A coming of age...

Jade is now officially one of our kids. She has joined her brothers in the ranks of the ER and has broken her arm. today at mcdonalds she got pushed out of the entrance by her brother. now mind you, she was blocking the entrance and wouldn't move, so she want innocent. but she fell and caught herself with her left arm and got a buckle fracture by her wrist. she was a trooper but cried and cried and i knew something was not right. so off we went and they gave her a temporary splint and will have to get it casted on monday or tuesday when the swelling has gone down. my poor little girl! sleeping is NOT fun for her cause she's a stomach sleeper and a pretty active roller when sleeping (much like her dad). she keeps waking up and i know its going to be a long night...pray for my baby!

Zander's Hip Hop

At our church we had our christmas concert this last sunday. Zander did a little hip hop thing with the kids. it was cute! hope you enjoy!

o where o where has my little brain gone?

well here i am! it has been impossible for me to sit down and blog for a while! but bens' in vegas for work and i finally got caught up in my editing for daisyportraits, and here i sit. my poor darling dog got spayed last friday and she is still not recovered. she just lays here and glares at me! i'm loving the christmas season and seeing my lit up tree and all the christmas lights outside. ben did a great job outside decorating. he even built me a mantle over the fireplace so that i could hang stockings! :) the house is coming together. we still don't have a front window and our closet fell three times, but the yard is done, the trim is mostly done inside, and we've painted two rooms! so yea! although i am saving some projects for opa when he comes at christmas! :) hehehe....
so updates on the kiddies....zander is doing great at school. he loves every moment of it! he's reading books now and is speaking chinese all the time. it freaks me out a little...not going to lie...he absolutely loves where we live now and loves that he lives in a 'cul''d'SACK'. we have tons of neighbors with kids and zander adores playing with them. he'll just go sit in the front yard until someone comes out...slightly frightening...but cute. :)
ronan is still my little pistol. he's a different kid when zander is at school. he and jade are becoming quite the buddies. they play well together until zander comes home...then they all fight. he's still peeing on himself randomly but at least he pretty much changes himself when he does it. i don't know what else to do with that. he peed in the trash can in his room the other day...five feet from the bathroom...grr...he's singing all the time now and i love it. he heard a recording of ben singing and now he sings that song at the top of his lungs. i'll even hear him outside belting it out on the swing all by himself. :)
jade is growing up toooooo quickly! she's so grown up and talking all the time! she loves loves loves to dance. she will shake her bon bon for anyone. she's been diagnosed with exzema (no idea how to spell that) all over her face and chest. we have to keep her lathered up on lotions to try to help. i think its the dry air and running the heater all the time. but other than the itchiness she's doing ok with it.
ben is in vegas as i mentioned for training for work. training...yea right. he's just gone a few days but i'm already missing him. he's loving work and doing a great job still. he's got less than a year till he gets is bachelor's degree too! wooo hooo! that's exciting to me!
umm...i'm still doing photography. i have my business license and my name is officially registered. i've been really busy with the christmas card season but i really love what i'm doing. please please please give me a call if you want some shots taken! so that's it with the annens....i can't promise more updates but i'll try!

Christmas Cards and Ideas

Its that time of year! while i'm busy snapping people's pictures for christmas cards, i have done a little research on cute, affordable, and high quality christmas cards and photo gifts. I'm really happy with SHUTTERFLY's brand new holiday line. Its one stop shopping for all the stuff i need for photo gifts. and let's face it, photo gifts will always be great gifts! i haven't taken our family picture yet, but i'm already planning it around which card i like the best. i really like this one http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards/snowflake-wishes-noir-holiday-5x7-photo-card-5x7-photo?sortType=1&storeNode=93480 but then again, there are so many to chose from. head over to their site to see which one might fit your needs for christmas! and oma and opa, or any of my other distant relatives, if you see some other gift you might be interested it, please let me know! :) I love getting everyone’s Christmas cards every year in the mail! I love seeing how each child has grown or where the creativity behind where each family has taken their picture. So make sure you update us with our new address! We’d hate to miss seeing your smiling faces!

CHECK THESE OUT!

Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

· holiday photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

· Christmas ornaments to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/pewter-ornament

· desk calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars

· photo albums to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books/simple-path

·

Mollie

we have a new dog...who knew. her name is mollie and i love her. occassionaly i have a panic attack thinking about the fact that we now have a dog. but mollie is a great easy going dog. she has never barked yet, she loves to lay on you, she's great with kids, and she's housebroken! its the best of all worlds. we prayed hard that we would be able to find a dog that was perfect for our family. ronan has begged for a dog for forever and we thought it might help his adjustment. today she took a nap on his bed and that just made his whole day. she was from a military family that was recently transfered overseas. so they couldn't take her with them and she is only 8 months old. we found her on craigslist after days and hours of looking at the pounds, humane society, pet stores, etc. but i kept praying and as soon as we saw molly we knew. she's perfect. and she's very little work! (my kind of dog!) i am normally not a dog person...in fact i pretty much find them to be too much effort. but molly is different. she stole my heart immediately and she never leaves my side. ben is shocked at how lovey i am with her. she's an english setter mixed with something else. but she's a medium sized dog with a gorgeous coat. i'll try to post a picture soon.

We are HOME!

it has been a long road. i'll save you the details and disasters...but we are going to get there eventually. i love our neighborhood and i love our neighbors. the kids love living in a cul d'sac and riding their bikes around. i will get pictures up soon i promise. i just don't want to post them till i get things a little more unpacked.

halloween was wonderful and we had a great time wandering around our new neighborhood. zander was a dragon, ronan a knight, and jade a princess. then ben and i were a queen and he was the castle. zander came up with him being a castle and i loved it. and since we had so many extra boxes it came together nicely. we trick or treated with my parents and the kids loved having their geegee and papaw around.

the night before halloween we had a halloween party with our small group plus some. the kids LOVED it but it was a little exhausting for the parents. there were a LOT of kids! we were going to have the party at our new house but our wonderful dear friends offered their house. i am SO glad they did cause it was just stressful trying to get the house ready for people to come. and not to mention ben was gone thursday thru saturday before the party. so all in all, a great wonderful halloween. here's some pics

We moved!!!

well we currently have our belongings in three different locations! its been a hard couple of days! saturday we moved our belongings to our new house. but...we couldn't stay there till monday cause we hadn't closed exactly yet. so we have been staying in a hotel for the last three nights and then we're moving to the new house tomorrow. but of course we still have stuff at the old house too. its just a pain in the butt. and we still won't have have the gas turned on till wednesday. so no hot water or clothes washing or baking. good times. but i love our house. i'm happy to finally be there. i wasn't quite prepared for how hard it was going to be on the kids. zander was ecstatic to go back to school today and get away, but he's also exhausted. we've been getting to bed late and getting up early. ro is just losing it. its hardest on him i think. he's been acting out a lot and having problems just melting down. i also think he's tired. he did finally take a good nap today but i had to lay down with him till he fell asleep. he misses his old house. and then tonight we got to bed late again and up early tomorrow for school. poor kids. jade is doing better today but it still very clingy. she wants to stay close to me all the time and gets grumpy easily. ben is exhausted and ready to fall down and sleep. but he's got to go back to work tomorrow and that's hard for all of us! but i've been blessed with some amazing friends who are helping me out. a big shout of thanks to my small group who helped me pack, move and unpack. i love them! so keep us in your prayers. we're all pooped. oh and ben is leaving thursday-saturday for training...so pray for that too. can't wait for everyone to see the house. although there are LOTS of things to do...such as painting, floorboards, etc. its the finishing work i'm learning to just let go of...it'll happen eventually right? off to bed i go....

everything's flying!

i cannot get over how fast the days are going! i can barely blink before another week has passed! suddenly i'm getting ready to move, i'm headed to michigan for a wedding, and i'm barely breathing! it's great! daisy portraits is going really well...i've had a lot of clients so far! we are less than three weeks away from moving into our new house! wooooo hooooo! i went by today and it looks great! i'm so glad the repairs are finally almost done! and i had my first ever parent/teacher conference today! things are all good with zander, but just that he's apparently a little "too social". :) hahahahah.....that's my boy! but they said he is really apologetic when corrected and they like him a lot. so all that's good. he's reading some words and his writing is finally getting better. so phew on that! how did he grow up? his soccer team...well...they keep getting the crap beat out of them, but they're personally and individually getting better each game. :) ronan and jade love yelling for zander at his games. jade yells "go bubba go!" it's cute.

jade talks non stop and cracks me up. she is truly the center of the world and is constantly looking for ways to make people laugh! i wanna squish her on a regular basis. ronan is still trying, but turning into a wonderful little man. he's as handsome as all get out and i we are having precious time together now that zander is at school. but he misses his brother something fierce during the day! i love them all and i can honestly say we are at a happy place! praise God for that!

FINALLY on the house

WOOOHOOOOO! the repairs on our house started today!!! finally!!!!!! they will be done with the repairs by next friday. then the inspector comes out and then 10 working days from that inspection is when we will close. absolute latest close date will be oct. 22 although we can close before that and actually should close before that. YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in other realms...my life is insanely crazy right now but good. our first bible study went really well and my co-leader and i are very excited about our group! soooo excited. everyone was talkative and it was great. a huge release to get that over with! then on saturday i have four photo shoots! woo hoo! i'm so excited. i love taking pictures! so thank you to my friends who are booking with me!
remember, check out the website! www.daisyportraits.com !

A long time...

sorry the posts are becoming fewer and farther between. i am swamped! school pretty much consumes me on a regular basis. fortunately my dad now takes zander to school in the morning which is a HUGE help! it saves my mornings! then my mom comes over on mwf to stay with ro and jade so they don't have to come with me to pick z up. that is also huge! but now everything else in the world has started....i'm leading a bible study, started an online photoshop class, volunteering at the seminary, and oh yea, started a home business! what was i thinking?! i recently got laid off due to budget constraints at the seminary, that's why its called volunteering...:( i just couldn't walk away from what i do there yet. but now i'm in desperate need of income cause we are about to move. (which is a whole other issue...might be getting a completely different house) so i was looking at what i like doing and well, people kept suggesting photography. so i started it up. and i have a website - www.daisyportraits.com and already signing up people! i'm trying to build my portfolio right now so i'm offering major discounts. so if you live in san diego....hit me up!
btw... zander is loving school. he LOVES mandarin and is still doing well. although last week he had a sinus infection and was out THREE days...really!? second week? already?! of course....ro and zander are both doing awana and ro loves being a real cubbie this year. jade is my best photo subject right now and a complete ham! she's growing up so fast and her vocabulary is unbelievable! she talks ina few sentences even. she so didn't get that from me! :)
please please please visit my website!

Zander's first soccer Game!

Zander and the Green hulks had their first game on saturday! it was so much fun for all of them! it took a while for everyone to get an understanding of things. the first half was not much to talk about because they just roamed the field. zander liked chasing the dragon flies. finally they started getting aggressive because they were getting spanked. i told zander if he got the ball to the goal he could get sea monkeys. yes, sea monkeys. he has really really wanted some for a long time. and i'm not above bribery. suddenly a light went on and zander went crazy. he was running like a fast monkey all over the place. he had a HUGE grin on his face the whole time he was running. i'm sure it was the sea monkeys. he made it to the goal a few times with his speeed only to lose it. but hey, first game. i'm proud of how fast he is! ben and i were shocked! he is already asking when his next game is! we are a soccer family... and a minivan. so cliche.

Oh and they lost....badly....

New Beginnings

Today was a crazy big day! my little zander started kindergarten today! what the heck?! how did i get this old?~! so awful....anyways, zander was pretty nervous and quiet this morning. we have to drive to lakeside for school which is 1/2 hr away. so it's a long morning for ro and jade. but we're going to survive this..somehow...until we move. anyways, zander was very scared....but after i picked him up today he was elated and very happy. he loved school and is so stoked to go back tomorrow. so that warms my heart. it didn't really hit me until nap time when i went to lay down and zander wasn't there to curl up beside me. thats when i started bawling.

:( it was so sad...so here are pictures of his big day. for those of you who don't know zander is doing a mandarin kindergarten. he will do every other day of mandarin and english. then in second grade add spanish. so its crazy to me. but today he was already singing a song in mandarin. WEIRD! anyways, here's a picture of before and after! you can see the fear at first but then moving on to happy!

also, saturday night jade got her ears pierced!!!! she is so flippin' cute i can barely stand it. she absolutely shocked me by not crying at all! as soon as they showed her a mirror she was awe struck of her ears. just a little gooby! :) love it!

his rockin' dragon backpack!

pick up time! much happier!!

waiting to get her ears pierced...

hey...that hurts!

but i'm so cute!!!

Photography Portfolio

so i'm going to try to build a photography business. i'm taking some online classes and reading up. so here's my first attempt. editing is tough!!!

Disneyland, Swimming, and House

So swimming is finally done and i can honsetly say that zander is really getting the idea of swimming. he can swim with his face in the water and kick and such. but for some reason he's fine with swimming in the shallow end but he freaks out that he won't be able to swim in the deep end. so with time i'm sure that will come. jade suddenly had a break through and started enjoying swimming. she's kicking and open hand paddling (for a while it was fists of fury and cursing at me!). so i'm so thankful they got this opportunity.
then on saturday we headed off to disneyland. we decided it was probably the last free saturday we have before school starts and soccer, etc. so off we went! it was tons of fun especially since jade can ride most of the rides now. she was hilarious. i'll post pics soon. the boys loved it too and i think they're favorite was the swings in california adventure. zander absolutely loved it. but...now they're still recouping from getting home at midnight. ronan has turned into a monster and i think its just the lack of sleep catching up with him. hopefully it will fade soon since we don't have much going this week. poor thing...poor me...:) hahah...
and then finally...the latest in crappy house news. our realtor took his contractor and went out to the house today to get a personal appraisal on the mold. $4000....great. our realtor thinks if we offer to pay for the mold that the process will move along quicker. however, our realtor was TICKED when he got to the house and saw that they hadn't done any of the repairs and that they had ruined the brand new carpet. i was SOOO glad he finally gotten out there and seen what we have been complaining about. so he called the bank and got rowdy. thank goodness. so the bank told our realtor to get his appraisor to do the whole house and then report to them for how much he would charge. and then hopefully our realtors contractor will take over everything and get done QUICK. sooo...we were supposed to close tomorrow but instead the closing has been moved till sept. 22. blah....

I have a swimmer!

well zander has finally learned to swim! we did two six week classes at la mesa rec over the last two years and he learned nothing. they didn't even make him put his face in the water. he just walked back and forth from one side to the other. it was soooo dumb. but one of the mentor moms from our mom group offered to give some of the kids lessons. so of course i agreed! on the second day ronan split his ear open so he didn't get lessons. however, in three days zander was swimming with his head in the water! it was absolutely amazing! zander has NEVER wanted to put his face in the water and if he did he would always plug his nose....but...not anymore. he's had six classes and can almost swim the length of the pool! who would have thought! his teacher is amazing!!!! ronan hates missing out but he sits in the hottub and watches. today my thermometer read 105!~ good time for swimming! jade has also had two classes and she hates it but is doing pretty good. she screams and makes some cracked out noises of discontent...but...she puts up with it! :) i will try to take some pictures tomorrow to prove that they're swimming! :)
as for the house, its just a disaster....i have driven by the house three times this week (its by the swim lessons house) and they have DONE NOTHING! no repairs, nothing. nothing nothing nothing. we are supposed to close tuesday. SOOOO not going to happen! i have no idea how long they can string us a long but i'm getting so discouraged and frustrated. our realtor said we will get this house, but...how long will it take?! :( so ready to move!

Oh POOP....literally

oh my word....OH MY WORD....ok, it just keeps getting better right?! tonight we went to dinner at IHOP and then the boys and i went to ross. (ben went to best buy with jade) so while in ross ronan informs me he has to pee and we go to the bathroom...hmm...ronan has pooped his pants (thank you antibiotics)...but apparently he pooped his pants a LONG time ago! how do you not know that?! i can only assume maybe at nap time? so we throw away his underwear and i clean him up as best i can and then head back to shop a little more. then a few minute later he says he has to pee again. so back to the bathroom. i stand outside the little stall and he starts freaking out and i go in and there's poop all over the toliet, all over ronan, and all over his pants! REALLY?! oh man....so i clean him up as best i can again, go buy shorts and new underwear and come back and change his clothes. so we decide to leave. on the way home ben texts me to stop and get milk (cause we had driven seperately which is another story). so we run into rite aid. when it's time to go i can find ronan...i go frantically looking for him and found him squatting in an aisle and crying. i ran to him and he informed me he had pooped all over! ahhhH!!!! so we quietly walked out (cause well, you don't want to embarress him!)...at the car both he and zander swear they have to pee! SERIOUSLY!? so fortunately i had a cup and i tried to have them pee in the car. then i told ronan to hold still till we got home. at home i stripped him down again, threw him in the shower and soaked his clothes in the toliet...oh soooo gross. i put them in bed and then went to flush the clothes in the water of the toliet a few times (a cloth diaper trick)...however, the underwear slipped out of my grip and went down the toliet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! please Lord don't let it clog the toliet. ronan was so sad cause he had just gotten these shark underwear.....so i told him cause the underwear has sharks on it, it will find its way to the ocean just like nemo. HAHAHAHAHA...that seems to pacify him. is today over yet?! oh hahahah...you have to laugh!!!!

SERIOUSLY?!

no, stop. i just can't take anymore. larissa is signing out! i need a vaca now! sooo....let me tell you about today. just today....three days after tuesdays fiascos....today started great by going to ann tepfer's pool which was perfect! it was warm and fabulous. poor ro had to keep his ear out of the water too which was a constant job for me. after lunch ro was sitting on the side of the hottub playing with some of the kids. well, i'm not sure what exactly happened, but ronan through a toy gun at a little boy. it hit his head and the kid picked up the toy and threw it back at ronan's face. well......i heard the scream...looked up and there was ro covered in blood, again....GOOD GRIEF! so we got the blood stopped and my friend ann who's a nurse, looked at the cut. she suggested we take him in. BLAH! but she was definitely right. thank God ann let me leave jade and zander with her and off i went with ronan again. i called the doctor to ask if i should take him to urgent care of rady's children. the receptionist said that i should take him to urgent care because they can handle cuts. well....after being at urgent care, the doc walked in and said, umm...no. he has to go to rady's. his cut is into the vermillion edge of his lip and will need plastic surgery. ARE YOU KIDDING?!
sooo...off to rady's. my mother joined me and we went through the same thing again. the doc saw him and said she could sew him up. but i had already been told he would need plastics. but i sat there silent. however, thank the good lord my mother spoke up and said that we wanted the plastic surgeon to look at it. PHEW! go mom! so the same guy who did ronan the first time came back and said yes we needed plastics. so, one more surgery, one more recovery, one more cut and bruise for my baby. i'm emotional....and did i mention ben works tomorrow? blah.
and because i've been asked for a house update...let me just tell you this...on tuesday the first injury day the realtor said he didn't think we'd close till mid september cause the bank still hasn't STARTED the repairs. POOP! then today the realtor said he thinks we will still get the house but that we should start looking at new houses just in case. seriously? i just can't take anymore of this rollercoaster!

Oh what a day!

well i couldn't even get up the energy to divulge the details of my horrid day yesterday. i was just emotionally pooped....so on sunday ben's face started swelling and he had a lot of pain in his tooth. i really have never seen ben in so much pain before. i honestly thought he was going to pass out on the way home from lunch! so monday i made him go to the dentist because when he woke up his face was really swollen! so the dentist said he had a tooth that was absessed and he needed to go to a specialist. however, he couldn't get an appointment till thursday morning. but....then on tuesday morning he woke up and could barely talk and his face was like the elephant man! so called the dentist again and they said he needed to get in ASAP with the specialist...so off he went. while he was on his way to the dentist, i was at home, umm...in the bathroom talking to my mom on the phone. all of a sudden i heard the scream and then zander came running telling me ro was hurt. (mind you, jade was sleeping during this cause she was still getting over her four days of high fever....thank God for this....) ronan came around the corner and his head was covered in blood. i saw it was coming from his ear...so i jumped up and turned his head to see....through his ear! the top of his ear was completely split in two and i could see through it! i quickly grabbed toliet paper and covered his ear. then i started to panic/think. i sat down with ronan and realized i was in my swimsuit (we were headed for swim class soon).....i didn't want to put hiim down though...so my mom was at work for professional development...and ben was at the dentist!!! sooo...i called my dad and said simply "i need you to come over now!" so my dad came over and and held ronan while i got dressed and packed the diaper bag. ronan was doing really well and barely crying at this point. so i called my friend melissa and asked her to take zander to swim class and she readily agreed and came and got zander. zander was quiet and amazingly calm but later i found out how badly it shook him to see his brother hurt. who can blame him!? he is such a sensitive soul...but big thanks to melissa for watching him and taking him to lunch.

ok, back to ronan....i packed up jade, ronan, and my dad and headed to the urgent care. we sat there for over and hour (it's 11 am now if you're wondering) and were told that ronan's cut was too deep into his cartilidge to just stitch him up there and that he needed to go to rady's children's ER. so off we went. and by that time ben was done getting his GOLF BALL SIZED absess drained and meet us at the ER. he stayed with us long enough to find out that ro was going to have to be sedated and the surgery would be around 2:30 pm. (it was 11:45) so ben, my dad and jade went home and i stayed with ronan for the longest day ever. ronan was a huge trooper and the nurses fell in love with his sweet face and spirit. but it was BORING to sit in a hospital bed for that long! he watched two movies and was ready to twitch. so we went for a walk and saw the hospital's service dog that goes and visits children in the hospital. ronan absolutely loved that! and it helped the time pass. finally at 3:15 it was time for his surgery. neither of us had eaten and i was dying! i had not eaten breakfast either...so i got to stay with him till he went under and then i ran next door for mcdonalds. his surgery lasted 20 minutes and then was done. however, when he came out of the anesthesia was HILARIOUS! i grabbed my phone to take a video (like youtube dentist boy) and it died...POOP! but ronan had some stinkin' funny moments. i can't repeat some of them but i was laughing for over an hour! now he's doing great and for that i'm so happy. he and ben are both on the mend! tomorrow ro and i go to the plastic surgeon again to see how his ear is doing.

here are a few pics from the day

Ronan waiting to be seen at urgent care. u can see the pain in his face. :(

waiting for surgery. he covered himself in stickers!

and his ear....however you can't see in this picture that his ear is seperated. in this pic the ear was stuck together with blood and some kleenexes still! :)

Something Concrete!

we have a closing date! wooo hooooo! we are supposed to close on august 31! it is such a huge answer to prayer! we prayed specifically that we could close on the 31st of august in order to move labor day weekend and be in the house before zander starts school! God is sooo good! sooooo i'm really praying that the bank sticks to it and gets the house fixed by then. our realtor was really positive about it so that gives me a lot of hope. and God is in it! and that gives me peace! so now we start the slow process of packing! i'm very excited to finally start packing! however, not sure what i was thinking, but i signed the boys up for two weeks of swim lessons starting tomorrow. every day....every day i should be packing.... oh whatever...i know what i was thinking...IT WAS FREE! :) hahaha...i'm a cheapey....say free and i'm there!
but on top of all that jade is just miserable. she's teething four teeth, she's had a fever since friday night, and now she's just crying all the time. so i took her to the doctor and its nothing. another virus. i think i'm going to start using virus as an excuse for everything. just like doctors! oh, the dishes didn't get washed? sorry...i had a virus. oh the food tastes like poop? sorry, it must have a virus. bla bla bla...stupid viruses....anyways, its probably like what ronan had three weeks ago. he had a high fever with nothing else. jade's is not that high, but enough to make her miserable. ...oh and did i mention that ben's tooth is going crazy and he nearly passed out from the pain on the way home from lunch today....and my back has been out for four days...which is fun with a daughter he wants to be held all the time. yes, i'd like some cheese with my whine....:)

a little fun at the beach

All grown up!

Miss jade is quite the young lady! she had her first real haircut today! lynzy gowing who cuts my whole family's hair now, got to initiate jade into the world of fashionista hair. jade did really well although she was pretty ansy. we gave her some bangs cause she has a pretty big forehead.. lynzy did a great job and jade is looking like a little toddler and not so much my little baby anymore. it makes me so sad! i want to freeze time and keep her my little bubbly baby! :(

ben and i also did tie dye with the boys today. it actually turned out really really well. thankfully ben was much more skilled and new how to teach the boys. i was clueless. :) but zander and ronan both did the shirts mostly by themselves and chose the colors themselves. here are some pictures of the tie dye and of miss jade's first haircut!

tie dye! zander did the one in the middle by himself!

Before the haircut! crazy hair!All done!

Ronan's version of potty training

so ronan is doing well at potty training...but...there's always a snag. yesterday at the park i was sitting over by the play structure when i looked up and saw ronan way out in the open field with his pants around his ankles...peeing....in front of many onlookers. i screamed and ran to him and told him that he needed to not pee in front of people and that i had brought a bottle for him to pee in. so about an hour later i look over at the bench with our stuff on it (right BESIDE the play structure = lots of kids). there is ronan peeing in the bottle. AHHHH!!!! so i run after him again and he says "i peed in the bottle!" what do you say to that?! sorry parents for my naked boy. :)

Where's your toothbrush been?

tonight at dinner i was telling ben about how i was so proud of ronan going poop! ronan had been pooping in the little potty and then i would have to flush it out and clean it up. so anyways, i'm telling ben that ronan emptied his potty all by himself after pooping and even cleaned it out! ronan was beaming. then zander says while eating (almost to himself) "he used his toothbrush to clean it out." so casually! oh my word...ben and i both almost peed our pants we were laughing so hard! ronan seemed proud and said "yup i used my brush cause the poop wouldn't come out!" oh my flippin' word. SOOOO gross! and somehow ronan couldn't understand how that might be terribly disgusting! i'm sure he would have gladly used his toothbrush again tonight. good grief...nastastic!!!!
but he is still using the potty perfectly! just a diaper at night! woo hoo!

pictures

These are pics i took in the backyard. i decided prof pics aren't in the budget this year so off i went! i think they turned out pretty good. even if jade and ro are drooly all the time.

AHHHH!!!!!

Insert and jumping up and down like a two year old. i'm so ticked off. we had the inspection at our new house today and of course....crap. there is a leaky sprinkler head that has leaked into both of the kids closets (that are back to back) and there is MOLD. sooo.....the closing date is probably going to be extended 30 more days! UGH!!! that means that when school starts after labor day, i have to drive z to school 20 minutes ONE WAY! poor ro and jade are going to get dragged two and from four times a day! seriously?! someone shoot me. please please please pray that the bank decides to work hard and get it done earlier than later. they've been super cooperative and good so far, but i just would love to close before school starts.
on a positive note, ro is in underwear! wooo hooo! just pull ups at night! go ro!!!!!!

Insects, snakes, frogs....

on saturday i took the boys to an Insect fair with my mom. it was quite possibly the most amazing thing for my boys. and well, for jade too. she loved it. they were absolutely in heaven! there were bugs, snakes, frogs, birds, and tons of things to touch! everything was down at kid level and they could hold and touch lots of things. the boys held a snake, a stick bug, beetles, and even petted a bird. they were hilariously excited. my mom and i even ate a fried worm for them. cause well, they wouldn't of course. they got to make crafts, dig in dirt, got a free plant, etc. it was great. it was at san diego botanical gardens so i recommend taking your kids next year!

Zander ponderings

No worries everyone! Zander informed me: "aliens are creation. God made them."
Set your minds at ease.....

btw...potty training 101 with ronan, well...SUCKS! he has no problem peeing on himself.

Ronan's 3rd Bday pics

happy 3rd birthday ronan! i love you!!!