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Thursday, May 26, 2011

my sister.

my little sister, sandi, is getting married in july. i get to be the one to do all of her photo sessions, including the wedding. i just had to share her beauty with you.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

One year.

My baby girl has been in the arms of Jesus for one whole year.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Change.

That would describe the season in our life right now.

My baby boy graduated from kindergarten yesterday morning. (pictures will come later.) His first year of school is behind him. It seriously went so fast. There were so many things I wanted to do and just didn't. For example, having him make birthday cards for his classmates...never happened. Learning the names of his classmates' moms...never happened. Getting to know his teachers on a more personal level...never happened. The academic year is now over...with many things not done. What IS done is my son knowing how to read, how to count and write to 100 and beyond, how to distinguish a short vowel from a long vowel, how to add and subtract one-digit and even some two-digit numbers. All of these things were learned in the past nine months. I definitely give credit to his teachers. They are amazing! But I also give credit to myself. Because what I did get done this year is hardly ever miss a homework time, a bedtime story reading, a detailed telling of my boy's day, or a school event. And I never missed the opportunity to tell my baby how incredibly smart he is and how so very proud I am of him. To hear his teachers tell me over and over how sweet and talented he is warms my heart and gives me a sense of accomplishment. Though I didn't do everything I wanted, I did do everything that mattered.

Then we have Casen. He's totally different than Jacob. He's free-spirited and could care less what others think. Those traits have gotten him into a little trouble throughout the year with his kids' day out teacher. I really believe the boy wants attention and he's going to make sure he gets it...positive or negative. To say he's a challenge would be a definite understatement. I'm learning to pick my battles with him and trying to embrace his lackadaisical attitude. It's really hard to be mad at him when he looks at me with those big brown eyes. He'll be in preschool next year. I'm so ready to start seeing him learn and develop intellectually. Right now his main focus is to aggravate Jacob. I'm ready to see the next phase and how he's going to respond to it.

And then there's Mya. Baby girl turned seven weeks old today yesterday. She's on the verge of developing a personality. I can't wait to see which boy she will most resemble. I'd be happy with good mix of the two. :) She is definitely going through changes lately. We've gone from her sleeping all day long and then only a couple of hours at a time at night to not sleeping at all during the day and sleeping four to five hours at a time at night. I shouldn't complain but I feel more exhausted now than when she wasn't sleeping much at night. I get absolutely nothing done during the day. If she wasn't so stinkin' adorable, I'd be a little more aggravated with her. This too shall pass, I guess.

Oh, and then there's Jerry and I. We'll be married seven years on Sunday. I seriously love him more every day. Every day. Through all the craziness of our life at this moment, he still consumes my thoughts throughout the day. I LOVE him.

So...change.

Change is good. We like change.

It's a good thing, huh?! :)

Monday, May 2, 2011

one month.

already?!
i took the picture on the right day...i'm just now finding time to post.

here are some one-month stats for my baby girl:
  • 9 pounds (birth weight: 7 pounds 3 ounces)
  • 21.5 inches (birth length: 19.5 inches)
  • blue eyes
  • dark blonde/light brown hair
  • definite ramirez hands
  • holds her head up...like woah!
  • sleeps in 2-3 hour stretches at night in her crib
  • eats 3 ounces at a time
  • smiles
  • momma's girl (i'm forseeing a problem)
  • not sure what to think of the boys yet
  • loves to lay on her changing table
  • hates her carseat if she's awake (that would be an understatement)
  • loves bathtime
  • occasionally takes a pacifier
  • has to be walked and walked and walked when fighting sleep
overall, i think our first month with mya could be summed up with one word...adjustment.
from trying to find a balance between husband and kids and self to trying to make everyone feel loved equally, it's not been easy. i feel like a failure daily, but we're making it. one smile from her, one hug from casen, one unexpected kiss from jacob, one "hey, beautiful" from jerry makes it all worth it.

happy one-month, baby girl!


saturday morning pancakes.

our breakfasts generally consist of pop tarts, cereal or frozen waffles. jerry will sometimes make himself some kind of omelet, but neither me or the boys are a big fan of them.

saturday morning, i decided we'd do pancakes. i used to make pancakes quite often, but something about the effort and mess and time and kids and...well, you get the picture.

the boys were really not that excited about them...that is until i told them to go raid their stash of cookie cutters from their playdough bin.

they waited patiently... 

and then dug in.  

totally in love with those hands! 

jacob...getting ready to swing his baseball bat pancake. 

dinosaurs...always a big hit around here. 

i guess they tasted good too. 

and the aftermath... 

jacob has requested to make pancakes every saturday morning. :)