Two Little Dragons and a Bug

 Isaiah told me that he wanted to be a scary dragon for Halloween.  Xavier said he wanted to be a dinosaur.  I figured it would be easier to duplicate the same costume, so they were both dragons.  I try to be creative with their costumes, so I looked online and came up with this vision:

 

Santiago is much more talented than I am, so he was in charge of making the dragon heads.  He free handed them out of cardboard, cut and painted them, and then figured out how to make them wearable.  We used cellophane wrapped around a flashlight for fire, and they were able to turn it on and off.  This was especially useful at night as they were easy to spot! For the tails I stuffed one leg of a tight with stuffing, and then pulled the second leg over it.  We then super glued the spikes on.  The wings were cut out of fabric, and the stomach I sewed. 

 

 

The end result looked pretty cool, and scary!  We went to our ward's Trunk or Treat on Saturday night, and the boys had fun running around and growling (do dragons growl?) at the other kids. 

Samantha was a little ladybug, and was a cute one at that!  She did pretty well with her antenna and wings.  I loved her fluffy tutu.

This year we finally took the kids trick or treating for their first time.  We met up with another family and went around their neighborhood.  It was a lot of walking, but the kids scored big!  The boy's costume proved to be a little cumbersome for it, and Xavier fell down majority of the night.  They enjoyed themselves though. 

 We let them dive into their candy as soon as we came home. I read an article once that it is better for their teeth to eat all of their candy within a few days, then to only give them a few each day. Also, it is much more fun that way anyways!  Don't worry, they didn't eat all of it on their own. They are really good at sharing, and I can also be pretty sneaky!

Xavier turns 3!

Xavier turned 3 a month ago; man I'm behind!  So far it has been easier than his 2nd year, not so many tantrums and freak-outs.   I still see him as a little toddler, but in actuality he acts pretty grown-up for his age.  He talks really good, and talks back quite a bit!  He is so silly and is quite the comedian.  Xavier just has the natural talent to say and do funny things.  He is also very social, which is surprising because he use to be so shy (which I always knew was an act to get attention).  He is always waving to random people, or asking other kids to play with him. 

He also has great use of his body.  He can run and do a flip with his hands.  He loves climbing and jumping off high things.  He rides a scooter with ease, and playing sports is so natural for him.  He can dribble a basketball pretty good and throws a baseball like a pro.  He can be quite clumsy though, like in soccer.

We started him in soccer this year to give him some exposure.  Even though is the littlest on the team, he keeps right up with the ball most of the time (when he's not tripping on his own feet that is).  He gets frustrated when he plays, and always says "It's not fair that the other team gets the ball".  Next year will be better for him, and will be able to touch the ball more. 

Favorite Things

Food- Candy (Of course I'm asking him this question after Halloween)
Color- Orange
Friend- Lucas
Thing to Play- Firefighter
Restaurant- Chevys
Show- Wild Kratts


For awhile I thought that he might be color blind.  Since my dad is color blind there was a chance that he could be as well.  He just couldn't get his colors, but now he knows them all pretty good.  I need to start working on letter and number identification with him, been a slacker on that!  Since he has a late birthday he will miss the kindergarten cutoff.  That means he will start kindergarten when he is almost 6.  I figure that gives me an extra year to work with him.  Funny how it's so different with each kid.  Isaiah knew so much more academically at this age, but I also worked with him a ton.  I am definitely more laid back with Xavier.  The doctor told me that it all comes down to birth order. 

At his 3 year check-up he weighed in at 31 lbs and measured 36 3.4 inches.  He is short but thick the doctor said.  Must be his muscles and the fact that he wants to eat all. day. long.  He has accidents occasionally at night, but we have cut out water about an hour before bedtime, and that has helped a lot. 

Xavier is my little sweetheart.  We are a family that shows a lot of affection towards each other.  He loves cuddles and although he wipes off my kisses occasionally I know he likes them.  Almost everyday he either tells me that I look cute or beautiful. Santiago has been a good influence on that.   Because we are so affectionate towards our kids, I hope that they will in turn be that way to their wives.  They need to learn it somewhere!

Despite "The Terrible Threes" being worse than "The Terrible Twos", I really think that this year will be a good one. 

Sam's One Year Pictures

 Samantha did great for her one year photo shoot.  Despite it being her nap time, she was all smiles until the very end.  Here are our favorites!


 Distracted by her big brother:

Love her feet in this one:

Love this one:

This one makes her look so chunky, couldn't pass it up:

Fiesta!

A few weeks ago we celebrated Xavier turning three with a fiesta!  Xavier wanted a Go Diego Go party, so we tried to do everything Diego themed.    It was close to 100 degrees that day, but no one complained about being outside. We invited all of the families that have kids Xavier's age, and we are so grateful for everyone that was able to come!

The birthday boy:

Sammy grabbing a cold one:

Grandma and Grandpa:

One of the games, Pin the badge on Diego:

Jonas, the proud winner:

A fiesta isn't complete without a bounce house and pinata of course!:

All of the kids:

While everyone was singing Happy Birthday, Xavier kept on putting his head down.  He was either embarrassed or being silly.  Well, he got too close with his hair and it caught on a fire!  Thankfully it went out quickly on it's own, and he just had a patch of sizzled hair.  And of course Santiago thought he was recording it but wasn't.  That would have been fun to have on video. 


Opening presents:

Big thank yous:

His Grandma and Grandpa got him a cool guitar which he loves.  We just might have a future rock star on our hands.

My Boys Say...

Today while in the car on our way to my sister's house, Santiago and I were trying to explain to Isaiah the difference between the State of California and Fresno State.  I told Isaiah that there were many colleges in California that had the word "state" in their name.  Santiago then said that those were public schools, and that a school like BYU is a private school.

Isaiah: "Why do they only learn about "privates" there?"
Xavier: "That's inappropriate, right?"

Then we tried to explain the difference between our "privates" and something that is "private".

Samantha turns 1

Samantha's birthday was last week, which means she is now 1 years old. We celebrated the night after her birthday with family and our friends The Dutras. She was tired that night and had a meltdown before we got to the cake.  Once everyone sang to her she cheered up enough to try some of it.

Present time is always fun, especially if you're a girl and get tons of baby dolls!  She has enough for a tea party now!

Every girl needs a stroller to push her baby dolls in right?

It's so cute to see her walking around putting her baby in and out of it!



Samantha started taking steps at 10 1/2 months, and by 11 months she was walking.  She is a lot more steady now and is started to pick up speed! 

At 11 months I noticed she had two molars in, and shortly after that the third one popped through.  Surprisingly, getting teeth has never been an issue with her.  Her last molar just popped through a few days ago. 

She isn't talking much yet, just says "more" and waves hi and bye.  She throws a ball on command.  I am also proud to say that she goes to bed on her own!  It is so nice just to lay her down for her two naps and walk out without any crying.  She sleeps on average for about an hour.  At night time I nurse her and then lay her down awake as well.  Sometimes she'll fuss for a bit but goes to sleep.  She does still wake up throughout the night though, so I am still nursing her about four times at night.  I also nurse her once in the afternoon.  I could stop, but those calories I'm burning sure are nice! 

 I love her hair right now.  She is full of curls.  Hopefully they will stay curly when her hair grows out. 

Her nicknames are:
Sammy
Sam
Sam I Am
Sammy-ammy
Sammy Sam Sam
Sammy D
Doo-Doo-Da (Isaiah typically always addresses her by this)
Princess

She weighs 21 lbs 9 oz and is 30 5/8". The doctor said she is in the 80th percentile.  She dropped from the big curve from when she was a chunk! 

I know I need to enjoy her now, but I get so excited when I think about her getting bigger.  I can't wait for her to let me "attempt" to do her hair and nails, and to play something other than trains! 

The Dentist

I am due for some props for taking all three kids to the boy's dentist appointment by myself.  Since I have a busy toddler now that is no easy feat!  I was especially dreading how Xavier would do at his first dental check-up.  Isaiah was up first and for some reason did not want to sit down on the chair.  All I could think was that it was all going to go downhill from there.  Finally he sat down and the dental assistant started to do xrays.  He put up a fight with those since they were uncomfortable, so the dentist had to come in and finish them.  After that he was fine, no cavities!  The dentist said that his two bottom teeth are getting loose, and that he should be losing them in a few months! 

Then it was Xavier's turn.  He jumped right onto the chair and opened up his mouth.  He did great!  I was so relieved, especially because I was busy following Sam around during his examination.  Xavier has always loved brushing his teeth, so no surprise there were no cavities!

Such a big boy!

Kindergarten

It was a long summer.  Swim lessons, trips to the waterpark, and lots of fighting between the boys.  So much fighting that when I said good-bye to Isaiah on his first day of school I was ready for it.  I think he was nervous, he's a boy so he doesn't say much.  His thing is to let out a big breath when he's in an uncomfortable situation, I heard a lot of those.  Since we were at my parents on his first day, we woke him up early so that he could take a shower and get ready.  We left the kids there and drove across town to take him to school.  When the bell rang his teacher came out and gave instructions for them to find their name tag and put it on, say bye to their parents and then sit on the carpet.  He found his tag, pulled me down and whispered "Bye Mom."  Such a big boy!  The first week he said that he played on his own, but now he has lots of friends. 


So far he has seemed to enjoy it, but I can't get much out of him.  I have learned that I need to wait until he is ready to share, and that if I really want to know about something I need to wait till he tells Santiago more details.  He has told me that the boy he sits next to on the carpet always talks to him about video games and that he is worried about getting in trouble.  Also one morning on our walk to school he confessed that he got a 1 before.  His teacher uses the 1-2-3 time out system. He wouldn't tell me why he got a one until later that day. Apparently he smacked a kids bum after someone else did it first.  He has also told me that one of his friends watches Sponge Bob, a big no in our house. Bad influences, ha ha!

I have expressed my concern to many other moms that the curriculm in his class is what he already learned in pre-school.  Isaiah has always had an interest in learning new things.  I think that academics is one of his strong points.  When I see them learning things like their basic shapes and letters I get concerned.  He is already reading (when he wants to), and needs to be learning new things.   I thought about possibly moving schools, but I think what would be best for now is asking the teacher to give him more advanced work.  If it comes from her he would probably be more apt to doing it.  Then next year we will hopefully test into the GATE school.  If he doesn't then I will more than likely move him. 

Our lives are getting busier!  The kids wake up between 7-7:30, and I have to be up before 7.  I try to iron everyones clothes (except Santiago's) and then jump into the shower when he gets out.  Then I get them dressed and fed, teeth brushed and out the door by 8:05 the latest.  We walk just one block down to the school.  School starts at 8:15, then we walk back home. I eat breakfast and we play until 9:30 when Sam goes down for a nap.  While she sleeps I do one on one with Xavier.  She wakes up and at 11 I make them lunch.  Then we walk to pick Isaiah up at 11:35.  We come home and he eats, they play until 1:30 when she goes back down.  They watch cartoons on Netflix for about a hour, or until when she wakes up.  Then it is homework time, play time some more, dinner time at 5:30 then bed time around 7:30. 

Isaiah has soccer practice T/Th evenings from 6-7pm and Santiago is the coach.  So cute!  I  also help out in his class one morning each week which is so nice, and then he has piano lessons which he is loving and doing great!  Our loves are never going to be relaxed again, especially because I want all of our kids to be involed in music and sports.  I am a total soccer mom, and will be for another 15 years or so!

A Hiking We Will Go!

 We went camping up at Dinkey Creek with two other families the second week of August.  We got up there around dinner time on Friday and Santiago unloaded my dad's truck (which we were borrowed) and set up camp.  We enjoyed a yummy dinner made by our friends the Colemans and then tried to relax while the boys played and got filthy!

 The Cattons brought up a pack-n-play that I was hoping would be great for Sam, but she didn't like staying in it too much.  That meant we all took turns holding her the whole weekend!

 



The kids did pretty good at night time in the tent, except one night Xavier woke up crying in the middle of the night saying "I have nothing to do!".  That kid is so random!

Saturday morning we had a great breakfast made for us by the Cattons, and then set off for what we thought was a "walk" up to an old saw mill.  It ended up being more like a hike, and it was hot and the kids were tired. 

 I am glad that we did it though because the old town was so neat.  There were original buildings from back in the day when they had the saw mill, and they are in the process of being restored. 

 Inside the old schoolhouse:

One of the coolest things we saw was a huge furnace that they used to burn all of the bad wood.

It was so beautiful inside, and not to mention nice and cool!

While heading back to camp the kids were all so tired.  I was holding Isaiah, and somehow my foot slipped on a rock and we went crashing down on my knee.  I was worried that I had sprained it because the pain was pretty bad by the time we were at camp.  It made it harder to enjoy myself and take care of the kids so that was a bummer.  But thankfully a few days later the pain was gone and all I had was a ugly bruise.

After lunch on Saturday we drove to the rock slicks.  They looked so cool but I was a little scared about the kids going down them.  No one got hurt thankfully and they all had so much fun!  We will definitely have to go back so that I can try them!

That night it was our turn to make dinner, and then we finished up the night with S'mores, games and good conversation.  10pm is quiet time, so we went to bed soon after that.  Sunday morning we packed up our things and headed back.   Isaiah complained that his throat was hurting him when we were passing through Shaver.  As soon as we hit the 4-lane he threw up all over the back seat.  We had to pull over and clean off everything!  At least it wasn't our truck, ha ha!  It was a fun camping trip despite my knee, the crazy amount of bees (they were everywhere!!), and the throw up.  Can't wait to do it again when Samantha is one year older!