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!

Dancing Queen!

Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to dance ballet! Well I never did, but I knew if I had a girl that one day I would see if she shared my same dream!

So far Annelise LOVES to dance! She was so excited for her second recital in which she was going to be in two numbers. The first was the tap dance, and the second was the ballet. She definitely preferred the tap over the ballet.

We gave her flowers and a little gift bag with a princess crown and a necklace charm.

This was her and her friends running around dancing at rehearsal.

This year was sooooo different from last year. Her confidence in herself has blossomed, and that is what I was hoping for from taking the classes. I hope she wants to dance for many more years to come so I can live my dream through her... no pressure sweetie! besides I have 2 more girls and Julianna's love of music and dancing looks like we might have two little dancers!

The Good Life!

Years ago Juan was pretty surprised to find out I have never been to South Padre Island, so we decided to go there one day . . .

With the new baby on the way we made a decision that this spring was the best chance we were going to get for a good long while!!!

This is the view from the condo balcony. I was very scared of Julianna jumping off the balcony, so we booked the condo on the lowest floor available! I was smart for insisting on this because as soon as we arrived she pushed a chair to the rail for the big jump into the pool!!!

I know what she is thinking!

Oh we had a great time! I was super relaxed since we were in a small two bed room apartment with very little to clean! It made me realize that all the clutter in my house should disappear if I ever want to feel a fraction of that relaxation at my own home!

I also reconfirmed that I really love Mexicans!!! They are by far the most easy going people ever! I felt the same way we lived in El Paso !

The condos were filled with families from Monterrey and I had a chance to chat with some ladies by the pool. Most of the families had 3 or more kids and ALL had nannies with them. So out of curiosity I asked one of my new friends how much they paid for the nanny. My jaw dropped when she said that the nanny lives with them, cooks, cleans and does laundry for $150.00 U.S. a month!!! No wonder they are so laid back!!!

Easter

We live in a pretty awesome neighborhood! Every year since Annelise was one I have had the neighbors over for a little egg hunt in the backyard.

This was two years ago.

This picture was taken at Annelise's school Easter/Spring show. She really sang her heart out!