Abuela and Abuelo's visit to Tulsa

My parents were here the latter part of this past week; they left this morning to go back home. We were so sad to see them go; we had a lot of fun while there were here. The kids really enjoyed spending time with "abue" and "alelo" as Kateli likes to call them. As always it takes her a little while to warm up, so she's a little distant or shy in the beginning but by the end all she wanted was "abue" (that's my mom) :). So much fun! She would run around the house saying "hi, alelo" asking for "alelo" (that's my dad) and saying "cheese" which means "take a picture of me". Mom cooked some yummy foods for us while she was here--they brought us platanos, and frijoles!! Dad brought his camera and his photo equipment and had a lot of fun snapping pictures of the kids. I had my fun too in front of the camera...dad took lots of pics of me--I was trying to be helpful and pose for him so he could practice on his lighting techniques and stuff.

This is such a sweet picture of my kids

Abuela and the kids had so much fun together.

Joshua enjoying a bath from abuela

Abuelo finally met his first grandson--how fun to see...

Last night we went over to some friends who invited us over for their "dia de los muertos" or "halloween" party and that was fun. I dressed Kateli up in the same costume she wore last year, but this year it really fits! She looked so cute...

Here is my little salvadorean indian girl!

Here are some pics that abuelo took while he was here....

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this afternoon and got some really cute shots of the kids! Joshua's first trip to the pumpkin patch and he did great. Kateli got to ride the pony, which she loved and she played and played in the pumpkins! Here are some shots.

Our trip to the zoo

Wow, what a beautiful day we have had today!! We decided to enjoy the beautiful sunny morning by taking a trip to the zoo and visiting the animals. We actually got there in time to see the elephant show, which was pretty good, had it not been for having to sit in straight sunlight--it got quite warm pretty quickly. When I checked the weather this morning, it said that it would be cool and the high of 76 would not be until noon time. So, I dressed the kids in long-sleeve and pants--I did put undershirts on them in case we needed to loose the long-sleeve as the morning progressed. About 30mins into the zoo we were all taking off layers of clothing--Kateli ended up walking around in her little tank top! We saw the elephants, the bears, sea lions, monkeys, cheetah, flamingos, monkeys, birds, fish, tigers etc etc, and Kateli really enjoyed it. It is fun to hear her make animal noises--she does the monkey, lion/tiger/bear (ROAR), and the elephant and she imitates flamingos about to takeoff!! Here are some pics that we got this morning.

My little helper

Kateli is a wonderful helper. She's finally gotten down the diaper changing for Joshua--check it out.

I'm coming, I'm coming...had to go get the wipes!

Okay Joshua, let's just slip this under you...and "lift up"

Okay, off the camera let's really get this done...:)

She finally said it...

Her name!!! Kateli has finally spoken her own name!! I have to admit that I'm still elated and jumping with joy for having heard her say "kateli" when asked what her name is. We were casually sitting at her activity table this afternoon doing watercolors, and I was talking to her--as I usually do. I was saying "what is your name?" in spanish and answering myself with "kateli"...at one point right after I posed the question she looked at me and said "kateli"....I was beside myself when I heard her say that little word. I called daddy and we left him a message. I called abuela and abuelo to have her speak her name to them, and she did....so much fun!!! Here is a pic of my big girl with an audio file of her saying her name...hope you get a huge smile as I do when I hear it! Well, seems that I have to figure out how to upload an audio file...so for now just enjoy the pic of her saying her name. I've got to tend to Joshua!! be back later!

Things we are working on at home...

The latest things that we have been working on with Kateli are:

1. We sit on our bottoms while at the table eating.
2. We say "all done" when done eating (in her case, she says "añe", which means "ya termine" or "all done" in spanish.
3. We ask for permission to leave the table once done eating. She says "up peas"
4. She has to take her dish(es) from the table to the kitchen and hand them to mommy.
5. We are trying to convert her "peas" into "por favor" when speaking to mommy.

I know, it looks like a long list, but it's not that bad--it all happens during mealtimes (except for #5). She's doing really well with all of it, except for those days when she's just too tired to do as she's asked--which is understandable, don't we all have those??

Things we are working on with Joshua are:

1. introducing him to books--Kateli helps in this dept as she likes to show and read books to her brother (well, she mumbles--but it is super cute!!! I've got to get this on video)
2. getting him on some kind of sleeping schedule. I know, I know, he is still a bit young for an actual schedule--but we are working mostly on getting him to fall asleep on his own.
3. setting a good bedtime routine--so that he doesn't spend up to an hour and a half fussing off and on in his room trying to fall asleep. It's exhausting for both him and us.
4. getting him used to napping in his crib--up until this point he's been napping in his oh so comfy swing--but we need to slowly break him of this habit.
5. getting him to sleep more through the night. We still have nights during which he wakes up every 3 hrs or so to nurse.

Yep, we're busy over here....seems like very little time for the two of us....so we really need to be intentional about it.....

22 1/2 month old hand and foot prints

Lately, Kateli has been really good about staying in one place in order for mommy to cook dinner. I sit her down at her little activity table with paper and color pencils and she will sit there coloring; knocking the colors off the table and saying "oh oh" so that mommy will pick them up for her (this could get annoying, but I think it's her way to interact with me while I'm doing something else, at the same time keeping her distance and not overwhelming me with "up peas!! up peas!!" So, yesterday what I did was that I sat her down and gave her an ink pad so that she could make handprints on paper. She was having so much fun with that craft (if i can call it that) that I had to get some pictures. I was also able to sit down with her and make her 22 1/2 month old handprints and footprints. I have a set of footprints that I did of her when she was about 7 or 8 months old that I compared these new ones to--wow, has she grown.

Event-FULL weekend!

Wow what a fun weekend we've had--busy, but so much fun. On Saturday we had a birthday party in Edmond. Our friends' daughter, Adreana, turned 4 last week and celebrated with a fun birthday party this weekend. As always, it took Kateli a few minutes to get warmed up before she jumped right into the action and fun. The funniest thing, and I wish we would have brought our camera with us to get a picture of this, was that kateli was taking HUGE bites out of my burger. Yep, and I thought she would just have little morsels of the burger patty--ha ha, did she prove me wrong. She took about 4 big bites from the burger before she was "añe" (that is her word for "I'm done" in spanish--it is really "ya termine")








On Sunday we went to church, as we try to do each Sunday, but this day was different. They were having a "Fall Festival" at our church immediately following the 11 service. We had lunch, ate some yummy smoked meats, baked beans, pasta and bread before hitting the fun spots for the kids. After lunch we headed to the pony rides to see if Kateli would want to ride one. When we got there she was excited and said she wanted to ride the pony. She also jumped in the jupiter jump. Only for a little while though and not by choice. They were allocating time for the little ones and time for the bigger kids to jump in the jupiter jump separately. Unfortunately, Kateli got in to jump too close to being pulled out for the older kids to get their turn.



Sunday evening I decided it would be fun to make a pizza with Kateli. I cut up vegetables, ham and shredded some cheese. Kateli had fun dressing the pizza after I put the red sauce on the crust. Turned out pretty good. Here she is topping it with cheese. We enjoyed a nice homemade pizza made especially by our little angel. Enjoy the pics.

Joshua is 2 months today!

Joshua is 2 months old TODAY!! WOW!! And I thought time was a blur when I just had 1--talk about busy busy. We are having so much fun with two kiddos--Katherine keeps us entertained, laughing and on the edge of our seat waiting to see what she does next. Joshua is content as can be, happy and just mellow mellow like his daddy. Here are some pictures that we took today on our trip to the doctors for his two month appointment. Of course the LEAST favorite part of this visit is all the shots he has to endure--my poor baby!! But he was a trooper! He is weighing 13 lbs 8ozs and measuring 22 1/2 inches!!

Our kids

I just posted some great shots of Kateli at dinnertime tonight, and thought I would post some of Kateli and Joshua and some of just our little man--who by the way is now 8 weeks old!!! Time is flying......I have not taken him in to the doctor's office to weigh him lately, but I'm pretty sure that he has doubled his birth weight plus some...and from what we have measured at home, he has grown about 3 inches roughly...he's growing so fast!!!

Fun dinners with our kiddos

We always enjoy dinnertime with Kateli--well, when she's not too tired to entertain us--she manages to get us to laugh with her silliness! Tonight she decided that she was going to wear some of her dinner on her head!! We try really hard to keep a straight face and tell her that that is not what we do with our dinner after we are done--but sometimes we just fail at pretending it's not funny. How do you keep from laughing when you've got this silliness going on...???

Visit to the Tulsa Fair

Well, we finally made it to the Tulsa Fair this year. We went out for a little while on Saturday and had fun. I got some fair fudge, which was good and truly UNhealthy!! Kateli got to ride the merry go round, which she always enjoys. We walked around for a little while, seeing what they had and then got too hot and came home. Here are some pics of Kateli's merry go round at the tulsa fair.

A visit with Grandma

We have enjoyed having Grandma Sue visiting us while daddy was out of town last week. Grandma came and spoiled us all. Kateli couldn't have asked for more attention, I don't think; and I'm still trying to get used to being without help all over again. It was wonderful to have grandma here. She is a blessing to us and we love her very much. Here are some pics...

We took the leap to becoming a Mini Van Family

Yep, we did it! We took the plunge and bought a mini-Van. Me, who never thought that I'd be driving a mini van a such young age (okay, so 31 is not so young...but still!!) Anyway, two kids and cargo, we had to get something more room, more comfortable, and somewhat gas efficient. We are now the proud owners of a 2004 Honda Odyssey, silver in color with leather interior and all the works except that DVD package!! I'll post pictures later. It was too dark to take pictures right after we bought it.

Kateli's first two words TOGETHER!

I know, a mother takes joy in the smallest feat--but our daughter has for the first time put two words together!! Kateli gives all of us good night smooches each night as she heads off to do "nigh nigh" as she calls it. The other night was no different. She gave grandma a smooch, mommy a smooch, and baby Joshua. As I was walking up the steps with her to do bath time she looked towards Joshua, waved her little hand "bye bye" and said "bye baby" so clearly!! There was no pause between the words, it was her first little phrase, if I could call it that. My first reaction was just to tell her "you are a good loving big sister", and then it hit me!! It was more than that, not to belittle that she IS a wonderful big sister, but this was one of those milestones that you celebrate with so much excitement. She had spoken her first phrase, as short as it was but she got them out without a blink of an eye!! I was SO excited!! Daddy has been out of town and just got back last night, but I didn't forget to share my excitement for the night, I would say it was the highlight of my evening--even day! It's only a matter of weeks, maybe, before she starts speaking--well, who knows...we'll see. I'll keep you posted. She said her first phrase "bye baby" on Wed Aug 3.

Miscellaneous

I have a few pics to post, but I have not had time to download from the camera. I wanted to make a note though, because otherwise I will forget. So, pictures to post are of Kateli helping me strap little brother into his car seat. I finally got the camera out and took some pictures of this sweet little thing that Kateli does. As soon as she sees me sit Joshua in his car seat she will drops whatever she is doing and runs over to, she says "me" and I let her snap the straps in and then all I do is just tighten him in. We also went to Hunter Park yesterday afternoon. It was a new park for Kateli and she loved trying out almost every thing they had there. She loved the train, the little springy toys, the see saw and the slide! I got some pics of her sweet little smiles! I'll post the pics later.

We're almost done with kitchen

Just a couple of pictures to update what our kitchen is looking like. We've done most of the painting. We decided to go with green. I really like it--it's a very muted green, almost olive color. The accents are going to be red, I think. The green is not a christmasey green, so I think we'll be fine and not look out of season year round. Anyway, I have yet to bring down all of our dishware and kitchen stuff from upstairs. It's going to be a slow process, as I have two kids that require lots of attention during the day. Anyway, here are some pics of our kitchen thus far. Oh, I bought a bar stool yesterday to try it out and see if we like it. The verdict is not in on that, so not a definite on our stools looking like this one....

Boys can be CUTEYs too

Who says boys can't be cute too. You hear about how cute things are for little girls, the little frilly things, hats, skirts, little bows for their hair etc etc...Yes, you don't have to tell me that it's fun to do. I've done that with my little girl. I could not resist getting her something each time I went out shopping. There are lots of things, cute things, beautiful things, for little girls--but who says you can't find little cute things for little boys too. Well, let me show you my little boys feet in his new sandals--granted these are size 00, and I didn't find them myself. My good friend Maria bought these for her son, and now has passed them on to Joshua. Tell me if they are not CUTE! They go perfect with his surfer tummy mat!

Kateli's new things...

Yesterday we got Kateli an activity table with chairs, and it seems to be growing on her. When we got it home, she played with it for about 10 mins ans was done; she moved the chairs around the table and sat at each location--then she got bored. This morning though I thought it would be fun to let her eat breakfast at it and feel like the big girl that she is. Usually, we strap her into her little high chair and feed her on the high chair tray, but I thought I would try something different. She loved it. We had pancakes and she grinned really big when I served her at her new table. Here is a picture.