Yosemite Feb 2010 (Way overdue)

This is our annual trip that we do every year to Yosemite. We love going to Yosemite during Valentine's Day weekend because there is enough snow in the valley but nice outside where you can walk around without jackets. Sometimes the snow melts enough that the waterfalls are flowing and so are the rivers. Before we go into the village, we always stop in the valley where the snow is plentiful and we can make little snowmen and snow angels.

A friendly snow fight between father and son.

Not the greatest picture of me (I was about 6 mo preggers). Here we are at the Ahwahnee Lodge. It is our favorite place to visit and have a fantastic lunch.

Just love the wonderful scenery that Yosemite has. It is so peaceful out there.

One of the two snowmen that Jed and Collin made.

Half-dome.

Here I am, in all my glory. About 6months pregnant and big.

The final snowman of the day. We had an amazing vacation this year.

Our new bundle of joy!

We have another blessing in our life! Her name is Abigail Elizabeth Wheeler and she was born on May 18th. She weighed 8lbs 7oz. She is such a joy in our life and has completed our family.
She was not a happy camper when she came out. Then again when is a baby every happy to get out of such a warm place into a cold environment to get cleaned, poked and everything in between.

Here she is after they put the goop in her eyes. She was a lot more content in this picture.

Finally in her daddy's arms. She is already a daddy's girl and Jed doesn't even know it yet. My poor daughter will have no chance when she gets older. Between her daddy, big brother, uncle and tata (grandpa), she has a fort of men that guys are going to have to go through

Here she is getting checked out by our wonderful pediatrician, Dr Ruckle. She is great with both our kids and could not ask for a better doctor.

Here she is in her nana's arms at 6 wks old. She is already so alert, loves her tummy time and climbing on her daddy's tummy. She loves her big brother so much that every time she hears his voice she looks around to see where he is at. She is now 13.5lbs and is now 22 1/4in long. What can I say, we have chunky babies but they stretch out as they grow.

We are so blessed with two beautiful children in our lives. We could not be happier!

It has been awhile.......

Hello everyone! It has been over a year and let me tell you the year was filled with a lot of excitement. In Collin's life he did t-ball for the first time this year, he graduated from kindergarten, went to his first monster truck rally, participated in an art show and he turned 6. I have a 6 year old which is crazy! We also have a new addition in our family but that is on its own post. We are so proud of everything Collin has accomplished this past year.

Collin blowing out his candles on his birthday cake which I had to make to his specifications. He wanted his funfetti cake but with red in between (strawberry sauce) with blue frosting and his name in white frosting. My baby boy is 6!

Here he is standing in front of Gravedigger. The monster truck and driver did a signing at Jack in the box so we went to go see them. That weekend he went with Jed to see the rally at the Salinas Sports Complex.

Collin's teachers were amazing this year. I could not have asked for a better educational experience that he had to start him off on the right path. They were so great and really showed the kids that they can do a lot as long as you give it your all. Here he is getting his certificate of achievement for excellence in spelling. He can now read, write sentences and knows his addition facts from 1-5. He has blossomed so much and we are so proud of him.

His school had an art show at the end of the year and each class had their own section. This is one of his pieces he did and it was his favorite one. I am so happy that he is able to have art as part of his school experience and he has an amazing teacher.

Here is a picture of Collin with his T-ball team. He did amazing seeing as this was his first time participating in an organized sport. After the first game the coach decided to start pitching to the kids and Collin did great. From then on, the coach pitched to each child....so it was T-ball for the first game.

Golfing with Daddy!

With the violence in Salinas, we had to stop with Collin's lessons for the fact that a lot of the shootings were just getting a little to close to the actual golf course we were at. This however has not stopped Collin's interest in golf and of course Jed being able to do the sport he loves with his son. They always have such a good time golfing at the park by our house. This needs to soon change to a different venue because Collin has improved on his swing that we are afraid he might hit a window or a car.

Collin loves watching his daddy hit golf balls.

Here is Collin taking a swing at it.

In mid swing.

His follow through.

We are definitely taking advantage of the warmer weather to go outdoors. It is the start of our summer, so the posts will be coming more back to back.

xoxoxo
Veronica and Jed

He Did It, He Is FINALLY Done!!!!!!!

Hello everyone! I know it has been a long time since our last post, but I promise it was for good reason! This was Jed's last semester of school and we both had a full course load on top of preparing for his graduation. This last semester was long and hard especially at the very end of the semester with his presentation and both of our finals. Nevertheless, we survived and we were both so excited when we were officially done for the semester.

Jed's capstone presentation was amazing. What is a capstone you ask? Well it is like a senior thesis and they have to present it to the Dean's of the school. His presentation was on Thursday (5/14), and the graduation was on Saturday May 16th at 10:30am. The day could not be more beautiful. We were expecting a heat wave, but not to the extent that it hit. We were also out in the open stadium with minimal shade....it was soooo worth it.

Jed was so excited as were we and the rest of his and my family. His mom, brother, sister and brother in law came into town. My parents were also able to come and see this wonderful day. I could not be more proud of Jed. He has worked so hard to finish his degree and it has paid off. He already has a job lined up which starts in 2 weeks. We are so proud of him!

This was right before the ceremony. Collin was so excited for his daddy. That morning when we woke up, he came into the room and said, "Happy Graduation Day Daddy!" He was so proud of his daddy!

Here he is walking to the sitting area for the graduates.

This is Collin's tent that he made with my wrap because it got very warm. He loved his little tent because it had nice shade.

He also had to have a cushion that they were selling for the bleacher seats. He loved them and as you can see he used it as a pillow.

This was at the very end of the ceremony. There was so much excitement and emotion in the air. It was such a wonderful day!

We, The Wheeler family would just like to thank everyone for all of the support that we have received throughout the years. We could not have done it without the support of our wonderful families and friends. We love all of you!

with a lot of love
Veronica and Jed

Happy Easter !

Hello Everyone!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday! We had a busy day, but it was a lot of fun! Of course the day started off like any other Sunday with our trip to San Carlos Cathedral. The mass of course was wonderful. Bishop Garcia of the Monterey Diocese presided today's mass and we all went as a big family. My mother, father, aunt, uncle and cousin joined us this morning. After mass there was a mini egg hunt on the grounds of the church, so of course Collin decided he wanted to (even though it was his third this weekend) and my cousin took part as well. When the kids were done with that we headed back home to start our cooking for the day.
However there was one important thing to do before we went home. I needed to stop and get this wonderful and glorious concoction called Starbucks!!!!!!

What a wonderful site this is! Forty Days and not a single dollar spent there and of course no coffee at all! What was I thinking? Nevertheless I survived those 40 days with many temptations to give in! I felt good giving it up for so long but there were some mornings where I could have benefited from the wonderful aroma that brings this beauty to my nose. Nevertheless I did prevail!




Once we stopped at the drive-thru for the wonderful creation called coffee, it was time for Collin to see what the Easter bunny brought for him in his basket. He received both the movie and book of The Tale of Despereaux. He was so excited to see the movie because "Its in High Definition Mommy!!!" I was laughing so hard because he sounded like a commercial. He was equally excited about the book and demanded that we read it tonight for bedtime.




When my parents arrived, my mother also brought him an Easter basket. She bought him real dominoes because last year she bought him some but they were wooden and they had numbers on them instead of the traditional ones. He loves to play with my dads set, so he now wanted the 'real' dominoes to play with. He was very happy with that.



Here he is going through his basket of goodies. He received a lot of eggs with goodies in them. But there was something special in the basket that he kept skipping over.


Here he was pulling out his very own flashlight that he could crank up to recharge. That way if he forgets to turn it off the battery does not waste. Still oblivious about the special part of his basket.



There is the special part of his basket. Cold hard cash and he was not even noticing it. He was more interested about the candy and books he received.





Here is playing with the stuff he had already had pulled from the basket and still unaware of the money in his basket.




See his expression? He finally noticed the money in his basket. He screamed "Money!!!!" Was so excited about the money in his basket.



Admiring his $10 bill. He immediately put it in his Panama bank. It is a little bank that my mom brought back from Panama and she told him that if he filled it up that she would take him to Panama with her. Ever since then he picks up every little bit of change around the house to add to his collection. I find him many times with his hands in the couches to find loose change. He tells me that he needs to find all of the money he can so that he can go to Panama with his Nana.




Excited about his new books that he received from my mom. He had noticed the winnie the pooh book at my dad's house earlier in the week and had asked about it but of course he knew it was for him so when he saw it he said, "I knew this book was for me!" You cannot get anything past him.



Here he is looking over his inventory of this Easter. Of course he knows though the real reason why we have Easter, the religious aspect of it. He is becoming more aware of his religious questions recently and is really enjoying the regular Sunday masses that we attend. It makes us very happy because when he starts Kindergarten he will have more formal religion classes so now he will really have a better understanding about everything.

We started the cooking process and made a lot of food. We had turkey, ham, rice, potato salad, Panamanian potato salad and plantains. It was all so delicious! We had a great time spending it surrounded with our family, eating great food and of course watching the Masters.

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter day surrounded by the people who you love!

with love
Veronica

Easter Eggs

Today I invited some of Collin's friends and his cousin over to decorate eggs for Easter. The boys had a blast and as you can see they had mostly blue or green eggs. They were so into the whole process loved the different options that they had. I was amazed on how many options they had. We had a glow in the dark kit, secret message kit, speckled kit and then of course the regular dye kits and sticker kits. When it was all said and done we went back in the house (because we were outside to not dye the floors) and had a little treat that we made for them. We have a lot more adventures to come this weekend. Easter egg hunt tomorrow, birthday party, then mass on Sunday and family time after that. Busy weekend but looking forward to it.

xoxo
Veronica

Yes we are still alive......somewhat!

Where to begin. We have been gone from the blogging world for so long! (Yes Stephanie and Aliotti... it is about time!) Well Collin's golf lessons had to stop due to the violence that has been ongoing for quite some time in Salinas. It never stopped us before, however, towards the end of January a shooting happened that was only 3 blocks away from the golf course. We have yet to return to Salinas. Collin was sad but we still do take him out to hit golf balls at the park or the actual golf courses we have close by.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous out here in Monterey. We have had minimal rain (which I know we will be paying for it in the summer) and actual warmth with our sun. With this wonderful weather we have been able to attend our wonderful farmers market on Tuesdays. We have our juice lady who makes the best fresh fruit juices that are all natural! They are amazing! We also have our burrito guy who makes the best fresh tortillas and burritos. We have been able to hit the beach or the park depending on the day of the week. We could not ask for better weather during this time of year.

We got a new car! It is absolutely amazing! We are so blessed to have been given the opportunity to buy it (Thank You Uncle Jeff). We did need it seeing as my Honda was from '96 with only one working seat belt in the back and many well loved miles. With Collin getting bigger and with more extra curricular activities we needed a car that gave us some extra breathing room. We (especially me since I drive it everyday) are very happy with the car.

School is in full force right now! Jed is officially graduating this semester (clap,clap,clap,clap) and I am so proud of him! He has stuck with it for so long, even when he was ready to throw his hands up, and is done this May! He already has his cap and gown and watch for those save-the-dates in the mail soon with the exact time and date of the graduation! As for my schooling it is going. It has been such a tough semester between Collin, Jed's school schedule, my school schedule, my work schedule and with Jed's senior capstone. His capstone is what is taking up most of his time because it is just like a thesis which he has to present to the deans of the Business School of CSUMB. They have to do it in groups so whenever he has to meet, it is really hard to say no because there are 2 other members in the group that also have lives of their own. We both have been trying to get a little more flexible with meeting times but it is very difficult.

Work has been going great! I work with some really incredible ladies! I am so happy that I was able to have one more semester with Sami, but I am sad that she is leaving. I am so stoked that my best friend MarMar came back to help us out! I love working with her. I am equally stoked that my mormon buddy Stephanie is working with us as well but will miss her when she goes back to Utah in the summer and not returning in the Fall (to the preschool). Also.....Nicole is coming back which just makes me so happy! I cannot wait to get to work with her this summer!

So I have also had some down time inbetween this craziness that I call my life to be able to meet some really cool people. First off I have the best moms from my preschool! They are sooo kind and caring and wonderful people. I have had the chance a couple of times to get to hang out with them outside of work/school and they are just amazing women. Support our troops but also we need to Support our troops spouses because they do so much at the homefront and we love them!

I also got hooked to a game, thanks Nicole, called Scrabble! I love this game and you better believe that once this semester is over we would probably play every night if we could. We play almost every weekend and yes she does win. However, I did win once and it was a beautiful thing! We need to do more game nights and start introducing other games....again though this needs to happen after the semester is over.

Jed has been snowboarding for many, many years now and as I said before with our wonderful weather we have been recieving, it has been hard to hit the slopes without the precipitation to get the snow. However towards the end of Feb. and most of Mar. he has been able to go and snowboard for the day. However, he did get hurt this season which has his left shoulder out of commision. He has a 2nd degree AC separation and his bone is sticking up on top of his shoulder. He went to see the orthopedic surgeon and he does not need to have surgery! Just needs to wear a funny brace/sling and let it heal on its own. So far the bone has gone down in just 3 weeks which is a really good sign. He is still going to get an MRI down to make sure that there was not any more damage done to the shoulder and of course he will be out on the slopes again next season!

Collin is going to Kindergarten in Aug!!!! I am so proud of him but it is also very bittersweet! My baby is no longer my little baby. He is so grown up and has become such a wonderful young boy! Now I know that he will always be my little boy, but he has also gotten to that stage where he looks at me like why are you still hugging me and kissing me? He will start Aug 4th at San Carlos School. I am so excited that we got him into that school because that is where I went and came out with some really great lifelong friendships that are still very strong to this day. He is excited too!

So this is what is going on so far in our lives. We are definitely trying to survive this semester. Plan a graduation celebration for Jed, planning for Easter this weekend, hoping for our wonderful Passover meal (thank you Weinraubs!), surviving final papers and exams, and celebrating Collin's 5th birthday. I will try my best to maintain this site for all of our family and friends, but again this semester is one of the craziest ever!

with much love
Veronica and Jed

Pictures from the past couple of months!

Collin driving our new car! Anyone who knows me knows that this was long overdue. Yes it was a huge upgrade. Nevertheless it was still a much needed car.

Having a blast playing chase with daddy!

So excited because of the balloon he was holding.

Getting help from his nana to climb the wall.

This is one of my favorite pictures of March. We were at Dennis the Menace Park for my cousin's birthday party.

I just loved how this picture turned out! I am glad they kept some of their jellies!

He actually touched the starfish! He is always very apprehensive on touching anything that is allowed.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium

He buried himself.

We actually had a string of nice weather early on this year, so we take the opportunity to head to the beach and enjoy the weather!

I cannot believe where the time has gone! He is going to Kindergarten in Aug!

It was such a beautiful day so I took the opportunity to take Collin's Spring pics.

I love this picture! He is such a ham!

Collin in his Easter outfit. His official Spring pictures of the year. Taken in PG. It was all him posing like that as well.