Field Trip!

Last Friday The Phi's class had a field trip to a children's museum. And because we are those hovering kind of parents both PR Dad and I went with her. The day was gorgeous and the kids had a great time!

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The Phi super excited!
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Posing with a statue and a few friends
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Stocking up on juice, veggies and crackers at the grocery store
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a master pizza maker!
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Oh these two faces! I don't think I could love these two anymore!

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Dr. Phi is in.
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Doing a little car painting while Dad takes a picture.
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Like a little Mrs. Roper
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climbing the walls. literally.
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We looked over to see her "talking" on the phone and knew exactly what we are in for when The Phi gets into her teens.
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lunchtime!
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a group of preschoolers cannot resist a grassy hill.

Beauty by Ness Photoshoot

So I told you how wonderful and talented by family is right? Well my cousin Vanessa asked me to do a second photo shoot for her make-up portfolio. See she is a talented make-up artist and if you are lucky enough to be in the Ventura County, CA area you can hire her for your next special event. Just send her an email at Vannio4@aol.com

Here are just a few pictures I took:




Just to brag about my family even more, the model in purple in my cousin Melissa!


Vanni thanks so much for asking me to do this and working with my schedule. It is always fun and easy working with you! Let's do it again soon!

It's Always a Good Time when Mary and her Bag o' Games Show Up!

Last Saturday after The Chone's violin recital we got back on the road to have dinner with our Compadres. They recently moved and invited us, the Zetino's and the Campos' over for dinner. We had a blast for a few reasons. One dinner was great. Patty "sweated" over a hot stove to make us lasagna, salad, veggies, this amazing ground chicken salsa dip. They even had a whole pot of macaroni and cheese just for The Phi. Do her God-parents know her or what? And I think she ate almost the whole thing. Patty also introduced me to sugar free ice cream cookie sandwiches. You have no idea how good that was!

So besides the yummy dinner there were babies all over the place! Sylus, Vivi and Matias were all there and my gosh does my family make some adorable babies!

Patty and JZ with Baby Vivi and Baby Matias

After dinner my Tia Mary busted out her bag o' games and we played a few rounds of Family Feud. The Comp's (Patty, JZ, PR Dad and Me) against the Campos'. At first we were kicking butt, but then the Campos' got the hang of the game and destroyed us! Then Mary busted out her Guesstures game! SO MUCH FUN!

Mikey trying to get the right answer out of his team mates.

PR Dad with the big gestures!

Matias confused by the weird adults in his house.

Serious Matias with a very happy me!

I see it already. These two WILL be trouble together.

Beautiful Viviana!

Compadres, thanks for having us over. Next time we hit the swimming pool and your Compadre promises to man-scape! Haha

Meet Schmonkey

Scmonkey is the most accident prone stuffed monkey on the planet. Schmonkey was given to The Phi by Tia Uh-laine when I was pregnant with her. Lately The Phi has taken to carrying Schmonkey and caring for Schmonkey 24/7. See Schmonkey is a complete klutz. For example in the last 24 hours Schmonkey has hurt his right leg. That healed then he hurt his left leg. Later that leg got infected. The Phi was very worried about Schmonkey so I let her take him to school in her backpack with the understanding that he was to not be taken out AT ALL. Now that Schmonkey and The Phi are home from school she took him out of her backpack only to find that sometime during the day he broke his arm. Yes all this in less than 24 hours. Luckily The Phi is well aware that Tia Uh-laine works for a animal doctor. So I have been forced to send Tia Uh-laine photos of Schmonkeys injuries and get the best advice to help him. And because Tia Uh-laine is awesome she is sending a care package to The Phi with some supplies to help take care of accident prone Schmonkey. Well it's only fair, I mean she is the one who gave Schmonkey to The Phi, the most accident prone stuffed monkey on the planet.

Do Hoarders Have to Register?

The Big Family baby shower for Sweet B is about a month away. Invites are going out in the mail this week. This means that most likely we will be spending the afternoon wandering aimlessly through Target and BabiesRUs with a pricing gun trying to figure out what to register for. Its been 5 years since we have had a baby in the house. You would think that after 5 years we would need all the baby stuff. Apparently PR Dad and I are hoarders of baby stuff because we still have a lot of stuff. We still have:

• high chair
• 2 pack and plays
• crib with mattress
• bedding
• bath tub and bath seat
• 2 bouncers
• bassinet
• Boppy
• rocking chair
• potty seat
• baby bjorn
  

And that's without going through the 3rd bedroom closet and the shed in the back to see what else we have stored in there. Also since it has been 5 years it is almost like trying to figure it out for the first time. It's been tough for us to remember what an infant needs. Conversations in our house go something like this...

"Bibs. Babies need bibs right?"

So I guess what I am saying is that we could use some help. What kind of things do infants have to have? What new things have come out in the last 5 years that are must-haves!

Violin Recital

Saturday was a crazy day for the PR Family. We got up early and hit the road to my sisters house. In the morning I had a photo shoot that took up the whole morning. (It was awesome and will post about it soon!). Then in the afternoon the whole family headed over to my old high school to watch my oldest niece The Chone at her violin recital.

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Waiting for her solo. She said she was not nervous at all!
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She preformed "Minuet" and was accompanied on piano by her teacher. She played wonderful and I think she had the best song of the whole recital! And she looked so beautiful!
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The Phi made our "star" some flowers to give her after her performance. (The Phi is being carried because the violin music put her to sleep for the second half of the show)

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I am so proud of you Chone! You did so great!
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The whole gang there to cheer on The Chone!

Long Live your Camera Battery

Don't you hate it when your go to take the perfect picture only to find that your battery is dead! Check out my latest Photo Bliss article for tips on how to get the most out of your camera batteries.

Click Here!

Craftathon!

Yesterday The Phi and I went to a Craftathon. Yes I said CRAFT-athon. At Farmers Market one night I met some amazing Latina artist who had a booth with awesome stuff. They invited us to this Craftathon! It was a very cool program that was set up so that for $5 you could make 8 different crafts. They had a table of crafts for kids under 5 but The Phi was like "Pshhh I don't think so, I have been crafting since I was 2 years old. Bring on the difficult stuff" and she did great. She made a Loteria button, a duct tape wallet, a noodle necklace, beaded bracelet, a metal embossing, a mini altar magnet and a rock spider with legs, and made a poster. All with very little help from me. We stayed well over an hour and had a great time. It was a really well organized and run event. All the staff was wonderful and friendly. Even the lady who asked if I had a low placenta was very friendly about it! The Phi had a great time and was even very chatty with all the helpers. I hope they do more events like this and more often!

I took a lot of photos so here is a slide show of our afternoon.

"Craftathon"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

if you are reading this on Facebook and cant see the slide show click on "View original post"

Monday was going great until SHE RUINED IT!

Today started out as a really great day. Work was awesome and when I picked up The Phi from school she was in a great mood. Her mood was lifted even more when I showed her that a friend of mine had sent the Wimpy Kid book for her. We headed home and got changed into craft appropriate clothes and headed over to a Craftathon! We stayed for well over an hour and The Phi got to do 8 different awesome crafts. (more on that later). I let her buy 2 cookies. One for her and one for her Dad. After the crafting fun I did not want the good time to end so I suggested we go out to dinner. Just me and The Phi. We chose the Spaghetti Factory and even let her chose to sit out on the patio. She was excited to order her usual (mac and cheese) and we read a little of the Wimpy Kid book. AND THEN THE FOOD CAME. And as usual The Phi did not want to eat dinner. This kid never wants to eat dinner. It is a constant battle in our house. The Phi is a great eater at breakfast, an okay eater at lunch and a horrible eater at dinner. Our dinnertime usually goes like this:

• I make and serve dinner
• We all sit down
• The Phi stares at her food
• PR Dad says "Phi eat" 193432743264378 times
• The Phi says "My stomach hurts
• Phi doesn't eat
• PR Dad says "Phi eat" 38478359095789 more times
• I remind The Phi that if she doesn't eat, no treat or snacks the next day.
• Once she hears this The Phi eats.

So we are sitting on the patio of Spaghetti Factory and The Phi starts with her "My stomach hurts". I ignore it and try to enjoy my meal.I get about 3 bites into my meal and I tell her to eat and she says "I think I am going to throw up" So we rush to the bathroom and of course she doesn't throw up. She fakes gagging. I tell her that we have to leave because I don't want her throwing up at the restaurant. Of course she doesn't want to leave. She loves restaurants. But I tell her I can't risk it so I ask for boxes, the check and we leave. And since she was not feeling well at the restaurant she went straight to be when we got home. At 7 pm, while it was still light outside. When putting her to bed she admits to lying about needing to throw up and she is upset that we had to leave the restaurant so fast.

I am bummed. We were having some an awesome day and as usual dinner ruined it.

differences

They say no 2 pregnancies are alike, and now that we are in the 25th weeks of pregnancy with Sweet B I have found this to be totally true. There have been a lot of differences between this pregnancy and when I was pregnant with The Phi.

• Morning sickness- When I pregnant with The Phi back in '04-'05 I felt nauseous exactly 2 times. Once before I knew I was pregnant and PR Dad and I were driving to an Erks show in Hollywood. The second time was about 4 months in and I was standing in my co-workers doorway. That was it. I never actually puked. With Sweet B I was sick for the first 3 months straight. And was there puking involved. I even was on a anti-nausea medication for a short time to try to get some relief.
  
• Showing- With The Phi I did not need maternity clothes until about the 6th month. With Sweet B I was in giant elastic waist band jeans by 3 months. I showed so much more and faster this time around.
  
• Vices- With The Phi I cut out all caffeine and very very rarely even took Tylenol for a headache. This time around I have limited my caffeine intake but must admit I have not given it up completely. I will have a cup of regular coffee a few times a week, but for the most part drink decaf. At home I stick to diet caffeine free soda once in awhile but when I am out I will have a regular diet soda.
• Diabetes- I did not have gestational diabetes with The Phi. This time around I was diagnosed with GD at about 9 weeks. This has lead to a lot of changes. One is having to poke my finger with a needle 3 times a day to get a blood sugar reading. The positive about this is The Phi loves to read my numbers so she is learning her 70's, 80's and 90's.
  
• Food- What I remember about eating with The Phi is eating Carls Jr. hamburgers in bed and making Uncle Matty take me to Del Taco for bean and cheese burritos and ice cream after wards. This time because of the GD I have a very very different diet. It is strict and I have to eat 6 times a day, specific types of food in order to keep my blood sugars stable. It is tough to be on such a strict diet, especially one that does not allow sweets when you are pregnant and all you want to eat is brownie sundaes. Needless to say I have not eaten one cheeseburger in bed this time around.
  
• Weight- By 25 weeks pregnant with The Phi I would say that I had gained about 15 pounds. (See the cheeseburgers in bed above). This time around at 25 weeks I have gained a total of 2 pounds. Big difference. This has been the good part of the diabetic diet. At first I was worried that I was losing weight, then not gaining weight, but my doctor has assured me that Sweet B is fine. And if you see this belly in real life you would know this kid is growing just fine!
• Sleep- last time around I had the luxury of coming home from work and sleeping for a few hours everyday. This time that does not happen. This time I am chasing, entertaining, and dealing with a 4 year old. I am always on full-on Mom duty. Which means I am falling asleep on the couch by 9:30 most nights.
• He Put A Ring On It- This time around it is all legit. PR Dad and I have been married for over 3 years. In fact Sweet B is due one day after our 4th anniversary. With The Phi PR Dad proposed, while we were reading in bed, when I was 7 months pregnant on Easter. (there were no cheeseburgers involved)
• Clothes- This time around I am much more stylish all thanks to my BFF Sam and the hand-me-down clothes from my sister and cousins. Last time I wore a lot of PR Dads t-shirts. Out in public! To work even! This time I have real woman clothes, and nice stuff. I think I dress better now, then I did when I wasn't pregnant. I don't even wear PR Dad's t-shirts to bed. Well not that often anyways.
• Time- Last time I felt like I was pregnant forever. This time is has already gone by so fast. Our lives are much more busy now and the weeks are flying by. Sweet B will be here before we know it.
  
• Excitement- this may sound bad, but it is not as exciting this time around. Of course we are excited to have a new member of our crew, but the little firsts have not been as exciting as it was the first time around. It's like a "been there, done that" kind of thing. There is not as much time to read all the baby books or just day-dream and wonder about what she will look like. Too much going on with making sure The Phi ate, is read to, is happy, is bathed, work is nice and busy everyday
• Now We Know- last time we were not sure if The Phi was going to be a girl. We were about 65% certain but that other 35% kept us from announcing ITS A GIRL. This time by 19 weeks along we had a great ultrasound with a great money shot and this time we are confidant is saying "ITS A GIRL".
  

Finally!

With a weekend in Santa Barbara I finally got a chance to get the camera out. Since my lens had been broken and it took a good month or so to get fixed I haven't had the opportunity or really drive to take some photos. But this weekend I did! And it felt good. It felt really good. I had a photo idea that we shot over the weekend. It came out great but as of now it's top secret!

Here are some shots from our weekend in SB.










Let me know what you think!

Me and my cousins and you and your cousins...

We finally got a chance to head out to Santa Barbara for the weekend. It was a mellow weekend but all the family was together and that makes it extraordinary no matter what we are doing.

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The Phi checking out some old toys that the recent rains uncovered on the ranch. My Pops is going to make them into planters.
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I finally got a good picture of Flip and his one eye.
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After a rainy Saturday, we took advantage of the sun on Sunday and we all headed to the park.

Probably not the best game for my 5 foot Mom to play with my 6 foot Pops.

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Despite the "No Frisbee in the grove" signs, Elaine and Luis got some Frisbee time in.

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Hang On Poparah!
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The Phi finally overcame her fear and drove the jeep herself!
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Still laughing after being hit in the face with the ball
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Cousins are the best
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Heading into the grove to look for pine cones.
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You really can't have a bad weekend in Santa Barbara.

And just because hearing these kids laughing is my favorite thing ever....

The Greatest Tata Ever!

So remember that awesome letter that my Mom sent to The Phi. Well I shot video of The Phi opening the letter and sent it to my Mom and Pops so they could see her reaction. The first half of the video is of The Phi just trying to open the envelope.

So what does my Pops do? He makes The Phi her own personalized letter opener and sends it to her in the mail. Complete with a photo of The Phi on it and a note.

And that is why my Pops is the Greatest Tata Ever!

The Greatest Nana EVER!

This is why my Mom is the best Nana ever. After I told her that The Phi was starting to read words like "cat", "hat", "ran", she sent her this awesome letter!

Boring, Boring, Boring

The Phi's new favorite word is "boring". Everything is boring to her these days. Chapel is boring, food is boring, Mom is boring. And all this is said with the heavy sigh and eye roll. Yea she is going to be one hell of a teenager. Cannot wait for that. And every time she says "booooorrring" it makes me think of this scene from this movie. It is one of my favorites...

*warning, contains foul language*






*if you are reading this on facebook and cannot see the video just click on "view original post!*

Project 365-2010 February

*Music: When I See You Smile- Bad English*