A snippet of a moment....

So much has been happening and I have been way slacking on blogging for the fam. Where to start? First & foremost, we attended the Touch a Truck event again in Thousand Oaks, which is by far the funnest thing you can do with 3.5 year old kids.... they put on such a great event and we are way hooked! Alyssa (our niece) came and stayed a few days with us last week, Zack is growing like a weed and eating solids.. my auntie arlie came up on the train for a short trip and hung out with us...birthdays and celebrations for little and big people in our lives.... travel... family time.... work, life, love, joy... for now, I guess that's it! :)

Catching up... Catching our breath!

Whew!!! What a wild ride the last few months have been... here's a quick catch-up... my parents left 2 weeks ago (thanks again for being sooo helpful and incredible during our baby transition time mom & dad) We couldn't have done it w/out you and are missing our chef, taxi driver, gardeners, kids playmates, book readers, bath-givers and all around extra hands to help in our busy world. We are slowly gaining normalcy or at least trying... after my parents left, my friend Jess came for a few days to meet baby Zack and it was awesome to see her - we miss you auntie Jess! Right after she left, Ben got sick. Then Zack got sick and had such a high fever that it warranted a trip to the ER. Ugh. 4 days later, our friend Shannon arrived for 5 days and she just left early this week.

On top of that we've had so many fun things happen in between, however it's way too much to share here, so Again, I say... whew! It has been amazing to see so many that we love and have such great quality time w/ friends and family, however we are mighty happy to be starting to finally settle into a routine as a family. Zack is now 10 weeks (10 weeks!) old and starting to smile, starting to sleep more (thank god) and seems to be loving his little life on the planet. Ben is in love w/ Zack, almost to a default... we often are afraid that he will smother him w/ his kisses, love, dancing and hugging. It's sweet and downright adorable (most of the time).

So, that brings us up to speed.... random sampling of pictures from the past few weeks below... more regular blogging to come. Promise!

Ben, the giant.

Ben @ 38 months & Zack @ 6 days.
Love these boys!

Zack is the last....

As Steve mentioned in his first post this year, our baby Zack was the last of deliveries in a long and distinguished career of over 6,000 deliveries for a very well respected OB-GYN in Santa Barbara, Dr. Shaikh (pronouned Shake). She delivered Ben three years ago and we have loved & adored her ever since.

When I originally called her to tell her that I was pregnant again back in February, her receptionist blurted out "well, you know that she is retiring this year from deliveries and will just be doing GYN work, don't you?" to which I bursted into tears at the thought of her not delivering this baby too. She called me, we talked, I persuaded her (and cried, which I think helped) and she agreed to do it as long as we did it before the end of the year (hence, the December 30th date) because her insurance was final on 12/30/2010 for baby delivering. Done deal I said and off we went through a great pregnancy of fantastic care with her as my doctor. I am so appreciative of her gentle nature, her logical perspective on healthcare and pregnancy, and her love of our family.

We drug the kids with us to my dr. appointment earlier this week for her to check out my incision from my surgery so we could get a picture with all of us and her final baby in her arms. So precious... thank you Dr. Shaikh from the bottom of our hearts for helping us complete our family! :)

Zack Attack

We got home on Sunday and after 4 days and 3 nights in the hospital, we were more than ready to come home! We checked out by lunch and headed home in the pouring rain... my parents have been here and have been lifesavers with Ben during this time, so it was great to hang out and adjust with their help. They promptly moved out to their beautiful condo in Carpinteria (where the below beach pictures were taken yesterday) the day after we got home and we know for the next 2 months while they are here/out there, we will be spending some good quality time with them at the beach. :)

Here's a hodge podge of pictures taken these last few days of being home... thanks so much to everyone for your support, emails, calls, texts, gifts, food and LOVE! :) It's been a definite adjustment, but we are re-wrapping our brains and schedules around having a newborn in the house and managing a toddler at the same time. It will all come with time and for now, we are relishing our precious Zack and the integration of him into our family!