My little Princess

My sweet little baby turned two today. Poor little girl has a cold and wasn't too interested in much. I let her wear her pajamas most of the day, she picked out her favorite movies to watch, and then went and played while the other kids watched the movies!

She had a doctor appointment today for a one year check up. She normally HATES doctors. Did I mention she HATES, HATES doctors? Seriously, she cries from the time we enter the exam room until the time we leave. We have a new doctor that we have been with for about six months. I LOVED our previous doctor, but he stopped taking our insurance. :( So, they do things a little different at this new place. Alanna and Arya both had appointments and they did them at the same time, which worked well actually. Arya got to watch the doctor look in Alanna's ears, and then she wasn't so freaked out when the doctor looked in her ears. Anyway, Arya didn't get any shots, but Alanna got four and a TB test. So that was nice for Arya!

We came home, at dinner, and then had 'cake.' Arya makes such a mess with cake and honestly, I am tired of cleaning up mess after mess. So, I asked her if she wanted birthday cookies and she got really excited. I made this cool birthday cookie 'cake' and I think I will never make regular cookies again. I was so moist and chewy and not all dried out or flat and I didn't have to spend all of my time spooning batter onto cookie sheets.

She loved the attention of everyone singing to her. She got a little close to the candles and singed her hair.

Then we all watched and laughed as she tried to 'dive' into the cookie, but was very apprehensive and ended up just liking it. The kids all made sure I gave that piece to her.

Alanna was so sad that Arya turned two and is growing up. She wants her to stay small. I guess it is my fault that she feels this way.

I tell the kids constantly how I wish I could just keep them small. It is a lot of work, constantly doing stuff for them, never having my own time, but I sure miss having a little baby and the time goes so quickly by. I couldn't slow time down slow enough to enjoy it all. I really wish I could keep them all between the ages of 3 months to five years forever. Such precious, precious times.

Alyssa's Crazy Sleepover

Alyssa entered the wonderful world of double digits this year! To celebrate we had a party with some of her closest friends. This would be fine, but then she decided she wanted them all to sleep over. I figure I only give her a party with her friends every other year, so, why not! The party was great. Alyssa planned it all out, complete with a map as to where she wanted the games, how she wanted it set up, and a timeline for it all. (I don't know where she gets this detail-orientated personality disorder from.)

To explain a little: Ever since we found an adorable pair of Robeez shoes with cupcakes on them (see Dec. posting) Alyssa and I have been in love with cupcakes. So, she wanted to have a cupcake party.

There were about 10 girls that came. They started off by sewing a cupcake pocket on an apron.

Then they decorated cupcakes.

They played pin the cherry on the cupcake.

They played balloon darts. (Absolutely nothing to do with cupcakes, but fun!)

Ate pizza, more cupcakes

Then they watched movies, made friendship brackets, did a crazy dance at midnight, and then at about 2am settled down to go to sleep. In the morning they woke up at about 6am, had a pillow fight, Jared made awesome smoothies for them, and then they went home.

Alyssa had a great time, her friends were so generous with their gifts, and it is just such a blessing to me that she has such great friends from wonderful families.

All of the girls went home with an apron and a cute little tote. Fun times!!

Levi Commercial

This is a commercial that we made for Alyssa's state project for fourth grade. She organized it all, wrote out everyone's lines (but everyone decided to add their own), and planned it all out. A cool side note; we filmed this at a park in Diamond Bar where my dad use to take us when I was Alyssa's age.

My Wolf Scout

Nathan was so excited to turn eight so that he could start going to scouts. February 1 was his birthday. We outfitted him head (hat) to toe (socks) with all of the official scouting stuff we could find. He looks really sharp! He started right away on earning his badges and pins.

Two months into scouts he earned his Bobcat.

One month later he earned his Wolf.

He has also earned his gold arrow, two silver arrows, and academic/sports belt loops and pins. He loves being part of scouts and I love that he is so motivated to do it on his own. He has been writing reports, researching information, building things, and it has been great to observe. I hope it lasts!

June Already??

I can't believe it is June! May just flew by. We had a great, but busy month with Alyssa and Alanna both having birthdays, Mother's day, finishing up with homeschooling, preschool ending, and the list goes on and on. I still need to post some photos of Alyssa's crazy sleepover birthday party, but I had to get this one up tonight. Today was the first day all of the kids were done with their home school work. Tomorrow is their last day of school and I think everyone just wanted to relax and have fun today. We had our last day of soccer, and the kids came home and sat around and read for about 2 hours! The house was so quiet, I was able to get a ton of stuff done, and it was so nice!! We cleaned up, ate dinner, and then the fun began.

Arya loves to sing the theme to Star Wars. It is so funny to hear her burst into this little tune. So when she did it tonight Jared started singing the music when Darth Vader comes into the picture. Arya started saying, "No, no no!" She hid her head in her highchair (this was just after dinner and we were cleaning up), and then Jared tickled her. It was really funny, but then all of the other kids got involved and for the next hour it was screaming, laughing, tickling, rough-housing, and crying when they got hurt. We hardly ever horseplay like that, so it was a lot of fun. It was really hard to get into the Family Home Evening spirit after that, but I think it was well worth it!

Alyssa turns 10

Here is Alyssa at three weeks old3 Months old

Almost 2 years old
Kindergarten

It is amazing how one tiny little person changed my life so completely. Before I was a mother I knew it all! Come on! Really, I did! After all, I had a degree and all of my Early Childhood Education units AND I taught second grade AND I had worked in a day care for three years. What more was there to learn. Well, I know now that I knew nothing and still know nothing!! But really, I remember the moment it hit me that my life had changed and there was no going back. Alyssa was about 2 weeks old and Jared, Alyssa and I were driving all over the US for Jared's job. We were in Indiana I think (we went through 19 states in ten days with a two week old baby, call me crazy!) and I looked a tiny, under 5 pound Alyssa asleep in her car seat and I realized that my life would never be the same and that life had just begun. I don't know what the previous 25 years of my life was, but my life had just begun. I love my little ones so much and each day life becomes sweeter becuase I have them. Happy birthday my big 10 year old!!

Easter Egg hunting, April 2009

Alanna Turns Four!

Alanna turned four today. We had a party for her on Friday and told her that Friday was her birthday because I wanted to keep Mother's Day all to myself (and she is four and doesn't know any different!) We have a tradition that on the child's birthday they get to come into our room when they wake up and we tell them the story of their birth. I wrote out all of the stories a few years ago, added photos, and had books printed with it all through Walmart. Pretty cool. So, we read her book. Her birth was the toughest we have had to deal with. She came completely by surprise 10 days early. The labor and delivery was a whole 2 hours, twenty-one minutes from start to finish and completely free from pain relieving drugs. (NOT my choice, but that is another story). After we had her for about 12 hours we got a call that something was wrong with her blood and they came and took her to NICU where she stayed for a week. This was awful. Any mother that has gone through this knows the anguish of having to leave the hospital without your little new baby, and it is terrible. This is my favorite picture of her during that time. Her little 'sunglasses' were adorable. Well, four years later and she is a spunky, sassy, opinionated, ray of sunshine. She heats up so fast, but can be soothed just as fast with the right touch. She loves her friends, her family, and especially loves Cinderella.

Here is Alanna with her very best friends.

Cinderella cupcakes. I thought they turned out really pretty for my first time piping the icing on.

The top photo is Alanna at one year and then four years. She is a much neater eater, but still loves her chocolate!! Happy birthday my little Lanicake!!