Blogging madness: Updates on the way!!

When I first started this blog, I always said that this was going to be like a journal for my girls to read when they are older.  My life used to be an open book and I really didn't mind that all my adventures were in a public blog.  The end of 2009 brought so many changes to our life that it didn't seem right to keep posting in an everyday basis as I was not going to be able to write as openly as I liked.

BUT, I was looking back at my old posts and it makes me sad that I never wrote the day to day things from 2010 until now.  As we get older, our memory is not the same, and I confess that I can't remember details as much as I would like to.

Luckily, I did post some things in Facebook and I will take the time to update this blog with the main events from our life during these last few years.  Even though I stopped posting towards the end of 2009, there are some updates on us up to November 2011.  Back then, I made a post for each one of the girls with details and updates about them up to that point.  With that being said, I will post updates with the main events that I can remember (with the help of Facebook and my pictures) starting December 2011 until now.  I started yesterday and already made three posts December 2011... It's fun to look back and I'm sure I will enjoy these updates very much!  I will make a new post once the blog is up to date.

Also, I did a blog makeover and I love how it looks now, even though it looks better in the computer than how it looks on mobile version.

And just because a post without pictures is just too boring, I'm including pictures from the girls from this weekend with some of our pets (that's a another post) and also a picture from my oldest nephew (remember him?)

2015 already! :O

So, yeah.... It's been so long that it is not even funny! I keep making promises about updating my blog, but I spend so many hours updating my customers blogs that I honestly cant find a second to update mine. And even as I'm posting right now, I already have to run. For now, I will leave you with our Holiday Card.  I did a very unusual card as this year I included my brother's family.  And also updated the little pictures/ages from the header.

As the letter are so small, here it is what it says for each one:
* Gabriela, The 6th Grader, drama queen, animal lover, tech geek girl
* Camila, The 3rd Grader, sentimental, helper, funny clown, sweet
* Amelia, The 2nd Grader, smartie pants, boss, silly, early bloomer

I promise I will post an update about each one ASAP!!

Not ready for American Idol

As mostly every little girl I know, my girls are crazy about Frozen.  They love all the songs, and they know them all in both versions... English and Spanish.

One of the gifts they got from Santa was a microphone and they asked me to record them singing "Libre Soy" which is the Spanish version of "Let it Go"...

I'm sure they are not ready for American Idol, but they are still adorable. Gotta love Mimi's style too!

A pup's birthday

My nephew's pup, Lila, turned one and a party was done to celebrate.

This pup "resuscitate" today after being lost for two days and it was just an amazing experience for all of us, especially for my girls and nephew.

Lila did something that I have only seen in movies today.  She was able to get to our old neighbor's house, we assume it was because it was the only place that was familiar for her (as we moved last month).  The houses are far away, and we still don't know how she got there. But she did. It was like a miracle!

So, today, was a very happy day and we have enough dogs (and even a cat) in our house to be able to do a big party. On this picture, Gaby is holding Luca, Mia is holding Loly aKa Angie, my nephew is holding Lila (the birthday girl), Mimi is holding Gatie, and I'm holding Lupita (my mom's old dog that is around 12 years old)...


When we were going to sing happy birthday, ss soon as we light up the candle, the cat RAN away!! I'm talking that she JUMPED and ran away like if her pants were on fire. The way the kids reacted was priceless!

It's Christmas Time again!

It is THAT time my girls look forward the most. No birthday or holiday is as important as this date. I may have said this before, but they start making her list for Santa every December 26th. Those items on the lists change a lot during the year, but the line "I want this from Santa next Christmas" is something I hear ALL YEAR long.

There was a leftover cake in the house, and that is what Santa got this year.  I know he was very thankful because he ate it all.  cake from Lila's birthday and he was very thankful... In this picture on the right you can also see the tags Santa had done for the girls.... Also the "Happy Jar 2015" were they will put pieces of papers during the whole year with notes of good moments so we can all read together next Christmas.  I got the idea from Pinterest and I may do a separate post about it.

At 6:25am they were already on my bedside SCREAMING for me to wake up... They are well trained to know they cannot open their presents without me and before taking a picture... They know better...


This year they also got cupcakes... I did the decor after we picked up all the gifts and mess.  They also got cookies and milk... They ate like little pigs...


We had LOTS and LOTS of fun opening the gifts and I'm happy to say that I didn't have to struggle much with childproof packaging... Most of the things where things that they were able to open by themselves. As usual, they spent the day playing with their new toys.

School's Family Day

Today was the Annual Family Day at school and we had an awesome time.  It was too sunny and too crowded to have my niece with us, so my nephew tagged along with us.

I love spending time with him without his parents because he behaves different when they are not around... He is more loving with me, he also respects me a lot and follows instructions... And of course, he cooperates with pictures (which he normally doesn't do).

There were some inflatables that they enjoyed a lot, but mostly it was the escalating wall that won them over. We also played dominoes and ate A LOT.  The sun was also unbelievable and that didn't help with the pictures, but I did get some good ones... Here are just a few... On the one just below, Mia is posing with her BFF.




One of childhood friends from school went with me and it was so nice to have her there. We also spent time with the daughters of another childhood friend from school and we took some pictures. Even though the girls are not in the same location I went to school at, it is still the same school...

Preterm Baby: Mimi's Story

Today I'm posting because of the "Preemie Awareness Day" with Mimi's Story.

This pregnancy was emotionally consuming since I found out about it. I was told to terminate the pregnancy THREE times because according to the doctors I was going to die because I had a pre-eclampsia with Mia 5 months before getting pregnant with her. Funny thing is that my blood pressure was never an issue during this pregnancy. Pregnancy was still labeled as high risk and I saw the doctor every 2 weeks since my prenatal care started. Also my doctor asked me to limit my activity level to the very minimum.

At some point during the second trimester, contractions started and they intensified in the third trimester. I also started taking L-Carnitine as according to my doctor, that was going to give the baby some extra fat. Because of the contractions I had several hospital stays, complete bedrest and was able to get two steroids shots

At 34 weeks, I was admitted again because I was getting 4 contractions in 10 minutes. The IV meds they gave me were able to keep them under control. However, I noticed Mimi wasn't moving. She would only move during a contraction. My doctor ordered a Biophysical Profile Ultrasound which measures 5 categories: Fetal movement, Fetal tone, Fetal breathing, Amniotic fluid volume and Fetal Heart Rate. Each category aims to get a score of 2 points. The result was: Very low level of amniotic fluid (oligohydramnios), no fetal movement after 30 minutes, placental calcification (looked like a placenta with 40 weeks of pregnancy), and the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around her neck.

For this reason, my doctor decided to performed a c-section,  He told me we were going to wait 4 hours because I had a full stomach. Then, a couple of hours later, Mimi's heartbeat started to drop and I was rushed to the operating room.

Mimi was born at 34,2 weeks weighting 4 pounds and 6 ounces. She got pneumonia and anemia, and needed blood transfusions. As I have an unusual blood, I had already researched for a donor and he rushed to help us. She was also born with respiratory distress, jaundice and was tube fed for 3 days. On day 3 she was transferred to an isolate with free oxygen. She ate for the first time on day 4, and that's when I held her for the first time. Just as Mia, she was discharged after 6 days in the NICU and needed 3 daily trips back to the hospital for IV meds. She was still with a little bit of low temperature when she was discharged, but she was fine.

She was discharged with almost 4 pounds (in the picture you can see how her head is the size of my fingers) and I needed to combine breastmilk with a high calorie formula for the first month (just like I did with Mia). After month 5 she refused to be breastfeed anymore.

As far as long term consequences, she has vision problems since age 5. She is also very petite and skinny for her age, even though she eats extremelly good. She is growing just at a very slower pace.

Throwback Thursday #11

For this week's ‪#‎tbt, I'm posting the same idea of the previous weeks... Pictures of all of us at 4 years old.....

My 100 Happy Days: Day #89

Seeing those smiles today made me REALLY happy! Wonder if they would ever know the joy I feel with every single one of their smiles

Gaby's Spa Slumber Party

I have to say that this is one of the parties that I have enjoyed the most. Gaby's actual birthday was a month ago, but the best timing to do a party with a sleepover was this weekend.

I'm thankful that my daughters have always understand when I need to do the parties later on... either because of the budget or because of other factors, and they are always ok with my decisions. They simply get happy and thankful that I do something special for them, regardless of when I do it.

As it was a sleepover and only one mom was staying with me, I decided to have only three guests... That means 6 girls including my girls. Here is the invitation I made for her...


As it was a sleepover, I did a decoration for the night and another for the morning. For the night decor it was more focused on the Spa part.  Then, the morning decor was more focused on their breakfast.  It was already set up when they woke up in the morning. They were all thrilled!


The biggest hit of the night was taking a picture with every hour. The first picture was taken at 7pm and the last one was taken at 3am. They were all still awake at 4am, and I was dead! I was still able to hear their voices but I was unable to move to take the picture!


At every hour they were doing something different. The picture just above on the left was the 10pm picture when they were eating hot dogs and mini pizzas. I lost count of how many times they repeated! Then, the picture next to it is the midnight picture... They were showing off the spa dolls they did for arts and crafts..

Here is the 1am picture while they were eating pop corn and watching a movie. Then, the picture at 3am when I asked them to go to sleep but it took them over an hour to fall asleep.


They really had a blast and they are already making plans for the next sleepover. Here is the thank you note I made...


I will be posting pictures of all the designs on my business blog.  I will update this post as soon as they are up.

Throwback Thursday#10

For this week's ‪#‎tbt, I'm posting the same idea of the previous weeks... Pictures of all of us at 3 years old...

Throwback Thursday #9

For this week's ‪#‎tbt‬, I'm just going to continue with the same idea as the previous ones... Here is what we all looked like at 2 years old...

Throwback Thursday #8

As a sequence for last week's newborn version of us, here is what we all looked like at 1 year old... ‪#‎tbt‬...

Throwback Thursday #7

For today's ‪#‎tbt‬, here is the "Newborn version" of all four of us...

My phone's background

I was updating the pictures that I have on my cell's background and it is amazing how all of our faces look so different and it's only been a few months. This is a before and after screen shot of my phone's home page...

My 100 Happy Days: Day #30 PLUS Throwback Thursday #5

Looking through old pictures for the ‪#‎tbt‬ for today and found this picture that made me smile soooooo much. It shows their personalities just as they are and takes me back to awesome memories

Throwback Thursday #4

For today's ‪#‎tbt‬, we are back to the end of 2009... Simply one of my favorite pictures ever. My 3 little flowers are simply my reason to have the strength to keep my head up every day! I just hope their bond as sisters never breaks!

Throwback Thursday #3

For today's ‪#‎tbt,‬ we are back to 2009. We visited the Columbus Alcazar. It is the only known house for the Christopher Columbus's family. We had sooo much fun that day! Gaby is using the eyeglasses that Mimi uses currently...

Throwback Thursday #2

For this week's #TBT, I'm posting a picture of the First Christmas with all three girls together... This is from December 2007. One of my favorite memories ever...

The pets are assigned

There are 2 pups and 3 kids. I knew it was going to be an issue to determine the "sharing" system, because they are all crazy about them. However, a neighbor gave us a kitty and the problem resolved itself.

Mimi said she wanted the kitty, and that made the process easier. Mia chose the female dog, which I named Loly... and Gaby chose the male dog, which I named Luca. Mia wanted to call her dog "Angie" and I refused to because I have a friend with that name, but I have the feeling that she will still call her "Angie" when I cannot hear her.