Oh the Bliss!

Addison wasn't feeling so hot today so we stayed in and after about 3.5 hours of movies I said enough and pulled out these crafty beauties... I bought these the other day at BigLots!, one bag contained all the materials needed to make five different animal puppets for only $2! What a steal! After we constructed them the kids took turns putting on puppet shows for me. It was my, "Yay Mom!" moment of the day.

This afternoon, while Julie was over for lunch, Troy had made a big stink so I told Ben to go tell Dad to change T's diaper, and Ben says this, "Aww Mom, Nooooo. That will make Dad pompous ." Julie and I look up at each other, did he really just say "pompous"? Then we look at Ben. Ben says," Pompous. It means to be snotty or full of yourself." Both of our jaws drop. (And it's true, Mark probably would've gotten a little snotty if he had to change the diaper). "Ben, how do you know that?" "Word Girl". I love Word Girl! **Since we don't have TV Ben spends a good amount of time playing games on the computer. Word Girl is on pbskids.com and is really fun for him and he learns a lot from it. Super Why is another one of our favorites, also on pbskids.

**Warning: I slightly abuse the word "fun" in this blog. My apologies. The Wilson's are officially our neighbors now! Praise the Lord! That was one of the toughest escrows I've ever seen, poor husband and friends... Mark swears it took years off his life. But it's over now (47 days AFTER it was supposed to close), it has CLOSED! I've held off blogging about it because there was always this tiny bit of "what if?" and even though they re-carpeted and Wendy ordered address labels and checks, I wanted to be really sure they were really in before I announced it to the world. So, world, IT'S OFFICIAL! Within the last year Mark has found houses for three of our good friends right in our neighborhood... the Snells and the Wilsons being on our very street! It has been SO much fun having our cherished ones so close. When I look out my front window and see their cars in their driveway the world just seems a little brighter. As Wendy unpacked her kitchen I s

Trying to get his hands on the candle... and the cake too I'm sure. The winner of a toy we gave him... He's a fan, and so is every other kid that sees it - no age limit on the fun apparently. Dinner with Nana at Chick-fil-A. He looks like he's three here to me... such a bruiser! A little ice cream treat for the b-day from Nana.

I don't even know what to say about this boy, I love him so much. One year ago today, at 10:25pm, this 8 pound 7 ounce, round faced, big cheeked baby entered our lives. All day today I've been replaying that day over in my mind and often found myself saying out loud, "at this time one year ago I was...". The day I give birth is like no other day I will ever live, no matter how many babies I have. And I think most mothers will say that. I can ask almost any mom the story of their labor and deliveries and with very few exceptions hear down to the tiniest details all of what happened that day for each child. I remember being at the mall with B & A and my MIL, the evening of my due date, and around 6:30 telling Tina I just didn't feel right. A couple of hours later I called my parents and told them it might be the night but I wasn't 100% sure so if they didn't want to come down I'd understand, I'm glad they came down. I also called Mark around 9ish

I've thought about keeping a little list of the comments I get when people, mostly strangers (but not always), find out I'm pregnant with number four. It must be an Orange County thing because people on the other side of the country didn't think a thing of it when my SIL had her fourth. They have bigger families out there, I guess, and out here most people are used to two maaaaybe three kids. I get that, but really, four isn't that big of a deal. It's not like I'm having four at one time or anything, I really don't see it as something to raise eyebrows at. But then again, it's what I've always wanted, so to me four sounds really normal. Circling back... I've received some interesting responses. Most often I hear, "I don't know how you do it" to which I reply, "Awesome God and fantastic husband." To me it's all relative to what you know. One child can be just as challenging as three children. And first time moms are jus

I laughed out loud when my sweet friend Wendy said this about me, I think it's perfect and very true. She said this in responce to my two most recent outings with the kids, both of which left me exhausted and thinking, "I'm never leaving the house with all three again." For the record, it's 99.9% of the time pretty easy, but whoa, Ikea and Costco got the best of me! The kids were wonderful, at both places (separate days), until a combination of things happened. 1. We stayed past the window of leaving opportunity. For me and my kids there is a sweet spot when, if timed just right, means we can leave a place quickly, quietly and happily. Happily being the goal. This didn't happen at Ikea because of the crazy maze that Ikea is and when my leaving window opened by the time I found my way out it had slammed shut, threatening to never open again. Leaving in the window didn't happen at Costco either because of unforeseen circumstances that prolonged

When a girl needs some biscuits and gravy the pickin's are slim here in the OC... so that's why we packed the kids up and headed to Chino baby. We met my parents at my beloved Flo's cafe, right next to the tiny Chino airport and down the street from the prisons and cow pastures. It doesn't get anymore 909 than Flo's, friends. And the biscuits and gravy were exactly what I had been craving for weeks, so good, in fact, that if it weren't 35 miles away I'd go again tomorrow. Such great memories of little me growing up going to Flo's with the fam. (Find pictures mom!). Here are some pics from the morning... Isn't that the BEST picture of Addison? My mom is gorgeous as usual, but, I'm really thinking Addie-girl should be a model. Ben really dug looking at the old planes that are parked at the airport there. Although Im pretty sure Mark liked the food, I think the highlight of his morning was spotting this historical landmark... A Phone booth. He wante

I had a couple of inklings I was pregnant before I actually found out. Here's a picture of one. I didn't even bat an eye when I bought this 17.6oz baby.

I really try to live under a banner of believing I don't (no one does) have the right to be comfortable. (Most everything I have is a privilege, not a right.) This notion aside, there a few things that I believe would really make my(pregnant)self a heck of a lot more, um, pleasant . ~ Mark has a really cool feature in his snazzy car where at the touch of a button seat coolers turn on and within seconds his buns are nice and chilled... it's not tiny air holes blowing cold air up, his seat literally gets colder, like with a coolant or something. Anyway, I wish I had that feature, but in my bed. I feel like my legs are always hot, no matter what. I wake up all night long to my legs moving about searching for that one cold spot left on the sheet. How awesome would that be to have a cooling agent running through my pillow-top mattress keeping my legs cool as cumbers all night long? I get giddy just thinking about it! ~ I wish I had endless amounts of funds so I could indulge my bage