Friday, September 30, 2011

Our Story

It seems like just yesterday we were only kids, now we HAVE kids. What a trip. Jason and I met over 10 years ago and were friends for a while before we got together. We were young and bored so we decided one day to just pick up and leave sunny San Diego for the mountains of Flagstaff, AZ. I was going to go to college there (uh yah, didn’t happen). We seem to have a knack for doing things backwards.  Move away, have a kid, move back, get married, have another kid, work on careers. Chaos is this family’s middle name. But hey, it works for us. Don’t judge.

Anyhoo, Alyssa (kid #1) surprised us one October day by showing up as a plus sign on a pregnancy test. 9 months later, she was the 1st baby to be born in Flagstaff on the 4th of July, 2004. She’s very patriotic. She came out with an Uncle Sam hat and a couple of sparklers. She was very beautiful, a little gooey and she terrified us completely. I was a new, clueless mom of 25 who couldn’t fathom waking up before 11 am, much less every 2-3 freaking hours to feed a baby. Jason was still in party-all-night, bar-hopping mode , not diaper-changing, constant-spit-up-on-your-shirt mode. Regardless of our initial fear of change, we were excited to be parents. Luckily for us, she was a pretty good baby who was kind enough to sleep through the night at 3 months old (thank you, honey). Alyssa unknowingly brought us together and we became a family.
We stayed in Flagstaff for a while, and still fondly remember it as “home”. It was a welcome change from the busy San Diego lifestyle where you aren’t in a hurry to get anywhere, you actually wave to strangers and you finish off the day by bellying up to the bar for a pint of Fat Tire. We made some terrific friends and great memories. Man that was good times, I’ll save that for another day. But at the end of the day, it was just too hard to have a toddler with no family around for her to grow up with. So back to San Diego we went.
With a little help from our friends and family, we re-established ourselves as San Diegans and quickly shed our Northern “Zonie” ways. We paid way too much for an apartment that was way too small, spent hours in traffic and bitched about the 65 degree winters. I got a job working for a commercial real estate company and Jason worked as an EMT. Life was good.

Just 2 years ago, we had remembered that we forgot to get married in the middle of all this life stuff. So we got some friends and family together and were hitched on September 18th, 2009. It was a great day. Alyssa was 5 years old, and I remember she had just lost her first front tooth the day before. She walked me down the aisle and daddy gave her a kiss before she “gave me away”. Jason’s brother, Aaron performed the ceremony and my sister, Korrin was my maid of honor. We looked great, felt great and had an awesome night.

We decided to try right away for another kido. It took a few tries, but just 5 days before our 1st anniversary, Katelynn was born. September 13th, 2010 was the day that our family became complete. No seriously, due to a certain out-patient procedure, it is literally impossible to add on. She came out with blazing blue eyes, and still looks nothing like me. I still think I need a maternity test. But I’m not bitter at all. She is a gorgeous, fussy, fearless child and she is as goofy as they come, much like her big sis. She’s not the awesome sleeper that her sister is, but we are working on it. She just started walking about a month ago and hasn't quite mastered it, so she has so many bumps and bruises on her pretty face, that I’m starting to fear CPS will be knocking down my door.  

Katelynn turned 1 earlier this month. She speeks Katelynneese "jib jab blub bu bu dada ma" which I think means "hey you know, I'm not so happy with the food in this establishment". She also likes to bang toys on the glass door and play with her new drum set in order to drive mommy and daddy crazy. Alyssa is 7 and just started the 2nd grade. She reads well and she loves to do her projects (glue pictures to pieces of paper and color around them to give to people). She’s a kind hearted goofball and she ALMOST made her first goal in soccer last weekend. Jason is working for a local gas & electric company and is addicted to going to the gym. He tries to break away to the golf course every now and then, but I always have a reason to make him spend his spare time with me. He's an awesome father and surprises me every day.  I'm still working for that Commercial Real Estate company and attempting to shed the baby weight for the umpteenth time. This time is the one, i can feel it.

That brings us to today. Sheesh, time sure does fly.  I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this family. Come back and find out.