The Rest...

After our fun and interesting camping trip, we spent the next few days of our vacation hanging out and doing fun stuff around here.

Julie has started playing an online letters game that she loves! She has figured out how to do the mouse on my laptop and plays away. I sit there and help her if she needs it, but she can do most of it on her own. She loves choosing the letters and playing the little games.
She has also been such a trooper doing her Nebulizer. Well, most of the time anyway.
On the last day off together, I asked Julie what she wanted to do. She said go to gymnastics (which we always do on Thursday) and go to the BIG ZOO! That is what she calls the Santa Barbara Zoo. So we went. It was great to be there on a week day when there was no one around.

The kids got to feed the giant coy in the pond. We had never noticed them before, so it was a new experience.
Ummm, when did my baby get so big?? Look at him!!!
Julie loves going to the big zoo because the have giraffes. Her favorite animal ever is the giraffe. So we were so excited to hear that there were 2 new baby giraffes that came to live there. They were just about as big as the grownup, but they are still beautiful. Julie decided one of them should be named "Bird" Apparently she takes after her mother in the naming of animals.

So that was our family vacation. Luckily, we have another one coming up in just a couple weeks because my sweet little cousin is getting MARRIED!!

Vacation....So Far

Both John and I are on vacation this week, YAY! So we have been doing stuff all week. On Saturday we had a huge yard sale and Lina and the girls came to sell a bunch of stuff. Both my kids love baby Audrey and Julie was really excited to hold her. Which meant that Julie was sitting still for two minutes, so I took a great picture of all four kids!
Then, Sunday, we packed up and headed out to Santa Margarita lake for some camping. Julie had been coughing a bit the few days before, but she seemed fine, so we went for it. Doesn't this look like a boy who has been camping?? And we had only been out there about an hour when this picture.
We had a water faucet right in our campsite...so the kids were happy!
We had a beautiful camp site, this is the view right out of the RV. The weather was awesome, perfect for a walk.
And walk is what we did. The kids enjoyed the scenery.
John made us some awesome hot dogs. Luckily he had plenty of supervision, so they turned out delicious!
This is also about the time where we discovered that Andy is allergic (maybe not allergic, but reacted to the smoke by having his whole face swell up to the point where he can barely see). So we had the fastest smores ever and put the fire out.

Then, that night Julie's cough got really bad. So we kept giving her inhaler and went to bed. about midnight, she woke up SCREAMING! (little back story, when I take medicine, I sometime have night terrors, or hallucinate to the point where I can't even tell what is real. When Julie was in the hospital, she was doing the same thing.) It was obvious that she was having a night terror and was inconsolable. She kept saying "Bad dreams, bad dreams!!" And not waking up enough to be consoled. So John took her home to sleep in her own bed (the good thing about camping 20 minutes away from home).

After a decent night sleep, John and Julie came back, we had breakfast, then packed up and went home.
When we got home, we got unpacked and hit the beach! It was such a beautiful day. The kids had so much fun playing in the water. We could not keep Andy from trying to dive head first into the water!

This morning's activity was taking Julie to the doctor to try to figure out this coughing thing. Basically they think that she has something along the line of allergy induced asthma. She is on a Nebulizer for a while and some allergy meds. Hopefully that will make her breath easier. Other than that, we have been having a great vacation so far!

BBQ for Baby Cisneros (And His Parents)

Last weekend we had a beautiful Baby barbecue for Brian and Christina. Gion (Brian's Mom) did an amazing job putting everything together. It was so fun to have everyone there to celebrate their soon to be here baby boy!

Here are the soon to be parents! I wish I got a great picture of the bump, but alas, I did not.... Brian and Christina both put a lot of work in as well...I walked around and took pictures....

I did help Aunt Sue make some delicious lemonade! Phil and Gion had juiced a bunch of lemons and froze them. So we combined that with water and simple syrup. There was much taste testing involved and it turned out great!

Friends of the Cisneros Family has these awesome flags that we put up all over the yard. They were a great addition.

Look at that yard. Seriously, Phil and Gion can put on a party!

Amazing!

Kids are drawn to Beth. She has two blondies of her own, but she seems to collect them everywhere!

Look at that haul! Woohoo!

Speaking of collecting kids....Brian made the mistake of telling Julie she could help open gifts. She leaped at the opportunity.

The rest of the party ooohing and ahhhing over the gifts.

This was a fun, relaxed, beautiful and scrumptious shower. We had a great time all day.

I still can't believe my best friend is going to be a Mommy!! I am so excited for all of them, for Christina and Brian to experience the fun and craziness of being parents and for baby Cisneros to meet all the people who already love him so much!

Talking

Our house has been full of noise the last few days! I can not believe how much my children talk!!

Andy is really starting to pick up on words. He attempts "please" and "thank you" at the appropriate time. I walked into his room to get him up from a nap yesterday and he was flicking the light switch saying "on, off, on, off" He says "hi" to EVERYONE! He says "Hi Dad" and "Hi Mom" and "Hi Sis". This morning, we were walking through the park and he said "walk" then he dropped his cup and shouted "Spill!!!" So a few more to add to his vocabulary. He is such a smartie.

Julie continues to amaze me with what she says and what she thinks about. We were walking up to the pay structure today and Memere and I were asking her who her TV person was. We asked was it Dora? She said, "No, she is not my favorite!" I asked her if Elmo was her favorite? She said, "No, he is not my favorite, I only have one favorite. My favorite is you guys, my family!!!" Yeah, melted us into mush! Sweet girl.

In other news, Julie is starting a new school tomorrow! We have been questioning for a while if her old school was the right place for her right now. She really just seemed to outgrow it and her class in the last few months. So we looked around and found a school that we are all very excited about. It uses the same curriculum as the school district and puts kids in class according to skills and not just age. We are really excited for her to learn and grow in her new class and make many new friends!

She is very excited too! Ever since we told her she would be going to this school, she keeps bringing it up. Like "Tomorrow I need a lunch for my new school." And "I need to wash my hands so they are not sticky for school tomorrow" I hope that she stays excited about school and that this one continues to challenge her!

Updates to follow!!

Lost and Found

While I was getting myself together this morning, Julie let Andy our of our room. And I couldn't find him for long enough to make me nervous.

But I found him, safe and sound.

Sass n Smarts

Julie has been saying some outrageous things lately. Things that I NEVER want to forget.

At gymnastics last week, she was patiently waiting her turn for the trampoline. The grandpa of the little boy jumping noticed how patient she was and said, "Just a few more jumps, then it is your turn Sweetie."

She gave him a glare that could cut ice and said, "I"m not your Sweetie."

My mom took her to the nursery to buy some flowers this week. The lady behind the counter commented how lucky her grandma was to have all this help. Julie quickly informed her that "my Grandma is old and does not work, this is my Memere and she has a job!!" (Sorry Anne, I had to share, that is just too awesome!)

But the funniest thing I have heard in a very long time, out of her mouth or otherwise, was tonight. We went to Justin and Audrey's house for dinner and she and Uncle Jus were being silly before dinner. She asked to see Justin's tummy. He lifted his shirt and Julie was in awe of the massive amount of hair.

She exclaimed, "You have a beard on your tummy!!!!"

We cracked up! But then, Justin asked, "Does your Daddy have a beard on his tummy?"

She replied, "No, he just has whiskers!"

Now that is one smart girl!! And I can't get enough of her smarts....or her sass!

Eli's Birthday Gift....and Ozwald

Ok, so I can almost post a blog about the fun projects I have been doing for all the babies in our lives, but just a few more days! I don't want to spoil anything.

But, on April 1st our friend April had a beautiful baby boy they named Elias. I got to go see him the day after he was born and of course I couldn't go empty handed, so he got a little softie. And, I would also like to introduce Ozwald. Made out of left over material from Bess's Christmas gift 2 years ago and a pair of John's pants. He is all for fun. He sits on the back of our couch until someone feels the need to throw him.

More fun sewing projects to come!

Easter!!

Our Easter morning started out with getting all gussied up and heading to church.

I made this necktie for the big man out of one of John's old shirts(poor John, his side of the closet always gets raided when I need fabric for a project). He looked so handsome! I kept saying he looked like a weather man. Uncle Justin said a basketball coach. Either way, he was adorable. And the tie had Velcro in the back, for safety and ease.
Here is a picture of both of them. We are still working on the whole "ladylike" thing.
There was an egg hunt at church. By this time, Julie was a pro.
Andy was much more excited about the castle play house. Cutie.
The Easter Bunny came right about the time Daddy got home (he is so thoughtful). The kids got some super fun baskets.

The Scary Monster!
And the Monkey Girl....post Cadbury Egg.
Then when the family got here, we had a little egg hunt out in the yard. If you look to the left of Julie you can see my first tulip coming up! I shouldn't really call it mine because when Grandpa Mel was watching Andy one day, they planted flowers all over the yard! We have a bunch of daffodils already. I LOVE them!!

Andy and more of Grandpa's soon to be flowers.
No holiday is complete without cupcakes!!!!
That, along with a major sugar high, completed our Easter! A great holiday with great family and friends.

Hunters Hunting

This morning we met up with Heather, Joe, Lina, Audrey, Matt, Tania, Anna, the Boys and the Easter Bunny for some egg hunting!!!

We got a great family picture with the Bunny himself! Julie was a fan...Andy was questionable. He was fine as long as he could see him. I helped Andy find some eggs.

He was so proud.

Then it was Julie's turn. We let her go on her own and she was so into it!

And excited...as yo can tell....

After everyone had their eggs, Julie made a couple adorable necklaces, Andy blew many bubbles, the girls jumped in a bounce house, and we had to say goodbye....

Can you feel the love?? Seriously.

Yeah, this is how much fun we had...can we go back again tomorrow??????