Look-a-likes

Now that I have our childhood pictures scanned, you can bet you'll see a few nostalgic photos posted here on my blog. This particular post is where I show how Amelia looks like Juan and Maya looks like me.

Juan and Amelia:

 Exactly the Same. Especially the eyes.

Cami and Maya:

I'm the baby in the pic with Ginger, there are those irresistible baby cheeks. Pretty close to Maya's. And the nose and mouth and baldness, haha. She's one-upping me with her gorgeous big, dark eyes.

It was hard to find a non-smiling picture of Maya, she's such a happy baby!

Speaking of looking alike, want to see Maya with a wig?

Amelia at 6 months old

For real, here it is with the hair cropped out:

Looks like Maya to me! I say this to Amelia every day as I'm brushing out her hair and she's crying in agony, "One day Maya will get hair too, one day."

And I do have some current pictures to show off:

 Maya rolled her way into this corner, which took a lot of finagling on her part, and she played like a big girl for a good 20 minutes.

 Our days still look like this.

 My heart melts when I see these little set ups of Amelia's.

We enjoyed a fun night at the park last evening. The weather was breezy and beautiful.

Potty Training 101 plus a full update

I figure I'm an expert now, since I've put in a 4 hour block of potty training this morning. Ha! We came out of it with 2 successes, and 1 accident. And then I quit while I was ahead-when she looked at me just before lunch and said, Diaper Please, I was ready for the break too! I guess I'm not the potty train in one day kind of mom. My goal is to have her potty trained by 2 1/2 years old, that's still 2 months away! And along the way we'll be cutting down slowly on diapers, today we are -1, and if we do another 4 hour block tonight, we'll be -2 on diapers. Sounds good to me.

We did have fun. And for the record, the first time she asked for her diaper back, I said no, and it paid off. So I am not giving in every time. Amelia amazes me every day. She is so adamant in her refusals, but she always plays along when we make it fun. We used the doll and she would be so excited to put her doll on the potty. And then she got a treat and got to call daddy when she finally went. 

As for Maya, she wants to be a big girl so badly. She wants to eat real food, she wants to run around, or at the very least scoot. And sometimes I try to rush her too! She is close to sitting up, and getting too big to be carried in the carseat, so I am constantly trying to force her to sit up like a big girl in shopping carts and high chairs.

As you can tell by the second pic, she's not a fan. Of course I don't want to speed up her growth, but I also can't wait for the day that she and Amelia can run around together and she can keep up. I dream of those days! But I also love my baby. She is falling asleep more often in our arms now. Juan always calms her to sleep during church, one of his many dad skills. So with that comes more snuggling, she wasn't as cuddly as Amelia was/is, but she's getting better. And her smiles are the absolute best in the world! I will be stern with Amelia, sending her to timeout, then I'll look down and see little Maya grinning up at me and I can't help but break my disciplinarian mode and melt into a smile too.

And me and Juan. Our new favorite game is Dominion. Our friends Andrea and Matt introduced it to us and we played many nights in a row with them. Then they decided to move on us (boo) and so we bought it and Juan and I have played every night this week! We are losing another couple friend of ours in August, so sad. Our friends here have just saved us when it came to moving away from family, and Steph and Cameron moved in right at the same time as us. The upside is they will be back in one year, but we'll sure miss them.

We have been watching The Bachelorette every Monday with our friends. I am loving Jef with one f. He is my favorite, but I think she'll pick Arie. Sean is a little on the boring side for me. I am on the last book in the Shopaholic series, they are the funniest book I've every read. Ok I realize my update is making me sound very shallow, but hey, I am having fun! I am working on getting back into the more serious things like my scripture reading and exercise schedule. I know I am happiest when I do those things each day.

And Juan, he works so hard and has good and bad days at work. I love that he puts in so much work for our family and I also love that home is his favorite place to be. Juan is the best father, I can't say it enough! We were apart for Father's Day, and I sat in church with Amelia and Maya. Amelia was so excited to see the kids get up and sing their Father's Day songs. Then she listened to the words and got sad, she looked around and then looked down and softly said to herself, Daddy work. It was the saddest thing I'd seen. But also made me happy to know she loves her daddy so much and truly misses him when he's not around. 

 Pictures from our early Father's Day celebration.

We had the best 4th of July week. It is not quite in the 100s here, which for Texas means it's not too bad yet! We are still getting to the park and on walks and the heat is bearable, I just don't leave the house between 1 and 6 pm, it's nap time and dinner for us anyway. I feel like the summer is only just beginning!

At the parade

Juan's Birthday

Juan turned 28 this weekend.

It was SO fun to celebrate Juan's birthday with Amelia this year. 

We went shopping in the morning, and every time she got bored in the stroller, I just had to remind her we were shopping for daddy. 

And she had to help me wrap the presents.

I put her down for nap and told her when she woke up, we'd celebrate daddy's birthday.

Well she woke up and immediately was squealing with delight and took a lap around the kitchen.

And then she really woke up and realized why she went to the kitchen, and ran back in to show daddy his cake in the fridge. 

She was thrilled every step of the way, loved celebrating her dad.

Juan got new basketball shoes, a pair of grown up shorts, a grill pan, and our new favorite game-Dominion.

We went to dinner to Texas Roadhouse. 

I love going out with our little family.

I got Juan a Tres Leches cake.

Our grocery store makes the best.

And out friends Cam and Steph stopped by to help us eat the cake.

I'd say it was his best birthday yet.

Bonus treat, a video of Amelia making Maya laugh.

Back from Utah, TONS of pictures ahead

Two weeks ago, our little family got in the car and headed off on an adventure! A 20 hour adventure (split into 2 days)! Luckily for us, we love roadtrips. Can't you just see it in Juan's face? 

 And the girls? They were dream babies. Amelia LOVED having me right at her beckon call. I heard this for 20 hours: Toy please, Drink please, Show please, and repeat. It was so fun to watch her play by herself and even entertain Maya and get her laughing now and then. Maya did not like the car on day 2 of our return trip. She whined a lot and even cried for 30 full minutes, we'd never heard her like that. But she pulled through and was a happy girl once we were finally home.

The big occasion was Ginger's baby shower, she is so close now! Only 6ish more weeks! I didn't get any pictures from the shower, but I got tons of the girls with family and friends.

 Kent and Barrett, giving Maya a run for her money on her tan.

 Big family barbecue at Heather's place. Maddie, me, Rachelle, Crystal, Mom. Maya, Tyler, Heather.

 Amelia and Judson on the trampoline.

 Amelia and Sadie playing.

 Cute Maya having fun in the car.

 Amelia with the Old cousins, Chris and Sadie.

 The whole group hanging out at City Creek. Heather, Sam, Ginger, Sami, Mom, Maya, Dad.

 Maya just loved cheek to cheek with Heather.

 Maya with Grandma.

 Griffin and Amelia on the trampoline.

 Amelia with Grandma.

 Amelia and Benjamin in their Minnie and Mickey shirts.

 Juan and Amelia at City Creek.

 On night we went on a big quadruple date and did a food crawl. First stop Asian Potato.

 Second stop, a BBQ place. And the third place (no picture) was a burger/custard place. And they all had to be places we'd never been. So fun!

 Juan and I stole away and walked around our beloved BYU campus. We just love it there. I love this family picture we got!

 Ginger was the Baby Whisperer with Maya, often getting her to sleep for her tiny evening nap. She'll be the best mom! I cannot wait.

 Maya loved being passed around to everyone. Here she is with Paul.

 And Crystal.

 Ginger sneaking a picture with Amelia.

 Sami with Maya. Sami was obsessed with Maya, wanting to hold her at every second. She also kept a good eye on Amelia for me too. She is a natural with kids!

 The girls with grandpa. It was the end of a long night for Amelia. I kept letting her stay up late to play with cousins. Well right after this picture she came up to me saying, Sleep please. Ha! Tired girl.

Mom, Me, Maya. My mom was the best this trip. She works late every night until 2 am cleaning the temple. She would wake up early every morning just to get some alone time with the girls before the crowd of family came over. She'd bring out a stack of books and read with Amelia. And just snuggle Maya before her morning nap. I love that my girls will have those special memories with Grandma. 

We are home now. Maya didn't get too spoiled, she is back to playing by herself on the floor and rolling all over the place now. Amelia's vocabulary is a little larger and I feel like she really grew up, playing around those older kids all the time. Utah treated us well.

Favorites

Some of my favorite Maya pictures from this month:

Amelia has been spoiled this week with some fun new toys:

 Kasee gave Amelia this table and chairs last night and Amelia cannot get over them. She loves them, and went out and had to say goodnight to her chairs before bed.

I also finally got Amelia a set of blocks and she builds builds builds. She says, Cah for castle constantly and has learned the word, Tall. She brings the baskets over to friends houses and wakes up for her nap asking to 'play blocks'.