Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today's my mom's birthday, but considering the timing, I figured it more appropriate to call her Grandma. Alayna will be here soon enough, right? :o) Quick question though: if I put a bow on her head, can she be considered my mom's birthday gift? heehee....Love you mom!

NEXT WEEK...

Feels so weird to say - "My due date is NEXT WEEK." It still feels like just yesterday that Josh and I stood in the bathroom with our eyes bugged out as we read the word "PREGNANT" on the little stick...

38 weeks....and still counting...

We went to the doctor today...and she said I haven't started to dilate yet. She'll check me again at our next appointment on Oct 5, which is just 2 days before my due date...I'm just getting anxious because this 100+ degree heat and being 8 and a half months pregnant is ridiculous! I really can't stand the heat...

Anyways, we finally made a plan for my parents to make the drive out here NEXT weekend (the 3rd or 4th), unless of course they get a call from us before then saying "Leave now!" LOL...

We've just been making our other preparations around the house for our little girl to get here. I started doing her laundry last night and yup, there was 2 loads of just pink stuff! Also, someone needs to invent disposable baby socks. I have a hard time keeping track of Josh's & my socks - and now I've got to keep track of little bitty socks smaller than my pinky finger?!?! I think keeping Alayna barefoot is the way to go! :o) Wish me luck...or just buy Alayna some more socks to make my life easier when I lose them!!!

Prego Pics!

A couple of weeks ago Dina, one of my bestest friends, took some prego pics for us on the beach! Here's a little preview of some of the pics. More to be posted later. :o)

(And on another note, I'm 37 weeks and 5 days today...it's almost time!)

Our Wedding Highlight Video!

It still makes me cry...

Allison & Josh Highlight Montage from Matrimony Pictures on Vimeo.

She's Almost Here!

We've been busy busy busy getting ready for Alayna's arrival!

Daddy painting her room...

Mommy made up her crib for her...

All set to go to Daddy's baseball games...

Is she in there yet?

Let's hope this cool swing works to help her sleep...

Baby Showers!

So Josh, Alayna & I have been spoiled with 2 baby showers! My coworkers had one for us at work, and then Noel had another one for us with friends and family. Both were a blast with fun times, beautiful decorations, and wonderful people. I'm positive that Alayna felt all the love surrounding her. Thanks again to everyone who came! Here are a few more pics from both showers:

Gotta show off that Alayna's gonna have the Trojans' spirit!

My surprises! My mom had told me she couldn't fly out here for my shower. She lied. :o) I figured it out though putting bits & pieces together of what people were saying. I still had no clue though that my Aunty Edna & Uncle Nigel were in town too! It meant a lot to me to have all of them here, especially since I don't get to see my own family that often.


All dressed up in my purple dress!

Noel & Leila made these diaper cakes themselves. How cute are they?


Alayna's gift from Papa Tom - he made her a bat rack for her room using those miniature bats! (Yes, I was wiping away my tears! )

And last but not least, a picture of Alayna's mommy, daddy, tia & cousin!

Our Wedding on the Knot!

Our wedding is featured on TheKnot.com!!! Sooo exciting! There's one pic of me & Josh and then 9 others of some of the details of our USC/baseball wedding. Check it out!

I Love It!

Hide & Go Seek

Our baby girl likes to hide...We went for another 4d ultrasound today because we've been wanting to see her again, especially since I'm feeling her move all the time now. Plus the last time we went they said she'd have more fat on her and we wanted to see some chub on her. :o) So yeah, we went again this evening...and Alayna had other plans - like playing hide & seek. She kept turning her face into the placenta and the ultrasound lady was having trouble getting a good shot of her face from the front. We saw her right ear a lot! Towards the end of session she finally turned a bit & we were able to see her chubby cheeks! We also got one good picture of her smiling - she's absolutely adorable!! I love my little Layni-Bug, even if she's playing hide & seek with us.

Chubby Cheeks

Smiling...isn't she beautiful?!?

I survived our first childbirth class!

So, besides it being incredibly hot in the room we were in, I think the class went pretty well. We ended up watching a video of a real childbirth and all I can say is I'm glad I don't have to sit where the doctor's sitting! LOL... I had to laugh at myself though because with all my hormones, I got teary eyed watching the video... I can hardly wait to meet our baby girl!

All about Alayna!

Tonight's the first night of our childbirth classes! Josh and I are both anxious and excited. :o) Can't believe I'm already in my third trimester! Alayna's getting bigger and bigger...and according to a few different websites: she's about 15 inches long, 2 pounds, might have a full head of hair already and is able to open her eyes now!

Baby registry

We started our registry today! It was a bit overwhelming, but definitely fun. We've decided to decorate Alayna's room in pink and brown (like a dark chocolate brown.) We'll probably be registering at Target too, but figured Babies R Us was a good place to start. Josh used the scanner gun first, but only because he called it before me. :o) We still have more items left to scan, but unfortunately my ankles were starting to swell a little bit and I was getting too tired for us to scan anymore. We'll probably scan more next weekend... Oh yeah, we also start our childbirth classes this coming Tuesday--sooo exciting! We can't believe she'll be here in less than 3 months now!

Alayna's crib

I would post a picture of her actual crib, but my camera and my computer seem to not be communicating. :o( Soooo, here's the picture off the target website. Grandma Patty & Grandpa Eloy bought Alayna her crib and changing table when they were out here in California visiting for Mother's Day. Thank you guys!!! The crib is pretty cool because it can grow with Alayna - it converts to a toddler/day bed and then the back can later be used as a headboard. How wonderful is that?!?! We love it!

Such a long time...

Sorry Mom, Michelle and everyone else who's gotten mad at me for not posting anything in for forever! I've been busy!!! Let's see, just to update a few things since the last post:
- we've moved. we now have a 2-bedroom condo, so we have a room to decorate for the baby!
- the baby is a girl! we finally found out at the 2nd ultrasound because the cord was in the way the first time.
- her name is going to be Alayna Noel.
- she's a thumb sucker! so cuuuute to see her sucking her thumb on the ultrasound!
- she's a wiggle worm and kicks me ALL the time now! josh has felt her kicking too. it's so exciting to feel her!
- i have 4D pics of her but i have to find my scanner...
- i'm 6 months pregnant now! 26 weeks and a couple of days to be exact. time has just flown by!

okay, off to bed now! i'm exhausted! (sleeping's gotten a bit uncomfortable lately. sigh...)

Uh Oh! I Had a Dream About the Baby...

So in reading lots of blogs & posts on pregnancy websites, lots of moms-to-be have all mentioned having dreams about their babies & a lot of times if it was a girl in their dream - they ended up having a girl or if the baby was a boy in their dream they ended up having a boy...I was pretty bummed that I hadn't had a feeling either way telling me it was one or the other. And I hadn't had any dreams about even being pregnant, let alone actually having a child...that is, until last night...


So, was the baby a boy.........or.............a girl? Eeeeeeeeeek! There were two babies! One of each! Can we say, uh oh?!?!?!?!

Family Vacation & other updates

Hellooooooo! I've been MIA with the posts lately - sorry mom! A few updates for those of you who don't know - I'm now in my second trimester! Woohoo! The doctor changed my due date to October 7th and as of tomorrow, I will be 13 weeks pregnant. According to thebump.com our baby is the size of a peach now! (Hmmm, is it weird that I feel like having some peach cobbler now? lol) The gummy bear is a peach now!
Soooo, we had our first "family vacation" this weekend. We went to Arizona for Spring Training. (Are you surprised? hehe) We had a blast & took this family photo on the last day there:

Can you see my bump?!?!? :o) Oh, one more thing in case you didn't notice: I chopped off 5 or 6 inches of my hair! Sooo much healthier now. Yay!

Not Quite a Gummy Bear

Today was incredible. We heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time. Wow. Wow. Wow. Amazing. There's no way to truly describe what I felt at that moment. Just, wow! We got to bring home another picture of our baby too. The ultrasound lady described the baby as bigger than a grain of rice but not quite a gummy bear yet. Hehe, I love it! She also said the baby was moving around in there (she sounded surprised too) so of course Josh interpreted that as "Your son is running the bases in there. He's going to be fast!" Gotta love my husband! :o) So here's the baby:


And if you look closely, you might be able to see what Josh saw:

Note: This is from the pitcher's point of view. Yes, the kid's gonna be a lefty. :o)

My Mom Knows How to Make Me Cry!

Yup, my Mom always knows how to make me cry. I should note that I don't mean in a bad way before you start thinking she's a meany! I just mean she says things or sends me things, EMOTIONAL things, that just make me cry! (No need to point out that I'm super emotional - even before I was pregnant! hehe...imagine how I am now...yeesh.) My mom sent me this video today of this song; it's very beautiful and caused me to cry. Ok sob. I was thinking of me with my daddy at times and then also thinking of Josh with our baby. Whether or not this one's a girl, I could just picture Josh in my head, holding our baby with so much love in his puppy dog eyes...What a moment. Okay, enough babbling from me. Here's the video:

IT WON'T BE LIKE THIS FOR LONG w/Darius Rucker

And if you wanna know what else makes me cry....watch TV & pay close attention to the Gerber commercials. Especially the one with all the pregnant ladies. I'm such a sucker...

Telling His Parents (and the rest of the family)

Friday, February 6th was Valerie's birthday. (I should mention that she proclaimed it her 1st birthday, as she's starting over. heehee...) So anyways, it was finally the day we could make our announcement to Josh's family. Those 5 days were the longest ever (and I think Thursday was even longer for Josh since we were finally able to tell MY parents and he still had to bite his tongue around his family!) Everybody was going to Olive Garden to celebrate with Val and Josh & I made it a point to sit right next to the birthday girl. We agreed to wait till AFTER we all ordered to make the announcement to avoid any interruptions....or so we thought. hehe

Josh had talked to Noel about filming that night because he wanted it on video when we gave Val her present (didn't tell her WHAT though!)...So after we had all ordered our food, and Josh made sure that Noel had her camera all cued up (after she took FOREVER showing Marlene a video of Leila dancing), Josh stood up. "First off, I want to thank everyone for coming tonight and I want to wish my mom a happy birthday!" He turned to me to grab my hand and ask me to stand up with him. Just then we hear "Hang on! My tape ran out!" Yes, RIGHT BEFORE Josh was going to make the announcement that Noel was videotaping, her tape ran out. LOL... At this point, I saw Val looking at me with the corner of her eyes with a silly grin on her face. Do you think she knew what we were about to announce? I quickly looked the other way, probably making it even more obvious.

Okay, new tape in, all cued up. Mikey says "Take two. And Action!" Josh starts over for the sake of getting a continuous video, then turns to me again & asks me to stand. He finally gets to announce, "Allison and I are pregnant!" Yay!!! Val throws her arms up in the air like she just won a gold medal. "Yes! Yes!" Here's a picture of her moments after the big announcement:


Josh said afterward that he was so excited to tell them. He had always looked forward to the day that he could tell them he was finally going to be a father. :o)

Telling My Parents

Let's see here....so back to the week we found out. Remember, we had agreed not to tell anyone until we confirmed it at the doctor's? Well, Josh couldn't keep it a complete secret & he ended up telling one of his friends. Kinda cute that he couldn't wait to tell someone. So anyways, after the doctor's appointment on Thursday, February 5th, as we were driving to lunch, we called my parents. My mom answered. I was soooo excited to hear her voice, but I tried to remain calm so I wouldn't just blurt it out. I asked her if my dad was nearby and she said sure. Then she asked if she should give him the phone & leave the room. "No, mom, I'm not trying to talk to dad about you." hehe....I told her to put it on speaker phone & I think she then got suspicious....like, hmmmm, whyyyyyyyyy? She did anyways and then we could hear my dad on the phone too. Josh said hi to them and then my dad thanked us for the Christmas gifts.

(Side note: yes, Christmas gifts. yes, it was already February. I procrastinated a bit getting them in the mail.)

Okay, back to the story. Josh said you're welcome to them & then he added "We actually have one more gift for you guys." My mom replied (you can still hear the suspicion in her voice) "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, but it's going to be awhile again," I said. "We're pregnant!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" My mom & dad were screaming & crying; it was so exciting!!! I honestly can't remember much of what was said after that, but I do remember the emotions. :o) It was so incredible to tell my parents that they were going to be grandparents! Grandma Patty & Grandpa Eloy! Or maybe Nana Patty & Papa Loy. Or maybe whatever our baby grows up to call them. Their grand-baby! Wow!

And it would still be another full day before telling Josh's parents... Did I mention we were waiting till Friday to tell them? It was Val's birthday...and we think an announcement of a new grand-baby on the way would be QUITE the birthday gift!

Introducing...

...our baby! (Hehe...it's the dark circle on the left. There's a dotted line going through it for the doctor to measure the baby.) It was kind of an old school ultrasound machine so the picture quality wasn't that great, but I can't help but stare at this photo all the time now. It's already framed on our wall at home in a frame we received for our wedding. It says on the frame "All because two people fell in love." :o) So appropriate. We get to go again for a much better ultrasound in 2 weeks....and we'll get to hear the baby's heartbeat!

Gifts Because of Baby

Even so soon in the pregnancy, Josh & I have both given each other gifts concerning the baby and we've also received a couple of things from others too...and with these wonderful pregnancy hormones, they've all made me cry! :o) I just wanted to share a few of these gifts so far:

The valentine's day bouquet from Josh had 3 yellow flowers - one for me, one for him, and one for the baby! :o)

On two separate occasions (one just because & the other valentine's day), I gave these cute little onesies to Josh. In case you can't read them, the one on the left says "Daddy's Rookie" (which by the way, even if it's a girl, she's still wearing this) and the one on the right says "My Dad's a Superhero."

Josh gave me this pretty pink & white sapphire ring as an early Valentine's gift. I first thought it was pink because of Valentine's....and then he told me pink is one of October's birthstones. Bring on the waterworks.

Then, this weekend one of my really good friends, Yadira, surprised us with this personalized frame to put a pic in once the baby is born. It was a bit hard to photograph since it was reflective, but it's engraved on the bottom & it reads "The Miranda Family." She gave me a really nice card to go with it - it was very touching to read what she wrote to me. :o) Thanks again Yadi!


And last, but definitely not least, for those of you who don't know - I'm spoiled. There I said it. Not just by my husband, but my dad still likes to spoil me too. Ever since I was 5, my dad has always bought me flowers for Valentine's Day. Yes, every year for the last twenty-something years, my dad has given me flowers for Valentine's. :o) Last year, it was extra special because he picked out an arrangement in a basket similar to the one my mom carried in their wedding. He picked it so that I could have my flower girl use it in my wedding last year. Well, this year's flowers also included something a lil' extra. It was a cute little teddy bear with a red bow tie with hearts on it. And on the note he wrote "Happy Valentine's Day! I think you know who the bear is for. Love you, dad." Isn't he the best? Love you too dad!

My Mom Wants to See My Belly

Okay, only slightly embarrassing posting this pic. In case you're wondering - no I'm not showing yet. This is what the belly usually looks like. Especially after eating a #2 from In n Out. (Hehe, sorry mom, had to write that for asking to see a pre-showing belly pic! teehee...) We took this pic on the night we found out, so I'm about 4 weeks pregnant here...

The day we found out

It was Monday, February 2nd, and the day started out like every other day: I woke up early for work and I left as Josh was still sleeping. (Yeah, I'm jealous.) So anyways, I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon to get my eyes checked & was given a prescription for some eye drops. I filled the prescription right after the appointment & quickly put one drop in each eye after getting the medicine. On my way to work, I read the little pamphlet that came in the box and it said something about pretty much NOT using the eye drops if you're pregnant. Hmmm, I was a couple of days late at this point, but still wasn't thinking I was pregnant. (I'm not always on time.) Just in case though, I decided not to use anymore eye drops until I took a home pregnancy test....

Later that night on the way to dinner, I told Josh I was going to take a test when we got home, just to be on the safe side. He understood my concern, but like me, still wasn't thinking I could be pregnant.

When we got home, as he turned on the TV, I said I was going upstairs to take the test. After reading the directions & taking the test, I set it upside down on the counter for the 3 minute wait. I went back downstairs since the show we watch (Trust Me) had just started. At the first commercial break, Josh took my hand, we both took a deep breath and we went upstairs.

Standing in the bathroom, staring at the upside-down Clearblue Easy test on the counter, he asked me if I wanted him to look at it and just tell me, or if I wanted us both to look at it at the same time. I chose both of us at the same time. He took another deep breath, grabbed the test, and flipped it over. OMG, it says PREGNANT! He brought it closer to our eyes, in case we both just missed the "NOT" in front of Pregnant. Nope, it wasn't there! Oh my gosh!!! We're pregnant! (By the way, I don't think I've ever seen my husband's eyes get that big!) I immediately started crying and covered my mouth to keep from screaming! Yeah, kinda like how I did when Josh proposed. :o) We both kept staring at each other and then back at the positive test. Is this for real!?!?! Does it really say pregnant?!?!

After about another hour or so of "This is crazy" and "Holy crap, we're pregnant" we decided to wait before telling our parents. Hehe, no, not because we were scared, but because we wanted to be sure we really were. I was already scheduled for a regular doctor's visit on Thursday, so we would wait to confirm the pregnancy with the doctor.

For you parents out there, what was your first reaction when you found out you were pregnant?

Welcome to our new blog!

Hi everyone! Welcome to our new blog! I was thinking about starting one to document our lives into parenthood when my mom suggested it (after her conversation with his mom)....so here it is! I will try to post as often as possible to keep everyone updated on our journey together, especially for our families that are spread out across the U.S. (New Mexico, Arizona, Virginia, etc.) Enjoy!