Happy Birthday to my Sweetie P!

Rori gave Pierce the balloon she got from Trader Joes, it was sweet and selfless of her so then she drew a picture of her giving him the balloon. :)






I just can't believe how fast time goes by, It seems like yesterday we were moving her to Las Vegas and I had one child and now I have 4. We celebrated Pierce yesterday who turned 2. He is an amazing child. So bright and musically inclined. He loves Elmo and Yo Gabba Gabba. He loves music and to sing and dance. He copies what his brother and sister does and he speaks a lot of words and very clearly. I understand more of his words than Liam sometimes. I know being only 10 1/2 month younger than Liam, it seems he does things faster to me but it is just that closeness in age and I think the other 2 telling him what to do. He did eat everything on his plate until recently. He has had an aversion to Peanut Butter and Raisin Bran. He is such a sweet boy but has discovered the 2 year old tantrums :( This does not make me happy! He also like to be funny. If he makes you laugh and realizes it he will repeat himself over and over to keep the laughs coming. He gives great big hugs. When I look at Pierce I can't believe we were going to be done having kids with 2. His surprize to us in retrospect is so wonderful. Overwhelming still at times but I would not trade his big blue eyes away for anything. He loves hats and shoes and "Faddar Faddas" (Fire Fighters) He also loves talking on the phone! He will pace back and forth talking to my mom! We made Elmo Pizza's and I attempted to make an Elmo cake (banana his favorite) It was a nice family night. Oh how I love my Sweetie P!

My kids love onion WTH??

Lance had some coupons for some free In and Out Burgers, so he picked them up on the way home. Ironically he got no onions for the kids but onions for me. Now normally I love onions though I have to admit In and Out puts on half an onion but I am nursing right now so I took most of the onion off to avoid later frustration for Brendan. Rori ate her half of burger the boys did not. We don't feed our kids this, if we eat out they generally have chicken wraps or something. We were on the back patio eating and the kids went off to play. The boys will tend to eat what I am eating no matter what even if I placed the same item in front of them and they rejected it. So when Pierce danced over to my plate and tried to get an onion off my plate I thought it might be funny to see his reaction. He took a big piece too. He put it in his mouth and chewed, instead if spitting it out he said MMMMMM Yummmy. Lance and I burst out laughing. I thought it was hilarious! Seeing Pierce eating something Liam (my picky eater) came running over and said he wanted some so I said "OK." He too put it in his mouth and chewed and said MMMM then Rori same thing! They all came for 2nds and 3rds until it was gone. I had tears rolling down my face that my kids who are so picky and for whom I have left onion out or at least very minimal were scarfing down raw onion! I think their great grandfather Pa will be very happy! I for sure won't be skimping on the onion anymore!

Some of my new favorite captures

Life as mommy to 4

I can't keep up. I am taking a break from my laundry mountain to fold to write a post. Rori's first week of school was great, and I did ok too. She cried at the end of the day because she wanted it to keep going. The small problems are that she is eating not so good things at school and leaving her good healthy lunch until after school. :( She also falls asleep on the way home and is grumpy or takes a nap and then can't go to sleep until 10pm and then doesn't want to wake up. She also brought home the 1st cold of the season. The boys have runny noses now too. Hopefully Brendan will stay clear!




Brendan is getting big! He was almost 13 lbs at his 2 month check up. He is smiling and cooing and is such a good baby. He has found his finger to suck on. So How did I manage 3 thumb suckers and a finger sucker. This is so good(until we have to break habits) because then I don't have a screaming baby and can't find where the brothers stole it and hid it! I feel like I have had the best babies in the world. I wish I could handle one more pregnancy with a guaranteed girl because I would love to have one more girl!




The boys have been calmer without Rori here but the miss her all day. It is so cute to see them run to the door when her and Lance get home and just throw their arms around her for a "big squishy hug" I wish they had a longer attention span. It seems like it takes me a longer time to set up a project and clean it up then it does for them to do it! I am so glad the weather will be cooling down because they sure love the back yard! :)




The house is still not put back together from the flood. They are getting bids to see who will do the job. I can't wait to have everything back to order. I was just starting to clean out the closet and the garage in the coming weeks to freecycle or craigslist things and get even more organized. Would I love a walk in master closet that I can walk into? Oh you bet!! I need to start working out as well. I loved my belly 3 months ago and now I loath it. I am doing a self portrait a week group and that is my focus this week. I want to have a better self esteem no matter how my body looks especially for Rori's sake. I am having a hard time right now because with all three babies I was back at pre pregnancy weight and in pre pregnancy clothes within a week. I gained the most with this pregnancy which was 19 lbs. I lost all of the 19 lbs the first week and within three weeks of that gained 16 lbs back. I am still in maternity clothes because nothing fits me. I am suffering from multiple issues that are causing me pain right now which makes it really hard to want to start working out. So hopefully this project will work. I have a start! :) I am glad Lance loves me as they say in Bridget Jones Diary "Just as I am"

Rori Funny 1st day!

So I guess the teachers had a little giggle over her as she came into her afternoon class and said "Thank you so much for saving me a chair" What a cute girl I have!! :)

Rori's 1st day of school!!

After much deliberation we decided to go ahead and have Rori be a typical peer for the autistic kindergarten at Lance's school and also the learning center across the street. She will basically go in and model behavior to the kids that don't have that behavior yet. They take 4 year olds to not disrupt regular kindergarten students. We have a 3 week evaluation period to make sure she acts appropriately and that the other kids do not effect her. She will go to school across the street until 1p and finish the day at Lance's school. She was so excited this morning. I have never seen her get up and dressed so fast. Of course my stomach is tied up in knots! I know she will do great but I still remember my first day of PK. I hopped on the bus and said "BYE MOM" happy as a clam while my mom stood there with tears in her eyes! Now I am finally understanding!
Poor girl, I bought her some new pink shoes that were on clearance at Target for Rori. She was so excited to wear them that she put them on the other day when I had to go to pick up Lance so I could go to my Dr appt. I thought she would just be riding in the car so I said it was fine as she had put them on with no socks. Well she ended up running around a bit and if you know how new shoes rub the wrong way, she had the backs of her feet torn up. :( Today she still wanted to wear them so even with band aids and socks she hobbled out of the door like an old lady! I sent her boots just in case!! Oh my baby girl is getting so big!!

Update to the flood

This is Saturday. The people just took the fans out (I am not going to want to see the power bill) He said they were waiting to see what the homeowner was going to do as far as paying out of pocket or making a claim to insurance. If they make a claim then an adjuster is going to have to come out and then we are going to have to wait until that all goes through. I hope it goes quickly we are camping out in the living room still and the kids are having a hard time calming down at night and for naps. Not to mention Lance and my time that we have after bedtime. It is so difficult and I thank God every day that we don't have to live in a one room place. This will make me more grateful! Rori is starting school on Monday. She is going to be a typical peer in an autistic Kindergarten. We have 3 weeks to see how she fits in. If she is able to be a good role model and not react to kids. I am trying to not have anxiety over this. I have postpartum anxiety pretty bad so it is hard for me to go out the door and hard for me to let people leave. I know this will be a good thing for her. Academically she is so smart. She knows her alphabet, she can count to 15 on most days she knows her shapes and colors she writes her name and we have been working on other letters. In workbooks she can sort things, pick out which items don't belong. She colors really good and according to my husband the art teacher, she draws things that a lot of 2nd and 3rd graders don't yet. Socially she is still immature. Anyway I will take big cleansing breaths and hope for peace of mind and a speedy cleanup of our house!

A flood a flood!! :(

Hall Bathroom


All the drywall cut out of the laundry


Hall closet


Master bedroom


Hallway toward Master (the cabinet face was taken off)


Dining area of kitchen opposite side of the previous photo missing cabinets


Behind the Washer


The culprit a rusty hose and jammed faucet circa 1997 when home was built


another view of the laundry room faucets


Hall facing laundry last night before cabinets came off/part of one bedroom


Pierces room torn into closet even


Soaking into the carpet


Water about and inch deep in the Hall. I threw all my dirty clothes down to try to soak water and keep from carpets.


The end part of the water spraying out. (me soaking wet at this point)

I am being handed stress on a silver platter. I am not melting down yet but I did scream yesterday and it felt good! Rori didn't like it though she said it scared her :( I was doing laundry yesterday and had just started a new load was closing the lid to the washer when KACHEEEEEEEEEEW the hot water hose blew and water started spraying at me. I grabbed a shirt out of the laundry pile I had just taken from the dryer wrapped it around my hand and tried to turn the nozzle off. No luck it was jammed back against the casing. Water filled the laundry room quickly, I emptied my dirty clothes on to the floor to try to soak up the water as I frantically tried to get out to the garage and turn the nozzle on the hot water heater but it was calcified and I couldn't turn it very well so I couldn't shut it all the way off. I ran around the house and turned on the hot water in all the sinks to try to get as much down the drain as I could but that didn't help as a majority of the whole water heater ended up in my laundry room, the hallway, the bathroom and the 2 hall bedrooms. Lance wasn't home from school yet so I was running around crying soaking wet. I couldn't find our water shut off outside. (I know where it is now!!) I think the kids were scared because I let the scream out and I was crying. I wasn't calm and collected that is for sure. Thankfully my dad answered the phone and gave me some direction. I am sure if he were here he would have wanted to slap me across the face to shut me up and get me to calm down! My plate is full already and I didn't need more. So I called our property management and they sent disaster clean up out. I was thinking they would just suck the water up and go but NOOOOOOO, they suck the water pry up all the floor boards punch holes in the dry wall rip back the carpet and tear out the carpet pad underneath. Then they bring in big blowers and start blowing. The plumber is here now and had to rip up the drywall all behind the washer, and is replacing lots of things. The hose had rusted out and just broke. When we moved into the house in March about a month later the bathroom sink rusted through a poor repair job and we had to have the sink replaced and it was recommended to the homeowners to replace the sink in the master bath as the same thing is happening. The thing is they would have to replace both sinks because there wasn't a match. The homeowner didn't want to pay for this yet. They had planned a trip to come see the house next week because they wanted to see for themselves. NOW all of this. One thing I have learned is the maintenance before a BIG problem happens is much cheaper than after the problem! They really should replace all the appliances and carpet in here. I would love if they would replace the carpet but they will probably just replace the pad and be done with it! I was told by the maintenance gal that we do not have to let the homeowners in. I am tempted to tell them they can't come but most likely we will not be able to decline them now. It looks like we are going to have lots of people in and out of here for at least a week or so! :( The pictures are to show what happened. Tomorrow I have the bug guy coming and 2 Dr appts Friday a PTA meeting and an open house for the class Rori will be going too. *SIGH* I am ready for Dessert!!!

Rori's first family portrait!!

Rori drew our whole family... complete with Brendan on a polka dot blanket and nana and dude looking like cucumbers... it was so cute!

fav capture this week

I was trying to capture some creative motion for a challenge. I love the way this turned out especially post processing. I focused on the marker and cap then captured Liam scribbling on the dry erase board in the back round.

I wish I had time.... and fav pics....

I have so much to write and I just need to stay up one night and do it. Brendan is growing well sleeps through the night well. I am adjusting ok. I am healing well. Nursing is not going well. I am so frustrated right now. He still isn't latching well and I was pumping ahead of him but now I am getting behind. I do not want to switch to formula especially through this flu season. I want him to have the antibodies he needs if we should come in contact with swine flu. (not to mention the price of it) I am taking pics again and it looks like Rori is going to start school next week. She is going to be a typical peer in an autism kindergarten. I am having anxiety back and forth over this! Everyone needs so much of my attention and I feel like I am spread so thin trying to juggle my time. My house is a mess :( I am not happy about that but until I sit down and make a schedule for myself, I start this and that and this and that and nothing gets done. Here are some of my favorite photos over the last few weeks. I have to share about our week with Ali and Hayden and also the week with Chris my MIL as well. :)