Weekend recap

Its difficult for me to believe that Easter has already come and gone. Spring is literally right around the corner...the trees and flowers are preparing to burst into life (some already have) and the weather is turning warm. It was nearly 85 over the weekend! Beautiful! Simply beautiful!

On Saturday morning, our neighbors Kristin and Bill invited us down to their house to color Easter eggs with their daughter, Emily. It was Luke's first egg coloring experience, and he did really well! I had purchased a coloring kit last year and was all ready to use it with him, but then we decided that he just wasn't ready for it. Or we got too busy...I don't actually recall now. But this year, he was more than ready! He had fun choosing the colors and adding stickers to the eggs, and Ty and I had a nice time chatting with our friends while we worked. I had some pics of the morning, but I'm on Ty's laptop and I can't access those right now. They'll have to wait. But it was a fun morning!

On Saturday night, Ty arranged for his mom to come up to be with the kids and he took me out on a date! :) Nothing fancy...just BJ's pizza for drinks and yummy food, but we had a great time nonetheless. Its always nice to steal away together for awhile and just talk!

Sunday morning, we got up and prepared for the day. Luke hunted for his Easter basket, and was delighted to find it filled with a few special new toys, some things for the bath and a bit of candy! His favorite item was a set of toy binoculars that he had his eye on for awhile. After that, the boys went outside to wash cars and Ellie and I got ourselves prettied up! :) Here is a little shot of us just before we headed out for the day...


It turned out to a picture kind of day! There are very few opportunities these days to capture pictures of my family together, so I seized the chance to have Ty take some of the kids and I, and then we did a little photo shoot later in the day too. Here are my sweet children and I before hitting the road for my sister's house.


We drove out to Palm Desert then, and spent the day with my sister and the 'tousins'. Luke adores his 'tousins'. He talked for days and days before Easter about seeing them. He just loves them!!! As we arrived, I set up my little backdrop and did a little photo shoot with the kids before they all got hot and sweaty from playing. I took a zillion pictures of all of them together, but Luke was being a stinker at the time and wouldn't cooperate or smile. :( So none of those really turned out. :( But here is one of just the girls. Taryn is now almost 13 and in 7th grade now. Kailyn will be 5 in July and Megan will turn 11 in July as well! They are all so grown up! Its hard to believe!


Next was Ellie's turn! She was so adorable in her little white dress that I couldn't resist snapping a thousand pictures of her! She is so cooperative for the camera too! I takes very little to get her smiling and looking right at me. So vastly different from her brother! (That's why there are no individual shots of him!)


Then it was time to turn the camera on ourselves, and my sister so graciously played photographer for me! :) Finally....a family portrait! Its only taken 7 months!!!


The kids hunted Easter eggs after that. Luke LOVED this part, and I frequently found him sorting through his loot, sneaking bites of chocolate or jelly beans before heading onto the next egg! He was so funny!


The day was certainly full! After dinner, dessert and LOTS more playing, we got the kids dressed in their pj's, scooped them up and headed home as the sun was setting behind the mountains. It was a beautiful day!

Happy Easter!

Just wanted to say Happy Easter you all of you! Hope you had a blessed day! We spent ours out at my sister's house in Palm Desert....a day full of Easter egg hunts, yummy food and WAY too much candy! But it was fun! I have a ton of pictures to share, but it will take some time to sort through! Stay tuned! :)

Missed pictures

I was going through my pictures from March tonight, cleaning out the not-so-good ones and I came across these few that I took of the kids about 10 days ago. Just thought they were cute and wanted to share. They were playing together on the floor this particular afternoon and Luke decided that he needed to play around with his camera too, since I had mine with me (his is an old film one of mine that no longer works) . He's been really into playing 'photographer' lately (gee...I can't imagine why!). He'll grab his camera, sling the cord around his neck while holding the viewfinder up to his eye and holler "Say Cheese, Mom!". Some days, he will pull the camera away from his eye after he takes a pretend picture, look at the back of it (where my lcd screen would be on my camera) and proclaim "ahhh... bummer, too bright!". Guess he has seen me in action a few times! :) Its so cute to me to see how he interprets the everyday things he sees. I love his three-year-old mind. Today I was photographing my neighbor's little one and when Luke came up to me with his camera afterwards, he was quite descript in explaining to me how I should tilt my head this way or that, or lean closer into Ellie, who was in my arms at the time. A budding little photographer, he is. :) Lol! And such a sweet boy! Anyway...here are those pics....

Finally...a weekend recap! Beware...it's LONG!

Oh goodness.....what a crazy few days is has been around here, trying to get settled and back into a routine. I wouldn't have thought that it would be this difficult to get back into the swing of things when I was only gone for 3 and a half days, but alas, it is! The vast majority of my woes this week have been with Ellie. She has been a handful! She began cutting her first two teeth on Sunday, on her 7-month birthday, and just in time for our long drive home....which is why is was SOOOOO l-o-n-g!!!!!! She cried for nearly 75% of the drive...literally, which forced me to stop 3 separate times to nurse/console her. Not fun! And since that day, it has been just more of the same. Crying, fussiness, runny nose, LOTS of spitting up, inability to sleep.....you name it, she's been experiencing it! Blegh!! :( And that is with Tylenol and teething tablets on board! I'm just not accustomed to all this! Luke was the easiest teether on the planet....I never knew he was cutting teeth until they popped through and I could see 'em. He never got fussy or cranky. Not once. We call that his "Preemie Power"...he's got an incredible pain tolerance! But his sister is quite different. Much to my dismay!

Annnnywaaay......back to our weekend.

The drive up on Thursday was actually really nice for me. Ellie was a dream for most of the ride. She slept for her nap, was happy to play with toys while she was awake and we only had to stop once for me to eat and to nurse her. After our stop, she slept for the night, and I engrossed myself in my audio book and soaked in the solitude. It was nice... really nice to have such a long time to enjoy the scenery and the quiet and not have to talk to anyone for hours on end. I guess I didn't realize how much talking and noise makes up my normal days until I had a few hours of silence. Life with toddlers is LOUD! :) My drive was a welcome reprieve. I watched the most incredible sunset of burnt oranges, pinks and yellows over the fruit orchards near Visalia and dreamed of our favorite camping hideaway in Mineral King as I drove past the exit for Sequoia Nat'l Park. We arrived at Amy's just a few minutes before 11pm and settled in rather quickly for the night. Ellie slept horribly that first night and somewhere in the pre-dawn hours, I pulled her into bed with me and we snuggled until daybreak. I relish moments like that with her (despite my exhaustion), when I can nuzzle my face into her neck and we drift in and out of sleep together. Moments like those are numbered, I know.

On Friday, Amy and I took the morning to relax at home and let the kids nap before we headed out to a fantastic lunch at one of Amy's favorite spots called Jack's (I think)! I had a bbq tri-tip sandwich that was to die for! Mmmm! So good! After that, we strolled through the outlet mall, where I was finally able to find some new shoes for Luke and a new pair of capris for me. We headed back to Amy's after that so the kiddos could nap and then spent the remainder of the afternoon snapping pictures of our sweet girls and making dinner together. It was so nice just to be together and relax! Here are a few shots from that day...



Sara is such a happy baby....always smiling like this!

For those of you who know my dad...I can't get over how much Ellie looks like him here!

Just being cute...


We decided to give the girls their first friend-filled bath together on Friday night and they had a blast splashing and kicking together in the water! Then it was off to bed, and thankfully, Ellie slept great that night! :)



On Saturday, we were out the door by 9:15 and on our way to Heidi's in Concord for Brandon's birthday party. The theme for the party was a Safari and we were greeted by giant inflatable giraffes and zebras at the front door! They were so cute...I'm sorry to not have gotten any pictures of them! Once inside, Heidi had done such a cute job of carrying on the safari theme, and there were monkeys hanging from green streamers that looked like vines on the ceiling and more giant safari animals tucked in corners! There was even jungle sounds playing from the stereo! So, so, SOOOO cute! Well done, Heidi!!! (Again, no pictures....sorry!) :( All of her family was there, along with her 5 y/o niece and 8 month old nephew, so there were lots of babies and kids around! With four infants all a year or under, we all took turns rotating naps and playing for most of the afternoon. It was a great time! Amy's mom was there too and having everyone together was like having my extended family around me! It made my heart happy! And more than once during the day, as we sat around the living room talking and reminiscing, I found myself just sitting back and taking it all in; smiling to myself...amazed at how quickly time seems to have passed us by. There we were, sitting together with our babies in our laps when it seems just a short time ago, we were kids ourselves. Indeed, time flies by!

Brandon seemed to love his birthday! He dove right into his cake, with little hesitation and would have eaten the entire thing had Heidi and Justin not removed it! :) He is an incredibly handsome little boy too! Here is a quick shot I snapped of him before the major festivities began...isn't he cute in his little safari shirt?! He looks so much like his momma to me! But every now and then, I caught a glimmer or Justin in his eyes or as a smile flashed across his face!

Ellie and Auntie Heidi


My only regret for the day was that we didn't get the chance to take the few pictures I had hoped for of the three of us together with our little ones. :( Nap times and all the fun left us with little time to sit and play with the camera! Not to mention the fact that our kiddos are not prone to sitting still long! :) So here is the only one that came out even half-way decent. In all the rest, either one of our kids was crying or someones eyes were closed. Oh well! Maybe next time!


After dinner, we drove back to Amy's again and got the kids ready for bed. We hung out and watched tv together for awhile, chatting. Ellie had another turbulent night that night. Must've been those dang teeth starting! I didn't discover them until the morning though, so at the time, I just figured she was just having a hard time in a strange place. We left for home around noon on Sunday, and I've already told you how much fun the drive home was!! Ty kept Luke up so that I could see him when we got back, and he ran across the garage to me as soon as he heard the door open! I was so happy to see him and hadn't realized how much I had missed him until my arms were wrapped around him! I brought him back one of the cute inflatable monkeys from Brandon's party and you should have seen the smile on his face when I pulled it out of the car to hand it to him! It was adorable!! Wish I had my camera then too!

So...that was our weekend. Well worth the lengthy drive! Thanks again girls, for having me! We had an awesome time!

Home

Hi! Just thought I would put up a quick post to let you all know that Ellie and I made it home last night safely and had a wonderful weekend! The drive was L-O-N-G yesterday (nine hours in all!), but overall, well worth it! I will write more after the mounds of laundry, mail and pictures have been sorted through! Until then....

Hitting the open road....

Tomorrow afternoon, Ellie and I will be taking our first road trip together. (Luke and Ty get to have a boys weekend together here at home.) My life long-friend Heidi is throwing a first birthday bash for her sweet, adorable son Brandon on Saturday, and since I hadn't been up that way since last year when this picture was taken...

...I decided there was no better time to make the trip. I'm excited! I will get to stay with Amy, her husband Nate and baby Sara in their new home in Sacramento, and we will drive out to Heidi's for the party on Saturday. And although I will spend quite a lot of time driving, it will be so nice to be with my girlfriends for awhile and let our kids play all together for the first time!

So, after Luke's nap tomorrow, I'll drop him off at my parent's house for the evening, and Ellie and I will take to the road. Hopefully, I will have timed the trip to align with her nap time and bedtime. She usually takes a two hour nap in the afternoon, so I will try to keep her up as much as possible before we leave in hopes that she can nap in the car. Hopefully I can make it at-least halfway before dark and stop for a quick dinner/pit stop before continuing on. And hopefully Ellie will sleep for the night as she usually does after about 7pm. We'll see. Please just say a little prayer for a safe trip, if you would. I will be back sometime Sunday afternoon and I'll try to post some pictures early in the week. Until then, have a great weekend, friends!

There's a new policeman in town...

...and he's on the look out for anybody who uses the "s" word. No....not that word. Geez....do you really think we talk like that in front of our kids?!?!? :) No....the 'stupid' word. Yes....my 3 year-old is now officially the Bad Language Policeman and he's not afraid to correct you each and every time you slip up and let the 'S' word fly out of your mouth! :) Somewhere down the line, we managed to use that filthy word one too many times (usually it is directed at our four-legged friend who loves to be right under our feet at all times, especially when your carrying a crying baby in one arm, holding the hand of another tantrum-throwing preschooler with the other, and trying to climb the stairs ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!) and being the sponge that toddlers are, Luke picked up on the word rather quickly. Go figure! Before we knew it, he was referring to entirely TOO many things as 'stupid'. So naturally, it was banned from the house as a 'not so nice word'. Good idea, right? Well...yes. Until you think about how often you might use that word to replace any other not so nice words we might think of to describe our ferociously annoying dog! (Don't get me wrong, we love Tess, but she can be incredibly annoying at times!) So beware when you enter our home....you had better button that lip and watch your mouth, 'cause he is always on the lookout for his next offender! :)

Just like my dad...

We spent the vast majority of our day outside doing yard work, working on our sprinklers, and washing the cars. (I have to admit, before I get much further, that Ty was in fact the one doing most of the work....he washed and waxed my car (thanks, hun!), mowed the lawn and finished the yard work, since I usually had my hands full with Ellie! But I helped out during nap time!) While we worked, Luke kept himself busy diligently trying to be just like his Daddy. He scrubbed the car, sprayed off the soap with the hose, swept the patio and did whatever he could to work alongside and emulate his hero. After naps, I was chatting with our neighbor and just HAD to run inside to grab the video camera to capture this:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'm not sure that I could even capture the look of pride on Luke's face while he was working with his Daddy! He was on cloud nine and so, so, so proud of himself! And I'm not sure that you could read his shirt, but when Ty got him dressed this morning, he chose the shirt that Aunt Jenn bought him that reads "My Dad is the Man!" So true! And in Luke's eyes, his daddy is a superhero! I just love watching the two of them together...father and son...and how Luke just simply adores him! Makes my heart happy!

So that was one of two favorite moments from my day. The second came at bedtime while I was putting Ellie down. She has been somewhat fussy lately when I lay her down. I think she is finally old enough to realize that getting ready for bed means that she will soon be left alone in her crib and she doesn't like that all too much. She has begun to cry when I first lay her down on her changing table to even put her pj's on. :( Tonight was no different, and she was sobbing as I laid her in her crib, even after several minutes of rocking and cuddling. :( And as I often do, I bent down close to her to nuzzle her neck and kiss her lips before heading out of the room. And as I did, she immediately stop crying and replaced her tears with laughter! Over and over again, I pull away and then bend down close again, kissing her time and again on the corner of her mouth and she would just giggle and giggle! Her giggle, of-course, was completely infectious and in no time, I was laughing right along with her, unable to pull myself away from our little impromptu game! I think I must've lingered there for 5 minutes playing with her! It was just one of those moments when time stands still and nothing in the world matters as much as what was happening just then. Bonding. Oh! How I adore her!!! How on earth did I get so lucky as to have TWO such incredible kids???!! I am blessed beyond words!!!
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I lingered on the 'puter awhile after posting this and decided I had to add these couple of pictures of Ellie that I took on Friday. Just wanted to share...

I just loved her little 'look' here




Ok...that's it. I'm really going now! Night! :)

Blogging from bed....

Ahhhh......how I love laptops! :) As I type, I am snuggled up so cozy in bed...the kids are asleep and the house is blissfully silent. Ty is out tonight for a night with the guys, and here I am. Friday night...its 8:40pm, am I'm blogging from bed in my pj's. For some, that probably sounds intensely boring or lonely, but for me, its wonderful! A little peace and quiet is good for the soul.

It was a tiring kind of day for me today, so I'm sure that sleep will not be far off. Ellie slept fitfully last night; waking at 1:35am, 3ish, and then again at 5. This is very unusual for her nowadays. Most nights I am getting 11 straight hours of sleep out of her! But last night, I found her crying in her sleep when I finally dragged my blurry-eyed self out of bed at 1:30. Teeth maybe? Its 'bout the only logical reason I can muster. She fell quickly back to sleep when snuggled her warm little body into my chest and then laid her back in her crib, but I heard her muffled cries again a few hours later (to which I only pulled a pillow over my head! I know...bad mommy!!). I was up again at 5 to nurse her, and then attempted to return to bed, but Luke was awake then too, and sleep was soon a distant memory for me. :( Sometimes I wonder how I ever survived those nights of waking every 2 hours with my kiddos when they were so tiny. Give a girl some real sleep and any unusual nighttime waking wrecks havoc on the next day! Phew! Two cups of coffee and a Monster drink couldn't even touch me today. :(

Annnnyyyyway.....
If you're reading this, you have obviously found your way to the new (old) blog. It was definitely time to rid our last name from the blog. Safety first, ya know! Hopefully, I'll be working on a new title bar soon....the one above is just our transition one until I can get somebody to take the picture of the four of us that I have in mind. It might be awhile though. And hopefully I'll be better at blogging in the coming weeks. (Thanks Heidi and Kelli for the inspiring ideas!) Since you asked, yes...I did finally get all of my roses in last weekend. There are six total now. I think I already told you about the first three. The second three are just as meaningful. I picked a beautiful lavender colored, very fragrant one called a Paradise for Ellie, since purple will certainly stand out as a 'little girl's' color and because the name just seemed so soothing and tranquil. For Ty, I chose a deep crimson red-black rose called an Oklahoma (the name has no meaning...just the color) because red is the color of passion and love, and also because we had deep red roses at our wedding. The last rose I chose represents our family as a whole, and it is an orange rose with red edges called Glowing Peace. Sounds so heavenly, doesn't it?! It reminds me that our home is to be a place of solitude, grace and love...a refuge for our family. I really love that I have a rose garden to represent so many important things in my life. I honestly didn't think that it would mean so much to me, but it does. Its my special little project. I can't wait to see it bloom! (Hopefully, they don't suffer too much shock though! Dead rose bushes would certainly seem like a bad omen, if I believed in such things!) hahaha

Well, blog-fans, as I type my eyes are becoming intensely heavy and sleep doesn't feel far off. I should get going for now. Here's to a blissful weekend ahead.....ta-ta, my friends.

Slacker...

Man! I feel like such a blog slacker lately. I'm sitting here at the computer, after spending the last 60 minutes filling out the pages and pages of forms to apply for new health insurance (yes, we are switching AGAIN 'cause our current one sucks REALLY bad!) and now that I am done, I know that I probably have something to share here, but honestly nothing comes to mind...except this mindless babble I'm typing now. I just feel like I'm in such a blogging rut lately! There are definitely things going on in our lives...fun stories about the kids, exciting three-year-old adventures every day...the normal day to day life stuff. But honestly, none of it seems all that interesting or blog-worthy to anyone else but me. So, I slack on blogging. Sorry, folks. We DO stay pretty busy, I swear! But hearing about how my laundry from Monday's laundry day is STILL sitting in various stages of completion in the dryer, laundry room, and each of our bedrooms just really isn't that interesting. I need some inspiration! Help!

Happy Birthday, my Love!

Ty turns 33 today! (Sorry honey...hope it was okay to share your age!) :) Luke and I just called and left a 'Good morning, Happy Birthday' message on his phone, which I know he will love. I hope that you have a wonderful day, sweetie! You are such an amazing father and husband! We are so proud of you and I hope you know how deeply we all love you! Happy Birthday, Love!

Unfortunately for Ty, Wednesdays are always his long days (starting at 3:15 and ending sometime after dark!) so it probably won't be much of a celebration day, but Luke and I will prepare a special dinner and dessert for him tonight and try to make the most of the day. We went out to dinner on Sunday with his side of the family to celebrate. His Mom's birthday was on Monday too.

Kind of a funny story from dinner that night....we went to Claim Jumper and Luke was such a good boy while we waited for our food (which took a LONG time!). He played quietly with his tiger backpack full of toys, but at one point, I looked over at him and he was obviously getting bored. Since he was still behaving though, I went back to my conversation. The next thing I knew, from the corner of my eye I see milk shoot across the table onto Ty's Aunt Vicki's plate! Luke was sitting across from her and apparently in his boredom, he had taken a gulp of milk, held it in his cheeks and then squished his cheeks together with his hands; launching his milk clear across the booth, onto Vicki's side of the table!!!! Now, I am certain that he did not know that the milk would shoot out of his mouth. He had never done anything like that before! We have however, played the game of 'popping the balloon' when you puff out your cheeks with air and tap them with your palms to make your mouth 'pop'. We do that a lot. Never with water or a drink in our mouths though! But in his boredom, he was just playing and inadvertently shot the milk out. I was shocked when I saw him do it (and for an instant, a little mad too!) but now as I think back to it, it is pretty funny! We made him apologize to Vicki and explained that he is not allowed to do that again. I think he was pretty surprised at himself too. You could just tell he didn't mean to do it. Silly kid!

Annnyyyway.....must get going and start the day! Happy Birthday, Ty! We love, love, LOVE you!