May - June 2013

May and June have been a very busy and exciting two months!  The beginning of May found us traveling up the coast to visit our friends in Salinas, CA.  It was Emilee's 2nd trip up there, and besides the occasional tired fussing in the car, she was a pretty good sport.

We went wine tasting, except for my friend Kristen and I, since we are both pregnant (about 3 weeks apart!).  We enjoyed food and cheese tasting instead. We spent the majority of the trip hanging out in Carmel finding places to taste food and wine.  Emilee really enjoyed the cheese tasting as well!

On our way back, we took Hwy 1 down the coast with our friends to enjoy the scenery.  On our way down, we made stops in Big Sur, saw the elephant seals in San Simeon, and took a tour at Hearst Castle.  It was a fun trip, one of many more to come in the future I'm sure. :-)

We went out to dinner at the Lazy Dog Cafe for Mother's Day, with my parents, Camille & Brendan, and grandparents.  The food was wonderful, as was the company. 

June found us spending Father's Day weekend visiting my grandparents in Silent Valley, Banning.  It was a peaceful and wonderful visit.  It was also nice having no phones to distract us (there's no cell service there).  We took Emi to the baby pool in her baby floaty, which she just loved!  And we spent quality time visiting with my grandparents - overall such a relaxing and wonderful Father's Day weekend!

Yesterday, my mom, sister and I took Emi to the beach for her first official beach day!  We drove down to Seal Beach where we browsed the seashell shop, then set up a fun spot on the sand to soak up the sun and play in the water.  Emilee was an absolute water baby! She loved walking on the wet sand, and even when a small wave knocked her on her butt in the water, she loved it! I think we have ourselves a little beach bum. 

This weekend we had our trip to Iowa scheduled, but ended up making a few changes.  Matthew went for the both of us, as flying pregnant with a 15 month old would have been rough, I wouldn't have been able to do much once there, and we decided we needed to save money for the next baby coming.  Flying with kids can be expensive - not to mention all the luggage.  We still have yet to take Emi on a plane, but I'm sure it won't be too long knowing how we travel.

As for the kids, Emilee is 15 months old today.  She's now walking everywhere, she can shake her head "yes" and "no", and is just blossoming into a little toddler!  Yesterday she mimicked using the phone for the first time.  She's a little late with her talking, but she babbles all the time and says "mama", "dada" and "yaya".  I'm excited for her to have a language growth-spurt in the near future hopefully.  Talking with your children has to be one of the most exciting milestones! 

Our 2nd little one will be 18 weeks along next Tuesday.  I can feel the tiny kicks and am starting to finally look pregnant.  It's becoming very real and very exciting! Only 5 more months to go!

Anyway, that is all for now.  Looking forward to this summer! Hope everyone stays cool. :-)

January - April 2013

Life has been moving at a quick and steady pace for the Ott family!

January found Mom and Dad celebrating their 28th wedding anniversary, and Emilee learning how to stand up with support.

February we went to Big Bear for super bowl weekend, and Emilee got to experience snow for the very first time! She looked like a little marshmallow puff in her snow suit.

Emi also celebrated her first Valentine's Day by going to get frozen yogurt with mommy.

March found us busy preparing for Emilee's 1st birthday party, and even more thrilling, we found ourselves expecting a new baby - due this Thanksgiving!  

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take many pictures of Em's birthday, but I did get the whole party on video. It was so wonderful to have all of our friends and family from out of state visit, and just to see how many wonderful people came to help celebrate Em's big day! We are so blessed!

We also celebrated our first Easter in our new home, complete with an overabundance of food!  It was a very relaxing day with family.

April has been a wonderful month as well! We celebrated Mom's birthday with a lobster/steak dinner at our house, and then Grandma, Mama and I went to a tea parlor the next morning. 

Camille and Brendan got engaged, and we couldn't be happier to soon be adding such a wonderful guy to our family!  Camille also celebrated her 24th birthday and college graduation today at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Overall, life is good!  We are planning a few trips in the near future, as we won't have as much time (or funds) once our newest addition comes into the world. :-)  Some of our destinations include Monterey (CA), Colorado, Iowa and Redding (CA).  We are looking forward to so many wonderful things!

(Here is a short video of Emilee's 1st year of life, including a little bit of the pregnancy.)

December 2012 (and Halloween)

I almost forgot to mention Halloween in my previous post!  Emilee was dressed as a baby jack-o-lantern (same for me), and Matt was dressed as 'the Dude' from the movie "The Big Lebowski.  We spent the evening at our friend's home, having a BBQ and bonfire on the driveway, giving candy out to the passing trick-or-treaters.

Our friends Tony & Kristen

Brendan (Jafar) and Camille (a pirate)

Matt and part of our group by the bonfire

Kristen and me

December was a wonderfully busy month! It was our first Christmas in a real home, and getting to hang lights and decorate was really fun.  Em turned 9 months old, learned to crawl and hold her self standing all in the same month.

We went on a boat wine cruise at the Newport boat parade, and went on a Christmas light walk with friends (and to show Em all the pretty lights).

Mom and Dad joined us as well

Matt strolling Emmy along

Em and her Auntie Bug (Camille)

Christmas Eve we spent at my parent's house, where we had an amazing lamb roast dinner.  After dinner, we went to our place for dessert and a Christmas movie.

Matt and I hosted Christmas Day at our home, where my grandparents parked their RV on our driveway, and everyone came over that morning for breakfast, champagne, and gifts! Towards the evening, Matt's cousin, her husband and their baby joined us, as well as the Prophet family for dinner, cocktails, a bonfire, and games.

We were originally going to travel up to Colorado right after Christmas, but the weather turned sour on us, and we had to postpone at the last minute.  Hopefully though, we will get to reschedule in the new year!

And speaking of New Years, we spent it at my parents house with friends, food, champagne and welcoming another new and exciting year!  Can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us!

Catching Up (September - March)

It has been a long time since I last posted in Matt's and my blog!  So much has been happening, I'm afraid I can only summarize at this point to catch up.

We moved into our new apartment last September.  It's been a wonderful change!  The extra space has made a big difference.  We're much more organized, and I've had a lot of fun decorating the place.

I also flew up to Napa for one of my best friend's Bachelorette parties.  It was a limo wine tasting tour.  Being 2-3 months pregnant, I only tasted a couple different wines (just sips), but still had a great time! Plus, some of the wineries had non-alcoholic wines I could enjoy.

October we went on a camping trip to Catalina island with a group of friends.  My parents joined us, and were so generous as to drive us over on their boat.  The weather was beautiful, and we all had a great time!

November found Matt and I celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary.  We exchanged cards and went to El Torrito Grill, where we had our first official dinner date almost 7 years ago. 

We also celebrated Thanksgiving at my parent's house, and then drove up to Porterville to spend a second Thanksgiving with Matt's Aunt, Uncle and cousins.

December was more of a relaxing month.  We spent the night at my parent's house Christmas Eve, and enjoyed Christmas Day with everyone.  We also started putting Emilee's room together.  Things were beginning to get exciting as I was beginning to show my baby bump more, and starting the 3rd trimester.

January was a little busier.  We spent New Year's weekend in Wrightwood with a few friends, for our annual cabin trip.  Everyone snowboarded up at Mt. High, while my best friend Kristen and I browsed the cute village shopping.

January also found Matt, Camille, Brendan and me driving up to Novato to spend a weekend with Uncle Curt and Uncle Richard.  We took the ferry and spent a day in San Francisco as well.

February we started winding down on our travels and plans.  We spent a weekend with my Grandparents in Palm Desert, hosted a dinner party with some friends, had my baby shower for little Emilee, sold my Saturn and bought my Dad's Honda Element for our new family car!

Finally, the month we had been anxiously awaiting for - March! The first half of the month seemed to last forever!  We patiently (or not so patiently) waited for labor to start.  I was walking almost every day, dancing in our apartment, doing chores... anything to try and encourage things to start.  The due date came and went, and by the time I was one week late I had to go in for some non-stress tests to check Emilee's heartbeat and get an ultrasound.  Little did we know, I would not be leaving the hospital for the next 2 days, and would be induced that very day!

Emilee was born on March 21st, at 12:17pm, weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. and measuring 20 in. long.  Recovery has been a little rough, but in a matter of 2 weeks, I've been able to bounce back a great deal.  Emilee is just the sweetest little thing, and we couldn't be happier!  Parenthood is both challenging and wonderful - I am so excited to have the privilege to raise our beautiful baby girl.

(If anyone wants to read my actual labor/birth experience, it can be found on my other blog: http://sweetart-ott.blogspot.com/)

Busy Summer!

Time flies when you're having fun - or in our case, travelling! This summer has found Matt and I going all over the place, as well as bringing two new members into our little family.

In June, Matt and I adopted a little Pomeranian/Chihuahua mix.  He's as cute as a button and his name is Guinness.  Matt rescued him off of a busy four lane street we live next to, after nearly running him over.  He brought the little guy home, and we began the process to locate an owner.  Things looked bleak, as he had no license, we didn't see posters, and had no luck with the pound.  He didn't look in great shape either, his fur was dirty and matted, he wasn't fixed, he was skinny and had this odd bump on his side.  We think he might have been abused, but anyway, he's got a loving home now! This picture on the left is after his first trip to the groomers!

Our second new addition is our growing baby! I'm about 9-1/2 weeks along now, so the baby's about the size of a quarter.  We are so excited to prepare to be parents!  We're moving this September to a two bedroom place, and I can't lie, I am VERY excited to start planning the baby's room!  He/She is due March 17th (St. Patrick's Day), so we definitely have plenty of time, but we just want to move before the holidays.  We also already have names picked.  If it's a boy, he will be Roy Matthew Ott, and if it's a girl, she will be Emily Candace Ott.

Midway through July we flew to Stockholm, Sweden, and then London.  We had this trip planned before we knew about the baby, otherwise we might have postponed it.  Travelling pregnant is really not that great, but thankfully I only felt queasy and never got sick.

Harbor in Stockholm, Sweden

Sweden was really amazing, the city we stayed in was very cute and the buildings were all old.  We went to a couple museums, ate out at some of the local restaurants, and walked everywhere!  Probably our favorite site there, was the Vasa Museum, where we saw a Swedish Viking ship that was hundreds of years old.  It had sunk on its maiden voyage, and 333 years later it was recovered and restored!

Vasa Museum

In front of Sweden's Royal Palace

After 3 days we took a plane to London, and spent another 3 days there.  We both enjoyed London a bit more, as we were more familiar with some of the famous sites to see.  We took the Tube everywhere (their name for the Metro), saw Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge and more!  Overall it was a once in a lifetime experience and we are so happy we were able to go!

Big Ben & Parliament

In front of Buckingham Palace

The beginning of August found Matt and I then travelling to Michigan to spend the weekend with his Aunt and Uncle.  It was my first time getting to meet them in person, and we really enjoyed our stay! The weather was really neat, and I got to see fireflies!  Les and Jackie showed us around their town, and gave us so much family history we had no idea about! For instance, Matthew has some Jewish heritage! And I saw old pictures of his grandma and grandpa (his father's parents), and now know exactly where he got his eyes, chin and eyebrows from!

Anyway, things are slowly winding down, and we're looking forward to settling into our new place and looking forward to all the wonderful times ahead! (oh yea, and today marks my 25th birthday!)

A New Year!

January has been nothing short of wonderful! After enjoying a full season of festive holiday decor, Matt and I got started on our spring cleaning. I had no idea how much stuff we could hide in our little one bedroom apartment! It was amazing! We took a full carload to Goodwill. I can't help but remember the faces of the people there, as each bag of donations kept coming out of my little Saturn! It reminded me of Mary Poppin's bag that had no limit to what it was able to hold! Overall, this was such a great way to freshly start the new year!

Speaking of the new year, one of my resolutions has been to transfer all of my family's home videos to DVD. Knowing that VHS tapes deteriorate over time really concerned me. Luckily, my grandparents have a VHS to DVD converter. Matt and I spent a full weekend visiting with my grandparents, and watching old home videos as they were recorded. It was so fun seeing how young everyone was! My most cherished video we recorded was of my dad when he was a baby in 1959. This video had been transferred before from film reels to VHS tape, with music added (the original didn't have sound). I kept thinking how priceless this video was, and how Matt's and my future children will get to see videos of when their grandparents were growing up! I have one more video like this to transfer still, of when my mom was a baby. Overall, it was a wonderful way to spend time with my grandparents, and I believe we got through one third of the videos so far!

On a different note, I just started a new job! My dad's company, Bernards Builders, was in need of an Interim Executive Assistant to fill in while their main assistant is on maternity leave. So far... I love it!!! The drive isn't too bad, I drive about 35 miles to Ontario. In a month, I will be transferred to Bernard's Brea job site to fill in for another employee for 3 months. After that, and God willing, I'm hoping that an opportunity arises for me to stay. :-)

We are still waiting to hear if someone has been hired for the Monterey job that Matt interviewed for last month. Our friends, who know one of the employees there, have said that the position still isn't filled yet, and that there is still a possibility Matt could receive a call. Matt and I both are not getting our hopes up, but we are told that they are known for taking a long time. It took them a month after Matt applied to set up an interview.

Other than that, I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying your New Year as well!

Love,
Candace