Amelie Faith Varela!

Jack's newest cousin arrived on October 19....Amelie Faith Varela!  (Obviously this blog is 6 weeks overdue but we all know I'm a tad behind on the blogging so we'll just let this one slide).  I don't remember the exact stats but she was a big girl - about 9 1/2 lbs and 21 inches I believe.  We made the trip to Cali to see her a few weeks ago.  She's just a precious little butterball with tons of hair.  And, man, can the girl eat!  She put Jack to shame.  She loves to be held which was just fine with her Auntie Jill.  I was a total baby hog and held her so much even Jack got jealous!  Maybe I need to have another baby so Jack will want me more than his daddy. 

Jen & Obed had everyone over including Grammy Delora and the kids so all the Sandoval kids were there.  We missed Mel & Tyler though!  It was a treat to be with all of my siblings and I realized this little baby was surrounded by so much love. Here are a few pics of our sweet little Amelie with her new family!

The gang – Papa Joey, Uncle Christian, Grammy Delora, Big Sis Marseille, Mimi and Aunt Donna holding the little butterball.  Jess and Donna will be having a baby boy named Charles next May and we’re so thrilled!

The proud grandma’s…Mimi and Grammy.  Whatever happened to calling your grandma, grandma?!

Me and Amelie.  I just want to smush her!!  But I really can’t say that word now because the Jersey Shore has ruined it for all of America.  So I’ll just say squeeze from now on. 

We attempted to get an adorable picture of all three cousins – you know, the kind you show at their wedding.  But alas, Jack was there and wanted nothing to do with it.  We caught one decent one before he decided he wanted to throw Amelie on the floor.

Roarrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

With all of our traveling and crazy work schedules, I just realized that I haven't blogged in about 3 weeks.  So although Halloween seemed like forever ago, I wanted to finally get the pictures up.  Since Jack has a new infatuation with animals, we wanted to dress him up like one.  And seeing as how he loves to growl like a lion the decision was easy! I think we loved the costume more than he did as you will see in some of the pictures but we thought it was so adorable!

We were lucky enough to have Gigi visiting from Chicago so she was able to join in all the Halloween festivities.  We always love to be with family for any holiday so it was fun to have here here!  On the Friday before Halloween Jack had his school costume parade and party.  All the kids in the school dressed up and sang songs to the parents outside.  This was very cool for Christian and me because it felt like our child's first real "school" event.  This is the stuff parents live for right?!  We got to stand with all the other parents, snap tons of pictures and adore our child.  But Jack has the cutest class ever - we love all his little friends!!

Then on Halloween we took Jack out for a some Trick-or-Treating.  He didn't like it at first but as soon as he realized that if he cooperated he would get candy then he was totally on board.  But instead of saying Trick-or-Treat he would just growl like a lion.  It was awesome.  But we actually think he had more fun handing out the candy at home.  Whenever the doorbell rang he would run to the door (in a diaper of course), and start passing it out.  I love that he's such a generous kid. 

I have a LOT of cute pics and I don't think they need explanation so they are without captions.  Enjoy!

Crazy Cali!

Two weeks ago Jack and I had a whirl-wind visit to California.  I had a last-minute business trip to LA pop up so I decided to take Jack over the weekend to see my family. In just a few short days we managed to squeeze in Jack's first visit to Chuck E. Cheese with Mimi, a trip to the Rose Bowl with Uncle Jess, Jack's worst tantrum ever on the plane (complete with a 10 minute melt-down followed by projectile vomiting all over himself, me AND the girl sitting next to me) and, of course, the birth of his cousin Amelie Faith.  And I even found a little time to work. Whew!  It was absolutely Bananas!!  But it was fun and well worth the time Jack got to spend with my mom and bro.  They all really bonded.  It was hectic so I didn't get too many pictures but here are a few highlights.

When Jack saw this pink bike he made a bee-line for it. We put him on and he would not get off! Daddy would have been so proud...

It was an unusual rainy day in SoCal so we decided to take Jack to Chuck E. Cheese. He LOVED it! He especially loved this blue car and rode it at least 10 times...

Jack and his pal Chuck! This was another ride he wouldn't get off of...

Jack was determined to get a basketball into the net....

It's not surprising that Jack is very competitive, given his overly competitive parents! So when he couldn't get the balls up lane the traditional way, he decided to take matters into his own hands....

Papa Joey bought him this bat and gigantic ball. He was in heaven...

Uncle Jess and his twin dog Rooney. I don't really like animals but I adore this dog...

Jess and Jack really bonded. When my mom had to go to San Diego to be with my sister as she was having the baby, Jess took care of Jack all on his own and he was awesome! He's going to be an amazing daddy!!

Pumpkin Patchin!

A few weekends ago we met our friends at Burt's Pumpkin Farm in North Georgia...WAY North Georgia!  It's actually only about an hour away but the traffic was pretty bad so it took twice that long to get there. I think every family in the the greater Atlanta area had the same idea.  But it was a gorgeous fall day and we got to see our friends so it turned out to be a lot of fun.  Jack had a blast running around with his buddies, Grant and Elena and he saw some pumpkins as big as he is.  The funny thing is that we were surrounded by pumpkins but didn't buy any - the line was too long!!  Here are a few of the cute pics - I love the ones of the three kiddos sitting on the hay. The last is too funny - it's like Grant and Jack were so over taking pics and they got a little loopy...and Elena is just looking at Jack like he's a nut! 

The Little Tank!

Well folks, the results are in and Jack got his first 100%!  We had his 15 month check up last week and he continues to impress us with his size.  Weight - 30 lbs (95th %) and Height - 34 1/4 inches (100%).  We call him our little tank!  Unfortunately, he had a stomach bug over the weekend so we think he lost a few LB's.  Poor kid was so sick.  But he's been chowing down the past few days so I'm certain he'll gain it back!

From what I read, he's a "classic" 15 month old - one minute he's laughing and the next he's crying.  If he's not dancing, he's throwing a tantrum.  And he's definitely keeping us on our toes - either making us laugh or pull our hair out.  Raising a toddler can be challenging but it's still a lot of fun! The kid is hilarious - his favorite thing right now is doing the hokey-pokey.  We can watch him for days.  And he loves to run and play rough usually resulting in several scrapes and bruises per day. 

But besides being fun and athletic he's also a smart little guy - he's learning so much on a daily basis.  He tries to say everything and mimic what we do.  And he loves animals so were taking him on his first visit to the zoo this weekend - I think he's going to love it!  I can't wait to see his little face light up when we see his favorites - monkeys, lions and elephants!  And he's also really into body parts - eyes, noses, and especially belly buttons which he calls be-bots.  He really loves to dig his finger in your bely button - it feels great. 

Here are a few pics of our little tank in his Brown's jersey from his papa Don.  Hmmm....maybe we have the next Peyton Manning on or hands.  The kid looks pretty comfortable with a football in his hands!

I was a really good mom before I had kids!

I remember reading that book title a few year ago and thinking how stupid it was....of course that was before I had a baby! But now that I'm a little over a year into mommyhood, I totally get it.  When I was pregnant I used to promise Christian that our our children would never run around in diapers, the house would always be clean and I would always look perfect...all while being a high-powered career woman!  I was going to DO-IT-ALL!  I clearly had no idea what I was getting myself into because this is my reality...

More often than not Jack is wearing nothing but a diaper...

The house usually looks like this...

And when I was pregnant I looked like this...

(OK, in my defense – that preggo picture was taken at a White Trash Party, but I really did wear that outfit. What was I thinking?!)

Anyway, work has been amazingly busy lately and I’ve been gone a lot so I’m feeling like a really bad mom. I often wonder if I really can do it all. Lately, I've been struggling with this question and feeling guilty about being a busy working mom, having a messy house, always having so much to do but not enough hours in the day to get it all done, making time for my husband, my family, my friends,....my blog! And all this stress is causing way too many gray hairs on my head but I'm too broke to get highlights! Argg, what’s a girl to do?!

Well, pray, of course! And God reminds me that I have a LOT of good thing going for me. For starters, I have the best husband on the planet who steps up when I’m busy and takes care of things. And, even though I’m crazed at work, I have an awesome job that affords me tons of flexibility. I know this busy time won’t last forever – in fact it will be over in 2 weeks!! And I have amazing family and friends who are always there for me, even if I don’t call or facebook all the time.

And then there’s Jack – my sweet little buddy who proves to me every day that he’s A-OK! He’s such a smart, healthy, happy boy who I find absolutely irresistible! So when I start to feel stressed and overwhelmed I just look at this delicious little face and I know that I’m going to be OK too…

The family that runs together....

This summer I started running again.  I wish I could say I rediscovered my passion and love for running but the truth is, it was born of necessity.  I mean, does anyone really love running?!  It boiled down to the fact that those pesky last 5 lbs of baby weight weren't going to burn themselves off. And since I now have a child and therefore less time in the day to go to the gym, my only option was hoofin it!  So in what had to have been the hottest summer on record, I started to run.  And as long as Jack had a full can of puffs and a sippy cup of cold water in hand, my loyal running buddy was right there with me. 

Ok, so I have to admit, it actually was a little (and I stress the word little) fun.  It reminded me of my old cross country days in high school...and also reminded me why I quit cross country to be a cheerleader!  Boys really didn't go for the freshman girl who ran cross country!  But I digress.  So, after running for a few months I decided to challenge myself to a 10K - The Big Peach Sizzler.  I figured if I could push 30 lbs of solid baby up a hill, I could tackle 6 miles all by myself.  I talked a few of my boot camp girls into joining me and the race was on.

So I got a new par of kicks, trained my butt off for a few weeks, scored some comfy running clothes and had Christian download a bunch of hard core tunes on my ipod - nothing like a little Guns N Roses to get you pumped! I finished the 6.2 miles in just over 54 minutes - not too shabby for my first 10K! I was pretty proud of myself for finishing so well AND for losing one jean size! A few weeks later Christian and I ran a 5K with Jack in tow. Unfortunately, we had some major stroller issues so we didn't really have a great finish, but we had a lot of fun doing it as a family! And even though I'm not training for anything in particular, I'm still running. Me and the boys will be out there hoofin it until winter comes and this Cali girl goes into hibernation!

Jack was waiting for me after my 10K!

Me and my Operation Boot Camp girls. We're a bunch of tough chicks!

We were joined by one of our boot campers Rich, who wore the smallest shorts on earth. So gross!

My boys are always there to support mommy!

Here we are at our 5K with our fellow boot camp instructors and a few of our campers.

It was an early morning so Jack was beat.  He slept through the entire run, including our out-of-control stroller issues.

Awake and ready to go!  How cute does Jack look in his new fall gear!