Luggage

Luggage. One word to describe my trek to work every morning. Steven thought it would be suiting to capture what I drag to school every day...teacher bag, lunch sack, and breastpump. But, that's not it! Add an infant carseat, backpack, and a two year old. That would be me scurrying out the door on most mornings. Yep, luggage. Lots and lots of luggage.

Well, those days are gone. I have now entered the realm of a stay at home mom. Full-time. Not just summers or breaks, but all day every day until the kids are in school. It's something I've always had in the back of my mind since Mason was born, but finally took the leap of faith to do it. I did have a little breakdown at school once everything was taken down, boxed up, and moved out. That's been my life for 7 years. In a way, a huge part of my identity. I took pride in being a teacher. Changing the world one kid at a time. Making an impact. Giving hope and a future. But, my time has come to move on to my own children. I'm excited for this next chapter of my life. I can't wait for the art projects, the library, the pajama days in winter, swimsuits all day in the summer...I'm ready for it all!

My sweet Addie enjoying first real summer day!

Mason washing his trike. After the rinse off, he then got the shammy to dry it. I think he's got the cleanest trike on the block. Now if we could only get him some 20's...

A little update on Mason. It's no secret I've wanted Mason potty trained for quite a while. He was doing okay with sporatic peepees in the potty. However, that's not cutting it for me. So, we went straight to undies. No more diapers. Except for naptime (I'm not that crazy). I thought it would be a disaster today, but he surprised me by keeping his undies dry all day. I'm crossing my fingers for tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be tossing some undies if the poo-poos get in there. I am NOT, repeat NOT, going to scrape dung out of undies. To the trash they will go!

Not too much on Addie except she is crawling...everywhere. If she wants you she will cry and crawl until she finds you. She's a persistent little booger.

A Road Trip with a Few Bumps in the Road

Well, we did it. We took our first LONG road trip as a family. I have to say it went pretty well with the exception of a lost wallet, two sick whiney kids, and a 3 hour trip to the ER. However, we got to see family and that was worth it all! First off below is the reason we went to Illinois...

Is she not BEAUTIFUL! That's Kiera, Steven's cousin. She celebrated her 15th birthday Mexican style. I have to say it was fancier than our wedding. Steven's aunt Sandra sure knows how to plan an event.

We had a great time at the quinceanera despite Mason coming down with a high fever while at the ceremony and reception. He was such a trooper while we were partying. The next few pics are from the quinceanera...

Addie with her Aunt Damaris

Stephanie, Krystal, Addie, and Matthew

(The major reason I married Steven was because I saw that the Torres Family has cute kids. So to ensure my kids would be beautiful...I arranged our marriage ;)

Hard to believe that Mason had a 103.3 temp.

Lincoln hanging with his Aunt Sandra. I do have to say my nephew looked ballin'.

Addie in the baby doll stroller. She thought it was the funniest thing.

Now the last few pics are our ride home. After the ordeal with Steven's wallet (we think he accidently chunked it in a Subway trash can), the trip to the ER with Mase (he had a bad ear infection), and Addie's weird fever that broke in a day, we loaded the kids up and made the trek home. I have to say the kids were Super Troopers. Mason cracked us up the whole way, and Addie mostly slept. The times she wasn't sleeping she excercised her lungs...very well I might add!

A special thanks to Sylvia and BeBe who took us to the ER and stayed the entire 3 hours to wait for us. Even though the trip had a few bumps in the road we will always cherish the time with family. We love you all!

Baby Dedication, Green Beans, and Car Seats

Addie and Lincoln were dedicated at church Sunday night. It was really special to have both the kids dedicated together. Below is all of us after the service. Getting all seven of us to look at the camera is virtually impossible, so this is what you get...

Addie tried green beans for the first time a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, she didn't enjoy them too much. However, the gag reflux went away after the third day. She's now mastered peas, carrots, and squash. She'll get to start the tastier fruits in another week or so.

Today I was trying to get out the door for work (hooray for only 16 more days of rushing out the door) when I found the kids like this. I have no idea how Mason even got in the car seat. Getting him out was a feat in itself. I call this the 'Hey! Get out of my car seat!' picture.

I tell you what...I CANNOT wait to be with my little comedian and his fiesty sister!

Teeny Weeny

Addie turned 6 months last week, and thus we had her 6 month check-up. She is doing great and growing well. BUT, she is tiny! She topped the scales at a whopping 13 lbs 4 0z. I was really hoping for her to weigh in around 15 lbs, but she'll probably won't get to that weight until she's 1!

You can see how tiny she is compared to her 6 month old cousin, Lincoln. We have to remind Linc not to eat her. He's one chunky monkey. I guess that's how it should be though...the boy big and the girl tiny. I definitely would not want it the other way around.


Addison completely surprised us all this week when she popped up on her hands and knees. I truly thought I would have at least 2-3 more months of a stationary baby....WRONG! She's going ot be off in no time. She can get her knees going, but she's not quite figured out how to move the arms. I give her another week before she's off... Besides popping up on her hands and knees, Addie has also taken a liking to yoga. She has mastered the 'plank' and 'down-dog' quite well...not kidding. It's hilarious! Next week I plan on introducing 'warrior 1'...okay, that part is a joke :)

Not too much in Mason news, except he his reading, reading, reading...or should I say repeating, repeating, repeating. He has Brown Bear, Brown Bear memorized and will read (recite) the book cover to cover without a mistake. He also reads Diary of a Worm which he will only repeat the same few phrases over from that particular book. If you have a toddler boy, I strongly suggest Diary of a Worm...it's really cute!

Happy Easter

Addie finally got big enough to play in the exersaucer. She loves it, and so do I. She's contained from rolling everywhere, and super happy! Mason's enjoying it too...for the second time around. Yesterday I was vacuuming and noticed Mason wasn't 'vacuuming' behind me anymore, so I went searching. I didn't have to go far. He had climbed in the exersaucer...WITH ADDIE! They were both stuck. With a lot of jigglin', wigglin', pushin', and proddin' I got out both kids with all limbs still attached!

First Cereal

Addie will be six months old on Thursday. We went ahead and tried her first cereal out. We waited a couple of weeks after Mason turned six months old, but since Addie is such the finicky eater we started her a little earlier to give her a good practice run. She did great. I was shocked. She apparently has been watching us eat and decided she wanted to do what the 'big people' do!

Mason had to supervise the entire time. He was so cute cheering her on. Each time she'd take a bite, he'd tell her, "Addison, good."

Fun at Ms. Melinda's

I love our babysitter for many reasons, but most of all I love that she sends random pics of the kids day. She has been so good to Mason for the last two years and has worked beautifully with Addie. Here are the latest pics she sent me...

Mason and Logan chillin' with the books.

Nothing like starting your morning watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...in bed.

I love this pic of Mase because you can rarely get a smile out of him when a camera comes out. He becomes so fascinated with the camera you can't get him focused off of it.

LUNCH TIME!!!

My sweet, sweet girl who thinks her fingers are yummy.