Valentine's Day learning with Education.com

Tomorrow is almost Valentine's Day! I don't know about you but I love Valentine's Day. Every year I try to do a little something special for the girl's and H on love day. This week is crazy though and the girl's scheduled activities are still on for tomorrow. I will have a sweet little surprise for them when they wake up though, and also make heart shaped pancakes. Tonight we'll be baking heart shaped chocolate chip cookies for the teachers and some friends. Should be fun!

Of course even with our busy schedules, homework still needs to be done and learning is an every day thing. My 6 year old is currently doing addition and subtraction in her class and this fun little Valentine's Day addition worksheet is great practice! Add more love to your learning as you practice addition with this worksheet from Education.com! If you love addition, check out these fun addition resources too.

Valentine's Day worksheets

Ava 1 week!

Summer poppy swaddle: {Little Unicorn}

Red headband & lace onesie: Made by me

Our little Boca baby is one week old! Today is actually her due date and it's already going by too fast. NNNOoooooo! She has been amazing so far. Pretty much just eats, sleeps, and poops. She's been so much easier than my last two. Ava has been doing wonderfully at nursing however her first latch is really strong and I'm cringing every time I put her on the breast. Luckily it's only at first. My shoulders and muscle knots already ache from nursing around the clock, but I will get stronger. Her birth weight was 6 lbs 6 oz, 6lbs 1 oz when we left the hospital and she's now 6 lbs 9 oz so the weight is coming on. 

The other girls had colds when I went into labor and a few days later H and I both got what they had, so we've all been sick in the house. We've been watching Ava like a hawk for any signs of a cold but she has been healthy with no signs of a cold. Thank God! We're praying she doesn't catch it. 

My flower child.

{Chambray dress} {Gold sandals} {Floral headband}

Layla has such a tender heart. Currently she loves flowers, snuggling my arm like her little sister, wearing my pink t-shirts and sweets. She had her terrible 2 moments, but I really enjoyed age 3 and her age now. She still fights with Mariam a lot and screeches often when she's angry, but she is also very sweet and doesn't give me a hard time when I ask her to do something. It's so hard to believe she's 4 now. I know I say this all the time with the kids, but these years just went by so fast. 

A really late Valentine's Day Recap

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was spent working most of the weekend, though I did have a chance to meet up with my first friend in Boca. It was nice to have a night out! Right now it's back to Monday and I've got a few errands to run but I'm feeling so nauseous! Usual for me, but my energy has plummeted again as well. It's going to be hard dragging the girls around this afternoon but I don't have much of a choice.

Anyways, onto the very late Valentine's Day recap. The night before I laid out a few sweets, cards and a garland for the girls to wake up too. It was so sweet to hear their little squeals in the morning. Later I made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and then mini heart shaped cakes. 

After breakfast we got ready for our picnic. H had chocolate covered strawberries shipped to me the day before so I planned a little picnic for us Valentine's Day. I bought all the food and his favorite snacks and a card. Hopefully he didn't mind that he's the one that still had to cook the food. Haha!

Valentine's Day felt bittersweet. Of course it's a day for my loved ones, but the park was so nice as was our picnic that it made me think of our families back in Houston and I wish they could of been there that day to share it with us. 

Have a great Monday.

Our Anniversary and a hello..

I've been MIA for the past week or so here. H has been on vacation this week so my schedule is always different when he's here. Today is our anniversary! Our little get away we were hoping for without the kids didn't pan out because we couldn't find childcare, so instead we decided to just drive to San Antonio with the kids today for the weekend. My mom is coming into town in October for 3 weeks so while she is here, we are planning to fly somewhere with a few of our friends for a weekend without the kids. 

It's been so nice having H home for the week. It's a change of pace and the girls enjoy spending more time with him. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I'm so lucky to have him in my life. I'm just as crazy about him as I was back when we were dating. Sure the years have brought days were I have to roll my eyes at him so far that they feel like they are going to fall out of my head, but there are days were I will also just watch him for a little while as he sleeps and thank God he was put in my life. I feel incredibly blessed to have this family we made together. 

Wordless Wednesday



Nursery Reveal!

 

 At the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to update the nursery. My primary focus was adding in chic décor and delicate details to transform it into a sweet and elegant nursery. The nursery is my favorite room in the house with it's cathedral ceiling and stained glass windows. The girls and I spend a lot of time in there reading, playing, or just laying on our backs, staring at the light beaming through the windows and daydreaming.

 

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of pink and elegant details. I didn't turn to magazines, books, or other nurseries for inspiration. Instead I gained inspiration from gorgeous décor I came across on One Kings Lane and from various small shops. One Kings Lane is a destination where one can shop, get inspired with their home decor handbook, and find your favorite home and lifestyle brands. You can tell they put a lot of thought into handpicking only the finest items for your home and I just love the scenes they set up to display some of their wares.

 

Let's get onto the pictures!

 

 

I truly love the way the room came out and along the way I made some new friends, got to spend some time with my older brother who painted the wall (post here), and discovered that I wanted to move FHJ Baby nursery décor up ahead in production. The gorgeous sequin script pillow and wooden love sign will be a couple of the items available soon along with other decorative pillows, décor, and changing pad covers to start out with.

 

The bow window valance, faux fur rug, gold heart picture, wood love script and sequin script pillow were designed or made by me and it was also fun getting to know a few other shops that helped contribute into turning it into my dream nursery.

 

Here are the shops I worked with that provided some of the key elements that transformed the room:

 

Gold sequin hanger: c/o Oh Deer Ceative Shop

Damask stencil for wall: c/o Royal Design Studio Stencils

XOXO gold foil print: Collectivity Lane

Dream Big gold foil print: Abby & Grace

Pink satin rose ball in urn: Hobby Lobby

Clothes stand for ballet tutu: Ikea

 

There are so many other big retailers such as Target, Hancocks, Walmart, and Babies R us that I bought items for and I plan on doing another post sourcing everything and giving the breakdown on how I was able to bring this room together on a budget.

 

Have a great weekend!



Wordless Wednesday

Love

A few favorite pictures of 2013

Our Anniversary

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life, the father of my children, and the guy who still makes my heart skip a beat. He makes love easy. I don't take for granted how lucky I am to have this great love in my life, and I still thank God everyday that he's in my life.

There is something I would like to share that I've kept secret for many years from my own family. I had a secret ceremony the night before my actual wedding. I guess you could say yesterday was also my anniversary. Let me back up a minute. I am Mexican and Catholic and H is Arabic and Muslim. I was born in Illinois and he was born in Jordan. We found each other when we were living about 2 miles from each other in Texas. Meeting him is when my life changed forever.

When we set about planning our wedding, our biggest challenge was going to be where? I knew that whether it be in the catholic church, or in a mosque, it was going to be one of those places. It was important for us to have one of our religions recognize our union as an interfaith marriage. It was going to be far too challenging to go with a catholic ceremony in a church--and his family probably wouldn't have attended, so we were married on September 26th in a mosque. I remember earlier in the week going to Target to purchase a modest black dress and I borrowed a black scarf to cover my hair from my muslim babysitter. The night of, I had plenty of family members over visiting and preparing for the next day so I dashed out letting my parents know that I had some last minute honeymoon details to work out. I only told one of my bridesmaids what I was really up to.

I arrived at his house, changed into the clothes I was to wear, and then we went to his older brother's house where we had dinner with his family. He drove us over to the mosque and was our only witness. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous while I was there. I used to be shy around new people and I had to wait in a dining hall with several other women and children while H and my future brother in law went off to get the ceremony arranged. What felt like an forever yet really only an hour, finally H came back to get me and led me to another hall. I entered a room with the sheikh at a desk and two men kneeling in the center of the room. We both took a chair and my brother in law sat behind us. There were Arabic words I didn't understand spoken and then I was asked questions in english. Such things as how much H would be giving to the mosque for our marriage were mentioned, and other things I cannot remember. I do however remember being asked if I was going to convert. I started to cry. I was torn. I meant to say no, but I was afraid he wouldn't marry us if I did. Later H told me I didn't have to say I was going to convert (though I had no intention of converting and am still in fact a Catholic).

After all was said and done we headed out and were driven back to H's house. I really can't remember if we kissed while we were still on mosque grounds. I remember we hugged. Once we got back to his house, I quickly changed and rushed back home. I was excited and still a little nervous about my whirlwind ceremony. I told no one about it and only my best friend a few days later. The reason I kept it from my parents is because I didn't want them to be mad at the fact that I went through with a muslim ceremony but H did not do a Catholic ceremony. They loved him right off the bat, but I didn't want it to seem that I was sacrificing for him, and not the other way around. I guess I wanted them to see first what a great choice I made in partner and father. I'm beyond lucky and he treats me like a queen.

Phew so there, got that off my chest. I don't open up too much about personal matters other than when I'm feeling overwhelmed with the girls, but I wanted to share this because it is possible to find love through someone you might have never thought of. H and I are from two different nationalities, different religions, yet it works for us. Our differences have never been an issue with us or our children.

The one photo I have from September 26th

Our wedding on September 27th

A honeymoon picture...though we have sooo many. Here's one. ;)

Ps. No I'm not pregnant here even though it looks like he's cradling my stomach. Lol!