Thursday, February 25, 2010

Troublemaker


Guess who got in trouble at school yesterday?
"No way!" you say, if you know this kid at all!
Yup!
He almost had to write "I will be quiet in class" 20 times but his teacher actually forgot (and if you know Jake you would be surprised he didn't remind her.)
Guess what the infraction was???...
Humming too loudly
That's my Jake!

He actually never stops humming. Usually they are the Mario songs from all the different levels of the game. It's pretty comical. Drawing and humming are his favorite past-times!

He is such a good kid and if this is the worst thing this kid ever does at school, I'll be one happy mommy! (It could very well be.)
Pictures by Britt

Owen Addendum

Owen woke up dry today! (and still remains accident free.) This is too good to be true. knock on wood. cross your fingers. send good vibes. this just has to last!
Sorry for the TMI but there you go. A true family journal of a mother of 4!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Mission Accomplished


Somebody's wearing big boy undies!!
Phew! It was actually much easier than I thought it would be. He just turned 3 and I was so daunted by the task that I just kept putting it off (You can tell he's my fourth child!) With my other ones, I was home more and could spend a couple of days housebound getting them trained. That was not an option with little Owester. We are always on the run. So, we did pull-ups. Something I was adamantly against with my other ones because I was afraid of regression. (Again, fourth child).
Well, pull-ups totally took the pressure off. If he had an accident, it was an "uh-oh" in a sing-songy voice rather than the yelling "aaahhh, what do you think you're doing!?!? Why haven't you gotten this? What is wrong with you?" hosing down of the days of old.
After a couple of days of pull-ups when out and underwear when home he was ready for underwear full-time (except bed-time of course) and he's only had like one accident in several days! He's so proud of himself and gets so excited! (We did give him incentive of dum-dum lollipops for pees and little cars for poops for the first couple of days.)
The only down-fall of this little independent fourth child is that he always wants to do it on his own. Usually he yells, "I gotta go potty!' but more often then I would like, he doesn't tell me and he just runs in there, goes potty and then finds me afterwards holding his underwear saying, "I did it!! Yook! It's still dry!" Which is fine with #1's but not so great with #2's!
All in all--really quick and seamless experience! And I love a little boy in his skivies! Nothing cuter!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

This is the place...

Our vacation spot. (Blatters got in on it years ago (like 20?) when it was just a stretch of beach before anything was built and now we usually go once a year.)
Seen through the eyes and lens of my dear friend that just went there. (Sadly, or should I say devastatingly, we couldn't go as we're already going in July with the kiddos)
John grew up going to this place and now my kids will too.
Isn't it beautiful? She so captured it and then some!


To see more from her trip click here.
And to see more of her photography click here.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Happy Birthday Owen!


You crack us up and we love you!
one. awesome. dude.
You are such a joy...

(This was taken from last year's post and added some new pics...)


You came into this world and we called you "Sumo"

You were a whopping 10 pounds, 3 ounces...

Those cheeks and chubs and creases and squishiness set my heart all a-flutter.

You were (and are) pure scrumptious!

Those eyes...

Those lips...

Those cheeks...

Even though you are a little accident-prone...




And even though you like to get dirty...








You make us laugh every day with your crazy antics...

Oh Owen.
You are simply the best and I love you so much! You have a fabulous sense of humor, an expressive face and fun personality. You are adventurous and resilient and stubborn. You are so sweet and so cute and so easy to love!
Happy Birthday little man!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Karli Comes to Town

Yay!
One of my best girlfriends received a truly wonderful and most thoughtful Christmas present from her husband this year (husbands of my friends living far away, are you listening?) It was a trip to the bay area to see her friends without her kiddo (bittersweet) and with some spending money!
Does it get any better than that? Little did he know he made my Christmas too! (Thanks Rob!)
We had a wonderful couple of days. She flew in Wednesday night and Thursday morning started off with pedicures. Alison met us with her beautiful belly which is due any minute...

Isn't she soooo cute!?


We had a yummy lunch at Posh Bagel where we shared a a bagel dog and a super delicious bagel sandwich...

We asked the guy to cut the bagel dog in half and he ended up cutting it horizontal and swirlyed on some mustard for us! Love it!

That evening, we went to the Smyths (they go way back with Karli) for dinner and then John took the kids home to bed and Karli and I went to the movies for a little chick flick time. "Dear John". She found her idol and we had to capture the moment...


Friday, was her BIRTHDAY day so we had a lazy morning and then decided to go get spray tans because we were jealous of our friends on vacation in Mexico. ;) Neither of us had ever done it before and were both a little petrified of a Ross from Friends incident and joked about it all morning. We got there and I went first because she was still filling out paperwork. I was nervous and listened so intently to all the instructions...especially the part about listening for the pause and beep to turn around in the booth and get your back. Well, there was no beep. There was a pause, but it came so quick and I was still trying to keep my eyes closed, lips pursed, arms up in an awkward robotic pose that I TOTALLY FORGOT TO TURN! I'm standing in the booth freezing, it's all done, and I've only done one side! Aaah! Completely naked, with my shower cap on, I meekly open my door a crack and yell down the long corridor, "Ma'am! Excuse me, Miss!... I, uh, forgot to turn!" Oh, such complete and utter humiliation! I can hear Karli cracking up yelling "What about Ross!?!?!" down the hall and the nice girl says she'll reset it for me so that I can do my back this time! Karli could not stop laughing. Nor could I really.
I know, I know. Another "Oh Annie" moment.
**(The tan actually looked good with the double dose. Not that drastic at all! I should "forget" every time!)
Anyway, we were all gross and smelly and had to wait several hours to shower. So we went to Target to get a couple "Cars" cars for her son Kade (who is as obsessed as Owen) and shopped around. After carpools and tutors and getting Hannah ready for her Valentine's daddy/daughter dance with John, Karli and I left to meet up with Alison and Lisa (Karli's fabulous friend who she met while training to be flight attendants together) for Karli's birthday dinner and movie. We went to "Valentine's Day" this time.

Saturday, Karli and I went to Napa where Lisa lives to shop at the outlets. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and we had lunch at the best burger place ever! Taylor's. It was delish! We each got a burger and then shared their famous garlic fries, sweet potato fries and onion rings! Divine! It was so fun to shop and spend time with Lisa. Alison (or should I say Ryan) was too worried about being far from the hospital if anything happened (again, any minute!!) so she smartly opted out and we missed her!


We picked up the babysitter on our way home from Napa, relieved John from kid duty all day, quickly changed, and then met Ryan and Alison for dinner and then back to our house for some nostalgic, college days game playing...good ol' school Mexican Train. Fun, fun!

It was such a fabulous couple of days and I miss her already! My favorite thing about the trip was getting asked several times if we were sisters or twins even!?! She's definitely my soul sista!
Thanks again Rob! Come back soon Karli!

Happy Valentine's Sunday!

John 3:16

"For God so loved the world,
that he gave His
only
begotten
son, that whosoever
believeth in
Him should
not perish, but
have everlasting life."

Hope you're feeling the love today!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Piano Recital


The little performers did a fabulous job!




Owen really wanted his picture taken with the piano too...

All the students...

With friends...


Always a special night!