4 years of bliss

Russell and I were finally able to celebrate our anniversary without our kids. Something that is fairly difficult because we had a 3 day old for our first anniversary and July is such an active time of the year for us. This year we went down to Newport Beach and ate at the Chart House and then went for a gondola ride along the harbor. Then we went out for a nice cup of coffee in Belmont Shores. Next year 5 years. Can't wait to celebrate!

p.s. one of the added bonuses, I was able to fit into the dress I wore for our wedding rehearsal! Yay for loosing weight!

The whole family pics

I couldn't find my camera. But alas, I found it today. So I was finally able to have Russell take a picture of my enormous belly. I'm not kidding, it's huge! Well you can see for yourself. You'll have to have mercy on me, I'm a little worn out from the day so I'm not my best. But here it is.



I actually took some bare belly shots but they are even less flattering. I don't think I have the guts to show my new strech marks on the world wide web.

He is kicking all the time. He seems to be more active then Penelope was but it could be just me. He especially kicks when I need to eat and right after I ate something. It's very "Look Who's Talking", if you remember that movie.

My cravings this pregnancy are completely different then last pregnancy. This pregnancy I ate a lot of trail mix. I think I have bought more trail mix since I've been pregnant then I have had in my whole entire life. I definatly prefer the salty over the sweet on this pregnancy. With Penelope I was sending Russell out to Granny's Donuts in the middle of the night for a little fix (It's open 24 hours and right down the street). I was thinking today that my breakfast of choice when I was pregnant with Penelope was a smoothie at Jamba Juice, hands down. I loved it! Now, it's a cheese bagel with cream cheese. So yummy!

Also here is a couple of pictures from our anniversary dinner. Russell and Penelope were both sick with a cold so we decided to just have a relaxing dinner as a family at Olive Garden. Right now we have had more anniversaries as a complete family then just as a couple, it works out for me. (For those who don't know our first anniversary we had a 3 day old Penelope on our hands. So we decided to do Sunday Brunch on the Queen Mary as a new family.)





After eating at Olive Garden we decided to go look at the pond they have over there and see the ducks. It was a lot of fun and Penelope loved it!

Scraping completion

I finally finished doing all the scrapbooking I wanted to get done before the new baby arrived. I had a pre-wedding album, wedding album, honeymoon album, and Nelly's baby album to do. Both the pre-wedding and the honeymoon were about 1/2 done. The Wedding album I had gotten as a gift, but it didn't hold all the pictures I got from the photographer, so I had 3 "albums" that represented my wedding. I ended up buying a new cover and putting everything in one album to match the first album. And Nelly's album, that I had nothing done on, ended up being 43 pages long! I went from pregnancy to Penelope turning 2. Anyways, since I technically received the shippment of supplies on the 23rd of July. I think I did pretty well in 2 weeks.

Here is some of the pages the represent the albums. My printer scanner doesn't do 12x 12, something I guess I have to consider when buying a new printer-all-in-one next time.

some pages from the pre-wedding album...




some pages from the wedding album....



a page from honeymoon album...


some pages from Nelly's baby album...







Now all I have to do is the little boys' album, when he arrives. But let me say I was incredibly blessed by someone who was getting rid of their old scrapbooking material and pretty much have all the supplies but the album! However I would like to do a family album to do our vacations and adventures. And maybe a small album to hold all of our family portraits each year. But I'm going to take a small scrapbooking rest on that one for a little bit.

Hopefully I won't neglect my blog as much as I have been. I know I pretty much neglected it while I was scrapbooking, well, because I couldn't fit it all in a day. But I do want to post more often. I still have to get Russell to take a picture of my growing belly. I don't have one profile picture of that yet.

Anniversary, Birthday Fun, and Pregnancy...Our life is full!

Today is mine and Russell's 3rd Anniversary! Happy Anniversary Honey! These past years have been really great. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. A year after and 3 days before is our daughter's birthday. And our next one is due right in the middle of the 4 weeks that separates our birthday's. We really know how to pick the timing, don't we! : )



Here is a picture of us at a recent date. Today Penelope and Russell are both feeling a little under the weather. They finally caught the cold that I have. (I still have a little bit of a lingering cough.) But Russell always gets over colds a lot quicker then I do. So I'm hoping we will be back to good state of health soon.

We had Penelope's birthday party on Sunday, on her actual birthday. It was really nice. We had a pool party at our pool and used the grassy area next to the pool to enjoy food, refreshments, and cake! We mostly invited family, seeing how that made up about 16 people and then a few of her friends. My original plan was to have a laid back party, compared to her first birthday where we had 50 people. But it was still a substantial party in the end. Maybe next year we will have a classic Stade party. Or maybe I'm just not the type to have them with my kids. Only time will tell. LOL. Here are acouple of cute pictures from her birthday.



Russell and I bought her a tricycle for her birthday so in the morning she came down stairs to her pink tricycle. As you can tell she is still in her pj's and she hasn't had her hair brushed. But she really likes it! Russell has to adjust the seat a little closer, she can reach the handle bars and petals but it is still too far away for her to actually cycle. When we are all better I can't wait to have a family day at the park and teach her how to use it!

Here are a couple of other pictures. Here is one of her eating with her friend Jada near the pool.



Her playing in the grassy area with the bubbles.



Her playing with her Uncle Darty.



Her birthday cake, isn't it cute!



And she actually blew out the candle for this birthday. It was so adorable!



Thank you everyone who came it was wonderful to have you all there and thank you for all the kind gifts. It was such a blessing. Here a couple pictures of Penelope enjoying her presents the next day. A castle with little people figurines that her Uncle Darty bought her.



One of the many dress up clothes that her Grandma and Aunt Nicky bought her. Yes we are going to become one of those ridiculous families that show up to Disneyland with their daughter in full fledged princess and fairy outfits. : )



My pregnancy is going well so far. I'm 25 weeks which is over 5 months. There hasn't been any complications, but I have been trying to take it easy. We are thinking about baby names. Right now we are calling him Austyn Thomas. Russell is in love with the name. I really like it too, but I don't know if I am finished looking at names yet. I don't think I am very decisive. Austyn moves all the time. He surely is a bouncing baby boy. And I seem to be getting bigger and bigger. I'll have to have Russell take a picture of my belly soon so I can post it up on here. Other than that we are slowly preparing for our little blessing to arrive. Penelope really doesn't have any idea. We talk about it and I rub my belly to say there is a baby in there. And right now she has only learned to rub her belly and say baby and when I do it to myself she fake bites my belly. It's somewhat of a joke to her. But I am sure that she will do fine with the little addition. She loves kids and babies. And she always had the personality that she wouldn't be good as an only child. So I'm not too worried about her with the little boy.

Some new pictures and our weekend away

I've been meaning to post but I never actually get around to it....so here we are....a couple of the adventures from the Stade clan.






Here's a couple pictures from Penelope playing in the rain acouple of storms ago... she had so much fun...also a video of the exciting time





Also...Russell and I got an opportunity to go out of town for a romantic weekend away for Valentine Day. It was so great. You have no idea how thankful I am to be able to have a little time for just the two of us. My old roomate from College was getting married on Valentine Day and we were invited. So we made a whole weekend of it. Her wedding was in her home town of Santa Barbara. We stayed at Pacifica Suites. I highly recommend the place. Here's a picture of Russ and I in His and Her complimentary robes.



We went to State Street on Friday night and went to a lovely Italian Dinner place called Bucatini. We highly recommend it if you ever are in that area. We wanted to go see a movie, but the lastest showing was 9:30. And we didn't get done with dinner till 10 pm. Well I guess it's a quiter town then L.A. is.

On Saturday we had a little bit of time before the wedding. First we went on a walk on the beach, which was about a 5 minute drive away. We walked along the pier and came across a couple of guys who were catching all sorts of things for a probably romantic seafood dinner.



Here's some crab the guy caught...



definitly not what I am use to crab looking like when I see it on my plate...too bad they were all too small to keep; he had to throw them all back.



Then he caught a sting ray...yes, he had to throw that one back into the wild too. You never know what you are going to cetch off the shore of California.



Then we went wine tasting. A hobby that Russell and I like to do together. We went to Carr Winery and got a little taste of the urban trail, which let me say is a lot different then the rural trails that we have normally done. I am really looking forward to eventually doing the San Yanez valley wineries when we have a chance. We decided to then go to Summerland Winery. I highly recommend this place. We liked this place so much that we became part of the wine club. We are becoming a true wine-o. The wedding was beautiful. The groom was beaming with happiness. I have never seen Carla so glamerous in my whole life. I was so happy for the new married couple.

Some pictures of the happy couple...







The wedding was lots of fun. We got back to our hotel just in time to sit in the hot tub for about 10 minutes before the curfew. The next day we woke up and had a lazy morning then caught the first showing of "He's just not that into you". It was hilarious and is a great date movie.

Finally we rushed home and picked up Penelope at Nicky and Jason's. Who I want to say again, thank you so much! And rushed over to a San Pedro gathering from our church.


Overall it was wonderful...tune in soon for another adventure from the Stade Clan.

I love you

These have been the best two years of my life. I can't wait to celebrate this weekend.

Let's vote!

Our second anniversary is this tuesday. So Russell and I are celebrating but we can't decide what to do. Our first anniversary was celebrated with a 3 day old infant, us finally out of the hospital, and going to sunday brunch at the Queen Mary. (Which was very nice.) But this anniversary we plan on doing something really nice on our own. Without me draped under a baby blanket trying to nurse a baby and more worried about our smallest bundle then celebrating our union. So we are defiantly leaving the slightly larger bundle and Grandna's.

So here is the thing. I really wanted to go to Catalina Island for the day but I found out that a round trip boat ride to Catalina per person is $66.50. Then I thought that a disneyland ticket is $66, 50 cents cheaper!

Here is where the problem starts. We start to get really excitted about going to disneyland. Russell and I have been tempting ourselves by talking about season passes but haven't actually got all the funds together yet. So it starts off well a one park ticket is only $66 and for only $25 dollars more we have a hopper ticket at $91. And we can actually go for two days with a hopper ticket for $132. And that is only $41 for a whole extra day and then we can bring the baby on the 2nd day. Plus it's a weekend and we want to be able to see as much as we can. So this way we can totally do it all on a 2 day pass. But then we are spending $264. And the first annual pass is only $318. And that is practically enough for a annual pass. So shouldn't we save the money for a season pass and not spend it all right now? So we are back at square one....."Honey, what do you want to do for our anniversary?"

What do you think?

Once upon a time, long, long ago.

Today marks the 2 year anniversary of Russell and I getting engaged. Can you believe it has been that long? Who would have thought that Russell and I would be married and expecting our first baby within a month. I guess we didn't waist any time, huh? It is great to think about these wonderful moments of our relationship.