Bella Rose turns 4

On May 28th, my "baby" turned 4. For some reason, I am having a really difficult time with it. I guess because now she will go to preschool and kindergarten is in one year!! The day of her birthday was memorial day, so I had the day off ;) we all slept in pretty late, and I made her pancakes for breakfast. She requested spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, so she helped me roll the meatballs and make the sauce. We then made her birthday cake. Niño and Nani joined us for dinner, it was yummy! Nani bought her a "Belle" big girl bike and niño gave her some birthday money. Eric and i bought her 3 small toys since her big present is a trip to disneyland in 2 weeks! We sang happy birthday and ate some cake. After dinner, I told her I'd take her shopping to get whatever toys she wanted to buy with nino's money. Her response was "you mean to buy clothes". I couldn't help but laugh, my baby wanted to clothes shop, so that's what we did! We got home pretty late, but what a great day we had.

 

The day was perfect and I was so grateful to spend the day with her. At 4, she is quite the mature child. She rarely cries, and has grown out of the tantrum stage (thank goodness). She is so fun to be with and her and I love getting our nails done and just hanging together. I told her that she will always be my baby , even when she's mommy's age. She just looked at me funny and laughed.

Some things shes doing at 4:

-dancing, she loves to in our living room and going to the dance studio. She's gotten pretty good and I love watching her dance.

- she is able to write her name, knows the sound each letter makes, and is trying to write out words as I sound them out to her.

-she loves swimming

-she loves to eat. Though she's a tiny lil thing, she enjoys almost all foods, not picky at all. Though she prefers carbs over meat.

- she is a wonderful big sister. She likes taking care of Julian when he needs help. She makes him hold her hand when crossing the street. She likes to teach him words, colors, letters, etc.

She enjoys trying to beat her brother up ;) I have to say Julian is stronger than here, but she really tries.

She is 40 3/4 in., which is 65th percentile. She weighs 36 pounds and 45th percentile. She is growing taller and thinner.

She loves the iPad. She can sit on it and play the letters writing game, bake cupcakes game, and listen to stories.

She is really excited to start preschool.

My is the most mellow, laid back girl.

My favorite personality trait: her kindness. She gets really upset at the animal abuse commercials, homeless people, or anyone who needs help.

She loves to pray for our family and others.

She has officially grown out of tantrums, thank God!

She thinks shopping is the most fun thing to do with me.

Her favorite movies are: cars 2, tangled, toy story 2

She is the light of mine and Eric's life. She makes us so happy and we love her more and more each day. We love u Bella Rose....

 

 

On June 2nd we had Bella's birthday party at Peter piper pizza. She had so much fun with her friends and family on her special day. She wanted a "cars" themed party , so that's what we did.

 

 

 

 

JJ is potty trained

Since he was 18 months, JJ has been telling us when he had to go poop. I thought he was way too young to start potty training, but he insisted on using the toilet. So for the past few months, he's been switching from undies to diapers. That only seemed to confuse him more so for the past month, he's in underwear all day every day. He has done so fabulous! I can say now that he is 100% toilet trained, even out in public.He has the cutest booty in underwear!

 

Eric and I are absolutely shocked that he isn't even 2 yet, and knows when he has to go potty. The pee has been more difficult for him to express on time, he had no difficulty with #2. Now, he is accident free. I got very lucky with 2 babies being potty trained so easily. Congrats my boy, you're one smart kiddo!

 

Sadie Marie 1998-2012

While in Vegas, our dog sitter called and said Sadie would not get up and go outside and had some accidents in the house. Before we left, she was walking and eating fine. Apparently she looked sad and was not using her back legs. I figured it was because we had been gone for a few days and she was probably just lying around, and with her arthritis, her muscles were just super achy. Oh how I wish that was all it was :( we came home to a very sad and sick Sadie. Normally when we get home, she runs over to is and wags her tail. Not this time. She could not walk, Eric had to carry her outside to use the restroom. Once outside, she just collapsed and went to the bathroom all over herself. It was the saddest sight I had ever seen. She was not eating or drinking. I was sick to my stomach watching her suffer. My guess is she suffered a stroke while we were gone, which caused her back legs to be paralyzed. I knew she was waiting for us to get home. She was emancipated, I'm talking bones sticking through. Eric and I knew what we had to do. It was the toughest decision we had EVER had to make, but we couldn't watch her get any sicker. On Tuesday April 24th, we took her to the vet and put her to rest. It was very traumatizing for Eric and I having to say goodbye. Though the actual process was peaceful, having to say goodbye and know she wouldn't be with us anymore was so heartbreaking. All Eric and I could do is cry and hold her in this room. I couldn't break away from her for quite some time. I was happy she was no longer in pain though. Next, we had to tell Bella. I explained that Sadie was in heaven now with Jesus. She had a lot of questions for me including "why does Jesus get Sadie, she's our dog?" ugh it was terrible. The next few days JJ asked for her and even said "bye Sadie " as we left the house in the morning. It's been hard for us all to get used to. I continue to hear her paws on the time, hear her shake her collar, and hear her sigh at night. I have her beds still next to my side of bed, and cant bring myself anytime soon to het rid of them. I cry all the time for her, but try and remember all the good times with her.

Eric brought her to me at work as a surprise in the summer of 1998. She was the cutest puppy I'd ever seen, wrapped up in a t shirt. She was a very difficult puppy , chewed everything and anything, liked to bite, mean to other animals, and just feisty. With training and some discipline, she turned in to the best behaved, kindest and sweetest animal I had ever been around. That's saying a lot because I grew up surrounded by anianimals. Throughout the years, Sadie had moved with Eric and I in to my moms house, my dads house, 2 apartments, to Tucson, and more homes in Phoenix. For 10 years, she was the one and only baby in our house. Before we had babies, she drove in the car with me everywhere, slept with us, and enjoyed being the center of our house. When we had babies, the dynamics of the house changed, but our love for her never did. I know she felt jealous a lot, and we didn't do a good job of making sure she didnt feel that way. It just got so difficult with 2 babies in the house at once who required so much attention. Sadie was in her senior years the last few years, and was not as active as she once was, but remained active and loved being wherever we all were. She loved our babies and the babies loved her.

My favorite Sadie moments were bringing her to the beach and watching her run more freely than I'd ever seen in my life's he loved the water so much. Another one is when she was a puppy, I came home to an apartmentnt full of feathers. I mean feathers on the fan, feathers covered ceiling to floor. I walked in to my bedroom and Sadiee was lying there covered in feathers herself. She had tore apart our king size down comforter and there were feathers galore.

We will always miss Sadie Marie. I cannot imagine ever having another dog, because how will one ever live up to her? I will always miss Sadie and look forward to not crying when I see her things, instead feel happy. Love u Sadie Marie Valencia Hoover!!

 

 

Cassy gets married

My " baby sister" got married on April 21, 2012 in Las Vegas. She asked me to be Matron of Honor and each of our kids to be in the wedding as well. Our trip in Vegas was so much fun!! The first day, Eric and I took the kids to a buffet then to the aquarium at the Mandalay Bay. We all really enjoyed that.

 

 

 

 

On Thursday night, we had the bachelorette party which was seriously one of the best nights of my life! On Friday, we visited the different hotels and hung out with family. It was another great day.

 

On Saturday, the wedding took place. It was such a beautiful location and everything turned out perfect. Bella stole the show with her dropping of the petals meticulously and very slowly down the aisle. My sister looked gorgeous and the kids looked adorable as ever. The reception was so much fun, the kids had a blast dancing. The wedding could not have been any better.

 

 

 

On Sunday, we hung out just the 4 of us at our beautiful resort. We hung by the pool, went down the lazy river, the kids played in the pool beach, and we just relaxed. It was a perfect ending to a great weekend!