Just what I've always wanted!

This Mother's Day was AMAZING! It started out with Lori bringing me my travel coffee mug, with a NEW insert that she and Jorge made. It was the most wonderful thing I've ever seen! In all honesty it was. As you all know I am a pretty crafty person, and having worked at a school, I was the one who made all the crafts and gifts for kids to give there moms. In the back of my mind, I always thought I'd be the one makin' my own keepsake crafts with Lori. But Jorge did it for me. Now all she did was "color" a little part of it, but still, it was so special! He even have Davey a crayon and had him help a little too!


David's part is the purple on the right and Lori's in the red. (Jorge helped her write her name, she's not THAT advanced)

Then we went to church where I received a rose for being the mom of one of the youngest babies in the service. :)


After church we all came home for peanut butter and honey sandwiches and while eating lunch our neighbor came over and said he was going to have our backyards mowed and edged as a gift for me for mother's day!! Isn't that awesome? I thought so! :)

The rest of the day went like this, Lori took a nap while Jorge watched the Cubs game and Davey and I stepped out for a bit. When I got in my car I heard the familiar sounds of the Glee soundtrack that Jorge had slipped in to my CD player which hadn't worked in MONTHS!! He totally surprised me, which trust me, is very hard to do. We drove to the used book store, the Goodwill and Micheals, just cause I wanted to. Once we got home, we all drop to the Super Target where we met up with my sister and her family for "Frappy Hour" (1/2 priced frappacinos) and the Starbucks there. After THAT, (wow this is turning out to be a rather packed day isn't it?) we went for a walk with my sister and her family, and our good friends the Kuykendalls. Then came home, put the kids down and had pizza! It was great!

worth while moments... (working title - anyone got anything better?)

The other day I had to run errands and naturally Lori and Davey came with. I took the kids to Hobby Lobby and after about 2.5 seconds Lori was done with the cart! "Running Lori?" (yes she does mean run and yes, everything she says is with a "?" at the end) Needless to say, I wasn't about to let her run around the store, so I had to do my best to entertain her. Eventually she grew tired of me and desided to lay down. This girl is a kook and a half and makes me laugh! (ok that rhymes but it was unintentional... I promise.)

worth while moments... (working title)

Like I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to start making note of the things that my kids do that remind me why I do what I do.

After Lori's birthday party we opened gifts and she got to play with some of her new toys. Jorge had to run some errands so it was just me and the bubbas. (My sister's and my nickname for babies...) She got tons of dress up stuff, so naturally we had to open it all and try it on right away! :)


I also gave her a toy which she was given LAST year but it was kinda over her head so I put it away until this year. :) I love watching Lori play with her toys. I think it's so neat that she actually PLAYS. It's fun to see her actually DO things with her toys, like playing with her babies and copy what she sees me do with David.

After she had been playing dress up for a bit I noticed this...

and it made me smile.

worth every minute

The cheese factor of this post promises to be extremely high, so be forewarned.

Parenting is tough. It's easily the hardest thing I've ever done. (oxymoron?) But everyday I am reminded why it's worth it. Starting today I will to start making a note of those moments, and blogging them when at all possible.

Lori has been acting up for the last few months, probably the "terrible two's" even though she just turned two last week. (We always said she was advanced. :) ) She's been getting on my last nerve A LOT and has decided that bedtime should take over an HOUR! BUT like I said there are times when she says or does something that just melts my heart! This time it really didn't involve me so much, but made me feel so appreciative that God has placed her in my care (sometimes I wonder what He was thinking! Ok, most of the time I wonder what He was thinking) and that He has allowed me to get to witness the sweet moments of her growing up.Several weeks ago Lori and I were headed to Bible Study and as we were passing the play ground we heard a little voice say "Lori!". We stopped to see who had said it and saw our friends little girl Rachel standing at the top of the play structure. She immediately headed for the slide, slid down and raced over to the rod-iron fence that contains the playground. Lori said "ACHEL!",(yes Achel... it's not a typo) ran to meet her and the girls embarrassed through the fence. I took a picture on my phone! (which I actually thought didn't get saved on my phone and was super sad but then mysteriously showed up on my phone yesterday!)

(I don't know how or why it happened but I'm so glad that this picture showed up. I know I'll never forget it, but I'm just so happy I have a copy of this moment to share with everyone.)

Why is this such a sweet moment for me? I think it's because it reminded me that I, we, are so blessed by our community here in Houston. My child/children are loved so much by the people around them. Moving here was a big step for us BUT it has proven time and again to have been the right decision. And it also made me realize that Lori is growing up so fast, and that she's made her first REAL friend.

"We did it!"

In the words of Dora the Explorer, "WE DID IT! We did it, we did it -YA!" For the last month or so Lori has been sleeping on a crib mattress on the floor. Well, she was SUPPOSED to be sleeping, but for the first few weeks she would refuse to nap, and at bedtime she would either come out of her room every 5 min, OR even worse, NOT come out of her room and get in to HEAPS of trouble... and I mean HEAPS! (one night she went through 35 of my homemade diaper wipes, just cause!! THIRTY FIVE!!) So I decided that the best way to remedy this situation was to use bribery, and for the bribe... the ultimate prize in the eyes of a child! THE STICKER! I'm not sure why but stickers are like crack cocaine to children.

I made her a sticker chart, Dora themed of course, and every time she took a nap in her "big girl bed" or didn't get up too many times to play around her room at bed time she got a sticker. (The last box IS filled... Lori just put the sticker a little outside of the box... ;) )

Once she filled up the chart we were gonna go out and get her a REAL big girl bed!! Well last week, she filled up the chart, and as promised, we went out and got her a bed! It required moving around some furniture but here it is, THE big girl bed!

Lori was SO excited when we got it set up that she started crying for milk and a binky even though it was still a little early for bedtime. She did get up a few times (which is normal for Lori) but now she is fast asleep in her new bed!! I'm waiting to peak in on her, which I'm sure Jorge will frown upon, but I really want to see how cute she looks sleepin' in that big bed.

The other side of the room... where David will be sleeping... eventually. (We will have to get a new Uppercase Living sticker for the wall above the crib... I'm already workin' on it. :) )

Siblings!

So far, Lori and David seem to be getting along famously. Obviously David is a little oblivious to his surroundings, but Lori is still LOVING having him around. The older he gets the "easier" it is to get pictures of the two of them together. Here are just a few of the shots I got this weekend... just looking at them makes me happy.

On Sunday morning as we were getting ready for church, I put David in/on our bed so that I could have my hands free to pack up the diaper bags etc., well Lori saw him on our bed and climbed up to be next to him. Then she said, "snugga?" (meaning snuggle) Asking to snuggle is a new thing for Lori, but it's been happening at least once a day. In fact usually Jorge's day starts at around 6:30 to "snugga Dada? snugga?" This was the first time she'd asked to "snugga" with David and it was so flippin' cute we had to get the camera.

Later on Sunday I had to give David a bath, but Lori didn't want to be left out. I was forced to put them both in the bath... at the same time. This proved to be equally cute (at least to their overly proud mother) and therefore needed to be photographed.

Silly with Celine

A few months back there was a Celine Dion concert on T.V and (don't judge me) I watched it... again. (Yes again... don't judge, she's awesome!) Anyway, chalk it up to being loopy from lack of sleep from having a new baby, but I got a little silly when she sang "My Heart Will Go On" Lori thought is was hilarious... her squeals were just too funny, so I had to ham it up a little more so we could get it on film. It seems to work.

enjoy!

*sorry for the poor quality of video, it was filmed on a cell phone. :(