Merry Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas from Alexya!
She got all dressed up in her new Christmas dress from Mimi. We were able to take a couple pictures of her in it before.....she attacked (and ate) the cat food and water dish and then we had to hang it out to dry. We celebrated early with my dad, my brother Caleb & Andrea (fiance), and my sisters Candice and Lauryn on Saturday. We had a great time and there was great food and music and gift opening. If I could change only one thing it would be that Santino wouldn't have beat me up the entire time. (5 more weeks and counting...).

Sorry, you can't really see the enormous bump on my stomach in this shot, but you can definately see that I'm exhausted...so that should count for something...at least Robert and Alexya look fabulous!

Alexya and Dada looking at family photos from the past.

Alexya, in new attire, opening her Holiday Barbie from auntie Candice. "ooooooooohhhhhhh pretty!"

Alexya's New Bunk Beds

A Huge Thank You to everyone for the birthday gifts and donations toward Alexya's new bed! As you can see she loves it and is very excited about her new 'princess' themed room! Santino will now be inheriting her old room...which is perfect since it is 'Oakland A's' themed already. Of course, as you can see, Pooh, Dumbo and Care Bear are still very welcome in the princess room... ;)

2 Years Old!

Here are some pics from Alexya's birthday party/Sonny's baby shower. It was really fun and Lexy had a great time! It was at her favorite restarant "El Tapatio" so she was really comfortable and enjoyed the yummy yummy food and cake. Here's her birthday cake...which is a princess cake of course! Her favorite part was when everyone sang "happy birthday" to her...which of course she sang along to. So thank you to everyone that came and celebrated with us! :)

Here's Alexya putting up her princess stickers and teaching Isabel how to do it too!

Here's the cake monster! She didn't mess around with the cake....she ate the whole peice and even got some up her nose in the process!

Happy Halloween!

Here she is in her halloween costume...Tigger!

Ready for Trick o' Treating! She's going to go bouncy-bouncing up and down the street at grandma and papa's house tonight!

Here's the matching pumpkin that daddy carved for her! So now we have tigger and pooh!

The Back Up Costume...

This is what Alexya has been wearing around the house for the past week...her back up costume, Princess Alexya. She found my lingerie drawer and picked out the one she liked the best...which is fine since none of them fit me anymore anyway..and now it's a beautiful dress! Daddy even added a towel around her shoulders as a cape to complete the royal ensemble.

Santino "Sonny" Update

Since I always put up pics of Alexya and talk about her...I thought I should start getting used to the idea of sharing attention between both my daughter and son. So.....here's an update on Santino!

Unfortunately I don't have pics yet to put up, but I can tell you that he's a big boy! They had moved my original due date of Jan 26th up a week, based on his size....but then my doctor told me, "that's like saying every kid in kindergarten is this tall," so he moved it back. So that info combined with the fact that my stomach it the size of a truck already confirms it for me that he's going to be a big boy.

I'm only 6 months along and he is moving so much. Some days it's like he's trying to bust out of my belly he kicks and punches so hard! (I even get sore). Other days he's calm and I can feel him just exploring and gently pushing around (I love these days!). Also, when I lay on my back I can feel him better/stronger and even see his foot come sliding across my belly (which looks so weird to me still...like an alien trying to escape). Overall, he's very active so that's a good thing. My doc also said that usually with the second kid, they are more active for some reason...and that's good cause you wouldn't want it the other way around...

The other update with my pregnancy is that, besides being huge, I have been having contractions randomly...which freaked me out at first, but when I asked my doctor about it he had a logical explanation....drink more water. Apparently I'm dehydrated and not drinking enough water so ... bad mommy...drink more water! Also, I have to stop/cut back on picking up Alexya so much. Bending over is so hard with a huge belly and so I have to take it easy. That includes picking up all the crap on the floor around the house!(which is alot and harder to stop than it sounds).

The nice thing is that I have a husband who is working so hard to help take care of Alexya and me at the same time. He is doing a very good job of watching her while I work and when we go places so I don't have to chase her all over! He even lets me veg out and put my feet up while he takes Alexya outside to play or to the park. Honestly, he's the best and I can't imagine not having him around to help me, I'm so so so blessed.

Oh, and lastly, work related...as I'm sure most of you have heard on the news, Mervyns went bankrupt and so they are planning on closing their doors after the holidays. They are not who I work for, but they are my main account and so I'm unsure as to whether or not I will continue to have a job. I'm surprisingly calm and not stressed at all about this (well, after the initial news anyway, I ran upstairs and made a budget and felt better). We did it before and we could do it again....so whatever happens I'm ok with it. I just wanted to update you all so no one would worry.

It's sad news for them and for all the people that work at the headquarters, in the stores, and each vendor who has someone on their account, who will lose their jobs. But, it's not surprising that companies are going to fall during this economic period....and it's not like the government is going to give them a couple million dollar bailout since they aren't a bank or on wall street.

I am concentrating on the "everything happens for a reason" logic and focusing on all the positives I have in life right now....my husband, my daughter, my son coming soon, my close friends and family that all add up to make my life an extremely good one! :) Oops and you too toretto! :)

Alexya's Getting a Cousin!

Alexya is super excited to tell everyone that she is going to have a new cousin to play with and even better....it's going to be a GIRL! :() She is so happy because her auntie Erica is having a baby girl in February for her to play with. Now she will have a new baby boy brother and baby girl cousin to play with...lots of babies! :)

Congratulations Matt and Erica!

The End Of Summer 08

Here's our water-baby enjoying a swim with Daddy in her hot tub/cold tub. This is a daily routine for these two and I'm not sure if it will continue into fall and then winter...but who knows...if the water is warm enough, I'm sure she'll be in there!

Alexya is getting very good at feeding herself now...well, I didn't say neat, but she can get it in there!

And here she is practicing blowing out the candles on mommy's birthday cake. She's getting ready for the main event two months from now...she doesn't want to disappoint anyone at her party. Hope you guys don't mind a little spit with your cake... ;)

Save the Date: 11-22-08

No new pictures to put up, but I wanted to give an update. 1st please save the date Saturday, November 22nd for Alexya's 2nd Birthday party and baby shower for Santino. We're having it at her favorite restaurant, El Tapatio, so come hungry! Also, we decided to move Alexya out of her room and into a brand new "disney princess" themed room! Thanks debbie for the idea! Santino is going to get the A's themed room since it's all set up already for a baby and Alexya gets a new room with a theme she will really love! I found her bunk beds and princess sheets and comforters and we're painting the room light blue...so not to overwhelm ourselves w/pink princesses! :) Since I'm going to Tahoe with Candice for my b-day and getting a prenatal massage...yes...can't wait...Robert is going to paint the room while Alexya stays at grandma & papa's house. So an exciting weekend for everyone....right robert??!! hehehe

So some Lexy chatter updates include:
"Unnnnn-Noooo!" - oh no! - which is said for anything that spills, is dropped or broken or if she falls.
"Papa" - grandpa - for Frank
"Ga-Ma" - grandma - for theresa ... she just learned to say these last weekend and is so proud of herself that she says them over and over.
"Haop" - Help - when she falls down so you can pick her up or if she's stuck somewhere (very often).
"Ta-to" - Toretto - her fav playmate right now
"g0-g0-g0" -let's go - learned from backyardigans song...she will usually say it and start running off!
"caa" - car
"cea-e-ol" - cereal
juice and agua are actually pronounced correctly!
and her phone conversations (the fake ones) have been extended to include the following..."hi, hello, hello, hi, giberish that I can't understand, then laughing, then more laughing and giberish and then, b-bye!" So hilarious to actually watch it in person..it's almost like she's making fun of you on the phone.

We still get the kisses and hugs (with sound effects) and now she started saying ouch when she gets hurt. The crazy thing is all these words were random until about 2 weeks ago...and now they have come pouring out and she will even repeat a word you say if you say it to her over and over...which is just crazy to me...she is growing up so fast already turning into a little girl. She can feed herself now with a spoon or fork..which is very messy, but she insists on doing it herself and loves to practice drinking out of a cup w/no lid and not spilling ("Unnnnn-Noooo!").

She still loves/is obsessed w/water and swimming and is now very good at climbing the playgrounds and going down slides very fast! Yesterday, she met a little boy her age who would go down the slide at the same time as her (it was a double slide) and they were inseperable...until he spotted a bike to play with and she decided to yell at him from the top of the playground to make him come back...until daddy decided to go down with her instead. The boy was in love with the bike and had moved on..which she didn't like. My friend amy was on the phone with me at the time and told me alexya was acting like me......hmmm....i don't see it...

Anyway, there are a million more things, but obviously I can't put them all in here...so you will just have to come hang out with us/her to see them. Oh, and suddenly she is very shy if she doesn't see you every weekend.....(grandma/papa)...and so it takes some time for her to warm up to you...just fyi.

It's a ....BOY!

So we went to the doctor today and finally found out that we are going to have a baby boy! That's right Alexya...get ready for a baby brother to pick on. We decided awhile ago on the name if it was a boy so now that it's official I can update my blog link w/the correct name which is: Santino Robert Hernandez.

Needless to say Robert is insanely happy to be having a son and had to pull over on our way home from the doctor and buy a cigar to celebrate!

I'm going to change the link to Santino & Alexya ...so if I don't email the actual link to you maybe you can type in the name. I'll change it next week to the new link. The doctor also moved up my due date to January 20th, but we'll see what happens...

Alexya has been practicing changing diapers on her own baby and is getting pretty good at it. She is very careful and makes sure to thoroughly wipe the whole baby and puts lots of powder before putting the new diaper on. :)

Alexya and mommy trying to snuggle with mommy's big belly in the way! :)

Trips to Monterey and Tahoe

Here are a couple pics from our trip 2 weeks ago to Monterey to visit the Aquarium and spend time with Theresa's side of the family at their reunion. I don't have pics from the reunion, but it was full of Robert's mom's side of the family and at a really nice park that Alexya loved! Lots of food and family and fun! We had a great time.

The pics I have are from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and we went on a Saturday which was a huge mistake! It was PACKED with people (they should have limit on how many people they have in there at once!) and it was hard to get close to see certain things without throwing elbows and pushing your way through. We actually put Lexy down to run for a second and she ran through everyone's legs and right up the the front to see the fish! Which was great for her...but we had to then fight our way through to get to her before she disapeared! Anyway, she still had a great time exploring and playing in the water where they let you touch some starfish and seaweed. She really liked the giant killer whales they have hanging from the ceiling the best!

We also had a visit from Robert's cousin's from LA a few weeks ago and Lexy got to meet some of her second cousins for the first time! (Jaime, Christopher, Jake and Luke). Here she is with Christopher who came over to "share" her toys. I put it in "" because she was really good until it came to sharing her markers! She grabed them out of his little hands and said "sheesh, sheesh" which is "share, share" and then he got upset and it was all over! :) Actually really funny to watch...but she needs a serious lession in sharing...that it goes both ways. Overall the visit was super fun and we're glad we got to see everyone and finally let our kids meet each other!

Finally, this weekend we went to visit my aunt Mary and uncle John in lake tahoe for the weekend to relax and have fun for our 7 year anniversary (yes, SEVEN!) They have a nice townhouse and we wanted to do something special and since they have been encouraging us to visit...we made the trip! It was the best trip!!! We all got so spoiled and pampered and we didn't want to leave! My aunt is a realy good cook and made us gourmet breakfasts and a gourmet dinner the first night! All while taking care of Lexy and giving us a break. We went to the beach which was beautiful (and i'm a nerd who forgot the camera!) and so fun to see Alexya swimming in the freezing water like it was nothing and playing in the sand with daddy building sand castles! Then for our anniversary my aunt and uncle surprised us with a gift certificate to a really nice restaurant right on the water!! We had the fanciest, yummiest dinner ever with the best view (and free dessert!). We didn't want to leave (oh and they babysat lexy so we could celebrate alone). Talk about a great trip and a great anniversary! :) THANK YOU again!!

PS. Oh my gosh, I have to announce to everyone that doesn't already know..... that my little brother, Caleb...... is ENGAGED!!!!!! He proposed to his girlfriend, Andrea a few weeks ago and they are planning to have the wedding April 18, 2009. I'm so excited because I've never seen my brother so happy in my entire life and he picked the best girl ever to become his wife. Andrea is super fun to hang out with and so funny and not to mention gorgeous! I'm very excited to have another sister!!

Hernandez Family Updates

I will be changing the link to this blog soon...since one of the names in it is now wrong. We have chosen a different name for the baby if it's a boy, so once we can find out boy or girl next month, we will be updating the link with the correct name and of course Alexya's name. I will send the link to everyone in an email...if I don't send it to you, please let me know your email address by emailing me at jesskhernandez@yahoo.com. I don't want to forget anyone!

We went to the doctor last week and got to see the "baby" for the first time. He/she had it's hands in the air (and was waving them like you just don't care) and it looks so funny in the picture. It's legs were also crossed and it's head looked like... it looked like an alien. The heart was strong and it was cool to hear it...except Lexy didn't seem to care. The due date was confirmed and I was wrong before when I said it's going to be a capricorn....It will actually be an Aquarius (the cut off is Jan 21st). I wanted to put up pictures of the ultrasound, but my stupid scanner is not working!!! grrrr so next time I will try again.

As you can see, Alexya is getting very confident in her camera "cheese" smile! :)

Here's Alexya sitting at her brand new desk in her new chair (that's just her size). We saw this set at Catherine's house on our playdate and had to have it too!! So Grandma and Grandpa picked it up for us at Ikea! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! :) She loves to sit at it and color and draw and read and sometimes just to sit and stare out the window. It really is perfect size for her!

Don't make her mad.....or else....

She has been very good at throwing tantrums lately...terrible twos coming early???...she will scream and throw herself down on the ground (even outside) and cry until she gets her way (which rarely happens) or until she has just resigned herself to pout and be mad at you....which you can see above. It has been interesting trying to have patience with her, but at the same time be firm and not giving in when it's important. She fully understands what "no" means, but she chooses when she wants to try to fight you on it and when to listen...you never know which one is coming...some days are so easy and others...a battle ground! We already started giving her timeouts...which help a lot since they give her a chance to think/take a break from the intensity of the situation and then also give you a break from the fight of wills and calm down. Usually they end in tiny tears and whimpers that sound like she's explaining something to you and then a hug and it's all smiles. (like I said, usually ;)).

Basically, she's a typical toddler, just testing things and learning and we probably have it so good and we don't even realize it....until the next one comes! Dun-dun-dun ;)

Lexy Has a Secret

"Shhhhh!" Lexy has a secret.... but I have a story to tell you before she can tell you...

Lexy had her first plane ride across the country to visit Chicago, IL for the first time with Robert and I. It was a long-long flight and we had to transfer in Utah, but she was a very good girl! We got to stay with Candice at the Embassy Suites in downtown. Since she had to go on the trip for work, she invited us to come along and all we had to do was pay for Robert's plane ticket. We did the tourist thing and walked all around downtown w/lexy and then Candice suprised us by giving us tickets to Jersey Boys!! She and Darren babysat while Robert and I got a "date night" out to the theater. The show was amazing and now we keeping listening to The Four Season's music. :)

Anyway, the flight back was long and lexy had a little accident on the plane (her diaper exploded and poop was EVERYWHERE....the seat, the floor, my leg, her hair...everywhere) thank god we were landing when it happened and so we got help from the stewardess and got her stripped and cleaned up and waving "byyyyeeee" to everyone in her diaper as they left the plane.

Oh, I have to back track for a second....A week before the trip I had went to visit my mom and Stephen for memorial day and when Stephen saw me he immediately accused me of being pregnant. In fact, he grabbed my stomach and said "you're pregnant." I was a little offended since I wasn't even late and I didn't think my stomach was THAT big. But then he told me I was glowing and that he just knew for a fact that I was pregnant and I should go take a test. Then, I got home from my visit with them and Robert told me to go upstairs and look at the screen saver he just put on the computer.....I went upstairs and found myself staring at a picture of myself 8 months pregnant on the computer. (He thought it was a cute picture and that's why he put it up). Ya, really weird so I ignored it and went to Chicago! :)



So here she is...just dying to tell you her secret.....

After throwing up in Chicago I realized I should probably stop ignoring that nagging feeling I had and take a test....and...as you can see below....Alexya is super excited to tell you that she is going to be a Big Sister!

I've probably told most of you, or someone has, by this point, but I needed to update my blog since it's been months. So my official due date is Jan 27th (which is the same day as lexy's birthday in Nov). Go Capricorn baby! :) Go Alexya...you are going to be the best big sis ever...well, next to me anyway! ;)

Water Girl & a B-day Party

Here is my water baby modeling her new floaties! She is so in love with water that we have to drain all the water out of the tub and then still wait while she sits in it still not wanting to get out. We even bought her a kiddie wading pool for the back yard and she is jumpin' in every time she goes outside. We realize that this water addiction is not going to end anytime soon ..... so we went looking at jacuzzis this weekend and took her with us to test them out. Some of the floor models actually have water in them so I put her on the side and let her dangle her little feet in so she can kick and splash. She then wants to put her hands in and splash too....and then suddenly she dunks her whole head in the water and comes up drenched and giggling and so excited that she does it again and again!! The sales guy was impressed and so he was encouraging her and playing with her and so she decided she liked him and he got a few hugs! He was very nice and even brought her a towel to dry off with! ;)

Yesterday we went to Robert's uncle Eric's house to go swimming in their pool and play with their son Sean, who is 4 1/2, not 5. Lexy wore her floaties and got to swim around and kick kick kick like a maniac while dunking her face in the water every five seconds. She wouldn't have ever gotten out except that her lips were turning purple... Very cool to have cool relatives close by with a pool in this heat let me tell you! :)

Even the floaties can't stop her from getting those two fingers in her mouth!

Here's a picture of my cousin's baby, River, who turned one saturday and had a big party at Pixieland. He looks just like my cousin!

And finally, here are a couple of cuties trying to keep cool in the extreme heat. Robert had to work, so thank god Lauryn was free to come with me and help! Such a good auntie. (turning 16 in 2 months!)