Busy As Bee's

The last couple of weeks have been busy in the Gallardo household. Unfortunately the blog took a back seat...

The last two weekends we spent in the Bay Area. On the 18th we celebrated Freddie's Grandma Jenny's Birthday, Freddie's cousin threw her a surprise party for her 70th Birthday! We also attended a wedding of our friend Christine, and I had the privilege of being the photographer.

This past weekend we went to help my good friend Jenn move her things here to Sacramento! A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa G who watched the girls while we attended the wedding and while we helped Jenn move, you guys are awesome!

Calista is now pulling her self up to a standing position, she is such a strong girl. She is working on tooth number two, right next to her first one on the bottom. She hates baby food, but loves big people food.

Isabelle is doing great too, almost 4 and still feisty, but we love it. I asked her what she wanted me to tell everyone about her and she said, "That I love Jesus." So cute!!

Here are a couple of pictures from this week.

Love the tongue sticking out!

Freddie likes to play guitar on Isabelle, clearly she hates it.....

Snuggling with Daddy... She's a daddy's girl!!

For Isabelle

Dear Isabelle,

I love your imagination. I love to watch you as you play dress up, make up dances, come up with silly words and talk about your imaginary friends.

You like to pretend you are a princess and you make up rolls for all of us, often times you cast me as the wicked witch. I don't take it personally, at least not yet.

I love to listen to you "read" and make up your own stories. You often take parts from your favorite books and piece them together in your own story.

You love to show anyone who will watch you, new dance moves, or teach us how to dance at your pretend dance studio.

The other night you invited Dario over for dinner and we all spent the evening chatting away and getting to know him.

I hope you always have a great imagination, it is one of the billions of things I love about you!

Love,
Mommy XOXO

On The Move...

Calista started crawling a couple of weeks ago, well more like inching along. In the last week she has just taken off. She is fast and she is stronger than I thought. She can climb the first step from our playroom to the front entry way. I saw her head toward it and thought there is no way she could do that just yet, and before I could finish that thought, she did it. I picked her up and we immediately went into the garage to look for the baby gate.

It has been fun around here lately, Calista follows me and Isabelle around the house, squealing and happy as can be to finally be able to keep up. She loves to follow her big sister and just in the last couple of days they have really started playing together. Just today the girls played happily together for over an hour and a half. I was amazed! I sat nearby and watched them and I enjoyed every second. Not one time did I have to intervene. They played great and they were happy. They played with the kitchen stuff and Calista would just put everything in her mouth. Isabelle made pretend meals for Calista and some of her dolls and Calista would follow her around. Isabelle talks to Calista as if she were an adult and when Calista makes any sort of noise, Isabelle would take it as a response and carry on. It is way to funny.

Easter Weekend

We decided to attend a Saturday Easter service instead of going on Sunday morning with everyone else, our thought was that it would be less crowded and then Sunday morning we could wake up and enjoy the commercial part of Easter. So we got all dressed in our Easter clothes and got the girls checked into their classes, found seats and Freddie's phone rang. The alarm had gone off at our house, so we gathered up the girls and ran home. Everything is fine, we aren't really sure what happened, our assumption is that someone was jiggling the door and the sensor lost connection enough to make the alarm go off. Who knows. But we didn't make it back to church that evening. We ended up going Sunday morning, we are glad we decided to go anyway,it was one of the best Easter services we had ever attended.

Saturday evening we left carrots and water for the Easter Bunny and Isabelle went to bed without complaint. Sunday morning Freddie woke the girls and I up, proudly telling Isabelle he just saw the Easter Bunny hop through our yard. I could barley beat her down the stairs to snap a quick picture of her peeking over the rail to see if, in fact the Easter Bunny had come.

The girls opened their Easter baskets and Calista was so cute! She grabbed the bunny ears from her basket and looked right at Freddie as if saying, "Look at what I got Daddy!" She held onto the ears for a long time staring at her big sister as she excitedly announced everything the bunny had brought her. Then we went outside for and egg hunt. We then got ready for church again and headed out the door. We went to the Adamson's for a yummy lunch and another egg hunt for the kids. It was a great day!

Isabelle with one of the cupcakes I made for Easter from my new cupcake cookbook.

Happy Easter!

What is Easter?
By: Michelle Medlock Adams

The little bunny hops, hops, hops.
Is this what Easter means?
Is it about the Easter eggs all filled with jellybeans?

Is Easter about hunting eggs?
I do that every year.
Does it mean eating chocolate stuff?
I ate my bunny's ear.

Is it about the baby chicks?
they're fuzzy, and they're fun!
I saw some Easter chicks for sale.
I really wanted one.

Is it about the Easter toys?
they're really fun, I think.
one time a bunny came to me.
His little nose was pink.

Is it about my brand new dress?
And my new Easter hat?
Does it mean wearing shiny shoes?
I really do love that!

Is it about a big parade
with lots of pretty floats?
Is it about the Easter choir?
They sing the highest notes!

No! That's not what Easter means.

Easter means much more than that.
It's all about God's son.
See, God sent Jesus down to earth
to die for everyone.

He had to die upon a tree
to save us from our sin.
But he was only dead three days
and then he rose again.

Now, that's what Easter really means!
It's quite a special day.
Jesus our Savior rose again.
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

Today, he sits right next to God
in Heaven up above.
He wants to live inside you too
and fill you up with love!

Okay, now I get it.
The Easter Bunny is okay,
and Easter eggs are fun.
But Easter's not about the stuff....

It's all about God's son.

Calista's First Tooth

Calista got her very first tooth yesterday! It is very small still since it just broke through yesterday, but I tried to get a picture of it anyway to mark the occasion!
If you look at the end of the arrow you will see a little white line, that is the tooth! I will try again and get a better picture once it has grown in fully. Until then, this will have to suffice.

Isabelle & Calista 8 Month Photos

Isabelle 8 months old March 2006

Calista 8 months old today!

Slacker Mom

Sorry I have been such a slacker at posts the last 2 weeks, it hasn't been for a lack of things to write about, we have been busy!

Here are a few highlights from our week.

We went to the Mrs Grossman's sticker factory last week. My friend Rose, her kids and her mom and my friend Krista all made the trek. It was a long drive and the tour wasn't the best but all the free stickers and the sticker store was awesome!

Last weekend was a fun weekend, windy and the perfect weather for flying a kite. Freddie bought Isabelle a kite and he enjoyed taking her out to fly it. We spent Saturday morning at the park and Isabelle saw a bride and thought she was Giselle from the movie Enchanted. She followed her around for a bit and the bride was very flattered. It was adorable. When we got in the car Isabelle asked us a hundred questions about the bride.

Calista finally began crawling this past week. She only moves just a little bit before getting tired and then rolls around or props herself on side for a break.

Calista has also graduated to sitting up in the bathtub, which means the girls can finally take a bath together. Isabelle thinks it is pretty cool, except now she has to share her bath toys and that isn't real cool. What she doesn't know is that Calista has been playing with them all along... Shhhh! don't tell!

Calista has started making sounds, she first started with Ba Ba Ba and just yesterday started Ma Ma Ma, I know she doesn't understand what she is saying, but when I first heard it I asked Freddie, "Is she saying what I think she is saying?"

Here is a little video I took the other day, Calista was making the ba ba sound, Isabelle is so cute she hears her and then carries on with her imaginative play....

Life is good at the Gallardo house!