love them

Carmen loves to take my digital camera around the house and take pictures of random stuff.  Every once in a while, when I am going through and cleaning them out I find a few gems.

I guess Mose was her subject of the day because she got some really cute shots of him.

Pay no attention to the mess… I swear, it’s never like that.  ahem.

But seriously, is he handsome or what?

He is getting so big.  It is blowing my mind a little bit.   He is now pulling up to stand… and then promptly slipping down whatever he is standing against and thumping his noggin.  I can already tell he is going to have a permanent bruised forehead from now until three years old.

He now has 2 bottom teeth, and he is working on the third one, which is coming in on top.  I am going to miss that gummy grin.  It is so sad to see my baby start to disappear… yet so thrilling to see them accomplish new things on the journey to becoming their own people.  Man, this parenting thing. Wild.  I don’t think I’ll ever feel like I cuddled them enough, even if I did it ’round the clock.

Carmen is also amazing to me.  The stuff she comes up with is always so surprising.  She comes home with cute songs and sayings from preschool all the time.  She is getting so smart, and can now count well into her 30s.  Except, of course, for twenty-thirteen, and thirty-thirteen (in place of twenty-three and thirty-three).  Still impressive though, and I can see where she would get confused.

I just love them.  I am so happy I get to be their mom, and not someone else’s mom.

halloween

Carmen was a homemade tinkerbell fairy thing.  Not my best work… but she still looked pretty cute.

Here she was for her preschool party:

I really liked the eyelashes… which she yanked off 5 minutes after she got to school.

We carved some “punkins”.  Carmen’s was tinkerbell of course, and I made Moseley’s a pac man inspired jack-o-lantern.

We headed up to Huntington for the Black’s Halloween party.  We forgot the green eyelashes so Carmen shared some of Kaia’s orange ones.

Look how awesome that gnome is.  And the pic doesnt even do it justice, because you cant see Kardiff’s swagger while he was wearing it.  Cutest thing ever.

Of course the night of Halloween Carmen wanted to match Kaia, and wouldn’t wear her green shirt, only the black “underneath” one.  Whatever.

Here is Carmen holding up my adorable little shark… in all his rolly glory.

Ah… that dimple!

Mose didn’t really get the trick’r treating thing. And I mean, how scary can you be when you are strapped into a stroller covered with a blanket?

Thrilled.

However, when we got back home and the kids all dumped out their candy to survey the goods, he got to roll around in it like it was money.

He was making all the kids so mad by putting all their candy in his mouth with the wrappers on.

Yeah. put a nice camera in my hand, and the only thing I can get in focus is the bucket.  Fail.

Oh well, someday I will learn how to use a real camera… Until then I will leave the picture taking up to my talented friends.

sister’s baby blessing

We took a quick road trip up to Utah over the weekend to go to my sister’s baby blessing.

We drove through the night thursday night.  Which I actually liked better due to the fact that our kids slept for a big chunk of the trip, there was no traffic, and it didn’t seem like we wasted a whole day driving.  I watched a bunch of redbox videos on the way down, which made the trip go faster.

Have you done the redbox yet?  Seriously, best invention EVAR!  The outside ones are open all night.  The movies only cost a dollar a day.  And you can return your dvds to any redbox machine!  So we literally rented dvds in California watched them on the way to Utah, and dropped them off when we got there.  Brilliant.

I got a bedheaded Carmen out to go to the bathroom early in the am, so I had to get a shot of her sitting in the big chair.

I am lame at taking pictures, so fast forward to the day of the blessing.

Mose and Daddy… Looking dapper in their Sunday best.

Here is my sister holding her fav nephew.

The rest of the pictures were of my kids mauling little baby Kaius…

He is so cute… he slept the whole time!  And my kids were flopping him around like a rag doll.  Good thing babies are more resilient than we give them credit for, although, tell that to a first time mom.  Sorry Carly. :)  I promise they didn’t hurt him.

goodbye summer

Living in california makes the changing of seasons a little less noticeable for the most part.  So fall seemed to really sneak up on me this year.  All of the sudden, summer is over, and it is getting a little chilly and rainy.  I am sad to see summer go, but the fall brings so much awesomeness that I cant really be that bummed about seeing my tan fade away.

• I now get to get out all the hoodies and woolly sweaters, that beckoned to me from the top shelf of my closet all year.

• I get to start making fun meals that feel like autumn.  Soups, chili and cornbread.  Hot coco.  Pies… which I love to make and eat.  I made some for Lauren and the kiddies while they stayed with us last weekend.

• I get to melt my spicier sentsys.

• And Disneyland!  Now that our passes are no longer blocked out, I love taking the kids to disneyland every once in a while.  It’s weird because, we have pretty much seen all there is to see at disneyland, yet it still calls to me all the time.  It really is a magical place to me for some reason.

Here are some pictures of our last few beach trips:

Either she has a lot of sand in her swimsuit… or she dropped a really big duce.

Even though you can barely see it, the expression on Mose’s face is just hilarious to me.

This picture makes me think that I might make him feel the way he makes me feel.

Could you put that apple down for one sec, so we can see your face?

That’s better.

nephew!

My sister finally had her baby!  He was born on Sept. 8th… Same birthday as our mother.  His name is Kaius Raymond and he weighed 8lbs 11oz (one ounce different than his cousin Mose… Isn’t it rad that he has a cousin Mose?)  I can’t wait to meet him!

he’s a growing boy

Now that  Moseley is 6 months old there have been a lot of changes around here.  He is now 19 lbs and 27 inches tall.  He can sit up unsupported without toppling right over.  He is getting up on his hands and knees… which means my days of having a stationary baby are soon over.  He finally started solids, and hates every one of them.  Which is fine I guess, it doesn’t seem like he is lacking in the calories department.  I do wish he would be full enough to start sleeping through the night though.  Between him and sister, they are trying to kill me with all the waking up in the middle of the night.  I honestly can’t even remember what 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep feels like.  I remember back in the day when I could sleep for about 11 hours… What would that be like?

Anyway, Carmen and Moseley are just about the cutest best friends ever.  She was helping me with his first rice cereal feeding, and it was about the cutest thing I have ever seen.  They were cracking each other up.

After the newness of eating from a spoon wore off, about 4 bites later, Mose decided he was over rice cereal.  I still had some leftover pumped milk, so I let Carmen feed it to him in a bottle…

I love that I can tell my kids love each other.  Having a second baby is always scary because you can’t imagine loving another as much as the first.  Plus I didn’t know how she would react to having our attention divided.  But I think any attention she loses from us, is made up for times ten by the love she gets from her baby brother.  I mean look at that smile he gives her.  He is completely enamored with his big sister.  And who could not love this boy?
He is still the happiest baby ever.  He always has the hugest dimpled smile for everyone, and he literally lights up every room he enters with it.  There is just something about that big squishy boy, I just can not get enough of him.

utah

I took the kids down to see grandma for a few days after the Idaho reunion.  It was fun to go shopping, hang out with my mom and sister, get shave ice every day, and eat at all my favorite places.  Oh and I added one more while there.  The little America has this breakfast buffet… Umm, best stuff ever.  They had every breakfast food you could think of, and every single thing was delicious.   They had bagels and lox, omelet bar, big slices of crispy bacon, sausage that melted in your mouth (that’s what she sai… sorry, I couldn’t help it). Fluffy french toast and crispy waffles topped with raspberry puree and heavy whipped cream.  Fresh ripe fruit with raspberries as big as strawberries.  And my favorite thing (that I am thinking about walking back to utah right now for) was the cream cheese danish.  Holy moly, it was like, the best thing I have ever tasted.   So there you have it, another addition to my obsession with Utah food… this might be turning into a problem.

idaho

We went to my husband’s family reunion last week at lake alturas in Idaho.  It was really fun to see family, let the kiddies roam free, and be all up in nature.  All peaceful and such.  I didn’t even go into hysterics without my iPhone.  The only downside was that it got freezing at night .  Waking up to feed the baby in 4o degree weather, or traipsing through the frostbitten weeds to go pee, isn’t my idea of a good time in the middle of the night.  But it was worth it.  And the reunion was way too short… and I am already missing everybody.  Lee has an awesome family, and I don’t really think I could have asked for better in-laws.  I think that was one of the big reasons I married him, is that he comes from such a great family.  I could really tell, when we first started dating, that he would be a great dad (like he is) and that he has a sincere heart.  I think he gets that stuff from his awesome family.  Plus they are kick back, funny people to be around, so… bonus!

Here is a picture of Melinda, she is the one who took all of these beautiful pictures.  Her little Evie is modeling one of the beanies that I crocheted for the family auction.  And her husband Greg who built this rocket out of a soda bottle, that almost made it into orbit, it went that high.  567 feet to be exact.

It was really cool to watch them shoot off these rockets, although I was seriously fearful of the grandkid’s lives when they came back down again.

Don’t judge Carmen’s sweatshirt… it got a lot colder than we anticipated… and she lost her other one… and this one was $4.99 at the drugstore in town.  Who cares, she rocked it anyhow.

When it finally warmed up, we chilled by the lake all day.

Carmen got some fishing in.

We’re rad. They’re rad. Let’s hug.

orange county fair

We took these photos in one of those booths I love, at the fair .  I look weird and almost exactly the same in the first 3.  Plus I look super white next to my husband, who looks like a different ethnicity.  I was trying to get Moseley (who is baffled… and pooing I think) to look at the camera (hence the no change in my pictures).  However I would like to direct your attention to how beautiful my little Carmie is.  Dang, she is soooo cute!

I love these goofy pictures because they happen so fast, you really never know what to expect from them.  Plus there is a certain quality to film that can’t really be duplicated digitally.

We had a great time at the fair.  We got to eat tons of sweets, and deep fried goodies (which to be honest, is 90% of the reason I go anywhere… it’s the food).

The kids went on tons of rides, played games, looked at baby farm animals, and got all sugared up.  We saw some pigs that were 2 days old an just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  Luckily, the mom was there to remind us what that adorable piglet would one day turn into.

We decided to spoil the heck out of the kids and give them pretty much whatever they wanted (some of that was forced on me… but we will revisit that topic later in this post).

We watched a hypnotist show… which was funny.  It reminded me of one of the first times I met my husband.  Long before we were dating.  Apparently I gave him “the best hug he’s ever gotten”… I must give good hugs:).  Me and a group of girlfriends went to a UVSC dance where they were having a hypnotist show.  Of course we all got picked to go up on stage… So one of the first memories my husband has of me is acting like a total weirdo in front of all our closest friends, and hundreds of other people.

Ok so here is the 411 on Hypnotist shows.  You go up there, he “hypnotizes” you, and then starts to tell you to do the crazy crap we all know and love.  Some of you may be wondering if it is fake or not.  Well the jury is still out on that… It is fake, in that you know exactly what is happening to you and could stop at any moment if you wanted to.  The reason people don’t stop is because they know if they do, they will get sent off the stage, and will miss a perfect opportunity to perform on stage and act crazy… with no social repercussions.  “What? I was hypnotized”.  The reason I’m not sure if hypnotism is real or not, is because some of the stuff I myself was doing is not the kind of thing that I would normally do.  I am not the type of person who likes to be in the spotlight.  And Never would I do that embarrassing stuff (dancing like n’sync, or having my tongue stuck out of my mouth for a few minutes) in front of the UVSC meat market crowd, yet, that night it didn’t seem like that big of a deal.  Maybe hypnotism is just like having a few drinks to take away your inhibitions… without the booze.  So, that is they only reason I think I may have been hypnotized.  Plus, my friend Kat was doing some crazy crap, that I have no idea how she did it.  She was yelling at the guy in “Chinese” for like 5 minutes, then he grabbed her up in his arms, “put her to sleep” and was flopping her around like a rag doll… I don’t know.  Not really typical behavior of us.  But I do remember thinking the whole time “Man, we are totally getting away with not being hypnotized”, until I realized that was what everyone was doing too.  So there you go,  my theory on hypnosis. Anyway back to our regularly scheduled program…

Daddy and Carmen won the super slide race.

I was trying to get Carmen to smile while waiting in line for the bumper cars…

Nice, umm… let’s try that again…

Yep… impossible.  This fake one was the best I could get out of her… Oh well still funny.

They HAD to ride the ponies… it was one of the biggest deals of the day.  Carmen got to ride Shorty (whatta shawty?) AGAIN this year… Need proof?  I’m sure you do.  I wrote about it in last years post.

She was really giggin out about riding the ponies.

So at aroung 10 pm we were all getting tired, but Lauren still had 22 tickets left.  She decided to let Kaia try to win a goldfish… which she did.  Then obviously Carmen wanted a gold fish.  I very plainly said NO, because I knew I would be the one to take care of the dumb thing… and then it would not be, because I can hardly ever remember to water my plants.  Then it would die, and I would have the guilt of killing a living thing on my conscience.  But nooooo.  “Aunty Lauren” has to give my kids whatever they want (or what she thinks they would want i.e. Moseley+cotton candy) So of course she went ahead and got Carmen a goldfish too.  I tried to convince Carmen to give it to Kody but then she looks at me with puppy dog eyes and says “I don’t wanna give it to Kody”.  Then in the parking lot I tried to convince her to “leave it at the fair, so it can have fun” and then she said “No… if we leave it here, it might die”.  So there we were, back to the guilt thing again.  Sooooo, yep… here we are.  The proud owners of a fish.We had to go get fish food anyway, so we got the goldfish a little friend while we were there.  Carmen named them “Leaver and Fatty”. 

The name “Fatty” is self explanatory with the size of the small one’s belly,  and “Leaver”?… Who knows where she got that one?

All I know is, if Fatty turns out to be Preggy… and we end up with like 50 of those things in there… I am going to take her up to Huntington beach and “Leave ‘er” (and all the spawn) in Lauren’s bath tub…

*Update* Yeah… Those fish are already dead.  We tried, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

the fourth

I actually took a whole mess of pictures this year, so buckle your safety belts because, yes, I do feel the need to share EVERY SINGLE ONE.  Ok so I left out a few choice swimsuit shots of people… but that was for the good of everyone.

These are in no particular order.

He makes me melt like a Popsicle, on the fourf of July…

The people with the huge army parachute were back, so the kids had fun playing with that.

Uncle Ryan and his girlfriend Annie came to visit.

So did Grandpa.

I just love how, when you go to a crowded beach, there are always tons of hotties in minimal clothes in the background of every picture of your kid being cute.

Carmen playing football.

Also Cousin Erik came to visit.  It was a house full of Eric/ks.  (my dad’s name is also Eric… for those who didn’t know)

Erik and Moseley have the same taste in fashion…

I made some yummy root beer float cupcakes… deceptive because it looks like chocolate… but still yummy in a surprising way.

We ate some delicious church’s chicken, and went home to watch the fireworks, and listen to the pachanga pow wow from our front yard.

Carmen was pretty excited about the fireworks.

It was a really fun day.

The next day was fun too because we woke up, ate some homemade waffles made with my own ground wheat (sorry I always have to pat myself on the back for that one).  Then we played guitar hero  for the rest of the day.  I unleashed my inner rock star.

Those little rocker guys are like, my favorite part of that game… Oh who am I kidding,  I love this game.  Everything about it.  I like to imagine myself as a real rock star, and when I hit a particularly electrifying note and the crowd goes nuts… Man there is nothing like it.  I like to think that would be the part when the ladies all start throwing their bras up on stage… Oops wait, no… that would be weird.  Sorry, that took an unfortunate turn. :)Anyway enough geekin’ out about some video game.

It was a great weekend, and I had a ton of fun.  Holidays are always more fun when you spend them with people you love.