2011 here we come!!!

So another year has come and gone! These last two years have been two of the best years of my life. In 2009 JoJo and I found out we were pregnant....SURPRISE, had my dream wedding where I married my best friend and love of my life surrounded by wonderful friends and family, and had Joseph Andrew Ramirez. Turning the corner to 2010, I thought there was no way life could get any better. Once again God showed me who was really in control of my life. Just as I was getting use to being a mom and getting comfortable with my life we found out I was pregnant once again.....SURPRISE! This news made me realize that I needed to slow down and enjoy these beautiful babies' childhood, so I quit my (high-stress) job and relaxed at home and got to watch my baby grow up! Boy do they grow up fast! Jo A turned 1 on November 11, 2010 and decided to start walking the very same day! With him getting around so well and myself being 8 months pregnant, I was worn out! Jacob must have known I was ready to be done being pregnant because he chose his own birthday and came almost 2 weeks early on December 3, 2010, weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 11oz. Needless to say the past month has been crazy busy with little to no time to sit down and relax, but I'm loving every minute of it.....at the moment.
Yet again, I feel that God is going to give us another memorable year with Jo A starting to talk and pick up on things so quickly and Jacob absorbing everything this world has to offer. This new family of mine brings me so much joy and love that it is impossible to explain in words. I know that the future brings me many days where I won't be able to hear myself think for one second, and days of complete exhaustion, but also, without a doubt in my mind, I know that God will not give me more than I can handle and he has lots in store for me and my family in the new year!

Here are some pictures just to recap since I last posted!




Jo A's first "real" haircut at the barber shop!



Pig Roast 2010. His first taste of Illinois soil.

Jo A's first Jack-O-Latern

8 months prego with Jacob.


Jo A posing for his first pic being 1 year old! ha Ha Ha this cracks me up!



His new tricycle he got for his birthday!



Digging into his birthday cake!



Jacob Carter Ramirez; 12.3.2010


Our family as of 12.3.10. Jo A is such a love bug!


Our little angel.



Merry Christmas 2010!
I hope all of you are just as excited about the upcoming new year as we are and may God bless you and your families!

Recap on the last few months

Ok so I have been neglecting this blog. Jo A. has kept me busy for sure!

The little guy is now 8 months old! AHHH! JoJo and I were just thinking how crazy it is to think that he will be a year old in only 4 months. 4 months go by extremely fast these days! He has TWO little chompers and boy were those a pain coming in! He has slept through the night since he was 2 months old and both nights before the tooth came in he woke us up yelling at the top of his lungs so I knew something was up. The first one came in on Father's day as a gift to his daddy, and the second one came in on July 4th. Jo A. is also becoming extremely mobile! He took two crawling movements forward and that is all we have seen in the way of crawling. I call him either my rollie pollie or my aligator because he LOVES to roll places and he is quick. He will be stuck up against something and will somehow still roll over...his aligator death roll. I really think he will be walking before he crawls. He pulls up on everything and loves to be standing and takes small steps. We will see! Ok ONE more thing....he sat up on his own yesterday from laying on the floor!!! He has been so active the last couple months there is just so much he is now doing and it's so exciting!


Ok now onto our new exciting news. Most people know that JoJo and I are expecting bundle #2 in December. Last week we found out that Jo A. will be having a little brother to pick on and play with for the rest of his life. It is my lot in life to be surrounded by handsome men! We were so exciting to be having another boy! I have always wanted all boys and JoJo wouldn't know what to do with himself if he had a girl! So God has blessed us once again!

12 WEEKS!!!

Jo A. is 12 weeks today! It is insane how quickly this precious time has gone by. Our love for this little guy grows so much everyday. And everyday I think it is impossible to love him anymore than I already do!

We had our 2 month check-up a couple weeks ago and got our first round of shots. The count down to the screaming baby was so sad, but he was such a tough boy and was fine 10 minutes later. The following week was a little rough with him being fussy and a little feverish from the shots but we made it through. Then I got sick last week. It was a nasty bug that put me out for 3 days. I think Jo A. got a little bit of it towards the end of the week but he toughed it out and he didn't get fully sick, like I did...THANK YOU GOD!

2 MONTH STATS: (He is much bigger now)

Weight: 13 lbs. 13 oz (75th%)

Height: 24 inches (90th%)

Food: Still breast fed but he gets a bottle of formula around 6:00pm. He eats pretty much every 3 hours like clockwork. If I forget that it's time to eat he will surely be so kind as to remind me!

Sleeping: We are so lucky! He sleeps through the night and has been for a couple weeks now. This was all his own doing. He started sleeping one night all the way through from about 9:00pm to 6:00am about twice a week, and now he goes to sleep around 9:30pm and we wake him up around 7:45am. I am so extrememly thankful. I am a much better mom and wife when I have plenty of uninterupted sleep. During the day he usually takes one good 1-2 hour nap in the late morning then might dose off for a cat nap every now and then but pretty much is as awake and alert as he could be.

He has really started "talking" to us now. He has a chair at my work that vibrates and that thing gets him going. He will sit and talk to the little animals hanging from it and he gets so excited while doing it. His disposition is absolutely incredible. Even if he is hurting from one of his many growth spurts we still can get a smile or two out of him. He LOVES to be around people and watch everything that is going on.

One new thing that just happened this morning while at work is he busted out a full on laugh. I don't think it is a true belly laugh because I think he has more in him but I was able to get it on video on my phone....now I just need to figure out how to get it off my phone and onto the computer so you can see him!

A couple weeks ago he started immitating his daddy and sticking out his tongue!

He has had his first ride on the 4-wheeler!

He doesn't suck his thumb or fingers or anything.....he sucks his fist! He will try to get the entire thing in his little mouth.

My mohawk baby!!!!

My two boys! You think he will become a hunter?

I am so in love with this boy!

He has arrived!

Joseph Andrew Ramirez has arrived!
He was born on November 11, 2009 weighing 8 lbs 3 oz and 20in. in length!

The labor and delivery went very well and only lasted about 15 hours. I started out wanting to do the whole thing natural but after about 10 hours I gave in and got an epidural. I had no idea how much it would do. I took a 20 min. nap during labor.....it's a miracle drug let me tell you! We were discharged on Friday afternoon and were so happy to get him home.
I always thought women were so funny when they became moms and thinking that their child is the most perfect child and most beautiful child born to this earth. Well I now know what they are feeling because I am now one of those women! I am obsessed with our little man! He makes me so incredibly happy. I can't stop staring at him.
On Sunday we had to go back into the hospital because Joseph had jaundice pretty bad. It broke our hearts to see our baby boy go through so much. They were trying to start an IV and ended up sticking him 4 times and still never being able to get a vein. It wore us out! Then he had to lay in a "Bili Bassinet"....basically his first tanning bed...for 24 hours. The only time I could take him out was to change him. It was very hard looking over at him and not being able to hold him! But he was a trooper and we made it through and are back home now!

He was being such a good boy!

Sorry it has been forever since I have posted any updates. I have been bugged by everyone so here we go again. Let's see if I can get on that bandwagon once again of keeping everyone updated with the going ons of our life.

About a month and a half ago I got a great promotion at work and moved into the sales office at the hotel. It has been a WILD and CRAZY ride but I have learned so much through this transition. It really wasn't great timing seeing as how I am pregnant and would be taking a leave of absence soon but it has all worked out!

A couple weeks after I started in the sales office, we had a little visitor come by our back docking area at the hotel....an 8 week old little white lab puppy. After getting her checked-out and cleaned up I brought her home and we have been in love with her ever since. She is the most precious little puppy I could ever imagine. I didn't want to leave her at home by herself while we came up to Dallas a couple weekends ago for a baby shower so we brought her with and she was a HUGE hit. Our little man will have a great puppy to grow up with and play with.

So now to the important stuff....the BABY!!! This past weekend JoJo, Joseph, Fran, and myself completely emptied out the babies' room and ripped up all the carpeting and base and put down new wood floors. We are finally coming to a close with putting up the final touches like the base and crown and then we can move everything back in. I will post all the remodel pictures once we are completely finished with the room.

As of tomorrow, I am considered full term and can have the baby any day and he will be just fine. It's truelly hit us now that we are going to be parents. Last night JoJo and I were laying in the living room talking about how close he really is to being here with us. We both admitted we were starting to get nervous about being parents and wondering if we are really ready. I'm assuming this is something all first time parents go through at some point simply because you will be in charge of creating and molding a new life. That's a LOT of pressure. The feeling of excitement and anticipation, however, far out weighs the anxiety and nervousness!

Oh Joy it's a Boy!

The baby shower for our little man came and went this past weekend and it was perfect! Very laid back and relaxing, which allowed me to chat with girlfriends that I hardly get to see anymore! I couldn't have asked for a better time! PLUS, we got some pretty adorbale stuff! Once we got home and were looking for more space to store all the baby stuff we decided to designate an entire closet to baby stuff! It's amazing how much space baby things can take up! And by the way if you haven't seen a closet with little baby clothes hanging up in it, you are missing out on one of the cutest things EVER!!! A huge closet with tiny little hangers and tiny little overalls and onsies! ADORABLE!!!!

Every other Monday, Joseph and I go to a parenting class through Heartbeat Pregnancy Center and let me tell you, the attendees are quite interesting! This past Monday was breast feeding week! How exciting for the guys, huh? I think the best part about it was that we were maybe 2 min. late and so we had to sit in the front of the circle, next to the speaker, and also directly next to the huge fake boob and plastic baby. I guess you could say I'm still a little immature, but at certain points I couldn't help but giggle when the speaker attatched the huge fake boob to her chest and would pretend to nurse the plastic baby. And when you are sitting right up front where everyone is watching and you begin giggling.....the moment becomes very awkward very quickly! Oh well, what are you going to do?

Comal Conundrum

This past weekend JoJo, Fran, Joseph, and myself met up with Elena ( JoJo's sister) and some of her friends in Gruene, TX. Gruene, TX is a town that according to the rest of the world does not exist. We tried putting it in my GPS and looking in two seperate atlases and it is no where to be found. So with a couple wrong turns here and there and some shady directions, we made it to Gruene and suited up to float down the Comal River. The weather was gorgeous and the river was much warmer than usual and also much lower. With the lack of rain that most of Texas has gotten the rivers were all very low. We ended up taking the long 4 hour float, but due to the low level of water, at a lot of points, there was absolutely no river flow so it ended up taking us almost 6 hours. Talk about exhausting. Having to paddle myself in the burning sun for 6 hours and also being 6 months pregnant. But none the less, as tired as we all were, it was nice to get out of Nac for a while to see Elena, and be in the water.
The ironic thing about all of this is that I had just convinced JoJo to come with some friends and I to float the river the end of August. Needless to say I'm thinking our plans have changed and we won't be returning anytime soon unless some miracle happens and Texas gets over a foot of rain in the next 3 weeks. (I'm not holding my breath)


On a side note, my great friend Dana is throwing me a baby shower for the little man this Saturday, August 8th and I am so excited! I'm really more excited to see all my girlfriends than I am to be getting all the baby stuff! But all the cute baby gifts come in a close second! At this point in time we are still curious as to where we will be putting all this baby stuff but we have put it in God's hands and trust that he will take care of our family. People are asking us all the time if we are worried or stressed about the whole situation but it really hasn't bothered us as of yet. I haven't felt the HUGE desire to put together a baby room yet or anything so we are just keeping our options open, staying relaxed, and taking everything a day at a time.