A {BIG} Announcement!

Disclaimer: This photo has nothing to do with the following announcement...

 If you're an active reader of our posts, then you may or may not know what our "big announcement" is. I wanted to share this on my blog first so that my followers could be special ;) Also, we never really "announce" things on here as it is so I thought it would be fun! Read on to find out...

As I mentioned in this family update, we were in the process of looking for our first family home! It was a long and tedious process constantly looking at and calling different places to find the "perfect" one. Since Ruben is a merchant teller at Bank of America, he deals with more money from businesses than actual personal accounts. There is a local property management company that comes in and Ruben had spoken to him about a nearby location they had for rent. It was a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom and was located exactly where we were hoping to be! Now, I know what you're thinking, 1 bedroom is going to be way too small for 4 people. And eventually, it will be. But since the girls sleep with us/in our room already, I don't see it being much different than our situation now.

Anyway, long story short, WE GOT THE PLACE! We were approved last week on the 11th and get our keys on Friday, the 27th of this month! We shopped for almost all of our furniture this past weekend, as well!!!! I'M SO EXCITED! It's been a journey these past 3 years, and I'm happy to finally say that I am exactly where I want to be at this point in life. What an amazing year this is turning out to be! :)

I will be doing vlogs of our moving weekend, and maybe even an apartment tour so be sure to subscribe to our vlog channel!

Til next time,
-Paige

Easter 2013

Just like every year, we did the "Easter hop" where we hopped around from house to house to spend time with all of our families. I don't like to sound like I'm complaining, because that's far from the truth. I love seeing my family and Ruben's family. I have and always will be a family girl. But I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't extremely tiring and even stressful! Blah! But we are super lucky to have such amazing people in our lives and being able to spend time with them every holiday is a blessing.

 Easter Morning
Riley has recently discovered her love for One Direction (curse you, British boys!) so she has been loving their music and especially their music videos. Christina (Ruben's mom) & I decided to put Riley & Andi's baskets together this year so I splurged and got Riley a 1D microphone that sings "What Makes You Beautiful". I knew she would be super excited when she opened it, which is what I wanted. I got her a few other little things as well. Andi was hard to get things for since she's so small, she can't really enjoy much. I ended up getting her just a few teething toys.

 Easter Afternoon/Evening
We started off at my mom's house where it was just my grandparents, my mom, John, Jack, the Walker family and our mini fam. And of course the doggies! Riley & Amelia had an Easter egg hunt together and then we all sat down and ate lunch. Ruben had a game at 11 so he showered and changed while I took the girls over and then I went back to get him when he was done. We then went over to Grandpa Villa's house after and spent time with the Ponce's, and had another Easter egg hunt. Then we finished with the Ramirez family where Riley had her last egg hunt all by herself! She was in candy heaven by the end of the day, I eventually had to hide all of her baskets. The Saturday before Easter, we spent time with Grandma Rachel at the park! I didn't get to see my Emmsley family this year though :( It was really cold this year so Riley & Andi didn't stay in their dresses too long.

 Pictures from the Park

All photos taken by my NEW Samsung Smart Camera, courtesy of Groupon. I LOVE it! Thank you, Ruben! :)

Andi's 5 Month Update

I know I skipped month 4, but not too much has changed since her last update :)

As you can see in the picture, Andi had a sty(e). This annoying thing lasted 3-4 weeks! It has just recently started clearing up after draining on its own. I'm just glad that it didn't bother or hurt her.

Andi is still nursing and just recently we started her on cereal. She makes the funniest faces when she tastes it- almost as if I were giving her a lemon to lick! She has also been getting better at drinking from a bottle, which she only gets when Ruben & I are gone. I'll be happy when she starts eating more solid foods that way I can leave the house for more than 2 hours without having to worry so much.

She isn't quite sitting up on her own yet, but she can go a while before she topples over. She is now able to hold on to her toys so she LOVES putting everything into her mouth. She is still waking up at night- about 2-3 times. She is in size 3 diapers now and wears 6-9 month clothing. The last time I weighed her (with me) she was almost 30 lbs, so I'm pretty sure she passed that up sometime this month. She's so chubby! :P

Riley & Andi especially have been bonding a lot and it's super cute to see... Andi loves seeing Riley!

Well, I guess that's all that's been going on with our little babe. Lots of exciting things coming up for us all! :)

Til next time,
-Paige

Vlog 2- We Are Never Getting Back Together, Like EVER! -2/22/2013

Family Updates: Andi- 3 Months Old

Well, I guess technically she's almost 4 months old :P Our baby girl is getting so BIG! And extra chubby ;) I can't believe she's almost half of a year old!!

 Andi's last Dr. visit was on February 18th for a well-check; she weighed in at 14 lbs. 7 oz.! She's gaining weight like crazy! She is still exclusively breast feeding so it's interesting to see how different her weight gaining has been from Riley's (I breastfed Riley for 3 months, but we also gave her formula).

Andi already has her own little personality- she loves to be held in a sitting up position but she also loves to lay down and play with her feet! She has recently been chewing on her toes (gross, but so funny!) along with chewing on her blanket, her elephant teether and her Sophie giraffe! Her most recent accomplishment has been rolling over! She doesn't do it often, but when she feels like it, she certainly isn't afraid to. She loves to cuddle and she loves to talk to everyone!

She still wake up a few times during the night to nurse. I usually just bring her into bed with us, feed her, and then put her back into her bed when she's done/fallen asleep. I wish I could cuddle with her all night, but Riley will still climb into bed with us in the middle of the night so I don't want her to get smushed :P

I can't wait until she gets older so I can watch her and Riley play and enjoy the same things together. Having a sister is awesome :)

-Paige

Check out these links!

Click here to read an update on {Riley}

Click here to read an update on {Ruben & Paige}
 
Click here for our {latest VLOG}

Click here to read my {Mommy Blog} 

Family Updates: Riley- 2 1/2 Years Old

Riley has grown SO much these past few months- physically, mentally and emotionally. I know I usually say that every time I'm giving an update on Riley... but it's true! She's become such a great big sister and I can see she's discovering herself more and more each day.

  Riley has definitely been going through that "sponge brain" phase where she's been soaking up all these new things we've been teaching her and doing a really good job remembering! At 2 1/2 years old she knows how to: count to 20, count to 10 in Spanish, recognizes colors, recognizes numbers, recognizes her alphabet, knows the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, recognizes different shapes, and other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. She is also an amazing singer (biased opinion) and she loves to DANCE!


Riley's most recent accomplishment has definitely been POTTY TRAINING! And boy, was I dreading that! We tried starting before Andi was born, that way we would only have 1 babe in diapers making it a little easier on us. She didn't pick it up right away and she didn't quite understand not to pee on herself when she wasn't wearing a diaper. But obviously that's a normal reaction. It was a little easier to be consistent with her during Ruben's family leave. Lucky for us, I could recognize right away when she would need to go and eventually she picked it up and would tell us if she needed to "go pee pee". I eased her into it, so I think that made it easier in the end for us all. She is now diaperless and has only had 2 accidents at night time these past 2 or so weeks. We're so proud of you, Riley! You did it!!!

Keep checking back for more updates!

-Paige

Check out these links!

Click here to read an update on {Ruben & Paige}
 
Click here for our {latest VLOG}

Click here to read my {Mommy Blog} 

Family Updates: Ruben & Paige

It's been a whole 2 months since our last post which means we are terrible bloggers! But in our defense, February was a super busy month for us. And March will be the same! So before it gets all crazy again, I thought I'd give everyone some updates :)

 Ruben has finally went back to work after being on family leave for 3 months. We sure do miss him being with us everyday :( but at least we still get to see him for his lunch! Occasionally, he'll also go to the gym in the morning before work so that he's home sooner after work.

I've had my hands full with 3 little girls during the week, so I'm always busy... to say the least. I watch my niece, Amelia while my sister and brother-in-law work so I feel like I went from having 1 kid to having 3! Haha. But I know Riley and Amelia enjoy playing together everyday... when they're not fighting that is. Now I know what my mom felt like when my sister and I would fight. Hmmm... I've also been trying my best to vlog and post on my Mommy blog. Check out the links at the end of this post :)

Recently, Ruben & I have been searching for the perfect home for our little family. And let me tell you, it has NOT been easy. Trying to find somewhere that's in our price range, in a safe area, big enough for all 4 of us and close to Ruben's work has definitely been a challenge. Every weekend we go looking around trying to see if anything new pops up, and I don't know how many people I've called so far. More than 2 dozen, that's for sure! Wish us luck on this next milestone in our lives, we're gonna need it!

That's pretty much all that's been new with us these past couple of months. I also celebrated my 22nd birthday on the 12th of February. I did a few cool things that I wrote about on my other blog, read about it here and here!

I'm trying my best to keep up with everything, so keep checking back!

-Paige

Check out these links!

Click here for our {latest VLOG}

Click here to read my {Mommy Blog}