Be My Valentine

We drove up to Sacramento this weekend so Ethan could have a date with his sweet little Emberly. Of course, I had to chaperone, camera phone in hand to capture each and every moment. Here's a little photo essay on how the evening went:

It started off with a gourmet dinner of dinosaur chicken nuggets and juice popsicles. Ethan let his best gal have the pink princess plate - not because he's opposed to pink, but because he wants to give her every happiness. He's chivalrous that way.

Cheers!
We need to work on manners. Ethan made a drippy popsicle mess all over the table. Upon discovering it, Emberly hopped up, ran into the kitchen, asked her mom for a wipe, and cleaned up after him. She's nurturing that way.

But seriously, little dude, let's try to get more in than on your belly next time.
After dinner, Ethan took Emberly for a spin on a shiny red tricycle. Chicks dig it when you've got a cool ride.

Notice how he's powering it Fred Flintstone style. Smooth.
Emberly wanted to show him how to put the foot to the pedal and the pedal to the metal. Or something like that. So they swapped places and Emberly hopped behind the wheel.

She's a much better driver. Sorry, Ethan, but them's the facts.
After the long drive from the kitchen, they arrived in the living room and watched "Finding Nemo" for a bit. When their attention span was tapped out, they retired to a comfy chair for a little light reading.

Building literacy skills with the added bonus of cuddling up with his lady. Win-win.
Those two little sweeties played together for hours, filling the house with the sounds of squeals and laughter. Thanks for such a lovely evening, Hoke family!

(A special shout out to the babies, Sam and Everett, for sleeping through the whole thing! Boys - you were missed, but it sure was nice to be able to eat a delicious meal and play some Spades without interruption!)

The Kindness of Others

I have an incredible family. I love them all dearly, but from afar... I am on one edge of the country, and they are about 3,000 miles away on the other side. Google maps will tell you that you can make the trek from my town to theirs in one day and twenty-two hours, but I'm pretty sure that's only accurate if you're carpooling with a robot that doesn't need to take breaks to eat or sleep. Point is, they're super duper far away. While modern conveniences like Facebook and texting and cell phone calls help keep us all in touch, it's not the same as having them here, in my neighborhood, available to pop over at any time. Especially not when you're about to birth a baby.

I also have incredible friends. Friends that are so kind and supportive that you'd think they were family. Friends that do so much to show that they care, it makes you wonder what you did to deserve them. Friends that are local, that have become an adoptive family of sorts.

I am in awe of these friends, especially recently. So many people have rallied around us to show their support of our expanding brood through countless selfless acts. Throwing incredible baby showers. Coordinating meal drop offs and childcare pickups. Volunteering to spend time with me and the little one to help me heal from my c-section once Ryan has to go back to work. Offering to take Ethan - not to get him out of our hair, but to do something fun with him so that he'll know just how special and loved he is. Taking time off from work to be at the hospital when baby brother is born. They give, and give, and give, with open and sincere hearts. These amazing people are like family to me, and I appreciate them more than words could say. Asking for help is not one of my strong suits, and right now I am surrounded by people that just "do" without waiting to be asked.

Let's face it - when you get to this final stage of pregnancy, and definitely once you have a fresh little newborn at home, you may not want to ask for help, but you most certainly need it!

(And this shot is a month old, so imagine what I look like now!)
Perhaps it's the lingering scent of Thanksgiving turkey, or the holiday tunes that play in the background of sappy commercials, or the fact that my little family is about to change in such an amazing and dramatic way, but I can't stop thinking about how important it is to have a strong, supportive, loving family. Be it through birth, marriage, or friendship, the individuals that I have in my life right now have been blowing me away, and I can only hope that I am as good to them as they are to me!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

- I spent a ton of time with my little family (I only worked a total of TWELVE hours this summer! Not per week - total!)

- I spent not enough time with my extended family (This is due both to being ridiculously far away and being ridiculously busy. Keep reading.)

- I learned that we would be moving to a new house - a beautiful, mid-century modern Eichler house (...and not to a new state, as we discovered in the eleventh hour. Seriously, our bags were practically packed for Texas. Oh, but to that point...)

- I learned that there's no such thing as packing ahead of time when you have a toddler. (Unless your family lives in the area and can spend some QT with the cutie, while you tackle the packing. But I suppose I've already addressed this in an earlier bullet point.)

- I witnessed countless selfless acts from some pretty incredible, super fantastic friends (Friends who will stay up until two in the morning helping you pack and move and paint - several days in a row, friends who will drive over ninety minutes one way to help with heavy lifting and baby wrangling, friends who will wake up early and meet you at your old place at 6am to help you clean before the move-out inspection, and friends who recognize that the process of moving will suck the life out of you and offer to babysit so that you can recharge. I love, love, love each and every one of you!)

- I did more painting than I've ever done, collectively, in my entire life (We painted the entire house a cool-toned gray color, with a great deal of help from the aforementioned amazing friends! It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. The previous color was a terrible shade of peachy yellow.)

- I did a lot of celebrating (Ryan's grad school graduation, his thirty-somethingth birthday, our sixth wedding anniversary, Ethan's second birthday...)

- I learned how to keep my house immaculately clean and showroom-ready at all times, and I have the pictures to prove it (Or, maybe we did a super duper cleaning job before Ryan took pics of our new place - and staged the dining room table. Guess you'll have to drop by unannounced and see if the table is set when you arrive to find out the truth!)






I start my new job on Monday, marking the end of what I think was a pretty fantastic summer. It was fast and furious, and not always (or hardly ever) relaxing, but it was perfect.

Swing, Swing, Swing!

While Ryan was at class yesterday, Sarah and Ethan were lucky to spend all day with our friend, Laurie, and her beautiful boy, Joey. We took advantage of another momentary break in the rain to take the boys to the playground. There are so many trails and parks around here, and we love taking the strollers out and going for a nice, brisk walk whenever we can. Joey is old enough to really take advantage of the playground, but we didn't want Ethan to miss out on all of the fun. We decided to see if he would like the baby swings. After packing him in with jackets and blankets for extra stability, Sarah gave Ethan a little push, and watched in delight as his face absolutely lit up. Always prepared, Laurie was armed with a camera to take a video of the experience since Ryan wasn't there to see it for himself.



When we got back from the park, Ethan and Joey played with one of Ethan's new toys together. It was so cute to watch the two of them - Joey very quickly figured out how the toy worked, and Ethan stared at him intently, studying his every move. He'd even try to copy what Joey was doing!


We can't wait until Ethan gets a little bit bigger and can really play with his buddy!

We Have the Greatest Friends!

Just a quick post to thank some of our friends who have been able to come out to visit lately. Being so far away from home, we're really lucky to have a great group of friends that have become like family to us! Thanks for keeping us company while Sarah's all cooped up in the apartment. You're the best!








Sarah with Megan



















Thanks for the stroller, Nelson!!!










Sarah with Allison, MacKay, Nelson, and Ingrid