Partied Out

I guess we partied too hard last night.

She didn't even make it home from driving Clay to school without falling asleep.  Sweet baby! :)

1

April 12, 2011. 

No words, just feelings.  Peace, love, and joy.  She, my beautiful second daughter, caused strong emotions in me.  My love for her was instant and intense.  I have treasured remembering the day of her birth today.  Vivid memories.

April 12, 2012.  Here she is today.

LOVE her smile!

Doesn't she look like she could almost float away?!

Her big gift.  It's hard to find something special for #4.  I mean, seriously, no more toys please!  Somehow, I came up with this.  I loved it and thought it would be perfect....in a few months.

So wrong!  Getting lots of use already!

The sister shot.  (One of my favorite photos from today.)  Love these girls!

Elena means light, and boy, does she bring it to our family.  Always a ray of sunshine (even this week as she's been fighting an ear infection.)  Had to make her a cake to reflect that.

She wasn't so sure about the cake, but wild about the sherbet!

We're wild about you, Lena Lou!  

You brighten our lives....all five of us.  Have never seen a little sister quite so adored as you.  Terribly grateful for you.  

Happy Birthday, sweet baby!

Tomorrow we'll talk about you not growing up anymore! :)

This One

She's just too much.  Am LOVING her at this age.  Definitely embodies the "terrific two's".  

Her personality is incredible.  She moves from funny (hilarious, in fact) to tender, motherly, to rough-and-tumble with barely a beat in between.  LOVES her pockets and is doing AWESOME with potty-training!  Yay!  

Just love, love, love everything about her.  She truly makes me cry tears of joy fairly frequently.  SO blessed to call her mine.

Can You Believe These?!

My friend works at Toys R Us and showed me these dolls one day while I was shopping for Thomas's birthday party.  I didn't want to spend any more that day, so I left them.  I went back a couple weeks ago to buy them, but they'd gone on clearance and sold out.  I was determined to get them for the girls.  I mean, "Gabriela"....OK, but seriously, who has ever seen an "Elena" doll before?  I ordered them online and we are now the proud owners of two dolls to go with our two real-life dolls! :)


Thanks, Cheryl!

Only 9 Days....

....'til she's 1!

Oh my gosh.  Boo hoo.  CAN'T believe it!

Two Tuesdays Ago....

this was us....on our way to Disneyland!!  

(Can you see little E in the mirror?)

I'm ready to go back already.  It was definitely our best trip ever.  I have lots of pictures to post.  I plan to get that accomplished, um, someday.

This Tuesday has been very different.  Refining the art of multi-tasking.  On tap:
1.  Homeschooling (math, science, and language arts today)
2.  Beginning serious potty training with Gaby.  We went through three pairs of underwear and shorts in about 2 1/2 hours, but then she announced, "I need to go to the potty!" She made it! Yay!
3.  Keeping Elena fed and entertained as required.  (This one sounds simple, but not always!) :)

All good, just complicated.  Pretty sure there was a moment when I was hollering something to Thomas about our skeleton while running after Gaby to the bathroom and pitching Rice Chex onto Elena's highchair tray.  Wonderful craziness!

Much Change

Oh my....life has been moving at full throttle around here.  I have much to say, many more pictures to upload, and very little time.

For the sake of sparing my few quiet minutes to myself, I'm going to keep this brief.  But here's a glimpse into our life these past few weeks (man-style!)

*  Thomas turned 6 on February 22nd.  Hard to believe and yet, he seems like a miniature adult so often.  He's like 6 going on 36.  Funny kid!

*  February 22nd also marked Thomas's first full school day at home.  We're now homeschooling him for the remainder of the year.  Obviously, a lot of backstory needed here.  For now....he hasn't been getting what he needed from school for, well, all of the year.  He'd finally had enough quite abruptly on that Wednesday morning.  So we're just getting rolling with online school this week.  I never saw myself as a homeschooler.  I'm still not sure I do.  It's a lot to juggle with the girls at their attention-needing (and deserving) ages.  I'm trying to make one small positive stride a day.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't stressing about it more often.

*  My mom left on Monday after coming out for the "Tim Tebow weekend" as it's affectionately been called around here.  It was good.  He's a remarkable guy.  Great role model for the boys.  I love that.  And really good visit with Grandma too.  Her grandkids sure love her.

*  On a new medication to try to stop the migraines.  Side effect is sleepiness.  Um.  Not now!!  It has gotten better.  The first few days were horrible.  So.dang.tired.  It's better now, but it's not really helping with the ocular migraines.  I am only taking half a dose.  Too scared to try to up it, especially while I'm flying solo for a few days.  Good part is I'm mostly sleeping better at night.  I sleep horribly normally.  No one's ever been able to diagnose me with anything, but I know my sleep is not normal.  I never feel rested in the morning.  Never, seriously.  I don't ever remember a time that I did.  I might feel a little rested now after I get going, but it is hard to get going.

*  Taking a family vacation to Disneyland next week.  So excited!  We haven't been there in four years.  Thomas was just two (oh my gosh!)  And we haven't even done a family vacation in long time sans traveling "home" to see family.  Thinking on it now....I think our Disney trip four years ago was our last true family getaway.  That's sad.  Pathetic maybe.  I'll admit I prefer that my babes sleep well at home than we travel the world, but still....I need to loosen up a bit.  Um.....maybe a lot.  Really, really excited.

OK--that was much longer than I was planning and I'm now hearing a slight cry from the floor above.  I shall rest and write later.