May 2016

True to our Rodriguez family fashion, May was another jam packed month.  We started out the week with Robert switching his work shift from Mon/Tues/Wed days to Thurs/Fri/Sat days; it took a little bit to get adjusted but I think we are in a groove now.

Kira spent the night with us and Nellie enjoyed having both of the girls around to pay attention to her.

Robert spoiled me on Mother's Day, surprising me with chocolate covered strawberries, champagne and gifts.  I spent the day relaxing at the house while Robert worked in the yard and the girls played.  Our house, including our landscaping, is finally finished and we couldn't be happier with the results.

Mila went to her first, friend-from-school birthday party at a bounce house place and had a great time.  I made sure she asked MaKayla, the birthday girl, what SHE wanted to do, which was a little frustrating for Mila but she was a good sport and loved spending time with all of her friends from school.

I didn't expect my birthday to be so celebrated, but it was, and I, once again, realized how blessed I am.  The day started off with mimosas, then lunch with the girls, a happy hour in the afternoon and a surprise dinner with Robert that night.  I received some many cards, Facebook posts and gifts, you would've thought I was turning 16, not 28 33.

Later that weekend Robert and I went to L.A. to see Anthony Hamilton, one of our favorite R&B artists.  We don't go often enough considering how close we live but I always thinks it's exciting to go "into the city" :)

Mila had her open house at school so we got to see all of the artwork she has been working on all year.  It's so cute to see her showing everything off. I was most impressed with all of the friends she had at school, it seems every time we turned around she was saying hello to someone and calling them by name.

We ended the month by taking the RV to the beach for Memorial Day weekend.  We all had a blast. Mila went on her first official bike ride, on the boardwalk, falling over twice but getting right back on and finishing the ride. Lots of sand castles were made, drinks were drank, friends visited and tons of laughing passed the time.

Mila seems to have grown a foot this month and is really thinning out.  She can see over the countertop and reach most things in the fridge. She's become such a good helper, getting dressed by herself in the mornings, getting milk (out of the fridge) for her and Nellie and can have a better conversation with me than some adults I know!  She likes to cuddle on the couch and watch "adult" shows on Discovery channel with us.  She loves filling her pockets with rocks, hunting for treasure and playing with her friends. I am still amazed by how conscious she is of other people's feelings and she is so bright; sometimes I forget that she is is only three.  She loves singing, counting and drawing pictures of mommy and daddy; she has started playing better by herself, not as much with the tv, will tell stories, read books to herself and asks to sing Nellie her goodnight song.  She can sing the Pledge of Allegiance and, as we sit here, she just showed me she can write her name without tracing!!!!!!

Nellie is still as wild and happy as ever and loves to make people laugh; she is fiercely independent and doesn't like being left out.  She has started giving (closed mouth) kisses and hugs, sometimes even without asking, and will generally throw a fit if you don't give her what she wants.  She has been climbing to the top of the slide on the swingset for some time now but just recently started sliding down all by herself, which is pretty amazing considering the slide is over 5 feet tall!  She loves to do anything her sister is doing, loves doggies and her babies.  She has started trying to communicate more, starting to sign "more," and "talking" up a storm in gibberish and will get very frustrated if you can't understand what she is trying to tell you.

April 2016

Aimee and I started the month by going out to celebrate her birthday (it was in March...oops); not a bad way to start the month!

Mila has started drawing and coloring more and I can't wait for her to draw beautiful little pictures of her family and our house.  But first, Daddy the thumb...

and Mommy the sweet potato...hopefully the future drawings are more flattering :)

Soccer "with the boys," as Mila calls it, started this month through Parks & Rec and Mila was so excited. Pretty much our whole team this season are kids from our mom's group/Grace Lutheran.  It's so cute watching them run around the field.

Mila surprised us this month by showing us she knows how to ride a bike with training wheels!  I had put a balance bike on her Christmas list, which she received, but I guess that will be a step back for her now since she can actually ride this big girl bike!  We were so impressed!

Mila took her first field trip to Tanaka Farms and had so much fun.  They got to go on a tractor ride throughout the farm, eat vegetables and pick their own contain of strawberries.  Mila had a great time with her friends (Lexi, the blonde on the left) and loved picking, and eating, all the berries.

Coincidentally I took the girls there the weekend before to do some research on a client event for work.  We went on a walking tour around the farm and collected vegetables that we brought back to the picnic area to wash and cut and then had them cooked by the staff for our lunch. It was a blast!

Oh our little Nell Bell. You keep us laughing and on our toes every single day.  You are such a crazy little animal and have such a personality. 

She is so proud of herself, especially when she is doing something she shouldn't be doing.  She will disappear to play on her own and then pulls something like this (I heard the water running from the other room!) to remind us we better be keeping one eye on her at all times!

We are still full on living in Arendelle over here and Mila can now recite parts of the movie (Frozen, obviously), knows all the songs, word for word, and has started mimicking the actions in Let It Go. Even little Nellie gets excited when it's time to put on her Frozen nightgown and will sit down and watch the entire movie every time it's on.

A very unfortunate situation occurred this month and were forced to find a new nanny at the last minute but thankfully, Kerry (Kira's mom, who also watch Mila) stepped in and agreed to watch Nellie for the rest of the year.  I honestly don't know what we would do without her because it was very stressful there for a couple of weeks.  Fortunately, it's a great situation for all of us: I take Kira to school a couple days a week, Nellie has someone wonderful and loving watching her and Mila and Kira get to see each other four days a week.

Robert and I ended the month by hopping on a plane to Scottsdale for Erin and Aaron's wedding....more on that next month!  Hello May (aka MY birthday month!).

Home Improvements

It's been six years this month since we bought our house and we thought it was about time that we put some extra money into the outside of the house to make it ours.  Robert has been dying to make these upgrades and it was finally the right time.

We started by replacing our roof, which they told us when we bought the house that it needed to be done.  It was always such a hard pill to swallow, though, because it's so expensive and you don't have much to show for it at the end.  While most people might not notice the change we think as a package deal it will make the whole thing stand out.

Our old roof was sort of a reddish color, and we ended up going with a blackish/gray color this time.

You can also see in the pictures above that we tore out the succulent garden under the window, as well as the tall tree over on the right.

Next came the wood fence, which was starting to blow over between our house and the neighbors.  It turned out amazing and we even got to know our neighbors during the time the fence was down and hope to hand out with them more.  They told us that the original fence blew over the day before we were supposed to close on the house and the previous owner had the GARDENER put up the new one.  No wonder it was so shoddy!  Hector (the fence guy) dug new holes that he cemented in and built everything by hand, including the gate. I don't think this fence is going anywhere.

Then we painted the house, which we went back and forth on (or at least I did) but I am so happy with it now I can't imagine it not done.  We chose a light gray color for the stucco and a darker gray for the siding on the front of the house, all with white trim.

As you can see in the pictures above, Robert also put up black shutters on the front window and we ordered another set for the window on the garage.  Also you may have noticed our new planter boxes!

The final large project we had going on at our house was bringing up the front planter boxes in height and including stone on the front, fixing out broke sprinkler system (front and back) and laying down new sod (front and back).

A close up of all of the details:

We are so pleased with all of the work and are so excited with our "new" house.  We still have a couple other finalizing things to do but all the big work is finally complete.

Still up on the list:

• a new front door - which chose a 9 window black front door, set to be installed on May 5th
• we are hoping to find tall black pots to put on either side of the front door to put succulents in 
• now that we have those large planter boxes, we need something to fill it with.  We finally broke down and hired a local nursery to help us choose the types of plants to fill it with. You wouldn't think that's a big deal but every year we spend so much money on flowers and they always ended up dying!  Plus I was afraid to use the year-round plants myself because what if I put a 10 foot tall tree next to a 2 foot tree?? Now that we have this pretty space, we need to make sure it looks nice!

Stay tuned for a final before and after picture in a couple of weeks!