Recent Happenings....

There haven't been many posts recently because there hasn't been much going on in our lives.  We are super busy!  But, just with the regular day-to-day things.  Stevie is busy at work and rarely home before 6:30PM, I am busy at work and then also at home with grading and planning.  I have been trying to get as many runs in as possible, but they are few and far between.  I am also have pretty significant knee pain which is a huge bummer.

So, not much is new, but pictures are always fun to share nonetheless!

 

A Year and A Half!

Sadly, this post is 12 days late!  But, this month Harper turned a year and a half!  We didn't celebrate or anything, but I thought it was important to showcase this busy little lamb!

She is just getting over being sick - much like everyone else at her daycare.  After being miserable for a few days (and specifically, nights) my mom took her to see Dr. Terry.  Diagnosis: double ear infection (treated with topical drops), sinus infection (treated with oral antibiotics), and a flare up of eczema due to the weather (treated with topical ointment).  Then a few days later when I took her for her "well-check" we also found some more fungus spots on her back and on her scalp.  Because of the scalp location, she is also on another oral medicine to hopefully clear that up!

She is still in the 50th percentile for height and 25th for weight, which is where she has pretty much been her whole life.  Her development looks great - she is very active and coordinated.  She understands a lot and is learning how to communicate.
She still loves dolls and blankies and taking care of people around her.  She also loves her binky, which she calls "GAW."  She is a snuggle-bunny and I love that, although it makes it impossible to do much around the house.  The only times she doesn't want to snuggle is when Shyla is including her in whatever she is doing.  She loves sitting in the stroller for walks and also holding Pancake's leash.  Her appetite declined a little bit with her illness but some of her favorites right now are sausage (still!), frozen blueberries, and strawberry or vanilla milk.
I cannot believe that in just 5 months we will be planning her 2nd birthday party!  This is a really fun stage and I am loving it!

Shyla's First Tee-Ball Game

Shyla's first tee-ball season started last week.  She has practice once per week and starting today, a game each Saturday.

She is the only girl on her team, although I don't think she has even noticed.  Ayden, Dash, and Luke, all from her soccer team, are also teammates on this team.  Her "teacher" is Coach Andrew and she seems to like him a lot.  The team name is the Tigers but she likes to call them the Elephants.  She is a silly girl!

She's done really well at practice - trying her best and being a good listener.  Then today was her first game! 

She started off great!  It was really cold and that made her a bit whiny, but she likes hitting the ball and running the bases.  Then, in the bottom of the 1st inning, she walked behind Coach Andrew and he accidentally backed into her; knocking her over and stepping on her foot.  Unfortunately she doesn't recover from things like that well.  At her next at-bat, she basically bunted off the tee and then walked, slowly, around the bases.  Her third at-bath was better; she had slightly recovered from the accident and she knew it was her last chance.
It is safe to say that tee-ball is going much better than soccer ever did!

Our Date with Zac!

When Lilly turned 4, Stevie and I took her on a special date to IHOP and Build-A-Bear.  So with Zac turning 4 a few weeks ago, it was only fitting that he get a special date as well.  I find it really important that the kids all have some special one-on-one time with the adults who love them so much; it's good for the kids and the adults alike!

It was a perfect example of a major difference between Zac and Lilly:  When we took Lilly she was all smiles, perfectly comfortable, and almost overly trusting with what we were doing and where we were taking her.  Zac, on the other hand, had a wrinkled forehead and a worried look on his face for about the first hour of our time together.  Chelsea had to explain to him why the date was for just him, whereas with Lilly I'm pretty sure she required no explanation.  

We started by going to lunch at Fuddruckers.  Zac had a hotdog, fries, and a cookie.

And then he fell asleep in the car after lunch.

When we arrived at Funtastics we measured him.  He looks to be about 41 inches and 40 inches is the minimum for the go-karts and the bumper-boats so we were very happy and relieved!

The first big attraction was the go-karts.  Stevie did the driving.

And then we were onto the bumper-boats.  Stevie did the driving again.  The drove around squirting other drivers (and their friendly photographer) with water and laughing about it!

There was a choo-choo roller-coaster.  As you can see, he got this ride all to himself!

And he rode a flying dinosaur!

Then he got to drive his own go-kart on the kiddie track.  He was, again, the only one on the track and he seemed to really enjoy it. 

Next we headed inside to warm up and play some video games and win some tickets. 

He ended up with 297 tickets which earned him a "hulk" ball and a paper airplane.  When asked what his favorite part of the day was he replied, "alllllll the parts."

That response and this picture of the car ride home really show what a great day it was.

We are so lucky to have Zac and Lilly here and close so we can watch them grow up and really be a part of their lives.  Although we missed our girls (Chelsea was babysitting them) we had a really great time making special memories with Zac!

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year and welcome to 2013!

It was a wild night last night as we rung in the new year!  Stevie took Shyla on a date to Zin Burger with some friends, including Cesar, while Harper and I stayed home and watched Dawson's Creek.  But don't fret, we were wide awake as the ball dropped because Harper was screaming.  More on that in the coming days as I am going to try to get her into Dr. Vondrak tomorrow.

With the new year, of course, come a clean slate and a chance to start fresh.  I'm not calling them "resolutions" because that feels like too much pressure, but there are a few things I'd like to try to do.

• Each morning before leaving for work and each night before bed I'm going to drink a full glass of water.
• We are going to eat out no more than 1 night per week.
• I'm going to track my mileage (and probably post it every month or week) and I'm going to try to do at least 10 miles per week.
• I've still got some pounds to lose, but my bigger focus is going to be on my running and on losing inches around my waist.
• I'm going to update the Forgacs yearbook at the end of each month so the final product will be better than the 2012 version.
• Really try to enjoy every minute.

And in other really exciting news, thanks to Santa, for the entire month of January I will be enjoying free Starbucks coffee with this handy tumbler.  I am super excited and thankful for these 31 days of coffee!  I plan to get the most of it and got it started today, of course!

Forgacs Family Photobook 2012 - Ugh.

At the end of every year I print our yearbook, cleverly titled Forgacs Family Photobook from my favorite website: Shutterfly.

2012, however, has been my most disorganized year.  That's the reason for the "ugh" in the title. 

Most years I have updated the book at the end of each month so I can easily recall the big and (more importantly) little moments from the month.  I like to write a little blurb to accompany each month's entry and most years leave me feeling restricted by the 100 page limit (which, coincidentally, I don't think exists anymore!)

This year, after returning to work (unhappily) in January - I just couldn't do it.  The yearbook is still of utmost importance to me, but I couldn't drag myself away from my girls to keep it updated.  And, I also couldn't stay awake after they went to sleep to update it.  Thus I found myself at the end of the year staring at a very incomplete book.

I am seriously bummed about this.  But, I'm also trying to give myself adequate credit for everything I did do over that past 12 months.

I was also thrilled to use Shutterfly's Storyboard for the first time which made it possible for me to complete our 2012 book in a timely manner!  This was a super cool addition to what Shutterfly already does really well!  Great for busy people!  Although I am motivated to produce a better 2013 book, one that I will update monthly, but I am also proud of my 2012 book once I consider everything else that was going on in our lives.

So without further ado, I present to you the best 2012 book I could do (click on link):
Forgacs Family Photobook 2012

Christmas 2012!

It is not yet 7PM on Christmas night and I am blogging.  I have time to do this because Shyla went to sleep at 6:15 and Harper is being rocked as I type.  It was a blessed, successful, tiresome, wonderful day!

After a great Christmas Eve lunch at my folks with Uncle Miguel (hereafter referred to as Monkey Pow), Sofia, and Aunt Sherry, we headed home for night-night time.  

After a nice bath and dinner Shyla got a plate of cookies and brussel sprouts ready for Santa and his reindeer.

She didn't have any trouble falling asleep but she woke up around 1AM, in tears, asking if Santa came yet.  He, in fact, had already been here but I just tucked her back into bed and she drifted back into dreamland quite easily.
We must have all been on the good list, because this is what we woke up to:

Shyla's stocking was packed full, but she was most interested in the candycane.  That was, after all, the only thing she had "ordered" from Santa.

And, as you know, she had "ordered" a plunger for Harper.

If Shyla becomes a big softball star, this picture may be famous.

The girls got cabbage patch dolls - sisters!

We sang happy birthday to Jesus and let Shyla blow out the candle.

Then we headed over to my parents!  Amongst other things we gave Mom the gift of a paver in the garden at St. Pius dedicated to her parents.  We can tell she loves it because she has a real smile!

This was probably a common scene in cars everywhere today.

We later went to Grandma Barbara's house and celebrated Christmas with the rest of the family over there.  I don't have a lot of pictures but it was a lovely time.  Great food, fun peeps, and good entertainment in watching Harper wrestle with Shyla.

When we got home we realized that we had missed two presents!  Santa must be really good at hiding things!  Shyla got a new guitar and Harper some marachas!

I know I sound a bit like a broken record but we are so very lucky.  We don't take anything we have for granted, though, and we try to do our parts to help others.  These 2 girls, Harpey and Shy-Shy, are the greatest gifts we could ever ask for.  Each and every day with them is amazing and they fill our hearts with joy.  They are so different and yet so similar.  It was so fun to watch Shyla this year, as it was the first in which she really "got" Christmas and what was going on around her. 

Now that Christmas is over, I am really looking forward to the rest of Winter Break and spending as much quality time with my girls and Stevie as I can.  Speaking of that, one of my Christmas presents, Scrabble, is awaiting.....

Merry Christmas!