Jerry's Girls

dear jerry,

happy thanksgiving baby! 

we missed you today :( 

look how gorgeous your girls looked today...

this morning we watched the parade & you should have heard paypay squeel when she heard the announcer say "elmo"  it was so cute, she said "mommy! melmo! melmo!"  so if anyone wants a christmas idea for paige, i'd say you can't go wrong with anything elmo.

while we cooked some food the girls decorated ginger bread cookies:

 and then we headed out to t-burr & carolyn's for a wonderful thanksgiving.  the food was heaven!  and spent lots of time sitting around talking and playing "apples to apples."

and you know we always need one of these:

miss you baby!  i can't wait for our date on saturday. 

thank-you for taking care of those sweet babies and thank-you for taking care of us.

love you, your girlies
 

i'm just wondering...

does every daddy end family home evening by watching vintage footage of godzilla & king kong?

 

cause ours does and it's really quite fun.

everybody's sick.

nana & papa came last night to visit and found all of their girls sick:

i'm sick.

mya's sick.

wynn's sick.

paige's sick.

and 

jer's working tonight.

so needless to say, i'm very very grateful that my mommy & daddy are here

because no matter how old you are, things just feel better when your parents are around.

 

we've been watching a lot of tv, a big thanks to nana for bringing us new shows.

 

my babies have been so lifeless, laying on me all the time.

 

my poor wynnie told me countless times today, "mommy, i'm sick." :(

i'm sorry mommy & daddy that this hasn't been much of a vacation for you, but you've been such a blessing to all of us.  thank-you! thank-you!

how sweet it is.

i heard this song a few days ago and it made me think of this month.

how sweet is it...just to be with him.

november has been a lighter month for jer and it has been so nice for us all.

it has made me think of when we got married...

jer & i had lived in different states for the year & a half before we got married.  when we finally tied the knot it felt so so wonderful just to be with him.  the day after we got married we ate lunch at the harley davidson cafe and i remember saying to him, "it's just so nice eating with you!"  

and then later on we went swimming and i remember us laying on the lounge chairs listening to "our song" that happened to be playing over the loud speaker.  i looked over at him, squinting from the bright sun, and thought, "ahh, this feels so good just being able to be with each other and to know that we won't have to be apart again." 

the feeling continued..watching a movie in our hotel room, flying to miami, our AMAZING honeymoon, driving in the moving van to milwaukee, etc.  all of them would have been great on their own, but for me, they were EXTRA great...because we were together and it hadn't been that way in a long time.  

and so november of 2009 is here.  and jer's big test is taken.  and he's on a research month.  and you know what, it feels how i felt when we were newly married....

just so so wonderful to be with him & have him around.

the hard times really do make you appreciate the good times.  

 

(honeymoon/august 1998/labadee, haiti. so so happy just to be together)

turning 2 in the dark.

she turned two on a very windy day.  

when she woke-up we did the most important things firsts:

1. kisses & hugs.

2. trip to the fabric store where we bought her several yards of silky fabrics, she has an entire basket full now!

3. trip to store to let her pick out a new doll, yes we have plenty, but she loves them so...

3. make the cake.

in the afternoon we went to our homeschool group's halloween party, i had to wake the birthday girl up from her nap for it, but hey, she should party on her birthday, right?

 

in the evening we invited a few families over to celebrate: the camachos, the moncriefs, & the gallups.  (all wonderful families that we're so happy to have met)  with our 4 families we had 13 kiddos, plus parents to sing to princess paypay.

i chose the ducky cake because "duck" was one of her very first words.  well, it was her first word to me.  (her first word to daddy & the girls was "ball")  

she walked into the kitchen & squeeled "duck! duck!"  mr. duck was not perfect, but i know he was perfect for paige.  she climbed up on the chair & gave him the look over...

 

and then lots of squeezes...

 

as with all my children she put her poker face on for the singing event :)  

 

but the party really began while we were cutting the cake.  the power went out!  and it was out for almost 2 hours, it was pitch dark!  there was no moon out too, so it was super dark outside as well.  

the kids LOVED it.  they ran all over the house, all over the backyard and they screamed (happily) the entire time.  the camachos grabbed their headlamps too and they were a big hit.  (christmas wish list: headlamps for us all!)

it was so much fun, a party to remember.  

 

(paige in the dark, carrying her baby in it's backpack, on the night of her 2nd birthday.)  

the night before she turned 7.

it was a lovely, lovely evening.

we headed back to the grove for dinner at the american girl cafe.

 

we were a party of 8, since our special guests came along too, and they sure did get fussed over...

and cared for...

 

it was such a fun evening and our little birthday girl loved every minute of it.

 

 

and this is jer realizing how much our evening out costs...tea parties are expensive!  but oh so worth it when it's for your sweet little girl.  

 

and then on her birthday...

it always starts with breakfast in bed:

 

and then she had the primary program, special time with mommy where we played a game & read her new kirsten book, and daddy made her her very favorite desert...crepes, per her request.  

i love my 7 year old.

they love her.

when she wakes up they always say, "paige is awake, can i go see her?"  

and then they climb in her crib & snuggle up with her (and her silkies.)

when paige woke-up this morning:

 

 

when paige woke-up this afternoon:

 

one of their favorite things to do is try & get paige to use the horsie potty.  they have her sit on the potty & they bring her games, snacks, sippy cup & then they read books to her.  

mya reading to the potty sitting paige...note the puzzle, cereal box & baby:

 

and we love her even when she does this:

 

she was so so close to the potty.

maybe next time.

a few more...

 

 

  

226.

on tuesday jer was finally able to come see mya & wynn's horseback riding class.  (i found it through the south pasadena parks & rec and knew it would be perfect for my girls.)  we brought the camera along for the hour long class and jer took 226 photos!  

226 photos in 1 hour.  good job baby!  

all of the photos are so beautiful that it has seemed too big of a task for me to go through them, pick my favorites & upload them to the blog.  but tonight is the night!  i'm getting too far behind. 

i hope the pictures i chose convey the lovely feelings that we all feel while we're at the san pasqual stables.  the horseback riding world is such a beautiful world to spend time in.  

 

 

 

wynn's turn...

 

 

wynn with instructor anthony...A.K.A harlequin romance novel cover model.

 

and while she waits, paige does this...

 

and this...

 

and then we plant some gardens...

 

it is a well known fact that jer has been working on me for YEARS to move here.

and while walking the girls around to see the horses i turned to jer and said, 

"well...maybe we could move to montana."

because tuesdays at 2:15pm are turning out to be my favorite time of the week.

El Día de los Muertos.

yesterday was the Day of the Dead and since we are always looking for an excuse to eat mexican food, we had to celebrate.  but what started as a last minute reason to party, turned into a lovely, lovely evening.

 

dinner: tacos w/ all the fixins, black beans, pinapple slices, mexican soda

our kitchen is small & it was a wreck during dinner, it took me forever to wash all the dishes.  but even with the craziness around us, i think we ate one of our sweetest meals.  we told the girls that in mexico they celebrate this day to remember their family members that have died.  while we ate, jer & i shared stories about each one of our grandparents, the girl's great-grandparents.  

it was so simple, but truly, the feeling around our little table was wonderful.  

there is something special about our ancestors. they are ours.  and their lives were beautiful.  

 

and this is ariel, my favorite pumpkin ever!  jer drew several faces & the girl's picked this one.  she's on our front porch still & the girls like to hang out there at night.  they bundle up in front of ariel & ask me to go get them snacks.  i'm pretty sure that's my main purpose as a mother, getting snacks.