Our Summer!

Our summer just flew by. Steve was in school and Ella kept me busy with gymnastics and swim lessons. Plus, Jimmy started walking and had his birthday so we are in the "get into everything and never stop moving" stage! But he is so darn cute that I really don't mind. I also was working really hard at getting the remaining baby weight off. Just as I was reaching my goal, we found out we are pregnant! I am now 14 weeks along and due in April. We find out right before Thanksgiving what we are having. I think it has taken me the entire 3 1/2 mo. to realize that my babies are going to be 21 mo. apart but we are really starting to get excited. Ella thinks it is a girl and would like to name her CInderella or Suzie. She comes up with the funniest names.

At the end of the summer Steve had a nice break from school so we packed up the car and took off for 2 1/2 weeks and took quite the trip. Disneyland was fantastic! It was pretty empty. The workers would let us stay on the rides as long as we wanted because there was no one in line.

Here we are waiting for our shuttle at our Hotel to take us to Disneyland


When we first got to the park


When we first arrived Ella kept asking about seeing the Princess' and then they walked right in front of us. Ella went over to them and they took her hand and just started walking and talking with her for the longest time all by herself. Everyone started following us and eventually they stopped and we took some pictures. That made her day!



We all had such a fun time!







After Disneyland it was off to Arizona! We were able to spend some much needed time with Steve's family and meet 3 new additions to the family.



I got to spend some time with my new niece Afton. She was born 3 months early and was only 1 1/2 lbs. She is finally home and so tiny but it was great to hold her.

We also saw so many great friends! We had dinner with our close friends in Goodyear. Ella was born with these girls and is always so excited to see them when we go down there.



Our friends drove up from Tucson to see us which we loved! It was so nice to see them and we are so blessed to have such good friends. So many of them went out of their way to come and see us. It is the hardest thing to live far away from all of them. Steve has known these two guys for 25 years and it is so fun to see them together with their kids.

I suck at blogging!

I don't know why I am so bad about posting! I can definitely say the writing part is not my favorite ...plus, finding 10 minutes where I can concentrate and be on the computer alone is near impossible. Anyways, here is the last few months of our lives in a nut shell!

Ella finished up her first year of pre-school. She loved it, I loved it, and apparently she was quite entertaining for her teachers, whom we love!











Then it was off to Cali! I took the kids down to my sisters house in Sacramento while Steve finished up finals. We had a great time. We took the kids to Six Flags. Ella loved it. She rode one of the big rollercoasters and is a dare devil! We sit down and she says, "This is going to be so cool!" and then as soon as it was over she asked if she could ride it again.




Ella and her cousin Johnny. They got a long so good this trip. They ran around everywhere together.



Here is my big chiller! He did really good hanging out in his stroller. I can't believe he will be 1 year next month. It has flown by. He is awesome! So happy and giggly and he loves his mama!



Jimmy loved the pool. It was his first time in one which is weird. Living in AZ, Ella was in the pool from 2 mo. old and on. Jimmy is almost a year and I don't know when he will get another chance. Definitely miss that.




Steve has been on break all week so he took Ella rock climbing at an indoor rock climbing gym. Steve has been going pretty frequently with a buddy of his and thought Ella would like it. She loved it! She was climbing all over everything and even over the big boulder. I love that she loves to do that kind of stuff. What a cool kid.....if I do say so myself!





And that is just the start of our summer. I feel like we didn't get to do much last summer and it is all a blur with Jimmy's birth so we are excited for this one. Plus Ella is getting older and it makes it so much fun to do things together.

Ella's Birthday!

Here is Ella in her birthday outfit she picked out for school!


Ella turned 4 on March 17th. She is my St. Patricks baby! All year she has been asking to go to this hotel down the street that has an 80 ft. indoor waterslide. So that is what we did for her birthday party. We had so much fun.







I normally only do birthday parties every other year so she had been waiting for this one. I think it was such a perfect day. She picked out cupcakes and had so much fun with all her friends.


I also chopped my hair the other day. Jimmy was continually pulling on it and it was taking so much time to do. I like my new haircut. I would keep it long if I had the time to do it. So for convenience the short is great!

Jimmy is crawling and we went to AZ!

Jimmy is 7 1/2 months now and huge! He is in 12 mo. clothes already. He finally started to crawl and now he is all over the place. We are so in love with our little boy. He is so good and happy. He is always just looking around waiting for someone to entertain him so he can laugh.


Ella is almost four! Her birthday is next week and she is all excited and planning her party. Her hair was getting so long that finally neither one of us could handle it. My friend came over and chopped six inches off. We both love it! It makes things so much easier and makes her look so grown up. Although the other day she did get some scissors and cut her own hair. She only took a little bit off and I can't even notice but when I asked her why she did she said, "I want to be like Melody." (who is my friend that cut her hair)



Me and the kids took a much needed vacation down to Arizona to see family. Ella played with her cousins from the moment she woke up in the morning until she went to bed at night. For 2 weeks she had so much. She also had tons of sleepovers with her cousins and friends. She loved spending time with her Nana and Papa and all her Aunts and Uncles too. We even got to celebrate her Aunt Yaya's birthday while we were there!



One day we met some friends that Ella has known since she was born. She was in heaven! The girls love playing with each other.
I also got to hang out with my most favorite girls in the whole wide world!


While we were down in Arizona I also got a girls weekend with my sisters! We all went up to Sedona and stayed in the most amazing house. My sister had an Art show while we were there so that was fun too! We don't get together without husbands or kids often so it is always a fun time!



We had such a great trip and we can't wait for our next one!

Halloween Pics

A little late but Ella's costume is too cute not to share! She was Alice in Wonderland and it was perfect for her. Jimmy was a little monkey and mostly hung out in his carseat and slept. Since Halloween was on Sunday we went to the trunk or treat on Saturday and had a good time.





Steve and I also went to a halloween party! The theme was 80's so we chose to be Beetlejuice and Lydia since that movie came out it the 80's. It was tons of fun putting the costume together. For Steve I got a suit at goodwill for $10 and then got white duct tape to make the stripes. My dress turned into a pretty extensive project. I got the dress at goodwill for $8 and it was a white old wedding dress. I tried dying it but it only turned out pink. So I bought like 10 cans of red fabric spray paint and sprayed it red. Turned out pretty well but it was not comfortable. We had such a fun time at the party. I had to threaten Steve's life to get him away from the karaoke machine! He was definitely thee entertainment!

November already??!!

Okay, so when you have a baby I swear everything is a blur and then you wake up one day and they aren't so little anymore and all of the sudden your little newborn is 4 mo. old! What the heck? On one hand I love that he is sleeping a little better and interacting more but on the other I want my little newborn to just snuggle on my chest forever....*Sigh*!
Jimmy is doing really well. He can roll over every once in a while and coos and laughs like crazy. He especially gets happy when you change his diaper. You would think you are telling jokes with how he just starts to giggle and all you are doing is putting his pants on. He is different than Ella was in some ways so it is interesting.

Ella is growing up as well. She started preschool in September and loves it! She goes tues, wed and thurs from 9-12. She has wonderful teachers and loves to tell me about all of her "best friends." It gives her day structure and hopefully gives me a moment to take a nap or go work out depending on my tiredness level.





Although, lately she has been complaining of stomach aches a lot and she is up in the middle of the night crying about it so I took her to the doctor. We have eliminated all dairy and soy from her diet and she is doing a lot better. When she was born she had some major sensitivities to dairy and soy but as she got older seemed to be over them....or so we thought. We are going to have her be off of the dairy and soy for a week and then slowly introduce the soy back in and see if she can handle that. She hasn't complained once of a tummy ache since we started so I think that is a good sign.
Steve is working hard at school this term. This is the first term where he isn't working full time and going to school full time. He is able to take a lot more credits and hopefully will get done with school quicker. We always knew he was smart but he comes home from physics, calculus and chemistry acing everything. He practically sets the curve in all his classes so he is definitely meant to be doing what he is doing. But I am thankful for when he gets little breaks in between terms and is home a little more.
I stay pretty busy with the kiddos and everything a family of 4 involves. I am still trying to lose baby weight so I try and work out a few times a week. So far I have lost 28lbs and have 19 more to go! I am thinking about training for a race here called Pear Blossom. I am trying to figure if I can work it in or not but it would be a good goal for me. I don't know a thing about training for a 10 mile race so I might be calling some of my seasoned racers!

August is a blur!

In August my whole family was in town for a family reunion! Which equals about 50 people. So we took advantage of that and blessed Jimmy while they were all there. Some of Steve's family even came up from Arizona for the event.



I was so cool to look at the circle and see 11 big guys holding this little guy. I wish I could of gotten a picture. Steve gave such a neat blessing.





Steve's mom Brenda came to help for 3 weeks! I was so grateful for the help. Ella loved every minute of it. We were sad to see her go but at least I felt that I could handle it a little better by then.



Jimmy had a bit of a rough go for a couple of weeks. If he was awake he was screaming so we went to the Dr. After everything we went through with Ella we are a little more paranoid. But we found out that he has reflux and a protein sensitivity to diary and soy, just like Ella! So we have him on zantac and nutramigen formula. He is now getting better. But he doesn't have a full button so he is fattening up. Even when I was breastfeeding he would just eat all the time. So he is getting cute and chubby!