Thanksgiving

It's been about 10 years since we've had Thanksgiving with my family!! In North Carolina we never made it out west for the holidays, and when we were in Utah for 7 years, we spent Thanksgiving with my cousins. We had so much fun leaving our husbands and babies sleeping while we did our black Friday shopping at 4am in the FREEZING COLD!! It was a fun tradition and I will never forget those memories. This year we had about a dozen people over for dinner and then decided to sleep in on black Friday. We figured if there was something still there when we got there, then it was meant to be :) I was experimenting with my timer on my camera so there are several of the same area (almost looks like time lapse photography-but not really). Oh, it was so funny - Gabriela was SO excited for turkey! My dad cut the ham first and she almost died waiting. Emalyn got her first bite of turkey and LOVED it!

My mom got the kids this gingerbread house kit to do Thanksgiving morning while we were all cooking and they had so much fun decorating it. Gabriela had a hard time though, trying not to eat one of each variety of candy!

I am so thankful for my family and I love this time of year that's dedicated to it! I love having my kids home from school and everyone getting together for birthdays, holidays, events, etc. I'm so grateful to be back home. Hope you all enjoy this season as well.

Marhsa, Marsha, Marsha!

My wonderful Aunt Marsha was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of months ago and so I wanted to make her a quilt to keep her warm through her treatments and to let her know how much we love her and pray for her. She is the ultimate example to me of selfless service. I am so happy with how the quilt turned out; it's my favorite one so far!

"Ginger"

Events

Gabriela was taking a bath last week and I ran the water and left to go get Emalyn. I was at the other end of the house and TOTALLY forgot about the bath. After several minutes Cristina said Gabriela was calling for me. I listened and heard a "mama?" I then remembered the bath... "aaahhh! the water's still going!!" Cris leapt up and ran to the bathroom and turned it off as she was stepping in puddles. Instead of checking in on her, I got my camera first :) I figured Cris was in there, so she was safe. It had just started to pour over, so we caught it at a good time. Poor Gabriela was a little nervous once it started going over, but otherwise loved the water!
Emalyn is getting close to standing on her own. She keeps crawling funny, with one foot planted on the ground and the other leg on her knee in regular crawling position. Last week I caught her with both feet planted, she raised her bum in the air, pushed up, and let go of the sidewalk for a second! I ran back in to get the camera and of course she wouldn't get up all the way again, but got close.

Cristina & Lissa had their winter formal and they looked gorgeous! Stephanie came over to do their hair and makeup and it turned out great. Cris went w/a date - Richard, and Liss went w/a couple of her friends. Isa & Gabriela were fascinated by the whole process and can't wait to be bigger and dress up! :)

Old Friends

Yesterday we had a get-together with a bunch of Danny's old friends from high school & church, which the Haymore's graciously hosted, and there was a total of 15 adults and 24 children!! It was quite an event. The kids had a blast making new friends and the "older boys" had fun reminiscing. We forgot to pull out the camera until the end, so we didn't get any shots of the group, but we did get one of these BFF's...

Jess Haymore, Fint Matchett, Christian Price, & Danny Rock

Proposition 102

This year our family, along with my sister Cristina (not pictured), volunteered to help pass out proposition 102 door hangers around our neighborhood and the kids really enjoyed it.

Gabriela only lasted about 5 houses and then was all of the sudden SO hungry and tired of walking, that she kept asking "Can we go to somebody else's house to eat? PLEASE?!" Too cute. We walked back to the house and dropped her off and resumed hanging more signs.

We had a great discussion on what the proposition meant and the importance of families. Brendan and Isa were proud to help out and they did a great job. They got to watch the votes come in and were extremely excited when Proposition 102...PASSED!!

9 months

Emalyn is now almost 10 months, but here are some shots from last month. She is fascinated by the fish and can stand and watch for a couple of minutes. We'll try to get her to say fish, and she'll imitate the sound "shhh, shhh". Close enough for me!

Emalyn refused to eat baby food, just like my others, so we've just been giving her very tender veggies and fruit and she loves feeding herself. I read on someone else's blog about this trick to get babies to eat the leftover stage 1 baby food. Peel back the lid and insert the straw and let them "drink" it that way. She figured out the straw within 10 seconds and loved it for a few chugs. Then she was done.

Ema's been raising her arms in the air when we say "yay!" and it's pretty cute. She can also give "high 5's". We're working on simple signs and I'm sure she'll get them soon. Gabriela could sign her few words at 10 months. We work on "more, milk, hungry, please, thank you, and sleep".

At her 9 month check up, she weighed in at 18 lb. 10 oz. and 28.5" long. I can't believe how little she is! I was looking up the stats on the other kids and they were 18 lbs at 4 months!! Anway, she's growing well and still a very laid-back baby and we love her tons :)

♥ Love ♥

I'm in love. Again. Poor Danny thinks that every time I buy a new camera I'll be done, but alas, it's happened again! :) Nikon came out with the new D90 and I love it!! I have my birthday money stashed away, and my hope is to sell my D50 and put all that toward the D90. It'll be close. So, if anyone is interested or knows anyone that wants a much-loved, beautifully taken care of Nikon D50, let me know!! I will list it first on craigslist in a couple of weeks, and then if it doesn't go, I'll list it on ebay next. I can't wait!!!

Halloween

Thursday night our ward had a Halloween party, and they gathered all the kids on stage to show off their costumes and award prizes. The kids had a blast with all the games, booths, and most importantly, the "trunk or treat". At the end of the night, the girls were all ready to go and Brendan was off with his friends still running around (that's why I didn't get a shot of him then).

Halloween night, and the kids were SO ready to go! They had a hard time standing still while I was trying to take just a few good pictures. Brendan was a skeleton ninja warrior (?), Isa picked out this Renaissance-era dress pattern, and I actually MADE it! It turned out pretty cute, as long as you don't look closely at all the seams inside :) Gabriela picked out a pattern for scrubs so she could be a doctor, and I MADE that too! (All her talk and play has been about doctors the last couple of months-she loves hers!) Then Emalyn dressed up as Yoda (Gabriela's old costume from 2 years ago).

These series of photos crack me up, because you can see Gabriela just bursting to get on with the night! I told her that I had to keep taking pictures until she could stand still and smile nice for me and this was the result...(you have to click on the pictures to enlarge them-so cute!)

Emalyn loved the carved pumpkin and was fascinated with the goo and texture of the inside of it. She doesn't keep hats or headbands or anything on her head, so the fact that this was snapped on helped, but she still knew something was "up".

We now have WAY too much candy, and I am seriously thinking about doing the "halloween fairy" this year. (It's just like the tooth fairy - you put your tooth under your pillow and the fairy takes it and gives you money - same concept, except they put out their baskets of candy at night, and in the morning the candy's gone and a small toy, book, or some other thing your child likes is there instead). We'll see how much candy I eat in the next day - that will determine a lot :)

Carter's Recall

If any of you have children that wear Carter's clothing with the "tagless" labels from the Fall 2007 clothing line, please check out this link:

http://www.carters.com/corporate/tagless_message.aspx

When Emalyn was 6 weeks old she developed a rash on her back and chest, and also had a fever (unrelated probably) but she was almost admitted to the hospital because babies under 2 months can't fight viruses. The pediatrician had no idea what "virus" it could be. They ran a bunch of tests and because they all came back negative they let me take her home, but we kept a CLOSE eye on her. Now I know what was going on!! She had 7 long-sleeved onesies (newborn sized) that had this label.

Carter's is issuing full refunds for these items, (even if your baby has outgrown them!), so give them a call. Good luck!!

Gabriela is THREE!!!

This morning I had to take some picture of my cute 3 year old!! She loves to show off her dimples, and I love to take pictures of them :) I am so glad she's part of our family; I love her tons! Her wild, crazy, adventurous, & strong personality brings lots of life to our house!!

All day Gabriela kept asking when she could eat her cake, she was so excited to blow out candles and eat it! We got free scoops of ice cream for our birthdays so we went out together to Baskin Robbins and then tomorrow we'll go out for our free scoops at Cold Stone! Mmm, can't wait...

ouch!

This morning has been kind of rough. Emalyn was in the tub (after a blow-out in her crib) and as I was washing her, she tried to stand up and slipped. It wasn't a big fall (she was still sitting-just leaning forward) but bumped her mouth nonetheless. Add to it the pain of teething (she's let us know just how painful teething is the last 4 nights!) and she screamed for a little while. I didn't see any blood, so I thought all was good and then later saw her gums. Poor baby!

Later I was shutting our vertical windows and because they are tall and old, they don't slide well. Well, I started to slide one and the top tipped forward and stuck, so I had to push it back to upright position with my left and push at the base to close it with my right hand. Oh, and you have to exert some force as well to shut them, and as you can see I didn't get my hand off the top fast enough. After 2 hours of really intense pain, and not being able to move it, I reluctantly agreed to go to Urgent Care. Luckily it's not broken, and ice and advil seem to help a little.

Unfortunately, right now it hurts to lift anything with my left hand, Emalyn thinks it's a toy, and I've already hit it on something and came close to crying. It's going to be a long week until this heals...

New

Emalyn is starting to get into things (and onto things for that matter), but so far not as much as Gabriela. It's so fun to see her little mind analyzing her surroundings and figuring out the world around her.

Isa & Gabriela are good about trying new things and eat almost anything, but Brendan is quite the opposite. Last week my parents got Panda Express for dinner and the girls loved it...and Brendan did too!! The chopsticks helped them be more adventurous :) I didn't think Gabriela would be able to manage it, but she was diligent and got it!

I saw this picture on a fabric designer's website and HAD to make these pajama pants!! They looked so cute! Well, I got the fabric this weekend and just finished making the pants and I love them, but somehow they still look better on the model. I think I need longer legs to carry the big print :) Also, the coloring is quite different. In the picture above it looks like a black background, but mine is a chocolate brown, and then the leaves and polka dots on my fabric look more yellow than green. I can't tell if it's because of Photoshop or the fabric is altogether a different shade. I'll have to go do some research :)

Meet Carolina

This was an early Christmas present for Danny, done 2 months ago!! Right before we moved, I bought a bunch of UNC fabric so that I could make a quilt at some point. Well, the day after I arrived in Tucson I bought my new sewing machine and couldn't wait to try it out! I knew exactly what to start on. Instead of the traditional 100% cotton on the back, I decided to use minky fabric so that it's nice and soft. He loves it! I finished my own quilt a couple of weeks ago, but then decided to do more quilting on it, so pictures will come later. I love this new hobby!!

AWESOME MOVIE WEBSITE!

I don't remember how I came across this website, but I am SO glad I did!! I think it deserves a post of its own-it's that awesome. Here's an excerpt from the website to help explain what they do:

"We enable adults to determine whether a movie is appropriate for them or their children, according to their own criteria. Unlike the MPAA we do not assign an inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE & PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10. We also explain in detail why a film rates high or low in a specific category, and we include instances of SUBSTANCE USE, a list of DISCUSSION TOPICS that may elicit questions from kids and MESSAGES the film conveys."

This website includes NEW RELEASE films currently in the theaters. No more excuses for kids (or you) going and not being sure about the possible questionable content! Please check it out and pass along the information.

http://www.kids-in-mind.com/

♥ r.lovies ♥

So, I'm trying to launch my "r.lovies" line of security blankets, along with other products to come. Here's the link to what I have up so far: http://www.rlovies.blogspot.com/

Let me know what you think!!

Bound to happen...

Well, I guess I knew this day was coming, but I don't think I could've ever been "prepared" for it. Yesterday, I was out running errands and Danny was home watching the girls, and in the 3 minutes he went to the bathroom, he came out to this...

I tried the best I could to even out her new SHORT bangs that go WAY far back. It was looking pretty close to a mullet, so we tried pigtails and it looked a little better.

After I did the pigtails I noticed a rogue lock of hair. I remember seeing that a couple of weeks ago when I did her hair, but it was wet so there wasn't that much sticking up and so I thought it was still baby hairs. Now I realized she cut there as well.

Today I decided that the mullet wasn't cutting it, so I decided "off with your hair!". I think it's more proportionate now, but still makes me sad-I don't like bangs. I miss her "old" hair. I should be grateful though, that she didn't cut anything any shorter than it was. I've heard of little girls cutting right at the base of ponytails and pigtails, so for that I am grateful!

I found this shirt at Target a little while ago, and tried to find "Little Miss Trouble", but they only had "Little Miss Chatterbox" (which would have been VERY appropriate for Isa!). I thought it suited her anyway :)

She looks younger to me with the short pigtails, but it looks healthier and not so stringy. Hopefully her hair will grow fast and never get a hold of scissors again!

All in a day's work...

So, here's a glimpse into a typical day in the life of my sweet Gabriela...

First thing in the morning, I was working on the computer with Gabriela playing right next to me on the floor with Star Wars toys. After a couple of minutes I noticed it was really quiet and saw that she was no longer by my side. I got up and searched the house and couldn't find her! I went through the house a second time, checking every closet and under the beds, and even called her name in a sing-song type voice like we were playing so that I could get a giggle out of her or something, but NOTHING! After a THIRD search, I found her in my parent's bathroom standing on the toilet (just out of sight the first 2 times I looked-silly me I looked for feet on the floor-what was I thinking?!) and she was brushing her teeth. I about died (panic, laughter, grossness, you name it) when I found her with SHINY teeth! She found triple antibiotic ointment, and put it on my dad's toothbrush and was brushing away.

Next on the agenda was mutiny. Gabriela loves to play pirates with the kids, and this incident happened with almost everyone at home. Lissa heard Emalyn crying in the back because she had just woken up from her morning nap and told me she was awake. I was trying to finish something in the kitchen (some kind of cleaning because I walked to the laundry room to throw something away) and in the 90 seconds it took me to finish, Gabriela managed this.

I walked back and saw that my bedroom door was already open; NOT a good sign. I walked in and Gabriela was not in the room, huh-that's a surprise, and when I went to pull Emalyn out, I noticed a nice hole in the pack 'n play right in front of her face! Argh!! Thankfully 2 year olds are completely honest, so I asked Gabriela to come in my room and "see something". I asked her how the hole got there and she said (very matter-of-factly), "i did it". I asked her how, and she said, "with a sword". I thanked her for telling me and my mind was reeling trying to figure out what toy sword I had missed hiding and how a plastic sword could pierce the net. A minute later, I couldn't find anything, so I went back to her room and asked her to show me what sword she used. She walked back into my room, crawled under my bed, and pulled out Danny's machete, and held it proudly and said, "this one! i was a pirate with Emalyn!" I about died again. Seeing how close Ema's face was to the hole in the net when I got her out burned a very scary image in my brain!

Later I found Gabriela in the bathroom again rummaging through the band-aid box. She managed to sneak 1 out because it was hidden under her clothes. Later I found it on Emalyn. Gabs thought it would be funny to continue with the pirate theme and put it on Ema's head to complete the pirate look.

Next up was a make-over. She dug out my make up bag in the back of the bathroom cabinets, and crawled onto the counter and went to town. Again, several people were home and we still managed to miss this. Not too bad; she seemed to know where everything went on her face and got pretty close. However, I saw teeth marks in my chapstick, so she may have eaten some. She also twisted it up all the way and got it all in the lid, so I lost that one.

When I found her, she said, "look mom, I'm BEAUTIFUL!" Yep, yep she was...

No explanation needed.

Lastly, at the end of the day, we found her trying to play the violin. She was so proud and said, "look! I'm making pretty music!" How can we get mad when she's so naturally curious and honestly trying to just play or do something fun?!

Oh! I forgot to add that the toddler bed has since been disassembled, packed away, and the crib is back, along with the crib tent, AND A TIE!! *Ü*

Bed, Bath, & Beyond

After 7 months in a pack 'n play, we finally got a crib for Emalyn!! Gabriela is still in hers, I just can't let her run wild all day! I never thought I'd own TWO cribs, but it is SO necessary. Emalyn loves her crib-so much more room to roll around and play.

So I got her routine on camera today, and she was pretty happy that I was sticking around while she was settling in, but when I left she was pretty mad. So, she skipped her short evening nap. Emalyn sucks on her middle two fingers, finds a corner of a blanket to pinch between her thumb & index finger, and then lays down and is ready for bed. It's so interesting to me how she comes up with this on her own. Gabriela HAD to start out swaddled every time she went to bed, so I guess they each have their "thing".

Emalyn is sporting this cute duck bath towel that a good friends of ours, Sarah Tuttle, made for her. After her baths, Ema sits around naked for a while to air out all her folds and crevices :)

Gabriela came in while I was taking pictures and wanted to give Emalyn a kiss because she was "so cute". I think this turned out beyond cute!!