January 30 - Goodbye Bryan and Karma

Happy Monday everyone! I am really behind on blog posts so please bear with me. I will try to update this a few times this week to catch up, so be sure to check back in. 

A few weekends ago, Julia decided she wanted to cook us dinner. She got out  her Betty Crocker Cooking with Kids cookbook and picked out her recipes. She made a grocery list, typed up a menu and had JD and I sit down to 'order.' She recommended the meatloaf so that is what we went with. Julia, Luke and Uncle Bryan made the whole meal and it was delicious-meatloaf, salad and a chocolate tower dessert. Yum!!

Last Saturday was birthday party central. We went to Lobo Gymnastics for Mika's party (a girl in Luke's class) and then immediately left there for Emma's 9th birthday at Jumping World. The kids had a blast at both parties, and I had fun catching up with some old friends who were at both parties. Julia then headed back to Emma's house for a sleepover while I went out to my first mom's dinner without the baby. We went to Maggiano's and it was fantastic!

Sunday was Bryan and Karma's last day in Houston. After evaluating job offers in upstate NY (year long contract) v. the Marshall Islands (4-6 month contract) Bryan decided on the NY opportunity. Bryan has been an integral part of the Yamo family for the last 6 weeks, helping with school projects, playing with the kids and walking the dogs. I am so appreciative of all of his help and was sad to see both him and Karma (my furry shadow for the last two years) go. NY will be an adjustment from the warm winter weather in Houston, but once he finds a cool off-roading place, I hope he has a blast up there!

The Girls

Luke was very excited about his new monkey and giant candy bar

Cooking!

Baby Jillian

January 17 - Jillian "Itty Bitty" Noelle

Jillian's 4 month check up was last week and she is a teeny tiny 10lbs. Since she barely gained any weight in the last 2 months, the doctor told me to feed her formula after I breastfeed her to try to plump her up. She has another appointment in a few weeks to verify she is gaining weight. So far, she has been taking the extra formula like a champ!

So 4 months in and our little itty bitty is proving to be the best baby EVER. Seriously, she's amazing. She sleeps all night and usually only gets fussy between 5pm and 7pm (I call it her witching hour). When she's tired, she sticks her thumb in her mouth, pops onto her side and passes out. Here she is while I was folding laundry the other day. I wish I took the picture with the piles of clothes surrounding her. So adorable!!

January 15 - Playtex For the Win!

Our little Jillian started with my friend Rachel this month and I was very worried about her eating. She was exclusively breastfed and I was unable to pump much so we tried many different bottles with formula..to no avail. Then we bought the Playtex bottles and lo and behold-she loved them. No issues whatsoever. Yahoo!! I'm able to pump now when she's with Rachel so she drinks 1-2 formula bottles and 1 bm bottle during the days. Ytay!

Julia started diving this month with the Bay Area Stars Diving team. She's on the Bronze team which means practice twice a week and meets are optional. If she moves to the next level, she'll be required to do meets and attend dry land training, and I'll have to join the booster. So far she's been to 3 practices she "it's her favorite sport EVER!" They are working on approaches and line-ups. She's doing it with her friend Jill (from Orcas) and they are having a blast. Coach Sven, the head coach, is really passionate about the sport and makes it super fun for the kids. The only downside with diving is that one of the practices is at 6pm on Wednesday. The facility (which is gorgeous) is 13 miles away. "Thirteen miles, that's not that far Christine!" If you are thinking that, you are right. It isn't that far. But with our lovely Houston traffic it takes a solid hour to get there. Practice is an hour and then by the time Julia showers we get home at 8pm. So we leave at 5pm and get home at 8pm. It's a long time but she loves it and I love watching it, so it works! 

She's all legs!

Sisters

I could watch her practicing all day, I love that she's having fun!

January 13 - Happy New Year!

Happy (belated) New Year everyone! What is your 2017 resolution(s)? Here is a recap of mine for the last few years...

2010: finish master bathroom
2011: finish master bathroom
2012: finish master bathroom
2013: finish master bathroom
2014: finish master bathroom
2015: finish master bathroom
2016: finish master bathroom

And wouldn't you know, after 7 long years we finally...finished the master bathroom. Yahoo! We also finished the kids bathroom, replaced the roof and the upstairs AC unit. 2016 was the year of home repairs. To continue the theme..here is our goal for this year:

2017: replace downstairs AC unit (before the summer heat hits) and replace the fence

Can we get it done? Time will tell!!

Now that winter break is over, the kids are back at school and in their normal routine. Julia is swimming twice a week and now diving twice a week as well. I need to find tennis lessons for Luke and Jillian is busy being her adorable little self. Jillian and I traveled to Gainesville earlier this week for work and she was an absolute rockstar on the flights. I usually fly Southwest into Jacksonville and then drive 1.5h into Gainesville. This time around we flew Delta to Atlanta and then took another flight directly into Gainesville. On our first flight from Houston to Atlanta, one of my old swimming friends from high school and Emory was on our flight, sitting in front of us. How fun!! We haven't seen each other in almost 16 years. We stayed with Jill in Gainesville and Jill was amazing. She watched the baby for me while I was at work, and her kids had fun with baby J too. Jillian even hung out in Julia's (Jill's Julia) room while she was reading. How fun! 

Okay, I'm back in the swing of things this year and will be sure to update the blog more often. Sorry for the delay!