Kindergarten!!!

I have cried the last 2 nights about this, but luckily not today as I dropped Emma off for her first day of kindergarten. I have purposely not blogged about this before because it would have been through tears and would have been over the top emotional. I never saw myself as a parent who would cry over this. Preschool was exciting and I was never sad about that, but that's probably because it was voluntary, and it was just 3 half days a week. Emma will be in school from 8am-3pm, 7 hours each day, that's more than I have ever been gone from her. Emma got into River Oaks Charter School (ROCS) which is an Aspire school. There were almost 300 applicants and there were just 32 spots left since there were 28 siblings of kids already at the school and they get first priority. So basically we got very lucky that Emma's name was pulled during the lottery. This mean Jacob is automatically in when it comes his turn. The drop off went well this morning. Emma did make the comment that there were alot of kids on the playground, but I told her that she will only have recess with the Kindergarteners and 1st graders. It ended up not mattering to her, she went and played with no problem. I was a good mommy too, and only stayed until the whistle blew to line up, and after she was assigned a seat in class I left. There were several parents crowding the hall so I felt proud that I was able to leave in a timely manner! Probably the fact that I love Emma's teacher had a lot to do with it. I had several parents tell me she was really good, and I instantly felt comfortable with her when I met her, so I know my Emma is in good hands. And because these schools do what's called "looping" kids keep their teachers for 2 years. I love that!

Aspire's motto is "College For Certain" so they go by the kids college graduation date, instead of the highschool graduation date. So 2027 is Emma's college graduation date, in case you wondering.

One thing I am looking forward to is having some time with Jacob. The 2nd kid doesn't get nearly the attention the first does, so I feel it's long over due for him. Now I will have to remember how to entertain a 2 year old all day. Having an older child is great because they do all the entertaining, and honestly I think Jakey would rather play with Emma.

Not the best picture of Jakey perhaps, but I had to wake him up and rush him around so he was a little out of sorts. Holding his trains always brings his comfort though, he wouldn't take this picture without them.

Emma's 5th birthday

I know I say this every year, but I can't believe another year has gone by. It still amazes me every birthday one of my kids has that time is going so quickly and that I'm losing the precious time I have with them, the time when they are little and actually want to hang out with me. It can drive me to tears in an instant so lets move on before I lose it. Emma has been talking about being 5 for a few months now and how she will be so much older and she will be much better behaved. She would say when she got in trouble "I'm only 4, but when I'm 5 I won't do that anymore" I don't know where she comes up with some of these things. This year we let her pick 2 friends and we went to dinner at Chuck E Cheese. It was actually a present from my mom, and it was Emma's favorite by far! Her birthday was on a Tuesday so we missed the crowds, we will never go on a Friday or Saturday, we've made that mistake once before.





The kids all had fun, and after we had cupcakes at our house. Emma was very happy with her gifts, she's pretty easy to please so it's always fun shopping for her. Boy do I love having a little girl! Just like last year most of her gifts had a princess theme. Even the bat and ball we got her had princesses on it.




I feel like I really hit the jackpot when I got Emma. She is the sweetest little thing in the world. She's kind to animals, has a huge heart for them just like both her parents. She's the best big sister ever, she is a 2nd mommy to Jakey really. She is very affectionate and gives us all hugs and kisses all the time. She is very smart, picks up on new skills easily and is good at memorizing things such as our phone numbers and our address (which came in handy this week, I'll post about that later). She is very inquisitive too. She's really into knowing how our bodies works, and the functions of bones, skin, blood, muscle, etc... If we are flipping through channels and come across a show where they are doing a surgery, she wants to watch (yuck I know!) Many people have told us she'll probably be a nurse or a doctor. She loves to sing and dance. We often will put music on and just dance around the house. In the car we have our favorite songs that we like to sing together. Even Jacob has been joining in lately, and asking for Lady Gaga when we get in the car and Emma includes him without having to be asked. She's kind to others, we've had teachers tell us stories of how she was kind to children in both church classes and preschool. Emma brings so much joy into our lives and I can't believe that I spent the first 26 years of my life without her. She is like the sun to me, she's radiant and brings warmth and light into my life. Happy Birthday Emma, I love you so much!!

Bye-bye preschool

I seriously can't believe that Emma is done with preschool, I feel like she just started and I was just posting about her first day. She loved going to Snells and made friends, which was what I was always worried about. I was afraid she wouldn't have any friends and would be playing alone. I don't know why I thought that but luckily that didn't happen. Emma has been very sad because she became very close with a little girl named Alexis. They were best friends and were inseparable there. They wont be at the same school, but hopefully we can get a play-date scheduled. The last week of school the kids put on a presentation for the parents. At one point it was Emma's turn to be "on stage" and after a minute or so she announced 'I need to go potty" and was led off. We got that on video and look forward to showing her and whoever she may be dating later on in life. Just kidding..... maybe.

March 27th Nick and Julie's wedding

Our good friends Nick and Julie got married on March 27th in Lake Tahoe. Josh was a groomsmen and Emma was the flower girl. The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time. Emma loved being the flowergirl and did an awesome job. She danced the night away, and people would go on the dance floor just to watch her. She asked lots of people to dance during the slow songs, and for the fast ones she showed off her break dancing skills. Jacob borrowed a suit from his good friend Carter and boy did he looked adorable, just melted mommy's heart!

Jacob's 2nd birthday

March has been a busy month so far for our family. The biggest and best thing about March is Jacob's birthday. He turned 2 years old on March 13th and we celebrated with a party. We had a lot of friends come over and the kids seemed to have a good time in the bounce house we rented for the day, which was our big present to Jacob. Unfortunately he doesn't understand the concept of "renting" so when the people came to take it down he was not pleased to the say the least! This birthday was a hard one for me because 2 is not a baby anymore, which means I'm baby-less right now! When Emma turned 2 we were trying for another baby so it was exiting to see our little girl get older and know at the same time we'd have another baby soon. But with Jacob, since we are going to wait awhile before trying for another, I was a little sad. The month before his birthday I would be upset when someone referred to him as being 2. I would say "Not yet, he's only 23 months!" Jacob has been calling himself 4 for awhile because it would upset Emma. He says "Emma's 2, Jacob's 4" just to upset her, and it works. Already he knows how to push her buttons. Well anyways the party went well, the kids ate pizza and cupcakes and played outside with toys and in the bounce house. Jacob received his favorite things, Thomas the Train stuff, cars, and sports stuff. About half way through his gifts he opened a Thomas the train engine given to him by his friend Ayson. He was so thrilled with his "Green Thomas" that he got up and walked away from his gifts leaving me to open the rest without him. He loves his "Green Thomas" and sleeps with it every night and brings it in the car wherever we go. It has now become my goal to give a gift a child loves so much they lose interest in opening the rest of their gifts. I will aim for this at the next birthday party we are at. Thanks Janie for setting the standard! Luckily later on Jacob went back and looked through his gifts and was very happy with what he found. He spent the rest of the day playing with his new stuff, but Green Thomas was with him at all times of course. I know Jacob will never remember this party, but he had fun and I love having kids his age over to play. I was very happy that once again on his birthday the weather was nice, because March can go either way. After the party Jacob's new bed was delivered. With Emma I waited until she was 2 1/2 and needed the crib for Jacob, but since Jacob has crawled in and out of his crib so many times, and nearly broke one side of it, and the fact he's been saying he wanted a bed every time he's in Emma's room, we decided to just go ahead and get him one. We did the same thing that we did for Emma and went straight to a twin bed. We put the guard rail up of course so he doesn't fall out in the middle of the night, and told him that he wasn't allowed to get out of it. He listened and had no problem making the transition. He sleeps through the night and takes naps in it and he loves his new bed, so for him this was a good decision. I still recommend waiting as long as you can before taking a child out of a crib, but when they're ready they're ready. The crib now lays sadly in the spare bedroom all taken apart, and just sits there with all the other outgrown baby toys and clothes. Hopefully one day they will all be used again. Jacob had his 2 year old doctor visit a few days after his birthday. He's 30lbs and 37" tall which put him in the 75th percentile for weight and 97th percentile for height. His estimated height as an adult (which you figure out by timing the 2 year old height by 2) is 6'2". This is not a surprise at all since he is built very much like my brother who is 6'4". I was told to keep him fed well, so to Jacob's delight I have added in another snack during the day for him, which has made him very happy! Melanie, AKA Auntie Melly, nicknamed him "moochers" because he was always mooching food even right he had eaten, so maybe this will help cut down on that. Probably not though :-)

Fun at the cabin

Josh's father has a cabin in Arnold that we dont take advantage of enough. It's only an hour and 15 minutes away, and it's free, so you'd think we go often but we don't, only about 2x a year. Whenever we are there we always say we need to come more often, because it's nice sometimes to just get away. We went with The Rodriguez family in January so the kids could play in the snow. Of course being the city girl that I am, after about 15 minutes of sledding and building a snowman I'd had my fill and was ready to go back to the cabin where it was warm and cozy. Lucky for Melanie and me the guys were fine with it and so we drove to a nice spot where we could look out at the mountains and feed the kids a snack. One of my favorite things about this mini-vacation was putting Jacob in a snowsuit. From the moment he was born he looked older than he was because of how big he was. I have often said I got jipped out of the newborn phase because of his size. But this weekend when Jacob was wearing the snowsuit he looked like a baby and I LOVED it!!! I think all kids look cute in snow clothes actually. I don't know what it is about it, but it's just a cute look.


My goal is to go to the cabin every January. It has always been a depressing month for me, because Christmas is over and it's rainy and cold, but this gave me something to look forward to. So thank you Rodriguez family for encouraging us to go!