2011 - Year in Review - Part 3

July brought lots of days at the beach and memories made. July also brought Hannah starting her new preschool where she has blossomed into such an independent young girl.

Here she is on her first day


Blowing bubbles off of Nana's deck on the 4th of July




July and August also brought Project Surf Camp!! For the second year Zach participated in surf camp. He did 2 camps this year and Hannah was so excited to do it too! Such a great experience for my kiddos and I am so thankful they are able to experience it. Can't wait for this years camps!



















Hi-5's while getting his award


Zach with the PSC founder John Taylor


In September Hannah turned 4 and we surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland! They had no idea! We just put them in the car in the morning and told them we were taking a drive. They were SO shocked when we got there! Truth be told, Disneyland is one of my favorite places and I love taking the kids there.

Hannah was so excited to meet Rapunzel and Flynn Rider!


Zach asked Flynn what was in his satchel. Imagine Hannah's surprise when she got to wear Rapunzel's crown!!!


We got to see lots of characters












On Hannah's birthday we had lunch with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto. She was in heaven!!










After Zach got over his "I no like princesses" mood he tracked them down and got in on some princess love




Both days we were there we spent time at the pool. The kids could not get enough of the water slide!






Zach is a little, ok a lot, obsessed with Phineas and Ferb. Imagine his excitement when there was a dance party and he got to dance with them!!!


There were so many more amazing memories from our trip but I will stop there.

The final installment of our year in review is coming shortly. Stay tuned!

2011 - Year in Review - Part 2

June-

This June my big boy turned 7!! We didn't do a big party or anything this year, he was happy with low key. He was so happy to go visiting family, that was his birthday celebration! He was excited to get some Phineas and Ferb toys from Nana as that is his current cartoon obsession.





In addition to Zach's birthday we had a very busy month! The weekend before Zach's birthday we headed to Sacramento where my beautiful niece was graduating from high school.

My 2 princesses:


SO proud of this girl:


Mimis and her mom (Her mom taught me to drive.Many years ago!)


Me and Hannah at the graduation


We jumped at the chance to spend several days to visit family while we were up there. The first couple nights we stayed with my best friend. We have been best friends for 28 years. I was so excited to get to spend some days with her and her beautiful family and get to know her baby boy more. Sadly, we ended up with no pictures of her and I! I am always the one behind the camera.

So awesome to see our kids together:


Our guys:


Zach lovin' on Baby Chance:


LOVE this picture of our baby boys:


Suneet was trying to teach the kids how to play something on the piano. By the kids faces... you can tell what was really going on:


After a couple days there, we went to spend some time with my Aunt and Uncle and my cousins and their families. It was WAY overdue.















Hannah was on an Ariel kick that week


I got to meet my cousins baby for the first time! He is so stinkin cute!!




I think one of the most heart warming parts of our trip was seeing Zach and Gabe together. I have posted before about my cousin and her amazing boy. I loved that we both dressed our boys in orange that day! (once we dressed Zach and Gabe in the same outfit for school. 300 miles away. I posted a picture of Zach and she said "Hey ... Gabe wore the same thing to school today!!)

Zach wanted to help Auntie Dani feed Gabers his lunch and he liked giving him his drinks


Beautiful boys


June also brought the Buddy Walk but I think i will save that post for DS awareness month. June was so busy!! Stayed tuned for Part 3 of the year in review!!

2011 - Year in Review - Part 1

I just realized I only have 8 posts for the entire year of 2011. And one of them was about Christmas from last year. I have been seriously slacking. I am going to post a quick review of our year and beg that you forgive my absence and stay tuned for more frequent updates.

January -
We spent some time remembering how much we love where we live. The beach. In January.













The beginning of the year was overall slow for us. In April, the kids experienced their first hail storm.











Don't mind the fact that my kids have on no socks and no shoes in some pictures. We live in California and don't see hail storms much and if we do, they pass quickly. I didn't want the kids to miss it so they threw on the closest shoes they could find.

May-

Hannah got her first haircut! I was sad to see her last little curls on the bottom to be cut but it was time. We cut off almost 8 inches in some spots. Brushing her hair is a nightmare. Still. This at least helped a little bit for awhile.













I have decided that this post has gotten way too long. I am going to break this recap up into a few posts.

Stay tuned for the summer edition!

Shaking the dust off.....

...... of this blog.

I haven't been writing much in the last year and I do miss it. Over the years it has been therapeutic writing about the kids and life and Down syndrome. I love going back and reading the posts and seeing how much the kids have grown.

Rarely do I write about me. I have been thinking lately that I want to start writing more about me and using this to record some of my thoughts and talk about what I am up to. Next year I am vowing to be way more active. Not only me, but as a family. For all of us. I need to lose a large amount of weight and maybe if I talk about it more with others it will keep me accountable. In 2009 I lost 48 pounds in about 6 months. When I hit 50 I was going to post about it on here. I didn't hit 50. Then life got in the way and I stopped working on the weight loss. In 2010 life got crazy with ... well a lot!(you can go back and read the posts). And then Hannah turned 3 and officially entered CrazyTown and truth be told... I would have a glass of wine, or sometimes 3, a couple nights a week. It seemed to take the edge off of the stress of everything and those calories added up and back came the 50 lbs!

So I ask you... do this with me. Post comments and let me know you are with me. If we are Facebook friends we can stay in touch and motivate each other. I have also joined a couple friends on FitnessPal. It is a great free program that you can help make things a little easier.

2012 is going to rock. I can feel it!

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Dear Hannah,

You are now 4 and the lovely sweet girl that you are is re-emerging. 3 was hard. Really hard. You pushed every boundary you could find. You averaged more fits a day than I can keep track of. You told me and your dad that you hated us.

The fog is lifting and we are communicating better. It was definitely not all you. I am still learning how to effectively parent a "spirited" child. It is a learning process for us both.

Your gigantic heart is emerging and showing us that compassionate, loving, smart, beautiful girl that I know you are.

You recently started at a new preschool and you are learning so much. You are becoming even more independent and confident.

I am so proud to be your mom. That fog, that was 3, just goes to show how strong willed and passionate you are going to be as you grow to be an amazing young woman.

I love you more than you will ever know Hannah.

Happy 7th Birthday Zachary!

Little Dude,

I know, I know.. you would correct me and say "not little dude... big boy"... but you are my little dude. You make my heart swell with love and pride on a daily basis. Your amazing spirit and ginormous heart makes my world so much better than I ever imagined. I love our cuddle time every night and how the weight of your body just sinks into me and I wrap my arms around your back. You use "we cuddle?" as a negotiation to agree to do things at night. Shower, brush teeth, etc. But what you don't realize is that I want that cuddle time just as much as you do and hope you never stop wanting that as part of our evening routine.

I love you buddy.

As heard....

Tonight the kids were getting ready for bed. They had their jammies on, Zach was going potty and Hannah walks by the piles of their dirty clothes on the floor.

Hannah: Ew! Zach has a birth mark..... Ew! So do I.

Me: Skid mark Hannah. The word you are looking for is skid mark.