a full house

I had no intention to do any potty training recently. Marisa had other plans in mind though. Thursday afternoon I was able to catch Marisa in time to poop in the toilet, (sorry for the potty talk), and right after she did, she says, "No more diapers! Now big girl underwear!"

I was like...whaaat...

Well, alright I thought, here we go. She asked for it so lets give it a try. Of course, she had a few accidents which were so frustrating, but I stuck to it and I'm so glad I did. The very next day she had one accident in the morning and then that was it.
Potty trained.
I even had to go to the store, totally afraid of an accident, and she asked to go potty twice at the store! Wahoo!
One day is all it took.

And the reward for going everytime? Organic lollipops from Trader Joes that Marisa just loves.

We went through a whole box in one weekend. So worth it though.
The biggest bonus of all is that now Daddy has a pay raise. haha NO MORE PAYING FOR DIAPERS!!

I'm still in shock about the whole thing. It just happened so quickly and out of nowhere. And because of that I've had a few momentarily sad moments.

Sad because this is the last and final bit of baby in Marisa that just left for good.
No more bottles, no more crib, no more pacifers, no more naps, no more diapers. Literally, no baby left in her. Kinda hard for me to handle.

But this is why we have more than one kid right? Which brings me to my next baby...
Natalie has been going, going, going! In one month's time, she has learned (in this order)...

- to get down from a sitting position
- army crawl


- get back up into a sitting position
- crawl on all fours


- pull herself up




and TODAY...

-cruise along the couch




and wanting to reach out to other things to help her walk along! Wowzaa!!! This little house of mine has been bustin' out the seams with loads of milestones. Fun!

pinky up!

Marisa had a tea-party themed birthday party. I set up a tea-party outside with pink placemats and name cards where the kids ate finger sandwiches, sipped pink lemonade, and ate other finger foods.






Marisa has been talking about her birthday for weeks now. She has been beyond excited. So needless to say, the first thing in the morning Marisa went straight to the food table where I had everything set up and snuck a cupcake for breakfast.
Marisa LOVES balloons so just for her I had a dozen pink balloons scattered in the ceiling. She loved it, of course.
Marisa also loved opening her presents and getting new, fun toys. In fact, I crashed early at 8 o'clock last night while Marisa stayed up until 9:30 playing with her toys. She would not stop.
And of course, Marisa loved having her friends over. She kept talking for days about how all her friends were coming to her house for her birthday. Thanks friends for coming!














Later that night, Grandpa Wayne came down to take us and a few of Marisa's cousins out to eat at CPK.






Marisa's 3rd birthday was a special one. Just like the day she was born.

I have never really cared too much that she was getting older, but yesterday on her birthday was the first time I really felt that I wanted time to stop. I want her to stay three forever.

Happy Birthday, Marisa! We love you.

Happy Birthday Marisa!

being second in command

Sorry Natalie. Life's just not fair sometimes.

Some things just never change

Happy Easter!

No matter the occasion, Marisa loves going to Grandpa and Grandma's house. And for Easter we went up to LA for the weekend to celebrate this wonderful holiday with them and to watch General Conference.
I love Easter and the meaning of Easter. I'm especially grateful for my testimony of our Savior and for the knowledge that I have that He not only suffered and died for me, but that He lives and is ever so active in my life today as in days of old.

Here is a link to a beautiful Easter message by our Prophet and his Apostles: He Lives

In addition, Marisa got to enjoy the other Easter festivities. She dyed and decorated eggs for the first time and went on an egg hunt.






The Easter bunny also visited the girls and left some pretty fun treats!










Right after the usual delicious Easter dinner we had something a little unusual happen. We had an earthquake for dessert. (7.2 quake in Mexicali)
All in all, it's always great being with family and sharing memories.