Family Photo's 2014

We needed to have some family photos taken so that we can have something to put on the walls of our new house.  I didn't feel like putting up photos of just one child would be very fair.  But also because we don't have any photos of us as a family.  We have a lot of photos of the kids but almost none of Pedro and I with the kids.  The pictures turned out pretty well.  Avi, our happy child, didn't seem so happy or smiley in the pictures but that is ok!  At least we didn't have any crying!

This one was when they said to look at each other lovingly....ummm??!

Zuri was squeezing me

Avi being squished!

Aviela 5 Months!

Avi is 5 months old.  It seems so far away that she was so tiny and curled up in my arms.  Now she seems so big!

She has a pretty happy personality but it can go downhill quickly if she is hungry or tired.  She is eating a bit better now, but I am giving her bottles since it is hard to keep her attention with so much going on, even when we try to eat quietly in the room it doesn't work because Zuri inevitably needs to come up for something.  Nap times are up and down.  Some days I end up waking her from a 3 hour nap, other days it is 40 minutes.  Nothing very consistent.  

She loves with Zuri growls at her and has fun watching her.  She also LOVES her jumper right now.

(This picture was from awhile ago.)

Trying to take a picture of them both ended up in this series of events!

We have tried sweet potatoes and are still learning how to eat.  Sometimes she shivers other times she seems to like them.

During her last month she went on another basketball trip with me to California (she has now been to Kansas, Oregon, Chicago and Anaheim).

We have rolled over a few more times from stomach to back

And we LOVE bath time!

And we are working on our sitting skills!  

Too Sad For Words

Grandma "Topper" passed away on September 19th, 2014 around 9:10pm with Kurt and Sylvia (care giver) at her side.  I am glad that Kurt was there so she had someone with her when she passed.  Pedro told me she was just waiting for everyone to visit and about an hour before everyone in our family had visited her.  We thought she would pull through as she seemed to pull through most things.  She was 94 years old.  No matter how old she was, she still passed too soon for me and my family.  I loved her very much and we had a lot of great memories together.  From her serving me breakfast for dinner, heavenly hash ice cream, baking together, playing cards, watching the price is right, going with her to get her dogs, licorice candy (gross!), splitting gum in half, going to church together, working on memorizing things for wednesday night class, making me memorize everything for church even though I had set up a system that each person memorized only a few things so that nobody had to memorize everything, teaching me my times tables, watching wheel of fortune, eating tea garden together, Zuri loving her, Zuri sharing her toys with her, Grandma worrying about me while I was working and pregnant,  how happy she would get to see the kids, how excited she was to hold Avi, Zuri wanting to tell grandma topper goodnight and love you and so many more things.....

We visited Grandma at the hospital in the afternoon on the day she died.  Before we left Zuri wanted to tell Grandma good bye and gave her a kiss and said quietly, love you.  I had to YELL it to grandma because her hearing was so bad.  But I am glad we got to see her before she passed and I am glad the last memory I will have is of Zuri telling her that she loves her.

Zuri 2 years and 8 months!

Phew!  Can terrible two's end at 3?  Because four more months of it is about all I might be able to handle!

Nap times are ginormous fight times and she still doesn't nap.
Bed times are ginormous fight times and she eventually goes to sleep after screaming for a good 10 minutes.
Happy mood times are so LOUD and ENERGETIC that I am tired thinking about them.
Bad mood times are so LOUD and ANGRY and TEMPER TANTRUM filled that I don't want to think about them.
Time outs that last 2 minutes take me 20 minutes to get her to sit there for 2 minutes.
She EATS NON STOP
She tells me she needs to go "pee potty" all the time.
She doesn't want to get out of the bath.
Listening skills do not exist
Taking things away has not worked
Prizes for behaving do not work.

And so many more things I can't even tell you.  I especially do not enjoy random middle of the night wake ups that also wake up Avi.  Or morning wake ups that have been happening at 6:45am!

I know this time will only last for awhile so I'm hoping we make it through but it is reminiscent of her first 4 months of life!

Wish us luck!

She is wearing 3t and some 4t clothing and size 8 shoes.

I believe she is about 38 inches tall (with shoes) and 34 lbs.

She likes to take Stella for walks and loves her baby sister.  Zuri currently loves Super Hero's!

Here are some pictures of her!

Zuri's first soccer season!

We decided to sign Zuri up for soccer this season.  The ages said from 3 to 4 but then it said from 2 to 4 on the registration area so I figured she would be good to play!  I think she is probably the youngest on the team.  The age issue is because of the attention span for games.  In practice she does a good job of listening and doing drills.  But put one ball out there and 8 little kids she has pretty much no interest in what is going on!  I do not envy the coach of the team as it requires a lot of energy to keep them interested (except the one really good boy on her team).

Here are some pictures from her first two weeks:

Aviela Is 4 Months Old!

Aviela is getting so old!  She is a lot bigger to me this month than she has been before.  I feel like she really hit a growth spurt.  Avi has been such a happy baby.  The only issue we have is about her eating.  She isn't really interested in eating.  This last month she got all bottles and she would only take 4oz at a time and that was with me making her eat the last two ounces of each bottle.  She will rarely take a 5oz bottle.  That means that in a day she is only getting about 20 ounces in bottles and probably about 4 more in the middle of the night.

One other issue we have had is that after she has her middle of the night feed, she doesn't really go back to sleep and fusses from about 3:00am on!  Her eyes are actually closed but she isn't very happy.  She eventually falls back to sleep around 6:30am but that is brief because Zuri is usually up and wake us all up.

I have had to wake her from her morning naps because we are trying to get in a certain about of feedings in a day since she isn't getting many ounces.  She lays down around 9:30 and if she is not up by 12:30 I wake her to have her eat.  Afternoon naps are hit and miss.

Her stats for 4 months:
12 lbs 1oz (although we weighed her at home a week earlier and she was 13lbs) 10%
24.25 inches tall 42%
Head was in the 35%


She is wearing 3 month clothes very easily and some of the 3 month pants are already a little short on her.

She loves playing on her playmat and watching her sister run around.  She also enjoys warm baths and long walks (seriously!!).  She likes to talk a lot and smile even more.

Now if we could just get some hair to grow in and for the standing hair to lay down!


Here are some pictures of her this month!