California Trip - Easter Celebrations

We are lucky enough to be able to celebrate Easter for two days when we head out to California. The first day, we celebrated with my Mom's family.

Everyone dying Easter eggs. Notice that there are more adults that kids doing the dying?
These were the Easter baskets that my Mom did. Keep in mind, these are for a total of 3 kids, all 2 1/2 and under. I couldn't tell if it was Christmas or Easter. Thanks to my Mom for always making holiday's a big deal and going all out for the kids!
The whole family who came together to celebrate Easter this year.
Emery definitely remembered the idea of hunting for Easter eggs from last year.
Makayla digging into her Easter basket and all of the loot inside ..
The next day, we spent Easter day with my Dad's side of the family. Emery got candy jewelry in some of the eggs that she found and she was in love with them.
Of course she needed a sucker bigger than her own head ..
Emery loves all types of animals. She really wanted to ride the horse but freaked out when she was put on it alone. So, I made one quick trip on the horse just to make Emery happy.

California Trip - Beach Day!

We made our annual trip to California over Easter weekend and we had a great time. The first day there, we headed out to Newport Beach. The weather was cool and windy, but it didn't stop Ivan and the girls from having a wonderful time. I'm not so much of a beach person, I can do without the sand and salt water, but I did hang out on the beach to be the photographer.


Emery had such a good time in the water, we stripped her clothes off one by one as they got soaked. Eventually, she was the naked baby at the beach and that was our time to leave.

On the way home we stopped for a bite of Del Taco and Emery took over my coke. She loves coke as much as I do!
More pictures and stories to come ...

Family of Four Coming Soon!

We are happy to announce that we will be adding another baby to our family in September. Ivan and I are both really excited. Emery doesn't really understand it yet, but when we ask her if she wants a puppy or a baby, she asks for a baby which is a good sign.

I am 13 weeks along, due September 22nd and starting to feel better. This pregnancy has already been much different than when I was pregnant with Emery. With Emery, I was never sick, until I had some crazy stomach issues around 4 months pregnant. So far with this pregnancy, I was sick from 6-12 weeks and totally exhausted. If I wasn't at work, I was laying my lazy butt on the couch or in bed. I don't think Emery has ever watch as much TV as she did during those few weeks.

It's nice to get my energy back and feel good most of the time. I do usually have one spell of not feeling well per day but it's manageable. Ivan has been wonderful and has really been picking up the slack around the house. Well, the truth of the matter was that he didn't have a choice because he knew there was no way in hell I was doing it. I guess that's not the point though right.

Chuck E Cheese Please...

We took Emery to Chuck E Cheese for the first time last Saturday. It was quite the experience for us all. Ivan and I haven't been there in 10+ years, and we decided to go on a Saturday afternoon. I'm still not sure what we were thinking. We got there to learn there was a 20 min wait to get in. After waiting for about 10 min, Ivan finally realized that there was only a wait if you wanted to eat. We were only there for the games, no Chuck E Cheese pizza for me, thanks.

I think Emery had fun, but she did have the most fun just putting the money in the machines. She would walk around with her hand out saying "money? money?". We were able to get her a purple ring and some Pop Rocks with the tickets she won. A week later, the ring is lost and Pop Rocks were never eaten. Oh well, she had about an hour and a half worth of fun for $10 - who can beat that?

Lazy Day

We usually have lazy day's on Friday's since I'm off work. Last Friday, we just hung around the house in our jammies and looked pretty rugged. Of course, the perfect time for mommy to whip out the camera. Here is Emery in all of her beautiful glory, jam on her face, hair pulled back with mommy's clip and still in her jammies.
We then made up a game where we laid out some of her books and walked along them while counting the number of books. Emery is learning so many things these days. She can count and recognize her numbers, 1-10 and loves to sing her ABC's. She doesn't know her ABC's 100% but it is hilarious when she gets to L,M,N,O,P because she kind of mumbles through it.

Who is the potographer?

It's been forever since I've posted on the blog, or downloaded pictures for that matter. I haven't taken many pictures for the last few months so I was surprised when I had 70 pictures on my camera to be downloaded. Once I looked at them, I figured out why there were so many pictures.

Can you guess who the photographer was?



Here's our little princess. She loves to dress up in her princess gear. It's really funny when she wears the princess outfit and then plays with her hammer and screwdriver tool set.Like father like daughter. Apparently, Emery wants to be just like Ivan and read a magazine while she goes potty.

Potty Training - For Real this Time!

I know, I know .. I've posted about potty training several times. Well, this time it is for real. We got up Friday morning and Ivan decided he wanted to give it a shot. So, I said ok, let's go for it.

We put Emery in her big girl undies and she didn't have any accidents for the first 3 hours. We ended up going through 5 pairs of undies that day but only one real accident. The other 4 times she started to pee, realized it and stopped and went in the potty.

Saturday and Sunday - no accidents at all and the same pair of undies all day!

We are still putting diapers on her during her naps and at night but otherwise, she's diaper free. I took her to Del Taco today (who would have guessed??) and I was nervous that she would pee in the car. Nope, dry the whole way there and back.

We are rewarding her with M&M's for every time she goes potty. I ask her every 30 minutes or so if she has to go potty and she always says no. She just let's us know when she has to go and then it's a mad rush to the bathroom.

I am so proud of Emery. She is such a big girl and has made all of the transitions from baby to big girl so easy for Ivan and I. We are so grateful for our little girl!

Christmas Day Festivities

We were up late last night so we all slept in today. We got up and started opening presents around 11a and started round 2 of Christmas Celebrations. Emery really liked opening her gifts, she would open one, look at it for a minute, toss the gift to the side and say, "mas" (more in Spanish). She got spoiled with all kinds of fun gifts including a Princess Dress Up Kit, a tool set, lots of books and clothes. She's one lucky girl!

Cute Makayla with the Christmas tree


Halfway through opening gifts, Emery decided she needed a break and laid down with her new Elmo B (she calls blankets "b's")
Ivan helping her put on her princess shoesYes, Emery has this crazy hair every single morning :)

Makayla got a ton of cool gifts too. She got a magic set, a zhu zhu and a ton of clothes. After dinner, she tried out her Magician skills. We had a good time, lots of laughing, but, let's just say, she shouldn't give up her day job. Makayla mixed up a few of the tricks but we all had a good time.As we were putting Emery down to bed, she wanted Maya (that's what she calls Makayla) to lay in her crib with her. So, of course, Makayla jumped right in and cuddled with her. Then Emery wanted me to get in the crib - ya right!

Christmas Eve Celebration

We went to Ivan's sisters for Christmas Eve. We enjoyed a great dinner and as always, great company with the whole family.

Emery and Grandma Lola
Emery modeling her new princess backpack
She is obsessed with checking her toes for toe jam - sick! Emery literally takes her shoes and socks off several times a day and checks between each toe for lint. I have no idea where she picked up this obsession.

Emery cuddling with Grandma Phyllis
Here she is with her most favorite person, Uncle D
Playing herself some Rock Band

Here Comes Santa

We went to see Santa on Tuesday. Luckily, we had perfect timing and the wait was only about 30 minutes. Makayla asked for a pink guitar and Emery, well, we were lucky they had candy canes so Emery would even get up on the couch with Santa.

Just for fun, here is last year's picture with Santa. Emery sure is growing up fast!

Zoo Lights

We took the girls, plus my cousin's daughter Lilly, to the Zoo on Saturday night to see the lights. Everyone had a great time and the weather was decent. It was quite interesting having 9 year old and 11 year old girls with us - they were being crazy chasing after a boy! I think they are way too young for that, but maybe it's just because I'm getting old.

Emery had the best time. I was jealous of her because she was all bundled up in her stroller.

After we got home, Emery was playing with some magnets on the fridge. She dropped one under the fridge so I moved it out to get the toy. Ok, I'll admit it, it's dirty behind my fridge, I haven't cleaned back there in a while. As soon as Emery saw the mess, she grabbed her broom and started sweeping it up. I wonder where she gets it from...

A Day at the Aquarium

We went to the Aquarium today with my Mom, my cousin's baby Quinlan and my niece Makayla. It was nice to get out of the house and see all of the cool fish. We got to see an octopus being fed and pet the sting ray's. All in all, we had a great time.

Makayla and Emery are so cute together!
Quinlan was attached to my mom's leg for the first 20 minutes. Now my mom knows how I feel :)

Quinlan tried taking Emery's sippy. She was quick to find his and helped him out by giving it to him.