Slip n' slide

 

David has always wanted a real slip n' slide so one Saturday we went out and bought one.  The girls loved it! And so did Dad!

 

We've Got Toads

 

We have toads living under our trampoline and the girls just love them!

 

 

Moving

 

 

One day while taking a drive David suggested we move.  I had been thinking about it but, didn't say anything.  So, we placed our house for sale.  The first day we had it for sale we had five showings.  We were surprised.  For the next few days we had showings after showings.  In less then a week we had gone under contract.  We hadn't really had time to even look for a house ourselves.  We started our searches from Syracuse all the way to Herirman.  We found a house that we loved but, it was in Syracuse and the commute to work for David would have been long.  I was thinking that we were going to end up homeless.  One day Dave and I saw this house come up for sale.  It had no pictures up but it looked good according to the description and google maps.  Once more pictures came up we fell in love with the house.  We started talking about what we would do if we bought the house without even looking at it.  They were going to have an open house that Saturday so I was worried that it would sell quick.  We went and looked at it on Friday and put in an offer.  I was afraid that someone else was going to put in another offer and we would end up in a bidding war and lose.  Saturday night we received an counter offer.  Our realtor said we would have to hurry with our decision because the other realtor said she was expecting another offer.  I guess you could say we knew we wanted the house so we accepted the offer.  It was scary and exciting at the same time.  With the way we had written the offer we would be homeless for only 2 weeks. 

 

Moving out of the old house was harder then anticipated.  Just when you thought we couldn't have more stuff we did.  My dad helped us a lot get all our things into the pods and moved to Davids sister's restaurant. At the walk through they saw that we had taken the fridge.  We were under the assumption that we were taking the fridge and had packed it into one of the pods.  Luckily the buyers were nice and we were able to work out a deal with them to get the fridge to them later.

 

We closed on the house on a Thursday and were out that next day.  Davids parents were kind enough to take us into their home.  I was extremely worried about staying there because of my allergies and their cat and dog.  It ended up not being to bad since they don't have carpet and I stayed pretty drugged up on antihistamines.  Sleeping arrangements were tight.  The first night Davids parents couldn't let Eva cry and so she knew if she cried she would get her way.  Davids parents think I'm a mean mom for letting her cry but, she cries once in a while and everyone gets better sleep when she is in her own bed.  Living there made me appreciate having more than one bathroom.  One morning I could hear someone walking up and down the hall.  It was Aleecia.  She had to go to the bathroom so bad but, David was in the bathroom taking a shower.  I almost thought we would have to take her outside to pee.

 

We closed on our new house on Thursday and moved in on Saturday.  Davids parents were sad to see us leave.  David and I did most of the moving in the cold and in the snow.  Adriana and Michael came and helped a little and Juan and Susan helped move all the boxes from the restaurant to the house.  Everything is in its place and we are finally comfortable here.  Aleecia started school here and has already made friends (I'm not surprised she is a sweet girl).  After all this we have decided that we are never moving again!

 

The old place

 

The new place

Christmas 2012

 

 

We had an unusual Christmas this year.  We were homeless (more on that later).  We had the privilege of living with Davids parents so we spent Christmas there.  Christmas Eve we went to our niece Erica's house.  It was the perfect place for a Christmas party.  At midnight it was another crazy 3 hour unwrapping present frenzy.  After all the presents were unwrapped Eva and Mia crashed on the floor.  Santa found us and brought the girls some special presents.  We weren't sure he was going to be able to find us but he did.  Christmas day was spent at my parents house.  After another frenzy of opening presents and a bite to eat we played our 3rd annual game of BINGO.  Like previous years we scored again.  The hardest part of Christmas was trying to figure out where we were going to put all the stuff.

 

 

 



Halloween 2012

 

Halloween came and went this year.  Aleecia wanted to be a polar bear for Halloween.  We found a polar bear hat and I sewed her up some pants to match.  Mia wanted to be a bat so I thought I would be creative and make her a bat costume out of a black jacket.  Mia loves the jacket and wore it several months after I made it.  Eva didn't get much of a choice in a costume.  She wore an old costume we had from when Mia was a baby.  Eva was a horse.  She looked like a little boy in the costume and to most of the houses we went trick-or-treating to were calling her a he.  Trick-or-treating was enjoyable this year.  The weather was perfect.  All three girls scored with the candy.  We ended up keeping all that they got cause they didn't get any gross candy.

 

 

Aleecia the Polar Bear

 

Mia the Bat

 

 

Black Island Farms 2012

 

 

In October we visited Black Island Farms.  My kids are animal lovers and loved feeding the animals the corn we found in the corn maze.  I was extremely surprised that Eva loved the big slides.  She is more like Dave in the fact that she doesn't like rides.  We got lost in the maze and ended up exiting were we had come in at.  Next time I think we just might skip the corn maze.  Eva played in a box full of kernels.  They were getting moldy I think cause it smelled a little funky but, Eva was having fun so I let her play.  Our favorite thing to do at Black Island Farm is to go on the hayride to pick pumpkins.  My kids are really picky pumpkin pickers but, we all went home with some nice pumpkins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Face Painting

A while ago we went to a little carnival thing at church.  They had face painting there and ever since Aleecia has been bugging us to do some face painting at home.  David painted Aleecia's face and Aleecia painted Davids face.  I painted Mia's face and Mia painted my face.  

 

 

 Cheetah

 

 Cheetah

 

 Rainbow with flowers and a unicorn

 

Snow Leopard

 

 



Eva's Head

 

One day after aerobics we were walking out to the car, when Mia decided to carry Eva.  Right as I told her to put her down Eva took a nose dive out of Mia's arms onto the gravel.  I picked her up and she had a bump and some road rash on her head.  Thanks to my anxiety I freaked out.  I washed the dirt off her head and the little stinker decided to act sleepy sending me into a panic.  Thankfully some good friends were still there and helped me calm down.  Eva has some nice road rash right in the middle of her forehead. When people see it the immediately ask what happened.       

 

 

Despite her bump and her road rash Eva is all smiles!

(this picture doesn't show how bad the road rash looked)

Aleecia's 9th Birthday

 

 

Aleecia turned 9 on the 26th of August.  We took her out to eat at her favorite place to eat, Red Robin.  For her birthday cake she wanted a strawberry cake with no frosting.  Am I really old enough to have a 9 year old?

 

 

Aleecia's First Day of 4th Grade

 

Aleecia started 4th Grade.  She has Mr. Zito and lots of friends in her class.  She had a great first day even though she had homework.  Fourth Grade?!  Where does the time go.

 

 

 

Stuffed Animals

 

This Summer Grandma bought the girls stuffed animals at the Zoo.  They take them everywhere and sleep with them every night.  Well, after a while they started looking a little dirty.  We decided to give them a "Bath".  The girls loved it and their stuffed animals look like new.

 

 

 

Our Hike

While camping this summer we went on a little hike.  We hiked up the hill behind our campground.  On our hike David pointed out some deer poop so the rest of the hike Aleecia and Mia would find deer poop and shout out "deer poop".  Even when there wasn't any Mia would yell it out.  Besides deer poop we found cactus and bones.



Fishing at Echo Island

This summer we have had the opportunity to go camping and fishing at our campground.  On our first trip we were just knocking them dead.  Eva warmed up to the fish and loves playing with them.  We don't like eating fish but we sure love catching them.

Sleep training

Eva is a big girl and has been sleeping in her own bed.  I was worried it was going to be hard to train her but she did great. 

Big Time Rush!

For Aleecia's birthday we bought her tickets to the Big Time Rush concert.  Since her real birthday isn't until the end of August we had to give her them early.  We took her out to eat and gave her the tickets.  She was happy and very excited. Since Aleecia is their biggest fan we had to buy her a T-shirt.  While in line a bunch of kids were trying to look through the fence to see back stage.  Aleecia couldn't see anything.  She got a T-shirt, poster, and a necklace.  They had two opening acts that we watched in the hot sun.  Finally they had the count down till BTR!  When they came onto stage Aleecia screamed and cheered.  They had a trampoline and pyrotechnics and a big screen. At one point they came out into the audience.  Aleecia and I got really close to Carlos.  That was pretty exciting.  Towards the end Aleecia kept asking me if it was over.  I don't think she wanted it to ever end.  The next day she was acting out the concert.  I would have to say the concert was a success!

 Me and Aleecia before the concert

 James, Kendall, Logan (Aleecias dream boy), and Carlos

 Aleecia showing her love

James, Logan, Kendall, and Carlos 

Big Time Rush's Biggest Fan

Eva's First Birthday

My baby is not a baby anymore.  Eva turned one on Saturday.  We usually don't do birthday parties but I felt like this was a special occasion.  I made her a party hat, shirt, and skirt for the party.  She ate a whole piece of pizza for her birthday dinner.  My mom's cousin Andrea came from Las Vegas.  She makes cakes and made Eva's Birthday cake.  She didn't know what to do with the cake and just wanted to play with the turtles head.  She got a couple good swings at the pinata.  She had lots of help from her big sisters opening her presents.  She got clothes a few toys.  We are so blessed to have Eva in our family.  She completes us as a family.

Eva enjoying her Birthday dinner.

Eva's Birthday Cake