Celebrating Uncle B's Birthday - Garcia Style!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!

Today we headed over to the Garcia's for lunch to celebrate Uncle B's birthday! Not only was the food delicious, but the company was even better! We love hanging out with the whole Garcia clan and today they had us laughing more than ever! They make us feel like part of the family!

We enjoyed yummy tacos, burritos, guacamole that was to-die-for, and homemade white cake! The kids had a picnic on the floor with all of the stuffed animals that Michelle helped them discover! As soon as she took them to the play room, they were in love with her!

Kyan's favorite thing to do when he sees his Uncle B is to wrestle him! Don't know what it is about him, but as soon as Kyan sees him he jumps on him!

Kyan and Lola were so excited to help open presents and Brian was such a sport and let them help tear into them!

Thank you for such a wonderful afternoon! Hope your birthday was just as great!

We Got It Down!

We are officially potty trained - and a pro, I must say (or brag, however you take it)! I am so proud of my little Lola!
We have been for a while now, but I just haven't blogged about it because I was afraid I was going to jinx her (and me to be perfectly honest).

I will start off by saying that potty training is THE WORST! I would rather give child birth and I am not even lying. I don't exactly know what made me pull the trigger and just go all or nothing with Lola (I didn't train Kyan this way at all?!) but I thought that was going to be the best way for her to get it! So, the two weeks before the craziness of pageant life started, we went for it! Here is a little of how it went (yes, I kept track!):

Monday: Scared to death of the pee coming out of her body, she held her pee like no other (part of the reason I hadn't started her earlier, it scared her when the pee came out of her). However, she did pee a few drips once on the potty day 1 and she peed on the floor 3 times!
Tuesday: Peed twice, once in the morning and once at night, although I think she sat on the potty a total of three hours, waiting for something to happen. Did I mention the girl can hold her pee? I forced her to sit there forever and nothing happened! She did manage to poop on the potty day 2! This was major! No pee on the floor today either! She had an awesome day, but by this point I was going stir crazy and ready to rip anyone to shreds if they came near me or if they didn't do something fast enough! Poor Chad felt my wrath the second he got home from work!
Wednesday: Potty in the morning on the potty chair (after like 2 hours of being awake)! More holding it! She had to be watched like a little puppy! I sat her down to pee on the potty, but nothing would happen. She only went 3 times day 3, with one accident on the floor while I ran to get some dinner and that was it.
Thursday: Little Gym. How was I going to do this? Pottied in the morning before we left, dropped Kyan off at camp at 9 and came straight home until her class started at 10:15. She actually went again right before we left to go to her class! Wahoooooooo! She hold her pee forever, we could make it through a 45 minute class! She did great then and throughout the day! Pretty safe to say that she had it down by day 4! I even started having her sleep in her undies at night from this point and she has only had one accident so far! We pooped again today, twice!
Friday: Getting better! Not having to watch her like a hawk so much!
Saturday: She is our pee/poop queen! Although she waits until the very last second to poop and will do these really weird, "eh eh eh" noises! Those are my indicators that she has got to go. They have since got way better and she isn't afraid to poop anymore!
Sunday: Nail biter, this was the 4th of July and if you read my post on how busy we were that day, you could see why I would be biting my nails! This would be the first day that we would have to be "going" somewhere else! She did so good! This was the turning point of our potty training. All day she asked to go, there was no us asking her or telling her she had to go! It was awesome! She went multiple times at each person's house! I just took her little pink potty chair with us to everyone's house (minus Susie's, Jayla shared hers)!

The next step was to move from the little potty to the big potty with the little Dora seat topper on it! If you have ever cleaned up poop (sorry, kind of gross) from one of those little potties, it is nasty and the sooner I could STOP doing that the better! That was a piece of cake and took just one time and she was in love with the big potty! So now I just had to take the Dora seat topper everywhere we went instead of a clunky pink potty chair! Perfect!

Step 3 was getting her to sit on the big potty without the Dora seat! I can't take credit for that one, daddy did that during pageant week! I didn't even realize she could do it until just the other day! So proud of my little lady! Thank you daddy for teaching her this trick!

Ok, so typing that out and reflecting back on our potty training days, it really wasn't that bad. But I swear, it seemed so painful (for me, not her)! It is so nice not to have to mess with diapers anymore and I am so proud of her that she picked it up so quickly! She is only 2 years old and 5 months and she has #1 and #2 down and is sleeping in undies at night! To some that is early to potty train (she was WAY before Kyan), to some that is late (I have MANY friends who had their babies trained at 18-22 months, impressive)! I don't have any secrets or any tips! I just went for it and didn't turn back. Once I put her in undies, I did not put another diaper on her, not even to go somewhere quick, even though I knew it would be way more convenient, and even though it was oh-so tempting. I used pull-ups at night for about 3 nights and that was it, I knew she could handle underwear!

One major person who was not mentioned but needs to be thanked for his part in Lola's potty training success is Kyan! What a great big brother he is! He was right there alongside her encouraging her every step of the way! He did not get jealous when she was getting special little rewards or extra praise for her accomplishments, he just joined in! He sat with her while she was trying to go and congratulated her when she did finally do it! He is the best big brother and I think having him there helped her a ton!

Good job Lola, we are proud of you!

Now We Are Talking!

I know that on my last post I sort of complained that NOTHING was going on in the backyard (just two days ago)...but, today I eat my words, gladly!

HOLY CEMENT!
This afternoon they came and "shot" the pool and I must say that cement never looked so good!

The big trucks came rollin' in around 2 o'clock this afternoon, blocked off our driveway and our neighbors to the left and right of us! They meant business.


The boys were out for about 3 and 1/2 hours cementing our pool! Kyan was amazed at the cement truck up close and personal and was so excited to see it up close, dumping out the cement!


I LOVE IT!
We will be swimming in no time!

So what comes next?
That was the exact question I asked the pool company today. Mr. Pool Guy 1 and Mr. Pool Guy 2 are coming to install the waterfall on Friday, the cool deck is being drawn out (on the cement) either Monday or Tuesday and then we have to approve it and they lay it the next day! That is when it gets tricky, they can't do anything else to the pool until the fence goes up, and that is set up by Mr. Landscaper! I talked to him today and tried to make sure the timing of everything lines up, and the fence can get installed on Wednesday or Thursday (of next week) so they can do the tile on the pool and pebble sheen the following day and he says it is all a go! Usually the timing doesn't go exactly as planned, although everyone has been very true to their word so far. If they say they are going to show up, they have! So we will see if they can coordinate schedules and get this thing done! I hope to be jumping in before school starts!
They also start laying all of the pavers next week, which is the beginning part of the landscape process. They start there and work their way out!

Backyard Progress!

While I was off in the land of beauty queens (I swear I will post more on my week soon, if not on here, on Rosie J. blog), and not at home to watch the progress of the backyard unfold, the backyard moved along rather nicely without me!
Now, of course that I am home for the first time in a week, NOTHING is happening today! I think it is because they are waiting for the inspector to approve the gas and electric lines! Hopefully it won't be too long and they will be getting busy again!

Embrace the Camera: I AM Alive!

I had just enough time to grab the camera and take a picture with the kiddos this morning before I left on Adventures in Pageantland (please excuse the bags under my eyes, I haven't slept much lately)! Oh how I miss these guys during the day! When I get home LATE each night, they are sometimes still awake enough and I get a squeeze or two in before their pretty little heads hit the pillow. "I missed you!" is what they scream when they see me. They assure me how much they love me and it melts my heart!

On another note...just wanted to say thank you to my friends who have been so encouraging to me this week with all of the text messages/blog messages/voicemails! I hear you and it makes my day to know how much love and support I have from you. I am sorry if I haven't had a chance to respond or send a little message back, just know I am thinking about you.

This week is beyond stressful, more than I imagined, but I am growing and learning.

A Whole New World

Today I embark on an adventure into a world completely unknown to me.

The song/lyrics, A Whole New World, from Aladdin keep ringing through my head.

Today begins the week long photo shoots with the Queen of Hope/Worldwide International Pageant and I am feeling loads of mixed emotions, from excitement to nerves!

I think it is safe to say that my specialty is capturing my clients in the moment. To some, what looks like just an ordinary shot when flipping through the pictures and seeing it on the little camera screen may look like nothing, but to me, I can usually tell when I have hit gold! For example, the picture below to me, was my favorite of the reining Ms. Queen of Hope (we did some head shots for her before this week with her new crown). To me, this was the best picture of the shoot, in the style that I think I take the best pictures in. Isn't she beautiful?

But, it wasn't her favorite. Nor is my style going to be a favorite for these girls, I am finding out.

Today, I am going to have to start going WAY out of my comfort zone.
I do not like posed pictures, but understand that there will be A LOT of posing going on! Duh, hello, it is a pageant! I also don't usually air brush as much as I have had to recently. Sure, I whiten teeth and bring out the colors in eyes, but I don't usually de-wrinkle the entire body! Today, I start. I also don't usually add colors back into black/white photos, but there is nothing that these girls don't love more than the picture below (which happened to be her favorite). Yes, I do think that it looks pretty, but it isn't my cup of tea and wouldn't normally offer it to my clients. Guess I better start loving it for this week!

And please don't get me wrong. I am so blessed for this opportunity to work with these girls, I think that I am more nervous than anything that I won't be able to give them what they want or that they won't like my style of pictures enough. I am not going to change how I shoot, but I am still going to cater to what they want/need.

This is the biggest opportunity as a photographer that I have been given thus far and for that I am truly grateful.

Probs should tell the hubby thanks in advance for his patience he IS GOING to have with me this week. Love you.

Peanut Butter BIG Cups

I saw this recipe off of Mom. Undecided's blog a few weeks ago and I just knew that when I saw it that I had to make it...that very second! I quickly jotted it down and started, as it just so happened that I had all of the ingredients in my pantry (something that never happens)! Ok, that is a lie, I didn't have the baking cups - I had to run to the store for those. Then, once the chocolate was mixed, I realized that the powdered sugar was expired, so off Chad went to the store for me!

Prepare to have a full belly after just eating half of one of these!
Everything you need:

1 cup Peanut Butter (I overflowed mine, so it was probably closer to 1 and 1/4 cup)
3/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar (again, I packed it in and overflowed it, so it was closer to 3/4 cup)
24 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (her recipe called for 1/2 of that! I used all 24 oz!)
Double Boiler
Cupcake Pan
Baking Cups (optional, but less cleaning later, so I used them!)

Here we go, step by step:

Boil water in your double boiler, melting just a little bit of butter in the top pot. This will help the chocolate melt smoother. Dump in 12 oz. of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips and stir until chocolate is smooth.

Spoon chocolate evenly into 1 dozen baking cups in your cupcake pan. Put them in the fridge for 30 minutes to set while you make the middle peanut-buttery layer!

Mix the Peanut Butter, Salt, and Powdered Sugar ingredients in a bowl. As soon as your 30 minutes is up, scoop on top of the bottom chocolate layer.

One more time, mix up the rest of the chocolate (12 oz.) in your double boiler and scoop on top of peanut butter layer. Set back in the fridge for at least another 30 minutes before indulging in one for yourself, er-I mean before serving!

Enjoy!
Next time I make these, I think that I will try the mini muffin pans and baking cups, so we can just pop them in our mouths! If you don't eat these things just right, the peanut butter oozes out everywhere! Nonetheless, still tasted pretty close to the ones you buy in the store!

PS - no backyard updates, because there hasn't been anything since they dug our hole. There is said to be a lot of action back there this week though! Fingers crossed!