My Birthday

Was lots of fun! 29, I really can't believe it! In one more year I'll be 30, wow! Dinner was delicious at on the border, I had the grilled avocado enchiladas (YUUUMMMMY). I was surronded by family and wonderful friends, showered with gifts that I never expected. My mom and dad bought me a new purse. My friend Jezzy and her boyfriend Johnny bought me Pablo Neruda's essential collection. He is my all time favorite artist. I got a pedicure, I haven't had one since William was in my belly. It really was a great day!

a month

really, I cant believe that nearly a month has passed since I last posted, I think about posting often but by the time I get around to it....

Our trip to Oregon rocked, it was amazing, fun, amazing! I loved it!!

Our grandbaby was born!!!! Anna Rose entered the world 13 days late on August 21st and was a healthy 9 pounds 2 ounces!! Mom is in love with her, and we can not wait to meet her!!

I am loving my new job! I work between 24-30 hours a week.

I am back in school, taking 2nd semester Organic Chemistry, plus lab. I have been blessed with an amazing friend Jezzy, who is in this class with me, and makes it much more bearable, its awesome to have a "study buddy"!

I will be 29 in 15 days! We are going to do a group dinner, and then go play some darts and pool, we don't get out much so it should be fun and entertaining!

Nathalie had her first soccer game last saturday and is in love! She scored 2 goals, and only one was in the " wrong" goal. Her team color is green, and they are called the green dragonflies!

Here is the "heavy" part of this post. William is undergoing some evaluation and testing right now, he has been diagnosed as "borderline" autistic. He definitely is not severe, but does portray some traits. He has a more thorough diagnostic psychological developmental evaluation at the end of the month, so we will find out more then.


so there in short is what we have been up to more or less.

Playtown

So I took the kids to playtown today, and....
they both had a blast. But Nathalie, made instand friends with a couple of girls, that she had never met before, initially she said they "hurt her feelings" but within minutes the three of them were like the 3 amigos, up until we got ready to leave 2 hours later.....So here is something to consider,What happens in the time between then ( you know being 4 years old) and, say, our age? It's an amazing phenomenon to me, how kids can instantly run off playing and have the BestTimeThatTheirLittleMindsHaveEverImagined when they've known each other all of ten minutes.And why don't we do that more as adults?I'm just wondering, what do you all think about this? seriously, let me know!

La Jolla Indian Reservation Camping trip

was sooo much fun. the kids had their moments.you know, the melt down moments. But, all in all it was an amazing weekend, loaded with fun! Nathalie liked the idea of tubing down the river, until we flipped...William would have floated down the river without an intertube, if I'd let him. We didnt arrive until about 9 pm friday night, so the kids were cranky and hungry. Once fed, they got a bit better. Saturday morning William woke up on the wrong side of the bed! Once he had a nap (in the late afternoon) he was much better for the rest of the day. Sunday, of course the day we were leaving, the kids woke up both in an overall happy mood!
It was hard to do without daddy being there, and I am looking forward to our family trip to Oregon next week, where daddy will be there to help!
I will post pics soon, Im currently on my laptop, not at home, so I will post soon.

camping

I'm taking the kids to La Jolla Indian Reservation this weekend, with my parents and my sister and her boyfriend. Sam can't go and for that I am sad, but I know it will be fun none the less! Our trip to Oregon is also just 2 short weeks away.

mommmy

i hear screams of agonizing pain from downstairs, Nathalie yelling "moommmmy mommmy" I jump up run down the stairs and find out that nothing is wrong. I hear the constant bickering of the two of them, Williams screech, Nathalie's stern voice! Please help me make it through the day!

My how you've grown

Today when I picked Nathalie up from school they gave us her "year book" it is all hand done by her teacher, with pictures and art projects from each month of the school year, in short this book it is awesome! On the very first page is Nathalies beginning of the year picture and stats as well as her end of the year picture and stats!

In September 2007 she was 3 ft 3 inches and 32 pounds
In June 2008 (9 months later) she is 3 ft 6 inches and 39 pounds!

my little girl, she is getting big!

Nathalie's end of the year field trip to Coronado

she had such a blast and said we have to bring Daddy and William the next time we go! I agree completely and hope to plan a family beach day soon!

here I am

I haven't been very consistent in the blogging world lately and I dont really have an explanation beyond I have been busy, lazy and busy! Nathalie just moved up a class in preschool she is no longer a piglet, she is now a tigger! She will be starting Soccer next month! I got a new job, no longer with Rite Aid, I will now be working for Save on, which is 1 mile from my house, which means walking, biking, not driving! Less Gas!!!!! Sam is most likely going to have to have another shoulder surgery. William is 2, and crazy and keeping me busy, and I use to blog when Nathalie is at school, but I find myself doing more and more activities with William now, so there is another reason I havent been blogging so much!

William's 2 y.o check up yesterday...

28 lbs....50th percentile

35&3/4"........75th percentile


all in all I have my self a healthy boy and for that I am truly blessed!

we are still alive

and have soo much to catch up on, promise...pinky swear I will update the month of May soon!

Happy 4th Birthday Nathalie

Nathalie Nichole~ I cannot believe that you are already 4 years old! You are an outgoing, spunky little girl and I love you with all of my heart! You are a lot like your mommy was as a kid, loud, energetic, and sensitive! You are an amazing daughter and such a good sister to your brother! You love to hug William and ask him what he needs. You have been having some hard times with some of your speech blends, like the sk sound, bl, pl, sm, st.....as a result you have begun speech therapy and are doing extremely well! You love to be outside and you love to play games, a couple of your favorites are cariboo and tic tac tony! You are almost complete with your first year of preschool and 3 days a week seems to be just right for both you and I! The things that you learn, the things that you say amaze me on a daily basis! I love you baby girl, Happy Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday William!

William 1 hour after birth

What is there not to love about you? The amazing amounts you've grown stretch my heart beyond expectations. William the past 2 years have gone by so quickly and I am watching you develop into an amazing little boy! You are always on the go and keep your Dad and I on our toes all the time! You are such a loving boy and Mommy really hopes it always stays that way, that never a day comes that you say "MOM please don't kiss me"! You love your big sister tremendously and are always interested in what she is doing! Your favorite toy is your wooden train set that Carina got you for your birthday. You love to eat bananas, grapes, watermelon and cherries! Your not as keen on veggies, but do good with some, you love green bell peppers, and carrots. You are starting to use more words and my favorites are "here you go momma" and "taank you"! Nathalie's name is still hard for you to say so you call her iiiiisssy for sissy and she loves it, as do we! William Richard thank you for coming into my life and showing me what little boys are made of! Happy birthday little one I love you, love MOM

May is an exciting month!!!

It's May! As a child I always loved May because to me it meant spring, it also meant mother's day and my Dad's birthday, and although those things are still constant, I love May with more bittersweetness these days! Both of my children are May babies, that means that after Sunday my baby boy will be 2, and my little girl will be 4 six days later!

Next week, we are hosting playgroup at Nana and Papa's house, the first year I did it Nathalie had just turned 2, and William was a mere 6 weeks old, I remember having to drag Sam along to "help" me! That makes me laugh now, in retrospect. Also next Thursday my sister-in-law flies in from Oregon, she will be here from the 8th until the 24th and I could not be more thrilled! I miss her terribly, and I know that my husband misses her, it will be such a blessing to spend time together! That Saturday, the 10th (Nathalie's actual bday) we are celebrating at Nana and Papa's! The true fun will come the 13 and 14th we are taking the kids to Disneyland for the first time! Nathalie could not be more thrilled, and really does not stop talking about it for a second!

May has always been a month I anticipated, it meant the school year was soon to end, the summer about to start....Now I don't mind if May takes a little longer to come around

my baby girl and I

She's almost 4, I can't believe it!

William was sick...

Sicker than either of my kids have ever been. Sunday (the 6th) I ended up taking him to the E.R, as his breathing was limited I was scared, and he was struggling. He was diagnosed with pnemonia! I couldn't believe my lil guy was so sick! Luckily now, 10 days later he is a new kid, back to to his old self. And honestly, by Wednesday of last week he was 80% better, its amazing how quickly lil ones bounce back!

baking... William's speech...and Nathalie's speech

Over the past couple of weeks I've been baking up a storm, I don't know whats gotten into me! Most likely its the fact that Nathalie is so in love with baking, so I've been incorporating her in the mix! This week, she and I baked peanut butter cupcakes on Monday, although they turned out a bit more muffin like than cupcake like they were still delicious. Tonight we were on the road to baking banana bread, and I couldn't find my loaf pan so we turned them into muffins they turned out great! I only had two bananas left to use so I added a couple of cups of applesauce and Nathalie really thought that was funny, to mix bananas with applesauce!

William had his 1st speech therapy appt today and I'm happy to report that he truly is catching up! The pathologist we saw today was amazing! William is at the range of an 18 to 21 month old now, and he is 22 months, so we are on our way.

Nathalie's school is having speech evaluations on Monday and asked permission to have her evaluated. I never realized (I guess because she's my kid, and I just thought that was the way nearly 4 year old talks) but she has quite a bit of difficulty with the sc sound like in School and Scooby, as well as the K sound! The K sound became completely clear at my moms this weekend when Nathalie was attempting to say hello kitty, well her K sound is a t, so it came out "hello titty".

anyways thats the latest with us!

Nathalie writes mom in chalk!!!!

and the scribbles at the top is where she wrote "Nathalie" unfortunately I didnt get a picture of that. I'll take one the next time she writes her own name!

This week has been quite busy and full of many ups and downs, I'm happy to report that on the marriage front life is on the up! I really think things are starting to iron out.

I have been baking quite a bit this week, my favorite were some white chocolate chip/peanut butter chip cookies they were soooo good!!!! Not neccisarily good for us but they were delicious!

The things I dont want to talk about....but need to

My life has been a little hectic lately, and not neccisarily good hectic. I am thankful I have my kids, they are my pride and joy, and always make me smile, they help me get through the days, especially the rough ones, and these past few weeks have had some rough ones. I fill like lately all dh and I do together, is argue. Some of it is my fault, maybe I am hormonal, maybe I am easily set off, I don't know. I do know I don't want our marriage or children to suffer. I Love him more than imaginable, but marriage is a 2 way street, and lately I feel like its 1 way.

My husband got demoted last week (the 12th) and consequently was given over a week off (paid) He was a store manager and will now be an assistant, in so many ways this demotion means good things for him and us, so much less stress, I greatly dislike the amounts of stress he was suffering over his job, and I know that this will help us/him tremendously. And he has definitely been through a lot in the last year, between this, the death of his aunt and mother, finding out his teenage daughter is pregnant, a shoulder surgery and finding out that he will need another shoulder surgery on the other shoulder, soon. We moved as well, which can be stressful. But I am frustrated, I feel like our relationship is such a struggle and shouldnt be. I don't want to do anything that will cause him anymore grief but I really dont know how long I can go on this way. He doesn't like to talk about things, and me, well I'm a talker, I have bottled up pain and then when I finally do let it out I'm like an explosion. Add to the mix our completely opposite schedules and things are definitely bumpy.

My children and my husband are my life, my school and my work are to support that life, but at what point do you give up something to support your primary life? Does that question even make sense, I guess what I mean is this, I need to go to school, or my family will live in this struggle that we are in for.ev.er....my husband is 16 years older than me, and will most likely always be in retail, which there is nothing wrong with, but its not the ideal job to support a family on if you know what I mean. I wonder too if it bothers him, knowing that my earning potential is greater, he has never said it does but I wonder. So then there's this, maybe I should work less now (GULP) this would mean some MAJOR life changes, as my mere 24 hours a week does bring so many benefits into this household....including the kids and my health insurance.. I really don't know, but I do know that somewhere, somehow somethings got to give.

Nathalie's Haircut!

Nathalie had cut her own hair a while ago, and I'd since been trying to get her to let Auntie even it out. Over the weekend Nathalie decided, she wanted her haircut. I took her in to Nichole yesterday, and here is the finished result, my little girl is getting so big!