Animal Kingdom

On our second day in Florida, we went to the Animal Kingdom. My family had left the day before to drive down to Naples, and they pulled into Orlando around 6 in the morning to crash our hotel room. :) We convinvced them a few hours later to come to the park with us and we got to spend the day there with them. Also our friends, the Roberts family, drove over from Gainesville to hang out with us at the park. We hadn't seen them in over 2 years, so it was fun to spend some time with them.

Right when we got to the park, Rafiki was saying hi to everyone, so we had our picture taken with him. Téa was not very interested in him. She hadn't minded the characters the day before, but something about Rafiki scared her.


The kids got to ride some fun kiddie rides.


Amya played the bongos with her friends Julianna and Ashley.


Here's a group shot of all of us.


Robert, my Dad, Julia and Ellen on the river rapids ride. They got soaked!


We went out to eat with the Roberts' after the park at a restaurant called Jungle Jim's. I have fond memories of this restaurant. When we would go on temple trips, we always used to eat at this restaurant after the temple. So I wanted to make sure I went while we were there.


We had a really good time at Animal Kingdom. While I wouldn't say it was the best park we went to, it was definitely fun to be able to go with (almost) my whole family and spend time with them there.

Maricela's page

Okay, I don't know what was going on with the other post, maybe it was too long with all the journaling or something. But here's the page, and the journaling is two posts down.

For credits, see my 2 peas gallery.

Easter '06

Another page I did.

For credits, see my 2Peas gallery.

Journaling reads: The girls were way too excited about their candy to smile nicely and cooperate with me. Maybe next time I'll let them eat their candy before I try to take their picture.

Maricela's Birth Story

Here's a scrapbook page I did, documenting what happened the day Maricela was born.

**For some reason, it's not letting me load the picture. I'll try again later.**

Here is the journaling:
The alarm went off at 7:00 am. I got up, took a shower, and got ready to go. Dad woke up and he got ready as well. When we were ready to go, we woke up the girls to say good-bye to them before we left for the doctor’s office. When we arrived at the doctor’s office, I was a little nervous that Dr. Liddle would say that I wasn’t dilated enough to have you. We waited for a long time to be checked - it was 9:00 am when we got there, and he didn’t get to me until about 9:40 am. So I had a lot of time to worry. But when he checked me, he said that I was dilated to a 4 and ready to go. He sent us over to the hospital and said that he would be over later to break my water.
We drove straight over to the hospital to check in. They sent us to our room and told me the nurse would be in soon. I changed into my gown and we waited. The nurse put my IV in at 10:30 am. We had to wait an hour before I could get my epidural. When the anesthesiologist arrived, Dad wasn’t there. He had gone to the car to get our cameras so that we would be ready. I didn’t want to get the epidural until he came back, so they had to page him to come to the room. We were waiting for a long time before he got there. He had gone to the wrong floor! Once he got there, they put in my epidural and everything was fine. It was now 11:30 am.
Dad and I watched some tv and basically just realxed in the hospital room. Dr. Liddle finally got to the hospital at 1:30 pm. Dad wasn’t there (he had gone to get some lunch) but he went ahead and broke my water to get things going. At that point, I was dilated to a 6. When Dad came back, I told him that my water was broken and it wouldn’t be long now. He didn’t believe me. He thought that he hadn’t been gone for that long, and was surprised that I’d done that without him there. But I was ready to get you here!
Dr. Liddle waited around in our room because he knew that it would go fast after that. Sure enough, about 45 minutes later, I started feeling my contractions a little bit. They checked me and I was at a 10. Dr. Liddle and the nurse quickly got everything ready to deliver you. Once they had everything in place, they told me to push. I only had to push 4 times to get you out! You were born at 2:33 pm. You weighed 6 lb 13 oz and were 18 1/2 in long. Just a teeny little baby.
We were so excited to see you. And you looked perfect and so beautiful right from the start. The nurse let me hold you for about a minute, then took you over to clean you up. While she was checking you to make sure everything was okay, she said that you were having a hard time keeping your oxygen levels up and that she’d need to take you over to the nursery so they could moniter you. She let me hold you for another few minutes before she took you, but I had to keep an oxygen mask next to your little mouth. Then she and Daddy left with you to go to the nursery. I didn’t get to see you for another 2 hours. But when they brought you back, they said that everything was fine and there was nothing to worry about. What a wonderful blessing you are to our family. We’re so glad to have you here with us and that you are a part of our family, Maricela. We love you so much.

Magic Kingdom

So we'll start with our first day in Florida, which we spent at the Magic Kingdom with Kara. We had so much fun there! The girls loved getting to see the princesses, ride the rides, etc. All in all, I think it was our favorite park, not because it was so much fun for Keith and me, but because it was so fun to watch the girls have so much fun. Make sense? Here's some pics from the day ( I had such a hard time deciding which ones to post!)

Here we are just arriving at the park. Can you see Maricela asleep in the stroller?

We got to meet Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. I don't know why Keith didn't take one of them with the girls. And after Keith turned away, Mr. Smee gave Maricela a kiss. That would have been a cute shot.

Here's Téa giving one of the Tweedle's (Dum or Dee) a kiss.

The girls got their faces painted and they absolutely loved it! Téa had daisies, Elena did Tinkerbell....


and Amya's was a butterfly.


We also got to meet Woody and Jesse.


Here's Keith and me in the stockades.


Keith had a little too much fun on the Buzz Lightyear ride. I think he went on it like 3 times. And it's an interactive ride - you get to shoot at aliens and stuff while you're going through. He scored something like 300,000 points on his last time through. I scored 1300.


And here's Kara and Maricela, in front of Cinderella's castle at night. Am I good at holding the camera steady (to get the cool lighting I couldn't use the flash) or what?

Well, it's 12:54 am and I think I better get to bed. I'll be back tomorrow with another days recap from our Florida trip. If I'm lucky, I'll get it all caught up. We'll see how it goes. I have a three page paper to write that's due on Tuesday. Can you believe my teachers are already assigning big homework things? I'm so not excited about the massive amount of work they're expecting us to do, now that we're in "the program". 3 more semesters, 3 more semesters. That's what I have to keep telling myself. See you tomorrow!

daddy's girl

For credits, see my 2Peas gallery.


Just wanted to post this page that I did today. I'll be back tomorrow with a Disney/Florida/Jenny's wedding recap.

Excuses

I know, I know. I'm a bad blogger. But at least I have an excuse - I have a new baby. For a few weeks before I had Maricela, I would use the excuse "I'm going to have a baby soon" for almost everything. Keith was starting to make fun of me - he said I'd been saying that since the first day I found out I was pregnant. Now I have the excuse of "I just had a baby". We'll see how long I can milk that.

My mom was out for a week. We had a lot of fun with her.

(I had another picture I was going to post, of her with the other girls and blogger won't let me. I'll try to add that one later.) The girls were really excited to get to spend time with Gamma. After we dropped her off at the airport, Elena cried almost the whole way home. "I want Gamma...Why can't Gamma stay with us...When will Gamma come back". Then the next morning, she got up early like she had been doing for the past week, and I heard her wandering the house, saying "Gamma where are you? Gamma let's read". It was sad.

And we leave tomorrow to go to Florida, so I won't be back until next week. My sister Jenny is getting married, so we're going down for the wedding, and a trip to Disneyworld. The girls are SO excited. So I'll be back with lots of pictures.

For now, here's the first scrapbook page I've done for Maricela. This picture was taken on July 23, she was 2 days old. She smiles so much!! I've even been able to catch more smiles than this one. She is one happy little girl.

For credits, see my 2Peas gallery.

Recent Pics

I just wanted to post a few pics from the last couple days.

Here are Amya and Elena at the juice stand that they made. The little boy is our neighbor from across the street. He went around on his bike to all the other neighbors, asking if they wanted to come buy some lemonade from our girls. Keith bought a glass from both of them and one other neighbor came over to buy a glass as well. The little boy bought some, then asked for his money back. :P They were charging a dollar a glass! Keith said it was worth it, cause they filled up the whole cup. Anyway, he was very proud of their entrepreneurial skills.

Téa was so excited that Marisela was giving her 'kisses'. I didn't want to spoil her fun and tell her that she was really just looking for some milk.

Apparently, Maricela thought that there could be milk in her hat as well. Sadly, she was mistaken.

Introducing.....

Maricela Kathleen Vallejo

July 21, 2006
6 lb 13 oz
18 1/2 in

We came home on Sunday, and she's been sleeping and eating really well.

Back later with more pics.

2 MORE DAYS!!!! I can't believe I only have two more days left before I'm the mother of four. I don't know if I'm ready. The last few days I've been on a cleaning spree. I've gotten all the baby clothes out, washed, folded and put them all away. The bed, the swing, and the carseat have all been cleaned and are ready. The house is looking pretty clean (cause we know Keith won't do any major cleaning while I'm in the hospital, so I had to get it ready beforehand.)

Let's see, is there anything else? Oh yeah, a name. We still don't have one. ACK!!!! I've given Keith plenty of names to choose from that I like, and he says he doesn't really like any of them. He only has about two that he kind of likes, but I don't really like those.

Just in case anyone's wondering (and so that we can have it down to remember later) here is a list of names that I like and the reasons Keith doesn't like them.

Ariana - probably my favorite, Keith says no because he has a sister named Aria and the names are too similar. But everyone calls her Edia, so it's not that big of a problem, but he says no.

Eva - again, he has a sister named Iva, so he says it's too similar.

Iliana - too much like Elena.

Celia - he doesn't really like this, but likes Cecilia. I have an aunt named Cecilia (she goes by Ceci) so I'm not sure how that's ok, and the others aren't, but oh well. I kinda like Cecilia, but it's definitely not one of my favorites right now, so I'm trying for others.

Mariela - he says this is the only one that he sort of likes. But really, he likes Marisol. There are two reasons we're not using Marisol. One - it's the name of one of his high school girlfriends that he kissed. Two - (if number one didn't matter to me...and it does) it doesn't end in an "a", so it doesn't really match with the other girls. I'm looking for a name that goes - the other three all sound alike at the end, I think it'd be weird to have something else for the fourth. Example: "Here's Amya, Elena, Téa, and Shannon." See how it doesn't fit?

Talia - he says it's too ghetto. Whatever that means. (I also like Natalia, but someone in our ward just named their baby that a month ago, and I don't want to copy them)

Sariah - (a name from the Book of Mormon, pronounced Sar-i-ah). I also like the Spanish version, which is Saríah (pronounced Sar-ee-ah, emphasis on the "ee") but he says no. Doesn't really have a reason, just no.

Aaliyah - I don't know if that's how I'd spell it, or if I'd figure out another way to spell it, but again, too ghetto.

So there's my list of names. He only has the two (Cecilia and Marisol). Since I've carried this baby for 9 months (and in this current sweltering heat it's not easy) I think I should have a little more say. But apparently I don't. I guess this baby will be coming home nameless as well (Téa didn't have a name for 2 weeks, also Keith's fault), unless we figure something out before Sunday. (I will be having her on Friday, then I plan on taking advantage of my full 48 hour stay at the hospital - free food and no chasing after the kids for two days - you better believe I'm doing that.)What else, what else....

Kara's here. She got in last night. The girls are really excited to be spending time with her. Amya is VERY excited to go scrapbooking with her. She keeps asking Kara if she knows where the scrapbook store is. She wants to make sure that they won't get lost on the way there, I guess.

I think this post has been long enough. I might come back later with some recent pics. It's just so hot in our upstairs (where the computer is) that I haven't felt like coming up here lately. Also, if you read through this whole long post, and have any name suggestions (that end in "a"), please let me know. I'm getting a little desperate.

Names

Téa can now say Elena. Well actually, she says "Nena". We just got Elena to stop saying "nena" and now that's what Téa says. Oh well, it's sweet that she's trying to say her sister's name. Amya's pretty jealous - I keep hearing her say "Téa, say ay-a. Téa, can you say Amya?" Maybe she'll be able to teach her quickly. After all, it didn't take them long to teach her to say crack. No news on the baby name front - we still can't agree on anything. And we have less than two weeks left.

read

I started this page awhile ago, and forgot to finish it. So I finally finished it tonight. Téa still carries that book around with her a lot. It's one of her favorites - Ten Little Ladybugs in spanish, a present for the girls from Aunt Kara. (Pics are from April 1.)

For credits, go to my 2Peas gallery.

spring beauty

just a page I did today. This is Téa, back in April, sitting in the field by our house. Now I need to do a page that has all the outtakes from trying to get this shot. :)

For credits, go to my 2Peas gallery.

We don't...

So we've had a virus go through our house the past weekend. Everybody has been feeling sick, except Elena. (Now I'm jinxing her) Last night, Amya threw up all over their little Dora couch. Here's what Elena had to say about it.

"Mom, I don't like that awful stuff. Clean it up!!"

"Amya, we don't throw up on the couch. It's awful. Go to the potty."