Waddle It Be? Reynolds Baby Shower!

I was so excited to get to plan a baby shower for my friend Laura. And something else that made it really exciting is that they are waiting to find out the gender of their baby until birth, so i needed a gender neutral theme! I found ducks on pintrest and fell in love with the all the bright yellow! One thing that i was really excited about was the floral arrangements. Putting the lemon in the mason jar added that natural boost of yellow to the flowers! I had asked our mom to be her favorite cake and she told me it was salted carmel cake that her family had all though her childhood. Naturally i was terrified i wouldn't live up to expectations, I used a recipe from , for the salted carmel frosting and it was sooo good! And then there was our onsie banner! i used twine and clothes pins to hang theme oriented onsies in from of a modified ribbon banner. instead of ribbon i used burlap. I am very pleased with how that turned out. what do you think? To keep the theme going I made Almond Shortbread duck cookies! They were adorable and delicious! I am so pleased with how this shower turned out! And even more please with how happy our mom to be was!! Blessed to have given them such a memorable shower. Now we wait to meet this sweet baby!

Bowtie Or Bow?? Gender Reveal Party

I had the great pleasure of planning and hosting a gender reveal party for my great friend and neighbor. We loved the theme "bowtie or bow?" and were really inspired by the vintage rustic trend right now, so naturally our colors were soft pink and vintage blue. TO save money i made most everything myself, starting with the invitations. I found a paper pattern i liked that match our theme. I ended up going with graphic 45, Little Darlings paper pack. each invitation was slightly different but buying the one pack was a very affordable. I enlisted the help of my sisters cricut to cut all my bows and bowties and designed the back off of a vintage poster. Add a little (or a lot) of double sided sticky tape and viola! I made the burlap banner by printing my images full scale and tracing them onto the burlap with a fabric marker. Then i strung it on twine. it was really easy and very affordable. I made my chalk board out of an old cheap frame that i distressed with some acrylic paint and sand paper. The Chalk board part was chalk board contact paper which was much more affordable. it worked great on the small frame for the tally marks but for the big one it had quite a few bubbles that I couldn't remove. it ended up looking fine, but up close it is very bumpy! in the future i will make my own chalk board paint, which would also be a cheaper option than buy it pre-made. the cake was a banana cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting. I absolutely loved the flags on top! i used left over paper from my Little Darlings packet and just cut and stuck them to the ends of skewers. for some added texture i added some ribbon as well. For the banner across the top of the cake I wanted a stamped look but didn't want to buy all the stamps so i download a "stamp font" and it turned out great! they looked stamped! It was really fun to plan and host this party for such good friends! And they are very excited to announce they are having their second son! Welcome to the 2 boy club my friend!

Busy Much..?

Wow, it has been ages since i have written a blog. well here is the main update... i am busy!! and only about to get busier! i am 32 weeks pregnant (whoa!) and this little boy is BIG! at least i think so. i am going to clarify with the dr tomorrow! speaking of big boys, Orlando has grow 4 inches since his 1st birthday and is continuing to grow out of all his clothes faster than i can pull together hand-me-downs. He loves animals right now and every time he sees one he know shouts it name and does its corresponding noise. SO CUTE! he is running, jumping, and climbing everywhere! He is also working on his next set of teeth (seeing as they have started to come in groups of 3-4), and that has been lots of fun! not. he is a miserable teether! i feel so bad for the little guy. he chews on anything he can and has even asked for medicine a few times. i cant wait for him to have all his teeth! but luckily for us by the time o is done Joa will be just getting started! hopefully he wont have as hard a time as o does! this pregnancy has been FLYING by! i feel like i was 5 weeks and just finding out we were expecting maybe a month ago! but my maternity leave is a few short weeks away! and then its no time at all until my sweet baby Joaquin is here! he is so strong and so active! i am so excited to see if he looks like Orlando or more like Gabriel. Any votes? i have so much to do before he arrives! my mom and i wanted to make be skirts for the boys cribs and i need to get the nursery ready for 2! i feel like i have a lot of little things to do but hopefully i will get everything done i want to in my 4 weeks maternity leave because i wont have time to do any of it while im working! ok ill try to get some pictures on here and then this mama needs a rest! i am so beat!!!

did i mention climbing on everything??... lol

Orlando's favorite this is running around and rough housing with his papa!

Seedlings Nursery School

so here is a run down on Orlando's life in nursery school! he is learning so much and having so so so much fun with all the kids! He is starting to use lots of real words, including basics like mama, dada, ball, uh-oh is a favorite, and has started using the word "more" while signing it. also one of mama's favorites is "tanks oo" (thank you) which he actually uses correctly most of the time! besides words he is running all over the place and has learned to watch his step and be careful on uneven pavement. He can climb onto a bus as school drive it and even go down the slide all by himself! He has also been working on his artwork and has been quite the little painter! I must say i think he is the best artist in the whole world and cannot wait to frame some! Here are some pictures of different things we do at school!

11 Weeks and Counting!

So! here is baby!!! this was at 8 weeks and 6 days! Babies head it to the right and body is to the left.

I love this picture!!! to the left are babies little legs sticking out then its tummy is down so you can see part of it, then is babies little head to the right. Here is am! 11 weeks and 3 days along! so much bigger than i thought i would be around this time!!! Pregnancy has been so much more nerve racking this time around! I have not really been sick and was have some spotting early on. I was super emotional and tired all the time but was super concerned about keeping the baby safe and healthy. After a stressful week last week I have been extremely queasy the last few days and struggling to keep my breakfast down. I feel like its Gods way of confirming for me that the baby is fine and we are doing ok. I am having so much better of a week and feel much more comfortable in the pregnancy. I am so excited for Orlando to be a big brother and to become a mommy of 2! I am already so excited to meet our new baby beltran! cant believe i have to wait another 6 months... well now that i mention it 6 months doesn't seem that long.... hmmm lots to do! i better go clean! lol

PB&J, Cake and The BIG O_N_E!!!

One year ago today I became a mommy and brought sweet Orlando Gabriel into the world! today i am sitting here watching my son eat peanut butter and jelly, drinking cows milk, and watching sprout. I am proud to say that I held in my tears until this moment. and my baby is the most compassionate and loving baby ever! he sees me tearing up and puts his hand, palm up, in the air and pulls in his fingers say"come here mommy" as i get off the sofa and walk to his highchair he grabs my arm and looks up at me with his brown eyes wide and has this look on his face of "mom i love you and i always will no matter how big I am." he smiles and excitedly screams "MAMA!!!" and we both laugh for a minute. I am so in awe of how amazing my little man is and while its very bittersweet seeing him growing older I am so excited for the man he is becoming.

I know i havent written in a long time! so for an update on the little man he has taken 5 steps on his own, his favorite word is mama :D and he loves loves loves to swim! He even blew bubbles in the pool yesterday! this stage is so much fun and seems like he is doing something knew every day!! Oh yeah and his just cut his third tooth today!! yey! he is so much happier now that that one is through even just that tiny little bit! it was the top right front tooth and it was rough getting that one out!!!

Im sure i will post again really soon with pictures of cake and everything!

ER Trip #3... Seriously?

So i never though i would be back in the ER before the stitches came out from our last trip! (which he is getting out tonight, so yes we are going back to the hospital again...) Orlando had been Extremely out of character for the last few days. it started on Easter night we were staying the night at my moms and he didn't sleep at all! i had read different things on babies responding differently to unusual environments. so since we were sleeping at my moms i thought he was having trouble there. Gabriel and i tried holding him and rocking him, but he was inconsolable. i should have figured it out then but when O was 5 months old i thought he had a hernia and took him to a pediatric surgeon (who happened to be our surgeon on sat) and was told that he didn't have a hernia. he finally fell asleep in my arms and was normal until thursday afternoon. we woke up from his afternoon nap still tired, refusing to eat, whinny, and wanting nothing but to be held and snuggled. he went to bed early and woke up friday morning "normal" again. i had plans to do my moms hair on friday afternoon so me and O headed out to dublin around noon. he took a nap and woke up the same way he was the afternoon before. thats when the trouble started.

Since when he was in these moods he wasnt eating he didnt have a wet diaper either.. so from 3 until 7 he was passed between me, my mom, and papa kevin until my mom said that his diaper was a tiny bit wet and it might make him more comfortable if i change it. my poor baby was so upset when i put him down to change him. he tensed up his little hands and was shaking them back and forth. as i took off his diaper i was extremely surprised at what i saw. there was what i thought to be swelling in his right testicle. i called the advice nurse and was recommended to bring him to the nearest hospital. so here we were on our way to Walnut Creek Kaiser. Gabriel was working so luckily my mom and kevin came with me.

once at the hospital we got through the waiting room fairly quickly. once we saw the Dr. he looked at his diaper area, touched it and in about 30 sec determined it was definitely a hernia. then preceded to try and push what had fallen through the hernia back into his body where it belonged, which look very painful. when he couldnt do it he said he would call a surgeon to come take a look. after about 45 mins a surgeon resident came in to take a look a try to push it back in as well. he also could not. about 20 mins after that he came in with a flashlight and shined it through the mass. i was still in the dark about what they had thought had happened and what was going on. then our nurse came in and told us we were being transfered to kaiser oakland... by ambulance.. uh what? later i was told it was because we were already admitted so thats why we needed the ambulance. we waited over and hour for the ambulance. which was nice for two reasons. one gabriel was off work and had met us at the hospital and two Orlando got a pretty good nap in grandmas arms.

Loading into the ambulance ended up being the most informative part of our night. it was now after midnight. and Rebecca my EMT was awesome we talked the whole way there and she told me that his intestine has fallen through the hernia and if no one could push it back up where it belonged that they would do surgery tonight to prevent the intestine from becoming damaged. once at oakland, after going through be admitted again.. and lots of waiting in our room, we met Dr Kim who was chief Pediatric Surgeon he looked and the hernia and determined very quickly that we doing surgery that morning. after lots of paperwork and meeting our amazing pediatric anesthesiologist i was handing over my baby for surgery.


Luckily for me it was a quick procedure and at 3:35AM, about 45 mins later, i got the call saying he was on his way to recovery and everything went great. i was so relieved and just wanted to hold him! we rushed up to recovery and actually beat him into the room. it was so strange seeing him sleeping with the Oxygen mask on. i stood over him gently rubbing his head for about 15 mins waiting for him to wake up. it was now about 4AM and i went to go sit down, as soon as i turned my back he startled up and was ready for me to hold him. i was so awkward with him. i didnt want to hurt him and was trying to avoid touching his IV and all the other monitors connected to him. but the nurses were great and got him in my lap so we could nurse. he hadnt eaten anything since 11 AM the day before. he was very hungry and ate great. after that he fell asleep instantly on my shoulder. then we got transferred to the pediatrics wing and once again went through the admitting process. Orlando went to sleep in his crib and gabriel fell asleep on the couch and i was up answering questions until 5:45AM.



Orlando woke up at 7:30 he was still very tired and wanted to be held. my dad surprised us and came to visit. he held Orlando and put him to sleep so i could sleep some too. they started our discharge around 11 AM and we left around 1 PM. O slept the whole morning and the whole way home. once we were home he was way ready to eat. He was very glad to be home and so was I!

he is doing so good today and acting pretty much normal. We are all still catching up on sleep but he is ready to go go go. im so glad that we got this figured out and fixed. it may seem strange but i am also very greatful and blessed that it happened how it did. i cant even imagine how much more freaked out and nervous i would have been having to wait a week or two for the surgery. Im so glad this is over!! thank you everyone who has been praying for us! your support has made such a difference for our family. i have definitely have felt your prayers covering us and feel blessed to have so many great people in our lives!!

xoxo