Turning the Big 30!

On Tuesday marked a big turning point for me-I turned 30! I left my 20's behind and I am beginning the 30's. It is still sinking in but I hope I get used to it soon. It was a great day. I woke up and Andrew had a scone, roses, and gift for me. He bought me a necklace with my birthstone on it. He picked it out himself and I was very impressed. He earned some big points.
Then we headed to Sacramento for the day. I told him I wanted to eat at my 2 favorites-Panera Bread and Cheesecake Factory. I was only concerned about the food:) When we showed up at Panera for lunch I turned around and my whole family was there! It was such a surprise and so fun because I have not been with my whole family on my actual birthday since high school! My mom even got the Panera staff to sing happy birthday to me and gave me a free pastry. I love free pastries!
After that Andrew and I headed to Old Town Sacramento to walk around for a while. We stopped by the capitol on our way there to get a picture of it for our capitol collection we started recently. Now whenever we are near a state capital Andrew feels the need to get a picture of it. I don't mind, it is always fun to see how different they all are.
Next stop was the Galleria in Roseville to shop and go to Cheesecake Factory. We love their food! Then we headed to Andrew's brother's house to spend the night where we got to spend some time with family again and enjoy some birthday dessert.

Can you tell how excited Micah is for my birthday???

Oh Panera Bread-how I love you!

I took this as we drove by and I was very impressed with how good it turned out!

Old Town Sacramento

Can you tell how much I love taking pictures by myself?

Cheesecake factory has the best crab wontons and there strawberry lemonade is so good. I was one happy girl!

So I survived turning the big 30 which I hope is an encouragement to all my dear friends that will soon be joining me! Thanks Andrew for making the day so special and to my family for driving so far just for lunch and for Dan, Amy, Hannah, Lily and little Andrew for letting us stay at your place and hang out with you all for a little while.

An Easy Christmas Decoration

Andrew grew up with his mom, Jan, putting cloves in oranges and he loves the smell. I have wanted to do this throughout the years but never have. This year I saw this idea on a TV show and it is so easy!

Christmas in Redding

First Belly Shot

I know, not much to see here. But I thought it would be good to start taking a photo every month starting at 12 weeks. Now we can look back and see how much I grow from here!

Christmas Has Arrived

Before
After

It smells so good in here. Not sure if it is the tree or the candle that smells like Christmas tree that is burning. Who cares! It just smells like Christmas and I love that smell!

Thanksgiving in Merced

We headed to my parent's house for Thanksgiving on Wednesday with our good friends the Costello's. It was fun to see them and to see how big Liam is getting! We had a great time with my family and friends. I can't wait for Christmas time now to be with more family and friends! It all started with the best dessert Wednesday night-peach cobbler and Blue Bell Ice Cream all the way from the Lone Star State or the Promise Land as my parents call it.

Liam in his Christmas outfit. He's so cute and smiling a lot now.

Emmie-this is the pose she chose to do. Don't remember what she was eating...

This was the IT department that the guys set up. This is where they were most of the time!

Liam liked my dad. This was their bonding time until my dad said he thought Liam needed a diaper change:)

Annette and I on our Thanksgiving walk. This is how it works in the Nelson house. We eat at noon so dad can watch his Dallas Cowboys play and then the women go for a walk so we can eat pie during half time. You got to love working the holidays around football! Good thing I have never known anything different.

More Visitors-Steph and Suzie!

November has turned into the month of visitors. I have loved it because I have been having a rough 1st trimester so being with family and friends is always a good and helpful distraction when I am not feeling so great. Steph and Suzie came up from Santa Clarita for four days. It was so much fun to hang out with Steph and to see Suzie. Suzie is so big now and can say words and wave goodbye and blow kisses. It is just so precious for me to see this little girl and always remember that she is a gift from God. It is also fun to see one of my best friends as a mommy and really loving it. I am so thankful that Steph is one step ahead of me in this area so I can learn so much from her. Here are are attempts to try to take a good picture with a 1 year old!


She's only laughing because mommy is making fun faces behind the camera. Suzie is Steph's biggest fan, well besides her husband, Kyle:). I love how she thinks mommy is the funniest person in the world. I think Steph is funny too so Suzie and I agree she is pretty entertaining.

Thanks for coming to visit Steph and Suzie. I already miss both of you!

June Bug

Andrew and I are very excited to introduce to you the newest member of our family. As many of you know there has been a lot of waiting and praying for a baby and we are so overwhelmed with God's goodness to bless us. I am 9 weeks pregnant and we had our first official doctor's appointment today. Everything is looking good and we are just so thrilled to be parents. Please pray for the health of our baby and for me to endure through the first trimester of not feeling so great. We will definitely keep you posted throughout the months until our little June bug comes!

Birthday Weekend

This weekend my mom, sister, and I got together for our annual birthday weekend. We had a great time eating and shopping and then eating and shopping. Micah came along for the weekend-the only boy allowed! We had a great time and it is so fun that we have this special way to celebrate all of our birthdays together. Thanks Mom and Ang for a wonderful weekend!!!

My Husband the Chef!

Well only on Halloween that is! Andrew came up with this costume all on his own for our church's Fall Festival. He loves anytime he gets to wear a big hat, have a fake mustache and talk in an accent. He cracks me up!

Isaiah's 6th Birthday Party

We love being able to go to see the family we have up here in northern California. In the last two weeks we were able to see Andrew's brother and his family along with Andrew's parents and this last weekend we were able to see my parents at my sister's house for our nephew, Isaiah's 6th birthday. Birthdays are a big ordeal in the Torres family and I don't think Isaiah got much sleep the night before the big day. He kept coming out of his room "needing something" but we all knew he wanted to watch us decorate his cake!

Micah getting so big! He was able to dress up to go along with the Thomas the Train theme for the party.

This is Emmie showing us the dress she is going to wear in a wedding coming up. She didn't want to take that thing off-can you tell???

Birthday boy-all dressed up and ready to party

Can you see the excitement oozing out of him?

This the the cake my mom made. She is very creative and it was fun to be able to do this together. We like to be creative but simple and this cake was definitely both. Most important it tasted delicious. Good job mom!

Andrew's Way of Getting the Mail

Andrew has been wanting to go back to his skater ways for a while now and especially because we work with youth. So he decided to buy a rip stick with some birthday money. This is how he gets the mail every evening. I don't know how he rides that thing. I couldn't stay on it for 10 seconds if I tried!