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.)

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!)

Annual Cabin Trip #3

If you have ever seen the movie, The Bucket List, you might have found it to be a sad story. On the other hand, it has a very good point... you only live once, so why not have a list of things to accomplish before kicking the bucket?

Four of our close friends from college (Tony, Kristen, Amanda & Michael) started such a Bucket List with Matt and me. One of the items, was to have an annual cabin snow trip. Our first trip was in 2009. We spent two nights in Big Bear, along with another couple. 2010, we found ourselves flying to a family friend's cabin in Tahoe, located at the Northstar Resort, for the Superbowl weekend. Needless to say, it was an amazing trip, and the six of us decided to make Tahoe our main cabin trip location!

This past weekend was our 3rd annual trip, and it was by far, the most spoiling cabin vacation yet! Kristen and Tony found round-trip plane tickets to Tahoe that were only $275 for two people! Tony's brother lent us a free parking pass at LAX (which would have been $60 for 3 nights). Amanda was able to get a coupon for a free weekend stay at Northstar, as well as free ski lift tickets!

The perks were endless on this trip. Aside from our cabin and lift tickets being free, there was a snowboard demo happening that weekend, so the boys got free board rentals! The girls and I also managed to get free snowmobile rides, and gondola tickets to ride up to the ski resort. It was all too good to be true, and we were certain something was going to go wrong with all the good luck... well, we missed a free 30 minute concert by James Blunt. haha. Ridiculous!!!

The cabin itself was absolutely amazing. It was a 2-story, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, cabin condo, with a spectacular view! The weather was gorgeous, and the snow was great. Our first night there we stocked up on groceries, and unpacked in the cabin.



(the ski resort makes the best Bloody Mary's!).


The second day (Saturday), the boys woke up early to hit the slopes. The girls and I relaxed in the cabin for a while before hitching a gondola ride up to the ski resort. We got a table inside, overlooking the slopes, where we were able to watch for the guys, and enjoy some hot drinks.

After a full day, the six of us decided to have a progressive dinner of sorts. Our first stop was at Oliver's for wine, fondue and cheese. Stop #2 was TC's Pub for a beer, hot wings and mozzarella sticks, and our final destination was The Chocolate Bar for dessert fondue, truffles, and chocolate martini's. We ended the night lounging by one of the resort fire pits, before heading back to the cabin to watch a movie in our PJ's.



Amanda, Kristen and me on the gondola

Beautiful pink sunset over Oliver's

The third day (Sunday), the boys were up early on the mountain again. The girls and I checked out a few of the surrounding areas, and were able to take a gondola straight up to the top of the mountain!

By 2pm we headed back and got food ready for the Superbowl. After the game (which we were all happy the Packers won!), we headed down to the resort village to have smores and hot coco by one of the fire pits. We wrapped up the night having steaks and watching a movie back at the cabin.

Our final day (Monday), the boys hit the slopes one last time while the girls and I browsed the village. We all met up later for gelato - despite how cold it was - and then headed to the airport for our flight home.

Overall, it was the best cabin trip yet! While I usually love getting a day of snowboarding in, it was incredibly relaxing to hang with the girls and let the boys use the free lift tickets. Definitely my favorite Bucket List item so far! We all see this trip continuing, even something we can enjoy with kids later!

BBQ's, Weddings and More!

Every time I come back to our blog, I feel like there's so much I need to catch up on!

To touch base on some of the last things I talked about, Matt's eyes are doing really well. The redness is almost gone, and he's done taking most of the medication drops. He's just down to the regular moisture drops, and only one prescription for mornings and nights. So far he's loving being able to see clearly and read without glasses; however, the constant drops are a bit annoying to him, and his job requires hours of staring at a computer screen that make his eyes feel dry and tired. He has about 3 more months to go with the excessive drops... but it should calm down after that. :-)

The backyard has been an absolute joy! We added some hanging wall candles, as well as rope lighting. It really brings the yard to life in the evenings. The BBQ has also paid for itself already! We've used it so much - and I just have to add that Matt is becoming attached to it! He's becoming quite the BBQ chef. While I usually do all the cooking, I've always believed that the BBQ belongs to the man - and I love it that Matt enjoys it! The picture to the left is Matt using the BBQ for the first time.

Since the backyard has been done we've been able to host a double date cooking night with our friends, Steph and PJ. We had carne asada burritos with homemade marinade (thanks to PJ!) and Matt's and my homemade tortillas. It was so enjoyable - I have a feeling there are going to be many, many more double/triple date dinner nights. =)

We also hosted an end of summer BBQ. Space was limited, and we quickly realized that our apartment/backyard can really only fit 10 people comfortably. We had 16 people invited, but it all worked out with people arriving when people left - so it all seemed to go really well! We provided burgers, RockBand, and an ice chest of drinks. All the essentials for a good party with good friends. =) Wish I had taken pictures!

Before all of our BBQ/dinner festivities, Matt and I carpooled up to NorCal for Sarah and Joe's wedding near Redding, CA. We got up at 3:30am, picked up our friends at 4:30am, and were on the road... for 8.5 hours to make it to the rehearsal on time. I drove the whole way up. The picture on the left is me really happy after In-N-Out and Matt taking the wheel to drive to the rehearsal that was 10 minutes away. I fully enjoyed those 10 minutes of not driving too! :-P


The hotel we stayed at was pretty fun. It was close to a bunch of restaurants, stores, and had a really nice indoor heated pool and spa! We shared our room with Chad and Sarah, and spent the first day relaxing and swimming after the rehearsal. It was pretty fun too because the rest of our friends from out-of-town stayed at the same hotel. =)

The second day was pretty much a free day to do anything, so Matt and I drove an hour further North to meet my Grandparents in Mt. Shasta for brunch. They were vacationing in Oregon and it happened to work out for the four of us to get together! Below are a couple pictures from that day.

Picture of the beautiful drive there with Mt. Shasta in the background.

Sitting down for brunch with my grandparents at the Black Bear Diner.

Picture of Matt and me in front of Mt. Shasta.

The next day (Sunday) was Sarah and Joe's beautiful wedding! It was so much fun! I really wish I could write about the whole day, but there is so much to say! A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let you put the pieces together below. =)

Sarah was such a precious and beautiful bride, and her new husband Joe was a wonderful groom. We couldn't have been more happy for such a perfect couple! Matt and I definitely had a wonderful time, and the 17 hour round-trip was so worth it! (picture on the left is of Matt and me)

It's exciting when all your friends start to get married. We have three more weddings coming up too. This weekend (10-10-10) we have friends getting married, then a wedding in late October that Matt and I are both actually in the wedding party, and then one more in February!

Hopefully I can squeeze in updates between all the events and holidays coming up, but either way, I'm seeing a lot of pictures and catch-up either way! =) Hope everyone is well!

Vegas Trip

So Matt and I recently went to Vegas with a few friends, and needless to say... we had a great time!

We carpooled Friday evening with Joe, Kevyn and Michael - 5 people and their luggage in one car is always fun! haha. I do love when we carpool to Vegas though - it makes the ride so much more enjoyable.  When you have 4 hours to kill, it's nice having friends to mingle with.

Once we got there, it was a nice 100 degrees outside at 8:30pm.  We made our way over to our hotel, The Palazzo.  We've never stayed there before, but Amanda was able to get a really great discount - and so we got to stay in a suite! (below is Matt standing in the lounge area of our suite)

Now let me tell you about this suite - it was amazing! King-size bed, remote control black-out curtains, two flat screen TV's, fridge, two sinks in the bathroom with granite counter tops, and even the shower had three shower-heads! It was vacationing in luxury! (or sleeping in luxury, since that's really all we did in the suite)

Our first night there, we freshened up and went down to the casino area and found a dueling piano lounge.  It was really fun - and we had great seating.  But like all things in Vegas, they freely took our money, and didn't quite give us what we wanted in return (like playing our song requests!) - but overall, it was a fun first night. :-)

 The next day I managed to wake up at 8:30am (with the help of my friends calling me), and went down to the pool with Amanda, Kristen, Tony and Michael.  I let Matt stay and sleep - but he joined us later around noon.  The pool was really nice! It was on the 3rd floor, and had a great little restaurant where you could get breakfast.  We spent the majority of our time there lounging in the shade and reading magazines.  We finally got in the water though once the temperature got too unbearable in the shade.

We spent the rest of the day walking through the new City Center (Aria), and then met up with Joe, Kevyn and Michael at the Paris Buffet.

While I love Paris usually, I was really unimpressed with their food this time.  The prime rib was so salty it almost crunched in my mouth as I chewed it... at least they couldn't mess up the shrimp cocktail. :-) After that, Matt and I went back to our suite and napped for a couple hours - oh  my gosh, I forgot how good naps feel!!!

After everyone was full and rested, we got ready to begin our night! We started the night with Blackjack and Roulette.  Matt and I had a pretty good system worked out - he would lose our money, and I would win it back. :-) I don't play Blackjack... Roulette is my game!

We decided to try and find a Fat Tuesday next (our favorite daiquiri bar - they have amazing slushy drinks!).  We ventured from the Palazzo to Caesar's Palace, but were 30 minutes late - they were already closed. I found it funny how we all were surprised that it was closed at 12:30am! haha. Vegas spoils you with its all-night hours... but I guess not all things are open all night after all.

We settled for this other place called "Numb"... but their drinks were nowhere near as good. After that, we started splitting off going our separate ways.  Joe, Kevyn, Michael, Matt and I ended up getting into a dance club for free... but when we got in, the place was small, packed, smokey, and was an older age-group with quite a few interesting characters.  We didn't stay longer than 5 minutes before we left, and Matt and I went back to our hotel to sleep.

Sunday - Joe, Kevyn, Michael, Matt and I packed up and headed out.  We stopped at this REALLY amazing omelet place for breakfast first. I love hole-in-the-wall places like that. :-) Plus it was nice since it was off the strip, so the prices were decent and it wasn't crowded. We then started our 4 hour drive home.

Overall, it was a great weekend. It was wonderful seeing all our friends!