Month: April 2012

Our handsome prince turned three months young today, what a blessing he has been.  I can’t even imagine life without him, he brings us nothing but joy.  I have decided to do a little photoshoot of Joshua on the 16th of each month and record his milestones.  Feel free to check out Joshua’s Page as well as Bella’s age for more updates.
Bella is starting dance classes at the end of this month and is very excited about it.  She asked to put on her ballerina shoes the other day with the rest of her dancing outfit 🙂  More updates about dance class to come.  Here are a few pictures from Joshua’s photoshoot today and Bella’s dancing outfit.

What a joy to celebrate Life! He has risen indeed! Every year Easter comes as such a blessing and a great reminder that Christ has laid his life for us. What an honor it is to be His child and to know that only by His grace we get eternal life. My heart wishes so much that every person would know what Christ has done for us and truly accept His gift of salvation. I came to a conclusion this year, that Christmas and Easter are by far two of my favorite holidays. They both celebrate Christ, birth and resurrection. I can not express the joy I have in my heart as I write this post.
On Easter morning our family went to church, it was Joshua’s first time in church and he did fantastic. We were fortunate enough that nana was working at Sunday school, so Bella could stay there during the service and play with her nana 🙂 After a wonderful Easter service both families came over to our house. This Easter we decided to host and boy, little did I realize, it was not as easy as I have anticipated with two kids, but it all worked out and we were able to get everything done on time and share a wonderful meal. Of course we could not pass up the opportunity to have everyone hunt for eggs as it was Bella’s first egg hunt, where she could fully comprehend what was going on. She and Joshy received special Easter baskets from both grandparents and from mommy and daddy. Our day was completed with a short trip to nana’s and papa’s house for yet another egg hunt and more presents. We have two very spoiled munchkins but what a wonderful blessing they are.
Thank you dear Lord for your precious gift of eternal life!

When Barry and I just got married and talked about potentially home schooling when we have kids, I was not too keen on the idea and believed that my kids will go to school just like all others. Now that we have kids and I see what public schools have to offer, I am singing a completely different tune and thinking that I will home school for as long as I can. Many disagree that home schooling is a smart choice, but every parent makes the final decision what is best for their child and for mine it will be home schooling, with possibly private school down the road. I have been working with Bella on colors, letters, animals, numbers and so much more since pretty much her birth. To me it’s nothing special, I just make sure to tell her what things are at all times and get her involved in coloring, painting, puzzles and other various fun projects. She learns very fast, so I constantly have to make sure to give her new information, otherwise she gets bored easily. She just turned two a couple of months ago and I feel like I got my work cut out for me. The years are flying by, I just have to make sure I can keep up and offer as much as I can to keep her interested. With that said, I have been laying out themes and looking for a good curriculum that will be interesting and interactive. I will keep each theme for a week and try to create as many activities and learning tools as possible to help her remember what she learned. Our theme for next week is “ocean life” which means we will learn about the ocean and all that lives in the ocean including corals and a variety of fish. I can’t wait!

If you ever told me that my child will be dependent on a pacifier, I would have told you, I would never allow it, but guess what, I did, which is why it has become a day of tears and celebration at the same time.  The dependency became more intence as Bella got older, we noticed when she was about a year and a half, she would not leave anywhere or fall asleep without her paci.  Every time she would feel sick or get hurt, the first request out of her mouth, “I want my paci”.  We, (soft hearted) parents though, oh it’s ok, just another month or so and we will take it away and we finally put a date on the calendar (March 31^, 2012)  We talked to Bella about it a week in advance and she was very well aware that the day was coming and took advantage of her paci as much as she could.  As the day approached I was getting a little nervous knowing how attached she was to her dear paci and what it would take to just take it away.  I woke up in the middle of the night, looking for creative ideas of how to take it away and potentially make it fun for the child.  The one that hit home with me was sending it in the sky on a balloon.  We all know that Bella loves balloons so brining balloons into the picture will only make things better.  First thing in the morning I went to the local grocery store and bought 4 balloons (pink, purple, yellow and Princess Aurora for her to keep after the paci was gone)  It just happened that the weather was absolutely cruel that day, the wind was very stong and it was beginning to drizzle outside.  When Bella saw the balloons and heard that we are sending her paci on the balloon in the sky, she got excited and was eager to do just that.  As time came to walk outside and let it out, our baby girl got sad, finally realizing that it was it, she was letting it go.  Off it went up in the sky and landed just a few houses down due to the gusty winds, but Bella never knew that and for her the paci was really gone.  We continued with celebration of  a “big girl day” and served frozen yogurt with lots of sprinkles.  She loved every minute of it, until the nappy time came and both Barry and I thought we were going to loose our minds.  Our precious daughter cried so hard, that at the end both of us considered going and fishing out the paci, which of course we did not do and our baby girl moved on just after 48 hours of not having her paci.  She still brings it up from time to time, but only to say, “I don’t need a paci, I am a big girl now”.  Yes you are my sweet girl, yes you are!