"Tasha & Ic" Forever

It's been a busy last couple of weeks here in the Martino household and things aren't slowing down anytime soon! A 3 bedroom apartment opened up in our complex so we are moving this Saturday (the 17th)! We currently have a big pile of half-packed boxes in our living room and a bunch more in our storage space. Thankfully our ward is amazing and we had two different families who volunteered to watch Levi Saturday before last so Eric and I had pretty much the whole day to go through things and get a lot of the packing of all of our non-essentials done. But, we still have a LOT to do the next few days as far as packing up the things we actually use regularly, including Levi's toys. Not sure yet how he will respond to that! But I am super excited that to think by this time next week we will be in a three bedroom apartment with more space to play, vaulted ceilings and a fresh, bare nursery for me to start prepping for baby girl!

In the middle of all of this packing and moving prep, this past weekend we got to go to California for Eric and Natachia's wedding! We have all been looking forward to it for a while, including Levi who for the past several weeks has been saying, "Ic! Tasha! Temple!" when asked what he dreamed about the night before.  I worked a half day on Thursday and then came home and packed up our things. Eric came home around 2:45 pm and helped me then around 3:15 I went and picked up Levi from daycare (and met who his new teachers will be once he moves up to the 2 year olds class!) and by 4pm we were out the door and headed up to Katie's house. Traffic was way better than we expected so we got up there way earlier than planned which meant we had time to hang out at Katie's place and distract her- um help her- haha pack too. Then Katie's roommate Morgan drove us all to the MAX station and we took our first train ride as a family to the airport! Levi was a little nervous on the train but also super fascinated by everything, which was great because it meant that he went almost the whole 1 hour train ride without trying to get out of his stroller! The MAX took us straight to the airport and then we were on our way to CA. Thankfully on the plane ride there, the plane was only half full so Levi got to have a seat to himself (which he sat in for approximately 10 minutes the whole hour and a half flight). He was more interested in climbing all over all of us, looking out the window and gasping, playing with Auntie Katie and basically just loving life. By the time we got to CA around 10 pm he was exhausted and fell asleep almost immediately during our car ride to the AirBnb.

Friday was a very busy day spent almost entirely prepping the church for Eric and Natachia's reception. Our family and Natachia's immediate family were pretty much the only ones there and together we took an empty gym and transformed it into an awesome reception area with a dropped ceiling and curtains cutting off the sides to hide the basketball hoops. I can't describe it well, but it looked AMAZING by the time everything was done. Katie and I steamed about a billion tablecloths and alternated chasing after Levi, entertaining him and keeping him out from underfoot of all of us working.

Levi spilled water all over his shirt so he wanted to take it off. It was a super nice day outside so just ended up going shirtless most of the day on Friday! I have to say he kinda rocks the jeans with no shirt look :)

Levi and I hung out in the church courtyard for a while on Friday afternoon to stay out from underfoot of everyone working in the gym. 

Such a silly guy!

I love his deep chuckle! Also he looks so old and grown up in this picture!!

Friday night was the family dinner at this upscale wine bar in Los Altos (I think). I got to meet and chat with Natachia's cousin Jenny for a while which was really fun. Levi did a pretty good job trying quite a few of the unique offerings including Japanese sweet potato sauce, mushroom empanadas, and fancy mac n cheese. It was cool to try so many different things (my mom had just ordered a ton of different small plates for the whole group to try). But, it was a challenge to keep Levi's hands in his own food and not the seemingly never-ending array of new delicacies that kept being placed right in front of him on the table! Not exactly the most toddler-friendly meal style! Haha. But it was still fun.

Saturday was wedding day! As we were getting ready in the morning, I suddenly hear Eric (my husband) in the next room going, "No way! No way! Are you serious!?" So I rush in there to find out what's up and learn that when Eric bought his suit for the wedding, the cashier forgot to tag the security ink tag thingy off! We couldn't take it off ourselves of course, and no JcPenny's were open before the wedding so Eric had to go to the sealing wearing the suit with the security tag on! He kind of looked like he was wearing a house arrest anklet! Hahaha. He was super embarrased feeling like it looked like he was wearing a stolen suit in the temple but I thought it was so funny!

Eric and Levi pondering the ankle situation!

The sealing was beautiful. The sealer spoke for a while and I actually learned a lot from what he said! And Eric and Natachia looked so happy. Natachia kept crying and making me cry. It was soo tender. Then after the sealing was pictures and then our family went to lunch with Oma and Aunt Joann and Michelle and Jamie and their kiddos! It was super fun to see and talk with Michelle and Jamie again because it has been a long time! And I got a super cute picture of Levi with his cousins.

Levi and cousin Tyson with Grandpa

You can tell my son is sensitive to the brightness! Haha

Love that crinkled up nose smile!!

Oh my Levi. He looks quite critical of something that's going on off frame!!

I LOVE this picture of the boys! Levi is shirtless again because we had forgotten to bring a change of shirt for him and I didn't want him eating pizza in his white wedding shirt!

After lunch, Eric, Katie, Levi and I drove back to San Jose to the AirBnb where we were staying so Eric and Levi could nap/relax while Katie and I took Eric's suit pants to the nearest JcPenny to get them detagged. Haha. Unfortunately, the closest JcPenny was not very close so it took us like 45 minutes even though the process of walking in and getting them de-tagged was like 3 minutes. Ugh. But it was all good. Then Kate and I headed to the church and frantically started helping everyone else who was there finish setting up for the reception! We made centerpieces and punch and finalized table and chair set up and by the end it was beautiful and just barely in time for the reception to start!

Eric and Natachia had the most beautiful ring ceremony to start their reception! It was like a legit wedding, including the walking down the aisle, exchanging vows and everything. Natachia's friends provided BEAUTIFUL violin and cello music and Eric and Natachia just had the sweetest vows ever and made everyone cry. It was awesome. Then there was dinner and the typical reception mingling and dancing- which for me mostly involved trading off turns with Eric of chasing Levi around and trying to keep him from sticking his hands in the cake, pulling down the curtains or the lights and just generally causing mayhem. It was somewhat exhausting. I love my son and his passion and his curiosity and energy, but sometimes, he is just so, so naughty! Haha.

After the reception, my family stayed to help clean up but I took Levi right home and put him to bed and almost immediately fell asleep on the couch myself! It had been such a busy day! Thankfully, Sunday was not quite so busy, just packing everything up again and checking out of the AirBnb, then church, then airport, then home! Still it was a long travel day. Our flight got delayed an hour and was completely full so Levi had to sit on our laps the whole time. Thankfully he was super exhausted from a weekend almost entirely devoid of naps so he slept in Eric's arms almost the whole flight. But we still didn't get home till about 11:30pm and by then I was just so, so tired and so ready to be home and back where I didn't have to constantly be watching Levi and keeping him from getting into all the things!

Levi being silly Sunday morning wearing Grandpa's shoes around the house. 

Eric and Levi both passed out on Eric's bed on Sunday before church. We were all so tired by that point!

So yeah, it was a wonderful but exhausting weekend. And now, I'm trying to recharge a little and gear up for moving week! We get to start moving stuff into our new place on Thursday and have to have everything out by Saturday evening! It's going to be a little crazy but I'm just trying to not freak out and roll with it. I know in the end it will all get done. :)