Fall part one

Fall has finally cooled down, so we made our way to San Antonio for Sea World!

Julianna was very upset that she didn't get to go on the raft ride.

Both girls loved feeding the dolphins.

We stayed in an awesome country hotel near the park.

The hotel had smores by the fire. Julianna just liked to let her marshmallow burn!

On Saturday we woke up to noises in the kitchen and to our surprise it was Annelise setting the table for a family breakfast! She even cut the cake from a cake stand with a heavy dome lid!

Halloween 2011.

Annelise: Bride

Julianna: Strawberry Shortcake

Graveyard hunt

The Flintstone Family

Juans Parents came to visit and the girls kept them very busy!

The Girls at the schools fall festival

Pumpkin painting.

I just want to eat you up Julianna!!!

Marielle LOVES tummy time!

Annelise had her first field trip to the pumpkin patch and she got to ride on a big yellow school bus!

Stay at home kids

I wanted to embellish some hair clips since Annelise is growing her bangs out. The girls were so focused on helping out.

These are some brads that Julianna was obsessed with organizing.

All finished. . .much better.

All that crafting desevers a treat! Normally I insist they eat this outside but it would melt before they were finished.

Marielle still is the most exciting thing around!! The few monments that she is awake the girls are all over her making her smile!

Julianna's painting

She had to stay home this day because of a runny nose and hives on her checks. Annelise got to go swiming with the neighbors.

More time at home means more mess! So I am getting the girls into cleaning!

Visitors!

Marielle has been keeping the house buzzing with company!!! Juan's parents have been amazing at helping me out during this busy time! My Mother in law cooks "dinner style" lunches everyday and picks up the house every night . . . it's awesome!

The picture above was the best one (getting this many people to stay still was no cake walk!)

The picture below was the awesome breakfast a girlfriend brought over! It was so yummy for the eyes and the mouth . . . and she has three kids of her own!

I was blown away by all the Moms in my playgroup that brought over dinner, we are sooooo lucky to have made some awesome friends here.

A sweet moment between sisters!

Titi Virna holding 3 week old Marielle.

Julianna has been very loving to her Abuelos!

Fun with bubbles.

Marielle at Three weeks!

Marielle Loren!!!

On Sunday the third of July, Marielle finally decided to join us. . . on her due date that is! She is the sweetest thing we could ever ask for!

She was 7 lbs 2 oz and 20 in. She has a full head of light brown hair, that I call blonde (in this house, that IS blonde)!

The girls and Juan are fighting over her constantly.

So far she is very easy going and only cries when she needs something. I hate to count my eggs before they hatch but I have a feeling she is one of those "good babies" I always heard about.

I swear Marielle is smiling at Annelise in this picture.

Annelise says that she loves her "the most", even more than Julianna or us!

Julianna wants to hold her all the time and is surprisingly gentle with her. She gives her sweet kisses and says "I love you Yariyelle"

Juan holds her for hours, and is CRAZY about her!

I am also obsessed with the little monkey!

She has made an impact on this house, but not in a way I was expecting!?!?

I was expecting a madhouse with no peace, but it has not been bad at all. She has made this family more loving!

We all LOVE you Marielle!

p.s. please stay sweet!

Butterflies and Bragging

Every Spring I visit my neighbors butterfly garden. They spend hours (retired) making their garden a magical place. I even gave them the iron arch that Juan and I got married under, and it has a coral honeysuckle growing on it!

Well I figured it would be nice for the girls to have a butterfly garden on the side of the play house, so my neighbor sent me to the nursery with a shopping list. . . no butterflies came! Next I went online and bought some caterpillars. At the same time my girl friend Jessica went to the lake and got FREE monarch eggs off of milkweed and had a completely different experience!

When our painted lady caterpillars came in the mail they were cute little balls of lint that did nothing. Then the very next day. . .they doubled in size!!! Julianna went crazy over them! Every morning she would run downstairs to see the "aterpillars".

Soon after , they were DISGUSTING!!! The picture can't even capture the digustingness! They are in this tiny urine sample jar full of their own poop, they are spiky, and they fight!

Once they went into their chrysalis they could be moved into the butterfly house (much better).

See the red stuff on the paper? That is what sprays when they come out of the chrysalis. Apparently the lovely monarchs don't do this.

Finally we had butterflies (4 out of 5). We would release them soon after they were done opening up. Although I wanted them to stay in my new garden, they quickly flew away to my neighbors garden . . .sigh. They knew how repulsed by them I was during the caterpillar stage!

Now comes the bragging!

Annelise has some artistic talents! I wanted to document them since my memory is terrible and I really do love bragging about my kids!!!

It all started with the ED Emberly books from her graphic artist uncle and now has spun into a real passion.

Next is her 3D art. . .

About a month ago she begged for some cheap modeling clay from the checkout of hobby lobby. I wanted nothing to do with the mess so I tried to encourage her to stick with a different craft, but she insisted. I let her have it because it was $1.99!

WELL I was wrong! She will stay at the table for hours creating these really cool sculptures!

Above is a butterfly on a flower.

Below is a birds nest with a snail on the edge. I gave her a toothpick for poking the eyes.

This is a snail again (she likes snails, I guess)

A crab.

$1.99 worth of clay and about 2 hours of productive quiet time!

WELL WORTH IT!

Next time I will buy the clay that gets hard in the oven. This is modeling clay and never gets hard. This is why taking pictures is so important!