September 2017

After we got back from vacation (and potty training Nellie!) the girls spent a couple of days with dad and then had their first day of school.  This year Mila is in the lime room, which is like Pre-K or Jr. Kindergarten.  With September 1st being the cutoff for Kindergarten we had the option to keep Mila in preschool or to enroll her in TK through the HB school system.  We decided to keep her in preschool because the TK curriculum is the same as the preschool Violet room, which Mila was in last year.  I'm looking forward to having them at the same school again for one more year and for Mila to continue learning so much. She is such an eager learner, I don't want her to lose that excitement.

Nellie is now in the Navy room, along with her best friend Ariah (that's what she calls her, "my best friend Ariah"!), and she couldn't be happier.  We haven't had any biting incidents and so far, being a month in now, we haven't received any calls from the school to come pick her up for bad behavior so we are looking good!  She loves her teachers and is super excited to go to school and play.  The first couple days of school she had an accident or two but since then she's been good and stays dry all day. Good job, Nell!

Both of their teachers are really good about keeping us informed and sending pictures of them at school. It's so cute to see them in the classroom!

Nellie started soccer through Parks & Rec this month and is doing pretty good. I had to lie about her age and say she was 3 (3 months can't make THAT big of a difference can it?!) but she was SO excited to play and  was super jealous when Mila was doing it and she wasn't.  She's doing okay, all things considering.... :)

Mila started her soccer games through AYSO and (even though they technically don't keep score...) her team go beat bad the first week but then they got their act together and they've all been playing really well!  Mila is an excellent player and is very dominant on the field; she's scored every game and just enjoys being out there playing.

After her first game we had managed to snag a camping spot at one of our favorite places, Crystal Cove.  We headed over there for the weekend and had a blast as always.

For her birthday we asked Mila if she wanted to have a party or if she wanted to do something fun with her family and she chose to do something fun with her family, that little angel, so we spent the day at Knott's Berry Farm.  The girls had so much fun and are right on the edge of being able to ride the "big kid" rides and not have to stay in Camp Snoopy anymore.  

However, we did end up going to the beach and inviting a couple of Mila's best friends: Kira, Kayleigh, Alyssa and Juliet and celebrated with cookie cake and water balloons in the sand.  After we had invited the girls Mila told me, "Mom? I REALLY want to invite Charlie too."  So we did.  It was so cute that she hand picked him, and he ended up coming!  I tease her about him being her boyfriend and she just gets all shy and says "nooooo he's not!"

Mila had a great birthday and got lots of really nice things.  She was so great (because I made her) writing her thank you notes and got them all out pretty efficiently.  She was so shocked that she got money for her birthday and now has quite the stash, although I'm not sure she realizes that she can actually use it to buy things because she hasn't asked to go shopping!

Since turning 5 we also got her a chore chart and she  has five chores to do every week and, if she does them all, she gets $5.  She then has to put $1 in her piggy bank for savings and put $1 aside for offering at chapel and the rest is her.  

I'm completely convinced the only way we were able to potty train Nellie so quickly is because I told her once she was potty trained she could go jumping with Ariah at Froggs Bounce House.  I printed out pictures of the bounce houses, along with a picture of her and put them by the potties.  EVERY time she went potty she said "now I go jump with Ariah??"  So finally, at the end of the month, we went jumping and celebrate Nellie. These two little girls are so cute and so obsessed with each other, it's adorable; Nellie was on Cloud 9 all day.

We celebrated Robert's birthday with dinner at Captain Jack's, which was so yummy and a place that we had both always wanted to go.  

The girls (along with Tori) painted picture frames as presents and put the cutest pictures in them. I hope know our man knows how much he's loved.

We closed the month with Mila's last swim lesson until May and I am so proud of how far she has come.  I know she will regress a little but I am hoping she's still just as excited as she currently is!

Mila's 5th Birthday Interview

Birthday Interview

***Mila is 5 years old***

1. Who is your favorite person in the whole world? Kira, Juliet & Jillian

2. What is your favorite color? Blue

3. What is your favorite television show? Sofia the First

4. What is your favorite outfit? My daddy/daughter dance dress

5. What sport do you like best? Swim and soccer

6. What song do you love? Jesus Loves the Little Children

7. What is your favorite cereal? Marshmallow cereal (Trader Joe's lucky charms equivalent)

8. Who is your best friend? Kira

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? A mama

10. What is your favorite book? Everyone Poops

11. What are you really god at? Swim lessons

12. Where do you wish you could go on vacation? To Kansas

13. What is your best memory? My last birthday

14. What would you buy if you had $1,000? An ice cream story where people can play

15. What vegetable do you hate the most? I like them all! (that's not true!)

16. If you could have a wish, what would it be? 5 golden coins

17. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Chocolate

18. Who is your biggest hero? Daddy

19.  What do you like to do best with your friends? Play outside

20. What do you hope you get to do before your next birthday? Go to the beach with my friends

Nellie is potty trained!

We spent Labor Day weekend potty training Nellie and she did great!!!  This time around we did the three day potty training method and it was worked beautifully. About halfway through the first day she was already going to the bathroom on her own, rather than me asking her if she had to go.  I was a little worried because on Day #2 she had more accidents than she made it to the bathroom and I thought the novelty of the process (and the M&Ms!) had worn off; however Robert reminded me that the same thing happened with Mila so we should just wait and see. Sure enough, on Day #3 she was back on schedule and did great!! We even went to a Labor Day BBQ at Garret's boss' house and she did great there too.

It was really the best time to do it because not only did we have the weekend and Labor Day, the girls were off school and home with Robert for Tuesday and Wednesday as well.  The first day at preschool I sent four extra outfits and Nellie went through all four; the second day she went through three.  But after that she has been dry all day!   She's still wearing a pull up at night (and isn't dry in the morning) but being diaper free during the day is so great!!!  

Good job Nellie! We're so proud of you!

August 2017

Nellie spent a lot of time out of preschool this month as she was cutting her molars and was sick, had diarrhea and a fever.  We were lucky that most of the days she was sent home/unable to go to school Tori was available to come watch her. She's so great with the girls, they love her and I like having her around, she's so sweet.  Her work schedule is changing and she has Fridays off; we have agreed that she will watch the girls on Fridays for this school year.  I am happy to help her out with an extra day and the girls are looking forward to spending more time with her. 

Mila is now playing AYSO soccer, which is a real soccer team with one practice a week and one game. She loves her new team and is actually playing more than picking flowers! I got roped into being the team manager (every parent on the team has a job) but it's actually not terrible and is in line with everything I love (calendars, schedules, organizing, bossing people around).  Her first game is September 9th but we haven't got the schedule yet.

Nellie will start next week in her own class through parks & rec.  She is SO excited.

We have had to get on Mila a couple of times for expecting dinner to be ready, being demanding and just in general not being appreciative of what she has.  Some people may think she's too young to understand this but I don't think it's ever to early to start teaching her to be gracious.  One night after she had asked a million times when dinner would be ready and, when she didn't like what I made, that I should make her something else AND clear her plate, I decided it was time to teach her a lesson.  We told her that she had to clean all of our plates after dinner and then clean up the kitchen floor and table.  She did it all with minimal complaints, until I told her that the next day she couldn't go play with Tori but instead needed to stay behind to do the laundry and clean the rest of the house.  That struck a cord with her; I think it DID make a difference because she hasn't been that moody since!

Robert, Garret and I went to a concert (Billy Currington) at the beach, which was so fun. It was an all day event but it was so nice that we had VIP tickets, which came with a large bean bag, that we could use to relax in the shade with.  The girls had a fun day with Grandma and Grandpa, playing in the pool and going out to dinner...even having their first Shirley Temple!

Preschool is closed every year for summer break for the last week of August through the Wednesday after Labor Day so every year we go on a vacation with the trailer. This year was our longest trip 6 nights/7 days.  We started the trip in Buellton, CA at Flying Flags RV Resort.  We had never been there before but it quickly became one of our favorite places.  There was a restaurant, bar, playground, 3 pools, splash pad, bocce ball court and fire pit on site, just to name a few amenities.

Mila swam most of the time without her floaties (it was a zero depth pool and she was allowed to go as far as the 3 foot area as long as we were in the pool with her) and she learned how to do a front and a back flip.

There was a really cool brewery in town that we walked to one day and then went back a second time.  They were very child friendly, even turning cartoons on one of the tvs for the girls when we were there the first time.  There was a stage out back and the girls had a fun time performing for everyone.

One of Robert's good friend, Russ, and his family were coming back from Monterey so they stopped by one night and we all had dinner and smores together.  The kids had a blast playing together and all agreed we need to get together sooner rather than later (we hadn't seen the whole family since Nellie's baptism!).

We went to Solvang for a day, had lunch, ice cream and went wine tasting in a local tasting room.

After 5 days at Flying Flags we went to Ocean Mesa in Santa Barbara, where we had been before.  Unfortunately, after Flying Flags, Ocean Mesa wasn't as exciting due to a lack of amenities. We spent the first day at the pool and then went to the zoo downtown the next day.  The kids had so much at the zoo, which was small enough to make it through in a couple of hours, and they even fed giraffes!

We have been trying to instill in Mila the importance of being grateful for what we have.  Regarding vacation, particularly, she was upset that we were only going on vacation for 7 days when she wanted to go on vacation for 10 days.  We explained to her that not everyone gets to go on vacation and that she is, in fact, very lucky we get to do the things we do.  We told her that going on vacation costs money, which is earned through hard work.  We asked Mila what she thought that meant (i.e. mommy and daddy work hard so we can do fun things like vacation); she thought for a minute and then said "that means we have a lot of money!"  Point missed haha, guess we will have to try that life lesson again later ;)

We ended the vacation with marshmallows by the fire.  It was a great vacation; definitely a long time and we now wish we would've spent the full time at one place (Flying Flags) but now we know!

We are home for Labor Day weekend, which will be spent potty training Nellie, so wish us luck!