Wow! It has been since May that I last posted. This summer flew by and was a LOT crazy. I will give you the nutshell version. We FINALLY sold our home in Brentwood after months of showing and closing craziness. Yay! Moved to Livermore into an adorable brand new townhome in downtown Livermore, which we share with my mom and stepdad. We are all trying to save money and live in a great place that allows us to work from home with it's live/work zoning. It's perfect! I am in Love with the location. Not only do we live in walking distance to everything including shops, restaurants, movie theater, performing arts theater, coffee shops, post office (across the street), gas station (also across the street) and my new favorite yoga studio, but we live so close to so many amazing friends. My best friend Jenn and her roommate and mutual friend Jess live in walking distance, and my friend Candace does as well too! Moving here has been such a blessing to me. It felt like coming home. I feel almost like an Israelite who has been wondering the desert. God has been teaching me so many HARD life lessons and I feel like he has brought me home. I know cheesy but really it's how I feel. I never thought I would say that the tri-valley was where I wanted to live forever.... but it really has become home and I love it. I am thanking God all the time for where we live, for new and old friends, and most importantly that he is growing me in ways I needed to grow.Well we moved back to Livermore in June and it has been a roller coaster the last few months. Between setting up our new home, setting up the studio, getting business details and all that stuff squared away, shooting weddings and boudoir and Jax turning 1...we've been swamped! I feel like I am just starting to breathe. Things have slowed down a little. That or I'm just adjusting. Not really sure which one. Haha. I feel like I've become a full blown housewife which I love. My life consists of taking care of Jax, laundry, cleaning and work. I love it! I do get tired and some days wish I was anywhere but standing in a stinky laundry room washing dirty baby clothes and underwear but really what mom doesn't. I love being Jax's mom so much. I can't wait to add more babies to the family... but that is not happening anytime soon! Someday!
Amidst all of the craziness I am still finding time for myself. I have always been an extremely independent person and making sure I have time to be creative and take time for myself to do the things I love. I'm thankful for an awesome husband who doesn't require I be glued to his hip the second he gets home. He really is an amazing husband. When he gets home he will watch Jax so that I can run to the gym or do a yoga class or sometimes go out with my girlfriends. It helps so much and I appreciate it more than he knows. He never complains or whines that I'm not home with him and I love that.
I'm really trying to lose all the baby weight and then some. I did nothing about it until Jax was about 11 months old. I had worked out a day here... a day there, but finally I got fed up and got serious. I am in an awesome group of woman on facebook. Our group is called "Working it out!". We simply check in with each other each day, post our workouts and progress, encourage and pray for one another. It was such a motivation in getting me going! I would be sitting on my butt and these other woman would be posting all the things they were doing in a weeks time that I was just doing nothing. Total motivation. I got fitted for running shoes and I am now up to running 4 miles at least 3-4 times a week and doing yoga at a local studio from an amazing groupon deal I bought. I either get out in the morning with Jax in the jogging stroller and hit a local trail that is down the street (another thing I love about Livermore. It's awesome trails!) or I go to the gym when Todd gets home. He goes to the gym on his lunch break usually. =) I have a lot more weight to lose but I feel better already. Since Jax has been born it's a total of almost 30 lbs lost which feels like nothing and doesn't look like it but it's something. I have had a lot of hip pain and some other health issues that have been getting in the way of my workouts but I'm trying to keep moving and so far so good. This week I'm off due to some tests the dr wants to do but she is almost sure it's nothing serious... but better to be safe and have that peace of mind. So until then she's told me to take it easy and not exercise until we're certain, which is KILLIN' me! After getting in the habit of working out it's hard to just stop.
Jax is growing so fast! He isn't walking yet but is a little lighting bolt all over the place in our home. He'll be 13 months old on Saturday. He is obsessed with climbing everything he can and exploring. He loves pushing buttons on anything. Remotes, phones, light switches. He is fascinated with lights. Stuffed animals are his favorite toy. That and everything that ISN'T a toy. He is a little pickier about food now. He would eat nothing but carbs if I let him. Takes after me I guess. He loves the fish nuggets from Trader Joes though and will eat some fruit and veggies but usually only the baby food kind. He is obsessed with me right now. He loves daddy, but he is very clingy to me for the first few hours when Todd gets home. If I'm in the same room with them he cries and fusses if I leave or he can't get to me, but it's nothing too dramatic. I'm thankful he only seems to do this at home. He loves going to M.O.P.S. childcare which is nice. He doesn't cry when I drop him off and always is reluctant to leave his new friends and all the cool toys afterwards. He LOVES Sesame Street. It's his favorite show. He loves all the monsters, especially Elmo and squeals when it comes on. He loves saying hi to people. He puts his hand up to his ear like he's talking on a phone and says "Hi!" when we're out walking in the stroller. It's so cute. He's quite the little flirt too. He loves babies and kids. He is always smiling at people and points excitedly when he sees a little kid. His vocabulary consists of "Dada, Daddy, Nonni & Poppi (only a couple times so far) doggie, Hi, Was dat!, Uh-oh, and some other ramblings I can't think of right now. He said mama for like 3 weeks and then randomly stopped saying it! =( So Sad. He now calls me dada. He calls Todd daddy and dada and me dada... so I guess it's his universal at the moment. =( I know he can say it he for some reason is just refusing to. It's so weird. Much to my joy he loves music! He will stop what he is doing if he hears a song come on and starts to dance and swing his arms around. It's so cute. I hope he loves music just as much as I do. =D
