Whats up with the Annens?

potty training x2!

2011-03-31T23:29:00.000-07:00

why is it that Ronan and jade are going to end up being potty trained at the same time?! that's wrong...just wrong. Ronan is still peeing on himself freely and lately even pooping. And jade is obsessed with the toliet and wants to sit on her little potty around the clock. i literally have to take the toliet paper out of the bathroom to make her stop and leave. she's crazy, but so much easier than that boys. however she does think that going to the bathroom is 'pooping' regardless of what is actually coming out of her.
on a fun note, i have to give a shot out to my favorite new products. Suave Dry Shampoo - AMAZING and cheap! for my crazy oil freakiness i love this. Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cooking sauces! - Just add veggies and meat and its soooo good. put it over rice or noodles...oh my good. and of course, the movie TANGLED! oh my word my kids want to watch it around the clock. such a cute movie with classicaly good disney music!
And lastly, i'm the proud foster mom to two baby chicks. they are adorable. I am doing a photoshoot on April 2 and 9th and we are going to have baby chicks and a little bunny. Fun easter mini-shoots. If you're around come check it out! $39 and you get a free 8x10 with that! i can't wait! i'm teaming up with lisamillerphotos.com so you'll have two photographers with different artistic expressions. anyways, the kids are obsessed with the chicks and ronan literally cries and cries when i tell him its time to put them down. poor thing. their names are Fuzzy and Wuzzy. :) anyone want them when we're done?! :)

All in the Details

2011-03-14T22:38:00.001-07:00

This is a picture taken this March for Jade's 2nd bday. Its the beautiful details in this picture that makes it one of my favorites. I love the tree branches and the back lighting. I'm entering it in a little contest from www.lovethatshot.com.

oh ronan...

2011-03-03T20:48:00.000-08:00

well he did it again. he cut his flippin' hair. this time he stole scissors and hid under his bed and chopped the heck out of his hair. i mean chopped....chopped...i quickly made an appointment to get his hair fixed but not till friday night. while i was getting the kids ready for bed, ben decided to take things into his own hands and gave ronan a mohawk. i have to say i kind of like it. ugh...which doesn't help the whole "STOP CUTTING YOUR HAIR!" scenario. when he was 6 months old he had a mohawk too and he was such a cutie baby with it. and again now...he just looks cute. he's got the personality for it i guess. but i swear if he cuts his stinkin' hair again i'm going to lose my mind!

Jade and Allergies

2011-03-01T22:22:00.000-08:00

today we took jade for her allergy testing finally. and of course, she tested negative to everything. EVERYTHING. on a good note, we get to keep mollie. on a bad note, we still have no idea why she has random bouts of eczema. so i guess its back to the drawing board. but at least we've ruled some things out which is always good. but man, she is a spit fire! she power napped on the way home from the doctor for 15 minutes and then refused to go to sleep when it was nap time. she laid in there for two hours!!!!!! she took her hair out, took her shirt off, threw her paci, and just annoyed me. i am so tired! so all day she slept no more than 15 minutes. we then had to go get the car, go pick up pictures, get food for small group tomorrow and then finish a week of homework we forgot to do! and by we, i mean zander.
and then there are the disturbing things i witnessed today! first off, we can all be surprised that it was from ronan. i saw him blow snot out his nose and then lean over to let mollie lick it off. i seriously almost threw up everything i'd eaten today! then later in the day ronan blew his nose on jade's shirt!!!!! what the heck?! i'm raising a small animal i think. he's crazy. and then he just looks at me and laughs like he did the coolest thing. gross gross gross!
the above pics i took of the boys just in case you didn't see them on facebook.

where has time gone?

2011-02-23T14:54:00.000-08:00

oh geez...it has been way too long. i have started blogging in my head throughout the day and i have discovered that it fulfills my need to talk to the computer. so by the end of the day, i feel like i've written a book! yes i'm sure there's something not normal about that...but its ok. that's me! :) i just endured the worst weekend ever...i was supposed to go to my first women's retreat with my girlfriends but instead i got the flu. the absolute, most standard, the flu shot would have saved me, flu.....my friend drove me to the doctor just to make sure and they swabbed my nose...surprise surprise....influenza. and for the next four days i did not MOVE from my bed. awful! i don't think i've ever really had the flu. and then the tamiflu made me throw up all night! oh that was joyous...
so enough about me. the kids are doing well. they also are on antibiotics from the wretched cold that won't leave....but other than that fine. :) they are my constant subjects for photography and i have to say that they are stunning to photograph. i truly love being their mom and i love watching the age they are all at. jade is almost two and that blows my mind. she loves to dance, sing, crack us all up. ronan is settling down and mollie (the dog) seems to really be helping him. he loves to cuddle with her and run her around the back yard. she is so patient with him (bordering on absolute stupidity) and loves him back. zander is growing up a mile a day. i swear he's the size of the 10 year old across the street. he's an awesome little boy and learning more and more every day. still all i hear is that he wants to be a scientist when he grows up.
any suggestions for jade's bday? themes? what do you do for little girls?

A coming of age...

2010-12-16T21:50:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-12-06T22:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-19T21:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-07T19:23:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2010-10-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-10-04T20:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-09-19T20:39:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-09-13T23:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

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?!

2010-08-20T20:33:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-08-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-15T21:35:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

All grown up!

2010-07-31T22:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-07-23T22:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-21T16:44:00.001-07:00

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!!!!!

2010-07-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-07-11T20:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

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

we're back!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-07-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

we just had the best vacation ever in michigan! it was so relaxing and amazing. we stayed with ben's parents (oma and opa) in delton and had a great time. it was like out of an old novel. they have a huge amount of land for the kids to run around in. they also got to catch lightning bugs (they'd never even seen any), pick wild blackberries, light fireworks, etc. it was just fun. oma and opa even have a tall swing attached to a tree and the kids loved flying high on that. we also went to a water park in battle creek and the park in GR and had a birthday party for jacob and ronan. ben and i also got a night out with my brother and sister in law in grand rapids. oma and opa watched the kids! only our second night away since kids! it was FABULOUS! we all laughed so hard and acted like 12 year olds. i loved every minute! another night ben and i got to go see eclipse on opening night. so i was pooped the next day but worth it! the last day we were there we got to spend with my side of the family. all of us at millenium park and at lunch. i love being with family. and it's so fun to watch all the kids play together! oh and did i mention i got to meet two brand new babies?! a niece - lily marie lillis (chris and jen's baby) and a nephew - joel benjamin annen (jay and cheryl's baby). it was a good good trip. but oh, did jade scream on all the flights. so traveling wasn't so fun, but the trip was worth it! now we head home to house stuff! tons and tons of paper work and money out the door. its going to be a long month! we close on aug. 13

here's a few pics

Happy Birthday Ronan

2010-06-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was Ronan's 3rd birthday! my little baby is growing up! it seems like yesterday i had a little chubby, mohawked baby! my darling ronan, you challenge me every day to be a better mother. you have shown me how to laugh even at spilled milk (literally). your cute little face always brings a smile to mine. the freckles and piercing blue eyes are mesmerizing. i love watching you play with your siblings and how fiercely protective of jade you are. only YOU get to poke and hit her. but not anyone else. :) you adore your brother and want to mirror everything he does and i love how hard you try to do everything he does and more. your sense of humor is amazing! you delivery of jokes is hilarious and you keep us all rolling! i love you more and more every day!
for his birthday ronan went to the zoo and wanted geegee to come too. geegee and papaw came over for dinner and geegee made an amazing mickey mouse cake for his birthday! he loved it although we had to convince him the black frosting was really frosting and not, well, who knows what he thought it was. he just didn't want to eat it. some fav gifts were his new hot wheels tricycle and the toy story recycle center. (don't ask, he wanted it!)
only one more day till we go to michigan! woo hoo!

Preschool Graduation!

2010-06-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight my little bubba graduated from preschool! i'm so proud! and old feeling....how is my baby going to go to kindergarten? man, did i mention i feel old?! zander is such a little performer like his dad and LOVES being up on stage. i'm so proud of the little guy and ridiculously proud to be his mama. little ronan screamed out "i love you bubba!" sooo cute. and then jade, well, she is just full of it and has ZERO desire to sit still...ever. oh is she going to be fun on the plane. can you give a baby prozac? hahaha...j/k. sortof.
on the house front we are in negotiations with three houses. its basically the last three houses left. so we'll see what happens. our realtor thinks we have a good chance with these three. but i'm starting to lose faith. its against my very nature to be patient and out of control of things. so this has been torturous on every front. today we lost another house that we really wanted when they countered with a ridiculously high offer. it was just so sad. it feels like being broken up with over and over and over again. 7 breakups so far. i just hope my psyche can handle more of this!
tomorrow is a busy day with z at a birthday party, ben working on the kitchen, and i'm taking my daddy to oysterfest for father's day! woo hoo! ben hates oysters so he's not going.
have a great weekend everyone! and only one more week till i'm in michigan!

some pics

2010-06-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

our 7th anniversary!

WE ARE GOING HOME!!!!

2010-06-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

so in case you haven't heard we are going home!!!! wooo hoo!!!!! i'm so excited! it has been TWO YEARS since ben has been home and has seen his extended family! it has been over a year for me and my family and two years since my family has all been together. ben and i are both so excited for the kids to hang with their cousins and play in michigan summer! my heart aches to see my brothers again and to be with their families. it has just been too long with all the families. and my sweet little nephew on ben's side (jeremy and cheryl's boy) has been born and i can't wait to snuggle him! oh and then my oldest bro and his wife is about to have their first girl! and lord willing i will be there to hold her shortly after she's born!!!! i can't even believe it! God is so good! i just wish there was more time. there's so much to do and see and people to chat with. i wish i had two weeks to stay!
and on the house front we put SIX offers out this week which brings our total to 12. i am really hopeful this week that one, just one, will accept. please lord!!!! pray hard with us cause it is HARD looking at houses with three kids in toe! (eight houses on saturday with three kids = death)

Becoming One with Nature

2010-06-08T21:26:00.000-07:00

so....for those of you who know meyou know that i'm not much of an outdoorsey person. i prefer hotels to campers, i don't actually really hike ever, and well, i let my mother teach the boys about bugs and such. so i signed the boys up for a nature class at the mission trails something or other. each month they do a class and learn about a certain thing - butterflies, spiders, etc. so monday i took the kids to the class. they usually learn about the critter, take a walk (short, easy walk thru the trails), and then make a craft. so monday we arrived on a hot day, and well...there was no class. no idea why there was no class. just no one showed up. so maybe i wrote the wrong day down on the calendar...who knows. ok so i'm at the trails with the three kids and they're ready to be in nature..but there's no teacher. so being a mom who apparently had a brain fart, i thought "hey, i should take them on a hike!" sure...what could happen?! so i pick the trail that says visitor loop. its close to the visitor center and couldn't be that long right? i mean, its the visitor center loop! so you should always see the visitor center! right? wrong....wrong wrong wrong....first off we headed down the trail with jade on my back in a backpack. that alone was brutal. the terrain is all jagged and up hill and then down hill and then bumpy bumpy. good times. about five minutes into our walk i turn to see what's keeping zander (yes, he's easily distracted) and i hear ronan (who's in front) say "mom a snake!" so i turn quickly thinking i'd see a little garter snake...umm...NEGATIVE! i see a flippin' HUGE RATTLESNAKE (southern pacific to be exact) slithering across the trail. now let me bring in some details...first off, the snack is not all coiled and minding it's own business, it's FIVE FEET IN FRONT OF MY TWO YEAR OLD! plus the path is narrow. brush on both sides touching me. not a big wide happy trail where i can tell the kids to keep to the left to pass it.
so i see the snake, my first thought is thank God jade is on my back! then of course i scream "zander come here and look!" so he sufficiently sees the thing slithering complete with rattling tail and stuff. then, panic seized me and i scream RUN! so back down the trail we run! really, what are the chances?! i am not a nature person! this was my first time out on a trail for hiking ever! and i get to see a poisonous, neurotoxin biting, snake! good grief...eventually a man who work there doing gardening showed me a different way to go. sooo...i swallowed my fears and off we went on our stinkin' hike. back to the fact that i thought this was a short hike. almost two miles later...my poor children were blazing hot, thirsty, hungry, and oh yea did i mention that jade was still on my back! i seriously thought we were all going to die...needless to say, i'm never going hiking again. screw you nature!

Slacking

2010-06-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

what is my deal? i used to write all the time? but no, i'm becoming a slacker! bad me...bad. i had myself a birthday this week. the big 29. i'm getting frightfully close to 30. but i had an amazing birthday and i love my family and friends for it! my hubby went above and beyond by contacting a friend of mine whose brother is a shoe designer, and got me some KILLER charles david snake shoe skins. (i think that sentence sucked and was long but sorry) i was absolutely shocked! my parents decorated my front tree which just makes me smile. so much so that it's still set up. :) my dear small group got me an amazing gift certificate for another tattoo (no eye rolling please) and are taking me out this weekend. oh and my dear friend melissa got me a rockin' hannah montana balloon that plays music when you hit it. and oh do the kids like that. much love to you all!
here's a fun story for you. we had a play date wednesday and ronan found a cute snail that was on the larger side. later that day i was changing his diaper when well, a snail fell out of his pants. weridly enough it didn't die from his farts or suffocating from his butt cheek. but yes, i took it outside and let the thing live. but seriously ronan? he was trying to sneak it in to keep as his pet! oh that boy....
on the house front...still looking, still making offers, still nothing. :( keep praying for us!

Cute kids

2010-05-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

my little boys had their awana awards ceremony tuesday night and it was cute. they were both so proud to stand on stage. ronan was cracking me up. he kept making faces and rocking back and forth and just smiling like crazy. probably cause i was in the front row so he had someone to make eye contact with and be a goofball for. zander was adorable and so grown up! surprise surprise he's the tallest in his 30 something class. he got a certificate and big blue ribbon. he did a great job this year and i was very proud of him. his little patches are iron on patches and ben got the bright idea to put the last few patches on (last minute of course) by holding them over a lighter and sticking them on the vest. so of course on the way to church, one by one they popped off. :) nice babe...

here's jade thinking she's adorable!

yes, he's cross eyed and staring at the ceiling. thats why he's my boy!

singing his cubbies' song!

my cheese ball! so cute!

House Update

2010-05-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

unfortunately the sellers took another offer on the house. :( i know God has something else in store but i would be lying if i said i wasn't disappointed. then our realtor said something wonderful: "my last 2 clients had to make 20-30 offers before actually getting a house". really?! great...someone shoot me now. i'm not patient enough to handle this. i'm tempted to just let ben go do the looking and just make the bids. then 'surprise' guess what we got a house. yea, wait, i can't do that. i might be lacking in patience, but i'm also a control freak...shoot.

House Stress

2010-05-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, we are on the house hunt. our rent in our current house runs out in september and we have prayed thru trying to find a house. they are willing to rent to us but the rent will be almost more than buying a house. so we have prayed and prayed and prayed, and so far, God has walked us thru each stage. giving ben a raise, coming up with the downpayment (you know who you are and thank you!), and then our first time out we found a house. in our price range most of the houses we are looking at are just unlivable. mold, cracked slabs, just yucky. so we'd be paying mortgage and then have to shell out tons of money to even live in the house. but this little house we found was just perfect. 3 bedroom, 2 bath (which most houses only have 1) and just 1100 square feet. which may seem small, but if i told you the price (especially you midwesterners) you'd gasp. however, it has a BIG yard, an enclosed patio (hello toy room!), and a pool (i'm still on the fence about how i feel about that one). its move in ready and has been kept up amazingly well. a little couple passed away but they kept it immaculately clean. the kitchen is crazy 70s wallpaper but it looks like it was put up yesterday! there are things in the house that we can fix up, but nothing is absolutely necessary in order to live in it. and that's huge! you have no idea! especially with three little kids. so anyways, we put an offer on it and we should hear next week if they accept or counter. i'm sure they'll counter which is fine, but i HATE not knowing. i completely trust God in this that if we don't get the house, he has something better for us. but i'm an over thinker. i've retreated into my head and i spend hours thinking about how to pack, how to decorate, what still needs to be done at our house. so i'm not suffering from stomach aches and insomnia. i feel like my stomach is in knots all the time! i can't seem to get my mind to shut off and stop. i've written things down, prayed, imagined a black screen in my mind, you name it, i've tried it. last night was absolutely horrific. i was up till 2:30 am. ben finally gave me 1 tyelenol pm and i still couldn't sleep. it took over an hour for that to work. so this morning at 6:30 when the boys came in, i was SICK! the room was spending, and i felt like i was going to absolutely puke. it was horrible. but my amazing, wonderful, thoughtful, husband told me to lay down, get some sleep, and he would take the kids to church....ALONE. oh i love that man. so i slept till 9:30 and ate a slow breakfast. now i'm watching oprah and folding clothes. ahhh...blissful. now if i could just shut my head off and make my stomach stop hurting!

Jade's surgery

2010-05-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

Jade did very well today for her surgery. i had to get up at 5 am to get her to the hospital by 6. oh that was fun...but jade was sweet and handled the not eating very well. i still cried when they took her away and when i went to get her after she woke up. there was a lot of fluid on her right ear but other than that, pretty normal. when ronan had his surgery he was all drousy and cuddle-y when he woke up. but not jade! she was throwing things and squealing and grabbing for food. she was full of it the whole 1/2 hour i had to wait. after we got home she slept for 2 hours and then tried to eat. which resulted in her puking on me. she also ran a small fever, both of which the doctor said was possible. after her 2nd nap she was still feverish but kept some food down. by the end of the night she was waddling around and full of it. so full of it she didn't go to sleep till 9:15....blah. i am so tired i could cry but ben is out doing karaoke and i can't sleep usually until he gets home. crappy day. oh well, my baby girl is safe and sleeping sound now so thank you for your prayers!

Preschool Momma and Daddy Day

2010-05-07T22:13:00.001-07:00

Today was a special day at zander's preschool to celebrate moms and dads. they sang an adorable song and had tables prepped for each of their parents. in my spot was a cute little survey zander filled out for his mom and dad.
ALL ABOUT MOM:
1. what's your mom's name: Larissa
2. How old is your mom: 'she's had two birthdays'
3. How much does she weigh? More than a chair but less than a car, but my dad can't pick her up
4. what is her favorite drink? diet pepsi
5. what does your mom do at work? makes copies at the seminary
6. how much do you love your mom? the size of an anachonda

ALL ABOUT DAD:
1. what is dad's name? Ben
2. How old is dad? 38
3. How much weight can he lift? he can pick up a big sword
4. what is his favorite drink? diet pepsi
5. what does dad do at work? he builds stuff close to the beach?
6. how much do you love dad? the same as i love my mom - anaconda big!

walking queen

2010-05-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

little jaders is turning into quite the walker! she waddles around more and more now. whats funny is that she holds her belly when she walks. i don't know if she thinks she's holding herself up or what, but it's cute. of course as soon as she's up and walking, here comes her brothers....poor thing. but she's getting much more aggressive with them and will squeal and swat at them to keep them out of her face.
zander got his test results back from the allergy specialist. so he's technically not allergic to anything. he just has dermographism which means he has a hightened level of histamine in him naturally and thats' going to make him more susceptible to contact allergies. grass, weeds, etc on his skin. also because of the rain this year we have tons and tons of pollen and that will irritate his nose too. not that he's allergic, but its like sticking your face in pepper. you react with sniffling and sneezing, but your not allergic. soo....thats that. but he's got claritin to help now too.
ronan keeps running around the house yelling 'happy mother's day!' i love it., he gives the best hugs and squeezes. he's also really becoming a fabulous cook. he helped me make bisquits for our strawberry shortcake. (oma style!!!) he just loves putting the ingredients in and mixing stuff. it has created a peaceful bond with us and something he's proud of doing alone with mama.
as for me, because i posted that things were going so good last week, i had a tough couple of days. isn't that the way of it? so i was pretty pooped this weekend, but have had a good beginning of the week. which means i'm sure that tomorrow will be crappy. i've also been asked to co-lead a bible study at the group i've been attending for the last two years. i'm excited about it, but also terrified....big commitment, and no more slacking on my lessons! it was definitely a God thing and his voice was louder than my own doubts. so come to cabc next year and join the WOW bible study and be in my group!!!!
anyways, i'm also working my butt off for my garage sale on saturday. PLEASE COME IF YOU"RE IN THE AREA! (7-1 pm) i have kicked my own butt cleaning out every nook and cranny in this house! poor ben had to clean his closet out tonight and it nearly killed him. the dust was brutal!!!! he can't even breathe now from it. i guess that's what you get for not cleaning out your closet in FIVE years! but we'll leave that one alone. i love him so much for even doing it! basically i told him if he didn't, then i got to pocket the ENTIRE profit for the garage sale! :) so motivating....

KINDERGARTEN TIME!!!

2010-04-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

zander is officially registered for kindergarten!!!!! we are absolutely amazed that he got our first choice of elementaries! i prayed and prayed and prayed that God would put zander where he wanted him and he completely did. the more i find out about the school the more i see God's hand in it! so today i raced around and around and around with two of my three kids and finally got all the paperwork in for zander to be ready to go. so september 7th, here we come!!!!
btw...for you californians, he's going to Benchley-Weinberger Elementary.

God is bigger than me...

2010-04-26T22:35:00.001-07:00

So my husband's new work schedule consists of him leaving at 7:30 am and returning at 7:15 pm. its a big adjustment in our household because ben is super hands on in the household. he used to get up with the boys at 7:00 and sit with them till 8 (while i slept of course) and cuddle and love on them. now...he gets in the shower at 7 and i am forced to wake my sorry butt up and go get the boys milk and cuddle them or get them ready for preschool, bible study, or whatever it is that week. but mornings i can try to do...evenings were haunting me...i am used to ben coming home at 6:20 and sitting down and eating together as a family. we talk and eat and catch up on the day. but now he walks in at 7:15 and plays with the kids (forgoing eating cause he'd rather see them for 45 minutes before they go to bed.) then its off to bed for them. and that's it. he sees the kids for about 45 minutes a DAY!...it's sad....but here's the awesome thing. my silver lining....it's me...(isn't it always about me! :) ) and it's God....i am usually frantic and crazy on days when ben came home at 6:20 to eat. i was done and living for the minute ben walked thru the door. but now, there are so many people praying for our home during this transition that it's been calm. that's against my very nature! i am not calm...but the nights have been calm. am i tired? heck yea! am i ready for ben to come home? oh yes....but yet, its calm and happy and doable. and i really thought it wasn't going to be doable. it shows me just how amazing God is. why is it that i am always surprised when God answers prayers.?! he is so faithful and truly is the peace that transcends all understanding in our home!

i've lost my way to my blog

2010-04-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

i'm slowing i know...life seems to be taking over. and by the time night rolls around i begin to roll around. :) plus all of last week was me trying to remember how to be a parent again now that my inlaws were gone. so here's some updates from last week.
ronan started his 'intro to sports' class thru la mesa rec. i thought it was a non parent involvement class but when i got there apparently parents were helping a lot. dang it...i don't do involvement...especially with my fifty pound baby girl toting around. not easy! but ronan became a shy little boy and kept playing with his mouth with his head down. that is, until we actually started playing baseball! he smashed the ball off the tee and had fun running around the bases. he caught pop flys and grounded balls like an alligator. it was cute to watch, but again, jade + hip = extreme pain. he loved it and was so excited to tell anyone who would listen about it. it was a fun time together and i enjoyed watching him play. he's definitely my sports child.
jade started walking thursday night. of course the one night that ben wasn't home... she kept standing up by herself with nothing to hold on to and then all of a sudden off she went! she was sooo proud of herself! she's still hesitant but i see her taking steps by herself all the time now. we also took her to the doctor on friday and she will be having tubes put in her ear on may 11. she has just had way too many ear infections and rounds of antibiotics. so hopefully this will help. but she's still a happy well adjusted little girl and full of it!
zander is learning and learning and learning. i cannot keep up with his questions but i am sooo grateful for google! he loves bugs and animals and anything science related. we have been watching the series LIFE on the discovery channel and its amazing! i highly recommend it for anyone who has science kids! i love to watch his mind at work. my mom took him on friday while i was at the doctor to get bugs for her garden. they got lady bugs, praying mantises, and red earth worms. there were 1500 lady bugs in the container that they bought! the boys then got to release them into geegee's garden and some in our garden. of course ronan stepped on quite a few. but zander thought it was amazing. also, zander is froggy of the week this week at school which means it's all about him this week. all of us (except jade) helped make a poster about zander and his favorite things. it was a lot of fun and zander is sooo giddy about getting to share tomorrow. he also gets to bring whatever book or toys he wants during the week. my lovely science boy is bringing his 'sea life encyclopedia' book for sharing time. :) and his mellinium falcon toy. hahaha...
funny thing zander said the other day: 'dad's getting old, he's almost a grandpa'.

Strawberry Picking in Carlsbad!

2010-04-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

today was a gorgeous day and we decided to go pick strawberries in carlsbad. the strawberries were huge and yummy and fabulous. the boys loved picking with oma and opa and jade LOVED eating them. i think the girl downed 5 strawberries in about 45 minutes. she was hilarious. ronan had a problem with taking one bite and then chucking the strawberry. and mama does NOT like wasting! zander loved playing in the muddy puddles with his boots. all in all, beautiful wonderful day!

these are the mutated strawberries next to normal size ones. :)

the flower fields next to the strawberry patch

Easter Pics

2010-04-04T22:47:00.001-07:00

Easter Dinner at our house! by my mom is their friend galeyna. it was also her birthday!
Reading to Zander from his easter book
Jade and Grace Tepfer at church! Cuties!

Oma and Opa and the grandkids!

The family and the leaning tower of 'Rissa!

Cutie Kids!

My handsome boys!

Coloring Easter eggs with Oma and opa!

my inlaws are here!

2010-04-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

woo hoo! the got here on friday and man have the kids been spoiled! non stop entertainment for them all! jade warmed up to them very quickly too. she follows opa around asking to be picked up and held. i think ronan and zander are going to wear oma down till she can't move for months. it's only been two days...poor woman. they made bird houses, colored eggs, played baseball, chased eachother around the yard, read books, played with cars, played doggies, and the best part....the boys spent the night at their hotel. and woke up.....at....5:30 am.....5:30 am......they have never woken up that early before....oma and opa took them on a nature walk, went to mcdonalds, took baths, and were still to my house by 9. poor people...they are dedicated! slightly crazy, but wow...
tomorrow's easter and we've got big festivities planned at our house. i'm very excited because for the first time i'm having my parents and ben's parents in the same house together for a real holiday feast! courtesy of marie callendars. :)
happy easter everyone!

Ronan Ronan Ronan...why do you torment me so?!

2010-03-31T21:52:00.000-07:00

i think i've had a break through...perhaps...but i'm not sure. today we were at the park for a playdate with a bunch of wonderful moms...i was really looking forward to the day out since we'd been home alone for days with sicknesses trying to clean the house before the inlaws arrival. anyways, it's also spring break so z has been home and no bible study, no anything. ok so moving along....we went to the park. after being there for aproximately three point two seconds when ro was throwing pricker balls...well of course some random kid walked by at the exact time and got hit in the head. now the kid did not scream or cry...just looked stunned at ronan. so i go running after ronan and he books it. so i'm running after him screaming that he needs to come back and say sorry. so i catch him and tell him he needs to say sorry. he starts bawling....i do the pleading and all that..."ronan please just say sorry..." "please say sorry or we'll have to go home"...."i'm going to call oma and opa and tell them they can't come"....i even fake called oma on my cell....but he just refused. so i dragged him to the car did some disciplinary things...still nothing. buckled him in the car seat....still nothing....finally i he calmed down and said he'd say sorry. so off we went to find the boy. as soon as we got to him i sat ronan down in front of the boy and ro started freaking out again....refusing to say sorry. i swear i was going to lose it. and all my poor friends are looking at me with that helpless look of 'hey, it's ok, he's crazy...it's not you'. :) love my friends. but i seriously wanted to strangle the child. meanwhile the boy is looking at me like i'm crazy....i introduce myself and tell him ronan's name. the boy says "i did the right thing i just walked away". of course you did kid...of course you did. finally my dear friend melissa arrived and sensing that i was seconds away from throwing ronan down the river (you know that out of your mind laugh you start having when you are bordering on a breakdown??? yea that cackle was coming forth from my lips) . well she nicely stepped in and asked if she could hold ronan for a while till he said he would say sorry. so she did...gosh i love that girl. anyways, after about ten minutes of rocking and softly talking, ronan went to say sorry to the boy. then he came running to me for a big hug. oh that boy. i love him fiercly.
so since this time i've been pondering my son...and i think i've had a breakthrough...i think ronan freaks out from the attention. granted he is stubborn as a mule...but i think he just shuts down with that many people around looking at him while i'm yelling. and of course my yelling probably isn't helping him either. but when melissa removed him from the attention and sat calmly with him until he was ready to say sorry...he responded. this happened one other time before when i wanted him to say thank you. but the more ben and i forced him to say sorry, with the people watching, the more he freaked. and he almost ALWAYS says thank you for EVERYTHING! but it was the same attention thing...so we'll see. i'm going to try this again in the future and see if i can calmly remove him and soothe him till he relinquishes. i know sometimes this won't be convenient, but well...each child needs their own parental tweaks. one thing about ronan is that he's no really ever intentionally mean to other kids. he gets along well and is sweet. the whole throwing thing was not intentional, it was accidental. he's never hit or bitten another child. he's a good kid that reserves his crappy behavior for his family....(hmm..sounds like me)
SOOO...if you're child gets accidentally pegged with a pricker ball by ronan...bear with me, it might take a while for an apology from ro...but he is only two...and we're working on it...together.

Handsome Zander

2010-03-24T22:26:00.001-07:00

this has to be one of the most hilarious conversations i've ever had....today at bible study one of the leaders came up to me and asked if i was zander's mom. at first i panicked...do i say no and run? but zander, well, he's generally good so i admit my offspring....and she tells me how handsome zander is....'he is such a handsome boy! i was thinking to myself how i would love to meet his father!' ....wow....what do i say to that.... umm...no, he looks like me. but i nicely say "yes, his father was blonde as a kid" and well, i'm ugly then huh? geez.....hahahah...it was so awkward it was hilarious. but she did continue on to say some really nice things about him that makes a mother proud. but wow...so funny....had to share! hahahahha...still laughing.

Milk and Sleeping

2010-03-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

Since Ronan got sick a week or so ago, some of his personality was shown. that boy does NOT want to be alone when he's sick. and that means sleeping...every night for the last week or so, he's crawled up into his brothers bed to sleep with him. now we're just putting him to bed with zander. zander swears that ronan keeps him from having bad dreams...he even told his friend noah that if he let his little brother isaiah sleep with him, he wouldn't have nightmares. :) so far they've actually been sleeping and zander has finally conceded to let ronan play with his hair. i wish i could sneak in there and take a picture of them sleeping together.

little jade has had a struggle this last week with switching over to milk. she was on soy formula due to a possible allergy when she was just a few weeks old. her whole head broke out in a rash while on milk formula. so when we switched her to whole milk at a year, well....we were met with crying fits. not fun. for two nights right after dinner she started just bawling uncontrollably and scrunching up like her stomach was bothering her. it was very unnerving cause jade is not a big crier. so the doctor and my mom said to switch her back to her normal formula and wait till she was done with her cold and then try carton soy. almost 24 hours later she was fine. sooo...who knows. she has eaten cheese, yogurt, and a few other dairies with little to no effects. (btw i'm watching new moon while writing this so it could be full of typos and other mismatched thoughts!) today we went to get jade's blood drawn to test for milk allergy and anemia. she may still be too young to show a positive to the milk allergy but at least if she does test positive then i'll know. anyways, her veins were too small and the lady at the lab poked until i though i was going to puke. so she sent us over to the hospital lab where they were able to get it no problem. but by then jade was freaking out cause she knew they were going to hurt her! i had to lay on top of her to keep her still while they drew the blood. it was AWFUL! my little baby screamed and screamed and just looked so sad and distressed. awful awful awful. even the boys were upset by her crying and kept coming over and trying to comfort her! poor things....

we're almost done with the kitchen stuff. still have to do the backsplash and some painting...but it's useable and that's good!

i also did some pictures for a friend of mine recently and here's some of the better ones.

happy st.patty's day!!!!

2010-03-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

Jade's Birthday with GeeGee and Papaw

2010-03-13T21:41:00.000-08:00

tonight we celebrated Jade's birthday with GeeGee and Papaw (my mom and dad). as usual my mom made an amazing cake! and it was soooo good. chocolate cake with homemade buttercream frosting! fabulous! they got jade some fun gifts and jade loved it! lots of toys with balls and she liked that. but keeping the boys off of it was hard....:) big thank you to kate and neil for the cute little doll for jade and all the easter goodies for the boys too! that helped a lot today!

so tonight i cooked them all dinner and then we had cake and ice cream. jade was adorable with the cake. she started out very dainty and eating each little bite perfectly with one little finger. then she started double fisting it and throwing it all over. it was absolutely adorable. so here's the cutest little girl ever eating her fabulous cake! thanks again mom and dad for the presents and the yummy cake!

a pic of jade

2010-03-11T23:27:00.000-08:00

here's the pic i took of jade today outside and then an edited version. i'm learning photoshop!

Jade's 1st Birthday!

2010-03-11T23:10:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was Jade's first birthday! i still can't wrap my head around it! She lights up the room every time she enters it. she laughs uncontrollably and has inherited my weird honking laugh. she loves having an audience and does what she can to make you giggle with her! she loves her brothers fiercly but also knows how to cry quickly to get them in trouble. she loves her daddy and would do anything to get near him. and she loves to tuck her head onto your shoulder to give you cuddles. baby girl, i love you!

for her bday we opened presents when she first got up and went to lunch with gee gee and papaw. we won't be having cake till we celebrate with gee gee and papaw on saturday. so i'll have those pictures then. but here's just a few!

Larissa Versus Home Depot

2010-03-11T22:47:00.000-08:00

so the other night i told ben i would go to home depot for him to get the last needed supplies for the kitchen. i thought it would be a quick trip but i should have known better. he gave me a written list so i'd know what to get. but needless to say i didn't understand ANY of it. so i start with one employee who helps me find the first item, the the second employee finds the second item....then they start laughing. then i had to try to lug two pieces of plywood onto a cart to get them cut. but first i have to go take all my items in my cart and switch it to get a rolley cart thing. then go back and get the plywood. more laughing from people but not more help! so i get the plywood cut, have to go get more items, more help. all in all six different employees help me. and let me back track and state that i called ben at least five times during this time to ask for clarification of what he ment. so i'm not really letting him work. not to mention that i've now been there for over an hour. the trip was supposed to be quick! there were only six items on the list! then to make matters worse as i'm checking out the cashier says to me "it was kind of mean for your husband to send you by yourself." thanks...but i volunteered. but do you think the dumb boy offers to help me take my giant pieces of plywood to the car? umm...no. so off i go to the parking lot to load these pieces into the back of my van...myself....nice. and i noticed something while i was in home depot. there are only men in there. AND if there are women, they are not alone. oh no, i saw three women 'pairs'! they are smart to know not to go to home depot alone. and i know this for a fact because i ran into a lady i know to be single and she was there with a friend who i happen to know is married. even she was smart enough to bring a friend! don't go there alone...

also, tonight i got a rare treat to catch up with an old friend! grace hardt who ben and i worked with at gull lake and her hubby and little boy were in san diego visiting. they were trying to come for the nice warm weather but i think they got shafted on that. anyways, we met tonight for dinner at red robin! it was fun to rehash times with silly boys at gull lake when grace and i shared a house. i think her hubby found out some fun stories! :)

here's a picture of grace and i together with our little ones! jade really like elias!

kitchen remodel

2010-03-07T22:02:00.001-08:00

btw...ben started the kitchen remodel yesterday. two days down and he's over 1/2 way done. i'm so not loving having everything a mess but i know it will be worth it in the end. but i'm also sick and so is zander and jade...so i'm just a pile of crabbo-ness having to be gone all weekend so he can work. and oh yea, it's been pouring all weekend! :( i did NOT move to cali for all this rain!!!!

Ice Skating Helmets?!

2010-03-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

saturday i took zander to his first ice skating class. i was NOT prepared for the humor going through my mind at the sight i saw. first off there was seven hundred people trying to get on the ice for the seven scheduled classes at the same time. and most of them were little kids. so yes, ten minutes of your 30 minute class was spent waiting to get them on the ice. nice. then i saw it...kids....with helmets. bike helmets. oh lordy i almost peed my pants. these kids are learning to basically wiggle their little feet across the ice. there is no speed skating, jumping, or throwing the kids...nope...they are spending most of the time on their butts. but please, put helmets on them?! and yet they have little thing gloves on...last time i checked the biggest injuries were caused by getting your fingers run over by the blades!!!! so maybe you should have put your kids in hockey gloves. NOT BIKE HELMETS! in the midwest they throw kids out on lakes to ice skate...they're not worried about head injuries, not even the fact that they could fall through the ice....nope...they're normal not these nut job cali moms. :)
secondly....i am utterly and miserably depressed. i do not know whats going on with me, but the thought of my baby girl turning one is just killer to me. i am so emotional about it! i start bawling every time i think about it! my baby, my little girl...my last child...is leaving the baby stage. her little cuddly squishy time is disappearing quickly. i just can't take it. :( sooo stinkin' sad...she's also taking steps by herself now. just a few but usually she gets so excited she just launches herself at you. that makes me sad too. almost walking....ugh...too emotional. gotta stop talking now...

My little hockey player

2010-03-03T22:43:00.000-08:00

For those of you who know zander, he's been obsessed with playing hockey for as long as i can remember. well we finally signed him up to learn how to skate. so tonight ben took him to the kroc center to try skating before his actual class. he absolutely LOVED it! as you can see below, he actually did some skating without holding onto the sides. ben said he fell some, but it didn't seem to bother him. he was so excited that well...he neglected to tell ben how badly he had to pee. suddenly he looked at daddy and said 'i have to pee NOW!'. you always know it's too late when that happens....so z went running, and by the time ben caught up with zander he was standing by the toliet with his pants down, but his underwear still on; peeing....
but other than that he really enjoyed himself and is excited to start his class on saturday.

sibling love

2010-03-01T22:37:00.001-08:00

jade is finally at a stage where she is tougher and able to play with the boys more. i love watching their interactions together. today while the boys were in the bath jade stood at the edge of the tub and splashed them. hey all giggled uncontrollably. jade was soaked from head to toe. then after that the boys always run to their rooms and hide under their towels and pretend to be rocks. jade came crawling in and started trying to find the boys. she loved the game and the boys were cracking up. then she did the cutest thing and crawled in between the boys and curled up like she was under a towel just like them. i loved watching the whole thing. then later in the day another heart melting moment....jade crawled up to zander and laid her head on his arm and nuzzled him till he acknowledged her and hugged her. sooo stinking cute.
but my favorite moment from today was going to lunch with my mom at carls jr. after we ate we went outside to the outdoor eating area and with my lovely boys who are drawn to dirt, we found a snail colony. all the blades of grass were covered in snails! so there are the boys picking up every signle one. and one of them was laying eggs. zander thoroughly loved that one. i love that my boys and their gee gee are fascinated with nature and that my mom is there to help teach them about it. but i'm sure everyone in the drive thru line at carls jr thought we were insane.

admissions

2010-02-22T21:52:00.001-08:00

Hello my name is Larissa Annen and i am the proud mother of a 'hitter'. yup...that's my latest confession. i really thought i had this parenting thing all wrapped up until i had ronan. he was the sweetest, easiest baby EVER and was just a joy. then he got his personality and stubborness...and well...it's not gotten any easier. i love ronan fiercly! he is the most cuddly child still...but man.....he is pushing every theory and belief i have or should i say 'had' on parenting. no matter what i do...it doesn't change the behavior. and now, well...now he's really into hitting. not everyone...just his family. zander and i specifically. today at playtown when i told him to give a ball to a kid he freaked and started hitting me. which lead to him being taken to the benches to sit on a time out. where he threw a bigger fit and continued hitting. so off i go dragging his butt to the bathroom while he's SCREAMING "don't spank me!" to which i'm getting looks from the 'nonspanking' mothers. REALLY?! you want to shoot looks at the woman who's about to go spank her child? cause obviously you think i have issues...so by all means, pick a fight with me cause i'm soooo stable!!!!! ok side rant....
anyways, after the spank ronan calms down and does better. but the same thing happens again later. soo...we leave. i'm just worn out by him. but we get home and he crawls up in my lap and wraps his arms so tightly around me and gives me 'floppy (sloppy) kisses'. and all is mostly forgotten. at least until he socks his brother three minutes later....
any advice?!

Jade the show boat

2010-02-16T22:14:00.000-08:00

oh my word...my girl is a performer. she DOES not like it when people are not paying attention to her. tonight at small group there was no childcaare so she was in the room with us. she and gracie tepfer played together and were absolutely adorable. they giggled and crawled around the room. but jade did everything in her power to make sure i, or someone else was always looking. squealing, throwing her dress over her head, hugging herself and swishing back and forth until she literally FELL OVER! she was in rare form. but i swear i couldn't help but laugh. i had no idea she had this much desire for attention! god help us she is just like i was at that age. i fear for her and myself in the future.

Dear Ben,

2010-02-14T22:47:00.001-08:00

My darling husband...i love you. i really do...but on behalf of my burnt scalp i'm telling you that i will never again let you color my hair. never. especially not four times in one night. i speak this to you on my behalf of my burning scalp, my brittle hair, and my bruised self esteem that had to wear a hat to church. i know you think you know what you're doing...but honey, you don't. and i know realize that. so please, i value our relationship too much to let you do this again.
so please retire your mixing bowl and brush and leave the hair coloring to lynzy.
love,
your wife who's sleeping on a towel so she doesn't dye the pillow.

A good night

2010-02-14T00:31:00.001-08:00

tonight was the first time in a LONG time that we had friends over for dinner. i always get stressed thinking i have to have it all perfect. its hard for me to just focus on the time with friends and not worry about the food and presentation. sound familiar? some people are just born hostesses...they thrive on it...not me. i can count on ONE hand the number of times we've had people over. its sad. i always second guess my cooking and think that its not good enough for other people to eat. but tonight i bucked it up and made some food (i didn't even get carry out aren't you proud?!) and made my famous bbq chicken. a favored meal of my mother in law and mom. so i figured it was safe to pass. plus for five kids it was an easy pleaser also. it was a great night and easy. ben is amazing at helping me clean up so the after math is super simple. however, my insane children were beyond crazy tonight. ronan was throwing toys and spitting water...and weirdly enough was FIERCELY protective of all of jade's toys. he did NOT want the other little girls playing with her stuff. zander was crazy also emptying every container of toys there was, jumping on me, begging for candy, etc. it was all just weird. but all in all a great time.
the above pics are from the famous annual vday picture session.

My poor baby Jade

2010-02-11T23:49:00.000-08:00

So jade has another double ear infection....that is something like her seventh in three months. so of course the doctor says we should probably be talking tubes for her too. blah...poor baby girl.

OH FORGOT!

2010-02-06T21:28:00.001-08:00

i'm getting a NEICE finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! congrats chris and jen on their 5th child and first girl...good lord...don't know how they can have five. three is killer....

happy birthday benny

2010-02-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

today my darling husband turns 31~. the boys picked him out some clothes and decorated the house for him. we let him sleep in and fixed him bacon for breakfast. then i took the kids to the mall (in the pouring rain, hows that for love) so he could stay home and have some time alone. then of course, off to lunch at applebees. ben's all time favorite meal. chicken fingers, no coleslaw, extra honey mustard.
naps, then dinner at panera bread. tomorrow we're going out cause our babysitter could only do sunday. so we're going bowling...ben's idea. i felt bad for ben cause his work people 'forgot' his birthday. even though the decorate, etc. for everybody else. it was hard to see that for him. but fortunately his family, mine, and our small group texted or called to wish him a happy birthday.
so a few funny stories too. i love stressing out other mothers. such as buying ice cream from the ice cream man at lunch time at the park. fabulous. well tonight i found another one. because it had rained a TON there were lots and lots of puddles at the mall where we ate dinner. the boys know they can only walk through puddles when they have their boots on. and since it's so cal, this is RARE. so they wore their boots and after dinner i let them go crazy in the puddles/lakes outside. i didn't care if they got wet cause it was almost bedtime and we can always strip them down...which we did. strip down, race home, and take baths. it was good times. but man did i ANNOY the heck out of the other mothers at the mall who's kids were not wearing boots and wanted desperately to play in the water with my boys. WWWAAAA HAHAHAHAH...go me. i'm eviL! hahahah...it was great.
another funny. tonight once again we were talking to zander about jesus and accepting him, etc. his little friend evangelizes him all the time telling him she's going to heaven cause she's jesus' princess and he's her prince. tonight zander took the prize....he told us again that his friend was going to heaven cause she was god's princess and then he said, i'm going to heaven cause i'm jesus' PET!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahah...go z. i love you!

ponderings and musings

2010-02-05T21:49:00.000-08:00

well i have hit the four week point for going to the gym. i am reaching the point of seeing results but i'm also reaching the point of wanting to say screw it. i'm tired of going to the gym and tired of dieting. is this what is destined for the rest of my life?! blah....my girlfriend and i have gone every other day without skipping once. well once i had to skip but i did a 40 minute video at home, with zander, which well...you'll need to ask him. its funny. i've also been struggling with how i look....i want instant results...its' hard to keep perservering knowing eventually it will pay off..just not right away. however, i sometimes like to pretend that i was once 350 lbs and now i'm rockin' looking. cause if i was 350, well then my current weight and look is fabulous! so that's how i get by...pretending.
my amazing husband got me a massage tonight and i swear it was wonderful! it was a swedish massage and it helped so much with the sore muscles. but doesn't he remember that its his birthday tomorrow?! and what did i get him? nothing...cause i suck. i swear every year we have this fight. i always feel like it's a test to see if i can figure out what he wants. he hems and haws like he doesn't want anything but i know its not true. OR he wants really expensive things that i just have to laugh at him about. so this year, he gets nothing. ok not really...i just seriously haven't figured it out yet! but the boys decided he needed new clothes. they said this, not me. so they picked out some shirts for him. they were cute...but honestly they picked out shirts that look just like him! we also got decorations for him too. i love this man and am sooo proud to celebrate him tomorrow. he's an amazing man! but opa i wish you were here tomorrow to make waffles for breakfast..thats what he wants and i swear i'm not as good at it as you guys are! oh well, i'll try.
darling jade update...this girl is meant to be the baby. she gets mad at me sometimes when she feels like i'm ignoring her and just starts sobbing. sometimes i've checked her over thinking something is hurting her only to realize she just wants to be held. little punk. and this girl can work an audience. every where i go she will throw herself around in my arms or the shopping cart to make eye contact with passing people to get them to smile at her. she thinks she's the shiznit...i hate to tell her, she'll grow out of it. people love babies, but well, they stop looking after a while. poor baby girl. but here's my favorite jade aspect...she LOVES dinosaurs. whenever she sees one she lights up like a crazy child and starts growling at it! the boys taught her to growl at dinos and i think its hilarious. stuffed dinos, walking dinos, the ginormous dino my parents got z, any ole one. she loves them. ahh...the youngest of boys. hahaha...i loved g.i joes growing up too thanks to my brothers.

Stepping down

2010-01-29T21:43:00.000-08:00

Well I guess its ok to say that ben has resigned as the worship leader at our church. after 2 1/2 years he's just pooped. and he's trying to get into management at work at that means some longer hours. so he prayed about it for a few months and then made the decision to step down. it's just too much right now with three young kids, two jobs, and he's still in school. i'm amazed he's held it all together this long! and he knows he's not called to full time ministry so our church is at the point where a new person needs to take it to the next level. anyways, sunday is his last sunday! it will be weird having him sit with me again in church but a welcomed change.
so there's our little family update.

Blinded eye

2010-01-25T21:54:00.000-08:00

ok so funny, traumatizing story about me. last night i was trying to open a mix-in for my water...i put it in my mouth to tear it open and WHAM! it exploded in my face! up my nose, in my eye! SCREAMING!!!!!!!!! i started freaking out cause ben wasn't home and i felt like my eye was going to explode. i had to flush it in the kitchen sink and i swear i stuck my head there for 20 minutes trying to get the point where i could open my eye. then i had to blow my nose for fifty flippin' years! but here's the great part...the powder went through my nose ring and came back out onto my nose. and it did that all night and even this morning. poor zander thought my nose was bleeding cause the mix in was red. oh it was traumatic....i now use scissors to open them.
jade is almost walking now...she is moving all around the furniture now. it's crazy! she's adorable 98% of the time and i adore her! she is a showboat and loves attention from other people. she waves her hand and claps until people ohhh and awww over her.
i'm trying to get ronan to release his pacifier to just nap times. this is a tough situation because for ronan it's not just a 'paci'. he associates his paci with his hair twirling and that soothes him. so he hasn't quite figured out how to play with his hair without sucking his paci. sooo....its a lot tougher to break the pacifier use. but we're going to micheals to try to find a box to decorate and make a paci box for his bed. we'll see how that works.
zander is cracking me up since turning 5. he swears that everything is different. he's not scared of certain things, he thinks he can play different games, and of course --- his teeth are bigger. it's hilarious!
and if i haven't mentioned it recently, I LOVE MY HUSBAND!

dieting sucks

2010-01-19T22:19:00.000-08:00

i finally realized...a little slower than usual, that i've been in denial. i really thought i could just work out and lose weight. nope...i must return to the diet. so yup...diet starts today. which means crabbiness starts today. grumpy, crabby and in desperate need of a pizza. desperate...i need carbs.
tonight was small group and it was a refreshing time as we dive into ephesians. i studied it this summer in a bible study but i swear you could read that book forty times a year and learn amazing new things every time you read it. its so jammed packed! i love coming together with other believers and learning new insights and truths from their perspectives. the Bible is definitely a supernatural book.
i also got my new engagement ring tonight! we got my solataire reset along with my grandmother's smaller diamonds. i have to say it is amazingly beautiful! i have the best husband ever who did it for me! woo hoo! it's nice.
jade is now moving around furniture now. i guess its a matter of time till she takes off walking. i'm so not ready for that. i want to freeze her. haven't i said that before? i'm losing my baby and that kills me!
zander is convinced that since he turned five that things are going to be very different for him. he told me today his teeth are bigger cause he's five, and that he's not scared of anything anymore, and that he's definitely almost as tall as me. he also forced me to let him get his hair cut yesterday. that kills me but apparently he's old enough to inform me that he NEEDS to have it cut. and he tells me how he wants it cut. :(
little ronan is a character. as always. but the latest thing is his singing. i catch that boy singing all the time. even when he's by himself in his room 'reading'. his little voice is precious. he sings on key and is definitely taking after his father. but it's funny cause ronan is a little punk sometimes but when he sings he becomes angelic. his face softens and he's just adorable.
ok so i'm watching american idol while i'm writing this so i'd better stop cause i'm pretty sure i've stopped making sense.

Happy 5th Birthday Zander!

2010-01-14T23:18:00.001-08:00

I don't know how I've gotten old enough to have my baby turn 5! I am so proud to be the mother of this incredible little boy. He is very smart, affectionate, funny, and a loving boy. he lights up my life every day with his sparkling eyes and incredible smile. i love the way he dances to any song he hears even if its in the middle of the store and he no one's watching. he truly doesn't care, he just feels the need to groove. i love his humor and the weird jokes he tells. i love the way his face changes when he sees his sister and how the only thing in the world he wants is to be near her and make her laugh. i love when he wrestles with his brother and they laugh and laugh until they're crying. i love how he has to be touching you somehow when he sits besides you.
Zander you are amazing and i love you dearly. happy 5th birthday! hope its amazing!

working out

2010-01-13T23:18:00.000-08:00

OH. MY. WORD. i'm dying here. my muscles are ready to peel themselves away from the bone and just fall to the floor. every movement, every breath, every twitch just hurts. but i'm determined. 2 days....but i did learn something valuable at the gym the other night. do NOT engage anybody there who's arms are bigger than your head. they've been there too much and are obsessed with the gym and spreading their 'gym-ee-ness'. i made the mistake of simply making a joke towards a man with arms that wouldn't fit through a door but a head the size of a pin. i told him he could'nt come into the little dumbell room...that's it. and the door opened...apparently he heard "WE SUCK AT LIFTING WEIGHTS, PLEASE SHOW US EVERYTHING YOU KNOW!" which obviously let me state, is NOT what i said. so he proceeded to shadow us around the weight room showing us how to 'properly' use our tricepts. hahaha...stupidness.

the house of the plague

2010-01-11T21:34:00.000-08:00

well we've been through the ringer at the annen household! i really felt like there were days i was going to go play in traffic, but we are on the mend. after all the cold respiratory crap, we were all starting to get better....my ears are still plugged which causes a lot of dizziness, but the cough is gone which is HUGE for me. cause coughing with ear infections is not fun. ronan and jade are doing much better! jade had a second round of antibiotics with her ears but she's doing great now. however, saturday night zander got super sick and was vomiting like crazy. the kind were you can't even roll over or stand up without throwing up. he threw up on my carpet, my bed, and off the top bunk. oh my...that was insane. we put him on the floor beside us and he just clung to my hand the whole night. fortunately it was only that night. he was doing better by sunday evening and completely better by today. i have washed and washed and washed some more and lysoled the whole house and then did it again. i am praying hard for jade and ronan and that they won't get it. i now need to get back to the doctor to get my ears checked and figure out why i can't hear. but today is way better than even a few days ago.
a few more updates....jade turned 10 months on sunday and has just filled this house with joy. she is hilarious and is always trying to find someone to look at her to laugh with her. she climbs up the stairs, claps her hands, waves, and tries to climb into the bottom bunk to get to ronan. she is getting much better with ronan and playing with him. they love playing together in the play house in the living room. i love to hear her laugh. she adores her daddy and just lights up when he's anywhere near. if she's taking a bottle and he comes home, she's done with me and quits eating. he has to finish for her.
also ben and i have joined a gym and are working out with some friends. we alternate nights, husbands one night, wives the next. i'm excited but nervous too. i've done one night and ben two nights. my ears are creating a small issue but i'm still determined. so wish us luck! now if i could just curb my appetite. :)

A gut wrenching day

2010-01-02T23:00:00.000-08:00

Today was one of the hardest emotional days i've had in a long time. A friend of mine from our old church cabc, and sits at my table for "a mother's haven", had her husband pass away on dec. 26. he left behind his beautiful wife and adorable two boys 4, and 2. apparently he was suffering from a brain tumor that no one knew about and passed away quietly in his sleep. this is definitely one of those things i don't understand. where i want to shake my fists and God and scream "it's not fair!" But God knows that, it's our grief...and I know he's familiar with humans and their mourning. but God was gracious, the husband spent the last three years without going through chemo and surgeries and fatigue. they may not have even had their second son knowing he was dying. but instead they lived in peace and happiness and enjoyed their time together. and the husband was training to be a fireman and so they had moved home with my friend's parents while there was no income coming in...so there she was, surrounded by the people that loved her the most as she woke to this horror. the family has surrounded her and supported her and she has not been alone. many men came forward at the funeral to vow to take care of those boys and teach them to surf, take them to little league, and just step in. God may not always be understandable, but he is always good. its hard to swallow sometimes. i had only met my friend's husband a few times, but i cried and cried as people testified to his character and love for his family and esepcially his wife. he adored her. they played a song that he wrote for her and it was beautiful. i cried for two hours straight...
if you remember, pray for this family tonight. and hug your husbands and wives and be so grateful that they are there beside you. in a blink of an eye they could be gone.

the week from hell.

2010-01-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

this week has been riddled with illness after illness. i'm so done with it all. it started with zander getting sick and it going into a sinus infection...not an ear infection. the after hours doctor was crazy. the next day z woke up vomiting and jade had not slept all night so i took them both in. the stupid P.A. said that z was gagging on his snot and that jade was fine. that night z started feeling better but jade was up ALL NIGHT...so the following evening ben took jade in to after hours pediatrics and they said she had the worst ear infection they'd seen in a while. ok so in 24 hours she went from nothing to a raging ear infection?! doubtful....stupid P.A. then the next night ronan got really sick and wasn't sleeping. he was coughing and weezing. so i had to take him to after hours by myself with ALL the kids cause ben wasn't out from work yet and it was the only appointment. we got there and they confirmed ro was wheezing and that his oxygen levels were low. so they did a breathing treatment there (did i mention i was there with three kids...) and gave us more antibiotics and an inhaler. and then she warned me the meds in the inhaler and the breathing treatment were going to make him hyper. aka...CRAZY! then the next night (that's thursday night in case you've lost track...yes that's tues, wed. and thur night) i went to the urgent care cause my ear was killing me and i couldn't stop coughing. cause i had been sick all week too. a fever for three days all while trying to take care of my sick kids. its been great let me tell you....anyways, apparently no ear infection for me, just really big glands pushing on my ear. but i did get the good stuff cough meds...yea for that. so now we are slowly on the mend. its been a long week. i did things i didn't think i was capable of while being so sick. like running from ronans room to jades room while they both cried during their naps from being so sick...and then i sat outside the room and bawled from being so sick myself. but man, God does give you strength in your weakness. i had lots of people praying for me and it was greatly felt.

a funny story about today. we went to fuddruckers for lunch cause we all really needed to get out of the house. well i was on the phone talking to my friend ann and holding jade on my hip. ben was watching the boys play. he came up and took jade and i sort of saw him say to her, "are you stinky jade?" then he pulls her up and sees the poop running down her leg...then his shirt....all covered with yellow poop....then i realize i should also look down...yup, all over my sweatshirt...i screamed to ann that i had to go and ran to the bathroom. but to make matters worse, i had ONE wipe left in my case. ONE WIPE! thats what you get for staying home for a week...you forget to check the diaper bag. so i had to get creative. her sock, her pants, then i got a poor little girl standing in horror watching me, to get paper towels and wet them for me. eventually i got her cleaned up. a quick run to target and ben, jade, and i were all poop free. gotta love antibiotics.

ugh....

2009-12-26T21:36:00.001-08:00

zander has his first double ear infection...his first ear infection ever!!! he's almost 5! apparently having a cold and then going sledding and swimming causes an infection to go crazy...my poor boy!

Palm Springs 2009

2009-12-24T21:42:00.000-08:00

well we have been in palm springs since monday night. it has been a lot of fun but very busy! tuesday we went swimming at my parents condo and then tuesday night we had christmas with them at their place. on wednesday we took the kids to the top of the ariel tram to see snow. it had recently snowed and it was beautiful! it reminded me of colorado! the sky was so blue! ronan was excited but a little freaked out by small things. he didn't like sledding cause it was too fast. it also stressed him out that the snow stuck to his little gloves. he kept tearing them off saying they were dirty! jade liked the snow till she face planted...my fault. and she liked sledding with daddy. zander loved everything about it! sledding, snow angels, snowmen, climbing on fallen trees, and of course snow ball fights. and he threw an ice block at my face and slashed my chin. hmm...mama didn't like that one. that night we ate dinner with my parents and then went to the living desert to see the light display. its beautiful there! zander even tried to 'ice skate' for the first time. it was actually the 'iceless' iceskating cause it was a sheet of plastic or something. it was HARD! even ben struggled skating. it was like a cruel joke...let's let the so cal kids try ice skating for the first time on impossible fake ice so that they'll never ever want to try it again. but zander loved it and did much better with ben helping him.

today we had a simply laid back day by the pool. zander has learned to snorkel even though he still can't swim without water wings. but he's REALLY good at snorkling! i honestly thought he'd hate it and not want to do it...but then i realized that's me and snorkling! :) introduce it young i guess. ronan is fearless in the water with his little waterwings. its cute. and jade, well she gets down right excited to be splashing and kicking. she loves it. and they sleep GREAT afterwards! tonight we had christmas eve dinner at the cheesecake factory. we brought our cheesecake back to the room and watched alittle of elf before we put the kids to bed. tomorrow we head home. sad...forutnately ben is home friday, saturday and doesn't have to do worship on sunday. it will be nice to be together with nothing to do. but i have to say....i miss my extended family bad. :( my parents leave for michigan tomorrow and i'm jealous. who knows...maybe next year i'll have oodles of extra cash and the determination to fly with three kids...or maybe not. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!

ps...if you wanna see more pics of the vacation you'll have to check out facebook.

The Boys singing

2009-12-20T23:20:00.000-08:00

tired of pictures yet?

2009-12-20T22:29:00.001-08:00

ok, picture freak here...but its the holidays! the pictures loaded backwards so its in reverse order.

this was the boys at church singing. it was ronan's first performance and he sang and rang his bell! they were both so cute!!!

Zander saw me taking a pic and shoved the bell in ronan's ear....brothers.

singing their hearts out!

coming in to the stage.

finally, jade in her christmas dress!

cannot believe how happy they all are! ben was doing some crazy stuff to get these laughs!

the cutest boys in the world.

this is before zander's preschool performance

Zander at his preschool doing sign language to silent night.

no, he's not flicking you off...its the sign for virgin

and well, i have so many cute outfits and so few days for jade to wear them before she outgrows them! how many pictures can i take in front of the tree? :)

Jade's 9 month pics

2009-12-19T21:13:00.000-08:00

we got jade's 9 month pics today and she was adorable! the photographer said when i come back to pick them up that they will probably have a consent release form for me to sign to use her pics on publications, etc. :) awww...nice.

A trend

2009-12-17T22:48:00.000-08:00

I've started noticing a trend among mothers. its really funny and once its pointed out, i'm sure you'll notice it too; or hear it. :) its always in public. i hear the annoying voice of a young child badgering their mother with their incessant talking. then the mother says something like "i have no idea LOVE!" (or my love). but there's always a stutter right before they speak the word love through their gritted teeth. its like calling them love keeps them from calling their children you "obnoxious, loud mouth little buttmunch!" which you know is what is going on in their heads. why do i know this? cause well, i've had those moments. i love my children, but sometimes they just don't stop talking! so to make your concious feel better you throw out the word "love" so it makes you feel like your children aren't hearing your crazy annoyance with their talking. cause you know that's not right...they're just children and they talk. but you're annoyed anyways. so listen up the next time you're in walmart or target...:) or listen to yourself! ok, silly rant over.

practice makes perfect

2009-12-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

some friends of mine let me practice taking pics on their kids. here are just a few. they were adorable subjects! however, please keep in mind these are completely unedited so cute me some slack on the lighting and coloring!

little isaiah marte (ronan's bestest buddie)
his big brother noah (and z's buddie)

Elizabeth Riley

Her twin sister Caitlin

they were just gorgeous

Jade's 9 month Stats

2009-12-15T20:37:00.000-08:00

Jade went to the doctor today for her 9 mo check up. well weirdly enough she gained no weight from the last time she was there at 6 mo! she's still at 20 lbs, 29 1/2 " long (97%), and i can't remember her head. so the doctor asks me how much formula i'm feeding her in addition to her food, and i told her about 20-24 oz a day. so she says that jade should be eating 26-30 at this age. what the heck?! last time i was there she told me i was giving her too much! ugh...so now i feel like i've been starving the poor girl. so we're upping the formula yet again. and if you've seen jade it's not like she's tiny...so i had no idea. i'm still not convinced their scale wasn't off. but she's moving all over the place now so i'm sure that's part of it too. she dropped from 89% for weight to 76%. so she's still above average for sure. :)

Jade Giggling

2009-12-13T21:20:00.000-08:00

Jade does jingle bells

2009-12-10T22:37:00.000-08:00

ok i know i shouldn't have allowed this to happen, but i was taking pics, then it just looked cute...and well, i was close by the whole time. so here is Jade and her jingle bell!

Zander's 3 Cavities

2009-12-09T21:43:00.001-08:00

Today was zander's big day for his 3 cavities. They gave him laughing gas, numbing gel, and shots. he kept throwing his hands in the air and waving them around. it was very funny. the funny thing is, that zander on laughing gas, is pretty much as bizarre as zander normal. it was hard to tell if it was even having an effect on him at all. but he did a great job and kept his mouth open and was very patient. aftewards however, he was a NIGHTMARE! everything made him cry. he whined, he pouted, he just was a pill. and his face itched and that drove him crazy. but fortunately by tonight he was doing a lot better and less obnoxious. btw, ronan just came out from bed and said he had a booger in his nose he couldn't get it out and for me to be gentle. ahhh...poor ronan. i'm off to pick.

A little bit about Miss Jade

2009-12-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

or jadey as ronan says. and sissy as zander says. i swear the girl has completely changed in just a few days. first off she has 5 teeth that she got in four weeks! yes it's been brutal. she got her bottom two, her top two FANGS! and her one top middle tooth in the center. yes, she decided to get her teeth in her own order, not anyone elses. and then the last two days we've been cooped up because of the weather and plumbing, and all sorts of other things. well jade decided that she can cover the entire span of our square footage in about five minutes. she doesn't get up on her knees, but she pulls herself across the hardwood floors like a penguin. she's always figured out how to go from lying on her belly to sitting up. i think mostly to escape ronan trying to get to her hair. and she tried to go up and down the stairs. i'm not sure if she could have succeeded cause i stopped her before she smashed her head. she also slides under the furniture trying to get toys, dirt, and anything else that sticks to her fingers. then yesterday at dinner she decided she would finally start trying to feed herself. usually the fingers have problems getting the food to her mouth. but not anymore...super baby is here! she's growing up too fast and i can't stand it. i want to wrap her up and keep her my baby. i love to cuddle her and squish her and i don't want to let that go. if she's my last baby this is a really precious time and its disappearing way too quickly! she's so happy but she cries now when i drop her off in the nursery if it's a new worker. i hate that! her little pouty lip is soooo sad! her cries unnerve me way more than the boys' cries did. i just want to pick her up and save her from anything that could possibly be bothering her. not that i didn't want that with the boys, it just was a little easier to ignore them and get the necessities done first. jade just stresses me out when she cries! anyways, that's about it.
oh except on the work front. my amazing, hardworking, dedicated, above average husband got his six month review this last week! and it was AMAZING (the review and well....the RAISE!)!!! i am sooo proud of him and God is good! i'm so thankful ben got a job at ashford and has been doing so well!

i've been gone....

2009-12-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

mentally that is. thanskgiving was good. i enjoyed having my brother here and the kids adore him! black friday...went really good. got everything in needed and wanted. 4:30 at walmart...good times. christmas tree stuff up. even my car is decorated with christmas lights thank you ben. went to ben's christmas party! got sick that morning and that night but somehow made it through his party. took christmas card pics today. so here's just a buttload of pics and i'll try to catch up with my life later.

setting up the tree

Ben's christmas party

my precious daughter!

my adorable boys!

the whole family!

small praise

2009-11-24T23:28:00.000-08:00

i got my wallet back tonight. someone found it in a trash can in albertsons. lots of things were missing but some priceless things were there. like pictures of my kids and on my wedding day. but gone are my checks, license, cards, seaworld and zoo passes. i felt disgusted picking it up and realizing they had gone through everything. including a precious letter from my husband. i felt violated. i'm so angry. and the police called at 6:54 am this morning. so i missed that call. i called them four more times and they never called back. i am pissed at sdpd. stupid people.

the crappiest night ever

2009-11-23T23:05:00.001-08:00

so tonight we ran up to big lots to get a toy drum set for ronan that they had on sale. we got there and realized that they were out of them and decided to head to the other big lots. so off we went. after we bought our stuff i realized that i had left my purse at the other store in the cart. so off we went...ben called the store and asked if anyone had turned in my purse. well the manager said it was already picked up!!!!! WHAT?!!!!!! so i dropped ben off at home to put the kids to bed and off i went. so here's what happened. a lady turned in my purse to the cashier. the manager looked inside the purse and saw my name on the checks. but then the manager went on break. the cashier got a call from a woman who described what was in the purse and said her husband was on her way to get it. the man came in and said his name was dillon and she just forked it over to him. she didn't ask what his wife's name was, or check if his name matched what was on the checks. SHE JUST FRICKIN' GAVE IT TO HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and of course the video feed was frozen so they had to call coorperate and get them to hack into the system. i am devestated...and angry....and frightened....and just completely overwhelmed. it had my keys, credit card, bank card, checks, digital camera, and the irreplaceable video camera which had many of jade's 'firsts' on it. we had to hide our cars cause the police believe it was too thought out and that they would more than likely come for our cars since they have my address on my license. ben has to change the locks on the house which he can't do till tomorrow so i get to live in fear tomorrow. they emptied our bank account and charged our credit card. we've had to freeze everything. i'm just so flippin' overwhelmed. there's so much to do and i'm so afraid i'll miss something. we have to get our car keys changed too which isn't going to be cheap. but believe me big lots is GOING TO PAY FOR IT!!!! ugh...shoot me.

weekend update

2009-11-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

good times....we thought ronan broke his foot on friday by jambing his big toe on a door jamb. but the top of his foot was what was hurting him and he was limping like crazy. then z started getting sick again and coughing like a fool. he said his chest was hurting so i didn't know if he was getting a 2ndary infection or if he was getting something new. there was no fever but i decided to take them both to urgent care on saturday and just get it over with. well let me explain just how fun it is with two boys in a little curtain covered area for 3 1/2 hours! ronan was a terror and you can't yell at him cause well, there are people all over waiting to call cps on me. zander was bored out of his mind and very tired of wearing the stupid doctor mask to cover his cough. every five minutes, ronan don't touch that, ronan touch pull that, ronan don't squeeze that, ronan don't hit your brother, ronan STOP! ugh...it was a nightmare. anyways, by the time i got home i was a raw nerve. but fortunately ronan didn't have a broken foot and zander was getting a new illness. so i got home put the boys to bed and then jade woke up from her nap. sigh...i hate days when there is no mutual sleeping. i'm spoiled i know. but the lord knows what i need! so where was ben? he was at the new moon movie. i went friday night and ben went saturday. and then we both went again saturday night. i love that movie. and yes, i added a new ticker for the next movie already!

eye bulging moment

2009-11-18T20:26:00.000-08:00

ugh...so not a good night. so i had one of those eye bulging, head twisting, out of body moments tonight. and as it was happening, in my head, i realize, oh my word...this is over the stupidest thing! here's the scenario...i'm cooking dinner, jade is on the floor bawling her eyes out FOR NO GOOD REASON! zander has come into the kitchen four times now and asked to watch a movie. four times i've said no. on the fifth time i lose it...jade's screaming, zanders bugging, and i feel my eyes start to bulge, my head start to twist, and every vein in my body pop out. and i'm screaming liking a banchee at him, at jade, at the wall. then it hits me, oh for the love, my mother is on the phone still. yea, i was talking to her while cooking dinner...and yes, she's just witnessed one of the crappiest blow outs i'vehad. talk about humbling...nothing like having someone else witness your exorcist moments, let alone your mother! i'm sure i'll hear from cps in the morning...
but on a positive note, having someone else witness it brought a deeper repentence and awareness of my need for forgiveness from both my children and my heavenly father. so we all sat down to pray together at bedtime and i apologized through prayer and to them directly. so as traumatizing as it was to have my mother hear me, there's nothing like having someone hear your horrible moments. but then isn't God always there to hear those horrible moments? and doesn't his heart break each time? ugh....bad night, good night, eye opening night.

a cute pic

2009-11-16T23:12:00.000-08:00

these are cute!

poopiness

2009-11-16T23:06:00.000-08:00

i am completely overwhelmed and behind so here's a quick update. i had food poisoning today so i'm out of wack and way behind. nevermind the fact that i was gone all weekend and even further behind. ben stayed home today to help me so that was nice. i swear i feel like i get food poisoning all the time lately. weak stomach i guess. so friday we kidnapped melissa from my small group, and by we, i mean the rest of the small group girls. so we took her to dinner and then to an overnight in ramona. it was a lot of fun and good girl time. i have never had such friends that i've allowed in so closely in a long time. they are great girls and i love them. i hope melissa had fun too. on saturday ben and the kids came up and met me and we stayed till sun. morning. the kids LOVED the pool and had quite the middle of the night funny/trauma.
in the middle of the night saturday night we heard a blood curdling scream. like the kind you convince yourself you're going to walk in and see your child dead. so we took off to the boys room were they were sleeping together. zander was sitting in his bed bawling and ronan was trying to get into the closet. poor z claimed to have hit his head on his suitcase...but well, that was on the other side of the room. then he claimed his bunk bed, yup, that's at home. finally he said the table. so when he screamed he woke ro up who instead of helping his bro, he freaked and ran for the door crying! flee the scene child, good job. but instead he got the closet door cause he couldn't find the other door. so he was even more traumatized. poor silly children. however, jade slept through it all. even though she was sleeping in their bathroom. don't ask....

when jade goes spew!

2009-11-12T21:36:00.000-08:00

ew ew ew...that's all i have to say!!! tonight i was feeding jade 'garden vegetable pasta". ok first off its the standard ground up nastiness that babies generally eat. well its red too. ok so enough of that description. well she was eating and eating and completed about half of the jar. then all of a sudden she started acting like she was gagging. but there are NO chunks in it. of course she may have regurgitated a small book she ate earlier in the day (all the paper i swear...). but then it happened....her mouth opened as in slow motion and out started the spewing! all the red nasty smelly crap! all over her, the highchair, but because i screamed and ran away, NOT on me. ok probably shouldn't have screamed and ran away when my poor baby was spewing...but well i did. it was gross. i did take her out of the highchair and clean everything up. but there was no fever and praise God, no repeat vomiting. ahhh....i love gross-ness. yay for random throwup.