The Duplex

We have officially been moved into our cute little duplex for a few months now, but I am finally getting around to taking pictures. Taking pictures of every place we live has become a tradition for me. I enjoy looking back at the memories we make each new place we move.

We traded in the super fancy neighborhood and cramped but fancy apartment for a backyard, garage, and more space. We love it and it feels like home. I still want to cry when I think about how much we pay for so little, but that is life in California. One day I'll get my nice house, but we have a good life here for now.

Here is a tour:

The front of the house... and the side walking up to our front door.

The backyard!!! Probably the best part about moving. Apartment life with toddlers is miserable. I told Steven that unless we hit extreme poverty, I am never going back. We have strawberries, blueberry bushes, lettuce, and all sorts of other edible landscaping.

Kitchen and Dining Room. I know everybody is super jealous of the 1970's kitchen cabinets. They remodeled most of the house, but those were left untouched :)

Family Room:

Girls Room and our Bedroom:

And.. the bathrooms...

There you have it... a sneak peak into our daily life.

And since the sweet little girls living in the house are way cuter than the house itself, here are a few recent pictures (thanks Jason for the one of Aubrey).

Family Photos

So, I normally don't blog twice in one weekend...but I couldn't help myself.

We had family photos taken with my family in Las Vegas a few weeks ago and we just got them. I love them! Vanessa (visionsbyvanessa.com) is so talented... if you ever need a photographer in Las Vegas, she is great!

Here are a few of my favorites.... I love capturing the fun ages both my girls are at. Pictures really do tell 1000 words:

 My sweet parents... such a great example of lasting love.

 I'm so excited to replace the family photo in our living room with this one. I feel bad everyday looking at the one we have because Cora isn't in it.

Probably my favorite picture. It looks like a piece of artwork.

 Pretty sure Aubrey is telling Cora all about her stick in this one :)

 Aubrey was no longer co-operating at this point, so we had to improvise..

 My sister's cute little family.

 The whole group. I love my family.

 Siblings.

If only Cora was looking in this one, but I love it anyways.

Doesn't Steven look great in blue?

We are taking pictures with Steven's family next week. I may be silly, but I really get excited to see family pictures. Capturing memories is important to me.

The Climb

I did it :)

65 miles (100km) later and I completed my first metric century. My father-in-law and Steven were there with me and never left me in the dust. I'm so grateful, since I know how much faster they both could have gone. I'm also so grateful for my mother-in-law who took such great care of my little girls during the race.

We rode 65 miles, climbed 1860 feet, and I burned 2020 calories. I think I deserve some chocolate cake tonight...

I titled this post, "the climb" because that is really what I will remember. The race started in Morgan Hill, and rode through all the hills behind the city. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. Every time I would get through a hill, another would be staring right in front of me.

On this particular hill, I really wanted to cry. The main thing that kept me going was that the hill was so steep, I knew if I stopped peddling, then I would just fall over!

Going down is the fun part.... I wish there were more pictures of Steven, but he was the one strong enough to climb ahead enough the take pictures. I was focusing on survival.

I'm glad I let Steven convince me that I could do this. It was not easy. I'm definitely not a hard-core athlete, and training with a new baby and crazy toddler was tough. This part is mainly for me, but just in case I want to try something like this again (which... I probably will), I want to remember all the work behind the ride.

I am exclusively nursing Cora, which made this tricky. Luckily she takes a bottle, but I had to have plenty of milk to leave so she would not be hungry. Also, my milk has too much lipase in it, and cannot be frozen. So, I had to pump like crazy the few days before the ride to build up a fresh supply. I also had to pump in the parking lot right before and after the ride.... and I was fairly uncomfortable for a good portion of it.

Going on training rides was also crazy. The first two months after a baby are pretty much recovery, so I had just a couple of months to get into shape. Also, lack of sleep does not help.

The days I would ride, I would spend all of the girls nap time getting dinner ready, making sure Cora was fed right before I left, and cleaning, etc. so that I could leave as soon as Steven got home from work... I have such an amazing husband. He is really great and so supportive.

Becoming a mother is life-changing and has made me know that I can do hard things. At the same time, I want my girls to know that as a mom, you give *almost* all of yourself to your children... but it is important to have a life and goals outside of motherhood.

I am unsure if I will be able to walk tomorrow, but I'm just glad that I could finish!

Las Vegas Fun

Other than Cora's blessing, we had a ton of fun during the week with Steven's family and on the weekend with my family.

We didn't take too many pictures because we were having tons of fun, but here are a few photo highlights:

We went to the new Las Vegas children's museum and the museum of natural history. The children's museum was seriously one of the coolest places I have seen for little kids (and I definitely like to scope out all the cool places.) I wish they had one this good here!

Cora went swimming in the kiddie pool for the first time. It may not look like it here, but she actually enjoyed it.

So, I'm super nervous to write about this, but I figure if I put it in writing then I can't chicken out. Steven has managed to convince me to ride in a metric century bike race (100 km or 65 miles) in just two weeks. I'm terrified, especially considering I just had a baby, and how crazy things have been... but we are signed up, and I hope I can do it.

While we were in Las Vegas, we got to do a few training rides. I did one 40 miler with the first 20 being completely uphill, so I am feeling a little more confident....but still completely terrified.

While we spent hours riding our bikes, the girls got a lot of Grandma time. Aubrey especially soaked it all up.

Lots of cousin time as well. We got to stay with Katie and Tyler for a few days. A five-year-old, 2 two-year-olds, and 2 infants made things kind of crazy, but lots of fun.

On the weekend, we got to spend Saturday with all of my family and a bunch more of Steven's family that came into town for the blessing. It was a busy Saturday!

Pool time with the Footes....

And family pictures with my family. Also, late Saturday night after the kids were all in bed, we went out on the strip to the Stratosphere rides. Steven and Steve stayed with the kids, and the original Peterson family of five all went together. That was pretty fun:

And now we are home! For another day... Did I mention things have been crazy? Our landlords are renovating the other half of our duplex, and it is going to be so loud that we have to live in a hotel next week. Really not looking forward to that, but at least we will have a pool, right?

Cora's Blessing

We have been in Las Vegas for the past week or so and have had a fantastic time. We are getting up at 3:30 tomorrow morning (to get as much kid sleeping time as possible) to start the drive back home. Yikes that is early.

I'm going to gather photos and document the rest of the trip soon, but I wanted to start with the main reason we came... Cora's blessing day!

We are definitely proud parents. I can't even begin to describe the amount of joy that this sweet, loving, happy, calm, patient little girl has brought into our lives.

Cora and Aubrey were both blessed in the same dress that I was blessed in as a baby. However, I didn't make either of them wear the 80's style bonnet.... 

She rarely cries and is a pretty happy baby. She loves to "talk" back and forth and wave her little arms and legs. She gets very excited.

We had SO much family support for her blessing day. Almost everybody on both sides of the family was able to be there (we missed you Jer & Ked & Miguel). I didn't get a picture with everybody... but these two are pretty close.

The grandparents and parents. Cora definitely has the coloring of a Foote. But, I still think she is going to look like me too :)

Aubrey was not cooperative for photos this morning. We did make her take family photos yesterday, so  I really can't blame her.

We were lucky in that Cora was able to be blessed the same day as her cousin Jacob. Katie and I were due just a few weeks apart.... but Cora is two months older.

 Babies are funny to photograph.

Days like today always give me a chance to reflect. Today, I especially thought about how grateful I am to be a mother and how much I love these two little girls.