Anthony, Christina and Giana's visit

Another 'just like daddy' picture

We just had a great week with Anthony, Christina and Giana. It was nice to have family come visit. There is something special about family - it's not like having a guest in our home, which we enjoy anyways, but family is like having a piece of you back together again. I have to say that Ant and Christina came ready to serve us - but we were hosting! Anthony made some delicious meals - I'm sad he left me with a craving for a philly cheesesteak like I've never had before - SO yummy! Christina was so sweet to always do the dishes. I know it may not seem like a big deal but before they left, they washed our sheets (they stayed in our room so that Silas could keep his crib) and made the bed - so we were able to just jump back into our bed, ahhhhh. More than those acts though we just really enjoyed being with them. We had so much fun as Ant explored with excitement Trader Joes, the livestock auction, the local winery, fishing the aqueduct- coming home with his sleeves missing??? What happened out there?! LOL Just being able to laugh and talk in person with them was such a blessing to us. We miss our family a ton!

We took a trip south so Anthony could visit the Shimano warehouse and then we headed over to Huntington Beach - via GPS - which had our final destination as the ocean - and we didn't realize it until we were stuck in traffic on a 2 lane road in a small little town 3 minutes from being in the ocean! HA HA Trust me - no one wants to be stuck in traffic when Nate is the driver and has control of the window locks - ugh!!

Thankfully the babies did pretty darn good with a few crying spells here and there. The weather at the beach was great and we spent the next day relaxing at the pool after a yummy breakfast. It was so so nice. And Matt made this possible by getting us the hotel room with his hotel rewards. On the way home we stopped at Lucille's BBQ and Bass Pro Shop. Where I learned my lesson of not bringing a diaper bag into the restaurant - being a mom is always an adventure when you are changing a diaper in the bathroom. Lesson learned! I also learned that Silas is not safe if he is sleeping on the edge of the bed next to Nate - after I heard the thump in the middle of the night. I sat up and this was our conversation - I shouted, "Nate!", "What? Oh you scared me." "Nate get Silas! He is on the floor crying!" (while grabbing Silas) "Oh, you really scared me" And then Nate was back soundly asleep. Of course my yelling woke up Giana too but both babies went back to sleep pretty quick.

Balcony of hotel room

Morning snuggles on the balcony

Swimming with Daddy

He fell asleep by the pool on my lap. SO sweet!

He is a slow waker and wanted to fall back asleep on Daddy once he finally did wake up. How precious these moments are, especially knowing that he is growing so fast!

Speaking of babies. Silas is not really a baby anymore! He was a little unsure of Giana at first but by the last day (of course!) He was sharing his snacks with her, crawling on the floor to make her chase after him and waiting at the bedroom door for her to come out in the morning buuuuut that doesn't mean he wanted me or Nate to hold her - at all. Gia is a very relaxed and friendly baby so she took the traveling well and also some of the punishment from Silas well too. Here is proof that there is hope that he just might like being a brother....maybe. I think he noticed that everyone would give him tons of praise when he shared with her or did something nice so he liked it.

The other baby, Cambrya, has hiccups right now. I had a midwife appointment on the 10th. I am 37 weeks and a few days.  I've gained the exact same weight as I did with Silas and my belly is measuring right on. Sweet little girl is head down and engaged in the pelvis which my midwife says usually means the baby will come within 3 weeks - I told her not to get my hopes up! But my hopes are up. I feel like I am constantly wondering what the start of labor will look like for me and how I will handle the really hard part of labor. I am looking forward to meeting this little girl and seeing what she looks like. Also to being able to  sleep more comfortably. I know that I still won't sleep through the night but hopefully I will sleep better and not so restless. At the same time - I'm not ready for her to come. I am so enjoying our family of 3 and some of the flexibility we have now. I look at Silas sometimes and I don't want his sweet little heart to break when I am not able to love on him as much. I am slightly anxious about how he will respond when he first meets Cambrya - will he just be so sad that mommy is in bed with a baby? It makes me cry to think of not being able to explain things to him yet he is going to have to deal with it. I feel pretty emotional this week in general - I feel like crying every time Nate goes to work - I just want him to be here. Is this part of the end of pregnancy? Anyone else experience these things? Maybe it's the nesting phase of just wanting to have the family here at the house and spending out time together.