Beach

The other day Victor mentioned the word Beach when he was describing where something was. The word Beach was alllllll Alana heard. For the next 30 minutes she was convienced we were going to the beach when in fact we were not! Victor told her he would take her to the beach "tomorrow". This girl remembers everything and if you don't remember, she'll remind you... So on Thursday they got up and went to the beach while I had to go off to work... boooo me!! They picked up Grandma on the way to the beach and had a great day out in the warm, warm sun! I was at work soooooo jealous!!

Digging for sand crabs!

This girl loves her beach!

Cheese with Grandma!

That evening after bath time she decided she wanted to chesse it up for some pictures so who am I to stop her?? She says this is her "sitting like a Princess".

Cheese!

Chesse with mama! My new favorite picture!

Easter Weekend

This year Easter weekend was a very busy one!! Saturday morning we took Alana to her last day at her preschool where she's been enjoying getting to know the preschool and the kids. They had an Easter egg hunt with their name on the eggs. She loved looking for her name and I thought it was a great learning expierence for her! Surprisingly enough she was ok with taking a picture with the Easter bunny they had there... even though it was a very different looking one, I think she wasn't scared because it didn't have a big stuffed head like the crazy mall one's do.


Then she took a moment to sit and check out her eggs and the fun stuff that was in them! She sat and ate the peep first... which is really weird because she has yet to finish one peep, she doesn't really like them.... which is the weirdest part to me!!

Saturday afternoon after nap time the families from both sides came to color eggs with us!


It was a production!

Here is a cracked egg.... I meant the one in his mouth...

All of the pretty eggs!


After the coloring of the eggs all the kids stayed at our house and waited for the Easter bunny! Big slumber party!! Sunday morning Victor and I got up and went to the Sonrise service for our church at the park down the street. It was a beautiful service and a super nice morning!! Then we came home to find this on our drive way.....

It seems as though the Easter bunny had come to the house and left tracks up and down our driveway.... this was a surprise to me and Victor... it was the coolest thing to see! Clearly our neighbors had been up early... Have I mentioned lately how awesome our neighbors are? Apparently they did this at all the houses on the street with kids! The prints were amazing and Alana and all the kids were excited! I have to admit I was impressed with the idea!!

The girls came out of the room to find their Easter baskets full of candy and loot! Alana was not awake for 5 minutes before she started tearing into the chocolate.... Um... we had to put that away at least until after breakfast!!

After a nice pancake breakfast I made, the girls decided they wanted to dress up for a bit!!

By the afternoon the whole family was at our house to celebrate Easter! We had a million eggs to hide for the kids but somehow it always seems to take them a few minutes to find them all no matter how many we hide!!

Love these kiddo's!

Too bad neither of them are even looking at the camera!

She was too busy to stop and look at the camera, she needed to find more eggs!! Notice the brown snow booty's with the pink dress? She has a certain fashion about her that she won't let me change!! Maybe she's the next Gweny Gwen Gwen..?



Lexers and her cute dress!

Sunday was also Oscar's Birthday so we made sure to get him a yummy cake to celebrate! Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

Finally when everyone left it was time to relax... Alana sat with Roxy and drew her pictures outside in the beautiful sun!

Random picture of one of the beautiful roses from my garden....

The End....

Smile

Smile because your mom kisses you. You may never understand how much that kiss means... someday you might, but you will never know when. Some days a picture is worth a million words. And a million tears.

Some days are WAY harder than others. I miss this lady...

And the winner is...

Ok, so I got third place, but third place never looked so good!!! I won $100 at work for coming in 3rd place for our Loco Losers!!! I started in 3rd place at week 1 with 24 people in the competition and never left 3rd place! I've lost a total of 19.2 pounds in 12 weeks! That's 1.6 pounds lost each week!

It's amazing to live a WAY more healthy lifestyle and to just feel so much better about myself! New haircut and all! It's a new Jamie. Our new session of 12 weeks starts on May 2nd! I know the next 20 will be even harder to lose but I'm in it to win it!!!

A big thank you to my hunny Victor for helping me stay motivated and for making me healthy dinners!!! A a big thank you to my bestest Crystal for checking in with me all the time to make sure I'm not eating to much (or drinking too many calories). I love my friends and family for the support!

Chopity.... chop... chop..

Believe it or not I went through with it.... I thought I was going to chicken out. After all, I had never wanted my hair that short before. But with all this weight loss and just all together feeling better about myself, I wanted something different... I have wanted it for months now... it grows back right? What's the worst that could happen? I'd have to wear a hat.... The guy at my salon looked at the picture once for about 4 seconds and never had to look at it again... he just did.... my hair had gotten soooooo long!

that's a LOT of hair on the ground!!

TA-DA!!! I must say I love it!

I was scared for no reason because i LOVE it!! I think it looks great, it's so damn easy to take care of and it's now a 5 minute blow dry instead of 45 minutes. Yeah, so it's kinda a mom hair cut but hell I'm a mom and i really love it!! Go me for making a good change!!

Never seen before photo

I haven't been ready to share this picture before today. And why today I'm not really sure. This picture is near and dear to my heart. It was taken the day before my mom died in the hospital. Why I had my camera at the hospital with me that week I'm not sure. I could NOT bring myself to take any pictures of my mom or with my mom because she just didn't look well. And why would I have wanted to remember her like that? I think at that point I didn't know, scratch that, I didn't think she was going to die. One of the crazy whirlwind days at the hospital right before my mom died they made us put on this crazy stuff just to go into her room because her white blood cell count was down and they didn't want us getting her anymore sick then she already was. (Hmmm... hindsight is 20/20 right?) So they made us put on this crazy gear, just to go into her room at one point. It only lasted a few hours because they knew more then we did that no matter what germs we were going to give to her, she was going to die anyway. I've said it before a million times and will always say, I don't know what I would have done without my sister Jacquie that week. She was my rock, she helped me deal with all that lead up to my mom dying. She was the one who spent countless hours with me waiting and waiting. She was the one right there at my side with my mom when she took her last breath. There are no smiles under those masks. Only tears being held back so my mom wouldn't feel bad. I sat in the hospital bed with my mom and talked to her. I know she could hear me and understand every word that I was saying. She held my hand... I took the gloves off and held her hand. It was that moment that I told her it would be ok if she had to go. For the past months I had been telling her she HAD TO fight it. I finally had my time to tell her it was ok with me and I would be ok. The next morning she died. Last night Alana and I had a discussion about mom's. Grandma - the only one she really knows - is Victor's mommy. She's learning the relation between everyone. Cousin's, sisters, mom's, dads. She asked where my mom was. I told her that Grandma Pat was my mom. Alana - "Where is she?" ... Me - "She is in heaven with Jesus" Alana - "What is she doing there?" Me - Trying to fight back tears... "She is hanging out with Jesus looking down on us" Alana - "Grandma Pat is your mommy and she is in Heaven with Jesus?" Me - "Yes Alana, Grandma Pat is in Heaven and she loves you very much" She's almost 3 and I can't even imagine how many conversations like this I will have with her that will end with me in tears and her still not quite getting it. She has pictures to hold onto and if she's anything like me they will always mean the world to her!

Weekend

It's funny how last weekend I said on my blog that it was the looongest week ever. Well I should have just waited another week and then I could say that again. Damn.... this week was full of changes at work. I left on Friday and had never been so happy to be going into a weekend. I've been there over a year and I think this was the first time I've complained about work.... I was in need of a good stiff drink and a sunny weekend! And the weekend was busy with fun stuff! With this amazing weather you just can't beat being outside and enjoying the sun!!! We took Alana miniature golfing for the first time! She loved it and did really well! She actually did better then me on some holes! A pro in the making I'm sure!

We also took Alana to see Rapunzel in 3D. You really gotta LOVE the dollar theatre these days!! This girl is a pro at the movies! She's so good at just sitting and watching and didn't even think twice about the glasses!

I was really surprised at how good the movie was! I think we may go out now and buy it! It's a must have and might be my new favorite disney movie!

Just a girl

She's just a girl...

I bought this shirt a few years ago at the No Doubt concert when she was just itty bitty and now it fits her so well!

Roller Girl

I LOVE that Alana loves her skates!! She is doing so well on them! It looks like it's time to take another trip back to the skating rink! I may have to go out and buy her a real pair of skates!!

The arms out knees bent move was one my friend Jamie taught her that she remembered!

True Story

My friend Jennifer is always so very thoughtful! For her own baby shower she had these beautiful gifts made for everyone who came. She has a friend who makes jewelry and she did a great job! Jennifer loves the little birds and the "nesting" part of it goes along so well with having a baby! The necklace is a nest with three little eggs in it. Done very nicely! It was a great gift to get as a "Thank you" at the baby shower in February! Sunday when I went to visit Jennifer and help her get some baby stuff together Victor was hanging out with Alana in the back yard and found on one of her plants/trees outside a nest! It is a little big bigger then a golf ball, but very small. Every detail of the nest was put together so precise! To our surprise there were 3 eggs in it! Real eggs, real nest! It's a hummingbird nest and the mommy bird was not far and barely flew away long enough to let me snap a few pictures! Amazing right? It was meant to be!