Bluffs Park

One of our favorite parks in the neighborhood.  

Sweet Kai baby

We'll miss you baby girl!  You will always be our "1st" and you will always have a special place in our hearts.  

Amelia is a "bigger girl"!

She pooped on the potty and FINALLY opened the Potty Present that's been collecting dust in the entry way closet! She was sitting at the breakfast table and said, "I want poop on the potty"!  And voila!!!!  Jeremy was super excited for her and ran to the closet and opened the door so she could get her present!  He watched her open it and only got sad when he wanted to play with it and I told him that it was Amelia's present and her special day.   

"Just the babies" playdate

Natalie came over for a visit today with Shiloh!  We've been talking about getting together with just the babies so we can actually have a conversation.  Jeremy and Amelia were at school and Sully (Natalie's 2 year old little guy) was at daycare.  Next week is Natalie's last week of maternity leave so we enjoyed our coffee and peace and quiet.  Thanks for coming over Nat!

Kisses for Shiloh!  Too cute!

Mabel's Best Friend was born yesterday!

22 months ago, "auntie Jess" had Piper and yesterday, mommy made it to San Diego (again, just in time) to be one of the first people to hold our future friend/cousin, Sadie Elise Clark.  Mommy spent the night with Auntie Jess so Uncle Jon could go home to Piper so mommy is very tired today but in a very good mood.  Life is a beautiful thing and she is so grateful she's been there with Jess and Jess with her for these life changing and special moments.  We love you.

Introducing....

We couldn't wait for Jeremy to draw his first depiction of our family...or could we?

And what would you let them do to pass time until bedtime....

Look closer at my head!

Here...

You would let them put every clip in my hair!

You would let your 2 year old feed your 9 month old!

You would let them waste hours on the computer.

And...

You would take way too many pictures of your kids!

I still remember getting all my school supplies and I was so excited to get everything organized for school.  I hope I can pass on that excitement to the kids because I know it will not come from Ryan.  He thinks I am crazy!  Anyway, Jeremy is in his last year of preschool before Kindergarten and at his school, each child gets a workbook with all their supplies for the year.  

Every week, they have a little bit of homework (the teacher says never to MAKE them do it) which includes writing a letter and number for the week OVER and OVER, cut and pasting pictures they find that start with the letter of the week and a connect the dot page that eventually makes a letter.  Jeremy got his workbook on Monday and he loves it.  He has loved practicing his letters so much that Ryan and I woke up to a quiet house at 7:30 and found Jbird quietly writing X and O in a book for tic tac toe.  Notice he even crossed the X's in one of the squares.

We were told to put a picture of Jbird on the front so we took it to the next level and put pictures of J doing some of his favorite things.  I cut most of the pics but J cut a few and did ALL the pasting.

I am going to enjoy that he loves doing his "homework" because I am sure that 5 years down the road, it will be like pulling teeth.  Fun times!

So a dear friend of ours (not mentioning any names Alli) is considering 3 kids.  "How bad does it get" she asks!  She doesn't want to hear about good times, she wants to hear how bad it can get and then she will decide if she can handle it.  So, here is a video of some chaos.  One screaming girl in the bath, one VERY tired boy upset that the ice cream truck went by and he couldn't have one because he didn't eat his dinner.  One happy girl trying to undress herself at the table because she's been neglected.  Ryan and I tried to eat dinner with all the kids but Jbird cried the whole time and Amelia covered herself in rice.  Ah...the joys of parenthood.

Fierce Dragons!!!!

Jbird played his first AYSO soccer game today!  All I can say is "classic"!  He didn't touch the ball once (well, he did in warmups and a throw in) but ran around and stayed on the field the whole time.  We were SOOOOOO proud of him!  No crying, no whining and he didn't even take a water break one time.  As if to say, we haven't played long enough for water. He listened, he was polite and he did everything he was asked!  Good job Jbird!

Warming up

Pre-game rules from the ref (that's Jeremy's friend Jack Pickett on the other team)

"Which goal are we scoring in? That one!!"

Good game Blue Eagles!  You'll get 'em next time!  Yeah, that's right...we WON!  I know you're not supposed to keep score but have you met me?

Good sports!

Mabel is 9 months old !!!

Her favorite place to play!

So what's she doing now?  She's army crawling ALL over the place, eating leaves or any tiny thing she can find, talking and yelling up a storm (usually all happy noise unless she's hungry or tired), she loves Lucky Charms (jbird feeds her as you can see from the picture above), pulling up on mommy and daddy because she would rather stand than sit, up to stage 3 food which means she's using her jaw/gums to chew the chunkier food and she's STILL happy!  I have to say that I want time to move slower because I am loving every minute with this kid!  She's an absolute dream and I am a little sad that she is my last.  Amelia and Jbird are such good siblings to her and to each other.  Well, most of the time!  I think these 3 will be the best of friends.  

Another beach day!!!  We went down to Manhattan Beach and met up with my friend Kim and her daughter Shea!  The kids had a blast and went to bed without a peep tonight because they were so tired!

Kim and Shea (in the hole that Jbird found and spent most of his time in).  If he wasn't chasing the birds down the beach or running in the water.  Amelia spent most of her time right next to me because she is afraid of the waves!  Lucky me.

Kim borrowed a friend's beach pac n play.  You just push the legs down into the sand and voila...a soon to be napping baby!

Enjoying her view of the ocean and not sleeping but very happy.  The kids went over to her a few times like she was a caged animal but they eventually got over it and stayed away!

She must have gotten tired of the beautiful view and closed her eyes...night night Mabel!  Gosh, what I would pay for a nap on the beach.

My favorite Mabel face

I could eat that bottom lip!  Even though she doesn't look happy, she is my very HAPPY girl!

1st "big boo boo"

Jbird was standing (not supposed to be doing that) on the top of a Target storage bin and it tipped and he fell in the side of it breaking it into sharp pieces.  When I found him, he was sitting in it with his arms up by his side on the sharpest parts.  His arms are pretty torn up and he was very upset.  Boys...

I made him pose with his enemy :)

Labor Day 2010

We started the weekend with a yard sale on Saturday and that turned into a picnic lunch on the front yard with the George, Garcia and Bauer families.  No one really want to take part in MY garage sale but decided that sitting on the front lawn under the "pop up" tent would be really fun.  So the garage sale lasted ALL day!  I love spontaneous parties!

We spent all of Sunday at the beach!  The Kennedy family, who are close friends of the George's, is the family you want to meet at the beach for a BBQ!  Roasted pork over the fire, homemade pepper dip, unreal bbq beans, bread, beer, chips, fruit...you name it, they have it and bring it.  They even have an anchor attached to a bungee rope in their van and throw the anchor into the water, pull the rope to the sand, hold on and when the water comes up, let go!  That's the video of Ryan.  We fished, ate, Mabel cat napped in my arms (Amelia skipped her nap), played, ate again and drank.  Oh yeah, new favorite drink is a pinosa (that's like a mimosa except it has champagne and pineapple juice)!  Here are some pics!

Letting the "catch" go!

Playing in the water!

Running away from the camera!

"Talk to the hand"

Dirty and VERY happy!

Future babysitter!  In training...

We spent today, Monday, cleaning out the garage and reorganizing toys and the backyard after the garage sale!  SO nice to eliminate clutter and move Ryan's work boxes out of the garage and into the office! Jeremy spent that time over at the George's while the girls napped.  They had a picnic lunch and I snuck out to get a pic!

Then off to Opa's (Oma is still in Holland and Opa got back on Saturday) to meet up with Uncle Christian and family!  The kids got their gifts from Opa.  Jbird got a cool car and Amelia got a beautiful porcelain doll (head already broke off when she dropped it on the floor but uncle Christian fixed it) and mommy got a huge bag of candy!  Yummy.  Burgers on the grill, watermelon, beer, and corn on the cob topped off the weekend of non-stop eating!  Back to reality...

Kira was super cute with Mabel.  She wanted to hold, help and feed her.

Thought I would post a sad face since it doesn't happen often.  LONG weekend and a few teeth coming in so she was DONE!

Hope everyone had a nice and relaxing Labor Day!  Happy September!

A sneak preview....

of our Labor Day weekend!

GUILTY!!!!!

Imagine waking up on my own (that's the biggest part because I usually wake up to "mooooommmmmyyyyy") at 7:30 to silence.  Hmmm...why on earth are Jeremy and Amelia so quiet?  I walk into their room and discover that Jeremy found the costco box of wipes and diapers and they were sitting in her crib pulling wipe after wipe out.  He says, "mommy, aren't you proud?  We're cleaning!"  There were wipes EVERYWHERE!

I couldn't help but laugh and grab my camera!  Behold...

The picture doesn't do it justice but look closely and you can see wipes hanging from jbird's bed, the shelf and all in her bed.

The best part of my day....the iced coffee that was delivered like room service to my front porch before I woke up to this from the best neighbor ever!  Oh wait, the even better part of my day was that she, Bethany, treated me to an hour massage at a local place and a pedicure.  I am one happy momma!  Thank you Bethany!