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.)

September - November: A Summary

September through October proved to be busy months for us!  We worked on the house from the day we received our keys (Sept. 21st), up to the day our carpet was installed (Oct. 31st).  Below is a video of our renovation. :)

November slowed down with the house, but not with our social lives.  November 7th was Matt's an my 3rd wedding anniversary.  He was so sweet, he surprised me with a dozen red roses delivered to our house, and told me to be ready to go out at 7:00pm.  He asked my mom secretly to babysit Emilee, and when he got home from work, he took me to a surprise location dinner.  We ate at the Pomona Mining Company, with a beautiful view of the valley below.  I'm such a lucky girl!

Close to our anniversary though, is Matt's 30th birthday, on November 9th.  I had been planning to throw him a surprise party on November 10th, and have his best friends from out of state fly in to spend the weekend with us.  On his actual birthday, our friends Nick and Katie and I took him out to dinner to the Melting Pot as a decoy.  Everyone else he invited gracefully declined (he had no idea it was because of his party the next day).

During dinner, I stayed in touch with our friends who were flying in.  I left our home's side door unlocked for them to come in, and when we got home from dinner, you can imagine the surprise on Matt's face to see his friends from Iowa and Oregon sitting on our couch!  He thought THAT was his birthday surprise.

The next day, our friends took Matt out as planned, so that a few of our friends and I could start setting up the house for the party.  There were a few hiccups, along the way, but we got the surprise we had hoped for!  It was a fun party, and great way to also show off our newly finished home.  After the party, we took the time before Thanksgiving to finally relax in our new home.

Thanksgiving we spent at my parent's house, and had a wonderful time!  The next day, we packed up and drove up north to Porterville to spend Thanksgiving with Matt's Aunt, Uncle and cousins.  We had a wonderful time introducing Emilee to Matt's side of the family.

December has been busy as well, and we are looking forward to Christmas, a trip to Colorado, and the New Year.  All that to come in my next post!  Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!

Love,
The Ott Family

Summer Flies By!

Summer always seems to fly by! And August was no exception, it was definitely an exciting and busy month for us.

We started the month going to the Harvest Crusade held at the Angel Stadium. Neither of us had ever been, and we wanted to experience it together. It was really a neat experience!

The following day was my Godson's 2nd birthday party. I can't believe the little guy is already 2! The theme of the birthday was a summer favorite - Pool Party! Besides the pool of course, there was a giant water slide I got the guts to go on - and so I got to enjoy being a kid myself for a bit. :-) Big props to Sarah, Bonnie, and the rest of the family for throwing a wonderful birthday party for Logan!

The following weekend, Matt and I joined my parents, Camille and friends on a boating trip to Catalina! We went to celebrate Lauren's 21st birthday and my 24th. We managed to squeeze 7 people on my parent's boat. (below is a picture taken from the other side of the island)

We had the boat moored at the Isthmus, so we walked from one side of the island to the other, and other than hanging out on land, we lounged on the boat.

Overall, it was a great trip! Very relaxing, and a wonderful mini-vacation.

The Monday we got home, Matt had to leave for a bachelor party (he's a groomsman in our friends' wedding), and so for my actual birthday, I had a relaxing family dinner at my parent's house. :-)

The weekend after that (I'm telling you, it's been non-stop! haha), we had a double date with our friends Steph and PJ, followed by an outdoor movie picnic the next night with Tony and Kristen. We had a blast that weekend. It's hard to beat good friends and good food. :-)

Finally, this last weekend in August, I got to celebrate Katie's Bachelorette party and Bridal Shower!

I have a funny feeling that this fall is going to fly by as well... 3 weddings, holidays, Matt's and my 1st Anniversary... looking forward to it all!!