Monday, March 31, 2008

Kindergarten Round-up!

I can't believe my baby is old enough to go out into the world. I feel like the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, "Why you want to leave me?!" Well, OK, I'm like 90% excited for this next part of our life and 10% scared to death at letting my child interact with more and more people. Last Friday we went to kindergarten registration, while the parents stood in line to show 27 types of identification and sign our names in blood, the kids went with the teachers to check out the classrooms, listen to a story, and play on the little toy. Several kids went whimpering, a few clung to their parents flat out refusing to be separated. I got as far as, "Jake, do you want..." and he was out the door and down the hall. So... that's a good thing right? I have a feeling come September I'll be the one in tears while my 5 year old pats my shoulder and says, "It's OK mom, I'll be home in a few hours..."

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Easter Weekend

I wanted to post a picture of Evie all dressed up for Easter. I got the dress back in January, I stayed up late Saturday night making matching flower barrettes for her hair, and then at 11:30 on Sunday morning her brother got sick just before we were going to get ready for church. Poor kid. Evie was so stressed out and worried about him, and she was so tired that she fell asleep while I was taking care of him. I was so worn out that I couldn't even face the idea of waking her up and making her get dressed up and her hair done fancy. So I guess that will have to wait until Tiffany's wedding. But all in all we had a wonderful Easter weekend. We spent Saturday with my family, we had breakfast, made Easter baskets, decorated eggs, and went to see "Horton Hears a Who". It was a lot of fun. And on Monday we went to Brian's family for dinner and an egg hunt with the cousins. Here are some of my favorite pictures from both days.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Happy Easter to all!

Our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt yesterday. The kids had so much fun, Evie especially loved running around yelling, "egs! egs!" She was so funny, she'd pick up a plastic egg and pull it apart to see what was inside it spilling the candy all over the grass. And Jacob was very sweet following Evie around and finding eggs for her, he wanted to make sure his sister got plenty of candy. We are so lucky to have such sweet kids. I just wanted to share some pictures of my cute babies!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Tagged from Kris

20 years ago: I was 9 and eagerly welcomed a baby sister! I had been very stressed out, because our brother had insisted it was another boy and I really wanted a sister. (This was before you could find out through ultrasound the sex of the fetus) Our brother, being only 7 at the time, cried with bitter disappointment until he actually saw the baby and then he said she was "a peach". Love you Caite!
10 years ago: I was 19 and convinced that I would never find true love. In fact I believe it was my cousin Tiffany (who was 10 at the time) who began to cry one day and told me she was worried I would be an old maid. I moved back after one semester of school down at Snow College because I wasn't ready to be out on my own. I had my first job in corporate America, for a title company, and quickly discovered that I wasn't meant to be a corporate drone. And I worked part time at our local community theater so I could spend time with my family.
5 years ago: I was 7 months pregnant with my first child, Jacob. It was a long, hard process getting pregnant so we were thrilled and excited to be embarking on the journey that is parenthood. I was reading all the books and thinking how my child would be the most perfect child ever born. He would never disobey, never backtalk, never argue. Hmmm, we are never really prepared are we...
3 years ago: This was the beginning of some hard times, we sold our first home and moved into one bedroom in my parents for what was supposed to be a few months while we paid off some bills and decided where to go next. That was the end of October, the first part of January my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She had major abdominal surgery, followed by 6 months of chemo. We were there for a little over a year to help out while her health improved. (She had 18 months of remission before it came back.)
1 year ago: This time last year really sucked. No other word for it. Brian had been having some health problems, his legs were getting weak and he would stumble and fall a lot. Our second child, Genevieve, was about 6 months old and one night he fell while carrying her into her room. That scared him bad enough that he finally agreed to go see the doctor, who sent us to a specialist, who did a bunch of tests and then sent us to another specialist, who ran more tests and then told us that Brian probably had ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and the only way we could know for sure was to come back in 6 months and see how much his nerves had deteriorated. It was a very hard time for me because my mom's cancer had come back for the third time and the doctors gave her about 6 months and if Brian did have ALS, which is a degenerative disorder for which there is currently no treatment, he would have about 14 months. Fortunately, after the 6 months was up we went back to the specialist who gave us the glorious news that whatever is wrong with Brian it isn't ALS because it isn't moving above the waist. We still don't know what it is, but we are moving forward with hope. And mom is still here and kicking, she is going through another course of chemo, so she is tired a lot but here with us.
So far this year: My baby sister got married! Brian and I bought our new house and spent all of January fixing it up (see earlier posts for pics of the kitchen, before and after). My brother and his wife are expecting their first baby, so my kids will have a cousin on my side of the family! We moved the last weekend of January, then went on vacation with Brian's family to Disneyland! Came home to a sick baby, who then passed the bug around our family one at a time for most of February. We also ended up with both kids in the hospital dehydrated with gastroenteritis. Yuck.
Yesterday: Got our schedules all screwed up because of daylight savings time and a 1:00 church block, so spend most of the day having a nap with my babies to get our bodies straightened out. (It sort of worked, Evie still woke up at 3am for the 3 night in a row. Arghhh!) Then we went to my folks for a yummy dinner for Caite's birthday, she is no longer a teenager! Went to bed at a halfway decent hour for once, then stayed up for another hour talking about everything and nothing.
Today: Woke up perched on the last 6 inches of my mattress while my children sprawled comfortably across the rest of my queen size bed. Took Jake to preschool, came home to find water on the floor of the laundry room again (this time from the water heater). Got online to check my email and spent the last half hour writing this post, while watching Law and Order in the background. I have to go get ready to pick Jake up from preschool, and then we are going to have a picnic in the park for lunch. Hooray for spring!

Okay, now I am tagging Mom, Emilie, Josh, Bianca, Annie, and anyone else who reads this and has an hour to spare....

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Cookie Monster

So Evie has recently figured out that chocolate is good stuff. (Proof that she does have some of my genes...) She has turned into a total cookie monster. She loves candy too. We are working on the concept of food before treats. I am lucky that she is such a good eater and likes everything because every time I ask her if she is hungry or wants something to eat she says, "Umm... foof." And then I say, "OK what kind of food?" and she says, "Umm... foof."

Friday, March 7, 2008

The letter P

Every day that I pick Jake up from preschool I ask what he learned. On Tuesday we had this conversation.
Mom: "How was school?"
Jake: "Fine"
M: "So what did you learn today?"
J: "About P"
M: "Oh? What about P?"
J: "You know, words that start with P"
M: "Ok, so what word start with P?"
J: "Passion"
M: "Passion?"
J: "Yeah"
M: (trying for a casual tone of voice) "Who brought up passion?"
J: "Me"
M: (mentally) *Of course it was my child...* "What did Miss Heidi say about passion?"
J: "Oh nothing, I just said it to my self."
M: *Thank heaven for small favors* "Do you know what passion means?"
J: "No"
M: "OK, it means you feel very strongly about something, you either love it or hate it."
J: "OK, then there is a girl in my class who is passionate about popcorn. Cause she hates it."
This is not a normal conversation to have with a 4 year old. He is one smart cookie, later that day we went to the bookstore because I have been hoarding a gift certificate I got for Christmas (thank you Caite!) and he wanted to get a book too. He got his first chapter book (it was in the 7-12 year old section) called "The Littles" and he read the whole thing that day. And has read it at least once a day since. He is definitely my child. I can't wait to share all my favorite books from when I was a kid. And if anyone has any good suggestions for what's new in that age range I'd love some ideas, because apparently we are past the picture book stage.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Disneyland 2008