Sissy & Bubba

Isabella asked me to take a picture of Bubba cuddling with her for her "Big Sister" photo album. They DO love each other!! Here they are relaxing and watching cartoons after a nap (for Vincent) and practice/helping Mom organize (for Bella). If only they could always be this calm and loving!

SWEET STUFF!

Saturday was Isabella's very first Softball practice. Our family piled into the car (Daddy wanted to take her, but Mommy didn't want to miss out) and we headed to the field. She was decked out with her a pink and black glove and some pink and black cleats! So adorable! She is also very excited about having 3 Coaches.

Team Name: Sweet Stuff.
Colors: black and pink.
Nickname she picked: Pixy Stix.
Games are at Big League of Dreams!



Fundamentals with Coach Kristy!


Hitting with Coach Brian!

Defense with Coach Jose!

Pajama Day!

Today is Pajama Day at school and here is my Princess before she left for school this morning. Isabella says she is going to surprise all of her friends with her Tutu! I just love these pajamas and the fact that they say "Snow Belle"!

Update...

Well, 2 more turned into 5 more! Isn't that always the way it goes?

Our installer is coming back today to finish the molding in the living room. We also have a carpet person coming to take our carpet from the dinning room and replace what he can on the stairs. I have slowly been moving things back to place. We decided this new floor makes everything seem different and our house feel super big. We do love it, but everything is going to take some getting use! I also rearranged my office and my computer is now on the opposite side. More pictures to come once the floor (well the whole house actually) is CLEAN. Everything is still super dusty, etc (excuse the pic below)!

2 MORE!

Two more days that is, not including tomorrow, before our gigantic project downstairs is finished. I will still be exiled to my room Monday and Tuesday until my house is handed back to me to dust, clean and reorganize!

I am so looking forward to getting life back! It is hard (when you are me) to stay in one room and watch that room get messier and messier and have your whole house a disaster with out much you can do about it! But oh so worth it in the end!

Here are my kids eating pizza tonight in our retreat...don't ask me what either are doing with their faces. I think we are all going delirious!

Daddy Date

Last night Chris took Isabella for an Ice Cream date. He won't be home tonight or tomorrow night so he wanted to do something special with her. Anyhow, Cold Stone was closed so they went to BJs for Pazookie and a Benet.
























Process is going great on the floors! However, I am stuck in my Room for the 3rd day. I have no kids (Vincent is with Papa Joe and Bella at school). Sadly, nothing good is on TV at the moment. I had this big hope of cleaning and organizing everything upstairs, but when I started organizing my room it made it into a bigger mess than it already has been from living in here the past few days. Oh and did I mention I have a cold. So, not the ideal situation for me, but I am so looking forward to them being done and getting everything back to place!! I guess that is what next week will consist of! AND I have Starbucks (that makes everything better)!

Hope everyone is well. Love to all!

Chaos!

I am not one who likes to live in Chaos, but this is what my kitchen looks like right now piled high with my stuff. The price I will pay for a gorgeous new floor downstairs. Hey, it is only 4-5 days, right? I guess I can deal!!

Birthday Party Weekend

This weekend we had two school birthday parties. Saturday we went to Pump It Up for Eve's birthday and Sunday we went to Chuck E Cheese for Amar's birthday. Isabella said both days were wonderful and was trying to talk me into have two birthday parties for her this year :) She dressed herself for both parties and was Too Cute!

Road Trip

Saturday morning we got picked up bright and early (actually, it wasn't bright..."It isn't even morning yet" as Bella said) by Grammy and Popi and we made our way to Fountain Hills, AZ for a turnaround trip. My Dad's partner in EPS, Bruce got married to Luibov (from the Ukraine).

Above are pictures from my cell phone from the back of the "Burb" as we call it. I loved reading on my iPad (best Christmas present EVER!), loved watching my Husband read, and loved watching Bella reading to her doll! So cute!

The wedding was super nice! The place, Copperwynd was beautiful!I realize how much we take for granted, especially with the weddings I plan. Liubov said when she walked out she started crying because this was her dream. So sweet! The next morning Bruce cooked us all breakfast at EPS and we got to tour the warehouse and see exactly how things take shape. That was awesome! The only really sad part was that I didn't get to see my awesome friends Meagan and Amanda (both for different circumstances). I am sad I missed you both. Would have loved to meet the babies...NEXT TIME!

Boys, Ugh!

Today was a bad day.

While we were waiting for Isabella to get out of class, Vincent fell on the picnic type metal table.He hit his mouth which proceeded to bleed all over! I was scared! We went into the bathroom and cleaned him up to see exactly what the problem was.

Well, one of his front teeth got pushed up into his gum and to the side. I have always thought that he had the prettiest little set of baby teeth...not anymore. My poor boy!

I had a client coming over at 3:30 which was only enough time to get home from school but I knew that I had to take Vincent to have it looked at. So I tried calling the number I had for my client - out of service. I called Lauren to have her put a note on my door. Emailed the client and thankfully she got the email - thank goodness for the Blackberry. Called my Mom and Chris.

We went to the Dentist and had Vin looked at. Of course Isabella was bawling on the drive to the dentist. I said, "Bella...this is NOT about you!". "I know this isn't about me Mom, I am crying for my Brother!!"

The dentist said he could see all the swelling, bleeding and bruising, but the tooth was not loose which was a good thing. He didn't seem too concerned; said it might turn color, but Vincemt didn't seem in too much pain.

Mommy was in pain though! I hated seeing him bleeding and crying and his poor little mouth hurting. But Thank God ... It could have been much worse! We will see how he feels when he wakes up in the morning! I have to apologize to the other Moms tomorrow...I am kinda embarrased about my behavior, as I was not exactly calm!

Life goes on!

Family Photos 2010

There is something special about each year's family photos,  but I think this was my favorite yet. I can never pick just a few I like to share, so you get to see almost all of the pictures. There are several of the kids riding horses that I didn't include but I do love those ones too. I am so glad I did the digital photo book this year...our Moms can't stop looking at them!!

Resolutions

I think New Years Resolutions are always a good way to get motivated for the coming year. So, looking back at my list from 2010 and looking forward through 2011...I still have several here that I will be working on...

1. Spend LESS MONEY and work off a budget. You all know my husband doesn't complain about this. But it is something I not only want to do for him, but for myself. I need to become more responsible in my old age. If it were not for Chris, I wouldn't be staying home with my children, we wouldn't have savings accounts, college funds, and financial security. I need to be respectful of his hard work to provide for us.

2. Be HEALTHY. Start cooking light, practice portion control and willpower, exercise and finish loosing weight, which goes up and down way too much! Chris is my partner in this!

3. Concentrate on WORK. More appointments, more business, more work on the website!

4. Stay HOME more. I enjoy being home and just hanging with the kids, but I do make many needless store runs which leads to needless spending. So I am going to work on that. Not too many needless trips after Bella leaves for school!

5. Finish ORGANIZING the house and finally make my weekly schedule of cleaning/chores.

6. Finish up my 101 list. Although I have not posted them on the blog, I have completed most of them. I don't have much to go. For Christmas I just finished my letters to my parents (that was SO HARD). And now I have some pertaining to work.

7. Finish getting current on my PhotoBooks. I only have a few past dated ones, which I am thrilled about. It gives me such a sense of completion to have those photos printed in books!

8. Continue to live my life as I see fit and worry only about the people that matter most to me. From my dear friend Bianca who has this on her facebook: Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~ Dr. Seuss

Thank you friends for being in my life this past year! Thank God for the many blessings he has bestowed upon me and my family and may he continue to watch over us in the New Year. May he provide us with Health, Prosperity and much Happiness!!!

10 things to smile about

There was so much to smile about in December and this list is the easiest yet! In no particular order:

1. Christmas lights + decorations + trees
2. The birth of our Savior Jesus Christ (the Reason for the Season)
3. Seeing Christmas through the eyes of my children
4. A visit with Santa
5. Vincent turned the big 2!
6. Rainy days...Hot Chocolate, pajamas, reading books and coloring
7. Watching faces of joy as presents are opened
8. A visit with girlfriends for baking + holiday parties
9. Getting the mail every day in anticipation of Christmas cards
10. Just being a family and sharing our love together

** The anticipation of a brand NEW year...welcoming 2011 **

Random, but CUTE!

Bella LOVES her twin babies and new big sister Lanie so much! She asked me one day if I could "Take her family picture". It was so cute...I also had to take one of the 'kids' just by themselves. Don't you love how their hair is already a mess? Aunt Amy and Uncle Soner got her a salon chair, so she has been doing makeovers on the dolls. And Isabella's poor raw nose from her cold :(

In Vincent news...while I was putting on his pajamas the other night, he looked up in his closet and said, "Daddy's Baseball!!" a few times before I looked up and said, "Are you talking about the shirt?" (I had Chris' baseball jersey from when he was little hanging in the closet). "Yah-Huh! Daddy's Baseball!" I said to him, "How did you know that?" "Daddy tell me!". So I called Chris in and he said he never told Vincent that, but he put the jersey on him. Let me tell you how proud Vincent was to be wearing it. He threw such a big fit when I went to take it off and had to wear it to bed. He kept saying, "My Baseball!!" and showing me the back. LOVE IT!

New Year's Eve!

We had a fab New Year's Eve! Sure things change...we were not out at a raging party, but we were home with the people that matter most to us.

 

Ms. Amanda took Isabella to see Disney on Ice during the day. What a special treat for Isabella that was! And she felt like such a big girl!



Our family came over in the evening and we had dinner, drank some, played pool and Mexican Train and made our own version of finish that lyric! Vincent was in bed at his normal time of 7:30. Bella played Mexican Train with us and tried so hard but only made it to about 10:30-11ish. The plan was not to stay up until 12 for any of us, but somehow we all made it! We were having so much fun playing and visiting that the time flew by!

Happy New Year!