February 12 - Strawberry Cake

"I want to watch Strawberry Cake!"-Julia, first thing in the morning and when I pick her up from school. She is obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake (who she calls Strawberry Cake) recently. Cousin Victoria sent her a Strawberry Shortcake Valentine's card and she was beyond excited. Thanks V! I'm sure this is a phase (a few weeks ago she was all about 'Olivia' the pig) but I'm enjoying her enthusiasm since I used to be a fan of Strawberry back in the 80s. Yikes..the 80s...that seems so long ago.

So-yesterday was the celebration of the 4th anniversary of my 29th birthday (yes, you read that correctly) and it was a great day. Julia sang 'Happy Birthday Mommy' first thing in the morning and we opened presents right after breakfast. Julia picked out the Disney princess wrapping paper and helped me open the gifts.

The kids got me a cookbook (about cooking with kids) and J.D. got me a Coach purse. Once again babe-home run on the presents, thanks a million!!

We went to dinner last night with the Hargrave family (Brian and I share the same

birthday) at a nice restaurant which was a lot of fun and very tasty. Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful birthday wishes and for making my day special. Perhaps the best gift of all was Luke sleeping until 2:30am last night..thanks little man!

J.D. and Julia are baking a birthday cake for tonight and I'm sure it will be tasty!

Here are some cute family photos. Enjoy!

Mommy & Luke

Mommy & Julia

Daddy & Luke [he had to be held the entire dinner...that's our boy!]

February 4 - Snow Day

Greetings Julia Bean and Master Luke fans! (side note-Julia is our little bean, Luke so far has been Master Luke, Little Man, Little Dude or BabyLuke). We tried calling him Baby Bean for awhile but it just never really suited him). Anyway...we're officially having our first Houston snow day. I would gladly post a photo of the beautiful white wonder but alas, there isn't any. Yes, you read that correctly. We're having a snow day with no snow. You may be wondering, what does that mean? Well-due to the "chance" of snow (70% of 1-3" last night) school was closed early at 5pm yesterday and ALL local schools closed today. I think most of the city is shut down right now, no joke. J.D. went to the grocery store last night and people were stocking up on water and supplies. I just have to laugh. I realize we don't have snow plows, salt trucks, etc. down here like the north but the sun is so bright everything melts super fast anyhow. There is a light coating of ice on the cars but the sun is quickly taking care of that. I was hoping for some snow to play in with Julia and Amelia, so hopefully we'll get some before spring arrives.

In other news, Luke can now roll completely over and travels quite quickly around the floor. He also discovered his feet last night! So cute!! In Julia news, her imagination is really in full force. She sees rocket ships in the bathroom and loves to have conversations on the phone (one sided of course) with her friends from school. She also wants me to set up a playdate with Olivia (pig from 'Olivia' on nickjr) and Sid the Science Kid! She's been saying the funniest things lately too:

"Open your ears!" (when she is saying something and she doesn't think we're paying attention)

"No talking while eating" (she tells J.D. and I this when we are talking over dinner)

"I love you" (this has been really spontaneous lately and I LOVE it)

"I don't like Amelia but I love Ruby" (Ruby is my girlfriend Sarah's dog)

"I want to go on an airplane" (she knows we have to travel on airplanes to visit family)

Have a great Friday everyone!

January 22 - Curious George & The Pig

You know my daughter who doesn't really like tv that much or sweets? She's a thing of the past it seems. Over the last few weeks Julia has taken quite an interest in cartoons (as well as football, no joke). We definitely limit her tv time and she has a few new favorite shows. She is all about 'Curious George' (mommy-Curious George is making a messy!) and just this week 'the pig' (which is 'Olivia'). She can actually follow the story lines now and has commentary whiles she is watching. It is very cute.

Julia is still an avid reader (there are probably 10 books on her bed at all times) and her current favorites are the Pinkalicious books, Tinka (dog books) and Frosty the Snowman. I'm not joking when I say I've probably sang 'Frosty' a couple hundred times over the last month. Grandpa got her the book for her first Christmas and I'm glad she is enjoying it.

In other fun news, Julia best friend, Emma, had her 3rd birthday party at The Jumping Jungle last weekend. The Jumping Jungle is a bouncy house place where each party has it's own room with about 4 inflatable bouncy things. It was a ton of fun! There were a lot of kids and everyone had a great time. Julia already told us she wants her 3rd birthday party there.

Luke is doing great-he's been rolling over the last few days and is just a smiley little man. He is doing much better sleeping in his crib and doesn't need to be held so much. He's still super snugly too!

OH-GREAT news. Amelia has lost 5 lbs!!!! Woo hoo!! She's been overweight for awhile (she's technically still a little larger than most female labs but she's big boned). However, she does have a wart thing on her back leg that we are getting removed and biopsied so keep your fingers crossed that it is just a benign growth.

As for me, I am absolutely invigorated by the cold weather we've been experiencing, while my warm blooded hubby continues to look forward to spring. I'm also psyched because I have a book club meeting tonight-I'm looking forward to meeting new women in town and this will be my first night "out" since I had Luke. Granted, he'll be going with me, but I'll still be out of the house after 6pm. Exciting!

Well-time to get ready for gymnastics with my little bean. Have a fabulous Saturday everyone!

January 13 - Brr..It's Cold In Here

"Brr..It's Cold In Here! There must be some Toros in the atmosphere!" Fans of the movie 'Bring It On' are probably familiar with that cheer..okay, I'll wager most of you haven't seen this classic movie about high school cheerleaders and their choreography woes..but it's pure campy fun (you can catch it on TNT or TBS almost any given week). Anyhoo-it is chilly here in sunny Houston, at least by our standards. It is 30 right now! Amelia and I are LOVING it, Julia seems to like the cooler weather (so far she hasn't fought putting on her hat and mittens the last few days) while J.D., my warm blooded hubby is anxiously awaiting the return of spring/summer. I know the northeast is being hit by a big storm right now and hopefully you are all staying warm...and planning to take advantage of the powder by planning some ski adventures! Well-this is my first post of 2011 so let me wish you all a very Happy New Year! A few people have asked what kind of party we went to. Well...we have a newborn and a toddler so our celebration was pretty tame . To be honest-J.D. passed out on the couch around 9:30pm and I forgot it was New Years eve until I was walking the dog and thought "wow, a lot of people are having parties tonight." It wasn't until some fireworks went off that I remembered...pathetic, i know! So far, 2011 has been good to us. Julia is back at gymnastics on the weekends and enjoying every minute of it. She LOVES school and doesn't want to come home most days. It is a struggle to get her to stop playing and get in the car. J.D. and I had a parent/teacher conference the other day and she is doing great. Amazingly-she has never been in time-out there and plays with everyone. Occasionally she chit chats with her best buddy Lincoln during circle time and they have to be separated, but she always listens to the teacher. Developmentally, she is on target for her age and she's a "pleasure to have in class." Yay! In Luke news, our little man is becoming more independent. He will lay on his activity mat for about 20min and occasionally enjoys the swing. Sleeping is still a challenge but he does sleep in his crib for a few hours every night now-which is a huge improvement over a month ago. He loves to put his hands in his mouth (I think he might be teething) and has "found" his hands. He coos and makes noises all the time, it is adorable! He is also super smiley. Oh-fun, fun. Jill (one of my best friends from Gainesville) came to visit last weekend. It was a quick trip but it was fabulous seeing her and hanging out. We had a great time! As I type this I realize we didn't get any photos...darn it! Jill-if you are reading this, you'll just have to come out again to visit! :)

Here are some more fun photos - enjoy!

Just Call Her Tink

Our Little Super Hero!

December 25 - Jingle Bells

Merry Christmas everyone! Grammy and Uncle Chad flew in town on Thursday and it was fabulous having them here. They both had fun playing with Julia and snuggling with Luke, especially Grammy! I really appreciated having an extra pair of hands in the house to help out-it almost felt like vacation for me. I usually lay him down to do stuff around the house and listen to the poor guy scream, so it was nice doing chores in peace. Before I dive into our fantastic Christmas, let's rewind to Christmas eve. A big Christmas eve dinner is a tradition in the Yamo family so J.D. put together a fabulous meal. We had ham (my favorite meat..yum), carrots, potatoes, green beans and pumpkin cheesecake. It was fabulous! Before bed that night, we left cookies and milk for Santa (we planned to leave carrots for the reindeer but discovered Julia and Amelia ate them all). Julia drew a special picture for Santa but didn't want to leave it for him next to the fireplace. She kept saying "No! That's mine." We convinced her to leave it with the cookies and Santa was kind enough to leave it for her in the morning with a special message thanking her for the delicious snack. Julia was very excited for Santa to come and kept singing Jingle Bells..over...and over...and over again.

On Christmas morning, Julia was so excited when she saw all the gifts under the tree that she did a dance-it was beyond adorable!! Check out all those gifts...hmm, I think it's safe to say she is a tad spoiled (90% of those gifts were for her). It took us almost 5h to open all the gifts because Julia wanted to play with everything she opened. It was adorable. There are too many gifts and people to thank individually so I'd just like to say thank you to everyone for thinking of our family and helping making our day special! Julia is having a ball playing with her new kitchen set, dolls, makeup and books.

Here are some great holiday photos, enjoy!

Smiley Luke

The Fam


Daddy & Luke Snoozin' After Opening Gifts


Grammy & the Kids

Uncle Chad & Julia

Julia Playing with her new kitchen [in her Halloween costume which she wears all the time now]

Mommy & Her Babies

December 14 - Lucky Seven

Happy Birthday 2 month birthday Luke. We went to the doctor today and he is one healthy baby. Here are his latest stats:
*10lb 15oz (25th-50th percentile)
*22.5" (50th percentile)
*100% adorable
(I recently downloaded pictures from J.D.'s phone and here is actually Luke's first ever photo - how cute is our little guy?

As dedicated Bean followers are aware, Luke is not a great sleeper. The good news is that we determined that he CAN sleep on his own. How you ask? First-we must double swaddle him tightly. Next-we must rock him asleep in our arms and hold him for a minimum of an hour. Then- we gingerly lay him down and hope for the best. We've had mixed results over the last few weeks but great success over the weekend. He slept Saturday night from 9pm to 4am (10pm-4am in the pack 'n play) and Sunday night from 9pm to 3am (10pm-3am in the pack 'n play). I wish I could say I slept too but Julia woke me up Saturday night and Amelia barked for an hour Sunday night which didn't facilitate a good night sleep for me (luckily, the kids slept through her barking. I think she saw a cat or raccoon in our backyard although I didn't see anything. She rarely barks like that). Last night he slept from about 9:30pm to 1am..not horrible but not as good as the previous 2 nights. Hopefully tonight goes well.

In other fun news, Luke rolled over on Sunday!! He's been able to roll onto his shoulders for a couple weeks now but now he can go all the way over. I was pretty shocked. Otherwise, we had a great weekend. Our neighbors Girl Scout troop had a Christmas part of sorts in our cul-de-sac on Friday night. There were approx. 50 people singing Christmas carols. They also had hot cocoa and cookies. Then on Saturday we went to Emma and Sarah's house for a playdate. The girls were so adorable together-playing dress up and having tea parties. Amelia came too and Sarah played with her for quite a while (Amelia was so pooped when we got home she passed out snoring under the Christmas tree!). We went to the Radford's on Sunday where Julia and Hannah had fun playing with a kitchen set making me and "sandwiches" and "cookies." Overall-great weekend!

To cap off this post, here are some fun things Julia has said recently:
*I have pretty princess hair mommy.
*I listen. This is not a joke. (I realize when I reprimand her for not listening I tell her 'this is not a joke.')
*When she asks for something I say to her "What is the magic word?" She'll smile and say "Magic word!" then will say "Please."

(and that is our little Julia bean "swaddled" in her favorite afghan, she is so cute!)

December 7 - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Christmas is just around the corner and our little Julia bean is getting very excited. Our Christmas tree is up and it looks fab! J.D. usually puts the lights on (he wraps every strand with lights and it takes hours, not too mention about 20 strands) but he's out of town this week so I did it myself. I'm proud to say I finished the lights (I think I used 6 or 7 strands) and decorations in a few hours and it looks beautiful (J.D. saw a picture and said it looks gorgeous but it needs more lights, hehe). I still need his help to put the angel on top (not sure if you can tell in this photo but it isn't actually on the top of the tree). We upgraded our stocking hangers from "JOY" to "PEACE" to accommodate our growing family and I love that I can finally hang them off a mantle (we didn't have anywhere to really hang them in our Gainesville house). Of course, being a klutz I've broken the hanger on the "C" twice already (note to self: take the stocking off the hanger before putting anything in it) so we always have superglue on hand.

We usually celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with J.D.'s. This year his mom and brother Chad are flying to Houston and we are all super excited to celebrate with them. Julia tells me every day that 'Grammy and Uncle Chad are coming on an airplane' and she can't wait to play with them! She also wants to go to the zoo again. There is a new exhibit opening this month but all she can talk about are the elephants.

In other fun holiday news, we went to a children Christmas party at J.D.'s work this past weekend and had a good time. It was geared toward older kids but I enjoyed making crafts with Julia (homemade ornaments). I think she'll really enjoy it when she is 4 or 5. She did get to meet Santa and received her first Christmas gift (the little stinker tried to take more than one present!). We didn't get a photo with Luke because he was sleeping and we didn't want to disturb him, but I'm sure we'll get a great Santa shot with him next year. Julia also LOVES LOVES LOVES looking at outdoor holiday lights. Every day after school we drive around the neighborhood looking at lights and she gets super excited. It is adorable!

Making Holiday Ornaments
Our Little Elf [Luke's party outfit]
My Favorite Photo of Luke-I am in love with him!

Happy Holidays everyone! If you are having trouble getting into the holiday spirit, I recommend listening to the Christmas music station (it rocks!) on the radio or check out the one on Pandora. I'm also a huge fan of lighting some fun candles (I'm a huge fan of pumpkin, cinnamon and the pine scented ones). Just under three weeks to Christmas.....!!

December 6 - Fun Photos!

Hello peeps-here are some fun photos for your viewing pleasure:

Julia holding hands with Luke

Fun with Daddy
Fun with Mommy
Jules loves Uncle Bryan!
Uncle Greg, J.D. and the girls at the zoo


The girls checking out the beautiful fish at the zoo