Play Time at Eagle Rock Rec Center

Yesterday I took the girls to the Thursday afternoon all ages playgroup at Eagle Rock Rec Center.  Audrey quickly informed me that she needed to swing. Surprise, surprise...as soon as 2 swings opened up my girls were game!

Audrey and Olivia have so much fun together on the swings!

Olivia reminds me of my brother here.  He has a similar baby picture somewhere in my moms photo books.

She was having so much fun!  Can you tell?

Olivia is my happy baby!  I love that she looks so different than her older sister!

Audrey & Ameile are great friends!  They ran away from mom and shared their snack!  So cute!  I had to use the zoom on this one!

After leaving the park mom needed to stop at the market for dinner.  Audrey has a complete breakdown at the check out stand the the cashier was scared. He quickly gave Audrey not one, but two balloons to calm her down.  But when Olivia began playing with them Audrey only screamed louder.  I think I may have been the first woman ever to leave Trader Joe's with 3 balloons!  This was Olivia's first experience with balloons and she loved every second of it!

celebration

I had a wonderful evening tonight spending time with the most wonderful friends that I have met on my journey into motherhood.  We got together to celebrate two special events, a birthday of a treasured friend and the celebration of my returning to work.  Last Friday I accepted a full time position at L'Koral Inc working as a technical designer on the Patterson J. Kincaid line. 

I am looking forward to begining a new chapter in my life.  My youngest girl is about to turn one and I have experienced some beautiful moments with Audrey and Olivia.  I know that they will miss me as much as I will miss them, but I am ready to return to work and pick up where I left off in my career.  I am hoping to find the reward in my work that was once very familiar.

Audrey, Olivia and I have met some wonderful friends in the past few years.  Friends that I know will be in our lives for a very long time, if not forever.  It is because of their constant support in my journey through mom hood that I have the confidence to return to work full time; becoming the full time employee,  the mother of 2 little girls and the loving (I hope) wife.  Thank you for a wonderful evening ladies,  you mean the world to me!

Audrey in disguise

I picked up Audrey from school this afternoon and I could not find her.  She was in disguise along with all of her classmates and teacher Jose.

I asked her to pose with her daddy when we got home.  She really is one in a million!  

Such a big girl growing up more each day.  Last night after her bath I gave Audrey her first manicure and pedicure.  She loves her red nails and was a little confused when it would not wash off.

Olivia Anne is baptized

So much has happened in the past few weeks!  

My computer is finally back up and running again.  Now only if I could figure out how to restore my calendar!  Thankfully my hard drive was still under warranty and I had backed up my files recently.  I only lost the photos from our recent trip to Disneyland. 

Olivia Anne Ward was baptized on March 14, 2010 at the Church that I grew up with in Westchester.

It was the first day after the time change and everyone was a little tired.  Olivia did very well and behaved very nicely for pastor Tom.

It was a beautiful day and everyone had a nice time.

Here we are with the Romo family.  My brother and has fiancee flew down for Sacraments to be with us on that special day.  My sister in-law Jen took these photos.  But she did not send me any with her or my mother -in -law.  Hmm...

Olivia was having fun playing with the flowers while being held by my Uncle Ron.

Audrey had a fun afternoon playing with her family.  It is a special occasion when both sets of family come together.

My two favorite girls!  I am one lucky lady!

Audrey gets glamourous

Audrey has been obsessing over her looks lately demanding everyone's attention.  My favorite line of hers is "how do I look everybody, how do I look?"  She says this repeatedly as she puts different items over her head.  My favorite was the grocery basket.  I wish I had I picture of that one!

 So I did manage to snap a picture of Audrey with the basket on her head.  Not the best picture but it will give you an idea of what she looked like! 

Cruising and Claping

Here we are almost 1 year after Olivia was born. Each day is an adventure with my girls. I woke up yesterday morning and was greeted by a very happy Olivia who began clapping when she saw me walk out of the hallway.  She loves to play with her musical instruments that we keep in a hat box. I constantly put then away to turn around and see that she has pulled them all out again. Her favorites include the maracas and a wooden drum with a fun rubber drum stick.

Olivia is now offically cruising around the house too.  She walks from the ottomans to the couch to daddys leg and then over to her toys basket.  Nothing is going to slow this girl down.  She has begun playing by herself and travels with her snack trap close behind where she can eat cherrios.

Of course I have no pictures of what I have just describes, but here are a few of my favories from the past few days.

 

Audrey was regressing and took some time to climb into Olivia's activity center.  Yes, Olivia is under next to Audrey's feet.

 

Olivia figured out what was happening very quickly and made her escape!

 

looking cool in the tub

 

Learning new tricks from big sister Audrey

nothing is sweeter than a hug from your sister

 

The other evening Joe called out to informing me that Audrey had discovered the costume jewelry stashed in her closet.  Yikes!  Before I managed to remove it all she snagged these retro glasses.

 

Audrey loves to paint in the back yard using the art center that her grandparents gave her.  The other day Joe gave Audrey some paint.  A few minuites later I was greeted by the blue/purple monster.

 

It really was cute and not a messy as it may look!  Ha!

 

Yesterday was picture day at Audrey's preschool.  I had to take her in on her day off for her group class picture.  So I bribed Audrey with this big lolly asking her to behave and smile for the camera.  I was VERY sore from a yoga class yesterday and could not move easily. I was also challenged with watching Olivia in Audrey's classroom with oodles of toddlers who like to squeeze and love babies, so yes I feel that the bribe was very needed and was extremely successful!

Fun times in February

The past month has been a whirl wind. At least one of the girls was sick every day in the month of February!  But we still managed to have some fun in between the coughing, sneezing and all of the rain!  Olivia is now 10.5 months old and will be celebrating her first birthday soon!  Audrey is now acting like the typical 2.5 year old.  Some days are better than others....  Audrey drives me crazy, but is too cute at the same time. She enjoys playing at the park, singing ring and the rosy, and is beginning to play house with her dolls.  Olivia is so different from her older sister in so many ways that I look forward to what she can do tomorrow.  She is getting 6 teeth in at the moment!!  A big girl now she is sleeping in her crib with her sister all night long. It felt great to pack up the crib that was living in our front room for the past 10 months.  Joe and I have a bet going on weather Olivia will be walking by her first birthday.  I think she will be!

 

Last weekend we went to the Huntington Gardens in San Marino. It is a large, beautiful open landscape  where Audrey can run around and explore the great outdoors.  She loves the Chinese gardens where the ducks, and koi fish live.  Here is a picture of Olivia that I took while we were enjoying the sun playing on the grass

 

 Here is a picture of my two princesses!  Audrey insisted that they both dress up last week.  Audrey enjoyed playing music on her jukebox and began dancing around with mommy and daddy.  Olivia tried to join in but will need to wait a month or two until she is standing on her own.

A ham for the camera, Olivia is so much fun!

 

Audrey went outside to play in the rain. She ended up pretty wet and dirty, earning a ticket straight into the bath tub.

 

Olivia has decided this past month that she enjoys eating  food straight off the table.  No more "baby" food for her!  On Saturday night she enjoyed a meal of homemade chicken enchiladas that her daddy made.  Yummy!

 

Here is proof that Audrey is a happy girl and she does smile!!!