Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Since we were up after midnight last night (this morning) Keith was the first to tell me Happy Birthday today. Then when I woke Elena up for school, the first thing she said to me was Happy Birthday. She's normally a little grumpy in the mornings and I hadn't thought she'd remember, so I said "Elena, you remembered!!" And she said "Of course I remembered your birthday, Mom. I would be bad if I didn't remember your birthday". (Of course I assured her she wouldn't be, and then thanked her for remembering!) Then when Mari, Téa, and Amya woke up, they all came into our room and sang Happy Birthday to me with Keith. Then Keith took them to the kitchen to make me some breakfast - yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Probably not the most nutritious breakfast, but very yummy. Mari keeps walking up to me and singing Happy Birthday - it's very cute.

And the mail just came and it was ALL for me! A birthday card from Memmie (to which Amya said "She always sends pretty cards"), one from Sally&Ben (to which Amya said "They always send cute cards...usually with dogs" (and this one was no exception)) and one from my mom (to which Amya said "Is my money in there?" (long story, but it was)). Oh and I got a card from Ceci on Monday...the first one to arrive. After I opened the card from my mom and pulled out the 3 gift cards to Target, Bath&Body Works and Old Navy, plus a little cash (THANKS Mom), Keith had something to say - "Hey, is she trying to outdo me or what?" :) Thanks for the cards guys!! Love ya!

So far this is shaping up to be a pretty good birthday. And since it's my last one (I don't plan on getting older than 29), that's a very good thing.

Here's Mari singing to me....


And this is totally unrelated, but we think it's hilarious so I'm including it. We like to play a game we call "Who Says? Who Says?" (Amya made up the name when she was 2). We say a quote from a movie and the first person to correctly name the movie it's from or the character who says it, gets the next turn. Last night Téa came up to me with this gem....

I didn't think to have her say it again and tape it last night, but we got it this morning. I think it's SO funny how she changes her voice for the different parts. In case you can't figure it out, she's singing a line from the "A Whole New World" song in the movie Aladdin. She says "Don't you dare close your eyes (Aladdin's part) and then "A whole new world" (Jasmine's part). Oh and that's chocolate frosting from the cupcakes all over their mouths.

Happy Birthday, Maricela

Okay, this post is over a week late, but better late than never, right?

Maricela turned 2 on July 21. I can't believe my baby is 2!! I guess that means I can't call her my baby anymore. :( She rang in her birthday in style though, with an Oscar worthy hissy fit performance. She has continued to bless us with the joys of hissy-fitting every day since. Honestly, that girl had probably only thrown a hissy fit a few times before, but it's like she thought "I'm gonna show them what the 'terrible twos' are really like, and what better day to start than on my 2nd birthday?" Today she literally threw herself off my bed during a hissy fit because I hadn't put her shoe on the way she wanted it. Luckily she was okay, but falling off the bed only made the fit worse. Argh. Hopefully this will pass quickly. :)

Since my camera died right after I took the picture of her holding her birthday money from Noel, I have no other pictures of her birthday. :( So I've decided to share lots of other pictures to help describe what she's been up to lately.

She loves playing in water, whether it's stomping in puddles, getting Daddy wet with the hose, shooting water guns, or playing in the little pool at the farm.

She LOVES jewelry. She has this pink necklace that she wears EVERYWHERE. She loves to put 'pretties' in her hair (that's what we call ponytails) and she gets into my makeup.

Maricela loves to draw. She scribbles on everything with anything she can get her hands on. We've had to pay for marked up library books, there's a new art gallery on my wall, she colors on herself and her clothes, etc.

She is definitely an eater. She takes after her daddy. Here's she's eating a bean tapatía. Apparently she was more interested in the beans than the tortilla.

She loves to wear pretty dresses and skirts and is always willing to put on a cheesy grin for a picture.

She loves to be outside. Whenever she hears the door open (we have squeaky doors) she starts yelling "Ah-siy" (outside) over and over, while running towards the door.

She's a goofy little girl who loves to make us laugh. We definitely have another Keith Jr. on our hands in that department.

She loves anything that has to do with Princesses. She has this funny way of saying princess, something like "lellellellella". I'll have to get video of her saying it and post it.

Maricela also loves babies. She has to have her baby with her when she goes to sleep and she carries it around with her all day long.

She's also into bugs. She loves to go out with Téa and hunt for roly-polys. She calls them po-wees, and any other bug she sees is a pi-der (spider).

We love our little Maricela and are so glad she is a part of our family! Happy Birthday Mari!!!

p.s. Mom, these photos are big enough to print and should still look good, not all pixelated.

Happy Birthday Téa!!!!!!!

I can't believe my little Téa is three years old! She had so much fun with her birthday this year. She loved us asking her "who's having a birthday?" and "who's going to be 3?"
Here are some pictures of her......
blowing out the candles on her cake (can you tell she'd already gotten into the icing?)

Eating her cake - which is a yellow cake made from scratch, thank you very much. (that's only cause I was out of boxes - I don't know how that happened! :)

opening her birthday box from Gamma and Papa

holding her money from Memmie (which she was VERY excited about)

opening a card from Sally and Ben (she loved the glitter)

And here's a little video of her coloring with the art stuff Gamma sent her. What's that lovely noise in the background you ask? Oh, that's just the other girls fighting over the sweet noise-making piano Gamma sent her. Thanks, Gamma. We love it! (Or should I say, the girls love it, and I am not loving it at all.)

1st birthday

For credits, click here

Happy Birthday Maricela!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe my little baby is one! It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but I guess it has. She is such a sweet little baby and we love her so much. She had a lot of fun at her party today. She ate some cake....

and opened some presents.


She got a little upset with the present opening. All the kids were right up in her face, trying to help her and see what she got, and she started to cry. So we just let the other kids open her presents, and we let her sit down with her new book. Out of all the presents she got, this is the one she has played with the most. I think I have another book lover on my hands, and that couldn't make me happier.


Again, we can't say it enough - We LOVE you Maricela and we're so glad you're a part of our family!

Happy Birthday Téa!!!!!

It's only a month late, but better late than never, right?

Téa had a great 2nd birthday. It was really laidback. We didn't have a big family party, cause it was SO busy. Her birthday is Dec. 3, so it was right before finals for me, and also getting close to Christmas. I didn't have the energy (or time) to throw a huge party for her. But I don't think she cared. Hopefully after next year I can do better parties for her. I don't want her to be one of those kids who felt like their birthday wasn't as important because it was so close to Christmas. Anyway, enough rambling. Here are some pictures.

She's been trying to use the potty lately, so we got her some big girl p*nt*es. She just wears them over her diaper though.

Her big present from us was a little trike. She gets so jealous when the other girls are outside on their bikes and she's not. I saw this little one at Target and had to get it for her. She can pedal backwards, but she needs to practice going forward. :)

My mom sent her a box full of little presents and she was really excited to open that and see all the things just for her.



Téa is SO into coloring right now. She draws on everything (including our walls). My mom sent her some crayons and a coloring book, and I think that was one of her favorite presents. She went right to coloring and spent about half an hour on the floor, filling in her new book. So cute!

After opening presents, we went over to the farm for dinner. Bonnie, Keith's mom, Arax, Aria, Iva's family, and Noel's family were all there. I took a cake over, and while we were singing to her she decided that she wanted to taste the cake.


Obviously, that became her piece! All in all, she had a pretty great day.

Oh, and did you notice the giant bump/bruise right in the middle of her forehead? I don't remember now what happened, but man! It seems like that girl has a new bruise every day.