Sandra Joy

The night of Sunday, March 18th, I went to bed exhausted. The weekend was filled with two baby showers for Baby Sandy, and I still had a lot to finish in my last few weeks before Sandy's anticipated arrival. Little did I know I would wake up at 1:30am with the entirely strange experience of my water breaking, signaling Sandy's arrival.

Roughly 13 hours later, we were welcoming our beautiful baby girl, Sandra Joy Mack, at 36 weeks and 2 days gestation. At 2:46pm on March 19th, Sandy made her entrance into the world!!  Dave and I were overjoyed at her smooth arrival, and at being able to meet our daughter sooner than anticipated.

Later that evening, after a day filled with overwhelming happiness and family and friends meeting our little one, Sandy started having problems swallowing. This lead to a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, which are officially the longest days of my life, and some of the hardest. Dave and I basically moved into the hospital and our first taste of parenthood consisted of holding our little one carefully as to avoid the wires and IV lines hooked to her in every direction, and holding her down as they drew blood. I'm not sure who cried more that first week: me or Sandy. Four days later, and too many pokes and prods to count, we were able to finally bring out baby girl home! She was covered in bruises and scratches from all of the IV lines and skin pricks - we couldn't wait to get her home. What a wonderful answer to prayer, to be able to bring our beautiful daughter home.

The next couple of weeks were filled with home UV light therapy to treat her jaundice, lots of trips to the lab for blood tests, and trips to the pediatrician's office for weight checks, as Sandy continued to lose weight instead of gain.

Sandy is doing so, so well now. She is amazing, and we are having the time of our life getting to know her!


WEEK 1:

                  Rocking out with daddy, in the NICU       Our little family 

WEEK 2:

 My glow worm, during her UV light therapy at home

A sample of her amazing newborn pics, taken by the very talented Richlyn Dehner:

Coming soon!

The closer we get to Baby Sandy's arrival, the more and more excited we are to welcome our sweet baby girl. As excited as I am to meet this little one, I absolutely love being pregnant. I love the sweet kicks and rolls from Baby Sandy. I love learning about babies and how to become a parent with Dave. I love feeling so special because this new life is forming inside of me. While I'm so anxious for her arrival, I know I will miss being pregnant. So, I am trying to enjoy this time. I'm soaking up those little movements, basking in the smiles from strangers that only pregnant women get, enjoying the advice from moms who have come before me, and even loving this giant belly. Mostly, I'm enjoying this time with Dave. We are so ready to welcome our baby girl, but it's nice to have this time together, and to have had the past 7 years "just us". 

 Pictures taken by the amazing Richlyn Dehner - pharmacist by trade, photographer by passion. Special thanks to her fantastic assistant Matt Dehner and very patient little one, Nathan. 

It's been a while...

It's October. I love this time of year, even when harvesting has me completely congested, I am filled with the excitement of upcoming holidays and much awaited weather change. I am ready for autumn. I realize I haven't posted in several months. We've been busy welcoming babies, traveling, work (and work, and more work), preparing for more babies, keeping up with two very energetic pups, football (and football, and more football), enjoying friends and treasuring family. Instead of attempting to update in words, I've posted some picture updates (because a picture speaks a thousand words, and who has time to read that many words!?!).  

Beautiful Mia Louise, welcomed in January.

Nanaimo, fetch in the Spring

Remington, serious face while playing fetch in the spring.

Big brother Brayden welcoming sweet baby Nathan in March.

Shafter-Wasco alumni football game, March.

Beach trip with the pups and friends, April.

Kiss the cook :), April.

The other Royal Wedding, April.

Welcome precious Isabella, May!

Dodger game with friends, June.

Welcome home Donny, June!

Crashing the guys trip to Honduras, June.

Lion fish hunters, June. 

The dive crew, June.

Unc Dave with Brayden in Santa Cruz, July.

The real colosseum, July.

A fountain in Rome worth going back for, July.

The best news? Finding out we will be welcoming a baby of our own in April :)  Dave and I couldn't be happier to embark on the greatest adventure of our lives together. We are richly blessed with babies this year, and are thankful to be preparing for parenthood with people we love.

winter gloom

As soon as Christmas is over and a new year begins, I'm officially over winter weather. I love to celebrate Christmas with a nice warm fire, and I'm a huge fan of winter clothes, boots, and accessories, but I can only take so much gloom. When it's foggy and cold all day, I long to soak up some sun. So, last weekend I decided to find some. Thank you, Santa Barbara, for your warm, perfectly sunny weather. 

Beautiful day at the beach

 Nanaimo, in mid-shake

The chuck-it. For those of you with fetch-obsessed dogs, invest in one of these. They keep your hands slime-free, and require much less effort to launch a tennis ball.  I'm pretty sure if we were in a burning building and Nanaimo had to choose to save me or the chuck-it, he would save the chuck-it.

Remington's terrified of my new camera. Every time I try to capture his great big, goofy smile, he get's nervous and changes into his serious face. We're going to have to work together to get over this fear...

Snow, snow, snow, snow, SNOOOOWWWWW

We decided to start the new year right with a quick trip to the snow, and it was a HUGE success!

What's better than playing fetch?

Playing fetch in the snow!

Remember when Remington was just a pup? He was so small and sweet. Now he's huge and sweet. 

 Partners in crime. Friends. Competitors. Brothers. 

Happy New Year!

Yellow Seahorse

Last December, Dave and I became scuba certified in Hawaii. I enjoy diving, but Dave L-O-V-E-S it. I'm not much for cold water, seaweed, and sharks, so I avoid diving off the California coast like the plague. Dave, however, goes diving pretty regularly off the coast of Catalina and the Channel Islands, and is now advance certified. Due to my aversion to cold water, and love for tropical getaways, we decided to venture down to Roatan Honduras for some amazing (and warm) diving. What we discovered, in addition to my renewed love for diving, was this little guy: a yellow seahorse. Isn't he magnificent! How amazing is it that this beautiful, bright, and somewhat strange creature lives more than 80 feet underwater!?! So cool. So, so cool.

6 years!

Six years later, through good times and bad, there's no one I'd rather have by my side. I love this man. 

How big is Remi?? SOOOO BIG!

I'm a terrible parent. I meant to update about our latest trip to the beach, but, as usual, I forgot my camera. Three trips to the beach with Remi, and not a single picture to document. Terrible. Anyway, here's a pic of Remi and Naimo...notice they are about the same size! Ah!

Boston/NYC

BOSTON!

I had no idea I would fall in love with a city so quickly. From the amazing history, the easy-to-navigate subway system, the fantastic food (and even more fantastic sangria), the clean streets, to the unique pride its residents take in their town, Boston may just be my new favorite city.  Not to mention the town was totally taken over by Dodger fans/Laker fans while we were there, which created a fun atmosphere as we explored the city. Add on top of that traveling with wonderful friends, and seeing our beloved Dodgers battle against the Green Monster, it was an all together AMAZING trip.

Dave and I and Peter and Toni met up with Matt and Sam and Jay and Jill for lunch one day (it was breezy...that's my dress billowing in the wind, not my belly...)

After dinner and the most amazing sangria EVER - Great friends!

NYC!

We took the train from Boston to New York City, where we bravely navigated the subway...during rush hour...with enormous suit cases. Quite a feat. Anyway, we survived and went about enjoying the city. My cousin Scotty lives in the city and was a gracious tour guide while we were there. He took us to his favorite places in the city, showed us around his neighborhood, and (my favorite) got us into a speakeasy!

The Scott A. Taylor freedom trail 

Going through a phone booth within a hot dog dive to get to the speakeasy...how fun is that?!?

Times Square and MEMPHIS (so good!)

The American Girl Store - here I am with Molly. The store was everything I thought it would be and more, but I am sad to report Kirsten and Samantha have both been discontinued :( Who would do such a thing??

All in all, we have a fantastic trip - it was so much fun exploring these cities with a couple we love!

Passport Weekend Reunion

A year ago this week, I graduated from pharmacy school. I probably could not have made it to graduation without these people:

Our friendship was formed when we had way to much to do in addition to our classes. These were the people I studied with into the wee hours of the night with, the ones I drank waaaayy too much caffeine with, the ones who introduced me to really good wine, the ones I celebrated with when somehow we all managed to pass our classes, and the ones who shared the good times along with the bad. Even though we've gone our separate ways, we've decided to reunite once a year to do what we do best: drink good wine, eat good food, and catch up on our lives. 

Tulip festival!

Skagit county tulips are magical. Seeing fields and fields of brightly colored tulips against a stormy sky is absolutely breathtaking.

These Monte Carlos are my favorite and will (hopefully) be making an appearance in my front yard next year!

In addition to fields of tulips as far as the eye can see, this tulip farm boasts stunning gardens featuring the fruit of their labor.