The Denena's

Denena River

2012-01-25T11:23:00.000-08:00

We had a nice welcome to our neighborhood on January 9th when our area got about six inches of rain in approximately two hours. Our street turned into a river very quickly. James was out of town and I had accidentally left his car on the street. Luckily a neighbor fought the rain to come tell me to move the car into the driveway. Some water got into the passenger side, but if I hadn't have moved it, the interior seats would have been underwater. Insane! We also learned our California dog does not like thunder and lightening. Sierra goes bizerk during storms! Thanks to the doggie valium the vet prescribed, she is handling storms better now.
Daddy took Bella on a date night one Saturday. He brought her roses and took her to a fancy Italian restaurant. He likes taking her on dates because she is an amazingly adventurous eater. She will try anything, unlike her mommy. They came home with Isabella all excited about having tried "lobster fish." She also had mussels, clams, and calamari. He is setting the bar high for any boys who come knocking on our door when she is older. Too cute!

Isabella's class went to the Fireman's Museum. I came along this time to help the teachers out. It was such a cute little museum where the kids had a blast!

I'll finish with two cute photos of the girls. They are both getting so big!!

Busy Busy Jewels Who Actually Went Pee Pee

2012-01-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

Juliana is one crazy little monkey! She keeps us on our toes! This month, she has cut four teeth and had at least one cold (that lasted long enough to be two). We also have been struggling with the loss of the pacifier outside of her crib. Needless to say, our house has been a little LOUD! She met a major milestone yesterday! She went pee pee in the potty! Hurray for Jewels!
This month, she has also tried crayon...

Enjoyed Nutella...

And learned that in a 10 minute drive, she can take pig tails out, rip a bow from her hair, get her arms out of her car seat, and taken her shirt half off.

We love our little goofball!!

Bella's Birthday Bash

2012-01-25T11:07:00.001-08:00

On January 8th, we threw a big birthday bash at our house in honor of Isabella's 4th birthday. Isabella really wanted the party at our house this year and luckily the weather cooperated. We had almost her entire class over, as well as a few other friends and some family (totally almost 50 people). It was a lot of fun! We baked a rainbow cake the day before. The day of, we surprised Isabella when ponies pulled up to our house. For an hour, two ponies gave rides up and down our street. We then ate lunch and the homemade cake. I think Isabella had a blast with 21 of her Houston buds.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!! We celebrated very low key at home. Our Scottish neighbors from across the street came over for a BBQ and to hang out. They have two little girls. Phoebe is a month younger than Jewels and Yasmin is about ten days younger than Bella. The kids have so much fun playing together! Here are Phoebe and Jewels driving the Barbie car Isabella got for Christmas from Nana and Papaw and Sierra sportting her New Year's hat. Isabella and Yasmin didn't sit still all night. They even stayed up until 11pm to bring in the New Year with New York.

Happy 4th Birthday Bella!!!!

2012-01-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

Isabella turned 4 years old on December 30th!! I can't believe she has gotten so big! She is doing great...such a big girl. She is so mature for her age. She loves to help. She is also doing wonderfully with her numbers and letters. She makes us proud every single day!! We love the Bella Babe!!
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The night before her birthday, we had her go to bed in our bedroom. After she fell asleep, we redid her room. She was still sleeping in a toddler bed and didn't have any other furniture besides a bookshelf she got for Christmas. When she woke up, she had a new big girl room complements of us and her grandparents. She was super excited!! Here are photos of before and after.

After we ate waffles, we headed to the Kemah Boardwalk for rides and shrimp. Isabella also won her first stuffed animal playing a game.
That night, we went to Benihana with Marmee, Grand-E, Nana, and Papaw for a fun filled dinner.

Nite nite birthday girl Bella (the birthday girl going to bed for the first time in her big girl bed)!

Happy 18 Months Juliana

2012-01-02T14:21:00.001-08:00

I was a tad late taking Juliana in for her 18 month check-up (due December 6). On the 28th, I lugged her into the doctor to get two shots and a well check. She weighed 24 pounds (42%), was 32.5 inches long (69%), and her head was 18.5 inches (60%). She checked out very health! The doctor said that her speech is on par with a 2 year old. She can already make three+ word sentences. We were told that we are behind of weaning her from the bottle and pacifier though. We were still giving her one bottle before bed and the pacifier for sleep and whenever whining. Well, when got home that day, the bottles disappeared. And, she actually could have cared less! We then told her that she could not take her "paci" out of her crib, which did not go over as well. We tried this months ago, but with the move, we would always cave. After the doctor's visit, we have been strict about it living in her crib. Smart Jewels now chooses to spend more time in her crib during her nap and when she wakes up in the morning, but she throws it down before we pick her up. Jewels is as spunky as ever. She does goofy little things that crack us up all the time. She is very vocal and knows what she wants! She can eat as much or more than Isabella and will eat anything! She is still our little Jewel!

Merry Christmas

2012-01-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! It was hard to get ready for after just having moved, but we pulled it off! This was the first Christmas since we left home for college in the mid 1990's where we spent Christmas in our very own home. Here are some fun highlights from the festive month.
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We met Santa! Isabella loved him and Juliana was not too sure. Isabella wrote notes for both her and her sister to give to him. Isabella asked him for a spotted doggie for herself and a pink doggie for Jewels.
Before our moving boxes were gone, we were unpacking our Christmas decorations. Here is Juliana with Santa in our front yard the day Daddy put up lights.

We walking through the many rows of trees at the garden center to find the perfect tree. We bought the biggest tree we have ever gotten. It barely fit in our our living room without hitting the ceiling...perfect!

The City of Bellaire (the part of Houston we live in) has a Holiday Festival every year. It was a blast...Santa arriving in a fire truck, sleigh rides, fake snow to sled on and throw, petting zoo. pony rides, characters, music, etc. Bellaire is a very family oriented neighborhood that we are loving!

The neighborhood where Aunt Jenny and Tina live and where our apartment was located decorates to the nth degree. One Saturday night in December, they shut down the streets and there's lots of music and other festivities. We loaded the girls in our wagon, Grand-E bought battery operated lights, and we walked the streets looking at all the lights with our family, Marmee, and Grand-E. It was a lot of fun! Here are the girls with their glasses that make lights snowmen that Aunt Angie gave us. This is right before they jumped ship to boogie in someone's yard.

James' new work, PROS, threw an amazing kids holiday party decorated like Candyland. The girls had so much fun!

Pearl from Isabella's school threw a cookie exchange for the girls in their class. Isabella had a lot of fun hanging out with the five other girls from school. Jewel's had a blast tagging along as well. After this picture was taken, there was a massive sugar rush!! This was the first cookie exchange that I have been to where the kiddos ate almost all the cookies before we got home.

The weekend before Christmas we drove up to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to see Papa Jim and Nana Becky. It was the first time we have been able to make the drive since our move. We stayed in Cedar Hill, but drove to the farm in Fort Worth where Isabella fed the donkeys, goats, and cows (Juliana was napping in the car), went to their Glen Rose house to check it out, and drove through the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center park where we got to feed the various animals including ostriches, deer, antelope, etc from the car. The next day, Juliana stayed with Nana Becky and the rest of us took Isabella to see the Nutcracker for the very first time. Almost every year of my childhood, my dad took me to see the Nutcracker so this was very special to not only Bella, but me as well. Isabella LOVED the ballet!! Before we headed back to Houston, my two stepbrothers and their families came over for lunch on our final day. The girls had fun playing with their cousin's Amery and Griffin. Here is a picture from the Nutcracker. I had more photos, but my camera card was deleted :(.

We threw a little Denena shindig at our house when Aunties Tina and Amanda were in town to introduce Porter who was then 11 weeks old. In total, 13 Denena adults and 6 Denena babes ate lunch and hung out at our house. It was so much fun seeing our family from the Houston, Bryon, Austin, and Davis (Cali) area! On Christmas day, we went to Nana and Papaw's with James' siblings and their families to celebrate. Isabella and Juliana love playing with Joey, Alexandra, Max, Ella, Emma, and Sophia!! It was a wonderful celebration! This time I just plain forgot to get out my camera :(.

The day after Christmas, we threw another little family party with my side of the family. Marmee and Grand-E along with Aunt Jenny and Tina, Uncle John, and my Aunt Jeannette and cousins Chris and Stephanie with little Charlotte came over. It was really nice! Reminded me of my childhood when my cousins and I would hang out in Cleburne, Texas. Here's Marmee and Jewels about to open presents before everyone arrived.

Like I said, this was the first year we were able to celebrate Christmas in our own home. It was very relaxing! The girls as well as us had so much fun creating new traditions preparing for Santa! We baked sugar cookies for Santa, put out treats in the front yard for the reindeer, cooked a fancy Christmas Eve dinner, ate in the dining room, slept all night so Santa could come, came downstairs to stocking full on the floor, and opened presents! The girls got the doggies they asked for along with other little goodies and a PLAYSCAPE! Santa dropped it down straight from his sleigh.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Marmee!!

2012-01-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

We helped Marmee celebrate her birthday November 16th. During the day, we went to Picture People where we took photos. Afterwards, we went to Cheesecake Factory where we sneakily got them to sing Happy Birthday to a very embarrassed Marmee, very excited granddaughters, and a somewhat in between daughter. The evening of her birthday, our family, along with Aunt Jenny and her fiance Tina, went to the Spindletop restaurant overlooking downtown. Very fun day!! Happy Birthday Marmee!!

Where Does Time Go?!?!

2012-01-02T12:45:00.000-08:00

In four years, I don't think I have ever gone a month without blogging. Life has been busy to say the least! All is well in Houston, Texas, but we have been so busy moving, getting settled, celebrating birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, and simply keeping up with life. We are enjoying being back "home" where we get to see family on a regular basis. Here are a few of the random things we have done between unpacking, decorating, shopping, partying, etc.
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We love the Houston Zoo! We are members and go about once a week. One of our favorite things to do there is feed the giraffes. Isabella also went on her very first school field trip to the zoo.

Isabella is still loving her school. Below is her first school picture and another of her whole class before Christmas break. One of her two teachers left after the end of the semester. We are sad to see Ms. Brooke go, but excited for her new teacher.

Isabella went ice skating for the first time at her cousin Ellie's birthday party. Marmee joined us gals. Juliana walked on the ice, but we didn't dare strap skates to her feet. Isabella had a blast!!!

We spent the night at Marmee and Grand-E's Tiki house one Saturday. It was fun as usual. Isabella helped Daddy fish for the first time. They caught a flounder, which we took home and cooked for dinner. James was invited to the Lombardi Awards where he got to meet all the candidates. Here he is with Courtney Upshaw.

Professional Photos from Shelly's Wedding

2012-01-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!!!!!

2011-11-06T11:51:00.001-08:00

On Halloween night, we went over to Marmee and Grand-E's house. Isabella's friend Pearl from school and her parents joined us for dinner then trick or treating. The three girls had a blast trick or treating on two streets. Afterwards, they dug into their candy then Isabella and Juliana helped Marmee and Grand-E hand out candy. It was a very fun, peaceful Halloween!

St. Paul's Halloween

2011-11-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

Isabella's school put on a Fall Festival to celebrate Halloween. Nana and Papaw joined us in the festivities. The girls had a blast riding ponies, petting donkeys, jumpy houses, playing games, riding in a fire truck, etc.! Here are some cute photos from the afternoon.

Isabella's class also had a Halloween party where they ate treats and decorated pumpkins. Here is Cinderella bridal girl showing off her pumpkin.

Trent and Shelly Niemand

2011-11-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

On October 29, 2011, my step-sister Shelly married Trent Niemand in a beautiful ceremony here in Houston. The night before, they had a very nice rehearsal dinner at the Haven restaurant. The next morning, they exchanged vows at the Rothko Chapel with a reception at Brennan's afterwards. The girls were enamoured by Aunt Shelly's beautiful gown and all the festivities. It was a beautiful event to celebrate the official joining of Shelly and Trent's lives.

We have a house!

2011-11-06T09:13:00.000-08:00

We closed on our house! We are doing a little work in the house before we move in, but should be out of the apartment by Thanksgiving. We are very excited! We did not have a very cooperative seller so the whole process was not super smooth, but the house is now ours! In between dealing with housing stuff, we have been staying busy as usual. Here are some highlights of things we have done in Houston.
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Juliana started her new school since she is still on the wait list at Isabella's school. It just so happened that her first day of school was their Halloween party so she went to school as a pumpkin. Juliana was not a big fan of her school the first week, but seemed to really enjoy it Week 2. Here is a photo on the first day.
We are members of the Houston Zoo now. We have been a few times already. It is so much fun! Here is a photo of Isabella and Juliana hanging out with the chimps and the girls and their new friend Pearl from Isabella's school with the elephants.

Aunt Shelly works for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. On Saturday, there was a VisionWalk to support finding a cure. They had lots of fun kid activities (Juliana went in her first jumpy house) and a 5K walk. Grand-E's company had donated money so he had his very own sign.

Trip to Cali

2011-11-06T09:10:00.000-08:00

Isabella and I took a big girls trip to California to meet Olivia (Claire's little sister) and go on our annual pumpkin patch outing. It was so much fun! Olivia is adorable and it was great seeing our Cali besties. Here are some photos of our trip highlights.
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We went to Gizdich Ranch to their Halloween festivities with Claire, Katelyn, Jackson, their moms, and younger siblings (except Juliana who stayed in Texas). The older girls definitely stuck together, but all the kiddos had a blast playing together, walking through the pumpkins, running in the marigolds, going through the corn maze, tasting fresh honey, going on a hayride, riding the carousal, etc. So fun! This was the first time Isabella and I met Olivia. Very exciting!! She is super, duper cute!

Once we were near a couch, Isabella wanted a turn holding Olivia. She loved Claire's baby sister.

Caitlin had planned some arts and crafts for Isabella, Katelyn, and Claire. Here they are making ghost canvases using their handprints. We'll be keeping our artwork to display every Halloween.

Since our girls did not get to go trick or treating together, we got them all dressed up to play for a bit and take photos. Unfortunately, this is the last time Isabella wore her pink princess costume. She LOVED it in the catalog, but could not stand the itchiness. The morning after we took this photo, I ran up to the Disney Store and bought a non-itchy Cinderella bridal costume that she ended up wearing. Here's a photo of a pink princess, Ariel, and Jessie.

Caitlin and I took Isabella, Claire, and Olivia to a Halloween festival. They had a lot of fun walking around and playing games. Isabella and Claire participated in their first cake walk and the favorite game was a game where a box of ping pong balls was strapped to them and they had to jump around to get all the balls to fall out before a song was over.

It was such a fun trip to California.

Almost in a Home!!

2011-10-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

First off, I have to admit, buying a house is not a breeze. I think we should be in a new beautiful home of our own in a month, but it has not been without effort. In the meantime, we have been trying to establish our lives in Houston. In addition to attending Sophia's 3rd birthday party and Alexandra's first communion (CONGRATS NIECES) where we were a bad aunt and uncle to not take any photos, we have done some other fun things.
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Bella Monster cooking some Happy Halloween brownies...
James took Isabella on a fancy date night. They went to a nice restaurant and window shopped where they ate lots of yummy, adventurous foods (many things I wouldn't even eat). Isabella LOVED her personal time and was super excited when Daddy brought her a rose. She was also ecstatic to get to wear a dress I haven't let her wear due to weather and lack of "fancy" opportunity that the her friend Siena gave her. It was itchy so we had to find a red t-shirt to wear underneath. Here is a photo of two of my favorite people in the world before they left.

We joined the Houston's Children's Museum this week. It is so great! Below is a photo of the girls in the vet clinic taking care of the animals. So cute!! Funny ending to our first visit...I am always timid of taking the girls to water sections of places, but I dared to take them there since it looked pretty tame and there were not too many people there. Of course, I turned my back on Juliana for a minute to play with Isabella and she found the single broken pipe and was literally taking a shower when I turned back. It was still fun, but Juliana got to take the ride home in just a diaper.

We went to Stewart Beach on Galveston Island. I love the beach! It was the first time we have been to a beach with the girls where we could get in the water past our legs since the water is so warm. It was so much fun! Juliana, who we names "King Kong" for the day because every time we tried to build any sort of sand structure, she DESTROYED. Our solution was to build her into the structure to keep her in one spot :).

The girls are doing great. Both are growing up too fast! Isabella continues to be the sweetest girl ever who loves to dance and please. She had a bit of a difficult week where we learned she has psoriasis. She has had a rash on her bottom for months that we have not been able to figure out. We finally took her to a pediatric dermatologist who diagnosed her with psoriasis. We started a new medicine and her rash (which was very painful) is almost gone!! We hope she will be one of those kids who outgrows this autoimmune disease, but for now, it seems easily controllable with a prescriptive ointment. Juliana is still our spitfire who loves to dig in drawers, hit (ugh!), and be a mad woman, but she is so smart and loving at the same time! She has begun to be able to nod "yes" for things she wants and easily knows how to communicate with us. When we give her a bottle before bed (which we need to wean her of), she points to her bucket of pacies afterwards (which we also need to wean her of). When we ask her if she wants a paci, she animatedly nods "yes" and grunts. Once the paci is in her mouth, she points to her bed where we lay her down and are able to leave without a fight. Such a good sleeper!! We just have to work on the frustration side of hitting. Here is our beautiful Jewel sleeping away with her favorite lovey, "Monkey"...

Welcome to the World Porter James

2011-10-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

Aunties Tina and Amanda gave birth to Porter James October 3, 2011 at 3:57am. He was 7lbs 5oz and 19.5in long. From what we hear he is TOTALLY PERFECT! We cannot wait to meet him!!! We are so excited to have a new nephew!!

Blogger Status Update

2011-09-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick synopsis of how we have been adjusting to living in Texas. I'll start with Isabella. She is doing amazing with the change. I could not have predicted how adaptable she has been. She absolutely loves her new school and teachers and enjoys the music and dance classes she takes after school. Isabella could not be happier that almost every single day she gets to see a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or cousin. James is doing wonderfully at his new job. It was definitely a good career move to change jobs. It is really nice to see him so happy in his career. I have been adjusting to all the changes as well. Sierra and I have both gained five pounds, with me enjoying all the Texas food and Sierra not getting as much exercise since living in the apartment. Old man Mochi is doing just fine, sleeping and eating. Juliana like Isabella has done an amazing job at adjusting. We are struggling to find her childcare, but I'm sure something will work out soon. She has also made two discoveries of her own since moving...her finger fits perfectly in her nose and dog food does not taste good.

COUSINS!!

2011-09-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share some photos of our beautiful southern belles from the last couple of weeks.
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Here are Bella and Jewels on one of our many dog walking strolls at our apartment complex. It is so cute! They are starting to like walking holding hands.
Artist in the making...

There are TV carts at the grocery store I go to. CRAZY! I was opposed to them at first, but the girls love going to the grocery store now.

Here are our UT cheerleaders! Hook'em!

One of our cheerleaders favorite places to hang out at our apartment is under the sink. She will disappear and we'll find her in the cabinet.

Isabella has discovered the camera on my cell phone. I think she has taken about 200 photos. Here are two of my favorites.

Nana and Papaw came over to watch the UT game and eat dinner at our house one Saturday. Afterwards, we went over to watch the bats or as Papaw calls them, flying rats. The black streaks in the second photo are the very fast bats flying out from under the bridge.

Nana and Papaw watched the girls one day while I worked and looked at houses. We hung out that night before heading back to our apartment. Here is a photo of Jewels helping Papaw fix the refridgerator and another of Nana on the golf course after dinner with the girls running around on the same green their daddy ran around on 30 years ago.

Cousin fun! We went on a train ride with cousin Sophia through Hermann Park.

More cousin fun! Man it is hard to get a photo of two little 15 month pumpkins. The girls had a blast playing with their cousin Charlotte.

Even more cousin fun! Isabella and Ellie played together wonderfully and Isabella and Cullen followed each other around speaking baby. Adorable!

Can you tell we are enjoying living close to cousins. Again, more cousin fun! We went back to Minute Maid Park to run the bases with Sophia, Ella, and Max. The Astros lost 19 to 3, but the kids had fun playing at the park and running the bases. This was also Juliana's very first baseball game!

The First of Many Julianaisms

2011-09-14T09:08:00.001-07:00

We have decided that Juliana is our little spitfire. She has so much personality on top of being such a sweet little girl. She is already causing her daddy to get some new grey hairs. The other night, she decided to try to teach him a lesson after he was trying to teach her a lesson.
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I left to go pick up dinner. When I got back to our apartment, James was in the hallway with his tools out and the door handle to Juliana's room off. Isabella greets me talking a mile a minute, but I cannot piece together what is going on. Turns out Juliana hit Isabella. After she hit Isabella, James put her in her room and closed the door. He has decided that she is old enough for time out and this would be his second attempt at implementing it. It did not go as planned...Juliana came to the door and locked it from the inside. The rest is self explanatory, but I had to do everything I could not to laugh at the situation when I got home.

Getting Settled in Houston

2011-09-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

We have begun to settle into our new Texas home! We are happy to be back, but we definitely did not choose the right summer to move. This has been one of the hottest years with record temperatures and driest with the state being in the second worst drought in Texas history. There are also outrageous fires burning in multiple parts of the state. Despite of the weather, we have been trying to get out and do as much as we can.
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One of the first things we did after moving, was we went to Tiki and Galveston Islands. While on the seawall, we stopped by the historic Murdoch's Bathhouse that is now a gift shop. When I was a kid, I adopted some hermit crabs from the same store where my mom and grandmother had also shopped when they were kids. Isabella had collected some money and picked out two hermit crabs to adopt and bring home as her new pets. We are now proud owners of Allie and Murdoch, our painted hermit crabs.
Nana and Papaw live on Oyster Creek and a golf course. Sierra loved it there during our stay. In fact, one afternoon, she decided to jump the back fence into the creek to chase some ducks. After I freaked out, we found a neighbor with a low enough pier for us to pull her out of the water. The girls enjoyed staying there as well! Papaw likes to give rides on his golf cart, which we borrowed one evening to go feed ducks on the golf course.

We have seen family almost every day since we moved. Isabella's favorites are cousins!!! She is always asking to go see her cousins. Here is a cute photo of Isabella and Emma about to jump off the diving board at Aunt Cacky's house.

Isabella started a new school a little over a week after we moved. We weren't even in our apartment yet, but the new school year was starting so she jumped right in. She is in Ms. Chelsea and Brooke's class of 12 kiddos (5 girls and 7 boys) within a few months of Isabella's age at St. Paul's. She goes two days a week and loves it!! She is also signed up for their after school music and dance programs, which she loves. Here's Isabella before her first day of school, and mini me jumping in the picture too to say "cheese." Juliana is number one of the wait list at the same school for her class. In the meantime, Marmee has been incredibly nice enough to watch Jewels two days a week so I can work.

Houston has an abundance of restaurants. We are also finding that many of them have kid friendly yards or playscapes associated with them. Here are photos of the girls at a noodle house one night when we went out to dinner with Aunt Jenny. The big culvert is meant to be a noodle and the restaurant has boas for the patrons to wear. So cute!! It was a lot of fun, minus Isabella getting covered in mosquito bites. Isabella had never been bit by a mosquito. I thought bugs were not attracted to her like her daddy, but I was wrong. She has renamed mosquitoes as "bad boys" and I now carry around Off in my bag next to the sunscreen.

Here are two cute photos of our beautiful brown-eyed girls eating some treats. I just loved these photos!

One Sunday, we went to an Astros game with Marmee and Grand-E. Juliana spend the afternoon with Nana and Papaw since she wouldn't really enjoy the game. We watched the game then proudly watched Isabella run the bases afterwards. We had a bonus of it being a Dog Day so the stadium was full of dogs too. It was so much fun!

Grand-E and Marmee bought two new waverunners for the Tiki house recently. We couldn't wait to check them out! On Labor Day, we spent the day at Tiki and got to ride the waverunners! It was so much fun! James, Isabella, and I piled on one and Grand-E led us around Oyster Bay on the other one. Marmee was on Jewels duty again back at the house. We cannot wait to go again!

When James and I came to Houston to find our apartment, we were very excited that we found the perfect family/animal place that is located right on Buffalo Bayou. We knew that was going to mean being centrally located and we would be able to go on walks/runs on the trails, but we were very excited to find out we are probably the closest apartment to the Waugh Bridge bat colony. We had heard about the bats, but only knew they were somewhere along Buffalo Bayou. There are approximately 300,000 Mexican free-tailed bats that emerge at dusk from under this bridge that we can walk to. One night, we put the girls in their Halloween pjs and walked over to watch the bats. It was SO cool!!!!!

After picking Isabella up from school one day, we swung by Marmee and Grand-E's to pick them up along with Jewels. We headed to the Kemah Boardwalk where we road rides, walked around, fed catfish, and ate dinner. It was so much fun! The only mishap was Grand-E road one ride with Isabella that we almost immediately regretted. It was way to jarring for Grand-E. The picture is cute though of a grandfather with a horrified/painful look on his face with his granddaughter next to him squealing/smiling in delight. He will not be riding that ride again!

Isabellaism: We are still learning the roads in Houston. After a long day of house hunting and hanging out with the Denena gang, we were driving back to the apartment after the girls bedtime. James and I were talking about houses so I was not paying enough attention to driving. I turn on a road and immediate see the one way arrow going in the wrong direction and could not find the center divider stripes. I loudly say "HOLY S#!+" and turn the wheel sharply to correct my error. Then very sweetly from the back seat, Isabella yells "WHERE'S HOLY S#!+?"

Olivia Bailey Campbell

2011-09-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

Just ten days after we left California, Caitlin gave birth to her second gorgeous baby girl. Claire is the big sister to Olivia Bailey Campbell born on August 25, 2011 at 1:31pm. She weighed 6 pounds 4.7 ounces and was 18.25 inches long. The family of four is doing well! We CANNOT wait to meet little Livvy! I was crushed that our move date was at a time that we missed the actual birth after watching Cailtin's belly grow over the past nine months. We'll see her soon though!!!! Here are two photos of the adorable Campbell blondie sisters.

The Move

2011-09-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

To get to Houston, James and I divided up. I got on a plane with Isabella and Juliana which ended up being a pretty bad flight. The stewardesses had to threaten the guy behind me that they were going to have him arrested for assault. He was freaking out about the girls making normal kid noise and hitting my seat over and over. It was not comfortable, but we made it. James drove with his dad who was nice enough to fly out so James wouldn't be alone on the drive, Sierra, our wine, and some other valuables (Mochi flew back to Texas which James earlier in the month in a cat bag...poor old man, but he made it!). James, his dad, and the dog made the approximately 2,000 mile trip in three days. They stopped by the Grand Canyon, which they loved. It took our stuff about 11 days to make it on the truck so in the interim, we stayed with our gracious parents. We then moved into our temporary apartment, which seems to be working out just fine! Here are photos of James' drive and one of Isabella loading some of our empty boxes onto a truck.

Final Time in California

2011-09-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

Before our big move to Texas, we stayed busy trying to see and do as much as possible up until the day we left. We were fortunate enough to see the only other California Denena the Saturday before we left. Aunties Tina and Amanda, and the little monkey growing in Amanda's belly, came by to visit. It was great to see them! They are due in late October so we are bummed that we are going to miss meeting the newest cousin right after she/he is born!
Isabella and Claire got together a few times our last week. We had our final weekly dinner. It was sad that it was our last because we have gotten together pretty much every single week since we were about 15 weeks pregnant with Isabella and Claire. We miss them dearly! Here are photos of the girls during Claire's gymnastic class on bring a friend day.

Once our house was full of boxes, we invaded the Sentous' for two nights. Isabella loved getting to have a sleepover with Katelyn two nights in a row! Logan and Juliana had fun playing together too! Before we left, the girls exchanged gifts. They now having best friend necklaces of the heart broken in half. They also traded Converse sneakers. Isabella gave Katelyn one of her pink sneakers and Katelyn gave Isabella one of her purple sneakers. Too cute! The hardest part of leaving Cali was leaving all our wonderful friends!!

Saying goodbye before our big move!

2011-08-12T22:36:00.000-07:00

We have been busy trying to fit in as much as possible around the Bay Area and seeing as many friends before we move back to Texas. We have done a lot of really fun stuff!!! Here are the highlights.
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We went to a San Francisco Giants game on a Sunday when they let the kids run the bases. A friend of James' invited us over for a BBQ before the game, then they kept the kiddos for the majority of the game so we could actually somewhat watch baseball instead of chasing kids. Once the kiddos were brought to us at the park, we walked around, looking out at Covey Cove. Isabella is finally big enough for the big Coke slides so she rode those twice. Then after the game, we went down on the field for James to run the bases with his girls. I love it!!!! So super duper cute! James carried Juliana while Isabella ran beside him. Once they got to home plate, James put Jewels down to waddle over the base herself. Afterwards, we went into a special entrance since we had a stroller and ran into the manager, Bruce Bochy. Very fun day at the park. That night, my fun continued with my last book club where the neighborhood women threw me a Texas BBQ.
Our friends Debbie and Loren threw us a small going away Luau dinner. We had a blast catching up and eating yummy food. Debbie and I share a love for pugs and became friends very soon after our move to Cali. Her and Loren were married about two years ago when Isabella was lucky enough to be their flower girl.

Marmee was in town for ear surgery at Stanford that was very successful. One day, after Marmee was feeling better, we went to Happy Hollow for the last time to ride the rides and see the animals. They have face painting, but have never let Isabella get it because it cost extra. Since this was her last trip, I forked over the five bucks. Isabella of course picked the girliest one and requested red lipstick. Here's my little butterfly and the girls on the carousal with Marmee.

When Isabella was just one month old, I began going to weekly playdates with three other mommas. Caitlin and I have carried on the tradition of getting together weekly ever since then, meaning that beginning when the two of us were only about 15 months pregnant in prenatal yoga (where we met), we have gotten our girls together at least once a week for four years. Around the holidays and on special occasions, we still get together with Kim and KC as well as their kiddos. About two years ago, Shannon joined our group. Before our move, we got together one last time at Caitlin's house for a playdate. It was a very bittersweet event. I loved it, but we are going to miss them all dearly! Here are photos of the original four (Isabella, Jackson, Claire, and Samantha) at one month of age and 3 1/2 years old. I also included a cute picture of Isabella and Katelyn peering out of a tent while playing.

For the first 2 1/2 years of Isabella's life, she went to Stinger Family Childcare or Heather's house for daycare. Heather's family then moved a little too far away so we switch childcare for the girls. We have always loved Heather's family. Isabella has a blast with not only Siena and Nolan, Heather's kids, but Heather and all her fun activities. We went up to their new house for a final BBQ one afternoon. It was wonderful, of course! James got to drive a tractor towing the kids down to a swimming hole where the kids and dog swam before paddle boating. They then played with the chickens, saw the goats, simply played, and ate. It was great fun!

Shannon and I, along with another mom from North Carolina, made the trek to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The aquarium is so impressive and in such a beautiful setting on the bay. The kiddos had a blast!!!! On the way home we stopped at the must have fried artichoke roach coach in Watsonville. Here are some cute photos from the outing.

I was trying to figure out how to see all of Isabella's Las Madres friends and other little friends she's made here or there before we left so I decided to have a "Bye Bye Bella" playdate at Oak Meadow Park. About 15 moms and 25 kiddos made it. We had so much fun playing on the playgrounds, riding the carousal and train, and playing games on the lawn like duck duck goose, Simon says, ring around the rosie, and races. Again, it was a bittersweet event, but I was so grateful to see some many of our friends. The only crazy thing that came out of this playdate was Juliana came home with hives. After talking with her doctor, we are guessing it's from running around the dirt and grass for alomost four hours, but we are watching her closely. Here are some photos from the playdate. There are more pictures to come of this event.

James started his new job in Houston on August 1st and has been commuting between Cali and Texas. Isabella colored a sign for him when we greeted him at the airport his first weekend back. Sweet girl and happily surprised Daddy!

Here's a random photo of this really cool silly plate I found on my Cambria girls trip with Shannon. I love it!!!

I'll end with a funny story. Isabella and Claire were playing this week at our weekly dinner. For some reason, Claire was calling everyone Jimmy. When it was time to go, Caitlin told her to get her shoes on so she could walk us out. Claire sat down and started laughing saying that she was going to get on her Jimmy Choo's.

Disneyland!!!!!

2011-08-12T21:12:00.001-07:00

When we decided to move back to Texas, one of the first thing we did was plan a trip to the happiest place on earth. This time, we went with the Sentous'. We had so much fun at the park riding rides, meeting characters, watching the parade, and enjoying the fireworks. The next morning we went to Goofy's Kitchen for a final fun filled meal. We LOVE Disneyland!!! We all had a blast! The only tears shed were those of Jewels' when she was left with a character sans a parent. Sad, but oh too cute!

Here is a video of Jewels proudly posing when we got home in her new ears.

A bride for Justin Beavers!?!?!

2011-07-19T21:25:00.001-07:00

What we've been up to...
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On July 4th, my mom and Eddie went out to see the Stoltings as they flew Apache helicopters. My mom even got to climb in. Very patriotic!
One night, James and I went to a learning to curl workshop at the Sharks Ice with my work. It was a lot of fun!! Here are two photos of James sweeping with Tom and James getting ready to throw the stone under Davinna's supervision with Rick looking on. I could easily see picking up curling as a hobby.

Isabella's two teachers have birthdays close one another so they threw a little party on a Saturday together where the parents got to sing the teachers a song to the tune of the Brady Bunch song and the kids gave their teachers big oversized cards. Here's Bella with her two teachers and some of her classmates. Isabella loves Ms. Katrina and Raven!One afternoon, we headed to the beach. It was so cold, but the kiddos and Sierra had a blast! Here is Jewels playing with Sierra.

Shannon and I threw one of my best buds Caitlin a baby shower. She is due September 6th with another little girl. Claire is going to be a big sis! Here is one beautiful momma!

Shannon and I went away on a much needed girls weekend trip. We had so much fun and came back feeling so relaxing! We stayed at Moonstone Beach near Cambria. We spent the trip going to bed early, sleeping late, eating, watching Dirty Dancing, wine tasting, beach combing, playing in the waves, seeing elephant seals, and driving Highway 1. Ahhhh...I'm feeling more relaxing thinking about it!

Here is a photo of the fam hanging out. How cute!

Here is a short video to show of Juliana's new ability to walk! She is doing so well!

I'll end with a "Bella-ism." Here is a cute conversation from the other day...

Bella: I love Justin Beavers...marry hi!

Me: What? Who's going to marry Justin Bieber?

Bella: I'm am (grinning from ear to ear).

And she is only 3 1/2yo!

Happy Fourth of July!!

2011-07-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

For the Fourth of July, we went to a festive party at the Sentous' on the third where we ate some yummy food, played, participated in potato sack races, watched Tangled, and did a few small "fireworks." To prepare for the party, Isabella and I made "corny cupcakes" in the matching aprons we got for my birthday. It was a fun party hanging out with great friends!

Today, we laid a little low. We went to the pool around lunch time then stayed in the rest of the day. Isabella and Juliana had a blast playing in the pool with the adults and their friends. We then ate BBQ poolside. Here is Bella sharing her ice cream with Jewels.

Bella and Claire Cuteness

2011-07-04T16:12:00.001-07:00

Here are some cute photos of Isabella with one of her two best buds, Claire. The first one is of the girls the night of Isabella first sleepover at Claire's house. I think they had a really good time eating dinner together, playing, reading, going to gymnastics, and playing at the park. I can't believe Isabella is old enough for sleepovers!! The other photos are from one of our weekly get togethers for dinner. It was a hot night so we threw the kids in the baby pool on the patio where they had a blast! Jewels loves to get in the middle of the action whenever she can!

Happy Half Birthday Isabella and Katelyn

2011-07-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

We decided to do a little half birthday celebration for Isabella and Katelyn on Isabella's actual half birthday. She is now officially 3 1/2 years old! We cooked Isabella's favorite foods for dinner...hot dogs, quesadillas, and brussels sprouts. We then had little mini cakes for the girls. The big surprise after they opened their snow white pajamas is that we are going to Disneyland together!!! Can you tell Isabella and Katelyn are excited?!?!

Big Basin Camping Trip

2011-07-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

We went on our first family camping trip! One of my friends reserved four camping sites at Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Our group included 14 adults, 2 teenagers, 7 three-year-olds, and 5 under two-year-olds. I'll admit, I was a little scared heading into the mountains for two nights! But, it was a ton of fun! We had organized breakfasts and dinners, hung out by the campfire, made smores, hiked, rode bikes, played hide and seek, played in the creek, slept in tents, etc. We will definitely be camping again!

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

The girls gave James and the granddads a fun filled Father's Day that they very much deserve! We were in Houston on Sunday so we got to celebrate with Daddy, Grand-E, and Papaw. Unfortunately, we only got to talk with Papa on the phone since he was in Dallas. We started the day with Isabella cooking Daddy and Grand-E green eggs and ham for breakfast. We then ate lunch at one of Houston's many amazing restaurants! We spent the evening with Papaw and his family at a pool party at Aunt Cacky's. It was a really fun, family day! We have the absolutely best men in our lives! Us Denena Gals are the lucky girls in the world!!!!
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Here are the sleepy heads eating their green eggs and ham. Juliana was by me...bad mommy for not putting her in the picture.
One happy Papaw!

First time off a diving board.

Papaw, Daddy, Uncle Scott, Uncle Tony, and Papaw's eight grand kids.

As part of the Father's Day gifts, the girls gave coffee mugs that said the following (substitute the Daddy for the granddads names on the other three mugs)...

Happy First Birthday Juliana!!

2011-06-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

Juliana turned ONE! I still can't believe it. She has become such an amazing little girl! She makes us smile countless times everyday with her spunky personality. She knows how to hold her own and is not shy to YELL it! She has two teeth that are fully in, three half way in, and one fully bulging, but not through the gums. She switched to cold whole milk, but still prefers room temperature formula. She eats pretty much anything you give her, which makes mealtime as easy as it can be with a one- and three-year-old. She has standing down pat and has taken a few steps, but has not taken off walking yet. She's our little talkative angel who we think isn't going to take flack from anyone in life. At her one year appointment, she weighed 20 pounds 12 ounces (40%), was 28 3/4 inches long (48%), and her head was 46 centimeters (70%). We love you Jewels...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Juliana's First Birthday Party

2011-06-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

For Juliana's first birthday party, we were planning on going fruit picking and having a picnic in Brentwood, but the weather did not cooperate. We ended up moving the party to our house, which was so much fun! Marmee and Grand-E were in town and the Campbell's and Sentous' came over. The kids hit a pinata, Caitlin face painted, the kids played with bubbles, and we ate fajitas. It was the perfect mellow party for our little Jewels who is now one!!

We now know that Juliana LOVES cake! Here are a number of photos documenting what happened in a matter of minutes...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEWELS!!!

Brentwood and San Francisco

2011-06-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

On Juliana's actually birthday, Marmee, Grand-E, Isabella, Juliana, and I went up to Brentwood to pick fruit (James had to work). We were suppose to have her little birthday party in Brentwood the day before, but the weather did not cooperate so we had to postpone our fruit picking outing. The weather was still a little overcast and most orchards were closed due to the muddy conditions. We managed to find a cherry orchard where we could pick some cherries and a nectarine/peach orchard where we were able to pick fruit from their ladders. It was a lot of fun!One afternoon, Marmee, Grand-E, Isabella, Juliana, and I went into San Francisco (again, poor James was at work). We went to Fisherman's Wharf where the street performers scared Isabella to death, we ate some super yummy Ghirardelli ice cream, the sea lions scared Juliana to death, we shopped some, and we grabed some clam chowder to go. Another fun afternoon!

Princess Tea Dress Rehearsal

2011-06-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

First Dance Recital

2011-06-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

Isabella performed in her first dance recital. It was so exciting!!! Very fittingly, she danced to a Perfect Princess Tea song and wore a very cute princess costume. We attended the dress rehearsal on Friday and the recital on Saturday. Isabella and Katelyn were in the same class so they got to hang out backstage and perform together. They did amazing! Quite the little performers. The recital was at the Santa Clara Convention Center so they performed on a real stage with an audience of about 600 proud friends and families, including Marmee and Grand-E who came into town to see her perform. The recital was about 2 hours and the girls had to stay backstage the entire time. They behaved like pros. We were overly proud and excited!

Busy Bees

2011-06-22T10:59:00.001-07:00

We have been super busy lately. Mainly with fun stuff luckily! Here are some cute photos from the past few weeks.
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Isabella before "Crazy Hair Day" at school.
Juliana and Isabella graduated from swim school. The second to last class, Marmee and Grand-E were in town so Grand-E went in the pool with Juliana. Very cute!

Isabella and Claire graduated from soccer. We will be taking a break from soccer. Isabella doesn't really enjoy the soccer part of practice. She spends the whole time picking flowers. At one point, the coach was trying to coach and Isabella was at her feet handing her flowers she had picked. Here's a photo that sums up this session.

We went to the annual Duck Race at Vasona Park. I think they said they had 15,000 ducks that were racing in the event. It's always fun to see all the rubber duckies floating down the creek. Isabella and Juliana's single duck didn't win.

Silly friends!
Juliana was so tired this morning. She woke up at 6:20am and at 8:15am, I put her in the exersaucer in the bathroom while I took my shower. I kept hearing the toy go off that makes animal noises and music. I thought she was being awfully quiet otherwise. I finally peaked out and Juliana had fallen asleep on top of the noisy toy. Sleepy girl!! I think she is ready for some down time!

Filoli, Baby Beluga, and Strawberries

2011-05-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

Cute kiddo photos. from the last week or so... Chuck E. Cheese outing with Claire.

Happy Hollow car ride round two! A fun outing with Jackson and Lexi.
Good Morning hugs!!

Swim lessons.

Papa Jim and Nana Becky came to visit. We hung out, went to a nice dinner without the kiddos, and visited Filoli.

Isabella's class put on a Spring Fling show on my birthday. Here she is, front and center, singing "Baby Beluga." I then snapped a photo of Isabella with her teachers Ms. Raven and Ms. Katrina afterwards.

That night, we celebrated at Benihana!

We went strawberry picking in Watsonville at an organic farm with Isabella's original playgroup that she has known since she was one month old. Unfortunately, Caitlin/Claire had to stay home due to illness.

Underwater Photos

2011-05-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

In our swim class, they take underwater photos of the kids every other session. Way back in the summer of 2008, we had the following photo taken of Isabella.
Here's Juliana in April 2011, just a tad older than her big sis was in the above photo.

Can you tell they're sisters or what?!?!

Bay to Breakers

2011-05-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some cute photos from this week.
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This is Jewels with her friend Sierra who is almost three weeks older than her. Sierra has an older brother, Bryce, who is a few months younger than Isabella. We went on a fun playdate at a park with a sand area, water feature, playscape, and big hill to climb.
Siena turned five!! We were watching Claire that afternoon so she went to the birthday party with us. Here are Claire, Isabella,Siena, and another one of Siena's friends.

We went to Bay to Breakers! We only walked about two miles of the race, but it was a lot of fun! Isabella has been alive for four Bay to Breakers and has now been to three. This was the first year we dressed the kids up. Isabella wore one of my old Halloween costumes that my mom made and Juliana wore Isabella's costume from her first Halloween. Isabella loved it! She saw lots of crazy costumes. We saw a few naked people, but luckily we were able to redirect where Isabella was looking so that she only caught a quick look at one naked man running where she yelled "Daddy, what's that!!!" We quickly turned her and told her to look at the people in a different direction. Only in San Francisco! That night, James asked Isabella if she saw a lot of weirdos that morning and the only costumes that made an impression on her were Ariel and Snow White. Somehow she managed to find two women dressed up like princesses in the masses.

This week, the three Denena gals went on a walk. Isabella loves picking flowers! She now knows most flowers that are weeds since those are the ones she can pick. She was sitting in the stroller smelling a flower and looked up at me and said "Mmmm! This flower smells so good Mommy! It smells like brussel sprouts!"

Happy Belated Eleven Months Juliana!

2011-05-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

My baby is one month away from being one...WHAT?!?!? Hard to believe. Juliana is now officially eleven months and doing great! Her newest trick is standing! She practices standing all the time now and she is always very proud of herself. Many times the standing ends due to her clapping for herself. She is a very vocal child like her big sister. She is constantly making a "chiga" noise and saying "ut oh!" Here's little Jewels at 10 months then 11 months. It was hard to get a picture this month because she realized the chair is a glider and would not sit still. She kept trying to rock the chair.

Happy, Happy, Happy!

2011-05-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

We have been in celebration mode!!! First, we celebrated James' birthday! He asked for a race car for his birthday, so Isabella and I decided to do a race car cake. Isabella then said it had to have coconut on it because every pretend cake she makes for James, he requests coconut. She then found the marshmallows at the store and demanded they too be on the cake. I added Heath to the cart because that is one of James' favorites. We got home and had to come up with a plan for our random items. I think Isabella and I did a pretty good job. We went out to dinner without the kids the weekend before his actual birthday and cooked at home with the Sentous' for his birthday. It was very fun birthday week! Happy Birthday Baby Daddy!
We lost the kids at one point and found three of them in the closet. Too cute!!!

Hurray, it's pool time!!!!!

I ran my first 5K since high school on Saturday. We borrowed a stroller and ran as a family. It was a lot of fun! James pushed the girls and I tried to keep up. James would have gone faster, but my time was an actual time. Not the greatest, but I ran the whole thing!! I came in 459th out of 1505 runners at 34:03 minutes.

We celebrated Matthew's 2nd birthday!!! Matthew had a fun party at his house with lots of toys, a parachute, cotton candy, and cake! Here are the kids singing Happy Birthday (the girls are on the far left) and the kids in the middle of the parachute while the parents spun them (Juliana was trying to figure everything out, which ended in a cry to be rescued).

I had a wonderful Mother's Day too! I was awoken with a rose and breakfast in bed. I was also surprised with a new iPhone! After a relaxing morning, we went up into the Santa Cruz Mountains for a hike and picnic. It was cold, but so much fun! We searched for banana slugs and admired the huge redwoods. James then kept Juliana at home and I took Isabella to see the cartoon movie Rio, which we loved! James then prepared a fancy chocolate fondue dessert for us after dinner. It was an amazing day where I felt very loved!

The success I had making the cake inspired me to try a new recipe my friend Michelle turned me onto...Yummy Mummy Meatloaf. Isabella and Claire gobbled it up!

I love mommy :)

2011-05-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

This is another reason I love Isabella's school...they teach her songs like this :). She started singing this out of the blue tonight during dinner. Made my day, or week for that matter, and melted my heart!

Jasmine Music

2011-05-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

For James and my nine year anniversary, we went on a kayak tour. We left the girls with a sitter and went to Santa Cruz for an evening. We started out on the beach for a picnic. We then went to a marina where we got in a double kayak for a sunset tour with a group of other people. We paddled out into the ocean while the sun was going down through seals and sea otters, including an otter momma with a baby on her belly. We then watched the sunset and paddled to the Santa Cruz wharf in the dark to see the sea lions. We then paddled back under a full moon. It was a very special anniversary celebration!
The girls are enjoying their swim lessons. Both have made big improvements in the past few weeks getting ready for summer fun at the pool. While Isabella is in her class with a few other kids and the instructor, I take Juliana for the baby class in the same pool. Some weeks we go out to dinner as a family afterwards. It's hard to remember to pack everything. One week Isabella ate dinner commando...bad mommy. James came one week and took picture of his girls. Here is one of Jewels and "Mama."

Isabella and James are enjoying soccer again! Marmee even found a soccer outfit that is a skirt since Isabella will only wear dresses and skirts. She still wants to pack a dress and sandals for the car so that the second soccer is over, she can put a "fancy" dress on.

For the Royal Wedding, Shannon and I got our princesses and prince together for a little party. Isabella was SO excited to see a real princess. It was a lot of fun hanging out watching Princess Katherine and all the other royals! Here are our two Cinderella's with Bellarella's fake smile.

James had to go out of town for a night so the Denena gals crashed Frank's birthday party at his mom's house. We went to a park then had a very nice lunch. The kids even got to dunk basketballs since Frank is so tall.

Both girls have quite the personality! Juliana is becoming such a big kid with strong personality traits. She is super, duper mellow and sweet. Fancy, Princess Isabella is cuter than ever! This week she announced that she wants to be an acrobat. She mentioned the high wire, their flexibility, working with clowns, etc. So cute! James and her also had a very cute conversation regarding jazz music...

J: Do you like the jazz music playing Belly?

I: No.

J: You don't like jazz music? I like jazz music!

I: This is jazz music?

J: Yes.

I: No. Well, jazz sounds like (Princess) Jasmine. Hmm...I like Jasmine. I like Jasmine music!!

Happy Easter!!

2011-05-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

We had a fun filled Easter! We went to an egg hunt at a Las Madres friend's house and the Los Gatos hunt. We dyed eggs for the Easter bunny to hide and spent Easter Sunday at the Sentous'. Very fun and relaxing Easter!

M. Dora Abolafia, December 5, 1922 - April 18, 2011

2011-04-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

James' maternal grandmother, known to us as Grandma and to her 14 great grandchildren as Mimi, passed away peacefully in her own home on April 18th after fighting a heart condition for about a year. She was an amazing women with so much love and heart who cherished her family and animals, which was strongly reciprocated. She will be GREATLY missed and NEVER forgotten!

Girls Trip to Texas

2011-04-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

The Denena gals headed to Houston for five nights. We had so much fun, did so many things, and saw so much family! Here are some of the highlights of our trip.
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We went to the Chunky Monkey Miracle of Dimes crawfish boil in honor of our little cousin Bennett Kahl who passed away at six months of age. Isabella ate Grand-E's entire tray of crawfish...crazy! We then went over to my cousins Brandon and Angie's house for the kids to play with their cousins Ellie and Cullen. Cullen is just two days older than Jewels. Afterwards, we went to Bass Pro where we met our cousins Chris, Stephanie, and little Charlotte who is about two weeks younger than Jewels. We walked around the store and looked at the stuffed animals (real ones), fish, and played with the gear for sale. Isabella even shot a play gun at stuffed animals with Grand-E, then Uncle Chris. We then ate at their restaurant. It was very fun and very Texas :).

We went to a Children's Fair in downtown Houston one afternoon. The highlight of the fair was the carousal. Both Juliana and Isabella road it. Juliana had so much fun, when Marmee pulled her off the horse, she threw a fit.

We got to see the girls' Great Grandma Mimi! It was wonderful to see her during our trip. We also got to hang out with Nana and Papaw, as well as lots and lots of Denena aunts, uncles, and cousins.

We went to Marmee and Grand-E bay house on Tiki Island. We all went on a boat ride to get ice cream, ate lunch, fed the sea gulls, and hung out at the house.

We then headed to the beach for some fun time in the sun. Isabella LOVED jumping waves. We also boogie boarded (a little) and played in the sand.

Happy Belated Ten Months Juliana

2011-04-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

Juliana has become quite my little goof ball at ten months. She is such a cute, smiley, happy, easy going girl! This month she has started eating most anything. She sleeps on her tummy now. She got her first two bottom teeth. She pulls up on EVERYTHING and crawls fast! She waves bye bye. Today, she even started pointing. Here she is at nine and ten months. Gotta love that huge smile!!

Busy Bees

2011-04-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

Life has been keeping us busy with fun stuff and trying stuff. The downs are appearing to turn around so that is really good! Here are the highlights of some of the really fun things we have been up to. - Isabella and Juliana are in swim lessons. Isabella is now old enough to be in the pool by herself with her class and the teacher. I get in the pool with Juliana. Here's a photo of Isabella during her swim class one week when Juliana was at the doctor with an ear infection and James was there to take pictures. Getting ready for Easter with silly Daddy!

Juliana is now pretty much eating what we are having for meals. I love it when babes get old enough for finger foods! We still feed her baby food, but not as much. Funny side note...today, I gave her beans for the first time. Man are they good for her heart ;).

One beautiful Friday, the girls and I went to a beach in Santa Cruz with some friends. I think there were a total of ten kids and six moms. Surprisingly, it was very relaxing and such a blast!! Both girls loved it. Isabella even loved running in the freezing surf!

One Sunday morning, Juliana and I went to a CAbi party with Aunties Tina and Amanda. James took Isabella to Ella's third birthday party at Pump It Up, Jr. Here's a photo James took of the kid "line up."

We went to Happy Hollow where Juliana road her first ride. Can you tell she liked it???? We also road the Danny the Dragon train.

We have been trying to make our backyard more useful. We bought a table so that we can eat outside. We also bought a crab sandbox that has been thoroughly enjoyed!

Isabella got her forth haircut ever. It is the biggest haircut she has gotten yet. As usual, she sat their like a pro in her Barbi Jeep.

Orchard Photoshoot

2011-03-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, the Denena's, Sentous', and Campbell's met at a cherry orchard in Hollister for a photoshoot with Lisa Whalen. We have not gotten the photos back yet, but Lisa has given us some "teasers". Here they are. I can't wait to see more! It was such a fun outing!

Eating, Pulling Up, A Tooth, Leprechauns, and Papa

2011-03-23T13:50:00.000-07:00

I am the proudest momma out there! I think we have the two best girls in the world! The last couple of weeks they have been such a joy! I have been making more of an effort to get back into playdates and activities. With the holidays, trips, and just plain old life keeping us busy, we had not been doing that many social things. We are now signed up for not only dance for Bella, but soccer for Bella/Daddy and swim for Jewels/Mommy and Bella. Here are some cute photos from the last couple of weeks.
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Juliana has become quite the eater! She loves to eat!! We have started giving her "table scraps." She really enjoys being a part of the family meals. Here she is at a sushi restaurant gobbling up a noodle appetizer.
Juliana started crawling about two weeks ago and she TOOK OFF! She is already so fast and pulls up on EVERYTHING! Here's a photo of the first time she pulled up on her crib. We put her down for bed then heard her get upset then get very excited. This is what we found when we opened the door. On a side note, her first tooth is starting to poke through. Her lower left front tooth is bruising the gum right now causing her to be a tad more cranky and sleep a little less soundly.

We went to a "Messy Art" playdate. One of my friends was incredibly brave to open up her house to a bunch of three-year-olds and their younger siblings to paint. Isabella had so much fun! She was upset when we had to leave.

After work, school, and daycare on St. Patty's Day, we went to the Sentous' for a little green party. We had great Irish food and wonderful company. The adults had fun catching up and the kids had a blast playing. Here are our little leprechauns.

Papa Jim came to visit!! He was here Saturday through today. We had a really good time! Two nights we left the kiddos at home for a fancy meal, which is always a treat! We then had fun going to see Rango (Juliana stayed at home and it ended up being a little to advance/violent for Isabella...oops!!) and went to the Oakland Zoo (Juliana's first zoo visit!). Papa Jim also taught Isabella how to play the card game War. It was very cute to see because I have lots of memories of playing cards with my dad as a kid.

For the past couple months, we have been doing an allowance chart for Isabella. She can earn up to $3 a week depending on how she does. Every night we go into the kitchen and go through how she did and give her stickers. On Sunday, we tally it up and let her put $1-$3 in her piggy bank then write the allowance chart for the following week with new things to work on. It has done wonders for helping with areas where we have struggled. Here is an example of a chart.

California Mustard 2011

2011-03-12T14:53:00.001-08:00

Happy Nine Months Juliana!

2011-03-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

Juliana is nine months old!! She now weighs 17 pounds 13 ounces (35%), is 27 inches long (48%), and her head is 44.4 centimeters (60%). Milestones she met this month are learning to crawl, pull up, and wave. She also mastered nodding her head no, clapping, rolling around, and eating finger food. When we returned from Colorado, we put her in the crib in Isabella's room our first night home. She had outgrown her cosleeper in our room. The girls are liking sharing a room! Somehow they sleep through noise in the night if one wakes up. Here is our Jewels at eight then nine months.

Breckenridge 2011

2011-03-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

We were lucky enough to get to go to Breckenridge this year with Nana and Papaw to their timeshare. Nana has a very hurt shoulder, so they had to cut their trip short, but we got to spend half of the week catching up with the family! After Nana and Papaw left, the Sentous' came to spend the second half of the week with us. It was a perfect trip! Family, friends, and fun! We did so much! We went sledding, tubing, on a new roller coaster on the mountain, on the gondola, skiing three days (including Isabella!), swimming in the heated pool, went to Vail for dinner.... The three year olds were in ski school where they played inside for part of the day and skied for a couple of hours. Isabella absolutely loved it! On her last day, James and I took her up on the big lift and down a green. We were so proud! The babes were in the nursery where us parents loved the caregivers so much, we had one woman come to the condo one night to babysit all four kids for Frank, Shannon, James, and I to go out and eat fondue. It truly was the perfect week! Tiring at times, but we all had so much fun playing in the snow and hanging out! Here are some cute photos from the week.

Jessie Ball

2011-02-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

After talking with Marmee about Isabella's girlie girlness, Marmee dug out an old photo of Isabella's Great Great Grandmother Jessie Ball. I guess Jessie was similarly a very girlie woman who loved clothes and was always put together. I think Isabella even looks like her!

Fun Week!

2011-02-23T09:32:00.000-08:00

We have had a really nice week. All healthy and lots of smiles. On Friday night, we hung out at the Sentous' where after dinner, we put Juliana to bed in a pack 'n play and Isabella climbed into bed with Katelyn. By 10pm, all kiddos were asleep. We have not gotten to hang out at friends' house after 10pm with kids EVER! Around 11pm, we grabbed the sleeping Jewels and left Bella in bed with her buddy for a sleep over. Very nice! Isabella loved it! They woke up and made pancakes before I came to get our Bella. Here are photos of Juliana hanging out with Logan and Isabella and Katelyn eating breakfast.
Saturday night, James and I got another treat! We got a babysitter and went to a Sharks game. We arrived without tickets, but ended up eight rows up from the ice for the game where they won 4-0 and a player pulled a hat trick where everyone threw their baseball caps on the ice. I love hockey! Here's a picture of the team coming out on the ice through the smoking shark mouth.
On Tuesday, we went to a princess reading where Mickey and Minnie from the Disney on Ice show made an appearance. Afterwards we were EXTREMELY daring and went to dinner with 3 moms and 5 1/2 kids three and under. It was a success, but a bit of a whirlwind. Here are the big girls killing time while we are waiting in line and a photo of the group with Mickey.
We also got to hang out with Heather and her family where we ate a yummy meal and went to a winery this week.
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I don't know if I have mentioned how much Isabella is a girlie girl. SO MUCH! She wants to get dressed the second she gets up and will only wear dresses and skirts. And, the frillier, the better! Here are my girlies all clean!

Happy Valentines Day!!

2011-02-18T14:32:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Valentines this year. Isabella just started her new preschool and LOVES it! Which means, we love it! The Thursday before Valentines Day, her class put on a little dance show. It was super cute! Isabella jumped right in and stood front and center! It was adorable. The girls and I also went to a few Valentines Day playdates where we made fun cards and crafts. Our family celebrated Valentines Day on Saturday. First, James took Isabella on a date. They went to lunch and a movie. Very sweet! That night, our health club had a parents night out opportunity where we dropped the girls for crafts, dinner, and a movie while James and I got to go on a dinner date. On actual Valentines Day, we all went out for a dinner together.

We are doing well and staying busy as usual. Isabella is getting to be such a big girl! She now wears nighttime panties to bed (they have a little extra padding). We said goodbye to pull-ups! We're keeping them around in case of accidents during illnesses and trips though. She is learning so much! She is really good at coloring, can trace things, and can write a few letters. Such a big girl. Juliana is also changing. She is so close to crawling. I'm betting she will be on the move within the next couple of weeks. She knows how to nod her head no (not always with meaning) and has waved a couple of times. We also switched things up at the grocery store. I was wearing Juliana and struggle to convince Isabella to get in the cart. Juliana now rides in the cart and Isabella holds on to the back or walks with me. My cart of little girls gets lots of smiles. Here's a photo I took a couple weeks ago of their first ride.

What we have been up to...

2011-02-09T09:48:00.000-08:00

We have been sick...again. Ugh! I hate this time of year for the bugs. It is constant! This time it has not been too bad, but Juliana and I have not been feeling well. So...we have been laying somewhat low. Before we were sick, we went to my company holiday party, a music playdate for Juliana's Las Madres group, hung out with Claire, and went to Heather's house to play. Then the cold hit! Since Isabella has been spared, I have tried to keep her busy. We were invited to a birthday playdate for Dillon's little sister Lucie. Since Jewels was sick, my friends let me drop Isabella so she could still party. We also went to Bettie and Quade's birthday party. I was not sick yet and Juliana was feeling better before relapsing. It was a very fun party! It was Mickey Mouse themed at KidsPark. The toddlers were super cute playing, making pet rocks, dancing, hitting a pinata, and eating cupcakes. Last weekend, us girls were on our own. For Christmas, Shannon and I gave our husbands a guys trip to Tahoe so James was skiing over the weekend. He then headed to Boston for work. To give us mommas a break, on Saturday, Shannon and I left all four kids with a sitter to go relax and recoup. It was very nice.
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Here are some recent photos. The first is Uncle Tim and his family in their new home of Saudi Arabia. The second is Juliana showing off her new trick of feeding herself. The last two are from Bettie and Quade's birthday party.

Happy Eight Months Juliana!

2011-02-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

It's that time again...Jewels is another month older. Really! I cannot believe it. She is having trouble fighting all the winter bugs, but is doing great otherwise. She is trying to crawl. She rocks and scoot backwards, but has not made the jump forwards yet. She is super squirmy now, always trying to get out of the arms that are holding her, but she then gets frustrated when she's on the ground because she cannot do what she wants to. She learned to clap this month. She does not do it very often, but every once in a while she will join in if a group is clapping. She first did it at my company holiday party when everyone was clapping. She is boogieing more. She is super cute bouncing up and down when music is playing or Isabella is singing. She has begun to be able to feed herself her own bottle. Pretty cool!! I had to wean her this month because I stopped making enough milk for the two feedings I was still doing when I was sick. She was still getting up twice in the night so I am now waking her when I go to bed to do a "dream feed." It has helped. She is now only waking once in the night for milk. I had a major "ah ha" moment this month. With both girls, I have probably been puked on over a hundred times. When they are sick, there are certain feedings that I know there is a really good chance they will come right back up. In the past, I have just prepared to get wet and tried to position the kiddo to only hit me. This week it finally occurred to me that if I just get a plastic cup, I have a baby garbage can! It works! In the middle of the night, I knew Juliana was going to puke on me. I had the cup handy and when I heard the warning noise that only gives me a second before getting wet, I grabbed the cup. Success! Yea! I don't know how many times we have had to change clothes, sheets, start laundry, and even shower some at 2am. If I had only known three years ago! Here she Juliana at seven months then eight months.

Parental Black Swans

2011-01-28T15:10:00.000-08:00

Let's just say, our trying week was extended. James ended up getting really sick. Then he got viral pink eye in both eyes that turned into bacterial pink eye. He is finally feeling better. While Juliana was recovering fully and James was really sick, Isabella had a high fever for five days straight. Then, I got sick...and pink eye. Ugh!! We are calling our house the petri dish. Both girls are finally healthy and James and I are very close to being healthy. Here is a photo of James trying to compete with Natalie Portman as the Black Swan.
Unfortunately, our big family trip to Tahoe was planned and prepaid for over the weekend. We missed the first night then headed up thinking we were all getting better. We spent two nights and headed home early. Looking back, we should not have gone, but did not think there was anyway we would all stay sick. Plus, it was really hard to lose that much money without trying to enjoy the trip. We mostly stayed in, but went outside to play three times. When we were outside, we all had fun. Here are some photos of sledding, playing, and walking in the snow.

Bad Bug

2011-01-19T14:27:00.000-08:00

This has been a difficult week. Juliana caught a bad bug! She has been feeling awful! She is not sleeping (which means her parents are not either), not eating as well, and just feels plain icky! I think she is getting better though. Here's a photo that speaks for itself...
We have been laying low, but Saturday, I took Isabella to Jackson's third birthday party while James stayed home with Jewels. Isabella had a lot of fun running around with her friends. Here she is singing happy birthday to Jackson in front of his cool crocodile cake.

Sunday we went to San Francisco to pick Uncle Tim's car up. We are helping to sell it since he moved to Saudi Arabia. Anyone want a BMW? On the way, we stopped in San Bruno. We drove past the neighborhood where the PG&E line blew up a few months ago. It is crazy!! In the middle of a residential neighborhood, all of a sudden there are just empty lots with all the immediate houses still boarded up. Very strange to see in person. We also stopped for lunch and we happened to park in front of a cable car stop. Isabella has been asking to ride a cable car so we jumped on with Daddy and Jewels in the car behind us. Isabella loved it! We only got to go two blocks before the last stop so there were a few meltdowns over not getting to ride it long enough. I know what we will be doing the next time we are in San Francisco.

Ever since Heather moved, Isabella has been having trouble adjusting to the new in home daycare. After four months, we are moving her to a more formal preschool. She loves it! She formally started in February, but she has trialed two days and seems very happy. Her classroom has a total of 24 kids with two teachers, Ms. Raven and Ms. Katrina. They play inside and outside, have two hours of educational type activities, sing, dance, eat, and nap or for Isabella sit there on her cot until she can get up since she gave up naps. Here she is on her first trial day with her backpack.

Isabella went to her first dentist appointment this week. Man, pediatric dentist offices have changed! Isabella loved it. She got to watch Horton Hears a Who on the TV in the ceiling, got a prize fairy, balloon, photo of her in the chair, new toothbrush, floss, and toothpaste. Here she is in the chair before her cleaning and in the x-ray chair. If you ask Isabella how it went, she says "the doctor says Mommy and Daddy are not doing a good job." Oops, we need to brush harder, but no cavities!

We are finally back in dance! Here are Isabella and Katelyn waiting for tap. As always, Isabella loves it! I love this class too. They are actually working on technique. It should be cute, there is a recital on June 4th!

Here are two threeisms from this morning...

Mommy: Isabella, Mommy is going to be bad and eat a piece of cold pizza for breakfast. Do you want some too.

Isabella: No. I'm healthy!

Isabella LOVES to sing and dance. She commonly makes up songs and sings partial songs inserting words where she doesn't know the correct words. She was singing "baa baa black sheep have you any wool. yes sir. one for the whore...." This is an example where she inserted a word she made up, but this time it made Mommy laugh.

Happy Seven Months Juliana

2011-01-14T14:32:00.000-08:00

Juliana is now seven months!! She has grown so much over the past month. She now weighs 16 pounds 1 ounce and is able to sit up really well on her own. She is quite the eater. She loves her cereal and most of the other solids that we have introduced. She also has become pretty good at eating puffs on her own. She can pick them up off her tray and put them in her mouth. She is already favoring her right hand. This month, I partially weaned her. She would cry after every feeding and always seemed hungry. I think with being so busy and commonly a little stressed, I just was not making enough milk. So...she now gets formula all but two times a day. I think she is happy I finally made the choice to stop trying to only breastfeed after four months of her always wanting a little more milk. One of the final straws with deciding to make this transition was she had begun getting up three times in the night to eat. I did not find that behavior livable long term. She is now back to primarily only getting up once. Thank goodness!!!! She has begun going to the bathroom more regularly too. She use to poop about twice a week, but now makes little diaper presents for me pretty much daily. We started bathing her with her sister. Santa brought a bathtub chair so both girls can bath in the bathtub which is nice to do both baths at once. She also seems to be a talker like her sister. Always has something to say. Jewels is our little sweetheart...super easy going! Here she is at six months then seven months.

Happy Third Birthday Isabella

2011-01-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe Isabella is now three years old!! She has become quite the big girl. She is the sweetest toddler that I know. Almost always does what she is told and loves to be loved! Many of her rare meltdowns are because her feelings were hurt. She loves to pretend play, help out with chores, and go! She wakes up every morning saying "What we going to do today?" At her three year check up, she was perfectly healthy. She weighs 31 1/2 pounds and is 36 3/4 inches tall. She had her first eye exam which was too cute! They use pictures instead of letters and she passed marvelously. She seemed like such a grown child. She shocked me in that she was super excited to be at the doctors. She grinned the whole time and could not wait for her shots...WHAT?!?! I still don't understand, but she was really happy to be getting two shots! She lost her smile for a second when they actually went into her arm, but the smile returned immediately afterwards, especially when she got her band aids and stickers. She's our little sweet pea!

In honor of her big jump from two to three, we had numerous celebrations. On top of the family party at Pappasito's Cantina following Juliana's baptism, she had a few other fun events! On her birthday, Isabella, Nana, Juliana, and I went to Build a Bear where Nana let Isabella get whatever animal she wanted. She made a pink bear that sings a Happy Birthday song wearing a Rapunzel dress, panties, and high heels. She named the bear Ms. Laura, but Ms. Laura is always pretending to be Rapunzel...a new favorite princess following the Tangled movie. She still wants to sleep with Rapunzel every night.
The night of her birthday, we went to Benihana for a fun dinner with Nana, Papaw, Marmee, Grand-E, Daddy, Juliana, and me. Isabella loved the dinner and ate everything made! She has the most amazing palate. James thinks she will be a chef one day. It is pretty remarkable when she will eat any and everything and prefers food that are new to her. It was a lot of fun!
Once we got back to Cali, we had a joint princess birthday party with Isabella's friend Katelyn. We had a total of 23 toddlers and six younger siblings. The party was at Emma Prusch park. It started with a private tour of the "kingdom's creatures." The kids got to feed and pet the pigs, ducks, geese, rabbits, and goats. We then headed into the meeting "castle" were Cinderella came for a visit. She played little games, sang, painted faces, and handed out little favors to the kids. We then had yummy birthday cake! Our princesses had a ball.

Juliana's Baptism

2011-01-14T14:21:00.000-08:00

While we were in Texas, we baptized Juliana at the church James and I got married at and where we baptized Isabella...Holy Rosary. We had about 20 adults and 14 kids help us celebrate! It was a really nice ceremony that included us all starting outside then walking into the church. Uncle Tony and Aunt Andrea were the proud godparents that were there to support our little Jewels.
After the baptism, we went to Pappasito's Cantina where we had a private party room. We celebrated not only Juliana's baptism, but Isabella's third birthday and Emma's sixth birthday. We had yummy food, great company, and lots of fun! Isabella and Juliana's great grandma Mimi even made it to the after party where she was greeted by her 14 great grandchildren!

Happy New Year

2011-01-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

We spent New Year's Eve at Nana and Papaw. We made a wonderful steak and lobster dinner. It was a very relaxing evening of eating, watching the celebrations on TV, shooting poppers in the front yard, and hanging out. Happy 2011!

Merry Christmas

2011-01-14T14:09:00.000-08:00

We had a very full Christmas this year in Texas! We celebrated Christmas at Marmee and Grand-E's on Christmas Eve. We had a nice dinner and exchanged gifts. Then we prepared for Santa by watching the Santa tracker on TV, putting out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots and oats with glitter in the front yard for the reindeer. Santa also made a surprise stop to say a quick hello and leave one little gift for everyone. Isabella was SO excited about Christmas this year!
Christmas morning we woke up at Marmee and Grand-E's where we found Santa had come! The cookies were eaten, the milk was gone, the carrots and oats were missing, and Isabella and Juliana's stockings were overflowing! Isabella's big present from Santa was Cinderella's castle. Juliana's big present was a teddy bear that Isabella had originally asked for but then asked Elfpa to tell Santa she wanted Juliana to have it instead.
After opening Santa's presents, we headed to Nana and Papaw's where we opened more presents and ate another great meal. Isabella had so much fun playing with all her cousins and Juliana enjoyed meeting her cousins, aunts, and uncles.
A couple days after Christmas, we drove to Dallas to celebrate Christmas with Papa Jim and Nana Becky. In addition to opening more presents, which Isabella is now a PRO at doing, we went to Papa Jim's farm. The farm is in Fort Worth and has been in the family for generations. Papa Jim just recently cleaned it up and put animals back on the land. Isabella had a blast feeding the donkeys and goats and looking at the cows.

RSV and Elfpa

2010-12-21T20:44:00.000-08:00

This has been an interesting week. We had lots of fun Christmas plans, many of which were canceled. Juliana had what seemed like a minor cold for a couple of weeks. No fever, just a little junkie with a minor cough and little raspy breathing. When we took her for her six month check up, the doctor said she was fine and did not raise any concerns at all. After another week, we took her back to the doctor on Wednesday because her breathing was getting a little raspier. The doctor again did not seem to concerned. Her oxygen level was at 95%, which is a little low. They then did a RSV test and she was positive. Ugh!!! We were really worried for our little babe and freaked out that we had been taking her around other kids! We went straight home and watched her closely. Friday she seemed worse so we took her in again. Her oxygen was down to around 92%. She received a breathing treatment and her numbers went up to 95%, either because of the medicine or because she screamed her head off for the 10 minutes we were forcing the mask on her and she cleared her passageways. We were sent home and told to return again at 5pm to do more testing. If her oxygen was down, she was likely going to get admitted to the hospital for oxygen. Luckily, they were high, 98%. We went home to monitor again and return Monday morning. She slowly improved everyday. Monday she was still a little raspy, but today, she is all clear. Very scary, but she handled the virus like a champ! Isabella likely had it first. She had what seemed like a small cold before Juliana got sick. She is completely healthy now too. Our babes appear to be all healthy for Santa!
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Thursday night, the girls (and Logan) got together for a pajama party and to watch the Polar Express. James ended up coming home early from work to watch Jewels so I could still take Isabella. The kids had a blast eating pizza, watching the movie, and playing. At the end of the movie, we had sleigh bells for each of the girls. This party was suppose to be in preparation for the Train of Lights ride Saturday night were the Nile Canyon Railway decorates their trains with hundreds of thousands of lights and Santa walks through the train cars during the one hour ride. With RSV and a storm, we cancelled our Saturday outing, but went ahead with our pajama party.
Isabella and I got pedicures on Saturday. I love our matching nails!

Sunday morning we celebrated our little family's Christmas. We woke up and made a special waffle breakfast with our new waffle maker. Half way through cooking, a storm knocked out our power so all our lights were very dim and our electronics were out. Luckily we had made two waffles and the coffee before the brown out. After breakfast, Elf Bella handed out all the presents then we dug in. It was a lot of fun!! Isabella got a princess bike and blanket, Juliana got a piggy bank and puzzle, Daddy got a guys ski trip and ski gear, and Mommy got time with a personal shopper at Bloomingdale's since I'm NOT a shopper (which was amazing!!), boots, and some cooking stuff. Very exciting! That afternoon James took Isabella to see Yogi Bear.

This week we also got a new member of our household...Elfpa, our Elf on the Shelf. Isabella LOVES Elfpa! The night we got him and read her the story, she could not get into bed fast enough so Elfpa could go to the North Pole to see Santa. Every night, she tells Elfpa what she wants him to tell Santa and every morning, she wakes up saying, "Let's find Elfpa...did he come back from his trip to the North Pole?!?!" Every night he has flown to Santa and come back, hiding in a different place in our house. One night, he flew into Isabella's room. I guess when he was perched on her blinds, he lost his footing. He fell right by Isabella's head and woke her up. She was so excited, freaked out, confused.... When we went in she told us not to touch him our he would lose his magic. We tried to tuck her in and leave, but she just could not go back to sleep with Elfpa on the floor next to her. Eventually, we brought her to our bed. So, that night, we had Daddy, Mommy, Isabella, and Mochi the cat in our queen bed with Juliana in the co-sleeper next to us. Very cozy! At one point I went to the couch and woke up to Isabella screaming "WHERE'S MOMMY!?!?!?" I ran back in hoping Juliana would stay asleep. Luckily, the next day, Isabella instructed Elfpa that she did not want him flying around her room anymore, avoiding Elfpa's clumsiness from disrupting our sleep again.

Jumpie, Jumpie, Jumpie

2010-12-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

Another Cute Photo

2010-12-13T20:05:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that we went to a movie with Katelyn. The girls loved Tangled. At one point, they were both reaching in front of them to try to grab flying 3D lanterns. Cute!

Ho Ho Ho!

2010-12-12T21:02:00.001-08:00

Happy Six Months Juliana

2010-12-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it, Jewels is six months!?!?! Time has flown by! Juliana is doing wonderfully! Her newest trick is sitting up. She can balance for a few seconds before "crashing." She looks so big sitting up! In the sleep category, she has digressed a bit. She went from only getting up once in the night to getting up two or three times. It seems like she is getting better so I'm hoping it was a growth spurt that is a thing of our past...for now. She had her six month doctor's visit where she got a few shots, poor baby but somehow she didn't even cry! She now weighs 15 pounds (40%), is 25 1/4 inches long (48%), and her head is 42.5 centimeters (50%). Here's our Jewels at five months then six months.

Christmas and Birthday Season

2010-12-12T19:42:00.000-08:00

We have been busy, busy with activities getting ready for the holidays and birthdays. It's been a lot of fun, but exhausting at the same time. Isabella is truly enjoying the holiday festivities this year!! Here are some highlights from what we have been up to...

Shopping! One night, Isabella went into the box where we keep all the extra bags and pulled out a bag that has been in there over a year. She took it to the living room and climbed in. Mommy and Daddy got the perfect American Girl Doll this year.

James always enjoys putting up Christmas lights outside. This year he even climbed on our steep roof to make a gingerbread house. When Isabella saw it for the first time, she said "AMAZING" and "you are a good daddy worker with lights!" Here's our house all decked out. Since this photo, we have added our Willow Glen Christmas tree to match the rest of the neighborhood.

Last Saturday, we drove into the Santa Cruz Mountains to cut down our own Christmas tree. It was so much fun! We hiked around a tree farm before finding the perfect tree to cut down and tie to our car roof. Santa even made a surprise appearance!

Once we got home, we put the tree up and decorated to holiday music. Here's a photo of the final product with the best ornament and light helper in the world!
Last Sunday, we went on our annual trip to dinner and the Vasona Park Fantasy of Lights with the Campbell's. The girls had a blast! We ate at Willow Street Pizza first then drove through the lights. We had to take two cars through the lights due to our growing family, but we caravaned so we were able to wave to each other as we drove through the glowing park! Here are photos from when the girls were about 1 year old, then 2, and now 3 on the same bench at the restaurant. I also included a cute photo of Claire giving Jewels "noogies" and one of us driving through the lights (Jewels was asleep in her car seat).
Monday night we went out with Debbie and Loren for Debbie's belated birthday. We had a very nice meal at Aqui and Debbie and Loren met Juliana for the first time.

We had some unseasonably nice weather this week between rain storms. We took advantage of the warm weather and went to a park where Isabella played with Kai and I got to catch up with Stephanie who is one of the first friends I met after we moved to California.On Thursday night, I attended my Las Madres Mom's Night Out/Holiday Party with about 25 other moms. It was really nice to get out with other moms for a nice dinner and drinks.

On Friday night, Daddy arranged to take his princesses on a carriage ride. Isabella LOVED it! Her eyes lit up...well...like it was Christmas. Cinderella had a ball!

Saturday was Claire's third birthday party. It was no surprise that Isabella had a blast, it was princess themed! I still cannot get over the fact that our girls are celebrating their third birthdays! Here are some cute photos from the party.

Saturday night, James and I had a babysitter watch the girls while we went to the Sentous' Holiday Party. We had so much fun! Sunday morning, we woke up and hit the ground running again with the kiddos. Samantha's third birthday party was at Chuck E. Cheese. Samantha is one of Isabella very first friends. We used to have weekly playdates with Samantha, Claire, and Jackson starting when the kiddos were only a month old. It's always fun to get together. It's shocking it's been three years! Isabella had a blast playing and eating at Chuck E. Cheese with her friends! Juliana met Samantha's baby sister Sydney at the party also. They are only a month apart in age.

It's been a fun week!! Now...off to bed!

Happy Gobble, Gobble Day

2010-11-29T09:23:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving, Nana and Papaw came into town and we went to Mendocino. This was the third year in a row we have gone to Mendocino for Thanksgiving. We love it...peaceful and beautiful. We rented an amazing house overlooking the ocean and relaxed and played. It was wonderful having Nana and Papaw there with us this year. The girls, especially Isabella, had a blast reading, playing hide and seek, dancing, etc. with their grandparents! Here are some photos from the week.
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On Sunday, we took a break from packing to go to a presentation by the Wild Cat Education and Conservation Fund with Claire and her family. It was so cool! They brought a king cheetah, Canada lynx, serval, mountain lion, and Geoffroy's cat for everyone to see and learn about. Here are photos of Bella on Daddy's lap and the king cheetah.
After shopping in Mendocino and eating lunch our first full day of vacation, we came back to the house we were renting to fly the princess kite Daddy found for five bucks. Here's a photo of Papaw helping Isabella and Sierra fly the kite.

That night, we watched the sunset from our balcony while Jewels took a nap. Gorgeous!

Thanksgiving day we cooked a big traditional meal. Super yummy!!! Juliana even ate some sweet potatos. Uncle Tim and Dean also joined us for the day. After eating amazing food, we went down to the beach for the sunset. It was beautiful, but freezing! BTW, Sierra LOVED getting to go on our trip this year. Now that we have an egg for the top of the car for our bags, we can bring Sierra with us on vacations for the first time post kiddos.

Friday, we went exploring again. We walked around the Mendocino Headlands and ate lunch in Fort Bragg. Here's a photo of Daddy and Bella checking out the tide pools.

We took a break from the drive home to stop in Sausalito for lunch. Both girls had come down with a cold, but it was a good stop with nice views of San Francisco.

In the midst of unpacking, we took the coughing girls to the park to try to get our Christmas pictures. It didn't work, but we got some cute shots. The first one shows off Jewels' mohawk. The sun glistening on her scalp accentuates it...hee, hee.

After we got back from the park, Aunties Tina and Amanda came over for a quick visit. Both girls loved seeing their Aunties, as did their parents.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hiking Zombies

2010-11-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we took on quite the challenge, hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We packed up all our gear, stopped to buy picnic stuff, and drove to the top of the mountain. Ironically, when we got out of the car, Isabella's friends Dillon and Cyrus and Juliana's friends Lucie and Hazel were just getting there with their parents. Too weird! So the group of six kiddos under three hiked together along the beautiful trails at Castle Rock. The loop was only 0.8 mile, but it was steep and rocky at times. After our hike, we stopped for a picnic where Isabella and Dillon found a log that became a stage and sticks that became microphones to sing for everyone. They are so cute together. Throughout the hike they were yelling at each other "Dillon"..."Bella." When they would meet up, they would share acorns they had found. Here are the dads with the toddlers on their back and the entire crazy group.

We have signed up for a gymnastics class. Isabella unfortunately inherited my klutziness and James' daring nature. Not a good combo. We are trying to get her to slow down and pay attention. Last week we focused on a somersault where she has been just flopping over. The coach was getting her to tuck her head finally!

I cannot believe it is almost Christmas time! This week Santana Row had their annual tree lighting ceremony. We went with Claire and Daddy surprised us by showing up. Juliana sat on Santa's lap for the first time with her sister. Super cute! We then ate dinner and attended the first half of the tree lighting ceremony. We didn't make it to the lights, but were there during different cultural dances where Isabella and Claire turned an area into a toddler dance floor where a few other toddlers joined in and adults circled around. If Isabella was on James' shoulders and asked to be put down to dance, the second her toes were on the ground, she was already starting to boogie!

Christmas "jamas" :)...
Juliana started using the bouncy this week. She loves it, but when she is done, she hates it until we get her out. Also, I knew by documenting that she was sleeping through the night, she would stop. I should have known better. She had gone a week since pooping so she was super cranky and stinky. We had hoped once she pooped, she would feel better and start sleeping again, but no. Ugh. Now we are hoping it is a growth spurt. She is always hungry. She is getting up at least twice in the night, which she hasn't done since her first month. We have had to supplement some formula and I actually started rice cereal this week. Isabella hated rice cereal. Juliana already loves it! The first night she wouldn't sit in the highchair, but still opened her mouth and ate most of her four tablespoon serving. The second night, she sat in the highchair and ate away! I can't believe she has started solids!

I'll end with a cute Isabella dialogue. We are at Nordstorms shopping...

I: I want to go on that (the escalator).

M: Oh baby, I'm sorry, but we have Juliana with us and the stroller so we can't. We have to take the elevator.

I: (Looking puzzled) Well, let's just leave her!

Laughter is Contagious

2010-11-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

Marmee and Grand-E's Trip to Cali

2010-11-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

Marmee and Grand-E came for a visit! We had a really great time. Here are the highlights from their trip.
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Marmee's birthday is coming up. We had an early celebration so that we could sing Happy Birthday in person. Isabella and I made Marmee a cake so that when they got to our house from the airport, we had cake, presents, and Isabella's birthday bear on the table. Happy Birthday Marmee!
Friday we went to Happy Hollow. It was super fun as usual! Isabella LOVES Happy Hollow! We rode all the rides, went through the petting zoo, and saw a few other animals. Isabella is finally tall enough to ride all the rides. This was our first trip where she could ride the Frog Hopper, which is a ride that goes up in the air and drops a few times. I have seen a lot of kids get scared on the ride, but our little monkey couldn't stop giggling and running back in line to go again. Marmee even rode the Frog Hopper once, and Juliana rode the carousal for the first time.
Friday night we went up to Uncle Tim's house to see the cousins and Aunt Lynda (Tim's in India for work). My silly camera has trouble orienting babies, but here is a cute photo of Juliana and Amelia holding hands. Following this picture, Juliana rolled on her side and proceeded to begin trying to eat her cousin. You can also see that she is quite the drooling queen. It is amazing how much saliva she manages to spit out of her mouth.
Saturday we had a somewhat successful photo shoot at Picture People. It was rather hectic with four kids under three. Dean ended up throwing such a fit, he wasn't in most of the photos. Here are the two good photos we got, plus one that shows "defeat" on everyone's faces.
Sunday morning we went to Logan's first birthday party. I can't believe Katelyn's little brother is one!! And, he has taken his first steps!! Here's the birthday boy with his buddy and a photo of Jewels in her first birthday hat.
We went to the park where Juliana took her first ride in a park swing. And, you will notice there is a bow in her hair. Marmee was in town for less than 24 hours before figuring out that she has enough hair for a bow. Cute!
And, some cute photos of the babe!

Happy Five Months Juliana

2010-11-10T15:52:00.000-08:00

Juliana is five months old. How crazy is that?!?! She is such a sweet baby. She is getting stronger every day. She is working on her abs...she is getting closer and closer to being able to sit up. When she is sitting on her own for the two seconds before falling over, she is so proud of herself. I have not been so good with her tummy time. My cousin just started a blog and when I read that Juliana's little cousin Charlotte rolled over at three months, I told Juliana "its time!" and put her on her belly. Can you believe she rolled over? I was shocked! Thanks for the motivation Stephanie. She is close to rolling over from her back to her belly, but her first roll was from her belly to her back. I think she is close to saying her first word. One day when she was upset, she was crying for me and said "MA". It won't be long!! She has begun sleeping through the night some which is so nice! I have to put the pacifier back in her mouth some, but it is a start. She is also starting to suck her thumb more. I have always thought I preferred the pacifier, but we'll see. The thumb sure is handy! Here's our Jewels at four months then five months.

Photo Shoot 2

2010-11-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

We finally got copies of the photos from our photo shoot when Juliana was 9 days old. I have also included a couple more photos from our photo shoot when I was 8 months pregnant.

Happy Halloween

2010-11-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

We have been busy, busy with Halloween activities! Isabella has loved Halloween this year. Very fun to watch! Here are some photos from our festivities.
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We went to a pumpkin patch with Claire one day after work. It was a fun outing. And, since we went during the week in the evening, it was not crowded at all so we got to play in the pumpkin fields, go on a hay ride, and ride the train. Here are photos of my older pumpkin in the patch and the girls on the train ride.
Disney on Ice was in town. Shannon and I took Isabella or Cinderella and Katelyn or Ariel. They loved it of course! Here they are after the show on the way across the street to the park to ride the carousel.

The stores in downtown Willow Glen hand out candy on the Friday before Halloween. The streets get PACKED! We met over at a Las Madres friend's house first for photos before walking the avenue. Isabella loved trick or treating and Juliana road in a carrier where she fell asleep for much of the outing.

Isabella's friend Ella threw a toddler Halloween party where there was a haunted tunnel, buckets to feel and guess what was there, pumpkin decorating, ghost hunt, and a toddler parade. It was a lot of fun!

On Halloween, we went to the Sentous' with the Campbell's. We had so much fun! We played, trick or treated, and ate. Great fun in great company! It was the Disney Halloween with Cinderella, Tinkerbell, Ariel, Sebastian, and Snow White.

The Real Sleeping Beauty

2010-10-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

Our house is all about princesses, prince Daddy, dragon Sierra, and good queen Mommy. But I caught a snapshot of the real Sleeping Beauty the other night. She has quite the set-up since she has been sick so often with her sleep positioner, lovey, blanket, and humidifier.

After having over a dozen of Juliana's friends over Saturday morning for an Itty Bitty Imprint party where a ceramics person came to our house to do hand and foot imprints for the itty bitties, we hosted our first pajama party. James and Frank went to a poker tournament so Shannon brought the kiddos over in their Halloween "jamas" (as Isabella puts it) for pizza and a movie. It was so much fun and the kiddos looks adorable!

Sunday, we made the trek to Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay for our annual pumpkin outing. Unfortunately, we went the weekend of the Pumpkin Festival so traffic was HORRIBLE and it rained on us. We still managed to ride the ponies twice, the train once, feed the goats, and grab a few photos. We met Uncle Tim/Dean and the Sentous'. It was fun, but next year we will not go the weekend of the festival. After Lemos, the Sentous' and Denena's went to a sports bar to get dry and eat a late lunch. The kids had a blast running around, until Isabella crashed on the steps they're sitting on in the photo below and got a giant goose egg and bruise on her forehead.

Sunday night, we sat at Isabella's table to make a Halloween Haunted (Gingerbread) House that Marmee gave us. James was VERY into making it, as you can see in the photo. I kept reminding him to let Isabella do some of it. He has not done as many crafts with Isabella to know that activities like these do not turn out looking like the photo on the box. We had fun making our version of the house. Afterwards, when we were starting to clean up, Isabella slammed her hand in the door on the side of the hinges. She was in so much pain that she got weak and threw up her whole dinner and all the candy pieces she snuck during the house decorating all over the kitchen floor. We were about to load her in the car to take her to the ER because we feared she had broken something when a little frozen peas and Olivia cartoon cured her. When we put our little pumpkin to bed that night, she had a black and blue forehead and swollen and red fingers. We felt like stellar parents, geez!

Daddy always comes up with fun activities. This week, we have had puppet shows and as you can see "pony" rides. Isabella's new thing is to jump up and down over and over when she is excited. I love it! I can hear James doing something goofy in the other room and a continuous pitter patter on the floor from Isabella jumping.

Yesterday, we went back to Happy Hollow with some Las Madres friends. They had a little pumpkin patch too. We managed to get all of our little monsters to sit down for a quick photo before Isabella presumed to follow Danny the Dragon around asking him to dance.

Today, I dressed the girls in matching duds for a really fun playdate at a local gym. Super, duper cute! After the playdate, I asked Isabella if she wanted to go get a Happy Meal as a treat. Her response was "I don't want a bad meal" with a perplexed look on her face.

My, How Fridays Have Changed!

2010-10-15T20:29:00.001-07:00

I remember when Fridays were the day to leave work early, cut loose, and stay out late. Here's what has happened now that we have two little kids.

We get home early and start the normal bedtime routine of dinner, dishes, bath, feeding, reading, bed, etc. In the midst of giggles, tears, running from here to there to get whatever it is one of the girls needs, Isabella starts screaming from the bathroom"Mommy, Daddy...the poo poo is stuck!" Like I said, my, how Fridays have changed.

Halloween Time! Yea!

2010-10-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

We have had a fun week now that we are all healthy again. We've been busy and the girls are easing into their new daycare the two days I'm at work. Here are some highlights from the week.
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Our family went to Happy Hollow for a morning of fun last weekend. Isabella loves the rides and animals! This time we went to the petting zoo part where she wanted to feed the animals...until they got close to her. So, I got to have slimy goat, pony, and cow lips on my hand while Isabella watched in delight. Here's stylin' Bella with Danny the Dragon.
This week we went to Useugi Farm for their pumpkin patch with some Las Madres friends. It was fun dressing the girls up and going to a wonderful pumpkin patch. We rode a normal train, a cow train, went through a corn maze, and played. Here are some photos from the day (for some reason my camera thinks Skeleton Juliana should be upside down).

One of Isabella's favorite authors is David Wiesner. He has won three Caldecott Awards. He was at a local bookstore this week for a signing and reading. We packed up our three Caldecott books and headed to the store. After buying his new book, we got to meet him before he read the new book to the crowd. It was a lot of fun, but I learned Isabella and Juliana are a little young for a book reading. They both were SUPER squirmy after sitting there for 40 minutes as he described how he comes up with his book ideas and executes them. It was still a lot of fun and I felt honored to meet such an accomplished author.

Isabella and Daddy are still loving their Saturday morning soccer practice. I went to watch this week for the first time in a couple months. Isabella is getting really good! Super cute!

We picked out our pumpkins this weekend. We have a Daddy warty pumpkin, a Mommy normal pumpkin, a Bella pumpkin that was called a Cinderella pumpkin (really), and a Jewels baby pumpkin. We then bought an extra pumpkin that Isabella made into a princess and named Pumerella.

We went to my coworker, Elaine's birthday party at Seacliff Beach in Aptos. Her birthday this year was on 10-10-10 so she had a big party. We had a blast at the beach. It was a beautiful day. The location was great too. There is a pier with an old cement ship from World War I that was really neat. Here's a photo of Daddy building sand castles with Isabella and Elaine's son Brandon and one of Jewels.

Happy Four Months Juliana!

2010-10-02T15:51:00.000-07:00

Juliana is already four months!! I cannot believe it! She is doing great! New tricks this month include nodding her head, sticking out her tongue, standing assisted, easily grabbing toys, and she's talking up a storm. Isabella and Juliana are beginning to play together some. Juliana loves watching her goofy sister and giggling. Her belly is getting stronger too. I can finally eat whatever I want. My last test was a big serving of broccoli which did not seem to bother her at all. This month she began dropping her one feeding in the middle of the night every once in a while, but she still primarily gets up once. At her four month check-up, the pediatrician said she looked great. She now weighs 13 pounds (45%), is 24 1/4 inches tall (50%), and her head measures 41 centimeters (50%). Here's Jewels at three months then four months.

Lying Low

2010-10-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

We have had an uneventful week. I am adjusting to being back at work, and busy. Isabella and Juliana started at our new daycare, Bambi's. They love it already! On day one, Isabella said "No Mommy!" when I arrived to pick her up. This daycare is licensed for up to 14 kids at once so there are more friends than there were at Heather's. We have also been battling colds. Juliana has had two colds since Disneyland and Isabella came down with a fever today. Tis' the season. The only fun things we did this week were the library, Children's Museum, park with Claire, and BBQ with Katelyn and fam. I did not take many photos this week, so here are two more photos from Goofy's kitchen at Disneyland that I scanned in.

2 Twoisms

2010-09-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

Being two years old brings all kinds of smiles to people's faces. Here are two recent things Isabella said that made us smile:

1. She has totally figured out all of her senses. She is always saying "Hear dat?" when there is an interesting noise. My favorite is when she smells something. She says "I smell!"

2. We went to mass for the first time since Easter this weekend. Afterwards, when James asked her if she liked church, she said "yea, but I didn't like the teacher." James asked why, to which she said, "I didn't like her dress" referring to the priest.

Charlene Bajorek, December 19, 1921-September 18, 2010

2010-09-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

Grand-E's mother, Charlene Bajorek, passed away on Saturday morning. She went very peacefully in her sleep. Life, particularly holidays when we spent a lot of time with her, will be very different without Mimi! We'll miss her!

The Happiest Place on Earth!

2010-09-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

Our family just returned from the Happiest Place on Earth...Disneyland! It was SO much fun!! I volunteered in the spring to earn a free Disneyland ticket and we had a free night stay at a hotel close to San Diego from when we signed up at our athletic club. So, we took a long weekend vacation to SoCal with Marmee and Grand-E. Isabella did not nap (what 2 1/2 year old doesn't fall asleep during a drive like that!?!?!), stuck paper up her nose, and splashed milk all over her DVD player while Juliana sat and slept happily during our eight hour drive each way. All in all they did wonderfully in the car for such a long time.
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We started the trip at the Disneyland Hotel, which is at the end of Downtown Disney so super, duper convenient. We woke up Saturday morning and headed to the park with Cinderella and Tinkerbell. Our mission was to meet princesses and Mickey, see the castle, and ride some rides. We met six princesses in the park and one the following morning at breakfast as well as lots of other characters. If Isabella saw a character and did not get to go meet them, she would say with her little hand out "but I didn't get my picture?" We missed out on seeing Cinderella, who is Isabella's favorite, but she didn't seem to mind too much. We rode the carousal, It's a Small World ride, and Dumbo as well as taking the train ride around the park. Mid-day we took a nap break at our hotel and headed back. We did not leave the gates of the park until after 10:00pm, which is way past Isabella and Juliana's bedtime! I could not believe the happiness exuding from Isabella! She didn't eat dinner until 8:30pm that night and sat mesmerized by the fireworks that did not start until 9:30pm. It truly was a magical day! The following morning we ate at Goofy's Kitchen at our hotel where we met more characters, danced with Goofy, and ate some very creative foods like macaroni and cheese pizza, PB&J pizza, Mickey waffles and pancakes, and pudding/Oreo/gummy worm dessert. I cannot express in words how much fun we all had...the perfect destination with wonderful family!
From Disneyland, we drove south to Carlsbad near San Diego to La Costa Resort where we relaxed, swam, and ate. It was a perfect balance following our busy Disneyland adventure.

Twinkie Week

2010-09-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, one of my coworkers got married at Chaminade in Santa Cruz. We made a trip out of it and spent the day at the beach, went to the wedding, spent the night at Chaminade, ate brunch, and headed home. It was a lot of fun. The beach was sunny for a little while then the fog rolled in making it freezing. We had a blast at the wedding. Isabella danced all night! At 10pm, I finally dragged her and James off the dance floor to go to the room. The girls looked adorable! They had on matching dresses. The wedding was outside, but luckily the reception was inside so we could take their sweaters off to show them off.
As soon as we got home on Sunday, our street was having a block party. The street was blocked off so everyone was hanging out in the middle of the street. We had BBQ and the kids played on the water slide, with water balloons, and various other toys. It is really nice living is such a close-knit community. Here are the two Isabella's from our street. The other Isabella goes by Izzy.
Night night monkey twinkies (thanks Sara!).

Hook 'em

2010-09-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

Both girls are doing great! Isabella is almost completely potty trained. She actually refuses to wear pull ups now. We force her to put them on at night for bedtime, but she almost always insists on putting a pair of panties over the pull up. We are so very proud. She is not only obsessed with potty training, but still loves to talk about "poo, poo." I swear sometimes she is a boy. The newest cute saying she says all the time is "what you said Mommy?" if she didn't understand something. Isabella loves her baby sister. She is always giving her lots of kisses and helping out in any way she can, like fetching diapers for me (I had to move them out of the girls' room because Isabella was using them all for her babies) and putting Juliana's soothie in her mouth.
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Our whole house is excited that it is football season. Isabella sees Longhorn gear and says, "look, hook 'em!" Here's a photo of Daddy with his girls at the coffee shop Saturday morning, ready for the first game of the season.
Saturday night, Isabella had her first sleep over at our house. When Juliana was born, she spent the night with Katelyn, but this time, we had Claire at our house while Caitlin and Ryan went to a wedding. We made pizza for dinner and played. Claire was a perfect guest! She had her own princess cot set up in Isabella's room. At bedtime, after reading and putting the girls in their own spots, Isabella chose to talk, clap, jump on her bed, chew on her bed, etc. while Claire said "SHHHH!" over and over. Finally, at 9:30pm, I went in for the third time, grabbed Isabella, took her out of the room, calmly threatened that this would be the last sleep over if she didn't stop, to which she responded quietly "ok Mommy." I put her back in her bed and both girls were asleep within minutes. In the morning, James greeted the girls with strawberry milk from Starbucks and a donut. It was deemed a success! Here are all three girls getting ready for bed.

On Labor Day, we went to San Francisco where we hung out at Crissy Field and ate lunch at Fisherman's Wharf. It was a perfect beach day in San Francisco. The weather was uncharacteristically amazing!

Here are some cute photos of Jewels and Bella playing cards with Daddy before bed. Juliana is wearing adorable hand-me-downs that Aunt Margaret gave to Isabella. It's fun seeing some old favorite clothes!

Isabella got her third haircut ever today. Just a trim, but still exciting! Afterwards, we met Jackson/Lexi and Ryan/Kevin at a park to play in the fountain. It's so crazy hanging out with friends now that most of us have two kids. I'm still adjusting to playdates where there are twice as many kids as moms. Organized chaos. Here's a photo of Isabella telling Jackson and Ryan "I'm wet!" and a photo of Jewels on her playmat before Isabella's friends arrived.

Happy Three Months Juliana!

2010-09-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

Juliana is now three months old. I cannot believe it! Seems like yesterday we were bringing her home. She is changing by leaps and bounds too! Starting around six weeks, we stopped swaddling her because she would break out of the swaddle and get the blanket wrapped around her head. She now sleeps swaddled from the waist down, which she still breaks her legs free leaving the blanket just around her waist. She started sitting upright a little better in the Bumbo seat and when propped against something. She smiles and giggles a lot. We stopped using the infant sling in the bath about a week ago. She now sits right in the little blue tub in our kitchen sink. Her cradle cap is kinda bad right now, but the hospital gave us this cool cradle cap comb to help get the flakes off. She is also losing a lot more of her hair. It started with the mohawk/receding hairline. Now that the hair in those areas is growing back in, she is losing the hair in the back. The swing and her cosleeper are covered in little hairs where her head lays. It's not too noticeable. New brown hair is coming in all over her head at the same time. She is still our good sleeper. I feed her for the last time each day around 8pm. I immediately put her in the swing awake with her pacifier. She falls asleep on her own and we then move the sleeping babe to the cosleeper around 10pm. She wakes up around 3:30am for a quick drink with no diaper change, then back in the cosleeper until about 7/8am. The earliest she ever gets up in the night is 2:30am and she sometimes sleeps until 6am before getting hungry. She is also very patient. When she gets up in the night or in the morning, she doesn't even cry. I just hear her wiggling around and making little noises. She'll complain some to get up, but doesn't start a full blown cry. She definitely still has her moments during the day of throwing fits, but all in all, she is such an easy going baby. She is a efficient eater. She eats super fast and rarely pacifies. In fact, if I offer her milk when she is not hungry, that is the one time I know I can get her to cry. It makes her so mad. She is starting to make more and more sounds, including motor boat or raspberries. Super cute! Drool has begun! There is commonly a wet spot on her shirt with a drool line up to her mouth. She loves the bottle. She doesn't care what type of bottle she gets, how hot the milk is, or if it is breast milk or formula. Crazy! She is our little Jewel. Here's the growing babe at two months then three.

The Mind of a Toddler

2010-09-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

Hide and Go Seek
Isabella: Wanna play hide and go seek?
Mommy/Daddy: Sure. You hide first.
I: OK, I'll go hide in my room.
M/D: You aren't suppose to tell us where you are hiding.
I: OK, I'll go hide in my room. (Giggle, giggle)
M/D: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10...ready or not, here I come.
I: (Giggle, giggle)
M/D: Where's Isabella?
I: I'm in here!!!
M/D: Where's Isabella?
I: I'm in here Mommy/Daddy!
M/D: There you are!
I: Let's do it again!

Trip to the Grocery Store

M: If you are good, you get a cookie at the end.

I: OK.

M: Can my toddler have a cookie?

Bakery: Sure (handing a cookie to Isabella).

M: What do you say?

I: Thank you. (As I push the cart away) He didn't say your welcome!!!

Friday, I took the girls up to my work for a wedding shower for a co-worker. I took the opportunity to get them all dolled up! Here are my babes and one of Jewels who can now sit in the Bumbo.
Saturday was our 2008 Las Madres summer BBQ. It was at Pony Up Ranch where the kids got to play with toys, go into a petting zoo, and ride ponies. Isabella's favorite activities were the ponies, Barbi motorized car, and the pig.
I started back to work this week. My, how time flies!! I cannot believe Juliana is 12 weeks old! I'm still part time with the girls at daycare two days a week. The bigger emotional hurtle this week was the fact that it was our last week at Heather's, the daycare Isabella has been at since she was 12 weeks old. Heather is moving into the Santa Cruz Mountains, which is just too long of a drive for us. Luckily, they will be close enough for us to visit because Isabella absolutely adores Heather and her two kids! Here's Bella and Claire painting pottery. Isabella is making a plate to give to Heather.
The Sentous' house remodel is almost done! They have moved back in so the Denena's have invaded. Here are the girls in the bath with Logan after my first day back to work and a homemade dinner Shannon made for us to help out. Good times!
Where's Juliana? Isabella thought some of her babies needed to play too...

Scuba Daddy

2010-08-26T15:17:00.001-07:00

I just found this picture from when James went diving with Tim a couple months ago in Monterey Bay. They found the bottle on the bottom of the ocean.

Giggles

2010-08-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

Jewels is giggling! She is so sweet!

We have had a fun week! On Friday, Shannon and I went on a big adventure! We raised the third row in my car and loaded all four kiddos to drive an hour and a half to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. It was such a fun and exhausting outing. Four kids under three with two moms definitely took some work! The girls loved Shouka the killer whale, the sharks, the sea lion show, the rides, and the characters.

The day after Discovery Kingdom, Juliana and Logan stayed at our house with a babysitter while Frank/Shannon and James/I took the girls to the circus. Isabella's favorite were the elephants. One elephant even carried a basket in its mouth with a dog in it. I just hope all the stories of elephant mistreatment are wrong. I loved going to the circus as a kid and want to feel comfortable taking my kids.
Tuesday night we went to Caitlin/Claire's house for crafts and dinner. The girls made birthday present for Claire's grandpa and Isabella's Nana Becky. Here's a picture of Isabella painting the ladybug rock with Claire providing direction. After we made ladybugs and turtles, we ate dinner before playing some more. Isabella, I mean Princess Isabella, insisted on wearing the princess dress. She is still SO into princesses.
Isabella shared her trike with Jewels and Ms. Bear. What a sweet big sis!
Beautiful baby with her soothie.