Fridays Letters

Dear Love bug, You are growing up so fast.  You are so little that I forget you are already over 2-1/2 years old.  I love watching you run and play without hesitation and with full confidence.  You make me smile with your little expressions you make as you are discovering new things.

Dear girls, this simple day out on the grass was so much fun.  You were all so excited to play with the ball and I was surprised at how much you loved it.  Hayden was the only one following directions hopping and ribbiting like a frog, you guys cracked me up!!

Dear Cinnamon Sugar Banana Bread, I could eat you all day everyday.  Thanks a lot Lacee!!  =)

Dear girls, I love the way you create things like this donations shopping area in your room.  The way you lined each of your items up and tagged each one with post it price tags and gave me a bag for shopping.  I miss being young and finding joy in these types of things.

Dear Aleshanee, This moment right here, the sweet joy in your face, melted my heart tonight.  As you watched a little girl playing and laughing with her family your smile got bigger and bigger.  I love your smile so much and to see how happy you were made me happy.

Dear Dakota,  you are such a goof!  Daddy calls you that all the time because you are.   You crack us up doing crazy things and catch us off guard most times.  I love how spontaneous you are and that you are sensitive to people's feelings.

Dear Love bug, I have a lot of pictures of you not wanting to look at the camera and sucking on your thumb.  You have always been a self soother.  Everyone keeps telling you to stop sucking  your thumb but I think it is way adorable.  You were creating in me sucking your thumb and I have the ultrasound photos to prove it.  It's your thing, it's what you know, it's what comforts you.  I get it and you'll stop when  you're ready.

Dear pretties I create for my shop, stop tempting me to give you all to my daughters, I need to make sales to help our family bring in money!! =)

Linking up here:

A Little Piece of Me

like me on Facebook || follow me on Twitter || visit my Shop || follow me on Pinterest

send me a message here

Fish Watching

My girls love to watch the fish at the mall.  Whether it's these fish in the tank or the koi ponds at the big mall or at Dole Plantation.  They could sit all day and watch them swim around pointing out their colors and sizes.

It's funny because at this usual spot, these three little ones have their own way of fish watching.  Aleshanee is standing, Dakota is on  her knees, and Hayden is either on the tip of her toes, as shown here, or she's looking over at Dakota getting down on her knees as well.

I love how they are so in tune with one another when we are out.  Dakota and Hayden look to Aleshanee and follow her lead.  They get so excited when big sister is patient with them and tenderly leads them around and gives them direction.

These girls love simple things.  I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

xoxo, Salena

Side walk chalk and Hopscotch

My girls go through art supplies and sidewalk chalk like water.  They are so creative, always creating something and surprising me.  When they get the chance to play out front on the sidewalk, they draw the cutest pictures.  I love to see how their artwork is evolving and was quite surprised by what they have been coming up with recently.

I remember playing hopscotch when I was little but can't remember how to play.  I usually draw it wrong.  Does the end of the hopscotch have 2 spaces or only 1?  Aleshanee tells me, "it's okay mom, it's okay, it's fine".  They throw a rock and hop along with so much determination and joy in their hearts.  Pushing each other away for their turn because they are so excited to play.

Hayden being too young to understand, tries to hop all over the hopscotch to copy her sisters.  It's the cutest thing to watch.  She just laughs and goes again.  We have a set of stairs outside our place going up to the neighbors house and Hayden keeps sneaking her way up there.  I have the cutest picture of her "escaping" up the stairs with a handful of rocks.  Unfortunately she doesn't like to keep her clothes on so no picture of her for this post.  =)  She is growing up so fast, too fast.  Even so, it makes me proud to see how grown up she is and what she can accomplish on her own, like stairs.

Time moves so fast.  I love being home enjoying these moments with them.

xoxo, Salena BlogLovin / Facebook / Shop / Twitter / Google+ / Pinterest 
Pin It

Sisters

sisters

love

best friends

hugs

kisses

snuggles

tender caring

helping

carrying

holding hands

sharing

teaching

leading

guiding

although it's not always the case, when these little girls show one another this type of loving care, it melts my heart.

Linking up here.

xoxo, Salena BlogLovin / Facebook / Shop / Twitter / Google+ / Pinterest 
Pin It

It's the simple things...

The girls got to choose candy that was on sale today.  They take so long just to choose one.  We tell them they can have anything labeled with a yellow tag.  What do they go for?  Anything without a yellow tag!  In the end they chose a sale item and they were happy with it.  We sat outside the store to let them rest in the hot sun and enjoy their sweet treat.

Then it was off to sit in the courtyard...

Where Hayden dropped a piece of candy and the birds swooped up from nowhere and swallowed it whole.  She was so upset and started screaming at the bird.  It was hilarious.

Then it was off to chase every single bird in the area.  Hayden was running so fast that all her skittles were flying out of her bag.  The birds kept trying to eat it and she kept trying to pick it up and eat it herself.

Rudy and I just sat back and watched them enjoy themselves running back and forth yelling at the birds.

Today we woke up to silence.  All 3 girls were awake before us.  We walked out of our room to a complete arts and crafts disaster in our living room but Aleshanee was being the best big sister today.  She was carrying Hayden all around and taking care of her.  She did such a good job that Hayden never came back into our room not once while we were sleeping.  When I came out of my room, she just looked at me and then ran to big sister.  She never even said a word or made a peep for hours.  She just kept following big sister and putting her arms up for her to carry her.

I was so proud of Aleshanee today for being such a big sister.  When we were out today at the shopping center, she continued holding her hand and guiding her along.  It was the cutest thing.  I kept praising her at what great job she was doing and what a huge help it is when she steps up to her big sister role.

Yup, it's the simple things that matter the most.  :)

Xoxo, Salena s

Pin It
Linking up here:

Sandbox and face paint party fun

We celebrated one of my nephew's birthdays this week.  Party time was filled with sandbox play, which just so happened to be Hayden's first time.  She kept picking up the sand and throwing it above her head then would look around at what was falling into her hair.  It was the funniest thing.  As you can see in the picture above, she was a filthy mess with dirty sand all over her face, in her hair, and I didn't find out till today that her shoes were filled with sand.

The girls enjoyed their time with their cousins and other family and friends.  My mom did face painting for the entire duration of the party.  My girls are usually the last ones to get their faces painted at these parties.  Once, my mom did their paintings in the parking lot while standing outside her car when we were ready to go home.

One thing though, that dark pink paint... does not wash off.  I was sure Aleshanee was going to school with red splotches on her forehead the next day.  Lucky I was able to scrub the rest of it off before the bus picked her up.

It was nice to see the girls being able to go off and play more freely now that they are getting older.  They are growing up so fast and one of the things I love to do is watch the way they respond to their surroundings.  Their expressions on their faces, the things they say, the funny things they do, I love all of it.  I could sit and watch them all day.

I look forward to more days like this.

All my heart…

Salena

Pin It

http://livinginyellow.blogspot.com/

Treasured Time

 

I got to see my granddaughter Aaliyah twice this week.  I don't get to see her often so it was fun to have her over two days in a row.  She had fun playing with Dakota and Hayden while Aleshanee was at school

Dakota and I had one on one time and had fun together building a house for her little toys and then a witch house.  Not sure how she came up with that one but it was so much fun.

When Hayden woke up from her nap she put on her (well, mine but they took them from me and they think it's theirs) high shoes (that's what Aleshanee calls my heels), grabbed one of her many bags and was having fun walking around the house by herself.

Later, Aleshanee came home from school and while Dakota was napping... made this box car for Hayden and pulled her around the house for  a little while.  It's so nice seeing them play nicely together.

Daddy surprised us with a night out.  Money is really tight right now so these times have been scarce lately.  We got to go to Aleshanee's (well, my favorite now too) favorite place, Menchie's for yummy yogurt.  I could eat there everyday, I want some now.  :)

We strolled through our neighborhood mall for the evening.  The girls stopped to watch the fishes.  It was so cute because that's the first time the three of them sat together like this to watch, so quietly.  It was so cute to see Hayden pointing and trying to tell us something about the fish.

The girls stopped for a hula hoop session.  Aleshanee is a pro, and I don't mean that lightly.  She is a super pro.  Dakota, not so much.  She hasn't learned how to do it at all yet but she has fun trying.

Towards the end of our night, the girls spotted these green chairs.  They loved it so much they had to ask Daddy if they could get it.  I had told them no but they had to ask Daddy just to be sure.  I thought they were $18 each, crazy!  So we told them that if it was a few dollars (which we both knew it wasn't) that they could get it.  Took it to the price scanner, they were all excited with their hopes really high..... scanned.......... $23 each!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What?????!!!! The girls were disappointed to say the least.  There were tears involved.  =(....  Daddy settled on a couple of stickers then they were happy.  By the way, those chairs were salon chairs for dolls.  What will they come up with next?

We all had fun.  It was nice to get out of the house for a change.  Having a tight budget, sky high gas prices, husband's work hours and overtime slowing down... these times are treasured.  Just being together, experiencing life, and being able to witness the girl’s reactions to things around them is just so precious.

All my heart…

Salena

Pin It

Linking up here: 

Share Your Joy:: Cherished Moments

Snuggling in bed with Dakota while Aleshanee was at school and Hayden was napping.  I’m going to miss these moments when she starts Kindergarten next year.

Aleshanee and Dakota spent the night at Grandma’s with all their cousins and I got to have baby and me alone time which is rare.  Her little personality came shining through. 

Saphire and Aaliyah came to visit and we got to catch up while the girls were playing.  I miss having my older kids around.  At the moment they all live here on the Island but we hardly see each other because of all our different schedules.

All my heart,

Salena

Linking up here: