Sunday, July 5, 2009

A busy weekend!


Hi, birdie. Here is a new female woodpecker. She is so cute :) Look the face that she is giving me.


Arianna and her blanket. Yeah, like I had posted before, this is a new thing. Thank God, she likes many blankets. She uses it to lay down on it, to put on her hair (like in this picture), to put her stuff animals to sleep, for me to take a nap, etc... So many functions...


Mike was feeding her some yogurt, but I found this old sunglasses (She hated them before), but this time she played with them for awhile.

Hey, blue don't eat my Sugar Lime Cookies!! I'll try to post the recipe later since I had someone asking about it. They are really good and fresh. If we can only get some sunny days consistently.

So here is a semi-before of our first floor - living room/ play area. We are always trying to figure out the best possible space and organization for Arianna to use all her toys/books, etc... So, in this picture we had brought down an old entertainment center that we used to use before we moved to this house and since we needed a corner entertainment it sat for two years in one of our bedrooms. But now, it will hold some of Arianna's things.


Here is Arianna's Corner! We arranged her books in the top 2 shelves. She has a lot of books, and she "reads" almost half of them daily. It is really cute when she is reading and making up stories, now if we can only understand all the things that she is saying.


In the bottom shelf, we have three boxes with mostly stuffed animals, tea set, letters, and numbers. Top shelf, lots of blocks and cups. She also has her table with puzzles, her clock, and her notebooks to draw (I hide the crayons, otherwise we would have lots of art work in our walls. Although, she is nice most of the time, and does not do it, why tempt faith, right? I think she approves of the new space :)

We had been working in a kind of big project -Our basement. I finally packed all of our stuff and moved to the laundry area (we are doing half of the basement into a family room). Here is a picture of the carpet that Tony ripped from our floors. Who knows how long it sat, but it was pretty disgusting in some areas. I was so surprised at how quickly he was able to do it, so much that he ended up helping me paint- well, he painted while I help with the taping! Thanks Tony.

Here is a picture of the walls with tape waiting to get a makeover.


Our floors, they used to have some type of tile. They were few pieces left under the gray carpet, so what you see is the glue. We were debating whether to try to take the glue or not, but the floors were in very good shape, and they had put carpet over it without doing it, so we did and looks great. After all, the reason we ended attacking our basement is because we had a small leak into it when one of the bathroom's sewer backed up.

Overall picture of our basement when you come down from the stairs. It is an old house, but we like it. We used to have a huge house in a new subdivision, now we have the opposite ;)

Here you see the walls are painted! It is called fuzzy peach. How tropical (the name).

Here is Jack! Everyone that follows Facebook nows that a kitty showed up to our patio doors, lived on or under our deck for about a week, and finally we could not let him outside. It was raining horribly and the poor thing was trying to stay dry by standing next to out patio door. I guess there is about 4-5 in. of coverage where the rain does not hit. It was awful seeing him there, so I figured that if I brought my carrier (that I used for the other kitties we have) and he went in, I will put him on the basement. And he did. So, we took him to vet next day. He had a microchip, they called the people, left messages and after 2 weeks, no repply. Tried to see if anyone wanted a kitty, no one could. So, he is the other reason we are working on the family room so we can go there. We are going to try an introduction with Betsy and Misty, but I figured the basement is better than outside.

Beautiful saucer eyes!


Me working on the carpet. We got up, ate something quick and contine working until we were done!


Mike working on the carpet with Jack inspecting our progress. Such an efficient boss!


You get the idea, the wall color with the new brown carpet. Very warm and cozy. Now, we need a nice couch for the TV, games, and movies. I will take more pictures once we cleaned all the empty boxes and we organize where the bookcases will go, etc...


Mike and Arianna happy that we had finished the carpet. Now, we just need some dinner! (Oh yeah, Ari was very helpful and played around with the empty boxes, the good thing was that we were able to keep working while she was downstair with us.)

A brake. Blanket and some Noggin videos. She loves Laurie Berkman's songs from Jack's Music Show.


In the crafty side, I finished a baby blanket for a friend. I liked it except that this time one side was a bit more big - still made with love. So, I think it works, and I would keep working on getting better.


We had bought this doll at the thrift store while looking for some artsy stuff, but she did not have any clothing. I decided to crochet this dress for her with the leftover yarn from the blanket. Ari loved it. She kept saying "mommy, doll has dress. Good dress". :)

Celebrations...Two birthday parties!


Our weekend started by celebrating Logan's 5th Birthday on Friday! The day was nice and we decided to do an impromptu picnic :) We had hot dogs and hamburgers, salads, Cole slaw, chips, sodas, and cakes.

The girls were dressed in beautiful blue dresses with a really cool hairdo. Check the picture to see them.

Getting the chocolate cake ready. Everyone wanted some cake. In the picture you see the birthday boy (Logan) and his parents, Alma and Tony.

I love this picture. Scarlett, Raven, and Phoenix waiting patiently for their slice, but before we need to sing.

Here is: "Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Logan, Happy Birthday to you!". Blow the candle!


As every nephew and niece of us (from my sister), they all want to cut their own cake :)

Here is mommy (of Logan) looking so beautiful as always!

Tony and Arianna bonded a bit. She is still a mommy's girls. So, it is hard for her to let go, even if I try. But Tony may the worst mistake, given her an airplane. He was doomed. All she wanted was to be lifted and twirled. Poor Tony, she would not let him go!


Mike decided to bring out our boccie and the kids tried to play it...

But after they used the sticks as hammers, we decided to call it off and Logan opened his presents instead. Safety first :)


Logan loved his presents, but I think this took the cake since he stood up with it and looked really happy.


On Saturday, July 4th we went to Dave and Tiff's house to celebrate Glenn. His #3 Birthday! We had hamburgers, chicken, and rice.


Glenn was a bit afraid of the fire from the candles, but after we sang the birthday song, we had a delicious slice. Just asked Arianna, she loved it.

She made a mess of her shirt (eating some watermelon) that her cousin had to lend her a new shirt. Thanks Glenn.


Glenn loved his presents. I think his favorite was a gift from his grandparents. A pop up fire station from Matchbox. It was really cool.

And here is Tiffany posing with one of the Birthday Cards for Glenn. She said she keeps all the cards. That is nice.

Thanks everyone for all the get together and memories!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

My cousin Glenn turned 3!

Have a great birthday! Enjoy your day and your presents too :)

Monday, June 29, 2009

Events ...3 (Mommy's Birthday)

On Saturday, June 27th, we made a party for my mom (even though her birthday is the 28th), and all our family was present. You can see my grandpa and grandma relaxing outside.

We had pizzas from Barraco's Pizzas. We ordered a Sicilian Sausage, a Hawaiian, a plain cheese, a pepperoni, and a deep dish pizza with mushrooms. We also had two huge salads and chips. Lots of sodas, and 4 different kinds of beer for the adults.

Thank God for a long driveway, so at least 3-4 cars can fit and there is still some other areas to park.


Here is my Aunt Eli, what a nice smile!

This picture of my cousin Raven came out nicely. Don't you think? Her sister is in the background playing with the big ball.

Here is my Uncle Tony playing ball with the kids. Cool.

At one point, there were all 7 kids playing on the grass. It is amazing to realize how many kids are in the family now. Long ago, it was only my Uncle Carlos.

Ann and Bob chilling after eating some yummy food. I wish we had better weather. It was too hot, but from time to time we had some nice breezes coming along.

Logan (on your left) and Glenn were playing with the rings. They played for quite awhile. It was nice to see.


Mommy had the greatest idea - Water Balloons - but they went out soooooo quickly that we decided to use the hose. Anyway, the day called for it. My Aunt Alma hold it for awhile, then it was my Aunt Eli until we were soaked. (Well, I was not... since I had woken up and was still a bit grumpy).

But, my cousins were all wet! Phoenix, Glenn, Logan, and Raven.

Maybe next year the count down will be backwards, but for now it is still 36! Those cakes flew. I think we devoured them in less than 1/2 hr. The one in the left was a Tiramisu cake and well, you can see the whole chocolate cake in the right.

I approved! How delicious. I wanted from both cakes and I was not grumpy anymore. Who can be grumpy with cake!

Here is my mommy, I stole her cake too. Yummy!

My "Abue" with my cousin Scarlett and Santana eating cake as well. Everyone loved it.

A nice family portrait of my Uncle Carlos, Aunt Eli, Cousins Raven and Scarlett. At this point, everyone had lots of sugar and food. It was a very nice day.


Oh, how wonderful.

But at this point, I was a very tired baby and wanted to go in. Almost everyone had gone home too. I was ready to hit my bed as well.

The next day on the 28th, my grandparents stayed with me while my dad took my mom to Casa Margaritas on Orland Park. Happy Birthday Mommy!