MOM’S here — in time for baby!!!!

Okay NOW the party can begin … my mom arrived from
South Africa this weekend to be here for baby!
Leading up to her visit I’ve been so worried the baby
would come early, and now that she’s here we can
all relax and hope baby doesn’t come too late :)
We have her all to ourselves for almost 3 weeks and couldn’t feel luckier
that she was able to come from South Africa where she and my dad are
serving as mission presidents for our church for three years. They are in
their final year and she hasn’t been in the USA for 2 whole years! My dad
had to stay and run the mission which is definitely hard on us all, but he is
SO with us in spirit and represented by my sweet mom who flew 30+ hours
to get here! My parents are my best friends and I can’t imagine doing this
without her (though we are missing my Dad lots). So lucky this worked out!
She flew from Johannesburg –> through Dubai –>
and straight to San Francisco!
(Such long flights…South Africa is tooo dang far away.)
We pulled into SFO and I couldn’t contain my tears of excitement//
emotion at getting to reunite with my mom for such a big occasion.
Linny’s welcome party! ^^ I always underestimate how long customs and
international baggage will take, so we patiently waited for her to come out!
Sunflowers, balloons, and signs to greet her // and Chase snapped a pic
of me waiting because I was watching other reunions and tearing up already!
(Blame the hormones :)

And, here she is!! ^^ And looking so cute after traveling for more than 2 days.
As we got in the car she was showing us her two-watch system
with South African time and California time. It was almost 1 AM
her time, so we took her straight to our very favorite lunch
spot to wake her up and get her on California time :)

Hello, Lemonade! And hello, huge belly :) Ready to pop! ^^

We had the yummiest late lunch to welcome her back to California …
This is one of our very favorite spots from Southern California
that has now made its way up here to NorCal! We are pretty
happy about it and so we had to take my mom here very first.

A perfecy welcome to California: fresh salmon, tomato avocado salad,
pineapple chicken, curried chicken salad, and a caprese sandwich on
the best-ever bread. Can’t forget the fun flavors of lemonade on the side!^^ Lemonades for our party of 3…soon to be 4!
Just wishing my dad was here to complete the party!
(Flavors are cucumber mint, Guava Limeade, and Blood Orange!)
Of course he sent the cutest gifts from South Africa ^^
A onesie from their rugby team and a cycling onesie saying
“Born to Ride”…haha already brainwashing her ;)
Perks of your mom visiting = her cooking and stocking our fridge up ^^
My hubby + mom cooking dinner in the kitchen together = cutest thing.
I love their relationship and love how well they both take care of me!
We’ve been filling the weekend with brunching, ice cream-ing, the works.
And we had to take my mom back to the Cheesecake Factory for one
of our favorite meals…she has been out of the USA for 2 years, after all!

If you know my mom you know she is the Energizer Bunny…she’s been go-go-go
the entire weekend since arriving, but tonight I finally got her to sit down for a
movie and the jet lag hit :) We better all catch some zzzzs before baby comes this week!

xo