so in love

the best daddy. never wanting to miss a moment, tearing up at every smile, singing to her in portuguese...it's so sweet to see how much he loves this little girl.

the surprise

so my mother-in-law and i were talking one day, and she was telling me how much she hated the old ugly carpet in the hallway, and how she wished she couple replace it with the flooring that matches the rest of the house. how's she gonna do it though? she needs a big saw, tools, supplies, the know how...things she is without. i told her we could help her with it someday (my hubby's a pro at putting flooring in), and the subject was dropped. so she goes out of town for a week to visit robyn, and we had this great idea...we'd do it ourselves and surprise her with it when she came home! so we went to work (mostly freddy, but i helped where i could). van helped rip up the old carpet, and we borrowed a saw from my brother-in-law (thanks tom) to do the cuts.

of course we had to take before and after pictures...

i'm all about the presentation of things, so of course it had to be a big production with the red bow and all:) needless to say she was completely surprised and excited when she got home.

look how cute she is...she got right down on the floor to unwrap her "present". it was even more fun doing this for her because we knew how excited she would be. one of the best things about this woman is her joy and excitement for life.

you can't help but be happy when you're around her, and i'm so glad that she's the grandmother of my children so they can see her wonderful example of how to love life. we love you vovo! (grandma in portuguese)

first days...

van's first day of kindergarten, and jasmine's first day of junior high. guess who was nervous and who was smiling from ear to ear all morning? yep, mr. van man couldn't wait to go, and jasmine was scared to death (she looked pretty cute though!). she only let me get these two pictures of her while van...

was all smiles for every picture (thanks aunt robyn for the good looking shirt!). i was thinking he would be a little less anxious for me to go, but i was so happy that he was excited. i'm going to miss my little buddy during the day though.

i thought i'd at least get a wave goodbye when i turned back around, but he was already busy at work. awwww, my baby boy in kindergarten...

attempting to catch a smile...

hey guys, what's up?

no really, why are y'all staring at me?

do i got something on my chin or something?
oh spit up? could you get that for me please? thanks.

k why is everybody waving their arms around and opening their mouths all big?


oh you're over there now?

dad, you're starting to scare me...what's going on?

a little help here...these cheeks are almost impossible to hold up.

c'mon guys. seriously. this is getting way boring. i'm leaving if you don't tell me what's going on.

and mom, why you gotta put me in this outfit? i've got the muffin top thing goin on here. geez, you trying to make me look fat or what?

(doorbell rings)

oh hey londyn, what's up girlfriend? can you tell me what these bozos are trying to do? i mean everybody's been staring at me for the last 10 minutes bending over with their hands on their knees and their butts sticking out, moving their mouths all around...i don't get it.

oh they're trying to get you to smile. see try it, like this. for some reason they freak out every time i do it. i'm like dude, i'm just twitching my cheek muscles. i thought my parents were overly dramatic or something, looks like yours are pretty goofy too. take it from me mia, just humor them. i mean, they feed us and change us and stuff, i figure it's the least we could do. plus, if you smile for them they leave you alone for a while.
(sigh) life as a baby is hard but someone's gotta do it.

oh i get it. k thanks for the tip, i'll start practicing. but they're gonna hafta catch me tomorrow...

that whole episode wore me out!

uncle peter

ahhhh uncle peter...the coolest of uncle's. the only bachelor left in the family, he gets to spend alot of time with all the nieces and nephews. they can't get enough of him! its been great having him with us in texas this summer as he takes a break from school at b.y.u. we totally kicked him out of his room when we moved in though (sorry petes). but now the summer's over and he's headed back to school. i overheard van talking to someone about how cool his uncle peter is and how much he's going to miss him. when asked where he was going van said "oh he had to go back to school to find a wife" (he must've overheard some kind of conversation). anyways i thought that was funny. so goodbye peter we'll miss you! good luck at school and finding a wife:)

pics of jasmine's 12th b-day

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

taking pictures of mia all day long...

stuff we've been doin'

believe it or not, we actually do things besides look at mia and take pictures of her all day long...

stuff like wash the car, check on the new house (they're sheetrocking this week yay!), haircut for jas, sonic slushies and trampoline time with the cousins, AND we spent a saturday afternoon relocating to freddy's parent's house to wait out the duration of our "homelessness" since their house is closer to the kids schools.
(take it up with my hubby if the arab moving joke offends anyone, he thinks he's funny)

that means van gets to hang out with uncle peter and play video games and stuff (van is totally into his uncle peter!), and jasmine's having fun playing little mama, and of course doing some reading.

bathtime for mia, holding hands with cousin londyn, hanging out with vovo (grandpa in portuguese), and being with mom.
(ok so we can't get away from taking pictures of mia all day long:))

happy birthday jasmine!

i know i've already posted these pictures, but they're the only baby pictures i've scanned and put on my computer (jasmine was born before the digital craze), and all my other pictures are packed away in storage. anyways, i just wanted to say happy birthday to my first baby girl, who is 12 years old today, who is just as tall as me (and growing), and surpassed me in shoe size by 3 sizes this year!
happy birthday baby girl, i love you!

the sanders family back in time...

freddy 1986

joana 1978

jasmine 1980

van 1976

mia 1984

carolyn messes with texas

so my mom flew in from utah to see mia and help out while i was recovering from my c-section. she made us a bunch of meals and put them in my freezer so i wouldn't have to cook for a while (jasmine was her assistant chef). freddy's mom and my sis-in-law made us some meals too, so we were totally hooked up for weeks! thanks guys:)
van's favorite thing to do with grandma while she was here, was watch "flubber" and play connect 4.

thanks for coming mom! it was so good to have you here, we love you!

Oi vovo, vovo e tio Sergio

Aqui estao algumas fotos da Mia Joana, tao bonitinha quanto a bisavozinha dela. A Joana esta falando que tem muitas saudades e que gostariam que estivesem aqui para ve-la pessoalmente. Ela vai mandar algumas fotos logo pelo correio.
Abracos, e beijos a todos.