Girls Weekend at Bacara

Last weekend was one of the most relaxing and restful weekends I've had in a very long time! My mom took me, Bre, Nicole & Tara up to Santa Barbara for a long girls weekend and it was amazing! We stayed at the beautiful Bacara resort, which was phenomenal! 

Friday night we ate at the Bistro, which was the main restaurant at the hotel. It was DELICIOUS! After the long drive, we ended up going to bed a little early after the other girls drank a bottle of Veuve Clicquot (I was awfully jealous!) and I drank some of my yummy Martinellis! 

The next morning we slept in and headed out for some pool time around 10. It was PERFECT weather! It was about 74 with next to no wind…I ate lunch out poolside while the girls drank Bloody Marys poolside :) We had such a relaxing morning!

How amazing is this view!? 

Our room was amazing also…since my mom, Bre and I were sharing, we upgraded to a suite :)

We had a living room...

and an awesome master bedroom!

Our patio was huge with a very partial ocean view :)

After hanging by the pool, we headed to State street in downtown Santa Barbara! We walked up and down almost the entire street and window shopped all afternoon. 

After a long day, we ate at the most amazing Italian restaurant called Toma. Everything we ordered was delicious! 

Mark even gave us a bottle of 2008 Silveroak from his wine cellar! I had a small taste :) but I know the girls reallllllllly enjoyed it!!!!! 

Toasting to Mark for such an awesome weekend!

While they enjoyed their fancy wine, I enjoyed my Martinellis! LOL

Such an amazing dinner and fun night with some amazing mamas! 

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at the Spa Cafe right next to the spa…right after we headed over for our relaxing spa treatments! It was awesome! I had the prenatal massage and the collection facial. While I prefer deep tissue massage pressure, the masseuse was pretty good, but my facial was by far the best facial I've ever had! After my treatment, everyone commented how I was glowing :)

We were at the spa for about 4 hours and enjoyed every second of it!

Monday morning we woke up and went for a walk around nature reserve next to the hotel. 

It was such a beautiful morning…we were sad our weekend was coming to an end! 

Bye Bye Bacara…til next time!

Special thanks to Mark for such an awesome girls trip! <3

Halfway There

Yep that's right! I'm officially halfway to the finish line! I'm 18 1/2 weeks and since my doctor is delivering me in my 37th week…I'm at my halfway mark and I'm feeling AH-MAZ-ING! I'm getting bigger and bigger each week and since I don't want to be gigantic when I deliver these two precious girls, I've been trying to eat somewhat healthy. Last night I even found a recipe on pinterest for a low-fat shrimp alfredo pasta bake and it was SO good! I even made the alfredo sauce from scratch!!! That's right, let me say it again…I made it from scratch! I'm not going to lie, I did buy a jar of light alfredo sauce in case mine didn't turn out, but it did and I was so proud of myself!

My cravings are still all over the place. I'm still eating chili at least once a day and every now and then I have a craving for a pack of skittles. My new craving is Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, random I know, but I've been eating a bowl every morning :) I even had to buy the 2 pack at Costco because I go through it pretty quickly.

The babies are now about the size of a sweet potato and even though The Bump app says they should weigh about 6.5 oz, at my last doc appointment a week and a half ago both babies weighed that or more! Baby A was 6.5 oz. and Baby B was 7 oz.! So now I'm sure combined they are close to a pound (makes me feel better when I get on the scale knowing there are 2 babies growing inside me!). Even though I'm way behind on my weight gain, I have now officially passed my pre-pregnancy weight! The doctor told me he wants me to gain 40 pounds…yes FORTY! As in 4.0.! YIKES! That's a lot! I'm not looking forward to stepping on the scale if I hit that number, but if it means my babies are healthy…I'll do what I gotta do!

Hiding our Eyes

Yesterday Jayden was in the BEST mood! She was definitely back to herself after a rough week. Since she was sick, she was all over the place and super moody! Last Wednesday she had a tantrum for about 5 hours (no joke!)…and I was beginning to think we were starting our terrible 2's!! But luckily today Jayden was back to her normal, happy, loving self…and boy were we relieved!! 

Last night we were chasing her around the house and having so much fun! When daddy was chasing after her she ran to me and tried to hide…and it reminded me of when I was little and I would try to "hide my eyes" from my parents! So, naturally we did the same!! 

First I hid our eyes…

then showed her how to hide our eyes...

and before I knew it she was doing it by herself!!

Awwww how I love that little peanut! We have so much fun together :) :)

Even though we have some tough days, they are all worth it...for the good always outweighs the bad!! <3

Jayden's Dedication

Yesterday we (finally) dedicated Jayden at church. I know it took us a while, but all good things are worth waiting for right? :)

The day was absolutely perfect! Before the ceremony Jayden was playing in the kids play area with all the other kiddos! She loved going down the slide and playing in the playhouse so much, she didn't want to leave!

How adorable does Jayden look in her new dress her Grandma Dee got her all the way from Paris?! Even though it is a tiny bit big, she wore it well! :)

Waiting for the ceremony to start!

Jayden wanted to wave to everyone…she even gave the pastor a high five!

It was such an awesome morning and meant so much to us to have our family there celebrating with us. We are so grateful to have the most amazing, loving and supportive family! And Jayden is so lucky to have such an awesome family that loves her unconditionally! <3

17 Weeks

I can't believe I'm already 17 weeks pregnant! Time seems to be flying by and these babes are going to be here before we know it!

Jonathan and I decided we're going to move Jayden into the middle bedroom upstairs and put the twins in the front room since it's bigger. So last weekend we picked out furniture for Jayden's new room! We got her a cute toddler trundle bed, which will be PERFECT for when her cousins have a sleep over, and an adorable armoire and dresser. I'm SO excited about the furniture we picked out! It's super cute and super girlie :)

The last few days I've been feeling so much better! I've only gotten sick a few times and I've actually enjoyed a few meals! I'm almost back up to my pre-pregnancy weight, so my doctor is very happy about that! Our next doctor appointment is today ~ so I'm anxious to see the babies! It seems like it's been forever since I've seen them! Now that I can feel them move, and my belly is getting bigger and bigger each day, this pregnancy is definitely feeling more "real" … if that makes sense.

I also started having a few more cravings…chili with tortilla chips and skittles! Weird combo, I know! But I've probably had about 4 cans of chili this week alone and my mama is making a bunch of her and Mark's amazing homemade chili!! I can't wait!! Just thinking about it is making my mouth water :)

Some of the things I love about being pregnant:
1. I love how my hair is growing SUPER fast and I get a million compliments on how "full" it looks :)
2. I love not feeling guilty about eating whatever I want whenever I want (even though half the time I don't enjoy it)
3. I love feeling the babies move!
4. I love using it as an excuse as to why I need Jonathan to do more chores around the house…don't tell him I said that :) haha
5. I love knowing that our little family will be growing by 4 more baby feet <3

Halloween!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays…I think it's so much fun dressing up in different costumes, not to mention all the yummy candy :) :) :)

Now Halloween is one of my favorites because I get to dress up our little munchkin! This year Jayden was Minnie Mouse and seriously looked TOO cute! I think if she understood she would have been pretty excited too since she loves Minnie! I was even surprised she wore my Minnie Mouse ears and kept them on almost the entire night!

This year we decided to try Blocktober at Saddleback since I've heard amazing reviews, plus I wanted to volunteer to pass out candy in the MOPS room :) Before we left for church, Jayden was dying to put her costume on all day…so I let her put it on early and wonder around the house with it on! She was so excited!

When I asked her where her Minnie Mouse ears were…this was her response…

TOO CUTE!!!

Since I was working the first shift, there weren't very many kids yet trick-or-treating, so Jayden got first pick out of our tub of candy!

After my shift, we were off and Jayden was SO excited! She loved seeing all the other kids and running around at church! She picked up pretty quickly that she got a treat at each door…her favorite was reaching in and grabbing the candy herself!

We had so much fun roaming around ~ they even had a petting zoo and games for kids to play. After we hung out at church for a few hours, we headed back to our neighborhood to hit up a few houses and see some of our neighbors. Everyone loved seeing Jayden!

By the end of the night…she was a pro and could go up to the house & knock on the door all by herself! It was SO adorable! She would even wave goodbye as she walked away! :)

Up the street, one of our neighbors goes all out decorating for Halloween every year and this year we made it up there to check it out! Jayden was a little scared…luckily she had her brave daddy with her :)

We had such a fun Halloween this year! I can't waitttttttt for next year! It's going to be crazy with 2 more babes in costumes!! :)

Boys, Girls or One of Each???

Time has been flying by and ever since I found out I was pregnant, and especially since I found out we were having twins, I've been DYING to find out what we were having! Since our twins are fraternal, we could have 2 boys, 2 girls or 1 of each! Well…since I was deadly sick a few weeks ago and I started feeling the babies move last week, I decided to go in for an early ultrasound to see the babes and find out the gender!

I told the ultrasound tech to put the results in an envelope and triple seal with tape so I wouldn't peek as I wanted to open the results with Jonathan! I then headed over to Nothing Bundt Cakes to get little bundtinis with flags "it's a girl" or "it's a boy" coordinating with the gender. So I told the cashier to look at the results and put the appropriate flags on the cakes. I also told him to put the opened envelope inside the box and triple seal the box so I wouldn't peek! 

Once I was home I waited patiently for Jonathan to get home so we could open the box together! 

We were so excited when he got home we took the box outside and unwrapped the surprise. When we got the box opened we saw the flags!!!! …………………….

"It's a Girl!" & "It's a Boy!" ….. We were THRILLED! We were hugging each other, hugging Jayden, celebrating our twins and drinking our Martinellis! After a few minutes of celebrating, I wanted to see which twin was which gender, so I opened the envelope and saw the pictures… Baby A - Girl and Baby B - Girl … we were so confused…turned out Nothing Bundt Cakes put the wrong flags on the cakes and we are having twin girls! We were shocked! 

Looks like the Erickson clan is going to have a mini softball team :) 

Team Pink…here we come!!!!