Weekends

In my world, weekends are for catching up.  Catching up on family. Catching up on yard work, laundry, and house work.  Well, sometimes. Sometimes, weekends are for socializing.  Who am I kidding? MOSTLY, weekends are for socializing.  My family and Bobby's family, is so ridiculously huge that there is always some party (sometimes TWO parties) going on for both Saturday and Sunday.  But when the four us can sneak a few hours together.  They are always special.  Even if it is just the mundane activities.

A photo shoot with the girls is always needed.  These little darlings are growing up so fast!  Julianna seems to be growing up even faster since I don't get to spend every single hour with her.  I was lucky to spend 10 months at home with Isabella and got to see almost every major milestone.  I love my job and I love getting up and going to work everyday to help support my family, but some days I wish I could just stay home and rock my baby girl in the recliner and read her books and just look into her eyes and smile and wait to hear her little growl! Yes, Julianna growl.

 Some of my favorite times spent on the weekends is being home! Discovering new adventures outside (and inside!....we do have a two year old) while cleaning up the yard.  On this particular day we found a little bird egg that fell from its nest.  It was covered with ants.  This was a perfect opportunity to teach Isabella the circle of life.  All day she would say, egg fall! egg fall! Bird fall!




On this day, we also got to witness another one of Isabella's outfit choices.  Already, at only two years old, she wants to pick out her own clothes and shoes.  This is the outfit she came up with: Olivia shirt, a skirt (of course) that does not match the said Olivia shirt but apparently looks good to Bells and plaid blue shoes. Love it! Its genius in only a way a two year can dream up.  She sits here watching Bobby cut the tree. Eager to get up and help her daddy, I let her.

 

And while we were outside, exploring our tiny part of the world, our little one slept and dreamt!

Miss Fluff

When I was pregnant with Julianna, I didn't know how I was going to be able to share my love with another little one.  Isabella has filled my heart with so much love that it seemed impossible to squeeze in another child.  Remarkably, to love another child, is as easy as breathing.  When I held Julianna for the first time, it felt like I was a new mother all over again.  And in a way, I was.  I had never been a mother to TWO beautiful babies.  I had to change my routine with Isabella to include this newborn baby.  I have expanded my heart to encompass another life.

Julianna has been another dream of mine fulfilled.  There was a time in college when I decided that children probably were not going to be in my future.  My life was taking a different turn.  New doors were opening and at the time, I thought kids just won't fit in.  Then fear set in.  I convinced myself that I was not a woman who could physically have children.  That fear became very real to me and I was certain my body could not produce a life.  With that fear of not being able to give birth to an extension of myself, and the love of my life, my dream for children multiplied!  I knew being a mother would be a dream that I might not get to live.

With the birth of my first daughter, I was relieved and joyous.  Isabella opened our eyes to a different life.  She allowed us to experience adventures we could only hope for.  Julianna has made our family and adventures that much sweeter!  She has been such a wonderful addition and I am still in awe at how I can love a being so much!  When I am away from her, just a thought of this sweet baby stops me and I smile...and almost cry.

I thank the heavenly beings above for granting this wish.  I thank them for making my dream of children come true.  I thank my husband for being such a wonderful man.  He is a constant presence in his daughter's everyday lives.  He is a true partner.  A father that every woman hopes for their children.  My dream of a family has come to life.

My little Firecracker

Two years have gone by since I fell completely and utterly in love with a person I had only laid eyes on for less than a second.  Though I knew her more than anyone could know a person that they just met.  She loved loud cheering (Diamondbacks games) and would bounce around when she heard it.  She loved when I would eat cupcakes!  Or maybe that was just me!

Now, she loves Abbie from Sesame Street, the movie Dispicable Me, Dancing in only her diaper, her little sister Juli-Nana or another name for her, Baby Sanna!  She loves waking up to see her Dad there to rescue her from her crib.  She loves ALL her cousins!  She loves going down the slide over and over  a n d  o v e r.....again.

She is my little Firecracker, appropriately born in July.  She is a feisty one who demands the rooms attention.  She has fiery fits and snuggable hugs.  She knows enough words to melt your heart. She is my little doll face.

And my little Firecracker turned two.

Some say I'm a Dreamer......

Picture of me 4 years ago

....I hope I'm not the only one!

Growing up as a young girl I felt it extremely important to set goals for myself.  I'm sure this was influenced by my father who encouraged my love for sports, namely softball.  He taught me that working harder than the rest would ultimately lead me down the path to a scholarship, a full-ride scholarship, to any college I wanted.  

So at the young age of 10 years old, I set my very first goal that would not be realized until 8 years later.  I was going to push and pull and tear my way into the hearts of the college recruiters to earn a full ride scholarship to a Division I Pac-10 school. I would settle for nothing less!
  
You can call this my first true dream.  A dream that lead to many other dreams.  I wanted to be a lawyer and attend Stanford Law School.  I wanted to be a heart surgeon, ala my idol at the time, Dot Richardson.  I wanted to be a power house business woman. I had many dreams. 

When the time came to go to college, I did not get that full ride scholarship to a Pac-10 school. But I did get one to a Big XII school. It was around this time that I began to realize that dreams can shift into a slightly different version of the original one, and that's ok. 


The picture above shows a young woman who just graduated college.  I felt like my life was truly beginning.  I had dreams of a glamorous career.  My hopes were to travel and taste foreign cuisine. I would find that those dreams would wait....


......for a time after another adventure was somewhat complete, raising children.  Just as my other dreams were shifting, I found that my life was calling for something more concrete.  I discovered that I am a woman who wants to experience motherhood.  All of a sudden, and I do mean sudden, my dreams of motherhood over took my dreams of being an individual.  And I'm glad it did!