Play time!

Such a happy girl for one who is playing in the dirt. ;)

Dress Up Fun

Amelia's mom bought the girls a trunk load of clothes and jewerly and boy was it a hit! Alyssa has gotten really good at changing her clothes (speed wise) but this has surpassed even my expectations of her. They went through all 30 dresses and accessories in less than 15 minutes. Unfortunately for Alyssa, Noelle (Amelia's mom) isn't comfortable with the jewerly aspect so she removed all the rings and earrings (clip ons) and this made Alyssa very sad. We are so used to her being so cautious that I would never had thought about that but I guess we need to prepare for the boys. Poor Lyssa.

I was only able to get a picture of then in one outfit before James woke up and needed a bottle but it was a cute one!

Silly girls!

Park Day

James is Amelia's little brother. Hard to believe that in 11 weeks we will have one of these. The boys will be 6 1/2 months apart! The girls are 11 so it will be interesting but loads of fun. The girls will be in preschool in the fall and I will have my mornings with the boys. I doubt they will get much pleasure out of shopping at the mall so I may have to change my schedule around.

San Francisco Zoo

I took the girls to the San Francisco zoo and it was such a beautiful day! If you look closely you will see a giraffe in the background. The giraffee put on a display for the girls by running around and then stopping and then running again. If Alyssa told you this story she would have also added that the giraffe took a shower at the end of all that running. Alyssa and Amelia had to pose on every animal statue. It was cute but I had to take a pic of them together and then each individually for their album. Needless to say we did not make it through the zoo in our alloted 2 hours. Another one of her posing...she seems to enjoy this part of the zoo. ;)


We had a zookeeper follow us all around the zoo talking about what the animals ate, drank, how they lived and so on. While it was useful information and it was kind of nice to have another adult with me she gave us way more info than we needed. Like the fact that polar bears eat sea lions. Um, I had to whisper that we were just at Monterey Bay Aquarium and the girls enjoyed seeing the sea lions. I doubt she had kids. She also said that tigers do not really like people. They are isolated animals by choice and don't even look our way unless provoked. (I wonder if this comment had anything to do with the tiger mauling last December?) So then we get to the last tiger exhibit where I kid you not, this tiger literally followed the girls back and forth. It was like she wanted to get as close to them as possible. Alyssa thoroughly enjoyed it while Amelia kept her distance for the first few minutes until she realized that it would not get her.

An interesting fact that I actually enjoyed. Do you know why flamingoes are pink in color? Alyssa's answer was that God made them that way. Genius! They actually get their color from their food, shrimp and krill. If the flamingoes are vegetarian then they are white only. I thought that was cool. The only picture I took of our very informative zoo keeper.

After we went through the entire zoo, the zoo keeper asked the girls what was their favorite animal. Amelia said the bears and Alyssa said the ducks. I have to admit I was a little embarassed. I think part of that was due to the fact that the zoo did not own ducks. They have a pond that wild ducks play in but they don't live there. Oh well, that is my daughter and I love her. :D Later, in the car, I asked her again and she said the koala bears. I totally wanted to turn the car around so that she could tell the zoo keeper.

What a surprise!

We went to the mall to listen to the story time at Pottery Barn kids and while we were at the playground in the mall waiting for PBK's to open we discovered that one of the Princesses is on their way to read all the kids a story and take their pictures with them. How exciting!

We are going to see the Disney's Princesses on Ice on Saturday and they were in town promoting their tour. And I was such a good Mommy that I had my camera with me! Thank goodness!!

She looks a little shy....

Baby Ryan

So I thought I would include a little of what is happening with our unborn child since I pretty much never speak of him on the blog.

According to Babycenter which is extremely accurate with my symptoms and have been since my pregnancy with Alyssa, here is the scoop on Ryan.

How your baby's growing:By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of his head to her heels. He can blink his eyes, which now sport lashes. With his eyesight developing, he may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. He's also developing billions of neurons in his brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

I doubt our 10 pounder only weighs 2 pounds right now because that would mean he would be gaining 8 pounds in 11 weeks and for me, that means I would have to gain almost 20. No freaking way. I have my next appt this week so I will make sure to ask her what she thinks. I still can't believe he will be over 10 pounds.

He is pretty active but hasn't really kept me up at night yet. Rob says that he will put his hand on my tummy during the night and will feel him move around but thankfully, I am fast asleep. With both of my other pregnancies, the babies started getting hiccups around my 6 month but so far I have not felt Ryan get them yet. I have felt him roll over a few weeks ago which I have never felt with the other two. It was like a wave all away across my tummy. Kind of cool yet kind of eerie to see that.

Not that I am counting down or anything but we have 11 weeks and 4 days left. ;)~

Church

We were quite surprised as our closest cousins decided to join us for Church today. We haven't seen much of Liz and Sarah since Liz went back to work but now they will see us every Sunday! I went to peak on them during a bathroom break for me and they were reading books together. How cute! Liz and I went to pick them up after Church and they were eating side by side. I think they miss each other as well.

Had to include this one even though Alyssa's eyes are almost closed because Sarah looks so cute.
We have a water fountain in the lobby of our church and I was going for artistic but it didn't happen. It would have turned out better if I could have gotten closer to the girls but I didn't feel like wading in the little pool.

A church morning tradition...Daddy and Mommy get coffee and the kids get muffins.

I bought her some new bows yesterday and a pair of tights and she was all excited to wear them this morning. Surprisingly, she forgot about the really pretty clogs that she HAD to have even though they are most impratical. I guess she will wear those another day. She has been very bossy when it comes to her hair and while I like her having an opinion, I really only like it when it suits me. I had envisioned doing her hair a different way with that bow but she would have none of it. She only wanted a frenchbraid and then the bow. But I do love how excited she gets when I am done with her hair. She jumps off the step stool and runs to show her Daddy and Tyler. That makes me happy. ;)

Saturday morning fun!

What better way to wake up on Saturday morning then to bake with your daughter?? I am so thankful that my daughter and well, actually Amelia too, love to bake and cook. They are excited to bake and I am excited that they do not have any refined sugar or refined flour in them so they are so healthy for the kids! And I get to buy the specialty pans that I love at Williams Sonoma to make them even more special!


Banana yogurt petit fours
Banana and carrot madeleines

Alyssa is actually getting ready to head to dance class with Daddy but she saw the camera out so she posed...
Proudly showing off her yummy creations.... or is she saying "all mine"? ; )

Sing A Long at PBK

Once every 4 months PBK has a special where they bring in a person to sing to the kids. We finally had a chance to attend one and it was so good. The kids had a great time and interestingly enough, he was able to keep their attention for over 45 minutes while the moms got to shop and sip their toffee nut lattes!

My friend Shawna and her two boys (Nathan-3 and Dominic-1) joined us and had a great time. I wish it was every month but we still enjoy their weekly story time. We really enjoy the story time and we (the moms) get a $10 gift certificate to spend on anything in the store after we attend 5 weekly story times. Which means, we get a free book every 5 weeks.

Library time

One of the best things to do with kids that is totally free (unless of course you are like me and are always late bringing back the books) is library time.

We are pretty lucky in the fact that we have around 7 libraries that is within 10 minutes from our house so we can usually find a library time that works with our schedule on any given day. However, our favorite is the one within walking distance (I won't be walking there ever but it is nice to have the choice). They have a 60 minute puppet and sing a long time with a 15 minute play time right afterwards so the moms and dads can all talk while the kids are busy. The cool thing about this sing a long time is that it is in the community room not in the book area. So if we want to spend another hour there reading books we 'get' to ride the elevator to the kid's area where they have computers, a tunnel with toys on the walls, and of course millions of books. Oh, and for us who have to go to the bathroom often, they have a family restroom in the kid's area that is big enough for both girls and the big stroller.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Mommy otter and her baby
Wow, I guess I do look big. Damn. Maybe it is the shirt.....

Alyssa is much braver this year and she is actually touching the animals...

Loving the feeling of the starfish Their first starfish, isn't he cute? The girls thought so.

Tyler and Alyssa had the week off from school as it is 'ski week' here in the Bay Area and so we decided to pack our snack bags and lunch boxes and drive to Monterey.

We were so excited to see a wild otter carrying her baby pup in the Bay. One of the Aquarium employees explained to the group that was watching, that otter pups aren't able to swim very well so their Moms spend the first 2-3 months swimming everywhere on their backs and the baby lays on the mommy's tummy. Kind of reminds of us PG people who carry their babies for 40 weeks until their baby is ready to 'swim'. I realized then and there that otters were lucky...

So while he was explaining this, the mommy otter turned over on her tummy and the baby otter was gone. He eventually came up above the water and turned over on his back. The mommy otter dove under the water and came back up with kelp for the baby. While all this was happening, the guy kept explaining how the babies are basically helpless until they learn to swim. Our thought through all this was what happens if the baby otter was swept away with the current? If the baby couldn't swim then why couldn't the Daddy otter go get the food or at least watch the baby otter instead of leaving there on top of the water floating. There were so many kids waiting to ask questions that I felt a little funny asking our own question since we, at least me, should probably know the answer.

We got off to a great start and the kids were very excited to play on the play structure, see the penguins, and play in the outfits. We rode the very thrilling elevator up the kid's area only to discover that they are renovating it and won't be complete till March 17th. Damn good thing we didn't pay to get in today because I would have demanded my money back! Needless to say, we will be going back in a few weeks to see the Penguins. It also happens to be their Spring Break when they get another week off from school. Talk about timing.

Ugh, I apologize for the lack of posts

I lost my battery charger right after New Year's Eve and have not taken any pictures since then. I finally gave up looking and bought a charger this afternoon and I am thrilled to have it back!

We went to the mall with my cousin Liz and her daughter Sarah. Her daughter is 3 days older than Alyssa. They are so cute together..the best of friends. I also had Amelia who is 1 year younger than Alyssa.