For PJ's birthday this year we decided to go on a little getaway adventure. We made sure that Grandma and Grandpa missed the kids enough that they gladly wanted them over there for a few days. Last time the kids spent ample time with the grandparents was the time we went on our anniversary cruise so both parties were equally excited to spend a few days together. In fact the kids were so excited that I heard about spring break at Grandma's and Grandpa's house for days and days, hour after hour!! They had a ton of fun and so did we!
We stayed in a hotel in Fredericksburg that served delicious Texas shaped waffles in the morning, which was a favorite for my birthday boy. Here we are dining at a German restaurant connecting PJ with his German roots!
Fredericksburg is a lovely little town founded by German settlers. It has lots of cool history but now it is turning into a very touristy place to go. We usually don't like doing touristy things with throngs of other tourists but we did stumble into a free museum where we found out about a Mormon colony of Zodiac that came and settled down by Fredericksburg for several years. Who would've thought! Also just this weekend I found out there is a town by Houston called Williamson that was started by Mormons and this Williamson family basically stayed in this town and multiplied and created a little piece of Utah here in Texas! Everyone in that town in Mormon! So interesting! This Texan Mormon connection :)
The main strip of Fredericksburg is where all the action is happening. We went there two times on two different days for the main purpose of visiting the "tasters store". One of the shops on the strips sells hundreds of different jam, jellies, honeys, dips, sauces, oils, salsas, pie fillings and even fudge. The amazing thing is that you can taste ANYTHING in that store, all labeled with crackers or pretzels for your convenience. It is amazing! And that was our lunch for two days straight :)
On PJ's actual b-day we detoured from Fredericksburg and visited Enchanted Rock national park. It is a cool sight to see in the middle of pretty flat Texas land: a huge rock and a few less huge one around it. Apart from being a great camping spot it also is great for hiking around. We had a blast going up, down, and around these rocks.
The winds were soooo strong that day. I was glad I ate my whole Texas sized waffle :) it kept me from blowing over! The gusts of wind reminded us of our iFly adventures:
I forgot our camera, so these images are not nearly as amazing as in real life, but it works for the sake of great memories. That place is beautiful!
It was such a nice getaway! We did miss the kids like we always do, but we enjoyed ourselves and our time together immensely! Here is a cool coo-coo clock wall at that German restaurant. It would've been more German if they synchronized all the clocks and made them coo-coo together, but it looked like they were mostly just broken. Cool decoration though!
All the cabinets in the house have become pretty much free-for-all play areas. Sigh! But when I have to get dinner done, anything works to keep the kids happy and entertained. Emerson also loves taking all of the silverware out of the dishwasher and putting it either on the dishwasher's top rack or bottom area, where the drain is. Then he closes all the silverware compartment's lids and shuts the dishwasher door. I guess that's what order in the dishwasher seems to be like to a 15-month old!
Bath time giggles with Papa:
Our newest Craigslist purchase. This will be perfect for summertime adventures in the backyard. Emerson has not mastered the climb up the stairs to get to the top, and it's a good thing. His head has enough bruises as it is without this.
We made it out to the splash pad and officially opened the outside water-play season!
This is all new and exciting to Emerson. He was so excited the whole time!
Here are his squeals of excitement:
Ophelia got too cold towards the end:
Mother's Day is the best, most wonderful, relaxing, awesome holidays of the whole year! PJ let me have the whole day off my full-time mothering job! So I went to workout at the rec center in the morning, did a little shopping, (then we had to interrupt my day because of a new car purchase, which is a pretty sweet Mother's day present), then I got to go out with a friend and have a pedicure followed by an ice cream cone. It was heavenly! A much needed break. I came home to find one very tired Papa:
Thank you, love, for letting me relax and taking on the tough job for the day! This was the best present ever! I love you!
Another sunny day in Oatmeal. Hanging out with the cuzz:
Here is our sweet little girl and her colorful artwork. She loves to incorporate as much different colors as possible whenever she is drawing or coloring or painting. I love it!
It was Ophelia's bestie's birthday and we got to go to the splash pad again, this time to celebrate Lois's 5th Birthday.
Mmmm, cake time!
The summer in Texas has officially begun! Woo-hoo!
It was a busy-busy yet fun month for us here in Texas. The awesome news of the past few days is that PJ got a job at UT...a REAL job...as in with benefits and a yearly salary...and most importantly one that he really wanted and that we prayed for so so hard. We have a little prayer "cheat sheet" for Ophelia, so that when she says her prayers at night she remembers what things she can say "thank you" for and what things she can ask for. All of it is depicted in pictures, like our house, our car, our family, etc. The "ask for" part is tricky to depict in pictures, but I did find a clip art of a guy behind a work desk, so in her prayers she would always remember to ask for papa to get a job. Well, it worked! We are so excited that this waiting-for-job-offer period is over and we have some kind of stability and focus to our life. But at the same time we are anxious about finding a new house and moving...I guess these are good changes though and I shouldn't sweat the small stuff and just be grateful for Heavenly Father blessing us with the big things.
So, PJ found out about the job Friday afternoon and he is starting Monday, which is tomorrow! It's totally crazy! The tough part is that until we find a house, the kids and I will be on our own Monday through Friday. We'll see how it goes, but it was hard to say good-bye to PJ today...
The prayer "cheat sheet" also has a picture of a boy at a doctor's office smiling and showing thumbs up, which supposed to represent health. The funny part is that Ophelia in her prayers instead of asking for us to be healthy, now asks for this boy to be healthy :) We have been having some struggles with getting her to say a prayer lately, but when she does, they are really sweet. When blessing food she makes it a point to mention each and every item on her plate, so it goes something like this "thank you for this chicken and potatoes and dressing and broccoli...". PJ and I often silently chuckle during these special little prayers!
The first part of May, PJ got done with his TCC job, which freed up his Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he was able to go on this Cinco de Mayo celebration with Ophelia's preschool. Here is the whole class and their teacher, Ms Jeannie.
Fun with water balloons:
Here is a video of Ophelia relay racing :)
Pinata was a huge hit of course! Ophelia said she wants a pinata for her next birthday.
The loot:
By mid-May PJ was done with the UTA job as well and we got to spend a lot of time at home together. We had some good times, but each of the kids had a cold, so we had to deal with a lot of sneezing and coughing and sniffling. Ophelia gets super cranky when she is sick, so it was tantrums galore at our house for a week or so, but it's been better now. It was Emerson's first cold of his life here, but he did well too. He was less smiley than normal for a couple days, but that was it. It is so hard when babies get sick, because there is nothing out there you can give them to relieve their struggles, like a decongestant. We got a warm-air humidifier for him, which seemed to help, but it was hard to hear his terrible cough and being able to do anything about it. I suspect he may have had an ear infection too just because of him pulling his ears and fussing, but he never had a fever, so I am happy that he didn't have to start his life with a course of antibiotics...
I have been spoiled by PJ waking up when Ophelia wakes up, which has been around 7 am, and letting me sleep in till 9 or so with Emerson. He still wakes up every 3 hours at night, and every 2 hours when he had a cold. Also PJ would wake up at night with Ophelia when she woke up screaming. She has been having nightmares apparently, which is also so sad that we, as parents, can do nothing about that...I was also spoiled with catching a few naps here and there while PJ took Ophelia out to a park or playground. It's been 5 hours and I miss him so much already! I asked him to quit his new job and just stay home with me :) I wish, right?
We went down to Oatmeal for mother's day weekend. Jana and Daniel were there too, so it was good to catch up with them and for them to meet our kids.
Unkie Mark with his hands full..hehe..check out those double chins going on! So cute!
Oh, Emerson! We almost had a picture with everyone looking at the camera!
May in Texas means welcome back, heat. So, to cool off, and also to be productive, PJ and Ophelia washed his car one afternoon. She had a blast! Such a little water person!
Speaking of heat... here is The Snowman song to cool you guys off :)
I love how sweet Ophelia is to her brother. Sincerely sweet. Whenever she seed him for the first time in the morning, she always goes up to him, from whatever she is doing, and hugs and kisses him and says: "Hi, my sweet boy! Hi!" over and over again :) She likes to tickle him and help me out with whatever he needs. The other day I laid Emerson in the bathroom before his bath to go get a clean diaper for him. When I got back, Ophelia had already pulled off his socks and took off his diaper for me without even being asked. Of course, everything she does is kind of rough and abrupt for the most part, but it seems that Emerson doesn't mind that, he even enjoys it, I think. He always smiles at his big sister and loves watching her do whatever. Here they are holding hands:
Caught Emerson laughing on tape (finally!):
At the end of May Ophelia had a little graduation from her preschool. It's hard to believe that she cried and didn't want to go at first, because now it's her favorite, most anticipated thing to do. She is sure going to miss Ms Jeannie and going to school! Hopefully we can find something similar down in Austin. Here she is waiting for the ceremony to start:
Walking in to her seat:
She was such a good, brave girl. There were older boys who just were too shy to sit up front and sing songs. Well, not our little girl! She was right there and ready to do whatever!
Getting her certificate:
This little preschool was one of the best things that we've done for her. She excelled in her social skills tremendously, not mentioning learning concepts, letters, numbers, colors, and getting used to a school-type environment. I am so happy we did it, despite the 25 minute commute each way!
Here is our happy little fellow:
And our beautiful little girl:
My best friend growing up came for a surprise 2-hour visit, while she was in Dallas on business. It was so awesome to see her, and in some ways surreal. So glad she got to meet the kiddos. Ophelia kept calling her "tyotya" (meaning "lady") despite me telling her that her name is Nastya. After the visit, Nastya said she does not feel ready to have kids yet...which gives you an idea that our kids are kind of a handful :) Welcome to my world! But I wouldn't want them any other way! Sure keeps my life interesting :)
Here is hoping that I survive being outnumbered two to one this week!
Soooo excited to announce that PJ finally graduated with his Master's in Modern Languages! It's been a long and hard two years, but we made it! And he got straight As too! So proud of my smart, hard-working, handsome husband! YAY!
The camera has been busy capturing our day-to-day adventures and joys of our journey :) Here is Ophelia enjoying her favorite veg of late: broccoli:
One day we went to Olive Garden and we got a kid's meal for her, which consisted of alfredo pasta and a side of steamed broccoli. Well, the side of broccoli was this HUGE bowl, which in my mind I pictured having to pack in a to-go box when I first saw it. To my and PJ's astonishment, our little girl devoured ALL of it!!! Of course salad dressing was involved (she will eat anything she can with dressing, and sometimes that's how we get her to eat things is by smearing it in dressing), but still the whole bowl of broccoli down into that tiny stomach?! We were impressed...no pictures of the messy diaper that followed the next day, which I am sure you are grateful for :)
Ophelia has lately been a normal picky two-year old eater. One day she loves something, the next day she refuses to touch it (does not apply to broccoli). But we have been calling her eating style "a model's diet". She seems to like a lot of things that are low in calories (cucumbers, broccoli, pickles) and whenever she eats meats, like chicken nuggets, or ground beef, she will give it a bite and chew on it forever and then spit it out...It does get frustrating, but I am hoping she will grow out of it soon. I have to say though that she is at least always willing to try things. Even if she will spit it out if it's not to her liking, she still at least gives it a shot!
Here is papa and Ophelia chilling before church:
And here is my little exercising buddy:
She asks to do these videos with me, my pegnancy pilates videos! I don't know why she likes it so much, but it's cute to see her trying to repeat the moves of the girl on the screen.
Ophelia is incredible at navigating my iPod touch. In one of the latest General Conferences, Elder Bednar talked about the youth being wired to work with technology. He was saying that in refence to youth doing family history work, but it is so true! PJ and I are amazed to watch her turn the iPod on, find all the games and puzzles, play all of them, solve the puzzles, play music...and she really is just 2 years and 3 months old?!
We had our Ward Christmas Party at the beginning of this month. PJ played "O, Holy night" with brother Dewey. They did an awesome job! That song is definitely one of my top favorite Christmas songs of all times.
Ophelia "smiling" for the camera... I think she learned to do that at school...Whenever I ask her to smile for the picture, she does this:
I look and feel so big at this point of my pregnancy. Not sure if it's because it's a boy, or because it's my second baby, but I do look like I am about to give birth any day...but I still have 10 more stinkin' weeks to go...10 more weeks of people asking me "when are you due?" or "you haven't had that baby yet?" and "you are still pregnant?". Don't get me wrong, I enjoy being pregnant immensely and I still need lots of time to get ready for this baby, but it just is not helping that me and Emerson are growing so much!!! I am sure all the Christmas goodies will not help the situation...So, in conclusion, I am happy that PJ is done with his Master's, so I can have more little breaks, like today when he took Ophelia to ChickfilA while I cleaned the house and then played with her quietly while I took an afternoon nap :) Love my hubby :)
