The Hock Family

Outside fun

2010-10-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

River helping me pull carrots for dinner. The one on the left is from last year, been in the ground for over a year. Not so tasty anymore. The one on the right is from our new crop. So sweet and delicious!

Baptized Babe

2010-09-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

We baptized Iris a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful ceremony. It was Jon's, our new pastor at Trinity, first baptism of a baby here. He asked us and our congregation a series of questions about how we plan to raise and teach her. It's always so awesome to hear the people of our church, who I consider family, commit to help love, raise and instruct our babies. We don't look at this as Iris being "saved" but more as a commitment on our part to raise her as if she has been called by Christ into his service.

Iris looked radiant, as always. She is the most amazing thing to Seth and I. She has such a sweet, happy and content spirit... already teaching me so much.

Recession Ranch: beautified

2010-09-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

Beautification is a process here. A very s-l-o-w one. We've been here for well over a year now and are just getting to things that have been on the to-do list since moving in. Seth is the handyman of all. In the last few weeks he has built a rather large fence (to keep our River monster caged), dug a bonfire pit, laid sod in the 2 side yards, and has found plenty of time to hunt. (I've been hearing 'It's only deer season for another few days!' for the last few weeks now...)

I know I complain quite a bit about Rec Ranch but it really is a beautiful, and quite peaceful place to live. Here are a few noteworthy pictures: fog rolling in at night and in the morning. And with now 2 glorious children who get up before the rooster crows, I see my fair share of mornings. (truly, I hate seeing the clock before 8am-it's a crime)

No matter the fog, come 10am it has burned completely off and reveals another cloudless sky.

Lovies

2010-08-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

This is how River feels most of the time these days

2010-04-20T12:51:00.001-07:00

Poor Kid

Iris almost 3 weeks!

2010-04-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

The above picture is Iris and River, both at 1.5 wks old. Remarkable the resemblance!

It's a...

2010-04-14T17:23:00.000-07:00

GIRL!!!

Welcome Iris Anne! She came barreling into the world at 5:26am Wednesday March 31st after about 6 hours of labor. I'm a bit late on updating this blog but we've been very busy and very lazy since she came. Busy in the fact that Seth's parents came out when she was 1 week old to stay for the month and lazy in the fact that the week before that we did nothing but lay around with our new little girl, adjusting to a family size of 4. Such fun having a girl. I really thought she was a boy and Seth was totally convinced she was a girl. I was hoping for a girl but dared to dream, since the Hock genes are skewed, in favor of boys. And everyone is asking how River is getting along, well he is LOVING his new sister, so much so that he already gave her his cold. It's hard keeping his fingers out of her mouth, nose and eyes..he's fascinated with her. And Iris is such a sweet, mild tempered baby (so far). She loves to be held, rocked and sung to. She is a real joy.

So without further a delay here is our little precious girly. These pics were taken by our good friend Ken, who is amazingly talented, as you can see. (These were taken when she was just 4 days old so more recent ones coming soon :)

Fergie would be proud

2010-03-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

On the way to the beach we heard the song "I'm a be" 2x on the radio and my friend Yvette and I then kept hearing him say it all day! So funny. He is a little sponge right now. I guess I should put away my Dr Dre for a while ;)

Ima be from Hock on Vimeo.

Waking up to...

2010-03-13T20:39:00.000-08:00

...cows! In the front yard no less. Very fun. Especially when River runs through their patties and tracks them indoors.

38 weeks! Almost there. So excited to find out what's been brewing inside for the last 9 months. I have my suspicions and Seth has his-one of us is right!

2010-03-13T20:30:00.000-08:00

Is that German River? from Hock on Vimeo.

Baking

2010-02-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

River gets so excited when he sees/hears the mixer come on. He knows a little treat is in store :) I think he prefers the batter over the baked good too-just like his momma!

Puppy Love

2010-02-19T09:42:00.001-08:00

Meet our new additions!

Lupita

Banjo

We now have 18 chickens, 2 cats and 3 dogs. Rufus' days are numbered here on the ranch, sadly. We did find him a good home, no kids and lotsa room to run so he should be pretty happy. With his departure coming up we needed to get a replacement: a dog who can protect us from wild beasts out here, have fun with our kids but also understand his place BELOW them and be a good companion for Seth at work. We wanted to train up a puppy, not an older dog, so that we can really be sure they understand their place in our family from the very beginning. Our friends have cattle dogs/queenslands and we really like their personality so we decided to look for one and found them pretty quick. Went in to get one and came out with two. They are sooo sweet and adorable. Just like newborns, they just want to be held all the time right now-pretty sweet. So these are our new guardians. And like so many of our neighbors small animals, we are hoping they don't become coyotes next meal ;)

Cute videos

2010-02-09T11:21:00.000-08:00

that family may only enjoy sitting through ;) My kid makes me laugh all day. He's seriously hilarious. He LOVES making these little videos with me and then watching them. (as you'll hear him say "watch, watch!") He's 18 months now and surprises us everyday with new words. More videos to come very soon, like later today.

Untitled from Hock on Vimeo.

Happy belated Christmas!

2010-01-05T09:46:00.000-08:00

I'm lagging a bit on this blog, for good reasons: i'm exhausted all the time. Totally contradictory to what all the "expecting" books prep you for: "You'll have SO MUCH ENERGY your 2nd trimester." Lie. For me at least. It may have something to do with mothering a very active 1.5 year old.

Christmas was great-spent out here in California with good friends. Not the tradition for us-very non-climactic but a nice change. Kinda like any other day, except for the whole savior's birth thing we celebrated ;)

The day started with River's favorite activity: a four wheeler ride with dad. They cruised the property for a bit and after many tears were shed, dad finally convinced River to get off the vehicle and come inside to eat and open gifts.

Next we opened presents. He was more taken with sitting in the middle of his new train track than actually playing with it. Then he moved on to the box in which it came-that was much more fun.

We then went to our surrogate family's house to eat, chill, eat some more and open more gifts. Very relaxing and so fun to watch our friends' kids get all wide-eyed and hyper excited about their presents.

In other news, River has taken to singing. He sings all over the house, outside and at the grocery store. I'm not sure what he sings but he certainly seems confident. He's also obsessed with balls. He has too many to count, all different shapes and sizes. It's the first thing he asks for most mornings and the one word I know I can say to get a huge smile out of him. Pretty cute. Hope this isn't how OCD starts, cause we really fuel the flame. We usually can't get out of any store without picking up another one.

Holiday cards

2009-11-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

Decided to make my own Christmas cards this year with a little help from the Stampin Up collection and inspiration from some very crafty friends. It's been pretty fun and giving me more to do than chase a toddler. So in telling my neighbor/friend about my endeavor, she asks if I could make her business some gift card holders for Thanksgiving. I say sure and start fiddling around with ideas for the construction of the cards-it turned out they are quite easy to design and produce-so I made 10 in about an 2 hours and she loved them. Anybody need gift card holders this season lemme know!

Halloween goofballs

2009-11-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

I love dressing up - always have - so it's no wonder when October rolls around I start to get a little giddy about who I'm going to be come October 31. We decided to be the Scooby Doo trio of Scoob, Shag and Velma this year. River was never thrilled over this decision. I think he had his hopes set on being Charlie Brown but I nixed that once I found my incredible wig.

When I was growing up, there were always mobs of kids all over town from about 6-8pm on Halloween night dressed up in all sorts of costumes. Quite the opposite in SLO town. We were one of two trt-ing groups we saw that night. I don't know what the story was but it was different. We still had fun and got lots of candy. I had forgotten how much I love tootsie rolls until that night. Good times!

2009-10-23T09:55:00.001-07:00

River brushing teeth...well kinda from Hock on Vimeo.

TARGET

2009-09-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

It's always meant a lot to me. (Yes the dept store) When they first started sprouting up everywhere, my sister and I always referred to them as "tar-jay", implying it was some upscale french boutique. I think we really bought into that too and when we entered it, we felt like we were entering Disneyworld or some utopia. Nowadays it's a quick stop I make every week for the essentials, and always some not so essentials. I still feel a little lighter when I walk through the doors though.

But not this time. This time I was on a mission. It had been over 1 week of wondering, guessing and being so sure my period was going to start any minute. You know, when you actually go to bed with a pad on anticipating it's arrival. I did that for 1 week and alas, nothing. I wasn't nervous because I knew I couldn't be pregnant. And we were too busy in July with River's birthday party plans and family flying in, who had time to think about being pregnant. Not me. So I didn't, until my mother flew home. 2 days after River's birthday we took her to the Santa Maria airport and she urged me to stop on the way home and pick up a test.

Ok I said.

So we casually stopped at Target to pick up a few things, including a test. But when I walked though those doors, I got panic stricken. I literally ran to embarrasing aisle, grabbed the first test I saw and smuggled in into the bathroom. Heart pounding, I shut the stall door and did the deed. I took about 2.2 seconds for two blue lines to register in the first screen. I looked at the control screen: 1 for not pregnant, 2 for pregnant.

Shit I thought. Shit shit shit.

Pulled up my pants, unlocked the stall door and walked out. Pregnant. I seriously could not believe it. Dear little old Seth was waiting for me outside, tinkering with some electronic he just bought, not really paying attention to me. He glanced up, saw me and the smirk I was wearing and smiled.

No way he said. No way, can't be. I don't believe you.

Oh really? Well I have proof. Get in the car.

We loaded River up and got in the front seats and just stared at the thing.

Wow he said. How did this happen?

Not sure I said.

Then he got on me about being gross for taking a test in the bathroom. Which it was but I seriously could not endure the 15 minute car ride home. I had to know now.

So the big bullseye means a little more to me even than it did back in it's glorious uprising days. Maybe this ones name will rhyme with "tar-jay"? Blue jay perhaps. (What? Bird names are in. Nicole Richie just named her son Sparrow) Honestly, Seth and I couldn't be happier. It just took us a few days (him a few moments) to get over the shock. We are getting pretty excited about the new addition but find ourselves wondering, could we possibly love this next one as much as River?

My baby turned 1!

2009-09-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

...like 2 months ago now but life has been bizzzzzy for us Hocksters and I lost my camera only to recover it this morning! So there ya go. But River's bday party was amazing, thanks to all the 70 wonderful friends that came out and made it so special. Seth shot a wild pig a few days before the blessed event and it hung in our fridge til Saturday morning, where then he doused it in oil and spices and put it on the spit (which he also built) where he turned it every 15 minutes for about 7 hours. It tasted fine I guess but for my huntsman, it was more about the experience and challenge than anything else. We also brewed some fantastic beer for the occasion: a Hef type, which tasted a lot like Blue Moon and a Amber, which had a Red Tail flavor. They turned out fantastic. So thanks to our little man for giving us a great reason to throw a party. He'll enjoy the pictures one day.

Covering a lot of ground here..

2009-07-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and that always seems to be our busy season. Along with numerous family birthdays throughout the 3 months (most notably, River, 7/18) this is also when our family comes out form PA to hang out. Starting with Seth's sister and brother-in-law. They were out in SF on biz and so we made a biz trip out of the long weekend. We first headed up to Mill Valley, delivered some fine furniture and headed to the Marin Headlands Hostel for thenight. Can we say BEAUTIFUL! And what an amazing, clean, historic hostel it is. We will def be going back.

Hangin' with Aunt Kristie.

Priceless.
Again, priceless.

Seth on the steps of the main Hostel building.
The annex Hostel, where we stayed.
Seth pushing Riv's stroller, in the sand while talking on the phone-what a multi-tasker!
The beach, less than 1 mile hike from the hostel.

River's main squeeze, the gorgeous Selah. To whom he is betrothed ;) Not really, but we're all hopeful this is more than just a crush.

Our insanely beautiful and fun little man - who is sadly (sniff) turning 1 on Saturday. This year has gone incredibly too fast.

Fun times at Recession Ranch

2009-06-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

River loves to play in my garden and by play I mean pull up all my veggies and munch on rocks.

Enjoying our apricot tree!

My lovely romaine...almost ready to enjoy.

My raised beds...squash, eggplant (fave), romaine, peas, carrots, honeydew, watermelon, broccoli and peppers

Chicken and asparagus - yes, he has good taste. (i DO feed him more than what is shown)

Eating lunch w/dad.

A Walkin' River!

2009-04-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

A walkin River! from Hock on Vimeo.

laughin'

2009-04-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Untitled from Hock on Vimeo.

"Goodbye City Life"

2009-04-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

..feeling a bit like Lisa from Green Acres. But I keep reminding myself that I lived in a bus for a while so I can surely live on 10 acres in the picturesque countryside of Nipomo.

Seth working on our raised beds for the garden.
River eating rocks.

Seth's shop.
Our diggs.

Views from our front porch.

Moving help

2009-04-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

My Blue Eyed Boy

2009-03-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

...that never stops

Sunday Laundry Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-03-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

River said I should enter this giveaway...

Sunday Laundry Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-03-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

Say What?

2009-02-25T13:41:00.000-08:00

Untitled from Hock on Vimeo.

River crawling and standing

2009-02-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

www.vimeo.com/3243490

official crawl from Hock on Vimeo.

independent

2009-02-16T13:20:00.000-08:00

6 months was so fun! He is doing so much now - crawling, eating lots and therefore pooping lots, pulling himself up on everything, reading and watching T.V. (haha-not really) He'll be 7 months on Wednesday, Feb 18. I truly can't believe how fast this is going, just like everyone said it would. I do look forward to sleeping through the night though-whenever that comes about. I must say he is one happy and content lil guy.

River's crawl

2009-01-27T12:36:00.000-08:00

At exactly 6 month (last week) River started doing this crawl/scoot/jump thing to get around. He's actually getting pretty good at it. It's really hard to catch him doing it, as soon as I bring the camera out to film him, he stops but I did catch him for a bit. Beware, he's a crabby monster - desperately needing a nap.

http://vimeo.com/2982657

2009-01-26T21:18:00.000-08:00

2009-01-07T11:03:00.000-08:00

River's 1st Christmas

2009-01-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

and what an adventure it was! We flew to North Carolina on Dec 17 and stayed for 2 days with our good friends the Bradley's. We got to meet their sweet new addition, Selah, who is just 4 days younger than River. They are already talking marriage!

Next we rented a car and drove 2 hourseast to Raleigh where we got to hang with more good friends the Hensinger's. They also have a new addition, little Seth, who is just 3 weeks younger than Riv. They are already talking traveling the world together-that's before him and Selah wed. (yes, River is a planner)

Then we drove 8 hours north to my parents' home in Harrisburg PA where we stayed for a few days and then drove north again to Bloomsburg, to visit for a few days with Seth's family. Then back down to H-burg for a few days. Whew. I think we counted 6 diferent beds that we stayed in. I don't think River took a nap in the same bed twice. He was a real trooper. We actually think he liked meeting all these new faces. He was a very happy and pleasant baby. Oh how I love him!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T21:04:00.000-08:00

Ain't he just the cutest

2008-11-27T20:52:00.000-08:00

We went out to visit Seth at work last week. He now works near Nate and Anna's house so the kids are always down at Seth's shop hanging out. Randomly, there's a trampoline down there and Riv just begged me to let him on so here he is with Zeek, just rolling around, having a good ol' time.

River with dad at work : )

This is so cute-it's either he LOVES the taste of water or he's majorly teething cause he just can't get enough of that water glass.

East coast cousins

2008-11-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

Riv and I had a great time visiting family in PA last month. He got to meet his cousins for the first time. He took a special interest in his oldest girl cousin Hollis, which I don't think she had a problem with.

Ashton and Hollis helping River pick out new frames.

Cali (my mother's dog) in River's frog hat.

The boys chillin. (my stepdad Tim)

Gabby and River getting re-acquainted.

"Feet make me happy"

2008-11-24T11:16:00.000-08:00

Riv's new fave things are his feet and his voice. He'll yell and holler as the day is long-quite the chatterbox. Lucky for me and a plane full of anxious travelers, he happened to "find" his voice while flying back home to PA last month. It was a loud flight but that's still better than a crying baby-at least he was happy.

Lazy Blogger

2008-11-05T19:58:00.000-08:00

So Seth's sis was in town for the day a few weeks ago. This was her first meeting of our plump little man. (3.5 months and almost 16 pounds) She liked him. She bought him this cool froggie hat hand-knit from the streets of S.F.

My little DUDE

2008-10-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

2008-10-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

Cuteness for the day

2008-09-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

Road Trip!

2008-09-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

Seth and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary this past week in a *little* funky town called Pt. Reyes Station in northern Ca, about 4.5 hours away. We did a lot of hiking along the beaches and in Muir Woods. So beautiful! River enjoyed the scenery from the ergo backpack.

2008-09-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

I really like this outfit he has on so right before we put him down for the night I made Seth snap one of us-no other reason that that!

2008-09-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

The many faces

2008-09-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

Check out my rolls, I mean muscles.

River lives up to his name

2008-09-12T13:30:00.001-07:00

His first swim!

All tuckered out from the day's activities, River naps at the pool.

Halibut Heaven

2008-09-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Seth and his dad went to Avila Beach on Saturday morning and caught 3 halibut! Seth went again this morning and caught 1 more. Needless to say we are eating well :-0 They are some funky lookin creatures...

Diaper Mania!

2008-09-01T14:44:00.000-07:00

My big boy

2008-08-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

River has gained 4 pounds in the last month-geesh! He now weighs 12 lbs.

Seth's parents are in for the month.

River's gettin lotsa love from his grandparents this month.

A smile!

2008-08-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

Well, kinda. He really does now flash us his pretty pink gums every once n a while. They're hard to catch though.

Dad and his bike

2008-08-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

Seth's bike obsession translates onto our child's clothing already.

Me and my buddy

2008-08-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

This is River's bud Miles. What a difference 6 weeks can make! Can't wait til River's more responsive and a little less red.

Our first post...it goes on and on and on

2008-08-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the west coast Hock Family Blog! Now that Seth and I have something interesting enough to display for the world to see (thank you River) we can finally join in the ranks of bloggers - this is very exciting for us : )

Needless to say, I was HUGE during the last month or so of pregnancy. To say I'm thrilled that part is over is an understatement. This photo was taken 1 week before River's arrival. Yikes.

River was born on July 18th-a full moon baby. Here I am in labor and...

...OUT! Stunning, I know. At least Seth was coherent at that point.He got cuter as time wore on. The first few days...

Then it was brought to my attention by River's Aunt Manda that he has an uncanny resemblance to Alfonso Riberio more commonly known as Calrton Banks...do you think?

Here you have Aunt Manda performing a little trick she learned at a how to quiet your baby seminar. Yes, River survived but no more leaving both babies with her!

All snugged up in his moby wrap.
Looking a bit suspicious...

River finally got to meet his grammy and pappy. They flew in from PA and were here for a little less than a week. River seems to love his grammy's voice already.
I think he liked his 2nd bath a lot better. Must be gramma's touch!

Very fond of his dad...
but not so fond of the cow outfit.

River's new mobile, which he LOVES. Cheap entertainment. Thanks grammy!

River and Me, just chillin'.