Baby Genius...

Pumpkin and I were counting aloud, as we do almost daily, so Peanut can learn her numbers. Today, after we said seven, Peanut said, "Eight, Nine, Ten." We were amazed and it was so cute. This week I noticed she would count, "One, two," but I had not heard her say "8,9,10" before. She is even saying, "A,B." Emma also loves to read aloud. She grabs a book, opens it and babbles on. Again ADORABLE!!!

2010-2011 School Year

This year we embarked on a new journey, our 2nd year of home school, but our first official year of homeschooling by ourselves. Last year I had a home school academy and I had 5 other children I was also homeschooling.
Pumpkin is entering the 5th grade and it’s kind of sad because this is her last year in elementary school. Peanut is 17 months old and although she isn’t officially homeschooling, I have a lot in store for her this year, as well.

Our 2011-2012 home school curriculums consist of the following:

•Bible- My Father’s World
•Math- Singapore Math
•Science- Apologia Science (Creatures of the Sea) Co-op
•Spelling- Bob Jones
•Language- Easy Grammar
•Reading- Great Novels plus Activities & Book Club
•Spanish- Switched on School House
•Typing- Garfield’s typing program
•History/Geography- My Father’s World
•Music- Violin Lessons
•Art- Lesson at Art Museum & Art Studio
•Writing- Creative Writing Co-op
•P.E.- Upward Bound Basketball and Swimming at YWCA
•Extra-Curricular Activities:
oAwana, American Heritage Girls, Host Christmas Play

Emma’s Activities:
•Kindermusik Curriculum
•Leap Frog ABC
•Book Club for babies at local library
•My Baby Can READ
•Everyone reading to her daily

All I have to say is that it’s going to be a BUSY and FUN year. God Bless the year which is upon us.

School Pictures 2011-2012

Pumpkin (10yrs.~5th grade)

Peanut(17 months)

The journey begins....

As the years have passed I have seen my 6lb, 8oz, 19 inches long, baby girl blossom into a beautiful little girl. On March 16, 2011 she began her journey into womanhood. It was a bitter sweet moment for me because I knew it was coming, all the signs were their. I guess I was just hoping the journey would begin later in her life. As a child, I remember beginning this journey and I remember my mom treating me like a princess. She had me lay in bed and put my feet up, then she made me hot chocolate. I have always known I wanted to make this event special for Ariel, but I never knew what exactly I wanted to do.

Last summer, a good friend of mine told me what she had planned for her daughter and I loved the idea, then I stole it. It worked well because I knew I wanted to do something for my daughter that she had never done before. I took her to get her very first professional pedicure and she loved it. She had never done this before because I could never justify spending $40.00 to get a little girl's toes done when I could do it for free. I hated to face it, but she was no longer a little girl. She was becoming a young lady. It was a great day and I embarrassed her a bit because I took pictures of the little Chinese guy painting her toes, but someday she will look back at those pictures and remember, just as I remember my mom and I on that day. When she is a mommy and her little girl begins the journey I am sure she will do something special for her too.

And so as this blog is entitled “The journey begins”…I will end it with “The journey continues….”

As Summer 2011 comes to an end...

I look forward to the next season of our lives. Pumpkin will be completing her last year of elementary school and turning 11. Wow, where has the time gone? Peanut is about to be 18 months; she has become this amazing little person and I can tell she is going to be a talker, just like Pumpkin.

Pumpkin had an awesome summer! During her second week of summer vacation she went with her Dad to Hollywood, California. She can now say she has seen the Hollywood sign in person. She even walked on the “Hollywood walk of fame” and saw many famous people’s stars. She really enjoyed her trip and talked about it for a month. She saw mountains for the very first time and was completely amazed at God’s creation. They went to Old Tucson and her favorite part about that was she saw Little House on the Prairie costumes. After that they went to Universal Studios and her favorite part about that trip was the Jurassic Park water ride. Lastly, they went to Knottsberry Farm. She returned home on a Wednesday and by that Friday she went with her Dad to Dallas. This was a father, daughter trip and they saw Skillet in concert. They both had a great time and as of right now Skillet is her favorite Christian Rock Band. I think Rene’s too…

Pumpkin played basketball for the city this summer for the 1st time. Her team’s name was Lady Spurs and they were undefeated the entire season and won 1st place. I thank God Pumpkin got to experience victory in this manner; it really has inspired her to continue to play basketball and strive to always do her best. Currently, she would like to play basketball at Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi and be an Islander. Personally, I love this idea because that would mean my baby would stay here for college and not leave her mommy…LOL. She also participated in Basketball Camp, where she won her very first, 1st place trophy, for winning a one-on-one tournament. She said, “She beat the best player on her old team.” She was really, really thrilled about that fact. Then, Pumpkin and Merissa attended Camp Zephyr and both had an awesome time. They really grew to know the Lord and can’t wait to return next year. After that, she went to Sea Camp at the aquarium, where she had the opportunity to spend the night under the shark tank. She thought that was somewhat creepy. The finally to her summer was the Harbor Playhouse Camp. She spent two weeks from 9am-530 pm learning musical theatre. She learned to sing, dance, and act. At the end of this camp she debuted in a performance entitled “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown." It was an amazing performance; a talent I did not know existed within my daughter surfaced. She did so well; we have decided to pursue this talent and plan on taking some fall classes at the harbor playhouse, where she will have the opportunity to perform some more. I will post some pictures and videos on her performance in a later blog.

Miss Peanut is so big now. She just loves to sing and dance. She still loves Barney and I do too because sometimes Barney will babysit for me…LOL. She will be 18 months on September 9th. She is 34 inches long and weights 25lbs. The doctor said she is going to be tall. She is so smart; she says at least 50 words and mimics everything we say. She has the cutest laugh and loves just to be silly. One of the cute things she does is love on all of us when Barney is singing the “I love you” song. It just melts our heart. She already has Aaron wrapped around his finger. When Aaron gets home from work she runs to the door screaming, “Dada, Dada, Dada” no matter how hard of a work day Aaron had that always makes his day. This week she learned to say Nane very clearly and when she sees Debbie she starts yelling,”Nane, Nane’. It is so cute and she has Debbie right where she wants her too. This summer Peanut attended her first concert, “Barney Live”, she wasn’t as excited as I thought she’d be but she did enjoy it. Pumpkin, Aaron and myself enjoyed it more..LOL

Our last week of summer vacation consist of doing absolutely nothing productive. Pumpkin and I had a Girls Day out where we got pedicures, went shopping at Justice, and had a great lunch at Logans. Pumpkin, has her heart set on getting a bunny so we did go to the library and checked out some books about caring for a rabbit. Peanut loves the library too, she just loves to look at books and sit next to her sister while she is reading and reads her books too…It’s so darn cute.

I have been getting ready for our 2nd year of homeschooling. I am really excited because this year I will only be homeschooling Pumpkin. I have lots in store for her but I will blog about that later.

Thank you Lord Jesus for blessing my family and I with a wonderful Summer experience. Until next Summer……

Peanut's Baby Dedication

On Sunday, July 17, 2011, Peanut was dedicated to God. Aaron & I and her Godparents, Armondo Rivera and Jackie Hernandez, made a promise before God to raise Peanut to know and serve him.

As the scripture says, "Train up a child in the way of the Lord, and when he is old he will not depart" (Proverbs 22:6)

Mr. Dennis Miller was the Pastor who dedicated her and that was extra special to me since I have known Mr. Miller for so long and he has been so much a part of my family.

It was a great celebration at Cathedral of the Palms Church followed by a nice lunch at Cheddars. Mondo and Jackie got Peanut a Noah's Ark playset, which she just loves.

4th of July 2011

This forth of July weekend really sucked. Peanut and Aaron had a stomach bug that caused them to have vomiting and diarrhea. Peanut was sick a week prior to the fourth of July weekend but Aaron got sick Thursday night, came home from work early Friday and was in bed all weekend. We had to cancel plans for the 4th at the aquarium because we were sick. So we decided to do s small BBQ at home and ended up not doing that either because Aaron was to sick. I was so upset that all our plans had fallen through so I decided to take the girls to see the fireworks. Even though Aaron was so sick, he went with us. The fireworks did work out either because they were so far away for Peanut to enjoy them. We ended up leaving early and Peanut threw a tantrum for about 20 minutes because she was mad that we were leaving and didn't want to be in her stroller. The upside of the night was that I met my sister there and got to hang out with her for awhile. I did, however, get some nice pics. Enjoy them...


The Soliz/Limon Family


Rae-Rae & Martin



Martin,Rae-Rae,and Belinda's kiddos


Aaron & Belinda


Ariel




The Dominguez Family

Beach Fun...June 2011

On June 12, 2011, The Dominguez Family did something for the very first time, we hung out at the beach...It's extremely odd that we live here in Corpus Christi where the beach is our back yard and yet in the 7 years Aaron and I have been together we had never done this...The Evans and Adams Family invited us to "Chill" at the beach and I knew Aaron wouldn't want to do this (He does not like the beach). I asked Aaron if he wanted to go and to my surprise he said, "Yes". We had a great time(or at least I did)Aaron never complained about it so I guess he had fun too.

Basically we hung out with good friends and chit chatted about everything. Peanut loved the beach, at first she was not to sure about the texture of the sand on her feet but eventually she grew to love the sand, so much it became her favorite snack of the day. Peanut ate tons of sand that day.

Also I had s'mores for the very first time IN MY LIFE...and they were AWESOME!!!!!! We had a wonderful time with our friends and created awesome memories as a family.

The only thing that was missing was my Pumpkin, she was in California with her dad in Hollywood. She had taken a vacation to Universal Studios with her dad that week. I am sure she was having way more fun in Hollywood, CA then she would of on the beach of Corpus Christi, TX.

Father's Day 2011

This year we celebrated Father's Day by taking Aaron out to eat at Takeniwa Japanese. It was really neat and we all enjoyed ourselves. It was the first time I had been to a Habachi style restaurant. The food was really great and I can't wait to go back to eat their again. This was Aaron's 2nd father's day and he has taken on the role of fatherhood amazingly.

The Last Day of May....2011

Well today is Tuesday, May 31, 2011 and it was a great day. I didn't sleep in (wished I would of), instead I got up and cleaned my living room. Although my goal is to slowly clean and de-clutter my entire house, I also plan to do it slowly. Because its summer I decided I would not stay home all day and clean. So the girls and I ate lunch, got dressed, and headed to the movies. We picked up my niece Merissa too. We went to the Dollar Cinema to see Dairy of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick rules Again...What can we say its a great movie. This was however, Merissa first time seeing the movie. I was so proud of my Peanut because she was a good baby thur the entire movie. She was such a big girl too and sat in her own chair on a booster seat with her pooh bear blankie. She ate goldfish and drank her sippy cup. It was so cute and she looked so big. I tried to take a pic but it was way to dark in the theatre. We spent the afternoon together at home.....just chilling. It was a great day.

Memorial Weekend...2011

We had a great weekend...I love it when my husband is off. We didn't do anything wild or crazy. On Saturday, we went shopping in the morning, mainly for meat for the Memorial Day Bar-b-que and stopped by Lowe's to buy a table for my classroom. We worked on various projects throughout the house. On Sunday we went to church and finally got to see Thor. It was okay, Aaron and Debbie really liked it. On Monday Aaron bar-b-que ribs and sausage. Again we just hung out and worked around the house.

Peanut did get her first haircut today. Her bangs were just way to long and my poor baby could not even see anymore. I held her down while Debbie cut her bangs. She did great and best of all she can see again. We saved her hair but didn't take any before and after pics becasue we did it spur of the moment. It was a great relaxing weekend with the family.

Thank you to all the men & woman who served our country to make this day possible.

1st Day of Summer- 2011

The first day of Summer was very relaxing and fun. My girls and I woke up, ate breakfast, and got into our swim suits(Well the girls got into theirs,I did not). When we got into the car I knew we were going to have a great summer. The car smelled of sunblock and insect repellent(Mosquito season is in full swing). We were invited by Mrs. Illiana & Mrs. Merissa to spend the last day of school with them during their annual end of the year "Water Day". Pumpkin and Peanut immersed into the water and they both had a great time. We enjoyed a hotdog bar-b-que followed by Mrs. DiDi's famous homemade ice cream. I had chocolate and Pumpkin had vanilla. Peanut was past out from all the swimming during ice-cream time. However, Mrs. Illiana gave her cheetos for the first time and she loved them. As a matter of fact, she fell asleep eating a cheeto. It was so adorable.

I spent some well needed quality time with Mrs. Illiana, Mrs. Merissa and Mr. Miller. I really do miss working with them. Eveyone was just amazed of how much Emma has grown. They were also trying to convience me to go back to work next year when Cathedral gets 2nd & 3rd grade again. I'll just have to see about that one, right now I am going to enjoy my new job as wife and mother. Well I have always been a mother and wife(for the past three years) but now I have decided to stay at home. I don't know how long but I plan to enjoy this season of my life.

Later that day, I spend some time with my sister and her kiddos just hanging out and talking. I love when we get time to do that. Aaron & I spent the evening at the Executive Surf Club with his co-workers. Someone was having a going away party. After awhile we had decided to go see Thor at the movies but when we got there it was sold out. Oh well, we went home and spend time with Peanut and just hung out at the house. That night Pumpkin spend the night with Amethsyt, which is her most favorite thing to do. Summer is in full swing and we are ready. It was a perfect day. Thank you God!

Peanut Update...

Peanut will be 14 months on May 9, 2010. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. The last time I had an Peanut update she was 8 months old. She is now walking, talking and driving me crazy (but I am loving every minute of it). She is so smart and rotten at the same time. She throws tanturms already. She can say at least 20 words and loves for us to read her books. She loves to dance and her favorite show right now is Barney. She just sings and dances to Barney evertime we put it on and squeals with excitement when I tell her let go see Barney. She recently was completly moved to her crib and has been doing really well. She now only wakes up one, maybe two times at night. She still nurses and just loves her "ba ba". Her are a few pictures of our angel.

Pumpkin's 10th Birthday Dinner/Party

Pumpkin celebrated her 10th Birthday at home with a special dinner and close friends and family. I called it a birthday dinner and Aaron said it was a party. We disagreed as to what exactly the event was. In the end, we agreed to disagree. It was really funny. Anyway, she did have decorations, a cake, a pineta, and presents, so maybe...just maybe it was a small party. She had a great time with her friends and family. Happy Birthday Sweetheart. Here are some pics:

Her famous birhtday cake, that I personally made and decorated!!!

My Birthday Girl

Ariel & Emma

Ariel's partners in crime