Happy Birthday Emma!

Last weekend we celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday! Her birthday was on Mondaybut we had her party on Saturday. We had a good time and Emma seemed to really enjoy herself. She's growing up so fast! The last month has been extremely busy. We went to Brownsville for Thanksgiving which was nice. The girls especially had a great time seeing Grampa Andres. They are both doing awesome and are both looking forward to Christmas. We got them an "Elf on the Shelf" which they decided to name Sasha. They have fun every morning looking for her and trying to see where she landed. If you don't know what  the Elf on the Shelf is, look up their website. For anyone with kids, I highly recommend one! We're pretty much ready for Christmas. We got our tree up and the house decorated. We even decorated the outside this year. Last year after Christmas I had gotten what looks like a Christmas ornament that is Santa holding a candle. You plug it into the wall and the lights into it and when you blow the candle, the lights turn on and off. The girls really enjoy turning on the tree and it's a lot safer than them playing around with cords. Emma still has a hard time getting the lights on and off but she's getting there. :) Hopefully in the next few days we can get the girls to see Santa and get their pictures taken. Things have been crazy busy around here but we need to make the time soon!

Halloween and Toni's birthday

  

Well, every time I say I'm going to start posting more, something seems to get in the way. This week I'm in Austin for a training class for work. The class is very informative and is very fast paced. I've been spending my nights studying which obviously isn't much of a vacation. Halloween was a lot of fun. All of the kids had a great time trick or treating and it was fun going with them. Toni also celebrated her 41st bithday which was fun. Caitlin picked out a cake for her and we went to dinner. In other news, Emma is officially out of her crib and is in a toddler bed now. She fell out the first couple of nights but is doing great now. :-) I'm going to keep this post very short but I wanted to at least post some pics. Hopefully I can get on a better schedule soon and start posting more!

Pumpkin Patch

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! To catch everyone up, Toni went out of town with her job one weekend so me and the girls got to spend the weekend alone. We had a good time bonding. We didn't do too much but it was nice to spend some time together. Toni got a tattoo of a key with the girls names surrounding it. She's wanted one for a long time and it's nice that she was able to get something that will always have meaning for her. :-)

We've been spending time with the girls at the library. They really enjoy looking through the books and Caitlin especially enjoys our time reading together. Both her and Emma have figured out how to check out their books which is fun to watch.

The girls also had a Doctor appointment to get their flu shots which neither of them enjoyed. Caitlin wasn't too happy until I told her that we could go to Walgreens and she could pick out a doll. That cleared the tears and she was fine after that. :-) Seems like Walgreens is the magic cure for her. :-)

This week I took Emma to the Doctor for her 6 month checkup for her ears. Everything looks good and they don't think she'll need the tubes put back in. It's already come out of 1 and is starting to come out of the other. We have another appointment in 6 months but so far, everything looks great.

Also thins week I went with Emma on her first field trip! They went to the pumpkin patch which was a lot of fun. She got very excited when I picked her up and we had a great time. She picked out a small pumpkin to keep at school. This weekend we went as a family to the pumpkin patch to pick out our family pumpkin and got some great pics of the girls. We got a nice pumpkin and we'll be carving it one night this week.

Starting to use the potty!

These last couple of weeks have been busy as usual. The biggest news is that Emma is starting to use the potty! She's started telling us "baby potty" when she wants to go use her training potty. She's used it a couple of times and usually wants to use it first thing in the morning. She's always very excited when she's successful and we make sure to "high five" her and congratulate her on a job well done. :) Caitlin is doing great as well. She's started learning her letters and we've got an app for the ipad that's helping her learn to write her letters. So far she's got all of the letters down except for the "a" and "n" but she's learning quickly.

Last week we had to take the girls in for their flu shots. Neither of them enjoyed it and Caitlin had a harder time because she knew it was coming. I managed to calm her down by promising her that if she was good, we'd go to Walgreens afterward and she could pick out a toy. She picked a Barbie. :)

Tomorrow Toni will be going out of town for her job so I'll have the girls by myself until Sunday. Hopefully they won't be too hard on me!

Trip to Brownsville!

This weekend Toni and the girls took a flight to Brownsville! They left on Thursday and came back on Sunday. It sounds like they had a great time and Caitlin and Emma both enjoyed the plane ride and behaved very well. While they were there, they also spent some time at the beach. Caitlin really enjoyed herself but as you can see in the pics, Emma spent the time sleeping! The girls are growing up so fast! Emma has started to talk a whole bunch and she's getting to the point where we can understand pretty much everything she says and carry on conversations with her. Last week we also went to the school for a parent teacher night. It was nice to meet Caitlin's new teacher for Pre-K2. The lesson plan sounds pretty cool and they'll be working on numbers, letters and Spanish! I've started playing with Caitlin with my laptop teaching her how to type out her name and showing her which letter is which and she seems to have fun. I'm going to keep this post short today but I wanted to catch everyone up on the last couple of weeks.

Getting more independent

As usual, it's been a busy few weeks since my last post. Everything is going good and the girls are growing by leaps and bounds. Emma is really getting more mature. She has started climbing the stairs on her own (with us behind her obviously) and climbing into the car and into her car seat on her own. She's also been wanting to go to sleep without being rocked . She's getting very good at telling us what she wants and talks all the time. It's amazing to watch her play with the ipad and actually be able to open Netflix and start the show she wants to watch!

Caitlin is also growing fast. I really can't believe that in 1 year, she'll be going to Kindergarten! The time has really gone by so fast. Her new favorite movie is "How To Train Your Dragon" which was a pretty good movie. :-) We're also probably going to be changing her room decorations soon. She's been asking for a princess themed room so we've been using the new room as incentive for her to wake up in the night if she has to go potty rather than peeing in her bed. So far she's doing pretty good and most nights are now dry nights. :-)

This weekend me and the girls went out to dinner for Nana Bev and Uncle Dan's birthdays. Toni was at church volunteering and didn't get out unitl too late. We had a good time and the girls had fun running around and playing. I'm going to keep this post short this week. Hope everyone has a great week!

Cousin Ryan turns ONE!!

We've had another busy couple of weeks here at the Vargas house. Yesterday we went to Cousin Ryan's first birthday party! It was a lot of fun and as you can tell by the first picture, Ryan definitely enjoyed his cake! By the time he was done, he looked like he was auditioning for the Blue Man Group or The Smurfs! :) I'm not sure how much of the cupcake he ate, but he definitely seemed to enjoy playing with it! The girls had a lot of fun playing with Maddie and Ryan and it was a nice get together.

In other news, Caitlin has tried her new bike she got for her birthday once but she seemed a little intimidated by it and opted instead to ride on her scooter. She seemed to have a lot of fun and started getting the hang of it pretty quick. You can see her dressed in all of her safety gear. I wish it wasn't so hot and we could take her out more. In the last picture you can see Caitlin's new dress up set she got. She insisted on walking down to get the mail all dressed up. It was so cute watching her with her crown, gloves, purse, necklace and plastic shoes. She held my hand the whole way and had a nice, albeit hot walk. I know it might sound silly but it stood out to me as quality time. :-)

Emma is doing pretty good. She had a stomach bug but that cleared up after a few days. She's talking so much now and has even started pointing at the family picture and naming each person in it. She also loves helping get Shiloh into his room saying "come on Shiloh" and will ask where sister is when she wakes up. At the party she came over and asked me to put her in the swing which she really enjoyed. It's funny because every night when she gets home she gets very excited to see me and wants me to come take her out of the car.

I am really amazed every time I think about the last 4 or so years and how much things have changed. 4 years ago, we were welcoming Caitlin into the world. Now, she has a sister and 2 more cousins! It's been an amazing 4 years!

4 years old!!

4 years old! Can you believe it??? I know I can't! I know I've said this a thousand times on this blog but I'm amazed every day watching the girls grow! I can't believe 4 years have already gone by. We've been busy as always here at the Vargas house. The biggest news is that on Friday Caitlin turned 4! We took the day off work and started the day with her 4 year checkup. She's doing great and passed her vision and hearing tests with flying colors. It was cute when she was doing the vision test, the eye chart was shapes and she went through listing them off (heart, star, apple, etc.) and when she got to the "+", she stopped for a minute and then said, "boo boo". :-) She's getting big and weighed in around 45 pounds and was 42 inches tall. The Doctor said her BMI is too high but I'm not sure I agree. Caitlin isn't fat so I'm not sure where she's getting that information from! We also had the Doctor look at her toe. A couple of days before, Caitlin dropped an iPad on her big toe. It looked pretty bad but we've been soaking her foot and it looks like it's doing better. Luckily there's been no infection. Caitlin also got 2 shots which she didn't enjoy at all. :-( For lunch, we took Caitlin to the school and had a party for her with her classmates. It was a lot of fun an she seemed to really enjoy it.

This weekend we had her birthday party here at the house and I think everyone had a great time. Caitlin was super excited and enjoyed all of her friends coming over and especially enjoyed opening presents and eating cake. She got a lot of nice gifts and even got a bike from Nana Bev and Grampa Bob! She insists that she doesn't need the training wheels but we're going to leave them on for a while. :-) Hopefully it'll cool down a bit and she'll be able to go riding soon!

In other news, the previous weekend we went to a birthday party for my friend's son Ethan who turned 7. The party was at Chuck-E-Cheese and both girls really enjoyed themselves. Emma especially liked some of the rides she went on and they both enjoyed playing the games. We also had some excitement with Emma one night.. She fell face first into one of the kitchen cabinets and busted her lip open pretty bad. Luckily we got he bleeding under control and she's doing fine now but both girls have given us scares over the last couple weeks.

Further back, on the 4th of July we took the girls to the pool. Caitlin had a blast swimming and was doing pretty good treading water. She didn't want her floaties on but she's not quite to the point where she can stay floating without them yet. She even held her breath and went under water all by herself which was cool. Emma didn't want anything to do with the water. The closest she came was sitting on the edge next to Toni and putting her feet in right before we left. Maybe next time!

I think that sums up the last couple of weeks. We've been keeping busy and having fun. The girls are growing so fast and it's amazing to watch them every day. Wednesday they get to go to the Dentist with us so that should be an adventure. :-) Hope everyone has a great week!

Busy, busy, busy..

It seems lately like the days and nights are so busy! Since it's been a few weeks, I wanted to get an update posted. Today Emma had her appointment with the ear specialist and everything looks good! Her ear infection from a few weeks back is gone and the Doctor wants to take a wait and see approach. If she gets another infection, we'll have to have tubes put back in but if not, we won't have to take her back until October! Both the girls are doing great. Emma has started saying 2 word sentences like "up daddy, sit mommy, bye shiloh". She understands a lot and can usually tell us what she wants by answering our questions or in some cases actually telling us what she wants (milk, cookie, waffles, etc..) Both of the girls are getting so big and growing up so fast! Caitlin's 4th birthday is coming up in about 2 weeks which blows my mind. We've started planning for her party which should be fun.

I'm really hopeful that I can get back on my weekley update schedule because I feel like there's so much happening that I'm forgetting about.

18 months old!

Today Emma turned 18 months old! Time is going by so fast! Emma's doing good with the exception of her ear infection being back.. We took her to the Doctor twice this week and the 2nd time they found that the infection had returned. She's got a small cough and a lot of snot but overall she's in good spirits. This coming Wednesday she has her 18 month appointment and they are going to look at her ear again. Hopefully the infection is gone. Other than that, she's doing good. she's drinking from a cup without a lid on her own now and is learning her animals. We will ask her to bring us different animals from her fam set and she'll bring us what we asked for.
Caitlin is also doing really well and we're starting to brainstorm for ideas for her 4th birthday party which is next month. I'm going to keep this post short but hopefully I can post good news after Emma's appointment. :-)

Another one of those weeks...

What a week! This week saw another visit to the Doctor for me. On Tuesday I was at Wal Mart when my eyes suddenly started hurting for no reason. By the time I got home 15 minutes later my eyes had started swelling closed! Nana Bev came over to watch the girls and we spent the rest of the night at the Texas Med-Clinic. My left eye swelled almost completely shut and the right one about 75%. During the long wait to see a Doctor, I watched the Spurs game out of the one eye that I could see out of. The did a few tests on my eyes for scratches, ph level and then flushed my eyes out. They could find no irritant but my left eye was extremely red so something obviously affected them. I had to stay home from work the next day because I still couldn't see fully and within 24 hours with lots of eye drops and Benadryl, the puffiness had cleared up.

In other news, this weekend we took the girls bowling. Actually Toni bowled with some of her coworkers and the girls and I watched. It was cool to watch Caitlin cheer Toni on when she would take her turn. :-) We also got to see an old friend who is partly responsible for Toni and I meeting almost 12 years ago! It was nice to see her and catch up with her. We hadn't seen her in over a decade so it was nice to reconnect.

The girls are doing good. Emma is really starting to talk a lot lately and has started repeating everything we ask her too. The funniest thing to me was when Toni was flipping through a magazine and pointing to whatever was on the page and saying what it was. It was so funny to hear Emma say "beer" and "watermelon". :-)  This week she's also started kissing more. Usually whenever I'd ask her for a kiss she'd say no but now she's started giving kisses. She's also started wagging her finger at us when she's saying no which is cute to see.

Happy Mother's Day!

This was a busy weekend in the Vargas house. On Saturday we took the girls to a church dedication service. It was a nice service where they we brought the girls on stage and were joined by the girl's Godparents. Caitlin's Godparents are Uncle Dan and Aunt Sarah and Emma's are Jethro and Maria Vail. Basically the girls were brought up on stage and the pastor said what their names translate to and then he said a prayer for each of them. Afterwards we got a group picture and documents to commemorate the day. Afterward everyone came back to the house for lunch which was nice.

Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day and the the girls got Toni all kinds of stuff. Caitlin picked out a Rapunzel Birthday card that she insisted Mommy would like and they also got her a Kindle, a desk fountain, roses, artificial flowers, and a candle. Caitlin had a lot of fun shopping. We went to the service on Sunday morning at church and then Toni stayed at the church to volunteer to help watch the other kids. The girls stayed with her and they had a good time while I went and looked around Best Buy. :-) After that, we took Toni to a Thai place for lunch and then for some ice cream. To end the day, we went back to Best Buy where Toni got herself a case for her kindle. Overall it was a nice weekend.

9 year anniversary!

Last week Toni and I celebrated our 9th anniversary! It sounds crazy to say that we've been married for 9 years. It doesn't seem possible that that much time could have passed! On the night our our anniversary we went out for dinner with the girls and had a good time. Then this weekend Nana Bev watched the girls and we went out to dinner and then shopping. We had a good, quiet night together.  

The girls are doing great. In the 4th picture where I'm leaning in with Emma, that's how she kisses. :-) She doesn't seem to like to kiss or cuddle as much as Caitlin did and I think her favorite thing to tell us is "no" when we ask for a kiss. This weekend we also got some plants to try and grow some vegetables. Emma enjoyed helping Toni plant everything and was actually pretty helpful!

Overall, last week was pretty quiet for us which was nice. Hopefully that trend will continue. :-)