Year of the Horse 2014

Happy 2014!

I'm well far behind here.
January has already flown by in a blink.
Libby turns 7 tomorrow. She finally lost another tooth. First grade is going well. She's working on Subtraction skills now.
We had her birthday party on the 1st. We went painting again this year. Invited her entire class. It was really nice. Although, once again Walmart bakery saw fit to mess things up. I ordered Disney Frozen cupcakes for 10am pick-up. When I arrived at 10:30am, they weren't ready and the girl gave me attitude. Said it would take 15 mins, but she was working on something else. Complained to me that she was the only one there, as if it were my fault. Since the party started at 11am, we had to leave and Daddy went back later. #walmartfail

Libby is battling a UTI currently. I hope the antibiotic starts helping soon. Cephalexin (7.5ml, 3x/day for 10 days). Both girls had colds about 2 weeks ago and have lingering coughs. Gotta love winter...

Our weather has been a mixed bag with lots of snow recently.

Tomorrow is O's first grade music concert, "Cantamos Americanos." She's wearing a dress that my Mother-in-law got her in Mexico.

Little sis is loving preschool. She loves "shining" and getting gold stars for good behavior in school. They started doing show & tell recently and she was so happy to tell me that "my teacher said I did it perfectly." :)

School Year 2013-14

Wow, where did the summer go?? School started yesterday. Libby is in the 1st grade :)

We visited lots of family, had fun with friends, and grew a garden. Lots of time in the pool, bike riding, and feeding the fish.

Little sis had her 3rd birthday! So hard to believe. She's already riding the trike and a small bicycle with training wheels. Her preschool starts next week.

Libby's class is 2/3 boys this year! I hope it doesn't make a difference. Her teacher, Mrs. P seems very nice. O made her a necklace from the Job's tears seeds that Auntie Kristie gave her in JA.

She's had Art, Music, and Library already this week. PE and Spanish tomorrow. Then, testing days on Thurs & Fri.

Library books for the week:
"Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes" by James Dean and Eric Litwin
"Horace and Morris Join the Chorus (but what about Dolores?)" by James Howe

Little sis ain't so little

Happy 2nd Birthday to Little Sis Sabrina!
Hard to believe it's been 2 years since this little girl came into our lives. She is very independent, very happy and very easy-going.

Olivia is preparing for her 1st day of Kindergarten. We had orientation last week, met the teachers, toured the school (though it's the same school).


Oma came out to surprise us last week and is here until Friday. It's so nice to have some family here for the summer.

What else? The summer has gone by in a blink.
Olivia took a few painting classes in June & July.
We went to JA for 10 days in July. The girls had a great time w/family.
We went to the movies twice w/friends. Sabrina was great sitting still & quiet in the theater.
We went to the pool at the gym a bunch of times.

Mid-March, already!

Book of the week: Olivia chose not to get a new book b/c she didn't return last week's book. We didn't get a chance to read it and she wanted to keep it.

Word of the week: volcano

Gorgeous weather this week has made it possible to walk to and from school every day. We also got lots of time to play outside.

We had Addysen & Jack over for dinner and a playdate on Monday. The kids had spaghetti and peas and got to play in the backyard. A nice way to end the day.

Olivia has started eating pizza rolls again. It's a nice surprise. She requested that I buy them on a trip to Walmart. I got a small bag since I wasn't sure that she'd really eat them, but it's been going well as a lunch time option.

Little sis is climbing the stairs completely on her own now. It's scary to watch at times but she's very independent. She's even climbing around outside on the rocks, resisting help from anyone who tries to lend a hand. Sabrina is also combining words more now, 'Daddy work' "Ee-yah school' 'Elmer food'

We had some friends over to help celebrate Daddy's birthday w/us last weekend. I think we surprised Daddy. Do you like his cake? hahah.

Happy 5th Birthday!!

My Olivia is 5 years old! Happy Birthday! We had a wonderful time celebrating yesterday with our friends. We took the kids to a painting place where they painted a cat with a bird. It was a lot of fun!
The cake was Barbie Fashion Pink.

I was stressing out about the weather as we had a pretty big snow start on Thursday night and run all day through Friday. We had close to a foot of snow at our house. But, thankfully, the major roads were well cleared and the sun came out on Saturday.

Book of the week: "Snowballs" by Lois Elhert
word of the week: care

Sabrina requested to sleep with Olivia in Olivia's room. We tried it 2 nights. The 1st night, Sabrina had a leak in her diaper and woke up after only an hour. We heard her wandering around upstairs. Once Bruce changed her, he put her back in the crib. The 2nd night, the girls slept for almost 4 hours, but Sabrina was crowding Olivia, climbing on her. It woke Olivia up, so she brought Sabrina to us. haha. It was cute that they tried.

A few updates...

Book of the week: Noisy Nora
word of the week: where

Last week's book: Froggy's Day with Daddy
Last week's word: water

Olivia had a fever and bellyache on Saturday afternoon. Turned out to be strep throat, so she's on a course of antibiotics (8ml of amoxicillin, 2x/day for 10 days).

We're getting ready for Olivia's 5th birthday party. Going a bit "all out" this year, spending a little more so that Olivia can do what she wants, get the cake she wants, etc. I figure 5 is a bit of milestone. We'll have to scale back next year.

Sabrina is getting 4 more teeth all at once, it seems. Hopefully, that will be the end of for awhile. She's very dependent on her pacifier lately.

Nooooo

New trick: Say No to Sabrina and she shakes her head - noooo. It's so cute! And today she's putting a headband on her head and trying to shake it off.

Tooth #6 broke through today on the bottom. That explains a lot of the crankiness lately.

We had a small birthday party for Sabrina on Saturday. The weather was fantastic. We held the party outside at the pool/rec center.

Sabrina loves trying to walk. Crawling is officially not an option for this kid. She wants to strut. She wants to pull up and hold your hands to walk.

Olivia is getting ready for PreK to start next week. She made a new friend in our new neighbor's daughter, Evie. The 2 of them are only about 1 week apart in age. so, they play really well.

4th Birthday

Happy 4th Birthday, Olivia!
It was a great day. We partied with friends (Victoria, Evan, Zachary, Tori, Lauryn & Sidney) at Chuck E Cheese. Birthday cake was My Little Pony. Favorite gift was the set of Disney Princess dolls from Mommy & Daddy (thank goodness). But she got some fantastic presents including Barbie dolls, MLP dolls/sets, Beauty & the Beast playset, Littlest Pet Shop set & coloring book, tea set, kid baking set & cookie making set and a swan salon. Oma & Dede also sent a book that they read & recorded their voices for O & Sabrina.

You're such a big girl now. I'm so proud of you.

Sister is here!

Olivia's little sister, Sabrina arrived on 6 Aug @ 11:08pm, weighing 7lb, 6oz & 20" long. She was born 2 days early & weighed nearly a full pound less than Olivia did at birth. It's amazing how big of a difference that is in a baby.

Labor & delivery was much better this time. I was already 4.5cm dilate & 70% effaced when my water broke & we headed to the hospital. I was able to labor without pitocin, just got an epidural after the dr broke the "fore bag" of waters. Sabrina was also sunny side up but I only had to push for about 10 mins (through 2 contractions).

Sabrina's belly button fell off already & she's started crying real tears.

It's been fun seeing the 2 sisters together. Olivia is a great big sister - very protective & caring.

Party

We had Olivia's 3rd Birthday party at Chuck E Cheese this past weekend. Olivia picked out a "Barbie & the 3 Musketeers" cake when she saw that her "Princess & the Frog" cake was gone (I tried to tell her they could make a new one, but she changed it). It was so much easier than having to entertain kids inside the house. They give the kids tokens to play games, then serve pizza, dance w/Chuck E Cheese & cut the cake. We had 12 kids from 2-8 years old at the party, plus 2 infants. It was so nice to have good friends to celebrate with since our families are so far away.

Such a big girl

It's been almost 5 days now that Olivia has been wearing big girl panties & telling me when she needs to use the potty. I'm in total shock, but so happy. I hope it lasts.

I finally got invites out for her 3rd bday party. We're going to have it at Chuck E Cheese this year. Seems more reasonable, especially when most of her friends are the same age. Can't imagine having them all in the house at one time. Oh & she asked for a "Princess & the Frog" cake.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Another year has passed and you're sweeter than ever, Olivia. We went to the park today w/some friends from playgroup, then had lunch w/Daddy. It's been a good day.

I love how she sings & makes up words (or sounds to mimic words). Just like Daddy. ;) She wanted to dress herself today, so wore a skort over her gauchos. Fun times are ahead!

Love you, baby girl!

Celebrate

We had a small birthday celebration for Olivia's birthday on Saturday. We had our neighbors over for a few laughs, smiles and sweets. It was a nice day. Olivia didn't know what to do with the cake until I showed her. Then it was hard to get her to stop.