First Flute Recital

Allia has been taking flute lessons from Tia Nana since last fall. She had her first recital Saturday where she played a duet with Tia Nana and another piece for a nursing home audience. She was so excited and played well!

Cuteness and another haircut

Sebastian is just pure cuteness these days. He is in that stage of starting to really explore, and everything is a wonder to him. So sweet!

Here he is playing peekaboo with Allia in the children's laundry basket (Allia took over their laundry in exchange for the guest room becoming her own room). It got bleached during the big stomach bug cleanout (just for good measure...by Austin). I am still waiting for my can of brown spraypaint to try and return it to its normal color. :p

 Pulling up on anything and everything

And such a good sleeper, this boy...Mommy loves that!

 

Daddy was in Paris all week last week, so we spent some extra time at Pawpaw and Manah's house.

and he had his SECOND haircut while Daddy was gone (compare these pics to the first few!). The girls all agreed that he was starting to look like a girl, especially in the back. So I broke out the clippers (on the 1" setting!) and did the back and sides, then trimmed up the top a bit with scissors.

So pretty

We have been mass buddies with Pawpaw and Manah since they moved here. They usually go to the vigil mass on Saturday, and we have been doing the same since it jives better with Sebastian's morning nap and me teaching RE in the morning. This week, Anastasia wanted her hair fixed (at the last minute running out the door, mind you) "like Cherry Jam"  (from Strawberry Shortcake). So I quickly threw in a side bun with a ribbon. She looked like such a little princess! The ribbon is already out here, but she and Manah looked so lovely sitting together in their mass clothes that I had to snap a picture!

Ice skating

I keep missing Mariana's class because we eat a packed dinner in the car while she skates (her class is at 5:45, with Gloria's following it). But at least I managed to get a few pics of Gloria! Not bad considering Daddy was not there, so I "had my hands full" as people so often like to tell me when I am out with our crew!

10 Months Old!

Sebastian is 10 months old today. I had he and Anastasia's well checks on Friday. Here are their stats:

Sebastian:
Height 29" 60%
21 lbs. 65%
Head 18.9" 98%

Anastasia:
Height 37.5" 60%
Weight  28.5 lbs. 25%

Sebastian was right on for his developmental assessment. All the cute things he does are age appropriate. Go figure! ;)

Anastasia's part of the appointment was quite entertaining. The doctor asked her lots of questions. At one point, she had to try and identify a partially drawn person. They are supposed to respond that it is a person/man/woman/child. She said "It's a bumblebee."

Dr. Svendsen asked her, "What do you like to eat?"
Anastasia "Lollypops."
D"Mmm. Those are good. What do you like for dinner?"
A"Meat." (really?)
D "Do you like apples?"
A (vehemently) "NO!"
D "Whoa, ok, you really don't like apples?"
A "I don't like fruit. It is yucky." (the doc and I talk about how she doesn't like any fruit at all, how this is unusual. hearing us, she continues...)
A"I don't eat the regular yogurt, just the new gogurt. The regular yogurt has fruit in it. It is yucky. I just like the gogurt."
D "She is a good talker!"
(I explain that she does drink OJ -weird for someone who doesn't like fruit at all - and also eats broccoli, brussel sprouts and asparagus).
D "Mmmm. Those are my favorite vegetables. You have good taste."
A "Yeah, I like asparagus."

What a girl, that one!

Happy Baptism Day, Gloria!

I was so excited that it fell on MLK day because Daddy would be off work...then we found out he had to go out of town. Oh, well. We made the most of it! We had breakfast at Shipley's and dessert after dinner at Spoons. Yummy! And I made a special lunch at home for us. We also spent some good old fashioned time outdoors because the weather was beeeautiful! We are so thankful for the gift of this Sacrament!

Pulling up and piano

This boy started pulling up. He does it on the dishwasher, the bookshelves and the bottom stair step. So big! He is, of course, tickled with himself. This week, he also started waving by moving his fingers not just his arm and pointing with one finger.

And its never to early to start piano lessons. ;) He has such good posture...I am always envious of our babies' posture at this age. They sit so straight!

3 year old interview

I sometimes do interviews with the children for their birthdays and was recently reminded of this by a friend. So I decided to do one with Anastasia...

Improv

Mariana's piano playing has really taken off in the last few weeks. Last night after dinner, she went to the piano to play some improv. Allia joined her, and they played together for almost an hour! It was so wonderful!

Girls' Birthday Party

We had Gloria and Anastasia's birthday party Saturday. It was fun to celebrate our January girls with friends and family! We had a "bug walk" (like a cake walk but you step on bugs) which I didn't get photos of because it was pretty crazy but lots of fun.

 Manah's permanent buddy...he now lurches out of my arms as soon as he sees her! The girls are even jealous because they have to beg and plead to get him to go to them from my arms. The streamers kept falling because the air was so humid, so the girls made these bandanas out of them and put one on Sebastian!

 The girls received these pillow crafts for Christmas, and Anastasia was really interested in them. So we got her one for her birthday, and Allia helped her make it. So sweet!

And Lita sent the girls this new bedding for their birthdays. Anastasia is so proud. Now if she would just be obedient enough that we could trust her to sleep in the big bed...

Big Boy!

I had a small grocery trip to do and decided to let Sebastian try out the race car shopping cart. He loved it!!!

Happy 7th Birthday, Gloria!

Tuesdays are busy for us, but we started early to squeeze in our celebration. We sang and opened gifts at breakfast, and I threw in some brownies because I couldn't find the cupcakes I had set aside when I was baking for Stephen's party. Then I found those and we had desserts galore!

She was very good natured about such a busy birthday, partly because I made a swing by ToysRUs after dropping the big girls at piano and let her spend some of her birthday money! She also began ice skating lessons again in the evening and enjoyed telling everyone there it was her birthday. :)

We love you Gloria! You are our most affectionate child for sure and always ready with a smile or giggle whenever anything good is happening around you. You are very competitive, as was evident at your ice skating lessons as you tried so hard to beat all of your classmates across the ice. We are so thankful for you, sweet girl!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Anastasia!

It was actually yesterday, but with Stephen's party and vigil mass, we just couldn't celebrate, so we moved it to today. ;)

After a breakfast of doughnuts and bacon (healthy, I know!), she opened family gifts. Allia was so sweet playing with her and her gifts throughout the day. She sure enjoyed the special attention!

We bundled up even though it was windy and in the 40's for a trip to the park. It was perfect for kite flying!

We celebrated lunch with Pawpaw and Manah and then dinner with Tia Nana and Julian.

We are so thankful for our beautiful, spunky little redhead. You sure keep us on our toes, Anastasia. You are quite independent and amaze us at how capable you are. God has great things in store for you, my girl! I love you!!!

Stephen Birthday Party

It was much delayed, but we finally had Stephen's birthday party yesterday! Our sweet friends were so kind to help reschedule and come celebrate with us at the end of such a busy season. He chose an Aggie theme for the party, which was fun for us!

 As is our tradition now, we set up the bounce house in the garage because it was cold and wet outside. So much fun!

We played hot potato with Aggie band music and a football

 "Happy Birthday to you"

Happy Baptism Day, Stephen!

We had a lot to do to get ready for his party tomorrow. But he and Daddy managed to squeeze in a date (which ended up equating to a toy sale at ToysRUS and some clearance Christmas candy!). We also went out to dinner since the house was all clean, and Gloria and Stephen thoroughly enjoyed sharing a Tres Leches cake!

Hobbit Legos

Mariana has been asking me for a date for months, but something has always come up to foil our plans. We finally made it the other day, and one of her requests was to go to the toy store together (I owed her $5) so she could pick something. She picked this Hobbit Lego set and had a great time building it!

More Christmas

I just love this long break for Christmas when Austin is off, and we can just relax (at least a little!) and be together as a family!

The children and I went to Shipley's for breakfast Monday because he was actually not relaxing with us that day. He went to help Manah and Pawpaw move the last of their big furniture!

 And Manah brought gifts from Uncle James and Aunt Karen when she returned from the trip to Groves.

This guy pulled a sleigh bell off the tree and spent a good 15 mintues rolling on the floor shaking it and squealing with delight. Simple pleasures...

 We baked Ninja bread men from Lito and Lita. Stephen was sooo excited!