Spring and all that goes with it

We have been really busy here. We are trying to be more adventurous with the kids. I think we often fall into routine and forget to get out and have fun as a family. So, Thursday night we went to Disneyland. It was so much fun even if it was crowded. We went on the Woody ride in CA Adventures where I beat Chad's score. That is huge. He is a video game freak and I beat him! I know he will have a little remark for that one. Anyways, we headed into Disneyland and rode the train and shared a gumbo bowl. That is when Micah saw the big steamboat, so we jumped aboard and headed to the third deck. It was the perfect spot as the fireworks show began. Micah was hilarious. If Disney would have put the show on just for him, it would have been worth every penny. He was screaming, giggling and yelling out "boom, boom!" Chad and I were loving it! His enthusiasm for the small things is the best. I hope he never loses that! As we headed out, we were walking by some teenagers who brought there buddy in a wheelchair. You know how you take your injured friend just so you can get on the rides faster? Well, they were done and were trying to jog their way out when the wheel on chair feel off. The whole tire came off the rim. It was hilarious! He was fine and all his friends were practically peeing thier pants. It was so funny. Anyways, that ended out night and we were glad we did it!

I am always out and about with the kids. We are out at least once a day, most of which has been preparing for the next few weeks. We have my little brother's wedding this Saturday. I have been running around like a crazy woman trying to gather things for the kids and myself. I finally got Brooklyn's shoes to go with her dress and let me tell you how hard it is to find tights in cream for a baby. Insane! Micah is going to be a ring bearer, so we have gotten him some new shoes and white shirt, pink tie and so on. As for me, I have been going nuts trying to find a dress. Chances are, Micah will flip and I will need to drag him down the aisle (he is his father's son), so I will need to be looking nice. So dress shopping is really hard. Here I am about 5' 8" and when ever I think I have found a modest dress, it turns out to be too short. Does anyone make a dress that women would really feel comfortable in? Seriously, it is like when they design a dress, they think "OK, let's show one body part and cover the rest." So here I am in the Nordstrom's dressing room trying on dress after dress. One will be long enough, but then the ta-ta's are all out and then another will cover up the girls and it is way too short! Hello, I am a mom. I want to look cute and not worry about what is hanging out here and there while I have kids on me or run after them! So I left very frustrated. There are only so many ways to modify an outfit so that it still looks classy. On to an internet search I went. I think I have found a winner. I just have to hear back from the company and make sure it can be shipped here in time! Here is a sneak peek:

I think I might just have to get the leopard heels to go with. What? It's a special occasion, I can get new shoes!

Anyways, Easter is fast approaching and we are getting ready for that. I took the kids to pick out their Easter baskets. They could really care less. I am desperately trying to come up with ideas for filling their Easter baskets. Micah is off sugar, so maybe sugar free candy? I wonder if that is gross. I thought maybe I could fill some of the eggs up with fish crackers. I think Brooklyn will end up with binkies inside of her eggs since she can't have cheese crackers. It is hard to have food restrictions on the kids, but it keeps them healthy and one day they won't have them, so it is just temporary!

So the whole spring fever has gotten me and we did some major cleaning yesterday. We were knocking things off our to do list left and right. A lot of organizing and purging of things we don't need to prepare for a move. Not sure where to yet, but we are still getting ready. It felt so good to finally get those things done that I have be "meaning to get around to" for so long. I still have more to do, but I am proud of what we got done and Chad was a huge help as we juggled two kids and got things sparkling around here. By the way, that picture is of me cleaning. Yes, I wear heels and look like a babe as I sweep and scrub! Doesn't everyone? Ha, if I looked like that when I cleaned as often as I do clean, we would have a lot more kids. Right Chad? Anyways, spring has sprung in and around our house. We have flowers blooming, lizards running after each other and doves nesting in out honeysuckle tree. I love the warm weather that spring brings and that new beginning it seems to have. We are looking forward to the next few weeks and I am sure they will be as busy as ever!

Big Bro of the Year

I love how sweet Micah is with Brooklyn. He loves to play with her and shares his toys. He shares his snacks with her. If she is upset he will try to soothe her. He always asks where she is and what she is doing. I love that he wants to be involved with her. Today was really interesting. I have a lot going on, so I decided among all the cleaning, laundry and tasks, to pile us all in our stall shower to kill three birds with one stone. We were starting to get cleaned when I looked over to see Micah peeing on Brooklyn's head! He was aiming for her hemangioma. Nice bud, but I think that only works on jellyfish stings! So what do you do when you catch one child peeing on another? I haven't a clue. Try not to laugh while telling him not to, I guess!

Don't throw stones...

OK, so this will be a quick one. I just recently got some news that rocked my world a bit. I won't elaborate on it, but I will say I wasn't thrilled. In fact, I ranted and raved for a while to my mom, then Chad and then to a few friends. As a result, my stress level went up along with my anxiety. I think the more I sat back and judged the situation, the more aware I became of my own faults and flaws. Here is the end result. I realized that nothing I say or do will change the situation and I myself live in a glass house, so I will just try my best to play the supportive role. Lesson learned!

Thank you for holding...

It has been a week since I have really blogged and that is pretty long for me. I try to put up a blurb here and there when I can, but we have been SO busy. I'm not going to go into detail on it all, but some of the things we did were a craft night for Family Home Evening, Disneyland, have the missionaries over for dinner, park day, meet with friends from out of town, have papa drop in for a surprise visit, go house hunting (again) and go on a train ride among the hectic schedule that is life. Here is our week in pictures:
We got all the supplies to do pine cone bird feeders and got going.Brooklyn supervised and obsessed over her belly button.Micah enjoyed eating the project.
Hi!Don't forget the sunflower seeds!
Daddy helps finish up.Finding the perfect spot to hang them. Don't worry it wasn't cold out.Micah is proud of his finished product.
Thursday we had a well deserved break and went to the park. We met up with my mom's group and got to hang out and chat. I had done my hair in spirals that day and started to follow the kids around to get some pictures of them. Micah was under this turtle with the cutest little black girl and I began to listen in on their conversation. At one point I heard her say "Is that your mom over there with the dread locks? My dad has dread locks!" I guess the day had torn apart my spirals and I now had dreads!This morning we headed up to Costa Mesa for a ride at the Goathill Trains. It is so cute and it is free! Every third weekend of the month, the Engineer Club of Orange county gets the trains running from 10 am to 3:30 pm. Micah loved it and it was great to do something out of the norm. It was freezing there, so I suggest you bring a jacket. Also, no pregnant mommies and the kids have to be able to walk and stand on their own to ride, so Brooklyn and dad got to watch us go by. I wish I had known that earlier.
The kid behind us has a huge meltdown.

The No Sugar Rule

I figured I'd make this post since Rachel probably doesn't want to look like the mean one.

Basically this is just a plea and an announcement to our friends and family that Micah is officially sugar free. Please (pretty please!) do not feed Micah anything with sucrose in it!

We have come to a very recent discovery that Micah is an absolute angel when he hasn't had anything artificially sweet, but literally five minutes after having a treat like a piece of candy or some cookies or ice cream, he flips on the Naughty Switch. It becomes very hard to get him to listen to instructions or be quiet or even look us in the face long enough for us to finish a sentence (his eyes keep darting around and he stands there bouncing). As I write this, 5 minutes before bed time, Micah is running laps around the car in the garage making loud screeching noises because one of his favorite and most dear relatives innocently gave him some soda around noon. Nine hours later and he's still wired!

So I hope that makes sense, especially to you parents out there. We love our little boy and we love when we can spend time with him without having to shout his name every couple of minutes as we go about our day. It is truly surprising how much sugar affects him, but now that we know better we would appreciate our loved ones supporting us in making our boy the best he can be. Thanks! Rachel should be back soon with a fun blog post, so stay tuned.

Opportunity to help

When people are going through hard times, I often don't feel like I can help, but I just got this e-mail. There is a lady in my ward who's husband is undergoing cancer treatment. During this time she is the sole breadwinner for her family. Here is part of the e-mail I received: Lilliana works at the Clinique counter at Macy's in the Irvine Spectrum. She is under a lot of pressure to meet her quota for a promotion this month from Clinique. With a $21.50 minimum purchase, there is a free gift of various Clinique products in a cute little fabric bag. You can pre-order before March 31st, but all products and the free gift need to be picked up on March 31st or later. She goes by "Lilly" at work. You can even place a phone order with your credit card by calling the Clinique counter at 949-341-9111, ext 2156. Please ask for Lilly or let whoever helps you know that you'd like to credit Lilly for your purchase.

If you live in or near OC and need Clinique please help her out with a purchase. I am going to try and head over there today with the kids. Thanks!

10 months old!

Today Brooklyn is 10 months and this just happened to be the day she decided to start taking steps on her own! She definitely is not a walker yet, but she is brave enough to take a step or two between furniture. You should see how proud she is after. She gets the biggest grin and can hardly keep her binkie in! She is getting easier for me. She still is all about her momma though. She wants to be with me, on me or touching me if she can see me. She loves to cuddle, but is really wiggly too, so it feels like you are holding a wild animal most of the time! She has taken on shreiking as a new hobby. She will just start screaming to hear herself. The other week she decided to join us and start screaming while singing at church. Not exact angelic sounding. She has six teeth and the goofiest grin. She is taking naps better now and still just adores her big brother. She is always getting into something. Chewing cords, pulling down books and eating anything on the ground. Who needs to vacuum when you have your own little Hoover to clean up those Cheerios that dropped?


I have to tell you what is going on with my little man. He has turned into quite the womanizer! Sorry, I probably just got the Britney Spears song stuck in your head. Anyways, he is the biggest flirt. Any age will do, he just loves to talk to girls. At the mall the other day, we were walking by Sephora when a beautiful 20ish girl comes out and Micah looked her up and down and said "Hel-lo." I hope he got that from a show and it didn't come naturally. She humored him and said hi. Then I ran into a friend and stopped to chat. I look over and he is right in front of her little girls striking up another conversation. Never missing an opportunity! Yikes, I might be in trouble. I think he is a pretty handsome kid and if that keeps up along with this personality, his teenage years could be rough!


As for the poll I posted...can we say backfire?

A little bird

I like to be that little bird that lets people in on secrets (only good ones), so here are a couple websites that I just found out about and I am loving! http://www.just-spotted.com/ is for the OC area and also have great links on there for other websites. The other is http://www.tinyoranges.com/ which is geared towards moms with young kids. They have some great stuff on there also...enjoy!

Also, I am going to be putting up a poll on my blog which will be completely anonymous, but I would love anyone and everyone to participate, just for pure curiosity. It is a subject that comes up around here every once in a while and I just want to know where I fall in it. I know I said that it is anonymous, but if anyone votes for the first option, you have to fess up. I think you deserve an applause and we would deserve an explanation!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Lots of little changes are going on around here...I'll try to be quick!
1. I grew up and got a facebook. It feel like I have joined the rest of the world after many years. Feel free to look me up on there if you want!
2. I now have a gmail account. My hotmail account still is up and working, so don't worry if you don't have the new one yet. I will send out an e-mail with my new one soon!
3. Chad is a runner now. Funny story...the other week when he was buzzing his head, I told him he should shave off the goatee. He did, but then hated it. He thought he looked fat. keep in mind that he has had a goatee for over four years straight and in that time he has fill out. Anyways, he decided to get some running shoes and start running. he has been really good about going about every other day. He seems to be enjoying it!
4. I just found out that Brooklyn has allergies. She is allergic to cow's milk protein (basically any dairy) and eggs. Not deadly allergic, but she will throw up or have a flare up of her eczema. The doctor said that she also has indoor allergies to dust or mold. He said that the dark circles under her eyes were a sign that there has been long term congestion and that there is a loss of circulation in that area. Then he said I have them too!
5. It is amazing what you will learn watching TV. In the course of watching the Big Bang Theory, I have learned that I am lactose intolerant. I'm not all that surprised since I had the same cow's milk protein allergy that Brooklyn has when I was a baby. Don't worry, I won't throw us, but it just doesn't digest well. I thought that was normal. I guess not, so Brooklyn and I will be sharing soy milk from now on!
6. I know it is early, but we turned Brooklyn around in her car seat. She is about ten months now and 22 pounds, so she was getting squished when she was faced backwards. She would push her feet up against the seat most of the time. Since we turned her, she has been a better traveler for sure!
7. I'm not writing too much about this one, but there is a potential opportunity for Chad that we are optimistic about, but I won't say any more than that so I don't jinx it!
That's all for now!

Friday, I mean Saturday favorites!

So here are a few things that I have run into lately that I am loving!


First off, I have to say that although I have loved Girls Scout cookies for as long as I can remember, we didn't get any this year. Reason number one being that we didn't have a Girl Scout come by and attempt to sell her goodies. Reason number two being that even if she did come by and I was tempted, the price of an arm and a leg per box is a no go. Sorry, I will have to go without my favorite Samoas, or whatever the new generic name is for them. I am not a huge cookie person anyways, but a good substitution couldn't hurt. So, I went to Trader Joe's a ran into these yummy things. I LOVE maple, so I couldn't resist and they didn't disappoint. They are delicious! They have the the same texture as an Oreo with a crunchy outside and soft filling. I highly recommend them!


Secondly, as we are on a food theme, I tried this place yesterday. It is called Baja Fish Tacos in Laguna Niguel. It is right off of Alicia and Crown Valley. The food there is delicious. For those of you who aren't fish fans, don't worry, they have other meats and even vegetarian dishes. Fish is just their specialty. The combo plates are huge. It was more food than Micah and I combined could eat. Their rice was really good too and it was just white rice. I have to recommend their guacamole, it is seriously good stuff! As a bonus, the place is really well priced. My plate was about $6.50.


Next up, my Disneyland Pass! I am having so much fun taking the kids and going with friends. I am so glad we got them. We have been going almost every week and having a blast. Strangely, it is a great stress reliever for me. Amid all the noise and crowds, I forget about life and its worries while I am there, so I guess it is the Happiest Place on Earth for me!


Last, my faker...this girl was crawling around the house after me and just crying and whining. Keep in mind, I have her on me most of the day and even at night, so after a while I just have to let her cry to get things done, like go to the bathroom! Anyways, she was crying and complaining and when I get out my camera to capture her being a terd, she gets a huge grin. She is a big time faker. When I take her out and I am with friends, they say things like "What are you talking about, she is such a good baby" or "I have never seen her cry." Whatever people, she is just faking you out. You have to keep up appearances, right?

Don't watch this at work!

Soggy Disney Day

Today we went with our friends the Didlakes to California Adventure and it was wet. There was no downpour, but it sprinkled almost the entire time, so we were quite wet by the end. Brooklyn hates the rain, but hated it even more when I put her hood on. She would growl as she would rip it off her head. Anyways, we tried to find some indoor things to do. We stopped in this animation theater thing (I don't know what it is called, I'm kind of a Disney virgin). Bad idea, Micah freaked out! He wanted to be held, started crying and pushing me out the door! I assume it was the volume of the music, but it could have been the Mr. Incredible character that put him over the edge. OK, so maybe we could try to do the Monster's Inc. ride. After a big fit, he loved it! It was still raining, so into the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He LOVED that! I have never seen him so into a show. He still has this I'm-too-cool attitude though. He will do some clapping and some singing, but he will not bouce around or dance. Brooklyn liked it too. She even wanted to join the big kids. She crawled up to her brother and pulled herself up on him. So cute!


It finally cleared up, but we were soaked, so we got in one last ride on the Toy Story 2 ride. It was so fun...and how cool are those glasses?


These boys have so much fun together and we decided that they take turns not listening, so we are constantly calling one name or the other. It keeps us on our toes!

Independent

I have been trying to encourage Micah's independence as he gets older. We have him clear his own dishes from the table, help pick out his clothes, bring in some groceries, clean up toys and things along those lines. Yesterday he asked me for a juice box. I told him he could have it if he cleaned up toys first. He did a quick clean up and then I said "OK, you can get yourself a juice box." I thought they were closer to the ground than they were! In he climbs and down he comes as proud as punch with his juice box. What a big kid! Wait, should I be encouraging or discouraging this?

I have been getting crafty and making more bows and clips for Brooklyn. I get stopped whenever we are out and people just love them, so I think I might really start to sell them. When I said that before, there was a new law that was basically going to eliminate handmade children's goods, so I thought it would be a waste of time. Now that the law has been amended, I think I might throw a couple of them up on eBay and see if they go. I know you can't see it really well in her hair, but I thought the face she made was goofy. Love it!