Last day of Preschool

Today is Mali's last day of preschool. She sure has grown up in these 9 months since preschool started. ( click here to see the difference)I can't believe she has grown up so much. Several of her friends start kindergarten next year, but I"m thankful to have her one more year. Mali will be in 5 year old preschool in the afternoons though. I'm proud of my big girl and so enjoy watching her learn and grown. I'm looking forward to our summer at home together, and I think she is too.

Although we aren't happy with all the social things she has learned, she has learned some good things. Here is what I can think of right now:
How to obey another adult
Interacting and getting along with other kids her age
How to handle when kids bother her or hurt her feelings
How to draw. I'm so surprised by this skill!
She can now write her name very well

Here are some of her drawings too. You can click on each drawing and it will enlarge.
The first one is of Mali and her blankie

2nd set are pictures she drew on our trip. One is Jesus in the clouds and the other is of our family.

3rd picture of me and Mali cuddling. It breaks my heart, because we rarely get time to do that, but I look forward to ample time in the summer!



Mali was not happy about pictures this morning. And then started crying and said "you never take lots of pictures of just me!" Yikes! I think she's right!

The Adventures of Wilderness Family Gomez

Well...not quite...not all of us are equipped with the Wilderness or "roughing it" gene. But we had a wonderful time and made wonderful memories.
We spur of the moment decided to take a family camping trip this past weekend. After much deliberation and changing our minds, we decided on Mueller State Park in Divide, CO outside of Colorado Springs. We chose Mueller because a. it has showers so that Eric could shower before we drove home b. it was close to the Springs in case we did get rained out. We were prepared and knew the weather forecast, rain for all of Colorado, New Mexico and around here, so we thought it was worth trying it. We left here and drove up to Mueller very concerned that we would be turned away because we had no reservations and there were only 3 walk ups available. After a great trip up there, both girls did great, we pulled into the park and got a spot! We had a great location and had "views" of Pikes Peak, however the rain and clouds kept us from seeing much of a view. Eric was excited that there was a Wal-Mart only 19 miles away in Woodland Park. So, as soon as we unloaded the car and got camp set up, Eric went to Wal-Mart. Our camp stove wasn't working and we couldn't get a fire going because of the rain. Mali and I (and Eleri) sat in the tent and made PB&J sandwiches for dinner. When the rain would clear up, we ventured out of the tent and did some exploring. We made it through the night too. Mali kept coming out of her sleeping bag and Eric was cold, but Eleri and I were warm. The rain held off for a little while the next morning so I made breakfast. We ate in the rain underneath our canopy. After breakfast, we ventured out (in the car) to the visitor center and explored around there. They had several taxidermy animals and Mali's favorite questions where "Is it dead? Did they kill it?". Mali did a few chalk rubbings of the different animal prints. There was another break in the rain so Mali and Eric went on a hike around the little lake. It was an interactive hike for kids. There was pretend "scat" and prints that went along with the book she had received at the visitor center. Mali kept wanting to go on an "adventure" and so this was part of her adventure. We kept walking around when there was breaks in the rain. Mali found some deer "scat" and started to touch it, because at the interactive hike the scat was pretend and she touched it there. We laughed and explained to her that she couldn't touch the real scat. After lunch over the working cook stove, we went into Woodland Park to take Mali to the Dinosaur Museum. Her and Eric went in while I took a very short nap with Eleri and then fed Eleri. They both really enjoyed it and I think there were more "Is it dead?" questions. When we got back to our site we all piled into the tent with our books. Eric noticed that while we were gone the sleeping bags and pillows had been against the tent and were pretty wet. It was raining really really hard (see video) and there was now a "river" next to our site. (Side note: when we arrived at Mueller, Eric asked for a site by the river, well there are no rivers there, so we joked that he now had his river). We all pulled out our books and snacks and then Eric pointed out that my book pages were wet from the dripping rain. We waited and watched for a few minutes and noticed that the tent was leaking and there were small puddles at the corners of the tent. It had been raining non stop for the 24 hours we had been there. Then Eric heard thunder and told us all to get in the car. As we were sitting in the car, we talked through our options and finally decided to pack up. We had chosen this park because it was close to the Springs and we could go in and get a hotel. As we were packing up, I stopped a ranger that was patrolling and asked her if anyone wanted our firewood so that we wouldn't have to haul it back with us. She ended up taking it and told me that all she has for heat is a pipe stove in her home and was worried about where she was going to find dry wood. I said "well God provided some dry wood for you!" That made me cry and made me happy AND made me realize that we weren't wimping out, we were being used by God!:) So we drove into the Springs in the pouring rain. With the help of Shaina, we got a nice hotel. It was still raining up in the mountains and we kept checking the radar to make ourselves feel better. However, the hotel was pure luxury after camping. We took HOT showers, which was an issue. Mali did slip and hit her head in the shower, but recovered. Then we were off to eat at Fargo's pizza. We had fun, but I'm not sure Mali enjoyed as much as we thought she would. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Olympic Training center. Some how we always arrive there after hours. But as we pulled in, the security guard told us that Michael Phelp's had just been spotted swimming. We missed him though, if he was there. We took a few pictures and then went back to the hotel were we relaxed and Mali got to swim in the indoor pool. It was a very restful night. In the morning, we met Shaina for the complimentary hot breakfast. She lives only 2 blocks from the hotel, so we enjoyed conversation, catching up and coffee. She was great with Mali, as always, and I'm so appreciative of her tolerance of Mali. We took our time checking out and then spent the morning at Garden of the Gods. We walked around and took pictures. Surprisingly, it started to rain, so we started walking back to our car. On the way back, we saw a family with a huge log on top of their stroller...taking it out of the park. We laughed about this and wished Brandon was there to witness the craziness! As we headed out, Eric made Texas proud and drove the wrong way through the Garden, but quickly corrected himself!:) We stopped for lunch at Qdobas (burritos, like Chipotles, and they have great Queso and Queso burritos. Thanks Laura for introducing us to it, we LOVE it!), I fed Eleri and then we headed home. It was a really really fun and great weekend. We look forward to more camping trips and trips to Mueller State Park. Although, Eric is looking into a pop-up-camper!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

16 weeks

Eleri is 16 weeks old today (we are counting that as 4 months as 4 x 4 is 16). She is doing great and is still such a wonderful wonderful addition to our family. Eleri slept through the night until Eric's birthday weekend, and hasn't since!:( I'm curious as why she starts sleeping through the night and then goes through a growth spurt! Uugh! Oh well, I'm trying to treasure my time with her at night. Eleri is rolling over all the time. Her favorite thing to do is shriek and talk. Eleri has discovered her feet and holds on to them now. She also likes to hold on to her clothes or my clothes or a blanket. She is still as sweet as can be. She has become much much more alert. This has caused problems with eating and going down for naps easily. As most you of you moms can probably remember, it goes like this, eat a little...look up at me and smile or laugh...eat a little....look at sister...eat a little more...look at Daddy. It is very very sweet but also drives me crazy sometimes. I will never get tired of those sweet smiles though! Eric has noticed that Eleri enjoys being played with. He can turn her upside down or squeeze her a little and she just giggles. She definitely likes to laugh and we all love making her laugh. Eleri is getting very very heavy too. In fact, I'm sitting against a hitting pad because my back is bothering me and I think the culprit is carrying her in her infant carrier. We will not have her 4 month appointment until June 5th, but about 2 weeks ago she weighed 12lbs 12.5oz! Here are sweet pictures of our sweet girl today!

8 year anniversary

8 years ago today Eric and I were married! It makes me feel a little old, 8 years sounds so long, but also so short. In honor of our 8 year anniversary, I wanted to post 8 great things about these 8 years.

1. Our beautiful girls and how becoming parents has enriched and stretched our marriage.
2. Our fun adventures to places like Yellowstone and Yosemite National Park, Nepal, Red River, NM, trips to the cabin, Ouray, Colorado Springs...the list could go on, but I love taking trips together and look forward to celebrating our anniversary with a trip to San Diego in a few weeks.
3. That God has used our marriage to chisel away at me and sharpen me in an attempt to make me more like God (note: I am NOT there and will probably never be there)
4. Our projects that we've worked on together in making Amarillo our home. We really seem to do great when we do projects together, like our back patio and our flower beds.
5. That we have grown in these past 8 years through so many seasons; poor newlyweds in a tiny apartment, graduate school and college, our first home, pregnancies and babies, moving together for the first time and making a new home together, our first professional jobs, etc.
6. That we have learned to love what each other loves but at the same time accepted the things that Eric loves that I just never will, but that is totally fine with me (example: He loves golf, I will never play golf, but I love going to the course with him and riding along and enjoying the beauty of the outdoors. I also am totally fine with him going to play golf whenever he needs or wants to. I love camping, Eric probably never will, but he enjoys going to the cabin and being outside that way.)
7. This one may be too much information for some, so stop reading if you want to, I just have to include it though because it is something that I feel is really great. That we waited until our wedding day to have sex and we have gotten to spend the last 8 years enjoying the intimacy of marriage together!
8. That we are continuing on to more and more years together and have determined TOGETHER that we will stay married to each other no matter what.

This is not exhaustive and I typed it rather hastily, so there is much more to all of these things. Tonight we probably won't celebrate in a traditional way, I've never been much of a romantic and don't get hung up on celebrating today. Plus Eric has spring football until 8pm tonight. But we are going to San Diego (yes as a family) and will have an enjoyable dinner out there to celebrate. I'm going to convince Eric to watch our wedding video tonight (our tradition, but we didn't do it last year), I think we need to refresh our memory on our vows, and I think Mali will get a kick out of it.

Ballet Recital and Dress Rehearsal 2009

This weekend was Mali's recital. She has been preparing all semester for these two days, and she did great. I was so proud of her and even teared up again this year. She also seemed to be having lots of fun which makes me happy too. The class did a ballet dance to the theme song from Tinkerbell and then a tap dance to "Shake shake shake Sharona" (or what Mali says "shake shake shake Banola":)) At the dress rehearsal, she did great even when the sound people messed up and cut off their second song. After her performance, I gave her fake flowers because I don't think a 4 year old can really take care of and appreciate the real thing, but has more appreciation for the fake. It was raining when we left and she said "the rain will make my flowers turn into real flowers"...oops maybe she would have appreciated the real thing!:) Mali also got Hershey Bliss Chocolates from her Daddy after the dress rehearsal performance, she was thrilled and has been asking for these regularly thanks to good advertising or too much TV watching!:) We survived and enjoyed it with very little drama. Although, Mali did begin the day out by slipping on the tile with her tap shoes on and then had backstage drama because she thought another little girl "stole" her coloring book. The idea was to have coloring books to keep them quiet backstage while they waited their turn, but apparently it didn't keep Mali quiet and caused quite the scene. Oh the drama! But she did her dances, isn't that success? The actual recital went great too. MeeMee and Great Grammy and Great Grandpa Hopson came to watch Mali dance. She really did great and really knew how to shake her little bottom, "when she winded up her bottom she go like a rocket" (those are the lyrics from the song). I was sad when I realized she wasn't in the youngest class anymore, she certainly is growing up. After the recital, Great Grandpa took us to Braum's for ice cream to celebrate and Mali got roses from MeeMee. She was very proud of them. I asked her what her favorite part was and she said "taking pictures"! Enjoy the pictures!



Here is her ballet dance, Mali is on the end in the back row


Mali's tap dance:

Baby Dedication

Sunday morning was baby dedication at our church. It was so wonderful and sweet and special. Grammie, Uncle Brandon, MeeMee, Papa, Josh and Kisha, Megan and Chris, and even Mali were in the sanctuary to watch. Grammie made the girls beautiful matching dresses for the occasion. We do not believe in infant baptism, because we believe that Jesus said that baptism should follow each person's decision to follow Him as an outward profession of faith, so this is some what of the equivalent. I really believe it should be called "parent dedication" because if fact, Sunday, that was what we stood before the church and did...dedicate OURSELVES to raise Eleri to know Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior. Wow, what a huge calling. I know that I am unfit in every way to teach her to love Jesus the way that I would like to, but I know that God is fit to do so and hopefully that means she will learn about loving Jesus from us, but it also may mean learning it from other amazing people throughout her life. I wanted to add to this post part of the letter that Hillside gave each child to read when they make their decision to follow Jesus:

"May 10, 2009 was a very special day. Your parents stood before God, their family and friends at Hillside Christian Church to thank God for the precious gift of life and to commit to raising you in a Christian home. They pledged to 'bring you up in the nurture and instruction of the Lord, to teach you Scripture that will lead you to know Jesus Christ as Savior and lord, to recognize and encourage your talents and uniqueness and to love you as Jesus Christ loves you'. The gathering of family and friends of Hillside vowed to 'commit themselves to instructing you in God's word, praying for you, modeling Christ-like characteristics for you, and assisting your parents in training you in the way you ought to go'."

I spent moments throughout this past week asking God to help my heart be pure before Him during this time. I didn't want to "dedicate" Eleri as show or because it was what is done for babies. I wanted my heart to truly desire to be this way and to take very serious this commitment. I'm not sure I succeeded, I only know my heart desires this. Some days I'm sure I'll mess up, just as I've messed up with Mali, but God's grace covers all of this. I just thought of what Strap used to say "when you mess up, you confess up, you get up, and keep going." As a parent, and as a Christ follower, this is just what we have to do, because we will mess up. But some wonderful moments, I will honor God and will teach Eleri the little seeds she needs to know about the most fulfilling love she will ever know...the love of Jesus.

Sunday was also Mother's Day and my first Mother's Day with 2 precious girls. I am SO honored to be their mom. God has given me the biggest blessing in these two girls; from their sweetest to most difficult moments, I am blessed. I don't want gifts on Mother's Day, because I feel as if my girls are gifts, and being able to celebrate Mother's Day is a gift. However, Eleri did give me a full night of sleep last night!:) I'm so thankful for the hugs, the smiles, the moments when Mali is learning new things that I get to teach her but on the other side I'm very thankful for the opportunity to change dirty diapers, to get to hold my sweet girl or stare at her sweet body in the middle of the night, to have the opportunity to teach Mali right from wrong even in difficult circumstances. I'm blessed and so thankful for it. Mother's Day is a wonderful opportunity for me to reflect on these gifts God has given me and to re-evaluate my role as a mom and sort of boost me to persevere!

Shed Raising i.e. Eric's birthday

On Saturday, Eric turned 29!!! And, to celebrate, he wanted to build a storage shed. Brandon was the foreman for the project and Josh and Rory came to help as well. Kisha and Judy (and Lexi) were her to celebrate too. The guys thought the project would take an hour, but about 36 hours later it was done (Brandon stayed until 9:30pm last night to get it done)!!! The shed looks really nice! There was a break for Mali's soccer game in the mix too. They did take a break Saturday night to actually celebrate. Rory made fajitas for us and lots of Eric's co-workers/friends came over to eat. I didn't even find time to take pictures!:( I spent most of the evening feeding Eleri and putting her down and then putting Mali to bed. Eric said it was his best birthday ever. Here are some pictures I do have of the weekend!







Here is a summary of the pictures: Beginning of the framing, MeeMee and Papa with Eleri at Mali's game, shed after the game, the FINISHED shed (more or less), Eric's birthday breakfast with his girls (blueberry pancakes made by Grammie), Eric and his tool belt and framing hammer from Brandon, Sierra pinning Shank, the dogs enjoying each other.

Fun with Grammie

We have been able to spend a week with Grammie!!! She has blessed us so much while she has been here and has really been my "personal assistant". She has cleaned up countless times, swept the kitchen after every meal, put the girls to sleep, done laundry, done dishes, cooked, bought us lunch, bought us new clothes, read to Mali, held Eleri, pushed Mali in the swing, baked Eric a red velvet birthday cake, run dreaded errands for me, made us laugh, made us feel loved, and really just blessed us by being with us. Grammie got her Wednesday morning and surprised us with Safeway bagels and coffee! Thursday we went to the zoo. At the zoo Mali said these things:
"I want to buy a kangaroo for my backyard for Aspen and Shank to play with"
"Donkeys speak spanish"
"That horse's breathe smells like olives, do you smell it?"
Mali had a lot of fun with her Grammie and enjoyed their slumber parties. We have had to deal with Mali's attitude and she has had lots of spankings because of it, unfortunately we can only work on this when she acts this way. It makes me sad for Grammie, but we are trying to remember the good times this week! She has to leave tomorrow and we will miss her!

Mother's Day Tea

Yesterday Mali's preschool held a Mother's Day Tea for the mom's. It was so special. My mom is in town for Eleri's dedication on Sunday, so she watched Eleri and I went alone! This was my first time since Eleri was born to be with just Mali. It was really really special. Mali sang a song to me and she made me several special gifts. I had a placemat with her hand prints, a ladybug magnet, a fingerprint ladybug frame, a potted picture holder with her fingerprints on it made into little bugs, and a handprint plate I can hang. She also made me a button with a picture of us that she drew and we are "cuddling". It was too cute! We had punch and strawberry shortcake and spent good quality time together.



Here is the video of her song:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Rolling Over

Eleri just rolled over this afternoon! I just can't believe she is getting that big and that it happened this quick. I sure love this baby girl (and my big girl too). I didn't think I was going to get it on video, but I did, along with the chaos that is our lives!:)

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Cousins

We just got a visit from the girls first cousin, Jove! He is getting big yet is so tiny and was so light compared to chunky Eleri! I had to get a picture of them together!

Eleri slept through the night

Last night, I fed Eleri at 9:30pm and she slept without making a sound until 7am!!! I was so surprised and excited. I woke up at about 5:30 from being in a little bit of pain from her not eating and realized what time it was. I laid in bed for a minute and then went to check on her. I thought for sure she would wake up at 6am, but nope, she kept on sleeping. I'm not counting on this becoming a pattern, but am thrilled at her for being capable! Eleri is doing great. She is so close to rolling over and has started to laugh. I love her sweet laugh. Her "first laugh" was on Friday! Here are a few pictures:




The girls having story time together, I loved this!

I'm about to sleep through the night:

Spring Craziness

Well, Spring football kicked off yesterday and it is going to be a hard few weeks of May!! Eric is no longer able to be home while I work with my client to watch the girls, so I will have a babysitter coming for them. Yesterday alone we:
took Eric's slacks to the dry cleaners, waited in line at Starbucks for 20 minutes to treat myself for aforementioned errand, had the batteries die in the swing at a crucial time, ran to Dollar Tree, lost my debit card, bought the wrong size batteries, worked and brought the girls along with me, Mali fell on the curb and scraped her leg which brought on drama, drove to ballet, helped Mali get her recital costume on, took a few pictures, fed Eleri in the teacher's office, called multiple people to watch Mali for the soccer banquet Eric just told me about, made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Mali, helped Eric decide which shoes looked best, dressed Eleri cute, finally dressed myself in something that hid my post-baby belly, dropped Mali off at the other Gomez's, attended Soccer Sports Banquet with Eleri in tow, fed Eleri in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel with NO shame while visiting with the head soccer coach's wife (a lactation consultant), left banquet through the employee entrance that winded through the kitchen, picked up Mali and dressed girls in pajamas, went back to pick up Eric while Eleri screamed the whole way, came home and put the girls to bed!! Now, I feel better!:)
Today, I have my client from 4:30-5:30, and then some how have to take Mali to soccer practice by 5:30 at Windsor (across town) as well as take the babysitter home, and some where in there I probably need to make dinner! Late tonight, relief will come though, my mom is supposed to be coming into town.
Wednesday Mali has a Mother's Day Tea party that they put on for the moms, I can't wait to go.
At some point the house needs serious attention and I need to buy food for Eric's birthday party! We are having his 29th Birthday Party and Shed Building on Saturday. Kisha, Josh, Rory, Judy, Joe, Lori, Brandon (and Sierra) will be here for that. Then on Sunday we are having Eleri's baby dedication at church! I'm so excited about all of our events, but we are sure busy!

Picture of us before the sports banquet:

Dog update

We are now down to two dogs. Saturday, Asa went to a new home, but let's not talk about that since I will probably cry. And, "Sierra" Brandon's dog went home as well. I think they are adjusting really well. She gets to go to work with Brandon! So, now we have just Aspen the wonder dog, and Shank the puppy. He seems to be doing good. He is getting more and more active and doesn't sleep as much. Eric is enjoying him, or what he gets to see of him. And for some reason, I have no new pictures of him either. He "attacked" Mali's blankie and was chewing on it, so they are at odds at the moment!:)

Soccer, soccer, soccer

Mali has games each weekend, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. This Saturday it was really really cold (we've had some serious yo-yo weather) so Eleri and I stayed home. And of course, Mali actually TOUCHED the ball and dribbled it a little. She and one other girl (the major player on her team) were the only girls that showed up! And of course I missed it! Then on Sunday, Mali scored!!!! Well, statistically she scored. She kicked the ball and then an opponent kicked it and it rolled into the goal! I was so proud of her improved playing! Unfortunately, I have no pictures to tell of her amazing accomplishment!