The October Wrap-Up

 Top Ten reasons why October is the BEST month of the year!

#1 - Miranda Panda

#2 - Snip Snap - Photographer and Friend, Sara, Captured Our Beautiful Girl!

#3 - Ella's 5th Birthday

#4 - Daddy's "Paternity" Week Off - daily trips on the DOUBLE tag-a-long to school!

And DOUBLE piggy back rides when you get home!!

#5 - 50th day of school - 50's Day Celebration with a 50's party complete with rootbeer floats, hula hoop contest, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse reruns!

#6 - Grandma's Birthday

The picture like the birthday celebration was forgotten :(  but Grandma was happy to celebrate all of the other blessings :)

#7 - Preschool Parades - Grandpa, Daddy, Mommy, Ella and Miranda all came to see Lilah in  the Hillcrest Preschool Halloween Parade

 

#8 - Scott Avenue Literature Parade - and a handy Mermaid book to keep us legal!

Our Perez Family Participants!

#9 - Halloween  Night - Trick-or-Treating with great friends and family 

#10 - Daily Notes! - A Kindergartener who can read and write!

Translation - Mom and Dad this is a gift for you. I love you to the moon.  The End

Fantastic Five!!!!!

Mermaids are all the rage at our house these days.  So naturally Ella's fifth birthday began with her own Ariel costume as a special gift from Mom and Dad.  A fifth birthday is extra special so it was celebrated about ... 5 times!

Dad decorated awesome cupcakes to take with treat bags to Kindergarten.



Some friends joined us for cupcakes after school




And finally, family friends and of course - 2 week old sister Miranda all helped celebrate at Ella's Sea-to-Shore party.

Waiting is the hardest part...

September came to end and baby number 3 stayed warm, cozy and squished!  My due date came and went as my pregnancy became more and more unmanageable 
(I mean,  walking around  dilated to 5 for a few weeks is incredible but NOT comfortable!).  
Nothing to do but ............ 

.............    w.        a.        i.          t...................

On October 7th at 12:40 a.m., I had my first real-deal, no doubt, undeniable labor contraction.  The pain spread around my middle and I watched the clock.  Another 6 min. later, then one 5 min. later.  Barely 4 minutes later... another.  Time to wake the husband and NO time to grab the camera, do the dishes, or even wait for the Aunt/babysitter to answer the phone - My body told me that this baby was coming FAST.  

At 1:25 we sped off as Grandma and Grandpa arrived to take care of Ella and Lilah.   Traffic laws and valet requirements?  Ignored!   As we pulled in to the hospital,  I was wheeled up to Labor Delivery since walking through my contractions was no longer an option.  The nurses gave us a disbelieving look as Justin tried to rush me directly into a room.  Slow down and paperwork I heard through the pain...  Justin insisted that "This baby is her third and coming fast!".  Nurse Catherine took one look at me with her old Irish eyes and said 
"Come with me!". 
In a flash she checked the dilation and effacement - TEN and 100%.   I was ready to deliver.  Twenty six minutes later, I lay on the hospital bed staring at the minniest Mayernik yet!  Our seven pound, four ounce Little Girl Miranda Ida Mayernik was born at 2:16 a.m. with Nanna, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jackie and Daddy ready to welcome her into the world. 

Sweet Miranda - 10-7-2010

 

September Survival

We knew that this fall would arrive with a lot of changes and exciting adventures for our family: a new home, new schools, new schedules, new responsibilities, new sports - but I had no idea how intense our schedule would become.  I am getting better and better at juggling the morning feat of getting the girls ready for school, managing Ella's homework and soccer schedule, and the countless other small tasks that need to get done without the help of my right hand man who is putting in long days at Hillview and long nights of home improvement. 

I really am loving every minute of this new chapter in our lives... (well almost...) 

I've especially enjoyed the Kindergarten fun!

Ella's class had RED week and I was able to make RED heart jello jigglers as a special treat for Ella's class and Ella was so excited to come home from school as 
Clifford the Big RED Dog!

Lilah started back at Hillcrest preschool this week and LOVES going to school.  She is the most confident and capable three-year-old that I have ever seen and besides the morning "too tight' tantrum...  her school days are always filled with fun and a great attitude!

Our afternoons and Saturday mornings are spent with a great group of girls and parents from the Pink Lightening Soccer team.  
Ella was able to 'play-up' to be on Julia's team and being on a team with the Bustamantes has been fun for us all!

GO PINK LIGHTENING!

And the last bit of  survival for this September is surviving pregnancy... 38 weeks and counting down to the birth of our third little girl.

Where the heart is

In the winter of 2002 Justin and I bought our first home - it was a diamond in the rough - to put it nicely...  Some family members thought we were crazy - the house was a fixer that we took down to the studs over the next three months.  We spent evenings and weekends tearing out tile, cabinets, carpets.  I actually got up on the roof (briefly) to help remove the old shingles.  It was a labor of love and thanks to Justin's incredible home remodeling skills and the enormous help from ALL of our handy friends and family, we made 15449 Woodcrest not just our first house but our HOME.  Everything was new and beautiful and over the last 8 years we continued to improve it by first bringing Alli Dog home, and then a year later Ella Phyllis slept under it's roof :)  a short 19 months later Lilah Alice made Woodcrest her first home.  It is the home of our beginnings - the beginning of our marriage, our careers, our family...  and we are so fortunate to be able to keep Woodcrest to rent to a new family and we know that 12003 Penford will be a home of new beginnings - most importantly the beginning of our family of FIVE.  Just about 3 more weeks until we meet the newest Mayernik and bring her home to the house of new beginnings.

One last porch shot on moving day....

Schoolbag in hand...

The arrival of kindergarten snuck-up on us after a summer of changes.  New jobs, new homes, new babies!  Just three days after We moved from Woodcrest to Penford - moving from the house we brought our first teeny little girl home to... to the home where she would start her school career - Ella had her Kindergarten Open House.

Just look at that mature look

Her she is with Daddy and Little Sissy!

Outside of room 3 (Mrs. Long's class) with proud Mommy!

Ella loved the open house scavenger hunt and even read "The bathroom is in room 1" all by herself!

That night she was thrilled to find a present waiting for her...

And here is Ella on her first day as a Scottie Dog!

OFF SHE GOES...

Here is our "GREEN" girl at the end of her looong day!   She loved it!