Preschool!

Today was Adriana's first day in a preschool class. This is only a 2 week session and she will start the real preschool in August. It was her first class without Mom or Dad there! We have been telling her about this for a while and talking it up and letting her know she will be making new friends, and doing crafts etc. Last night as i was driving home from work it really hit ME (the mom) what was going to happen. I was not going to have my little sidekick with me for 2 1/2 hours! For 3 1/2 years she has been by my side (mostly) daily. I sucked it up and this morning we did it.
This is her eating her breakfast all dressed and ready

Sitting in the circle listening to Miss Leslie

She looked a little pouty then saw that i was still there. I didnt get her picture fast enough, but that tells you how fast she recovered.

Lining up to go out to the playground. I took this as i was leaving.

So all in all she did great! When they stood up to go outside i kissed her, said i love you and i will be back in a bit. That was all. I was ok until i pulled out of the parking lot, WITHOUT her! I shed a few tears then was on my way to run a few errands. When they opened the class door and she saw me she ran over and gave me the biggest hug. She had a good time and is looking forward to going again on Thursday. When we got home she said, "Thanks for picking me up Mom!"
All in all a success! I missed her but i know that i can't keep her by my side for the rest of her life. I did snuggle her extra close before nap tho!

New Bike!

Adriana has outgrown her little trike that we bought her last year. So we decided now that it is summer time we should buy her a big girl bike to ride. Last week i took Adriana with me to look at bikes so she could pick one out and let me know what she liked. I went to work early one day and bought the bike. Monday night Chris and i put it together... Well to be honest he put it together while i talked to him and ate ice cream :).
I planned to give it to her on Tuesday when she got back from preschool but as it turns out she started running a fever Monday night and was sick all last week. She has missed her first week or so of preschool due to being sick as well.
Today we decided she was much better and to give her the bike.

This is her checking out the bell and how it all works.

Just starting at the top of the driveway

Made it down the driveway and off we go!!!

A little tired already since she is still sick.

On the street behind our house. Happy little girl! :)



We only made it around the block once before she was tired and wanted to snuggle again, but a success nonetheless!

We are still here!

Well, every time i come to our blog i sigh and think i should update it. Then i think there is too much to write and i am always at work where i dont have pictures. So today i told myself to suck it up and do it anyway, then i can add pictures later!

Well let's see where to start...Adriana is getting big as usual! she is growing tall but not actually gaining a whole lot of weight. She is still wearing shorts that are 24 mos! Over the past few months she has taken some fun classes and really enjoyed them. She will be starting just a one month preschool class this week. It's Tuesday and Thursday 9-1130. She is excited but i know that she is nervous too. All of the classes she has taken i have sat in the back of the room. This time she will be going all by her little self. She keeps telling me she wants me to go with her and then she gets a nervous little look on her face. She will be fine after a few mins of this i am sure. Me on the other hand... I dont know what to do with out her there! She has been my little sidekick for 3 1/2 years! i talk big and say i am going to clean the house or mop the floors, and i probably will eventually but this first class i just dont know! I will update and definitely take pictures after the first couple of days! In August she starts the fall preschool program. This is the same two days a week but only 2 hrs each time. Adriana and i are keeping busy swimming, going to the park, playing in the sprinklers, painting and whatever else we can find to do! When Chris and i first told her about the new baby we told her that she could pick which of the bedrooms she wanted and the new baby would use the other. Adriana decided she wanted to switch rooms and take the office. We went and picked out some paint for it. The walls are purple with white trim. We bought some butterfly stickers and put those up, some pink curtains and a cute little ceiling fan for it. I will take pictures as soon as the fan gets put in and the room is complete. It looks really cute and she seems pretty happy with it. Adriana has been going to most of my dr appts with me and she has been able to help the dr find the baby's heartbeat and squirt the gel on my stomach. she loves it! i think the most fascinating for her is that i have to pee in a cup each time. So a little more than a week ago we had the ultrasound. She had been very excited about this but when it came to it she didnt like it much. she didnt get to sit on the table next to me like she usually does and that was not ok with her! Also, we seem to have caught our new little one during nap time. Not too much activity. Other than that Adriana is good. We have started a chore chart for her and make sure we do our chores every day before we leave the house. She gets to put stickers up for every chore she does. She really loves it and i am thankful! Our house has stayed a lot cleaner lately!

Chris continues to be really busy at work and home. The business at the store has really picked up and it keeps him hopping all day. Then he gets home and chases Adriana and does some projects around the house as well. He went to the ultrasound appt with me and it was really nice. I love when we get some time together. He just finished extending the fence on one side of our house. it looks really nice and we gained a lot of space in the backyard. He is continually changing the pond and making the waterfall different. I love it. He is super creative and for that i am thankful since i am severely lacking in that area!

As for me, i am keeping busy with Adriana all day, working 6 nights a week and all the other stuff that comes with life! It seems we have been running since we got back from Cancun!

We all went to Cancun for Julie and Tara's wedding. It was a beautiful week there and we had a great time. Adriana was a wonderful little traveler and she had such a great time while there. Being in water all day is ideal for her! Chris officiated the wedding and he did a great job. The wedding itself was nice and in a hut on the beach due to the rain. We all had a great time!

SO...we went to the dr for our 20 week ultrasound. All of us went in expecting to hear we were having a boy and come to find out it's a GIRL!!! Chris was very surprised and thrilled. He wanted another girl all along. I think Adriana took it the hardest but after a day or two she adjusted and now is helping us pick names and will help us paint the new little one's room. We are absolutely thrilled! We are past the half way point! The due date is October 15th but we have to do a scheduled c-section around 39 weeks so our little girl will be here probably around the 8th. I am excited to start getting her room together, washing and folding little clothes for her and get it all put in it's place! maybe then it will seem real!

Well that is all for now! i will do a post this week with nothing but pictures!

Behind!

Yikes! Chris looked at our blog today and we both realized it's not been updated since November! Ok... WOW where do i start. I have been working full time with Sorenson, still loving my job. Well... still isnt the right word, AGAIN is more appropriate. I did switch to days while Chris' store was closed in the winter. This year i did not enjoy it. the days were long and the callers were not very nice. I DID however love, love, LOVE the time i got with Chris and Adriana this winter. I am so lucky that Chris and i can work our schedules the way we do so we can be home with Adriana. She is such a fun kid to be around and just has a zest for life i havent seen before. Chris is just opening his shop again this week and getting back into the swing of things. He enjoyed his time off and started framing and finishing our basement. This winter he was inundated with internet orders so that put the basement on the back burner a little bit. Hopefully he can get some more done as the months go by. Adriana is doing great. She is getting so big and just amazes me. She uses reasoning and logic to get her way sometimes. She is still 3 however and can throw a doozy of a tantrum! All in all she is such a joy in our lives and i am thrilled to be working nights and home with her during the day again. I truly love my job and like going to work, but i am glad to do that at night so i can be with Adriana. The zoo, the park, mountains...wherever it may be, we have a great time. Adriana is now taking some classes at the rec center in Loveland. She has started Dinosaur Discovery and this week will start a gymnastics class called Kangaroo Kids where they get to pretend to be a different animal every week. There are a few others she will do also this spring. These are classes she can do by her big self, and she is thrilled by! She is so ready to be independant sometimes. i think she will be anxious but she sure isnt! The first day of Dinosaur class i told her i would go with her or she could do it all by herself if she wanted. She said she wanted me to go with her. We got in the class and Mommy was almost forgotten about. She glanced over once to see if i was still there, but i was in the back of the room and didnt speak once or anything. I was SO proud and sad at the same time! She did awesome and didnt even hesitate. That made me feel great as a Mom that she was just ready to jump in and not worry about it, but made me feel un-needed a little. She is still a great little snuggler and very affectionate. I love to hold her little hand when we walk in the store, or to the park.

One piece of news we do have to share is we are expecting baby number 2! We are due October 15th. The baby will actually be born the first part of October since i have to have a scheduled c-section, so really about the 8th or 10th. We are all super excited. Adriana has said from the beginning it is a BOY! she will not waiver from it and will argue if you tell her it's a girl. She is always asking what the baby is doing and when he is going to come out. That's why i added the baby countdown so she can SEE a picture of what the baby looks like now and hopefully know, that he/she is not fully ready yet. This could be a very long pregnancy !
Our computer that has our pictures is down so i can't add any right now. Hopefully soon and at least after we get back from Cancun! i know my updates get few and far between sometimes. I will try to be better!

Update

Whew! i have a lot to catch up on! i realize i haven't blogged since mid July. I have had pictures uploaded on here but not published anything. OOPS!
All of these pictures are from when we went to the Pumpkin Patch. We didnt go to a great one but we know which one NOT to go to next year. Adriana got to do the hay maze and pick out a tiny pumpkin to take home. We did carve pumpkins at home a week before. I sure wasnt going to pay those prices.
So now it is mid November and life is slowing a little bit. October is crazy busy for us! Adriana was Spiderwoman for Halloween. She is obsessed with Spiderman. She has shoes, toothbrush and Mac and Cheese! We went trick or treating with my brother Dan and his fiancee Stacy and their family. Everyone came down and we had a big group go together. We all had a good time. The kids were all dressed up so cute! Adriana had fun with trick or treating but it was more overwhelming for her i think. The neighborhood we went to was nothing like i had ever seen on Halloween before! SO many houses were decorated and had haunted houses in the front yard! Adriana would walk up to the door, knock and say "Trick or Treat!" Then she would just stand there in a daze until we came to get her. She didnt really show alot of excitement other than her costume which she loved!
For her birthday I took her to Bounce. She has been asking me to go again for a while now and i have promised we would go for her birthday. I held true to my word and she was nothing less than thrilled.
Now it is mid November and Chris has closed up shop for the winter time and is home til March! I am so thrilled! He has started to frame and finish the basement. He is builiding a very cool little house under the stairs for Adriana! it will be like her own little apartment. We will put her kitchen and Dora couch there. He is installing lights and a door! I can't wait to see how it turns out. I am letting him have free reign as to how he designs the basement. i will give input in color and fixtures but that is about it. I am excited!

I have started working full time with Sorenson and loving it. It is only an extra 8 hours a week but it's great to have sick time, and vacay etc. I am still on nights right now with the exception of Sundays and Thursdays. Those are my 2 all day jobs. Dec 1st i will switch to working mostly days. i will only be working one evening a week. I have a pretty spoiled schedule Dec-Feb. i am really looking forward to good quality family time. Chris is really happy to be home and Adriana is happy but adjusting too. She is used to us working but now with Chris home all the time and Mom still going to work... she doesnt get it. She thinks that since chris isnt working right now that I shouldn't be either. She is doing really well. She is such a joy to have around. Always making us laugh and smile so big. She has memorized numerous books and "reads" them to us all the time! We have gotten alot of games lately and that is a big hit with her. Go Fish with letters and animals, Chutes and Ladders, Hi-Ho Cherry O and several others. She loves it all :)

Well that's about it for now. my hands are cramping up! I will update again when we get back from Dallas for Thanksgiving!

Birthday Girl!

Miss Adriana had her 3rd birthday! Geez i can't believe how fast she is growing up. 3!? Are you kiiding!?
Anyway... here is a kitchen we ordered for her and Chris put together. She was so jazzed and she loves it!

This is Adriana's response to her kitchen. First look and she was jumping up and down.

This is on her actual birthday. Just the three of us. We have A LOT of birthdays in October so it was a little hard for her to have to wait all month to get her turn at blowing out candles!

She got to do it twice! once for her big family party then just the three of us.

This is at the big family party.

Aunt Jenny bought her a bunch of outfits and shoes to play dress up! The trunk of dresses also came with earrings and rings. Fancy!


A tiara too!

Way Behind!

This is the gorgeous pond Chris built in our backyard! Pictures don't do it justice by any means. We have fish in here and also a frog that showed up one day and stayed with us!

Adriana once again got ahold of some scissors and cut herself some bangs. I had to take her to a stylist since i couldnt fix it. This is the result. I LOVE her hair with bangs now and it's so much more manageable for us. She likes that Mom wont force her to have it done in ponytails every day.

The end of October we were at Chris' store for lunch almost every day. Adriana loves to run, run and hide and be chased. She likes to feed the fish and drive the forklift :)

We took a morning to go and visit my Grandma and Great Grandma. This is Adriana and her Great Great Grandma.

Adriana and her Great Grandma

Playing in the sandbox Daddy built

On the carousel at the zoo


Being silly one night while the two of them were hangin out

Hot tubbing at the cabin! FUN

A surprise 60th birthday party for Aunt Tricia!

Adriana and her Nana at the party

Busy Bees

We have been VERY busy the last few weeks, well actually the whole summer! We have been camping a couple of times, to the cabin a few times, the Denver Zoo two or three times, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, The Aquarium, Mommy and Me swim classes, Mommy and Me tumbling, the parks, swimming with my sister and lots of the kids, We have played at Nana and Grumpy's as well as Grandma and Grandpa's. We have been all over the place!!! Here are a few of the pictures from all of our adventures.

During the most recent camping trip we took all of the little kids fishing. They loved it! I do, however think the big kids had the most fun though! Desiree, Robert, Matt and myself had contests to see who could cast the Spiderman and Scooby Doo fishing poles the farthest! it was great!

With the littler kids we did not put hooks, or bait on their lines. they had dummy weights that came with the poles and they all just practiced their casting and reeling in. They were none the wiser and they were all really happy when we left. No fish were caught on this trip but a good time was had by all nonetheless.

Adriana enjoyed casting much more than reeling. Part of the problem was that she uses her left hand most of the time as her dominant one and i did not get a left handed fishing pole for her. She did still reel in her line most of the way though. I wasnt sure fishing would live up to her expectations, but she really had a good time and was very happy when we went back to camp.

For some reason Adriana insisted that Aunt Desiree take her potty. She did not want Mommy to take her.

Chris and I took Adriana to Bounce last week. When we got there to our surprise there were about 4 day care centers there as well so it was CRAZY! I was not super enthused and Adriana about got run down on the first slide she tried to go down. However, she entered the next one and it was like an obsticle course with a wall that was too high for her to climb. As Chris was getting ready to go help her we saw a little boy about 8 years old pick Adriana up under her armpits and help her up over this wall. He proceeded to follow Adriana wherever she went, helped her and made sure the bigger kids let her have her turn and did not knock her down!

This boy's name is Christopher and he took her hand and waited in line with her for the slide and went down with her.

It almost seemed like he was stalking her. In a very nice way of course. This was an area for toddlers only, so he just watched until she was ready to go somewhere else to play. He was very sweet and we were very touched watching him with her.

Chris' parents and our little family all went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. It was a very fun day! Adriana walked a lot, saw a lot of things and had a good time. She didnt even have any meltdowns or anything as she sometimes does on a long day. This zoo had so many more things to do compared to the Denver Zoo. I think i prefer the exhibits in the Denver Zoo but the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo just had SO much for the kids. They had several animals you could pet: goats, a baby wallaby, you could feed the giraffes, pony rides, face painting, a carousel, a little train that went in a circle. Here is a picture of Adriana with a green butterfly she had painted on by some girls there. It did not stay on long however, because there was a misting thing that i encouraged her to run through since it was quite warm that day. I wanted to help cool her off a bit.

Adriana with her Grumpy and Nana at the Zoo

Our little family

Adriana really liked the pony ride. She is always asking me to take her to ride horses.

Riding the kiddie train with Nana

Feeding the giraffes was one of the favorites on this day. Adriana would have stood there and fed them all day i think! She didnt even cringe at their long creepy tongues!

A few months back Adriana asked me everyday for two weeks to buy a bike for her. So one day when she came down the stairs from nap there it was! a pink and purple bike just for her! Daddy had it all put together and everything for her. She was just soo thrilled and is always saying, "thank you Mommy or Daddy buying new bike for me!". Such a sweet little girl. So this was a day we went for a ride on her bike around the block.

Chris is so great about building little forts for her to play in and arranging the couch cushions in a goofy fashion for her. What a great Dad he is!

Chris has also built a gorgeous pond in our backyard! He worked so hard on it and it looks wonderful! it has a waterfall that we keep running all the time. It is one of the best sounds in the world. Makes me feel like i am in the mountains all the time. Adriana and i have been to Mommy and Me swim class. Man, did she find her home there! She loved going everyday and all the songs we sang were again requested during bathtime. On the last day she even plugged her nose and put her whole head in! I had been trying SO hard to get her to do it and she adamantly refused and then on the last class she did it over and over again! She beamed with pride as she showed her swim teacher! I was so very proud of her during this class. She was happy just to be there! we would pull in the parking lot and she would yell, "YAY for swim class!". Her enthusiasum is just awesome. Swimming with Candice, Grandma and the kids has really helped her too. At first she would only go in with the floaties on if she had a ring around her waist to help her. The other day she discovered that she can swim and kick herself across the pool with just the floaties! Good times. She is eligible to advance to the preschool level for swim class but not until she is 3. the classes go by ages and not skill level. i wish it were the other way around but oh well! So i will probably do one more session at the current level just before she turns 3 as a refresher.
Last week we started Mommy and Me tumbling. Adriana really likes it and there are a lot of kids in her class. Running around and jumping on things is right up her alley! I am a little disappointed in the class because they are not really teaching her how to use the bars or anything. I am hoping that once she is 3 and we can take the next level that part will improve. Despite this or in spite of this it is just fun to watch her run and play.
Not too many other things to report. We are busy as you can see and just plugging along. Work is going well for both Chris and I. I am a mentor at my work for some interpreters that need a little improvement with their skills so they can work independantly. It's been a really good experience for me and helps me really analyze my work and find ways to improve my own skill as well. I love the company i work for and my boss is awesome. There is a lot of support and encouragement. Our center has held quite a few workshops that give us CEU's for our certifications and it's free for us as employees. i love that part!

Ok well i am going to wrap this up! See you in about a month or so for another update!
I do update my facebook pics regularly so feel free to catch me there too :)