Sisterly Moments...

Here are a few cute moments from this week:

Gabby LOVES to brush hair. Either her own hair of our hair. She also loves the blow dryer and comes crawling fast once she hears me turn it on and sits on my lap. I think Gabby is going to be a hair dresser when she gets older. So when I went to go put the girls to bed Tuesday night Gabby grabbed the brush and started to comb Alyssa's hair. Alyssa being the good sport she is let her with a smile.

Gabby has been very crabby tonight... I am thinking she is getting another molar. So I gave her a bottle with water(YES I am trying to wean her off... but she is attached) and put on Yo Gabba Gabba for her and sat her on the couch so I could eat dinner. Alyssa went and got her a pillow, her snake and a baby so she could snuggle with them. Now Alyssa is cuddling with a sleeping Gabby watching the Backyardagins on TIVO.

Best American Idol Performance EVER!!

Did anyone watch last night?? I think David Cook will be the next Chris Daughtrey! His performance last night had to be the best ever on American Idol. I would totally buy this single. As Randy would say "He rocked the house, dawg!!"

Ca Ca!!

Is Gabby's new word! I told her not to put something in her mouth because it was Ca Ca. So now she goes around saying CA CA!! She says it so cute that it doesn't sound gross.
Her other new words this week are counting to five (someone has to say it with her and she will repeat), agua (water in Spanish), and Rub Rub Rub (when I wash her in the bath).
She also refuses to let us feed her anymore. She loves to use her utensils while eating. My baby is growing up so fast!! Its amazing that 16 months have flown by.

Easter Weekend...

Busy again!! I told Brian the last weekend of April (which is the only weekend I have nothing on the calendar)I am not planning ANYTHING and going to stay in my pajamas alllllll weekend until church! Then after church I am going to get back into my pajamas and do nothing, lol!

Anyways... Friday I watched little Miss Jade. She is so cute!! I was doing laundry and she wanted to help out so I let her. Alyssa was maaaaaaad!! She yelled at me "You are NOT her MOTHER! I am your helper!!" Ruh-roh... jealousy rears it's ugly head. After America picked up Jade I had a dentist appointment and my teeth hurt all weekend... blahhhh....

Jade and Alyssa watching Nemo:


Saturday we went to Elijah's 6th birthday and the boyfriend argument is settled. Isaac yelled to everyone "Alyssa is my girlfriend!!!" Paulie heard this and was shocked. He did not want to talk to Alyssa today at church. I think it's over between them, LOL! 5 year old drama cracks me up.

Gabby and her BFF Kallista:
Sunday we went to church. I taught class today and we learned about how Mary found Jesus' tomb empty, how Jesus rose again and made Mary puppets (See picture, I cropped out the other kids other than Alyssa) Then my dad and Zenaida came over and I made ham, mashed potatoes, candied yams, rolls, macaroni and cheese and green beans. I also made cupcakes for dessert. It was sooo yummy! We also had an egg hunt for the girls. Brian put dollar bills in a few eggs and each girl found money. That was great because they didn't have to argue over who got money and who didn't. We had fun and were really stuffed.

The girls in their Easter outfits:


Mary puppet:
Easter egg hunt:

Little Miss Mischief

Look at what Miss Gabby got into today!!!

I left the bathroom for TWO seconds and I walk in on Gabby making a mess with the toilet paper. Not only did she unravel the paper she ripped into shreds. I walked in and said "GABRIELLE LAUREN!! What did you do??" Then I ran to get the camera and Alyssa yelled frantically "MOM ARE YOU GOING TO CALL THE POLICE???" LOL!!! Funny girl...
Gabby is too cute to be mad at... Her new word... CHEESE!!! Whenever I get out the camera she says Cheese automatically then squints when the flash goes off which makes it close to impossible to get a good picture of her!! Here are a few good pics of her saying CHEESE!!

As you can see in the last picture she likes to sit in baby strollers. She had her daddy push her around in it...
How can you EVER be mad at that cute face???? Can you tell she also has her daddy wrapped around her finger???

Christmas in March!

I know I am insane but the girls Christmas gifts are here! American Girl was having a special where shipping was free. So I had to take advantage of that since my shipping would have paid 22 dollars for shipping. Alyssa got a Just Like Me doll with pajamas for the doll. Gabby got a Bitty Baby with stroller and fake food. I am usually a early Christmas shopper but I usually start in July not March. I like to be prepared and not broke come December since the girls birthdays and property taxes are due around that time. So off to the storage closet the gifts go... see you in 9 months!

The 18th!

Today is my husband's birthday. What's strange is that in exactly three months I will be 31. What's even MORE strange is that Gabby will be 2 in exactly 8 months. We were all born on the 18th. I started laughing when I was in labor with Gabby and told Brian how crazy it was that the three of us are born on the 18th. Then when we went to go get Gabby's birth certificate signed at the hospital the lady thought we had made a mistake on filling out the birthday's since Brian birthday is on 3/18, my birthday is on 6/18 and Gabby's birthday is on 11/18. She was like no honey you guys have to just fill in the BABY'S birthday on the birth certificate application. I said we did! We were just all born on the 18th! She looked at us crazy then she was like Ya'll are so cute. Strange how these things all work out.

Pimpin' ain't easy....

So it's official... Alyssa has not one but TWO boyfriends. Saturday night when Brian & I went to the Warriors game Corinna & Adrian came over to watch the girls with their nephews Elijah, Malachi and Issac. Well Issac was Alyssa's first boyfriend when they were around 3. Then he pushed her and that was the end of that. So then Paulie moved into the picture but Alyssa said "Mom we are just friends"


So anyway Issac comes over Saturday night (see above picture) and from what I hear they were dancing together to music in her room (along with the two other boys) and calling each other honey. So I asked Alyssa what was up with that??? I thought Paulie was her boyfriend. She said Paulie broke up with her. I don't think those were her exact words because I don't think she knows what broken up is!! But it was something to that effect.


Fast forward to Sunday... We invite Paulie over to play with Alyssa after church and before dinner started. So he comes home with us and in the car they were holding hands and played Polly Pockets together. They were getting chummy at dinner time too... (see above picture) so I think they are back together.... Now here is Alyssa's dilemma... Elijah's 6th birthday party is on Saturday and both boys will be there. Which one will she choose???

Brian's Birthday Weekend!

We had yet another crazy weekend.

Thursday night - Mexican food with my chicks and our kids. They hate us at that restaurant. We always leave a mess and they never bring us enough chips and salsa.

Best friends forever: Stacy's daughter Amber, Alyssa and Jeneca's daughter Triniti.







Friday I watched Jade (America's daughter) her and Alyssa played while I cleaned. I love watching Jade because Alyssa gets so bored at home and she had someone to play Barbie's with. No pictures I was busy cleaning the house, lol!

Saturday day Stacy and I signed up Alyssa & Amber for Pee-Wee soccer. Alyssa can not wait to play. Then I drug Stacy with me to watch my sister play her first Little League game. Thanks Stacy! Later that night Brian and I went to the Warriors game... where they won... barely!! Note to self: Eat before the game... a bottle of Pepsi was FIVE DOLLARS!!!


Sunday after church we celebrated Brian's 31st birthday at our favorite restaurant with some friends!! We are getting OLD!! Gabby stayed behind with Auntie Abi & Uncle Aaron so we could eat a hot meal.



Brian's wish (very loudly so all of our friends could hear) after he blew out the candles was for a baby boy!!! LOL!! Silly rabbit didn't he know if you said your wish aloud that it wouldn't come true?

It never fails... Part 2

It never fails:

• As soon as I give the baby a bath she poops.
• As soon as I sit down to eat a hot meal someone is A. Done with their plate B. Decides to poop C. Needs something else (more food/drink) D. Runs to the bathroom and yells MOMMY wipe me after they are done pooping E. The phone rings/someone knocks on the door.
• That when my house is sparkling clean and no one will stop by for days but when my house is disaster everyone and their mom shows up unexpectedly.
• As soon as I sit down to watch TV while the kids are up someone starts crying.
• As soon as I sit down to watch my shows on TIVO Brian decideds that right now is a good time for a conversation or the phone rings.
• When I decide to take both girls out on a shopping trip to Costco or Target the baby throws a fit and has me rushing to get out of there and sweating profusely.
• When we are done shopping at Costco/Target with just me and the girls the baby poops and I have to change her and hold her while trying to wash my hands because you can not take your cart into the bathrooms and she still isn't walking.
• When a nice weekend comes along and we have plans someone gets sick.
• When I am on the phone Alyssa and Brian suddenly need my attention and need me to answer a question that second.
• As soon as I clean my house Brian decides to leave his socks and pajamas all over the place.
• When I am running ON TIME for work I can not find a shoe, toothbrush or keys.

My Purse.

Before kids it used to be so sacred. It was something that used to hold only MY stuff. But when cleaning out my purse today while I was bored at work I found the following:

A wand – From Kaile’s birthday party.
Fake Cinderella earrings.
Chocolate candy at the bottom of my purse. Thank goodness it hasn’t been hot. That could have gotten messy.
A See’s lollipop.
Cinderella chapstick.
Ticket stubs to Disney on Ice.
Wipes from High School Musical on Ice. That we went to in OCTOBER.

This goes to show you that when you are a Mom you need to clean your purse out more often AND realize your purse is a kids crap magnet!!!
What makes this worse is Brian always asks me to hold things in my purse and I end up carrying around 15 pounds worth of stuff! I am just going to start wearing a fanny pack!!

Alyssa and the Easter Bunny.

Well it looks like Alyssa is having fun in Redding with Brian. She saw the Easter Bunny today at the mall up there with Brian and her grandma. She must have been really happy to see the Easter Bunny because she has a huge smile on her face.
Gabby misses Alyssa... I willl say "Where is Sissy??" and she will look around for her. Although I think she was a little happy to play with her Little People in peace. Alyssa always seems to take over when Gabby starts to play with them. Tonight they come home and I can not wait! Even though they have been gone for a day and a half that is too long for me!

Busy Weekend!!

Friday 10 am - Disney On Ice with America & Jade, my cousin Dolores & her daughter Catherine

80 dollars of merchandise plus 15 dollars for parking later.....

Friday 7 pm - Dinner at Benihana's with the family:

Saturday 10:45 - Erika's dance recital


Saturday 12:45 - Kaile's 1st Birthday party. I could not believe how big the "kids" are... where has time gone??

Saturday 2:30 - Jade's 3rd Birthday party


Today we had church and Brian left with Alyssa to Redding until tomorrow night. His brother had court tomorrow and he wanted to be there for him. His cousin also owns a tattoo shop up there and Brian is going to get a tattoo covered up. So it's just me and Gabby until tomorrow night. It's kind of lonely here without the two of them, I even have the TV on Disney Channel just to pretend Alyssa is here. Gabby and I went to the mall where she had a fit if the stroller wasn't moving because it was nap time. Can I just say I HATE going to Southland on the weekends?? GHETTO!! So I got what I needed and now we are home. I am supposed to go to a baby shower at 4:30 but I am just so spent from this weekend I think we are going to just settle in for the night... even though the weather is GORGEOUS outside... my car said it was 72 degrees?!?!? Next up... Brian's birthday weekend!! 31 WOO WOO!!!

My husband is the best!

So most of you know that Brian works crazy hours and a lot of overtime. On Wednesday he had to work the day shift 7 am- 12pm and then had to go back to work from 8 pm-1 am. Which usually is no big deal but that night was a church night which means that we don't get home until 9:30 with the kids crying because they are so tired when we get home. We usually tag team to get them to bed and giving them a bath within minutes of getting home. That is a huge task so of course I was not looking forward to doing it alone.
So I get home and hurry up and give the girls a bath. Afterwards I turn the light on in our bedroom because we get the girls dressed in our room and I see this:



He left me a note and put out the girls clothes underwear, diaper in all. How sweet!! Right now he is cleaning the house while I am on the computer AND he got off of work early, went to Oakland to get the girls birth certificates. He must want something.......... just kidding... but it's nice to have a helpful husband!

Top 10

Top 10 things I love about Gabby:

1. The way when she HAS to put her arm underneath her body while she snuggles with you.
2. The way she tells us stories in her own little language.
3. The look she gets when she knows she is doing what she isn’t supposed to.
4. When she dances and starts hopping around on her knees.
5. When she sings Dooooo staaaaaaaaaaa Doooooo staaaaaaaaa and shakes her head.
6. When she sees me walk in the door to pick her up from my step moms, she gets so excited.
7. When she does the movements to the itsy bitsy spider.
8. When she kisses and gives love to her stuffed doggie and her babies.
9. When she gets in a crazy mood and crawls really fast away from me laughing.
10. When she belly laughs with her sister. I love those moments.

Top 10 things I love about Alyssa:

1. The way she snuggles with me while we watch TV.
2. That she tells me how pretty my hair is, how she loves the shoes I am wearing, how good I smell.
3. That she cleans up her messes and not just throws everything in the closet, she puts things where they belong.
4. That she loves to help bake and cook.
5. When she makes me stay in the car a little longer to listen to “her song” Then tells me Mother sing with me!
6. How much she tries to be a little mother to Gabby. I even love it when she tries to give Gabby time outs.
7. How lovable she is with her kisses and her hugs. She always comes up to me and says mom I want a hug/kiss.
8. How smart/inquisitive she is.
9. How she tries to be like me and have a purse and sunglasses every time we go out.
10. How sensitive she is to other people’s feelings. There was a girl Hailey in her preschool and it was her first day and she was crying and having a hard time. She is probably 2 years younger than Alyssa. So Alyssa went up to her and said it would be okay and played with her. Hailey’s mom said that now Hailey looks up to Alyssa and all of her dolls are named Alyssa.

Phone conversation with Alyssa...

I know I am a blogging fool today!! I just called my step mom's house to ask a question and Alyssa wanted to talk to me. She is very into detail because this is how the conversation went:

Alyssa: Mom what are you doing?
Me: Working... what are you up to?
Alyssa: I went to pee pee and wiped and then washed my hands.

TMI kid.. TMI, LOL!

MOTHER...

Alyssa recentley has started to call me Mother instead of Mommy or Mom and it's driving me crazy all I hear is "MOTHER I am hungry" or "MOTHER, Gabby is climbing up the stairs!" Mother sounds like Mother Dearest -No More Wire HANGERS!! I don't know what the deal is with her calling me mother but I hope this phase ends soon.

Hello my name is Monica and I am a cup sniffer….

So I have a few anal qualities about me… one is to sniff cups before I drink out of them. My friend Corinna was over my house last week got a cup out and asked me to smell it and if it passed my test because I refuse to drink out of a cup that stinks. This includes cups that smell like soap and weren’t rinsed right, cups that are musty, cups that smell like dirty sponge, and/or cups that smell like the drink that they last held. If I know that a cup has been washed in a dishwasher I am usually okay with it since it has been steamed to dry. I will keep sniffing until I find a clean cup. I have been at people’s houses sniffing cups and Brian will whisper “What are you DOING??” and one day at work I was looking for a coffee cup to drink my tea out of and I stood there for 3 minutes smelling cups. When I found a clean smelling cup I turned around and my co-worker was staring at me asking me what in the heck I was doing and looked at me like I was a nut ball. I was caught!! I told her that I could not drink out of a cup that did not smell clean to me. So a few days later she gave me my own brand new “sacred” cup which I am posting a picture of. Now I drink out of a cup that only I drink out of and only I clean. On Thursdays before I leave for the weekend I wash my cup really good and hide it in the cupboard so no one will drink out of it!! I know I have issues… even Alyssa is catching on to my anal ways. I got her a cup of water one day and she asked if the cup smelled clean, lol!!
So what is everyone else’s anal quality?? I know I can’t be the only one with issues.

The things that come out of their mouths...

Alyssa has been a crack up lately with the things she has been saying and asking… here are a few things that she has said lately:

“Mom when you were a little baby” or “Mom when you were a little girl…” - She ALWAYS asks me when I was a little baby did I watch Backyardagins, did I have a TV in my room, did I play with barbies, etc. I think she is genuinely interested in what I was like when I was a kid.
Last night I told Alyssa I was going to clean the house but I ended up doing laundry and getting on the computer. Alyssa walks up to me and says Mom I thought you were going to clean the house. I said I was but I got lazy. Then Alyssa told me MOM I am going to have to give you a safety violation!
This one is from a while ago. We were driving home from church and Alyssa said Mom when we get home you are going to do the laundry and Dad is going to sit on the couch. Which is true because that is usually what happens Sunday afternoons! Brian for the record does help fold and put away though!
Alyssa’s new thing is that her teeth are going to fall out. She wants to be older in the worst way so she says Mom my tooth is wiggly or Mom I am getting taller!!
Alyssa also tells EVERYONE she meets that she is five years old. My neighbor and I were being nosy and saw a realtor go to a lockbox next door to my house. The house is for sale and he asked if we wanted to see the inside. I have seen the inside before but my neighbor hadn’t yet. So we go inside. Then the potential buyers come in… Alyssa greets them at the door with HI my name is Alyssa and I AM FIVE! She screams that she is five to everyone. I guess to her being four was being a baby and now that she is five she is older now.
I am adding another one from today 3/5: Today Alyssa told me Mom when I am your age I am going to have kids. She always tells me that when she has kids then she will be the boss and she will be able to do all of the cooking. She gets frustrated when I don't let her cook a full meal. I always tell her when she is older she can put stuff in the oven, peel potatoes, mix food together and use the mixer.
Another one I wanted to add was we were waiting at a light in the car and it was taking forever because the light didn't turn green when it was supposed to.I was getting impatient and said COME ON!! Alyssa told me "Mom RELAX! Just breathe like this... wooo wooo"

Now onto Gabby… her vocabulary is getting larger now. So here is what she is saying at 15 months old:

Baba
Dada
Mama
Gampa
Shhhisy – sissy
Baby
Thank you – she says Mmmmm ummmm though but it sounds like her humming Thank you.
Tck Tck -Tickle Tickle
Bap Pap - Backpack
Shoosh - shoes
Doggie – she can say doggie clearly
Cack Cack - Quack Quack means duck
NOOOO – she can say that one good too
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee – she cant just say bye she says it with a long e.
Don’t stop – Doooo Staaaaa It’s the words to her favorite song on Yo Gabba Gabba:

Just when I think I have it all together!!!

I pride myself in being semi-organized and being ahead of the game. For example I plan my kids birthdays a month AFTER their previous birthday's and shoot today I just bought the girls their Christmas gifts!! Well I see soccer sign up signs all over town and I take the girls with me to the community center to sign up Alyssa. I give the lady the paperwork and realize I am out of checks... do'h!!! The lady says it's okay there are going to be sign ups on the 18th and bring her birth certificate... So we get to the car and I break out into a sweat. BIRTH CERTIFICATE??? CRAP! I never EVER ordered Alyssa's birth certificate!! With soccer sign ups and registration for school coming up how can I NOT have Alyssa's birth certificate!?!?!?!? So in a few minutes I am going to go and get the application for the birth certificate notarized and mail it off today. I am also going to get Gabby's while I am at it. Then I am going to pray REALLY hard that the county will speed up this process and get the birth certificate to me in 2 weeks not just for soccer but for SCHOOL! I have to get Alyssa an inter-district transfer so she can get picked up by my step mom. I am such a dork! I always procrastinate on the small stuff. When the girls were born I always meant to go get the birth certificates but I just never did it. DUHHHHHHHH!!!

Edited to say: Prayer answered!! We can just go down to the County office and get the certificate there. Panicking now over. Two kids at the county office should be interesting.......