Our Christmas Advent

I finally finished making an advent calendar I started when I was...well let's just say I finally finished it. Eric and I brainstormed activities we could do each day until Christmas, typed them up and printed them off and then stuck them in a pocket. Tonight we did our first "Advent Activity" and I decided I'd give myself one more thing to do every night and that would be posting our activity. Tonight we "made the car go crazy." The phrase comes from his parents who would take this road and then that road and wiggle the wheel of the car so the car would "go crazy" and Eric really wanted to make this one of our events. We started off with a bang. [After the usual frustration of herding chickens (not to mention getting said chickens to put on coat, boots, mittens, hat, go potty, go to the van, etc.) and having a frustrated mommy, we got into our car that would go crazy.] Well it went this way and that and we found a house that could use some new fuses for Christmas with the amount of lights they had up. It looked beautiful though and with the dusting of snow we've had the lights looked even better. After finding pretty lights the auto pilot found its way to some golden arches! McDonalds held our first Christmas "mini miracle" we'll call it. We all shared a large french fry to start us off and the girls wanted more french fries so up to the counter we marched for more of those great little fried potatoes. We had $4 left and thought it would be fun to share some ice cream too. We took 2 sundaes and another large fry back to Daddy and Marcus but we did not have to pay for them. The manager gave them to us for free. I told her what we were doing and she told me to put my money away. Now to me that little bit of kindness meant something - $4 is a lot of money this week and I'm grateful to all the little things that add up to make life special. We'll be back tomorrow! Merry Christmas.

Cake Destruction

Here is the 1st birthday and the traditional cake destruction we think is so cute. Marcus did a number on his cake - it was a baseball bat and ball but it looked rather fishlike. I was pressed for time alright! :)

Its so hard to believe that time goes so quickly - it happens to everyone but when I see my children sprouting right before my eyes I think how lucky I am to have these days when they're little. (Some days I need it told to me over a loud speaker every 2 minutes but I love this time of life!) Marcus is so much fun and we are so glad his happy little person is the other boy in our house. Things wouldn't be the same without him!

We sure love you Marcus!

The Slide

Marcus LOVES this thing. Good thing because of all the snow we've got already I need something inside! This kid is no doubt boy through and through. Its fun to watch him "beat" up his sisters already. Okay so as a mother I should not think its fun, but his sisters let him crawl on them, drop on them, pull their hair, hit them on the head with spoons, etc. and then whine and cry about it when he just wants to be with his big sisters. I'll admit I don't do much about it yet becasue he's just playing but if he doesn't ever have a brother than he's gonna need a puppy!

Happy Halloween

Flamenco dancer and dragon - Jodi's friend Landon came to trick-or-treat with us
The tiger got a Crunch bar and no plastic wrapper was stopping him!

"the flying monster" as Cora dubbed it - it was a ghost that moved up and down

The "cheese" pictures before the adventure began.

This is the way to go - a free ride and free candy!

The one day of the year when its okay for my children to take candy from strangers. Sadly these "strangers" are people in our neighborhood, people just don't get out and mingle with their neighbors like they ought to - myself included.

The kids had fun going door to door though and they have plenty of candy to last many a week if we do a piece a day. (yeah right!) Mommy and Daddy sift through the candy and make sure its okay for the kiddies to eat so it might not last as long as we think.

All Ramdomness...

Here is just some random things that are happening right now - a list will save me multiple posts which I just don't do!
1. Canning and dehydrating food is my life at present. Pears today, applesauce earlier this week and dried apples. Yummy! I would like to finish however so I can start finishing my curtains, all the windows are still naked!
2. Marcus officially came down the stairs all by himself because I found him where I did not leave him!
3. Fall is here and our backyard is beautiful! There is so much orange and red and golden yellow. What a wonderful time of year.
4. Cross Country has Regionals on Saturday - go boys, run fast!
5. Our cat has discovered she's a mouser - wahoo - except for the presents on the doorstep.
6. Jodi gets to be part of her first Primary Program at church on Sunday but odds are she'll just suck her middle fingers and shyly smile at the congregation instead of saying her part and singing.
7. Cora loves singing her ABC's
8. Jodi has a group of "friends" and their names are Allie, Callie, Ballie, Fallie and Sallie
9. We'll ask Cora to bless the food or say family prayers and she won't until Jodi starts and then we've got double coverage.
10. Any day now we'll have 3 children who are upright bipeds. Oh, boy!

Flamenco Princess turns 4!

We bought this in Spain because its darling and because it suits our singing dancing princess. It is the age of the princess fetish and Flamenco frills and fringe can be soo princess.
This was me being ambitious with only a few hours to work with.

I pulled it off and Jodi loved her birthday cake which is what really matters!Hooray for Fancy Nancy - someone Jodi can relate to!
We love you Jodi and we're so glad you can bring the fancy into our home

- it wouldn't be home without you!

(p.s. click on the title of this post for the rest of her bday pictures)

Singin' Time for the Pink Princess

The Europe Trip

Okay so here is a brief synopsis of our trip to Europe in July. Eric and his fellow Senor headed up a High School Spanish club trip for this summer and there were enough students who signed up to go that Eric and I were FREE chaperones! Wahoo! We got to spend 2 weeks overseas. (I feel snobby saying it that way!) We started in Spain with a side trip to Morocco and then went up to Paris and then to London. It was a BLAST and we are so fortunate to have my parents in town so they could keep the kids for us. I will keep adding more pictures as I get them organized and arranged in my albums. I also think I'll add a few online Picasa albums you can peruse so its more bang for your buck - its free so click away. Thanks for being patient.

The Great Outdoors

Cora has amazed me yet again and you are all going to hear about it. She is proving stubborn with potty training because she still has "accidents" more than I think is necessary, however she thinks she's found a solution. Enter "the great outdoors" and the rustic technique - if you gotta go then pull down your pants, take them off and proceed to go potty in the grass! Don't worry about where you are, neighbors landscaping, by the mailbox, take your pick if there's grass you're good! Sheesh girl!
In her defense when we went to go pick the grapes that we juiced yesterday (28 quarts and 12 hours worth!) there was no where handy to go potty and so we "watered" the grass so to speak. She just took that as the norm rather than the exception. At least she's learning from Mommy.

p.s. Eric says my title of the previous post was uncalled for and so if I offended any of you I do apologize, I was teasing -- but if you deserved it.....we love you anyway!

This is for you whiners!

Okay so I've had several people tell me I need to get on the ball and post the pictures I've been promising and I'm gonna give it a try today. I've got grapes in the steam juicer and while I'm waiting for the grape juice I'll come and go and get a post done. Give me a break though guys - Marcus alone is keeping me busy with his improving mobility skills (no walking yet thank goodness!) Anyhoo here is some Europe pix for you - I'll pick a few of my favorites!

This is the first leg of the trip. Malaga Spain and the Mediterranean and a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco.

This last picture is at our "layover" in Morocco - we waited here until it was closer to time to go back through passport control and on to our ferry back to Spain. Morocco was amazing. It was an eye opening experience. I felt like we went back in time a century or two

(I get overwhelmed when I go through 1500 pictures trying to pick the ones that will impress all of you with the fun things I got to go see and then I just don't pick so here goes.)

Last Summer Play Date

This was a recent playdate - the last before everyone was in school.

The kids got such a kick out of this! I wanted to hop on and ride too.

This is a park that is close enough that we can walk to it - Love that!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!!

We're back! We've just had a fabulous 2 weeks storming through Spain, being romanced by Paris, and "Minding the Gap" in London! It was a blast and now we have 1200 pictures to sift through before we can actually post some but we plan to in the very near future! It was a lot of fun to experience all those new places together as well as be together without our kids. As much as we love our 3 little munchkins it was so nice to have that time together to make a good relationship even better!
Until we post again hope each an every one of you have a wonderful August! (yikes its August tomorrow!)
xoxoxo

Our House

This is our new house. I know we've lived here for 2 1/2 months now but I'm finally getting pictures up! I don't have more of the process of fixing the inside because Jodi got a hold of the camera before we got our new computer set up and deleted oh only 200 pictures off the camera! (most of which were "fix up pix" of the house!) We sure love our house! Plenty to work on and room to grow.

Kids, kitties and kandids

It worked so well for Marcus the girls needed one. You can see our new kittens - Boofer and Snugly - as well as any other wildlife we came upon. (sorry Renae!)

Mighty Mighty Marcus

I went through and picked some of my favorites - enjoy the many faces of our little man.

Marcus

Here he is! This is the happiest baby on the planet! You can see how blue his eyes are and his 2 little teeth. He is usually this happy - honest! I can leave him sitting on the floor with a few toys for quite awhile and he is content and quiet. You can't miss the rolls! I love the dimples in his hands, his "thunder thighs," those cheeks and there is something about the rubber band wrists that just gets to me. Too cute if I say so myself. This is my kissable, huggable, squeezable baby boy!

Cora-dorable

Our little Cora-bella. Here is our little scientist. She is outside without pants or shoes - very typical. I'm just glad she actually has panties on! I love her cheesy grin. Her hair is usually messy and going whichever way it pleases (Eric says with her hair out of her eyes she's a totally different little girl!) yet right here its just about right for Cora. I see so much behind those eyes! I had a hard time finding a piture for Cora because she's just always all over but when I saw this one I knew I had the perfect picture to show my Cora-dorable!

Jodi Bug

Here is our "Jodi Bug." I just loved this picture because it captures her so well! She's got such a great smile and her eyes just help light up her little face. Pink. Not only the dress she's wearing, yes it must always be a dress, but the cup. We are color segragated in our house. Pink for Jodi, blue for Cora. I wonder what Marcus will use? Of course it wouldn't be Jodi without the curls as well. This is our Jodi Bug and we sure do love her!

I am so behind!

Hello again! Man are we excited to have the internet again. Anymore you feel like a fish out of water without the internet. (at least I did!)
Life is busy but we are all healthy and still happy.
Jodi is loving the fact that can get away with wearing a swimming suit 24/7, Cora loves the fact that we have a chain link fence she can climb up and hang off of, and Marcus loves sitting up and watching what is going on in his world - namely his crazy sisters!
Eric loves that school is done on Monday and that I might let him sleep in once or twice this summer, I love that school is almost done because then we'll see Daddy (with him coaching track, umpiring baseball games, and being in the Bishopric we haven't seen much of him of late) and then Mommy can have 5 minutes peace on occasion.

I owe lots of pictures and I'll get on that but time is precious and at the moment I'm needed elsewhere. We love you all! Happy Graduation to those who are due congratulations!

We're Alive

Hello All!
We've moved finally! Its official we are now in the "New House" as Jodi dubs it. The old house is the "White house."
I apologize but we're going offline for a little while to save a few dollars while we get settled. I wanted you all to know we are well and that things have just been a wee bit KrAz around these parts. I don't feel like I've sat down (besides nursing Marcus) for the past month. I'm ready for a slow summer but we'll see how it goes!
Hope you are all enjoying spring weather because I'm so glad I can send my kids OUTSIDE!
Lots of love!
We'll be back but I didn't want anyone to worry! :)

Just Us

Pockets are cool things!
We made these for Daddy for Valentine's Day
Oh, Mommy I got it on my hands! Gee how did that happen?
Cora made no such pretenses - Here I am and this is what I did, is there something wrong?
He looks like a boy - okay duh but I"ll explain myself. With jeans and his shirts he's not just "baby" he's all boy and that is something we've been waiting for around here. :) Aunt Katy he's wearing the shoes but you just can't see them.