9 mo!!

Laurie is 9 months! She loves to eat stuff that she can grab and feed herself, not so much the stuff that has to be fed TO her. Hehehe. She stands up on ANYTHING that is taller than her in a crawl. and she is getting braver and starting to do one handed and taking a few steps. She is so very cute and smiles a lot and does cute things for us to laugh about!

Today she started saying...Momma!! She seems to be making the connection! Hurray! I love it, it is so cute to hear!

Brain?

So I am trying to save more when shopping for groceries and other necessities by using coupons and going places where they have incentive deals etc. This knowledge and desire is courtesy of Ana and her actions! :) I am getting excited about it since last weekend I got a box of 92 diapers for $10. I thought that was pretty good. :)
Anyway, in order to fully take advantage of these deals you need to get the Sunday paper with the coupons in it, which I don't. SOOOO, I am supposed to go out Sunday and buy it from a stand somewhere.... I forgot AGAIN for the second week in a row. I am NEVER going to remember that!! So I am looking at people's blogs, ready for this weeks steals and remember that...I can't do anything AGAIN because I don't have the coupons!!!!!!!! UGH!
What is wrong with my brain, I swear on Sunday all of a sudden I think about all the things that are going on and they pile up in my brain and I get overwhelmed and can't think of anything! No wonder I can't organize my house, I can't even organize my thoughts in my brain!!! Sheesh!

Favorite

I have seen people do this before where they have a Friday favorite. Well I am not starting that or anything but today I saw something that I had to dub as today's favorite! :)

It is at http://www.sesamestreet.org/videos . Elaine was watching these videos and one came on, called.....wait for it.......Preschool Musical! HAHAHAHA! Carlos and I laughed. Anyway it is cute and funny. One of those classic Sesame Street spoofs with Muppet's! :)

Patriotic?

I guess we were today. Miriam woke up this morning and while eating breakfast, started singing the National Anthem. So I decided it would be a good time to better learn the song. So we sang a few times before I made her hurry and eat!
Then later during the day, Elaine started humming and singing some words she knew. She hadn't been awake when we were singing earlier so it was funny.
Then after Miriam came home, we all sang it over and over loudly! I like to exaggerate my voice and pretend I can sing like I can't, and it is funny for the girls! :)
Anyway, I am always grateful for this country and Love the anthem! It always makes me feel patriotic:)

School

Well I was going to put more pictures of our FL trip, however, Carlos unplugged our external hard drive and I don't know how to hook it all back up and that is where my pictures are so......

Miriam started school on Tuesday. She really likes it. She didn't get the teacher she thought she wanted but her teacher is really nice. Her name is Mrs. Moore. She has a few of the same friends in her class that she had last year. There is a new music teacher, and gym teacher this year. Maybe she will enjoy gym more this year! She was sad about her music teacher, but I think she will like who ever is there, since she loves to sing!

She was being a bit of a cheese ball!
Isn't she cute!!!!!! (going to the bus)
She gets her very own desk this year!! Hurray! She also sits by two boys, they alternate in this class!




Elaine will start her Kiddie Kollege with the county next week. It is two days a week for 3 hours each day. She is sooo excited! I am interested to see what a few hours at home with just Laurie will be like. It isn't long but.... ;)


This is us waiting for the bus on the first day! We waited for almost 45 min! We weren't sure what time we should be there so we went at 205 and then the bus was about 10 min late(got there at 245)!!!! So we were really early and it was hot!

finally

We are finally feeling better here. The girls are well, except their eyes are still a bit bothersome, and I am feeling better but my pain is still there just less. So anyway, that is good, I think we will go to DC tomorrow and see my brother! Yeah!

pain

I started the antibiotic.

sick!!!!

I hardly ever get sick! Well last Sat my body decided to give in and get sick! But I am not the only one! Elaine and Miriam are also sick! It is awful!!!!! :( I have a swollen sore throat, fever, chills, achy body and stuffy nose! I went to the Dr yesterday and they took a strep test, it was neg. So they took a mono test and it was neg. Then she gave me 600mg of Motrin, and a 'just in case' antibiotic! (I decided not to take) Then the girls had their appts and the Dr did the strep test for good measure and then said, it was just a virus...so good/bad news! Bad cause there is nothing we can do!! We feel a little better today cause we have eaten but I am hot and sore! I think there is something going on but I didn't want to take a antibiotic 'just in case"! Anyway, hopefully we feel better by Sat, we are supposed to see George in DC!!!!

My little princesses

On Monday(11th) we decided that we would wait in line to meet the princesses. There were three of them in this line and the wait was about 60 min. We may have waited longer!

First 15 min
Half way there!
At this point I got out of line and traded with Carlos, because Laurie had woken up (couldn't take strollers in and she was sleeping) and I had to feed her.

Getting a little bored. (Only Daddy can get them to make these faces! LOL)

I was still feeding baby and didn't know how close they were so I went to fill water bottles....and I didn't make it back in time!! :( So Daddy went in with them.
Make way for Princess Aurora. I think this is Miriam's favorite
Cinderella!!! I think Elaine was just in awe that she actually met her!!!! Hehehe

Princessly advice.
Belle
Being a good Daddy he accepted the call to get in the picture with the Belle...was he standing in for the Beast?! Hehehe.
Anyway, they had a good time and had the biggest grins on their faces when they got out!

Unfound

When I can find my cord to my camera, then I can download picutres of our trip. Sorry.

Florida fun!

We just got back from our almost week long visit to Florida. We visited family and had a great time. We were grateful for Mary-Carmen driving there with us and helped the kids!
Ana, Carlos' aunt, got married and this was her reception. It was nice. The (second) cousins, Aaron, Joseph and the girls, had a lot of fun together! We ate lots of cake and danced, swam, talked, watched Olympics etc. We were there Sat and Sun.
Then we went to Disney World. Jen (my 'sister'), her hubby and parents, all work there so they were able to let us in. I will not give you a play by play of what we did but we arrived on Monday and Linda let us in to Magic Kingdom. We spent the evening there, making sure we went to It's a small world! (at Miriam's request but in honor of Dad! HEHEHEHE). We enjoyed our time and the girls got to wait in line to see three of the princesses!!! We stayed for the parade and fire works! Got home very late!
Then on Tues Jen & Corey, and Lucca met us at Animal Kingdom. It was so great and the girls had a good time. Our favorite things were the Safari and the Lion King show! Definite must sees! Then we went back over to Magic Kingdom where we met up with Izana (and kids) and Sherrie who were there and spent the evening with them. It was more relaxed and nice. We convinced them to stay until late with us and stay at our hotel with us, and then we went back to our place at an earlier hour and got ready for the next day departure.
Thank you to Jen and her family! Thank you for all those who helped us!
Our drive home was really good actually. The girls did well. I was able to drive some and everything went pretty smooth. We felt like we used more gas for some reason but its all good! :) Anyway, we had a great trip. The house was in great condition when we got home! ** Carlos went back to work and is,I am sure, tired. We missed a lot of Olympics so we need to watch gymnastics tonight and stop missing stuff!:) I will do pictures later. (as always)

** Our friends Patrick and Leigh Acosta moved to Texas but before they left they needed a place to stay so they spent a few nights at our place while we were gone and they graciously cleaned up and we came home to a nicely cleaned home! THANK YOU!!!

WHAT!?!

So Laurie started army crawling a week ago or so, and yesterday I saw her trying to pull herself up on something! So today while I was busy for a few minutes I tried to put her down for a nap only to find in 15 min that she was not only not asleep but that she was STANDING in her crib!! WHAT?! :) She is 8mo old!

Buddies!

Here is a picture of my friends from home! Marci, Stacey, Jen, Megan. We are playing Whoonu.

Some of my favorites

you asked for pictures...

There were so many pictures I just couldn't decide which ones to put, so there are a LOT but a LOT left out as well! Enjoy! GG and girls
My cutie friend Hillary and her son Raleigh (i also got to see Brooke but forgot to take a picture of her! :( and she is cutie pregnant! :))
Sisters (minus 1)
Cousins
learning to crawl

She had a blast in the back carrier at the beach! :)
Seaside aquarium They had fun touching stuff
Fun in the sun
Rock Band at Nancy's!
Fun new outfits! Lainey looks like an 80s rocker!

old GG dress and something on her head(not sure what it is ;))
beautiful beach
she loved the sand. too bad she wasn't in it more!
group shot
I personally think this is a good pic of me, sorry Laurie that you don't look better :)

she did get on the horse but we only have video of that.
Elaine went on Crown 3 times I think!
Crown really liked her so we thought we would stick her up there for a bit
eggs from Lynnette and George's
Victorian era clothes at the Flavel house in Astoria, OR.

Return and rest

Before we started our string of trips, Heilmann's and my girls and I went over to my bestest friend, Nancy's house for a game/dessert night. Our kids played like crazies and we played Rock Band! It was so much fun!!!!! We hope to do it again before I leave! :)
Last weekend we were in the Tri-Cities area to visit GG and Manda and Michael. I was so grateful to be able to see GG and her place there and to talk with her so much. She is wonderful and I love her! The weather there was also awesome! (it has just been beautiful no matter where we went here, I was right about WA summers being the best EVER!) I also took the opportunity while I was there to visit with my cutie roommates from Ricks, Brooke and Hillary! They are so fun and it was good to see them again. Brooke is expecting her 4th, I believe and Hillary has 2 boys.
Monday I got to 'play' with my group of best friends from Elementary, middle and high school, Megan (getting married in Oct), Marci (moving back to Vancouver), Stacey (just had a baby girl), and Jen (expecting a boy in Aug)! The only one missing was Melanie who lives in WI and just had a baby boy. We ate pizza and played fun games together and it was great! I wish we could do it more! :(
Tues we left to go to Tillamook, Astoria, Seaside, and Long Beach this week and had a great time. We didn't spend quite as much time on the beach as we would have liked. We chose to do other things and then the day we set aside to be at the beach it was cold and windy! :( But over all the weather was great! I will have to do a mass post later of all the pictures from our trip.
Sorry. But we are back and resting until Wed when we leave to go home. I am sad to leave but we are having a great trip and we miss Daddy a LOT! Laurie is getting even better about crawling, she is almost there! The cousins are getting along well and I am enjoying seeing friends and being with family.
I feel blessed to have been able to come here and spend so much time. I wish I could be back for Megan's wedding but I am just not sure if that is possible! I have missed all their weddings so far! :( That is what happens when you move away and no one else does! WAAAAA Anyway, until next time :).

for daddy!

Laurie is sort of army crawling and we wanted to get a clip of it. I don't have a video of her best 'crawling', but this is one that I tried to get.


don't worry, I cleaned things up after the video ;) Sorry you had to hear my 'Lainey scolding' voice!

some pics of the trip

We arrive and already the George tickle monster got her!!
Kids spend most days outside! they had fun in the sun!
looking at the chickens at Lynnette and George's place.
IHOP and Lainey's cool 80s do. (nana will post the complete outfit!)
Brave Lainey petting the big dog. they are very nice dogs!

Well I am here in WA and having a good time! The girls and boys are getting along so well! They played outside ALL day yesterday. Something we don't do much at home. It is too hot!! And we don't have a trampoline or swing set or cousins to play with at home ;).
We will go to the beach and the Tri-cities area while I am here.
Today my friend, Stacey is supposed to have her baby so we hope to go see her in the hospital! The weather has just been beautiful and I am loving it here. I really like July and Aug in Washington! :)
It is hard to be here without Carlos and hopefully he is occupying his time well without us to boss him around! :) hehe. I am not sure when I will have pictures up but I will eventually. Ok well that is all that is going on now. I am enjoying being with my family, maybe we will go out to Lynnette and Georges beautiful house this week and see her garden!! :)

Hair & INDEPENDENCE DAY! :)

taken by Miriam

New hair!
Chacon's in patriotic garb! :) Notice our garden in the background! We have a watermelon growing and it is so cute! :)