time flies

Wow!  It has been a couple weeks since I last posted.  It really doesn't seem like that long ago.  Nothing spectacular has been going on.

We did go to a birthday party last weekend and the girls got a chance to ride some ponies.  And, there was plenty of really nice grass to run around in. 

I've been busy working out.  As of Monday, I have lost 15 lbs in a little over 6 weeks.  I got a bit carried away with weighing myself, so I am only weighing myself on Sundays now.  It is torture. I want to know each day, but there were a few days when my weight went back up and that made me mad!  So, only once a week now.

We are still doing the school thing.  We did relax and weren't doing it very regularly for a few weeks.  But, now we are back into the swing of things.  I guess that is another added benefit of homeschooling.  You can decided your own schedule.  I am leaning more towards a year long school year.  So, I will adjust my schedule accordingly for the next school year. 

But, here are some pictures of the girls doing some of their school work today.  Just more number recognition and practing writing the numbers.  We are still struggling with letters that look similar.  But, I guess that is to be expected.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

happy 4th birthday, Emily!

Today Emily turns 4 years old!  We had her party on Saturday.  Here are some pictures from the party.

Bella posing with the birthday girl!

As you can see, above Emily is wearing a yellow shirt.  Her Uncle Luis and Aunt Ariana gave Emily her present when they got here.  It was the Superman shirt and pants she is wearing in the below pictures.  Obviously, those were a big hit!

Here she is opening her Spiderman mask.

Looks like she is happy with it!

She got the game Operation.

Opening her present, Lotsa, from Toy Story 3.

I wasn't sure if she would like him.  But, as you see below, she was ecstatic!

Still loving on Lotsa.

Smiling for someone else's camera.

She got a little, blue purse from Mamaw and Papaw. Blue is Emily's favorite color.

Looks like she likes it!

And, a Toy Story 3 color book with markers.

And, I will personally thank Mamaw and Papaw for this gift.  Headphones!  When Emily plays with her LeapPad, she loves the volume to be as loud as possible.  Now she can enjoy the volume all to herself!

In her Spiderman mask.

I totally forgot to take a picture with candles on the cupcake.  Shame on me!  So, tonight I will get that shot.  Not too bad since today is actually her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Emily!

a great weekend

It is 2012!  You know, I have never thought anything special about the start of a new year.  I know lots of people make resolutions and think of it as a "new start" and such.  But, me, I just like the countdown and then it is done and over with.  I just look at a new year as a continuation of my life.  Not that that isn't good.  But, I just don't signify this time of year as anything more important or special than, say, June.

But, five years ago, that all changed.  I now have a reason to make New Years Eve special.  My first daughter, Annabella, was born.  I rang in the New Year in a hospital room after having one of the most perfect babies in the world.  She is my NYE, tax deduction baby! :)

Saturday we had a party for her. Complete with a pinata and all!  You can see how we celebrated.

For the rest of the birthday party pictures.  Check out my flickr page.

On Sunday we chanced it (not sure if things would be open...some places weren't) and went to Aguascalientes.  Every since getting back from the States two months ago, Bella has been asking if we could take her to McDonald's.  So why not continue her birthday celebration the day after her birthday. 

The McDonald's is right next to the Wal-Mart.  And, there is still a big Christmas tree in the parking lot.  The girls saw it and wanted to get a picture with it. 

Then, we headed across the street to the mall.  Bella said she wanted to pick out some new shoes.  So, she found some she liked, which wasn't a hard task.  The girl is shoe crazy.

I figured Emily should be able to pick some shoes out, too.  Of course she wanted blue shoes.  Jorge tried to get her to pick the pink ones.  But, he should have known better. :)

Emily looks super cute in her Converse All Stars.  And, Bella is girly as ever in her pink flats.

It was a fun weekend.  Now that the holidays and a birthday is past, we can get back into our regular routine.  Hope everyone had a good weekend!

birthday cake

Today is my mother-n-law's birthday.  We asked her if she wanted to come down for dinner.  I would make her whatever she wanted.  But, the sweet lady she is, she offered to make the enchiladas that I like. Too sweet!

So, we are going down to her house for lunch/dinner (whenever Jorge gets home) to eat her enchiladas.

I figured at least I can bring a cake for her.

This is a strawberry box mix cake.  Yummy!  I found them at the store the other day.  It was a new item that I was excited about.  Usually they only have vanilla and chocolate.  I grabbed 4 boxes of the strawberry so they can see that it sells. They also had orange, banana and carrot cake.  I bought one of the banana cake mix, wasn't sure about the orange and I already have a delicious carrot cake recipe so I passed on that.

I made her the strawberry one and whipped up some buttercream icing.  Luckily the cakes were done shortly after the icing or there wouldn't be any left. 

I'm not sure of what colors she likes. I just decided to go with a lavender for the icing.

I am sure it will go over well.

As you see it isn't perfect, but I am sure it is good enough to eat!  Can't wait to try a piece.  That is the benefit of making cupcakes.  You can sample before everyone else.  Well, at least I know the icing is heavenly!

Welcome back, me!

I have been absent for a long time now.  I see my last post was back at the beginning of September.  Since a few people have asked about my blog, I figured I would try and start it up again.

My intro back into the blog world will be to recap the last handful of months.

At the very end of October the girls and I flew to Indy for a month.  We got there a few days before Halloween and stayed until a few days after Thanksgiving.  We left just in time for all the snow to start.

Halloween was a big hit with Bella this year.  We went twice.  Once out in Jamestown at my aunt's house and on Halloween night with the girls' BFF, Alex.  Bella couldn't get enough of her outfit.  Emily did great going up to the houses.

You know how it is for me to go to the United States.  I don't leave empty handed.  It is actually the opposite.  I went with one carry on and on checked bag.  Somehow I managed, of course with the two girls, too, to bring back 2 carry on bags and 3 checked bags.  Oh, and I had to mail a 25 lb box back.  You should have seen the circus act at the airport in Mexico trying to get all those bags by myself.  It was a sight to be seen.

Here is proof of my visit to the States.  My Aunt Janny took me to GFS to stock up on some spices/herbs.  That was fun!  Because of that, I had to buy a rack from Home Depot so I could put all my things somewhere.  Now I think I am qualified to cook and bake.

I also brought back lots of fabric.  It is hard to find good, cute fabric here.  I ended up making a blanket for one of our friend's little girl, America.  She is less than a year, but I thought she might like to have her own cute blanket.  Let me tell you, the blanket was so cute and soft I almost didn't want to give it away.  But, I did.  America's mom loved it!  So, I am assuming when America gets a little older she will love it too.

Once we got back here, we put up the Christmas tree and the Santa question started to roll in.  Bella, almost  daily, asked me when Santa was coming.  We made a countdown calendar to easy her frustration and to keep me a bit sane.  Emily was more curious of how Santa was going to get in the house.  I just told her we would leave the door unlocked for him.  We made cookies and left those out for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer.  Luckily they didn't wake up too early that morning.  I think around 7:30 am.

A week after Christmas is Bella's birthday, December 31st.  We made cupcakes and had a little party for her.  The girl loves presents so she was as happy as could be.

Since the new year has started, I have been pretty busy with work.  I love that I have a job.  It keeps me busy during the days.  But, I like to fill up the rest of my day tinkering around with sewing.  I read this blog and saw the "hobo bag" tutorial a long time ago.  I figured since I have all this cute fabric, I could make the girls a bag each.  I did it a little differently than the tutorial, but it was a nice guide.

After making them their bags, I wanted something.  I decided to make a new purse for myself.  I am really happy with the outcome.  The liner fabric and the dark gray fabric were courtesy of Ms. D.  The printed fabric was some new stuff I bought.

That sums up the last handful of months in a nut shell.

Sunday is my birthday so we are taking a trip to the "big city" and going to shop, eat good food and probably see a movie!  I have been looking forward to going for a few weeks now.

Hopefully it won't be long until my next post.