Current changes mean that baby girl isn't a baby anymore....

I still can't believe that Faith is three years old!  Seriously!  Where has the time gone?

Well, back in July of last year, we moved Faith from a day care center to a preschool.  We had looked into this particular preschool before, but they wouldn't take kids until they were two.  When a spot finally opened up for her, we jumped and moved her immediately!

That being said, since the move, her daddy and I can see a HUGE difference in her.  She knew her alphabets at an early age, but she has since learned her numbers, her shaped, and her colors.  She talks like a child well beyond her years and is fairly smart for her age.

Since she knows her letters, we decided that it was time that she start learning to read and write words.  Daddy has been practicing with her on his days offs on how to perfect writing her name.  Last night she came over to me on the couch and showed me her latest piece of work.

Not bad for a 3-year old!

Daddy had written her name in the top corner of her board and she did her best to copy it.  She was all proud of herself.  He then started writing words on the board and had her reading them.  Like I said, smart girl!

Another transition in our household has been a long time coming.  You see, Faith was still sleeping in her crib.  And now that she's turned three, and we are talking about trying for another child, it was time to transition her from her crib to a toddler bed.  Since her crib is a convertible bed, it meant taking one of the sides off the crib.  Lucky for us, my brother had saved the bed wing that my nephews had used as little kids and gave it to us to use.

I came home from work yesterday to find that daddy had finally made the change.  Needless to say, Faith was excited.  On the other hand, mommy and daddy were afraid of what might happen, mainly about her getting out of bed and playing instead of sleeping or waking up early and coming into our room and waking us up.

Well, when it came time to put her to bed in her new big girl bed, she was excited.  We proceeded with our normal bedtime routine and put her to bed just like we did every night and left her room.  When I went to check on her about an hour later because I had thought I had heard a thump come from her room upstairs, we found her fast sleep.  Success on the first night. 

I just love watching my baby sleep!

Clovis Dynamos

Well, Faith had her first soccer practice/game on Saturday and she was so excited.  It was all she could talk about during the week.  We signed Faith up for the Clovis Little Kickers, which is for ages 3 to 5. 

Before the excitement wore off.

When we showed up, we sat through a brief parent's meeting to explain the process and meet the coaches.  Once the meeting was done, we were sent to our respective fields to meet our coaches and get our shirts and socks.  Faith has two coaches and is on the Dynamo team and her team color is orange.

In this league, they practice and play a game at the same time.  The coaches split the team in half and one team goes to play in the game while the other half stays and practices drills.

Yes, she's the tiny little girl drinking out of her sippy cup.

 Well, the first day didn't go as expected.  Once they broke up into two groups, Faith was in the group that stayed and practiced drills first.  She didn't want anything to do with the coaches or the other players or even the drill.  She just clung to me and threw a fit.  Eventually, one of the coaches came over to her and got her involved enough that I was able to walk away and let her take it all in.

Getting ready to work on her dribbling technique.

When it came to game time, it was a whole other story.  She cried!  And I mean cried...as in tears coming out of her eyes!  Why you ask?  Because she wanted to play the game with her own ball instead of the game ball.

Lesson number one for her first season of soccer....her own ball stays home on game days!

3rd Birthday

My baby girl turned three on Friday, March 1st.  My how time flies.  It just seems like we brought her home from the hospital yesterday!

 

I still cannot believe how much she has changed and grown in just three short years.  She is a great combination of both her daddy and her mommy.  She has momma's looks and daddy's temperament.  I love it!  I always tell Kevin that is she so much her father's daughter!

Since her birthday fell on Friday and a day which she has preschool, her Titi sent her a bouquet of balloons, which I'm told by her teachers was the hit of the day for the entire class, and I brought her entire class mini cupcakes to celebrate her special day.

On Saturday, we went shopping to finish up getting things for her birthday party and did a little shopping for Easter decorations for the house.  Before we started off on our momma/daughter shopping adventure, I treated her to a birthday mani/pedi.

Sitting in her princess chair. 
(Mani/Pedi at Aqua Nail Salon in Clovis)

I let her pick out whatever color she wanted.  Before we got there, she told me she wanted purple.  Well, it turned out that she wanted  my toes to be a shimmery purple and hers to be orange!  I let it be.  It was, after all, her birthday.

While we were planning her birthday, I asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted.  She looked at me and told me she wanted a "Dora the Explorer" birthday Party.  Well....Dora the Explorer party is what she got.  We sent out Dora invitations, had a Dora cake with Dora toys in it, Dora plates and napkins, and Dora wrapping paper.  I even made Dora's backpack as goody bags for all of the kids!

Hand made by me
(idea came from Pinterest)

 I also searched esty.com for some ideas on outfits.  I ended up ordering Faith this shirt.  She was so excited when she saw it for the first time.  (And yes, even the bow in her hair is Dora.) 

Shirt from etsy.com; skirt and shoes from Target;
bow from Best Kept Secret

 We decided to have her birthday party at Adventure Park in Visalia since all of our family lives in Visalia.  It tends to be easier to bring the party to our family rather than have them drive the way from Visalia.


Blowing out the candles on her Dora cake.
(Picture courtesy of Auntie Vicky!)

Needless to say, she had a great time with all of her cousins and friends that came to the party.  Everyone showered her with tons of gifts, most of which were Dora related.  (Go figure, right!) 

Future Team USA soccer star

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I used to tell my husband that she was going to be a soccer player because of all the kicking she did while inside of me.  Who knew that just a few years later, she'd be asking us to play!

Last October, two of my nephews played in the AYSO soccer league in Visalia and I took Faith to go see them play.  She loved it!  While one cousin was playing his game, she was kicking a soccer ball around with the other.  Needless to say, I needed to get her involved some how.

Back in January, I saw a banner posted at the elementary school down the street from us that the Clovis Unified offered a Little Kickers program for ages 3-5 and the spring season started on March 9th, the week after her third birthday.  I called to verify that she would be eligible to play and then signed her up!

She is beyond excited.  To get her ready, daddy and I took her to get some shin guards and to find her some soccer shoes.  We found the shin guards at Target, but couldn't find any cleats her size.  After asking around from friend and Facebook, we found that a local soccer shop carried toddler sized cleats.  So, off we went.

We found a pair of Addias cleats that were just her size and I ended up letting her walk out of the store with them off because she refused to take them off.

Well, she is so excited about playing soccer that I found her trying to put her cleats on by herself in the living room the other day.  It was so cute.  She looked up at me and told me, "I play soccer, momma!"  Her excitement just melts me heart. 

Trying to put her cleats on by herself

(Yes...I had to buy her her own soccer bag and it had to be Addias to match her shoes.)

Daddy and I have taken her out to the park a few time to kick the ball around a little to get her used to it, but I'm looking forward to watching her play with kids her own age.  I can only hope that she grows up loving the sport just as much as her mommy did when she was younger!

Looks like a natural!

Recent Finished Project

Quite a few years ago, I learned how to cross-stitch and took to cross-stitching baby blankets as an easy hobby to help myself relieve the stress of the day.  My first blanket took me over a year and a half to complete.  Since then, I have made quite a few, including one for my own daughter. 

I've tried to make one for each of my nephews (since I don't yet have a niece) and my own daughter.  In August 2012, my sister-in-law, Melissa, told me she was expecting her first child and I immediately started thinking of what I would do for her.  At first (I believe she was really hoping for a girl), she told he she was going to do an owl theme for the nursery.  Since the blankets take so long for me to do, I went to Joann's that same week and found my next project.



I immediately fell in love with this blanket.  I bought it and took it home to start working on with the hope of having it finished before the baby shower and before the little baby was born.

I started working on it in September 2012.  I worked on it as often as time would allow (I did have a full time job and was a full time wifey and mommy duties that took precedence, ya know). I took it on a weekend trip out of town with the hubby and worked on it all day on a Saturday while he was in a meeting all day.

Stitching while the hubby is sitting in a boring meeting.

As I worked the blanket, I had a lot of idea running through my head.  I wanted my sister-in-law to be able to actually use the blanket instead of just saying "it's too pretty to use". So many ideas and no clue as to what to do.

After almost four months of working on the blanket and praying that I would get it done before the baby arrives, I finished it just after Christmas.

The finished product

After I finished the blanket, I kept looking at it and told myself that it need something else.  I wanted it to be something special that my sister-in-law and new nephew would be able to use and treasure.  By this time, the baby shower was just around a few days away and while I wanted to give it to Melissa, I knew it wasn't as finished as I wanted it to be.  So, when it came time for the shower, I wrapped it up and gave it to her.

Melissa and I at her baby shower on January 21th

I brought the blanket home with me after the shower, still trying to figure out what to.  My hubby looked at it and told me that I should have the baby's name put on it to personalize it and then add a backing to it to hide the stitching on the back.  Thinking it was a great idea, I set out to do just that.  I ended up taking it to an embroidery place here in town and had them stitch my nephews name and birth year on it.

(Embroidery done by California Embroidery)

After I had it embroidered, I took it o Joann's to find some sort of fabric to put on the back of it to make it usable but at the same time, make it look more boyish.  I ended up finding a nice fleece fabric that was blue and white checkered.  Now, the fun part was trying to figure out how I was going to get the fabric onto the back of the blanket.  I had a sewing machine, but didn't know how to use it. (I know, brilliant, right?)

Well, a few weeks ago, with the help of my mother and stepfather and a friend of my mom's, I was finally able to finish it and get it done the way I was picturing it in my mind and exactly how I wanted to get it done. 

Got the backing sewn on!

I was so excited when it was done.  And the best part.  I had done all of it myself!  My sister-in-law is so excited to use it.  Hopefully soon, I will be able to add a picture of my new nephew with his new special blanket!