Merry Christmas 2010

Christmas is the one time of year that my entire family gets together. Well, for the last couple years that hasn't been the case for one reason or another, and it really bums me out to not celebrate Christmas Eve with my ENTIRE family like we used too. We were short 2 brothers, and 3 kids...they were greatly missed of course!

The kids had a blast with their cousins, but poor Andrew relapsed and is now sick once again. I think he's been sick the entire month of December...poor baby. Him and Julia got spoiled by Santa and it makes this time of year worth all of the stress and chaotic late night shopping. Their faces were priceless!

Julia was in love with all things Ariel, and Disney Princess related, while Andrew was into Transformers, Mighty Beans, GI Joe, and Hot Wheels. It was a small Christmas, but I am greatful for the family that I was able to spend it with. Looking foward to the new year. 

A very BELATED Birthday Wish to my Baby Boy...

09/09/2010

This was you on your 4th Birthday enjoying your ice cream cone at Legoland :) We opted to take you on a mini vacation for your birthday instead of having a party for you because Mommy does not know how to throw "small" parties. This was our first family vacation as a family of 4 and boy was it interesting! You complained most of the trip wishing that you were back home with Grandma, and your sister did her fair share too.

We made a few stops along the way visiting some friends who spoiled you with birthday gifts...which reminds me, I still have to send thank you cards...oops! First we had dinner with one of Daddy's old co-workers from Toyota. They went all out for us with authentic cuisine. You loved George and his other siblings. We also visited Milli B and Andee twice during our stay. It was nice keeping them company while Milli B's Daddy is deployed. We also visited Daddy's other friend from the Marine Corps Edit and his family. They also went all out with birthday gifts from each member of their family which was a total of 5! They also had cupcakes waiting for you and had a homeade meal waiting for us. We were definately spoiled. 2 days of Legoland adventures and another few days enjoying good company. You definately enjoyed meeting all your new little friends. Although very stressful at times, I'm very glad we had this vacation.

You are becoming such a HANDSOME big boy now. You have grown so much in this past year both physically and mentally. Your 4 year checkup you weighed 39 lbs. and were 43" tall. You've consistenly been in the 95th percentile or above for your height since you've been born so you are definately going to be a tall one, which makes your Daddy very happy because he always said when we had kids he wished for them to be tall.

 You started Pre-k and you're loving it. Your teacher Mrs. Missy ROCKS! She adores you as you do her. You are already learing so much from her. Before starting her Pre-K class you only knew how to write your "A" and sometimes the "n" in your name. Now you write your name perfectly. You have not recieved one timeout at school nor any straight or sad faces which makes me proud.

You are so attached to your Daddy and Grandma. You and I have quite an interesting relationship. You love to hate me. You challenge me, I challenge you. You make me mad, I make you mad. I'm just waiting for the day that you become a mommas boy. For now you are perfectly content to be your Daddy's boy, which is fine by me. I love that you have such a strong bond. You also have such a unique bond with your sister. As much as you love to egg her on and make her mad, you miss her when she's napping and can't wait for her to get up in the morning. You always seek her out as she does the same for you.

I think these last couple years have been quite a challenge for us. I know that it has to do with the birth of your Sister and having to share the spotlight with her. Your temper is getting a little better, but you hate to be told what to do and you don't like to be wrong, corrected or lose, all stuff we are working on. Despite your moods, outbursts and hurtful things you say to me you are still my baby boy and always will be.

I look foward to building a loving relationship with you and working together to stay positive towards eachother. My birthday wish to you Son is to forever keep laughter in your heart and keep smiling like this. You have no idea how magnetic you are when you are happy. Your smile and laugh is contagious.

I LOVE YOU!

Happy 2nd Birthday Julia...

My sweet Baby Girl...oh how you've grown so fast before our eyes. It's hard to believe that just two years ago I gave birth to you at a woping 8 lbs 15.9 oz, and here you are today no longer a newborn, baby, infant, but a TODDLER!

You bring out an emotion in me that's uncontrolable. I just think of the little things you do and it brings tears of joy to my eyes. You are such a beautiful little baby girl inside and out. I cannot take you anywhere without someone stopping me to comment how beautiful you are especially your curls ♥ You are my little mini me. You look so much like me when I was little, down to the curly hair. We have such a bond that I think is only possible between a mother and dauther, much to what your Grandma and I have.

You are Grandpa's little girl. You LOVE him so much and often reach out for "Joe Joe" as you like to call him before running to Grandma or myself. You often ask "where's Joe Joe" when you walk into their room and he's not there. You do the same for your Daddy. You love them both to pieces. You give Grandma "Ucy" the time of day when nobody else is around...Grandma often fills me in on how affectionate you are with her when there is nobody else around to distract you. She loves to egg you on just to get a good laugh out of you becuase you often say "NO Ucy," and nothing makes her laugh more than when you do that to her. Now the most dynamic relationship you have is with your brother Andrew who is 22 months older than you.

Your relationship with your brother is one of Love and Hate. Your face lights up when Andrew gives you the time of day and actually takes a moment to be nice to you. It melts my heart to see those precious moments that are sometimes few and far between, but I cherish every minute of it when they do happen. You both LOVE to play "running couches" as Andrew calls it. You take off nearly all 20 cushions off the couch and run from one side to the other. You guys wrestle eachother, push eachother around in your doll strollers, watch tv together, play in your crib together, and absolutely LOVE to play in the dirt together. You love to ride down slides together, play in the sand together, and my most precious moments are when you both lay in Andrew's bed and watch a movie together.

In the last couple of months you have finally started to defend yourself. It's so funny to see you try and karate kick your brother after he's done something mean to you. We try not to laugh because we don't want you to believe that behavior is acceptable, but it's just too cute. He's taught you punch back (we're not happy about that one) and you know that his weak point is when you dig your nails into him to get him to leave you alone. I'm glad that you have finally stuck up for yourself, I'm not crazy about all the chaos that it's causes, but I'm happy to know that you can handle your own. You have taken some punches, kicks and slaps from him and not even batted an eye lash. We are working on getting past this hurdle, it's not easy...especially now that you don't let it slide.

You are such a girly girl already, but have some tom boy in you. You are obsessed with this little Iron Man figurine. You love to say "Iron Man" all the time, wherever you see anything Iron Man related. You LOVE to color and doodle. You can count to 10 (well sometimes it's not always consistent, but you have done it atleast a few times all the way through) You can also count to 10 in Spanish. You are a little parrot! Your vocabulary is so much more advanced than Andrew's was at this age. You are extremely polite and say "please, thank you, bless you, excuse me" in there appropriate context. You love to sing and dance, and boy do you have some lungs on you! When you were only about 6-9 months we use to say "dance Shikira" and you would start to move your waist like Shikira...it was soooooo funny! I'm sure you'll be blessed with some rythm :)

You are a great sleeper! You go to bed around 7:30 pm and don't wake until around 7:30 the next morning. You are down to one nap that lasts any where from 2-4 hours. Yes, I told you...you LOVE your sleep. You are obsessed with your Zebra rain boots, and always want to put them on along with any hat to try and convice us to take you outside to play. You get so excited whenever I tell you we are going "bye bye's"...you are always ready to go.

You have become the pickiest eater! You LOVE anything potato related...french fries, potatoes in the morning for breakfast, hash brown, tator tots. Chicken nuggets, quesadillas, white rice ALL fruits, but I would say that your favorites are mangos, grapes, watermelon, and apples. You love pinto beans, mac and cheese, and the only veggies you will eat are carrots. You've recently become obsessed with orange juice and want it all the time.

I can literally go on and on about how much you make us all laugh. You are such a clown. You are always happy when your brother is not making you upset. You are so easy going, but can have your moments. Your latest has been throwing yourself on the ground making a dramatic scene whenever you get upset about something.

It doesn't matter what you do, if you make me happy or upset...at the end of the day I am just BLESSED that I had you. My baby girl. My bestfriend. I look forward to growing our relationship as you get older. I know that you and I already have what your Grandma and I share. It's so unique and special, and I am forever greatful to you for bringing so much joy into my life.

♥♥I LOVE YOU JULIA♥♥

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

♥YOUR MoMmY

"Good Boys Listen..."

I found this post in my draft pile and realized i never posted it...well not much has changed, he's still excited to go to school every week, and I'm loving the extra free time with Julia...here it is, just a little dated...lol.

Andrew started a new preschool last week, and so far is loving it! We made the decision to pull him out of his old preschool because he would often come home complaining about how he disliked his teacher and the school. He was never excited to get up in the morning and head off to school. After I attended the recent preschool night hosted by Las Madres, I found a school, well actually a teacher and fell in love. Ms. Maggie is the greatest! It's only been a week, and Andrew is excited to go to school, and has already learned so much!

He got a new Spiderman backpack and all. He was also given his first homework assignment yesterday, and wanted to complete it the minute we got home. I captured some of his excitement.

Andrew often comes up to me several times a day and says "Mom, good boys listen," I really don't know where he got that from, or why he feels the need to say it over and over on a daily basis, but one thing I want him to know is that "Good Mommy's Listen!" I'm glad I listened to him and my gut when I decided to pull him out of his other school. He is so happy and learning so much at his new school. Andrew is a good boy, and he does listen :)

Jewelia's Closet

Busy, busy, busy...is what i've been these last couple of months. I have decided to turn a little spark of creativity into a full blown business operation. It's amazing how giving birth to a little girl instilled so much desire to be crafty and make girly things...I LOVE IT. I am still in the works of getting Jewelia's Closet up and running. I wanted to name my new venture after my inspiration-Julia, but after doing some searching on Etsy I found that Julia's Closet was already taken :( So, then I thought of Jewelia and I found the name to be fitting since most of the pieces I will be selling will have some sort of rhinestone/jewel affixed to it. Perfect.

I am a bit of a procrastonator, but also a bit of a perfectionist as well, so when you combine these two traits together it takes a lot longer to get things rolling. I feel like I'm finally in the home stretch with all the major hurdles out of the way, just a few minor hiccups to deal with and I should be able to start cranking out girly attire. I can't wait for you all to see my creations! Stay tuned...http://www.jeweliascloset.com/

Here is my logo designed by http://www.themodernpolkadot.blogspot.com/.

Goodbye 2009! Hello 2010...

2009 proved itself to be quite an interesting year. I believe that many people are looking at this new year as a year of hope, and that is truly the way I am looking at it. I hope that our family stays healthy, and I wish that those loved ones around me who are sick find themselves stronger and healthier than ever! I hope that our country can begin to rebound from this financial crisis that has affected most of us in more ways than one.

This economy has flipped our family upside down, but we're stronger than ever. It's times like these that make you reevaluate your life and discover what really matters in life. Despite how difficult this year has been for us, I'm going to take away from it all the good and the bad, because without the bad we will never force ourselves to grow. Believe me, I did a lot of growing this year and I am so proud of myself for how far I've come as a wife and mother. Those are two of the hardest titles any woman can ever have and I've been pushed to my limits in both positions. I take each situation and hurdle as an opportunity to gain wisdom and strength. I have embraced faults and short comings in others because I have cultivated an inner strength that has allowed me look past all the negativity and seek out the positive. I guess I should thank my parents for that strength...they have always instilled positivity into my being, and in turn it feels great to pass that on to my children.

This picture is a great example of some of my challenging moments as a mother...

and this is the reason I have an optimistic outlook on life.

Happy New Year! Remeber your life is what you make of it :)