We survived

the reunion weekend! It went pretty well despite the rain during the picnic on Saturday. It was great to catch up with a few old high school friends although I missed some others who were unable to make it. One thing it did for both Austin and I was that it made us SO grateful for the life we have here. We have such a wonderful faith community where our friends and peers support our efforts to live out a life of virtue in service to God and our family. We have truly been blessed!

Oh the fun

We are off this weekend to my high school reunion...which my husband has really been looking forward to. (haha!) I, however, am looking forward to it...at least in some respects. I don't like the fact that the main event (the only part we will be attending besides the family picnic) is in the upstairs room of a downtown bar. But nobody asked me! So we will go try it out and if it is smoky and icky we will just have an exclusive date for the two of us somewhere else while my parents have the kiddos! So have a good weekend everyone!

Rating

Wohoo! We received a G rating based on the fact that so far the only questionable word mentioned was dangerous 1x. Is there a milder rating than G? What if we didn't have that word. Anyway, I hope it does not mean that this blog is too boring. It is definitely not as exciting as Emily's, but she is much more adventurous with her 4 little ones than I am with my 2 + 1 in utero! ;-) Thanks for the link Emily and Lillian!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Please pardon the strange appearances this blog may have in the next few days. I have wanted to do something with it for a while, and finally now I have my hubby and the 2nd trimester here to help. :-)

Blessings and prayers

We had the blessing of hearing baby's healthy heartbeat at our Dr. appointment this morning. Allia was really excited. I brought the girls with me so they could hear too. It was great!

The doctor was running very behind, so we had lots of time in the waiting room for reading books and coloring. Please pray for the mother he was helping, though. We found out that he had been in emergency surgery with a woman who suffered an ectopic pregnancy and had 40% of her blood volume in her stomach after her tube ruptured. My heart really ached for her, and we have been praying for her and also in thanksgiving for the health of our little one. May we be good stewards of our blessings. May the peace of Christ reign in her heart. Our Lady of Sorrows pray for her.

First kicks

Yesterday, after a very busy morning, I sat down to rest during naptime and felt the baby's first little kicks. I am only 15 1/2 weeks, so I sat there for a while to make sure it wasn't just pregnancy gas. But they were definitely little kicks...actually pretty strong ones. Those little signs of life are so beautiful! Of course, in a few months they will be disturbing my sleep I am sure! ;-)

Happy 100th Birthday, Tia Maria!

Our recent trip out of town was to celebrate Austin's great aunt Maria's 100th birthday. She looked beautiful, and we all enjoyed great time spent with the family.


The girls with their great-great aunt.


The girls loved playing with their 2nd cousin Carlos.


Mariana finds a familiar lap. She loves her Lita!

Finally

some pictures!



Allia making baby Mary laugh! (It's not hard to do...she is such a happy baby!)



Mariana wants to "hold" baby Mary


Allia rollerblading with her cousins. My sister and her boys generously made a day trip a few weeks ago to come visit. We all had a great time!


Jake may look big and tough, but he is really a softy when it comes to little girls. Mariana just loved him!


Happy 4th of July girls

Ninja nun

proved to be a dangerous game to play right before bedtime. Last night, after the girls' bath, I was trying to get some cleaning done. So Austin took the girls into their room and was playing all sorts of silly games with them. When I came in after finishing my cleaning spree, a game ensued which involved the Miss Clavel Nun doll from Madeline doing all sorts of strange ninja moves on Allia. She was absolutely rolling with laughter, until suddenly she stopped. The room fell silent, and we all wondered what had happened. Then she stood up to reveal the wet spot on the carpet beneath her. Oops! She learned the little life lesson about what happens to your bladder when you laugh too hard...it spontaneously empties itself! Guess who had to clean that one up! It was so cute though. Daddy sure is good at making those girls laugh!

Walking the line

As she approaches the age of two, we have noticed Mariana becoming very adept at not outright obeying but walking the line between obedience and disobedience. Case in point...

Yesterday we found ourselves at Lowe's where Daddy could not resist purchasing a beautiful multicolored ornamental pepper plant to add to his spice/herb garden. We placed it in the seat part of the basket and let the girls ride together in the big part. They promptly each picked one of the irresistible peppers. So Austin decided to taste. Of course they wanted to do the same. So after some pepper tasting, they were instructed strictly not to pick any more peppers. We walked along a bit, talking about different projects we have awaiting our attention, only to be alerted by Mariana's confession, "Eating it" (chomp, chomp). However, no pepper was in her hand or otherwise visible. Then Allia proceeded to imitate Mariana's clever action, bending over into the little bush and taking her own bite from the plant without touching it at all with her hands. We had a great laugh at Mariana's ingenuity and then decided to stow the poor plant in the under carriage cargo area to remove the temptation. Crazy girls! Aha, but justice prevails. Those last bites proved to be spicier samples than the first and they were both crying and begging for water a few minutes later!

Call it what it is

Allia had a neighbor friend over to play Friday morning, and I left them "unsupervised" for a bit while I made myself a snack in the kitchen. The friend stayed for lunch after much begging on their part. When I took Allia to the bathroom before her nap she informed me that her friend, while driving the little "flinstone" car as I call it, drove it into the bathroom pretending that it was the "gas station." The joke was lost on her, but I couldn't help but laugh!

Just one phone call

yes, a 20 minute one, but you would think the kids could just keep playing as usual and stay out of trouble. However, all the mommies out there know that something happens to children when Mommy is on the phone...either they are consumed by sudden fits of whining and crying or a mischievous spirit takes over them. And so the story goes...

About 2 minutes into the conversation, Mariana left a drool mark on the couch cushion. Allia had the bright idea to clean it (my big helper!), so off they ran to the bathroom and returned moments later with handfuls of toilet paper dripping in soapy water from the sink. (I knew those stepping stools would come back to haunt me someday!) They cleaned the couch cushion, which I didn't mind because I can't remember the last time I scrubbed it. Then Mariana quickly lost interest and went on playing elsewhere. Allia, however, went on a cleaning spree. I found her washing walls, furniture, cabinets, the kitchen table and chairs, picture frames, the bathroom floor. Sound great, right? Except that she did not ring out her little wad of toilet paper, so my whole house was dripping in soapy water in a matter of minutes. Well, I finally wised up and asked my friend to hold for a moment. I thanked Allia, handed her a wrung out rag to use, and pointed her toward the dirty refrigerator. After ending the phone conversation,I tried to scrub the walls so the clean spots didn't stand out so much (I didn't realize my walls needed scrubbing!)

Meanwhile, Mariana decided to take advantage of the lack of attention. A sudden burst of noise erupted from my bedroom, and I found the little victim standing as still as I have ever seen her stand with eyes bulging. She had been playing with Daddy's clock radio, which she knows is off limits. She managed to turn the volume all the way up before discovering the power button and nearly blasted her sweet self out of the room. I laughed at her, and she loosened up a bit.

So, I think I will stick to email and blogging for the next few days. No more phone calls, at least for a while. But at least I got a "clean" house out of the deal!

All in a day

We had such a wonderful day yesterday. I love the town we live in. We celebrated 4th of July mass and went for ice cream (as mentioned before). Then we hopped home for lunch and naps. After naps we went to the George Bush Museum where they had free watermelon and popcorn, moon walks, a moon walk obstacle course and giant slide, and then we walked over to the nearby park where the K of C were BBQing and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with "lots of fun people" as Allia put it. We all had so much fun. Daddy did the big slide with Mariana (I used pregnancy as an excuse to forward that duty to him :-) ), Allia did that and the obstacle course by herself. She was awesome. They had fun jumping in the moon walks together too. We went home and to bed before the fireworks since we are heading out of town tomorrow, but that also meant we did not get rained on with all the eager viewers. It started pouring right about the time the fireworks were due! Glad to miss that! Fun times.

Beans anyone?

(randomly as we were driving away from mass this morning)
Allia: Human beans are not the kind you eat.

Mommy: (laughing) Human beans?

Daddy: (laughing) It's be-ings sweetheart, not beans.

Allia: Oh.

Happy 4th of July to all. May God bless all who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice for our freedom. Praise God for the freedom to practice our faith freely! We thoroughly enjoyed our 9am 4th of July mass this morning, and the girls behaved so incredibly that we decided to treat them to ice cream afterwards!

The theme of the day

today seems to be Heaven...

(At dinner)
Allia: Mommy, when we move to Heaven, then somebody else will come live in our house.

Mommy: (Holding back laughter) They sure will!

What a great theme for her to have!

Driving conversation

On our way to run some errands in the rain this morning...

Mommy: Allia, Daddy only has to go to work two days this week, and then we get to spend the rest of the week with him! Won't that be great?!

Allia: (big smile) Yea!

Mommy: It will be so much fun, and we will even get to go see lots of family for a few days when we go out of town. (listing the family members she will see this weekend...)

Allia: (even bigger smile) Yeah, and then we can all go to Heaven together.

Mommy, to self: Does she know something we don't? Maybe we should cancel that trip? Hmmm....

Mommy: Um, maybe...that would be wonderful, but I was just thinking we would have lots of fun spending time with Daddy!