Zoo Lights 2011

The holiday season is a time of traditions. Some of our traditions, like new jammies on Christmas Eve, are fun and cute. Others, like our annual Christmas tree fight, are just plain silly.

However, I am proud that our annual trip to Zoo Lights has become a tradition. I recalled with Shyla this evening that in 2009 I carried her in the ergo-baby-carrier as we explored with my parents and their friends, in 2010 I pushed her in the stroller, and for 2011 of course she wanted to walk. We were delighted that for the first year Stevie was able to join us!

We waited in the really long, albeit quickly moving, line with the doll that we donated to the marine's toys for tots drive.

We took a break from jumping for a quick picture in which it looks like both girls are trying to escape.

It "snowed" and Shyla tried to grab some of it.

We played with the giant inflatables.

And after about 45 minutes Shyla passed out in the car. In case you can't see it, her inadvertently placed cup reads, "Life is Good."

Yes pink cup, it is. Life is very good.

WW - week 13

Double oops.

Oops #1: I forgot to blog yesterday.

Oops #2: I gained weight this past week.

So here's the deal, I don't actually feel terrible about it. I had earned 32 activity points which is decent. I had fought off a migraine during the week. I had enjoyed Thankgiving, my 10 year high school reunion, and Harper's baptism. And all this was coming on the heels on 2 really great weight loss weeks. I gained 0.4 pounds and I'm okay with it. Here's to a good week ahead.

Week 13 Weight GAIN: 0.4 pounds

Total Weight Loss: 24.2 pounds

Pounds to Goal: 16.8 pounds

Easy Like Sunday Morning....

After a superbly busy couple days, we were looking forward to a relaxing Sunday, just to spend some time together in comfy clothes and no makeup.

So what does one do while just hanging out with two beautiful girls? Take pictures of course! Let's take a quick looksie:

I love this picture because her hair is adorable you can see Stevie napping in the background:
What's as cute as a baby in a beverage bucket?
Perhaps a big girl in a beverage bucket!

Harper Ann's Baptism

On Saturday, November 26th at 11 AM Harper Ann was baptized into the Catholic Church at SS Peter and Paul. The baptism was performed by Father Paul.

Here's the lady of the hour:

She wore a baptismal gown that was made in 1912. She was the 60th baby to be baptized in it. Pretty amazing.

Before the ceremony began, we snapped this picture of Harper, me, and God-Mother Erin:
During the ceremony at the beautiful church where Stevie and I were married and where Shyla and Zackary were baptized in August 2009:
After the ceremony my dad captured this picture of us all:
The official certificate:
Following the ceremony, we had everyone over to our house for lunch and, of course, more picture taking!



And then today I had her picture taken in my baptismal gown, purchased by my Grandma Sonntag. These last 2 pics are courtesy of The Picture People.

Harper is so lucky to be surrounded by so much love! It was a really special day!

Whew! A busy couple days!

I will be going into more detail about some of these events in future posts but this is what my last few days have entailed:

• Wednesday - Migraine headache and preparing for upcoming events
• Thursday - recovering from said migraine and, more importantly, enjoying a lovely Thanksgiving with family and friends (at which I took no pictures)
• Friday - preparing for Saturday and, more importantly, enjoying our 10 year high school reunion (at which I took no pictures)
• Saturday - Harper's Baptism! (at which my dad and sister took a combined 107 pictures, post coming soon!)
• Sunday - recovering and enjoying!

For now, though, here are a few pictures of my beautiful girls for your enjoyment!

WW - week 12

All I can say is: huh.

It was not a great week last week. It started off really great with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I ran all 3 days and ate decently. Then, life happened on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In the whole week I only earned 29 activity points; it should have been much higher based on how I started off.

But, success at the scale! So much success, in fact, that she had me weigh twice just to be sure that there wasn't a mistake (although I'm still not sure that there wasn't).

I lost 3.4 pounds this week. The loss definitely makes me smile, and leaves me perplexed, but I'll take it.

It kind of makes me wonder what my loss would be if I really stuck to the program and exercised for the full 7 days. Someday, maybe I'll find out!

Week 12 Weight LOSS: 3.4 pounds

Total Weight Loss: 24.6 pounds

Pounds to Goal: 16.4 pounds

Two and A Half!

Today my Shyla is 2 1/2 years old.

Seriously?!? Where did the time go?

Shyla is:

• strikingly beautiful.
• smart. Sometime a little too smart.
• loving her role as big sister.
• obsessed with jumping castles and peanut butter.
• not really interested in potty training.
• a fan of parties, story-times, the zoo, and the children's museum.
• testing her boundaries. And, at times, my patience.
• a great chef! In her pretend kitchen, with my kitchen tools.
• caring and compassionate and a bit of a tattle-tail.
• just about as in love with Starbucks as I am. And for that, I am proud.

She loves to tell stories about her life, and will also include reference to whether she cried or not by saying "Shyla cried" or "No Shyla cry." She gives the best hugs and kisses, if you can get her to stop dancing or jumping long enough. Those binkies are still around but only for sleeping now and she insists on taking at least 3 of them to bed with her. She is still in her crib, but that will be changing shortly.

I don't think she has any comprehension, nor will she ever, of how much we love her. We cannot even remember our lives without her in them. She was our 1st baby and we still look at her in awe and amazement.

Harper's 4 Month Well-Baby Check

This morning we saw Dr. Terry for Harper's 4 month check-up. Just as expected, he said that she is perfect (at least that's what I heard!)

She now weighs 12 pounds 12 ounces which is just under the 50th percentile for weight. Her head circumference is in the 50th percentile and for height she is in the 75th.

He saw how well she is looking around, holding her head up and grasping at things. Also he mentioned the way that she holds her hands together and that they are centered in her body is a good thing.

He showed me how to massage her weepy eye and said that 19/20 times these things resolve themselves between 9 and 12 months.

I was worried about Shyla eating peanut butter (because she does that a lot) and then kissing Harper (because she does that a lot) with a PB-mouth. He said that can be an issue in severe cases but the fact that Harper hasn't had a reaction to it yet is a good thing. I should continue to do my best to wipe Shyla off before the hugging and kissing begins, but I probably don't have to lose anymore sleep over it.

Then she got her shots. She got the oral one first and had a hard time swallowing it because she was smiling at the nurse. She didn't cry at all after the first poke in her leg but she did for a mere moment after the second poke.

I am so thankful that I get to look forward to these appointments because I am blessed with two healthy, thriving girls.

Coronado Island 2011

When I was a little girl my family would spend some time on Coronado Island almost every summer. We have countless memories from there, mostly with Rick & Holly, Eric & Michelle.

Thus, we were super excited to be going to Coronado last week with our girls and the whole gang. The whole gang entails: my mom and dad, my sister, Lilly, Zac, Kirsten, Jim, Simone, Sophia, Grandpa Steve, and us.

So here is a recap of our trip, in a nutshell.

Thursday:

We left our house at 3:30 AM so the girls would sleep. It worked nearly perfectly! Shyla had some trouble falling back asleep in the car but then they both slept until Yuma. When we arrived in Yuma we spent an hour at Carls Jr in the playground.

Finally we made it to the Island! After unpacking we took a walk down to Sunset Park so Shyla could play and burn off some energy.

We were so lucky to be staying in a gorgeous home while there. This meant we had lots of quality family time!

Friday:

The Forgacs Four spent Friday at Sea World. The majority of our time there was spent on Sesame Street! Sadly, Shyla was a few inches too short for many rides (including the jumping castle area). But she could do this net-climb that surrounded the whole area.
And this Oscar the Grouch ride:
And the Flying Elmo ride:
And the Abby Cadaby ride:
We watched the Dolphin show, the Shamu show, and the Seamore show. Shyla only remembers the Dolphin one because I'm pretty sure she was asleep with her eyes open during the others.
Stevie tried to win Shyla a giant stuffed animal by climbing this rope ladder.
It didn't work.
Saturday:

On Saturday it rained. All day long. Chelsea, Lilly, Shyla, and I got out on the town to pick up our bibs in San Diego. While we were gone and there was a break in the rain, the others decided to walk and bike down to the ferry landing. They ended up having to run and bike quickly back to the house in the pouring rain. There was lots of inside family time that day!
We thought it would be funny to put Harper on the lazy susan table. It was.
One of the best parts of the weekend was that we got to spend time with Uncle Dan and Auntie Erin! They came for dinner on Thursday night, Saturday night, and we spent Sunday evening with them as well. It is always so great to see them and it was so nice to have Erin's help with the girls.
Sunday:

The reason behind this trip was for me, Stevie, and Chelsea to do the Silver Strand Half Marathon.
We all successfully completed the run. Stevie did really great at 1:52, Chelsea did awesome with 2:30ish, and I did okay with 2:42. Not my best outing but a successful trip across the finish line nonetheless. I think my body got mad at me around mile 8 and really started hating me around mile 10.

The rest of the family headed back to Tucson that afternoon, the Forgacs Four stayed another night and made it back on Monday.

It was yet another fantastic family vacation. It was fun and memorable and full of family. Again, we couldn't have made it work without the help of my parents!