November 26, 2011

 Luke was due January 4th.  Every time I'd go in for a check up and the doctor would check his growth, he would laugh and say, "We'll see if he makes it that long."  I refused to have a Christmas baby for the sake of his poor birthday for the rest of his life.  My body was so determined NOT to let that happen that Luke came early...really early...the day after Thanksgiving.  The second worst birthday, or so I thought.  When it comes down to it, you don't care when your baby arrives.  You want him there, in your arms, and you want him breathing.  Our little guy didn't have the best beginning, but a year later, you'd never guess his struggles.   

And I'd never guess how much fun it is to celebrate his birthday on Thanksgiving weekend.  It's tradition to cut down our Christmas tree the day or two after Thanksgiving.  How perfect it is to turn that into a birthday celebration as well!

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 Luke thought so too.

 The girls

 The divas

The bruddas

The cuz's

Daddy's little guy

 

 Our tree was calling to Joe.  This one was it.

Don't ask.

 Our little family of five.  So happy together.

We Haven't Fallen Off the Face of the Earth...

Although maybe that would have been nice.

It's been a really looooooooooong time.  Thanksgiving hit (yes, I'm talking about Thanksgiving 2011) and so did every single illness you could possibly imagine.  I guess our home is pretty cozy, I mean, I love hanging out here, but come on! Did those little buggers really need to stick around until March?! I wanted the germs gone.  Pneumonia, bronchitis, stomach flu, pink eye, pneumonia, bronchitis, pink eye (that's not a typo--just a different kid suffering), 6 ear infections, the common colds, just to name a few, and a mom who was soo focused on her kids illnesses that she forgot to get her own thyroid stuff checked and she was literally on the path to insanity.  Sigh...

Joe was doing the dishes one night and expressed, "I think we can throw away some of these things!"  He's talking about the medicinal spoons you get at the pharmacy.  Here's a picture I took when all three kids were on antibiotics at the same time.  I was at the doctors office 4 times in 7 days that time.  No joke.  We collected 9 of those darn spoons. 

This last week I experienced some shortness of breath when I felt like I was finally getting my life back in order from our lovely winter and I looked at the calendar and IT WAS THE END OF MAY IN THE YEAR OF 2012.  I mean!  I need to start thinking Christmas!!!

I've done no record keeping, and we've had some pretty wonderful things happen despite the yuck--like Luke turning 1 and Jake, 4, and Joe, 22!!!!  I managed a few pictures, and because journalling seems to be a lost cause at this point in time, I want to at least try to catch up on this blog with some pictures of the last 6 months so I don't forget them completely!  So this is my kick off.  I'll see if I can catch up a bit.  It'll take a little bit of that "I'm-not-scrapbooking-either-burden" guilt off my shoulders. 

Trick or Treat

Here we are :)
Jake cried about being Elvis for the church party, but then when I gave him a choice for Halloween, he replied, "Mom, I wanna be ELVIS. And I'm not gonna cwy about it this time."

Kate, with her friends Halle and Addie

Jake with his buddy Bryant

The Girls

Luke, feeling like he is right in the middle of the action, I love it!

checking out the loot

Learning the tricks of the trade

If only he tasted what was inside :)

Enjoy!

There's no way you are eating all of it!

Are You Making Eyeballs?!

That was the question I got as I stood in the kitchen smiling to myself as I stabbed these little eyeballs onto their forks. "Yes! That is exactly what they are!" I was so thrilled that the kids knew what they were :) We had a spooky dessert night for Jake's preschool co-op over at our friend's, the Webb's home. We were spoiled with Loriann making everyone a yummy dinner and then the kids had the time of their lives making their dessert choices: ghosts, pumpkins, witches brew, eyeballs, goblin hands, among other things. Here are the older sisters taking center stage.
We got home and realized that Halloween was the next day and we hadn't carved our pumpkins!! So, Sunday night, we went to work. Here's what we came up with:

Luke was fast asleep by this point. I think the kids ended up going to be close to 11pm. Lovely. But memories were made :)

Wilderness Wimps??

Call it what you will.Joe and I LOVE the outdoors. Getting outside and doing a little exploring is one of our favorite things. We are this way because we were both brought up doing it. So, comments from the peanut gallery complaining that legs are tired and "where's the snacks?" were a bit annoying. "Are we raising wimps??!!" We asked to each other, horrified!!!!!!!!!!

(and then I began wondering...was I like that???)
We were so adventurous with numero uno. With numero dos, things slowed down a bit, and when numero tres came along, life outside of our normal routine almost came to a halt.
(Is that why this darn baby weight hasn't disappeared???)


So, a new resolution for our family: get out on some trail and do some exploring at least one weekend a month.

In October we went about 15 minutes from our house to a trail over in Livermore and we hiked 4 miles. Kate made it the entire way and Jake got a piggy back ride briefly. Luke enjoyed luxury the entire trip. We were cruising at a speedy 45 minutes per mile but the kids loved looking for birds, acorns, and running after butterflies. Joe and I have high hopes that our speed will increase.

For now though, we were thrilled that we didn't hear, "My legs are tired," until the last mile; and we got some fresh air in our lungs :)

Spontaneity

"I'm coming home on the late bus." I read the text and thought, "Alright...maybe something really EASY for dinner." As I started opening up cabinets and peering into shelves, I heard bursts of excitement, papers shuffling, drawers slamming and the the sliding screen door being left open...they were up to something but I didn't have the energy to stop it. I continued cooking. I found Jake trying on one of his many costumes (thanks Jeri) and stomping to and fro chanting silly things... "MOM! It's time! Come HERE!!!!!!!!!" I followed their happy voices to the back door and found this.Apparently Halloween had come a little early and we were going to celebrate.
All of our indoor Halloween decorations were taken outside and used appropriately to create a nice ambience.

They decided that it was only appropriate to eat outside for the party. There was even a special seat decorated for the "queen herself."
I was told I was the queen.

We ate dinner, played "pin the witch hat on the rocking horse," told ghost stories and even trick or treated. They planned and executed the entire thing.

Thanks for shaking our routine up a bit, kiddos. I think we all needed it :) I needed arms about 4 inches longer to get Luke's face in this one! At least his forehead is accounted for :)

The Pumpkin Patch

Every year we make sure to head over to Half Moon Bay and bask in all of the Fall Fun-ness. We decided the weekend after getting home from Hawaii was a good time to go. It definitely didn't feel like autumn and coming from palm trees and warm breezes, we weren't feeling very fallish either, but we did our best to manage having a great time :)
If we allowed it, our kids would jump at the chance to have these cute little furballs be a part of our family. They LOVE bunnies and loved hanging out with them at the Pumpkin Patch.

I include one of these every year. Had to do it again. Although, for some reason, Jake was a little more timid this time...not sure why! Luke's first trip down the bouncy slide seemed to go relatively well. His "chill" attitude didn't falter.

We headed over to Barbara's to get a little clam chowder in a bread bowl and take advantage of the reason we pay so much to live in California :) The weather was simply perfect.

Always love Half Moon Bay with my family

Aloha

It feels like our Hawaiian trip was already eons ago...I'm ready to go back and I think everyone else feels the same way! I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures (check the slideshow above) :) We tried something new this year and went in September which was WONDERFUL! No crowds!!! The only sad part was that we weren't complete. Mom decided she really wanted to go to culinary school and the program began before our trip ended. So we REALLY missed her. But we are so proud of her for getting out there and doing what she loves. Although, I don't know how you can perfect perfection when it comes to cooking :) Chris and Kalei are busier than ever in their first year of dental school, so we aren't expecting them to be able to join us any time soon...but when they do, it'll be a happy day. With the Merrills in Oahu

Let's see, what did we do? Relax, swim, eat, read, hike, visit with good friends, play, sleep, exercise and did I mention eat?! Hard to come back to reality after such a wonderful trip. I feel so blessed to have the family we do. Hard to get sick of each other... and I know that's rare :)

Rodents Among Other Things...

We had a mouse situation that was literally driving me crazy for the past month (even though they weren't around for that long--Comet and 409 have been my best friends as of late). At least they weren't rats is what I kept telling myself. Still...

Kate came up to me a few days ago holding one of her many pieces of art with a big smile on her face. I was expecting rainbows, flowers, butterflies and Kate and me...her usual preferences. Instead, I saw this:

I LOVE the mouth. I laughed so hard! Apparently I've been letting my thoughts become vocal one too many times lately :)

Not to be outdone, Jake came running up to me and said, "Ya, Mom....this is me. And I'm mad because my hair is so long!" Thanks for keeping it real, Jake.