FIRE!

In case you are not on Face Book, or happened to miss my status, here was the fun event for today!

So it was time to get lunch together. Craig put a tortilla into the toaster oven to heat up. Meanwhile, I was around the corner cleaning up play doh from the kids craft table. I all of a sudden hear him yelling. I was alarmed but went to finish what I was doing. Until the yelling got louder and I hear, "FIRE!!!" Seriously not what you want to hear or think you ever will! So I go running and there are huge flames coming out of the toaster oven, getting bigger by the second and Craig whacking them with a towel. He's yelling about help (panicking!) so I get under the sink, grab the fire extinguisher and give it to him. He about rips the top off to get it going and thankfully, after a good spray, that worked. Not thankfully it sprayed all over our lunches...and the entire kitchen. And then all the alarms went off. And the whole downstairs filled with smoke. The flames were so high they were licking the wood cabinets way above the toaster oven! Scary!! And who knew what a mess those things made! There was a fine powder all over the kitchen...even far away from the site of the fire. And it must hang out in the air for awhile because I will clean it up and then there will be a new layer. And needless to say our oven is "toast"! =0)

So that was our big Friday event. Can anyone top that? ;0)

Monica

A sweet and wonderful friend lost her battle against cancer Monday night. I never believed it was going to happen...she was such an amazing woman. So incredibly strong and brave. A fighter.

The past year and a half were hard on Monica but she hardly faltered. She kept her sense of humor, witt and charm. With her blog she enchanted many who had never even met her. She had an army storming the gates of Heaven in prayer. An army of God's followers standing behind her. And now she's gone. I struggle to understand how that can be. I struggle to understand why God didn't heal her. And it's hard. I sobbed when finding out she was gone, minutes later. The past two days I have been numb. But writing this is letting it all bubble up again and I just don't know how to deal. My heart literally aches for her husband Sol and there 2 year old son Kai. It just hurts.

Monica fought until the last moments. She wanted to live. She wanted to give it all she had to stay here and raise her baby with her amazing husband. Even with the incredible pain. But she is in Heaven now and able to rest. The pain and tumors gone from her body. Now it is those left behind that are in pain. Please, take a few minutes to pray for her precious family. For Sol, Kai, her mother, father and 2 sisters Karen and Janelle and the rest. Whenever they enter your mind, please pray. Her amazing story and heart can be found here http://solandmonica.com/ . I promise you will never be the same.

We love you Monica. And we will take care of Sol and Kai for you and surround them in prayer.

All in a Name

I realized after that last post that I had never talked about naming our baby girl here on the blog. With Facebook and so many other ways of communication, I figured everyone knew. One of my few readers brought to my attention that not everyone did know (thanks Jess!)

So, we finally found a name a few weeks ago. I really didn't think anything was going to "click", to feel "just right". We had a nice size list and a pretty set middle name. Somehow one name started to take over and then when I changed the middle name with it, that's when it fell into place.

I wasn't sure about the first name at first because it was wasn't one of my long standing, forever favorites. But for this baby, those favorites hadn't seemed to be working right. We have a lot of "criteria" for baby names and one of those is I must be able to "play" with the name. In other words make shorter and have other cute versions of it. This name fit the mold. And when I told Craig one day after thinking about it for awhile, he just smiled and smiled and I knew that was it.

So, her name is Alexis Joy. Lexy Joy for short. Alexis is so much fun because there is so much to do with it. Already she is my little Lexy-Loo! Joy is what completed the name for me. Joy because that is exactly what she already is...a complete joy to our family and everyone who finds out she is on her way! That word just sums up how we feel about her..complete and utter joy!

Too Cute

I was just cleaning Jacob off after lunch and when I walked over he smiled really big, pointed at my tummy and said, "Ahhhhh so cute! And baby Lexy is SO cute!!" Oh my goodness that was adorable!=0)

Good Things Come in Three's

We have had continuous birthday celebrations the past week in our house. With three out of the five of us having our birthdays within a week and two days! Yesterday Zachary turned the big 5! Exactly a week before that, my "baby" boy turned 3!!! So during this post I wanted to talk about Jacob's special day and then hopefully soon after I will get to Zachary's! They have a combined party coming up soon as well!

For all three of our birthday's we celebrated at Disneyland. Nothing like a free offer to get us there on our actual birthday's! After having passes for about 15 years, this is the first time that I have ever been given anything from Disney and I was not going to miss out! You either 1. get in free on your birthday, 2. Use that money towards a pass or 3. If you already have a pass, the money towards a ticket goes on a card to spend on whatever you want! Great deal isn't it? So since Jacob is now the magic number of 3, where all of a sudden you have to pay for them everywhere you go, we put his $59. towards his very first Disney pass. We had left the house around 2:00, and were set for a fun day. The only rule: It was Jake's pick of what we did all day.

And it turned out to be an awesome day! We started out on "Buzz Lightyear". After that we surprised the boys by going to the "Jedi Training show" that we are never there on time for. They were SO excited and SO into the whole thing. The only other time we had been to the show they had not yet entered into the world of "Star Wars" so it didn't mean anything to them. Oh how different it was this time around! The two older boys had Star Wars shirts on. Jacob had his light saber with him that he had just opened for his birthday...they were ready! Craig grabbed Zachary and held him up when it was time for the kids to be chosen. We yelled and screamed to get their attention...and it worked!! Out of the huge crowd Zachary was chosen! We were so excited! So he did his thing and in the middle of the show, a coordinator noticed Jacob with his saber and birthday button. She had him come over and then brought scary Darth Maul over to "fight" him! We could not believe Jacob was so brave! No fear! Darth Maul came over twice and it was great! The coordinator was so sweet and really made all of our days by including Jacob like that!

After we ate some pizza, visited some more attractions including the Nemo Subs, Matterhorn (which I was not on due to baby) Dumbo, the Star Wars store, and the Tiki Room. The only big disappointment of the day was that "Pirates" was closed. That is Jacob's favorite ride and he had been talking about going on it for a week! But we told him we would go on it for Zachary's birthday and then we got to hear about it none stop for the next week! =0)

It was a great day! Jacob is a fun little guy who loves to imitate his brothers! He is starting to not be SO "independent" and does what we ask once in awhile without arguing! Good bye to the two's! Whew! But he is so funny, has a huge smile, LOVES his kitties (has to see them all throughout the day, especially his Cody) enjoys Star Wars with his brothers, playing Indiana Jones, playing outside, loves his blue blankie, wants treats or snacks ALL of the time and is a great part of our family!

Birthday cupcakes before we left for Disneyland.




Yelling to be picked for the Jedi Show!












Special birthday boy getting to start off the show in the Tiki Room!=0)


Getting sleepy after the long day!