Budding Photographer

Santa brought Olivia her own camera and here are some of her masterpieces....

Naughty List

I haven't talked about Olivia for a while, sorry, kind of been busy with Malaki. My mom was able to come out for Malaki's surgery and it was really great to see her again for a quick visit for the holidays and of course she brought gifts with her. Olivia asked to open her gift every hour of every day with the answer being no and to wait for Christmas morning. About 2 days before Christmas I was walking by the tree after taking a shower and I noticed that there wasn't any presents under the tree any longer, so I called for Olivia and walked into her room to find this:



After a time out and saying sorry I just put the presents in my room, so they were no longer a temptation, Olivia asked if she was still on Santa's naughty list, daddy and I told her that because she told the truth and repented for opening the presents that no, she was no longer on the naughty list. She was very happy to hear that Santa was still coming to our house.

Malaki Update

My sweet little guy did so well. Yesterday (Wednesday) was a long day for us all but he looks wonderful! He's eating like a champ already and I've even gotten a little smile out of him once or twice. The stitches come out on Monday but he'll have to wear arm bands (called no nos) for 6 weeks to prevent him from touching his mouth. Olivia is very concerned about his mouth and wanted to know what "those black dots were". We explained that the doctor fixed his hole and those "black dots" were called stitches. She's loves her brother and gave him a sweet kiss on his head and reminds us all to "not touch his mouth".

Here he is waiting for his turn. They gave him this cute shirt to wear that says the hospital's name on it. By the time this picture was taken Malaki was very hungry and it was another hour before they took him back. It was very hard to hand him over but it was well worth it!

This was taken tonight when we got home, so a little over 1 day post op. I love his new little mouth.

I love his new profile, can you tell that I just love this kid?

A priceless Smile

Tomorrow at 8:45am we get to check in at Cooks Children's hospital and say good bye to Malaki's cleft lip and hello to a new, improved priceless smile. We have been waiting for this day since we found out that our little angel was going to be born with a cleft. This is only the first of many surgeries but I'm told the first is always the hardest (on the moms and dads). Thank you all for your love and support and I can't wait to post Malaki's new smile.

Getting Ready for Christmas

We finally got a tree and Olivia was very excited to help decorate. Of course, there is no pictures at this time. I'm still on the activities committee at church and we did a ham dinner last Friday night. Olivia and Malaki both fell asleep before Santa and Mrs Clause made their appearances, so no pictures of that either. So what do I have pictures of? Olivia helping me make cookies and some adorable picture daddy took of the kids when we were practicing. I also have pictures of the berry pie I made for the ward Christmas party, Mrs Smith has nothing on me!

4 months old

Yikes where has the time gone? Malaki is a getting to be a big boy, as of this last Tuesday, he weighed in at 12 pounds, 2 ounces.
New accomplishments for him are:
*less head bobbing, so out came the exersaucer, he loves it!
*first road trip, to Aunt Cheryl's for Thanksgiving
*doesn't crawl but does this inch worm move with his bottom and he gets traction and is on the move, includes rolling!
*laughs out loud- his favorite thing to laugh at, his mom! Especially when I sing the "Malaki Song"
Malaki song (do your ears hang low)
Yes my names Malaki
and I'm a cute small fry
I've got brown hair
and I've got brown eyes
I've got a big, wide smile
that you can see for a mile
Yes, my names Malaki

**update:
echo showed mild pulmonary stenosis, and we received a clearance. As of today, surgery is scheduled for December 17th at 10 am.

Random pictures

Because I think my kids are cute and my family in California is missing out, here are some recent photos of the monsters:


I like this one, it looks like Malaki is complaining about having his photo taken by dad.


It's hard work being a 3 month old!


Because dad is the offical photographer, there isn't too many photos where he's in front of the camera.


Don't let him fool you, he really likes the water!


She cracks me up

Thanksgiving

We were very fortunate to be able to join Cheryl's family for Thanksgiving up in Oklahoma this year (they came to our house last year- do I see a new tradition?). The drive was a little long with 3 kids (Logan, Olivia and Malaki) but it was well worth it!

Wednesday: left town around 6:30-7:00pm and arrived in Oklahoma a little after 1 am. The kids slept most the ride, which made it bearable.

Thursday: slept in, well, only as long as the kids would allow us. Helped with cooking, created the annual football poll for the Dallas game and pretty much ate ourselves silly. Cheryl and I took the kids to see Bolt, don't ask how it was because Olivia and slept during the movie.

Friday: Another lazy day. Tomas worked remotely so we didn't have to rush home. Did some shopping, nothing crazy black Friday kind. Some friends of Cheryl and Glen invited us all over for dinner and playing cards, learned a new game called "Mormon Bridge", it was a lot of fun.

Saturday: Slept as long as the kids would allow us and got everyone packed up for the drive home. We stopped in Norman, OK at this really cool museum that had a dinosaur exhibit that was the best that I have ever seen.

** Sparkles **

Christmas came early for Olivia and she got one of her all time wishes, a kitty (her other one is a pony-still working on that one). Sparkles is a female, all black kitty that we adopted from the city shelter. I finally talked Tomas into getting a cat after seeing 1 too many mice in the garage. She fits right into our family and shes loved very much by Olivia. Olivia carries her under her front legs and Sparkles doesn't care for it much. Good news is that the dogs don't really mind her. She loves Malaki, she's always trying to snuggle with him or lay on him. Her favorite place to hide from the dogs is on top of the refrigerator.

Look alikes

I came across this picture of the elephant that was in the Houston Zoo and I think I see a resemblance, what do you think?

Do you hear an echo?

Malaki had his echo cardiogram yesterday and I don't have the results yet but I just had to share how cute he was. I planned it just right that I fed him before we left and he slept the whole way there (about 1/2 hour)and once we got there he woke up in the waiting room. For the procedure, they laid him on some pillows and Malaki came alive! He stared talking, cooing, gurgling, smiling, you name it, he was doing it! The tech was talking to him, singing and couldn't believe how talkative he was. She was so impressed that she called in another tech to meet her "baby". She volunteered to watch him anytime I needed a break.

Coming home outfit

This was Malaki's coming home from the hospital outfit and I realized that I didn't have any photos of him in it. So before he grows out of it, here it is! And of course, sister had to pop her head in too!

Halloween

Ok, I better write this down before I forget!

The week of Halloween was a busy one and it started on Monday when we went to BOO in the Zoo with some friends. Olivia was going to be a lady bug and wore the costume once and never put it back on. She wanted to be the octopus (costume from 2 years ago) and yes it fit, technically, but was too short in the legs and arms. Well, about an hour before we were to leave, she decided she didn't want to be an octopus anymore. She wanted to be a princess fairy, so we got her dress up box out and she picked her costume by herself. Boo in the Zoo was cute, the kids trick r treated and did carnival games. Olivia of course missed her nap and was grumpy and mostly sat in the stroller. Malaki was a bee!


Thursday was a costume party at school. She changed her costume to be a ballerina. She actually let me do ballerina hair! But we didn't really have ballerina items, so while she was in school I went to Target and got her real ballerina slippers and leotard.


When she got home from school and saw her "new costume" she was in heaven. She put them on and wore the new costume to the Ward's Trunk r treat that night and slept in it and wanted to wear it again the next day but I told her no because it needed to be washed! So by the time the real Halloween came around, she decided that she didn't want to go trick r treating and we stayed home with a friend.



Here she is practicing her ballerina moves.

Photo tag

My sister-in-law, Leslee tagged me photo style and since I bailed on the last game of tag and this one seems easy (no running involved and I won't be "it" forever because I can't catch anyone). Rules: post the 4th photo of the 4th photo file and blog about it.


I kind of cheated due to this is Tomas's computer and the true 4th file is "before me" and I wouldn't have anything to say about it. This photo was not used but is one of our engagement photos. It was taken up in Washington before Tomas moved down to California. And the reason we didn't use it is because 1) I look fat and 2) it looks like he's resting his head on my chichis....LOL
I tag my "Justin Sisters"

3 months old

Where has the time gone? Malaki turned 3 months today and is feeling a little under the weather, actually Olivia, Malaki and I have had colds for the past week or so, mine lasting the longest! He's perfecting his rolling over moves, "talking" and of course smiling! I think the newest thing for him has been sleeping (8+ hours at night) and he's discovered his hands and puts them in his mouth. He also got a "big boy" church outfit and looks very handsome! Halloween deserves it's own post, it was a crazy week!

*update- Malaki saw his peditrician and sugeron today. He has an ear infection and a possible heart murmur. The sugeron wants a clearence for the heart before moving forward (better to be safe then sorry, which I agree) and we also have to coordinate with an ENT doctor, so we're looking at most likely an early December surgery. I'm getting excited and nervous!

Smile part 2

Grandma asked for a better photo of Malaki's smile and daddy did a better job then mom, so here it is!

kids

funny things Olivia has said:

"itchy-itis"... "you know mom, it's when you itch"
"spider door"... what she calls the space between the bricks on the house


Malachi- he had an evaluation done today for a program from the state of Texas. He's automatically qualified due to his cleft but I had them do the evaluation anyway. He's 10 pounds 14 1/2 ounces (woo hoo) and he scored as a 3 month old in the developmental areas they check (cognitive, motor, social and communication.

Smiles

“Smile - It's the second best thing you can do with your lips.”



Olivia's smile



I tried to capture Malaki's goofy little smile, my slow camera didn't really capture it...I'll keep on trying

Photo catch up...

Learning to fly...Malaki lays on his tummy and lifts his back legs, it looks like he's trying to fly(or doing a face plant) it's pretty funny to watch.


Olivia's new hair cut


Olivia's definition of "quiet time in her room"...she's in the door way after destroying her room with toys


Olivia changing Malaki...she's an expert!

snug as a bug

Malaki has learned to lay down with his pacifier and go to sleep. I know a lot of moms out there that will say duh when they read this but I missed the window of opportunity with Olivia and I'm just so happy that Malaki does it for me. Additionally, he likes to sleep on his tummy, it's so cute! To give me peace of mind, I totally recommend Bebe Sounds (Leslee will be proud of me, he sleeps in his crib too!)