Some of our favorite books

We love to read stories. Some of our favorites are the Fancy Nancy books, Max and Ruby or any Rosemary Wells books, Angelina Ballerina books, Pinkalicious, Purplicious and Goldalicious, Laura Numeroff books (the new Jellybeans stories are a lot of fun) The Ladybug Girl books, Arthur books, Clifford books, and Little Miss Spider books. What are some of your favorite children's books? We're always looking for good books to read!

Pictures from my trip to Arizona

I made it! The kids and Julio survived! It was a nice r&r time at Callie and Brian's house. It was fun to just talk and hang out, play with cute little Eden and sleep. It was a very long trip getting there. I will never fly United again-it's ridiculous that I have to fly to SFO and then have a nearly 4 hour layover before flying to Phoenix. There were delays on the way back too. Annoying! So, I felt like I missed out on some time I could have spent there. Anyway, Friday I was so tired from getting up at 4 am, I just wanted a nap and to eat. We did go play games at Callie and Brian's friends house that night. Saturday we headed to the famous Ranch Market-very authentic Mexican mercado with cow head in the meat case and yummy ceviche and fish tacos. We headed down/up (?) to Mesa to see the temple and meet my cousin Suzanne and her family. I hadn't seen her since our grandma's funeral 8 years ago. It was nice to catch up. They were so nice to treat us to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen-it was delicious. Sunday was just church and relaxing. Monday we planned on doing more, but by the time we were ready to go, it was close to my departure time, so we just drove through downtown and got Jamba Juice. By the time I got back-after about 6 hours of travel, I was so happy to see my family. I missed them so much. I am so grateful to such a wonderful husband and my Dad and Brandon for taking good care of the kids while I was gone. Thanks to Callie and Brian for letting me come stay and for being such great hosts!

My trip to Arizona

Go to Callie's blog at brianandcalliehill.blogspot.com to see the pictures! I'll post some later.

New Haircuts

Sylvie's new do

Marco pre-haircut

Lucia pre-haircut

Post haircuts-Lucia doesn't like hers and refused to smile.

Lucia playing beauty parlor with Marco.

Julio is at a bankruptcy conference today with his boss, so I'm bored. After being stuck in the house all week, I decided it was time to get out and these shaggy kids haircuts. The last time I took Marco to get a haircut, it was very traumatizing. The girl didn't speak English, didn't like kids (obvious) and nicked his neck with the razor. We have a really cute kids salon here in town, so we went there. They are a little bit more expensive, but you get the service you need. Marco got to sit in a little police car and watch Thomas the Train while eating a lollipop during his haircut. He was very hesitant at first, but the lady was really patient and really good with him. Lucia got to sit in a yellow car and watch a Dora video during her haircut. At the end, she got to pick out a bow and got gold glitter in her hair. She doesn't like her hair-she wants it long, but it's too thick and it was all uneven, so I decided to have it chopped off. She looks cute and her hair grows like a weed (she's got her dad's hair). I guess someday I'll have to get Sylvie's hair cut. I just can't do anything to her signature ponytail for now-she looks too cute with it. I am worried that next weekend when I'm gone, she'll be walking around with hair in her face. Oh well.

Update

We have all been sick here at our house for well over a week. Marco was first, then Lucia, then Sylvie and me. Julio's missed out on being sick so far. The first week, it was like; we'll stay home, but go out if we have to. Then, it got worse, so we just stayed home. Sylvie hasn't been sleeping; she would wake up screaming in the night and doing the hurt sign. I finally took her to the doctor yesterday and after an x-ray and 3 hours, we found out she has pneumonia. I came home and went straight to bed with a fever. I've been coughing so much, my stomach hurts. So, who takes care of the sick mom? So far we've missed out on park Friday, any fun weekend activitities, church, an FHE at a new friends' house, a Valentine's party with our former ward's playgroup, play dates...I can't wait for this to end!

The aforementioned pictures

Lucia and Marco at a friend's Valentine's party.

Sylvie wanted to be part of the group.

Marco in his Chinese mask.

Lucia with her Chinese lantern and her zodiac sign-she's year of the monkey!

I really don't feel like blogging

I have some pictures to upload, but the computer won't read my card...
So, this is my blog-I can complain if I want to. I'm tired. My kids haven't been sleeping well for about a week now and I'm feeling extremely sleep deprived. Plus, I have a terrible case of athlete's foot. From what? I have no idea! But it hurts! So, enough griping for now.
Last week we had a Chinese New Year's celebration with about 20 of our homeschool friends. It was a great success-despite Marco getting injured the night before and having to go to the doctor's. We learned about the Chinese zodiac, made lanterns, felt potstickers, red money envelopes, and had Chinese snacks. Lucia has started her Friday classes at the charter's learning center. She's had art and science, but because of a scheduling conflict with our play group-we'll switch her to an emergent read class. She is doing really well-can count money, and is blending simple words. She's got quite a repertoir of high frequency words. Since we started learning about money-she became interested in Lincoln. So, we read and studied up on Lincoln. Tomorrow we are going to a Valentine's party at a friend's house. The only thing about homeschool is feeling so secluded. I'm home with kids all day and don't get out much. I'm also just...tired. The days go by so fast and I feel like a lot of things don't get done. Oh well.
Until next time!