Welcome Baby Kara!

Alexya and Santino's baby cousin, Kara Elizabeth Ankuda, was born on February 15th at 12:13am! She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 19.25in. As you can see she has tons of hair! Congratulations to Erica and Matt and we can't wait to meet her!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Alexya wanted to make everyone a giant valentine's day decoration before bedtime. So here it is...hope you like it!

Can't wait to go to her first Rodeo!

We went to the doctor on Monday (2wks old) and found out that Sonny is healthy and no more jaundice and...oh ya..has gained 1.5lbs and now weighs 10.5lbs! So...obviously he is going to be a big boy...and according to our doctor "is going to have the body of a football player." I'm thinking he will probably look like uncle Caleb!
He is happy, eating, sleeping, pooping and grunting a lot...oh and farting alot and really loud ones too! Typical guy. ;)

Updates and More Visitors

Here I am relaxing on the couch with my two kids...that feels so weird and so good to say! A rare, peaceful, non-demanding moment for the three of us.
It has taken some adjusting, and not to say that it's over, but Alexya is getting used to a routine that includes Sonny and doesn't just revolve around her. Of course she is 2 so we have many 2 year old tantrums and tests to go through, but overall she's been very good with sharing our attention and she really is sweet to Santino (besides pulling his hat and socks off all the time).
One funny thing she started doing is encouraging us to get things done fast...for example: if Sonny is crying and I say, "I need to change his diaper Alexya, then I can get you a snack." She will then push against my legs and say, "go mom go." Pretty much anything I tell her I have to do before I do something for her involves the push off and "go mom go" or "go dada go." She is also very excited that Sonny's cord has finally fallen off...since she was convinced that it was a piece of poopoo and now it is "ah-gone."

Lexy and Sonny's "country grandparents" drove down from Browns Valley to visit us and see their new grandson. The last time they came to visit our house was after Alexya was born and so, depending on whether or not we have any more kids, who knows if they will ever come visit again! ;) We had fun and our first restaurant experience with Sonny (who-no big surprise here-slept through it all).

Finally, here is auntie Erica holding her nephew/godson for the first time. She is about to pop herself, as you can see, and so we were excited that she could make the trip. Her due date is Feb 15th and then Lexy and Sonny get to meet their cousin Kara.

Busy Busy

Sonny had a little jaundice and so we had to take him out to the park and get him some sunlight....so...we got him dressed up accordingly in his baseball outfit (added after were A's socks and A's bib).

Caleb and Andrea came by to visit their new nephew...in the picture above you can see that Sonny's super long feet let him fit into shoes already...

All the visitors are gone and so Alexya and Santino take a nap.

Proud Papas!

Santino is just chillin' in his sister's hand-me-down sunglasses and waiting for all the visitors to come give him attention.

Here are 2 of his proud "Papas" who came right away to see their new grandson. Of course Alexya still gets most of the attention, which is a good thing...since she's the one who needs it the most right now.

Here's the big sister giving Sonny a big kiss!

Welcome Home Sonny!

Here are some pics of Alexya getting to meet and hold her new baby brother for the first time. She was very excited to get to hold him and didn't want to let him go...at least not without a kiss first!

Here's Mimi getting to hold her new grandson for the first time...he got very comfortable! :)

Santino is Born!

Santino Robert Hernandez was born on his due date of January 26, 2009 at 1:32am at Kaiser Hospital in Antioch.
He weighed a whopping 9lbs and was 22in long. Here he is fresh and brand new!

My labor was actually insanely quick...I was totally caught off guard and didn't even realize that I was having "actual" contractions and not just random ones on Sunday...until about 9pm when we decided to go to bed and they got really painful and so I checked the time and noticed they were 10 min apart...so I waited and had a couple more then woke up robert to call his parents to come pick up Alexya and suddenly they were 5 min apart and we were like "crap we have to get to the hospital!" I went down to get in the car and then they were already coming 3 min apart! His dad got here and we took off to the hospital, which is luckily only 10 min away, and by the time I got inside to check in I was 1 min apart and I asked for an epidural and they laughed at me and said "sorry hunny, but you about to deliver your baby." I was already 6 cm and by the time they got me checked in and in the room I was at 9cm and started pushing. It took about 30 min to push him out and so he came out at 1:32am and I did it w/o the epidural which is insane to me. Something I never thought I would do in my life would be give birth and take the pain! So wow...thanks Sonny for coming so fast and thanks Robert for helping me focus through the pain! :)

Proud, exhausted and happy parents!

All cleaned up, healthy, adorable and ready to go home!
Thanks for everyone who called and/or texted good wishes! We are home and recovering and Alexya is getting to know her new brother.

The Countdown...& Announcement

Here's a recent picture of me...no, not santa...with my huge belly. It's funny how I'm carrying him all in the front so it just sticks way way out and is hard to keep my balance sometimes. Also, if you had the stomach for it (figuratively speaking) I would put up pictures of my belly w/o a shirt and you could see that it looks like freddy crougar took his claws and scratched them down the front of my stomach leaving horrible ugly stretch marks! Whaaaa! :(.... Oh well, the price you pay for being the lucky one to carry the baby for 9 months.

Anyway, I'll try to stop whining...it's really all I do these days and so I was trying NOT to blog because I knew this would happen and you all would be like "shut up already you whiney chick" and stop reading it. So on the positive side of things :) big smiles :) I'm on the countdown and only have about 2 more weeks to go...if Sonny comes on time (hey what's up with you people that voted he's going to be late?? Shame shame! ). He's actually really been a sweet baby so far without putting me through all the vicious kicks and punches that I had to deal with with Alexya. His movements have been so soft and slow and if they are painful it's only because he doesn't have that much room and the poor guy needs to stretch out once in a while. He does, however, get the hiccups at least 2-5, yes 5 times a day!! Which I thought was so weird and not normal..but my doctor says it happens. I don't remember Alexya having them THAT much...she had them alot, but it was like 2-4 times a week. Oh well, he is definately different and I can't wait to see how he will be when he's on the outside!

Here are some of the pictures we took of Alexya's Christmas morning at home. She got a big dinosaur from Santa and not only can she ride on it, but as you can see she is incredibly strong and can also carry it! ;) She is just getting bigger and taller lately too and is learning a new word every day. We really have to be careful what we are saying now because she is just soaking up words like a sponge and repeating them throughout the day. It's actually really fun to try to figure out what she is saying...like a game show or something...she'll repeat a word over and over and you're like "what the heck are you saying??" and then you figure it out and get so excited like you just won the game! ...or maybe it's just like that to us since we are in lexy land.

Anyway, the last and most important thing I have to post is another exciting announcement...

So, you already know that my brother is engaged and going to be getting married in April to Andrea.
Also, my sister-in-law, Erica, is pregnant and expecting her baby girl, Kara, to be born in February.

Now, the announcement I've been waiting for and am so super excited to tell is that my dad has FINALLY proposed to his girlfriend of the past 9 years, Sushuma and they will be getting married in late July or early August this year! So we can officially now call her mom and call her sons, Chris and Daniel, our brothers (even though we've been considering them family for years...it will finally be all nice and official) :). YAY!
Tons of new family members are coming in 2009 so it IS a very very happy new year for us!

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!