Choir

Natalia and Sienna sang in the choir at stake conference last weekend.  Natalia has been asking to join the choir for several months.  I told her that we could join choir together at the new year, but then practices ending up being right after church in January and I had meetings at the same time.  So I just sent Sienna and Natalia together to choir.  They did great without me and since I have no real skills to bring to the choir, they have continued to go without me every week.  They are doing great.  They have performed a couple time at church and then did two really beautiful songs at the conference.

Natalia Gets Glasses

Natalia finally got her glasses.  She has been complaining about not seeing the board well at school.  We finally got her the eye doctor and she looks so cute in her new glasses!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday!  I officially have less than a year until 40.  

We did not do much birthday celebrating but I ended up with a pretty expensive birthday present.  The girls and Hector made me breakfast in bed before I had to jet off to a basketball game, then we ran kids to their activities.  Estelle to ballet and all three girls had birthday parties to attend.  

In the afternoon we headed off to look at camper trailers.  This was the second weekend for looking, plus we have been doing lots of research online and we had a pretty good idea what we wanted.  The girls had a blast being driven around in the golf cart - haha - they are easy to please.  

We looked at few, he even let the girls look at the biggest one they had, just for fun!  We ended up being there soooo much longer than we anticipated because we decided to purchase one that they had.  It took so much time to haggle and finally get all the paperwork taken care of.  The kids were awesome and super well behaved, but we were starving by time we left at 8:45pm!  We originally thought we would be there no later than 6:00. 

I would have loved a nice birthday dinner, but there was a taco bell right next door and the kids couldn't wait any longer.  Not my choice of birthday dinners, everyone had a good time teasing me about it, but it totally worked under the circumstances.  Happy Birthday to me, Taco Bell and a Camper Trailer...sounds a little Red Neck!  

Valentine's Day

We love Valentine's Day!  The week leading up to the big day we did secret Valentine's in our house.  We all picked names and had fun doing secret service and gift giving.  We were all able to guess who our secret Valentine was but that didn't stop it from being fun.  We also did our annual fancy feast!  The girls got all dressed up and we enjoyed a four course meal and made an attempt to learn some manners.  It was a really fun evening and as the girls get older and I can really see the value of these simple traditions.  

Poor little Estelle was not feeling well and I ended up picking her up from school early.  She was so sad to be missing the fun Valentine activities in first grade.  There were lots of tears, but she ended up taking a nap and her sisters were able to bring home all her valentine goodies for her.  She was feeling good in time for our fancy feast.  What is it with this child getting sick on all holidays?

   

(Mom, I love you no matter what happens in my life.  Best Mom Ever! Love, Estelle)

Cookie Booths

All three girls had cookie booths on the first Saturday of cookie booth season!  Fortunately, we were able to divide and conquer.  Sienna went with a friend, Hector went with Estelle and I got to cookie booth with Natalia!

Basketball Game and Date Night

Sienna got to go to a high school basketball game with her rec basketball team.  They went to pizza beforehand and they had a great time!  Sienna loves all opportunities to do anything basketball.  Natalia had an activity with a friend that same night and mom and dad had a date night, so Estelle got to have a babysitter all to herself.  She was so excited.  She said, "It is just going to be me?  It's like I am having a playdate without any adults at home!"  Every few minutes until the babysitter arrived, Estelle would ask, "When does my playdate start?"

Winter Fun - January Update

One of my favorite things about Winter is spending time with family.  It seems like things slow down a little; the weather keeps us indoors more and with it getting dark so early, there is just a little more time for family games and crafts and snuggling up and hanging out together.  I love the all summer outdoor time, but I enjoy the balance of having seasons and the adjustments that entails for our habits and schedules.  

This Winter Estelle has been doing ballet once a week.  She loves it so much and is cute in her ballet outfits.  Sienna is playing basketball and she is super into it.  She is an amazing little player and is having so much fun playing on a team of all friends from her school.  

Natalia is doing honor band and she really enjoying all the extra music lessons and practices.

He have enjoyed doing some of our Christmas crafts.  We have put in some good time with gem art; this is has been a fun new project that Jodee got all the girls for Christmas!

We have spent time with friends.  2020 we have decided would be a good time to get more families over for Sunday dinners.  This has been a good goal for our family and we are really enjoying it so far.  

Some of our other good friends, the Taylors, moved.  We played with the kids one more time and had a going away parts with all the ladies.  

We've gone to the church gym a couple of times to practice our sporting skills.  Everyone loves to play horse with dad.  And Estelle loves to have a hard floor to practice her tap dances.  

Hector and I have been getting in some good date nights.  We started eating healthier and then pigged out on a date after a week of really healthy eating.  

Natalia and Sienna have gone on dates with dad.  Natalia went out to eat and loved having dad all to herself. 

Natalia went ice skating with her girl scout troop; she loves skating and is getting really good at it.  

We had an international night at the elementary school.  It was a really cool event. Our school popular is so diverse; families brought food and decorations from their origin countries.  We walked around the whole school and learned about so many different countries.  We tried lots of different foods and then at the end there were a few performances.  The girls loved the Chinese dragon dancers!

  

The girls even got to learn some Ty-Kwan-Do at the event.  

Girl Party Trip

The girls had a Monday and Tuesday off from school in January, so we decided to take a girl party weekend get-a-way.  We ditched Dad and left for Williamsburg after church on Sunday.  Resorts are so cheep in the off season, it almost seems crazy to not take advantage of these deals.  Our resort had unlimited mini golfing and an indoor pool.  That was all we needed to have a great little trip.  We golfed many times and went to the pool every day.  We also did all the fun little activities hosted by the resort (we were the only participants at them all).  We watched the new Lion King movie (totally pointless remake) and we played video games in the club house one night.  Since my kids never play video games, this was a fun treat for them.

We cooked food in our condo and played games and stayed up late.  Super fun weekend!

Everyone got really dry rashy skin from being in the pool so much and outside in the chilly weather, but it was worth it for the fun times.  We drove by Jamestown and the took the ferry over the James River on the way home so at least we could feel like we did a little Williamsburg stuff while we were there.  I love spending time with the girls; they are so much fun and I love our little weekend get-a-ways.