PC Day 3-Sunday

*Note about vacation posts...to read the posts in order, start with 'family vacation' post (look at column on right under blog archives) and then go up...blogger puts the posts in reverse order*

Sunday we spent the day running back and forth between the pool and the lobby (covered areas). It was way too windy to take the girls to the beach and it there were little rain storms every hour or so. They only lasted 15 minutes or so, and it was a nice break from the pool, so we didn't mind.

By Sunday, we pretty much had adopted a new schedule for the girls. We would get up around 5:30 and play in the room for an hour or so. Then, the girls and I would go downstairs and walk around while Daddy slept a little longer. I loved those times with my girlies! The would just walk around and explore all kinds of things. Then we would go upstairs, get Daddy and go down for breakfast. After we ate, I would put the girls in the stroller and walk them around for a while until they fell asleep for their nap!

Here the girls are playing peek-a-boo in the room before our walk.

Leah touching Bella's head for some reason.

Bella splashing in the puddles on our morning walk

Trying to climb into the fountain. Thank goodness it was just a little too high for them to climb into. They are still crazy about climbing on everything they can, so I was really grateful that we didn't have to worry about them climbing in here.

Getting ready for a nap after breakfast

And...we're asleep

Cesar having fun with Jacob and Sammy in the pool

My Leah...so sweet!

And she knows it too....

There was a big "marble" staircase in the lobby area that the girls loved playing on. Here is Bella showing off her new bathing suit.

Leah looking at Jacob

And climbing the stairs...

This is one of my favorite pictures. She looks SO big and old here. I can't believe they are getting so big!

Cesar and Daniel

Getting ready for pool time

Daddy and Bella in the pool-this part of the pool was great because it was super shallow and the girls could walk around in it.

Abuelita helping to keep the girls hydrated

After a day at the pool/beach, we would come back to the room and take showers/baths and get ready for dinner. Our room was adjoined to Nancy & Franklin's so we would usually open the door and let them roam back and forth and play while we got ready.

Here are the girls waiting to go to dinner.

Jacob.

He is so cute! He LOVES playing with the girls. We told him we were going to kidnap him and make him come live with us.

Sammy.



The family trouble maker :) Apparently he is JUST like Cesar at that age. Why does that not surprise me....

James.


He has grown up so much! He is so mature and polite!! And.. he is the only one who can tell the girls apart!

Jacob...entertaining the girls at dinner.

Cute!

Me and my girls after dinner. On our way to get a box of milk and go to bed!

PC Day 2-Saturday

*Note about vacation posts...to read the posts in order, start with "family vacation" post and then go up...blogger puts the posts in reverse order*

Our first full day at the resort was a busy one! Our first stop was the beach! Here is Leah with daddy and Abuelita.



Leah and Daddy checking out a rock



Love this picture of the two of them!

Our first family beach photo! We didn't stay down there for too long because the girls weren't too excited about the wind.

So...we headed to the pool...

This was how we napped most of the time.

Cesar and Daniel enjoying some down time while the girls napped.

We went out to the Japanese Steak house for dinner. Don't the girls look so pretty :)

The whole gang! I am really going to miss having the whole family around!!

Our chef at dinner! He loved posing for pictures!

The kids watching the action!

Leah was enjoying it too...OK, well, maybe this picture is a little deceiving. In fact, the girls cried through the first 10 minutes of dinner (we couldn't eat until 7:30, which is 8:30 MD time, so it was way past their bedtime!), so I ended up leaving in the middle of the action to take them to bed!

But...everyone seemed to really enjoy the entertainment. Here is Daniel flipping the salt and catching it in his hat!

James got a chance to cook up some fun too!

All in all, a great first day in Punta Cana!!

PC Day 1-Friday

*Note about vacation posts...to read the posts in order, start with "family vacation" post and then go up...blogger puts the posts in reverses order*

We started our trip on Friday morning. We got up at 4:15 (ouch!) and got to the airport around 6. We flew USA 3000 and actually really had a great experience. We accidentally got off the parking shuttle at Southwest and were a little nervous when we saw the 400 people in line! But, once we got to the gate at our airline, there were only a couple people ahead of us and we had our own security area, so it was really quick and easy! The girls had fun running around the airport as we waited for boarding!

Daddy and Leah waiting for the plane to take off

And me and my Bella

We found out the night before we left that the girls had an ear infection! We were really afraid the flight was going to cause them a lot of pain, but, they were great! They played for a few minutes when we first took off...then slept for a good hour. No crying at all!!!

Daddy slept too!

Thankfully, we bought a third seat. So grateful people advised us to do this. It was nice to have the extra space. Bella used it to take her nap!

The girls woke up from their nap and played with us in their seat for about an hour and then we were there! Totally incident free trip. Woo-Hoo! Here are the girls right where we got off the plane. Ahhh...warm weather :)

We got to the hotel about 2 hours before check in, so we had lunch and relaxed and then went up to our room. We immediately changed and headed for the beach! Here we are outside of our room, getting ready to head down!

Leah's first touch of the sand!! FUN!

Daddy and Bella

Cesar took both girls into the ocean. It was actually pretty chilly (well...about 80 but windy), but they both seemed to like their first ocean experience...

Cousin Jacob brought his beloved monster trucks everywhere we went and was kind enough to let the girls play with them too!

About 5 minutes after we got to the beach that first day, we saw this beautiful rainbow. It looked even better in person. We knew we were going to have a great trip!!!

Drying off my Leah. Notice I am still nice and dry. I wasn't about to go into that cold water :) Brrr.....

First night at dinner with Abuelita

Cesar and James! We had such a great time hanging out with our nephews. They are all so cute and were wonderful at keeping the girls entertained!

Family Vacation

This last week we took our family vacation to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! It was SO great :) Leading up to it, I was very nervous about...well...everything. Were the girls going to scream the entire flight? Would they adjust to the lack of schedule there? Would they sleep in this new environment, would I have enough snacks and food for them? Would they get sick from the food/water, would they like the beach/pool? The list went on and on....
Turns out...there was absolutely nothing to worry about. The girls were AMAZING! They handled everything so well and had SO much fun! They were so happy and joyful (most of the time!) and really seemed to love EVERYTHING about the trip!
The other thing I was worried about was whether I would be able to relax. I mean, I was still going to have to take care of the kids the entire time, cut their food, change their diapers, wash their bottles, get them dressed, get up early in the morning with them, and all the other things i have to do every day at home. So, would it really be a "vacation" for me? Guess what...it was! Not only did I have amazing help from my in-laws, but I realized that doing all that stuff is so a part of me now, that i don't really see it as a "chore" anymore. I coached field hockey with my good friend Jodi before the girls were born. I can remember many times wondering how after a long cold practice on a Saturday morning, or a rainy practice on a Friday afternoon, or basically any "uncomfortable" cold or wet practice, how she could go home and take care of three little boys. I would jump in my car, crank the heat and go home to a hot shower and curl up in bed. How in the world could she go home, skip all that, and take care of her kids?? I just couldn't imagine how she could do it. However, this trip made me realize how she did it (other than the fact that she is an amazing mom!!!)...you just don't even think about it. These kids bring so much joy to my life, that I actually find happiness in caring for them. I don't think about what I am "missing out on." At the resort where we were staying, they had all kinds of activities I would have LOVED to take part in...beach volleyball, pool volleyball, other games, simply laying out in the sun, etc. However, I didn't even miss them one bit. I loved taking care of my babies, seeing the joy they had playing in the sand on the beach in the afternoon, or the puddles and rocks on our morning walks. I never thought about what I was missing out on, just how much fun it was to see these babies discover, play, and learn :) OK, enough of that sappiness! On to the vacation. We took over 400 pictures!! I am not going to post ALL of them, but I do have a ton that I love, so you'll be seeing a lot!! I am going to split each post up by day since I probably wont have time to do it all at once. Hopefully I'll be able to get all this done in the next few days!!! Happy belated Thanksgiving by the way :) We have so much to be Thankful for at the Paredes house!!!

Odds and Ends

Children's ministry update: Leah now loves to go to children's ministry. She spends the entire time in there and has fun playing with all the kids. Isabella still hates it. She cries when we even walk up to the room. So, I volunteered to serve in their classroom. On the 2nd Tuesday of every month I will be in there with them..and hopefully ease Isabella's transition. Ironically, this last Sunday was my first day and both girls were sick, so I had to go by myself. It was good for the girls though because they got to spend some much needed quality time with Grandma. They played in the leaves, ate lunch, and had a great time climbing on Grandma and her furniture.

Diaper Rash...BLEH! Isabella seems to be very sensitive to something and has had constant diaper rash for about two weeks. She doesn't always seem bothered by it, but it looks painful. Leah got it today and she is VERY miserable :( I changed her diaper 4 times in an hour and a half and finally just let her keep it off. She would play for a little while and then start crying hysterically...that was my cue to get some paper towels and figure out where she was standing when the crying started because she had peed all over the floor (hence the crying from the pain it caused). It is just so horrible when your baby is in pain!

Upcoming Trip. We are headed to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on Friday. We are going with Cesar's parents, his sister and her family, and his brother. I am very excited to get there but also very stressed out by the whole thing. Trying to figure out everything we need to pack for 7 days (and writing four days of sub plans for school) is just crazy. I just can't wait until we get there and can relax...ha ha ha...is a vacation really a vacation when you are a parent? Isn't it just like moving your chaotic life somewhere else. Maybe we'll get a night off if Abuelita and Abuelito want to babysit! Ahhh...a night on the beach with just my hubby...thinking about that almost makes all the chaos of packing worth it!!

OK, so as for this picture...it is pretty unflattering of Leah but it was the only one I could get today in between tears of pain. I took it for two reasons...one, because she is getting SO TALL. I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but this dress she was wearing today just made her look like such a big girl. Her legs looked so long (now that I look at the picture, they look a little stubby, but in real life it wasn't like that). The second reason for the picture is to show off the girl's adorable new shoes for the beach. They only had one pink pair and one blue pair, so we got one of each and decided they could each wear one of each color...that way no one would be upset that they had to wear the "boy" color (OK, so I guess they wouldn't really be upset, but I don't like putting them in boy colors...especially with their lack of hair...people already have a hard enough time with what gender they are! I know...I am crazy....but oh well...).

More Climbing...

Here is the new fun place to climb...the back of the couch. View from the back...

 And the front....

And just one really cute picture of Isabella loving her Daddy!

Climbing

Daddy and his girls :)

The girls were a little too quiet in the bathroom while I was cooking dinner...



here's what I found!

Sidenote: Notice the lack of toilet paper on the wall. Something we never really think about anymore, but it cracks me up when I see this picture or someone comes over to our house and tries to serve us by replacing the roll on the wall. We can't keep any toilet paper on the walls because it ends up all over the house. Isn't baby-proofing fun :)

Monkeys

My little monkeys! The girls have decided that climbing is the best activity of the day! They will climb on ANYTHING! They started out with their rocking chairs. We finally had to just remove the chairs because all they wanted to do was climb up and stand on them. Then they moved on to the couch in the basement (as you will see in the videos) but have since moved on to bigger and better things. Yesterday, Leah climbed up on our couch in the family room (which is very tall in comparison to her little body). Daddy was very proud of her! Then, this morning, while I was drying my hair, I looked to my right and there was Isabella, standing up on top of the toilet seat!! Oh my...