Well, well, well, Blog. We meet again. It's been far too long, my friend.

I have missed you. Really. I know that it wouldn't appear that way since I have not visited you since... hmmm.... maybe last December, the Santa! post I believe. But that's not for lack of love on my part. Life is.... well, we don't really need to get into that right now. It's a long story and I'm sure you don't really care anyhow. The longer it got after our last meeting, the more guilty I felt and the more I procrastinated and the guiltier I felt. You know how that goes. The vicious circle thing. So I have decided to try to start meeting up with you at fairly regular intervals. At least that's my plan now, but I'm not making any promises; no commitments. I also might cheat just a lil' and go back and fill in the past 11 months to make it look like I hadn't deserted you. But, again, no promises on that one either. All I'm sayin is that I'll try to put forth some effort going forward... and really, isn't that enough? Ok then, well I'm glad we had a chance to catch up and throw all that on the table. I do look forward to spending some quality time with you again soon. P.S. The girls are growing like WEEDS! Weeds on serious fertilizer! Not that they are on fertilizer, just a metaphor mind you. I'll post some pic's and video soon. No really, I will.

Sweet Teya-head turns 1

SWEET JEEBUS!! WHO STOLE MY BABY??? Oh, she's right here! She's just not a baby anymore..... Really?? A year?? Yes, I will use the cliche, thank you... time flies. Really. That was one fast year. Teya is now: speed crawling, taking 4-5 steps at a time, laughing ALL the time, getting her 5th and 6th teeth in, saying "NO!" and "ELLA!", giving smooches, thinking shoes are one of the funniest things she's encountered so far, pointing to her nose, tracking her big sister Ella like an infrared homing device and generally developing into one sassy, opinionated, adorable little gal. I just got finished perusing some photos from a year ago and, my, has she changed! What a great year it's been! Happy birfday, Bubbie. I love you so very much! Sweet baby girl, one year ago....

Tiny Pink Daggers

So, I guess Ella had had quite enough of me. I mean really, I guess upon reflection I do say "no" quite frequently... and "maybe later", "maybe tomorrow", "not right now"... you get the idea. We were visiting Aunt Michelle, Uncle Spencer and Parker in San Antonio and had been there for a couple of hours and upon the supposed last straw negative Ella turns to me and with (pink princess) daggers in her eyes, and says "I AM TIRED OF YOU." Turns to Michelle and says "Aunt Michelle, can you take care of me FOREVER?" Hmmmm... Out of the mouths of babes?? Or in this case, the mouths of babes going on 15??? If this is what 3 and half is like, I shudder to think what I am in for in approximately 10 years when estrogen surges begin.

Zen and the Art of Keeping Parental Composure

I really think, ok, I know, I scared Ella this evening. Stressfull day at work + boundry testing, non-dinner eating 3 year old + cranky, sick 7 month old + lasagna everywhere + a snow globe... well, you know where this is going. Mama lost it when the crash occurred. I mean, really? How many snow globes did we go through at Christmas? And, really, am I that stupid to leave another one within her reach? Apparently the answer is yes. I think I yelled so loud that I got horse afterwards for a bit. Now that I am calm and able to (mostly) reflect reasonably, I am not liking my actions. I really don't want to be the parent that rules militantly and through fear, however it's really difficult on occassion to stop and take that deep breath before the wrath just surfaces. So we sat down and had a heart to heart while she was in the tub and I apologized and told her I always love her no matter how loud I'm being. I hope I got the point across. I love you Ellabean and I promise to try really hard to remember that although you act like you're 13 sometimes, you still are only 3 and you're still learning how to navigate this world. Well, I guess we all are.

Suck it, Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Do you think you perhaps could work on being more symbiotic rather than parasitic? I'm just sayin'.... Seems like evolutionarily that might be more beneficial? But, what do I know. Pobrecito baby girl. She can barely breathe and then sometimes has so much gunk going down her throat she ends up gagging. But somehow manages to continue smiling through it all. Some nights are not so great, but overall she's a toughie and trudges through it like a champ!

Santa!

3 year well check this morning and then on to see Santa at the mall. Ella is right on target for her little, or should I say big, girl checks. She continues to be right in the middle, percentile-wise. After our EARLY, too early, appointment, we got to the mall a whole 40 minutes before Santa was supposed to arrive. Fun times trying to keep Ella amused during that time, but we were the first in line which then translates to a speedy exit and a clean Santa! HA! So Ella had been SO very excited to visit Santa. I had been priming her for it for a couple of weeks. She was all set ask him for "pink things". She even sang xmas carols with him when he was talking to all the kiddos in the line before pictures started. I was sure this was going to be a great experience this year! But, no. As soon as we got up to him she wouldn't even get close. I had to pretty much physically force her to get up there and then quickly place Teya so we could get one good shot, hopefully. Which we did. Well, if you consider a shot with Ella crying *good*. It is quite comical though, so that's something, right? Then we had to ride the train. 3 times. And even after 3 times I still had to pull her off of it kicking and screaming. Ahhhh, parenthood. And by this time it was only 11am! Who wants an early nap time?? MAMA DOES!!!

Wait For It...

We got back home from San Antonio to find that the siding was finished and more windows were in and framed! Yippee! It's starting to look like a real house!! The Dyer brothers came in for the rest of the weekend to help Papa roof the addition... yes, in the pouring rain. Not sure that the pouring rain is the most conducive weather for roofing, but I guess as long as it doesn't pour rain inside when it's finished, it'll work! We were all exhausted after the holiday travel, late nights and not sleeping in our own beds, so it was nice to be back at home and back to a sort of, kind of semi-routine. ALSO, Teya smiled for the first time! I did/can not catch it on camera no matter how hard I try! I'm sure I look like a really big jacka** trying to get her to smile on camera and then of course as soon as I turn it off, whaddya know? A smile. Ella just loves to sit and talk to Teya and tell her all sorts of fun things. She sings to her and sometimes gets frighteningly close to face, but Teya's a really good sport about it all and genuinely looks interested in everything Ella has to say. These two are already becoming fast friends and it's pretty endearing to watch their relationship grow every day :)

Holidaze...

The girlies and I drove into Houston and went straight to meet the newest Aguilar, Miss Sofia. It was great fun hanging out with Ande and Jen, proud new parents! I taught Ande how to use the swaddle blankets and then we had a contest. let's just say that Sofia was out of her swaddle in less than 3 seconds... Practice makes perfect Ande!! Next day, TURKEY TIME! Aunt Mary's studio was transformed into our dining room. Brandy fried up a turkey and all the cousins had a blast running around with each other all afternoon and into the night. Back on the road again, we headed for San Antonio the next day for more turkey and Fleming family pic's. Beautiful Sofia Evyn Aguilar! Swaddle contest. Good work Ande! Cousin Zack with Teya Cousins building Dad carving the turkey Girls in their matching dresses Teya and Greatgramma Fleming

Siding and Windows!

It's all going so fast.... So far, that is. The siding is almost done and many of the windows are in. Hooray!! Just can't WAIT for more space!! Isn't she stinkin' cute?!

Oh the Pressure....

Ok, so I have to admit I do cheat a little with the blog. For some odd reason I feel the need to confess. I make it look as though I post regularly, at least every few days, when really, I don't. Sometimes I really do get on here regularly and post (or at least create a post and save the draft to publish later) when I have time (mostly the summer) or need to vent or something funny happens and I need to document it, etc. But, when I get really far behind (like I am now; today is actually December 14th!) I just go back and look at the pictures and fill in the gaps and change the posting date to make it look like I am keeping up. This is not the best route since my memory fails me so much of the time, but, seeing as how this is really the girls' *baby books*, I really am doing this for them so they can get a sort of play by play of our lives while they were little :) So that being said, I am going to really try to do better at keeping up so I can get more of the funny little things that are said and that happen captured before I forget them, which so often happens. SO, going back in history a bit, our cute, old neighborhood, Crestview, has a great little festival every year, the Violet Crown Fest, which took place over the weekend. They block off the parking lot of the neighborhood Mini-max grocery store and have local vendors and bands play and we all eat food and dance and buy stuff. Ok, well I didn't dance, but Ella did, sort of. Well, she really just tried to hula hoop. And it was funny; really funny. That takes coordination and she doesn't quite have it just yet. We both had a great time at any rate and so did Teya, doing what she does best, sleeping in the stroller! Much of the rest of the time is spent just hanging out... Lazy Saturday morning with Sushi... Hula hoopin' Posing with her leaf bouquet Hair PRE-bath Hair POST-bath 4 weeks old today!! Holy cow!! I'm 1 month old today!!!! The addition now has the decking on! And a couple of windows in!