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!

Believe it!

From the era of "Please Don't Go Girl" and "Hangin Tough"..
I bring you this...
http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/56462728

I connected a link AND put out the web address cause i think EVERYONE needs to read this..


hoang, if you're reading this by chance (probably not) thanks ;o)

AW GAWD!

Geez, i can't believe is skipped the whole month of December. Soo many things have happened since my last post. Let's see...


-Jam turned 5 months old on Dec. 15th and she welcomed her fifth month by sprouting 2 teeth! She started solids with no problem. It's as if she was a natural born eater... like her mama! She rolls and rolls around like a pro too! She will also look at your mouth so intently and try to imitate sounds. Her biggest challenge in life now is finding a way to not get her limbs caught in the rails of her crib in the middle of the night. I love my little chuncky-love Jam! I just realized too that she's gonna be 6 months tomorrow. How time flies!



-Leelai's been the best big sister to Jam and to her couther (cousin/brother) Gani. She's been practicing writing all her letters, numbers and recognizing her sounds. Kindergarten, here we come! Since Gani's been here, there's a new side of her that's developing and is making her learn patience, take turns, and using her words more. These are things that i know will develope more and more with age, but these are lessons that we try to teach our kids but are not really understood by a child until they are thrown in the situation (not sure if that sentence made sense). For instance the whole sharing thing. Sharing, to Leelai, use to be the biggest downfall in life before Gani was around. Now sharing is second nature. Manny, who is an only child by the way, still has problems sharing (i'm talking about them chocolate chip cookies a-hole... what- i said it!).



-Christmas was fun! it all happened so fast though. One day i'm shopping at Target, the next day i found myself with $2 to my name and a house scattered in pine needles and wrapping paper. The love and laughter of friends and family make it all worth it though!



-New Year's was great... i think. It was our first time partying without the kids. It was to be a night of a few laughs with the homies, but the pictures from my camera tell a different story. We were able to get up the next day and haul our drunkard cookies over to the ice rink with Edgar, Chameans, baby Chameans, and little Uniquo. She got a couple of good pictures of the girls in their gear, but sadly she didn't take a picture of the real Ice Princess (Manny). Maybe next time...

and now pictures.....

My darling Leelai! You'd never guess that she had a melt down after this was taken... nap time you know...

Jam at 5 months.

It was all a blur after this....

Goodbye beautiful beard...

So, we wake up this morning and for some reason the first words i blurt out are "Leelai, wanna cut papa's beard?" To my surprise, Leelai and Papa were both like "Okay!" So we got out of bed and ......

our little hair dresser got ready with the clippers.

A final shot of the swamp creature.

And who knew that under all that hair i was married to Cheech Marin?

The most cutest flippin thing in the world...

Okay, the things they have for babies today are certainly to die for. It's so fun to have a baby!

First, I see baby MP with the cutest little leg warmers and i absolutly had to get them too (BTW Meli, we need to get pictures taken of the girls in matching rainbow babylegs). Now, i find this at Nordstrom!

Isn't this the silliest thing!? It's cool too cause you can put it in the carseat and wrap your baby. UGH, i wish they had this in adult size. I'd wear it while driving. I can just imagine getting pullled over and the police officer saying "um, ma'm step out of the footed blanket please". This blanket is 40 something dollars but i'm getting it... and then i'm going to Joann fabric to buy me some fleece and make one for myself....

Marley's 4th Birthday!! aka Halloween!

Okay, so i'm a little late of posting up for Leelai's birthday... i'm still recovering from the madness.

Both sets of her lolo's and lola's weren't able to celebrate her actual birthday so we had a last minute shin dig for her at gool ol' Chuck E Cheese. It was a blast as always. I swear they have the best pizza and salad bar in the world.

Getting ready to do some damage.

Call it a hunch, but I don't think MariJam's having fun.

For Halloween/Leelai's birthday, we headed to the hills to Nina's house for our annual Halloween Fest. Each year the group gets bigger and bigger and we absolutely love it! Chamina has posted a few good pictures on her blog too.

Notice the absents of Johnny Boy. He was with his friends.... a typical teenager now. Did i mention that he's taller than all of us now? He's catching up to his Uncle Jeremy who is (only 1 word to describe him) HUGE!

Monster Jam.

We have a new tradition for Halloween. Auntie Chamina introduced us to a new friend named "The Great Pumpkin". After all the trick or treating is done, we choose 10 pieces of candy (mostly chocolate) and we leave the rest outside our door for The Great Pumpkin. She then leaves us, in return, a gift!