Julianna's butterfly treehouse

We got Julianna a butterfly tree house from Toys 'R Us some time early August and we have really enjoyed it.  It is a great way for her to learn about the life cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly.  With the treehouse came a mail-order form for 5 caterpillars.  The caterpillars came after a week, and we watched them grow fatter and fatter every day.  After a week, they turned into chrysalids...and then after a couple more weeks, we had 3 lovely butterflies inside the treehouse!  Julianna released the butterflies two days ago.  She didn't want to at first, but I told her they needed to find their mommy.  I knew they only had a life span of 20 days, and I really didn't want to have her see them die.  Here are some pictures from the day we released her precious little babies.

Getting ready to release her butterflies

Julianna named this butterfly "Igor". =)

Pump it Up!

As promised I am sharing some pictures from Julianna's birthday party at Pump it Up!  It was a huge success!  I think everybody, young and the young at heart...had the time of their lives.  

It was the first time Julianna ever blew her birthday candle by herself.  This was something Jeff and I had longed to see and it was really, really hard not to get teary-eyed.  She had always been scared of the candle on her birthday cake...probably a sensory issue.  I believe that after 4 years we are winning our fight against Julianna's autism.   I know that there will still be some bad days, but good ones like this make us keep going.  

Thank you to everyone that came to join us on this special day!  More special thanks to everyone that brought donations for the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.  I will be posting more pictures of Julianna giving her gifts to the "sick children".  She is very excited!  She said that their "bugs will go away then they can go home because I shared my gifts with them."  

Enjoy the pictures!

Mommy and the birthday girl

With Nona

Julianna and her bffs Mina and Mari

With "boyfriend" Sammy

Welcoming Morgan, Amelia and Landon

Watching the safety video

Pretty Amelia is ready to go!
Pin the Tail on the donkey game.  Amaria won the Disney Store gift card!
Climbing wall fun
Bouncy fun!

Everybody enjoyed going down the giant slide!

Reunited with her beloved Miss Ellie

Trying to keep everyone still for the group picture

Enjoying her birthday cake

Yummy pizza and cake!

With Tito Paul and Rani, Tito Dave and Yigo, Tita Ferly and the very pregnant Tita Monica

I'm not tired yet Mama...

...just hungry! 

Julianna's 6th Birthday

Our little princess turned 6 today.  *Sniff!*  It seemed like it was just yesterday when we first took her home from the hospital.  She was so tiny!  She has now blossomed into a little girl, full of life, love and intelligence....Just as I always imagined she would be and so much more... Three years ago I was told by a Child Development Specialist that Julianna would probably never learn to talk because of her autism.  I always believed in my heart she would talk someday, and she did.   It made me choke back the tears today when she said that although she is 6, she will always be my little baby.  *Double Sniff!!!*

We celebrated her birthday at P.F. Chang's today, her favorite restaurant of the month.  We also opened presents from family members.  We will have her birthday party tomorrow at the Pump it Up in Brentwood, but for this year, Julianna has decided to accept donations for the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital instead of receiving presents from guests.  This is very atypical for a child with autism to do, so Mommy and Daddy are very supportive of her endeavor.  She really, really wants to "fix" the sick children, especially the ones with "lots of bugs" in their blood.  She believes that if she shares her toys, these little kids can go finally go home.  How I wish that it was that simple, and it is very hard to explain to her that despite her help, it will still take a miracle for some of these kids to go home.  I really hate to dampen her spirits, so I told her that it will really help them feel better and help them go home faster. 

On to happier things, Julianna blew the candle on her cake today and made a wish for the first time in 6 years!  She has always been scared of the birthday candle.  I know I will really cry tomorrow if she blows the candle on her cake at Pump it Up.  I have waited for that moment for so long! 

I am going to share a few pictures from our special day today.  Stay tuned for more to come tomorrow!

Presents galore...

Julianna with her much coveted Littlest Pet Shop toys

With the Littlest Pet Shop city she built

Mommy and baby

Preparing to make a wish

The family at P.F. Chang's

Celebrating Papa's Birthday

We are very blessed to have Papa around on his birthday. The whole family celebrated this special celebration at our favorite Japanese restaurant, Omikoshi. Here are a few pictures from Papa's birthday dinner.

Julianna and the birthday boy
Outside Omikoshi (Julianna loves the fishes!)
Silly faces!

4th of July Weekend

This post is long overdue but I thought I would share pictures from our wonderful 4th of July weekend in Texas. We went to visit Mamere and Papa and checked out their new house. We had a lot of fun!

Front of the new house

Julianna in the backyard

She is all grown up! "Sniff!"

With Mamere

Julianna and her two grandmothers

My family at the beach in Galveston, Texas

Water baby!

We also had a wonderful time at the Sienna Plantation Water Park. The water park is located inside the Sienna Plantation Subdivision and it is supposedly the biggest private water park in the US. It was awesome! We had so much fun!

Jeff under the big bucket of water

My family

Julianna, Uncle Alex, Daddy and Mommy

Celebrating life in June

I didn't get to post anything for the month of June because of various reasons, mostly because I had been very busy!

I thought I'd sum up the month of June by sharing pictures from birthday celebrations we had this month.

We celebrated my mom's birthday on June 10...hard to believe she is now 54 years old!

Alex turned 32 on June 15.

Pretty Amelia is now one year old! We had so much fun at her party.

We also welcomed our newest MIDL baby, Allison Claire McCormac, on June 16!

Kindergarten Program

Julianna had a blast during her Kindergarten program today. She did very well singing with her friends, she made Mommy and Daddy very proud!

A short clip from Julianna's graduation program

After the program, the Kindergartners and their proud parents had a great picnic at the school playground. Julianna had so much fun at the water slides! We are very proud of what she has accomplished this school year!


Julianna with McKay...waiting for the celebration to start

Enjoying the water slide

Waiting in line with a fellow Kindergartner

Water limbo rock!

Daddy with a very wet Julianna

My "not so small anymore" baby!

with her teacher, Mrs. Phillips

with her classmate Sofia

After the school festivities, we went out to P.F. Chang's to celebrate Julianna's graduation. She was very happy with all her gifts, but the flowers from Uncle Alex really made her day.

The proud graduate and her flowers

Julianna with Nona, Tita, and a very sleepy Uncle Alex

Proud Parents!

Getting ready to open her presents!

This video clip was too precious that I just had to share it. On our way home today, Julianna was happily playing with the My Little Pony Teapot Palace that my sister gave her for a graduation present while singing her version of "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera. I will have to apologize for the poor video quality, I had to hide the camera because she really hates it when I try and take videos of her. The improvised lyrics makes it really special. She also uses "Yes!" instead of "Bravo!" which I thought was really amusing. She sings the melody like she hears it on the version (movie soundtrack) of the Phantom of the Opera that she listens to at home. She can really carry a tune, hopefully someday she will learn the right lyrics to the song. This video is for Julianna's Mamere!