Emie's Birthday Party!

We had Emie's 1st birthday party on her actual birthday, August 8th. We had about 60ish people here at the house to help us celebrate. Emie, unfortunately, got a nice case of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease for her birthday (didn't know she had it yet at the time of the party) and was really fussy. So, I didn't set her down much and thus didn't get very many pictures. She thankfully got a pretty mild case and as far as I've heard, no one caught it, so all is well. My nephew got some nice pictures and posted them on facebook (link is on my page), but I can't figure out how to copy them from facebook. Anyone know if that is possible? Anyways . . .

The menu included: Gus' famous BBQ skewers, hot dogs on sticks, pancit (filipino stir fried noodles), spaghetti with Italian sausage, chicken adobo, menudo, filipino meatloaf and fish meatloaf, Puerto Rican fried rice, fruit salad, biko (a filipino version of rice pudding), cake and the cupcakes from my former post. Noodles are a must for an Asian's birthday. They symbolize long life.

Gus' Dad gave us the money for Emie's cake. It was supposed to say Happy Birthday Emie Love, Lolo. But, oh well, Emie does love her Lolo!

Though Emie wasn't feeling well, she still enjoyed the feast. There isn't much that will keep this kiddo from eating!

The kids at the party seemed to have fun. The little boys spent quite a bit of their time in the sandbox. There was a butterfly pinata to ensure we sugared up our friends, neighbors and family.

Emie didn't want to try her cake at her party. But she did enjoy a dragonfly cupcake! We had some left over, so I let her have at it the next day. She made quite the mess, but certainly enjoyed her cake!

Yard Makeover

We've been busy this summer working on our front and back yards. I wish I had taken "before" pictures to truly do our work justice, but I didn't. I'll try to describe what it looked like before.

Here's the front steps. We added some plant boxes and transplanted some Tiger Lilies and Gladiolas from the backyard. They were happy for the sun in the front and bloomed beautifully earlier this summer.

Our biggest project. Gus ripped out our old cement walkway which was very cracked and infested with weeds and we laid a brand new walkway with pavers. The most exciting part was probably loading and unloading the compacter from our van. It took a little creativity to accomplish, but Gus is known for creativity. There was a small overgrown flower bed on one side of the pathway, so we weeded that out and took out the grass on the other side. We put down weed barrier and mulch and planted some Hostas that my sister in-law gave us. We left a little space for them to spread and we'll probably plant in around them next year.

We weeded out the flower bed around this tree and put down weed barrier and mulch. We used the cement pieces from our walkway to outline it. Tulips and daffodils bloom here in the spring.

Here's the backyard. Lots of change here! It was pretty much just overgrown everywhere before. In this area we laid down weed barrier and gravel near the chimney and have somewhat trained Bailey to "do her business" in that area to avoid her killing the sod. We also moved some rocks from the side of the house to create the little pathway. We laid down sod as there was little to no grass there. We used cement from the front walkway to build a retaining wall around our massive tree, planted a few ferns and tried to revive a Hydrangea. Hopefully it will bloom next summer!

We planted some Azalea bushes near the fence, put down weed barrier and mulch.

We made a little play area for the kids. This was a vegetable garden, but our backyard gets very little sun (due to the above mentioned massive tree!). We cleared that out, put down weed barrier and play mulch. Gus' patient gave us the sandbox and we found the slide on the side of the road.

We trimmed this tree and transplanted some Hostas around it. The random brown pole in the middle used to be a random white PVC pipe in the middle. We didn't know if it served some sort of strange purpose, so we decided to spray paint it brown and use it for a hanging plant or two and wind chimes. Since then, we figured out it was there to serve as a pole for a clothes line. So we can remove it if we want to, but it is planted pretty deep, so we'll put that off for a little while.



Well, that's it! The goal this year was just really to clean everything out and make the yard a place that the kids and their friends can play. We hope to plant some more perennials next year to add some color. But for now, we'll just enjoy a few more weeks (hopefully months!) of outdoor dinners and afternoon play time.

A sneak peak

Emie's 1st birthday is Sunday!

We're having a big bash for her at our house.
Here is a sneak peak at some of the treats we'll be enjoying.

Which one do you think Emie will choose?

Here's our Emie!

Thought I'd post a few videos of Emie in action. Nathan loves this song, so I found a youtube video of a hippo and a pup singing it. I guess Emie just felt the music . . .

Did you catch what I said at the end? Ignore it completely. I would never shun the current recommendation to hold off on peanuts for the first year. And I would certainly never try to hide that fact from my friends and family :)

And here's another video of our girl showing off some of her walking.





We've had such huge changes around here the past two months. One weekend in June, I decided to potty train Nathan and it went great! He totally got it this time and he's done well since. That same weekend, Emie took her first steps and I did a triathlon. What a weekend! Emie is very careful and intentional with her walking, which is a nice change from Nathan who would just let go and careen across the room until he fell flat on his face. She's slowly starting to decide that this upright mobility is a good thing.

Sorry for the long lapse in posts. We're hosting Emie's birthday party at the house and we've been doing a full backyard overhaul. I'll post some pictures of that once we get some finishing touches done.

An afternoon at the pool

We decided to get pool passes this summer and I'm really glad we did! We have two public pools in our town and have enjoyed being able to splash away the afternoons.

Emie working on her tan

Oh wait, I already have a natural tan . . . maybe I'll go swimming instead!

First I'd better show off my new teeth!

Ah, this is nice. What is Kuya Nathan is doing over there?

I think he's going to jump!

Wow! Look at that air . . . and daddy-o's farmer's tan!

Good job Kuya! Now come splash with me.

A hodge podge of summer fun

We've been busy having fun these days, so here are some pictures of the kids being kids.


Tita Grace came to visit and took Nathan on his first train ride. He was so excited! He went to his little bank and pulled out $1 for his fare and we put it in his pocket. On the way there, he kept checking to make sure it was still there. He wanted to make sure he would be able to pay the conductor when he said "all aboard!"

We went to the zoo to check out the dolphin show. We also took in the special stingray exhibit and per Nathan's request, the monkeys. I had to get a picture of my little otters. These two LOVE the water!

Nathan making monkey sounds. He asked if he could nap with the gorillas.

Emie tried to dive in the stingray tank.

Emie and Daddy waiting for the dolphin show. She loved it! She was clapping and squealing the whole time. Too bad Nathan decided to "lose it" and spent the end of the show in time out on a zoo bench :( Not my favorite part of mothering.

We've been enjoying picnics at the parks. What better way to burn some toddler energy?!

Potty training + lots of rain =

Lots of rain + kids that really want to go swimming =

Hope you're all having fun too!

The little things

This is "monkey", Nathan's dear friend. But more about him in a minute. Yesterday I had the day off of work to spend at the hospital with my Dad, waiting while my Mom had surgery to implant a deep brain stimulator to help control her Parkinson symptoms. As I'm still nursing Emie, I had to run home twice to pump. When I went home mid-morning, I did a quick house clean-up because, well you know how it is when you leave the hubby to manage getting two kiddos ready to leave the house by seven. I came across Nathan's little monkey friend and I was going to just toss him up on Nathan's bed. Then I had a thought to instead place monkey on the couch and position him reading a little book. Nathan often tells me little things that monkey does while he's away, like eat snacks or read books or what not. I smiled thinking of how excited my little boy would be when he walked through the door and found monkey reading. And excited he was!

It got me thinking about how one of my favorite things about being a parent is doing those special little things that are for the sole purpose of making my munchkins smile. Nothing big, just things like surprising Nathan by putting nutella on his toast rather than butter, or letting him keep a quarter that he found under my bed and taking him to the popcorn shop to spend it on some penny candy (which is now 5 pennies!), or pulling over to let Emie swing at the park for a couple of minutes just to hear her happy squeals.

My Mom is great at this. A little note in your lunch box, her once a year tradition of showing up at school and pulling me out for a day of fun, the random Starbucks that she'll drop off for me to enjoy . . . and so many more.

I love these little things, both as a giver and a receiver. I hope my kids' have many memories of these little symbols of my love and I hope I can show them how God loves us in the little details. Like the time I was in China and thought "man, I could go for some pancakes and eggs tomorrow for breakfast". I'm sure you can guess what was served at the school cafeteria the next morning. I didn't even know Chinese people ate pancakes!

So what little things did your Mom do to make you smile? What little things do you do for your kids? I'd love to hear!

Ahhhh . . . summer at last!

The summer heat has come and the Arceos set out for a picnic at Blackwell. Here are some pictures from a wonderful day at play.

Doesn't everyone bring their rice cooker on a picnic?

Even Bailey came to enjoy some sun.

Sometimes brothers just love too much . . .

Emie is much happier when not being held down.

It was a little windy, so when we stood out on the dock, we had the sensation of movement and Nathan thought we were on a boat.

Emie enjoyed her new crawling surface, although I won't tell you the variety of things I fished out of her mouth that day.

Emie is getting pretty solid with her standing. . . crazy how fast this first year is going!

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend too! Thank you to all of those who have served our country - we are incredibly grateful!

9 months

Emie turned 9 months last Saturday and had her well-baby visit today! Mainly for my own record keeping, here are some updates on what our little girl is doing these days:

• weighs 15 lbs 6.5 oz, 28 inches tall, 17 inch head
• crawling, pulling up to stand, cruising, standing without holding on to something for around 30 seconds, gets in and out of sitting with ease, got into standing without holding onto anything once, climbing stairs
• says "babababababa", "dadadadada", "mamamamama", but no real words yet
• screams in a very high-pitched, rather blood-curdling tone frequently
• giggles at pretty much anything daddy or Kuya Nathan do
  
• feeds herself a variety of table foods - favorites are banana, avocado, pasta, rice, cheese, pears, peas, broccoli, and potato
• eats pureed versions of what we're eating - loves daddy's tamarind soup with rice!
• also eats stage II baby food at her baby sitter's house
• still has NO teeth!
  
• will give high-five sometimes, waves sometimes
• steals Kuya Nathan's toys relentlessly and is capable of out-wrestling him
  
• LOVES the bath
• loves to play with her little piano, Nathan's trucks/trains, and her nesting blocks
  
• not a fan of diaper/clothes changes - why would she want to sit still for that?
• no longer likes her exersaucer, it's far too restrictive
  
• has earned the nickname "rubber-baby" from her babysitter as she is quite the contortionist
• nurses 5 times a day
• sleeps 12 hours at night, takes 2 naps
  

We love you so much baby girl and can't wait to see what you'll do over the next few months!