Easter 2013

We celebrated Easter at our house and had a great time as always.  Here are the girls' Easter baskets - Paisley has a love for babies these days, so we got her a little baby doll as the main gift.  Emery is all about asking the definition of words (like all day long, might I add), so we got her a little electronic dictionary as her main gift.

 Easter baskets from Grandma Phyllis - they were spoiled with candy and treats, just like grandmothers do.

 Next up, dying eggs.   

 Paisley, sitting on top of the kitchen table.  We have yet to break her of this habit, but she is getting better.  She does now understand that we don't sit ON the table at meal time.  Small progress is still a win, right?

 

 Our hands were a hot mess ...

 Emery starting to freak out when Ivan told her that the dye wouldn't come off and that her hands would be stained like that forever. 

 Paisley didn't quite understand the concept of being gentle with the eggs.  She would hold the egg above the cup of colored water, and just drop it in.  We had quite a few cracked eggs, but it added some character to the eggs :)

 Next up ... hiding and finding Easter eggs.  We got lucky with some great weather and were able to hunt for eggs outside in some beautiful weather.

 Uncle D, Auntie Silvie and Carter got into hunting for eggs too ..

 Another great holiday spent with family.  We couldn't have asked for a better Easter ...

St Patty's Day

Can I just say again, how much I love Pinterest?  It is like the best invention ever in my mind!  It has changed my life and I love it.  OK, maybe I shouldn't admit that it's changed my life, but I really feel like it has.  I can find so many ideas, recipes, cleaning tips, everything in one place and I love it!

Anyway, now that I've gone part time at work, I've got a little more time to actually follow through with the crafty projects with the girls.  For St. Patrick's Day, we made rainbows out of froot loops and cotton balls.  Emery is absolutely obsessed with rainbows, so this was the perfect project for her.  Paisley loves to eat cereal, so it was a good project for her too.  Here are the final projects.  The whole family participated and it was fun and cheap craft.  

Field Trip to Wheeler Farm

Emery had a field trip to Wheeler Farm a few weeks ago with her preschool.  We were supposed to go in March, but it got cancelled because it was snowing the day we were supposed to go.  So, our make up day was in mid-April.

I gave Emery the choice to allow Paisley to come or not.  At first, she said she didn't want Paisley to come.  I was really sad and hurt by her decision, but it was her field trip, so I let her make the decision.  A few days later, Emery decided that she wanted Paisley to join us, so the three of us went to Wheeler Farm.

Emery's preschool has AM class and PM class.  Emery attends PM class, but here is a picture of all of the kids from both AM and PM. (Emery is in the middle, standing)

 The kids got to see how a ring is made out of metal ..

 And where the cows are taken when they get milked ..

 At the end of the field trip, they got to feed the ducks ...

We all had a great time and it was fun to see Emery playing and interacting with her friends.  She has made a good connection with a little girl named Allyssa in her class.  She's already told me that she' sad she won't be able to go to kindergarten with all of her friends from preschool.  I'm not looking forward to the last day of preschool - it's going to be a rough day for Emery.

Changes in the Gallegos Family

We've had a lot of changes in our family in the last several months.  I've already posted about Emery starting preschool and having baby #3 on the way.  In addition, I changed jobs in February.  I'm still at Discover (I'll be there till I die haha).  I started a position as an Area Manager in September 2011 and it was a position that I was working towards for several years.  It was a new challenge and experience for me and I loved it.  The only downside is that I was working way too many hours for way too long.

An opportunity came up for me to stay at the same pay grade, but to be able to work part time.  I thought long and hard about this and whether or not I wanted to make the change.  And actually, the position came up twice - the first time, I gave it a little thought, but never even discussed it with Ivan, it just crossed my mind for a few minutes.  For months after the first position came up, I was kicking myself in the butt for not posting the first time.  I was trying to figure out how to get Emery into preschool, and even how I would get her into kindergarten with me working 55-60 hours/week.

So, when the position came up a second time, I knew I had to go for it.  I was lucky enough to be offered the position and started February 1st.  Previously, I was working Monday-Friday, 55-60 hours/week and managing a department size of 100 people.  Now, I work 29 hours/week, three days in the office and a half day at home and I'm only responsible for myself.  I also have the flexibility to work at home more often when needed/wanted on my end.  I've been able to get Emery into preschool 2 days/week and I've already made arrangements for when she will be in kindergarten 5 half days next year.  It's huge change in my job responsibilities and while I do still miss what I was doing before, I am as happy as could be with the decision I made.

Financially, we have had to make a lot of adjustments to make it work.  We cancelled cable (it's really not that bad with Netflix, Amazon and Hulu - yes, we are still a little spoiled and have all 3!), I now bargain shop for groceries and we actually have a budget that we live off of.  I also had to start cleaning the house myself again - sad!  But, in all honesty, I think we are in a better financial position now, since I've gotten a lot more focused on our finances and where our money is going.


I am absolutely loving being at home more and having the flexibility that I have with my schedule.  I get to see the girls when they wake up and before they go to bed every single day.  I make dinner at least 5 nights a week and we eat at the table as a family. The girls and Ivan are loving having me at home more and all of the good meals we are able to enjoy.  The only challenge is that now Emery is used to me being at home, she hates the 3 days a week that I have to go to work.  I'm grateful that my company had the opportunity available for me and that between all of us, my family was able to make the necessary changes for me to be able to go part time.

And Baby Makes 5!

We are excited to announce that baby girl #3 will be joining our family in July.  I'm currently 27 weeks and feeling good.  It's been a pretty uneventful pregnancy so far, just like the other two.  Back pains and acid reflex as always, but other than that, I'm feeling good.

We had our ultra sound in March.  At the time, I thought my due date was 8/13 - and I was worried because I felt HUGE for only being 18 weeks along. There was a small part of me that was worried I was pregnant with twins.  Ivan and I joked that if there were two babies, we would either have to give one away (kidding!) or both of us would go into a mental institution.  Anyway, once the ultrasound tech announced we had another girl on the way (Ivan and I already saw that and it's what we were expecting), I asked her about my due date and had her confirm there was only one baby.  She asked who told me my due date was 8/13.  I said, "well, nobody.  I told them my due date is 8/13".  She then told us that I was off on the due date and my due date is really 7/20, based on the size of the baby.  I was relieved and shocked at the same time.  It explained why I was so big - going from 18 weeks to 21 weeks in a matter of minutes makes a big difference.  I was also relieved to have confirmation that there was only one baby.  I was shocked and stressed because that left me less time to prepare for the little one.  I'm also so much of a planner that I had planned my PTO/maternity leave, vacations, Emery's school, etc, around the 8/13 due date.

The girls are really excited for the baby as well.  Emery talks to the baby every day - which means Paisley does too - anything that Emery does, Paisley must do as well.  They talk about how they will help take care of the baby, but they remind me that it's Papa's job to change all of the poopy diapers.  Emery has recommended we name the baby Filomina - we don't have a name picked out yet, but I'm pretty sure we will pass on her recommendation.  I've started to talk to the girls about me spending 2 nights at the hospital when I have the baby.  Emery gets it, and is excited to be able to sleep on my side of the bed and have a slumber party, Paisley is just along for the ride at this point.

Just like when I was pregnant with Paisley, we have done very little to prepare for the baby that will join our family in 13 weeks.  I have a mental list of everything I need to do and have it all planned out in my head, I just need to start taking action and getting things done.  We were worried about fitting 3 car seats into the back seat of Ivan's Maxima, but that is one thing I have crossed off the list.  I have the infant car seat and put Emery into a High Back Booster and luckily, they all fit.  His car is paid off and I was not looking forward to the potential of having to buy a new car.  We got lucky on that one ...

Here are some belly pictures of the pregnancy so far.  As I look back at pictures from being pregnant with Emery and Paisley, I remember that I was very detailed - took them every 4 weeks to the date, made sure I was wearing the same shirt and same poses so you could get a good comparison.  With this little one, well, let's just say we are lucky to have some pictures.

24 weeks

17 weeks

12 weeks

Emery's Preschool Spring Assessment

Emery has been in preschool for a whole month now.  She goes twice a week, so she has had the opportunity to attend 10 days and missed 2 days due to having Croup.  That wasn't fun, let me tell you!  Anyway, I met with Emery's teachers, Miss Carol and Miss Megan today for her assessment.

Both teachers said Emery is doing fantastic.  They said it seems like she has a photographic memory and picks up on thing really quickly.  She is ahead of schedule and Miss Carol said we will probably not have any learning challenges with Emery, our challenge will be to keep her challenged and engaged in learning since she picks things up so quickly.  I guess that's a good problem to have, right?

I was a tad worried about her social skills - more so with her wanting to talk everyone's ears off and not understanding others personal space.  However, Miss Carol and Miss Megan said she is doing great - she pays attention, is obedient and has great manners.  If she has a question she always raises her hand and says, "excuse me".  Good girl Emery!  They measure behavior with a sign that has green, yellow and red circles - it actually looks like a stop sign.  Each child has their name written on a wooden clothes pin.  Emery has never moved from the green - yay!

So, all in all, school is going great for Emery and she is succeeding.  She does mention that she feels like she isn't learning anything - but I think it's more that they are doing a great job of making learning fun, so she is learning, she just doesn't realize it.  Right now, we are focusing on learning the days of the week and the months of  the year.  She knows them all, so we are working on putting them in the correct order.

Here is the assessment that Miss Carol and Miss Megan gave Emery.  I think it's funny that the numbers she wrote were 1, 10, 100 and 1,000.  Obviously we need to practice writing all of her numbers except for 0's and 1's.

 Emery can recognize and sound all of the letters of the Alphabet.  She knows all of her shapes, colors, can count to 100 and can recognize all of the numbers up to 20.  On a 1-5 scale, her scissor skills are at a 4, and her skills for holding a pencil correctly are at a 5.  She knows all of her position words and can read 19 out of 20 of the everyday words.  Miss Meagan said they tested Emery early last week and on Wednesday of this week when she attended class, Emery had learned the 20th everyday word.

 One of Emery's homework assignments was to create her own story to read as a bed time story.  This is what we made together.  It was basically all Emery's doing, I was just the scribe on a few of the pages for her.  I just love her so much - she is so sweet and kind hearted!

Random Pictures/Updates

Just catching up - 

Laying in bed, cuddling with the girls - I look over and see that they are holding hands - too cute!  The girls love each other so much - not to be confused with the fact that they still fight like sisters at time, but they really are too cute together!

 We converted the crib into a toddler bed for Paisley at the beginning of February.  We never had to do this with Emery, but felt it was time with Paisley since she climbed out of her crib and fell on the floor during her nap time - crazy kid!  It's been a few weeks and the funny thing is that she never gets herself out of her bed.  She will climb in herself, but when she wakes up and is ready to get up, she still calls for Ivan or I.  I guess it's a win-win for us!  I can't believe how big she is getting .. sad!

 Paisley would go through about 35 outfit changes/day if we let her.  99% of the time, she dresses up in Emery's clothes.  If I could just get her to put them all away where she got them, I probably wouldn't care.  But, clothes are usually all throughout the house and when she cleans them up, she puts them all into the dirty clothes hamper - causing a ton of unnecessary laundry for me ..

 I got daring and took the girls to a Dr appt with me.  They were really good and behaved well, thank goodness.  So cute!

This was from the beginning of February.  Emery was sick with a cold and had spent most of the day in our bed.  Apparently, at one time when she was awake, she was playing with silly putty.  Then she fell asleep and the silly putty ended up in her hair.  Not a good thing!  As soon as we saw it, my heart stopped, thinking I was going to have to cut her hair.  I never said it to Emery, but I think she knew, hence the look on her face.  Oh, she was also mad that I waited to try to get it out while I took a picture.

Lucky for us, we have google.  I googled how to get silly putty out of hair, and it said to try baby oil.  After just a few minutes and just a little baby oil, it was out of her hair.  Whew, we got lucky on this one!

Paisley just being her cute little self!

 Another outfit creation by Paisley ..

 We took the girls bowling one Sunday afternoon.  We all had a great time ..

 Can you guess who picked the outfit??

 Paisley's first experience at Fun Dip - we won't however, mention that it was blue and she just may have opened it in Emery's room and spilled it on the carpet.  For the record, Fun Dip does stain carpet ..

Valentines Day Celebrations

We had a great Valentines day this year.  Since Emery was in school, it was the first year of doing Valentines for her classmates.  This is all new to me - who knew the pressure haha!  The girls and I have all been sick, so I just picked up some Valentines for Emery - I chose Brave, with pencils to go with them.  I had Emery write out all of the Valentines (there are only 5 other kids, which is good) and it was a 2 day project.  She did really good with writing out all of the names of her classmates though.  Unfortunately, Emery had Croup the day of the Valentines day party at school, so she had to miss it.  Her teacher was nice enough to keep her bag of Valentines and then she handed hers out when she went back.  All of the Valentines Emery got from her classmates were written out by the parents - is that normal?  I guess if Emery had like 25 classmates, I would have helped, but I left it up to her for just the 5 that she needed.  

 We also made some yummy Valentines cupcakes - Emery helped me with every step, of course!

 I baked them and Ivan helped the girls decorate them ..

 Yummy!  Paisley demanded to be fed her cupcake - she didn't want to get her hands dirty - silly girl!

 Emery ate hers carefully as to not get any of the frosting on her lips/face.

Emery Starts Preschool!

We have had a lot of changes in the Gallegos family over the last few months - I'm hoping to bring back the blog.  All of the changes have been for the good and we are excited about the positive impact the changes have made.

We were finally able to get Emery into Preschool.  She started on February 1st and goes two days a week for 2.5 hours/day.  She is going to a little Preschool at the Cottonwood Heights Rec center - there are only 6 kids total in her class, but she is loving it!  After her first day, I asked her how it was, she said it was good, but she didn't learn anything.  I have a mid-year assessment with Emery's teacher in a few weeks, so I will see how she's doing then.  I think she's fine from an academic perspective, but I really wanted her to experience Preschool and learn the social skills that she would need for Kindergarten.  

After 3 days of attending school, Emery was diagnosed with Croup.  It was only her 2nd sick kid visit to the Pediatrician in her entire life.  I'm sure along with the fun and learning of Preschool, we will have the opportunity to experience all kinds of new germs and sicknesses.  Can't wait!  

Emery Turns 5 - 20 Questions

Here are Emery's answers to the 20 questions: 

- What is your favorite color? 

Pink

- What is your favorite toy? 

Colorbloom

- What is your favorite fruit? 

Watermelon 

- What is your favorite TV Show? 

Scooby Doo Mysetery Incorporated

- What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?

Grilled cheese sandwich with mayo

- What is your favorite outfit?

Dress

- What is your favorite snack? 

Cheese and milk

- What is your favorite animal?

Unicorn

- What is your favorite song? 

Jack and Jill Went up the Hill

- What is your favorite book?

Cinderella 

- Who is your best friend? 

Makayla

- What is your favorite cereal? 

Lucky Charms

- What is your favorite thing to do outside? 

Swing on the swing and play baseball

- What is your favorite drink? 

Sprite

- What is your favorite holiday? 

Christmas and Halloween

-What do you like to take to bed with you at night? 

Jessie and my pink unicorn

 -What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? 

Lucky Charms

-What do you want for dinner on your birthday? 

Steak

-What do you want to be when you grow up?

Want to be on one of the shows on Cartoon Network

 

First Favorite Movie

Both of the girls started watching TV/movies right around when they turned 2.  When Emery first started watching movies, the first movie she would watch was Monster's Inc.  I was pregnant with Paisley and not feeling well, so we watched A LOT of Monster's Inc.

Paisley's favorite movie is Shrek.  She loves everything about it and now the girls battle it out between Paisley watching Shrek and Emery wanting to watch "her shows", ie, Phineas and Ferb.

September Recap

Paisley showing off her Elmo undies and Spiderman slippers - she's too cute!

Paisley still sucks on her index and middle finger on her right hand.  She's never really taken to a binky, but I can't get her to stop sucking on her fingers.  So, I thought I'd try to get her to take a binky to break her from sucking on her fingers.  Then, my bright plan was to take the binky.  Well, I gave her the binky and she looked at me like I was crazy and started chewing on it - yup, she's got a mouth full of teeth - what did I really think she'd do with it.  So, we are still at sucking on the fingers but every once in a while we break out the binky's just for fun.

 I made home made goo one day.  The girls had a good time playing with it - surprisingly since neither of them ever like to get their hands, face or anything dirty, ever.

 We headed to Boondocks one day for family fun.  We had a great time playing mini-golf and playing arcade games.

 Then the girls played in the little kids area - they could climb up it and then there were slides to come down. The slides were a little steep, but Emery loved them.

 After the first slide, Paisley wouldn't go down the second one - so I had to climb up into it to slide down with Paisley.