CHICKEN........

I am so so so excited!  Sebastian ate chicken for dinner last night.   This is so huge.  We have had feeding issues with both Sebastian and Gabe.  They both did really well as newborns, nursing and then switching to the bottle.  When it came to switching from formula to whole mile, Gabe would no longer drink any milk.  Sebastian on the other hand loves a bottle of milk.  Gabe did really well on baby food, in fact he was still eating baby food (stage 3) when he was 2 years old.  We couldn't get him to eat anything else except for Cheez-its.  He slowly progressed to peanut butter sandwiches and any other kind of cracker but would not eat any meals.  Sebastian never really took to baby food too much.  Sure he ate his baby cereal when first introduced but then once he had fruit baby food that was the only thing he would eat.  Soon, he gave that up and would only go for the bottle of milk.  One day I had to force Gabe to eat a chicken nugget, the first bite was a bit rough but he eventually got it and now he eats popcorn chicken every night for dinner.  We can't seem to get him to eat anything else for dinner without the gag reflexes going.  Now for Sebastian, *sigh* his diet consisted of milk and cookies, he loves cookies (oreo style).  Well about 4 months ago I was able to get him to eat a bite of a PB&J.  I had to make a big "song & dance" out of this so he would continue to eat.  I had to keep placing each bite on top of his stacking cups in order for him to show any interest.  This was a challenge for quite a while and then before we knew it he was eating a PB&J for both lunch and dinner everyday.   He did try french toast a few times and was successfully eating that for breakfast but then gave that up.   Well last night I decided it was time to try the chicken.  Well sure enough, it was deja vu!  I went thru the exact same thing that I had to with Gabe.  I had to force the popcorn chicken in his mouth and hold my hand over his mouth so he couldn't spit it out.  He ate the chicken and then 5 more pieces willingly after that.  Keeping my fingers crossed that he will continue to eat the chicken and eventually try other things.

Bouncin' Bears

We took the boys to Bouncin' Bears  and had a great time!  Of course, Gabe was in heaven with all of the jumping activities!  We walked in the door and he was ready to go.   Once we signed the waivers and paid, Gabe took off to the jumping pillow with his snowboots on still.  Austin had to chase him down to get his boots and jacket off.   One of the rules of this place is that all jumpers MUST have socks on.  Oh Boy!!  My first thought was, *sigh* I don't know how well Sebastian is going to do with this rule since he doesn't like ANYTHING on his feet. The socks turned out to be no problem at all. 

When we first stepped on to the jumping pillow Sebastian seemed a bit weery of the whole thing, so I picked him up and started jumping with him.  He loved this and had a great time, he was laughing and laughing.  I decided to try to take him to one of the slides.  We went down one slide and it scared him.  Back to the jumping

pillow we went.  Gabe & Austin

 were off on their own all over the place. I think Gabe was wearing Austin out.  Austin was having a good time.  He loves to help out his brothers.  Austin kept wanting to sit down and take a break but Gabe was just all over the place.  Daddy was sitting down at the tables with Abby and I was busy trying to convince Sebastian that this was fun and not scary.  Sebastian saw Gabe go down the slide a couple of times and was laughing everytime.  I decided to try it again, I carried him up the stairs and slid down with him, he seemed to enjoy it a little more this time.  We went a few more times and then I sent him down by himself and he loved it!

Now he was having a blast!  I was getting pretty worn out though since I had to help him up to the top each time. Once we got to the top, Sebastian would go down first and then he would sit at the bottom and look up at me and wait for me to slide down to him. He and Gabe had a great time going up and down, up and down!  As you can see, the socks were not an issue!  I was amazed that he didn't  try to take them off once.  Guess he was having too much fun to worry about that!

They all had a great time!  When it was time to leave, Sebastian was not ready.  Poor little guy did not want to go, I literally had to drag him out.  It was a hit, I guess we will be going back soon!

Brothers....

These little guys are so cute!!!

I love these cute little guys!  Everyday they are doing something new that just makes me smiles.  This morning I was at Gabe's school for a meeting with his teacher.  We had our meeting in another classroom so Gabe wouldn't be distracted by my presence.  After our meeting I was peeking thru the little window on his classroom door , I was trying to be careful that he didn't see me.  All of the sudden Gabe comes running to the door yelling "Hi, Nonny, Hi Nonny" (still working on the "m" sound for this word).  So I opened the door and went in, he was so happy and seemed so proud that I was there.  He kept telling me "hi" over and over and was smiling and all giggly.  It made me feel so good.  I remember at the beginning of the school year, one of our goals was to have Gabe call me "Mommy" and understand exactly what he was saying.  I must say "Goal Accomplished"

Today when Vinnie left for work, Gabe, Sebastian, & I were at the door saying "bye" to Daddy.  I was trying to get them to wave and say "bye bye".  All of the sudden Sebastian was waving his hand real fast and said "BYE".  It was so clear!  That was the first time he ever said that.  I am so excited that the words are finally coming...FABULOUS!!!!

An oldie but a goodie....

font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A friend of mine was posting "Funny Tidbits" about her kids and things that they say.  Well that got me thinking about funny things that my kids have said or done and there is one that always comes back to me and makes me laugh, so I thought I would share. When Austin was in the 2nd grade his teacher changed the seating chart and sat him next to this girl named Theresa.  He was really upset about it because the kids in his class were teasing him, they were saying that Theresa was his girlfriend.  He came home from school and told me how much this bothered him.  I tried to make him feel better and told him it wasn't a big deal and that just becuase he sat next to somebody that didn't mean that was his girlfriend.  I gave him an example and said "well, if Brian was sitting next to you, would that mean that he was your boyfriend?".  He looked at me and his eyes got real wide and he said      "I'M NOT A LESBIAN!!"  Oh my goodness, I thought I was going to die laughing!!

Mama!!

I am so so so excited!!  Sebastian has finally started to call me Mama!  What a great feeling.  It feels like I have waited for this for so long.  The other night he walked up to me pouting "mama, mama", I was in shock but I didn't really think too much of it because I thought maybe he was just babbling.  Well sure enough the next day he said it again.  This is so awesome!  He has been saying "Da" for a while now so I was feeling just a bit left out...not anymore though!  His speech is finally coming.  I can tell that he is really wanting to learn, he does little things like picking up toys and putting them next to our face so that we say what it is, he does this with letters too.  If he holds up a letter (magnet from fridge, puzzle piece, foam letters from bathtub) to our face and we say the wrong letter, he looks at the letter and then looks at us again to let us know that we have said the wrong letter.  He will sing along with the Alphabet on Sesame Street.  He also has a little magnadoodle that he loves for us to write letters or numbers on.  We write one at a time and he will say it if he knows what it is.  His favorite number is "12"  he says "welve".  So cute!  He also really likes the numbers, 1, 2 (oo), 4, 5 (ife), 7, 8, 9.  If we write the number 7, he will automatically say "8, 9".  I can't wait to hear Sebastian and Gabe talking to each other....one day, one day, one day it will happen!

Award Winner!!!

Austin received 2 awards at school.  His first one was for Social Studies, this is his favorite subject.  He is always wanting to learn more and more.  He also seems to retain everything he learns in this subject.  He is always teaching me stuff that I never knew.  He really enjoyed learning about the Revolutionary War and that was one of the reasons that he was chosen for this award.  His teacher said that he showed more interest than anybody else in the class and his Revolutionary War project was the best in the class.  His second award was for reading.  Austin loves to read!  He is the top reader in the 5th grade and one of the top readers of the entire school.  The students are given awards for each level of reading that they do.    He is a Classic III level, he needs to do a few more levels in classic and then he will be in Honors.

The levels are:
Independent Reader
Super Reader I, II, & III
Advanced Reader I, II, & III
Star Reader I, II, & III
Classic Reader I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII
Honors
To achieve these levels you have to read a certain # of books at different levels of difficulty.  He is reading 7th and 8th grade level books.  I am so proud of him with his reading.  It amazes me because when he was in the 1st grade he really struggled with reading.  In fact, he was pulled from his regular class everyday to attend a reading class to help him.  Well I must say it REALLY helped him.  He gets caught up in reading so much that there are times when we find him up super late in his room reading with a flashlight after his bedtime.  Sure makes it hard to get mad at him for being up passed his bedtime.

Ready to be potty trained….

Well my little Sebastian will NOT leave his diaper on. I get him dressed and a few minutes later he comes running thru the house naked. Funny and cute? Well at first it was but now he is taking off his diaper when it is full of poop, so now not only is he running around naked but his legs and feet are covered in poop and now I have poop all over the carpet. Oh my!!! So now I need to get this little guy potty trained….wish me luck! In the meantime I have had to keep him in pajamas that zip up. Of course, since Sebastian doesn’t like anything on his feet, I had to cut the feet off of these pajamas to get him to stop crying. So far the pajamas are working out great, the diaper has remained on. No more poop messes for me, outside of the diaper anyway.

Abby is 2 months old...

font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">I just can’t believe that my little Abigail Elaine is already 2 months old. It goes so fast, too fast! She is getting so big already. She weighs 12 lbs now and is about 22 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for her weight and just above the 50th percentile for her length. She is almost growing out of her 3 month clothes. We just moved her into size 2 diapers.

font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">She is sleeping thru the night, which is great! However, there are some nights where she thinks that she can stay up as late as she wants and then sleeps in late. I need to try to shift her schedule up just a bit so we can get to bed before 2:00 am.
font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">She has such a cute little personality, she loves being talked to. She coo’s and smiles so much!

 

Sledding Fun

We took the boys sledding....

Gabe was having fun sledding, and playing in the snow...he liked jumping in it.

Gabe had such a great time!  He was laughing and wanted to keep going over and over again.  Sebastian was not having such a great time.  For one, he does not like to wear shoes at all, so that was just upsetting him and then to top that off, he was not thrilled with wearing mittens either.  He had fun going down the hill but other than that he was just crying and crying.  I haven't been sledding in years, it was a lot of fun!

Here are Daddy and Sebastian....

This is Sebastian's first time sledding, in fact it is his first time playing in the snow.  This is such a struggle because of the whole shoe thing.  We don't know why he won't wear shoes, he just won't.  He will let us put them on him with no problems but as soon as we get in the car, both socks and shoes come off.  So, if you look closely you can see that he doesn't have any shoes on.

Poor Kiddo...the first time we took Gabe sledding he didn't like it either.  We'll try again and hope we have better luck!                                                                                               At first, I tried pulling Gabe up the hill in the sled but he was just way to heavy.  Then I had him walk up the hill, I just held my hand behind his back and kind of pushed him help to help him a bit....It was exhausting!  So much fun, can't wait to go again! 

I Do....

Here is a picture from our wedding in North Pole, Alaska.  Gabe was not having the best time.  This picture is classic.  During our little ceremony Austin had to keep pushing the stoller around to try to keep Gabe calm.

More time anyone???

So I was going to try to set up my blog with some more history of events over the past few years but with this busy household that I have going I just can't seem to find the time.  So it looks like I will just be starting from here and moving forward so that way I can let our family know of this blog and you can all start to follow it. Things are going great here and things are falling into place.  We are looking forward to our move back to Utah this coming June.  We can't wait to be around family.  Vinnie talked to the people working in the shop here and let them know that we are moving and opening up another Rebirth Tattoo in SLC, Utah.  They were a bit shocked but happy for us at the same time.  Vinnie has now started letting his clients know as well.  He still plans to come back up to Alaska once a month to check on the business here and to work on his clients here.  We are heading to the tattoo convention in SLC next month....it will be nice to get the word out to watch for a "Grand Opening" this summer.

Bringing it up to date.....

I graduated from Highland High School in 1995, shortly after my graduation I joined the US Army. I spent my 18th birthday in basic training at Fort Leonardwood, Missouri. After completing basic, I went to Fort Lee, Virginia for my A School. I returned home and was married shortly after that. November, 28 1998 my first son, Austin Craig Conrad was born. What a cutie, I was so happy to be a Mommy! A couple of years after that, my marriage ended. It was just the two of us now, my cute little guy and me! Austin and I moved to Anchorage, Alaska in the summer of 2003. I got my real estate license and did that for a little while. We made several trips back to Utah to visit family as often as we could.

On January 24th, 2005 I went on my first date with a fabulous man, Vinnie! Things went pretty quick after that, we fell in love, moved in with each other just a few months later, I was able to stop working and just be a stay at home Mom. I took Vinnie home to Utah for my grandmother’s 70th birthday in May where he met my entire family. Things were very serious and we were very much in love! Austin adored Vinnie, and had so much fun with him. While we were on our vacation in Utah, we discovered that I was pregnant, due in February 2006. We were so excited.

Vincent Gabriel Almanza was born February 10th, 2006. Vincent came from Daddy’s name and we just loved the name Gabriel, we call him Gabe. Austin was so excited to have a baby brother! He loved to hold him, kiss him, and always wanted to help take care of him. Vinnie and I knew that we wanted to have more children and have them close in age, so with that being said, in February 2007 we were pregnant once again. Finally, Vinnie and I decided it was about time that we got married. We were married on August 18, 2007 in North Pole, Alaska. It was a very quaint occasion. We rented an RV and our cute little family, Vinnie, Austin, Gabe, and I, (oh yes, and of course Sebastian in my tummy) went on a road trip to North Pole. My mom joined us on our adventure and married us while we were standing in front of the actual “North Pole”.

Sebastian Paul Almanza was born November 10, 2007. Since we used the name “Vincent” for Gabe, we wanted to use Vinnie’s middle name for Sebastian, which is where “Paul” comes from. Yes, now we have 3 boys. Yes, 3 boys, I am still out numbered in the house. However, not for long! In February 2008 we decided it was time for another, our last one. The next month we were pregnant again. In June we found out that the baby was a GIRL! I couldn’t believe it!! I didn’t think it was possible! Finally, I am getting my baby girl.

Abigail Elaine Almanza was born November 19, 2009. Nine days after Sebastian’s 2nd birthday and nine days before Austin’s 11th birthday. We chose Abby’s name years ago when we were pregnant with Gabe. Abigail was a name that we both really liked. The name Elaine is my grandmother’s (my Nana) name and I wanted to pass it on to my daughter.