Legoland!

This place is the best! Let me just say that i'm 8 months pregnant, i didn't get to ride any rides, i forgot my sunglasses at the hotel, i needed to pee and take breaks every 20 minutes or so.. and still, this place was waaaaayyyyyy funner than any other amusement park we've been to by far!
Lolo, Lola, and the Juarez gals were able to join us on our trip. Thank God for that cause i really believe Leelai had soooo more fun than if she had just been by herself.

Mini-manny enjoys Miniland.

I know the faces look small here but this is good ol' Lolo n Lola taking the kids on Coastersauras. The ride looked pretty fast but the kids loved it! They are way more daring than we were when we were their age. Jill takes the cake when it comes to daring. She was down to do whatever Jackie wanted to do and she barely made the height limit on some of the rides.

The baby with many chompers enjoys the scenery. (update on Jam: she's walking , babbling, and has 12 teeth)

I'm gonna try something new. I uploaded all the pictures onto Shutterfly so you can see them all here. But on this blog i wanna share all the video clips. Hopefully it goes well cause this thing uploads real slow.





This clip is of Leelai and Joie driving. They did so well at avoiding traffic jams and slow drivers. When their turn was up, they got out of their cars and spent 2 minutes hi-fiveing each other.

The professionals got their license!

The girls all locked up. I've never felt safer around them.

This is of Joie and Leelai waiting for the little bucket to splash water on them. The water area was definitely the best part of the whole park.

Okay, Jackie and Jill are in this structure somewhere. This is the biggest splash i have ever seen! Manny and I wanted soooo badly to jump in on the fun.

This is a classic! Look at Joie in this one (sitting on Lolo's right side). She looks like she's about to toss her churros! I didn't catch it in the clip, but in the end, she opens her eyes and raised her hands in the air as if the ride was a piece of cake. Crazy Jill and Mar, on the other hand, had the time of their life! Leelai actually cheated cause she rode this ride already with her Papa so she knew what to expect.

All in all, we had a blast! In the end, we all went back to our hotel for some Chinese food, cookies, and milk.

The last week of being a preschooler

Honestly, when did time decide to fast forward all of a sudden?


This week is the last week of Leelai going to pre-school. I'm gonna miss those crazy teachers, but not for long cause next fall, Jam will be old enough to start going there! I know that sounds early but that's about the same time Leelai started going to that school... which was about January of 05. Let me show you comparison pictures.

June 05 Concert

June 08 Concert

I remember first bringing her there and she was one of the smallest fries in the school. The big 4 year olds intimidated the hell out of me. I use to think "they better be carefully around her or i'm kicking some 4 year old butt!" Now, she's the 4 year old that looks like a monster kid next to the tiny 2 year olds. This past June was her last Concert and Pre-school Graduation. She and a fellow classmate recited a short bible verse, and she really sang her heart out unlike her first concert where she mostly sat there and shyly looked around.

"teach me God what is good, and I will do"

Receiving her diploma

Eating fruit with a couple of homies

Her pre-k teacher Ms. Mary

Her old crazy crack-head teacher Ms. Krys (we love her!)

Genetics is a hell of a thing....

Twins... i love it!

Darling dancer

I totally need to post this.... i'm a jerk for not posting them earlier! Leelai had a ballet recital at the begining of summer. The class she took was with the city and the recital wasn't exactly a huge thing, but it showed what they learned during the 10 week session. This was kind of a test to see if she would take the class alone with me not being there with her. I wasn't about to spend all kinds of money and send her to a "real" dance class and have her not participate. I'm so glad she passed! Not only did she participate, but she received a couple of certificates for being a "good listener", and for "ballerina of the day". So anyhoo, enough talk (or typing?) and here are some pictures. We were so happy to have the Juarez clan and Lolo (gout and everything) to come watch her performance.

Ms. Barbie gave a small pep talk before the performance.

They did turns in pairs. She's the smaller one in this picture.

Receiving her certificate of completion.

Getting her many congrats from the clan.

Joie and Mar

And finally, a picture with the girls who inspired her dance career.

Happy Birthday Jam!

Killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Last Sunday, we celebrated Jam's Baptism and Birthday celebration together. It was a wonderful warm day and the baptismal ceremony was short and strait to the point. There were only 2 babies celebrating so we felt really special. Afterwards, we the birthday party at Lolo and Lola's house. Lots of friends and family came to celebrate and we had the best time! Poor Leelai was sick but still hung in there and played with her friends. Jam was so amped with all the festivities that she only took 1 nap and didn't sleep til 10 o'clock at night.

Auntie Cel feeding the Jam puto.

I don't have a better picture of the cake but it was Backyardigans themed. Very cute i must say (thanks Bina!) and it was chocolate with banana filling.... yumm...

I'm gonna try to upload all the pictures to shutterfly and post up the album here.

Patience, one day at a time.

Bina has a really good post about why certain people (in this case, youth) just plain get on our nerves. Bottom line is that they have certain characteristics that you disliked about yourself at that age (or even at your current age). I LOVE my Leelai to death, but there are things that she does and says that reminds me of the little "attention!attention!"/"cry to get what i want" person that i use to be (use to? hmm.). Another thing that i forgot that i use to do was wake my dad up at night to tell him random things. Where is this leading to?
Leelai woke me up in the middle of last night. Here's how the conversation went.

leelai: "mommy, we have to get a cape so i can be super fast like SuperSnap."

me: (i'm thinking "WTF... who the hell is SuperSnap?" but my real word were..) "honey, ask me again when the sun is up"

leelai: "But mommy, we have to stop the robot!"

me: (realizing she's talking about Backyardigans) " babe, Tasha already stopped the robot."

leelai: "No, i'm Tasha!"

me: "Alright then, go to sleep Tasha!"

At this point i remembered Bina's post (and briefly cursed her for it).

me: "honey, we'll get a cape in the morning. here, have my habul for now, and let's sleep."

Summer

There are so many pictures and events i need to share. There was Leelai's Dance Recital, my mom's retirement, my parents new dog named Cody and um, hmm.... other stuff but i can't remember right now. Since down loading may take too long, i'll just create a link to shutterfly for ya'll to see. But that will be the next post. A few updates about the kids:
Jam sprouted a molar and at the same time had croup. She was a miserable mess last week but is almost 100% better now! She's taking steps, but it totally has to be on her own accord. When we try to do the "walk to mama" thing, she'll crawl in the other direction and think it's funny.
Leelai is a little mermaid now! She finally gained the confidence to hold her breath and swim with her face in the water but with goggles though. I stole Bina's method of getting her to hold her breath by dunking her head to see how many finger i have up under water. It worked great and now we have the game of making funny faces at eachother underwater.
We totally love summer!

The funnest freaking party EVER!

Our little ageless Jill turned a whopping 7 this past weekend. God bless her and the beetle she uses to steal youth from others. It was the ultimate Girls birthday party! The gals got there "hairs did", "make-up did", and "nails did". They danced, sang, and ate the biggest cup cakes i've ever seen. And now, the pictures....




Diva's before..

Diva's After...

Mar and Joie did soo well while waiting for their turn to get their hair and make up done. I was really impressed with how well all their hair turned out!

Dance...

Joie was hilarious! She knew all the songs they played and she totally sang her heart out!

mmmm.... cup cakes..... or better yet, Costco cup cakes......

Bina's blog

So i was going through Bina's Blog today and came across this picture. This is just pure madness i tell ya, and the numbers are increasing by the month. It's a 5 foot diameter pool of baby skin. I was laughing at this picture too cause all the kiddies look so old now compared to this picture.... except for Jill! That kid never ages! I can't wait for summer to start. I doubt that all of us can fit into the jacuzzi now. We're just to massive of a family.

some pictures

Tea Time!

Open House

Teething

I just love these pictures and have been posting it up all over the place! I can't get over Jam and her toothy smile!

Anyway, i need some parenting advise. Jam is now sprouting her 8th tooth and it seems like this one is really doing a number on her. She's been drooling and chewing on everything the past few days so i knew for sure that a tooth was coming.. plus i can see it pushing under gums. Then last night she had diarrhea and a fever. Aside from being a little irritated because she was feeling warm, she was still regular Jam. I gave her baby Tylenol and dressed her in a regular onsie and then she fell back asleep. She woke up a couple a times after that but that was just cause she was looking for her chupie to sooth herself back to sleep. When we all woke up in the morning, she was up and playing with Leelai, but her fever had come back with a runny nose.

My question is... do you guys think this is all part of her teething or do you think this is something else? I've been reading about it on babycenter.com and other sites but i guess i'm looking for other people experience with the whole teething thing. Any feedback is welcome!

My beautiful dancer

Okay, so my camera is out of juice... therefore, no pictures. A-Sorray!

But! At dance yesterday, Leelai got the "Dancer of the Week" award! She received a certificate and an extra candy treat. I'm so proud of her and she's so proud of herself! I put her in dance class to help boost her self esteem and it looks like it's working. We have soccer sign-ups this Wednesday with AYSO too, so that should help boost her team-work skills. I'm so excited about all of Leelai's new adventures. I just hope I find the energy to keep up with all of them and have 2 babies to take care of at the same time. Who am i kidding.. my parents and Shewitz's parents have been helping me with the kids since Jam was born. Thank God for familia! Plus, my folks are retiring (actually, my dad officially retired yesterday!) so that will help out a lot too.

Did you watch Deal or No Deal last night?

So, last night Shewitz and I were flipping through the channels and came across Deal or No Deal. Howie Mandel says something like "This is gonna be a first for Deal or No Deal. The banker will reveal himself for the first time here on this show." I got all excited cause, you know, we never see the banker. So, i look all closely at the screen as the camera cuts over to the the bankers window....he's sitting in his chair with his back to us. He then turns the chair around to reveal himself,... and he has on a CLOWN FACE! I totally lost my breath- i couldn't scream. I jumped on Shewitz and burried my face in his chest and i swear to God i was trembling. I mean really! Who pulls that kind of shit on public television?! If I was just a month longer into my pregnancy, I could have peed on myself! I have not felt that scared since the days we use to sleep at Auntie Cel and Uncle Jing's house. If you DARE, watch the clip for yourself....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiXKlkXshFU

Thanks!

Thank you everyone who gave us their best wishes with the new baby. Lord knows I'll need them. And I'd like to give a "hip-hop Horay!" to myself for having the most responses for a blog post. I love you guys, and that ain't the hormones talking either.

So, my next adventure is looking for a good birth control method. I know that this is a personal subject, but i figure that you 7 readers won't mind since i'm related to all of you. I've broke 'em down into 2 categories. "Scary" and "not so Scary". I want your feed back cause i only have experience with the pill, which by the way is how i got pregnant with MJ... so that's a method that's out the window. So here it is:

IUD - scary
*mirena
*copper coil

Barrier Methods-not so scary
*diaphragm
*Cervical cap
*Lea's Shield (?)
*male condom
*female condom
*spermicidal foam
*sponge
*gel
*suppository
*film

Sterilization - Scary
*Tubal ligation
*Vasectomy (not scary for me, but Mr."It's like taking away my man-hood", is chicken shit.

I'd really appreciate anyone's feedback on this. I'd like my birth control how i like my man.... long term, efficient, with little to no maintenance.

So, i have some news....

The Jam is gonna be "manang Jam". Due date... October 9th.

George!!!!

Please read our adventures with George at his site.

Just pictures....

eegads! the ugliest chupie ever!

my princesses!

It's been a while

I've been so tired. I have so many new pictures of the Jam but i'm too lazy to upload them into shutterfly. I'm acting as if i physically have to transfer each pixel into the computer.... what a loser. Anyhoo, i'll talk now and put pictures later, how bout that?

Jam has teeth GALORE! With in the last 2 weeks, she sprouted all four of her upper teeth. We're also now at a point where i may need to lower her crib cause in the middle of the night she'll sit up and start sucking on the side rail. It's the most random thing i tell ya! She's usually a great sleeper at night so i'm thinking it's a teething thing.

Leelai is just growing and growing! When ever i pick her up from Grandma and Grandpa's house, we do a drive by of the new school she'll be going to for Kindergarten. Now that she's been on campus, and is familiar with where her classroom is, she seems to be excited about the whole Kindergarten thing. All the prepping is actually exciting to me too. I plan on being home also when September rolls around (for reasons to be explained in another month or so from now) so i can be there for her when she gets out. I've been imagining these days for a long time and i can't believe it's all starting!

On another note, Congrats to Famini, Egger, and Chameans! Baby no. 2 has arrived and apparently is drinking a good amount of "chi-chi" milk.

And on yet another note (i'm singing a song here), the show Lost is getting better and better! Like i've said in the past, i'm up for discussion if you are!