New Bloggity Blog

Hey Friends,
I started a new mama blog! Check me out here. I may not be at Corallis Silly Mama folks, but let me assure you, I am silly as always :). I'll see you there!

Sunday Morning

I normally would not choose to share a picture of myself right after waking up :), but this picture pretty much sums up my life right now. Lots of chaos and lots of love. Chris is in between jobs right now, so we have been so blessed to have him home a lot lately helping. I have been so spoiled and have been grocery shopping by myself (yes I consider that being spoiled :) and getting breaks as I need them. Miriam is growing so fast. I mean.. with a cloth diaper on, homegirl has a hard time fitting into some of her 3-6 month clothes. I think she is my chunkiest baby yet. She is a happy girl as long as we are holding her. Needless to say, she is a happy girl most of the time :). I will be back soon with more updates.

Living in Slow Motion

Everyone keeps asking who Miriam looks like. I didn't really know at first, but she is really starting to look like Sofia did as a baby.

Isn't that the sweetest little smile, with just a hint of mischief?

Sofia is our sweet little poser.

Don't mind the poochy postpartum belly. I keep reminding myself that it will only get better :).

Miriam is waking up to the world. We were hoping to get some cute sleeping shots of her today, but she was in the mood for a party.



I took these cute pictures of Chris and Miriam. Not too shabby, eh??

Gabe doing what he loves doing most right now.

Everyone always says that your kids grow up so fast, but I am definitely feeling like I am living in slow motion right now (which I for the most part am loving). You would think that I would have the newborn thing down with 3 kids, but each kid is so different. Miriam is so sweet. She is pretty chill for the most part, but when she does cry, she is pretty ticked off. I keep meaning to post on different topics and to do some book reviews, but let's face it... I live and breathe kids and a newborn all day right now. We are laying low in the Becerra household, but we like visitors :)!

The Birth Story---Miriam Sol Becerra

I thought that I would post a few thoughts/details about Miriam's birth while they are still fresh in my mind (although my mind is not very fresh with about 8 hours of sleep since Tuesday morning). Wowsa are they still fresh in my mind :). I am the worst person in the world about knowing when I am going into labor. My labor's start so gradually that I spend a large portion of time not knowing/denying that I am in labor. Not hard to do when I was having contractions 20 minutes apart for 2 days before hard labor started. Tuesday night around dinner time, I think Chris and I started realizing that this may be the real thing with contractions becoming a lot more painful. When I laid down to sleep at 9:00, I soon knew that there was no way that I would be sleeping that night.
When I am in labor, I am obsessed with being in the water. I got into the bath tub at around midnight and stayed for a few hours before we headed off to the hospital around 3:00 a.m. We went to the hospital a little earlier this time than we usually do. Upon arrival to the hospital, I immediately got into the water and stayed for another 4 hours. I think that I am pretty calm for the most part in labor, but I have to say that the couple of hours before I had Miriam were very intense and extremely unpleasant. Around 8:15, I felt the urge to push a little, but when they checked me, they told me I was only at an 8. I think that I psychologically made up my mind that this baby was coming, and at a 9,I started pushing. Pushing was insane. I pushed this baby out in 12 minutes!! Chris said that one second he saw the top of her head, and the next second, she was totally coming out. Like I said, I wanted the baby out :). When Miriam came out, is was so awesome to find out that she was a girl like I had suspected. It is so amazing how one minute I was in the depth of despair freaking out, and the next...I am holding my beautiful baby.
What a rush, and to share this whole experience with my husband was awesome. I can not imagine a better coach/partner in labor than Chris. He is pretty much a stud. He is so attentive during labor, putting chapstick on me or anything else that he thinks may distract me from the pain. Seriously....I am never more in love with my husband than when we go through this experience together (although at this point... I don't really see myself doing it again :). The nurses kept commenting on what a good team we are and I feel pretty blessed to have a great husband to share this experience with. I know that there are a million more details that I could share, but I am exhausted. Life is great. I adore this baby. The kids adore this baby. This recovery is going well.... although a bit harder than my last. Let's see if we can get some sleep tonight.

Cute kids, chore charts, and other business :)

*4 more days until my due date. Lots of contractions happening, so we will see when this little Becerra baby plans to come. Hopefully not right this second, I would love a good night's rest.
*I love how peaceful my life is right now. My plan of eliminating stuff from our lives has worked like a charm. I have so enjoyed the last few weeks enjoying my kiddos without major agendas.
*It's amazing how much better my kids behave when I am fully present with them (my brain has been in the clouds lately). Sounds like common sense, but I am a slow learner sometimes.
*Even though I in theory am not really fond of behavior charts, I thought I would give it a try out of desperation. After a couple of days, it was clear that the kiddo that I was hoping would love the idea... wasn't motivated at all by it, and the kid who didn't really need it as much was eating it up. Hmm.... on to my next plan to see what motivates this little man of mine.
*Aren't these kiddos cute? I have been pooped and impatient lately, but I would not trade my time with them for anything.

Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year. It was actually the first year in the almost 7 years that we have lived here that we were actually in Corvallis on Christmas. Lots of family came to hang out with us, and here a just a few of the pics (I am not even going to try to get totally caught up).


Sofia wanted to wear her fancy Christmas dress for dinner. We had a family talent show that night, and Sofia insisted that Chris paint her face for his talent :). She thinks that her daddy is the most talented at everything that he does.

Here's Gabe snitching some pumpkin/ginger trifle. I think he had eaten probably 3 servings before we caught him :).

My nephew Devin jamming for his talent.

Sofia immediately went to play with new art supplies in the play room.

This picture cracks me up. Gabe was pretty confused about why Santa Claus would include an orange in his stocking.

Gabe playing with his new horses. Gabe literally played all day.. only taking breaks to sneak treats :).
I love Christmas and New Years. As our family takes time to reflect on the Jesus' birth, it always gives me a renewed desire and energy to be more like him. Too bad nesting and hormones have gotten in my way a little of being the loving wife/friend/mama that I want to be :).

Thanksgiving and Christmas Awesomeness

I hope that everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We were going to be in California during Thanksgiving, but since Chris wasn't able to finish his Masters degree in time, we instead had a quiet Thanksgiving at home. I cooked a lot on Thanksgiving, but since I wasn't in the mood to deal with fighting a huge raw bird, I bought a cooked turkey from Trader Joes that just had to be throw in the oven an hour before. I won't do that again. It was not very good at all, but I guess I shouldn't have had high hopes. It was still a great Thanksgiving, and I don't ever want to take for granted (although I know that I often do) how much I have to be grateful for in my life.

Today we headed out to Kings Valley to Sunrise Christmas Tree Farm to look for and cut down the perfect Christmas tree. It was an awesome little farm, and I think that beginning next weekend, they will have a little petting zoo along with a few other things for kids to do. The kids had so much fun decorating the tree and pulling out our Christmas stuff (which I realized I don't really have that much of). The joy of children during the Holiday season is priceless, and I plan on enjoying every moment of this Holiday season.

Now on to my more random topic of the day. Nesting is in full gear folks. With a little under two months until the arrival of this baby, here are some ways that I know that I am nesting and a hormonal preggo lady:
*I have 90% of my Christmas shopping done. Although I enjoy shopping, I despise it during the Holiday season. I feel like making late night trips to Target, desperately searching for last minute gifts for people who don't really need anything to begin with is big Holiday ruiner for me. By shopping way ahead of time, I was able to put more thought into many of the gifts. I know that I potentially could have saved a lot of money by shopping today, but it is not worth the stress to me. I like the Holidays to be meaningful and low-stress, so having the shopping out of the way lets me put my focus on the more pleasant parts of Christmas.
*I was obsessed with getting a tree as early as possible, and we have already been listening to Christmas music for a week. I love Christmas, but I'm not usually this intense about getting the festivities rolling.
*I got pulled over two days ago and got my first ticket ever (well actually, I got two). I won't tell the whole story, but I would like to mention that I got a $140 ticket for not having my new address on my driver's license. Are you kidding me? Everything is totally current. Did you all know that you can get a ticket for not having your updated address on your driver's license? After being in the middle of a hard day to begin with, I became a sobbing mess after getting my tickets. I sobbed to Chris for a long time, and my sweet kids kept drawing me pictures to cheer me up, but once my raging hormone tears began to fall, there was no stopping them. I felt a little (actually a lot) insane in the membrane for awhile. I can think of a 1,000 ways I would rather spend $300. Hopefully my tickets will be lowered when I go to court.
*Okay, this one is a little weird, but my senses have kicked into high gear, and while at the beginning of pregnancy there are many smells that I can't handle (my kitchen, garlic etc...), at this stage, there are some smells that I love. I love love smelling lavender. I will literally sit and sniff my lavender essential oil bath salts that my friend made me for 5 minutes. I also found this random soap at the grocery outlet that is all natural that was made in Turkey. It is olive oil soap with Laurel, and I have to go smell it every once in awhile. It smells like dirt, and I for some reason am digging earthy smells right now. Okay, so I am admitting too much of my weirdness maybe, but I wasn't into smell as much during my other pregnancies. Are there any other smell obsessed pregnant women out there?
*My friend Adrienne came over the other day to show me how to make homemade yogurt. I am a changed woman, and I can not believe how economical it is to make homemade yogurt. It made me so happy to see my kids eating it up today. For how little patience I feel like I have lately, it is amazing how good I feel when I make things from scratch for my familia.
Okay... enough blabbing for one night. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Isn't it beautiful out there?? I suppose there is no better place to get a Christmas tree than Oregon.

Gabe is such a big boy carrying the Christmas tree the kids got to decorate in the play room.

Homeboy Chris busy at work doing his manly duty.

On a family walk on Thanksgiving down the street on our way to buy some apples at Twedts. I like my (for the most part) simple life.


You can see a little of my preggo belly. I feel like I am looking and feeling now how I usually feel at the very end of pregnancy, but I'm sure that chasing and lifting two other kids may have something to do with that :).