Jasmine's 3rd Birthday

So sorry that this is posted so late, but I wanted to at least get something up.  Better late than never.

Jasmine turned three on April 8th this year.  We had a small party on her actual birthday which was a Friday.  My dad, stepmom, sister, Marc, and the kids all came over and we had dinner and opened presents.  Then the next day Jasmine had her first Flip and Dip class, and then we had a large party at our house for our friends to come and celebrate.

 Here is Jasmine in the morning with her two brithday balloons from Grandma Debbie and Papa Larry.

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday.

 This is the cute cake we got from King Soopers.  Jasmine picked it out herself from the book.

This was way too many people in the house at one time!

We got out our Disney World Castle and all the kids had a fun time playing with that.

After everyone left, Jasmine and Jocelyn played in my garden which they treat as their sandbox.

New Orleans Trip

My good friend Angela was getting married and lives in New Orleans, so we all flew out there for the wedding.  We left on a Friday, March 25th and flew into the Louis Armstrong Airport.  None of us had ever been there before. 

 This was a cool mural in the airport.

We got to our hotel and our friends Ellen and Leben (from Orlando) were already there.  We visited for a few minutes and then went to a restaurant near the hotel.  We walked there and had about a 45 minute wait to get in.  It was a local mom and pop shop called Harbor Seafood and Oyster Bar.  It had received rave reviews from Yelp.com so we figured we'd try it out so we could have some authentic Louisiana food.

 Us at the restaurant.

We all got Po Boys, and also some onion rings and Cajun Potatoes.  The food was so delicious!  I was bad and broke two of my Lent things, I ate unhealthy fast food and I ate meat on a Friday.  I felt bad, but I knew I would never be here again and this was my only chance to try this kind of food.

After dinner we all went back to the hotel.  Jose went to a casino that was about a mile away from the hotel and Ellen came to our room to hang out.  Our other friend, Beth, flew in around 9:00pm and came to the room.  We visited for a little bit and then we all said good night and went to bed.  Jose came home around midnight.  He was unhappy at how smokey he smelled.  I guess we are spoiled here in Colorado since the casinos are all non-smoking here!

The next morning we all met for breakfast in the lobby since we were staying at the Fairfield Inn and there are free breakfasts there.  We packed up our rooms afterwards and then left for Cafe DuMond.  There is the original one in the French Quarter, but we went for this one because we knew the other one would have a long wait.  We all ordered beignets and they were delicious!!!

 Beth, Ellen, and me enjoying our beignets.

After the cafe we drove downtown to see the French Quarter.  Leben knew of a good place to park so we followed them.  We parked in a valet lot, which was cool because it parked the cars on ramps and then raised them up to fit another car underneath. 

Our first stop in the French Quarter was Jackson's Square.  We took lots of fun pictures and admired the scenery.

There were local artists there selling their paintings, and also carriages with tour guides.  We ended up taking a tour in the carriage.  It was $15 per person, so not too bad.

After the tour, we walked around the local shops.  Jasmine had a fun time trying on all the hats and masks for sale.  And we of course all bought some beads to take home as a souvenir.

We ate lunch at Bubba Gumps and then made the hour and a half drive to Springfield which was the city where Angela was getting married.  The drive was a little interesting since the highways there are bridges above swampland.  It was a little scary.  If you broke down, there is no where to go and there were no lights.  Thank goodness it was during daylight hours for us!

We got to Carter Plantation and it was beautiful.  We were upgraded to a larger room because they had run out of the room we had reserved.  That was fine with us since more space is always nice!  We all hung out in our room and then got ready for the wedding.

Angela looked beautiful and the wedding was nice.  We ended up leaving a little early that night because we all had early flights the next morning and the kids needed to get to bed.  But before we left we had time for some fun dancing.



The next day we left for the airport to fly to Orlando.  Ellen and Leben were originally on our flight, but since the flight was oversold, they volunteered to get bumped.  They received a lot of airline vouchers, so that was great for them!  If we wouldn't have had the kids with us, we would have done the same thing.

Thunder Valley

My sister's friend, Dana, works for a company that does the medical response for motorcross.  They happened to be at Thunder Ridge, which is pretty close by.  We stopped by to visit her so that the kids could see what the inside of an ambulance looks like.

The kids really enjoyed it.  They loved watching all the dirt bikes get really high up in the air.  The Chick fil A cow was there, and the kids were scared of him.  I think Jasmine was only scared because Jocelyn was.  She doens't usually have a problem with costumed characters, having been to Disney World so many times.

It was a great experience and I was surprised at how much fun it was to be there.  I am not typically into those types of sporting events.

Jasmine's Race Car

We went to Home Depot again for another Children's Workshop. This week it was a race car.  Jasmine had a lot of fun building it.  We were glad we got there when we did because shortly after we arrived they had already run out of cars.

My sister teased me because I put the stickers on it for Jasmine so that they would look nice.  She let Jocelyn put her own stickers on so they were crooked.  She teased me that I will be the parent that does my child's science project for them and they won't get credit :).  Hey, I can't help that I am a perfectionist!

Jordan's First Tooth

Jordan's first tooth finally popped up.  What's weird is that its one of her bottom "I" teeth.  Most babies, Jasmine included, get the bottom two teeth first.  I am so happy that one has finally came in.  She has been drooling for weeks and acting very fussy.  I am actually really surprised that it took this long to come in.  I wanted to take a picture of it, but she is not a fan of having us look in her mouth.

Home Depot Heart Shelf

On the first Saturday of ever month, Home Depot sponsors a kid workshop. It's free of charge and you get an apron and a project to make. For February the project was a heart shelf. Jasmine had a really good time using the hammer and putting it together. We still need to paint it and put the stickers on that they gave us.

Jordan could only watch, but in a few years she can join in!

Jasmine gluing the shelf on.

The finished product! She also got a certificate and a pin.

Jasmine's Gymnastics Class

We signed Jasmine up for a Parent Tot Gymnastics class to see how she likes it. In the spring she will be in a Flip and Dip class that is half gymnastics and half swimming. We thought it would be good to get her started in basic gymnastics first.

So far she loves it. They do a lot of dancing and stretching and obstacle courses. She won't do a somersault or get on the trampoline because she is too scared, but other than that she loves it.

I think her favorite part is the big slide that you land in a foam block pit at the end. And what kid doesn't love playing with a parachute? It is a really fun class and I wish we would have put her in it sooner. We will definitely enroll Jordan in a few months.

New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolution for 2011 is that I want to try and be better about writing blogs. So far we are almost 2 weeks in and I haven't done anything yet! I promise I will try to be better about it.

Life has been so busy with us lately! Work is busy and we are coming off of both girls being sick. It started on New year's Eve when Jasmine had a temperature of 102. I gave her some Tylenol and sent her to bed. When she woke up it was down to 100.

The next day it shot up to 104 and stayed around that range for the rest of the weekend. Jordan then started to cry a lot and was coughing quite a bit. So we took her to Kaiser's after hours office in Centennial and they determined that she had the croup. They gave her some oral steroids and that seemed to help a lot. Unfortunately since croup is caused by a virus, we can't give her anything other than Tylenol to keep the fever down. We just have to wait it out.

A couple of days later I took Jasmine in to get looked at and the pediatrician said that he could hear some rattling in her lungs. So we went across the hall to get a chest xray. Since Jasmine was a little scared to do that, they let me stay in with her and put a lead vest on me. Jordan was taken out of the room with the other techs.

I had to laugh when they did the xrays because Jasmine is trained so well that she smiled when they took each xray because we told her that they were taking a picture of her tummy. I am surprised she didn't say cheese!

After the results were in, it showed that she had pneumonia. Since it is bacterial she was prescribed some antibiotics for 10 days. She loves taking the medicine, too. She slurps up every last drop like it's candy!

Jasmine is doing much better and Jordan is getting there. Jordan pretty much lost her voice, so it's so sad to hear her cry. And a little pathetic, too!

It's Been a While... Again :)

So yet again life has gotten the better of me, and I haven't had time to post anything. But here is a recap of what has been going on the past few months.

I am back at work now, and it is working out great. My new position is so wonderful. I feel so appreciated and I love all of my new co-workers. It is a lot busier than I thought it would be. But I love that I get to plan events and book a lot of travel. Most of my department is always away on business so I don't really see everyone a whole lot.

I absolutely love being off on Fridays. I made a pact with myself that I will always do something fun with the kids that day. I am not "allowed" to use the day for errands, etc. I can do those in addition to, but I at least need to do something fun with the girls first. So mostly we have been going to Story Time. It has been nice because the girls get to play with Jocelyn and Garrett, and we also have some other moms that are off on Fridays that we see.

We are headed to Orlando this week. I am so excited. It is for Ellen's bridal shower. I am a bridesmaid and Jasmine is the flower girl. So far our plans are dinner at the hotel with everyone the night we get in, the shower and Food and Wine Festival on Saturday, Sunday pictures with the bridal party and Magic Kingdom with Crystal, then Monday and Tuesday just some family time at the parks and enjoying the hotel.

We are then headed back to Orlando a month later for the actual wedding. That will be nice since we will be there for a longer period of time. My mom is also coming down to meet us. She will be doing Ellen's hair, my hair, and Jasmine's hair. It will be good for her to get some one on one time with the girls. She has also offered to watch the kids for us one night so that Jose and I can go to dinner. We haven't been on a date since May this year! So we are looking forward to that. We made reservations at Teppan Edo which is our favorite restaurant at Disney. It is in Epcot in Japan. It is a hibachi grill. So yummy!!!

Jasmine is talking more and more everyday. It amazes me how much she can say. I love the fact that she and I can have actual conversations now. But she of course is such a parrot. She says cuss words (I know it's my potty mouth that she gets it from) and threatens to put me in time out all the time.

The newest thing with her is that when we tell her no, she starts to count at us (One! Two!) and points her finger at us. She never makes it to three I guess since she never hears Jose get to three when he counts at her ;).

Jordan is growing like a weed! She is so much bigger than Jasmine was. She is a big talker, so she likes to coo a lot. I love having two little girls, it is so much fun. I hope they are as close as my sister and I are.

So that is what is going on with us in a nutshell. We have been going to things almost every weekend, I just need to start blogging about them.

Hopefully I can find some more time to get it done!

Fun Videos of the Girls

Here is Jasmine showing off her ABCs and counting.

And here is Jordan just being her cute self :).

Jordan Smiling

I know I have been so bad about posting blogs since Jordan was born, but I think anyone with 2 kids can atest to how hard it is with two of them ;). I have a blog started from Jordan's birth, I just need to finish it up.

Here is a video of Jordan a few days ago. She just started smiling, which just melts my heart.

Clement Park: June 9, 2010

My dad was umpiring at Clement Park last Wednesday, so we took Jasmine and my sister and the kids met us there. We had fun watching him work, and he was of course excited to show off his grandkids while we were there.

Jasmine and Jocelyn on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse lawnchairs

Two peas in a pod :)

Watching Papa hard at work

Jose was trying to teach the girls how to roll down the hill. Jocelyn got it, but Jasmine wasn't quite understanding.

Papa and the Grandkids

Afterwards, we went to Coldstone Creamery to get some ice cream and visit. It was a very fun summer night!

Storytime and Littleton Safety Day

This is all the way back from May 22nd, but I wanted to post a few pictures anyway. We took Jasmine to Storytime at Barnes and Noble and my sister and the kids met us there.

It was featuring Caroline Stutson who is a local children's author. She was reading her newest book, The Cat's Night Out, which I actually didn't care for too much. But she did read a little bit from one of her other books, Mama Loves You, and I thought it was great! I am always telling Jasmine, "Mama loves you," so it was the perfect book. We bought a copy of it and had her autograph the inside cover.

Here is Jasmine and the other kids dancing to Cat's Night Out. It's a book about all the cats in the neighborhood dancing and being loud.

Here is Jasmine with the author, and her signed page to Jasmine and Jordan.

Jasmine and Jocelyn love to hug each other.

After Storytime, we went to Littleton Safety Day, which was being put on by the Littleton Police Department. It was a lot of fun. They had police cars there, and motorcycles, and police dogs. They answered a lot of questions and gave out a free lunch to everyone. We also got free bike helmets for the kids!

Here I am on a police motorcycle. This was my first time ever sitting on a motorcycle. I would have to think a pregnant woman shouldn't do that, because my tummy made it very hard to climb on and off of :).

Here is Jose taking Jasmine through the obstacle course. Once they completed it, they got a free bike helmet. Jasmine's has little fairies on it, and Jocelyn got one with pandas on it.

These are pictures they were taking there for each family and then they printed it out for you right there.

Baby Shower for Jordan

My sister and college roommate, Jessica, threw me a baby shower on May 16th. We chose that weekend because one of my sorority sisters, Yvonne, was going to be in town and it was just a good time to have it, being 6 weeks before my due date.

We had it at Christina's house, and it was so nice because I got to see a lot of sorority sisters and friends that I haven't seen in a long time. There was a ton of great food and we got some wonderful gifts for Jordan.

I am so thankful for my wonderful friends and sister, I am so blessed to have such a loving circle of people around me!

Jessica and Me

Lemor and Me

Brittani, Me, Christina, and Christina

Sorority Girls: Morgan, Yvonne, Zion (baby), Me, Brooke, Kristen, Sarah (baby), Jessy, and Emily

Yvonne and Me

Jasmine and Me

Jasmine's Tea Party

Jasmine loves to have tea parties and she won't take no for an answer. Here she is telling Jose it was time for the next one.



And then here she is when we went in there to have the tea party.

Jordan and Lupus Update

Here is the latest update for Jordan… We went to the doctor on Monday and she said that I did need to do the fetal monitoring. Up until this point, all the paperwork from the perinatologist said only if indicated, and then after my last appointment, he indicated it :). So they went ahead and did it yesterday, and the peri has confirmed that he would like me to go ahead and do it weekly until she is born.

So I gained a couple more pounds, and I am up to 20 so far. So I have already exceeded what I gained with Jasmine (19 pounds) and I still have 7 weeks to go. I am hoping to keep it less than 30.

So when the nurse lifted up my shirt to measure my tummy, Jasmine yelled, “Hi Jordan!” Then when we went to the monitoring room and they did the ultrasound, she kept saying, “I looking at my sister.”

The doc reviewed the ultrasound pics and said that my amniotic fluid is borderline. She said it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t where someone 8 months pregnant should be… So I need to increase my fluid intake.

Jordan was kicking a lot when the monitors were hooked up, so that’s good, I didn’t have to drink juice or anything to wake her. But I did eat some cookies before the appointment and they said they could tell because when they tested my urine, it had a lot of glucose in it ;). Oops, maybe I ate too many ;).

Then yesterday I went to see my nephrologist. He had some good news for me. Since I have not had a flare up since 2006 when I ended my treatment, he wants to test me again in 6 months. The fact that I have not had a flare up and my health seems to get better with pregnancy indicates that maybe the Lupus is resolved.

I’m not quite sure what that means since Lupus doesn’t go away. I asked if it could have been a mis-diagnosis, and he said no since I did have a biopsy done. I asked if I would need a biopsy again, and he said that he didn’t want to put me through that again. But I think if that was the definitive way to determine that it was resolved, then I will go through it again.

I wonder what all this will mean. I do know that I will be able to get higher life insurance since I am always declined based on me having Lupus. Time will tell.

Jasmine's 2 Year Checkup

Yesterday was Jasmine’s 2 year checkup. She has grown a lot in the past 6 months! At her last checkup for weight she was in the less than 1 percentile. Today she is:

24 pounds: 14th percentile
33 inches: 45th percentile

So she is growing like a weed! She is still petite, so the pediatrician said we could keep her on whole milk. He also said we could forward face her in her car seat but I think I will continue to keep her backwards until she starts to complain. For now she seems content with it since we have a mirror back there and she can look at us.

She has been talking up a storm lately, almost too much. She likes to ask the same questions over and over even after you answer her. Even the doctor yesterday was laughing because she kept saying she wanted to see the fish (they were in the waiting room).

She may be starting to understand that she is getting a little sister soon. This weekend when we were getting ready to go to Christina’s house, she said, “Joran coming, too.” She can’t quite get the D sound in there yet, so she calls her Joran.

At church last weekend another baby walked over and put her hand on my leg. Jasmine pushed it off and then pushed the girl down to the ground. I guess she isn’t one to share Mommy ;). She never seems to mind when I hold Garrett or Jocelyn, but she does get mad when she sees me with other babies. I guess we’ll see in about 9 weeks how she does!

29 Week Checkup

We went to the perinatologist yesterday. I gained another 3 pounds, eek!!! That puts me at 15 total so far. I need to slow down on my eating!

Jordan currently weighs about 2 pounds, 14 ounces. That puts her in the 50th percentile. So she is looking like she may be a normal sized baby.

She is butt down right now. I know that I still have many weeks for her to flip, but I am getting nervous because she has not been upside down at any appointment we have seen her at. She has been transverse (sideways) or feet down. I just have this vision in my head of her getting off the couch and getting her butt stuck in it ;).

But my blood pressure looks good, my glucose was good, and my protein levels in my urine are normal. So that means that I only need to go to the perinatologist one more time in six weeks. They also decided that I will most likely not need to do the weekly fetal monitoring. So yeah to all that!

This is my own conclusion, nothing they said to me, but I think they may let me go to my due date this time instead of inducing me. I think Jordan is growing well and my health is doing good. Just makes me nervous that I will have to go into labor on my own. I liked that I was in the hospital in case anything went wrong. Now I may have to do it like a normal person...

On a sad note, the doctor was running late yesterday. They squeezed in an emergency patient. When they were in with her I heard them ask her if she was all right. Then the doctor told her as she was leaving that he would come find her at the hospital. She was super thin, so she couldn't have been very far along. But I wonder if she either lost the baby or they needed to terminate the pregnancy. So sad. They looked sad on their way out.

It just makes me so thankful that I have been so blessed with my children so far. I can't imagine the heartache of having to lose one.

Jasmine's 2nd Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Jasmine's 2nd birthday. We decided not to do a big party since we figured this is the last year we can do something small. Next year she will definitely be aware of her birthday, so no chance of getting out of a party then...

Jasmine has ballet class with Jocelyn on Thursdays and my sister usually takes them since Jose and I are working. So Jose and I took a few hours off and took Jasmine to the class. It was so much fun getting to watch her dance around. She seems to love it so much, so I think this is something we will stick with. My dad and stepmom also came to watch the girls.

After class, we all went out to lunch at Panera Bread. It was so yummy. We all had a nice lunch and then Jose and I needed to get back to work. Jasmine fell asleep within a few minutes of being in the car. She then proceeded to take a 3 hour nap. She must have been worn out from all the excitement.

After work we picked her up and then went to Coldstone to pick up her cake. We got a yellow cake with cake batter ice cream and Resses Peanut Butter Cups. That was a little more for me than her, but she still enjoyed it.

I made dinner and my sister, dad, stepmom, and the kids all came over. We ate dinner and Jasmine was more interested in eating croutons than the baked ziti. After dinner we opened presents. Jasmine loved all the toys she got and didn't pay too much interest in the clothes.

For her present from Jose and I, we got her an Ariel Tricycle. She loved it and Jocelyn kept wanting a turn. It blows bubbles and plays music. Unfortunately her little legs aren't long enough yet to reach the pedals, so for now she can just sit and push the buttons. But even Jocelyn had a hard time reaching the pedals. It was weird since the box said for 24 months and older.

After dinner we sang Happy Birthday to her and she was singing along with us. She was also able to blow out her candle which was so cute!

Overall I think she had a wonderful birthday. Looking back on the past two years has been a lot of fun. After cake we all watched the video of her being born as well as her birthday last year. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful daughter, and I love motherhood more and more everyday.