Hanging Out with My Girls!

My beautiful niece is visiting us from up North. We have been trying to show her around town and take her to some of our favorite sites. On Monday, she went to the beach with hubby and my 2 older daughters. Yesterday, the girls all went to Magic Mountain, and today we went to the Grove in LA. I let the older girls walk around on their own while I kept the younger ones. Speedy Cheetah can spend hours in B & N, but the older ones wanted to go clothes shopping.

At the Grove there is almost always someone famous there and we did see Jillian Reynolds from Channel 11, but my niece didn't know who she was because she is local. Squiggler and I got asked to stand on the grass area and pretend that we were interested in what Jillian had to say about the new Skechers and exercise. It was fun and they gave us a backpack for it, but I would have preferred some free Skechers. LOL! Speedy and I also saw some papparazzi taking some pictures, but we couldn't figure out who they were taking pictures of?

We went to the Cheesecake Factory to eat a yummy lunch and that is the 2nd time my niece had been there since Saturday. The first time she didn't try the cheesecake, but today she did. We had terrible service, but overall I think we had a good day. We had to be back by 5:00pm because my hubby had bought tickets months ago to take Weegie to the Dodger game. He was going to cancel, but she was looking forward to it. I stayed home with Speedy, Squiggler, and my niece. It has been really nice getting to know her. She is very sweet and reminds me very much of my own girls. I hope she is enjoying her time here. She leaves on Friday.

I didn't get many pictures, but I did get a couple. I really need to get back into taking more pictures!

Sedona at last!

After an almost 10 hour drive, some through a thunderstorm and in pitch black surroundings, we made it to Sedona. We arrived at 10:30 at night so we couldn't see how beautiful our surroundings were. We just wanted to go to bed! Thank goodness for Mamma Mia. It saved us on most of our trip because Squiggler can watch it over and over again!

We are staying at Los Abrigados, a beautiful spa resort in the middle of Sedona, and it is really a luxurious place! I will blog each day so that we can remember this family vacation of 2010.

On the way up here we stopped in Needles, CA for dinner. We ate at the Wagon Wheel and it was very good. If by chance you are ever out here, then I would highly recommend this place. The staff was friendly, the food was good, and it was not crowded it all! Squiggler got her first mechanical pony ride and she really liked it!

PS: I started these posts on vacation, but never got around to posting them.

Squiggler is 19 Months!

****Warning! LOTS OF PICTURES!****
Squiggler took her 19 month pictures today. Everyone asks how long am I going to do this? I really can't answer. I love having her picture taken. I never know if we are going to get any good ones or not? Well today I think every single one they took was incredible!! I loved them all and had such a hard time choosing. Thankfully they will archive them for 2 years now instead of just 3 months so I can go back and buy some when I have extra money. They even had me sign another release form in case she ends up being a JCP photo model. LOL! Speedy Cheetah was twice.

I took two outfits and had my favorite photographer, Gracie, she is the bomb!! I like everyone there, but she is the manager and does the most amazing job and always gets Squiggler to smile and look at her. The black outfit I got recently on sale and she is wearing her black boots. The cheetah outfit, I bought like over a year ago thinking that she could wear it for her 1 year photos, but the dress was too big. It is still a little too big, but I couldn't wait anymore because I had this vision in my head. I took most of the props and Gracie put it together.

I love the following picture with the flower. To me she looks so artsy and bohemian. This baby cracks me up! My friends all call her Baby Diva. Hmmm? I wonder why?

Okay now on to Squiggler! My precious baby you weigh about 23 pounds now and you have probably grown a little. Your legs are sooo long! You don't walk, you run every where and sometimes you do a silly walk. You wear a size 12 months, 12-18 month clothes. Sometimes I put you in an 18 month, but they are usually too big and fall down off of you. You still wear a size 3 diaper and are still nursing. Now that it is summer you nurse exclusively again and do not drink a bottle at all. When you do drink something beside milk, it's in a sippy cup or with a straw.

This month we have started potty training you a little bit. You always tell us when you go potty and if we are lucky we get there in time and you go potty in the potty. LOL! You hate to have your hands dirty and always tell us "dirty, dirty" and demand to have your hands cleaned. You are such a good helper and help clean up around the house and throw things away for mommy. You also help me put the clothes in the washer or dryer.

You love to play mommy and play with your baby doll. Sometimes you get jealous of her if someone else pays attention to the baby doll and you are mean to her. It's kind of funny! You also like to pretend that you are a big girl and always have your purse and cell phone. You talk A LOT on the phone for pretend, but not for reals. When someone calls you don't like to really talk to them on the phone.

You communicate a lot now and tell us when you want to do something. (Like go, go outside or no when we ask you if you want something.) You push or pull us to where you want to go or do something. It's really cute. You love hanging out with your sisters and now that it is summer you go on 2 or 3 walks a day. One in the morning with your dad, in the afternoon with your sisters and the evening with mommy. You are one spoiled girl!!! You also love having everyone home for the summer and love having all the attention.

In the following picture she is wearing my shoes. She loves shoes and is always trying to walk around in them. Especially my heels! You also like to play dress up and are always taking someone's clothes.

You get all happy when we go to the mall and clap and say "yay!" LOL! You are definitely my daughter!!!!! We take you everywhere and just in the last 2 weeks you have started to give a little bit of trouble. You want to be a big girl and you don't want to sit in a high chair anymore, you want to walk around in church and explore, you don't want to stay in your stroller. You'd rather be Miss Independent and walk on your own.

Squiggler you are such a delight to us! We love you so much!! You are learning about prayers and like to hold hands, bow your head and say Amen! You count to 6 and your favorite tv show is still Sid the Science Kid, your favorite movie is Mamma Mia and you like to watch The Prices Right with Grandma. You love music and your favorite song is OMG by Usher. You like potatoes, whether they are french fries, mashed or just cut up and cooked. You drink a lot of water. You get on your bike and push yourself now, or you like to get on your scooter and have your sisters push you around. Like always I'm sure that I am forgetting something, but I can always add it later.

Thank you God for making Squiggler a part of our family. She brings us so much joy, laughter and happiness. We hope we are a good family to her and raise her well. May she always know you, and how much she is loved! She is the perfect combination of her two sisters! And all 3 of them are the greatest gifts we could have ever received!

Happy 4th of July 2010!

Happy 4th of July to everyone! Today is probably one of my favorite holidays where I have so many happy memories from my childhood! My grandfather lived on a huge dirt lot and everyone would gather at his house for a barbeque and then we would light fireworks until the sun came up practically. I am talking everyone would be there and we kids would take turns lighting our fireworks. It would take FOREVER!!! We had so much fun and started quite a few fires on that dirt lot!!! Also in the town I live in, they use to be able to sell fireworks and my family always worked the booth for the local softball league that we all played for. We use to have so much fun hanging out at the booth and walking to the corner liquor store for treats. Good times, Good times!!!

This year I dressed Squiggler in a patriotic theme just like I did last year. (Her sisters balked at the idea, so I decided to let that go.) I tried to get Squiggler to pose for pictures before she got dirty, but like I said...she is not loving the camera when it is turned on. When it is not on she is all over it, saying cheese! LOL! The little stinker!

This is a picture of my girls and their cousins. Their mom is my sister cousin and so my kids call her tia and her kids call me tia. I was also the matron of honor at my cousins wedding and both of my girls were in it. My husband and I are also the Godparents to her youngest daughter. I love these girls so much and think of them as my own. We took a picture of them last year too and I hope I remember to make this a tradition of all 5 of them. Squiggler really had a lot of fun playing with them and they were so good with her. My Goddaughter got a little jealous, but she still was really good.

We love going to my tio's house to celebrate the 4th because his neighbors put on quiet the show! The local park puts on a fireworks show and so does a church not too far away, but they do not even compare to the show the neighbors put on and we have a perfect view in his backyard. We have no idea who the neighbors are, but they have been doing a great job the last few years!

Earlier I said that fireworks use to be sold in my town, but they are illegal now and so we have to go to Fillmore to buy them. We bought some really good ones this year and had a small private show, but nothing compared to those neighbors! (They give Disneyland competition!) My honey was tired so I told him to let my cousin in law light them. It was funny because at first he said okay and then he got up to "help". I think it was the mischievous boy in him that wanted to light those fireworks. Boys being boys! We had a really good time and all three girls plus daddy went straight to bed!

The Zoo!

On Thursday, we took Squiggler and Speedy Cheetah to the zoo. It was Squiggler's first time and she loved it. She had a great time looking at all the animals and taking all the information she was learning in. We bought a family pass and probably had not been to the LA zoo in 5 years. When Speedy and Weegie were little, we use to go all the time. Now that we have Squiggler we will go a bunch of times again.

She loved the giraffes (biraffes is what her daddy calls them) and she kept yelling at them. It was so funny like she was talking to them. I have no idea what she was saying. When Speedy was little, the giraffes were her most favorite animal. She still likes them too, but Pandas are now her number one favorite.

She also really liked the flamingos. (She called them mingos) I was going to buy her a little stuffed flamingo, but we received a free small stuffed gorilla, so I didn't buy her one this time, only because I didn't want to spoil her too much.

Her third favorite animal was the wallabis. She really liked them and kept calling them wow wows. (dogs) We plan to go back to the zoo at least 3-4 times this summer, because it is really close and we have a family pass. Weegie didn't go with us because she had summer school.

Here is Squiggler holding on to her stuffed gorilla. It is so hard to get good photos of her lately because she won't look at the camera. Well that is all I am going to write for today because it is late and I'm going night night now. More tomorrow!

Day of Blog Silence for Cohen