Kaylee Wynn San Miguel

We're very thankful for our little Kaylee Wynn born two weeks ago today. She was a healthy 7lbs 12oz. She's doin' good at home adjusting to mom, dad, and big sister! And vice versa! Alyssa loves her baby sister hugging and kissing her all the time. She jumps at the chance to hold her, which she constantly wants to do. Mom is doin' good on small amounts of sleep, she's a real trooper! In other news, Alyssa continues to show that she's growing up too fast. She asks everyone she meets their favorite animal and color. The other day she started singing the chorus to 'Blossom' a James Taylor song I sing and play for her every night. She also knows portions of 'House at Pooh Corner' another essential bedtime tune. Good times... Hope everyone is doing well! -Bryan

Well its only about 9 days till our second little girl is due and we are eager to meet her. But I can't help but feel a slight twinge of sadness that it will no longer be just the three of us. I will especially miss all the times that Alyssa and I have had with just the two of us. She cracks me up every day with all the funny, silly, crazy things she does and says. I know I won't be able to focus as much exclusive time on her as we have been used to. It will probably be even harder on Miss Alyssa, but I am hoping that her interest for her new little sister will win over her jealousy. So here is a picture of her in one of her cute, silly moments.

Front Sight

• I had the opportunity a few years back to attend a couple of 2-day handgun courses at Front Sight, just outside of Las Vegas. It's been important for me to know how to properly handle a firearm, and this training is no doubt world class! Every one who owns a firearm should attend one of the many courses offered.
• Front Sight Firearms Training Institute
• Ignatius Piazza - founder of Front Sight
• Ignatius Piazza Blog
• Front Sight - on USA Today
• Ignatius Piazza - in Las Vegas Sun
• Ignatius Piazza - in Las Vegas Life
• Ignatius Piazza - in Las Vegas Mercury
• My Experience at Front Sight
• Ignatius Piazza - in Fort Worth Star Telegram
• Front Sight - in Pajaronian Register
• Front Sight - in Guns & Ammo
• Ignatius Piazza - in Times Democrat
• Front Sight - in El Pais Seminal
• Front Sight - in London Times
• Ignatius Piazza - in Las Vegas Review
• Ignatius Piazza - in Chicago Tribune
• Front Sight - in Black Belt Magazine
• Ignatius Piazza - on Reform America
• Front Sight - in New York Times
• Ignatius Piazza - in San Francisco Chronicle
• Front Sight - in Los Angeles Times
• Ignatius Piazza - in Small Arms Review
• Front Sight - in Icon Magazine
• Front Sight - in Sierra Times
• Ignatius Piazza - on World Net Daily
• Front Sight - on CNN
• Front Sight - on BBC News
• Front Sight - in US News & World Report
• Ignatius Piazza - in Washington Post
• Ignatius Piazza - in Handvapen Guiden
• Ignatius Piazza - in National Enquirer
• Front Sight - in Cybercast News Service
• Front Sight - in Gun Web
• Front Sight - in Santa Cruz Sentinel
• Ignatius Piazza - in Forbes Magazine
• Ignatius Piazza - in El Mercurio
• Front Sight - in Financial Times
• Ignatius Piazza - in Gun World
• Front Sight - in The Mail on Sunday Review

summer fun

Just thought I would add a little update, mostly through pictures about our summer so far. We have been having alot of pool fun; the kids love being in the water. We've also made a few trips to the beach, where Alyssa mostly likes to spend her time playing in the sand. Sea World has also been a favorite place to go, especially for Alyssa since sea creatures are her favorite. Our fourth of July was great, although hot, as usual. We spent a couple of hours ar our church picnic, hanging out with the church family. Then we headed up to my parents house for their picnic, and the kids(including Bryan) had fun splashing in the kiddie pool and playing on the slip-n-slide. It was nice hanging out with the folks from our old church that we don't get to see often enough. And we had an awesome view and "preferred parking" at the Young's house for the Ramona fireworks. We thought Alyssa might be afraid of the fireworks, since she has recently developed a fear of loud things, but she sat on her daddy's lap and seemed to thoroughly enjoy them, and was even cheering and clapping. So thats our summer so far in a nutshell.

I've been tagged- 7 random facts about me

So Genevieve tagged me a while ago, but as usual I've taken a while to get around to doing it. The rules are to blog 7 random facts about yourself and then tag seven other people who then are supposed to blog 7 random facts about themselves. So here are my 7 facts:

1. For some reason I am not the best about writing about myself, or about writing in general. I think that I am just to boring sounding or something. Oh well.
2. I have serious wanderlust; I would like to visit just about anywhere.
3. I love surfing, although I am not that good at it.
4. Bryan and I were only dating for about 4 months when he proposed to me. And we just celebrated 6 years of marriage in June. Woo hoo!
5. I miss Genevieve.
6. When Bryan and I were in Belgium, we had to spend the night trying to sleep on benches at the train station, because there were no rooms available. And it was cold, brrrr.
7. Right now I feel like a big ol' pregnant lady, and despise the heat we have been having. (complain, complain)
So here's the thing, about this game unfortunately I can't think of 7 people to tag; I think Genevieve tagged a couple that I might have tagged, I don't know that many people who blog, but I will try Candy and Scotty, and I can say without a doubt that Scott won't participate.

Preggie pics

Here are the latest preggie pics of me. In the first one I was about 25 and 1/2 wks. In the second, I was about 28 and 1/2 wks. We still haven't come up with a name for our new little girl, but we are working on it. I have been going through the baby name books and writing anything down that I like, and then I'll have to go back and narrow it down. Then Bryan and I will have to agree on one we both like; thats the hard part. Everything is going well with the baby; I passed my glucose test. Yay! I am just starting to get to the more uncomfortable stage and am starting not to sleep as well, but its all a part of the normal woes of pregnancy. I really can't complain too much, since nothing is out of the ordinary, and thank the Lord, I am healthy and, more importantly, the baby seems to be doing well also. Well thats all for now. I need to do more updates about Alyssa and about our summer so far, but mayber later....

trip:finale

After we left Monterey and the aquarium, much to Alyssa's dismay(she probably could have spent the whole vacation there), we drove to Hume Lake. This happened to be on Bryan's birthday, so I kinda felt bad, because all he did was drive all day. Well it wasn't that long of a drive, only about 4 or 5 hours, but we took our time. We were going to be spending the next three nights staying at Hume Lake Christian camp, for free!! Our pastor had suggested that we look into Hume lake because it was really pretty, and because they probably would give us a discount, since Bryan helps teach the youth group at our church. When Bryan contacted the camp to ask for rates, they told him that we could come and stay for three nights on them as long as they were week days(since they have retreats, etc. on the weekends.) It was awesome! The setting was so beautiful with the lake and the trees and the snowcapped mountains in the distance- the idyllic mountain lake scene. On top of that, our room was very nice,clean, and big, and the location was great for visiting the national parks. We spent the next few days exploring Sequoia and Kings Canyon and also just spent time relaxing by the lake and vegging in our room. We went on a tour of Boyden cavern in Kings Canyon which was very cool, and saw several very awesome waterfalls as well as the gushing King River. In Sequoia we saw the huge redwoods, of course, and hiked all 300 some stairs up Moro Rock. I was so proud of Alyssa, because she climbed up all the stairs on her own. I was pretty impressed that my little 2 yr old did so well and actually handled it more easily than I did. You do have to cut me a little slack, though, since I was 5 months pregnant at the time. The view from the top was definitely worth the effort, with several mountain ranges in view. After our three nights at Hume Lake, we stayed one night in Three Rivers, which is at the base of the mountains. The change in weather was slightly shocking. We had just spent the last few days in 60s-70s during the day, and then to come to this town were the temp was around 95. We took Alyssa to cool off in the hotel pool, and she loved it. While we were down at the pool we spent about half an hour chatting with a very nice couple from Holland; they were both flight attendants. After a good night's rest, we let Alyssa go for one more dip in the pool, and then headed out for our long drive to Big Bear to meet up with our parents at their place there and spent the weekend hanging out with them and with Scotty, which is always very fun. We were blessed with a very enjoyable and safe trip, and we were very happy with how well Alyssa travelled. As usual, I wasn't ready for the vacation to end and to have to go back to reality, but I felt relaxed and grateful that we were able to go on this trip.

trip: part three

Well I hope I'm not boring anyone with the details of our vacation, and its taking me long enough to get it all down. But I am not only doing this to share, but also to make a record for myself, in case I ever get around to scrapbooking this trip. Well this day, we spent the majority of our time at the Monterey bay aquarium. We knew that this would definitely be on the agenda, since Alyssa was sure to enjoy it, and she did. Our hotel was about 2 miles from the aquarium, so we decided to walk, enjoy the scenery, and save the hassle of parking. We explored the aquarium for a while, and then took a lunch break and

had some clam chowder at Cannery Row, and then went back for more sea creatures. My favorite part of the aquarium was probably the jelly fish exhibits and the kelp forest. The jellyfish were magnificent, and they had all colors and sizes and shapes on display. The kelp forest was a three story tank with all kinds of sea creatures swimming around, as well as a scuba diver feeding the fish and answering questions from the crowd. Alyssa's favorite was the kid's play area complete with all kinds of water play, tunnels, and a slide. We finished off the day with a drive down to Carmel to watch the sunset on the beach. But the highlight of the day was actually nontrip related; we got a pix message from my sister Larissa of a positive pregnancy test. Woohoo! Another niece or nephew! Its exciting too, because our new baby and their's will only be about 4 months apart.

trip: part two

On this particular day of our trip, we started the day with a tasty and very filling breakfast at our hotel and went for a walk around the gardens at our hotel in Cambria and visited their nursery, which my mom would have loved. Then we headed up the coast on our way to Monterey. So this day was just mostly devoted to taking our time on this stretch of highway 1 and enjoying the views. We stopped at this one beach that was covered with literally hundreds of elephant seals, and we saw Hearst Castle from afar. We would have loved to take a tour, but we figured that that would not be a good idea for Alyssa right now or for anyone else on the tour. Its very unlikely that she would be quiet for a 45 minute guided tour; so maybe when she's a little older. We drove the very scenic and windy stretch of Big Sur, finally ending in Monterey. We checked into our cute, but very small hotel room in Pacific Grove, where we would be staying for the next two nights, and headed to a local seafood restaurant recommended by the guy at the front desk. It turned out to be a very good recommendation, and we even had time to take a drive around town before it got too dark and found another awesome playground for Alyssa. It was a very unique playground called the Dennis the Mennis playground with long curvy slides, tunnels, climbing wall, a real train you could climb on and more. Alyssa had a blast, and so did daddy.

vacation: day one

We are back from our trip; actually we have been for a few days, but I haven't had the time or the motivation to update our blog. So I have a ton of pictures, and I wanted to share some highlights from our trip but I thought I might break it up into pieces. We had an awesome time together and Alyssa traveled really well; we were very happy with how good she was. So the first night we left late and stayed in Ventura, in order to avoid LA traffic. Then the next day we stopped in Santa Barbara for a very short time and found a unique fun little playground for Alyssa to play on. Then we stopped in Solvang and had lunch and some delicious pastries. Then on up the coast to Cambria for the night. We loved Cambria and almost wished we could have stayed a couple nights. We stayed in the Cambria Pines Lodge, which had the most beautiful gardens to walk around in, and the little village of Cambria itself was very enchanting. I would definitely recommend it as a must see; when you drive into Cambria you feel like you are in some mountain town with all the beautiful pines, you could almost forget that you are also only a mile or two from the ocean. Oh I almost forgot another must see on our way to Cambria. We stopped at Avila beach which is actually about 3 miles off the 101; you wouldn't even know it was there, if you didn't follow the signs. We did a little beachcombing and Alyssa played on the cute playground there too. We were commenting on how vacations change, when you have a toddler with you, and we were laughing at how finding cool playgrounds was high on the agenda for this trip. (p.s. I am sorry for how the pics are showing up; I am having trouble getting them to line up the way I want them too.)

goin' on a trip!!

We are leaving for our vacation on Wednesday. Woohoo!! I absolutely love going on trips visiting new places or old favorites. We are doing a little California driving trip up the coast to Monterey and then to Sequoia. We'll stop along the way at various beaches and whatever strikes our fancy- I always look forward to driving just about any stretch of the CA coast; the first part of the trip will be focused on the Big Sur section. Then over to Sequoia National Park where we will be staying at Hume Lake for 3 nights. I was the one pushing for this trip, because I thought it would be nice to go on one last litttle excursion as a family of three, before we have a newborn and have to wait again for a while to do much of anything. This is a good time too, because I am not miserably big yet, the weather is right, and we'll beat the summer vacation crowd, and most importantly of all, we have our tax return money in hand. Then after our family trip, we are meeting up with my parents to relax at their place in Big Bear. Hopefully, I will be posting some pics, when we get home. Now I need to go do laundry and pack.

My girl

Well, I thought that I would just try to post a short entry, since it has been a while. So I think I will write about one of my favorite subjects, my daughter. : ) I just can't believe how big she is getting; it doesn't help that she is very tall for her age and knows so much, sometimes she seems older than two. No! Stop growing up so fast! Of course, I love to watch her learning new things every day and delighting in the simplest things. She cracks me up sometimes with the silly things that she comes up with, and she cracks herself up too. I think that she is alot like her daddy. I am so interested to see what her little sister will be like. Will they be alike or will they be total opposites? We'll see.

Easter in retro

Well I wanted to write about Easter Sunday sooner, but I was waiting for these wonderful photos from Scott. Aren't these an adorable bunch of kiddos; Alyssa had a good time with her cousins Caleb, Jadon and Ella at grandma and grandpa's house. The weather was not your typical sunny easter weather. It was cloudy and cool, but at least it didn't really rain, only a slight mist, so the kids still got to enjoy playing in grammy and grandpa's yard. We had an awesome dinner put on by mommy Pelton with the traditional ham, mashed potatoes, broccoli, etc. and, best of all, strawberry shortcake for dessert! (my favorite) But the most important part of the whole day was celebrating and remembering the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He didn't just come and die on a cross, but He rose on the third day, just like He said He would. Hallelujah, what a Savior!!

It's a.......

GIRL!!!! We had the big appointment today. My doctor says that he gives us at least a 95% probability that we are having another girl. The sonogram was a pretty good one, and the picture seemed fairly obviously a girl and not a boy. But my doc always likes to leave a little room for the other possibility. I will be having a few more sonograms, I'm sure, so we can have some verification later too. In the meantime, we definitely need to be looking for girl names. We had a boy name already picked but no girl names. I hope Bryan and I can agree on something. You know how that goes. So, needless to say, we are very excited; we would have been just as excited if it was a boy. On the practical side a girl will be very convenient; we really don't need much of anything, except maybe a double stoller and another bed for Alyssa. And it will sure make sharing a room very easy.

Welcome!

Hey everyone! Welcome to our new blogspot. We hope to keep everyone better updated on what's happening with Alyssa really, and Chandi and myself as well :) So stay tuned for updates and pictures.