3 year old independance!

Today somehow I fell back asleep after Rori left for school and the boys got out of their room undetected on the monitor and the gate. ( I was a tired mommy) I heard giggling and freaked out and got up and came out the the kitchen  and there were my 2 little tornados. Liam had got bowls out of the dishwasher (yes they were clean) got out the cereal and milk and poured him and Pierce bowls of cereal.  (A little added tortilla chips added in) Milk everywhere.  :(  Needless to say I was not a happy mommy but at least the extra rest gave me patience!

Please make this van last!!

We bought this Van that seemingly looked great, cosmetically and really low mileage.  We bought it in Sept 07 and by the summer had 2 major problems that cost 1200 and almost 800.  We got a screw in the tire which has been patched and repaired but not replaced.  The hydrolics in the rear latch went out and a wonderful friend of our cousin fixed that, the blower in the front went out and coming into the hot time here we are going to have to fix this the driver side window broke so Lance and the neighbors took the panal off and got it up but the panal is still hanging, now the gas gage is going up and down and up and down, we do not know how much gas is in there unless we fill it completly and push the reset button, we know we get an average of just over 325 miles, however filling the tank all the time is not an option.  I do not know how much this s going to cost to fix.  I am so sad.  We have a year and a half left and it is paid off.  We can not afford a newer car right now. We have just hit 66,000 miles with it, it should not be falling apart.  We are not that hard on the car.  So today is my plea to my car to just hang in there and keep us safe and stop coming apart!

:(

Ice Cream Truck finally........

Rori sprained her ankle a week ago and didnt want to walk on her foot even after 3 days when it obviously was feeling better so Dude (my dad) made an agreement with her that if she walked and could walk to the bathroom on her own (so Lance and I didnt have to carry her) he would send her money for the ice cream truck.  So another day passed and she finally did it and called Dude.  He sent enough to share with her brothers too.  This Ice Cream Truck was acctually pretty reasonable.  1.25-1.50 a treat.  So we all (except Brendan) enjoyed a treat and there was still 3.50 left over.   :)  Even though I do not prefer any part of these treats for the kids, it is fun every now and then. More fun to watch the sheer joy and mess that comes with it.

Thank you Dude for the treats!

10 for the ice cream man

waiting

making choices

paying

three for icecream

Dora ice cream

Spiderman Icecream

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Liam enjoying

ahhh the messy faces

drippy face P

Happy Liam

Oops

7 years together and counting......

April 18, 2003 Lance and I said I do. 7 Years later we still are saying so.  We had a nice anniversary yesterday.  My friend Jessica came and watched the kids in the morning while we went to brunch.  I chose the Bellagio buffet because it was less expensive than the cafe and I wanted to go to the art gallery.  Well we ended up being in line for an hour to get in and then we were sat a squishy spot between 2 sets of people and it was so loud in there we could have had the kids with us.  It was difficult to talk because you had to talk loud enough for the people next to us to hear so needless to say in hindsight I would have chosen the more expensive Cafe.  At least we could have asked for a booth and been able to talk like adults. :)  We were able to walk around and hold hands which never happens anymore since we have eight sets of hands to our 4 :) We didn't get to the museum since by the time we were through the line and done eating we had to get back.  We watched Charade the old Audrey Hepburn movie to top of the night.  I just love Audrey Hepburn and what a great flick that was.  All in all it was a nice day.   I can hope for 70 more years :) At that point I will be 107!  heheheeheh

7 years ago married at the courthouse

our reception a few months later

one of my favorit photos

7 Years Later

My garden is in bloom!

Brendan is 9 mos old.... time just flies!

What a sweet boy he is!  At 9 Mos old he is crawling, he is sitting, he is pulling to stand up but not cruising yet, he has 4 teeth 2 top and 2 bottom.  He has liked all the baby food offered so far except the green beans.  He is starting to follow me around the house and hold  on to my pant legs.  (makes for difficulty cooking!) He loves to try to play with his brothers and sister.  He really loves Rori.  They have had a special bond since he was in my tummy.  This morning at 2:30am (though he normally sleeps through the night) decided he had some things to tell me.  He cried until I woke up, he was standing in the pack and play next to me with his eyes peeking over the top. But wanted to be held. So I laid him down next to me and he put his hand on my face and babbled away.  40 minutes later he fell asleep and I put him back down.  He is such a happy boy.  I enjoy him so much! I just can not believe as always how fast the time has gone by, it will be so soon and we will be having his first birthday.  He is certainly helping to keep the house clean because he finds the smallest things so I get up before he gets up and try to vacuum the mess that the boys make every meal.  He has such personality I can't wait to watch him grow and see him bloom.  We were watching a video of Rori at age 2 and it is amazing how their personality really forms at baby.  I am sad we are not videoing more.  Lots of photos but little video!  :(

I need to add one more crawling photo.

"ICe crEAM truck"

One thing we have in the new neighborhood is a daily visit from the ice cream man.  When I was little I remember this same excitement that my kids are having now and the Sheer Joy when we acctually were given money to buy something.  In this neighborhood kids run down the street to catch him and he usually comesdown the street 2 times once on one side and then on teh other.  My kids learned about what an ice cream truck is from Dora the Explorer.  When the music starts from faintly in the distance the kids scream "Ice cream truck, Ice cream truck!"  They run from all cornesr of the yard to go peer out the gate.  I do not have cash a lot and feel the ice cream man is a little over inflated in pricing so I go back and forth with should I let my kids have an ice cream for the experience or will this make them cry every time he comes.  The other day my grandpa sent me a just because check with ice-cream written in the memo.  I had called him to thank him and we joked back and forth as we do but Rori heard me talk about the check and it's intended use for ice cream.  That afternoon the ice cream truck came around and Rori came running to get her brothers and they ran to the gate and Rori said "Pa said we could have ice-cream"  LOL  Out of the mouthes of babes!!
I gave them a popscicle from the freezer.  Still have the dilema and I might have to check out his prices somtime this summer I am sure I'll cave, it is hard to watch them look longingly like this for long!

Getting out of my photo funk

I have been in a photography funk mostly because of all the stress of the move and such that  I am finally feeling it again.  Now maybe I can catch up on my 365 blog! For now here are a few of my favorites from the last few weeks.

Peep-napping

I love peeps they are my fav but this year I bought peeps to be inspiration for som peeptastic photos.  I had the chicks and then Lance brought me home a box of bunnies.  They sat on top of my toaster oven for a week until yesterday I noticed the bunnies were gone.  Now I KNOW Lance is not a fan of peeps, it is one treat I can leave out and know it will be there when I come back to it.  But I asked him anyway, he hadn't seen them.  I asked Rori.  She said she hadnt seen them and you know what I believed her.  I was changing Brendan and putting him to sleep when Lance calls
"Honey get in here"  I came to Rori's room.  He was on the floor next to the window (in the hidden spot of her room with the nightstand drawer open.)  There were the peeps open one row missing along with one of Brendan's toys and a roll of toilet paper.  So we had a chat then called Rori in.  She still wanted to deny it, blame Liam blah blah blah and then she finally was honest.  I had to be a little harsh for bedtime as it was that time, no song, no story, and the Easter bunny left peeps out of her basket. Rori came up to me this morning and said "Mama, I think the Easter Bunny just knew I snuck the candy."  I said "I think he did"  I told her again how lying and sneaking makes mommy and daddy sad and that it is not good to do but I think I need to find some books to read that have consequences of these actions so she can get a better picture.   Man am I ready for the next level of parenting?  Time out seems so much easier!!

one of my peeptastic photos "peeps on a wire"