NABE

I'm slowly trying to earn professional development credits to maintain my teaching certificate. Last October, I attended TABE in McAllen and this February, I attended NABE in Dallas. The conference was three days long and I brought Karina along with me. Meanwhile, Omar stayed home with the girls and took over my daily duties for 3 days in addition to simultaneously working from home. He basically worked until Elena was out of school. It was actually a nice break for me having a change of pace and I was thankful that Omar took over and gave me the opportunity to do this.

A friend and I initially planned to go with with our babies and alternate babysitting the babies at the hotel while the other went to the sessions but once there we decided to experiment bringing the babies along to the sessions and step out when needed. While it may possibly sound disastrous, it turned out perfectly this way. Karina slept in the stroller when she was tired and she rarely was noisy enough for me to have to step out. The best part was that nobody seemed to mind and I even saw at least two other parents there with their children in tow. I loved this special time with Karina and I also loved getting a refresher about teaching, dual language, and bilingual education and realizing that it all continues to be of great interest to me.

the babies playing

K sleeping in the hotel

After dinner
I loved this amazing wedding dress like cake I saw through a bakery window after dinner

February happenings

Can you tell I've been busy with 3 kids? I keep fearing I will stop blogging because I won't be able to keep up, but oh how I love going back to my old posts and cherising each moment all over again. So, I keep on even if I am behind.

In February, Elena's school had a dance party, a Pachanga. Marisa's school coincidentally was invited to perform for it and because the Director knew Elena she asked if Elena wanted to perform too. She did, and I learned that she loves performing. When it was over she asked if she could do it again. Elena performed a Folklorico dance to Tingo Lingo and Marisa tap danced to Arroz con Leche. I worried Marisa would change her mind about performing once she saw the crowd because this happened at rehearsal, but she did great and enjoyed it.









Omar's Mom wanted to watch the girls perform so she came up for a visit that weekend. We finally decided to go the Austin Zoo while she was here. We thought the size of the zoo was perfect and the girls really enjoyed the hands-on activities. It seems unbelievable that it was around 40+ degrees just last month and that it has since gone up to 80. I knew it was the last front so I made sure to enjoy it. It was sunny and we were perfectly warm all bundled up.








My favorite part of February was that Omar and I renewed our vows!!! Now it wasn't a thing we planned ourselves. Our wonderful church has a little celebration/recognition every year for World Marriage Day where it recognizes couples who completed (or will complete) years of marriage in increments of five. In August, Omar and I celebrate our 10th year anniversary of marriage so during mass we were recognized and even said wedding vows to each other! I did get teary eyed just feeling incredibly grateful for what we've accomplished. I was even more inspired by the longest married couple recognized for 65 years!!! AMAZING! Mass was then followed by a nice brunch which we enjoyed with Omar's mom and all our girls. We received a certificate and had our picture taken. I can't wait to renew our vows again in 15 years! This is the picture that was taken of us after the celebratory brunch.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Karina is ONE!

Okay, so I'm a month and a half late posting this and so behind on other posts too. I'll get to it I promise, but I had to get this one done before I forget what my little one year old has been up too.

Karina is a sweetie who just comes along for the ride. I feel like the poor girl spends a lot of her time in the car while I shuttle her big sisters to school and back. She rarely complains and is mostly content about these transitions. Each time I buckle her into her carseat I feel like apologizing but she rarely actually minds. Lucky for me she takes many naps in the car and when we arrive at home, I just carry her to her crib and she continues to sleep. I am so so thankful for her adaptability.

Karina reminds me a lot of Elena when she was a baby. Karina happily plays alone without getting into mischief. She does prefer to be by my side, and so she usually calls for me or tries to find me if I am not in the same room as her. She is sometimes shy and plays the cutest hiding game usually with Omar. He says her name sweetly while he smiles at her and she turns away burrowing her face acting shy. I love that I can always hand her off to Omar and he makes her feel happy and at ease the same way I do. I feel like the other babies typically had a preference toward me and while I know Karina does a tiny bit, usually Daddy is just as good.

Karina has a lovey which is something the girls didn't. She sleeps with one of those blankets with a head. It's a soft lamb that she holds when she sleeps and plays with when she wakes. It is very cute.

Karina spent the morning of her birthday celebrating Christmas and opening presents with her sisters. We then drove to Laredo and celebrated her birthday there. She loved the delicious cake Grandma made for her. She could've eaten it morning, noon, and night the whole time we were there. Have I mentioned how much this girl eats! She loves all food and I'd say meal times are her favortie parts of the day. Recently she's become so protective of her food. I think this began because one day I removed food out of her mouth when she was unsafely putting too much food in her mouth. Since the incident, if you mess with her food while she's eating, she bursts into tears. Despite all this eating, Karina is the smallest of all my babies. The other girls were always 50th percentile in height and weight and even now they still are. At her 1 year check up Karina was 27.75'' 19lbs and 1oz. which was 15th percentile in weight and 10th in height.

We are all so in love with our sweet Karina and think she fits right in. :)

Marisa the artist

Sometime before Christmas, Marisa had her artwork displayed at a local restaurant downtown. I'm always trying to find a reason to convince Omar to go downtown on a weekend so this was perfect. It was a crisp cold Sunday morning and we enjoyed the short walk to the restaurant and getting to see Marisa's beautiful work. She was so proud.