A very busy week

Last week Julio was home, in between jobs, so I gave him a huge to-do list. He mowed and edged the back lawn, rototilled the front lawn, cleaned the garage, calked the tub, fixed the grout in the kitchen, replaced the ceiling fan in the dining room, and steam cleaned the carpets. He was busy! Since he and my mom were both off work last week, we decided to go out and celebrate our anniversary on Wednesday (our anniversary is actually today.) We took Tessa with us and went to Joe’s Crab Shack in Old Town Sacramento. That place was hopping! Tessa was really good, but we didn’t want to risk her getting fussy, so we ate our crab as quickly as we could. Good thing too, because just as we were finishing, she decided she was hungry. So, we went to the car to feed her, then walked around Old Town and got salt water taffy and ice cream cones. It was nice. Next year, we won’ t have to take a baby with us.

Waiting for our crab with our bibs on.

All the hard work around the house was in preparation for family coming to town for Tessa and Riley’s baby blessings. On Friday, the Aldama’s arrived from Idaho, so we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to swim, play, BBQ and celebrate Marco’s birthday (a week early).

Cute little Riley and Tessa hanging out.

Tessa and her namesake. (Tami’s initials are TESA)

These girls play so well together and they love each other so much! They look like they could be sisters too!

I think Corom’s ready to go swimming.

The sign says, “Noelle’s Lovey Sulon”   Lucia, Noelle and Marco were playing hair salon in the bathroom.

Lucia saw Noelle riding her bike without training wheels, so she decided she had to learn to ride her bike! She finally did it! It’s about time too, she’s had that bike for two years now.

Marco getting ready to blow out the candles. We couldn’t miss the opportunity to celebrate his birthday with his cousins, even though it was a week early.

Marco got lots of weapons this year. He got numchucks and ninja stars from Callie and Brian, a Nerf gun from Tami and Dan.

He got a Spiderman tent from Mom and Dad and a Hotwheels track from Grandma and Grandpa.

and here’s Double Trouble watching all the action.

There are more pictures to come from the rest of the weekend

Our mini vacation day 2

On Saturday, we got up and had a yummy breakfast at the hotel and then we packed up and headed to the city.

Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Dome in Golden Gate Park.

It was cold but Marco refused to wear a sweater.

Julio is trying to decide what we should do.

Even though it was expensive, we decided to spend the day at the Academy of Natural Sciences. It was awesome!

Looking at the man-made tide pools

Heading into the rain forest dome.

We saw lots of exotic animals.

The aquarium tunnel. This is the only place I could find to sit and nurse Tessa.

Can I have this mom? No.

Inside the kids’ cove-for kids under 5. They had lots of things to play with and explore. Lucia was bummed because she wasn’t allowed on the play equipment.

You can’t see them, but they are posing in front of the penguins.

Then they decided to pose in front of all the animals in the African Animal exhibit. Note the flash-that’s Sylvie running up and down the gallery yelling, “Look at the zebra!!! Look at the giraffe!!! Look at the elephant!!!!” She was so excited to see all the animals, she could hardly stand still.

We then went back to the aquarium to look for sharks, we only found one small one. The kids were bummed.

Up on the roof, it was windy! The kids were getting tired and starting to melt down.

A few more poses on the way out.The drive home was not too bad, we only had to stop once for Tessa.

I have to say it isn’t easy travelling with a baby, toddler and two young kids. But it was a quick trip and close enough to not have to be in the car for a long time. The kids had a great time and at least we can say we did SOMETHING this summer!

Our mini vacation day 1

It’s been two years since we went to the beach, and since it’s only 2 hours away, we had little excuse not to go! So we planned a little weekend getaway to the beach. We left last Friday and drove to Tomales Bay State Beach which is on the inner peninsula north of San Francisco. It was nice and calm-no waves, but lots of dead jellyfish and lots of kids. The kids were very curious about the jellyfish and Sylvia kept chasing the seagulls up and down the beach. It was a bit windy, but the sun was out and there was no fog! We parked our lawn chairs near a cliff that provided shade and let the kids play for a while. Julio had an experience while we were there. A kid on an inner tube was being carried out to sea by the current and he and another man helped bring him back to shore.

After we left the beach, we went to the Courtyard Marriott in Novato and stayed the night. Julio swam in the pool with the kids, we ordered food and watched tv. That night was quite an adventure though having 6 people in one hotel room. The kids had a hard time settling down and were up really late. Tessa was up even later-1 am and then 3 am and 5 am….Sylvie fell off  the bed in the night, Lucia was talking in her sleep, Julio and I were crowded onto a full size bed and couldn’t get comfortable. Needless to say, we won’t be doing any more overnight trips with the baby for a while and we’ll make sure to get bigger beds next time.

Some favorite recent eats

This past week, I’ve enjoyed making a couple of new things. I make a fruit smoothie every day. It’s cheaper to make it at home than to go to Jamba Juice. I usually make one with frozen berries, but decided to mix it up a bit and go with frozen peaches instead. So I put a vanilla yogurt, half a banana, frozen peaches, ice and apple juice in the blender. It’s delicious!

The other thing I made this week was a zucchini pizza. I make the pizza dough in the kitchen aid. The recipe is really simple and I will post it if anyone asks. Then I roll out the dough and brush a thing layer of butter (or you can use olive oil) over the top. Then I add mozzarella and grated parmesan cheese. Then I put a layer of thinly sliced zucchini on top of the cheese, sprinkle fresh rosemary, garlic salt and drizzle a little bit of olive oil on the top. Then I bake it for 15 minutes. It was so good!

Another Sylvie story

I have to write this one down so I don’t forget it. Yesterday in church, one of the speakers didn’t show up, so the bishop said he would be calling people from the congregation to get up and share their testimony. Julio kept saying-he’s going to call you up there. I was in denial. First the bishop called up four men. Then another teenage boy, then me. I handed Tessa to Julio and started the long walk from the back of the chapel to the pulpit. Sylvie freaked out of course and followed me up to the front row where I sat waiting for my turn to speak. She kept saying to me, “You have to go up there mommy, sorry!”  I told her to stay on the bench and I would go up there and then come back and get her. Of course, that didn’t fly with her. When I got up to go up to the pulpit, she started screaming, “No mommy! Don’t go!” I picked her up and her screaming was heard through the microphone. I looked out at the congregation-some people were smiling, some had looks of horror on their faces. I was so embarrassed, I couldn’t speak. After what seemed like an eternity, Julio passed the baby off to someone and came up and took Sylvie out-screaming the whole way!  I got lots of comments from people afterwards saying things like, “You’ve got your hands full” or “She’s got a lot of energy and spunk.” But, someone also asked me, “Where is the little wild one?”    and another lady said, “It will be interesting to watch her grow up and be able to express her emotions and wants more effectively.” That was a very diplomatic way of saying, “Hopefully she’ll grow out of her craziness!” Oh Sylvie.

Tessa at 2 months

She weighs 9 lbs. 5 oz. and is in the 15% for weight and the 25% for height. She has had a hard time with her vaccinations-she was up all night fussing. She sleeps great as long as I don’t eat salsa ! She has had a couple of nights where she has slept 7 to 8 hours straight! She is a night owl and doesn’t ever go down for the night before 11 pm. She likes to nap in her swing and is calmed by white noise and lying on the floor kicking her legs.

  I  need to monitor what I eat to make sure it doesn’t bother her tummy because she is still spitting up quite a bit. She smiles and coos at everyone and is very alert.   Her siblings love her. Sylvie likes to scream and demand stuff when I’m feeding her and says, “Put the baby down!” Tessa is oblivious to it though. She’s a very pleasant baby and sleeps through our outings.  She enjoys being outside too. Above is a picture of her in her stroller when we went to the temple.