Mikayla's New Bike

As promised, Mikayla got to pick out her new bike (and helmet).  She has had so much fun!  She can't wait to get to it every single day!!

She rode ALL day.... like seriously ALL day after we got home from the store.  She rode for hours.  I can remember doing that as a kid... and just making up your adventure as you went, it not just driving in circles and on the sidewalks to her, I love seeing her imagination at work.  I also love the set up of the new house that she can have some freedom to do that and I can keep an eye on her while she's doing it from wherever I am in the house! 

Now to set the stage - the new bike did take some adjusting.  She's higher, brakes are different (brakes do not mean DRAGGING YOUR SHOES) (just saying).  It took her a little bit to get used to it, she fell over....a lot and got up smiling!!!  phew!!!

Then after all the hard work and falling - the bike needed to be cleaned, all I could come up with for her at that moment was a bucket/water/soap.  So she got her all shined up again and found a spot in the garage to park her. 

We then went out for awhile and this is what happened........  she was exhausted!!

Back in the day.....

15 years ago today my best friend in the whole world - forever changed the course of our lives.

We always said we wouldn't get engaged over a holiday so that we wouldn't take away from the holiday so never ever in a million years did I expect what was to happen.

We were exchanging Valentine's gifts, I was SO proud to have gotten him a wallet, he needed one so badly and now his stuff wouldn't fall out every time he opened it, I think I may have gotten him a pair of shoes too, totally practical but so needed, I was so happy to be taking care of him like that.

He gave me some diamond earrings and a jewelery box.

I was saying OH gosh this is so fun I wish we had more gifts to exchange. 

I came back into the room and OH MY GOSH there was another gift.

Now, I KNEW it was the heart necklace I'd been wanting and heavily hinted at.... you know the kind of hints where you rip out magazine pictures and put them in random places where they will be noticed, dog eared magazines, commercials that stop the world and you say "GOSH I really need/want that".  Every kiss begins with Kay....and this was a Kay box.....  So I knew my careful ground work paid off!!  I knew that was my necklace....

With shaky hands and tears in my eyes, I carefully unwrapped the package.

I started to crack open that jewelery box smiling before I even opened it, because I knew.....

I looked up at him, he was watching me so carefully.

and inside that jewelery box was my mom's mom's wedding set.

WAIT.....WHAT!!!!  That is not my necklace....

As reality set in, my face lost all color..... my eyes bugged out of my head..... my mouth opened wide and the biggest gasp and inhale of breath you've every heard came out of my mouth.

His face lost all color.... his eyes bugged out of his head.....his mouth opened wide and the biggest gasp and inhale of breath you've ever heard came out of his mouth.

We were identical in our reactions at that exact moment in time.

He got down on one knee.

His exact words were..... "will you baby, will you marry me"

I am sure I screamed at the top of my lungs YES YES YES!!!!!!

Unknown to me, he had previously talked to my parents and received their blessing, they offered him my grandmothers wedding set if he wanted to have it for us (I am so happy he accepted).

So 15 years ago today, our story really began.....

and fast forward to today, I'd do it all over again!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!  I love Valentines!!!! 

Here is Mikayla's Valentine box for school - it's her love bug :)  the cards go inside her mouth.  We had fun making it!  I had been saving a tissue box for about a week to make this with and everyone in the house knew about it.....some of us were paying attention to the protection of the box....and some were not.... The one that wasn't walked right in front of me, grabbed the unsuspecting original box and ripped it RIGHT IN HALF!!!!!

I gasped and said OH MY GOSH, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!! 

He said, I was throwing the trash away.... ACK!!!!  That was our valentine box.  OOPS!  So I had to empty a new box to make this, so when you come over to my house - don't mind a neatly stacked tower of tissues that used to have a box... HA!

Valentine morning - here's our bugaboo!  She LOVES Valentine's Day too!  Here is her little set up in the kitchen to find in the morning.

  

Her little Valentine Hamster sings to her in one of her VERY most favorite songs.... she LOVES this song, it is STILL stuck in my head.  She was so funny and just so happy to get her little treasures. 

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you have a GREAT day!! We had a really fun start to our day! 



Our Fun and Fancy Dancer .....

I love love love being the mom of this little girl!  She makes things so fun!

So I was continuing my quest for clean up and clean out this weekend (seems like a life long quest to say the least)  (anyway, I am down to one shelf in the garage and about 6 boxes from the move/disaster/move/remove deal we had going on) anyway, as I was going through a box... I came across my old dance costumes. So I finally (all these years later) opened the bag they've been stored in all this time to see what condition they were in and if they looked about the right size for Mikayla.

Well to my GREAT joy and surprise...I think we're in business!!! 

This week for Mikayla's dance class, it's fun and fancy week, so she was ELATED to have some more outfits to choose from.

So here's my girl in one of them (I'm sure there will be many more pictures to come from this discovery we made).

Mikayla - 2013

Kirsten - sometime in the 1980s 

(I was older in that picture than she is now but no reason why she can't play in these costumes anyway) (the other gal was my neighbor Bonnie, I can't wait to show her this picture) HA!

So there we have it..... fun stuff to keep all these years!! (um... I have more treasures to share but I'll save that for another day - it's stored in the "magic trunk of childhood" that I have HA!!

So this is not the costume she chose for this week, sorry for the suspense, I'll have to show you after some minor (hopefully minor) repairs/modifications are made to what she chose!

Just Riding.....

BIKES that is ;)

So Mikayla LOVES riding her bike, as long as the training wheels are on it.  She struggled learning to master how to balance on it.  So we would take the trainers off...run run run run, put the trainers back on..... take them off, run run run run run, put them back on and it's just not helping her learn. 

She has outgrown her current bike, she is too tall but I don't want to buy a new bike and her still need training wheels. So last weekend, we took the training wheels off and told her how to stride (walk the bike and then as she gains speed to lift her feet up and because she's tall on the bike, if she starts to tip over, all she has to do is put her feet down).

So she started striding and getting comfortable and learning how to balance.

So we figured with some practice, she will get there. 

and guess what........

WE WERE RIGHT!!!!

SHE IS SOOOOOOO RIDING HER BIKE!!!  I'm so proud of her!!  This is her third time to go out, give it a go and "stride". 

I will say that having the neighbors that we do has been very motivating!!!  They were going to go for a bike ride last weekend, and she couldn't go along, well she was devastated about it (and we wouldn't let her go on her scooter....) (she had a HARD time understanding it) (but that's just how it is sometimes)...... so she was upset and it made her go out there and get it done!

WOO HOO, I'm so proud of her!  Now we need to learn safety and road rules but we are in business for sure!  Oh and now she can get her new bike! 

 

Grandparents Day!

Mikayla's school had an invitation for the grandparents to come and see the kids at school.  My dad was available to go and oh.my.gosh!  It was a huge success.

The day started with church and Papa got to sit with Mikayla, during mass, she poked my dad and whispered to him "this is the best day of my life"......   AWWWWWWWW (right then she could have gotten anything in this world she wanted....)

Then there was a reception in the school and they took this picture (they being the school.... my dad is NOT the paparazzi...I am the mamarazzi....just saying he didn't take ANY pictures.....).

Then he left for awhile while she finished up her school day and since it was an early dismissal - they had the rest of the day to play!

She had the best time!!!  He had the best time!!!

They went to see a movie, did some shopping, played, read...ate... you name it, they did it!! 

Best.Day.Ever!

Then I picked her up from his house and she and I had our Little Flowers Club meeting...and as much as I razzed him about not taking any grandparents day pictures.... um..... I forgot to take Little Flower pictures...WHOOPS I was just in the moment with all the girls as we learned about St. Cecilia and Piety.... :)

I'm so happy that Mikayla is blessed with the best grandparents ever!  They are both so involved and I know some really great memories are being made. 

Days to treasure!

We started out our weekend with an amazingly fabulous sail boat ride!!! 

Then as we got closer to the bay.... well....in rolled the fog, we drove through a lot of fog getting down there, it was clear in the marina...but not so much out here..... 

It was so cool!!  I was a bit nervous at first but being that we didn't end up hitting anything - I was feeling pretty good! 

Then it started clearing up again!  WOO HOO!

 Naturally little miss wanted to drive - she does a really good job.

When we looked the other direction- oh wow...there were a bunch of boats out that we had NO idea were there in the fog.... LOL  but again - so happy we didn't hit anything! 

Then we have officially started our garden.  All of us are ridiculously excited about our little area to grow some fresh fruits and vegetables.  We put out some tomato cages just as "place holders" so we knew where we wanted them to go. 

Mikayla loved putting out whatever this kind of bug be gone stuff she's squirting in there....

My dad is having just as much fun!!!

Oh.....wow, I'm growing something in my garden already.....what is that?

OHHHHHHH it's a Mikayla tree :)  my favorite kind ;)

We planted some sweet Texas onion, lettuce, radishes, turnips, spinach, broccoli and carrots to start with.  We're at the tail end of lettuce and spinach season but we should get at least one picking :)

AHHHHHH I can't wait - I told Mikayla that she's not to pull up the plants to see how big the food is getting - I may have to tell myself that too HA!!!