Say hello to Zachary Ryan Lane

Well here is our 18 week sonogram and YES! He's a BOY!
Our intention was to have a surprise again but I accidentally saw a little something last week when I really didn't want to. So we confirmed it on Thursday. Hopefully he wont be a major thumb-sucker, I've only seen him twice and both times that thumb found it's way in! (see top photo)

Feelin hot, hot hot!

This Sunday was the 5th Annual Chili Cook-off at Flipside. I can't believe it's been 5 years since the first one! I didn't decide until the morning before the competition that I was actually going to make a chili. I'd been feeling a little overwhelmed so I thought I'd skip it this year but I kept thinkin about it and thinkin about it and finally decided Saturday morning to use a recipe I had heard of on the Food Network that contained no fresh ingredients; all frozen, dried or canned. So here is the masterpiece:
Mmm looks good eh? It was OK, I really missed having that "weird" element I usually had (like last year's pumpkin chili) but it's fun just to be a part of the action at the cook-off. I even sang a little karaoke after most people had left and I could finally stop "workin." Only a select few got to hear my lovely rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood" by Sam the Sham (my dad used to sing that song alot and it always reminds me of him.) Here's me and the girls from Bible Study that made chili. Carrie, Allison and me were "hot mommas."

Our baby has a head!

I got to see our baby on sonogram today! It's just so reassuring when you actually see that little baby in there sqirmin' around. Everything looks perfect and baby is measuring right where it's supposed to be. :)
For those of you who need sonogram assistance, the top photo is a straight forward shot of baby's face and belly, the second is the top view of the head where the doctor measured it.

Attack of the giant stockings!!!

Since last year Nate used the stocking we use to use for our cat and we knew there would be a need for a 4th stocking, I was determined to get new stockings this year.
But have you seen the ones in the store? They are tiny - like 5 inches wide! I needed more room than that, espcially since me and Ryan usually just fill each others stockings instead of a big gift. So I thought I'd make my own stockings - I did it before, I'll just make them bigger... well I couldn't find any fabric I liked (let alone time to make em.) Then my mom called from Big Lots - 'they have big stockings' she said, 'get em' I said. So here they are:
I know they're HUGE! I'm thinking I'll probably cut a foot off the top of each of them and add a matching foldover with each of our names (next year when I know what the 4th name is.)

Being thankful

Thanksgiving this year was very packed as usual but very nice. After Ryan got bruised up a bit at the Turkey Bowl, we headed over to my Auntie Lydia's house for some yummy traditional Thanksgiving feast.



All the kids were dressed special including Nate and Seth who had matching sweaters. (I'll add a photo of the whole extended family when I get it from my mom)
We then went over to Ryan's mom's house to spend time with his extended family including Uncle Larry, Aunt Terry and Trevor (Ryan's cousin Jodi's son) It was such a nice time to spend with our families that we are so thankful for.

Chugga chugga woo woo

This Thursday Nate and I went to the La Habra Children's Museum in the old train depot with Nana, Auntie Jen, Seth and Chase.
They had cute little exhibits there like a kaleidoscope, shadow wall, carousel, half a bus, dinosaurs, dead things and lots of trains. Nate really liked looking at and petting the dead animals. We had a lot of fun!

Park Day

With everyone having Friday off we met up with Ryan's folks and Nate's cousins for breakfast and hung out at Red Hill Park. We brought Fruit Loops and Cheereros to feed the ducks and there were a ton of ducks there. They all acted like they were starving but tons of people kept showing up with food for them.

With the giant population of turtles at the lake, Blake was determined to catch one and eventually caught two!

May the force be with you

Ok I know I'm a little behind but every free minute I had this week was spent making cards to sell at a holiday boutique.
So here's my little stud dressed as Yoda for Halloween! I was suprised that he actually kept his ears on most of the day - I thought I was going to be lucky to get him to keep them on for a few photos.
After the Halloween Express Train (me and N8 in the car) made several stops to visit family, (here we are with Grams & Gramps and the RC cousins)
we picked up Ryan and headed up to the carnival at LBF.
We choose that carnival for one reason alone: a petting zoo! N8 loves animals and was super stoked to pet them. There were sheep, goats, ducks and a pig and he pet each and every one of them - sometimes 2 at a time as in this photo. N8 was so excited he did his happy dance right in the middle of the animal pen.
They also had a reptile exhibit. Nate was eager to pet all the animals including the giant yellow snake but it was crowded in there so we didnt stay long. After a few games we headed home.

You belong in a zoo

Today Nate and I went to the LA Zoo with our friends Jenn, Doug and Jake. Here's Nate making elephant noises to the giant stuffed elephant in the souvenir shop - little did he know that soon we'd be seeing the real thing!

Nate loved seeing the giraffes. One walked over and stood in front of us for a while.
This elephant had an itchy bootie, we spent most of our time at his exhibit looking at him scratching his behind on the fence.

Jake and Nate were so cute walking around holding hands - Nate even went in for a friendly little peck!

Up close and personal with a momma and baby orangutan. Nate also did a little happy orangutan dance :)

Sneak preview

Nate is going to be Yoda for Halloween, I think he looks a little like a banshee here!

An exciting day (!!!???!!!???)

Today we went back to the Mouse House with Nate's Nana, Uncle Kev, Ethan, Kenna and Seth. We got to see a new show we'd never seen before "Jedi Training Academy" it was so cute - they pulled kids out of the audience and trained them to fight with lightsabers. Nate was so into it he stood on his chair to watch and pretended to swing a lightsaber.
Then we went over to Woody's Halloween Roundup. Even thou Woody is one of Nate's favorite guys, seeing him 6 feet tall with no neck was a little overwhelming and he cried when we tried to get a photo. But the kids really liked the petting zoo and animals there. I liked all the Harvest decor and tried to get some pictures of Nate with that.

Kevin wasnt too impressed and wanted some more Disneyland action so he, E, and Seth headed to Toon Town while we went with Kenna to see Cinderella tell a story.





This day was about 100 times more exciting than this, but those are Kevin's stories to tell so I'm sure you'll hear all about them in his next sermon. :)

A toddler at lightning speed

It's amazing how quick Nate can be. We were outside on our little patio playing when he decided he was done and headed inside. So before heading in I turned the little pool on it's side in case it rains and covered up his sand box and in that 4-5 extra seconds, Nate managed to climb up on the bathroom counter, find the Motrin with the loose top and dump it all over the sink and floor! Luckily the bottle was only about 1/5 full so it was an easy cleanup and I was suprised he didnt try to drink it all! I guess when you give out Motrin to a teething child at 2am you need to be awake enough to screw the cap back on well!

Em eye see kay ee why

Tonight we took a family trip to Disneyland - we finally got to see the new additions to Pirates and the overload of Captain Jack Sparrow on the ride. Nate held my hand on the drops but didn't seem scared the rest of the ride. He liked riding the carousel too!
This photo was taken 2 seconds before Nate got a mouthful of sword - yucky!









We waited at Mickey's house to see the big guy. Nate refused to take a solo picture with him but he did give him a high-five.
Nate's favorite part of the night was just wandering around Toon Town and climbing on everything. It started spinkling on us a bit as we left but nothing too heavy!

What can BROWN do for you? by Ryan

Today was OFY's (my school) "Day at the park". Basically it's a social event where students and teachers from all the different centers in our Charter are supposed to mingle, eat lunch, and play some games. Since I tend to be more of an introvert, I wasn't excited about going, but I knew I should even though I wouldn't know that many people. Besides that I figured when I got there I would recognize some people and force myself to be a little more social, no big deal. When I got to the park, I drove around the parking lot one time, just to make sure I was in the right place and then I parked and made my way to the party. Along the way I was comforted by the sight of a large "OFY" poster made by one our students. As I walked up to the party, I noticed all the students in the back and the adults were up front. To my dismay, I didn't recognize hardly any of them. "Oh well," I thought, "here goes nothing." I positioned myself on the outside of the group and looked for a friendly face, but I only recognized one teacher in the background over by the students. I didn't go over to her because it looked like the food had just been prepared and I didn't want to miss out. I stood in line, got my plate, and was even friendly with the other "teachers", saying hi, offering my place in line, and pointing out hamburgers with cheese on them to others, as I had just taken the last one of a bunch. Overall, I thought I was doing pretty well by not cowering over in the corner or turning around and just going back to work instead of socializing. As I was about to ask a guy to hand me the mustard that he was rudely hogging, I felt a tap on my shoulder. "Excuse me," the man said, "what group are you with?" In my mind I was thinking he mistook me for one of the students so I reassured him that I was a teacher with OFY. "This is UPS," he said, "Options For Youth is over there." OUCH! The stupidity gauge went off in my head as I began to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the weird looks, the whispering: "Who is that? I don't know." How could I have not figured it out? Needless to say I felt very dumb and apologized several times and offered to throw the burger away. The manager assuaged my guilt and embarrassment by telling me that it was ok because UPS could afford it. I debated throwing it away, but decided it was a shame to waste a perfectly good burger, even if it didn't have mustard. Then I went over and ate it in front of all the hungry OFY people who were still waiting for the food to arrive. It was great. I will now be known as Ryan the "Hamburglar".

Thump, thump, thump

Today I had my first doctor's appointment.
I'm definitely pregnant - I haven't been all sick and tired for no reason. It was so exciting to hear the baby's heart beating!
I'm 10 weeks along so my due date is May 10th - not what we thought we were shooting for but this is what we got.
The nurse said everything looks good so far so that's good, unfortunately it looks like I'll be switching insurances next month so I may have had this appointment for no reason and have to re-do everything at Kaiser.
Oh well, I got to hear the heart!

A brand new cousin!

We are so excited to welcome Chase Kevin Reynolds to the family. Chase was born this morning and is he ever cute! For more photos, check out the Reynolds Blog link.

Guess what...

and in case you need another hint:
Yep, it looks like the Lane's will be a family of four! We don't have an official due date yet but all the online due date calculators are saying mid May 2007. We are super excited and already decided on Zachary for a boy or Jasmine for a girl :)