Welcome Spring!

Right, I know, Spring is almost over. But we did in fact welcome my favorite season with a fun-filled Spring party during spring break. Sofia and I made the invitations and invited some of her sweet little friends over to celebrate. The girls had a barbecue, played dress up, had an Easter Egg hunt, went to the park and finished with cupcakes and goody bags for all. It was a blast for everyone! Here are some of the highlights...

A Birthday Party for Dr. King

Sofia has been engulfed in the story of Dr. King's life. She studied about it at school and learned about his life, his work, his legacy and the injustice of racism he worked tirelessly to eliminate. She shared the story of Rosa Parks with us more times than I can remember. There is something about the five-year old mind and how in touch they are with injustice. Dr. King's story is forever ingrained in her mind--I don't think she'll ever forget what she has learned from him.

I shared the story with her that my Mom used to share about riding the Street Car in New Orleans in the 60's when the conductor would insist on any "colored" person getting up so that she could sit down. She always spoke about the injustice she thought it was that they would have to get up so that she could sit down just because she was white. My Mom always said she would refuse and sometimes they would be so insistent it would make her cry and apologize for the way the conductor and others treated the "colored." It was really special to share this with Sofia--to give her a real personal example that her grandmother lived and experienced many times. I'm grateful for my Mom's example to stand up for the racism and injustice that existed so prevalently back then and even still exists today. I'm also grateful for Dr. King's example and so is Sofia.

She prayed several times the week of his birthday thanking Heavenly Father for Dr. King and his life. It was precious. For the Martin Luther King Day holiday she had from school she suggested we make him a birthday cake! We had a lot of fun making it: a yellow cake, chocolate frosting, and yellow sprinkles...all Sofia's choice. She made a sun with the sprinkles on the cake. And loved getting to blow out the candles for him!

Sofia putting the candles on the yummy cake!

She was so excited!

Sydnei was oober excited too! After all at the age of 19 months, she does know what cake is...

Sydnei looks so serious here, waiting for the party to get started. I love her big blue eyes!

Papi lighting the candles...it got a tad hot for his hands!

Blowing out the candles!

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes by Dr. King:

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

And this just makes me happy...

It's the newest addition to our family Christmas traditions and decor, an advent calendar. I love it because it's so big and the pockets fit something for everyone! We started the tradition this year when I found it at Pottery Barn Kids of all places. It is exactly what I wanted. I filled it with all different chocolates from See's Candies...a real treat! It's our special Christmas tradition so it's worth the extra cost at See's to make it just that special.

Sofia is loving it the most. She loves to feel the pockets and figure out what is in each one. They include gold milk chocolate coins, solid milk chocolate Santa's, different colors of foil dark chocolate balls, and a little something extra special for Christmas Eve--two special dark chocolate bars, and Christmas Day--hand picked chocolates and truffles, everyone's individual favorite. And yes, we all have a favorite. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

For the first time in our 9 Staley Family Christmases we have purchased a noble fir Christmas tree, placed it in the stand, and actually took it into the house and decorated it--all in one day! It really is a miracle. You see, for the nearly 9 years we've been married one or both of us have been in school 7 of those 9 Christmases. That means that until finals were over--it didn't look or feel like Christmas in our home. My b-day happens to fall on the 9th and ALWAYS during finals week so it never really felt like my b-day either. There was always a post-b-day celebration...but you do what you gotta do and at least we had our priorities straight, right?

David is in his final year of his Master's degree and yet somehow we pulled this off without adding to the stress of time to get other things done like write 20-page papers and 10-page documentaries and 8-page reflection papers and so on and so forth. I'm so happy that we did. It feels great to get a jump start on the Christmas season and I love the smell of the fresh tree in our home! And she (yes the tree is a girl) turned out so pretty!

And these perfect puppies are compliments of my friend Jennifer Vanderlinden. The same person who we've been praying for and her husband, Pete. Yes, she's mighty talented and seriously I swear she is going to have some multi-million dollar business one day filled with all things hand-stitched, sewn, and perfectly hand-crafted. She made the first three stockings 5 years ago and then a new one for Sydnei when she joined our family last year. I remember that night at her house like it was yesterday. We had so much fun--while she did most of the work. I cut squares but really didn't get the sewing part. I am sewing inept. BAD. In spite of my own sewing disabilities, they came out perfect.

Jennifer has always worked so hard to do everything perfect. For a long time I always thought it was to her detriment (and even to her friends detriment who felt they may not be as perfect and far from it) because I worried she wouldn't be satisfied with herself and the things she created or did because of this concern to be perfect. But now, I get it. I know that "being perfect" isn't actually attained in this life--and I think she knows that. But her drive, hard work, and efforts to be and do things perfectly really push her to improve and progress and anything she attempts to do comes out beautiful (and as it turns out we have this trait in common). So over the years, I learned that lesson from her and it certainly helps me to understand her better as a friend...something I wish would have understood sooner. And, so to not digress too much more than I already have, I'll move on. :D

It was so fun to do these stockings together and I wish I could live closer to her so that we could do things like this and maybe I would even learn a thing or two (even with my craft/sewing disability)! The stockings are so cute and perfect and will be in our family forever thanks to Jennifer!!

Sofia stops to smile for the camera while we're decorating the Christmas Tree

Little Stink, Sydnei. She was running around everywhere with stuff all over her while we decorated the tree. She would stop for little moments to find the Dora ornament and rip it off the tree. The ornament in her hand here is one that never made it up because it because it became her favorite ball to play with!

And every year as I place this ornament on the tree I tell Ryan (David for those of you who only know him as David) that I dedicate this ornament to him. It's my FAVORITE!


MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE STALEYS!

Catch Up

Easter Sunday, 2009

Two nicknames stuck very quickly for each of our girls. When Sofia was a budding toddler at age 2, we nicknamed her stink pot for all of the little "tricks" she liked to play and her huge sense of humor. Sydnei's nickname came at a much younger age, Stink. She has had a mischievous flare to her since the day she was born. The funny thing is everyone seems to believe that Sydnei is our quiet, more reserved, mostly introverted child. And nothing could be further from the truth! Both of our girls are funny, love to play little jokes, and each of them have a funny little dare devil side to them that if you turn your head for a second, most likely when you look back you'll have some sort of disaster, I mean, surprise waiting for you!

Playing in the backyard, Spring 2009

These two little "momma's" (another nickname we use for both of them) are the sweetest, cuddliest, funniest, and flamboyant little girls I've ever known. Sure, I'm their Mami, slightly biased, but really they are!

Sofia on her 1st Day of School
September 9, 2009

Sofia is a big shot on campus in her Kindergarten class. She loves making friends and being the line leader. In fact, we had to have a talk about letting others be the line leader even if you were the first one to get to the door. One girl pushed her because she wanted to be the line leader. When Sofia told me about this, I asked what did you do? She, of course, responded: "I shoved her back!" Hence the "stepping aside and letting others be the line leader and how nice it is to do that for a fellow classmate" talk ensued. She has a BFF already, named Lilly. Note: Lilly is only her BFF at school, though. Natalie still holds the BFF overall title. I don't think that will change anytime soon. Sofia is speaking more and more Spanish again. Finally! She's gone through a phase for quite awhile now where she preferred to speak mostly in English but now that she has gone to school with so many other kids that speak Spanish, she loves being able to speak the language too! Sofia is thriving in school and we couldn't be more proud. On her first day of school, she received a "Cool Cat" award for being responsible and following the rules! The ironic thing about that was the weekend before, I was going through my Mom's things and found an award she had saved, which I received in 1983 for following the rules at school. Like mother, like daugther...to the max! Now, fast forward to the third day of school when Sofia informed me that I didn't have to walk her to class because she was a big girl now and could get there all by herself. So, I agreed, and stood on the sidewalk with tears streaming down my face as I watched our Sofia run across the playground and into the school with her backpack tossing back and forth behind her. It felt like a dagger when straight into my heart. Sofia is known for her strong independence and that is a special quality that enables her to put herself out there and not be afraid to try new things. I just wasn't ready as I so tried to be!

Like I said, Sofia loves to be the Line leader!
Here she is on her very first day!

"MOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!! Sydnei's in the toilet!!!"
(Here's to hoping she'll potty train early just like her big sister did!)

Sydnei has come out of her shell quite a bit in the last few months. This little punkin' has quite the opinion about pretty much everything and is not afraid to let you know! She's warming up to different people more and more and loves to smile and make us laugh. Both of our girls do in fact, which, honestly has been something I've needed these last few months. Sydnei says more and more words: agua, Papa, Mama, shoes, yes, bebe, baby, and now when we ask who wants to say the family prayer before bedtime, she raises her hand just as high as she can! Her big sissy, Sofia, is so proud to assist her in this endeavor by standing by her to say the prayer as if she is "helping" Sydnei learn. Precious, indeed. She loves to walk around and hold a baby and pat her on the back. She would read books all day if she could and is constantly picking some out for us to read to her. Oh, and I don't want to forget that lil' Stink feeds herself all by herself. She won't let anyone help her and is always happy to finish anyone's food that is left over! Sydnei has quite the appetite and that's not surprising considering the number of calories she needs to replenish with all the running around that she does! I particularly love how she tries to mess with me when Ryan and I are together. I'll say, "Sydnei, can you say Mama?" And she instantly responds, "PAPA!!!" It's hilarious! When we're driving down the road and Ryan and I are both in the front seats, I'll look at her through the rear view mirror, she'll make eye contact with me, smile, and then shout, PAPA!!! I respond immediately with a MAMA and we go back and forth. Lil' Stink!!!

Apple Festival, Champoeg State Park, St. Paul, Oregon
October 3, 2009

"Two Sissy's"
Champoeg State Park, St. Paul Oregon
October 3, 2009

We're all settled into the new school year and schedule. The girls both arise at 6:30am each morning and we leave at 7:30am to head for school. Bedtime is at a beautiful hour of 7:00pm, which has been our favorite part! :) It's nice to have some peace and quite in the house and wind down before we go to bed. It's a great time to converse about the day and everything going on--uninterrupted! AND, it's nice to have two very rested and energized little girls the next day.

David Ryan Staley, in all his glory
"Would you stop taking pictures of me, Storm?!?!"

Ryan is all settled into his last year of graduate school. He's quite the busy man, teaching Advanced Spanish, Composition, and Literature at the NW Academy, a private school in downtown Portland, and two undergraduate Spanish courses at Portland State University. He's taking three graduate courses of his own so needless to say he is BUSY. Seriously, every hour of his day is scheduled in iCal! Time management will prove to be the key to his success in executing and completing all of his classes and responsibilities successfully. I know he can do it! The best thing of all is that he comes home happy. He has found his passion in life and is well on his way to progressing academically and professionally in a field where he can be in his element and love every second of it not too mention a field that is and always will be high in demand. I'm so proud of him!!!

Me. Indulging in some hot dutch oven apple cobbler, featured at the Apple Festival in St. Paul, Oregon
Champoeg State Park
October 3, 2009

Since Sofia started school, and Ryan started to school, the hours and days go by so fast. I work hard to maintain Sydnei's napping schedule while fitting in music together clases, errands, doctor appointments, grocery shopping, and a soon to be added Gymboree class. Trying to hold down the fort, keep things organized, and ensure we all at least have clean underwear, fun things to do when we're together, and sanity at home are among my daily duties (love the alliteration there). :) After all, it is the place we all return to--to relax and find comfort with the ones we love.

Me and my dreamboat.
I was 36 weeks pregnant in this picture!!!
May 26, 2008

I love being a stay-at-home Mom. It was quite the transition for me three years ago but I did it. I knew the benefits that it would provide to me and my family. It was a challenge to transition from full-time career Mom to stay-at-home Mom but just like everything else, took some time, patience, and had a learning curve of its own. The balance we have as a family is priceless and the time I get to spend nurturing, rearing, and teaching our children is forever rewarding. And just in case you are wondering, yes, I do have my days when I want to pull my hair out, the times when I look at our girls when they're acting all sorts of crazy in public or private, and think to myself: "geez, some peoples' kids!"...and then pretend to not know them. Oh, and the times, when I'm just not in the mood to clean some HUGE mess for the 50th time. But hey, it comes with the territory!

It speaks for itself. Priceless.

Now all that said about me and my perspective and experience on being a stay-at-home Mom, I want each of you faithful readers to know that I have a great deal of respect and admiration for all mothers: stay-at-home Mom's, part-time working Mom's, and full-time working Mom's. I've been on both sides of the fence and respect the efforts that every Mother makes to take care of and provide for their children and families on so many levels. It really bothers me when people pass judgment on other mothers who have chosen to do things "a little differently" than they have. There is no "one-size fits all" for every family and I would hope that each Mom would feel confident in their choices to provide for their family and not worry about what other people say or think. I certainly love and respect all of my friends that are mothers no matter whether they're working or not. I'm so proud of them and all they do. They're inspirational to me for many different reasons. :) *Warm fuzzies*

Family Picture taken at Memory Grove in Salt Lake City, Utah
June 2009
by A&D Photography

So there you go. A bit of catch up on things happening in our little world. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I am proud I actually took the time to type all of this out! Boy, did ya'll get an earful or what?!?!? I guess I never really have been the kind of person to be at a loss of words!!!

Our 'Journey' to Evanston

I'm not a big fan of the word journey. The reason being that it's the most overused word in reality TV! Haven't you ever noticed how every contestant no matter what show they're on, refer to how amazing "this journey" has been?!?! Next time you watch a reality TV show--you'll see what I'm talking about! And just for kicks and giggles--count how many times the word 'journey' is used in one single episode.

On December 19, 2008, we set out to travel to Evanston, Wyoming, to spend the Christmas holiday with the Staleys. In all honesty, it was a true journey. We left the house with enough time to arrive at the airport...only to find that in Portland--the Sky Cap isn't open at 2:00pm--say what???? YEAH. Nope. One has to take their luggage inside to check it. Well, we still needed to park our car at the airport, which included a shuttle ride back and the need to check our luggage: three suticases each weighing 50 pounds + diaper bag + man purse + coats + carseats + carry on bag. May I mention how much I love those $3 and $4 carts to lug your stuff around at the airport? The best $3 bucks I've ever spent in my entire life. Anyway, we decided to take turns checking in while the other waited out in the car with the kids. Yes, one would think that security would be flagging us down while our car sat there...but no--not a single person said anything! We weren't complaining--we one by one got all of our luggage checked and boarding passes in hand.

We were warned that while the flight had not yet been delayed--it would likely be. The previous SLC flight had not even departed and was 3 hours delayed. By the time we got through security and to the gate we found out our flight had been delayed. Three hours total, in fact. Yes, oh yes. So we did the bathroom breaks, changed bums, fed the fam, and chilled.

My testimony of iPhones with movies on them grew substantially on this trip.
Thanks, Papi.

Could she be anymore precious?!?! I mean, honestly.

While waiting, I called my good friend and colleague, Diana, asking her to take us in for the night since my father-in-law, Dave, said the roads weren't safe to head to Evanston. I told her we'd be arriving shortly before 10pm and would continue to update her. SIX HOURS later we landed. Why did a 1.75 hour flight take so long? Well, let me just share. There was a huge snow storm in SLC, which shutdown all runways and the airport so we circled, flew to Twin Falls, Idaho, to get more gas, and then were warned that upon return to SLC if we weren't allowed to land we would fly to Grand Junction, Colorado, to get more gas and then back to SLC to try again. Fortunately, we did not have to do the latter but in all it amounted to six hours on a plane with the kiddos and a SMALL plane I might add...Ryan couldn't even stand up straight, he had to duck! Oh, yeah, the bathroom was broken...so no potty brakes. The A/C was broken too. They did say that if we really needed to do the deed we could always use a cup and dump water down the toilet to make it manually flush. Thanks, Delta. And H-NO, we managed to not have to use the bathroom and had zero accidents. Phew!!!

We arrived at 1am and left the airport about 2:15am. Everyone got to land when we did so the rental car counters were swamped. All employees but one for each company had gone home for the night so they were slammed. We waited, patiently, but exhausted. We had to stop by Wal-Mart for more formula and then we finally made it to Diana's house at 3am...she graciously waited up for us and put us up for the night complete with a hot breakfast that morning. Diana--what would we have EVER done without you and your amazing family?!?! We're forever grateful. I actually considered that part a big blessing--we got to visit and enjoy some time together catching up. Even though we didn't get to bed until after 4am we felt that we weathered the madness and long hours quite well and the girls did remarkably well. We were so blessed through the whole ordeal and that we actually made it! (By the way, Portland airport closed for three days the day after we left due to weather--we really got out of there in the nick of time)! We arrived safe and sound, we were watched over, and our girls all in all enjoyed themselves. Might I add, Sofia introduced herself to two young girls on the plane and asked them to be friends--entertaining herself with them for awhile and Sydnei coo-ed and goo-ed with her sweet smile and dimples at everyone around her. She's quite captivating, ya know.

Christmas with MaMa

MaMa and Sofia with a brand new Belle doll and horse.

MaMa sure helped Santa this year--Sofia had been eyeing this doll for months!

December 15, 2008, we celebrated Christmas with my Mom. We enjoyed a yummy dinner, gift opening, music, and some yummy homemade Christmas cookies. I love exchanging gifts. It was so fun to see my Mom's reaction when she opened the present from us...

She was ecstatic! We gave her an 8.4" digital photo frame. We decided just after Christmas last year that this is what we were going to give our parents this Christmas. It's an excellent way to display thousands of photos. We had preloaded it with pictures so my Mom immediately pulled it out and turned it on.

Sofia also received matching Princess gown and slippers--she wasted no time in putting those bad boys on!

And Sydnei....well,

Wait for it....

Wait for it...

Bam! Perfectly poised, Sydnei is so happy with her new walker to wagon toy from MaMa (AND Uncle Kris & Cousin Jordan). They too gifted Sydnei this awesome toy--man--our family members know each of us SO WELL!!!

Every year since I was born, my Mom gives me and now us all socks for the year. I've never had to buy socks in my entire life! Mom spoiled us this year with Chipotle and Starbucks gift cards, slippers, and a brand new set of classy dinner glasses. Thanks, Mom/MaMa, WE LOVE YOU!!!

Our Sweet Little Christmas Tree

Staley Christmas Tree 2008

Even though we were spending the majority of the Christmas holiday with the Staleys in Evanston, Wyoming--we had to put up our own tree and decorations. Each family has a different style and traditions when it comes to decorating. Well, our family loves the "hodge podge" Christmas tree. We love to have a large variety of mismatched ornaments that represent different years of Christmas--from our own childhood to the present. Each year when we decorate, we reminisce about the meaning and story of different ornaments while introducing new ones.

Ryan and I started a tradition when Sofia was born to give our children their very own 1st Christmas ornament. Here are some pictures of Sydnei's first ornament.

Every year without fail, Ryan tries to make the Yellow Submarine Beatles ornament the tree topper. It lasts up there right until were about done with the tree--then it's replaced with a real topper! Mr. Submarine always remains toward the top of the tree, though.

Here is my new ornament this year. I don't always get a new ornament but when I saw this one I fell in love. It's from the snowman/smores line of ornaments and goes right along with my other smores ornament that says "I burn 4 U," which I gifted to Ry five or six years ago. So cute! (Unfortunately, I don't have a pic of that one)

When I pulled out the Christmas Tree boxes to set up for our decorating extravaganza, Sofia immediately went to get her new ornament this year, Cinderella, no surpise there. She must have stared at the Princess ornaments in the Disney store for a good 10 minutes trying to pick one of the many. She finally decided on Cinderella--and so did Nana! She received two of these this year--I guess that means her Nana knows her really well! Sofia was very happy to have two Cinderella's. One at home and one at Nana's.

In all her Princess glory....


Fun Times....