W-H-A-T?? An update?

Wow I have totally negleted my blog.
Well it has been a hot one out here the past few days. The girls have a water table that they like to play with. Well Gabby was not satisfied with the water table and kept climbing in on it.
So Brian went to Target and got the girls a princess inflatable pool. So now when we get home Gabby starts taking off her clothes to get into her bathing "soups" (as she calls it) and wants to play in the pool.
Other than talking Gabby thinks she is grown. She told me awhile ago "I am four and I want to wear make up!" Well she got her wish and at Alyssa's slumber party last Friday she got her make up done by Auntie Corinna. Hopefully I can put pictures up from the slumber party soon. My camera ran out of batteries so Corinna took pictures with her camera and now I have to wait for her to email them to me.
Alyssa is doing well. She has lost 3 teeth so far. The two bottom front ones and a top front one. Her other front tooth is loose. School is out for summer now. She is reading really well and her teacher Mrs. Preece said she is more than ready for the 1st grade. I can't believe my baby is so big!
Well that is the update for now.

I love you...

When I was little my Dad used to squeeze my hand while we were walking and he told me that means that I love you. So now I do it to Brian and Alyssa and later Gabby when she understands.
Today Alyssa has been really sick. It was a cough, then a sore throat and her eyes are all puffy. Yesterday she fell asleep during Superbowl in her Aunt Krissy's bed. So I know she wasn't feeling good. She has done nothing but lay in bed today. I laid in bed with her for a minute just asking how she was she said her neck hurt and she was tired. So I watched Lilo and Stitch with her for few minutes in silence then she reached over and held my hand and squeezed. It was soooo sweet. I just knew she was telling me she loved me. Makes me want to cry...
More updates soon with pictures. My Mom is on my case asking for updates!!

She can read!!

Last night Alyssa read her first book Hop on Pop by Dr. Suess! I started to read her a bedtime story like I always do and she started reading along with me. So I grabbed the book Hop on Pop which I knew would be an easy book for her to read and she read it! I had to help her with a few hard words. I can not believe my baby is getting so big!
This morning I even caught her writing down words that she didn't know that she was reading last night like Brown and Don't. She watches the news now and can read the words like today she read Oakland. Even better and oh so fun for me is that she likes to read behind my back while I am on the internet! That one drives me nuts!!

Big Girl

Alyssa has never spent the night at anyone's house before except my Dad's and Brian's Dad's house and that was only a handful of times like if Brian and I went out of town. If we even mention spending the night at someone's house Alyssa freaks and says I do NOT want to spend the night!!
Today Alyssa and the neighbor girl (my daughter #3) were playing here for awhile and then they decide to go to Neighbor girls house I walk them over. It becomes late so I go and get Alyssa to bring her home and her hair is done and makeup. So she says I want to spend the night!!! I was shocked! This girl is afraid of everything. I was fine with it because neighbor girl's Mom says that she would really like for Alyssa to spend the night. Another girl was spending the night with neighbor girls older sister. I was happy that Alyssa is getting over her fears. They were having fun playing fashion show. I trust the Mom as well she is a single Mom with 4 kids and is a Special Ed teacher for a local elementary school.
I felt so bad for Gabby though. She went with me to the neighbors and wanted to stay. When Alyssa left earlier she asked Where is Alyssa?? A few minutes ago she said I want my Alyssa and I want my Neighbor Girl (she didn't say Neighbor girl but the girls actual name). It is the first time Gabby's been excluded from Alyssa's activities. I remember my annoying sister trying to hang around with me when I was 11 and she was 3. Little does Gabby know she will be excluded from a lot of things!!
More blog updates to come! I was in the middle of updating my blog when my Mom stopped by unexpectedly and then Neighbor girl came over.

Manners...

Gabby is so funny. I am trying to teach her how to say please and thank you. She has the please down but when she says thank you she will say "Thank you Mommy, your welcome!" It's too cute!!
Christmas blog coming soon I have a ton of pictures to upload!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve I had to work! Which was a bummer we only were open until 11 that my boss brought in so that was a good treat.
I got home and wrapped the last of our gifts. Then we went to church at 6. After that we stopped by my friend Corinna and Adrian's house to give our god son Jordan his basketball hoop we bought him. He loved it! He is going to be a basketball player one day so we are investing in his future, lol!
We then went to Brian's Dad's house where every year they have a party. A few of my friends were there too Amy, Lety, Roy & America. We did an elephant gift exchange. Everyone kept stealing gifts from me!! First I got a Starbucks gift card I stole from someone. Then I got lottery tickets... people kept stealing the lottery tickets from me so I opened a new gift and I got lottery tickets AGAIN! Then there was a little drama because there were so many lottery tickets that were opened they could not figure out which one was stolen three times. The rule is that you can only steal a gift three times then the third person gets the prize and no one can take it away.
Other than that Christmas Eve was fun. They topped the night of with some karaoke! We left at around 11 to get the kids ready for Christmas Day. Here are some pictures we snapped that night:

Alyssa and Jade coloring:
Me and Gabbers:
Arguing over the lottery tickets:

This guys face said it all!! DRAMA!!! It was funny drama actually. The most anyone won out of the lottery tickets was 6 dollars!

Redding Trip

We took a trip up to Redding in Brian's Dad's RV to spend Christmas with family members who live up there the weekend before Christmas. We went up Saturday and stayed until Sunday.
Saturday night we all went to a Mexican restaurant together which was interesting because there were so many of us. Then we went back to Grandma Shelley's to open gifts.
The RV trip was interesting. Gabby thought it would be fun to run around the RV the whole time but that was dangerous. So we had to try to keep her as restrained as we could. The RV was a comfortable ride. It has bunkbeds with DVD players in them a restroom, a kitchen with table and a bedroom in the back. The four hour ride was a breeze!! Here are some pictures from our trip:

Gabby & Alyssa posing in the RV at the gas station:

Acting silly:
Alyssa & her cousin Makaylah
Gabby and Uncle Aaron.
Gabby had dessert:
Alyssa had a shot of a Shirley Temple. They gave all the kids Shirley Temple popper shots.

Meltdown at the restaurant. This is why we do not go ANYWHERE:



All the cousins on the floor trying to console Gabby:

Makaylah singing Gabby Jingle Bells trying to calm her down:

All the cousins together:
Coleson & Alyssa:

Krissy, Me, Gabby, Abi, Tae & Dezerae in the RV:

Christmas Lights

Brian and I went to a Christmas dinner for his company and my friends America with her daughter Jade and Lety watched the kids for us. We got a text saying that they wanted to take the kids to see Christmas lights in Fremont and we said fine just make sure the kids were dressed warm. They took that to heart and all the kids had scarves and Gabby had on two pairs of pants a sweater and a jacket, lol! Here are some pictures of that day. I guess Alyssa had a little 6 year old attitude which she picked up from school and rolled her eyes and said "We are NOT seeing Santa, are we??" She is already getting that teenage attitude. It's scary actually. Anyway here are some pictures:



Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poop!
Gabby, America & Lety
Jade and Alyssa all bundled up!
Long day!

Busy, Busy!!

It's that time of the year where are schedules are slammed! Here are some updates though:

Alyssa has lost her first tooth! It came out when I was brushing her teeth last Wednesday. I will take a picture of it later. I am glad it came out because right beneath the tooth another tooth is already growing in!

Gabby is becoming a picky little child. She will ONLY sleep with her Dora blanket. If you try to put any other blanket on her she will get mad. She also hates being dirty or have anything on her hands like marker, food, hair (she will have a FIT if there is a hair on her hand!) I think she will be anal about being clean when she is older.

We put up the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving and Gabby loves to play with the ornaments and has broken around 5 so far. I have to try and keep her away from the tree!!

That's about it! Just a quick update. I have pictures I want to post too but I don't think that I will have time this weekend/week. Hopefully I will get to it soon!

Happy Holidays!

Christmas decor:

This year I bought a fake tree at Costco and it looks so nice. It has 1500 lights on it and lights all of the downstairs when on. Gabby and Alyssa loved to decorate the tree although Gabby did manage to break a few ornaments in the process. Alyssa's neighbor friend also helped us decorate... I will call her my 3rd daughter. She is always over but I think it's cute because she is really well behaved no matter how mean my kids are to her! Here are a few pictures I snapped while they decorated.

Thanksgiving 2008

On Thanksgiving we went to my Dad's house and to Brian's Dad's to eat lots of turkey! We got up in the morning and watched the Thanksgiving Day parade then headed to my Dad's. We ate a few appetizers there and then went to Papa and Grandma Tammi's house for dinner. Uncle Map (Matt), his girlfriend Nikki, Aunt Krissy, Tammi's step Mom & Dad, Nana Carole, Papa and Grandma Tammi were all there. We cut our evening short because I went Black Friday shopping the next day at 5 am. Here are a few pictures:

My sisters with Gabby & Alyssa:
Nana Carole & Grandma Tammi acting crazy, lol!

Gabby's 2nd Birthday Party

I don't know what got into me. I must have been very ambitious to plan Gabby's party at Chuck E. Cheese a place I despise. On a weekday none the less! But it was worth in it because Gabby loves that place.
We had a few friends to help us celebrate. Gabby had a fun time playing games and watching Chuck E. Cheese dance. She was burnt out at around 7:30 so we wrapped it up with cake and gifts.
Here are a few pictures:

Family pic. Gabby was SO tired:
Daddy and Gabby playing games.


Gabby getting ready to blow out her candles like we practiced ALL day:

Then her friend Haile who is 3 decided to blow them out for her. Gabby gave her the look of death. So I re-lit the matches and we had to sing again:

Alyssa's 6th Birthday Party

This year Alyssa had her party at Libby Lu. Libby Lu is the mecca for girls who love High School Musical, Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers. They have all the merchandise that you need there. Need a Hannah Montana wig? They got it there... Need a High School Musical cheerleading outfit? Yep got it. They also have parties where girls do their hair, nails and makeup which is mostly what the store is about.


So Alyssa and seven other girls get their hair, make up and nails done. They also dress up how they would like. Some of the girls dress up in Hannah Montana, Sharpay (from High School Musical) and of course Alyssa picks out the outfit that shows the belly. Usually when we go to Libby Lu parties she picks out the cute wholesome fairy outfit but no... this year she picks out the belly showing outfit.


After the girls had their hair and make up done they did a Hannah Montana dance to the "Best of both Worlds" and a fashion show. They also got to pick out a goodie bag of stuff to take home with them. By this time Mommy was ready to take a nap but we had a barbecue to go to. We invited the grandparents and a few friends over to finish the celebration.

Here is a few pictures from our day. I am still recovering.

Alyssa getting her hair done:




Hannah Montana dance:

Alyssa posing for the fashion show:

Group picture at Libby Lu:

The girls looking FABULOUS at the mall:

Back from Libby Lu and ready to eat!

The girls playing outside:

Birthday girl with her Hannah Montana cake:

Grandma Marge and Grandpa Val got Alyssa and Gabby a dollhouse. Here is Brian for the big reveal:

Alyssa was so excited to get the dollhouse. My best friend said that it looked like she was on Extreme Home Makeover and she got a brand new house. No one got pictures of her face when she saw the dollhouse but it was priceless!

2 years ago today...

On November 18, 2006 at 4:58 a.m. baby girl Gabrielle was born.

Friday November 17th I was waiting for Brian to get home from work so we could go grocery shopping. I was scheduled to be induced on Monday November 20th so I didn't have to be in the hospital on Thanksgiving Day and I wanted to make sure we did all of our errands before we had the baby. Brian gets home at around 5 p.m. and I started to have cramps. I figured it was no big deal they were probably Braxton Hicks contractions so we headed to the store at 6 pm and the cramps started to get stronger. When we get there I asked one of the employees if I could use one of those carts that you ride in so I could get my shopping done. We started to shop and I realized I forgot my wallet at home and Brian didn't have his wallet because he accidentally left it in his work truck. SO he had to drive back home and get my wallet and the contractions started to get stronger as Alyssa and I hung out in the cookie aisle. We finish shopping and get home at around 7 pm.

I was induced with Alyssa so I had no idea what real labor felt like or what it was like to go into labor on your own. I call my step mom telling her I think I am in labor because I am cramping and she tells me yep I am in labor and to start timing the contractions Then she says my dad will come pick up Alyssa so she can stay the night at their house. I told her to give me an hour because I wanted to make sure this wasn't false labor. I call the hospital to see what I should do and they said if my contractions start coming 5 minutes apart or I can't talk through a contraction to come in. I call my sister Delia who lives in the Santa Rosa area and Lety (my BFF) to tell them I think this might be it and to be ready to come down here… I try to get a hold of my mom but it was her birthday that day and she was out with her boyfriend (now husband)at a wine tasting dinner. GREAT, she lives an hour away and I didn't want her to miss the birth of her grand daughter! I start getting Alyssa packed to spend the night at my dad's and Brian starts to get the car seat ready because we hadn't done that yet. My Dad comes and picks up Alyssa at 8 and my contractions were the same before so I take a shower and start packing the little things I haven't packed yet for the hospital and decide I am going to try and sleep. But at around 11 pm my contractions started to get stronger and stronger and I told Brian we have to go to the hospital NOW!! I call my sister and tell her it's time… I finally get a hold of my mom at her boyfriend's house and tell her to hitch a ride with Delia because I did not need her to drive drunk or buzzed. Then I call Lety who is the closest to the hospital and tell her to get to the hospital ASAP. On our way we were on the entrance to 238 at the light and I start to get a contraction and the light turns green and sometimes Brian lags at lights…. So after the light was a green for a few seconds I screamed at Brian "GO!!!!" (Think this is no Dana only Zuel voice from Ghostbusters)

We get to the hospital at around midnight at the emergency drop off and Brian leaves me in the car so he could ask if this is where he can park and while he does that there is a group of people outside the ER that realized I was in labor and started staring and pointing at me while I was having a contraction. I felt like slapping every one of them. Brian comes outside and says this is where we park and we get inside of Eden and they tell me to hold on and ask if I registered. I tell them yes but they say to wait because they need to tell Labor and Delivery I am on my way up. The security guard leaves and I ask Brian if he is serious because now the contractions are 3-5 minutes apart and I can barely stand. We wait for 5 minutes for the guy to come back and he sends someone from the ER to take me up by wheelchair because obviously I couldn't walk. So the lady asks how far my contractions are apart…. I tell her 3-5 minutes and she gives me this "Oh Crap" look and rushes me to L&D. So we get there and I tell the nurse I NEED DRUGS!! So she puts me in a gown and checks me and I am 3 cm dilated. She says yep you are staying… and gives me some Demerol… oh yeah that was nice. Twenty minutes later the anesthesiologist comes to give me the epidural. I tell the anesthesiologist that I love her. Lety arrived at that time and waited out the door. When the anesthesiologist was done at around 1 a.m. Delia, her now ex boyfriend Yann and my mom arrived…. My mom was a little buzzed but it was pretty funny she provided the entertainment. I started to shake because my body started to transition so fast. The next time she checked me (around 3 am) I was 6 cm dilated she said she would check me in another hour. My sister leaves at 4 am because she has a test the next morning at school that she can't miss and two minutes after they leave the nurse checks and I am completely dialated BUT the doctor wasn't there yet and there was another woman ahead of me that was complete too. I knew Delia would be so mad that she missed the birth by minutes! So the doctor got there a few minutes later and delivered the other lady's baby. I was waiting but I didn't care because that epidural worked really really good… unlike with Alyssa where I felt EVERYTHING. The nurse had me sit up so the pushing wouldn't be as long. So when the doctor got there I pushed a few times and Gabrielle Lauren H***** was born November 18th at 4:58 a.m. Brian cut the cord and they put her on my stomach and I started crying. Finally my baby was here!! She was 6lbs 14oz and had lots of brown hair.



Happy Birthday to my Gabbers!!



Tonight we celebrate at Chuck E. Cheese! Someone get me some aspirin!!!

6 years ago today...

I gave birth to my first baby girl!!
It all started on November 13th 2002, the day I had my weekly OB appointment. The appointment was at 4 and Brian BARELY made it because he was running late from work and there was traffic in San Francisco. But we made it. The nurse took my vitals and told me to lay down and that my blood pressure was too high. So of course I start to panic a little because they never told me to lay down before! So the doctor comes in and she says that she thinks I have pre-eclampsia. Which I did end up having. I was huge as a house and looked like a monster thanks to all the water weight gain! So the doctor sends me next door to the hospital to do some stress tests.
So off we went to the hospital. I was so hungry by then and all I wanted was a turkey and avocado sandwich from Togo's. So the doctor comes in after awhile and says I think I need to induce you. It was my due date anyways so I agreed. Then I said "I just wanted a Togo's sandwich!!" and almost started to cry. It seemed like when I was pregnant with Alyssa I would always cry about food! We call everyone to tell them that I am in labor. The doctor comes in to give me cervadil and tells me tomorrow they will start the pitocin.
After they were done with the cervadil Grandma Tammi and Papa Jerry come in. Brian told Tammi I wanted a Togo's sandwhich but they were closed so she brought me a salami sandwich. They leave and Brian and I try to get some rest.
The next morning they start the pitocin at 10am after I take a shower. So we just wait... in the meantime we get a few visitors and phone calls. I wasn't feeling anything for awhile but the contractions started coming on strong at around 1-2 pm. The nurses give me demerol which was GREAT! My Mom and Auntie Del come to the hospital sometime around this time. I take a nap. Then wake up to worse contractions. I ask for an epidural. The Anesthesiologist and was a jerk from the get go. He was yelling at me to sit still and I was... He said I had scoliosis and I don't... then the epidural didn't work!! It was horrible. Brian wanted to beat the guy up but I told him not to say anything because I just wanted the stupid epidural to work! But it never did... the guy poked me like 5 times.
Brian went home for a bit to take a shower and get something to eat. My Mom and Delia stayed with me. I also had visitors in the hallway (Amy, Shannon, Lety, my godson OJ and Margarita)In that time they checked me and I was at a 9! So we call Brian who was stuck in traffic, again! He rushed back to the hospital. It turned out that he didn't need to rush. We had to wait for the doctor. I was in so much pain and just wanted to push so bad.
Finally the doctor came rushing in at around 8 and told me to push. I pushed for around 20-25 minutes. Then Alyssa's head came out as I was screaming my head off because it hurt so bad. The doctor told me to stop pushing and I remember thinking "HELL NO!!" and pushed again. the Doctor caught her and Alyssa Noelle H***** (protected for our privacy!)was born! The doctor did her thing (aka gave me stiches since I was too stubborn to wait to push) and then told me I had a ton of visitors and asked if I wanted to see them. I said okay but I had no idea there was so many of them! The visitors that were in the hall came in plus Grandma Tammi and Papa Jerry. I looked like death and tore up so I was super embaressed but halfway too tired to care. I could barely keep my eyes open. Then the nurse mentioned that it was time to breastfeed and everyone scattered. LOL. The breastfeeding was very hard but Alyssa got the hang of it in the next few weeks... after that she had no problem with it... it took a year to wean her!
So there is the story for my Boo Boo to read when she gets older. Now she is SIX years old. I can not believe it. November 14, 2002 seems like yesterday.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!!

Here is another silly video with bubbles!!

Tagged Again!

The 8 things tag

8 TV shows I love to watch:

1. Joyce Meyer
2. Desperate Housewives
3. The First 48
4. 90210
5. Real Housewives
6. Barefoot Contessa
7. Grey's Anatomy
8. Survivor

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Mi Cocina
2. Texas Roadhouse
3. Ruth Chris
4. Benihana
5. Casa Arozco in Livermore
6. Outback
7. Togo's Sandwiches
8. In and Out Burger

8 Things that happened today:

1. Sisters spent the night
2. Played Wii Sports with my sister
3. Made oatmeal and bacon
3. Went to Lucky's to return movies at the Redbox
4. Dropped mail off
5. Dropped off and checked out books at the library
6. Cleaned
7. Watched 90210 online
8. Emailed my Mother in Law

8 Things that I look forward to:

1. Alyssa's birthday party next Saturday
2. Gabby's party next Tuesday
3. Working only half day this Tuesday
4. Eating Turkey tomorrow. I bought one on sale last week for 8 bucks!!!
5. Finally getting a fake Christmas tree from Costco. I hate having pine needles everywhere!
6. Christmas!!
7. Having the week after Christmas off and spending time with the girls and Brian
8. Going to Alyssa's school this Friday and bringing cupcakes to her class!! I know she will feel special =o)

8 Things on my wish list:

1. New Fridge
2. New oven
3. New dishwasher... I need new appliances!!
4. For my sattelite to be fixed. It's on the fritz.
5. Victoria Secret Pink Pajamas
6. clothes!! I need them badly.
7. a new matress
8. World Peace, LOL!

8 Favorite Movies

1. Color Purple
2. 50 First Dates
3. Steel Magnolias
4. Love and Basketball
5. Antwone Fisher
6. Where the Heart Is
7. Sixteen Candles and all the Brat Pack Movies (I am stealing Manisha's answer, lol)
8. Beauty and the Beast

I am tagging my only blogging friends Loli, Jeneca, Stacy and Roxy. I need to get more people on the blogging train!!

Bored on a Saturday night...

A laptop with a web cam, two kids and bored out of our minds:



I wasn't happy to have to put the video on You Tube so I may delete it in a month or so. But we were super bored. Gabby in the beginning is singing "Put some hot sauce on my burrito BAB-AY!" from the movie Next Friday. After every bath I wrap her in her towel and sing that song to her. She cracks me up when she sings it.
More updates to come I have just been super lazy on the blog front. The girls birthdays are next week so I am relaxing while I can!

Halloween Madness

Where has time gone? It feels like it was summer just yesterday. Well it was Halloween that came and went yesterday. We had a very busy day. Brian took the day off and we both took Alyssa to school. We waited until they started the Kindergarten parade. The kids from each kindergarten sang a song then they went through a parade through the whole school weaving in an out of classrooms so the bigger kids could see their costumes. Later on we helped out in the classroom volunteering to help with Halloween projects and help pass out the goodies for the Halloween party. The kids all ate cupcakes, cookies & fruit.
We went home for a bit then I got the girls ready to go to a few houses to Trick or Treat. Alyssa was a Barbie bride and Gabby was Minnie Mouse. She REFUSED to put on the Mouse ears last night but she still looked cute even with out the ears. We went to the neighbor's houses who I knew well. We went to Alyssa's friends house, our neighbor Margaret's house and Debbie's house just to show off costumes and get the Trick or Treating out of the way.
After that we went to Papa & Grandma Tammi's house to show them the girls costumes. Grandma Tammi gave the girls lots of candy and M&M fans which were cute until Alyssa put it too close to her hair and started screaming because her hair got all tangled in the fan blade! Kids! Then we took off for our main event of the night which was the Harvest Festival at our church. It started raining when we were driving which was a downer. It hasn't rained in forever but of course on Halloween it rains!! At the Harvest Festival they had games for the kids where they could win candy and prizes, a jumper, popcorn machine, and a cake walk. They also took pictures on haystacks with a scarecrow, then they would print it out and you could decorate a frame for your picture with craft sticks and glitter. It was really fun. Alyssa won us some of those big fluffy sugar cookies from the grocery store. I am so tempted to break those things open but I think I will just take them to work and get rid of them.... and maybe just have one or two... okay three!
It was a really good night. I am glad Halloween was on a Friday this year because it sucks worrying about bed time when you want to have a lot of fun with the kids. We didn't get home until 11:30 last night! Alyssa who wasn't feeling that great last night lost her voice. Poor thing... but both her and Gabby had a blast!
Today we are just hanging out at the house. Alyssa still has a scratchy voice and it's raining like crazy outside. I did go out and run a few errands and while I was at Lucky's they were playing Christmas music!! Hello it's only November 1st!!!!

Anywho here are a TON of pictures...


Alyssa aka Barbie Bride getting ready for the parade:



Getting ready to sing "Five Little Pumpkins" with her class:

Alyssa parading through my sister who is in 1st grades class:

Gabby joined Alyssa's party at school:

Alyssa getting her grub on at school:

Alyssa trick or treating with the neighbor girls:

Alyssa and Gabby getting ready to show their Grandma & Papa what a pretty Bride and Minnie Mouse they are:

Minnie and Mickey Mouse kissing. Gabby and my God Son Jordan:

Gabby and Jordan shooting baskets:

Gabby with Uncle Roy (her godfather) playing the golfing game:

Brian ready to do some crafts with his girls:

Cake walk in the rain:

Alyssa with my sister and Jade ready to get in the jumper in the rain:

Alyssa and Gabby posing on the haystacks:

My girls and my little sisters:

These girls crack me up:

It was a long night, LOL! Alyssa fell asleep after being in the car for 5 minutes!!

Gabby crashed and burned this morning while eating M&M's.