Spartan Sundays

this was before he got his jersey, Go Daddy!

Back in April, Ruben joined his co-worker’s baseball team. Honestly, I’m surprised he didn’t join some kind of weekend sport sooner! They have games every Sunday and occasionally the team will practice or go to the batting cages together. Ruben joined at the end of a season so he only played in 3 games before their Summer season started. Since the new season, they’ve played 4 games and have won 2. Ruben has been doing really well and is now batting 1^st! All of their games are in Carson at various parks and are usually at 8am, 11am or 2pm. If he has an 8am game, Riley, Andi and I usually stay home because I don’t like having to wake up two sleeping (and cranky) babies! We did it once, and it did not work out very well.

Keeping a toddler and a baby occupied for 2 ½ hours/9 innings is a job, in and of itself. It’s taken trial and error, but I’ve worked out a good system- I usually pack a lunch bag full of snacks for Riley to have while we’re there and she will sit in her stroller and watch Ruben play/eat her snacks/play with whatever toys we bring. If the playground is close to the baseball field, I will take her over and let her play for a while and then we’ll go back and wait for the game to end. 90% of the time, Andi will sit in her car seat and play with her toys and I will also sit her on my lap and she’ll hang out with us until she gets tired. I will also carry her in our Ergo if I feel that’ll be easier. This past time I actually tried something new and put Andi in the stroller to play with her toys and let Riley sit next to me on the bleachers. It worked for Andi, but Riley was all over the place which made it hard for me to watch both of them. Lucky for me, our friend Azalea (Ruben's co-worker's girlfriend) is there every Sunday so she always helps me out with my two little rascals. Thank you, Azalea!!

It’s been fun to watch Ruben do something he enjoys and support him/cheer him on during his games. I also love how it has become a “family routine” every week, and Riley always looks forward to going to the park to “watch Daddy play baseball”. It’s cute to watch her try and talk to Ruben while he’s playing and she’ll even yell from the stands “Go Daddy!” or “Come on, JR!” Hahaha!

Good luck, Spartans!

Easter 2013

Just like every year, we did the "Easter hop" where we hopped around from house to house to spend time with all of our families. I don't like to sound like I'm complaining, because that's far from the truth. I love seeing my family and Ruben's family. I have and always will be a family girl. But I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't extremely tiring and even stressful! Blah! But we are super lucky to have such amazing people in our lives and being able to spend time with them every holiday is a blessing.

 Easter Morning
Riley has recently discovered her love for One Direction (curse you, British boys!) so she has been loving their music and especially their music videos. Christina (Ruben's mom) & I decided to put Riley & Andi's baskets together this year so I splurged and got Riley a 1D microphone that sings "What Makes You Beautiful". I knew she would be super excited when she opened it, which is what I wanted. I got her a few other little things as well. Andi was hard to get things for since she's so small, she can't really enjoy much. I ended up getting her just a few teething toys.

 Easter Afternoon/Evening
We started off at my mom's house where it was just my grandparents, my mom, John, Jack, the Walker family and our mini fam. And of course the doggies! Riley & Amelia had an Easter egg hunt together and then we all sat down and ate lunch. Ruben had a game at 11 so he showered and changed while I took the girls over and then I went back to get him when he was done. We then went over to Grandpa Villa's house after and spent time with the Ponce's, and had another Easter egg hunt. Then we finished with the Ramirez family where Riley had her last egg hunt all by herself! She was in candy heaven by the end of the day, I eventually had to hide all of her baskets. The Saturday before Easter, we spent time with Grandma Rachel at the park! I didn't get to see my Emmsley family this year though :( It was really cold this year so Riley & Andi didn't stay in their dresses too long.

 Pictures from the Park

All photos taken by my NEW Samsung Smart Camera, courtesy of Groupon. I LOVE it! Thank you, Ruben! :)

Happy New Year! 2013*

Hope everyone had an amazing and safe start to their New Year! We spent ours warm and cozy inside; Ruben and Riley had colds so we didn't want to make it any worse by going out in the winter cold.

This year for my New Year's resolution was to start our family/daily vlogs back up! I really missed doing it so I thought it would be the perfect time to start with Andi finally here. Although, it would've been pretty cool if I started before I gave birth to Andi.

My goal is to upload every Sunday, so they'll be vlogs from the entire week put together into one. Uploading daily would be too much, so for now I'll stick to 1 vlog upload a week. Maybe once I start getting the hang of it again I'll do a couple a week ;)

So here's our first vlog of 2013!

Subscribe to our channel here!

December Activities

We definitely got into the holiday spirit this year! I tried to fit as many Christmas-y activities into the month as I could to get Riley really excited for Christmas. She was able to understand that Santa would be coming to deliver presents on Christmas Eve while we were sleeping, but we had to be good! However, she still wouldn't go to the mall and take a picture with him. Her response, "No! I'm scared!" Maybe next year!

Puppet Show
Just down the street from where we live, there's a house that puts on a puppet show on their front porch every year. There is several different puppets that dance along to Christmas songs- some with lyrics of their own and some with the original lyrics. It was a really cute 30 minute show and Riley loved it! It was her 2nd time and my 1st :) Andi and Daddy stayed home where it was warm!

 All of the puppets were hand carved by the puppeteers! So amazing, they looked awesome!

famous for their upside down Christmas tree!

the stage came right off of their porch

Naples in Long Beach
Riley has really been loving all of the Christmas decorations and lights on everyone's houses! Whenever we go somewhere and we're driving down the streets, she'll look out the window and say, "Look! Lights!" "Santa!". One night Ruben and I decided that we wanted to take her somewhere where we could walk around and see a lot of lights! So we took Riley and Andi to Naples and walked up and down the street looking at all of the beautifully decorated houses. It was our first time there, and we will definitely be going back every year!

A few of the houses we saw...

 The Nutcracker
This year was my first year going to see the Nutcracker with my mom, grandma, sister and brother-in-law and I LOVED it! It was at the Long Beach Terrace Theater (in Long Beach, CA) and we attended the one in the afternoon. I brought Andi with me since I didn't know how long I would be away from her (I am exclusively breastfeeding) and she just slept in the Moby Wrap the entire time... what a good baby :) I really wish I could've brought Riley too, but I'm not so sure she would've sat quietly for 2 hours. Next year I'm hoping she'll be a little bit more patient because I know she would really enjoy it.

4 generations in one picture!

Andi's Nutcracker ornament

Riley's Nutcracker ornament

random picture of Riley being silly!

An Oceanside Christmas

Every year the Emmsley family gets together before Christmas and we do our gift exchange and celebrate early, making it easier to be with other families on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. For a few years now, we've been going down to Oceanside (where my grandma Lani lives) for a weekend and we exchange gifts and hang out together. We usually do brunch on Sunday at Dini's by the Sea (in Carlsbad), and then everyone heads back home. I love getting together like this because we always have so much fun! It truly feels like the holiday season when you spend it with loved ones.

Hawaiian style Christmas tree!

crazy penthouse party!

Grandma "Nui"

It's not an Emmsley party without a little poker ;) and YES, Ruben won!

Pops and Andi

jacuzzi bath time!

learning a little too early...

grumpy at brunch!

On the way back home, we stopped in Whittier to celebrate Grandma Connie's (Ruben's grandma) birthday! What an amazing family-filled weekend!

Andi and her aunties Felicia & Nicolette