My baby nieces!

Ha...I tricked ya. They aren't born yet. BUT they will be SOON. Sometime in the next week probably. And I'm SO excited to see them. And I'm sure Heather is elated to not be pregnant anymore.

Doesn't she look amazing? My goodness there are TWO babies in there! She's all belly. I love it. Babies are SO exciting when they aren't in your own belly making you uncomfortable. (ok, they are still exciting when they are your own too, but you know what I mean.)

Yay!!! 

Pinkalicious "The Musical"

If you have girls, than you've heard of the book. Pinkalicious is wildly popular around here, so when my friend told me about the play coming to Santa Monica, we HAD to go. Seems we weren't the only ones. The show is completely sold out and apparently there is something like 400-500 people on the waiting list. They've added another run of the show in July, so you can still go see it if you'd like. The great thing about this little play, besides that it was adorable, was that it was short. Seventy five minutes long and that's including an intermission. The girls loved and and so did I.

Here's me with my girls (and Carter) and my Aunt Rhonda who came out to go see it with us. Having no girls herself, she takes any opportunity to do girlie things with me and mine. 

Hanging out waiting for the show to start.

The fun thing about going with another adult, is that I actually got to be in some pictures with my kids. Finally, some proof that I do spend time with them.

After the show, we walked back to the car and of course Ashlyn and Grace had to go potty. So Rhonda walked them back to the theater while Leah and I hung out in the car and played with the camera.

This one was all Leah. Evidently she didn't like how I was posing, so she told me what "funny face" to make.

And of course, no outing is complete without a little eating out. Submarina is one of the girls very favorites. So even though it was back up in our Valley, the girls held off their hunger pains and waited until we got back up here. They then each ate an entire 6 inch sandwich, chips and a soda.

Dreamworks Babies

I've had three babies since Paul has worked at Dreamworks. And every time one is born, his company sends us this big ole gift basket full of shirts, onsies, hats, stuffed bears, all sporting the Dreamworks Logo. I couldn't find a picture of Brandon wearing his Dreamworks attire, but I know he did. What I'm not sure about is if they send us these as a nice gesture, or if they are trying to use my babies as advertising! Probably a bit of both. 

This is Leah incase you aren't sure.

And here's my little Carter baby.

Who's that?

Who's that with all that STRAIGHT red hair you say?

Yup, you guessed it.

 I've been trying, begging, pleading for probably a year or more with Ashlyn to let me try and straighten her hair.....just once. She wouldn't have anything to do with it though. Until I bribed her that was (with marbles for her marble jar). I also had to promise her that it would go back to being curly after she washed it, which is completely did. But here you have it, Ashlyn's hair in all it's straight glory. I'm guessing when she's a teenager, she will probably be doing this to it on a semi regular basis. Don't people always want what they don't have???

Random happenings

I took Leah out on a mommy-daughter date a couple of Saturdays ago. She chose to go to Chilis. It was lots of fun. We ate and chatted about what some of her favorite things are. I took her to Target afterward to let her buy something with her money and she got mad at me for not letting her have a credit card (cuz she didn't have enough money to buy what she wanted).  Just can't win with that girl sometimes. Although it was a good time to teach her how we don't buy things we can't afford. I'm not too sure she cared about my lecture though. haha....

This little guy is just cute, so I thought I'd throw in a shot of him just for fun! I really need to take more pictures of him. He's growing so fast. This photo was taken a couple weeks ago and he already looks "small" in this picture.

Me and the mall don't jive too much these days. I always end up leaving completely exhausted from trying to wrangle my four kiddos and not look like the crazy momma I feel like. But I recently discovered that the new outside part of the mall is a much better place to be. The kids can run around without me having to worry about them. They have this cool firepit type thing, water spouts the kids can play in, a little train to ride (for only a buck if you buy 15 tickets at one time), and some other fun little photo op places.

This picture is for my mom who was asking me if Leah was taller than Ashlyn these days. Nope....Ashlyn may be a skinny little thing and may only be 3 or 4 pounds heavier than Leah, but she's still quite a bit taller. For now anyway.....

Brandon "insisted" on riding the train all by himself so that he could sit in the front. Darn boy...I'm such a sucker when it comes to him. And he definitely knows it.  (my phone camera has a delay on it. These pictures were the best I could get. I need to remember to bring my regular camera with me more often. Or maybe I should just get an Iphone 4. I know Paul would be happy with that, right honey.)

Hanging with some friends. 

What I wished

When I was a kid I loved babies. I wanted to hold other people's babies all the time. Wanted to play with them. Wanted them to love being with me. But darnit if these babies didn't always prefer their mommies. I hated it. I always thought, "someday I'll have my OWN babies and they will love me and prefer me over anyone else, and that will be SO fun". Well......fast forward 20 years (or so), and boy oh boy did I get my wish......Now I just need to figure out how to reverse it. Haha....Just kidding. I do love my babies and I do love that I can calm them when they are sad, or comfort them when they need to be comforted. But it would be nice if I didn't have to worry about them when I want to go out for the night...knowing they are crying their little heads off because I'm not there. It definitely makes it hard to leave very often. But I know it will only be for a short time. They will get older, and get better at being away from me. And then some day I am sure I will be wishing again that I had a little baby to hold. One that loved me and preferred me over anyone else......Sniff Sniff.....So for now I will try to just enjoy it. And be grateful that I have a sweet little baby. And if you don't see me out at night much, that is why.

Fun Facts

A couple of random things I have been thinking about and want to remember.

* Each of my babies is one inch longer than the previous at birth. Ashlyn was 18 (well and 1/2) inches, Leah was 19 inches, Brandon was 20 inches and Carter was 21 inches. Funny huh!
* Three of my four kids were born on a Holiday. Leah was born on Washington's Birthday (although celebrated on President's Day), Brandon was born on Earth day (which I didn't realize until he turned one), and Carter was born on Halloween. The best I have for Ashlyn is that every 7 years she gets her birthday on Friday the 13th (or is it every 6 years because of LeapYear?) I don't know.
* Leah and Brandon are exactly 2 years 2 months and (almost) 2 hours apart. Leah was born at 2:17 pm and Brandon came at 4:06 pm. So just a little shy of two hours. But still. Pretty fun!
* All of my babies throw me for a loop at the end of my pregnancy. Ashlyn had IUGR, Leah put me on bedrest with preterm labor, Brandon had low fluid levels, and well, Carter came a bit too fast for my liking (although that did make him my cheapest baby to have. Less time in the hospital, means less money out of my pocket).
*Carter is only two pounds away from being the same weight Ashlyn was when she turned ONE!
* If you add the digits in Leah's Birth month and day, you get the year she was born. 2 + 2 + 2 = 06. Same thing works for Brandon's Birthday too. 4 + 2 + 2 = 08

As a funny side note, Brandon has a cold. (don't worry, that's not the funny part). He HATES medicine (not the funny part either). So I tried to sneak a bit of benadryl in his sippy cup of apple juice to help dry up his nose. And you know what that little guy said to me??? (this is the funny part). He said, "Mom, did you put medicine in my apple juice?" When I denied it, he said, "It tastes like there is medicine in here".
I had to keep myself from cracking up laughing. I just kept a straight face and said I didn't know what he was talking about. That darn boy....way too smart I tell ya.