Pool Party

We ended the day with a pizza picnic at the pool.

Levi loved the watermelon!

Our little ham loves the water just like Sissy does!

Daddy and the Kiddo's

We had a wonderful time at the pool with our neighbors and friends. Definitely a wonderful way to start summer vacation!

Last Day of Kindergarten

How do you celebrate the last day of school??? We went to Dairy queen for BLIZZARDS! The beginning of summer vacation and we kicked it off with a sweet and cool treat, perfect for a hot day in Texas!

Elliana has been obsessed with SHOPKINS lately, and apparently so is every other kid out there. The stores are sold out, but I was able to find this online and have had it for a couple of weeks. We decided to surprise her with it and some sweet treats for our summer movie fun days that starts on Monday!

We made sure that Levi did not miss out on any of the fun of course. He had his fair share of everybody's blizzards. He definitely have a sweet tooth. This little boy will never say no to anything sweet. 

Kindergarten Graduation

Elliana was super excited this morning about going to school. She called it a very special day. They have been practicing all week in school for today. We knew they were going to be singing, but she kept telling us that it was going to be a surprise and she could not wait for us to hear her sing. She picked out her outfit and made she that mommy put her hair in a special pony tail, without the fuzzies she said, because with the humidity her hair has been a mess lately. But we made sure this morning that it wouldn't be, so she got to use mommy's flat iron to straighten her hair. 

I do have to admit, i teared up a when she crossed the stage. A very symbolic way for the school to represent their graduation from kindergarten and crossing over to first grade. Very meaningful way to represent the kids growing up. But this morning, I felt like I didn't want her to grow up. But it is exciting to see her grow and learn. To be a part of her life and her journey, to embrace new beginnings of her life. Such a special little girl, very smart, very loving, caring and respectful. 

She loved her flower. 

With Principal McCune 

I do wish you all the best my dear, you have learned so much this year. You have learned to write, count, to read and you have so much more to learn. I am so proud of you and how well you have adopt to being in school and loving it everyday. 

Backyard Blackberries

 Casey planted a blackberry bush the end of the summer 2 years ago, last year we had a few blackberry before the birds got to it. Never thought we would get any blackberries last year so that was a plus. This year the blackberry bush grew with the record breaking rain we had. We have tried to get to them before the birds did. Levi enjoyed his share quite a bit.

We have been enjoying the outside a lot more that the weather has started to warm up and the rain has stopped. Elliana has always enjoyed the outside and it looks like Levi is the same. Every morning we wake up, he heads towards the garage door and bangs on it and wants to head out. Such amazing joy to see the kids smile. It definitely lights up my day and melts my heart to see them happy.

I have thought about starting a journal for my kids throughout the years. I always wondered where am I going to put all these important things in their lives and remember them. I picked up our blog every couple of years in the hope that I will maintain it and continue to journal the going on's in our busy lives. Today is an odd day, it's not a milestone in anyone's lives, it's not a day that I had to really jut anything down, but I thought it is perfect day to continue our blog. 

Levi is now 15 months old, and Elliana is 6. Our kids have grown so much for the last several years since I stopped writing. It's been quite a journey and everyone has been so busy but well worth it. Levi is just now starting to walk a lot more. He still does what we call hi zombie crawl, where one leg is under him and the right leg it up 90 degrees and he pushes off with his right hand. We think it's funny but love every bit of this little guy. 

Elliana on the other hand is graduating Kindergarten this year. We have 2 weeks left of school and she has learned so much. She is starting to read on her own. Counts to 100 and counts backwards. She currently loves anything art. We embrace this aspect of her life by encouraging her to draw more pictures, use as much colors as we wants. The next big craze in her life at these things call "Shopkins". I have never heard of it before either, but I would describe is as poly pockets in my kid days. They are small little things that are shaped like what you would find in the grocery store. 

Casey is currently a stay at home daddy for our two littles. I love it, since he takes care of the daily grind of keeping our kids safe, making sure things at home are maintained and we don't have to deal with sending our kids to day care and worrying about how things are going throughout the day. I know my kids are safe and will have a parent around to care for them. I think he enjoys the aspect of being able to be there for our kids, but I do think that he might feel he needs to go to work sometimes. But I see it as a period of our lives were we can sacrifice and provide what we hope is best for our life at this time. 

I for one have now transitioned to working day shift. After 10 years of the night shift I have recently moved to days and love every bit of it. I no longer have to worry about having to take a nap during the day, and feel so out of it when I have a day off. My day off begins the day before when I get hope at night and I feel so much rested. I have recently been toying with the idea of going back to school. It scares me to no end to think about going through school again, but I keep telling myself, if I don't do it now, when? There is never a good time I guess so here I am jumping back in. 

We recently as a family wanted to spend more time together and went on our first family road trip to Canyon, Tx. Amazing canyons in the the dessert land of Texas. The drive itself was not as bad as we thought it would be. The kids handled it well and we might be driving more soon. Here's to more adventures to come

"work? AGAIN?"

My thoughts exactly. That's what I wanted to tell my little 2 year old today during our conversation.
Elliana: mommy where are you going?
Me: to work
E: to work, AGAIN?
me: yes
E: why?
Me: so we have money and pay for our house?
E: oh ok. Old people have to work aaallll the time. (with her little 2 yr old voice and walking around the house with her hands spread out)

"Mommy, I was Speeding"

It's pretty funny to have a conversation with your little one's and how they make use of the words they hear from a day to day basis.

Today, Just before nap time as we sat in the toilet Elliana tells me, 

"mommy, look I hurt my knee". She had a scratch on her knee, probably from playing outside today. I asked her what happened, she say "I don't know it's aw wee," I said "did you hit your knee's outside?" she said "yes". I asked her, "how did you hurt it?" she then proceeds to tell me "I was speeding." I could not help but just laugh to hear things like this come out of her mouth. It's amazing how such little things like these, can brighten my day.

Potty Training

I haven't posted in a long while and I thought today would be a great day to start. 

The things our soon to be 3 year old say's are hilarious. I can't believe how fast she learns and pick up things. She is recently potty trained, we used the sticker system to train her. Each time she would pee in the potty she we would give her a sticker, and when she poops in the potty she got 2 stickers. This worked and we filled up a full sheet of paper with her stickers. When she had it all filled out she wanted a new paper. We took the old paper down and gave her a new sheet. After a couple of days of using the new sheet, she looked at me and said "mommy, I potty trained now, take this away" and sure enough we did. 

She has done a wonderful job with this. She uses our regular Toilet with her dora seat. She stays dry throughout her nap and she has been sleeping through the night and waking up in the mornings with dry underwear. She had 3 accidents so far, twice in the bed, once was during nap time when she said she was dreaming, the other was early in the morning when Casey was letting her play in the morning because she wasn't making too much noise and sounded like she was playing in her crib. And the last was the other day when she refused to go to the potty for me because she was so excited to come downstairs. 

Arts and crafts

Today I am thankful that I have the ability and opportunity to learn a new craft. These got Elliana very excited, especially when I told her it will be going on her new hat. She say's "Yay mommy, can I help too". I am also very thankful for technology, Skype session with the family today was awesome. Elliana really enjoyed it. Her word of the day today was, "duh". She learned it from no other than daddy. It's quite entertaining to hear a conversation with your 2 year old when they learn a new word, because she tried to use it with every sentence after that. All in all today was a great day.

Daddy's little helper

Elliana wanted to show mommy what she found in her new tool box today. Apparently she had been Daddy's helper, trying to get our closet ready to have our new floors put in. She said "mommy, look I help daddy." She was so excited too.

Closet frenzy

I got home this morning and Elliana exclaims "mommy I ecited" (she was supper excited, jumping around) "come see, come i see". I got dragged by the hand to our room and this is what I find on out closet floor. Now Elliana wasn't the only one excited, because this means that we are getting started on our husband and wife christmas presents this year. A new closet including hard wood floors. YAY!! Now you will read more about this throughout the next month because this is phase one of the project and if you know my husband as much as I do, this is going to be a very very long project.

Life of a night shifter

Spent the morning with the family shopping around for Christmas decorations. we were trying to decide what to do about christmas decorations this year and what to decorate. As you all know we moved to texas 2 years ago with very little, so when it comes to decorations we don't have much to put up. Every year we have been accumulating things and this year we are wanting to put up more since we do have a little one who get's very excited with the mention of "christmas," we can't wait. It should be an exciting year. 

Anyone that know's our family we live a very backwards life, I sleep when Elliana naps for the afternoon so I can be up all night at work. Today I got to sleep a little longer since Casey was home with Little Missy and I got woken up by our perky 2 year old opening my door, yelling at me "mommy time to wake up now." What a nice way to wake up. 

Now we come to our picture of the day. Mommy has to have coffee and Elliana apparently wanted to have a drink too. She went to our cabinet and said "daddy I wan't Elliana glass" it took a while for daddy to figure out what she wanted, but Elliana and I have had a conversation that her glass can only be used for milk. for her to want to drink milk is a big deal since we have to force her to drink at least one cup now, so tonight was very special since she had 2 glasses in this glass.

Nov. 15: "tuffins night"

Had a busy and eventful day today. Kicked the day off with a trip to the park. Elliana chased the ducks, played on the cars and the slide. Elliana had a whole tray of california rolls for lunch, and enjoyed the wonderful weather outside. Had a awesome dinner and ended our day Baking some muffins.

Elliana wanted to help, bake what she calls "tuffins". As we waited for the "tuffins to bake, she found daddy's autoweek and points out that she wanted the car on it. A ferrari, and says "mommy I want this car, it's awesome". So early and she already knows what kind of car she wants. She sure is daddy's girl.

She shares her "tuffins" she says "mommy here you go,it's good, its very good" as we sit and end our night watching "Annie".

Nov. 14: Ice cream man!

After sleeping half the day off, and running around with a few necessary errands to the Dr.'s office and a stop for a quick shopping for my newest project, Elliana's winter blanket, I came home to this.

My sweet little two year old screaming down our driveway as I drive up, as a mommy you would expect her to be yelling "mommy's home" as she always do, well today it was "mommy, mommy, look it's the ice cream man." he has been his favorite most awaited person for the last two weeks. We found out today he comes around every Monday. And last week her heart broke because he passed our house and she was told we couldn't get ice cream from the ice cream man. So we are sure that he has made her day today since they were already outside playing when he passed.
Tonight was just a lazy night at home for us, as we played Elliana got into her hair accessories tub, found some hair ties puts it on her arms and yells "look at me daddy, I pretty, showing off her bracelets " she also discovered the Bobby pins that mommy had been hiding and figured out how stick it all up in her hair. That was un getting it all out of her messy hair. As we finished playing and get ready for bed, she tells daddy "you're bad daddy, you made mess, pick it up pwes(pls)."

Blogging

These daily I am thankful for, post on Facebook and my friends photo of the day post has given me the motivation to start blogging again. It has given me the motivation to update our blog about a day in our lives and share our adventures with our pride and joy. I figured with a smart phone and a little bit of effort I could easily do a daily post. I was expecting to start this at the beginning of the year but I figured now is as good of a time as any to start doing so. So here goes a sneak peek into our daily lives.

A nice day at the park

First day of fall and we spent it playing at the park. Elliana went down the big slide twice, a big accomplishment for her since she's such a scaredy cat that she has a hard time going down the little slides.
We also had a little adventure down to the pond. Saw little "fishy's". To which daddy exclaimed after that "it was a stupid idea". Got poked with prickly vines but it was fun nonetheless.

Chalk board project

It was a project intended for our kitchen wall for little messages and reminders. I think it came out pretty good considering it was my very first attempt to do something handy

Attempting to use the miter saw

The Finish Product

Inside play time

It's been a very very cold morning lately. Do today we had to keep ourselves entertained inside the house. Elliana has been so fascinated with her crayons lately so she picked herself her favorite crayon, grabbed her coloring book and sat on the floor and started drawing. At least It kept her quiet for a short short time. It got me a Little time to clean up around here. Got to cherish these little moments in life.

Elliana new play area

The weather has been so Good lately we've spent quite a bit of time outside. Elliana has enjoyed playing in the backyard but her newest favorite toy is one outside in our garage. Daddy's car has been her new play ground. Since it's so small I don't blame her for thinking it's a toy.
She's growing up so fast. We have finally been able to make out some words when she tries to talk. Her newest words are car, out (for outside) and just last night she recently learned to wag her fingers and say bad, bad. I think she got scolded by daddy and so she decided it was better to copy him and give him her big wide smile. Ohhh the little things they do to make us smile. I just wonder what's up next.

Happy Valentines Day to Elliana

Elliana getting into her Valentines Day Surprise from Mama and Papa in Hawaii

After the surprise with the Teddy Bear, she was more interested in the Chocolate Macadamia.

One wasn't enough!