Happy Valentine's Day

Daddy brought these home the night before Valentine's Day....which means they have had some time to bloom, and aren't they large and gorgeous? Even Karyl's hot pink rose is pretty! Daddy spoils us!

To be a big sister

Karyl has been an amazing helper today and is doing an amazing job keeping Nicole happy and occupied. What an amazing big sister! You should she the huge smile Nicole has and hear the happy noises she is making!

Rare moment

It's a rare moment when I get to enjoy a sleeping cutie in my arms....I am loving every second of this. Sadly I have to go put her down so I can get back to real life. Until next time my sweet little girl.

Park fun

Today we decided to head to the park to burn off some energy...I got some weird looks from people pushing the double stroller and having Nicole in the chest carrier. Oh well, I'm used to weird looks :) The kids are having a blast!

Awwww...

This was the conversation between Freddie and I on the way home from dropping K off at the Learning Center this morning....
F: HEY! Mom, I forget my girl!
Me: Your what?
F: My girl, you know her, my Karyl.
Me: We didn't forget K, we dropped her off for her classes...we'll go pick her up again in 3 hours.
F: But I miss her.
Me: I'm sorry bud, but we'll see her again in a few hours...do you want to play when we get home?
F: Can we play Cars?
Me: Sure.
F: OK, I guess I can miss her while we play Cars, thanks mommy.

You have to appreciate the complexity of their little brains...:)

Happy Birthday Uncle David!

Epicosity!

Merry Christmas!!

Anyone else trying to make dough rise this morning??

Who loves the Holidays?

Batch #1 of 3 different types of cookies....oh the deliciousness!

Our new obsession...

Munzee...a 21st century scavenger hunt.

Greg got us to #19 worldwide for yesterday!

Check out the website to read more about it...Munzee website

A little something to make you smile...

Watch "Tickle Me Freddie - Ep. 2" on YouTube

You'll be glad you did...

Trunk or Treat

This year we decided to head to OC and go trunk or treating with Grandpa and the Grandmas....

The kids were loving their costumes...Karyl of course loved the fairy theme, and Freddie loved his red racing team outfit (he thought he was Lightening McQueen and who were we to crush his dreams??).

Even Nicole got in on the Halloween festivities with her pumpkin outfit...luckily she is so tiny that this 0-3 month costume still had plenty of wiggle room!!!

This was the best I could do as far as a group photo...Have you ever tried to get 3 kids to stand together for a picture, they NEVER all look at the camera at the same time!!

Grandma and Grandpa won the best decorated trunk award...there are even spider webs on the side of the car with big plastic spider. The kids loved helping decorate and it was fun to be festive!!

Had to get a back shot of Karyl's costume...she loved the wings!!

Finally, he poses...quick - bring the camera!!!  This costume had a cute red hat but Freddie's head was too big for it!! He's got a oval shaped head like Daddy that is too big for most headwear geared towards his age.  After his surgery there appears to be plenty of room for his brains to grow, so big head = success in my books!!

They were playing Charlie Brown's "The Great Pumpkin" and Freddie decided to sit and watch it...I swear, he is just the cutest thing.  He is by far my favorite son!!! Despite his wild testosterone fueled craziness I swear he melts my heart with his blond hair, blue eyes and his "please mommy."

The kids had a blast Trunk or Treating and are excited to do the real thing on Monday!!! I swear, I may be slightly biased but we have the best 3 kids in the world!!!



Happy Birthday Karyl!!!!

We had planned to visit Disneyland on Monday, October 17 to celebrate Karyl's birthday, but Freddie got really sick that morning and we had to postpone the outing until this past Tuesday, October 25.

Lucky for us the weather had been nice and cool, and even a little wet the night before...we love visiting Disneyland when it's slightly overcast and cool!!

We had fun, the kids had fun...it was just a win-win situation!!

The kids rode the Storybook ride for the very first time....Karyl has been asking to go on "the whale ride" for a while, but the line is always long....and we have an aversion to long lines.

They even let her sit on the front of the boat - she loved that!!

We also rode the teacups, which I swear is one of Karyl's favorite rides...makes sense because despite what people think, it's one of mine too. I always have a baby strapped to me though when going on it so I can never spin the things as much as I want to!! This time we decided to be gender discriminatory and the boys had to ride in their own teacup!!

On Karyl's birthday Grandma and Grandpa brought her a cake, and we gave her our present that Greg brilliantly came up with.  This camera was actually exchanged the next day for a little better one, but the digital camera idea was amazing!! She carries her camera everywhere and is always snapping pictures of EVERYTHING!!!

Then, the Saturday after her birthday, October 22, we celebrated with our family. That morning Karyl got super sick, but managed to be feeling a lot better by that night - she caught whatever Freddie had so was feeling fine in the afternoon and just had to stay away from some of the heavier birthday foods!!

If you have kids, check out Nick Jr.'s website...they have everything imaginable to print out for your kids from coloring sheets to entire party packs!! We had a Milli themed party (she is a character from the show Team Umizoomi) and Karyl loved it!! These flowers were supposed to be on lollipop sticks, but I liked the thumbtack in the pencil version much better...and Karyl loved them!!

They even had this banner to print out!!

This was priceless...Uncle Glen and Aunt Dyanna got Karyl a fossil discovery kit where you dig through the sand to find fossil pieces, then put them together.  She opened up the present, got one good look and yelled out "It's a paleontologist kit!!!" Yes, that's right, unprompted and all on her own she blurted that out. Everyone got silent for a split second and looked at us like "what did she just say??" That's my girl!!

She also won't put down the purse that her aunties gave her.  Not only is it her all time favorite color, but it matches her mommy and Auntie's purses. If you ever want a giggle, ask her to see what's in there any given day...it's hilarious to tell her to pack up her purse and then look and see what she felt needed to be taken with us that day.

We had lots of fun celebrating her birthday!! It was unfortunate that everyone got sick, but the timing worked out perfectly that at least she could mostly enjoy her birthday dinner, and we were able to show her just how special she is and how blessed we were to bring her into our family 5 years ago!! Can you believe it?? We have a 5 year old!!

Just for posterity's sake...here are a few of the amazing things our big girl is up to...

*She loves her ballet class

*She can count to 100 with no help

*She is 2 chapters away from being done with her Kindergarten Math...and we're only 2-1/2 months into the semester!!

*She LOVES school and every day asks me if we can do more school work

*She can read any CVC book (consanant - vowel - consanant)

*She loves books and is constantly asking to read!!

*She can write and spell most 3 letter CVC words.

*She apparently knows what a paleontologist is and what they do!!

*She is in love with her baby sister, I mean completely smitten!! Those two will be best friends as Nicole gets older!

*She loves her Learning Center classes, especially Digging for Dinosaurs!

*She is constantly making Freddie scream - she tries to help him but he wants to do things on his own. They love each other, but the sibling rivalry has already begun!!

Oh Karyl - what would we do without you in our lives!!

Disneyland!!!

Last Thursday we decided to take advantage of the lovely weather we've been having and head to Disneyland...

We packed up lunches for the kids and they loved it!! They were excited to use their Tinkerbell and Cars lunchboxes we got a few months ago!!

We went on their favorite ride - the Merry-Go-Round.

We met our friend Claire and her son Jaxson there and the boys had a blast goofing off together! Don't they look like they could be related?? Oh wait, they are!!

I'm starting to like my mostly permanent place on the bench when we ride the Carousel - Nicole was such a sweetie and stayed asleep when I got her out of the stroller!!

Who doesn't love some snuggle time with the baby??? Isn't she just too much cute all squished into a tiny package?!?!

This pic is strictly for Claire...she knows why =)



See, the cuteness is just too much!! I wish I had another picture of her in the sun so you could really see and appreciate her flowing red locks!!






She's a wiggler!!

When I went in to get Nicole this morning for her first feeding, this is what I found...

She wiggles out of her "swaddling" most nights and has her arms free and above her head...but this was a first. She has been trying to roll, and getting VERY close...but I find it hilarious that she fell asleep while trying to do it in her sleep.  She never whined or cried, so she wasn't doing it while totally awake. 

How do I know she was trying to roll?? She only rolls to her right side...don't ask why, I don't speak baby, she just does.

I just had to run back and take a picture before waking her up because it was so stinking cute.  Yes, that's right, I have to wake her up in the morning.  If I were to let her sleep in she'd wake up at like 8:30am, which means she doesn't get her last feeding until around 11pm and I have to be up at 5am every morning. So, I've started waking her up around 7:30am in the hopes that I can get her to bed before 11pm so I can get at least 5 hours of sleep.

The best laid plans...

CRAP!!!!!!

I made a HUGE mistake...I was trying to fix something on our blog and accidentally erased my entire "blogs I follow" section.  And unfortunately, once you do that, you can't get it back - now matter how many times you try pressing that "back" button!!! I cried, seriously...tears were shed.

So, with that being said...if you remember seeing your name on the side of my blog and it's gone now, PLEASE send me your blog address so I can add it back on.  There were a few that I was able to remember right away, but otherwise I don't remember most of the URLs. I will try and find some through other blogs, but the chances of recovering all of them that way are slim....

I'm so sorry...please help!!!!