Lost Tooth- AGAIN!!

So E's other front tooth has been lose just as long as the first one he lost- BUT it just wasn't quite ready to come out. Tonight I tucked him into bed and we checked to see if it was wiggly enough to come out. I decided it wasn't. But was I wrong. E laid in bed and wiggled that thing until it was just starting to bleed. He came downstairs, I wiggled it and it just wasn't ready. I sent him back up with a tissue. About 30 minutes later he came down again and it was bleeding a lot. I stuck my fingers on that tooth and pulled. Out it came. He said to me, "Mom, see, it just won't come out". It was really cute. He called Daddy and asked him,"Dad, do you know why I sound different?" I was hoping he'd have them out before his school pictures but that did not happen. He is so cute though.

Lost Tooth

Who ever knew that a peanut butter cracker was strong enough to knock out a front tooth? Well that is how snack time went for E last Monday at school. He bit into the cracker and out came the tooth. Mrs. K put it into a bag and he brought it home to put under his pillow. The tooth fairy came that night with two golden coins. And now my little man is missing his top front tooth. So adorable and so monumental!!!

Our little ballerina

M couldn't wait to go to ballet. She did throw quite a fit when shopping for her outfit and told me she would NEVER wear it. But come Monday she ran upstairs to put it on and danced around while playing with her little pal across the street. After her class she immediately showed me all she had learned, including a plie which consists of her standing with her feet straight forward, arms over her head and bending her knees. Try it, just like that. A plie. As shown by M. She is so cute!!!

First Day of School... A month later

My darling little people started school almost a month ago, but their mom has had little time, or maybe energy to sit and blog about them. So here I am, September 13th and they started school on August 17th. But that is okay. They both love school. And are openly willing and ready to admit it. E's first grade class is great. He is enjoying all aspects of it and shares with us his progress everyday. I am really impressed with how he has responded to the teacher and his desire to do well. It is fantastic. M started pre-K and she such a tiny, little thing there. She loves the art, the songs and that she can do such a good job listening. Everyday she brings home something she has created and she walks around singing songs that she has learned. Other people have commented on how she has become much more social. It is wonderful to see.

Tahoe 2009..the beginning

Since we are still in Tahoe I cannot really comment on the entire trip. So far the kids (and myself) have been worn out. We have done a lot of poolside swimming and have not yet (GASP) made it to the lake. But I am alone in this as Mike is moving us all to our new house while we vacation. We rode the gondola to the top of Heavenly and hiked to the bottom of Emerald Bay to see Vikingsholm. These are things that I have not done before in the 23 years that we have been coming up here. Since I have been horrible taking photos this year, I am relying on everyone else to share. And by everyone else I mean my brother and sister in law (who always takes the cutest pictures of my kids), my aunt and uncle, three cousins, their wives and families and my dad and his wife. As tradition goes, each couple makes a dinner, lunch or breakfast for the rest of the group. It gives us all a chance to see each other, visit and let the kids get to know one another. Normally we all stay in the same house but this year we changed things up and are all staying at the same resort but in different suites. It is new and different. The meals are a lot of fun and can be loud, but in a good way. Last night my kids were busting a move to some good old hip hop that they would NEVER hear from their stuffy old mom. They loved it.

August 1, 2009

We packed up and left our house on July 31st to head up to my dad's wedding. The plan was to drive up to his wedding and then down to Tahoe for a family vacation and then to our new house. It was an emotional goodbye to the old house but the distraction of the wedding and family trip was a good one.

The weather was beautiful for the wedding and the kids really did a great job through pictures and dinner. It was a very nice day. All of them helped clean up the chairs. M just knocked them down and let someone else do the hard work. We had a great time visiting with old and new family and friends. The kids did some dancing with their aunties and ate more cake than I would care to know.

The next morning we all packed up and caravaned down to Tahoe to join the rest of the family for year 23 of our annual trip.

Silver Lake

It was absolutely a must that we take the kids camping at least once this summer. Despite our crazy schedule and the move we want them to know that this is something we do every summer. We were lucky enough to get a trip together with our good friends and pack up the kids to a dusty and slightly dangerous (okay, just the roots and small rocks that made my baby fall all the time) campsite. The kids had a great time swimming, eating s'mores and bouldering. They made boats that they raced down the river, we all kayaked and we went through many, many bandages.

And I cannot stress the disgust I had with the dirt. As you can see from the scary picture of M the dirt was everywhere all the time. She got blisters from her shoes and ended up wearing her flip flops for the weekend. It was disgusting. And the pictures just don't do it justice.

The POD

The POD was a seriously cool concept that we took advantage of to its full capacity. We loved the first one so much that we ordered a second. The kids (okay, and myself) thought the delivery and switching out of the pods was really amazing. We watched the entire process. Now this did happen about three weeks ago and our first pod has been delivered to our new home- it is being unloaded as I write. Tomorrow pod number two is being delivered and unloaded. Hopefully it will eliminate most of the hassles of moving. Although I am not sure that that is possible.

July Fourth

We have the BEST neighborhood in the world!!! (yes, ask why, oh why, we are leaving it?!) For the fifth year in a row our Fourth of July parade has grown and grown. This year the cul-de-sac was full of moms, dads and little ones all dressed in red, white and blue and ready for the parade with decorated bikes, trikes and wagons. Everyone brought snacks to share. Two bounce houses were ready for play. And even live music- just for the kids- was brought in. What an amazing event. Engine 30 led the way around the circle and then stuck around for kids to climb and explore. Later on the ladder truck arrived and stretched itself to the sky for everyone to admire. It was quite a site - and I am sure that they don't really get the chance to do that very often here in suburbia. It was a great way to spend the morning.

Our afternoon was spent in the pool with our cousins and then back in the cul-de-sac to watch some fire works. The kids had a long and busy day. But they loved it!!! (These are our San Diego cousins and M).

89 and Counting

It was nine forty in the morning and the kids wandered outside to check things out. It was so hot that they asked to turn the sprinkler on. They then stripped down to their skivvies since they were still in their pajamas (oh, not E because modesty starts in at 6 evidently). But that did not last long at all and they all wanted to get into the pool. So by ten o'clock we were swimming away. It is a good thing that we did too because it got so hot that afternoon that when we tried to swim after dinner the pool was as warm as a bathtub. I think it reached 108 that day. ( I left out pictures of baby because he is buck naked).

Summer begins...

So summer vacation has not been as "summery" as I had hoped. It has been so busy. We spend every day packing for the new house and not as much playing as I had hoped. The kids have made it into the pool most days but have spent a lot of their time watching me pack boxes and asking if I am going to remember this or that.

E did make it to VBS and loved it!! We figured he liked it so much because he was right in the middle of HSM with all the music- he loves the music and we listen to it over and over again. Hopefully he will "count on God" as he sings over and over again.

Where have you been...

Life these days has been really busy. We have had kindergarten graduation, packing up the house, visitors, tball parties- and then the obvious everyday activities like sword fighting and swinging on a big kid swing at one and a half, eating raspberries off your fingers and falling an inch after the grass ends and banging our heads. It has been an ever so busy two weeks.

Raspberries are only fun to eat when they are on your fingers. Little E has a new habit of making the "cheese" face every time the camera comes out. E used to do this when he was a little guy and was quite well known for it. It was around the same age. Now that little E does it I just want to get out the camera for those photos.

Here baby E is sword fighting with his daddy. It is obvious that he has either watched his brother in way too many make believe dragon fights or he has been sneaking in midnight showings of Peter Pan to hone his skills.

When Uncle Bret and Aunt Kassidy visited us this last weekend I looked out to see baby E swinging on the big kid swing. It scared me half to death when Uncle Bret pushed him super high on the swing. But obviously I know nothing. As you can see from his face, my little baby is not concerned at all. And a couple of days later after he fell and hit his forehead, he was still willing to give me his ever so cute cheese smile.

Movie Night

Every once in a while we have movie night. The kids get really excited. They get to haul out the little red couch and bring down all the pillows off their beds. They eat popcorn and drink lemonade and ask millions of questions because we always make them watch something they have never seen before. Usually it is an old Disney flick, one that was old even when I was a girl. Our all time favorite is The Swiss Family Robinsons. We have watched that one over and over again. Tonight we watched The Shaggy Dog. The original. In black and white. It seemed that every single second E was asking what was going to happen next. He couldn't sit still. He is a very literal child and was so concerned about what was going to happen next. And by next I do not mean the long plot, I mean the next second. (Do you understand why at six and a half he considers Little Bear his favorite show?) M just wanted to be sure that the boy turned back into a boy after being a dog.

Argh, Matey! And Back to School

Today my cute little things decided they wanted to be pirates. The idea then spurred on our Halloween plans for this coming fall. Every year we dress up in similar costumes. One year we were all from Peter Pan, another Snow White. This year we are going to be pirates. So M and little E got themselves ready. They used their blankets. Once M had hers on, little E immediately wanted his wrapped around his head.

On another note... E had his back to school night while I was away scrapbooking. Thankfully my dear husband took lots of photos so that I would not feel like I had missed anything. He even took pictures of other children's items so that I could really experience what it was like to look for my E's things. Hmmm... Here are a few of my favorites.

Okay so here is ONE of my favorites (E with the silk worms they have been watching over)because the rest are of E's work and much better to look at up close. But I also included this lovely photo of my two little ones (as my husband was practicing using the different camera speeds) to show what happens when I am out of town. See M in the background? She is wearing a beautiful smocked dress with little angel wings. It is so cute with her little matching sandals. Oh, no sandals? In this photo she is wearing red buckle shoes, which would not be so bad on their own but they are especially nice with her red Hello Kitty Christmas socks. I know it makes me sound like a control freak- but she would not have made it out of the house if I were there. In fact I noticed in another photo that the buttons on the back of her dress are mismatched. Oh my. And it is captured in pictures.

Away at Camp

Yes, it is camp. Or what 35 year old women call camp. (Okay so I am little bit older than that). This is camp where hundreds of thousands of dollars all sit in one room. Where women stay up all night, all day and then all night again just to put their memories down on stacks of colored paper. It is a little bit of heaven. We eat, sometimes sleep and live to scrapbook our children and loved ones into a book. It is amazing how time just seems to disappear and suddenly two, three, eight hours have gone by and you have no idea how you missed them. You speak in a different language, you talk about famous women who created all these products by first name, as if they are your personal friends. It is a great time as far as I am concerned. I also get to spend the time with my best friend whom I don't always see and so if I don't get as much done as I had hoped to, at least I had a great time visiting with her. So this is where I have been while M is at home with the three kids for four days- bless his heart. He had done school, homework, tball, Kumon, and I am sure little M had him doing plenty of art projects.

Mrs. Meyer's Returns

Right now I am away and missing my babies. They are at home with their dad having a wonderful time. Today they picked up E from kindergarten- on bikes- and rode to In and Out for lunch. E was pretty funny (as the story goes since I was not there to witness it), he ate half a hamburger and some fries and then said that this was junk food and would rather go home and eat something healthy, like a banana. Good for him!! My little M and baby E love In and Out and have no trouble eating something as "unhealthy" as that.

I am out and about in scrapbook land and will post tomorrow about my progress. But one more word. We are staying in a small town set in the mountains. It is absolutely gorgeous, but not my point. What I want to say is that we went to this wonderful grocery store- it has everything yummy in it, fancy cheeses, breads, flowers and the most WONDERFUL selection of Mrs. Meyer's products. I bought up all sorts of delightful smelling bottles to clean my house. I cannot wait to go home and start! I think I should call DeAnna and see if she needs any orders before I leave.

Ahhh... Mrs. Meyer's

Okay. I recently got acquainted with Mrs. Meyer. In fact, our only contact had been in passing. I had observed her once or twice, but never really stopped to say hello and get to know her. Boy, was I missing out. Over the weekend we were visiting some friends and after a very yummy meal, during clean up, Mrs. Meyer came out to greet us. Let me just say that for those of you who have never been around Mrs. Meyer, you need to stop and get yourself acquainted. She is amazing. It took me three days to get her to my house. Today I found her and brought her home. At first I was a bit hesitant about our new relationship. But as I came downstairs I could smell her delicious lemon verbena (who knew, I thought I was the basil type) and I walked around trying to find things to clean. Then tonight as I was cooking dinner her sweet smell filled the air as I was making tacos. Can you imagine a fragrance that can override the smell of taco meat? And I thought, ahhh, Mrs. Meyer's. She fills me with glee. I don't know if it is the lemongrass or the peppermint, clove, geranium or fir needle but the combination really does "pick me up". Thanks, Mrs. Meyer's. I can't wait to meet the toilet cleaner and scrub you have.

It Is ONLY Tuesday

We had a really great weekend and I was actually looking forward to getting back to the routine of the week but now that it is here..hmmm, I could use a nap. The poor kids spent a long time working on their Kumon homework because I let them slide over the weekend. Lesson learned there. That was not fun for anyone. Way too much for them to do.

So now, with every one's work done, I will wait for the little one to go down for a nap and then take the older two into the pool. It looks so inviting and M loves to wear her goggles. (I'll get a picture of that in here soon enough). The photo above is of my baby helping his dad lay new bark in the yard over the weekend. He could pick up maybe two pieces between those big gloves.

Camp Broken Arrow is open

Last night Camp Broken Arrow opened for the season. The kids set up camp, barbecued hot dogs and even roasted marshmallows. They "fished" in the "lake" and listened for the continuous sound of "boats" in the nearby "river". Daddy read them stories by flashlight and they all had a great night of sleep. Although being so close to the ranger station, or the stranger station as M put it, gave everyone a sense of security and easy use of the restrooms if needed.

(Okay, here is how it really went. They set up a tent in the backyard, I made them some hotdogs, they pretended to fish in the pool. We roasted marshmallows over the portable fire pit, they came inside, brushed their teeth and slept in the tent with the sound of passing cars lulling them to sleep. Amazingly they slept through the 4 am emergency run by two fire trucks and an ambulance).

What was so funny was E's intense desire to give a camp explanation to every single thing we encountered. Our dog was the bear and the garage the den. He called me ranger all night long and kept asking me all the whys' and what's a ranger should know. He has quite an imagination. They had a great time but are as tired as can be right now. Soon, dinner, bath and bedtime.

Six Going on Sixteen

Yesterday afternoon I helped work on memory books in E's class. It was a nice time with his teacher and, of course, we got talking... Lately my dear little six year old has been overly concerned about one of his classmates who was out sick with pneumonia. She returned earlier this week and he has talked about her nonstop. How glad he is that she is not sick anymore, what a nice person that she is, and how much fun he has playing with her. I mentioned this to his teacher yesterday and she started to laugh. Then she let me in on a little story. Evidently early that day she caught E and his little friend HOLDING HANDS while they were sitting on the carpet during class. She shook her head at them and let it go. HOLDING HANDS!!!!! He is six! OF COURSE I had a little talk with him- with gentleness and firmness- and let him know it wasn't okay. I saw her mom this morning and shared the story with her. She said it perfectly, you want to laugh because it is funny and you don't want to because it isn't. SIX YEARS OLD. (she is pretty cute though).

The Little Red Hen

Today was E's big kindergarten performance of The Little Red Hen. We started our day just as any normal family would- at 5:50 am- thanks to our early riser who likes to climb in bed and then fall back asleep. Problem is she puts her face smack dab up to mine so that I am breathing in her little three year old breath. Just can't do it.

(This is the farmer and his best friend the pig).

Not a mention of the play was done all morning. You see E's last class performance- A Patriotic Salute- ended (and started) very poorly. A little history here. E sometimes, to most people's surprise, can be incredibly shy. Shy and embarrassed. He hates to have people watching him, unless it is his choosing. At Christmas we had no problems. He went up and sang his songs, did his dance. But at the patriotic sing he clung to me when I took him to his classroom. Cried, no sobbed, as if the world was ending. He came into the cafeteria, crying. Would not go up on stage. And ended up on my lap while the rest of the class sang their hearts out.

Today was fabulous. He reminded us to meet him the cafeteria. Ran to play with his friends. Walked up on the stage and to his spot as "chorus" and sang away. He laughed at the funny parts, waved voraciously (and often) at his baby brother, and bowed at the end. All in all we were quite pleased with the results. The play was adorable. The kids had bread and honey afterwards- that the Little Red Hen had baked. Very cute.

I wish I could help E with his fears. I have never really experienced that. And I do hope that in the future he can work through them. He has told me over and over that he wants to be Fritz from The Swiss Family Robinsons...although I am not sure if he means that as in acting or as...just being Fritz. I'd like to swing from rope vines into a lake too.

Just one more thing... Ev really wants to be a "big kid". Here is where I found him in the classroom while the other kids were enjoying their bread.

In the beginning...

I was motivated to start a blog after talking to a "new" friend who shared with me the fact that I could publish my blog into a book... So since I am years behind in my scrapbooking and since my 19 month old jumped on my back up drive which resulted in the loss of six years of photos ( I guess I don't have much scrapbooking to do anymore), I decided to attempt to keep an updated journal of the lives of three (to be four) lively and energetic children and their parents.

Seeing that we have had the majority of every stress filled event happen to us in the last year, now must be the time to add just one more to do, to my list. That being said, we are blessed beyond means by each of the events that we have encountered and really, who needs sleep when they can sit at their computer and talk about themselves.

After this I will actually be telling about our life, not just throwing out vaguely random facts.