Family of 5 and counting..... 10 weeks to go!

Okay, this picture is for those who are just so anxious to see what I really look like pregnant. Not much different in the past 5 years as this is what I've normally looked like. Skinny isn't an option until this kid pops out. Then I can try to regain that "old" body I used to have. Before Lauren, before Lexie, before Bella. Sigh! I don't even want to think about diet!

We have less than 10 weeks to go. It's not that bad being hot out here in California. I'm usually in the house or in the pool. However, wearing a bra is almost impossible. It's along the lines of tennis players wearing those bands on their heads and wrists - the bra for me is just a sweat catcher. Seriously!


JUNE 2007
Now for the cute stuff. I've been pretty bad at taking the camera out and snapping loads of pictures of the girls. Milenko's been better at it but it's with the camera phone and the pictures suck. Here are a few ADORABLE pictures of the girls in June when the weather just started to heat up.

You can click on any of the pictures and a larger one will pop up. Easier to see the cute little rascals!

Lauren above in pink. She's now 18 months old.

Lexie above with the crystal blue eyes. She's 3-1/2 now.

Bella above with the infectious smile. She will be 5 in November and starting Kindergarten in just a few weeks!

JULY 2007
We stayed home for 4th of July. It was pretty hot out here. At 9pm at night we were all in our shorts and sandals with the temperature being in the 80's. It didn't cool down much more that night but we had to sleep with the windows shut to avoid all the loud fireworks. Bella is comforting Lauren in the picture above. Both of them were scared to death of the loud fireworks. I think this is Bella's "fake" smile as she was pretty scared!

Lexie couldn't care how big the fireworks were, how loud they were or how small they were. She was just into the moment of dancing all over the place and doing her patriotic cheerleading. She was pretty much glue with her head held high as the fireworks shot out. We had a great view from our front lawn of everything as Dublin is one of the towns that will allow fireworks. It doesn't allow most everything that was shot off but there was so much of that stuff in Dublin that there was no way to go after everyone doing illegal stuff.

Here's one that was just over the house.

Lauren was okay with the lights and even the softer sounding fireworks. As long as Mommy or Daddy was nearby to hold her close.

As most of you know, Donna's been my best friend since we were 15 years old. We were pregnant with our first born daughters at the same time too. Donna's now only a week away from giving birth to little Ryan Matthew. Here's a cute picture of Donna holding Alyssa (almsot 4-1/2) and me gleaming above at her baby shower. It was so HOT and we were outside on the patio of Casa Orozco. Talk about heat wave. We both went home after the shower and jumped in our pools to cool off. I think it was 96 degrees at 2pm when I left the shower.

Daddy's teaching Lauren to eat ribs. I don't know but I think she likes them!

SCHOOL'S OUT - SUMMER'S HERE

On Thursday, May 24th, Bella & Lexie had their last day at pre-school for the year. Lexie finished her 2 year old class and Bella finished her Pre-K class....which means: KINDERGARTEN in August!

Here's some cute pictures of the girls with their teachers. Remember, you can click on any picture and it will enlarge in another window so you can actually see the detail (and their cute eyes!)

Bella & Ms. Clark

Bella & Ms. Karen


Lexie walks with some of her classmates & Ms. Carol


During the last weeks of school, the kids get to have a car wash and help wash all the toy cars! Bella is having so much fun with her friend, Kira.

Now that the school year is over, summer time is just around the corner and the weather is certainly telling us that we're ready to jump in the pool. While the big pool in the backyard was "getting its medicine" (Milenko was cleaning the pool with chemicals), the girls used the little blow up one. It's perfect for Lauren anyway!

They're not always like this - honestly!

Practicing the "runway walk" for Ms. America!

There's a hilarious story to this one. Bella had to go "potty" really badly. Leave it to a man to recommend peeing on the grass. While I was inside, Milenko was watching the girls and I came out just in time to snap a shot of Bella going "potty" in the outdoor toilet that Daddy recommended. They don't do this anymore and they will run across the floor wet if need be. I guess having that boy couldn't come at a better time!

Lauren's attempt at eating an Oreo cookie!

Lauren is actually impressing us with her little smarts. At 15 months, she is already trying to grow up and be just like her big sisters. The girls have a refrigerator magnet from LeapFrog that plays the alphabet. The girls have used it for the past few years at learning the ABC Song. Lauren is already walking round the house trying to sing the alphabet along with the magnet. She can do ABC and then the rest is P P P P P. She's also is attempting to do her numbers. As I try to get her to repeat ONE, she chimes in with two, three.... Nothing after that, but I sure will be proud when I get her to actually say ONE with the TWO & THREE. :) She's up to about 40 plus words. The latest and funniest is shu-up. I know it's not the best thing to teach her, but it keeps us in stiches when we hear her yell shu-up! (She doesn't know what it means though.) She's also pretty good at telling us to STOP at the stop lights. That's all thanks to her sisters who love to tell us how to drive through the red & green lights.

We're going to start off June at the Croatian Extravaganza in Sacramento. We'll be staying up there with Milenko's sister & parents for the weekend. Should be a fun one. Between that and Fathers' Day, the next round of pictures should be pretty fun!

See you in June!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Finally!)

No news could be better than the news we heard this morning when we went in for our 20 week ultrasound.

The first bit of good news is the obvious - IT'S A BOY!
The 2nd bit of good news is that the baby looks 100% healthy in every aspect.
The 3rd bit of good news is - IT'S A BOY!!!!

Milenko and I went into the doctor's office knowing that for sure, we would hear those words - Congratulations on ANOTHER girl. The ultrasound taker just smiled and asked us if we had seen a previous ultrasound and that's how we knew. We told her it was a gut feeling. She then tells us that 90% of woman are right. We didn't expect to be the 10%. When she played the heartbeat for us (which was 170/bpm about a month ago) we were surprised at the 134/bpm count. Milenko and I both had the same thought - there may be hope after all. As she finishes up the measurements and all the things she needs to do she shows us the picture below and used the mouse pointer to show us the two legs and the "PENIS" in between. Of course I started bawling my head off and I think Milenko just went into shock!

Here's another angle but proof that the little nub is definitely a boy!

She printed out lots of pictures for us to take home for the scrapbook but we're only showing a few of the really obvious ones. The picture below is a profile of Baby Boy. He has the same exact profile as Lexie and Lauren. Already we can see it's a true Dugorepec. :)
Due date is September 26th!

Happy Easter from The Dugorepec Family

Clockwise: Dragica, Ivan, Jasna, Milenko & Lauren, Debbie, Lexie and Bella

February, March & April Updates (Finally)

Okay, after months of delay and procrastination, here's the latest and greatest going on with the Dugorepec Family. Let's start in February since that's where we last left off:

FEBRUARY 2007
Lauren turned the big ONE years old on Valentine's Day. No more infants in this house - at least not until September!

We had a small little family birthday party at the house for Lauren and it was perfect. She was teething and a little on the crabby side so it was so much nicer than having her be a pistol at big party.

She didn't really get into the cake so we helped her out a little. She isn't quite the messy kid that we would expect. Heck, we sure wish Bella & Lexie would take after that quality!

All the kids (including Auntie Sissy) got into opening Lauren's presents. Nicholas was a huge help with Lauren as he has a thing for little babies. He just adores her and it's the cutest sight you can imagine. There's another quality that we wished Bella & Lexie would take after. :)

Auntie Sissy and Lauren were pretty much glued to the hip the entire evening. Lauren doesn't do well with strangers or anyone who isn't mom and dad. However, Michelle was her favorite person all night long. Since Michelle and I wanted the opposites for children, my wanting boys and her wanting girls, we live vicariously through our nieces and nephews.

Bella and Lexie are starting to share a little more with each other. Yes, the fight more than cats and dogs do but when they do get gentle with each other, they make the house so nice. Here Bella is "reading" a book to Lexie. I had read the book to both of them just moments before and had to tend to Lauren. As I was returning back to the couch, I saw that Bella was picking up where I had left off.

Lexie's starting to act like a lady - finally. I thought she'd be a little Tomboy forever. She's starting to prove me wrong as she asks me to put her in dresses and loves to play with her pretty necklaces.

MARCH 2007
At the beginning of March we figured it was time to take the kids to see what snow really looked, felt and tasted like. It was in the 70's back here at home but we drove up to Dodge Ridge (Sonora) and the snow was quite abundant. We were able to share the snow with all the kids who just loved it. Well.... almost all the kids.

When we got up to the snow we made a quick stop at Dodge Ridge to get a bite to eat. We brought our own lunch for the kids and got a quick salad and sandwich for Mom & Dad. We also had to pick up some gloves as Bella left her snow gloves on the stairs at home.

After lunch we headed downhill to a section of the highway that was covered with snow and lots of people playing. If the kids were a little older, this would have been a great place to let them go sledding down the hill. We had to take it easy as the snow was so deep that the heavy you were, the deeper you fell. I had to go get a sled that slid down the hill and while headed that way, my feet must have gone about 2 feet deep into the snow. It was hilarious and impossible to walk. The only way to get anywhere was to roll. (I'm not posting those pictures!)

Just getting to the snow was fun for the girls. They sat on the sled while Daddy pushed them to the edge and then let them go down the embankment. What a blast for them!

Lexie & Bella loved the fact that we could eat the snow as long as it wasn't yellow or dirty. Lauren had a different impression of the snow. She could definitely do without it. It was wet, cold and not fun!

Oh yeah, Lauren's growing up so fast that she's starting to drive. We're contemplating letting her get her driver's license next year. :)

On a sad note, my Mother's step-father passed away. The really sad part is that he had passed away in his home and wasn't found until about 5 weeks after his death. John was a parculiar man who was very private and so going a month without talking was normally for he and my mom. The saw each other at Christmas and hadn't spoken since - well, he didn't answer his phone. Now we know why. His funeral was amazing though. After a lot of unsurity of everything that was going to transpire for getting the funeral arrangements done, he had a military funeral that was unbelievable. The color guard did a 21 gun salute and if you've never heard that before, it will take your breath away. He was sent off in a beautiful ceremony and laid to rest with my Grandmother. Very beautiful!

APRIL 2007
Easter time! Our family headed over to Milenko's parent's house with my Mom for a great Sunday brunch. Milenko's sister Jasna and her friend were also there to celebrate. After brunch we let the kids go into the backyard to see if the Easter Bunny came. He left behind a basket for each of the girls and lots of eggs in the yard.

Lauren was happy with whatever everyone else was doing while Bella and Lexie took their dresses up to form a basket to collect the eggs. Silly Easter Bunny even put some eggs up in the tree where the girls couldn't reach. Good thing Daddy & Baka could.

We were finally able to get a decent picture of Milenko's family to send back home to everyone. I guess we'll have to wait until next year to have the complete family again as Baby #4 isn't very noticeable yet. :)

At 5pm we had another Easter celebration at our house. We asked Dave & Michelle to come with the boys and Dan too. The kids got to do a little Easter Egg hunt in the front yard and they had a fun little time. Below is Nick, Bella, Lexie & Christian. Look at those BIG smiles!

After dinner we let the kids decorate some cookies. We gave them a bunny and a egg cookie and they decorated them with frosting, sweet tarts, sequins and gum drops.

Lexie had more fun eating the cooking than decorating it. Even before the decorations came to the table, she was nibbling on the cookie.

Of course Auntie Sissy and Mommy had to decorate cookies too. Nick & Christian had a pretty good time decorating as well.

As with all the posts, if you want to see the pictures in detail you should be able to click on any of them and they will enlarge in another window. As for Baby News, there is a link to the right side of this blog that you can click.... I better get updating on that blog too. :-)

Happy Tax Day!