Cheers for 2011

Our little family rang in the New Year with some good times at the arcade. Cash fell in love with skee ball. Casey revived his boyish love for winning tickets. And I had a blast trying to keep up with them. We ended up with a ton of tickets and turned them in for some prized arcade toys. Cash was beside himself with joy when we handed him the bag of toys.

We ended our night with our favorite way to eat out, Teppanyaki style! Cash is becoming well acquainted with chopsticks between our sushi Friday's and our love for Teppanyaki. Within 10 minutes of sitting down, he threw his chopstick across the grill and it landed on a ladies plate. She looked up and said, "Scholarship!" We all started laughing and I quickly apologized. During dinner, the whole table was entranced with Cash saying he was so cute, so sweet, so well-mannered. (Umm...Did you see him throw the chopstick?) It's funny to see him out in public. He loves attention from people and he totally feeds off of it. And he's a pro at eating out now. Between the pregnancy nausea and the holiday season, we have been doing a lot of that recently.

Cash's bedtime rolled around at 7:30 and we didn't have the heart to make him stay up for the countdown. We just watched Cars and whispered "Happy New Year" to him as he drifted off to sleep. Then Casey and I watched movies until Casey fell asleep. I finished off a bottle of Martinelli's to celebrate the New Year all by myself and then we went to bed. Happy New Year!

On New Year's Day, we went bowling with my brother Tim and his family. His birthday was the day before so we were celebrating that and the beginning of 2011. This was Cash's first experience with bowling (besides the Wii) and we came to the conclusion that we need to wait a few more years before we ever go with him again. All he wanted to do was pick the ball up (but it was too heavy), kick it down the lane, and run after the ball down the lane. He was constantly darting out in front of people and running down to get the pins on the slippery lane. It was exhausting. We had so much fun seeing our family and spending the day with them, but bowling will not happen any time in the near future.

My resolutions for 2011 are pretty much the same as every year. Be better and do more. I guess I'll go get started on that right now.

Happy Birthday To Me

My birthday has always been an awkward time. People are over celebrating Christmas and giving gifts. Everyone is tired and wants to just sleep and hang out. Then all of a sudden it's my birthday and you have to do the celebrating all over again. But the Patterson's always make sure it's special for me and I love them for it. Here is how we celebrated me turning 28 on December 28th!

Cash and Grandma Patterson made me birthday banana bread! I was craving something healthier than cake and ice cream. Cash was stoked to be able to help stir. And Grandma loves her little helper.

I love my little helper too! Cash was right there with me every step of the way celebrating. He really got into it. Singing Happy Birthday, blowing out the candles, enjoying the banana bread, and opening more presents. I love having him with me all the time. My little buddy. The Patterson's offered to babysit Cash so Casey and I could have date night. We went out to a fancy dinner, did a little shopping, and then saw True Grit. It was a really great birthday. I'm a lucky girl.

Exploring At The Farm

The best part about going up to Ventura, besides seeing our family, is all of the space they have on their farm that Cash can explore. He would spend all day outside if he could. Grandma got him rain boots for Christmas and he put them to good use. In the mornings he would feed the chickens with Grandma. In the afternoons he was outside with Grandpa on the swings or just exploring. They have a black lab named Max that he is intrigued by and a little scared of. I think it's just the size proportions that throw him off. He gets close to pet him and when he senses that Max could trample him, he backs off a little. Cash definitely takes after his Dad. He loves the outdoors, dogs, and playing with balls.

How cute is Cash with his Grandpa Patterson? I love seeing them hang out. Cash is definitely a guy's guy.

We had a visit from Casey's Uncle John and Aunt Sherrie and their daughter Christi while we were in Ventura for the holidays. Christi just had a little baby girl named Natalia. Cash was so excited to see his cousin. He was so sweet with her. He kept leaning in to her car seat and tried giving her hugs and kisses. He just wanted to grab her so badly. He kept gazing at her and then looking up and us and smiling. Then he saw her toys and his focus entirely turned to trying to get them off of the car seat. I loved seeing him with this sweet little baby. Cash is going to be such a good big brother and love his baby so much. I can't wait to see them together.

Santa Came To Our House

We have a tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve, usually festive pajamas. Casey and I are over getting new pajamas each year, so we just open a present of our choosing. Casey found out he was getting another son and I opened up my new fancy camera. I bought it from my sister Nikki and I love it. I feel like a professional now. Cash opened up his winter monster pajamas and tiger slippers. He kept looking down at his feet and growling. This is him on the stairs in his new pjs right before he went to bed to dream of presents.

Christmas morning came and I woke up to two excited boys. Cash walked in and immediately ran up to his new car, started saying, "Wow, wow, woah", and took a seat. He didn't move off of it for the next hour.

Casey got a Wii from Santa! In addition to my new camera, I got a traditional women's dress from Qatar (with head piece included) from Casey. It's awesome. I can't believe we didn't get a picture. It covers me from head to toe and the only things showing were my eyes and hands. I know what I'm going to be for Halloween! Casey, Cash, and I received so many presents that I can barely name them without taking up a whole page. The Patterson's spoiled us this year!

Cash eventually got interested in opening presents. It didn't last long though. Every time he opened up a present, all he wanted to do was play with it. Then slowly he lost interest in it and wanted to open another one. His favorites, beside the car, were a magnetic fishing puzzle, a bunch of sports balls, and a town rug for his cars.

After almost two hours of opening presents, we finally started making a huge breakfast. It was incredible. We had oatmeal pancakes with buttermilk syrup, hashbrowns, bacon, scrambled eggs, oj, and milk. It was a breakfast for champions for sure. The rest of the day was spent hanging out in our pajamas. We played with the Wii, napped, snacked, worked on my new Coke puzzle, grazed on yummy food, and watched movies. My kind of Christmas. 

Cash loves his Grandpa Patterson. Whenever he came into the room, he automatically wanted to be held by him or sit by him. It didn't hurt that Grandpa always had a treat to share with Cash too. I love how much he has bonded to Casey's family. Thanks for a great Christmas Day, Patterson's!

Merry Christmas! We're Having A BOY!

On Christmas Eve, we called Casey's sister, Jessie Kate, who is serving an LDS mission in South Korea. It was good to hear her voice. She sounds so grown up and Korean! She opened up her Christmas presents that the family sent her while we were all listening. Cash just kept talking gibberish and running around. It sounded like he was speaking Korean to her. Anyway, while everyone was taking their turn to talk to her, I asked Casey if he wanted to open up his Christmas present early. He said, "Of course! Jessie will love that." So I went and grabbed the special present. While Jessie was on the phone and everyone waited in anticipation, Casey opened up the box that had an ultrasound picture of our new baby and a card. The card read...

 

Merry Christmas Daddy. We are having a BOY! 

I love you, Lexi

Casey was thrilled. Cash starting jumping up and down and clapping because everyone was cheering and so excited. He thought he had done something really great. It totally felt like he was celebrating his new baby brother. My eyes filled with tears as I thought about how excited we are to welcome another little baby boy into our family. Casey and I get our dream of having two boys in a row and Cash gets a little brother. The Patterson family can't wait to meet this little guy. I just know that Cash and him are going to be the best of friends. I love my boys!

*During the ultrasound, the nurse was doing her measurements and asked me if I wanted to find out the sex of the baby. I told her I did, and she said, "Good, because I'm going to have a hard time not showing you. The baby keeps flashing me." I started laughing because that's just what Cash did. She turned the screen towards me and sure enough there he was in all his glory. So proud of his manhood, just like Daddy and big brother. These boys crack me up. I started tearing up thinking about how lucky I am that I get to be a Mother to another son of God. I know I've said it before, but it's all worth it. This moment was free from nausea and filled with pure bliss. I'm passed the worse of pregnancy and looking forward to all of the happiness from here on.