Waking Up On Memorial Day....
Yes - this is what the Ontiveros household woke up to on Memorial Day. A tree fell - actually a branch fell in our yard and left somewhat of a mess. It was okay because it was a city tree and they had to come on out yesterday and clean up the mess.

My Beauty Girls!

...Taken about two months ago - look at how big they are getting.

Olivia finally smiled for one and I mean only one photo! Brooklyn on the other hand smiles all of the time! She is such a SWEET baby and I lover her so much!

Happy Wednesday!

Girls Night Out!

I so enjoy my monthly girls night out!
Pictured from left to right

Donna

Michelle

Me

Karen

Tobi

We have a great time laughing, sharing and DRINKING!! Not that any of us have a "problem" but it is nice - especially for Tobi and I who have small children to enjoy the company of adults for an entire meal and not have to leave because of a poopy diaper or a crying fit!

Life should not be measured by the breaths we take...

but by the moments that take our breath away

Bye-Bye Uncle Eric / Memorial Day

Eric left today for Boston. It was so wonderful to have him home in GR for the past several weeks I hated to see him leave. not only did I enjoy his company but he was a HUGE help to me. Jose has been working a lot of nights lately and Eric was over a lot helping me get the girls ready for bed, baths, bottles and lots of stories. I know they will miss him too - especially Olivia. She liked when he read to her at night. Eric also got is fair share in of changing poopy diapers. I am sure he will not miss that. I am going to miss him a ton. Hopefully his career will lead him back to West Michigan. Brooklyn also loves her Uncle as you can see from these photos.

The Memorial Day weekend was really nice. A great deal of work - but nice. Saturday the girls and I headed to South Haven for Elizabeth's first birthday party! It was very fun - a bit crazy for me watching my two girls - but nice to see everyone. The rest of the weekend was spent doing house/yard work. Jose opened the pool - or at least drained it, cleaned it and is now in the long and expensive process of filling it. It should be open next weekend - however with temps in the low 60's - I don't think there will be much swimming this weekend. I have to send a special thank you shout out to Uncle Todd for the several hours of manual labor he put in out our house this weekend - not only was he our pool boy - but he relandscaped a portion of our front yard - looks so much better!

Work has been nuts and Jose is getting busy too! Yeah!! As many of you may know Jose lost his job about a month ago and he is exploring some new and exciting options. When this all first happened I was a mess - but now I really believe that this is the best thing that could have happened to us. I have every faith in Jose that he will be back on track soon. If anyone deserves to succeed and be happy - I really believe that it is him. Oh - I finished my Starbucks book - which I would recommend to anyone - especially those who have had life changing career things going on. I am now reading - The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. You may remember seeing him on Oprah. He is a young guy with a wife and three small kids who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Sad story - but inspiring book.

Enjoy your week!!

Sunday Dinner......

Sunday dinners are one of the things that I look forward to most in the weekend. It's fun to plan the menu and gather family for a few hours of fun. Jose loves to spend his Sunday afternoon in the kitchen - either prepping the food or looking for new recipes. I love to bake the yummies! Eric and I made chocolate heart flourless cakes with ganache in the middle - served warm with a small dollop of whipped cream - it was heavenly! Here are a few pictures I snapped yestrday at dinenr time. As you can see Brooke was very much enjoying the afternoon. And - Eric and I being silly.

I am reading a wonderful book right now that I would reccommned to anyone. It's called -

How Starbucks Saved My Life. It is written by Michael Gates Gill and it is a TRUE story of how a former ad executive from J. Walter Thompson suddenly finds himself fired from the company & obviously out of a job at the age of 53. After a series of unfortunate events - Michael now 63 and nearly broke d by chance ended up at a Starbucks and when one of the managers asked if he needed a job - he said yes. So, now Mike is working at a Starbucks in NYC - where he was the minority - age and race- and realizing that a fancy title and a large company really doesn't mean everythng. This book as a great message - less past more future. I am hoping that I can take that lesson and apply it to my life.

Happy Monday - ENJOY YOUR WEEK!!!

Our Beauty Girls...
As you may have discovered we have changed the name of our family blog. We did this for several reasons - one was that first baby journey - turned our to be first/second baby journey so we wanted a new name. We also had a few people out there that had our blog address that we were not comfortable with having it. So with that said - welcome to ..our beauty girls! I actually call Olivia and Brooklyn my beauty girls all the time so what better name for our family blog!

Here is Miss Brooklyn - happy as can be. She is ALWAYS smiling and so happy. She loves her mommy and daddy and likes to cuddle. She is a JOY and I am so blessed to have her. Her smile lights up a room and warms my heart.

Little Miss Olivia was watching her all time favorite show - the Mickey Mouse Club House and she fell asleep - so daddy was able to capture this moment! It is very rare that Olivia will fall asleep like this - so we had to snap a quick photo!

My baby brother - Dr. Eric...has been home for a few weeks and I have SO enjoyed my time with him. Many dinners together, running errands and just having a glass of wine...these special times have been so wonderful and much needed. I know that my "beauty girls" will miss their funny Uncle Eric when he moves to Boston in just a few short days. And - I have a feeling he will miss them even more.

Joy is not in things...it is in us.

Congratulations Dr. Eric Essick!!!

Congrats to my "baby" brother, who over the weekend, received his PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Not only did he graduate with his PhD in something I can barely pronounce - but he made the Dean's List. He also wrote his dissertation on "Oxidative Stress and Protein Cleavage: Pervanadate-mediated shedding of intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1" I have no idea what that means!
We had a great weekend in Louisville celebrating this amazing and challenging milestone. I am so proud of Eric and am excited for him as he begins a new adventure in Boston at Boston University doing things that I can't even understand!

EMBRACE LIFE AND ALL THAT IT HAS TO OFFER!