Little Bouquet from my Little Man

Cannon picked these for me on our walk around the block after lunch this afternoon. He melts my heart...

Note to Self...

sometimes your really fun weekend plans will have to be put aside when you have sick kids. Ugh!

Another First!

The first ponytail!!!


She finally has enough to top to sport a small (very small) ponytail. Congrats Maeve!!!

"J" Week

"J" week is FINALLY over! It has only taken me 3 weeks to do the letter J with the kids. I don't know if it was a serious case of laziness, or just too busy to sit down with them at the table, but my goodness, that took FOREVER!!!
We actually started the letter with a field trip to the Jelly Belly factory with the cousins. It was so much fun. My niece got carsick on the way, and missed out on the tour, but besides that, it went without a hitch. The factory smelled like a bazillion different flavors of jelly beans. It actually got a little overwhelming for me. I don't really like sweet, sweet smells, and this place was saturated in them.
The kids had fun watching the assembly line of the jelly beans, and the packaging robots, and then the tasting bar at the end was a hit. My poor nephew got bamboozled into trying the "vomit" jellybean, and I felt honestly sorry for him when I saw the look on his face from the horrid taste. I didn't think it was funny at all.
We all got a chance to try the nasty flavored ones after our tour, and no one could stomach the vomit one. Baby wipes, toothpaste, pencil shavings, and even booger were tolerable. Vomit was disgusting!
The rest of our J week studies focused on Jellyfish, made with paper plates and crepe paper, and our verse of the week about having a "joyful heart". (Proverbs 17:22)

The kids enjoyed gluing jelly beans on the letter j, but not as much as they enjoyed eating a bag of jellybeans when we were done. Yummy!!!

"My Vacation", By Angie A.

Here is my report titled: "What I did on My Vacation".

Just kidding, did I bring you all back to 4th grade when they made you stand up in front of the room and read it to all your classmates? Ha! Those were the days!

No really, I think this is really what the kids loved about vacation. Lounging around, watching TV, and spending tons of family time together.



Here is the summary of our vacation:

Go to Funky Monkey: Check!
Have Family Date Night with a movie and candles: Check!
Go get doughnuts one morning: Check!
Go to the Fair and ride a roller coaster: Check!
Go Camping: Check!
Go Swimming: Check!
Watch a movie, put up the Christmas tree and Decorate the house: Uh, nope!
Go to ice cream: Check!
Drink Water: Check!

If you missed the camping experience blog, scroll down a few entries and you will see about our trip. We had a very "full" vacation. Between the kids birthdays, and a 4 day camping trip, there wasn't much time to just sit around. I wouldn't trade it for a thing though!

Vocabulary Survival Guide

In case you are ever at our house, here is a key to some of the unexplained words you might hear.

Nabber grabber "pronounced phonetically": (noun) otherwise known as "chip clips". Can be found in a kitchen drawer, and are mostly used by children running around the house trying to pinch each other with. Can also be used as tweezers to pick things up. Are most often found at the bottom of the garage toy box when cleaning up the yard.

Kybolt "ki-bolt": (noun) a nest built out of blankets that you will often find small children curled up in. The best place to build a kybolt is on the bed. Most kybolts require at least 3 good size blankets.

Trumble "pronounced phonetically": (verb) to ball up food, and shove into mouth. This form of eating is extremely gross to watch, but apparently very fun to participate in. It usually requires a really good hand washing afterwards. It works best with turkey lunch meat, salami, and cheese.

One Year Old!!!

Maeve turned one on Sunday.



We had the party at my parents house, and Poppa John manned the grill, as usual.


Maeve enjoyed the BBQ chicken, watermelon, and pasta salad. She was saving room though for some of the yummy cake that I made.

My friend Kerri decorated the cake for us. She did an amazing job, and everyone said that it was very cute, and perfect for the day.

I made Maeve (like the other ones as well) a bran, apple, carrot cake. She loved it! It had really good frosting on it, and that made it even better to smoosh!


Happy Birthday to my sweet little Maebe!

Camping 2009

Our camping trip was awesome! Besides a 6 hour drive, it was at the most amazing, lush, green, huge tree-filled park. We stayed at Big Basin State Park, and I would totally recommend it, although we will probably not go back.
Monday, we loaded up the car, and made good time down to Pacifica to see Rich's g-pa and have lunch with him. Pulling the trailer, we made it in 2 hours, and the lunch break was appreciated by all.


After a quick (2hour) lunch, we potty-ied up, and piled in the van. We made it to Santa Cruz 2 hours later, and then to our campsite about an hour after that. The kids were wiped out, and I was pretty tired of sitting as well.

(This is what we call "Kid-Land". All their toys, some books, etc set up in a cute little play tent.)
We set up camp, enjoyed a yummy dinner of hamburgers grilled over the campfire, and took a walk. The place was amazing. So quiet, and still, and just filled with old growth redwood. Such a work of God's art!
Tuesday the kids started the day off right with a breakfast of champions. Toasted Marshmallows!
Daddy was pretty nice to let them do that so early in the morning. Mommy was still hiding in the sleeping bag, so that is why he got away with it, I think. We hung out all day at the site, riding bikes, taking walks, reading magazines (that would be me) and just really enjoying being out in nature. We had the entire campground almost all to ourselves.

The "pets" that the kids found on one of the walks. I allowed them to keep them for one day, and after the kids went to bed, I set them both free.

Wednesday we got back in the car, and took the dreaded one hour drive back down the windy road to Santa Cruz. We hung out at the beach and boardwalk all day, and the kids loved it.


Cannon had a minor freak out on the beach when a piece of seaweed wrapped around his little foot, but other than that, there were no tears all day! I was so proud of them! They got to go on the kiddie rides that were open, and they loved the speed and thrill of them. Brynn even got to go on the pirate ship ride, and although Cannon was super disappointed to not be tall enough to ride it, he cheered her on from the side! Brynn said that it made her tummy feel like it was dancing in her throat. Rich said that she had nervous laughter the entire time the were moving! I can't wait until we all get to do the roller coasters together!

We had a yummy dinner at the Fosters Freeze on our way back up the hill to the campground, showered up, and watched a movie together in our jammies.
Thursday, Rich took the kids to the little creek that ran right behind our campsite. They played in the mud, fed the ducks, and splashed in the water while I packed up the campsite.

It worked out perfectly! We got back in the car, and took off on our 5 hour journey home.

Our tradition when we go on trips with just our family is to pick out a rock, and paint it when we get home. I just got the one from last year done, and now I have to add this one to my "to-do" list. The rocks go out in our backyard, and help remind us of the time that we spent together enjoying God's creation.

I admit...

i have a sick sense of humor.

A friend of mine sent me this link. I think its funny. (Granted, some of the entries are way over the top, but everything in moderation right????)

http://myfirstdictionary.blogspot.com/

Quick Update

As soon as I have a chunk of time I have every intention of posting pics from our vacation, and Maeve's birthday party.
Here is the family status:
Brynn - 4 years old. Preschool graduation coming up.
Cannon - 3 years old. Talks more than ever. He is wanting to always do his business on the potty, but I am far from saying the words "potty training".
Maeve - 1 year old. I am attempting to wean her from nursing. I skipped last night, but then had to do it tonight. She is the first one who has put up a fuss when I attempted to quit. What will I do????

Vacation - over. Fun, lots of stuff done. Will post pics soon.

Night night!

Namesake

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to meet with an older woman from church. I admire this woman for who she is, as well as how God is using her in the church. She sat and talked with me and my friends about how she raised her children, and what a blessing her faith had been in her life as a mom.
As she talked she mentioned about how she really thought about the meaning of her children's names. Many of my friends have put a lot of time and energy into searching out names according to the meanings so that their children have something wonderful to live up to. I thought, as I have before, about the fact that my children don't have names that really mean anything to anyone. We didn't choose them for their spiritual significance, or meaning. We just liked the names and bingo, that was that.
I thought about it a bit more, and had an epiphany in the shower the other day. Yes, the shower... Here is what I came up with.

Brynn: hill, mount
Brynn was an unexpected surprise. I wasn't planning on starting a family for 5 more years, and when I found out that I was pregnant, I had a really rough time with it. (Rich was ecstatic though!) The journey of my pregnancy was a hard for me (not physically, but emotionally). I was climbing a mountain that I didn't know how to climb. I was in a situation that I had a really hard time accepting. I was terrified that I didn't love her after she was born. I had been told over and over that after your baby is born, you just fall in love with them. When that didn't happen the first time that I saw her, I was devastated. It wasn't until about 2 days later that all that "mom" love overtook me. I realized that I desperately loved my little baby girl. She was an amazing baby, and such a great gift from God.

Cannon: mid-evil weapon, clergy, a standard or criterion, the books of the bible recognized by Christians to be genuine or inspired
Cannon is my man of many words. He is a talker, and a charmer with his vocabulary. He is also a force in our household. He is stubborn, and cannot be bent in any way that he doesn't want to go. Rich and I have prayed for him since we saw this nature emerge that he would be stubborn and stand firm for the things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8) Maybe he will grow up to use his words, and his perseverance to lead people to God. Who knows?

Maeve: joyful, intoxicating
What a joy she is! I don't know if the others were as eager to get a smile out of Rich and I as she is. She laughs without reason, and enjoys a good "joke". She jumps right in with the other two, and seems to enjoy it immensely. She has turned into such a cheerful baby! Having her has even made me ponder the idea of having more...

So, my kids aren't named after anything in particular. They might grow into their names, they might not. God only knows. All I know is that sometimes I do my best thinking in the shower.

Really???

2 weeks ago
Mommy: "Cannon, here is a jelly bean. Don't go bragging about it to Brynn. That isn't nice..."
(A minute later)
Brynn: "Mom, Cannon is rubbing it in my eye that he got a jelly bean and I didn't."
Mommy: "What?"
Brynn: "You know, he is saying that he gets a jelly bean and I don't, niener, niener."
Mommy: "Oh, you mean, rubbing it in your face...."

1 week ago
Cannon: "Mom, Brynn is patronizing me!"
Mommy (and daddy): "What? She is patronizing you?"
Cannon: "Yeah, she is patronizing me!"
Mommy to Daddy(quietly of course): "What the heck does patronizing mean? And how the heck does he know that word?"
Daddy: "Brynn, stop it!"

***By the way, we figured out tonight that he actually means 'antagonizing'. Still, that's a big word for a 3 year old! ***

1 day ago
Auntie Christi: "Cannon, you look really hot. Would you like a drink?"
Cannon: " No auntie. I don't think I particularly would like one."
Auntie Christi: "Oh... ok."

She's pretty cute....

My sis brought Maeve this tie-dye shirt from her last trip. I think its funny.
I think Maeve is pretty funny....