Christmas 2014

Christmas morning was very eventful and fun! We woke Mish up to head downstairs for presents! This was the first year she really understood what Christmas was, and knew to expect presents :)

Santa brought her a cool big kid scooter! She immediately hopped on it and tried it out. How is my 2 year old already such a big kid? Waah!

Santa also brought her a stocking full of fun goodies, and Mama and Daddy gave her some fun presents too ;-)

After presents we drove over to my parents' house to exchange gifts with my family, and to have a delicious brunch. 

Mish and her cousin Izzy with Papa

The cousins with Grammy

After brunch and presents with my family, we drove into Napa to celebrate the holiday with my in-laws (we spend xmas eve with my parents, so it's two busy days back-to-back). 

My father in law is notorious for falling asleep during gatherings. Lol!

 

Me and my big old 24 week baby bump :) And yes, that is Michelle's VW van tent in the background. Her aunt got it for her for xmas. Lol! In fact, Mish was spoiled and got TONS of amazing gifts from both of our families. Is it normal to be jealous of a toddler?

Mish and her uncle Anthony had fun playing with the giant Jenga set that Michael and I made for my sister in law :) 

My mother in law made a huge delicious dinner. Manicotti, baked crab, and ham! Whoa baby! 

Kisses from mama <3

My handsome yeti <3

It was a great Christmas! We had fun celebrating and eating with our families :)

Happy Halloween!

We had a very fun Halloween here at the Bergman house! The weekend we found out Noelle is a girl, we went to my in-law's town to get pumpkins and decorate jack-o-lanterns. Michelle had fun running around the pumpkin patch and kissing piggy statues :)

All week long, Michelle was excited and talked about trick-or-treating. We decorated the house and wore our most festive Halloween gear.

The night of Halloween we walked around the block and then passed out candy to the kids in our neighborhood. We thought we'd get more kids, but we only got about 10-15 kids. I bought two bags of candy, but we used about 1/2 of one bag.

Mish was so excited and polite while trick-or-treating! Everyone thought she was the cutest Tinkerbell ever. I have to agree :)

Happy Halloween from us! Here's a flashback from our first Halloween with Michelle. Such a cute pumpkin <3

Late Spring Post

For St. Patty's day Michael and I made the BEST Reuben sandiwches! Mine was vegetarian, but it was still ridiculously good! Mmm. 

Mish wore her green rag skirt that I made, along with cute matching green hair accessories. I was feeling festive this year ;-)

For Easter weekend we spent a lot of time with family. On Saturday we went out to my parents' small town for an Easter egg hunt! Mish had fun collecting eggs but was so scared of the Easter bunny! It was so sad to see how afraid she was, but the faces she made were so funny.

After the hunt we went to my parents' house to play with their chicks! My parents have a chicken coop and just got a new little set of chickens. Mish loved looking at them but did NOT like holding them! Haha.

Mish, Grammie and the chick

 The next day, Easter Sunday, we had my in-laws over for Easter fun. It was a really nice day!

Easter Egg Hunt

Wearing a hat like Uncle!

Blowing bubbles with Uncle Ant and Auntie Rachael

Here's a pic of Michael and his siblings. They're all ridiculously good-looking, which is annoying for us normal folk. Lol

And here's a pic of their whole family, plus my little Michelle :)

It really was a happy Easter!

A New Year

2013 was such a great year! There were some big ups and downs, but if life has taught me anything, it’s to focus on the positive, and work out the not so great things as best you can. And especially, don’t let others' negativity steal your happiness. Life is too short to spend even ten minutes of your day focusing on any crap you can’t control or change (of course, this is easier said than done, and I'm still working on doing this all the time).

There are many things I want to work on in 2014, but the biggest is to better myself on the inside. Last year Michael and I worked on our bodies, but this year, in addition to continuing that, I want to better my mental space. I want to work on being more patient, mellow, and understanding. I want to be stronger mentally, and less focused on negativity. 

In addition to being a happier, better me, I want our family to do more things together - have fun adventures, go on family outings, spend time together unplugged. I want to spend more time with my husband, do more fun and educational activities with Michelle, and give myself a break when I'm not feeling like the perfect wife, mother, daughter, friend, or person. 

2013 included watching Michelle morph from a sweet chubby little infant, into a crawling, then walking, then running little girl, with big personality and an amazing sense of adventure. We took Michelle on her first plane ride (to Southern California for a fun vacation), then out of the country to Mexico on a family vacation. We celebrated our second wedding anniversary, made-over our backyard into a gorgeous oasis, lost a combined 100 lbs (and counting) and bought a new car! Yes, we were forced to move to Yreka for a year in August, but it made it possible for us to play in the snow with Mish (her first time seeing it), go into beautiful Oregon and explore new places, and be greeted by deer every day. Don't get me wrong, I really can't wait to be done with this whole Bay to Yreka thing and get my life back together (and to makeover the inside of our home when we are back full-time), but I'm not going to dwell on it or waste an opportunity to make it a great year! 

These are just a few things I've been thinking about for a few days, and wanted to share. I really hope 2014 brings a happier, healthier, cleaner, and more organized Jessica. 2013 was wonderful, but I'm ready to make 2014 even better!

Yuletide Fun

We had the busiest weekend when we went home last weekend. Every day was filled with a fun Xmas event, and we got to spend time with both of our families. It was really nice, even though we were more tired than we’ve been in a year!

Christmastime is here!

Friday night we went to my parent’s Christmas party that they throw with their best friends. It’s definitely an adult party, but we dragged Michelle there anyway. It was crazy, but I had a fun night! I haven’t seen 80% of my friends/family friends since losing weight, so Michael and I got a lot of complements and acknowledgements about our weight loss (some were SO nice, some were very rude. Lol! Like saying we look great, and they’ve known us for years and didn’t know we could look so good-looking! Hahaha, thanks).

The next day we went to the Christmas Tree farm with my in-laws to cut down their tree. We’ve gone every year for a while now (5 years? I forget!) It was Michelle’s first time there outside of the womb (last year they closed early so she missed out), and she had so much fun! 

My little family

Auntie Rach, Nona and Gramps

My little family

Yearly Xmas photo

After pretending to be lumberjacks and drinking cider, we got ready for an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. It was my first time attending one, and it was fun to decorate our sweaters! I made Michael, Michelle, and myself matching sweater vests. Ha! It was also an adult party, but there was one other baby there for Michelle to play with for a while. 

Matchy matchy!

Michael's ladies - his mom, wife and daughter (can I just add that Michelle keepts yelling "NONA!" at this picture. Haha)

Caging the other little kid at the party. LoL!

Sunday we had breakfast with my sister and two nieces, then went back to my in-laws so they could decorate the tree. My hubby’s family all have special tree ornaments they like to hang (childhood ones, baby’s first xmas, and sentimental ones), so his parents like to have the kids decorate. We got home pretty late, and then got up and left for Y at 5 am! We hate that early morning drive, but what can ya do? It was worth it.

Cousins!

 

Relaxing with Daddy after he got home from work