Floor Time

This little guy doesn't get much time on the floor. Because if he did, he would get stepped on, or jumped on, or smooshed in some way or another. But every once in a while I remember he needs to have some floor time, or sheesh, he's never going to learn to roll over. So I carefully put him down and then guard him best I can. Here I got lucky. Everyone else was preoccupied with something else. So he was safe. At least for a little while. And best yet, I think he was even having fun laying there. 

Julie

Since yesterday was a holiday and Ashlyn was off from school, I decided to have a little mommy-daughter (plus Carter) date and go down to the American Girl Doll Store at The Grove. Ashlyn was SO excited. She has been saving her money for a good 5 or 6 months waiting for something she really really wanted to buy. For a while I thought she would save it forever. But no. She finally found something worth spending it on. And spend it she did. Down to the last $5.00. And she was more than happy to do it. I've never seen her part with money so easily. But she came home with Julie's pet bunny "Nugget", pj's for Julie, a breakfast in bed kit for Julie, and a sweatshirt and pants outfit for Julie. Boy oh boy...this Julie is one lucky doll.

Ashlyn standing in front of a basketball outfit she is debating about buying for Julie. Julie does like basketball after all. But no, it didn't make the cut this time. Perhaps next visit.

This is Kanani. The new doll of the year.

After leaving that store we headed over to The Gap so she could spend her gift card she got from Pop for Christmas. She got two pairs of jeans and a new shirt. Then I told her I'd take her to lunch, but she chose to get a pretzel instead. So we got a pretzel, sat and chatted while we ate it and then headed home. I just love hanging out with this cute girl. She is getting so old and so fun to be with. She has lots of stories to tell. She's so patient and kind and never gets upset when something doesn't go her way (like for example, we couldn't go on the trolley at The Grove because I had Carter with me and couldn't unload and hold everything by myself. I felt bad, but she just said, ok, and then went on talking about her new things she got for Julie). I'm so proud of her and look forward to many more mommy/daughter dates in the future.

A Minivan...really??

I must admit, I have been known as a Minivan hater. I swore up and down that I would never...not ever, own one. Not me. No way, no how! Really and truly........That was then!

This is NOW! It took having four kids, but all I can say about it is that I am IN LOVE! I find myself wanting to go somewhere just to be able to easily load the kids and the groceries and the stroller and STILL have room to breathe. I have come over from the dark side. And I won't go back. Not until the kids are older, that is.

Having said that, I secretly (ok, not so secretly) love that we kept my Highlander. It's now Paul's car. But that's okay. He deserves a nice car after having to drive my old old metro that we bought when we were first married. Ironically enough, when he went to go clean it up and get it ready to sell, it wouldn't start. I would say it was divine intervention that we got this car when we did. Life is such a blessing and I love it!

Sleeping Baby

It's so funny to me the positions babies can fall asleep in. His head is practically falling off my lap.

Snow in SCV

It started out as a light flurry. We were all abuzz taking pictures thinking this would be the most we would get. But it didn't stop. It kept coming and then it starting to STICK! Hooray. Snow in our Valley. This probably hasn't happened for 20 years or more.

The kids came home and changed their clothes right away. We don't have snow gear here, so we had to improvise. Brandon refused to even put on a jacket (surprise surprise), so he didn't last too long, but he had fun throwing snowballs at the kid down the street. Leah and Ashlyn lasted a bit longer. And Paul and Leah even made a snowman together! He's little, but he's cute and he's the biggest snowman our yard will probably ever see!

New Year's Eve

Originally, we had plans to spend this day with some good friends. Unfortunately, Leah woke up with the beginnings of pink eye. Brandon had it a couple of weeks ago and my wonderful pediatrician had given me an extra refill of his prescription just incase one of the other kids got it. So as soon as I saw the blood shot look in her eyes, I started the drops and it cleared up quite quickly. So instead of hanging out with friends, we decided to make the most of the day and have a family outing. We started out at Boston Market for lunch (yum), then headed over to Best Buy so Paul could check out some speaker systems that he's hoping to get for our TV someday (soon hopefully). Then we decided to bag naptime and headed down to the LA zoo for the afternoon. After the zoo, we stopped at Krispy Kreme to take FULL advantage of the holiday "glutany". Once home, we got the boys down to bed and watched Toy Story 3 (a first for me. It was quite good, but no I did not cry). A little before nine, we tuned into the local TV station and counted down with New York City's ball drop. We toasted with some sparkling cider and called it a night. I know what you're thinking...we're such party animals huh! But hey, it's seriously more than we've ever done on New Year's Eve, so in a way, we were party animals! I'm sure it will get more exciting as the kids get older.

Seriously! Have you ever seen a wolf at the Zoo? I haven't. But it was COOL!

It wouldn't be a family outing, with out at least one kid meltdown right? At least that's the way it goes in our family.

This Hippo is HUGE! And we got to watch him walk all the way across his habitat. It took him a while.

Ok, if this is not the cutest most handsome face you have ever seen, than I don't know what is!

The weather was nice and cool, so a lot of the animals were out. It was fun to see so many walking around instead of laying around or hiding from the heat.

The elephant exhibit is awesome and SO big. And the greatest part is that you can see it from quite a few vantage points. VERY nice!

Photo with Daddy. You can see Brandon is still protesting his picture being taken.

Photo with Mommy. Daddy tricked Brandon here, that's why he's looking at the camera. Sneaky Daddy!

Not really sure how this fits in at the zoo, but it was a nice photo op.

Doing the countdown!

Cheers! (not sure why this decided to be underlined)

WELCOME 2011! I can't wait to see what this year brings us!

Carter's Baby Blessing

The day after Christmas was another busy one for our family. Since we had so much of Paul's side of the family in town, we decided it would be a nice time to bless Carter. I must admit, I was pretty worn out from Christmas and was kind of wishing we had waited to bless him on another day. But when it was all said and done, I was glad we were able to do it while Paul's family was here. That way his Dad and brother were able to be in the circle with Paul to bless little Carter. My brother also came, which was nice for me to have him there. (Thanks for remembering this time Ty.)

Unfortunately though, with all the craziness of Christmas, I didn't think to invite anyone else. So I'm really sorry if you are reading this and wondering why I didn't tell you about it. I've been a bit sleep deprived. I wasn't thinking straight.

Paul did a really nice job on the baby blessing, as usual. We are so very grateful to have this special little guy in our family. I know everyone probably says this about their own children, but I truly do feel like he was meant to be in our family. As hard as it was to be pregnant and as much as I hate labor/delivery/recovery (the whole shebang), I am so glad we have him. I couldn't be more blessed to have the children that I do. They are sweet and wonderful (and often quite crazy and sometimes naughty). They bring out the best (and the worst) in me. But they are mine and I wouldn't want it any other way!

The whole Schoeni clan (minus Steve's wife and daughter who weren't able to make it to the blessing).

Take away Pop Pop and insert my brother.

Just the six of us!

Okay, so picture taking wasn't all that smooth. I didn't care if they were both crying, I just wanted a family photo! This will just go down in the memory books as "life as usual".

Totally unrelated, but as soon as we got home, Leah changed, grabbed her 'laptop' and headed for the trampoline.