Mother's Day, 1st Birthday Planning, and Anniversary....oh and A Portfolio/Thesis!

This week has only just begun and already I am exhausted!  We kicked off this week with a wonderful 1st Mother's day for me.  Piper, Phoebe and I spent the morning at church celebrating and honoring all the wonderful mommies with our church family.  We even had a surprise visit from Grammie, Auntie Nattie and Auntie Hillie-Bear.  What a wonderful surprise!!!  James worked very hard to make me feel special even though he worked most of the day.  I am very blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Monday Fun-Day was spent running errands to get all of the party food and supplies we will need to celebrate Piper and Phoebe's 1st Birthday (We did squeeze in a quick stop in Laguna Beach in the midst of the craziness for some family fun).  The girls had a couple of firsts yesterday...the first time they put their feet in the ocean and their first cart ride at Costco.  I love that Coscto carts have a spot for two kids...wahoo!  Unfortunately, both James and I forgot our phones in the car so we could not get a picture of our little girls loving their first Costco cart ride...boo!  Oh well, I am sure there will be many, many more Costco cart rides in our future.

Today, Tuesday, May 14th James and I will celebrate 9 years of wedded bliss!  I am so happy I made the big decision to say "I do" to my best friend and soul mate.  The last nine years have been crazy, but there is no one else I would want to go on this journey of life with.  James makes me laugh and smile like no one else.  I am so proud of the man he has become.  He is not only a wonderful husband but an amazing dad and an incredible Pastor to our Rancho Capistrano church family.  I'm blessed beyond belief!

Just when I thought things could not get crazier, they did....I am putting together my thesis portfolio this month and will officially have my Master's degree by the end of the month!  Wow, what a journey this process has been.  I will admit my timing is not the best when I decided to go back to school, but I am honestly glad I did it now.  It has been a crazy past several months but I will be so happy once it is all done and behind me.

No Fun-Day Monday!

This Monday was a sad day in the Valencia household...ALL the girls in the house were sick! :-(  I started getting sick on Friday and I clearly passed it on to Piper and Phoebe.  I feel awful about it.  This is the first time a cold has knocked out both girls.  They were so miserable yesterday and my heart was broken.  Thank goodness I had James to help me.

Since I don't have good pictures from yesterday I will post a picture from our fun Friday night date night to our favorite...El Ranchito in Laguna.  It was the babies first visit and they had so much fun!

Phoebe @ our Cinco de Mayo celebration at church

Monday Fun-Day (a few days late)...

Better late than never...

Shopping Cart Adventures

The babies had their very first ride in the shopping cart together and separate this past week.  I think Piper enjoyed her solo ride much, much better than being strapped in with her sister.  I can't wait to take the girls to Costco so we can try out their cart that is built for two up front!

Monday Fun-Day!

11 Months Old Today!

I know this sounds cliche, but time truly has just flown by!  I can hardly believe our 3 pounds miracles are now 11 months old and getting bigger and bigger every single day!

They are both such characters!  Both Piper and Phoebe love to laugh, play, eat, and make lots and lots of funny noises with their mouths.  

Piper's favorite ball

This month they have had fun experimenting with new foods.  Phoebe is a lot more adventurous than sweet Piper.  However, Piper LOVES oranges and Phoebe did not.  I was shocked.  Also, this month the girls have started to play more with one another.  I love listening to them babble back and forth and chase each other through the house.  It brings such joy to my heart!

Both girls are standing, Piper can stand on her own for a very short period of time, but neither are walking yet.  I think I'm ok with that.  I honestly don't know what I am going to do when they both start running/walking in two different directions.  Life is going to get CRAZY!

This month James and I decided it was time to break out the "big girl" seats for the stroller.  We thought we would try it out and see.  Our first trip in the stroller was a walk around the Dana Point Harbor with Grammie and our good friends Charlotte, Simone, and Ethan.

Oh, and I almost forgot swinging.  Both girls LOVE to swing!  Thanks to our good friend Rebecca (who let me in on the twin mommy secret), I now but the girls in one swing.  It is too cute watching them laugh and enjoy the ride together.

Since Phoebe and Piper's first birthday will be here in only a month I have officially started to go into party planning mode.  I'm going to need a lot of helpers to get this party pulled off.  I know I have James on board, anyone else interested...he, he, he! :-)

This is what it is really like to take the girls pictures together!

Happy Birthday Gram/Gigi!

Today would have been my Gram's (or Gigi as we called her for Piper and Phoebe) 95th Birthday.  To honor her memory my mom, sisters, aunts, cousins, and their babies got together to have some yummy Chinese food (Gram's favorite) and some lemon dessert (Gram's other favorite).  It was such a wonderful day filled with lots of love and laughter.  I am truly blessed beyond belief to have such a wonderful group of women in my life.  Piper and Phoebe had a ball and got so many hugs and kisses all day long!  I think they are going to sleep really, really well tonight.

One of the highlights of our day was the fact that Scott (my cousin Melissa's sweet hubby) got all the babies and adults to look at the camera at the same time when he took our picture!  I still don't know how he did it.  I can't even get two babies to look at the camera at the same time.