A weekend in SB

Thanks to Francis' coworkers at CMMeiers, Francis and I were able to spend 3 days relaxing in the Cheshire Cat Inn in Santa Barbara.

Right after work on friday, Francis and I were supposed to leave, but unfortunately my body was telling me otherwise. I got really sick and actually left work around 12:30pm. As soon as I got home I put my head on the pillow and slept until Francis got home from work. I woke up for a second only to sleep for another 4 hours. We ended up not leaving the valley until 9:00pm and checked into the bed and breakfast at 10:00pm.

Our key to Wonderland

The greeting and box of chocolates to welcome us into our room
(Took this the next morning)

The next morning we woke up to a breakfast of poached peaches and stuffed french toast. We indulged and used the massage gift certificate that my coworkers at Accredited gave Francis and I and went to a spa called "Belleza Vita" (guess why we chose this place :P). Since Francis and I have never gotten a massage before we were a little nervous but comforted at the fact that it would be a couples massage. As we were guided into the spa, we realized we weren't going to be in the same room! But regardless both of us walked out of the room relaxed and ready for the rest of the weekend.

After a stop at the inn, we headed over to the Santa Barbara Zoo. The #1 thing on my list was feeding the giraffes. Little did I know that these things have huge purple slimy tongues that will wrap around your hand if you hold the lettuce out too long. I squirmed, but got over it, giraffes are just too cute :)

Feeding the giraffe

Purple tongue?

My preggy picture of the week

The name train we bought for Alana

Before leaving, we had to write in a notebook left in the drawers of the room.
There were at least 5 notebooks filled with letters written to the inn
about how much the previous guests had enjoyed their stay.

On our last day in Santa Barbara, Francis and I decided to have a little picnic at the harbor and it was a nice close to our weekend. When I was still in school, I used to bring lunch for Francis at work and go to the park nearby. Our little picnic by the harbor made me remember those little moments.

This weekend our goal was just to relax and appreciate the little time alone that we have left before the little one comes and we definitely did. Thank you to our amazing coworkers who planned this little getaway for us!!! We had a great time :)

Sickly

So ever since I got pregnant, my immune system has been pretty much nonexistent. The office that I work at seems to be a nesting ground for germs. Some of my coworkers have even threatened to turn me into "Bubble Boy" to keep me from getting sick.

Of course it's my luck to get sick right as Francis and I are about to go to Santa Barbara for the awesome trip that his coworkers generously paid for. To top it off, my coworkers also gave us a gift certificate for Spafinder.com! Hopefully I'm not coughing and hacking while I'm trying to relax :o)

His first kick

Francis finally felt Alana kick for the first time today! It's times like this when I regret that I didn't have a camera handy to capture these moments, but I guess writing about it will just have to do. (I probably had my iPhone with me, but I was too caught up in the moment to care about taking a picture)

I put his hand on my stomach and I knew that he was already feeling the kicks but they were so small that he kept saying that it was just me moving...until the one huge kick that said, "DADDY! I'M RIGHT HERE!!!" And if you're a mommy yourself you know as well as I do that we feel it throughout the day, kicking and punching everything within her reach. But I wouldn't take it back for the world.

I look back on the day when we found out we were pregnant and it's all passing by so quickly. Before I know it we will be moving out of the Palace and into my parents house and it's going to be such a huge change for us. No more parties going on downstairs while I try to rest, no more knocks on my door to tell me that my roomies love me, no more drunken talks in the house at 3 in the morning. I'll definitely miss these moments. The other day all the roomies had dinner together and I just started to get sad that we would no longer be living there. But things change and we knew this day would come eventually. I just didn't know it would be this soon.

I look at my growing belly and realize that in a few short months I'm going to have a family! I feel like I've been looking forward to this moment for my whole life. With my problems with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome I thought I might never be able to have kids so having Alana despite the obstacles is definitely a blessing :o)

23 Weeks

Ok, so I think I've been postponing posting these pictures because I get horrified at seeing how huge I'm getting! I know being pregnant is a beautiful thing, but when you've worked so hard to lose weight and keep it off, it's not always a joy to see a tummy poking out of your clothes...until you remember what's inside that enormous belly.

I look at some of my friends and family who are currently pregnant and are due at the same time as me and think to myself, "What the heck? Why am I so huge? They're barely showing". I feel like I've been showing since I found out I was pregnant at 5 weeks! Haha! I find myself needing to remember that I'm not them and that I don't have their wonderful genes and that's ok. After talking to other mothers, I feel comforted to know that I'm not alone.

When Francis and I are on our breaks at work and he crouches down to kiss my belly and talk to Alana, I am reminded that the weight gain and the little inconveniences of pregnancy don't matter. Francis and I are starting a family and that is the one thing that I said I wanted to do with my life. All the hard work to go to school, get a steady job, save money and get married were all to prepare for raising a family. So what...I can lose the weight when I'm not pregnant :)

Anyway, I'll be a little bit braver and start posting pictures weekly. I know I'll look back on this and regret it if I don't!

Surprise?

So I don't know why but as with every other surprise party, we always try to surprise the celebrant when we know very well that they won't be surprised. I thought that we had already told my dad about the party but apparently we were still trying to hide it from him, oops!

Regardless of how the surprise went, my dad was smiles all day. He was so proud of his new TV and proudly played movies in 3D while everyone took a turn using the 3D glasses.

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate our Dad's birthday with him :) Now time to burn the calories from all that eating...you know how filipino parties are!

Family Picture :)

Kim and I posing with our bellies :)
Dad and Friends

Dad and Ninang Nita

Dad and Sandy

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Miss Janet

A few months ago, my sister called me frantically asking me to please please help her get tickets to the Janet concert. We promptly checked the website at 12:00pm and after 10 minutes of trying, my sister finally bought the tickets and we were ready to go to our second Janet concert together.

"LA"

Our seats at the concert
Because of a group of asian girls, we actually got to switch with them and get better seats because they wanted to sit with their friends. So we got to sit a little closer to the center of the stage.

"Scream"


"There are times when I look above and beyond. There are times when
I feel your love around me, baby. Together again..."
Janet singing to her brother Michael at the end of the concert

I loved this concert not only because Janet is an amazing singer/performer but also because it was one of the rare moments that I get to share alone with my sister. Growing up has pushed us in our separate ways in life and I miss the random moments we took for granted when we were younger. Knocking through our closets in the bathroom, playing video games till the wee hours of the night, opening our presents before Christmas carefully then re-wrapping them before our parents found out. As much as I hate to admit it, I miss living with my sister :( We rarely get to spend time together and I cherish moments like these when we can call these memories ours and no one elses.

One thing she pointed out before the concert started was that I had Alana with me. So Alana, the Janet Jackson Number Ones concert at the Gibson Ampitheatre was the first one you ever went to so thank you Ate for her first taste of amazing music.

And as daddy requested, I remembered the songs she kicked to: Control, Together again, If and to his disgust but my amusement Nasty Boys. Hahahaha! Sorry Francis, I think she's gonna be a handful!!!

Thank you Ate for taking me to share this with you. Next Janet concert is on me!!!

Hello. My name is...

Alana de la Cruz Vita!!!!

Elle, Zoey, Arielle, Melody and Alana were all in the running but here is how we decided:

At first we were set on Elle. Before even getting pregnant Francis suggested it and I liked the name but I didn't really take it seriously because, well, we weren't pregnant. When we found out that we were, my mom immediately said this, "So her name is going to be Elle Vita? Like Velveeta?" That quickly changed my mind, but not Francis' just yet. He was sold on the name before we were even together so I know he was attached it, but I just couldn't get Velveeta out of my head. (To be fair, we can actually use Elle as her nickname :oP)

I think I was either going through a website or looking through a book when I saw the name Alana and I loved it so I mentioned it to Francis but he was still stuck on Elle. I told Pam about the name and because she really liked it too she tried hard to convince Francis to pick that name. I guess this caused a little misunderstanding because he thought I came up with it with Pam and was a little sad that he wasn't there.

A few weeks later, I was talking to Janda on the phone when I mentioned the names that we had for her. She squealed in excitement after hearing Alana and mentioned something that Francis and I had failed to notice. Alana is one of the names of the sisters in The Little Mermaid!!! Being one of Francis' FAVORITE movies, I knew he was sold, but he didn't admit to it until a few days later.

So thank you Janda for finally getting us to agree on a name :)

Middle name suggestions anyone?