Zachary's Great Day

Last Friday Zachary told me he had had one of the best days ever. And it truly was an awesome day for him! It started off with a bang when he received an award that morning at the first assembly of the year. We were so excited to find out that it was for his artwork! He works at home everyday on his drawings and it has been amazing to see him get better and better and to watch his passion for art grow. Having someone else outside the family recognize that right away is super exciting!

Later that day he won the estimation jar! Every week his teacher fills the jar with a food item. Each child in the class gets to guess how many items they think are in the jar. The child with the closest number to the actual one wins and gets to take the contents of the jar home. This week Zachary's number was the closest and he got to take home a bag full of cheese Ritz Bitz!

When I picked the boys up I also found out that he had won their weekly class raffle and was able to pick a prize out of their treasure box! Both boys also received green all week (meaning perfect behavior, no warnings, on time to school everyday, school and homework all completed) and they were able to go to Principals Recess which is a reward for doing all of the things mentioned above. They get extra time to play and can purchase a treat for a quarter. Double awesome!

As if all that wasn't enough for a very cool day, I greeted the boys with the news that we were headed to Disneyland...right then! The screams that followed...priceless! We proceeded to have a great night with Jacob getting to ride Splash Mountain for the first time and all of us getting to ride the seasonally decorated Space Mountain for the first time. I do believe you had a fantastic day Zachary! ;0)

Alexis at 13 Months.

Baby girl has been one for a full month now. We are enjoying her as much as ever. In the past month she has:

*Not grown much. Actually make that the past 4 months! At her one year check up we found out that she only weighed 18 pounds 10 ounces. Not big enough to face forward and only weighing 5 ounces more then she weighed at her 9 month appointment. That puts her in the 10th percentile. She is only 27 1/2 inches which puts her in the 3rd percentile for height. Still baffled at that since Craig and I are both fairly tall. I hope she get s a little more height to her when she's older but for now we are enjoying our tiny girl!

*On that note she is still in all of her 6-9 month clothing and some 9-12. She is still in a size 3 shoe! I have been looking for a size 4 shoe in the stores and am having a hard time. Most hard sole shoes start at a size 5. Since a size 3 is usually worn by a 6 month old they make most of those a crib shoe (soft bottom). I started looking on-line and am currently bidding for a very cute pair of 4's. Now if the person bidding against me would kindly step away from the shoes...that would be great!;0) She also continues to wear a size 3 diaper.

*Right after turning one she said her first word...or words actually. She said Thank you (pronounced Tank-Chew!). Oh my word that was one of the cutest things I had ever heard! I thought it may be a fluke but she kept saying it! She also says "Hi" occasionally while she is waving and will blow kisses. She claps and dances when she hears music...all of which is super cute!

*Looks like she is getting two more teeth. I can see a little bit of white poking through next to each of her top teeth. Once those come in that will be a grand total of six!

*She has started pulling out her hair bows, ties etc. As soon as she realizes they are there, she rips them out. As soon as I try to put it back in, she rips it out again!! Little stinker! Doesn't she know how adorable she looks with piggies? Doesn't she know how excited mommy is to do her little girls hair? Apparently, not so much.

*She's as busy as ever. Roaming the entire house. Shoes, magnets and baby purse contents strewn all over the place. She loves her baby dolls. Loves toys in general. She continues to be very good at playing by herself. Something she needs to teach her youngest brother!

*I love how silly she is getting. Her "sniffy face" is the best! If you haven't seen that you are definitely missing out! She scrunches her nose up and sniffs loudly...it's a family favorite!She even does it on command! Lately she has also been sticking her neck out in a really funny way while looking to the side...it's hilarious to watch. I nicknamed that "The Turtle". She has also started growling, such a goofy baby!

It's fun to see our little girl growing and changing! I can't wait to keep finding out more about her!

Tyler

Tyler's teacher asked us to send in a note about our kids so that she could know a bit more about them. Due to the chaos that is our house I just got that email out to her. Also due to the craziness I realized I never did an update around Tyler's birthday. So, I thought I would post here some of what I wrote to her. We love our boy and are so proud of how he is growing. We are also proud that his teacher calls him "Smiles" and that she constantly says he brightens her day! =0) Here are a few things about Tyler at 8 years old.

Tyler is a smiley guy! He has a very big heart and really likes to please people. If he knows he's done something wrong or really upsets someone, he takes it pretty hard. He is very kind and is usually willing to give things up for his siblings.

Tyler is an avid reader. He can be found at all points of the day with a book in his face! Usually when we can't find him, he's tucked away somewhere with a book. It makes me so happy to see his love for books (I love them too!). His other great passion is video games. If allowed, he would play them all day! That is one of the things that can make him lose all train of thought...when playing that's all he can think about! As a result that is the thing most often taken away from him! He also loves all things Star Wars and has recently become obsessed with Michael Jackson! Hilarious to watch he and his brothers "put on shows" for us!

Often Tyler can seem to be "walking through the clouds". He will daze off and we have to bring him back to Earth! This leads to forgetting to do certain things or losing items such as jackets, glasses etc. As he gets older he has been doing better but there are still times when he is really focused on a book or a game where we really have to put effort into getting his attention! He is also quite a chatter box and loves to let you know about facts that he has recently learned. He is specifically interested in animals and learning all about them.

I am so happy at how sweet and innocent he is. I love that he will still happily watch "Backyardigans" or "Go Diego Go!". He isn't trying to grow up too fast or be older then he needs to be. Other things he enjoys are riding bikes and scooters, going to Disneyland and Sea World, playing baseball and going out for frozen yogurt. He loves his family and has a good relationship with each of us. I love when he shows concern when one of us is hurting. He will come up to me and rub my back asking, "Does this feel better, Mommy?" Too sweet!

Alexis is a Year Young!

Baby girl turned a year old last week. Still can hardly believe it. I spent that day and those leading up to it remembering what was happening at the same time last year. How awful I felt, how nervous I was. Then on the 18th, after our normal trip for a Stress Test, we were sent to the hospital to "have a baby"! Such a crazy, exciting, stressful,amazing and life changing time! By 11:18 that night we were holding our little girl.

It has been an awesome and challenging year. It's a year that started out rough when she wouldn't sleep and cried more then not (and so did I!). But once her little system worked itself out, it has been so much fun! She is truly a delight. A joy to our family and others around her. She smiles willingly. Giggles. Makes funny noises and faces. She's determined yet so super sweet. We all adore her!

At a year she is:

*Still wearing size 3 diapers, all of her 6-9 month clothes and most of her 9-12 month ones. Still in size 3 shoes but almost ready for size 4.

*She is WALKING EVERYWHERE! Pretty much right after the 11 month post she stopped crawling and started completely walking. She loves to walk! All day long she will walk back and fourth...so cute to watch her!

*In addition to walking she has also learned how to climb this month. She crawled up onto Jacob's little toddler bed and thought that was the best thing ever. So she decided to try something even better...the stairs! One day I didn't see her walking around, went around the corner, and she was already half way up the stairs! I let her finish and she made it all the way up. Now that's all she wants to do and we are constantly having to block the stairs or she won't stay off of them. She can go up great...but not back down. She is keeping us on our toes!

*She has her 1 year appointment this Friday. It will be interesting to see how much she has grown since her 9 month visit and sad that she has to get her shots. I hate when my babies have to get shots!

*She still has quite a few nicknames. I think that I have somehow forgot to write about one of the top ones I came up with. One of the sounds she makes all the time is, "Tee-tee". Stemming from that I somehow started calling her "ti-ti Roni" (R0-Knee) and now sometimes it's just Roni or Rone. The whole family has picked up on it. Tyler, awhile back, started calling her Pexy and the other boys will too. When she gets into everything I like to call her a Lex-a-soraus! There's also Joy Bear and Mama Girl!

*She still has just 4 teeth although it had seemed like she may be teething last week. She has such a cute smile with those 4 little teeth!

*She loves playing and plays so well on her own. She has really been into the magnets on the refrigerator. We have the Leap Frog Farm and Letters on it and they are constantly being spread throughout the whole house! She always has something in her hand, walking from room to room. A baby doll, an item from one of her new play purses, or a magnet! So cute!

*She likes to try and put hats and other accessories on. This is one of those things that is already different then the boys. She wants to do it all of the time. When she finds one of our hats she is instantly trying to put it on and then will walk around with it...adorable! Yesterday she wanted Grandma's sunglasses on and yelled when they were taken from her. Today she took a stethoscope and hung it around her neck...so cute! She loves the sets of bead necklaces we got on vacation and will play with those forever. And she also loves shoes! She will get into our shoe bin everyday and walk around with them, spreading them all around the house!

*As far as talking she babbles a lot. It sounds like she has said "hi" a few times. It doesn't seem like she pointedly calls any of us anything yet but there has been quite a few times where it's sounded like it.

*She waves hello and good-bye almost anytime you say it now...one of my favorite things!

So that is Alexis at a year. I am so happy that I have all of these memories written down at each stage of her life. I plan to keep doing her updates every month since they still change so much. Let me know if anyone is still reading these...good to know you are out there! I hope to get to a post on her First Birthday party within the next few days...it was a lot of fun!=0)

Quote of the Day Returns!

So in an attempt to get more memories down I am blogging from my phone for the first time. I just had a conversation with Zachary and Craig that went like this.
Me: Who is taking charge of this platypus?
Zachary: Me.
Craig: isn't it a duck?
Zachary: No! It's a platypus!
Me looking at the tag: Oh it says Daffodil the Duck.
Zachary (after pausing a split second) Tell you what, I'll just call it a platypus!

The First Day

The first day of school is always extra exciting. I remember the way I felt as a child. Nervous. Excited. Apprehensive. Sad to see summer end but eager to see what the new year would be like. And now as a parent I felt...nervous. Excited. Apprehensive. Sad to see summer end yet eager to see what the new year would be like! So strange! Same emotions but now through a mother's eyes. I had been feeling super anxious about Zachary going from half day Kinder to full day First Grade. Especially with the school hours changing and the kids now getting out at 2:57 instead of 1:57. That just seems so much later! And I think having two big, school age children is throwing me for a loop. I spent the whole night before their first day asking myself, "How did my babies get so big?! How did my babies get so big?"

So, ready or not, Wednesday August 21st arrived. The boys got up super excited for the day ahead. I had gotten everything ready the night before. Clothes laid out, new backpacks out, lunches and snacks packed. Before leaving we made sure to go out front and get our traditional first day of school pictures. Then we were off to school.

A few days prior we had found out the kids teachers and who would be in their rooms. We are so pleased that they both seem to have gotten really wonderful teachers! Zachary's teacher is Mrs. Cromwell who is the one everyone seems to want. She is the head of First Grade and we are really excited to have her! Quite a few of the kids he had last year are also in his class so it's nice to see the familiar faces! When I asked Zachary how he liked his teacher he said, "She's really cheerful. She's cheerful all the time!" So cute! Tyler is paving the way for our family so we didn't know anything about the Third Grade staff. So when we saw he had Mrs. Helmer that didn't tell us much. But after just 4 days of school, we already think she's great! He is so excited about being in her class and I'm excited because she already thinks Tyler is great! =0)As an added bonus for him his little buddy Nolan is in his class again after they were separated during 2nd grade!

We were able to go into class With Zachary, see his desk and take a picture with Mrs Cromwell. As we said good bye I felt the stinging begin and as we got into the hallway...the flood gates opened. I tried not to cry, but I was just so overwhelmed with emotion. I'm not exactly sure why I had such a hard time considering he is my second in full day school. The days seem so long with the time change and school not getting out until nearly 3:00. I hate not knowing what they are doing during the day but look forward to helping out in both of their classes as much as possible. I already spent some time in Tyler's and love seeing him in class!

When I went to pick up the boys they were so excited and both had great days! We are off to a good start to a new school year!

San Diego Vacation

I have been wanting to write so many things and yet there is never enough time. Last week we had our family summer vacation to San Diego. I really want to get down all of the fun things we did and am happy to be here finally getting that done!

Our trip was Sunday July 25th to Thursday July 29th. Since our Honeymoon we have gone to San Diego nearly every year in the summer. Most trips have been about the same. Find a hotel, go to Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, maybe head over to Coronado Island. We kind of get stuck in the rut of doing the same things. This trip was very different. Yes we went to Sea World. And the Zoo. Even drove around Coronado one day as the kids slept. But what was so different about this trip you ask? The FOOD! Yep, food defined this vacation.

Before leaving on our trip I began researching good places to eat in the area. I learned about Yelp for the first time and it was very helpful. We had recommendations from friends and I made a list of places to try and eat at. These were places that had been highly rated, been on the food network and other television shows. I was excited to try this out! And those that know me well know that I typically like to stick with the familiar. I usually gravitate towards a chain because I know what to expect and that they don't serve cat there!;0) But I have been becoming more adventurous and was truly excited!

We started our trip by eating at Souplantation. Not exactly new as it is one of our favorite places to eat but new in that we ate there for breakfast for the first time.
We got to our Hotel,the Westin, which was in the Gaslamp district of downtown San Diego. Afterwards we set out to spend the evening at the Zoo.

The next morning I started to get bummed because the weather was so unusually cold for this time of year. While on our vacation we had planned to go to the beach, Soak City and swim in the hotel pool...and it was barely in the 60's! So we decided to go to Sea World. It was a fun day doing different things then the norm. We saw the new Dolphin show for the first time, and all 3 boys went on Shipwreck Rapids for the first time. They loved it! That afternoon the kids napped in the car while we drove the length of Coronado. We tried going to a famous BBQ for dinner that night only to find it closed on Mondays. So we headed back towards the hotel and ate at Bucca Di Peppo's.

The next morning we were finally able to start in on our list of great places to eat! And a great way to start it was! We ate at the little Cafe 222, which was just a few blocks from where we were staying. We have heard the wait can be long but we were seated on the little outdoor patio fairly quickly. Their peanut butter banana stuffed french toast is their famous item. We ordered that, pumpkin waffles and pancakes. Everything was delicious! From there we went back to the zoo for a few hours and then attempted the beach for about a half hour. The kids loved it even though it was freezing! We wanted to try Phils BBQ again since it had been closed the day before. We knew we had to get there early since every review had stated "lines around the building". We got there right at 5, waited in line, and in about 20 minutes had ordered, found a table and got our food. I am not usually a ribs kind of person but wow...that was some good food! Super tender and tasty! Craig really loved it and has already talked about going back more then a few times!;0) Oh and when we left...lines around the building! That night we went back to our room and then walked to the Ghiradelli chocolate shop. oh my goodness....the sundaes and malt we ordered were wonderful! Good thing that shop is not closer to home!

Wednesday we walked to another yummy restaurant for brunch, The Broken Yoke. Great French Toast, Breakfast Burrito, Blueberry Pancakes and Eggs Benedict. We then decided to brave Soak City since it was our last full day and the sun had started to peak out.
It was our first time at this location and there were no crowds so we hardly had to wait for the slides. We had a great few hours there!

On our way to Sea World for the night shows we stopped for dinner at El Indio. I looovvve Mexican food so was particularly excited to try this place out. It had been recommended by friends and has been featured on television shows. It did not disappoint and was so yummy! We had tacos, taquitos, chips and quesadillas. Mmmm Mmmm good! With full bellies we headed to Sea World and enjoyed "Sea Lions Tonight" and "Shamu Rocks"! We were able to watch fireworks as we were walking out. Another great day!

Thursday morning we packed up, swam a little and then left the "home-tell" as Jacob calls it. The kids are always sad when we leave...they love staying in hotels! For lunch we stopped at a pizza place called Giovanni's. We found it on our own just driving around last time we were in San Diego. They have some of the best pizza and breadsticks I have ever had. So, so good! And the perfect way to end a great vacation!

So even with the cool weather we had a great trip. New memories were made and lot's of new favorite restaurants found! We can't wait to go back!

Alexis at 11 Months

So it seems I only get on here these days to keep up with Lexy's updates. Would like to be able to write more again someday soon. I have been struggling with the fact that my baby will be turning one. I need to start planning her first birthday but have been hesitant. I am really looking forward to having a girly party for the first time but a part of me is holding back because I don't want her to be a year. She is so sweet in this stage. She plays so well by herself. She loves exploring and discovering everything around her. As long as she has slept and been fed she is such a happy baby girl. Love her sweet babbling sounds, the way she hums and then shrieks when she sees something she likes. She is a delightful little person!

*The big news this month is that her two front teeth have broken through! The week before turning 11 months I noticed the little bits of white and they are now moving into position quickly! There have been no new teeth for months and these make numbers 3 and 4.

*She is walking much more now. She will take 15 steps or more at a time then fall to the ground and crawl. Get back up, take a few steps and fall and crawl again. She pretty much goes with whatever is most convenient and the time!

*She still prefers girly things. Last weekend we were at a birthday party. She was playing in the little boys room and out of everything in there, she found the one pink toy to play with! She loves baby dolls and her tea pot that sings...makes me so happy to see her, well, be a GIRL!=0)

*She so loves to be on the move that it has become nearly impossible to get pictures of her. She will look every which way but towards the camera. During her last pictures taken at JC Penney's she kept mad rushing the camera. With the 3 of us working hard (and occasionally calling in a brother to try and help make her smile) we were able to get a few good poses. But she sure made us work for it!

*She is still in size 3 diapers, 3-6 months onsies and can still wear all of her 6-9 month clothes. She is just now fitting into a few of her 9-12 month things and wears a size 3 shoe. Thankfully she is growing slowly and we are getting good use out of all of those adorable outfits!

*She continues to be a wonderful eater. She will eat anything we give her. It is so nice!

*She just had her first trip to the beach on Monday. She loved it. She loves being outside though so that was perfect for her. It was too cold for her to play by the water but we are hoping she gets the chance next week when we head to San Diego.

*She got the chance to play in our baby pool last week and really enjoyed that. She was in there for about an hour, just happy as a clam. She really likes water and is always eager to get in her bathtub.

*This past month she has been napping well...YAY!!! She usually takes 2 naps and will go right to sleep when put in her crib. She likes to be laid down with her cuddle blanket put on top of her face. She snuggles into it and usually will go right to sleep. So wonderful! She sleeps really well at night and usually wakes up between 6:30-7:00.

Next month will be the big one year update. I am looking forward to all the things I will get to do with a daughter. I think I will reflect on that more next time! For now, time to change a dirty diaper! ;0)