My birthday weekend

Was very busy! My birthday was on Friday, but Thursday I got to open my first gifts from Callie. I also got to go to Lucia’s school and see her receive an award for being “Responsible” and she got her Trajan Tracker t-shirt for running 25 miles.

Friday was already scheduled, but I did get to open some presents from Julio and the kids first thing in the morning. (photos not included due to extreme bedhead)

That afternoon we had an appointment for Sylvie with the speech therapist.  We were able to go out to eat at Hamburger Habit as a family and then went to the kids Fall Festival at the school that evening.

Saturday was another busy day. I got a special treat-shopping and lunch with Mom and Tessa. It was nice to be able to chat and hang out, something we never get to do without kids around. Julio took the kids to a birthday party while I was gone. Then we had our Trunk-or-Treat at church that night. I made white chicken chili-it was pretty tasty. It was kind of stressful-making sure the kids got food, chasing Sylvie around the building, holding the baby, passing out candy and taking the kids around the parking lot for Trunk-or-Treat. Next year we’ll simplify-eat before we go and not pass out candy so there are two of us to watch the kids.

Marco in his Santa costume. I made the beard and he would only wear it for pictures. He said it was too itchy (I made the beard, the costume was from ebay).

 

Olivia the Pig, Santa Claus, the Princess, Witch and the Scarecrow.

Isn’t she the cutest scarecrow you’ve ever seen? Callie made her skirt.

 

Lucia’s costume was pieced together from the thrift store and I made her pig ears with the snout. Most people didn’t know who she was. Olivia is a character from children’s books and a cartoon on Nickelodeon.

Julio the ambulance chaser.

 

Finally, Sunday we had a birthday feast with the family. I requested a crab bake and Julio did it just like Joe’s Crab Shack.

And  Mom made the famous cake that all of us Shirley’s love so much-the sons-in-law, not so much. It was a great weekend! Here’s to being 29 (again) and another great year!

A muggy day at the pumpkin patch

Julio got home early on Friday, so we decided to do an improptu trip to the pumpkin patch. It was pretty empty, although we saw two families from church while we were there. It was fun, but eventually, because of the humidity and the flies, we decided to leave.

Goofy kids next to a scarecrow.

Running through the corn to get to Hayland.

We made it to the top of the hay stack!

Peek-a-boo!

A wagon without a horse stands still.Chillin’ with the pumpkins.

Check out that cool old car and scarecrow behind Marco!

I just love October, I just wish the weather felt like October! A pumpkin patch just isn’t the same when it’s 80 degrees and muggy!

Tessa-5 months

Tessa is our little love bug. Every time I look at her, I smile because she always has a huge smile for me. She makes me happy. She has the sweetest disposition. She loves her family. She isn’t on a routine really. She just goes with the flow. She has been going to bed earlier, which is nice. Then she sleeps a good 8-9 hour stretch at night. She naps in the car or when we’re out and about. Her fussy time is when I’m trying to make dinner. That’s when we’re both at our most tired. Not the best time of day. She started rolling a couple of weeks ago. We were surprised because none of the other kids rolled this early. Once she gets on her tummy, she starts to fuss. She can roll over to her back, but she gets so caught up in being on her tummy that she cries instead. Another milestone is that we got out the excer-saucer. She loves it! She likes being upright and spinning around. She thinks she’s so big in that thing!  She still feels really light, but she’s growing! She has been wearing 3-6 month clothes and some 6 month stuff. The 3 month stuff is too short-so she’s long and lean.  She’s been chewing and babbling a lot. Yesterday at church, she kept saying, “mama”.  I know it’s babbling, but still-she said Mama! I’m looking forward to starting her on rice cereal in a couple of weeks-give this mama a break on the nursing!   Oh, I did cut her hair the other day. She had all these long pieces around her ears and on the nape of her neck, so I just trimmed those pieces off. Her hair looks much better (I didn’t touch the mohawk!)   She’s growing so fast and I’m trying to enjoy every minute of it-snuggling and kissing her as much as I can.

Adventures in potty training

This is disgusting, but I must blog about it because it’s pretty funny as well. Sylvie is doing great with the #1 in the potty. She didn’t have any accidents today, not until dinner time. I had kept trying to get her to go poop since yesterday with no luck. But, tonight during dinner, she kept getting out of her seat and running around and after multiple warnings, was sent to time out in the laundry room. After about 10 minutes, I heard her knocking on the door, so I went to let her out. She bolted out of there with her little naked bum and threw her panties on the washing machine on her way out. I looked and saw poop in them, so I threw them in the toilet. Then I saw a little bit of poop on the floor as well, so I cleaned it up and went on with my evening. Julio finally got home, so I decided to switch out the laundry. While I’m in the laundry room, I smell poop and look around to see a smudge of it on the wall. So, I  get some paper towels and cleaner and start cleaning it off the wall. My tennis shoes were in the way, so I go to move them and found a big poop inside each of my shoes!!!! I was so grossed out! I don’t know if she deliberately pooped in my shoes, or if she pooped on the floor and tried to cover it up with my shoes. Whatever, it was so gross!  I just hope I don’t find any more hidden treasures. I also learned that I need to be more persistent in making her go on the potty.

Birthdays

Last week we celebrated Julio’s 40th birthday! I can’t believe he’s 40. It seems sooooo old. I remember my dad’s 40th birthday (I was 16). Now, to be married to someone that age seems unreal. I met him when he was 30, so that means we’ve known each other almost 10 years.  Anyway, he’s a very young 40.   We had wanted to get away for his 40th, but that wasn’t going to happen, so we planned something else. I took the kids down to his office after school and took him some goodies. All of his co-workers oohed and aahed over the kids and Sylvie ran around the office like a maniac.

Goofing around outside the office.

Later that night, Julio wanted to go out for sushi. It’s his favorite and he rarely, if ever gets it because 1) it’s expensive, and 2) I don’t particularly like it. So, we went to a place we had gotten take-out from before. I don’t remember it, but Julio said it was good. We dropped the kids off at my parents house and we took Tessa with us.  We were sorely disappointed. The service was extremely slow and the food had no flavor.   You never know with sushi-it’s either good or just bad.   We got a pie from Marie Calendar’s to make up for it and that was good. That was what we did for Julio’s 40th. Not exciting at all, but hopefully in the future we’ll be able to take that longed for vacation without kids.

We didn’t have a birthday candle for the pie. Oh well.

Tessa and grandpa.Tessa and cousin Riley. Such cute babies!

That weekend we also celebrated our little cousin Eden’s 2nd birthday. She and Sylvie are best buds! They love each other so much and play together so well.   Callie and Brian had a big party at their house for Eden complete with a bounce house and desserts!

It was a fun night! Too bad the only picture we got of Eden is fuzzy. Happy birthday to Eden!

It’s October!

It’s my favorite month. It started out with General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was so spiritually uplifting and reassuring to know that we have a Heavenly Father who communicates with us today through living prophets and apostles. It was nice to be able to just stay home and be together as a family and relax the whole weekend too.

Julio was tired, not bored. The kids built another blanket fort.

Sylvia is making progress with potty training.

This month is also full of exciting things…birthdays, Halloween. We’ve got a big one coming up this Friday-the big 40! Mr. Julio is going to be celebrating his 40th this Friday. Ideally, we would like to get away, just the two of us to a nice secluded beach and just relax, but since we have 4 small children, that’s not going to happen. I’ll post more on his birthday, after it happens.

We are also celebrating Eden’s and my birthday this month. We look forward to Halloween, visiting pumpkin farms, haunted houses, etc. So far, Lucia is going to be Olivia the pig  and Sylvia wants to be a princess (easy enough to pull something out of the dress-up box for that). We just need to figure out what Marco and Tessa are going to be. Fun fun!