California Pizza Kitchen

My mom's group had an outing at the California Pizza Kitchen where the kids were given a tour of the kitchen and then they were able to make their own pizza. A little sauce and cheese! Isha was so proud of her pizza, but I think that Diya ended up eating more of it than Isha did.

A big smile for the chef. All of the people in the kitchen were great with the kids. It was fun to see them working together to help the kids with their pizzas.

After we finished making pizza we got to visit with all of our Richmond Mommy friends while the pizza was cooking. They even brought out pizza and drinks for all of the mommies!! What a treat.

Fall Festival 2010

Every year our neighborhood had a fall festival and it is always lots of fun. My sweet little girls in the pumpkin patch. There was a petting zoo and the girls had a good time visiting with all of the animals.

Diya LOVED this donkey. She just kept squealing every time we went to see him.

Diya also loved the bunnies. She didn't want anyone else coming near them and if they did she would scream at them. After checking out the animals we washed our hands and then had pizza and cotton candy and then played a few games.

Isha had her face painted. This was the first time she had ever had it done and she loved the finished product.

It is so much fun hanging out with these two girls. It was also fun to hang out with all of our neighbors.

A Day At Colonial Williamsburg

All of the kids in Isha's preschool class get a chance to spend the day with "Emma Bear". The assignment is to take Emma Bear outside and explore nature so we decided to head to Colonial Williamsburg to enjoy the day. Isha and Emma

Checking out the cannon.

We walked through a small bamboo forest and we found this old tree stump. It was nice and shady here which was nice since it was a warm fall day.

There was no way that Isha was going to stick her head in this thing, but she did let us put Emma in the pillory.

We had such a great time hanging out with Emma and after our adventure moms homework started. I had to take pictures and write up a summary of what Isha and Emma found. We also collected lots of leaves, walnuts, flowers, rocks, shells and sticks that Isha shared with the class. Her teacher said she did a great job and that she got a lot out of the experience. We are so proud of our little girl.

More Professional Pictures

I took the girls to Portrait Innovations to get some pictures of them together, some for Diya's first birthday and some of Diya in her baptism gown. After lots of wardrobe changes, a little crying and once again more money spent than originally intended here is what we came home with. Diya in her Indian dress complete with bracelets and bells on her ankles.

My two little Indian princesses!!!

I hadn't planned on getting any of Isha by herself, but the photographer was taking her picture while I was getting Diya dressed and how could I say no to this? I can't believe how grown up she is looking these days!! Her hair has gotten really long and she gets prettier every day!

Diya in her baptism gown.

And finally the birthday girl!!! I loved this strawberry dress. It was perfect for a summer birthday baby!

We didn't buy any of the pose with the block because Diya spent most of the time climbing on it.

I still have pictures from early summer that I need to send out. I am so sorry for being such a slacker. I promise to get them in the mail soon and just think since I waited so long now you will be getting twice as many pictures.

Baby D Update

Diya is definitely the climber of the family!!!

I have to keep a close eye on this one!

We went to a baby shower up in Northern VA and Diya missed her nap so here she is snuggling with her Uncle Vinnie! This girls loves to snuggle up with men. Her daddy is going to have to keep a close eye on that!!!

Here Diya is munching away on corn on the cob! This girls loves to eat.

Some sister fun. Isha loves to drive Diya around on her fairy power wheel. You better watch your feet because these girls are crazy! I love to watch the two of them playing together.

Our Tiny Tiger Gets Her Orange Belt

Isha has been taking Taekwondo for about 4 months now and today she had her first test and earned her orange belt. This is her instructor, Mr. Coakley. He is amazing with the kids!! The kids all love and respect him and he makes Taekwondo tons of fun!!!! I am so impressed with how well he deals with all the kids, especially the little ones that have very short attention spans.

So proud of herself. She goes to class three times a week so she was definitely ready for her test today.

After all of the kids have had a chance to do their form there is a ceremony where they all get their new belts. Here is Isha with her old white belt.

Mr. Coakley presents her with her orange belt and puts it on for her and takes her old white belt and ties a knot in it.

Here she is doing her form, Songham 4. The kids have learned all the colors of the belts and the order they are in rank. Isha has really enjoyed making new friends in her class and it has been good for her to learn some respect. I also like that they teach the kids about strangers and what to do if they are approached by a stranger. They also teach them who is a "safe" person to run to. It amazes me how much these little kids can learn and remember!

Congratulations Isha, Mom and Dad are so proud of you!!!

Life Is Going To Get Messy!

Diya has decided that she is grown up enough to be feeding her self full time. Most of the time she refuses to let me feed her and the problem is that she has no idea how to use a spoon yet so most of her eating is still done with her hands. Here she is with a nice warm bowl of cream of wheat that she smeared all over her body and I spent the rest of the day cleaning up!! She will be taking baths more frequently now and it is always fun when I change her diaper because food starts falling out of all kinds of hidden places. The other day I thought she smelled like Chick Fil A nuggets and lo and behold she had a few bites of one in her pocket!! Fun times. I took her to the pediatrician's office the other day for her 12 month check up and she is doing great. She weighed 17 pounds 9 ounces and was 28 1/2 inches long. So she is in the 5th percentile for weight and the 25th percentile for height. I looked up Isha's 12 month stats and she was almost a pound heavier at a year but Diya is almost 2 inches taller that Isha was. I informed Isha that Diya was probably going to be taller than her some day. Isha didn't seem concerned because she said she will always be the big sister. The doctor was impressed that Diya can say 5 words. He said that most kids her age only say one word. I told him that what my kids are lacking in height and weight they make up for in vocabulary. Lucky me!!!

Diya says dada, mama, bye, hi and uh-oh. She loves to wave and clap at everyone. She is still not walking, but she is letting go of the furniture more often and can usually stay standing for a few seconds before she realizes what she is doing and falls on her bum. She has 6 teeth now and is doing a good job using them. The other night she chowed down on a piece of corn on the cob. She is the happiest baby and every day she gets cuter and cuter!!! For the most part her and Isha are getting along pretty well. I love watching the two of them play together. It is really sweet. September is going to be a busy month so we should have lots of fun stuff to post!

Happy 1st Birthday Diya!

It is hard to believe that it has already been a year since Diya was born, but it is true, our baby is growing up!!!

I love this picture. The pure joy on her face makes me so happy. As a mom it is always great to see your children happy.

We had a "garden girl" birthday party complete with sunflower cupcakes with ladybugs. At first I was disappointed in how my cupcakes turned out, but after I got up the next morning and my feet weren't sore anymore and the frosting had hardened I was happy with how they turned out. I am glad that I did them for Diya and hopefully she will look back on these pictures some day and see the love I put into these cupcakes.

I made Diya her own smash cake with lots of pink cake, tons of frosting and few Oreo cookies on top. This made for a great color combination for Diya to smear all over her body.

Diya dressed up in her strawberry dress so that she blended in with the party theme. She even had her very own 1st birthday girl sash!! I figured I had a better chance of keep a sash on her than a tiara.

Diya giving Tony some good snuggles. Just when I think that she can't get any cuter or sweeter, she does!!

Diya loved her cake. It took her a few minutes to figure out what to do with it, but once she did it was all down hill!!! I don't think that the high chair will ever be the same again because it was covered in frosting and cake crumbs.

This is our little neighbor, Ashton, enjoying his cupcake.

Diya and her big sister. We had a great time celebrating Diya's first birthday.

Diya's Baptism

Diya was baptised on August 8, 2010 at the 8:45 Mass at St. Edward The Confessor Catholic Church. Getting Isha to smile nicely in pictures is almost impossible these days.

Mommy , daddy and baby Diya at the baptismal font.

James and Karina are Diya's Godparents.

We are so lucky to have such amazing friends in our lives.

Shawn and Sara drove down for the day to help us celebrate Diya's big day. Sara and I have been church buddies since high school so it meant a lot to me that they were able to be there for the baptism.

Isha and her Godparents, Adam and Laura. Our little group had certainly grown since the last baptism!!

Diya wore the same gown that Isha wore for her baptism.

Diya did a great job! There was no crying even when the priest poured the water on her head. Isha asked me the morning of the baptism if, "that guy was going to throw Diya in the water?" I explained to here what was going to happen and had to crack up at her blunt way of putting things. After church we all went out to brunch and it was nice to sit down with good friends and enjoy a meal together.

Fun In Salt Lake City

We had a few extra days in SLC after the wedding to so a little sight seeing. We spent one afternoon at the Hogle Zoo.

We all took a ride on the Merry Go Round. Diya had fun riding on her cheetah! We took a little train ride around part of the zoo and it was nice to sit down and be off of our feet especially since it was a hot day. Luckily there were misting stations all over the zoo to help cool us off.

Isha and her "sassy" pose!!

Diya and Mommy on the train.

Isha liked the tigers, but she didn't like having to walk. She was frowning in this picture because her feet were tired. We only had one stroller so that meant she had to be a big girl and walk.

Our favorite part of the zoo was Zuri the baby elephant!! She is just a few days older than Diya. We watched as she ran around and played with all her toys. She was so adorable and had lots of spunk!!

Here mom came out for a little bit to check on her baby and to give us a demonstration.

Isha and Diya posing with the huge elephant statue. Diya was not to happy about having the sun in her eyes.

One little monkey checking out another monkey!!!

On another afternoon we took a drive down to the Sundance Resort. It was so nice to get out of the city and see the mountains.

On our way there we checked out Bridal Veil Falls.

Here are a few shots of Isha and Diya hanging out in our hotel room. Poor Diya managed to fall off of a bar stool and got a concussion that required a trip to the emergency room. Poor thing was really sleepy and throwing up. I felt like the worst mother in the world for letting her get hurt, but luckily she was back to her normal happy self in just a few hours.

Isha spent lots of time hanging out in grandma and grandpas room because they had all the fun toys and candy!!

We all spent a day walking around temple square and we were able to get a picture of all four generations together. This was really important to me because I have a picture of me when I was little with my mom, grandma and great grandma and I wanted my girls to have the same thing to look at some day!

So here we are, all four generations of us!!!