Day to Day and Mini Vacay

 Sunday was church.  I only put this picture up because my mom keeps asking to see B in the houndstooth outfit she got her.  Cute!

 This is Micah's take home from church.  In the foreground, we have baby Jesus in the manger, but in the back ground, we have a cop car and along the top it says "I Love Cops."  Not sure how much he is getting out of church...oh well!

 Monday Chad didn't have work and Micah was out of school, so we took a mini vacation to LA.  We headed to Westwood first and visited Chad's LA work site.  The view was cool.

 We walked around the town and looked at the shops.

 We stopped at Stan's donuts because we had heard about it on Diners Drive Ins and Dives.

 Yummy!

 We saw the Fox Theatre.

 We got some Korean food for lunch. 

 Then, since it was vacation and calories disappear, we went to Diddy Riese for another treat!

 Chad got shaved Ice and we got ice cream.

 Look, I'm in a picture!  I never seem to make the blog, so here I am!

 B just hanging out before our next stop.

 Olvera Street!

 We checked out the shops and got Micah a sweet Lucha Libre mask.  I think we might have to Make him Nacho Libre for Halloween now!

 

Then we threw pennies in the fountain and headed home.  It was a fun day!

 

Friday came around and it had been a busy week with school, appointments, music classes, errands, etc, so I thought we would take it easy.  I packed the kids scooters in the car and after I picked up Micah, we went straight to the regional park.

  

Things seemed to go well,  but I have learned that B is not a long distance scooter.  After a few minutes, she was in tears.

  

The geese were a fun distraction.  Hi Geese!

  

We took the shortcut to get to the playground and got goofy.  This was his idea.

 

Loving the "three slide."

 

Micah being Micah.  Being a daredevil is serious business!

A Little Love

 So Valentine's Day was this week.  So the night before, Chad and I heart attacked the kids doors and left a gift at their door.  Each heart said something about them that we loved.  Micah loved it...

 ...but he wanted to show us how cool he is, so he rolled his eyes at us.  I know dude, you are WAY too cool for love!

 B missed hers when she woke up, so she had to go back and find them.

 She loved her necklace.

 B also got a Valentine from her friend Jake and it came with a mustache.  Can't help but try it on!

 Very sexy, no?  Wow, it is time to get my hair done.

 Micah wants to give you smoothie covered smooches!  Valentine's was pretty low key for us.  Probably one of the better ones actually.  Chad and I skipped gifts, got pizza, made an heart shaped ice cream cake and watched Top Gear with the kids.  Grandma and Grandpa even dropped by with Valentine's for the kids!

 Thursday President's Day weekend began, so we picked up Grandma and headed to Irvine Park to ride the railroad.  This is engineer Micah.

 Here we have engineer Brooklyn.

 We said hi to the ponies.

 We made instant friends with the other kids in line!

Then we were off!  The train ride was fun and even though we had plans to head over to the zoo, the weather got too cold and windy for us, so we decided lunch inside would be a better plan.  Thanks mom for the fun day!

Arts & Crap

 This week I decided to get crafty with the kids.  That means a trip to Michael's buying way more than needed.  Oh well!  I started out by making B a Valentine's necklace since she is my girly girl.

 We also made time for the park.  I took this picture because each time she went down, her hair would explode!  I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but it was pretty amazing.

 We also had a family dinner out.  We met up with Grandma and Papa and all the rest at Lucille's.  Micah and Papa played games (and looked like dear in headlights)....

 ...while Brooklyn stuffed her face!

 We have had some beautiful sunsets here, so I had to share one.

 We busted out the craft stuff again for bubble art.

 It's pretty simple.  Bubble solution and food coloring and a few pieces of paper ready to catch it all.

 The kids were ready.

 Away they go!

 We used several techniques.  Splatters...

 ...blowing directly onto the paper...

 ...and we even tried to catch a few.

 How cool are these shots?

See you next week!

Oh Sweetness

 Again another week gone before I can catch my breath!  Let's see...Saturday I helped my niece get ready for her Winter Formal.  How did she grow up so fast and beautiful?

 For FHE, we decided to try this apple nachos recipe. It was a hit!  Sliced apples, sliced strawberries, shredded coconut, chocolate sauce, chocolate chips and caramel sauce.  I don't remember dinner, but dessert was awesome!

 We took a trip to Yogurtland after school just because.  I think those couple of hours between Micah getting out of school and Chad coming home are hard to fill, so we try to get creative.  Food is creative to me!

 Wednesday we saw the dentist.

 We had to make sure all of those sweet treats weren't doing any damage.  This girl threw a huge fit.  She basically had to be pinned for them to brush her teeth.

 The old veteran was a pro and even took the x-rays with ease.  Well, they gagged him a little, but that wasn't his fault. 

 All clean and best of all no cavities for either of them!  Yay!

 We also got hit with a pretty nasty cold this week.  We have been house bound for a few days, so we have been enjoying movie nights.  Aren't they sweet?

Speaking of sweet, we are a little addicted.  Oh I love this kid!

On a more serious note, I gave in.  At least that is how I feel.  After having several doctors and professionals recommend medication, I finally did it.  As a parent, I felt like I must have caused this somehow.  Maybe I ate something wrong when I was pregnant or exposed him to something that created this problem, even if I was told by professionals that there is no way that I could have.  Either way, there is some sort of guilt and responsibility you take on when you hear there is something is wrong with your child.  So when you feel like you created the problem, you want to fix it.  Well, I tried everything in my power to "fix" it.  I changed his diet, I added supplements, I made sure he got exercise, I prayed and I was strict on his behavior.  Now let me just tell you in case you don't understand, Micah is not the same kid in school that you see day to day.  I went in to see what everyone was talking about and they were right.  He was a different person.  The way he moved and made noises and the lack of interaction with other kids had me nearly in tears.  As much as I wanted to try to do natural things and wait until he outgrew it, I knew that the other kids were noticing and saying things to him.  It would only serve to erode his self confidence if I waited.  It was a problem and we needed to figure something out.  Well, we tried my methods to "fix" it and the strictness stressed him out, so we backed off.  The change in diet did very little to change things.  Finally, we met with a pediatric neurologist (which by the way is the only way to be officially diagnosed and get help through the school) and she introduced the idea of medication again and I resisted.  Chad said it was time and after a long talk about how gentle and advanced this is, I agreed.  I felt guilty and worried about how this would affect him.  I was wrong though.  The medicine has been a great help all around.  He felt in control.  We saw a difference and we even got a positive e-mail from the teacher AND the principal telling us that they have seen him improve.  I'm SO thrilled that this worked for us.  We are also going to start a therapy that teaches him how to focus and filter out distractions.  Again, I am writing this not only for a record for myself, but also for others who may go through this with their child.  I want them to know they aren't alone and there is a method to this madness even if no one tells you the way through it.  We are seeing great changes and have hope that things are going to be much easier for him!