WHEN I GROW UP...

Last Friday was Career Day for Aleigh. She has known that career day was coming up and has been absolutely CERTAIN that she wants to be an Artist when she grows up! My response to her was "Wow, that's great Aleigh! What kind of artist do you want to be? There are lot's of different artists. You could be a photographer, like Malin, a dancer, a hair dresser like Madrina...." Her response to me was "No mommy! I just want to be a regular artist!" Well, what exactly is a regular artist? She explains it as "You know, the kind of artist that draws and paints a lot!" I then asked her "Why do you want to be an artist?" and she answered "Because it's fun and I get to draw and color and paint all the time!"

Aleigh TRULY could color, write, paint, and draw ALL DAY LONG EVERY DAY!!! You could take everything else away from her and she would be alright, as long as she had some paper and stuff to write and color with!

Here is a picture of Aleigh before she went to school on Career Day...keep in mind, she chose what she was going to wear. You can't force her to wear anything she doesn't want to wear. She picked out this clear, plastic, artist apron....not how I imagined her dressing...but I am not the one wearing it and I have to let her be the sweet little individual that she wants to be.

Joe helped her draw a picture of what she wants to be when she grows up.

Our Freaky Dancer

Just a little something for your entertainment!

He sure keeps us entertained!

And so the fun begins...

She is barely 7 months old and already all over the place and into everything!!! She doesn't want to sit still, even when you are trying to hold her! She is another busy little AJ....but a lot more tame!

I was able to get some shots w/ my cell phone today (our camera's battery needs to be charged) of Ansley trying to get in to Aleigh's basket under the coffee table (the table is pushed to the side so that Ansley can have more room to play on the living room floor). It was so funny watching her pull herself up to her knee's, reach into Aleigh's basket and get a strong grip on Aleigh's American Girl magazine! She grabbed on to it and tried to get it out, but it was stuck. She froze and kept turning around to look at us as if to say "someone help me get this!" We just watched her!And she yanks hard enough to knock herself off balance! Usually she would probably cry, but she was determined to get her hands on that magazine and didn't care what happened in the meantime!

"I can't wait to rip into this magazine and eat the pages!"

"This is so much fun mommy! I can't believe your letting me do this!"

No, I don't let her eat magazines on a regular basis, she just worked so hard for that magazine, I had to let her have a little fun w/ it. It was an American Girl magazine and we get plenty of those in the mail! I did put her in her Johnny Jumper right after I snapped this shot!

STUDENT OF THE WEEK

Because I am not one to send out a Christmas card just so I can brag about everything perfect in my families life...well I do send out a christmas letter, but try really hard to keep it simple and not go on and on about how perfect my kids are...even though they are! Just kidding!!! ;) They are wonderful, but certainly are not perfect! ANYWAY, I have to share Aleigh's special week at school! She was chosen as Student Of The Week. For Joe and I, this is a big deal because I can clearly remember the day I was walking the hall, as a 4th grader, of Silver Hills Elementary School (in Kearns, Utah), when I looked up and saw my name as Student of the Week for the entire 4th grade! I was shocked!!! That was the one and only time I ever received, what I though of as, a reward! Then there is Joe....well lets just say, he was rewarded for staying in the same school for the duration of one school year! Needless to say, we were proud to see that Aleigh was getting recognized in such a positive way so early in the school year.

She was asked to bring in a photo collage of her family and friends. We had several we wanted to include on her poster, but there just wasn't enough room. Once we finished the poster, we took it in to get in laminated and unfortunately it messed up the picture of Grandma Rojas and the three kids together. Aleigh was still proud to see it hanging in the hall all week long...AJ was proud of his sister too!

Aleigh also got to share her daddy with her class on Thursday. Joe was asked to go to Aleigh's class and talk about his job. When I asked Aleigh how it went her response was "FANTASTIC!" Aleigh said that all of the kids in her class wanted her daddy to come back because they had so much fun! Her teachers were impressed and appreciative to Joe for taking the time to come talk and interact with the kids.

Faces of Ansley

I finally got a bunch of pictures from my mom! I just loved these ones of Ansley that my mom took while we were in Myrtle Beach! These show exactly what stage Ansley is at! She is so fun! I think she is teething right now and is incredibly congested and irritable...the last few nights have been rough! She is a baby that sleeps through the night from about 7pm-7am. Well last night I was up w/ her at midnight, then at 3 am, and again at 4:30 a.m. When she woke up screaming the 4th time, I woke up Joe! Joe doesn't hear anything in his sleep, so I had to shake him awake. If my feet hit the ground one more time to climb the stairs and get Ansley out of bed, I was going to fall over!

Goofy Kids

Since we have been back from our enjoyable weekend in Myrtle Beach, things have been back to our regular everyday life! The kids were so goofy tonight so I had to grab the camera and managed to get a great shot of the 3 of them. I also think that Ansley has changed a lot since I last posted a picture of her.

We are all doing well. Ansley is approaching that separation anxiety stage! She is happy as can be when she can see one of us, but seems to get upset pretty quickly when she can't spot one of us in the room! Hopefully it won't be too bad. I don't remember Aleigh having a very dramatic stage of separation anxiety, but AJ sure did! I remember considering a job (when AJ was 1)that would have me away from AJ at least 3 days a week while Joe was at work. I visited a local daycare center (Royal Learners), put down a deposit and they encouraged me to let him stay for a couple of hours to see how he would do. I left him playing in the toddler room and snuck out while he was happy. When I returned...two hours later, he was HYSTERICAL!!! He could hardly catch his breath and the teachers said he had been crying like that for the ENTIRE two hours!!! I was devastated and didn't know what I was going to do! I never wanted to have to leave my kids in daycare. Well, the next day was when I was offered the job to go work for Sylvia who owned a private daycare in her basement. It was awesome because I was able to leave AJ w/ Joe in the morning and then Joe would bring him to me at lunch time. I obviously didn't take the other job I was planning for. I feel blessed that Joe and I have been able to arrange for one of us to always be available to the kids. I just hope that Ansley won't have a severe case of separation anxiety! She just LOVES having people around her and loves it when they talk to her!

We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend! Saturday is my friend Malin's 30th Birthday party, so that will be fun! Kids are invited so not only will it be fun, but crazy too! I don't know that Joe will be able to go for very long because Saturday is the Karate Tournament. We are all looking forward to it!

MYRTLE BEACH

So I went back to a much better doctor last Thursday who gave me lots of drugs and a breathing treatment after determining that I had a bad case of bronchitis....which I have never had before and hope I never have again! Being sick and trying to go about your day to day life of work and running the kids around on top of all the other mom responsibilities is NO FUN! I am so glad that I found a much better doctor's office and greatful that they did all they could so that I would feel much better for our trip to Myrtle Beach! Ansley also went to the doctor last Thursday, but her's was a check-up. It was her 6 month check-up and she had to get 5 shots! Joe got to take her this time because I had to work. She weighs 15 Ibs at almost 6 1/2 months. She is in the 50th percentile for her weight and in the 20th for her height. I guess she is a little short. I think she is like 24 inches.

This is where we stayed and the view from our balcony. The kids enjoyed sitting in the window!

Aleigh was the one who was INCREDIBLY excited to visit the beach for the first time, but AJ seemed a lot more into it than Aleigh was! Aleigh was more interested in the pool at the condo's we stayed at. They had an indoor pool, and big outdoor pool, a hot tub, and a lazy river. It was a lot of fun! YES, I did get in a bathing suit and enjoyed an afternoon at the beach and then at the pool with the kids! We were all loaded up w/lots of sunscreen and Ansley was very soothed by the sound of the waves. She fell asleep both times we went to the beach. The first afternoon at the beach was Saturday and then on Sunday we tried to do the opposite of what everyone else was doing and shopped the strip in Myrtle Beach and then had a late lunch. We headed to the beach around 7 p.m. and enjoyed the cool ocean breeze. No, I did not wear a bathing suite to the beach that time because I was just going over to watch AJ, Aleigh, Joe and my dad enjoy the water. It was my favorite time on the beach because there were very few people and we didn't have to worry about the sun. It was really nice. We actually got a really nice family picture but....my mom has it on her camera! I will post later.

Ansley is asleep on my mom's lap in the photo above and AJ is lost in the wave in this photo w/ my dad's awesome reaction! :)

All in all we had a relaxing time, which is exactly what we wanted and needed! My mom, once again, has all of the good pictures. I have to get them from her! I posted a few of the better ones that I took!