my boys

I may or may not have had a bad day at church yesterday. Between the return of vertigo and the loss of baby's morning naps things were not going well. My Big Kid is pretty amazing though and just as I was about to pack us all back home he convinced baby brother to read a book. They are so darn sweet.

So I was taking pictures during church. At least I ended up staying. I love these boys.

baby Games

Love this little boy. Patty cake is his new favorite game and while he will clap his own hands all of the time when he wants to play he must be holding your hands. It's some kind of baby rule. I love his laugh.

Our favorite part of the day is right after Dad gets home from work and we go chat with him when he's done changing clothes. It's cuddle and tickle and relax time before the craziness of the evening starts. Who wouldn't want to come home to this?

Time Marches On

Time marches on. As difficult as it is sometimes in the thick of things with small kids, these are also the best of times. I open my eyes and they are crawling, walking, running and jumping away. Such sweet faces. Joey is growing fast and learning new things every day, except how to sleep well. (ughh).

9 months old and super cute

Meg is loving Kindergarten and learning lots of new things in Spanish and English. Her reading is excellent and she loves to sing.

5 going on 13

Bug is also growing fast. So are his opinions. It makes for interesting discussions at the dinner table. He's doing well in school and is a great big brother.

 What Mom? Age 11. Going on 35.

We are blessed.

An afternoon away

Justin is getting down to the last of his date cards from Christmas last year. This past weekend we spent the afternoon in Balboa parking taking a self-guided walking tour. We took the trolley without having to worry about wrestling strollers or kids jumping out the open windows and just took our time. We saw some fun new spots and visited a non-family friendly museum. We walked through the Rose garden and had to snap some pictures. It was printed on the date card that there must be photos. Quiet, relaxing, and good to reconnect.

 He's either silly or grumpy in all of his photos. Gotta love this guy.

 The "couples" photo.

 My shoes match the flowers.

 

I feel like I look old in this picture but I am sure in 10 years I will wish I looked this young again. Time marches on.

It's the little things...

It's the little things that bring a smile to your face. This last week I got a letter from my Mom with some birthday money in it. Not much, but it came with the admonition to spend it on myself because she knew I would likely spend it on some kid related thing. Coincidentally, the same day, I came across these darling, perfect red shoes. I have a secret thing for red shoes. Love them. It ended up being almost exactly what Mom had sent. I never would have brought these home otherwise.Hope she loves them too.  Sometimes it's the little things that make you smile. Every time I wear them I get happy. Thanks Mom.

Snow White, Super Brother and a Woodland Creature

I used to like holidays. All of the prep work, the cute decorations, fun food and people all working towards the same thing for a while. Now that some of my kids are bigger, and some smaller, I am just flat out exhausted. I didn't even find the box of decorations this year. I didn't sew, save for the Snow White head band and I didn't even bake cookies, except for the sad Pinterest Fail candy corn sugar cookies. Those turned out looking very bad. But, you know what? My kids still had a great Halloween. Everyone found a costume and they were all adorable. We painted pumpkins with friends one night and had cider and pumpkin bread for treats. We went Trunk or Treating at church which was tons of fun. Everyone got too much candy and had fun admiring other costumes. The Kindergarten party was sugar filled craziness but the middle school ignored the holiday completely. Despite my lack of enthusiasm, it turned out fun anyway. Asking my kids about previous holidays, they don't seem to remember the years I didn't pull it together and remember small details of years I go all out. Hopefully that gives me a pass this year if I can pull off something more next year, right?

Baby milestones