It's fuckin' freezing here... Seriously!

So, this morning Vaughn was up around 6 am for his morning boob and Jonesy was whining to be let outside for a pee as usual. The last day or two, Juli has let him out to pee and told me about the frost on the grass in the backyard - but I didn't get out of bed to see it for myself even though she plucked a piece and brought it into the bedroom, I didn't think it was the entire yard, just a patch here or there. Now, this is Southern California and even though it has been unusually cold for this time of year there is no way a whole yard freezes in Costa Mesa, or does it? When I walked outside I thought there was something weird going on and with a little further inspection I saw that the backyard was frozen over. I ran inside to get the camera to document Jonesy tiptoeing across the ice to take a pee, and I even had to pick him up and carry him back inside since apparently he's a little pansy about getting his feet cold. Good thing I put on my slippers before wandering out. I'm wish I would have taken some video of him walking on the frozen grass, but I was a little too slow on the camera. I did, however get some good footage of Juli's left tater squirting a thick line of breast milk half way across our bedroom without even so much as a squeeze - but something tells me that she wouldn't be too stoked on me posting that video here.

It may be a white Christmas after all - even without Wade around!

Standing on ice in the backyard

Jonesy's weiner looked like a smoking gun after unleashing hot pee all over the ice field

Vaughn bites his way out of the womb

Again I went way too long without an update and wouldn't you know... Vaughn has pierced the womb and is silently sleeping in the swingy thing next to me right now. December 5th, 2007 is his birthday and he came out weighing in at 7 lbs. 12 ounces, which makes him a little small for the fried turkey pot, but hopefully by xmas the tater milk will bring him up to weight. We didn't get to eat the placenta, i think one of the nurses dropped it on the floor, therefore making it inedible, bummer! Here's some photos... expect more, hopefully by the end of the year.

The first official self timer family portrait!

Daddy's still working!

Vaughn looks like a tortise and I look like jabba the hut

Jonesy is going to make a great babysitter!

Apparently placenta tastes like filet mignon...

Or so I read on the internet somewhere. Juli said if I really want to, I can eat the placenta. Yummy. We're full term, only two or three weeks left till the placenta feast at our house. Yippe, make your reservations now!

Time Flies....

So, its been a while. Oops. Time sure does fly when you're having fun...

We spent a week in Kauai!

Weekend trip to Mexico!

So it has been a while since we ventured sown to Mexico, and we made the decision not too until after the baby was born. But then last weekend was a three day weekend cause of Columbus Day, so kinda at the last minute we decided that Juli, Jonesy and Vaughn could all handle a few days in Mexico and we hopped in the truck and made the trek. The traffic was light and when we pulled up to the house there was no one there but Doug. Weird for a holiday weekend, but we weren't complaining! The next few days were spent sitting on the back porch reading books, staring at the ocean, lounging on the couch in front of the tv, stuffing our faces with turkey tacos and chasing our tails on the beach (ok, that was only Jonesy). The weather was absolutely perfect, and the waves were small but fun - although I was kicking myself for not bring my longboard, again! We didn't even go into Ensenada, there was no need. Jonesy played on the beach and I picked him up and walked out to deeper water and dropped him in where he sank right to the bottom, then decided that he'd better start swimming and did the doggy paddle to the beach. All in all it was a perfect weekend of relaxing and doing a whole lot of nothing - just what the doctor ordered after the hell month of traveling and tradeshows from September. In between all that we managed to celebrate mine and Juli's birthday, so we've been busy and I have been slipping on updating this, so more stuff coming from back then.
Here's some photos:
You gotta have the handheld self portraits!

And you gotta use your camera's self timer!

Jonesy discovered that he really likes the beach and the water.

Yup, the belly button has officially popped out!

Juli sat in the sun and read the entire time.

And the sunsets were very nice...

Family in Florida

Here's a quick update and a photo of Grandma and Grandpa Old Moldy, with Auzie Suzy, Mama, Luke and Jessie. They came by the Expo on Saturday and Grandma didn't want to leave cause she was too busy watching the skate contest. I got more photos coming up of Juli's massive stomach and the other usual crap like the dog. Not too exciting, but that's what life has become.

I went to Florida to babysit

Just kidding, I went to Florida for another damn tradeshow, but did get to go out to dinner with Mom, Joey, Jessie and Luke. That was pretty much the highlight of my trip, and going back to the hotel room to change Luke where my sister let me hold him upside down by one leg for this photo. I'm was just practicing for what's coming out of Juli in a couple more months. Jessie also gave us a cool stroller that I had to take home and pushed through the airport with my luggage piled on top. Strollers make a great bag cart and since they don't allow bag carts inside the terminals but they do allow strollers it was perfect. I really think you could make a lot of money by manufacturing and marketing baby strollers for single people who travel so they can always have a luggage cart with them. There are so many fat and lazy people around that I really think you could make some serious money doing that. Anyway, I almost had to spend the night in Denver, but we made our connecting flight with a minute to spare and that was good. Birthday week is here, Juli is feeling good but getting fatter, and I'm off to Austin for another skate contest this weekend... so more posts coming soon as soon as I feel like it.

Damn good food

Last Monday I flew out to Las Vegas for Shaun White's 21st birthday party, we gambled, drank and I ate a huge steak for dinner. It was the best piece of meat I've ever had and best of all it was all free! Hooray for millionaires!

Labor Day weekend is for labor???

So it's Labor Day weekend, the first weekend of September and its pretty mcuh the hottest days of the summer around here, even though Fall is quickly approaching. Today I drove down to San Diego and surfed with Robbie in the morning, had a lot of fun, the waves were small but good and I love the beach in Encinitas, actually pretty much everything about Encinitas is better than Orange County. Anyway, came home and then the Labor started, we took the beast to the dog park, cleaned house, did laundry, washed both our cars, typical labor day crap. Juli passed out in the baby's room cause we put a ceiling fan in there and its now the coolest room in the house. Nothing too exciting but it was a fun day none the less. We got a birthday party to attend tomorrow, a couple of BBQ's, Seb and Nellie are in town from France, the surf is up, sun is out and there's two more days of the weekend left so some good things are sure to go down. Here's some random photos, more to come cause I got a new digi cam that needs to get some serious use.

Robbie, the oldest brother, going surfing.

Juli can sure cook a mean plate of Rice A' Roni!

The other wall in the babies/guest room - we (ok, mostly Juli) sanded and painted the crappy dresser and now its nice and even matches the crib!

This is Juli passed out in the baby's room/guest room

I just like this photo cause she's so cute. Six months pregnant and you can't even tell and she still thinks she's fat! Women, geez!

Howlin' at the Red Moon!

Last night I set the alarm for 3:30 am and woke Juli up to go outside and look at the red moon. I thought it was going to be stupid, but when I looked up into the sky I was amazed to see a huge, full moon in the sky that was glowing red. There were no clouds, so you could really see it nicely. It was a full lunar eclipse, it was pretty neat. So we stood outside in the backyard for a few minutes and then went back to sleep. What would have been really funny is if someone for some odd reason had been up at 3:30 in the morning and decided that they would peer over our fence, they'd have seen two naked people and a dog staring into the sky looking at a red moon. Sweet.

Same old stuff

Not much has been going on these days, just the same old stuff. We went to a friends wedding in Huntington a couple weeks ago, this is the dressed up photo for that. Other than work and the routine baby check ups, we are pretty damn boring. We had more ultrasounds done this week, everything looks good. Jonesy's balls are all healed up and he's back to running around like normal. Yawn. We pretty much suck.

bye bye dog balls!

Poor Jonesy. In life doesn't it always seems like when things are looking up some kind of horrible disaster comes through at just the right time and BAM, your whole world is turned upside down. As I type this he is at the Vets office getting his little nads chomped off. Just as they were getting big enough to get a little bit of a hang down - snip they go. Oh well, at least we ponied up the extra $50 to get him put out completely. Can you imagine getting your balls removed without local anesthetic? That's fucking nuts! Actually, its not nuts. HA!

rip-van-animals

We sleep in our house. A lot. And so do the vermin, here they are:

The kitties are no longer kitties, but they still snuggle on top of my dresser and think of new ways to torment the dog.

Juli and Vaughn watch TV and Jonesy naps on the floor

Then Jonesy crawls up on me and sleeps on my stomach, not gonna be doing this much longer, he's getting too big

Some new older photos

My pops is over in Hawaii working on a boat, and on boats there is plenty of free time, so he brought a scanner and has started cataloging all his old photos and keeps sending me some old shots of us when we were little. I'm exactly the same age as my dad was when I was born, so I think he's just trying to get me prepared.

My parents with four rugrats in Hawaii. Juli thinks my mom looks like a mermaid here, I think she always does.

This is at out house in Florida with our two cousins, katie and lauren. I'm in the naked one in the tree.

You catch kids just like they were cats!

Pops and Robbie, checking me out.

Vaughn Royal Marshall

So.... I haven't told Juli this yet, but I always thought it was kinda stupid and totally pretentious that people would name their kids before they were born. And I guess it still is (especially if they aren't even conceived yet), but now I can see how at six months pregnant you already have a name. Juli and I went back and forth on about a dozen different names, and if I had a dollar for every time she said, "that's it, that's the name, its final!" I'd have... well... about 12 dollars. But then we finally have decided on a good boy's name: Vaughn. I suggested it, and Juli liked it. At first she said she was going to pick the name and I could pick the middle name, but since technically I came up with Vaughn, she has picked Royal for the middle name, because it apparently means Red in Gaelic, or Scottish, or Irish or all of them. I thought it was a cool, and then I realized the significance to Royal Tennenbaum and now I think its awesome. Hooray for Royal. Anyway, now the big thing is what the little booger will look like. Every time we go back to the doctor and get more ultrasounds we can see more and more of what he's gonna look like, Juli already thinks he's gonna look more like me (and hopefully he will being a boy). But any kid that's a cross between me and Juli is sure to look pretty damn good if you ask me. Anyway, my Pops sent these photos of me when I was a little tyke, and being that Juli had blonde hair too, it’s looking like there's a little toe-head on the way. If it comes out black, we may have a problem.

Fatty update

Juli is pretty much getting noticeably bigger by the day. The halfway point has come and gone and now we are just playing the wonderful game of hurry up and wait. Seriously, you know the saying that a watched pot never boils? That's how being pregnant is, except it lasts for nine months! You're always watching and waiting and shit just never happens. Actually, I did feel the baby kick for the first time the other night. It was more like he was dancing though, he was going nuts in there. So more of that for the next few months until he comes out kicking and screaming... ok, I'm going home now work has been hell lately. Good night.

Happy Birthday Old Moldy!

Today is my Grandpa's 80th birthday! We call him Old Moldy, casue he's so old. If 79 was as old as dirt, than 80 is older. Congratulations Gramps, you're now older than dirt! I hope I make it to be older than dirt one day. This is not my grampa by the way, but this is what came up when I searched for Old Moldy, so it might as well be him.

Baby Sabotage?

Juli and I spent a beautiful summer Sunday afternoon up in Long Beach at her dad's friends house. They installed a nice above ground pool and since it was 90 degrees out we decided that we'd test out the waters. Doug and I cracked a few coldies and Juli hopped in the pool to relax in the sun. I went inside for a pee and when I returned I caught Juli sipping off my Coors Light. Was she trying to put a sabotage on the baby brewing in her belly? Was she upset that the ultrasound came back a boy? Was she just trying to get revenge on the 5 months of current sobriety? Can she handle the pressure of 5 more? Or did I strategically say, "Hold this for a sec, babe?" then grabbed my camera while she was unsuspectingly sunbathing? Only the dog really knows and only he cooperates when treats are involved... Until next time.

Man of the house

It has been confirmed by the ultrasound tech at Hoag, we are officially having a boy! Sweet. Even though Jessie (my sis) and two cousins (Katie and Lauren) have already had boys, this will be the first official Marshall baby. That rules, my sperm is awesome! Hooray for making babies! Here's another one of the rest of its body, not just the ween.

Today should be the day...

I say should because I guess there's never really a guarantee, but today we are going to Hoag to get a real ultrasound. Now that its been a few weeks since our doc said she thinks its a boy, I can't imagine us having a girl, but we'll see. They thought my brother Joey was a girl until the day he pierced the womb... Actually, he kinda is a girl. Anyway, I can't say that I would be bummed either way, but that doesn't mean I won't have my fingers crossed to see if there's little wiener in there. I guess its just a guy thing. Anyway, expect another update later for the the final conclusion of baby ultrasound #2.

The OC Fair is soooo not OC

Yesterday we laid around all most of the day and then decided that Sunday would be a good day to go to the Orange County Fair. Sunday. Yeah, I dunno what we were smokin’ but Sunday is definitely not the best day to go to the Orange County Fair. After parking about a mile away and walking in, we were surrounded by the biggest group of white trash, beer drinking, fried food eating, pig racing bunch of weirdos I’ve seen in long time. It reminded me a lot of Florida actually. We did eat some yummy food, which really was the main reason we went in the first place. I had a mile long hotdog and then Juli and I shared the best cinnamon roll we’ve ever had. We watched the Alaskan Pig Races and even though our pig lost, I found out that pigs can jump – never knew that. We pet some goats, pigs, sheep and stared at some llamas. Then we threw some darts at balloons and rode on the big ferris wheel (my favorite) and ate some more fried food yumminess. It was fun, I hadn’t been to the Fair in a long time and now I can happily say that I’m not going to go anytime soon.

I dunno who this kid is, i think Juli gave him a dollar to pose in the cutouts with me.
This is the fair from the top of the ferris wheel... impressive!
I had my money on harry porker, but spider ham took the win.
we were both really excited on the ferris wheel ride.
Juli was totally into the pigs, see how happy she is?
This llama spit on Juli's back right when I snapped this photo... I didn't have the heart to tell her.
I told her she had to make out with me on the ferris wheel.
Above the bright lights of Costa Mesa!
This is the big wheel from the bottom... scary!

getting fatter by the day!

So now Juli is 20 weeks (or 5 months in normal people talk) - what is it with pregnant people talking in weeks? For some reason when you become pregnant you all of a sudden tell time in weeks? I don't get it. Anyway, I'm definitely gonna take some shit for putting a photo of Juli in her underwear on the internet, but its only one step closer to pregnant porn... and that where the really big bucks start coming in! Got a little more convincing to do though. Anyway, Juli is not the only one putting on the pounds, Jonesy is also getting bigger by the second, he's more than doubled in size and close to tripled in weight since we got him. He's pretty much taking over the bed all night, pretty soon I'll be sleeping on the couch, can't wait. Yup, dogs and fat chicks, thats all I've got these days. Just kidding, pregnant is not fat, its pregnant - i've been through this one 100 times already. So yeah, I'm pretty much sleeping on the couch no matter what after she reads this one. Oh yeah and by the way, remember way back when she made so much fun of me for doing this? Look up in the top right corner and you'll find a link to her blog. If you can't beat 'em, join em!P.S. Orange County Fair photos and BLOG coming up real soon...