life according to the diaz's: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!! I told Juan this afternoon that I needed to sit down and catch up on our blog since I hadn't completed one in awhile. So, a football and blogging afternoon it has been. When I logged on, I couldn't believe it had been since the beginning of November since I last logged on. I remember the days right when Elena was just born that I was blogging at least once a week if not more. My how the time changes and gets filled up with so many other things like Play-Dough and watching Frozen over and over again. Since the beginning of November, our baby girl has turned into a full-on toddler. Three whole years now and she just keeps growing. Juan and I's love for her continues to grow with each passing day. She really is the most incredible thing in the world. Like I've said so many times, Juan and I will just sit back oftentimes and just watch her play, read, watch TV, or her "how-to" videos on the Ipad. Her mind is getting smarter and smarter and I often wonder how she knows some of the things she knows. We continue to work on letter sounds and counting correctly up to 20...she recognizes most of the numbers, but reciting them in order is still tricky...I blame it on only being three years old ;) This girl just loves to learn. And, having two parents who are teachers absolutely love this about her! Elena likes to try things on her own first and then yell for help...and, yes, it's usually a yell. Ha! She asked for a lot of books, puzzles, and games for her Leap Pad for her birthday and Christmas. She got all of these items, of course. Her favorite book has been her Peppa Pig book that Santa brought her. We read it over and over. She is starting to want to read it to herself too. I love watching her tell herself the story when she thinks I'm not watching. Elena has also really gotten into Cinderella. We were on a Frozen kick for a good long while, but as Christmas came and went, Cinderella was on our TV a lot. Elena even got a Cinderella doll for Christmas, which she absolutely loves. Santa also brought Elena a new BMW car for Christmas. It's been fun to watch her ride around back and forth in the living room for now. It's been too cold (or we just haven't been home) to really get outside and enjoy riding on the sidewalk. This spring and summer will be a blast watching her ride in style. Other than her birthday celebration and several Christmas celebrations with family, we haven't been filling our time with much else. We've been traveling a lot to visit with friends and family and during the "in-between" time at home here and there, we just relax, eat lots of goodies, and play/watch movies. Times have been good. It's hard to believe that our Christmas break is over and we are back to our normal routines tomorrow. I'm excited, though...it just means that the school year continues to move on, spring will be here before we know it, and we'll be on to the most fantastic time of year...summer :) I'll have to spend this evening, though, looking through my school bag to remember how to teach my little ones when I head back to school tomorrow...I feel like I've forgotten so much...hopefully my little guys at school haven't lost too much ground...YIKES!! Happy January, everyone! Pics below of all of our fantatsic times this birthday and Christmas season!