Laughter Always

They got the music in them

2011-07-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

Getting their groove on at mcdonalds.

2011-07-26T19:54:00.001-07:00

I know I am sooooooooooo far behind and i just realized it's been almost a year since my last photo or video post. Bad blogging mama!! So I am experimenting with some ways to upload videos directly from my phone.

Here is the first attempt.

I'm still here

2011-04-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

I know I know I am horrible at this stuff. I just can't seem to find the time to sit long enough to write something. And the few times I have tried to load videos the computer always acts up. So while I have some down time, heres a quick update. Life is crazy as always. The kids are nothing but trouble, and the worse kind of trouble. The loveable, adorable kind. Isabel is all attitude and dramatics. We are thinking of trying her out for some commercials but I'm not sure if I want her learning how to be a better actress. Joaquin is just undescriable. He really is just one of those kids you have to see in action. He never stops moving, even in his sleep he all over the place. And his smile, oh man, it is killer. And you get hypotize and don't even realize disaster is about to strike. Gma says his smile should come with the Jaws soundtrack. Isabel is still very much a princess, she loves playing dress up, and baby dolls and restaurant. Shes at the point where sometimes she doesn't even want us toplay with her and will just sit in her room with all her dolls and have just an elborate story going on. A lot of the time she brings Joaquin into as well. Just this week alone they've pretended to be dogs, monkies, babies, Toy Story characters and who knows what else. Joaquin loves dinosaurs, cars and Toy Story. Gma & Gpa got him a set of dinosaurs and safari animals for his bday and those get more play than anything. He will line them up to watch tv and to play hopscotch and he will feed them and growl. His vocabulary is increasing at a very rapid rate. Right now his favorite words are "Belbel" (Isabel) , "Idk", "cracker", "cookies", "more pleazzzee", "saur saur" (dinosaur), "juice", "room play play" (playroom) Moe & I have both started working out, hoping to just maybe have a chance of keeping up with them. I've been at it for about 3 mths, not counting the couple breaks I've taken here & there. But so far I've lost 11 lbs and 7.5inches so hopefully I can keep it going. Moe just started but he's pretty determined. Work is work. Moe's been on some crazy hours. Working 10 hours a day, plus a sat here and there. We are still doing the midday switch off, where I get home and 15 min later he is out the door. Its hard but at least we both get time with the kids and they don't have to be in daycare all day long. Which reminds me Joaquin finally started preschool. He's been going two days a week from 8:30-12:30 (same as isabel) for about a mth now. And from the very get go he loved it. The first day we walked into the classroom, he walked right in started playing with the toys and never even looked back. We stayed outside watching him thru the window for about an hour and he never even looked for us. The teachers say he is an absoulte joy and it's always an adventure with him around. He almost always comes home in his back up clothes. And I have yet to see any artwork of his, mostly because most of the paint ends up on him. But this school is really good about warning parents that they get messy so do not put your kids in anything you don’t want stained. So far there's only been one day where he cried when Moe dropped him off but he was over it within a minute. Isabel is her Auntie Tanya all the way, such a social butterfly. She makes sure to hug all her friends good bye and tells me exactly who is suppose to be there on what day and what they were wearing and who had what for lunch. Both kids have become pros with my new iphone. They know which button to push to unlock it how to slide the lock across the screen. Once I load their game they know how to choose which puzzle and go from one to the other. J will wake up from a nap, see my phone and immediately grab it "phone mama, phone, bird bird tweet tweet pleazzze" That's his way of saying he wants to play angry birds. Hopefully sometime soon I can actually post some pics and videos, so stay tuned :)

Isabel says what??

2011-02-07T04:12:00.001-08:00

Ok so so far I've been pretty bad with the blogging in 2011 but here's a small tidbit

After bathtime and Daddy is carrying her out to get dressed.
Him "Ooh you are a heavy Isabel. How much longer do I have to carry you for?"
Her "Oh about 16 years."

Her "Mama..Joaquin is standing on his toy again!!"
Me "Oh no, what are we going to do with him?"
Her "I don't know. Keep him I guess. He is pretty cute."

Eating some chips in the car and I say no more and tell her there are no more chips left and stash the half empty bag by my feet
Her "Can we please have some more?"
Me "Nope there's no more left"
Her immediately "Let me see the bag"
Moe starts to crack up
Me showing her a little corner "see it's empty"
Her "Let me see the whole bag"
Moe laughing pretty hard by now
Me keeping the bag in the the plastic bag holds it "see-oh look Isabel cows"
And chips forgotten

Isabel pretending to have a yard sale and is selling me my cell phone
Me "So how much is this phone"
Her "6 mom dollars"
Me "Ok here you go"
Her "thank you bye" goes and puts the money in her imaginary box
Me "hey wait a minute, this phone doesn't work, I want my money back"
Her "oh I'm sorry I already put the money away, no returns"

I come with my new glasses on. Isabel notices them right away, in fact she was the ONLY one who did notice them (hint hint)
Her "Hey where are your other glasses mama?"
Me "I had to get new ones"
Her "But I like the old ones better"
Me "well I couldn't see anymore with those so I had to get new ones"
Her "But I don't like these ones"
Me "isabel that's not very nice to say."
Her "Ok"
Me "Just tell mama that you like her glasses and that I look nice"
Her "siiiggghhh" huge eye roll and she walks away

well hello again...

2011-01-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

I know I know. It's been a long long long time. One of my new year's resolution is to get back to regular blogging.
So a quick update. Life is as always extremeful chaotic, crazy and tons of fun! Isabel is just amazing. Everyday she learns something new and has a new vocab word. It just cracks me up to hear her use some of these grown up words and phrases like-"I suspect", "actually", "distracted" And she uses them correctly! She just loves school and is making all sorts of new friends. During christmas vacation I got the chance to pick her up and she was hugging her friends good bye. Pointing out exactly where everyone's cubby was. Introducing me to her teacher.
She still loves being a big sister, definitely some jealousies issues have come up here and there. And there is of course lots of fighting, but no matter how hard Joaquin may push her or hit her, she will still be hugging and kissing him within a few moments.
She is still completely in love with all things princesses and pink and girly. She loves quizzing us about the different princesses. And will wear anything as long as it's pink or sparkly.
Joaquin is in one word a tornado. He never stops moving and yelling and pointing and jumping and destroying. That boy is seriously going to give one of us a heart attack. Jumping off couches, running into walls, getting his arms stuck in his toys, climbing over gates, if it's not one thing it's another. And than after everything he flashes you that big HUGE grin, bats his long eyelashes and says "huugg huugg" It is so hard to stay serious with him.
He is really starting to learn all sorts of new words. He's got a couple short sentences "want more" "where dada"
We are really trying to push "please" and 'thank you" Especially since when he says them his voice goes high pitch and it comes out "pleeezzzz", so cute!!
He is turning out to be a really good eater. Last night for dinner he had one whole serving of Albondigas, than about 1/4 of my salad (leaves and all), than about another 1/2 serving of albondigas. But yet he is still very lean, he just keeps growing taller and moves so much he just burns off everything he eats.
He and Isabel love playing pretend. They pretend to be dogs complete with belly rubs and walks. Also take turns playing baby and cars and school. And sometimes pretend games that I can't even make sense of. He loves anything relating to cars or dinosaurs. But hates clothes, as soon as we are home and turn our back for 2 secs he has already stripped down to his diaper.
Speaking of diapers, potty training has not been a success at all. He loves going potty when big sis does but he's so excited about everything in the bathroom that he won't sit for any longer than a couple seconds.But he will be starting preschool when he turns 2 and they will be helping with the potty training.
I have a ton of pics and videos to catch up on so hopefully that will happen sometime soon. So stay tune!

and part 3....

2010-08-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

The kids were in the playroom, when Moe and I both noticed things had gotten awfully quiet, expecting the worse we peek in and discovered this.

Ahhhh love...........

Monster Cam **Warning-This may cause some motion sickness**

A summer's afternoon

lucky day part 2

2010-08-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

This is the usual volume at our house. What's even more fun is when they do this at the store.

Who needs a vacuum when you have an Idk?

your lucky day!

2010-08-01T07:55:00.001-07:00

I'm awake and the family is still asleep, I was suppose to go to the gym but my appt isn't until 9 and I certainly can't clean cause that might wake them up, so instead I'm going to post videos!!
Since blogger will only let me load a certain amount per post, I'll have to break it up into a couple posts. ENJOY!!!

This is just a typical bathtime for them

Isabel and never ending pretend play. Her imagination is just so wonderful!

10points if you can name the movie she got this from....

Still don't know? Maybe this will jog your memoryAnd no we don't watch this movie over and over. In fact it had been over a month since she last saw it.

Who needs a party clown...

2010-07-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

when you have Uncle Seann??

another day

2010-06-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

One of the kids fav thing to do is draw. Pen,paper, markers, crayons, whatever they will go thru page after page of artwork.

Here's a little glimpse. IN the first part they are both sitting on my lap and as you can see in the end, even if he isn't drawing he's still having fun with his markers.

And this is what I like to do for fun

Disneyland part1

2010-06-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

Just a glimpse of our Disneyland Adventure....

part 2

2010-05-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Just another day...

2010-05-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Who needs toys when you have bubble wrap?

And to think we used to be worried about her not talking enough.

so crazy

2010-05-05T19:28:00.000-07:00

I remember Grandpa

2010-04-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

I've had this post written for about a month now but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to post it. One reason being I just couldn't figure out how to end it, I just kept thinking there was so much more, how do I condense everything? Another reason I guess in some way I knew that by posting it I would be admitting that both of them are gone and I just wasn't ready to do that yet and than I realized I won't ever be ready for that. Instead I can just be thankful that I had them in my life and my childrens lives for so long. Remember them every chance I get and pass on those memories and lessons they taught me.

I remember ...
...he wore black work shoes with taps on them. He told us he got tired of always having to get them resoled so he put metal taps on them instead. You could hear him tapping his way down the street.

...him taking us kids to the local park, especially the handball courts. He'd give each of us an old wooden tennis racket and a couple tennis balls and just let us at it.

...he would stop at the liquor store pick up some Rocky Road candy bars for Grandma than let us each pick out a treat plus we would each get a box of poppers.

...him driving us around with his dog Ginger and Ginger would sit in the seat behind him and during red lights she would put her paws on the back of his seat and lick his head.

...every morning when we woke up he would sing to us "Good Morning to You! Good Morning to You!"

…even when we weren't kids anymore and into our college years, even when I had kids of my own whenever he came to visit he would make sure to stop at his local butcher shop and get us a big dill pickle.

…the stories he would tell about his childhood. Like when he wanted to see what smoking would be like. He had seen his dad roll his own cigarettes so he thought he could do the same. Except he used newspaper and tree bark. When he lit it up it burn so fast, he lost his eyebrows. Or how they lived in canyon so whenever he got in trouble-which was a lot, you'd hear his name being echoed throughout the town.

…at every party, after cake, he could be found on a floor or in a chair somewhere taking a nap. And I really remember the one time he was napping on the floor and Pepper was playing with a balloon and popped it right by his head, boy did he just shoot right up.

…Even though they lived over an hour away they came to all our school performances and as many games as they could. I could hear him shouting "Yey Mejia!!!!" from the stands.

…kids thinking he looked like Santa Claus, which was fueled even more when Gma knit him a red hat with white pompom. There would be a kid acting up in the store and he would look at them and pretend to write something in his notepad and the kid would immediately start to behave.

…all the cousins painting their handprints on a shirt for him and him wearing that shirt until it fell apart.

…after every meal he would close himself in the kitchen put his radio on-talk shows, and do the dishes. All by hand.

...every morning his breakfast consisted of a block of shredded wheat, mixed with cornflakes, and sweeted condensed milk.

…no matter where we went, who we were with he would always strike up a conversation with someone(s). He just loved to talk and meet new people. Of course he also loved to stir up trouble.

...the first time he met Moe, I introduced them and Moe went to shake his hand but instead Gpa gave him a huge bear hug. Moe was speechless and I just laughed.

…that even up until the last time we saw him, he always talked about how beautiful Gma was and how he knew she was one.

And I am so blessed that my last memory of him is a great one. We were saying our goodbyes, about to leave for the airport. The whole time we had been in Texas, Joaquin had been very greedy with his hugs and kisses. So when we told him to say Good bye, we weren't expecting much. Imagine our surprise when he grabbed Gpa by the cheeks and gave him a big old SMACK!!!! Gpa was so happy "I'd been waiting the whole week for that!!!"

2010-04-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago we went to see Moe's cousin Andres get married. It was a beautiful truly unique wedding. Come on..churro bar??!! 'Nuff said :)
Unfortunately we had our hands full with the kids so we barely got to take any pictures. Here's the few I did get and some that I borrowed.

All the cousin's.

Joaquin and his Abuelita. That yellow & grey thing was part of their awesome centerpieces

Isabel really liked the photographer and she refused to dance
but she just had to sit right there and watch

I just love this pic

Showing off her twirly dress

The cousins act goofy

My handsome boys

His crazy prof hair

This was him all evening. Jumping out of arms, twisting, contorting.

He liked Daddy's tie

Her pretty curly hair and her fav part of the wedding-popcorn!

Really mom? You have to take a pic right now?

self portraits.

2010-04-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

Lately we've been doing a lot of playing with photo booth on the comp and taking silly pics at home.

Here's some of my favs

Photo Booth on Comp

Kisses on Photo Booth

My babies & I

I love him, mocos and all

She wanted to show off her pigtails

I wanted to get a pic with her

She wanted the camera all to herself

Finally...

I snapped this-right as she was trying to weasel
some cinnamon bun bread from me

Like...yeah...whatever

Look who wanted the spotlight now

She's almost got this hogging the spotlight thing down. I'm completely hidden and you can just barely see the baby.

Just a quick one

2010-04-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

I've had a request for Joaquins vocab. Right now it's Mama,Dada, Belbel (that's how he says Isabel),bath, bubu (byebye), Idk, there, march (this one Isabel taught him and they will even march around the family room),he used to say awah (water) but I haven't heard him say that in awhile.

And yes I am trying to get all of this on video.

Preschool Con't

2010-03-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

I guess the video was too big for the last post. Here is Moe and Joaquin picking her up. The "Oooooohhhhhinnng" sound you hear, is Joaquin.

We survived!!

2010-03-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

There were tears and pouting and Isabel cried a little too :)
The morning started out rough since Moe had to wake her up and anyone who has been around her in the morning knows she is not a morning person. (gee I wonder she gets that from-aheem cough cough Dada!!)
But by the time Moe left her she was fine. When he went to pick her up they told him she did "really really really well" so well they thought she had been in some sort of preschool before. I haven't gotten a chance to get the full report from Moe yet but one of the things he was sure to tell me was that she found a boyfriend (jenjen your role as BFF is still secured) a little boy who she walked around with holding hands and his name... Diego! Some girls like tall guys, or smart guys. Isabel just goes for guys who's name is "Diego" But if you asked her she says he is another cousin. So Gpa and Dada you can relax...at least for a little bit.
She is still not completely sold on school, when I got home and asked her about it she was still going back and forth. But she does know she will be going back and has accepted it.

Oh and when I asked her what her favorite part is she says the pottys and washing her hands and the small toilets and sinks for her.

Unfortunately there isn't a lot of video but here is some of the stuff Moe was able to get.

When he took her to her "home room" she went straight for the magnetic dolls. As you an see she already had very little interest in Daddy.

This is Moe watching her thru the 2way mirror they had.

To be cont

Tomorrow :(

2010-03-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

It's here. Isabel's first day of preschool is tomorrow. I'm happy, excited, nervous, sad, worried, proud, and everything else you can think of.
And I'm really sad that due to work I won't be able to be there to see it. But Moe will be dropping her off armed with the Flip, the camera and constant text updates.
Our baby isn't a baby anymore, she's a big girl :(

It's a dance party!!

2010-03-10T20:49:00.000-08:00

Isabel really likes to watch all the dance shows with Dada and myself. So You Think You Can Dance and America's Best Dance Crew being our top 2. That's pretty much where her "moves" come from
And yes that is her trying to "break"
PS Sorry it's long one but I just couldn't decide which were her best moves :)

Videos!

2010-03-10T17:26:00.000-08:00

Up next-Dance Party! And B-girl Isabel....

Fashion Shows

2010-02-25T18:47:00.000-08:00

Good news the Flip is working! Well at least for now, so I'll try and post as many videos as I can before it poops out again.

This bookcase used to have 3 shelves and all our cookbooks and other misc books. First Joaquin took out all the books, than started to fiddle with the shelves till they came loose. I took them all out, intending to move the bookcase somewhere else. Before I had the chance Joaquin made it into his little hangout. He takes his cars and books in there and just has his "alone time" Sometimes he lets Isabel play too.

Isabel has playing fashion for awhile now. She'll hide behind something, tell me she's ready and I will have to introduce her. Now she pulling baby brother into the act. In case you don't understand her she is telling him to put on his "rockstar shirt" and "rockstar jacket"

Pictures!!

2010-02-23T05:28:00.000-08:00

We've been blogged!!!
On Sunday we had a chance to take pictures with Isabel's BFF Jenjen (that's right they are BFF's again). We had sooo much fun. Isabel was just a little ham and constantly wanted the camera on her. The kids cracked us up as always. And I love how she really caught us being ourselves.
Here is a small sample of Jenn's wonderful work. Can't wait to do it again! Even Isabel is asking to take pics again :)
http://jennbeephotography.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/the-ms-family-style/

Happy Birthday Joaquin!!

2010-01-26T19:18:00.000-08:00

This year has gone by so fast! Our life was definitely a little hectic and crazy before Joaquin made his appearance but nothing like it is now. And as wonderful as we thought it was, it became even more wonderful!!! I knew Joaquin would be different from Isabel but I had no idea how different. In some ways I felt like a brand new mom.

It has been so awesome seeing him grow and his personality just blossom. As we start this new year in his life he can walk, climb, say "mom", "mama", "dada", "awa" (aqua), and "up". He can order food-he points to what he wants than points to his tray. As in "that. Here. Now". When he wants to nurse he will bring me the boppy pillow. He loves chasing his sister, and being chased by his sister. His favorite hangouts are the now empty bookcase. And his play yard turned on it's side. He laughs non stop. Is starting to dance. He has learned what a microphone is. He is soo over baby food and wants all big people food. His favs include beans, mash potatoes, gold fish, nilla wafers, steamed carrots, soup and graduates lil crunchies and whatever his big sis is eating. He is even getting a head start on his chores, everyday he and Isabel sweep the kitchen floor. He never stops moving. Even in his sleep he flips and spins. He is getting louder and louder to be heard over Isabel. And I can go on and on. I can't wait to see what this next year brings us.

This year has also made me love Isabel even more than I already did. It was been amazing watching her take over her role as big sis and loving it so much. Some of the things that she taught him, with no help from us, include, drinking from a straw, high fives, climbing in and out of the tent, getting past the gate, jumping on the bed, and the fine art of stuffed animal arranging.

On a little of the bragging side I am proud to say that we have gone this whole year with not a drop of formula. There were times when I definitely thought it wasn't going to happened. Joaquin was so much more interested in everything around him, it was hard getting him to nurse for long periods at a time. Not mention nursing with a toddler around. Especially during potty training. I would really like to continue nursing him for as long as I did Isabel but if it doesn't happen I am still very happy with making it this far.

SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BEAUTIFUL WONDERFUL CRAZY BOY!!!!!!
Here's to another amazing year!

Isabel says what?

2010-01-18T06:10:00.000-08:00

I know it's been forever since I've done one of these. And I know I've missed some really good things but here's some of the ones I can remember.

Some of these are really old but still funny

She was watching tv one day and saw a commercial for Sears and they had tools and she annouced she was going to get tools for her daddy for christmas and I said ok. Then Dada comes into room and she goes running to him
"Dada dada I'm going to buy you tools for xmas"
"Shhh Isabel that's suppose to be a surprise"
"what?"
"It's a secret"
"oh ok"
Than in a whisper she goes to her Daddy
"daddy I'm going to get you tools"
"no Isabel daddy's not suppose to know till xmas"
"ooohh"
The next day I take her to Target and tell her while we are there she can pick out tools for Daddy. Well I end up forgetting all about it. Right as I was driving out of the parking lot she exclaims "OH NO!!! We forgot Daddy's tools"
"oh no I'm sorry we'll go again tommorrow"
That night she talked on the phone with Gpa,Gma and another person and each person the first thing she said was "We forgot daddys tool!" So now I know we have to get these tools. Thurs I take them to Lowes, and I'm thinking great she's going to want to get every tool for him but instead every tool I showed her she said "no" "no" "that's not it" "not that one mama" And than about the 5th tool I showed her she went "yes mama, that's it .that's perfect!!!" And grabbed it and would not let go of it.

She comes up to me the other day and says
"I'm just a little girl with big feet"
"Oh really"
"Yes I think I need new boots"

Awhile ago Isabel decided that my friend Jenn (who she has only met once) was her "very best friend" and gave her the nickname JenJen. Occasionally she would ask about her JenJen. And go around saying "JenJen is my very bestest friend" She would "call" her on her playphone and have long conversations with her. But no longer. Yesterday she randomly came up to me and said
"JenJen's not my friend anymore"
"Oh no. What happened?"
"I need kid friends"
"You can have a lot of friends, all ages"
"No I'm ok. I just need my kid friends"
"but you are going to make JenJen sad"
"That's ok"

Than she asked me to send JenJen a message on my phone, so this is Isabel's recorded message for JenJen (sorry the quality is so bad. It's my cell)

I told Jenn about all of this and she said her and Izzy needed to have a tea party to reconnect. I told Isabel and she said
"Oh no I have tea parties with my other friends"
"Well how about getting ice cream with JenJen"
"No mom my friends have ice cream"
"How about getting your nails painted"
"MOM!! I..DO..THAT with Grandma!"
"Oh sorry I forgot"
"Oh I KNOW!!!! We can go ice skating with JenJen"
So now she keeps talking about going skating with JenJen

Edited-
Now she doesn't even want to go skating with JenJen. She was telling me about the new friends she met at the park with Gma & Gpa and saying all the things they were going to do and she mentioned skating.
"I thought you were going to go skating with JenJen"
"No MOM I told you JenJen is not my friend. Don't you remember?"

Sorting thru some things we came across a picture of Auntie Latanya from one of her dances in High School. Isabel looks at it and asks
"Who's this?"
"That's Auntie Tanya"
"No it's not Mama"
"Yes it is, that's Auntie Tanya when she was younger"
"Oh . Who's this" And points to Latanya's date
"That's Matias"
Than she takes the picture to Joaquin
"Look Baby, this is Auntie Tanya and Tortillas"

Videos!!

2010-01-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

Granted these are from November but you guys don't care huh?

.

portraits

2010-01-07T19:58:00.000-08:00

In December I came to the sad realization that I had yet to take the kids to get professional pictures taken. And even with the pictures I had taken myself I didn't have any decent ones of the 2 of them together. Our schedule was packed but I decided to just bite the bullet and take them to Sears by myself. I called that morning and made an appt for that afternoon, ransacked their closets for outfits that at least semi matched and took them in.

From the second we walked into studio till we left it was chaos. They lasted a total of 20minutes. There was crying and whining and falling down and running away from the camera and sweat and wardrobe malfunctions. Was it worth it? OH YES!!!!!!!!! But I'll let you judge for yourself.
PS-CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO MAKE THEM BIGGER

The Photographer wanted to show off that

Joaquin could stand, all he cared about was getting to junk in the corner

This was about 2 secs before he went falling backwards.

Crazy huh? I can't believe the photographer

had no problems getting her to pose like this.

I didn't recognize them for the 3 secs they sat still

Shortly after, Isabel stood up and Joaquin fall over-again

Can you tell she's holding him down?
he just wanted to go.

She is just such an awesome big sister.

Yes I even brought cookies, hoping I could use them as bribes.
Didn't work.

yup she sneezed!

This picture alone made all the chaos worth while!
Pure Love.

This isn't a pose, she was actually running away from the camera

Joaquin's first taste of sugar.

man do we make some cute kids :)

Christmas Part 2

2010-01-05T05:38:00.000-08:00

We opened quite a few toys but have still left a ton boxed up so they don't get too overwhelmed by all the newness.

But so far their faves seem to be
The dollhouse.

Isabel plays with it at least 5-7 times a day. Even with there being no furniture in it. Oh wait sorry there is one armchair and ottoman. She has even recently decorated it using some pipe cleaners she found. Edited-As of last night she was also using her dollhouse as a race track for her new hot wheels car from Uncle Seann.

The Bilibos.

The two of them play with these all day long, so far they've used them as rides, slides, doll beds, toys carriers, hideouts, Tilt a whirls for their toys, a basketball hoop, etc. Even Joaquin. He spent a good 10 mins just moving his toys from the red one to the blue one. And for Joaquin to sit still for 10mins is unheard of.

As I wrote before Joaquin loves his Little People Bus.
He's broken the doors off more times than I can count but I guess that's why they are made to be easily pulled off and put back on. Of course the other day I did catch him trying to put his foot thru the door but whatever ;)

He did really like the 3-in1 ride on toy

Santa brought him but that has since been put away. He discovered that if he pushes it to the gate he can use to the gate to pull himself up and be able to stand on the toy. He also gave himself his first black eye with it. He was one side of it but trying to pull himself over to the other side and pulled it too hard and whacked himself in the face. Oh man do we have our hands full.

Another one he is having fun with is his snap and pops.

Mama or Dada or Isabel will put two of them together and he will rip them apart Kung Fu style complete with the yell and throw them down and we had him another set. Over and over again.

He also got a little steering wheel thing, which he had no interest in at first, until Isabel started playing it. She'll pretend she's driving and tell all her pretend brother and sisters to get in and asked them if they are buckled and drive them to where ever. Now Joaquin is starting to develop a bigger interest in it. And the two of them will sit there together pressing all the buttons and Joaquin is determined to figure out how to get the key in and turn it.

Another of Isabel's faves are her scooters. Yes plural. She got a princess one from Great Gma Montano and a Red Radio Flyer one from Uncle Seann. The Radio Flyer is now at Gma and Gpa's so she can play with it over there and the princess one is at our house. She can't get very far on it but loves it just the same.

Her new Toy Story items (and she got a ton , too many to list) from Auntie Tanya and Santa have been getting a lot of play. Woody and Buzz have gone on a lot of adventures and her Jesse doll has been getting tons of love. She is also fascinated with her new Toy Story diary. She has a special place for it and is constantly writing in it.

Isabel and I (ok mostly mama) have been having way too much fun with this Keychain

Special thanks to Santa for leaving this in our stocking at Gma and Gpas house.

And thank you to all the generous wonderful people we have in our lives who spoil us rotten and love doing it :)

Christmas 2009 Part 1

2009-12-31T10:21:00.000-08:00

(and yes it's another long one)

Christmas has come and gone and we are still sorting thru the chaos. This year was just so busy, we didn't get any decorations up, no going to look at the lights, no crafts, nothing. But all in all I still think it was our best christmas ever. It was so fun seeing Isabel actually realizing what christmas is and who Santa is. In fact she may have a little too good of a grasp on him.

The Sat before Xmas, Gpa and Gma took the kids basically just so I could do one big wrapping session. While over at their house Gpa took Isabel to the park because Santa was suppose to be stopping by. While waiting Isabel was playing with 2 other girls, one about her age and the other a little older. When Santa got there Gpa asked Isabel
"Santa's here. Do you want to go see him Isabel?"
"No Gpa, that's not the real Santa"
The girls who were on their way stopped midstep
"What???"
"The real Santa is at home."
"YYYYOOOUURR HOME??"
"No his house, making toys."
"Ohhhhhhhh"

That's my girl starting a little overthrow right on the playground

Christmas Eve was spent relaxing in the morning-wrapping a couple more gifts
Than heading over to Abuelito's house. Isabel's Princess Bunny finally got her Prince. They have been inseperable ever since. Joaquin got his first Little People toy-a bus, which he loves to play with. Our trunk was full with all the fun stuff they got. And they were both so excited it was almost impossible to get them to sleep.

Christmas morning we had to get them up earlier than normal so we could leave for G'ma & G'pas house. I tried waiting her up a couple times. Than I just said really loudly "OH WOW SANTA WAS HERE"
She jumped right up and was trying to throw back her covers "oh SANTA SANTA"
And she goes running to the living room and sees her dollhouse and the stockings and she checked on the cookies that she had left for Santa and got so excited when she saw he had ate them.

Dada finally got Joaquin to wake up and brought him out. Isabel tried showing him everything but he was still a little groggy. But than the wrapping paper and tissue started to fly. Joaquin was perfectly happy with just playing with the tissue paper. Isabel was unfortunately just moving from one present to the next than moving onto Joaquin's presents.

After all that we had to get them ready for Gpa & Gma's, especially since we were already getting texts from Auntie Tanya and Uncle Seann.

But the getting up early was hitting Isabel and we had one tantrum after another. She wanted to bring her dollhouse to show Gpa. She didn't like the outfit we had pick out.

She wanted to bring her dollhouse with her. She wanted pancakes for breakfast. Than her moodiness was bringing out Joaquin's fussiness so yeah it wasn't too pleasant for awhile. But once we found an outfit she approved of and got her some food and told her Uncle Seann and Auntie Tanya would be at Gma & Gpas she was all ready. The whole way over she was talking about Santa and what he had brought. And than they both took a mini nap which left them both a little out of it when we got to the house.

Than it was onto more presents. Again Joaquin just wanted to put everything into his mouth and get into everything. Isabel wanted to open everyone's presents and even threw a nice little tantrum in the beginning. But things soon settled down. And we had so much fun. Than after that Uncle Seann and Auntie Tanya took over Isabel duty and she was perfectly happy with that. Uncle Seann taught her how to use the new scooter he bought her, she is still talking about how "Uncle Seann teach me how to use my foot like this" They took her to the park-where of course there was an injury. She went down the slide too early and jammed her ankle on another kid. She was limping but than would jumped down the stairs but did like getting to sit with Gma's ice pack on her ankle.

Joaquin was putting on his usual show, especially after Dada took him upstairs where he could walked around and stretch out.
Than everyone else showed up and we ate and ate some more, than opened more gifts and just relaxed. Definitely our best christmas ever.

But boy were those kids spoiled :) It just shows how many people love them.

(to Be Cont)

a long update

2009-12-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

I know I know. I have been really horrible with the blogging lately. Life has just been so crazy. Plus my small camera broke awhile ago and it's really hard to take pics of the two of them with my nice camera by myself. Since I have to be able to just toss it aside to stop what disaster is about to take place. And than I lost my flip and now that I found it, it too has broke. I have plenty of older videos to share it's just a matter of sitting down and editing them.

The two of them just keep us going non stop. Joaquin is now a professional crawler and will for the most part try to walk before crawling to get someplace. He is up to a whole 10 steps. He can say "Mama" and "Dada" Sometimes he will say "dog". Yesterday I had him saying "out mama, out mama"

For awhile there all he wanted was the basic step 2 baby food. He would gag if we tried to give him anything but the plain fruits and veggies. And table food forget it. Well all of sudden he has decided to skip all that and go straight to big people food. He loves noodles, peas, carrots, potatoes, apples, and bread and cheerios. The other day he even ate some zucchini. Yesterday he had his first box of animal crackers. He insists on feeding himself so it's a pretty slow process since we can only give him one piece at a time otherwise he tries to shovel it all in at once.

He loves music and dancing and clapping and watching his big sister sing and dance. The other day she was singing along to deck the halls, especially the "fa la la la lalala" part and pretty soon I start to hear Joaquin "la la la la la la" Isabel has also taught him to draw. He has little trouble getting enough pressure to actually make a mark and the crayon does find it's way into his mouth A LOT but he's definitely got the idea.

His two favorite games are peek-a-boo and keep away. Anytime he's crying Isabel will go running up to him and start playing peek-a-boo and it almost always makes him stop crying. He has started mimicking her and placing his hands over his eyes and opening them. He also loves to throw a blanket over his head and pull it off when someone says "where's the baby?" For keep away, he will be playing with something or about to eat something and will hold it out towards you but when you go to grab it he takes it back and just giggles and giggles. Oh wait I forgot his other favorite game. "Run away from mama." He has figured out how to get past the gate. We don't have screwed into the wall yet just braced against it and after watching Isabel he's finally figured out to push it hard enough and squeeze thru. Isabel will start yelling "oh no baby's out" And he'll get to the other side and crawl as fast as he can towards the play room giggling mischievously the whole way. He'll even look over his shoulder to see if he are coming after him. And start going faster when he sees we are close.

Isabel is just Isabel. Her vocabulary is growing like crazy. We don't know where half the stuff she says comes from. Like she was talking to Uncle Seann on the phone and Uncle Seann asked Isabel what she was getting him for Christmas and Isabel says "I don't know, something cool I guess." Seriously where does she come up with this stuff? I took her with me to Joaquin's Dr appt and she was just chattering up a storm and the dr commented on it. "Boy she is just a chatty Kathy huh" "And she's really observant" and Isabel pipes in with "yes I am. I'm observant" The dr got a kick out of that one.

We are having issues with tantrums and a whole lot of "no's" but they are over pretty quick and there is usually a really good reason. Hopefully next year we can find a preschool for her cause she definitely needs to start interacting with other kids.
We have been trying to do numbers and letters with her but haven't found a way to grab her interest. She does know basic numbers and quantities but only when it suits her. Like if you ask her to count she won't do it but if she asks for 4 m&m's, she knows if you only give her 3.
She is proving to be a picky eater just like all the women in our family. She doesn't like peanut butter, only jelly and no crusts. She LOVES pepperoni, fruit roll ups, grilled cheese sandwiches, pasta, milk, cheese, pancakes, bacon and round tacos (taquitos). And will eat baby carrots, apples, bananas, broccoli because she knows she has to. We're still working on improving her veggie intake. I've started doing things like adding pureed veggies to pancake batter and muffin batter. So far she hasn't noticed a difference. She is has got to be the only kid who doesn't like sprinkles. Unless She puts them on the cookie herself.

She is into kung fu right now and has invented all sorts of moves or as she calls them her "cool tricks" and she runs everywhere. And she now has imaginary baby brother and baby sister. They are only a couple inches big so they can fit into the palm of her hand and she will carry them and put them to bed and take them with us. She'll ask if her baby brother and baby sister can come with us. Yesterday as we were driving away from the store she cried out "oh no you left my baby sister at the store" I said "no I didn't. she's inside the diaper bag" her"oh ok that was a good idea mama"

As for Moe and I, things are good. Tiring, hectic but good. I just got a promotion at work. My job didn't change just my title and more importantly my pay :) Always a good thing. Moe recently started overtime so the poor guy is even more tired than usual. We both are really ready for our yearly shutdown at work. We will be off from Dec 24th-Jan 3rd. Oh man are we looking forward to it. So far our big plans are to rest,sleep in, clean, organize, rest, watch movies, rest, clean, get rid of stuff, and well you get the gist. It just seems like the second we get one room really clean the room behind me looks like a tornado hit it, it's a never ending cycle and we just can't seem to get ahead. Just keep moving one pile of junk from one room to the next. Hopefully this shutdown will finally give us a chance to put things in their place once and for all. Especially since we will be offically moving out of the baby phase and getting rid of all the stuff that the kids of outgrown and no longer need. Making way for all the new things I'm sure Santa will be bringing them.

Hopefully this weekend I will have a chance to load some videos. And cross your fingers that we can figure out how to fix the flip :)

I remember Grandma

2009-12-09T09:08:00.000-08:00

I remember she always had cinnamon sticks at her house that she used to stir her hot tea and sometimes her coffee.

I remember she loved Brach's bridge mix.

I remember the first time she met Isabel. She said "oh meija I knew she was beautiful but I had no idea she would be this beautiful"

I remember the places she and my gpa would take us, ..Irwindale Dam, Griffith Observatory, Forest Lawn (yup they took my brother and I there and there was quite a bit to see), train museums, Clifton's restaurant, petting zoos, La Brea Tarpits, the rose parade.

I remember at my wedding I was soo close to crying, Moe could see my lip quivering and than I heard my gma telling my gpa where to stand to take the pictures and them just yelling back and forth at each other and the priest trying to get them to be quiet but oh how it made me laugh.

I remember her wind up cameras. She always had a couple of those disposable wind up cameras and at family get togethers she would hand them to one of us and tell us to take a picture of so and so.

I remember her teaching me how to sew little pillows in the back room.

I remember she loved fruit delights and feeling so grown up the first time she let me have a couple pieces.

I remember her making us blocks out of milk cartons and contact paper (which my mom now does for Isabel and Joaquin)

I remember her movie room with star war cutouts and princess dolls and godfather posters.

I remember waking up at her their house one morning to have my gma greet me by slapping my arm and telling me "Don't ever do that to me again!" Apparently I had walked in my sleep that night and freak her out. She had heard you aren't suppose to wake a sleepwalker and she couldn't figure how she was going to get me back into the tall bed considering at this point I was already taller than her. And how she got so upset when I told her all she had to do was tell me it was time for bed and I would of gone straight back to bed.

I remember her telling all of us that we just had to watch the movie "Fargo" cause it was soo cute and my mom's face when the first scene of fargo was a guy being shot and her saying "what is gma having us watch??!!!"

I remember the stories she use to tell us about her childhood. How she was the annoying little sister and her sister Alis would tell her to walk at least 10ft behind them. How one day she decided she wanted a window in her room so her dad came home to find her attacking the wall with a hammer and he started to yell and than just said oh ok and built her a window. How she was one of the first girls in her neighborhood to wear pants, how she would make her own clothes. She told me that she was cutting holes in her clothes long before they were sold in the stores like that.

I remember this picture frame they had at their house, it was one of those book frames. One side had a pic of my gpa when he was in the navy and the other side had a pic of gma from her 20's. When I was younger I just couldn't believe that the lady in the picture was my gma. And now it's Isabel's turn to do the same thing with my mom. And than I remember looking at the pictures when I was older thinking how handsome my gpa was and beautiful my gma was.

I remember spending the night at my grandparents house when we were kids. The first thing we would do is my gma would take us to the grocery store. And we would get to pick out our cereal. If we were staying for a whole week we would each get to pick our own. My brother would get honeycombs or golden graham, my sister would get captain crunch or whichever cereal had the newest character on it. I would be the freak and get grapenuts or something along those lines. If we were only staying for the weekend the 3 of us would have to agree on one. Usually captain crunch with crunch berries.
After the grocery store we would take a trip to tower records and we each would get to pick out a video to rent. My gma was a huge movie buff so she would wander the store looking for the latest thriller. One the way home us kids would argue about who's video we would get to see first.
Next would be a stop at the Mexican bakery for pan dulce. Than back to their house for dinner and movies. The next day would be whatever field trip they had planned for us.
When I got older my gma and I would stay up late and just talk about everything and nothing.

and I'll always remember how very lucky I am to have had my grandma in my life.

we're in trouble now!

2009-11-23T06:38:00.000-08:00

Joaquin took his first real steps yesterday!!! 3 of them to be exact. No pictures or video of it but both Moe and I were there to see it which is all we could really ask for.
He was standing up next to the couch and Isabel was a few feet in front of him. He reached out to grab her and she was too far out of his reach. And than it happened-one-two-three plop. Moe and I started cheering and clapping and Joaquin looked at us like we were crazy. "What are you cheering about? I do this all the time." Isabel too, she just felt Joaquin grab her and heard us cheer and she started cheering too, although she had no clue what for.
We tried to recreate it to get him to do it again but it wasn't happening. But than later that night Isabel, Joaquin and I were snacking on apples. Joaquin was standing holding onto the gate and saw the apple in my hand and again made the 3-4 steps to get it. This time Isabel got in on the act and started holding out her apple to get Joaquin to go to her, "come here baby, come to big sister" Except like most people she kept underestimating his reach and would hold it too close to him.
However we did manage to get a couple more steps out of him. And again we were both there to see it. So exciting!!!!
I thought for sure this was going to be like crawling, where he crawled a little bit but than didn't really crawl until 2 weeks later. But I guess he's determine to start walking before his 10 month birthday just so he can tell Isabel later "I started walking before you did…neder neder neder!" Isabel walked at 10.5 months so he's still got a bit of time.
One thing is for sure, our already crazy life is about to get absolutely insane!!

Isabel says what?

2009-11-13T07:11:00.000-08:00

*Isabel asked dada to open something for her but forgot to say please, so Moe asked her
"What's the magic word?"
"Hocus Pocus!"

*Something came on the radio about Santa and Isabel started talking about Christmas and presents. And we started talking about writing her letter to Santa. She had her pen and pad with her so she decided to write her letter that second. She "writes" some stuff down and says
"ok mama I'm done"
"Oh yes I see. So what does it say?"
"It says Santa Bring me my presents please"
Of course Moe and I start laughing
"oh yes well you need to put what you want Santa to bring you"
"I did. I want him to bring me my presents"
"I know but Santa may not know what you want. Does Isabel want a dolly, or a ball or crayons?"
"oh I know I want a kitty cat!"

*She has continued to mentioned Santa and presents and has recently added a new item to her list…. a baby sister! Unless she knows something we don't she's going to be a really sad girl on Christmas Day.

*She had this package of peeps that she was saving for "camping with Gpa". Well I couldn't resist and took one from the package and forgot to hide the package afterwards. The moment she walked into the kitchen she zeroed in on the orange package and the empty spot.
"Oh no my cookie is missing!!! Who took my cookie?"
"I don't know."
"oh maybe Dada took it!"
"I'm not sure…maybe"
Dada was not home at that time so he couldn't defend himself.
Fast forward 2 hours later when he comes home. He sits on the couch and Isabel marches over to him and stands right in front of him and puts her hands on her hips
"dada did you take my cookies?"
"What? What cookies? We don't have any cookies"
"Are you sure dada? You didn't take my cookies?"
At this point I'm off to side just laughing and Moe and is like a deer caught in headlights, "uuuhhh what? No…I don't know what cookies"
And than the kicker, Isabel crosses her arms, tilts her head and in a very stern voice says
"Daddy are you lying?"
Oh I lost it, I'm on the floor, crying cause I'm laughing so hard. Just wishing I had caught that on camera.

*Isabel and Joaquin were playing together. Joaquin was sitting in the middle of family room floor and Isabel running back and forth with her blanket. Joaquin was trying to grab it and just loving being cover by it. Isabel runs past him, stops a few feet away and yells at Joaquin
"GIVE UP???!!!....NEVER!!!!"
(At first I thought she might of heard that from one of Moe's shows but yesterday I overheard Minnie Mouse say it to Daisy Duck in one of her new favorite DVD's, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas),

*I'm on the phone with Gma talking about the kids going over there for the weekend. I mention to Gma that she better make sure she has "hot c-o-c-o" (in case you didn't get that I spelled out coco) and before I even finished the last letter Isabel comes running over yelling "coco, hot chocolate!!!! I'm going to gmas and drinking hot cochocholate" (yeah that's how it comes out when she says it) Gma starts laughing. And I say "That's it, we're dead in the water. There's no way we are going to be able to keep up with her"

*Another phone conversation with Gma and I'm talking about my poor cooking skills and Isabel asks for cereal and I say
"Sure I can handle cereal…oh wait no I can't I forgot to buy milk!"
"Oh Mama..How could you forget to buy milk? Oh no!"
"I'm sorry I forgot"
"Oh mama" and than with a sigh and eye roll she turns her back on me.
She is Auntie Tanya all the way. Now we are really starting to get scared. The joke in our family is that I'm our mom divided and Latanya is our mom multiplied. And if Isabel is Latanya multiplied….oh heaven help us all!

Halloween '09

2009-11-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

We got to G'pa & G'mas house around 3 or so. Everyone was already there waiting for us. Both Isabel and Joaquin were a little quiet at first, they had just woke up from their nap. However Uncle Seann and Auntie Latanya got Isabel all worked up real quick. Joaquin stay pretty calm for the most part.
Auntie Latanya went upstairs to start getting her makeup on and Isabel followed. She was fascinated by the whole process and very much wanted to get involved. By the time they were finished Isabel had some lovely make up on as well.

We grabbed a quick dinner than it was off to get the kids ready. Isabel was so excited. She saw the turtleneck I had brough to wear under her costume and she got all worried "No mama, I don't need to wear that, I'm going to wear my ballerina dress" "I know Isabel this is for underneath so you won't get cold" "oh I'll be ok mama" After about 5 minutes I was able to convince her. Than we got started on her makeup. Thanks to Auntie Latanya for letting us borrow her makeup. However also thanks to Auntie Latanya, Isabel wanted the black makeup not the pretty pink stuff. And again I had to convince her to go for the pink stuff. She was just loving looking at herself in the mirror and seeing it all sparkly. Than silly mama, thought she was grabbing shimmer powder but was really grabbing bronzing powder. I tried to rubbed some stuff off, but 1)that stuff really stays on, 2)Isabel was just so ready to go it was too hard. In the dark you couldn't see it too much but in the pictures she is definitely one bronzed ballerina. We put her wig and hat on and she was practically running out the door.

Next was Joaquin who was a lot easier, at least this year. I really tried to get some pictures but Isabel being Isabel didn't want them, she just wanted to go trick or treating. So here's the first pics I got of her.

Than I told her we couldn't go trick or treating until I got some pretty pictures of her, in typical Isabel fashion here is the complete 180.

And trying to get pictures of the 2 of them together was pretty much impossible. So this is the best I got. Joaquin was pulling her hair.

Here's some pics I took earlier of Joaquin.

And Joaquin and Gma

Than it was on to trick or treating. She pretty much knew exactly what to do, I just had to point in her the right direction. Here she is at the first house.

After that it was a piece of cake. Sometimes she would forget to say Thank You or Trick or Treat but would just need a little reminder. At one house she surprise us. She got her candy and was about to walk away when we reminded her to say Thank You, so she turned around, ran back and held up her hand and gave the lady a high five. The people at house thought it was so cute. And Isabel was very pleased with herself.

At another house, they had a guy scaring people. The lady of the house saw Isabel and said "Oh ok it's a little one, no scaring", but Isabel saw the man and very prettily waves at him and says "HI!!!". And more laughter. The lady was so thrilled, she told Isabel "Oh you get 2 candies for that one."

It did seem like Isabel was getting told at a lot of houses that she could take extra candy. And as Moe said "I know I may biased, but it seems like she is getting more compliments that any of the other kids" Noooo that's not biased at all :)

Afterall isn't she just the cutest
I love how she talks back to the dog in this one. And tells him trick or treat.

At first Joaquin was pretty content to just sit in his stroller and people watch,

but towards the end he was yelling and clapping and just joining in the fun.

In total I think we were out a little over an hour, she would of gone longer but Mama and Dada were getting tired plus I knew she would need a potty break pretty soon. We headed back to Gma and Gpa's where she had her only injury of the night (you knew there had to be at least one right?), you can't really see anything but you can hear her "Ouch!" She was just so excited to show Gma & Gpa her goodies she tripped over a rock.

After that she even shared some of her candy with Uncle Seann and Auntie Latanya. (And again these videos are mostly for the sounds.)

And had to dewig. I took her inside for a little break so I could get her to drink some water and go potty, she got to snack on some M&M's. Isn't she so pretty!

Than back outside to play in the graveyard and help pass out candy.

It was a great night!! Halloween '09 definitely our best one yet!

Our Halloween Surprise

2009-10-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

I've always loved Halloween, growing up in my family it's kind of impossible not to, however Halloween has been even more special to me for these past couple years. It was Halloween,4 years ago that we found out we were pregnant with Isabel.

Moe and I had just been married in June and were enjoying our time as newlyweds. We had no immediate plans to start a family so were taking the necessary precautions. In August I didn't get my period, didn't think too much of it, since it had been pretty weird for about a 1/2 year. Than I still didn't get it in September. To be safe, I took a few pregnancies tests. All negative. Then again nothing in October, some more tests, still negative. Moe made me make a dr's appt. I go in, take another pregnancy test in office, still negative. The dr says it's more likely just stress, or hormones, but to be on the safe side he sets me up for a couple blood tests. He even gave me a prescription that would jump start my period, but told me not to take it until I had gotten my test results.

We were a little worried but figured it probably was just one of those things. About a week later on Halloween, Moe and I were just hanging out at home, before heading over to my parents house. I get a phone call and see that it's the dr's office. I tell Moe so he stays next to me while I take the call.

The nurse says "Just letting you know you're test came back positive" And I'm thinking "positive for what? Oh no what do I have?" Than she starts going into taking prenatal vitamins and scheduling my first prenatal appointment and my mind is just racing trying to grasp what she is saying. Moe is practically ready to grab the phone out of my hands, waiting to hear what is being said. Than the nurse says "So I'll just transfer you over to make your appointment. Oh and congratulations!" She puts me on hold and moe is bouncing up and down and whispering "well what they say, what's wrong, tell me something:" And I say "well I guess you're a daddy" Moe yells "WHAT!!!!!!!!!?????????, no way no way no way" and jumps over to me and just grabs me in this HUGE bear hug. I'm pretty sure I'm crying at this point. Than the receptionist comes on and I have a foggy memory of making the appointment and just hang up the phone.Moe is still hugging me and just saying "wow oh my god wow oh man, no way" And I am just in shock. Than all the emotions come flooding in excitement,nervousness, panic, happiness, and love. I just could not believe there was baby inside of me.

I had to tell someone so I called my sister. I think our conversation went something like Me-"soo it looks like you're going to be an auntie?" Her-"oh you getting another dog?" Me "umm no, I'm pregnant." Her "wait.. Uuh WHAT?? NO WAY!" Me-crying "yeah we just found out" her"oh my god Congratulations!!! I'm going to be an auntie???!!!! I'm going to be auntie!!!..so how are you telling mom and dad?"

Than we started thinking, how were we going to tell our parents? We hadn't planned on seeing Moe's folks that day but we knew that the minute my parents saw us they would know something was up so we decided to tell both sets that day. We took Boomer and walked over to Moe's parents house. We get there and it's just his mom but we (read Moe) just couldn't hold it in. His Mom told us she had a migraine and wasn't feeling very well. Moe says "well I think I know how to make you feel better. We're having a baby!" "WHAT?????" And she just started crying and hugging Moe. Moe had to tell her he couldn't breathe she was squeezing him so hard. She had us call Moe's dad and Moe told him over speakerphone. His Dad was in shock and really didn't grasped it until later that day.

After that Moe's mom offered to drive us back to our place since she was going to Target anyway. When we get to Target Moe runs in, while she and I wait in the car. I get a phone call and see it’s the drs office and immediately I think "Oh no they made a mistake and I'm not really pregnant." I was almost afraid to answer the phone but I did and it turns out the nurse wanted to be sure that I didn't take the medicine the dr prescribed me. Pheeww huge sigh of relief.

We then headed over to my parents house. The whole way over Moe is holding my hand and we just keep looking at each other in disbelief. When we get there my parents were out getting dinner but Seann and Latanya were there. Latanya hug us and we told Seann and Seann was typical Seann, gave us a pat on the shoulder and said "now you get to deal with all the pooping and the crying"

My parents finally get home and everyone is outside waiting for the trick or treaters. Moe and I tell them we have some news and I think I just blurted it out. Neither Mom nor Dad reacted they looked at each other and Dad said "you were right" and Mom said "yup I knew it" I guess my mom had been having that mothers intuituion and just had feeling that I was.And you know my mom is never wrong ;) I told them how we had taken all the tests and going to the drs. My mom said "oh no it looks like you are going to have a sneaky one" Boy was she right! But I don't think even my mom could of predicted on that Halloween 4 years ago, anything as wonderful as Isabel.

Boo on You!!!

2009-10-30T05:34:00.000-07:00

This BOO party was started by Toni@The Tattered Cottage. Please keep the fun going by following these instructions.1. You have 24 hours to work your spell2. Copy and post the Halloween Boo Poem with the instructions for playing.3. Pick 4 blogs you enjoying visiting and tell why you enjoy visiting them, with a link to their blog and remember to link back to me.4. Go to the original BOO Party post at the Tattered Cottage and add your MckLinky.5. Let's see how fast and far this spreads between now and Halloween.

The air is cool, the season is fall,
Soon Halloween will come to all.
Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...
Tricky witches at your door.
The spooks are after things to do,
In fact, a spook brought this "BOO" to you.
The excitement comes when friends like you,
Copy this note and make it two.
We'll all have smiles on our faces,
When we see who Boo'd who's places.

I was Boo'd by the fabulous Leann of Random Ramblings, who's kiddo shares a fondness with Isabel for crazy shoes:)

There's so many great blogs it's hard to narrow it down to just 4 ...

1. Katt from One Pink Line Short of Sheer Bliss who's been sharing her life as she struggles through infertility, and as of yesterday is sharing her "SHEER BLISS" with us as she is now PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!

2.Noosh from MJ Squared a little bit of everything-food,photography,life and Dunkin of course. PS If he happens to show up missing one of these days, do notcome looking at my house :)

3.Angie from AngieEatsPeace, running, vegan lifestyle, MJ, healthy living, battles with tortilla chips and french fries.

4.Brenda from Life,Love and a Splash of WTF (isn't that a great title) I just recently found Bren's blog around the same time she started blogging again after suffering a tragic miscarriage. She is now sharing with us how she is moving forward in her journey for a baby. And I just know it's going to happen for her. Can't wait to read more, in case you didn't notice, that was a subtle hint for more posts please :)

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Moe and I took the kids to the Peltzer Farms Pumpkin Patch . It was a pretty decent patch. Just wish it would of been cooler weather.

If I thought taking pics of Isabel was hard, it's nothing compared to trying to take pics of both of them. Examples

All those pics and not one of then with both of them looking anywhere near the camera

We were going to go to a witches tea so Isabel put her own spin on a witches hat. She asked me to make her some bug glasses, hence the pipe cleaners with antennas,

9months...

2009-10-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Wow where did the time go?
Joaquin had his 9mth check up on friday He weighed 21lbs 13ozs and his length is 29 1/4in putting him in the 80th percentile for both. So it looks like he's finally slowed down a bit. Thank goodness, I don't know what we would of done if he had kept growing like he was. At the appointment he was flirting with the doctor and talking with her and grabbing at her. The dr said everything looked really good. He's hit every single milestone with a bang. From now on he's just going to get in more trouble and be even more dangerous.
Isabel was cracking us up at the appointment. She usually doesn't like talking to strangers but she was all over Dr Grant. "I'm the big sister" "I play peek a boo with my brother" "I not a baby" "Joaquin eats baby food, I don't eat baby food cause I'm a big girl" And on and on. She even pulled her chair up so she could sit next to the dr and she put her hand on the drs leg. Just another reason we really love Dr Grant. The dr said it was going to be really interesting to see how Joaquin's vocal skills develops since he has a REALLY chatty sister. Usually boys develop slower in the verbal department so who knows. We figure he will either be real quiet and let Isabel do most of the talking for him (just like his Uncle Seann) or he'll get even louder to be heard over Isabel. We're thinking he's headed more towards the latter.

He now has another 2 teeth. His top front teeth came in and boy is he enjoying them. He loves to chew on things and has started getting into crackers. How much of the cracker he actually swallows is debatable but at least he's taking bites.

He also started really crawling about 2 weeks ago. He'd been doing an army crawl slash inch worm thing for awhile so he was getting around. Now he is on all fours, belly off the floor. It's just the cutest thing ever in an exhausting kind of way. We've had to gate off the entire living room. Him and Isabel just think the gates are toys. Joaquin uses them to pull up and on and walk along. And Isabel uses them as a castle, as a place to hold things, as a mail slot, whatever she imagines. Isabel has also been creating obstacle courses for Joaquin to crawl thru, including herself, she stand with her legs apart and have him crawl under her while pushing his bum saying "come on Joaquin, move your bum, come on"

He really is starting to be quite the troublemaker. We are short a few gates so there is a path for him to get to the kitchen but we always stop him before he gets there. I'll be sitting on the floor and he'll start heading over there so I will call him and he will turn around and just give me the biggest grin, practically batting those long lashes at me. Last night he crawled over to me and bit my leg and when I scream cause it tickled he fell over from laughing than pull himself back up to do the same thing to my cheek.

He loves loves loves noise. He is never happy with just one toy, he has to have at least 2 so he can bang them together. He loves stealing Isabel's play pots and pans to just make a huge racket. Plus he knows it bugs Isabel. He just loves to push her buttons. They still just love to play together, She is always being the big sister and telling him and no and giving him big bear hugs and pulling him up. He"ll follow her around and put his hand into whatever she's got.

In general making life pretty crazy wonderful at our house. I've got quite a few pictures and videos. Hopefuly I'll have some time this week to load a couple.

And just in case I don't post again everyone have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Just had to say...

2009-10-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

Man I love my life

costumes

2009-10-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Isabel picked out everyone's costumes. Mama and Uncle Seann are going to be kitty cats. (Uncle Seann is not too pleased over this), Gpa and Auntie Tanya are going to be lions, Gma and Joaquin are going to be doggies, and Dada gets to be an orange piggy :) He's special!

just a tease

2009-10-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

I've got other videos that need to be edited but here's a little tease

More from Isabel

2009-10-15T08:46:00.001-07:00

I know it's been awhile since I've done a kid post so here's a little something to wet your whistle

*Isabel found a picture of Grandma when she was in high school.
"Who's this mama?"
"That's your Grandma."
"But,but, where's my old Grandma"

*I was looking at pictures of my friends twin daughters, and I guess I said something about twins, cause an hour later Isabel comes up to me and says
"Mama I'm going to have twins"
"Oh you are?"
"uh huh twin babies"
"Are you going to have girls, or boys, or one of each?"
"Boys. I'm a girl so I need to have boys."
*Than yesterday she talked about her twin boys again
"so what are you going to name them?"
"Umm diego"
"Diego?"
"Yeah that's a good name"
"That's a very good name so what about the other one?"
"Umm I don't know maybe Diego"
"Diego for both of them?"
"Nooo Mama, only one is Diego"

*I was putting her to bed and I asked her what she was going to dream about.
"I don’t know mama"
"Are you going to dream about princesses?"
"noo"
"ballerinas"
"Yeah maybe. Mama mama I'm going to be a ballerina?"
"That's right Isabel's going to be a ballerina for Halloween. Daddy just ordered your costume."
"Oh goody oh goody, my ballerina costume, and it's pink and it's got a pointy hat" (she puts her fingers together to form a point)
"That's right, apointy hat for Isabel"
"Just like a unicorn"
"yess, you smart girl"
"mama I'm going to get a unicorn?"
"You are? Where are you going to keep it?"
"Umm maybe outside?"
"Yeah that would be a good place, so what are you going to feed him?"
"Umm I don't know but I think Dada will buy it"
"oh really? What are you going to name him?"
"Zack. That's a good name huh?"
"Yes that's a perfect name for a unicorn."

*Getting ready for bed one night
"Isabel go to the bathroom"
"I already did mama"
"No you didn't Isabel"
"Ok mama I go" she says sitting and playing
"isabel go to the bathroom"
"Ok mama" she starts to walk away but stops and gets distracted
"Isabel! Go to the bathroom right now"
"I'm going mama. You have to have patience!"
In my head I'm thinking "oh no stay strong, do not break, you need to stay serious" yeah that lasted about 5 secs and I just started laughing.
Once she saw that she knew she was in the clear so she started playing it up
"mama now I'm going potty but I'll be back" she walks off but comes back 2 secs later
"ok mama now rememerber be good and don't touch anything"

*G'ma & G'pa took Isabel to a pow wow. She loved it, the dancing, the drums, the indian fry bread,everything. On some point during their trip together Isabel got a little trinket elephant from a vending machine. About 30min after Gma and Gpa dropped her off back home
"Oh no! Where is my elephant?"
"What elephant?"
"My elephant. Gpa has it" I'm thinking what elephant? I know I didn't pack an elephant in her overnight bag, nor do I think she even has any elephants
"your elephant? Ok I'll call gpa"
"yeah call gpa, I need my elephant"
Calling Gpa "hi gpa do you have Isabel's elephant?"
"yes I do"
Isabel in the background "it's in gpas pocket"
"gpa isabel says it's in your pocket"
"yes it is" and somewhere in the conversation Gpa says "well she definitely has a mind like an elephant"
So we make promises that Gpa will bring the elephant next time. Fast forward to the next day when Gpa and Gma make an unscheduled quick visit to our house.
Isabel get's all excited, hugs, hellos etc. Than "Gpa where's my elephant?"
"oh I'm sorry we left him at home, we didn't want him to get hot while he waited in the car" (oh good cover gpa)
"oh ok"
"we bring next time I promise"
Fast forward another week. Gpa and Gma come to pick up the kids again. They are gone for about 20min before she asked for it and yes he did bring it this time.

*While shopping at Trader Joe's Moe took Isabel to sample station with him, where they are giving out pumpkin butter. Isabel wants nothing to do it but seeing dada eat she proclaims "daddy I'm sooo hungry" which said while putting her hand to her head and drawing it out, being the little drama queen. The woman at the counter heard her and just started laughing and thought it was the cutest thing ever. She tells Moe she is going to making pumpkin shakes to sample later and to come back and try those. About 10 min later Moe sees the line forming for the shakes so he takes Isabel and goes to get in line where there is already about a dozen people waiting. The lady sees him with Isabel and goes "oh no! you come here little one. She is sooo starving! You can just come straight here and get your shake"
Which of course had everyone looking at us. I tell ya we can't go anywhere without getting tons of attention.

Great News

2009-10-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

Gabrielle is now out of the NICU and home with her Daddy and family.

OMG OMG OMG

2009-10-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

Gabrielle's coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gabrielle Update

2009-10-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

As copied from Kim

"I have had a lot of people ask me for an update on Gabrielle, and I will try to share as much as I know until we get a blog set up that will be dedicated to her. We're hoping to have that set up this week!

Gabrielle was deprived of oxygen at some point during birth. As a result, she has been suffering occasional seizures. The doctors at UCLA performed an MRI this week and discovered that she has some damage to her lower brain. We won't know what any of this means until her motor skills start developing in two to three months, but the doctors are very encouraged by her progress and the fact that newborns can often heal from things like this. Gabrielle will remain in the NICU for awhile longer until she is seizure-free for 24 hours. We're all hoping that day comes very, very soon!

In the meantime, please keep baby Gabrielle and dad Philip in your prayers. They are both so incredibly strong.

Thanks again to everyone offering to donate money to the memorial fund, formula, gift baskets, gift cards, etc. Your support has helped heal all of us who loved Jewelyn by showing that there really are some great people out there... "

In other news we had our yard sale today and it was a HUGE success and I mean HUGE!! We raised over $1200!!! Can you believe it? And we still had a ton of stuff left.

We already have another two yard sales in the works. So please keep those donations coming.

......This just in..Gabrielle opened her eyes today!!!!!!!

progress

2009-09-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

My amazing nesties have done it again.

1.) A P.O. Box was ser up today to accept formula checks (any brand, even checks that are expired!) and diaper coupons (or even gift cards to places like Target!) -- basically anything that can fit in an envelope. Anything not used will be donated to The Liz Logelin Foundation. The address is:

The Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 235971
Encinitas, CA 92023-5971

2.) A memorial fund was set up at Arrowhead Credit Union today, and checks can be made out to The Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund. They can be mailed to:

The Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 235971
Encinitas, CA 92023-5971

3.) An address for those who want to send packages (larger than an envelope) has been established. This address can accept shipments from UPS, Fed Ex, etc., unlike the P.O. Box:

Brandi Futrell
c/o The Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund
14928 S. Maple Avenue
Gardena, CA 90248

4.) And for those who would like to contribute via PayPal, that email address is 4jewelyn@gmail.com.

5.) And the yardsale just continues to grow.

Sat Oct 3rd 7am-till whenever people stop coming
4Jewels Yardsale
31135 Larchwood St,
Menifee, CA 92584

The support we have received for Jewelyn's family has been incredible. I am positive that Philip will be absolutely overwhelmed and appreciative. Here is what he posted on our local message board after hearing about the outpouring of support:

Jewelyn was so loved. I've been receiving messages to look at this board. I have never posted here before but I know Jewelyn was on it religiously. She considered everyone here a part of her family that have gone through so much together. Gabrielle will be in nicu till the end of the week but she looks beautiful. Just like her mommy. I wanted to thank all of you for your prayers and support. The family fund is something I would never have expected anyone to do for us. Before she slipped away I told her how loved she was. I don't think she realized just how much.

Thank you all.

Jewelyn's husband Philip

Thanks again to my IE friends for helping to get all of these efforts off the ground, and thanks to everyone reading for your support.

A call for help

2009-09-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, my friend, Jewelyn, passed away on Sunday, September 27th due to an amniotic fluid embolism, just hours after giving birth to her first child, Gabrielle.

Gabrielle is doing well and will be released from the NICU this week. Jewelyn's husband, Philip, is going to need all the help he can get over the coming months and years.

A PO Box has been set up to receive formula checks and diaper coupons. Any and all brands will be accepted, and whatever Philip doesn't use will be donated to the Liz Logelin Foundation.

Formula checks, diaper coupons, gift cards, etc can be sent to:

Jewelyn Okamoto Memorial Fund
PO Box 235971
Encinitas, CA 92023-5971

In tradegy there is hope

2009-09-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

I met Jewelyn thru an online chat board. I was wary of the board at first. Afterall we had all heard the horror stories about the internet. It was pretty slow at in the beginning, a post here, maybe another post 2-3 weeks later. However about a year and half ago things really changed. Posts were coming everyday,somedays there would be 4-5 different threads going.

Suddenly I had found a group of friends going thru the same thing as me, being fairly recently married, some with children some without. Dealing with jobs,homes, husbands, in laws, everything. Topics started out pretty basic, how is everyone's day going? Seen any good movies lately? Know any good mexican restaurants in the area? But pretty soon we were talking about how hard it was to be a mom. The sadness of having trouble trying to conceive. Dealing with feelings of sadness and depression. And I realize these girls had gone from being a way to past the time, to being my friends. And a big part of my life. After meeting a few of them in real life I just knew I would be seeing even more of them.
And than this tragedy happened and this small group of women have banded together to help one of our own. Within hours of finding out the news there were fundraisers in the works, websites being set up, contacts being made, arrangements to help the family. And even if we can't be there in person for each other we have all be helping each other thru our grief, and anger and pain.

Than beyond that we have had an outpouring of support from all over the country. We have heard from Texas,Maryland,New Jersey, North Carolina, NY, it seems every state has come to give us their support and prayers. Even beyond the borders new zealand and canada.

Donations have been steadily coming in. Our yardsale fundraiser is just getting bigger and bigger. I have been truly amazed and touch by all the wonderful people out there.

Lately all you seem to hear about are the bad things, the negativity and just when you feel like you don't want to step outside, this happens.

Losing Jewelyn is a huge tragedy that no one will ever get over but the real tragedy would of been losing her and no one knowing her story.

Jewelyn I know you are looking down on all of this and seeing all the wonderful things that are happening. Your story will not be forgotten and Phillip and Gabrielle will loving people looking after them.
Photo by Amy

Goodgye Jewelyn

2009-09-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

Jewelyn passed away at 11:30am today. Baby Gabrielle is doing great and should be home with her daddy within a few days.

Please tell your family and friends how much you love them. Do not take anything for granted.

And please pray that Phillip and Jewelyn's family can carry on in their grief. And show Baby Gabrielle what an amazing person her mom was.

ETA Please see this blog for more info on how to help- Jewelyn

No words..

2009-09-27T10:32:00.001-07:00

I am beyond words today. I just don't understand how something like this could happen to someone so sweet and funny and caring.
A dear friend of mine suffered an amniotic embolism and DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation) after her emergency c section last night. Currently she is on life support with no brain activity. And the baby is at UCLA medical for observation. I am praying for a miracle or that is all just a horrible nightmare.
She had been waiting so long for her beautiful baby girl. We had just been talking to her the night before giving her advice for her labor and delivery and being a mom. She had been sending texts and updating people during her labor. I expected to wake up this morning to a "welcome baby G, she was born at 7:45pm 6lbs, 10ozs and 20in" Instead I find this horrible news.

Please pray for Jewelyn and her baby girl Gabrielle and Daddy Phillip. Please pray for a miracle.

A paypal account has been set up for donations. email-

4Jewelyn@gmail.com

And a yardsale will be held in Menifee on Sat Oct 3rd. Proceeds going to help Jewel and her family.

So sweet yet so sad

2009-09-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

One of Isabel's "chores" was to feed Boomer and make sure he had water and give him his daily treats. For the most part she was really good about it and even got mad if Moe or I tried to do it. She was so cute dragging the dog food bag out of the pantry and over to the doggy dish and practically falling into the bag when she go looking for the scoop. She was very dilgent in making sure no food got into the water side and vice versa.

Well now that Boomer is no longer here, Isabel is missing a part of her routine but she figured out how to fix it. She found one her stuffed toy dogs and has now started bringing him into the kitchen to "feed" him. We already put Boomer's dishes away and got rid of the food and treats but Isabel knows where the tupperware is and just made some new dishes for her doggy.

The other day she was feeding her doggy when she goes "oh wait I don't need this doggy I have Boomer. Where is Boomer mama?" And I had to explain again that Boomer was up in heaven and wouldn’t be coming back. And Isabel says "oh yeah he's up in clouds with his parents. I miss my Boomer." Uggh that just goes straight to my heart.

SeaLife Aquarium

2009-09-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note-Moe is nagging me to go to sleep :)

Sunday we headed down to San Diego for Auntie Latanya's birthday but first Gma,Gpa and our little family decided to hit the Sealife Aquarium next to Legoland. For anyone thinking of going there, don't. We have taken Isabel to aquariums before and she really liked it. For instance the Cabrillo Aquarium is only a $5 donation plus it's in the same parking lot as the beach. And the Scripps Aquarium is a great trip.

The Sealife aquarium took us less than an hour. It was pretty much all inside, so it was dark and musty. Definitely not worth the $18.95 admission for adults and $15.95 admission for Isabel. Plus it was poorly organized. The only bathrooms are at the beginning before you go in or after you exit. And the cafe-uuggh.

Although Gma did have some fun in the gift shop. And we did find Isabel's name on a necklace so that was a score. We still had fun, but not someplace we will be rushing to visit again.

Here's a few pics

And of course what would one of our trips be without an injury. As Gma & Gpa said, we should stop carrying a diaper bag and just carry a first aid kit.

On the way back to the car Isabel was playing on the grassy hills and winding sidewalks and took one hill a little too fast and used her face on the sidewalk to stop herself. We turned around and went back to the park and their first aid station, where she checked out just fine. Now she is just milking it-literally.

Our conversation today

"mama I have coco's"

"oh no! where?"

"my head and my knee"

"oh does it hurt?"

"uh huh"

"where"

"here and here everywhere"

"oh poor isabel"

"yeah I need chocolate milk"

Silly girl. Of course she has no problem crawling around on her scrape knees or putting her hats and hair over her bumped forehead.

She definitely is my child and Gma's and Gpa's grandkid. When she telling me about them I told her "oh I'm sorry Isabel but I'm afraid you better get use to it."

And I just had to throw this one in there. See I have one kid still unharmed :)

Chomp Chomp

2009-09-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

Joaquin is now the proud owner of 2 new teeth!!!

(pics to come)

More from Isabel

2009-09-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

*Isabel told Moe she wanted eggs for breakfast. Moe said "ok just let me go to the bathroom first" By the time he came back, Isabel had taken the egg carton out of the fridge,pushed a chair to the counter, and counted out 2 eggs.

*Isabel told me she wanted pasta for dinner. I gave her some spaghetti that Moe had made. She looks at it and very firmly says
"I said I wanted PASTA!"
"This is pasta"
"No it's not, this is NOOODLES!!"

*I had let Isabel pick out some ice cream cups at the grocery store. When we got home she asked for it and I told her she had to finish her lunch first. About 20min later she tells me "Mama I finished,Ice cream now." I said ok and that I just needed to finish feeding Joaquin first. Apparently she couldn't wait cause she goes to the fridge and opens it and looks for the ice cream, when she can't find it she asks me where it was and I said in the freezer, so she pushes her chair over there, opens the freezer and gets out the ice cream and brings it to me to open. And I tell her to put the bag back in the freezer. When she comes back she hands me a spoon and I realize she had gotten an ice cream for herself and me. She's so polite.

*Her newest song is Rock Star. Not sure when she heard it or where but for the past two days she's been running around singing/screaming "I'm going to be a rock star, a rock star, a rock starrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I'm going to be a rock star! I'm going to be a rock star" She's even creating melodies, it's pretty funny and amazing at the same time. Yesterday she added a new element to the song. She put on her long nightgown, her "dancing boots" as she calls them. Was using a vaccuum attachment as a microphone, singing away and then would jump up and land in a half split. (we have since figured out where the song came from, it's on the new Hannah Montana movie"

*She is loving magazines right now. Everytime I get a catalog in the mail I give it to her and she's gets all excited "oh my new magazine, look dada my new magazine is here. I love my new magazine" And she will sit down or lay down and look thru the pages one by one. That girl is just going to live at the mall.

*Moe will be talking to Joaquin "say dada,say dada" and Isabel will come running over and jump between them and go "no say Isabel,say Isabel baby"

*She is also really into ballet right now. One of her magazines was a costume catalog and she has decided she is going to a be a ballerina for Halloween. She is obsessed with the pointy hat and lace up shoes.

*The other night she was reading in bed before she went to sleep and she asked me to come lay down with her so I said sure and I laid down and let her read to me. Well once the book was done she pushed me and said "ok mama, get out of my bed now. Time for me to sleep."

Sad News

2009-08-31T17:15:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we had to say good bye to Boomer. As most of you know he had a lot of problems and was pretty old. And we finally decided this would be best for everyone.

We've been talking about for awhile but always found a reason to postpone it. But this week he lost control of his bodily functions and a lot more pain, so we knew it was time.

For those that don't know Boomer found us Easter 2005. Moe and I were living in our Menifee apartment and had come home after spending Easter at Gma's & Gpa's. As we got out of our car we saw this little flash of black out of the corner of our eyes. And we saw Boomer coming running towards us. He was so friendly and so much personality. We fashioned up a leash and spent about 3 hours going around the neighborhood asking if anyone had lost a dog. Nobody had so we took him home and posted flyers.

We knew he had to belong to someone since he had a collar just no license and when we brought him inside he was housetrained. It was the cutest thing he would go to the sliding glass door and lift up one paw.

After a couple days we had fallen for him but knew we had to try and find his owner so we took him to the animal shelter. Right after we dropped him off we missed him so we called back and put a reserve on him. Everyday we checked to see if someone had picked him up. When the wait time was getting nearer we got more excited and started to think of names. If you know my family, you know our dogs names have to mean something to us.

Once we thought of Boomer we knew it was perfect. It was sort for Boomerang. You know we had to let him go before he could come back to us.

When the day came that we could pick him up we both took the day off work and went to get him. It was so exciting. From that moment on he was a part of our family.

We took him for his first checkup and discovered he was pretty old and had a pretty rough life, right off the back he needed a couple teeth extracted and his ears drained and who knows what else, but we were hooked. Since then he's paid a many visits to the vet after the last time we got the news that they could try and fix what was wrong or even try and figure out what was wrong, but no guarantee that they could fix it and about a 50/50 chance he would even come out of the anesthesia. That's when we decided to just wait it out.

He was only with us for 4 1/2 years but he got into our hearts the second we saw him.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Isabel's 3yr Checkup

2009-08-26T16:14:00.001-07:00

(Started this awhile ago and never had a chance to finish it)

Isabel had her yearly check up today. After last month she definitely had her fill of doctors, so she wasn't very excited about going. We get there and she starts playing with the toys and doing puzzles with the little girl that was there. After the girl got called in she wanted Mama to play puzzles with her. That is until a little boy walked in and I was completely forgotten.

When we got called in she was very apprehensive but than she found out she was going to get weighed and measured,which she loves. She came in at just under 35lbs and 38inches. Putting her in the 75th percentile for both. At her 2yr appt she weighed 29 lbs and was 34inches tall. And in the 52th percentile for weight and 75 percentileth for height. That's 6lbs and 4 inches in one year, putting her right on track. Still not sure if she is going to be taller than me but definitely won't be petite.

After her measurements we tried to get her to do the visual and hearing tests. She did the first half of the visual just fine but was too distracted to do the 2nd half and didn't want anything to do with the hearing test. The nurse says that is pretty normal for 3yr olds.

Than came the exam with the doctor. Some parts she was ok with, some not so much. In the end she got a 2 thumbs up. Turns out all the things Moe and I had been worrying about, her waking up thru out the night (it's just a phase and we just have to be firm with her), her eating habits (again, another phase and since the only thing she needs more of is veggies we just have to sneak them in, like adding some of Joaquins baby food to her pancake batter) and her bruises (they were all on key areas-knees,elbows and thighs basically just her getting more dangerous)

As for her abcess, it healed so well the dr couldn't even tell which arm it had been on. The dr also pointed out that the abcess was the first time she's ever had to prescribe something for Isabel, and that was definitely a pretty good track record.

Next up was her shots, which she hated, until the nurse said the magic words "lollipop" and poof, crying stop and tears gone.

As we were leaving we told Isabel that since she had been such a good girl, we could go to the store and get one toy. She immediately said she wanted a "doctor barbie cause I lovve my doctor"

Instead she ended up with one of these

She just loves to brush her hair and put her to sleep and feed her. She loves the fact that the doll can stand and sit on her own.

It still cracks me up that she is into dolls and princesses. She is her Auntie Latanya all over again.

I wish I could list all the milestones she hit in her 3rd year but there are just so many, it's hard to keep track. And everyday it just seems like she does at least one more thing that amazes us.

We are currently in the process of trying to find a preschool for her to attend, she keeps saying 'I'm a big girl mama and big girls go to school". The biggest problem is finding one that will accept Joaquin next year since he will have to go into daycare for a couple hours as well. We don't want to get her comfortable in one, just to move her to another in a couple months. Hopefully we will find a place for her really soon.

Never a dull moment

2009-08-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

our wonderful life

2009-08-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer-her bath isn't dirty, she was taking an aveeno oatmeal bath.

Always an experience

2009-08-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took both kids to Henry's by myself. I put Joaquin in the seat part of cart with his snazzy new shopping cart cover. Isabel went into the main part of the cart. Which of course means I have zero room for the actual groceries. It's a good thing we only needed a few things. From the minute we got into the store we were getting all sorts of attention. Isabel was pointing out-loudly-everything she saw. "Look Mama FLOWERS!!!" "Look Mama, my VITAMINS" "No mama we NEED to go get my VITAMINS"
I headed down the bulk aisle "Whatcha getting mama?" "Candy mama, I need candy mama" "mama my candy, can I have candy mama" "no nuts mama, dada doesn't like those nuts" "look a lady, what's she buying mama?" "what are you buying lady?"
Than Joaquin has all these toys and things attached to his cover but what does he do, he turns as far as he can, grabs the tag and starts chewing away on it. I don't know what it is with him and tags but he LOVES them. Which is the exact opposite of Isabel, she hated tags, we had to cut them off of every shirt, she wouldn't play with a doll or stuffed animal if it had a tag on it. They may look completely alike but even now I can tell they are going two completely different personalities.
Anyway back to Henrys. I have the strap around his middle as tight as it can go and he is still managing to wiggle his body around to get to that tag. I am definitely going to be buying him one of those Taggie Blanket.
Isabel takes the tag away from him and than starts the real trouble. Joaquin realizes his big sis is within arms reach so next thing I hear is "ooowwwwww mama mama owww baby's got my hair, no baby owwww" I pry Joaquin's hands off of Isabel's hair and tell him no, 2 seconds later he's back at it again. I now have to push the cart and hold Joaquin's hands at the same time. The min I let go he's at it again and I'm trying to pry him away, I'm laughing, Isabel's laughing, Joaquin's laughing. And none of us very quietly.
Isabel finally moves so that Joaquin can't get her, so instead he focuses on grabbing things in the cart. I always underestimate his wing span and his speed. The rest of the trip was a lot of "no Joaquin let go of the chicken" "Joaquin you can't have the carrots" "Joaquin! I don't even remember putting this into the cart"
Life is definitely never boring with the two of them.
On the flip side, I had to take both of them to my dr's appt on Thurs. I was really dreading it, just thinking about him crying, or her not waiting to sit while I got examined, instead they did just the opposite. We get there and Isabel goes straight for the kids play area and plays by herself while Joaquin sits in the stroller and watches her. When we get into the exam room, Isabel tells the nurse that "mama has a coco in her ear" and pulls a chair up so she's next to the exam table. Gets her purse and pulls out her notebook and gets to drawing. Joaquin started to get a little fussy so I took him out of the stroller and fed him. Once the dr came in I laid Joaquin on the table next to me, and the dr examined me (don't worry I was only there for an earache) Joaquin cooed and babbled away, and played with his toy. Isabel talked to the dr and drew some more and played with her stickers. Just totally and completely great.
On the way out Isabel had her pink sparkly purse that she had slung across her chest and all the nurses came out to see how cute she look, and Isabel turned into the little Diva. Hand on her hips and her "I know I'm fabulous so back off" face.
We headed to Target to get my prescription and pick up a few things. I kept them both in the stroller and usually Isabel will want to get out and walk around but this time she only asked to get out in the shoe aisle. She had a growth spurt and made a couple of her shoes obsolete. And for being such a good girl I told her she could pick out one pair. She looked up and down the aisle
"look mama, look at these shoes, maybe these ones? Ummm no I don't think so" "oh pink shoes, no I have pink shoes" "ohhh these are beautiful. Oh too big" And than she saw the glitter shoes "oooohhhhhh mamamamamamam sparkly shoes!!!!!!!!! I want sparkly shoes mama!!!" She wanted the red ones but since I knew she didn't have any red clothes to match I manage to nudge her over to the black ones. Which worked out pretty well since one of the pairs she grew out of was her basic black flats and every girl needs a pair of black flats, hers will just be a little more "sparkly" than most. And bonus they were on sale. Already a bargain hunter.
The rest of the Target trip was spent talking about her new sparkly shoes. We go home and the 2nd we get in the door, "mamma mamamamama where are my sparkly shoes? I need my sparkly shoes" She wore them the rest of the night. She even made me call Gpa and Gma to tell them she got new sparkly shoes.

A little late but oh well

2009-08-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

Instead of doing a party for Isabel's birthday this year we just did a couple small celebrations. Pizza and Cake with Moe's parents one day. Playing arcade games at Pizza Factory with just the 4 of us another day. And than heading to San Diego with Uncle Seann,Gpa,Gma and us 4. First we went Balboa Park and the Ruben H Fleet Science Center . I'm not sure who had more fun, Isabel or everyone else.

This is a video of a tv screen. As Uncle Seann said "I'm not sure what scientific theory this teaches but it sure is entertaining"

After all this fun we went to have lunch at the Corvette Diner. Which turned out to be a pretty fun place. And great for kids. They also had a little arcade which everyone enjoyed. Everyone played even Joaquin and Isabel got to use everyone's points to get some prizes. She got 4 bracelets, a badge, a harmonica, 2 rings, and who knows what else.

Than outside for presents. Here she is opening her gift from Uncle Seann.

2009-08-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks Robyn for giving me a reason to put off cleaning just a couple minutes longer : )

What is your salad dressing of choice? Don't really know anymore.

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Temecula Pizza Co

What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it? breakfast-the choices are endless-cereal,belgian waffles,choc chip pancakes,crepes,eggs,bacon,ham,french toast,yogurt,fresh fruit

What are your pizza toppings of choice? Pepperoni thin crust

What do you like to put on your toast? Depends on my mood, Butter,or jelly or butter and cinn/sugar

How many televisions are in your house? 2

What color cell phone do you have? blue

Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Do 2 kids count? plus my gallbladder.

What is the last heavy item you lifted? Isabel. She was asleep so it was all dead weight too.

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Nope

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No way (ditto)

If you could change your name, what would you change it to? To my married name. Yup 4 years in and still haven't gotten around to it.

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? Probably. That could pay for my new floors.

Last run-in with a cop? Can't remember

Last person you hugged? Joaquin

Favorite Season? Winter all the way

Holiday? Christmas-Duh!!

Day of the week? Saturdays except when I'm doing OT than it's Sundays.

Month? Dec-obvious reasons. July-Isabel's bday and Jan-Joaquins bday

First place you went this morning? work

What's the last movie you saw? The Incredibles

Do you smile often? You've seen my kids :)

Do you always answer your phone? Nope

It's four in the morning and you get a text message who is it? Someone from work, or my sis. Since I am up at 4am it's not that unusual for me to get a text that early

If you could change your eye color what would it be? I wouldn't

What flavor drink do you get at Sonic? Root Beer Shake

Do you own a digital camera? Yes

Have you ever had a pet fish? No-they were my Dad's pets

Favorite Christmas song? Too many

What's on your wish list for your birthday? These cake stands and these (No I'm not hinting or anything)

Can you do push ups? Nope

Can you do a chin up? Nope

Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Excited

Do you have any saved texts? Yes

Ever been in a car wreck? Yes

Do you have an accent? No

What is the last song to make you cry? I can't think of one

Plans tonight? Visit with GGma & GGpa and hanging out at home with the kids. And hopefully some cleaning.

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Not quite

Name 3 things you bought yesterday? Just del taco

Have you ever been given roses? Yeah.

Current worry? Are we ever going to get this house in order?

Current hate right now? My earache

Met someone who changed your life? my husband,Isabel and Joaquin

How did you bring in the New Year? At home with the fam,asleep and Joaquin a rolling around in my belly.

What were you doing 12 AM last night? sleeping

What was the first thing you thought when you woke up? Is it that time already?

As per request

2009-07-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

Introducing the vocal talents of Miss Isabel M.

Just a couple little tidbits

2009-07-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

I forgot I had written this and never posted it, so here it is.

*Isabel has started "testing" us. She'll get 3 pairs of shoes, line them up and than pick up 2 non matching shoes. She'll hold them up and ask us "Do these match?" and wait for our answer, than she'll say "Noooooo, these don't match" Than another non matching set, than a matching set. "yeeessssss,yey they do match" If we give her the wrong answer, she'll giggle at us and say "nooo ooo momma,see, these don't match"

*She is now really into singing. She'll stand on top of the couch with her microphone and say "Attention everyone, attention everyone" and than start her performance. The other day she made up her own song. "A,B,C,D,Y,A,B,C,D,Y. I miss my daddy" Of course I started laughing and distracted her and she didn't continue.

*Joaquin loves to watch her performances. He'll be in his jumper, she'll bring her chair in front of him, and the vaccuum in front of the chair, that becomes her microphone and than she'll ask for music. I'll put on her Hannah Montana or some thing and she'll just rock out and Joaquin will go crazy watching her. Jumping up and down and clapping and screaming and laughing.

*This weekend my parents took the kids for the night. But before going home they took Isabel to get her nails done. The little glamour girl that she is knew exactly what to do. Gma asked her if she wanted to sit on her lap and Isabel said no and climbed right onto the chair and put her hands up and rested on the little bar they have. And she sat so still. She was making all the ladies in the shop just ooh and ahh over her. The second the first coat was on she put her hand next to fan and was blowing on them. She even got 2 little flowers. I just know she is now going to expect this everytime she goes to gma and gpas house.

*Isabel and Joaquin have found a new game. This one is for the car. They will take this extra seat padding thing we have and Isabel will throw it onto Joaquins carseat, he'll grabbed it and fling it out till Isabel can reached it and they will have a little mini tug of war till Isabel gets it back, and they start all over again. The two of them just laughing hysterically.

*While at gma and gpa's house gma was trying to get Isabel to eat her dinner, and Isabel just wasn’t into it, Gma tells her to be a good girl and eat her dinner. And isabel just matter of factly states "oh I'm just going to be a bad girl" Gma told me it was like there is no point in trying to pretend. Isabel knows exactly what she is going to be.

*Joaquin has now started giving kisses. Big,wet,slobbery kisses. He'll grab your face with both hands and give you a big ol' wet one. He especially loves giving kisses to Isabel who of course will push him away saying "oh baby drooling on me,ewww"

*He has also discovered a new way to make eating even messier. When I feed him baby food I always give him something to hold to keep his hands busy. Otherwise he will just keep swatting and grabbing at the spoon. Last week I gave him a little square tupperware dish. He would turn it around so the flat side face him, press his face and nose up againist it. Which was a pretty funny picture from my side with his little piggy nose . Than he would drag the dish up his face, proceeding to spread the baby food as he went.

*Isabel is also getting in on this mess. She wanted to feed him the other day. So of course things were a little messier than usual. Well something drop and I bent down to pick it up, right as I was coming back up Isabel was going in with a big spoonful of food. And we collided. I got the spoon right in my face, from eye to hairline. Isabel saw the big orange glob and lost it. She was laughing so hard which of course sent Joaquin off as well.

*She has also learned how to make crack an egg into a bowl and scrambled them. Out of the last 6 eggs she did there was only one shell.

*She is now totally in love with her underwear. The other night we got home past her bedtime so we just put her straight into bed and just put her a diaper instead of waking her up to go potty. The next morning she wakes up and sees the diaper and says "hey!! I don't wear diapers! Where's my underwear?!!!" She is also at the point of being so proud of her underwear that she wants to show it off. Lifting up her dress and all.

Happy 6mth bday Joaquin!!

2009-07-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

I've got oh about a zillion loads of laundry and dishes to catch up on so this is just a real quick update.

He had his 6mth checkup today. He passed with flying colors. Weight 20lbs 6ozs, 95th percentile. Length 29in, yet again putting him off the charts. (for those that are interested Isabel at 6mths was 22.2pounds and is 27.5 inches long) Man I have some big babies. Joaquin is currently wearing size 12-18mths and as Gma will tell you some of those 12mths are a little too snug.

He is taking to baby food like a champ. he will go thru 2-3 jars a day. The dr asked if we had tried him with any big people food yet and we had but he did not like it all. He also isn't ready for the mixed foods either. He likes the plain old carrots,apples and pears. Sometimes bananas. And he has taken a big disliking to peas and sweet potatoes. The dr said some babies just like the pureed stuff and some babies go straight for the steak and even though Joaquin looks like a "steak baby" he might just be a pureed kind of guy.

No pics right now hopefully sometime soon.

PS as a warning I am starting OT this week meaning 6 days a week and once or twice 7 days a week so posts will probably be pretty sporadic. Maybe I could convince Moe to take over for awhile, (hint hint) he could tell you all about the morning routines and the fun things they do with him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABEL!!!

2009-07-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

ay yi yi yi

2009-06-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

Ay my kids. They are crazy I tell ya…CRAZY!! Their newest thing is tug o'war. Isabel will put on one of her long dresses and walk past Joaquin until he grabs it than she runs off till he falls over and lets go. And than they both just laugh and laugh. Than Joaquin will bounce up and down flailing his arms and yelling until Isabel walks past him again. This did this for about a 1/2 hour yesterday.

Another game is for both of them to lie on the floor together with a sheet over them and Isabel will just keep covering them and uncovering them and covering them and uncovering them. Sometimes Joaquin will grab the sheet and she will whip it out of his hands. And again just laughing laughing laughing. I've told her not to pull too hard but than Joaquin will over rule me by laughing and Isabel will go "see mama the baby likes it"

And the jumping. Everyday Isabel,Joaquin and I will go into the master bedroom and play for about a 1/2 hr on the bed. Usally it’s isabel jumping up and down and the baby watching her in hysterics. However now he has to jump with her. Than she'll grab him and they will fall down together.

Thank goodness we don't share walls with neighbors anymore, we would for sure get some noise complaints. Ask anyone who's tried to talk on the phone with both of them in the same room.

Joaquin is also into drooling all over Isabel. They will be sitting next to each other and he will lean over and grab her and just slobber away and shell push him away and go "no joaquin stop, aww mama look what baby did, this is brand new" Yeah I don't know where she learned that phrase, especially considering she is talking about her bare arm.

No video of any this but hopefully we'll get some during our 3day weekend . WHOOHOO

2009-06-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

I took Isabel to her trial dance class last week. It was one hectic day. I got stuck in a training class at work till 3. Her class started at 4. I rushed home, Moe and I ran around getting them both ready, rushing out the door. Isabel saying the whole time "hurry don't be late, we can't be late" The drive there she was talking about taking the class all by herself. We get to class and I have to hold her back to keep her from running into class. She got her tap shoes on and is just so excited. The class starts and everything is really good for about 10min. I turn to fix something with Joaquin and I turn back and she's crying. She's in the corner the teacher is trying to calm her and than I hear "i wannnttt myyy mommmy" So I go in there and take her and try to calm her down. After a couple min she says she wants to go back, but when I open the door she stops and starts to cry again. We stick around for another 15min trying to get her to go back but it was no go. We just went home. However we weren't the only ones. Another girl left crying the same time we did. Then while we were loading up in the parking lot another 2 little girls left.

I knew it would be a risk since the time was typically when she would take nap. In fact she fell asleep on the way to class. Plus the class was completely closed off with just a 2way mirror. She couldn't see me at all.

I know she really wants to take a class, so we are going to keep looking for one better suited to her. I would go back to gymnastics but that just gave her too many ideas.

When she turns 3 she will be allowed to take swim class by herself so we might try that if we can get in.

Just an annoucement

2009-06-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

After a whole week with no diapers and no accidents I can safely say that......

We are offically done with POTTY TRAINING!!!!!!! YEY ISABEL !!!!!!!

She's not a baby anymore she's my big girl! (sniff sniff)

2 in one weekend whohoo!!

2009-06-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

it only took me a month

2009-06-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

but I finally have some videos for you

I promise

2009-06-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

I do have some new video. It's just a matter of getting the time to edit down the 11-15min of video to blogging size. Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend.

In the meantime here are some of Isabels funny one liners.

While talking on the phone with Gma, Gma mentioned going somewhere or doing something and Isabel says very clearly "That's impossible!!" with attitude and everything.

She was carrying her plate of food past Wyck and he started to sniff it and Isabel says "wyck, don't even think about it!"

I was explaining her dance class to her. Tellling her she has to be sure to listen to the teacher and she says "ok I no talk I hear"

She wanted to read a story to Joaquin, so she gets one of her fav books which she pretty much knows by heart , it goes something like "my eyes see blue, my eyes see red, my eyes sees a horse, a cow and a bed" but when she "reads" it, it goes "Once upon a time my eyes see blue, Once upon a time my eyes see red, once upon time my eyes see horse,once upon time my eyes see cow mooooo"

Talking with her in the car she annouces
"I'm getting married"
"you are? To who?"
"umm Uncle Seann"
"really? Where are you getting married?"
"outside"
"outside, where? The beach?"
"no, Disneyland"
"ohh what color is your dress going to be"
"pink"
"what color is Uncle Seanns suit?"
"umm white"

Just some random stuff

2009-06-09T22:03:00.001-07:00

My first week back at work was ok. Nothing major so I guess that's all we could ask for. The kids are definitely reacting to the difference though. Isabel is refusing to go to sleep at her normal bedtime and Joaquin is refusing to stay asleep any later than 5:30-6. So Moe's been having kind of a rough time. Hopefully things will start settling down pretty soon.

Right now we are still working on the whole scheduling thing. We are so lucky Moe's supervisor was willing to work with us for awhile but we still need a more permanent solution. We are all trying to figure something out.

As for the kids we are almost officially down with potty training. She has gone out several times with just big girl underwear and no accidents. And she slept the last couple nights with just her big girl underwear. We are so relieved. We were really beginning to think we were going to be sending her to kindergarten still in diapers.

Isabel will be starting dance classes next week. It's just a trial class at first since this will be just her, so no Mama or Dada taking the class with her. We are going to see how our little Miss Independent does before we sign her up. It's pretty crazy though. It's a class for 2-3 yr olds and they are required to wear leotards, have their hair pulled back and have tap and ballet shoes. Luckily Gma and Gpa took care of the tap shoes for Christmas. She would of gone into the 3-5yr old class but it was closed because they are the middle of recital practices. I can't believe she is almost old enough to be having dance recitals. So crazy!!!

Joaquin is wonderful. He has been rolling over for about 3 weeks now. He loves to be put down on the living room floor and just roll and roll and roll till he makes a complete circle. This week he has started sitting on his own. He'll still teeter for a bit but each time it's for longer and longer. I tried taking pictures but it's hard when I'm by myself. Maybe this weekend I can get some good ones.

He also started eating rice cereal this week. And he took to it with no problem. A big difference from Isabel. She wanted nothing to do with it. We didn't get her really eating solids until she was at least a year old. Speaking of comparisons a couple people have asked me what Isabel's measurements were at 4mths and I finally found them she weighed 19.7 and was 25.5 inches long. So the two of them have reversed. She was heavier and he's longer. Although now that he is starting solids he might really start to get chunky. He is also eating more than Isabel. While I was at work Isabel would maybe go thru 6-9ozs, Joaquin is going thru at least 12.

My parents took the two of them for a weekend and we left them with 17 bags of milk, each having about 6ozs in them. Which was about what we left when Isabel stayed with them for the first time and with her they had some leftover. But no not Joaquin. I get a call from my Dad saturday night "ummm we only have 2 more bags of milk left." "What?! No way!" "yeah and it's not like we've been throwing out any, he's been sucking every single bottle dry." Moe and I cut our weekend short and were at my parents house bright and early Sun morning.

From now on every time we go to my parents we are going to try and bring a couple bags of milk to keep the stash up. It stays good in the freezer for 6mths and I know they will have the baby plenty of times to use it up before it goes bad. Than again I can just hear my parents "well you know we have a couple bags of milk that are about to expire, we better take the kids for awhile so the milk doesn't go to waste" :)

I guess that's about it for now. Hopefully this weekend I will have some pics and videos.

Not me Monday

2009-06-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

I saw this over at The Simply Made and just had to do it.

Click on this to read all the other mom posts

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not hide Isabel's puppet, Buster and when she asked where he was, I most definitely did not tell her he went to visit his mommy. Nope,not me.

I did not walk around for half the day at work before realizing I had nice little baby spit up stain on my shoulder.

And I did not put one of Joaquins diapers on Isabel and just laugh and laugh at the little diaper wedgie it created. Definitely wasn't me.

And another one

2009-06-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Anniversary that is. Today is our 4 yr wedding anniversary. It's crazy to think how much has happened in those 4 years. We got married, got pregnant, had Isabel, moved, bought a house and moved again, got pregnant again, and than had Joaquin. It's been a whirlwind but it's been so wonderful.

I know it's only been 4 years but our wedding is already a complete blur to me.

Lots of things didn't go like we planned it but there is no way we ever could of planned for this amazing life we have.

Thanks for everything babe. Love you!!

It's time...

2009-06-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

My outfit is ready, my food for the day is packed (yogurt, veggies, turkey sandwich, sun chips, a peach and almonds). My pumping is stuff is set and ready for me when I wake up. There's bottles in the fridge. My badge has been found and dusted off. My alarm is set to go off at 3:50am (yikes)

Everything is ready for me to go back to work tomorrow. Everything that is except me.

I'm going to miss seeing Joaquin's first smile of the day. Isabel calling us into her bedroom so we can look out the window and see the sun and she tells us "see sun woke up, time to get out of bed" I'm going to miss holding Joaquin while we watch Moe and Isabel play around. I'm going to miss being able to stay up and wait for Moe to get home so we can talk and watch SYTYCD together.

I know I am so very lucky to be able to have had this much time off. And I'm lucky that at the moment Moe's and I schedule work so that the kids don't have to be in daycare. And right now I am very thankful that Moe and I still have jobs.

It's still hard though but it does make the small family time we do get together all that more special.

Has it really been 4mths?

2009-05-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

Joaquin is 4mths old today. How did that happen? Everyday he gets more and more alert. And his personality is just shining through. I can already tell he's going to be a troublemaker. He won't have the attitude like Isabel but I think I'm going to be finding frogs in underwear drawers and alot of reading of his sisters diary.

He just loves his big sister so much. He is constantly trying to jump and move and wiggle just to get closer to her. He is definitely not a one handed baby. With Isabel I could hold her with one arm and use my other arm to get a drink. I tried doing that with Joaquin and he tried to turn around to see what I was doing and than grabbed my glasses right off my face and almost broke them in half.

At his check up today he did so well. Flirting with the dr and the nurses. He tooks his shots like a big boy. As for his stats his head is 17in, 75th percentile. Weight 17lbs 9ozs, 90th percentile. And his Length...drumroll please..27INCHES!!! Percentile-not even on the charts. That's 2.5inches in 2mths.

I knew he was long since most of his onesies don't button up and his sleepers look like high waters on him but eeegads. His new nickname is Stretch. Grandpa is already making plans on where to put the basketball hoop :)

He has also really starting experimenting with his voice. All day long we hear this. It makes me laugh every time.

Here is his 4mth pic

He's like his sister and will not be still for a photo-example

And of course my princess Isabel

for your viewing pleasure

2009-05-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

Some videos.

This goes on usually every morning. I love the look on Joaquin face as he watches them. He just can't wait till he gets to play too.

The best of friends

And Isabel being Isabel

Fun at the mall

2009-05-26T22:40:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, Moe and I each took Isabel out for some special one-on-one time. Her and I went and walked the mall, she picked out a pretty dress to buy with her easter money. We shared some ice cream, rode the train, played on some the coin machines. And took some pictures. She hit all the buttons so I had no clue what was chosen until the pictures were printed. I think the title she ended up picking was perfect.

When her and Moe went out they did some of the same, including a trip to the book store and the park. They also took pictures. I just love her expressions.

In other news...

2009-04-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

yes yes I know I've been a horrible blogger. It has just been crazy over here.

Things are going really good. Joaquin is the most happy baby ever. Isabel smiled a lot when she was a baby too but she made you work for it. Where as Joaquin will give you a big ole smile just for walking into the room. Of course he does the same thing every time he sees Isabel's balloon that has been floating around the house.

He hardly ever cries. And when he does there is always a reason. Like a wet diaper, he really hates a wet diaper so we spend a good part of the day at the changing table.

Also he has recently started to suck his fingers. Particularly his index finger and middle finger together. Yup just like his mama. For those that didn't know me when I was young, I was famous for sitting there sucking my two fingers and twirling my hair. He doesn't have enough hair to twirl yet so we will see.

He is growing like a weed. All the outfits in the camping pictures were size 12mths. They were a little big but not much. Gma bought some outfits for him to keep at her house and she thought she bought them extra big but he's already outgrown a couple of them. He's trying as hard as he can to catch up with Isabel.

Isabel is just amazing. Everyday she does something that just has us in awe. She just loves helping out. She helps me cook,change Joaquin's diaper. She gets mad if I forget to bring her chair into the bathroom so she help me give Joaquin his bath.

She just loves to hold him and cuddle with him. Yesterday morning she wanted him to lay down next to her in her bed. The two of them were facing each other and she was touching his face and he was just talking away to her. Oh how I wish I had my camera with me.

Her attitude is also pretty amazing. For someone so young she sure has her opinion. It's scary how much she is acting like her Auntie Latanya. Auntie Latanya of course thinks it's hilarious and is looking forward to have a little protege.

The other day she had a pretty big tantrum, while she was calming down I asked why she was in such a bad mood? Her response "I'm just having a bad day mama."

We are also in full out potty training, no diapers while at home. She loves her new princess underwear. Yesterday she and I were at Lowes, while the boys stayed at home. On the way there she said she had to go potty so we go running into the bathroom, only to have her go "No I don't have to go potty" We leave start shopping, 2 min later she announces very loudly "NOW, I have to go potty" We run to the bathroom and this time she did have to go.

Joaquin is definitely taking his place as the troublesome little brother. Anytime he is near Isabel, he has to touch her,pull her hair, drool on her, than just laughs and laughs.

I don't have any new pics or videos at the moment but I'll sure to load some the next chance I get. And I promise it won't take me another month to post again.

camping part 2

2009-04-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Just having a blast

Playing with the ribbon she got from the easter bunny

Just love that face-dirt and all

Joaquin hanging out with Gpa

Isabel changing Joaquin's diaper

Sandy watching over Isabel while she naps

Isabel's homemade kite-brown paper bag, markers,sticks,string and bubble gum (thanks Gpa)

The kite after 20min with Tornado Isabel

Gpa after a couple hours with Tornado Isabel

When Isabel chooses her outfit..such a trendsetter

She was very much against pictures so these are all with her on the run

Then she tried skipping in the boots and ended up going face first into the asphalt. It looks even worse in person

Joaquin when Mama combs his hair

Joaquin when Gma combs his hair

Can I help you?

Excuuuusee Me?!

I said no more paparazzi!!

Laughing at Gma

A pic of the sunset I took while playing with all my camera settings

a rough and relaxed weekend-part 1

2009-04-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend Isabel, Joaquin and I went camping with Gma & Gpa (And Idk, Sandy & Wyck of course). We left Friday night and came back Monday night. Boy what a crazy weekend.

Uncle Seann came to visit on Sat, Sun was just relaxing. The whole time Isabel was go go go. She fell down, jumped into things, ran into things. She came back all roughed up. There are a ton of pictures so I will break this post up. Here's the first batch.

Helping Gpa make breakfast

Scrambling the eggs

joaquin just chilling with Gma

Walking to the beach. She only wanted to hold Uncle Seann's hand

Uncle Seann fixing a coco

Look there's the beach Uncle Seann

Whee!!

Uncle Seann teaching her about the water

Building sand castles

Staring adoringly at her Uncle Seann.

We told her to go give Gpa a wet hug

Come on-let's keep going

She saw a train coming

Waving to the train

They found a cave

Uncle Seann knock some sand in her eye

And she is done

Part 2 to come

We're a hunting for eggs

2009-04-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'm too tired to post everything but I just couldn't resist posting these quick pics of the easter egg hunt at Gma's & G'pas house

Isabel picking one up and already on the look out for another

GGma,Joaquin and Sandy

Yes that is Uncle Seann running

And yes that is Auntie Latanya pushing Uncle Seann

She found all of "her eggs" so now she's digging for the "big kid eggs"

Joaquin watching from the sidelines

Happy Easter!!

2009-04-11T21:50:00.001-07:00

So not quite the photo op I imagine but they are still so darn cute :)

HAPPY EASTER FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!!

splish splash we was taking a bath

2009-04-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

Joaquin loves his bath and Isabel loves helping me give it to him. Joaquin is a huge splasher. since this video he has perfected his technique and can now move his whole body at once to create a tidal wave.

Eggs

2009-04-10T18:15:00.000-07:00

Isabel painting eggs yesterday. She was so focused

Joaquin has recently started doing time in his bumbo seat, usually only about 5min at time but man does he love the new perspective especially when he gets to watch his Isabel.

The Big Party

2009-04-09T16:04:00.001-07:00

I know I know so late but here is my post about my parents anniversary party.

It took a lot of planning, a whole lot of lying and spy work but we did it.

Here's the video of the actual surprise.

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And some more photos

SURPRISE!!!!

Isabel found the pepperoni

The banner, created by Noush along with all the other paper goods(thanks again. Love it)

Mom with the latest in fashion accessories-Joaquin

Centerpieces

So confused

2009-04-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

It's just after 9 and Isabel and Joaquin are both asleep and in their own beds no less. I am kind of flustered. I don't know what to do with this little extra time I have. Do I shower? Do I work on Isabel's tutu? Catch up on my tv shows? Finish my other post? Have some ice cream? Do some cleaning? Or do I just go to sleep with them? Oh the possiblities....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ