Little Girls!

My sweet, funny, smart, beautiful Somerset Rose turned 3! She is no longer a baby. She is fully potty trained, she has friends,  and she talks like a big girl! Somerset had a wonderful day, and we succeeded in making her feel very special. Her birthday was spent with family. Grandma Laurel came out from Pittsburgh and Uncle Aaron came up from college. She was surrounded by loved ones!

The day started off with a trip to Summer Lake Park, where my little Summer played at the play ground and collected acorns.

After lunch, Grandma Laurel and I took her to the Children's Museum, where she was able to do whatever she wanted, including eating a cookie as big as her head!

For dinner, the whole family went to Papa's Pizza, where she played on rides and ate pizza, followed my ice cream cake at the house with family and neighbors! One of the cutest moments was when she tried to blow out her birthday candles with her new toy hair dryer!

For her birthday, she got a million and one My Little Ponies and all the pony paraphernalia a girl could ever desire! A month later, and these ponies are still played with daily!

The other HUGE news is that Tiffany and Martin welcomed baby Aria Reine to the world....3 weeks early! She spent the first 2 weeks in the NICU, but she is home now and doing great! The kids are in LOVE with her! Aria happened to be born when my mom, the kids and I were in Vegas to visit my grandma and uncle. We had a great trip, but were sad to have missed Aria's birth.

In addition to these 2 huge events, Leo is being tested for TAG (talented and gifted program). Leo is BRILLIANT! He is reading and doing square roots etc. I am so proud to be his Mommy! We are also trying to teach him that it isn't just how smart you are, but it is equally important what you do with your intelligence. Hard work and integrity are just as important!

I have been super busy getting ready for my bazaars. It is satisfying to have my own business, but I must learn to be patient during the infancy of my business. I am going to try to get some wholesale accounts next year to make this a much bigger business.

Lots of Firsts!

Tough but Cute Backpack!

Here's the 1st Day Outfit!

First Day of Kindergarten Walk with Daddy

Young Scientists at OMSI

Kindergarten was a smashing success. The morning started with Daddy coming home from an overnight shift. Luckily, he was able to join us for the first day of school. The weather has been amazing, so we had the opportunity to all walk Leo to school. Once we got to school, Leo settled right in and he was off on his own. No tears for these happy parents. We are just so proud of him.

When I picked him up from the first day (and each subsequent day), he yelled, "I had a great day at school!" He is still in the process of making friends and has started meeting class mates, but I have no doubt he will find new best friends soon enough.

In addition to loving all things school, Leo is also reading!!! He read the Cat and the Hat on his own! He is doing amazingly well with the reading and is eager to keep going.

Leo also now learned how to ride his bike!!! He just figured it out in the last day or 2 after training with Daddy and the balance buddy for a few weeks. He is still working on stopping, but we could not be more proud.

So let's summarize Leo's week:

1. He started Kindergarten
2. He started reading on his own
3. He started riding his bike

AMAZING!!!

Somerset is super cute and imaginative. She has invented a character called Kucka de Luca. So cute. She often makes up words that sound very Hawaiian to us.

Her birthday is approaching, so we are all excited about that and she had a growth spurt. Her feet are no longer fitting in a lot of her shoes. I hardly ever notice my kids outgrowing things because there growth is slow and steady, so this is actually fun!

At night time, she has been afraid of monsters, so Daddy gave her some black wrist bands to wear to ward off the silly monsters. She wears them at nap time and bed time and looks adorable in them! (Must take photo). Doesn't she have the best Daddy?

Hop Harvest!

 Joe loves to brew! So much so that he even grows his own hops. This is the 3rd year of our hop harvest and he decided to put the kids to work, They loved helping Daddy, even though they will not get to taste the fruits of their labor!

Last Days of Summer with Leo, Daddy and Summer!

Joe loves the backdrop of hops!

Beer bottle art provided by Leo.

A day at the zoo.

Cousin Jacob visits.

Leo loves his older cousin!

Leo is a leader in his class.

They really do love each other!

Silly goofballs!

Handsome hubby!

We soak up as much sunshine as we can because we know that it is going away soon!

Shaking those hips!

She really is a vision!

I got an i-pone. I guess this will become fairly obvious with the photos. I love having the phone doubling as a camera, complete with the very awesome Instagram filters! This comes in handy since I haven't been using Photoshop since our computer crashed and we had to replace it!

The big recent news is that Somerset is potty trained!!!!! It officially happened in the month of August, just shy of her third birthday. What a relief! She still wears a diaper at night, but I don't count that!

Leo also met his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Ramey. She is young, pretty and oh so sweet. I am guessing she may be his first big crush. We are so happy that he will have such a nice teacher to start his school career.

Leo is now obsessed with Pokemon. He trades cards at the gym with the big kids. This kid is super motivated to get new cards, so we reward him with cards when he does chores. Works like a charm.

Leo is really starting to get the hang of reading. He is in the early stages of reading and I think a light will switch flip soon and he will be a full fledged reader. Once he puts his mind to something, he can always achieve it. Leo is amazing. Really, he is the smartest kid I have ever met and I expect great things for him in life. He is also super motivated to achieve goals. Mark my words...Leo will be an incredible adult! With his intelligence, drive, charisma and natural leadership skills, he will go great places.

Our little Summy girl is going through a stage. She is caught between little and big girl. She wants to be both. She often acts like a 13 year old girl. She is all drama and cries at the drop of a hat. She is going through a mommy-phase and only wants me, which hurts Joe's feelings.

That being said, she is so cooperative in group settings. When she is left in the care of others, she is always perfectly mannered and plays so nicely with others. I predict that she will be a very good student who is adored by all her teachers. She is sweet, spunky, verbal and smart. I just want to eat up her cuteness!

I love reading Summy books. She is really enjoying Fancy Nancy, and I think we have read every Pinkalicous, Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony book in existence. Side note: Leo loves My little Pony  (the tv show). He really love Pinky Pie. I think this is future black mail material...he he!

I'm Back!

Oh holy heck! I can't believe I have been away for so long. I feel a tremendous amount of guilt for not keeping up with this blog, which is so important to me! Life happens though! In the meantime, Leo turned 5, Somerset became a little girl, Joe got a new job and I finally was able to quit Williams Sonoma to pursue my soap making dreams. Also, I will have more valuable time...for things like the blog!

Since Leo turned 5, he has become a chess player. He loves chess and is getting quite good. We take him to chess club every Monday and he is not only learning the game, but also good sportsmanship.

Leo also was in Little League this Spring. His team was the Indians, and even though he was a year younger than most of his tream mates, he did awesome. Not only did he demonstrate great athleticism, he was also an encouraging team player. He has a fantastic attitude that will take him far in life.

He continues to excel at Math. recently, he noticed that it was 10:47 a.m., He knew we were having lunch at 11:30 a.m., so he told me that lunch would be in 47 minutes. He is seriously, ridiculously smart!!!

He is excelling at Karate too. He is a model student and definitely the leader of his Tiny Tigers class. All the kids look up to him. He is a real leader. He just graduated to his purple belt.

Leo is still extremely loving towards us. He has gotten much easier as he matures, but we still struggle with him testing his boundaries. He wants to be a big kid so badly. When we go to a park, he wants to play with kids at least twice his age. He has very little interest in his peers, unless they are already friends. He does make friends easily. He is charming, charismatic,  funny and positive.

Somerset is sweet and loving. She plays with baby dolls and acts like she is me. She will have me ("Grandma"...yikes), babysit while she goes to work or shops. Oh boy! She is caught in the middle of wanting to be a big girl and wanting to be a baby. She likes to have me wrap her in a blanket and pretend like she is a baby. She acts sweet and docile as a baby, so I usually comply.

Somerset loves all things girly. She like brushing our hair, pretending like we are sick kitties that need to be taken care of, making soap like mommy.

She loves Strawberry Shortcake, Pinkalicous and My Little Ponies. Really, it is my dream come true after reading Star Wars books for years. I love it!

Somerset remains spunky. She likes to play with Leo's friends and feel included. They are usually very sweet to her. I know that she may be the annoying little sister right now, but some day, they will have crushes on her.

Somerset is just starting to play with other kids. Older girls really like her and take her under their wing. 

She is not taking to potty training as well as I had hoped. #2 is a constant issue, but we are in underwear and I refuse to go back to diapers. It is quite frustrating, but this is just a moment in time. 

She remains, in my opinion, the cutest little girl I have ever seen. She has a smattering of freckles on her nose now that just kill me and Joe. Just when we didn't think she could get cuter, the freckles appeared.

Joe started a new job on Con-Met in Vancouver, WA. After a year long job search and several job offers, he has found a happy home there. He is thrilled beyond belief and I am so happy for him. He LOVES his new job. What a relief.

I started really selling my soap. The business is slowly taking off. I sell at a shop, farmer's markets etc....but I have a blog for that, so enough about that.

We are really just loving the summer. I make sure the kids play as much as possible outside every day. We have so much rain here, that we really try to take advantage of the sun while it is here.

Really, we are just enjoying life. Things have been great and they just keep getting better. :-)

Happiness is...

They love each other!

Snow angel at the Children's Museum

Leo and Donovan at play

Putting on bunny ears at the museum

Hamming it up for mom

Looking super cool in his Karate gear

We had a great week filled with fun. Leo's preschool had a field trip at the Children's Museum and though we have been there many times, it's always more fun when your best friend is there. Leo and Donovan were stuck like glue the whole time as I tried to keep track of both of my fiercely independent children. We survived, no one was lost and memories were made.

Leo and Donovan are having more and more play dates. I either drop him off at his Grandma's house or he comes over here. The play date without the parent is a new thing to me. I love it though!

Leo continues to amaze me with his math skills. The other day, we were on our way to pick up Joe from work. It was 3:20 pm and his Karate class starts at 4:15 pm. He said, "mom, my karate class starts in 55 minutes." He also can add things like 14+21. He is seriously gifted with math.

Leo started taking Leadership classes at Karate. Leo is a natural born leader and we want to instill this within him. As his parents, we so clearly see this and we always want him to believe in his ability to lead. Nurturing this gift he has been given will help him in every avenue of his life.

He also wants to be the class clown. To a 4-year old, this means that he will sometimes use tasteless humor, that is not pleasing at all to me. There is too much talk about poop and such. Yuck! We do not approve, but I know this is normal.

Leo got a Wii. I was dreading this day, but he "usually" respects our rules. I don't let him play during the day and we limit his time. Leo can tend to become obsessive about things, like his parents do as well, so we have to limit things before they become an addiction.

Somerset is a full blown little girl now. She goes to bed without crying, she sings the ABCs and is almost potty trained. She has #1 down but #2 is an issue. She wears underwear all day, so let's just say that Joe and I have to deal with the gross consequences. All in all, she is doing a great job and I am really proud of her.

Tonight, she and Leo put on a play for us. She called herself the Kissing Kangaroo. She would pretend to put on lipstick and then kiss Leo when he got injured. She is becoming so imaginative and  playing on her own or with Leo more and more.

She is still obsessed with Ballerinas and want to dress like one every single day! We need more tu-tus! I have to admit that it is pretty fun, but I do not like our daily getting dressed struggle. This never happened with Leo. To this day, he really doesn't care what he wears. He wouldn't mind if all his clothes had Legos, Star Wars or Angry Birds related themes, but beyond that, he could care less. He's a boy...so simple in bis needs.

She has become so sweet. She often hugs me or Joe and says, "I love you Mommy." It is coming from such an honest place and it melts my heart. She will also caress my face and hair. She is so gentle and nurturing. She can be feisty to. She is in love with Donovan and says that he is her best friend.

Things have been great. Joe and I both are loving our DIY interests. Beer and soap, soap and beer. We are working HARD to get rid of our last debt, Joe's student loan. That is our main goal and when that is put to rest, we will have one amazing celebration!!!!