It's so hard to believe that we are almost half way finished with 2012!  Seanna's 4th birthday is rapidly approaching and she is planning her party already.  It's been a busy spring for all of us and no exception with Seanna.  She took a trip to see her Grandmother Kathryn a few weeks back in Tucson and played with her cousins and her sister for a few days.  She LOVES airplane rides too and is an amazing traveller.  A few weeks later, she and mommy were able to spend just some mommy /daughter time together as she accompanied me back to Ohio for Baby B's 1st bday party.  We spent several days in Ohio visiting friends and family.  It was wonderful and a very special bonding time for us both.  We returned and we began her swimming lessons again (same Coach as last year) but this year she was the "leader" of her group and did amazingly well with her pulls and is able to do breast stroke and breath an entire length of the pool.  She is passionate about swimming and tennis and I honestly believe one of these sports may be in her future.  She has also signed up for soccer league this year and we are excited to see how she does.  The two weeks of swim lessons are over and she passed with flying colors.  She even got to hold Coach Mike's Gold Medal that he won for the 1500 m freestyle back when he was a freshman in college!  Pretty cool.  Last person to see the medal was Sir Paul McCartney!!  Awesome if I do say so myself.

School year is winding down and she is ready to be out for the summer.  We are working on her letters and numbers and it was pretty cool to watch her write her very own name a few months back.  She is smart as a whip and loves to read and is equally a jokester like her sister (who is only 17 months now but tries to keep up with her every move)!

2012 and moving quickly

Oh boy!! We are all SOOO happy to see 2011 end as it was quite a year filled with too many challenges for us.  We welcomed 2012 in style and embracing our new goals for the upcoming year.  To wrap up 2011, the flood in our home ended up being about a 4 month process.  We lived on concrete and without furniture right up until the week before Xmas.  We lived at home during the entire process as it was too hard for the girls to live in a hotel and so we braved out the dust and grime!  Everything is back in place now and we are having alot of fun.

Halloween the girls dressed as matching pirates (thanks to a friend of mine that made their costumes) and they looked so cute they made the local paper!!  Matching outfits has become a very important thing to Seanna so we have to whittle it down to similar styles and perhaps similar colors :).  

She is doing really well in school and loving all of  her teachers and classmates.  Sunshine's sister celebrated her one year bday and mommy turned another year older right around the Thanksgiving holiday.  We went back to Ohio for Thanksgiving so little sis could meet alot of the extended family that are unable to travel.  We were hoping upon our return that the home would be complete with flooring, but unfortunately that did not happen!

The Christmas holiday was wonderful too as we stayed home as Wes was on call for the Xmas weekend so we had a very low key morning followed by alot of friends opening their homes to share the date with us since we weren't able to travel to our familes homes.  

We had a huge party on New Years Day to celebrate our home being back together and start 2012 on the right foot.  We had 40+ folks here and tons of kids, jump house and lots and lots of food.  Everyone stayed until late into the evening and want it now to be an annual tradition.  :)  (I haven't broken it to them yet that next year someone else will have to host).  

Sunshine is getting so incredibly tall and her feet are growing along with it.  We've cut her hair in super cute bob and thinking that she might start to play tennis in a group setting here very soon (her sister is DYING to play with her and that's going to be a whole different challenge ).  We've made up her class V-day flowers (instead of cards) and looking forward to her party at school.  

Hope all is well with all of you!!

Us 

Falling into Fall!

Life (as many mommies warned me) continues to get busier and busier with each day. No matter how prepared I am for the week, I can never quite catch up!!  Seanna started back to school again and is loving it.  She is doing even better this year now that she has the routine down and even has a little pack of friends (I've been told by the teacher that she is the ring leader).  It's quite funny to see these four little girls all together.  The kids all get super excited when I come in to pick her up with her baby sister...  Even though she loves hanging out with these little girls, sometimes I pick her up and she is hanging by herself as well.  Not only that, but she normally makes me wait anywhere from 20-40 minutes until she feels that she is done playing.  

We are all getting ready around here too for Halloween.  She decided that she wanted to be a pirate this year so she and her sister have matching tutu's being made right now.  Can't wait to see how they turn out.  We are going to trick or treat again with the same crew as last year.  Should be fun for all!!!!!!  


We unfortunately had ANOTHER flood in our house and are going to lose all of the hardwood floors downstairs and have a huge project ahead of us to get the house back on track.  We've been in and out of the house due to construction stuff and have been put on hold for a few days while they order some supplies.  

She is still absolutely in love with her sister and still loves to mess with her whenever she can.  They have a ritual each night of playing outside after dinner and love to play in the toy cars (Seanna drives and Nola tries to chase after her on foot).  It's very fun to watch.  Seanna has an extremely STRONG personality which is sometimes a challenge to manage but it's also extremely charming when she wants to be.  She is definitely one of the smartest three year olds I've met (of course I'm a bit biased).  


Happy Halloween and Fall to you all!

Summer 2011 almost coming to an end!

It has been such a wonderful summer hanging out with the girls all summer long.  We did lots of fun things together as a family.  We were invited a few weeks ago with some friends to their cabin in Crestline and Seanna had her very first experience with the mountains and also staying in the same room as a friend (her version of a sleepover at age 3).  She had a blast and was so sad to head back home again.

Right now, Seanna and Wes are in Arizona visiting his mom (Grandmother).  I'm sure they are having a great time.  Little Blu and I stayed back to take care of Axel and hold the fort down. It's so quiet around here and no one is asking a million questions of me about "How does that work, or Why did I do that??"  etc. I really miss them both terribly.  They will be back before the weekend comes.

Seanna's has become an amazing swimmer over the summer as well.  She now loves to leap off of things into the water, can dive down to the bottom of the pool to retrieve things and can do summersaults in the water all by herself.  It's really amazing to watch.  She is teaching herself how to breath above water while she is using her big arms too.  I have to say swimming might be in that little girl's future--she sometimes wants to swim twice a day!  She and Axel have spent many summer days out in the pool and she throws the ball in for him and then jumps in the water so she can see his legs swimming under the water with her pink goggles.  We even had to put a portable potty outside because she could not be bothered with coming inside if she actually needs to use the rest room!  :)))  Crazy girl!

School is starting up again next week.  Not sure we will start her until the following week since traveling takes so much out of her.

A few weeks ago we had a mommy and Seanna day and we went to her very first movie theater.  She did great--it was the dollar theater so I wasn't sure about the movie that we went too and learned alot about even though it's a "G" rated movie it can still be scary.  She saw Astro Boy and I have to say she did wonderfully well for her first flick.  She got a booster seat and everything--we only needed one small break but she was determined to see the whole show.

Finally, I have to say how proud I am of her for what a fantastic big sister she has become.  She really loves her little sister and even though she loves to control her toys and when little Blu gets to play with them, she takes great pride in being a big sister.  It's one of my favorite things to do is watch the two of them interact in the play room together.  Their laughs are amazing and when we had an impromptu dance party in the family room the other night--they both were laughing uncontrollably and begging to dance more-mommy, more!!

Hope you all are having a great summer too!

The world is spinning by this year!

It's hard to believe that our little Sunshine is already 3 years old as of yesterday!  She is absolutely an amazing little girl and is so happy to have a new little sister.  We finished school at the beginning of the month and have been hanging out together alot these last few weeks.  We've been going to lots of parks, the library, swimming a ton and making lots of new friends.  Her vocabulary is almost at a scary level as sometimes I actually have to stop and remind myself that she is only 3 years old.

We had a great Father's Day and were planning on enjoying a bbq with friends (although due to an unexpected leak in our kitchen it ended up being quite a big ordeal.  Although the day ended up being a super fun day with lots of friends food and swimming!

The following weekend was daddy's bday and we celebrated with cooking some steaks on the grill and celebrating with some family and friends.  The next day we had Sunshine's bday party a week early so that she could have some fun with all of her friends since we were going to be out of town with other friends on her actual bday.  We hosted a zoo cupcake decorating party complete with aprons to decorate, and zoo hats too.  The kids swam in the pool and decorated lots of cupcakes to end the day with some pizza and a sugar high :)!

For the actual bday, we were in Carlsbad at the Hyatt and could not believe how much fun they made it for the entire family.  Sunshine swam every day with her friends and jumped in the free jump house, colored flags and made sun visor hats for her dad.  She ran around with friends at night during our in prompt too pizza party on the lawn and she got to see her first firework show this year as she could stay up late enough to see them.  Although she liked them, she was very happy when the loud noises were finished!  Hope you all had a great 4th and are having a wonderful summer!

Happy Belated Easter and Early Mother's Day!

We are so blessed by these two little ones and they make us laugh daily!  We had a wonderful Easter together and did the annual Easter Egg Hunt at the club (had a new hunter though this year :) and it was better than ever!  (By the way, Seanna ONLY picked up pink ones during the egg hunt.  All other colors were ignored which is very out of character for her and one of her best friends did EXACTLY the same thing!!  Too funny  :) We celebrated with two other families and enjoyed a day of food, festivities and fun all around. The kids had a blast playing on the golf course and the dad's even stumbled on a second easter egg hunt and took them to that one as well.  Looks like we might have an annual tradition beginning!!  


I was invited to Seanna's school today for a Mommy and Me tea that was the most amazing thing I have ever seen.  I walked out onto the playground and could not believe my eyes.  It had been transformed into a beautiful garden for all mommies to enjoy.  Seanna chose my outfit and also made special placemat where I was seated.  


We talk about her tummy mommy every day as well and want you to know that you and all the grandmas and mothers are celebrated on this day as well.  We found a poem (and changed it a bit) to tell you how grateful we are to you for choosing us to raise her.  You have truly given us a gift we can not repay.  
So please allow us to send you this note to know how special you and your family are to us as well on this special day.




We have a bond, dear birthmother and I,
It’s the love of a child, we can't deny.
You are a blessing from afar,
To send to us your bright, shining star.
Her journey to us would not have occurred, if your love for her had ever swerved.
I thank you this day from the bottom of my heart, a sacrifice to one, to another a fresh start. 
This start includes honor to you, as you are the birthmother, twill always be true.
I will treasure my blessing every day, and pray you'll be there, so I may thank you again.


Love to all,


Us

Starting to actually like her new sister

Well, it's been almost 5 months since the new baby came home and Seanna is finally realizing that she is here to stay.  The baby is beginning to motor around now and smile as well as laugh out loud.  Finally Seanna realizes that she's not just a ton of work but can actually be fun too!  Seanna is asking to "hold" the baby and help feed her--we have somewhat moved past the whole baby does that so I will too phase (hopefully).  Seanna thinks that she is a really big girl now --which in reality she is becoming.  She has gone through a few growth spurts recently and is now more than half my size.  She is wearing a size 7 shoe and wearing 4T clothes already.

She will be finishing up school soon for the summer and has been in swim lessons again for this year. These are more refresher lessons in an attempt to get her ready for some (she actually forgot how to swim over the winter and was a bit paranoid of the water).

She has made alot of friends lately and gets funnier by the day.  You never know what incredible statement will come out of her mouth at any given moment. Her memory is almost scary as she very rarely forgets anything.

Hope all is well with all of you!