It’s The Summer of George!

“It’s the summer of George!” is from an episode of Seinfeld where George gets laid off with a severance package. So he decides to use his free time to do anything and everything he wants. Daniel and I have been enjoying our own “Summer of George!” these past few weeks. Hence, we haven’t been blogging here. I can not believe it has been a month since our last post.

We are on Facebook A LOT and Twitter at @TheMomCrowd and @GrowDev. Check in with us there, if you want up to the minute info. Like you really care that much about us. HaHa!

Did you know that Dawn and I started a fan site for the show, So You Think You Can Dance? We recap and review each and every episode. Check it out and share your thoughts on our website, SYTYCD The Blog.

Our Summer kicked off with a big family picnic at Guadalupe State Park on Memorial Day. Then the following week I took the kids with McKenna and her crew of 3 to Seaworld.  2 moms with 5 kids of ages 4 & under. We felt like super moms after that day!

Last week the 4 of us joined Daniel’s mom, Felicia, on a business trip to Corpus Christi. We called it our 24 hour vacation. On the first day we went to the beach at Mustang Island State Park. Our Texas State Park Pass has been getting a lot of use! Annabelle loved playing in the sand and trying to put it back in the ocean. Then saying Good Bye to the sand. Rome had a good time too and didn’t freak out at all. The next morning we went to the Texas State Aquarium. We had discount tickets with our San Antonio Zoo Pass. I am loving our passes, can you tell? This week I have already taken Annabelle to the zoo.

Also, Daniel and I went to go see COLDPLAY and last week. A year ago Daniel and I were talking about how we never go concerts anymore and how we only wanted to see Coldplay and U2 in concert. Daniel has already seen U2, so now he can check off Coldplay in his list. It was seriously an awesome concert. Just as you would expect it to be.

Next week we are taking the family to Austin for a few days to stay in a house for free! Its a pretty cool house in a cool part of town. We are still planning out what we want to do while there. Any suggestions?

We have some super fun plans for July. I. CAN’T. WAIT! This has already been a super fun summer. I am going to be exhausted come September.

Roman’s Baby Dedication

On Mother’s Day Roman was dedicated to the Lord at our church, River City Community Church. Baby dedication always reminds me that our kids are not our own. They belong to the Lord. At the baby dedication we pledged to raise Roman in the knowledge of Him and His ways. I pray that God will give us the wisdom to guide Roman.

I already feel God helping me all the time when I am trying to figure out why Roman is crying. He is more particular about things than Annabelle. When he doesn’t want to nurse it may because he is hot and wants his onesie taken off, it is too loud, too bright, or he doesn’t like the nursing cover or the brestfriend pillow. Really, Annabelle was never so picky! I am curious to see how this plays out as he gets older. Hopefully, this means that he is following in his father’s ideas of neatness and order.

We had a great Mother’s Day and the best part was my dad coming to church with us. I have never sat next to him in a church service and I was so happy to have him there! Afterwards we ate at Rudy’s BBQ for some great turkey, brisket, and creamed corn.

Here are some photos from the day.

I love the name meaning and Bible verse they gave Roman! “Wise Protector” is pretty cool.

Here we are on stage. Annabelle was crying for Fefe.

Annabelle hamming it up and kissing Roman’s hand.

The caring Big Sis praying for her brother.

Pastor Sean praying for us.

My parents, John and Elaine, with us at church!

Our family at Rudy’s BBQ.

Pappas and Fefe and kids.

Roman dressed up for the occasion. Thank you, Jennifer, for his tie onesie! I love it.

Under New MGMT

I’ve been listening to a lot more alt/indie/synth music lately and have become a fan of MGMT.  While on the interwebs I found this video of The Mentalists playing a MGMT song on their iPhones & iPod touches.   You know we’re huge Apple fans, but the ability to do this music is pretty darn cool - sepecially the Ocarina “flute”.

Check out their video, then the original song below.

Original “Kids” by MGMT

No, Mr. President. Killing Is Killing No Matter What We Call It.

original post

Happy 2nd Birthday Annabelle!

6 days ago Annabelle turned 2 years old! My little girl is growing up incredibly fast. And now after the birth of her brother everything about her seems huge - diapers, clothes, feet, her language skills, her mobility. While she is big to us, but for her height and weight she is in the 10th percentile. Her doctor estimates that she will grow to be 5 ft. 2 inches. I think she takes after her paternal side. :)

Annabelle had 2 parties for her second birthday. The first party was at an indoor playground here in San Antonio called Dynamoze. Her friends happened to be having a playdate all together there one day, so I brought some cupcakes, ice cream, and few party bags to celebrate. It was perfect and all the kids had a great time.

The next week we celebrated with our family at Willie’s, because they have a giant sandbox that she loves to play in. She got to stuff her face with another cupcake. (Have I told you how much I am a fan of cupcakes, btw? No plates, no forks, perfectly sized, and incredibly easy to make.)

Thank you to Sarah, Barb, Trina, Monica, and family who helped celebrate my little one’s birthday!

Where Have We Been?

Physically we haven’t been anywhere but here. On the web we have been everywhere else.

Have you seen Daniel’s new beautiful site for Grow Development? Cicily and Daniel did a fabulous job!

I have been blogging A LOT over at The Mom Crowd. McKenna took the month of April off to welcome her new baby girl Reese from the Ukraine and for school. So I was filling in her dates as well as filling my own blog posts. Btw, The Mom Crowd got a new look in March and I LOVE it!

I have also been hanging out a lot over at the Mom Bloggers Club where I am an Ambassador for the next 3 months. I get to welcome new members, start discussions, and answer questions. I seriously LOVE blogging and meeting new people online, so this has been a real joy for me.

We have also been on Facebook commenting, avoiding Quizzes (although I did take one), and updating our statuses. I like that I can just update my status and it doesn’t even need to be a complete sentence.

We have joined the Twitter community. We tried it out last year and gave it up. But now we are both using it for our businesses. I feel like I “get” Twitter now. I have made some fun mom connections and I love keeping up with the latest news.

You can follow Daniel at @growdevelopment and me, Amanda, at @themomcrowd.

I have a 3rd blog coming out soon too! Which I am SUPER EXCITED about. I will share the news soon when I am ready to launch it definitely by May 21st. (hint hint). Stay tuned!

Annabelle Photos

This past Saturday my Aunt Norma took photos of Annabelle for her second birthday at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. She also bought Annabelle 2 really cute tu-tu’s. I can’t wait to see the photos she took! (Thank you Aunt Norma!!) The whole family had a great time and it was a beautiful day.  In true Espinoza fashion everyone was there. I think it is hilarious how it takes 6 adults to photograph one 2-year-old. Here are few photos that I took myself. (Annabelle had a few wardrobe changes.)

He is Risen!

We had a super Easter 2009. The beer koozie request didn’t work out, but the celebration service at the Verizon was amazing! Talk about a nail biter: 8:00 a.m. it was pouring down rain, but by 10:00 a.m. the sun was out and there was blue skies and a cool breeze. It’s amazing to think that this is our church’s future home.

This picture doesn’t do justice for the folks that showed up.

The worship team did a superb job.

And so did the choir (my mom’s on the front row :) )

Since the property is in the state it was left in after the last concert of 2008, we made due with the facilities available.  We thought this was a funny picture.  Why do preschoolers deserve the VIP Club?

The creative arts team had an impromptu art creation. The artist created the image in the duration of a song. Pastor Jason recited a reading about the traits of Christ, and the artist wrote them on the board. Then as the song played she did her thing. Breathtaking is an appropriate term for this.

We spent the rest of the day at my mom’s house grilling, chilling, and egg hunting.

30 pounds of meat. We don’t mess around.

Uncle Henry supervising the cooking.

Cooking up the sides.

Ace is getting the hang of the egg hunting thing. She did a great job this year…

Mostly with the help of Uncle Matt!

Poppy was able to leave his rehab hospital to spend the day with us and got to meet his great-grandson.

So, In case you didn’t know: my brother-in-law Matt is a major St. Louis Cardinals fan. On a recent trip to St. Louis, my mom got their family shirts, and of course there needed to be a photo session!

Isn’t this a great mom-daughter picture?

Annabelle is thinking of the words to describe her very first chocolate bunny.

At the end of the day both kids were pooped.

Catching Up on the First 5 Weeks

Roman is 5 weeks old! He is still waking up about every 2 to 3 hours at night to eat. Somehow we wake up in the mornings with energy to get through the day. He is growing fast!

Annabelle has been sick with an ear infection and congestion due to allergies. We have been doing nebulizer treatments with her and they really help. She was also put on Amoxocillin and she had an allergic reaction. She broke out into hives on her face on Thursday and we have had to get a new prescription for her.

On Friday my cold got pretty bad. I quickly called the Birth Center to see what I could take, since I am nursing. The Tylenol Head Congestion Severe has really been helping. I’ve been able to rest some this weekend and I am doing better.

On Monday Roman’s cough and congestion got worse and I called the Pulmonologist today and had a consult on the phone with the nurse. He got two prescriptions and I am now giving him breathing treatments with the nebulizer every 4 hours (even through the night.) So every 2 to 4 hours I am either nursing him or giving him a breathing treatment.

Daniel is working and helping me a lot. We are still getting used to having two, but we love it! Here are some recent photos from the family.

Annabelle reading to Roman. He is only a couple of days old in this photo.

First bath at home!

Aunt Denise, Cousins: Samantha, Aubrey, and Kaela

Big boy!

Annabelle kissing her brother.

Pappas and Roman

Annabelle started wearing blankets after watching “Enchanted.” She puts on a blanket and walks around singing. Seriously, the cutest!

Recent photo.

Baby feet!

Annabelle imitating Roman’s crying and flailing arms.

Reading time in the library!

Going for a ride for the first time on the back of Daddy’s bike. She loved it!

Need Some Inspiration?

Too funny not to post. Kudos to you if you can name all of the movies in this clip. I got close, but was stumped by some of the old movies.