Elise's First Day of First Grade

Another big milestone in the bag! Elise began her first day of first grade on August 19, 2015, and I am so proud of our girl. She is so open to change and new experiences and even though she's a bit shy, she always give me the look as if to say, "mom, I got this". I was a very shy kid and more than likely cried and was anxious on my first day of school up until 4th grade, so I'm happy that she has so much confidence and I hope it's something that she continues to embrace until she's grown. She had a great first day and was happy to be in class with one of her Kindergarten friends as well!

Excited for her first day of 1st grade!

Happy 4th Birthday Alina!

Our adorable little four-year-old birthday girl, Alina!

Happy 4th Birthday to our littlest baby girl, Alina! It seems like such a short time ago when she was placed in our arms for the very first time. I could tell from the start that she had a special little spirit. She was the easiest baby and almost never made a fuss over anything. She was a very active and inquisitive toddler, but one thing always remained central; her thoughtful personality. Four years later and she still really is the sweetest girl with the biggest heart! She never went through terrible twos or the tantrum stage, which has been amazing for mom and dad. Her favorite saying is, "momma, no matter how big I get I will always be your baby". It gets me every time. We had a fun Sleeping Beauty theme birthday party for her last weekend with her close friends and family. She had the BEST day!

Raising her and watching her grow these past four years has brought so much joy to our lives. She loves swimming, riding her scooter and bike, playing with her princess dolls, drawing, gymnastics and finding other fun outlets to get her energy out. She is excellent at coloring and very meticulous about staying within the lines and using the brightest colors possible. She now recognizes all the letters in the alphabet and has started sounded out words and associating them to each letter. I feel like reading is on the horizon for her soon! She loves to learn, but also has such a playful spirit and thoroughly enjoys immersing herself in imaginary play. She is a great caretaker to all her dolls and toys and makes sure they never get lonely. While we celebrate four, at the same time I find myself wanting to bottle up her sweetness and adorable little high pitched girl voice. I find that we dote on the words and phrases she says because she truly has the most optimistic and positive view on the world and how things work. She is growing up so quick, but I have a feeling that her sweet nature and thoughtful spirit will always remain a central part of who she is. We love you Alina, Happy 4th Birthday!

We love you, sweet birthday princess!

The Girls Gymnastics Summer Olympics

Little medalists

Performing in the Summer Olympics challenge at gymnastics

Out of all the sports that the girls have tried, one stands out above all the rest; gymnastics. The girls started up gymnastics again earlier this summer and they have been loving every moment of it. I've had them both in teams sports and I think Alina is still a bit too young to really get in competition mode, while Elise does not like being aggressive whatsoever and she usually will fall back to the rest of the team in most cases. With gymnastics, I think they really enjoy challenging themselves and I am proud as I've seen so much improvement from the both of them. Elise has been working on her bridge and cartwheels, she's got great form now and much more flexibility. Alina is a little ball of energy at gymnastics class. She is excellent on the bars and can flip herself over easily now. Their gym recently hosted a mini Summer Olympic challenge for the kids. They both got to do some circuits and an ending floor routine, which left mom and dad very impressed. They were excited to receive their medals. I look forward to watching these little gymnasts grow and progress even further! 

Alina preparing for the podium

Alina showing off her medal

Elise & Alina's New Room

Elise & Alina's new shared big girl room!

The girls are officially roommates now! This is the result of months of debating on what to do to make our tight four bedroom home work to accommodate baby brother on the way and still maintain our office work space. They both expressed excitement over the prospect of a bunk bed although initially they weren't exactly keen on sharing spaces and toys (mostly Elise, who's been used to having her own room for the past 6 years). We're happy with the end result, mainly because we found a nice quality bunk bed that works well for the space and being a twin/full combo they can grow with it over the next few years. I had to get plenty of photo documentation as this may be the cleanest we see their room EVER again...hah! We are now working on turning Alina's old room into baby brother's nursery. More photos to come once his nursery is finished. Stay tuned...

Their lovely cherry hutch and floral chic bedroom decor

More shared spaces and the view from Elise's top bunk

Happy 6th Birthday Elise!

Celebrating with our big 6-year-old birthday girl, Elise!

Six years ago our oldest child, Elise, was born and she’s turned our world into something new ever since. We’ve experienced all the first big milestones with her and have watched her grow from a tiny newborn into a very intelligent, driven and fun-loving young girl. Although she’s only 6 years old, I feel like she’s matured so much that she’s 6 going on pre-teen. She loves school, reading, swimming (just about every day she can), riding her bike, golf, gymnastics, legos and play dates with her little friends; and I feel like the friends part will start taking over pretty soon, so we certainly plan to cherish these last few years that we still have with her as mommy and daddy’s best friend. 

Elise is such a little character with a very independent spirit when it comes to what she likes and wants. We are rarely able to influence her or change her mind/opinion; the girl is steadfast as far as her determination goes. I used to think it was more of a challenging quality, but over these past years I've learned to embrace the fact that she is so decisive and driven. She is naturally a bit shy, but she never refuses to participate or embrace a new experience, which makes me very proud. It's her high level of determination that drives her to be brave and speak up rather than retreating when faced with uncomfortable situations. She is one tough girl. She celebrated her birthday party earlier this month and truly adored sharing the day with all her wonderful friends and family! Our girl is growing up so fast. We love you Elise, Happy 6th Birthday!

Enjoying her Wacky Tacky party with great little friends

Elise's Kindergarten Graduation - June 2015

Elise is going to miss her wonderful K teacher and class!

Special gifts for her teacher

What a whirlwind Kindergarten year it has been! I recall the first day of school like it was last week. Elise had such an incredible Kindergarten teacher, class and overall experience that I feel like any future year will be quite difficult to live up to. She has learned so much and grown by leaps and bounds both academically and socially. Her reading is far beyond anything I had expected at this age. She was already reading short books by the start of Kindergarten, but her learning really took off and she breezed through all her sight words, and moved on to spelling them all by year end. She rarely even needs help with big words anymore. We are so impressed with her determination and drive and thankful that she had such a supportive teacher who challenged her to continue her growth and learning. It was an emotional day, but she is looking forward to summer camp and seeing many of her friends at summer parties and play dates. Here's looking forward to first grade 2015.

Little classmates/friends at Kindergarten graduation

Visiting with her schoolmate and old neighborhood pal

Her amazing art and school work portfolio; proud mama here

The Four Month Baby Bump

The 20 week baby boy bump

Stats:  I've made it to 20 weeks, uncomfortably, but hooray. I took the Maternit21 test at 10 weeks and we learned that we're having a baby boy back in early April (around 13 weeks). It's somewhat crazy to be able to find out this early now AND with 99% accuracy. We did a baby gender reveal, which we hadn't done in the past with the girls, and the surprise reveal was quite a special moment to celebrate along with family. Baby boy is due to arrive October 19, 2015. He will be six years younger than Elise and four years younger than Alina. The age differences mean I will have a couple of great little helpers when he arrives.

How I feel this time around: Nauseous. I will admit that morning sickness with our little guy has been less than the extremes I had with the girls, but I've still suffered through it and there have been plenty of mornings where I've just felt plain awful. Even though I am 20 weeks, I am still throwing up here and there. I'm hoping to be over most of it soon because I don't have the luxury of much free time  while working and taking care of two kids. Also, I am carrying pretty high with him, so most my clothes are already fitting uncomfortably. Time to go shopping.

Food cravings: Steak. It's the only actual craving I've had this entire time and I started having it around 8-9 weeks, so well before we learned it was a boy. I suspected it may have been a boy based off this odd craving, because with the girls all I craved was lemons and fruit. I typically eat red meat maybe once a month at most, but the craving of steak cooked in butter and garlic has been pretty strong. I even like the smell of it cooking.

Weight gain: Let's not even go there...HAH! Ok, so I feel about twice the size with baby boy as I did with the girls. I am just blaming this on the fact that I haven't been able to work out and that he's my third baby. My belly definitely popped out much early than it did with the girls. My appetite has been more extreme and I've had less morning sickness than I did with the girls. I probably need to cut myself some slack here, he's a growing boy and I will continue to fuel "his"/my appetite.

Special moments - I haven't felt a ton of movement just yet, but if I lie back on the sofa we can now see my belly button dip out and back in depending on how much he is moving inside. It's cool to watch, just knowing that he's becoming very active in there. We are still celebrating the fact that will get the opportunity to experience having a little boy. I have enjoyed every moment raising our two girls and all kids are different personalities regardless of gender, but on the same note it will be fun to partake in the active rough and tumble aspect that I hear so much about. I also have had so many moms tell me of the pure love and sweetness that they share with their boys and I am looking forward to claiming this little guy as my mama's boy!

Happy Mother's Day X 3!

It's a BOY!!!

We have some exciting news to share, we are expecting a new baby due to arrive in October. We had a fun little reveal party with our family recently and are very excited to announce that: It's a BOY! The girls are thrilled to welcome their new little brother later this year, and I can't express how much joy we feel to be blessed with this sweet little baby; our son. 

Celebrating Mother's Day as a mom, not only to our two beautiful and sweet girls, but also to this new special little life has me feeling very honored and grateful. The journey to get here has not been the easiest, but I am thankful every single day that we made it. I also have to admit that I was so surprised to see blue on top of that cake. Being a mom to two girls has made me practically color blind to anything but pink (haha). Dad is also very happy to have a new boy on the way to help balance out all the female energy in the house. The girls, I know, will make great big sisters and mini-moms in training. They are already wanting to help decorate his room, pick out baby clothes and debate over who gets to hold him first. I look forward to seeing how the household dynamic shifts when he arrives. I know the girls will be very interested in taking care of him and always be there to protect him. We are very eager to meet you little man, and experience all the joys that you will bring to our family!

Beautiful flowers

Alina's First Dance Class

Alina loves her Saturday ballet and tap class

Adorable little dancer, Alina

Sweet little Alina started her first preschool dance class this month, and just look at her huge smile! She loves to dance and especially enjoys her new class as it is taught by the dance teacher that works at her preschool. She loves getting to dance at preschool and is very happy to be going to dance class on weekends now too. She makes the cutest little bun-haired ballerina and is so eager and excited to learn all the new dance steps and moves. We sure love our tiny dancer in the making!

All smiles while practicing her dance moves

Alina's First Horseback Ride

Alina was very excited to ride her very first horse

Happy little Alina on horseback

The girls enjoyed grooming then painting the horse!!

Elise was hesitant to ride at first, but went for it in the end

She was so happy afterwards that she gave the horse a hug!

Celebrating Daddy's Birthday with the Girls First Ski Trip!

Enjoying our very first family ski/snowboard trip!

Our two little snow bunnies ready to hit the slopes

Mama before hitting the slopes on a solo run

We celebrated Daddy's birthday with our very first family ski/snowboard trip! This year the girls were both at ages where we felt comfortable letting them hit the slopes and hit the slopes they did...literally ;)  I think we both burned close to 2000 calories that day helping them down the slopes, picking them up when they fell, recovering lost skis, smoothing over bruised egos AND bodies. I'm glad we decided on starting them off on skis because I could see this being much more difficult had they been on snowboards. The good news is that after a very long morning of falling and picking themselves back up, they finally started getting it by the last couple runs of the day! They didn't want to leave in the end, so we consider that success. 

I know for a fact that the next time we bring them up we will invest in ski or snowboard lessons. I think with a few more trips that these two will become avid little skiers or snowboarders. Unfortunately, for us in California this is one of the warmest winters we've had in years. There really isn't much snow up in the Sierras and it was warm all day long. Of course, I've been reading about record breaking cold temperatures elsewhere around the US, and have to say that we would gladly absorb some of those cold temperatures. We are certainly missing the snow and fresh powder here in the Sierras. Here's hoping that we get a few more storms this season.

About every 10 feet, this happened! They're little troopers though

Fun in the snow: perfect way to celebrate Daddy's birthday

The girls got in a bit of sled fun before heading home

Elise's First Visit From the Tooth Fairy

Elise's 1st visit from The Tooth Fairy - $10 sparkly dollars

Elise was very excited when she discovered her first loose tooth a few months ago. We expected it to fall out within a month, but despite all her wiggling it didn't quite happen that way. Instead, her adult tooth started growing in behind her baby tooth, so the dentist recommended that she get the baby tooth pulled since it was unlikely to fall out on its own. Elise did well at the dentist, there were definitely some tears, but overall she was very excited once her tooth was out and the dentist placed it in a special tiny treasure box for her to bring home.

Later that evening before bed, we read a story about Tooth Fairies and how they love to collect teeth to build their castles in the sky and how they always leave a very special gift behind as a thank you. Elise was so excited that she had a difficult time falling asleep that night. She carefully placed her tiny tooth in her special lost tooth pillow, and drifted off to dreamland. She was thrilled to wake up in the morning and find that a Tooth Fairy came to take her tooth and left a sparkly $10 dollar bill in its place along with a special thank you note. She now has a second loose tooth and is determined to wiggle it as much as can be, so the Tooth Fairy will come visit once again.

Elise's First Day of Kindergarten

Elise's First Day of Kindergarten - August 13, 2014

Elise started her first day of Kindergarten just over two weeks ago. Truth be told, I was far more nervous on her first day than she was. I tossed and turned the entire night before school. I wondered, would she like Kindergarten, her teacher and her classmates? Would she cry when we left her and miss being at preschool with her little sister? The day finally came and she woke up happy and excited that morning. She picked out a very cute outfit and matching headband, and carefully placed all her school supplies in her shiny new backpack (which she was thrilled to carry). She brought a bright red apple as a gift for her Kindergarten teacher, and was all smiles walking to class that first day with mom and dad by her side. We got to stay for the first half hour to meet her teacher and visit her classroom. The second Elise met her new Kindergarten teacher, she warmed to her immediately. Elise offered her the shiny red apple, and got a great big hug in return. Her teacher loved it! When it was time for us to leave, there were no tears or looks of concern, Elise just gave us a big smile and waved us off. We were so proud of our brave girl on her first big day, and the best part was getting to hear all about her first week. She has already made a few little friends and loves to share stories from home with her teacher. We call tell it will be a great year. Here's to new beginnings and plenty of special milestones.

Elise's Kindergarten Favorites

Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet Alina!

Our adorable little Alina at 3-years-old!

Happy 3rd birthday to our sweet little Alina! From the moment she was delivered into our arms, she's been just the greatest joy and love of our lives. She was the happiest and most mellow little baby, with the face of a sweet little doll and the most playful/good-natured personality. She always given us big smiles and laughs. Her genuine little laugh is truly one of the best sounds imaginable. She was also our early walker at 9-months-old. She's been pushing to keep up with her big sister since birth and she truly excels at everything she does.

As a two-year-old, she was our inquisitive little climber and daredevil; always pushing the limits. She was virtually fearless and rarely slowed down. She loved climbing (and still does)! If she could climb it she would, and the girl would scale things like they were of no consequence. We were always surprised by where we would find her, because she found ways to climb up the counter or in her closet to get things she shouldn't be into. Sneaky little thing. Despite her pent up energy and curiosity, she's always been the sweetest little love bug. She took excellent care of all her baby dolls and always displayed her innate desire to nurture and calm those around her. In fact, when I last asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she responded, "I want to be a mommy just like you, and I want to take care of little babies". Not gonna lie that this had me in tears of joy, and it really highlights her loving and nurturing personality. She's definitely going to be a wonderful mommy someday, and this brings me so much happiness.

At three-years-old, she is the kindest and most loving little girl with an unparalleled love for all things Mickey and Minnie Mouse. She had a great time celebrating last month, with all her friends and family, at her Mickey and Minnie Mouse party too! She moved up into the bigger class in preschool several months before her third birthday because she was already ready and determined. Her best friend in preschool is Annie and they are like two peas in pod, little friends with birthdays only a week apart. She loves making art projects at preschool and is excellent at coloring, she has nearly mastered staying in the lines and has even started writing her name. She loves to stay active too, whether its playing outside, showing off her gymnastic talents on the playground trapeze, riding her bike and scooter in the court or just running through the grass on a little mini mission. We've embraced her boundless energy and know that someday she will be out little athletic star. She brings us countless moments of joy every day, and we are so proud and happy to have been blessed with this adorable little angel. We love you so much sweet girl. Happy Birthday baby doll Alina!

She's our big girl now, but I love that I still see her baby face here

 

Elise's Preschool Graduation - August 2014

Proud family with our little preschool graduate, Elise

With our grad - 1st of many to come!

Enjoying the ceremony with her preschool classmates

  

 

Well, we've reached that first big and extra special milestone, because as of last weekend Miss Elise is now a preschool graduate! Ever since her very first day at Montessori preschool, she has excelled. It's amazing just how much she's learned and grown, both socially and academically, since she started at a mere 18-months-old. She is already reading, and I'm not talking simple sight words, but 5+ letter words with very little help from mom and dad. She's learned so much in other areas as well, and can even recite full songs in Spanish thanks to her wonderful preschool teacher. 

I am so grateful for all she has learned, but perhaps the area where I've seen the most growth is in her social development. She's always been fairly reserved and apprehensive to partake in new activities or engage with others. For this reason, it was especially important for us to ensure that she gains independence and gets the opportunity to interact and socialize with other kids of her own age. I can't begin to express just how happy it makes me to hear her recount daily stories of all her school yard games, classmates, and adventures. She really loves each and every one of her preschool friends and will miss them all dearly. Of course, it goes without saying she will miss her preschool teacher, Miss Maria, the most of all. She gives her a hug every single day before she leaves, and if she ever forgets, she makes up for it with two the following day. She really adores Miss Maria and the feeling is certainly mutual, she expressed just how much she will miss her hugs. We are so proud of our 2014 preschool graduate. Kindergarten here we come!

Elise during the ceremony, and proud sister Alina

Elise with her preschool teacher

Celebrating Class of 2014, plus her sweet gifts to her teachers

Elise is Almost Five!

Little beauty Elise at almost five-years-old

Having fun on the swing

Sisters bonding...and smiles

Sister hugs are the absolute best

Elise will be turning five-years-old in just a few days! I still can't believe how much she's learned and matured in these five short years. I took some photos this past weekend and stopped in my tracks when looking back through them on the computer. I no longer see a little girl and instead a sweet young lady, who is yearning to grow up and dress her prettiest at all times. I have to admit, that I got teary eyed seeing how beautiful she looked in these photos. She is still very much a child and has those adorable childlike qualities, but we are also slowly seeing aspects of her maturity and growth. Aside from being very tall for her age, she now has what I like to call the "grown-up voice", she talks in complex sentences and now tells stories dispersing the occasional colloquialisms throughout (for some reason this makes me feel as if she is five going on fifteen). She also makes very intelligent inferences from the things we say, and spelling things out won't always get past her anymore.

Our girl can read all by herself now and she only needs help with big words. I hope Kindergarten will be challenging enough, because she has aced every single one of those simple 1-4 letter site words. She is so inquisitive about the world and how things work; she's a definite thinker. She is still a little ball of emotion though! I will say that she has come a very long way from the tantrum laden days of past, but she is still quite emotionally driven and strives for perfection and order (according to her interpretation). All this said, I see a very sweet and very determined young lady at the core of it all. I am so proud of her for all the things she has accomplished in these last five years. She is setting a great example for little Alina to follow, and she is even helping teach her how to read small words. I am so grateful for both of our sweet girls, and for the very special bond that they share.

Sharing secrets

Serious look, but I love it as I see a glimpse of her baby face

All smiles, she brings so much joy to our lives