10 months and SOOO sick!!!

Always so excited to get a hold of something that you shouldn't have! The older girls things are always so much more fun than your own toys!

Growing up so fast.. does anyone think she is at all starting to look more like me???? She is like a miniature ED

10 months today... normally you are so happy and active, getting all around the house, taking your first steps and loving your family so so much. Marissa is your biggest fan these days. It seems like no one but her can do anything the right way when it comes to taking care of you. ( Not even me, according to Marissa). In some ways it can be very annoying but in other ways it is so sweet the way she wants to protect you from everyone and everything!

Over the weekend Jillian stated to get really clingy and sate in my lap for hours on Friday night and Saturday. This morning I took her to the doctor and she has an ear infection on top of the cold that started this past week! Poor little thing. Marissa woke up Sunday morning with a sore throat and then had a fever this morning so the three of stayed at home today! Both kids were pretty miserable today... Jillian is so cranky and whiny and there is nothing I can do for her but give her the medicine and love her. (she has been literally attached to me all day!) It makes me feel so helpless!

I can't wait til you are feeling better and back to your normal happy self!

Mexico is over and now it's back to reality

We're BAAAACCCKKK!!! So our Mexican vacation is over and we are home. We didn't have the best weather this time around but it sure beat the 18 degrees we were welcomed home to last night when we stepped off of the plane! This is going to be a long post and I really out of order. There were way to many pictures to blog all of them so I tried to just pick a few of my favorites. Second thing is there are a lot of self portraits of Ed and I. Since we went alone this time there wasn't anyone to take our picture except for the few times I asked a stranger. (which neuter of us likes to do)! Last thing is since the weather was cooler than we had expected I feel like alot of the pictures of me I have on the same jacket.. well that's because I didn't bring a light jacket and had to buy one there so I wore it almost every night! LOL

I love this place. Everything is so beautiful. The beaches are so clean and the you can actually see your feet when you stand in the water and tons of fish swimming all around. It's nothing like the Jersey shore. In some ways the beaches remind me of when I lived in Hawaii!

All of the landscaping at the resort is in perfect order. It seemed like there was constantly someone around straightening up or trimming something. The picture below is one of the pools where we spent most of our time. The little hut you see is a swim up bar. I didn't get in the water at all (to cool for me this time) but Ed hopped in a few times. If you don't feel like swimming over to the bar there is a waitress that comes by about every 2 seconds to see if you need more to drink. It was so nice just being lazy all week. No kids, No laundry, No work, no cooking... nothing just sit around and be waited on. I missed the kids a ton and Max, but boy is it hard to be back to all of the daily responsibilities!

One of the many self portraits!

Ed outside of Senor Frogs in Playa Del Carmen. Right next tot his place was a jewlrey store and standing out side of the store was some kind of security, but it was sort of scarry because he was guarding the store with what looked liek a freakin machine gun. I took a picture and I will have to remember to put it up later.

Thursday was the day with the most rain. We had a trip planned to snorkel in Isla Mujeres, but decided not to go when we woke up and saw that it was pouring! They were calling for rain on Friday to so we decided not to reschedule. Friday came and it didn't rain at all so we missed out. I guess there is always next time. We spent most of the day Thursday just hanging out inside the resort drinking and reading. ( I finally got to finish the third book in a series I have been reading since August, Twilight, LOVED IT! I can not wait to start the 4th). Once the rain stopped Ed and I found some lounge chairs under a covered area near the beach and hung out there for quite a while talking. It was so nice to have this time for just the two of us. It seems like life around our house is so hectic all of the time!

These last two pictures are of our room the day we arrived. Everything was in perfect order and the maid service comes around twice a day to clean your room for you!

Ed and I were talking and want to try to plan another trip back to Mexico hopefully right after Easter in 2010. This time we want to invite and many of our friends as possible and take the kids along. As soon as we find out pricing for 2010 I'm going to put the invitation out there for anyone that wants to join us..... hopefully we can get atleast a few other families to go. I think this place would be so much fun everyone to go together. It;s so big that you wouldn't have to spend every second with each other but if you wanted to you could.

A little side note.... The day we were leaving the bell boy came to our room to take our luggage and I noticed right away that did not have the regular Mexican accent that everyone else had. I asked him if he was from Mexico originally which he answered ye he was. He then went on to tell us a crazy story... He said that he was born in Mexico and when he was three months old his mom came to America (illegally). He lived in CA until he graduated from high school at which point he was offered a partial scholarship to a college in CA. In order for him to attend the college he had to get all of his paperwork straightened out (since technically he was illegal in the USA). His mother contacted an attorney and got the advice that he should return to Mexico and stay there for a few months and file the paper work and come back to the US the right way. SO he did. A few months later his mom is unable to find the lawyer that was helping her and he has been waiting for ther last 4 years for an answer to whether or not he can return to the US or not. OK so this story seemed absolutely crazy to me. I said why don't you just get a passport and go back and try to get it straightened out? He told me that they do not give out travel passports to the US very easily at all. His mom and two sisters live here and according to him.. once his mom had a baby in the US that made her legal and since the sisters were born here they are also legal. He is the only one stuck over there basically because of his mom's mistake. We then got in to the discussion about the resort and the people working there. Since it is all inclusive and they tell you NOT to tip, I was curious how much they got paid. He claimed that the salary of a "laborer" ie, bell boy, waitress, landscaping.... was only $6 a day... WHAT???? Are you joking?? was my reply.... He swore it was true. For some reason I have a really really hard time believing this. Anyway in the end I wondered if this was true or if he was just sort of going to extremes in hopes of a big tip??? Anyone have anything they would like to say? Think it's true????

'

Back to our honeymoon spot :)

Tomorrow morning Ed and I are going to Mexico back to the same resort that we went to for our honeymoon 2 years ago! Just Ed and I and no kids. When we booked this trip it seemed like a great idea. Now that we are actually going and leaving the kids behind I want to cry. I know they are all in good hands but leaving Jillian for a week is breaking my heart at the moment. Hopefully once we get to Mexico and start to enjoy our time together I will feel better about it. We took Alexis and Marissa last year right after Thanksgiving to a place in Mexico similar to this one and vowed never to bring them back since they fought with each other the entire time!

I think I'm coming down with something. My stomach has been killing me so let's hope that my trip isn't ruined by a stomach bug! Below are a few of our pictures from our honeymoon!!!

I know I will miss the kids, but I am looking forward to our time alone together! This place was so much fun the first time around. Not sure if I will blog or not while on vacation. If not I will post everything when I get back next week!!

Right before the Christmas break and my two weeks off, we decided that we wanted to take Jillian out of the day care center that she has been going to since October. Many days I walked in to her class room to see that there were 6 or 7 babies and only one teacher. After talking with the director about it and having it happen 3 more times Ed and I decided it would be best to just look for a new center. I don't feel like any one person can take care of seven infants under a year old. I did really like her teacher and the assistant, but they were NEVER working on the same days let alone in the same room at any given time. Both teachers were so friendly, but I felt so uncomfortable leaving her there on the days that her room was pretty much full and there was only one adult in the room.

Jillian's first day at the new place was yesterday. So far everything seems to be ok. Only now she has started that stage where all she wants is me, so dropping her off this morning was heart breaking! One of the teachers was trying to help and put her hands out to Jillian.. Jillian screamed and buried her face in my shoulder. I got her to sit and play with some toys on the floor for a few minutes and then went to leave. I made the mistake of waving goodbye to her through the little window and she lost it and started screaming. I'm pretty sure it only lasted a few minutes but I felt horrible leaving her there. When Alexis and Marissa were this little they didn't go to daycare so this is kind of new for me! I KNOW this is just a stage she is going through but it really came at a bad time! Let's just hope this place works out!!!!???!!

MARISSA'S FIRST GAME OF '09

Marissa's first game of the season was this morning. This year there seems to be a bit more action!!! Last year on her second grade team everyone was still just barely learning and it didn't make for very exciting games! We are not yet at the age where they run the score board and make a big deal over who won or lost and they still only play 1/2 court, but it was still a lot more fun to watch this year. Here are few shots of Marissa doing her thing!








I love her so serious and concentrated face in this picture. See how her tongue is shoved to one side of her mouth??? Total concentration!!!!








And Alexis actually rolled out of bed this morning to come and watch. This made Marissa extremely happy. She is always saying "Alexis never supports me and she never comes to my games". So today we were all there cheering her on!


Jillian munching some cookies to try to keep her still. She is so at the age where she wants nothing to do with sitting around!

This should be a fun and exciting season!!!

A Few Days With Ray

The day after Christmas the girls went to have their once every 6 month visit with their dad. They saw a movie and went to lunch. Before he came down the girls asked if he could drop off their cousin Ray with us for a few days. So here he is... Ray stayed with us from Friday until Tuesday evening. Their was a ton of football and Guitar Hero. The girls were thrilled to see him. I think it has been over a year since the three of them have seen each other. Ray is 9 just like Marissa and they all had a blast together.. that is until the girls started fighting over who would hang out with him.


Marissa ended up feeling alittle left out by the end, but all in all they enjoyed their time together!

9 Months

The day after Christmas you turned 9 months... You love to explore and are becoming extremely mobile! In to everything is an under statement!!! So close to walking. Yesterday you took two little baby steps and then dove in to my arms! You like to play in the trash, with the tree ornaments, Alexis' saxophone, Max's dog food, climb the stairs, and anything else you can find that isn't a toy that belongs to you! It is alot of work keeping up with you!





You forever have a huge smile on your face and are almost always in a terrific mood! You make your dad and I laugh out loud at least once every day! We have been so happy watching you grow and learn!