M&M Week

The last week of July brought us alot of fun when Mimi & Mia came for a visit! Gaby had the week off and her nanny was on vacation so....Mimi to the rescue! The three girls had a fun week together (that included storytime, the Children's Museum & even a little Chuck E. Cheese!!) and Papa even came for the weekend to see his beautiful granddaughters. Gaby & Mia together are about the cutest thing you've ever seen! They basically spent the whole time upstairs together playing, talking, laughing and getting into everything. Listening in on their conversations was so completely entertaining! They are too funny! I am always so happy when they get to spend time together. Their friendship is awesome!!

Summer Camps

Gaby has had a great summer break! Some weeks she attended camps and other weeks she got to just be lazy and hang around. Overall, it was a great mix of fun activities and she seemed to really enjoy it all. After Riverbend and a week off, she went to gymnastics camp... then art camp (which had a Dr. Seuss theme-fun!)....
and finally a dance camp (No pics from that week but maybe a video coming soon!).

Each camp had a friend or two she already knew to add to the fun! We were very pleased with all of the camps and are so happy Gaby enjoyed her summer break at all of these neat camps.

Riverbend Summer Fun!

This was Gaby's second year at Riverbend Church's Summer Fun. It's a four week camp at this great church by our house. Last year we were very pleased with the camp and Gaby has asked about it basically all year long. We were again so happy with her experience this year! She had a blast and did lots of neat things like making ice cream, feeding animals at the petting zoo, and got to see a real magician in action!

Another great thing this year was that she was joined by her best bud, Ellington! Having a friend there always makes things even more fun! Here are the few pics I managed to take...

Ms. Emma & Ms. Jennifer

Already looking forward to next year!!

Happy Independence Day!

We enjoyed the usual 4th of July parade with Gaby's best bud, Ellington, and her family and then went to the park where they had lots of activities and ice cream! It was blazing hot by 10am!! After that we went to another friend's house for a swimming party and got to cool off but forgot to take pictures. The bad part of this year's 4th of July festivities was that since Central Texas is in an extreme drought there were NO fireworks anywhere around us. Such a bummer!

My patriotic cutie...

Ellie was not in the mood for photos...

The parade....

This old guy is my favorite part of the parade...

The candy stash!!

Father's Day X2

We celebrated Father's Day twice this year. The actual Father's Day was spent in Houston with Gaby's Pito because Byron was on call working all weekend. The following weekend we celebrated "Father's Day Redo" with Byron so we could actually spend the whole day together. Happy Father's Day to two wonderful men!!
And to the other fathers in our lives that we did not get a chance to spend time with, we were with you in spirit :)

Our Newest Fave Activity....

Carrying poor Rosko around EVERYWHERE like he's a little baby.

Doesn't he just look like he's loving life?? ;-)

Anna Maria Island 2011

We just got back from beautiful Anna Maria Island, FL! We usually go there every year but missed last year due to the oil spill and other issues. So we were extra excited to go back this year. We were able to meet up with my very good friend Laurel and her wonderful boys- Cole, Brady & Wyatt. Gaby just loved playing with the boys and had fun running around with them. This trip had one main focus and that was relaxation and we definitely accomplished that. We all (including Gaby!) slept in every morning and just enjoyed hanging out on the beach spending time together. It's one of our favorite places!

Anna Maria Island 2011

"A You're Adorable" Dance Recital

Gaby's dance recital was this weekend. Gaby and her ballet friends are very close so they were pretty excited to put on another show. This year there was lots of dancing, lots of singing and not too much shyness! They did so awesome! I was backstage mom this year so I got to hang out with the girls in the back.

Here are a few pics... Backstage... "A you're Adorable, B you're so beautiful, C you're a cutie full of charm..." The "Ballet Girls"- (they combined two classes so I don't know the first three) Gaby, Charlotte, Zoe, Hampton, Maddie, Sloan & Reese. Aren't they just "adorable"??

Graduation?

At Gaby's little Spanish immersion preschool, Jardin de Ninos, she has somehow always been in class with kids that are a year older than her. She basically just keep moving up with her classmates regardless of being the youngest. And so as this year concludes we came to the realization that the next step at this school is for her to attend the Kindergarten class next year.

When I realized that, I struggled with it for a few reasons:
1. I'm not really ready for my little baby to be going to Kindergarten
2. I'm not sure if I want her to go to school 5 days a week
3. It's pretty darn expensive.

So Byron and I thought about all the pros and cons about her going to Kindergarten a year early and came to the decision that if the school thinks she's ready then we shouldn't hold her back and we love that fact that she will be immersed in Spanish for one more year. So we registered her for Jardin's Kindergarten for next fall and then the following year she will go to her public school Kindergarten and hopefully not be too bored. Our thoughts were that although academically she will know the subject matter she will still have alot to adjust to- a new, much bigger school, the language difference, and all new classmates and teachers. We hope that we have made the right decision for her.

So yesterday was her preschool graduation! So cute!

Here are a few of the shots...

Her best bud, Chloe...

Gaby's teachers, Ms. Monica & Ms. Alejandra...

Congrats Grad!!!

Full of Love

We are full of love around here! It's so great! Gaby is constantly telling us how much she loves us and we are eating it up. I thought I would document it because I'm sure it will only be a few short years before she decides that she hates us and we are the most uncool, mean parents for some crazed, hormonal teenage reason. But for now, we will bask in the glory of our sweet little girl always telling us how special we are and that she looooooves us the most :) I wonder if she's buttering us up because she knows someone is about to take her spotlight a little bit? Anyway, here are a few of the warm and fuzzy things we get to hear around here:

"I love you to the moon and back!"
"I love you to the North Pole!"
"I love you all the way to God! (she knows God is past the sky and stars)
"I love you the mostest!'
"You are the beeeest!"
"I love you all the day!"
"You are my sweet Mama/Daddy!"

We truly have the sweetest little girl in the whole world! Nothing makes you feel better than hearing things like that! We are so blessed :)

A Dental Lesson for All: Irony at it's best!!

Remember when I wrote about "A Dentist's Worst Nightmare"? Well, to my surprise there is actually something more sad than that to worry about. This story is so completely ironic I don't even know where to start. How about the beginning??....so how ever many months ago, I told ya'll about how Gaby had chipped her front tooth and luckily I was able to add some bonding to make it look back to normal right? Unfortunate but very fixable and actually not so big of a deal. Well, we were going along enjoying our life when right before Easter we discovered that Gaby's little tooth that she fractured had an abcess!! (That means, that the tooth was "dying" and had formed an infection around the root.) Now this was very sad to me because there is really only one solution for this- extraction. But being as I know the best dentists in town, I begged my good friend, Brad (a pediatric dentist) to try some hero-odontics and attempt to do a baby root canal on her tooth just to buy us some more time with the tooth. Afterall, my sweetie is only 4 yrs old and not expected to start losing teeth for another TWO years!! I just couldn't accept that reality just yet. Luckily, Brad agreed, we put her on some antibiotics and scheduled her for the procedure. The abcess was clearing and we were days from our appointment when the most unbelievable thing happened.....my sweet daughter came into our room one night, bloodied and crying uncontrollably!! What on earth had happened to her? Well, for the first time in her ENTIRE life, she had somehow fallen off of her bed!!! And as I'm wiping the blood from her cheek and nose and noticing that there are no cuts or damage to her face it dawns on me that there is only one place for that much blood to come from.....as I lift her lip......to my horror she had somehow landed smack dab on nothing else but that d^#m tooth! Is that not the most IRONIC thing ever?? The tooth was bloodied and bruised and loose. My heart just sank because I knew the inevitable was going to happen and truly a dentist's worst nightmare was coming true. So the next morning we headed to see Dr. Brad who took an xray and confirmed the fact that the poor tooth was a goner. I did weep a little for the tooth but had to remind myself that there are soooo many worse things that could have happened to my sweetie and I am very lucky that she is a healthy, happy little girl. Soooo, two days later under some sedation, a very cooperative big girl saw Dr. Brad and had her tooth extracted. She did so extremely amazing! She was the perfect patient! We are very proud of her! The next morning when Gaby discovered the $5 the tooth fairy left her she was as happy as could be and actually thinks it's very cool to have a missing tooth. Me? I don't think it's so cool but truthfully?? her little toothless smile is growing on me and she is still as cute as a button!! Sadly, it does make her look alot older than she is, doesn't it? Like a crazed pageant/dentist mom, I have sent out for a replacement tooth (a tiny, child partial denture) just in case we ever want her to throw it in for a picture or something. We'll see if she actually wears it!

So that's my sad story. Truly unbelievable, don't you think??

Mother's Day

A Mother's Day spent with my beautiful mom and adorable daughter is a perfect Mother's Day in my book!! I love them both with all my heart :)

Thanks, Tramontes!

We just got back from 5 glorious days in Seagrove/Seaside, Florida!! It was our first time there and what a beautiful beach and town. Powder sand beaches and clear blue water!! It's really important in life to know people with connections and we are lucky enough to be related to some of those people. My wonderful sister and brother in law, Candie and Steven, have purchased a rental home in Florida! So last month they asked us to join them for a few days at the beach and you know me, when it comes to vacations on the beach- I am there!!! Unfortunately, Byron's schedule is not as flexible as mine so the poor guy had to stay home and work but Gaby and I rearranged some things and were on the first plane out so as to not miss out on this great opportunity! The beach house, Bananarama, is so lovely and has every amenity one could need while on vacation. We enjoyed some quality time with Mimi, Papa and the Tramonte clan while soaking up some sun and picture perfect spring weather in Florida. We loved it!! We can't wait to go back! If you like what you see you can also stay at Bananarama (just click on the name to be taken to it's website) Shameless plug ;)