dinner conversation

(Mommy and Daddy nagging a very distracted Allia to eat her dinner)

Allia: Jesus will eat my dinner because he is in my heart.

Me too!

Mariana says this a lot. She is always trying to keep up with big sister, and now with our little homeschooling lessons it is no different. When I finish Allia's reading lesson, Mariana demands that she have one too. So Allia and I point to a few of the sounds and have Mariana repeat them after us with a little smile on our faces. She loves it!

Reading success

Well, we have formally started homeschooling preschool, which for me means the 100 Easy Lessons Book at least 3 times a week and making a point to use educational toys/puzzles/games daily. I am happy to announce it is going great! Allia is breezing through the book so far. It says "20 minutes a day," but I don't think we have spent over 15 minutes yet because she is just picking things up so quickly. I know all of our homeschooling days will not be so easy, but I am sure enjoying a good start at least! I am so proud of her and so excited for her to be able to read on her own soon!

Lessons gone awry

Today at the lunch table, Allia spontaneously proclaimed that she likes Prince Romance. This is one of the princes from the book, The Princess and the Kiss, which we really like. My sister was so sweet to get it for her for Easter. It is one of Daddy's favorite books to read to her.

Anyway, the problem is that in the end the princess chooses the humble farmer out of all the men courting her because he saved his kiss for her just as she did for him. Why, then, does our Allia favor Prince Romance? "Because he gives the princess chocolate, and I like chocolate." Hmmm...not the message we were hoping she would get. We obviously have some work to do here!

Healthy, growing girl

We were able to take another peek at our sweet growing girl today. At our last ultrasound, they couldn't get a good shot of her heart. Today we saw a much bigger, very sweet and healthy baby...definitely a girl! Supposedly she weighs a little under 2 lbs right now. We can hardly wait to meet her. She even stuck her little tongue out at us during the ultrasound! So cute!

A birthday treat

I really like store made cakes, so I grabbed some birthday cupcakes for Mariana and I at the store this morning. All they had were ones with brightly colored icing, so it made for some fun eating experiences!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Mariana!

and Happy Birthday to me too. :-) Mariana was my perfect little birthday gift 2 years ago. It is so wonderful to celebrate her life today. What a spunky, fun little girl and a wonderful addition to our family. Allia sure loves and enjoys her little sister and so do Austin and I!



Happy Birthday!



1 year old



Our big 2 year old! She actually pedaled her trike about 7 feet this morning. Yay Mariana! We love you!

Amazed again

Our little Allia amazed me again today as we went for her 4 year old shots. She kept telling me she was going to be brave, and she was. She didn't cry a bit! I asked her if it hurt and she said yes, but not so much that she needed to cry. We had to pick up a few groceries on the way home, and she got to pick out a bag of gummy worms. What a great girl!

Happy 4th Birthday, Allia!

I can hardly believe that first tiny baby I brought home from the hospital is already a big 4 year old. Allia, you are such a tremendous blessing to us. Praise God for your beautiful life and for this chance to celebrate it!


Happy birthday!


1 Year Old


2 Years Old


3 Years Old


(almost) 4 Years Old

THANK YOU,

thank you, thank you Mom and Dad. They came for the girls' party this weekend and brought me an early birthday present...a digital camera!!! It is Mom's "old" one (less than a year old!) because she decided she really wanted one of the new touch screen ones to make it easier to use. What a great gift! Digital world, here we come!

Birthday fun!

The girls had a wonderful party yesterday celebrated with family, friends, and water fun at the splash pad. Kudos to the CS Aquatics department...I went to make sure the splash pad worked on Thursday only to find out there was a leak and they had it off. However, they kindly offered to clean it out and turn it on just for our party. How nice! Everyone had a wonderful time, so much so that just as last year, they both wanted to keep playing with their friends instead of opening gifts. That makes me SO proud. We certainly appreciate the gifts, but the people are the most important. It is nice that they realize that...at least for now!


Mariana likes the ones that squirt from the ground


Building up courage to run through the rings...with some help from a friend


Allia aims the "water gun"


So polite...all waiting in line!

The cake photos will have to wait as those are stuck in my regular camera waiting to be developed!

Yay Mariana!

She went tee tee on the potty tonight before her bath with Manah! Who knows how long it will be before she does it again (she has been requesting to try unsuccessfully for several weeks now). But either way, we are so proud!

Mmmmm...

fresh pico de gallo. It is definitely one of my favorites, and I have been craving it for several weeks now. I finally mustered up the gumption to make some this week with tomatoes less than $1/pound. It was totally delicious and is now totally gone in only 2 days. I just may have to make another run to the store...although the girls' birthday party is this weekend so I have many other things to do besides dicing tomatoes and onions. At least I am having mostly healthy pregnancy cravings now that the 1st trimester is history!

I WISH

I had that digital camera this afternoon so I could share an edited version of the sight I just saw. Allia did not take a nap today, so she was having quiet play time in her room while I was browsing blogs. ;-) I heard her go into the bathroom and figured she had finished up and returned to her room. However, about 5 minutes later I heard the water running for a while. I decided to go check it out and found my sweet Allia facing backwards with her naked hinee sitting awkwardly in the sink and the water running on it. It was all I had not to burst out laughing, but I composed myself and asked what exactly she was doing. She explained how she had gone poopy, we were out of toilet paper, and she called quitely for my help so as not to wake sleeping Mariana (WHAT a GREAT sister!!!). Since no help came, she took matters into her own hands by removing her clothing and rinsing her rear in the sink! Hilarious! What a creative girl. I complimented her on her creativity and consideration of her sister then showed her where the extra toilet paper is stored. She was so cute...very shaken up by the incident, being afraid she was going to be in trouble! She constantly amazes me!

"Pleasey, pleasey"

This is Mariana's new phrase when she really wants something. I am finding it very irresistible. What is it about adding that sound to a normally plain word that makes it so incredibly cute? I am not sure, but for now she is hearing a lot of "yes" from Mommy. :-)

"That man is cute"

Allia said as we were parking our car for the church picnic today. The man rode past on his bicycle, and the look on my husband's face was quite a sight when she said this. However, I began laughing hysterically. This is because I recalled a few minutes earlier as we were driving down the street and passed this same man my husband had commented, "How cute...look at that man on his painted bicycle." The whole thing was spray painted a metallic gold. I am not sure why said husband found it cute enough to make the comment, but somehow in Allia's almost 4 year old mind, his comment translated to, "That man is cute." It was so funny to see his reaction, which would have been mine...shock, dismay that she could possibly be noticing the male gender already. Once I explained my laughter the mood lightened and we all had a little laugh together. Then on to the free hamburgers and of course the ever-popular moon walk. Yay!