Our garden!

Our newest family adventure is our garden. We figured that since God was so gracious with blessing us with a BIG backyard we would use part of it for a fruits and vegetables garden. :) Well Sam took our idea and ran with it... We now have 6 4x8 boxes and a very cute little 4x2 box. He also installed home made irrigation into all 7 boxes to make watering easier. I was a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to fill all of those boxes! But with the help of family and friends we did!! :) We have tomatoes, lettuce, a mystery plant (lol), white onion, green onion, squash, peas, green beans, yellow and green bell pepper, jaleopenos (per the request of Mr. & Mrs. Velazquez), corn, pumpkin, carrots, watermelon, cantelope, honeydew, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. WHOHOOO!! I know!!
 Yesterday, Sam and his dad spent the day figuring out the how to fence in the area so that our adorable little Broxton will not help himself to our wonderful garden as we pleases. :) Once they were done with that it was planting time. We were so thankful to have friends and family willing to help. The Newmasters, Cunninghams and I began getting our plants into the ground. My mother-in-law Sandra got our beautiful Sunflower in the right spot and placed our Scarecrows. (Arielle and Sandra make us homemade Scarecrows, they are simply adorable)
 I am looking forward to spending sometime this summer in our garden. We are also planning to make our own baby food once little Makenna gets here. Our garden will be perfect for that as well. :)

the first box is in!

All but one box are in...

Fence is up, all boxes are in, soil and plants are in, and of course 

Sam's amazing irrigation system is up and running!

(scarecrows on back wall) :)

Broxton is enjoying the garden too! :)

Makenna Marie Torres!!

It's a GIRL!! Whoohooo!!! We are soo excited! 


Saturday, June 4th was Sam's 26th birthday party! We had decided that it was there at the party we wanted to announce the gender of the baby. Kristin, our top secret messenger, had prepared the cupcakes for us for the special announcement. 

Inside of each cupcake was a cream cheese filling. Either Pink or Blue! The anticipation was killing us. 

We bit in and.... It was PINK!!! 

Everyone was sooo excited for u! :) We are so privileged to be 

able to raise a little baby girl!!

She is already very well taken care of! Her aunties have been buying 

her cloths. (Thanks Shawn for letting Makenna share your closet) :)

We couldn't be happier with the love and support that we

have received from all of our family and friends. This journey

wouldn't be the same with out all of you! 

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another". - John 13:35

Anatomy Ultrasound!

Wow! I am amazed at God daily. Today we got to do our anatomy ultrasound. It was amazing to see how much the baby has grown since our last ultrasound at 13 weeks. This ultrasound lasted about 20 minutes. We got to see just about every little inch of the baby (except the gender of course). Sam sat right in front of the monitor snapping away picture after picture on his phone. Then he tried to be a little investigator and go back through them all to see if he could determine if it was a boy or girl! lol It was, as always, our favorite to hear the heartbeat and watch it flutter on the monitor. The ultrasound tech was very accommodating to our special request to not find out the gender today. She wrote it in an envelope for me and sealed it up so we couldn't cheat. And yes, Sam tried to cheat! lol She even spoiled us a little by flipping into the 3D ultrasound. It was amazing!! (See pictures below) Later that evening, Sam, Kristin, April, and I went to April's school to do another ultrasound to get pics of the gender section. It was so fun to share our joy with our family! We are so blessed! 


We are daily reminded of God's unfailing love for us.... 
Psalm 139 13For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

               14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  your works are wonderful,

       I know that full well.

We are looking forward to finding out the gender reveal tomorrow at Sam's birthday party! It will be so much fun to have a name to call our little sweetie... instead of him, her, it, Charlotte, or Wilbur! :) 

We stopped and got Slurppies on our way to the ultrasound to be sure baby would be very wiggly and all would be seen! :)

Baby Torres saying "What's up!!"

Hearbeat...148bpm :)

Baby's head, face, and arm!

Great profile pic! 

18 Weeks of Fun!!

I am 18 weeks and baby is the length of a bell pepper! :) This was a fun week. On Saturday we had a craft day at my house. A bunch of ladies came over to work on craft projects they wanted to get done. I started the baby's scrapbook.

It was a blast! We also got a little silly! My friend Stacey started to  looked up all of the gender wifes tales. We started with the spoon and knife one (thanks to Claudia's cuban in-laws) In this one you have two pillows. Someone places a spoon in one pillowcase and a knife in the other. Then the mom to be in brought into the room and she sits on a pillow. If she sits on the spoon, then the baby is a girl. If she sits on the knife the baby is a boy. I sat on the spoon! :) My friend Ann, who is also expecting, was there too! She sat on the knife!

The next gender test we did was the sting of my hair tied onto my wedding ring. In this tale the mom to be lies on the ground while a person stands over her holding the hair with the ring on the end. If the ring begins to move in a circular motion, its a girl. If it sways back and forth its a boy! My ring went in a circular motion...girl again! At this point Sam is a little disappointed! By the way, Ann's test read boy! :)

Lastly, we checked the Chinese calendar and it said girl as well! hehe I am so glad that we will be finding out the gender with all of our family and friends this Saturday! The suspense is killing me!! I dont really have a preference, I just continue to pray for a healthy baby! 

As craft day continued a had one friend that got a little antsy! Candace decided she wanted to be a little crazy, so of course I let her! Here is what came of it! :)

We had a blast! Thanks so much friend! The pictures are adorable!! Also this week we had fun trying to find the baby's heartbeat. I borrowed a little monitor from my sister-in-law that you are supposed to set on your stomach and be able to hear the heartbeat. Well, Megan, Candace and I were all curled up on my bed with the headphones on moving this thing around to hear the heartbeat. This thing is fun but it picks up a ton of background noise. It was quite comical to have them poking that thing on my tummy to find it. We finally found it so Sam came in to hear. Now it is the 4 of us on our bed all hooked up to headphones listen to our little one. Its been a busy week and our ultrasound is tomorrow. Sam and I are looking forward to seeing our little bundle of joy! 

Baby check-up and Hospital Tour!!

So today we had our first 4 week check-up! It was a long wait to see the doctor and a super quick appointment. The nurse checked my blood pressure and then we got to hear the baby's heartbeat! :) (that's our favorite) After that the doctor came in to see if we had an questions and then wrote us a referral for our gender ultrasound at the Perinatal Center. Our appointment is Thursday, June 2nd!! WHooHOOO!! So soon! We will attend the ultrasound but will not find out the sex of the baby. We are going to have the ultrasound tech write it and seal it in an envelope for us. We are giving it to two people, who will not be named so that no one tries to get it out of them, and we will find out two days later with family and friends at Sam's birthday party. Happy birthday daddy! We are so excited to find out what our little bundle of joy is! :)
 After our doctor visit we had dinner in Whittier with our friends Ann, Dan and their little one Alexis. Crepes and Grapes! It was yummy. Ann will be delivering her second baby in August at Whittier Intercommunity Hospital. We thought that since we are going to be delivering at the same place that it would be fun to do the hospital tour all together. So after dinner we headed to the hospital. It was a short tour but it was nice to see where we go to check in, the labor and delivery rooms, and the postpartum rooms. It's a very nice hospital and the labor and delivery rooms are HUGE!! We also liked that he maternity wait room was HUGE as well. We had a lot of family and it was nice to know that they have the room for them. In the waiting room they even has movies playing all day and night. When we were in there the screen said that Dinner for Schmucks was scheduled to start at 7pm. Lol The tour nurse also informed us of something that this hospital likes to do called "The Golden Moment". This is a period of one hour right after the baby is born that they do not allow visitors to see mom and baby. During this time they encourage that mommy and daddy bond with their new little one. I love this idea! I havent had a baby yet, but I am sure that things get a little hectic, and we are looking forward to this "Golden Moment" this our little bundle of joy! 
 Well I am 17 weeks now... baby is about the size of my open hand. It's so excited to read about the weekly development that is happening inside me. We continue to pray and ask you to join us in prayer for a healthy baby and delivery! Thanks for all of your love and support!


xoxo 

16 Weeks! (4 months)

Right now, baby is about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erectthan it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.


Mama at 16 weeks, cookin' our little avocado!


Im feeling great! 2nd trimester and I get along very well!! This week I was craving strawberry Jell-o! :) 

Glory to God for this amazing work in us! Sam and I were talking a fews days ago about how blessed we are. We have a wonderful home that we love and can see our kids growing up in, amazing family and friends who love and support us, a marriage that God has given us to bless us and be a blessing to others, and now a little one on the way!  It is true to say that "our cup overflowth!"

Family Camp

What a wonderful weekend we had fellowshiping with our church family. On Friday afternoon Sam and I, along with Megan and Christian and Eros headed to the 40th annual Family Camp. I have been going about 25 of those 40 years. So exciting! :) We were tenting it this year so we didnt have to deal with the whole borrowing a motor home or trailer. This year it was perfectly fine... but next year when we go with a 6 month old we will for sure to deal with making sure we are in a trailer! :) It was so nice to just sit around and relax. We slept in (a little bit) had services together as a church and then just spent the day fellowshiping with one another. It was so nice! It's a great way for our church body to build unity. We look forward to having our new addition to the family join us next year!!