I can't believe it's almost January 2013! These past couple months have just flown by. Here are a few highlights of what's been going on around here:
* We celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving at home in South Texas. We cooked a turkey and enjoyed the nice warm weather.
* Annabelle turned 6! I can't believe she is such a big girl now. We celebrated with a Chuck e. Cheese party and we also brought cupcakes for a school celebration.
* School is going well for Annabelle, she is working at 1st grade level in some of the subjects.
* We celebrated Christmas in South Texas this year, no traveling for me. Too pregnant.
* We got a real LIVE Christmas tree! First time ever, so pretty.
* We spent a lot of time decluttering our house. We hope to put it on the market soon & find a bigger place so baby boy can have a bedroom and I don't have to lose my home office.
* Annabelle insists her new brother's name will be "Ian"...her second choice is "Zeke"...crazy kid!
* I've spent a lot of time at the doctor's office...being older
& pregnant involves a lot of office visits, testing & monitoring!
* I'm married to the best mechanic/painter/handyman/electrician/jack of all trades EVER, don't know what we'd do if we had to pay folks to fix all the stuff that "breaks" around here!
* Baby boy continues to grow, scheduled c-section is Jan. 9. So excited to meet him!

Butterfly

Flower

Annabelle wanted me to post some photos of her most recent artwork. I think it's wonderful!

Things I Never Thought I'd Discuss with my 5 year old...

Kindergarten seems a lot more "involved" than I remember it being 35 years ago when I was 5. Annabelle is learning to read, do math equations, work on a Mac computer, write sentences and multiple other things that I don't think I even knew about until I was in second or third grade. But she's also learning a few other life lessons that I had no idea we would be dealing with at age 5.

We've been dealing with a bit of bullying from one girl in her class. At first I blew it off and told her to just stay away from the girl. Every day at school pick up Annabelle would hop in the car and start complaining about this same girl, how she cut in line, pushed her, told her mean things, told on her. I just kept up my usual advice of "stay away from this girl and she will leave you alone". But after over two weeks of constant complaining I decided it was time to take action, so I spoke to A's teacher. She assured me that she had no idea this was going on and she would take care of it. Needless to say, the situation has not gotten any better...actually, it has gotten a bit worse, the teacher decided to move Annabelle to the same table as the "bully" and now she has to sit next to her every day. I'm thinking about enrolling Annabelle in some martial arts classes to help build her self esteem.

Annabelle's teacher also pointed out that she and another little girl in the class are the only "white" kids. Of course Annabelle asked me about this immediately when I picked her up from school that day. She had no idea she was "white" or what race she is. Most Kindergarteners don't see color or difference. Now we've had many, many conversations about how "all people are just people no matter what color they are".

We've also been struggling with appearance. Annabelle insists that the other little girls wear a lot of jewelry to school. We've had many fights about how school is not a place where Kindergarteners need to wear jewelry, actually is there anywhere that a 5 year old needs to wear a lot of jewelry??? She has also been VERY concerned with the appearance of her hair. I was baffled with this one, for years she hasn't cared what her hair looked like, often times she would leave the house with five different color barrettes in her hair or a crazy headband or even unbrushed hair that was standing straight up! Suddenly she is concerned with her hair looking "perfect". As we were getting ready for school one day she was in tears about how "imperfect" her hair was, at this point I finally asked her to tell what was really going on with her hair and she finally told me that the "bully" at school had told her that her hair was messy....uggghhh, will it never end?

And so we just deal with the obstacles day by day...I can't imagine how much worse this is going to get when she's in middle school!

Some of the girls from Annabelle's Ballet Class

Sophie & Annabelle

Rapunzel and Flynn Rider

I'm a little late on posting Halloween photos. Things have been busy around here as they always are this time of year. Annabelle had a busy Halloween. She got to wear her costume to ballet class, school and out to trick or treat with her friend Sophie. Justin is always a great sport and this year he dressed up as Flynn Rider to take the girls out trick or treating. They came home with more candy than they should have and very tired feet.

"Stomp Out Drugs" Day at school, wearing her pink boots

It is "Red Ribbon" week at Annabelle's school. Today is "Stomp Out Drugs" day so the kids got to wear boots. Annabelle was really excited that she got to wear her pink boots to school - she had picked out a pair of polka dotted rain boots to wear and I talked her out of wearing them :)

I wear my sunglasses...

...and today is sunglasses day at school!

Silly Socks Day

Silly Socks!

Today is silly socks day at Annabelle's school. She's wearing a pair of socks that say "Girls Rule". She was VERY excited to wear them to school today.

Sheesh! Elderly!

Today I was checking out my medical summary online and found this listed: "Elderly multigravida. Second or more pregnancy in a woman who will be 35 years of age or older at expected date of delivery."

ELDERLY! Sheesh, I didn't realize I'm considered ELDERLY at the early age of 39! I sure don't "feel" elderly. In a world where MANY new Moms are over the age of 35 I just find it amazing that they have it noted that I am "elderly" in at least 3 places on my medical charts.

I'm going to be sure to point this out to Justin as another excuse why I don't need to be doing housework and we need to get a cleaning service - after all I AM elderly!

...and since I NEVER post pics of myself, here's one of me today with baby brother.

Wohoo! Only 96 more days!

Only 96 more days until Annabelle will be a big sister. We were talking about upcoming holidays and Annabelle said "First comes Halloween, then my Birthday, then Thanksgiving & Christmas!" I added "and then Little Brother" and she said "Noooo! I don't want a little brother!"....I'm hoping she changes her mind by the time he arrives!

Sleepy

It's been a rough week around here. Annabelle has a horrible cold - I'm sure she caught it from her germy Kindergarten class. She has been so tired after school. Last night she fell asleep sitting up while watching Glee! Poor girl. Thank goodness we only have a half day of school today and she is off school Monday, this will be some well needed time to rest and get better!

Grades Are In

Annabelle's first "report card" came home in her homework folder on Friday. She made mostly A's with a couple B's. I was elated, Justin wasn't happy with the B's (of course, since he's a perfectionist). Kindergarten is going well and seems to move at break neck speed. Annabelle likes school and hasn't protested going as of yet. The early morning drop off is a little too early for us some days but we're getting used to it. We leave the house around seven every morning and Annabelle has been telling people she goes to school at night since it's still dark outside when we leave the house!

We're gearing up for Halloween and will hopefully get the fall decorations out this weekend. We have our Halloween costumes ready. We always love how busy our neighborhood gets on Halloween.

Little brother continues to grow and we are excited about his arrival, well, at least I am, Annabelle has her moments where she doesn't want a brother at all. He has been extra active the past couple weeks which makes us worry that he's going to be a hyperactive baby! I go in for glucose testing tomorrow - yuck, not looking forward to that.

And Time Flies

Rainbow with no Rain

Our New Tree

It seems like this school year is just flying by. Annabelle is adjusting well to Kindergarten. She likes her school, has made some new friends and is generally happy! Here are a few funny things that she's told me about Kindergarten:
She has a "friend" named David who has been trying to kiss her, I asked if he was trying to kiss her on the cheek and she said "no,  on the LIPS"...I decided this was a good time to explain to her that little boys have cooties.
She also said that David asked her what the "spots" are on her face, she told him they are freckles. I guess David hasn't seen to many little white girls with freckles :)
She is in the "Ohio State" group - her class is sectioned off into groups according to their learning level, she is in the highest group.
Annabelle isn't 100% thrilled about getting a little brother, she still insists that she wants a little sister. I tell her it's a great thing she's getting a brother because she won't have to share her Barbies with him.

We got a new tree in the backyard over the weekend. Hopefully it will give the yard some much needed shade. The tree is a Laurel de la India and is supposed to grow rapidly. We sure hope it does! Stella and Annabelle have already been enjoying the tree.

Oh brother!

In January Amazing Annabelle will be a big sister!

Kindergarten!

New Snazzy Alarm Clock

Stella's wondering what the heck is going on!

Reading "Twas the Night Before Kindergarten"

My Baby looking all "official"

Goofy girl acting like she's cooking

Another goofy pose, she insisted I take a picture of this : )

My baby started Kindergarten this week. I can't believe she's already in "big girl" school. She was super excited to start school, we even bought a snazzy new Hello Kitty alarm clock - Daddy had to drive to 3 different Target stores to find it in stock (what a good Daddy!). When the alarm went off on the first day of school I had to get up and turn it off, Annabelle was still sound asleep! I think she can sleep through anything. The school day starts super early - we have to be there by 7:30 and dismissal isn't until 3:45 - that makes for a very long day for little kids but it's all part of going to a college prep school and we were lucky to get in! We've had homework every night and Annabelle's teacher is super nice! We're looking forward to an awesome school year!

Summer is Here!

I've been REALLY lazy lately and haven't posted anything to the blog, facebook or actually anything in a long time. I can't believe summer is already here!

What you've missed:
•Annabelle graduated from the UTPA preschool! It was sad to say goodbye to everyone but we are happy to be moving on to Kindergarten. I definitely won't miss the preschool :)
•We rescued a puppy! Her name is Stella, she is a chihuahua/terrier and she very sweet (she has some fear issues but we're working on them)
•Justin started teaching summer school again, he will be done the first week in July and we're looking forward to some vacation time.
•Annabelle attended Kindergarten registration, she tested perfectly at Kindergarten level, we ordered her school uniforms, got more information on her school and found out she needed yet another TB test. So far we really like the school (the campus is beautiful) and she is super excited about the school year starting. We can't wait for Kindergarten orientation in August!
•We got a new roof! Finally! Hail damage in May stirred things up around here, we now have a new roof (a 2 day job that turned into a 12 day job) and we're waiting for news on our new fence and a/c repairs.

Our New Roof

Meet Stella

Preschool Graduation - Dancing to Hound Dog

Catching Butterflies

Stella is Famous - She was the Easter Seals Dog!

Annabelle & Teacher Joyce

Graduated!

• We've been spending our summer days with friends in their pool. Saturday nights watching movies in the park. And just hanging out at home being lazy!

Easter 2012

We hunted some eggs

Posed for the camera

Got an awesome new tutu from Aunt Lisa

Collected some farm fresh eggs

Dyed some eggs (one even came out black!)

Enjoyed the cake batter just a little bit too much!

And decorated our traditional bunny cake - mmmmm....it was delicious!

We had a really nice Easter!

And Annabelle is STILL sleeping in the shark tent. Tomorrow the tent moves to her bedroom like it or not :)

Annabelle has been sleeping in a shark-shaped tent in our living room for the past couple nights. She loves getting into it at bed time and playing her leappad and turning on her flashlight, she sleeps in that darn thing the ENTIRE night without getting up once & trying to get in our bed. I think the shark tent is a brilliant idea! Maybe we can just get rid of her bunk beds to make room for a separate home office for Justin? BRILLIANT!!

Preschool graduation is just around the corner. I had no idea there would be an entire ceremony complete with cap, gowns & tassel, guest speaker, dancing & singing, invitations. That one took me by surprise. So, I ordered a cap and tassel for Annabelle (we decided to forgo the gown since the preschool offered to let everyone borrow one and I could just imagine another graduation gown hanging in my closet collecting dust). Graduation photos are this week & I have been diligently working on Annabelle's "dance costume" for graduation which, for some odd reason, is a 50's poodle skirt? Not sure why the graduation dance involves the 50's since these preschoolers have no idea what the heck a poodle skirt is, I guess I need to rent the movie "Grease" and let her watch it?

The Easter egg hunts are getting ready to begin. There will be one at the library tomorrow, at Annabelle's preschool the next day and I'm sure there will be lots this weekend - just not sure if we will participate in any of the local public hunts since I know they will be a mess. Annabelle has still been practicing hunting eggs in our backyard, she's going to run circles around the other egg hunters!

The past few weeks have just sped by. Annabelle lost another tooth - this time a front one. She looks so goofy and cute with her new toothless grin. Her other front tooth is loose now too.
Spring break was this week, we tried to keep it low key and just spent time doing things we like to do (a.k.a shopping, eating, sleeping). I always envisioned us spending our spring break on the Island, enjoying the beach, since we live so close but it's so crazy with spring-breakers this time of year that we avoid it for the entire month of March.
Annabelle has been "practicing" Easter egg hunting, she has four eggs that she carries around in a basket and if she can talk Justin or I into hiding them she's thrilled. She's going to be a pro by the time the preschool has their egg hunt this year. Tonight when I was tucking her into her bed she insisted that I put all four eggs on a pillow next to her IN the bed. Silly girl of mine!

Rants from a sleepless night

It's 3 a.m. and I hear a little voice next to our bed "I had a bad dweam, can I sweep wit you?", I'm half a sleep but I manage to mumble "What was the dream about?" she says "skewetons" I say "Sure get in the bed". She snuggles up close to me and I move over a few inches, moments later she's taking up 3/4 of the bed and has expanded like a puffer fish. I have no idea how a child that small can make herself so big! I move over further and turn on my side, I'm now stuck in a tiny crevice between Annabelle and Justin, who is snoring like a buzz saw undisturbed. I feel a headache coming on so I pull myself out of the crevice and head for the medicine cabinet for some tylenol, I stumble into the kitchen where I drop the tylenol on the floor and realize I can't see a thing, my glasses are on the nightstand. Feeling around on the floor, I hope not to accidentally touch a six inch roach that seem to sneak into our house every night. I find the tylenol, take them, and head back to the bedroom. Looks like I'll be sleeping on the futon tonight. I feel through the dark until I get to the futon and sit down, I hear a soft meow-yawn and realize Edith, the once-homeless-with-a-heartmurmur now spoiled house cat has made the futon her bed for the night, I curl my legs over her, trying not to disturb her precious sleep, knowing my almost forty year old bones are going to complain about this tomorrow. I lie there wide awake now and think how fast time has gone by. Annabelle is growing up justasfastasthat and I can't believe she will be in Kindergarten soon, she has two wiggly front teeth, she can open the car door, pour her own drink, take her own bath and (YES!!!) wipe her own butt. She is getting so BIG! I worry about the impact of public school in South Texas on her future, that she won't get into the IDEA charter school since it's a lottery and I've never won a lottery before, that she is the .0001% of White, English speaking kids in a place where 99.999% of the kids are Hispanic and speak Spanish. I worry that she won't get the speech therapy from the public school system that she needs because the 99.999% Spanish speaking kids will be higher priority than a English speaking kid who can't pronounce her "L's". I worry that the drug wars will get worse and border violence will increase making it even more unsafe to live down here. I am a worrier, always have been, always will be. You'd think by now I'd know that worrying won't do one bit of good? I hear Annabelle make a soft sigh as she sleeps and realize she's going to be okay no matter what because I'll make it work, that's what Moms do. Some people go through life without struggles, going to the best schools, living in the best places, having the best of everything and does that make them any better than the rest of us? Of course not. She's going to be just fine...I'll make sure :) What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Annabelle & I made these Valentines for her preschool class.

I think the most impressive part is the back of them.
Annabelle wrote all her classmates names! My girl is growing up!

And we made these for our story time friends at the library.

Here we go again

School is starting again and things are already starting to get busy around here again. Justin is lucky to have such a long Christmas break but it always seems like it speeds by so quickly. We decided Annabelle should go to preschool since the preschool was open (even though college isn't in session), she actually WANTED to go so that made it an even easier decision. It was nice to spend some time with just Justin and no 5 year old. We went to lunch at a couple different "not so kid friendly" restaurants and enjoyed it immensely!

I predicted that 2012 was going to be a great year, well, it hasn't started out so great. Justin's Grandma was sick then fell and broke her hip. Soon after that, my Aunt & Uncle's house burnt down and then a wonderful family friend/relative passed away, it seems like every time I pick up the phone there was some new, awful news on the other end. I was beginning to wonder if things were really going to be great in 2012 but hopefully all the bad stuff is just getting out of the way of the awesomeness. Ya, that's it!

Annabelle and I visited the Edinburg library this morning for story time. The program was really nice (one of our friends was part of the program, he brought his cello and played for the kids). I'm not sure if Annabelle enjoyed the program or jumping on the cushioned floor and seats after story time more? Lately she's been very outgoing and will play with just about any kids she meets. This makes me very happy because it wasn't too long ago that she would have clung to me the entire time we were in a new surrounding.

Here are some funny things Annabelle has been doing and saying lately:

"Momma, I'm feel restless"...then she proceeds to grab a pillow and roll on the floor..."I'm gonna wrestle this pillow" (I finally figured out the connection between "wrestless" and "wrestling" haha!)

Ms. Diana gave Annabelle a pink plastic Easter egg at story time this week - it was supposed to be a "penguin egg". Annabelle loves that silly pink egg, she carries it around the house, sits on it, puts it in her pocket, puts it in her car seat. Unfortunately it has been lost twice now and both episodes ended with her in tears. But we've been able to recover it. Wish I had known how much she would love pink plastic egg, I could've saved a lot of money on Christmas gifts!

Annabelle told Justin "Mom always wants me to do things by myself, sometimes she treats me like I'm SIXTEEN"

Me: "Annabelle are you going to participate in the spring dance recital" Annabelle: "No, not unless you tie one of those really tall flags to your back so I can see you the entire time I'm on stage, at the last recital I lost you and I couldn't find you!"


 So, as the busy school semester begins I'm hoping we will get to sit on the patio this weekend and enjoy the sunset and the cool breeze and watch the tropical birds fly by as they head off to roost and just relax before the chaos begins again...

Happy 2012!!

I can't believe another year has gone by and my little girl is now 5! I finally got around to having more professional pics taken (not the best photos ever but they will do). Annabelle is growing up so quickly.

We spent the holidays in Kansas visiting friends and family. Over seven days, we drove 2,200 miles through three states. It was a long, crazy trip (as always) but we survived and we're glad to be back home in sunny South Texas. We say we'll never drive back to Kansas again after these long trips but inevitably we end up doing it again and again...I guess we just love our families that much! Christmas at Sitti and Papa's house was nice as usual. Annabelle loved playing with her cousins and running laps around Sitti and Papa's house with the other kids. I enjoyed holding baby Ali and playing with Rylan since it had been a year since I had seen them. It's always a little crowded but that makes it even more fun for Annabelle since she's so used to being the only kid around our house. The last day in Kansas was not so good, Sitti and Leah both came down with a bad stomach virus that was passed on by baby Ali. We ended up leaving in a hurry and covering ourselves with hand sanitizer to avoid the bug. Thankfully no one else caught it (especially Papa who already had pneumonia!). We spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home eating snacks and watching all the fireworks in our neighborhood, this year the light show was even bigger than Fourth of July! We hugged each other as it turned midnight and wished for a wonderful 2012. I just know it's going to be a great year for us!