It's warming up

The weather has been getting warmer and warmer. I'm afraid a tiny bit TOO warm for March (for my liking anyway), but it's still been nice to be able to get outside and enjoy the fresh air.

I took the kids to the park earlier this week. Leah is quite the poser. I did not tell her to do that.

 Brandon was a bit bored. We didn't come with any friends. (how dare I?)

Leah could have had me snap pictures of her all day though.

Carter has been LOVING the electric car from Grammy and Pop Pop. And no, I do not let him drive by himself. He at least has to have Ashlyn or Leah sitting next to him. But he does pretty well with them helping steer a bit.

He's getting big and starting to out grow his baby swing, although he still enjoys me pushing him in it from time to time. 

I haven't started my (tiny) garden yet, but I figured it was about time to plant some flowers in the front yard. The kids "helped" me so I can't say they are perfectly positioned, but oh well. Carter also had fun finding worms and lining them up on the sidewalk. I "think" no worms were harmed though and hopefully he got them all back into the dirt. 

With Spring, I have decided it is time to get busy on one of my New Year's Resolutions and get the kids more involved with helping around the house. They've always had little chores here and there and have had opportunities to earn money, but now it's in WRITING. You see, my kids were starting to pretty much walk all over me. Ordering me around, yelling at each other (and me), and leaving messes everywhere (especially in their rooms).  I had pretty much had enough. So I texted my SIL who sent me a pdf of the chore chart she uses and I got to filling it out. Everyday the kids have to complete their chores before they can watch TV or do anything fun or extra. We are only two days into it, but I'm hoping it will help. If they don't complete all of their chores each day, not only do they not get TV, but they also don't earn any money. The kids seem excited. Ashlyn said she is a bit nervous. Claims I looked pretty "serious" about it all when I explained it. And she's right. I am serious! I'm sure there will be some tweaking of assignments and such, but I'm hoping that after a while we'll get into a good rhythm and things will go more smoothly.

Ironic

This is what you call complete irony. The boy who refuses to dress properly during the daytime hours, wears long sleeve shirts and long pants to bed almost every night.

Why? I DO NOT KNOW!

The Ellen Show

So my friend Tina is a huge Ellen fan. A few years or so ago, she started getting tickets to go to a show once a year. I couldn't go the first year since I had a nursing baby, but made it last year and this year. Last year was hard but fun. We had to be there SUPER early (like 6 am) to get in line for standby tickets. So literally by the time we got in the show (which we thankfully did) I was so beat, it was hard to yell and scream and dance for a solid hour. This year was SO much better. Tina and I both got 4 tickets each and GUARANTEED seats, which meant no getting up before the crack of dawn. We were SO excited. Our group of awesome girls included Tina, Beth, Brooke, Becky, Mindee, Brittany, Lisa and myself. We left around 1pm and got to the show and checked in by 2pm. Then we sat around and chatted for a while. They brought us in around 3:30 and the show starting taping at 4. It really only takes an hour to film, but by the time we got out of the studio and got our totally random $700.00 air purifier that was given to everyone in the audience, it was close to 6pm. We headed to the Americana on Brand for some dinner at Cheesecake Factory and to celebrate Brooke's birthday, which is next week. I could have sat and chatted, laughed and ate until the restaurant closed, I was having so much fun! It was the best day! Can't wait until next year. I hope we get guaranteed seats again. That made all the difference.

Date Night

If I had my choice, Paul and I would go out once a week (maybe more). But at this stage in our life, with young kids and such, we are glad to be doing well to get out together twice a month. Paul picked our date this time, as he REALLY REALLY wanted to go to this art exhibit at Pepperdine University. All of the art was from the early 1900's and were original pieces. They were AMAZING. I'm not sure I've ever seen too many original pieces of art like this. And while I'm no where nearly as educated about art as Paul is, I really had a fun time looking at everything. After the exhibit, we went out to dinner and of course ended our date at Target picking up a few needed items before Sunday. Isn't that where any good date ends? Haha...ok, not really, but I know I'm not the only one that does this.

I don't necessarily love what this artist decided to paint, but what caught my attention when I saw it across the room, is that I literally thought it was 3D. It was only as I got up on it that I realized it wasn't. It was incredible how the artist was able to bring so much depth to a flat image. I had to show incredible restraint to keep from reaching out and touching every painting I looked at, most of which had slight line cracks from being so old.

A lot of art in the early 1900's were for magazines and advertisements. This one was for a "no run" pantyhose. Pretty awesome huh!

This one was entitled, "Secret Admirer". I thought it was so endearing.

Mary washing Christ's feet. 

This artist's story is so sad. He is the brother of a very famous artist who never felt like he was as good as his brother. He ended up dying a tragic death (from an overdose). It's incredible to me that he somehow looked at this painting after he was done, and felt like it wasn't "good enough". 

The next several pictures are from JC Leyendecker and are quite amazing. 

He's one of Paul's all time favorite artists. Norman Rockwell has been said to pattern his artist style after him. So that tells you a bit about how talented this guy was.

This was probably my favorite one though. It's a painting of a first flight in an airplane. It's just beautiful to me. And really, these pictures just don't do the real things justice. I'm so glad we were able to go. 

Isn't this the cutest thing ever? I wanted to reach out and kiss this adorable baby Cupid myself!

The Count of Monte Cristo, for all my friends who "recently" (okay, it's been a couple years probably) who got together to watch this movie one night.

And of course, the very typical photo of me and Paul when we have no one to take a picture of us together. Love you honey!

Sweet Sayings by Brandon

We were driving down the road today when Brandon looks out the window and says, "Mom why do people throw their trash all over the ground? This is God's earth and we should keep it clean". Cute right? A few minutes later I turn the corner heading down Soledad and he sees a guy dressed in black dress pants and a white shirt. So he says to me, "Look, that guy looks like a missionary. Except he doesn't have a tag. Mom, did you know Daddy was a missionary a long time ago?" I said yes, he does look like a missionary but you're right he doesn't have a tag, so it must just be the clothes he has to wear to work in. And you're right, Daddy was a missionary. Do you want to be a missionary someday like Daddy? To which he says, "No". Haha...so much for his sweet sayings.

Poor Carter

This boy has had a rough start to 2013. As if having pneumonia wasn't bad enough, tonight he can add "stitches" to his list. Well, not stitches exactly thankfully, but he did have to have a cut glued shut tonight. Here's what happened. I had dropped Ashlyn off at Girl Scouts and then come home to make dinner before having to go back and get her. I was rushing around trying to get it done when I called to the kids to hurry and get in the car. I followed behind them opening my passenger side front door to put my bag in the seat. Carter was in the process of climbing in and somehow slipped and fell landing with the back of his head on the ground by the open passenger side door. He had his hands on his face but I heard his head hit the ground so I assumed that was why he was crying. I picked him up and that's when I noticed he had a bad gash right under his right eye. I rushed him inside to get a wet paper towel and see how bad it was. It only took one look to see it was more than just a little cut. I put him in the car and rushed to my friend Tina's house. She was originally going to take Leah to jazz class for me with her daughter who is in the same class. I had her run out to look at it and she too felt it was more than just a little cut. Tina was my lifesaver and grabbed my other kids without even a second thought(or me even asking actually) and then went and picked up Ashlyn for me too while I got Carter to urgent care. I had already called Paul and he was on his way home at this point, but I called him again to give him an update once I got to the doctors office. Luckily there wasn't a wait and they got Carter right in. They said it wasn't awful but would need to be glued to help it heal right. I was so glad it didn't need stitches. Carter was a trooper and was so good while they looked at it and cleaned it. But that changed when they came at him with the glue. He freaked out. The doctor said it was actually good because he pinched his eyes shut crying and caused the cut to close in just the right way for it to be glued. The whole ordeal from the time it happened until the time I was back home was only about an hour and a half. But man it felt much longer. Paul picked the other three up from Leah's jazz class where Tina had brought them and met me at home soon after I got there.

I am just so grateful to have such amazing friends who help at a moments notice when they have their hands full as well. It would have been a much bigger ordeal if it wasn't for Tina's help! And I know any of my friends would have done the same. I feel very blessed! And also humbled, hoping I can return the favor someday.

As soon as I got home Carter was back to himself wanting to play catch with the ball they gave him at the doctors office. Man I hope this is the last of his problems for a while. Poor boy! He's one brave little guy.

Birthday Playdate

Maybe I'm a lame mom, but I just can't do a big ole birthday bash every year. So since Leah will be 8 next year and will have a big party then, I told her she could invite a few friends from her class over and they could have a glorified playdate. She seemed content with that and chose to invite Gracie, Adriana and Kayla.

The girls played dress up in Leah's room for the first hour or more while Paul took the boys to get pictures printed and pick up the pizza for dinner. It made my life SUPER easy. I think I sat on the couch and read my book.

I found some cute little photo frames at the dollar bin in Target and the girls decorated them and then got to choose a picture of the four of them to put in it.

I told the girls to make silly faces, but only Gracie and Leah got into it.

Thanks to the internet for this "beautiful" Space Unicorn (as Paul called it). He photoshopped the tail off and voila....we had a pin the tail on the pony game.

And thanks to Pinterest for this variation of a pinata. It's basically candy wrapped up in a ball of saran wrap and the kids take turns unwrapping it while the next person tries to roll doubles. Once they roll doubles, the person unrolling stops and they get to keep the candy they got. 

Victorious cake!

Me and my birthday girl who forgot to make a wish she was so excited to blow out the candles. We told her the 10 second rule applied and to hurry and make one. LOL!

And as we know Leah gets a BIT excited when opening gifts. This was another Barbie movie from Gracie. I don't think poor Adriana is use to so much NOISE!

Gracie also got Leah matching shirts, for the second year in a row. I think it's going to become a tradition. It makes "twin day" at school very easy. Plus these two are so cute together!

After presents we popped the movie Gracie got Leah in the DVD player and I painted the girls toes. I'd say it was a pretty successful evening.

Me and my cutie! It was sure fun to see her so happy all day!

And now to take a break for a couple of months before Brandon turns 5! I keep trying to talk him into scooter's jungle (since it's his turn for a big party), but the boy is insistent on going to Chuck E. Cheese with his three pals Elijah, Carson and Ryan. I think it's because that's what Carson and Ryan did for their birthdays. So we shall see!