Xmas Pics

Christmas was good this year although it felt very rushed. We always do Christmas Eve with my family and then Christmas day with Deo's. Here's some pics from those fun-filled days.

It was fun this year because on both sides we had 2 year olds who finally started realizing that these wrapped boxes actually had toys inside! Here is Ella waiting patiently to open one of her presents.


Here's Ella wearing a fleece hat that my mom got her to match her new Sleepytime Care Bear. Ella is in LOVE with Care Bears and we picked this one up last minute and it's a good thing. She didn't let that thing go all night!



Danny actually holding a baby! I think he was trying to get used to the feeling. Here he is with Cole.


Me (and my ever-expanding waistline) and Danny's obligatory picture in front of a xmas tree. Notice how much I look like Santa Claus?


When we got home that night, we decided to do our Christmas with the puppies. Here's a shot of Toby with his new raw hide bone he loved, laying on Hannah's new bed.


The next morning, we woke up bright and early to head to Casa Grande for xmas with Deo's family. I didn't get to many good pictures, but here is a cute one with Deo and his nieces. Poor little Malorie was so exhausted from all the excitement she passed out in his arms.

Pregnant in Vegas

This is me at 27 weeks:

This is me at 29 weeks in Vegas.


To be honest, I REALLY didn't want to go Vegas. When my husband told me that the Cats were finally making it to a bowl game (1st time in 10 years), I was excited. I was not as excited when my husband proposed the idea of actually going to the bowl game. Especially when the game was in Vegas. I had visions of being stuck in a smokey hotel room all by myself while everyone else was partying it up Vegas. I wouldn't even be able to go into any of the casinos because you can basically smoke everywhere in Vegas. And then there was walking the strip...woo hoo...waddling along with my aching feet. None of it sounded appealing. But I do love my husband. I knew he really wanted to go and if I had really said so, we wouldn't have gone and watched the game at home while my in-laws were there. So I decided to suck it up and try to make the best of it. And you know what...I actually am so glad I went even though I am still recovering from exhaustion. I had to work late on Friday because of graduation, and the game started at 5:00pm on Saturday. So me, my husband, and my brother left at 3:00am Saturday morning (Deo and I only on five hours of sleep). Deo drove the whole way. We got it around 11am, went the hotel for five minutes, and then were out the door. A "bonus" of the trip was that the Arizona basketball team was playing UNLV at Noon, so of course we had to go there only to see them get blown out of the water. After the embarrassing loss, we packed back up in the car, headed back to the hotel for another five minutes and then left for the football game. It was overcast and cold so we all bundled up, drank lots of hot chocolate, and tried to stay warm during the game. It was an incredible game and if you don't follow the Cats...we did win which was a major upset! We ended up "rushing the field" (it was actually like slowing piling onto the field) which was pretty cool. We weren't going to because I was worried about it being too crazy and getting trampled on...but when we saw only like 50 people or so on the field we decided it was safe. My little brother-in-law got to get lots of photos with football players which he loved. Here's one of the pictures of Boogie with one of the UA football players.

We finally made it back to the hotel and I crashed. My brother and Deo tried to "go out" but only made it long enough for $3.99 steak and eggs in the hotel restaurant and then back to bed. We slept in a bit, went to breakfast buffet, walked the strip for about an hour and then it was back in the car to head home. It was a very exhausting trip but one that I'm glad I went on. My only hope is that we can make it to the bowl again next year so hopefully I won't be as tired.

Oh ya...and I forgot to mention the real "bonus" of the trip: David Hasselhoff sang the National Anthem!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

So, my favorite time of year is finally here. Even though it's taken me a little while to get into the Christmas spirit this year, I'm happy we got to do some fun holiday things weekend. We decorated the inside of our house and got all our outside lights up. We still have to get our tree but I'm happy everything else is done. Ella even came over and we decorated gingerbread men cookies. I think Ella had more fun eating all the gum drops and sprinkling the table, but I think they turned out pretty cute. It was also a special weekend because the Cats won BIG over ASU and are getting their first chance to go to a bowl game since 10 years ago. And the Steelers had a big comeback over Dallas. All in all, it was a nice weekend and I think I'm finally ready to get into the xmas spirit!

Baby, Check. Gender, Check. Name...

So once you start visibly showing that you are pregnant, the first question people start asking you is, "Do you what you're having yet?" After you answer "No" inevitably you will hear, "What do you want?" or "Do you have a preference?" Now that I have an answer to the baby gender question, we skip right to, "Have you thought about any names yet?" We actually had our names picked out for both genders pretty early on. Since Deo is actually Deo Jr. and I am very into tradition and family names, we've decided to pass Deo's unique name on to our son. So, yes, our son will be named Deo Daniel Diaz the Third...I know...a mouthful. And I guess I should clarify that when I say "we decided" I really mean that when I first started dating Deo, I basically had to agree to name our first son this. Even though this is very true, we did talk about it and Deo said that if I really didn't want to use this name that we didn't have to but I actuallythink it's pretty neat to be able to continue this family tradition with our heir. The bigger question that now arises is what to call our baby boy. Deo Sr. goes by Deo and Deo Jr. actually goes by his middle name, Danny; so what do we call our son? I refuse to call him "Little Deo" or "Little Danny" and because his initials will be DDD, it's had to come up with something catchy that utilizes those. Our first choice right now is to call him Trey, even though I think it's a bit cliche. But the more we start to refer to my growing belly as baby Trey, it's definately starting to grow on me. So it looks like Trey Diaz it will be unless we think of anything else in the next 3 months. Or who knows, he may arrive and we end up calling him something totally different. Baby, Check. Gender, Check. Name, Check. I wonder what questions will come next.

Boy or Girl? We have a lot to be thankful for!

Danny and I finally found out our baby's gender on Thanksgiving. Danny had been out of town for the past three and half weeks for work. During this time, I had my doctor's appointment for the ultrasound where we could determine the gender. I didn't want to find out without Danny since this was a very special moment in both of our lives. So we decided to have the doctor put the ultrasound pictures in an envelope so we could find out together. Then, I gave a friend the envelope and she bought us a nice little gift based on our baby's gender, wrapped the gift in gender neutral colors, and then kept the secret very well! Since Danny came home the day before Thanksgiving, we decided to just wait and open it up with all of our family present. It was such a memorable Thanksgiving getting to find this out together with our families as we have so much to thankful for!