, les, kim and i will head up to LA to be "showered" on ellen's first-time moms show! we're just hoping for a year's worth of diapers, and we couldn't be more excited!