Excuses, excuses...

Can I list my excuses on why I have not posted in over a week? Ok, here are a few of them...

- I am hosting a bridal shower for my sister Amy here on Saturday and have been trying to get things done for that.
- The shower is a Christmas theme so I have been decorating the house like crazy for Christmas.
- Adam has been out of town so I have been a single mom again.
- We have had a nasty cold sweeping through our house that will not seem to go away.
- Thanksgiving holiday...speaks for itself.

Is that enough? :)

As you can tell, things have been pretty busy around here. Ashley had her 2 month birthday...I know, CRAZY that it has been two months already! We had her two month check up this last Tuesday and she is doing great. She weighs 11 lbs. 6 oz. which puts her in the 75th percentile. For height she is 23 3/4 inches long putting her in the 95th percentile!! I guess my little girl is going to be TALL like momma!! Besides her runny nose, Asher is doing wonderfully. She is even getting closer on the sleeping through the night thing...knock on wood. Last night she only woke up once. We will see how tonight goes! Keep your fingers crossed!

The boys are doing great as well. We went the day before Thanksgiving to see Santa Clause, figuring that we would beat the holiday rush for pictures. There was virtually no line so we were so excited. I has bought new shirts for the boys and an ADORABLE dress for Ashley for the occasion. I could not wait to get a great picture of my three beautiful children with Santa! When it was our turn to see Santa, Alec walked up right away and sat down with him to talk. Murphy's law, Aaron absolutely REFUSED to get anywhere near him. Mean Mommy that I am, I wanted to put him in Santa's lap anyway, even if he was screaming, just to get a picture of all three of them with Santa. Nice Daddy that Adam is, he refused to make Aaron do that. What this boils down to is that I spent $15.00 for a beautiful picture of Alec and Ashley with Santa Clause, with Aaron no where in sight. Sigh. Oh well! Better luck next year I guess!

Well, I gotta go and do some more stuff around the house for the shower on Saturday. I have some great pictures in my camera that need to be downloaded. Once I actually get around to doing that then I will have some better posts!

Smartalec or smart Alec?

Smart-alec or smart Alec, you decide!

Here is an example of the bit of attitude that is coming out my darling 4 year old lately....

Yesterday morning I was sitting on my bed nursing Ashley before getting Alec to preschool. I called Alec into my room and asked him to go, pick out his clothes, and get dressed for school; he ran off. About five minutes later I called for him to come in and see me. He walked back into my bedroom, still in his pajamas, holding a Thomas train. The conversation went like this...

Me, with a slightly irritated tone of voice, "Alec, what are you doing?"
Alec, with a slight sauciness to his voice, "right now?"
Me, getting even more irritated, "Yes, right now."
Alec, with total attitude, "Looking at you." (OMG!!!)
Me, now seriously pissed off, "WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN YOUR ROOM?"
Alec, now humble, "playing with trains."

Seriously!?!? Attitude like this already? AND this is not an isolated incident!! I really did not think that this would happen for a few years. In talking to my other friends who have boys that are Alec's age, this is normal. I am SO not liking it! Any advice from anyone?

For my Ashley

I was sitting folding laundry this weekend and listening to the radio and In My Daughter's Eyes by Martina McBride came on. I don't know if the song is new, or if I just never listened to the words before having not had a daughter before now, but this weekend this song touched my heart tremendously. I sat on the floor of my family room, surrounded by laundry, crying my eyes out.

I am so proud that God choose me to be Mommy to my little Ashley. I promise to set a good example and guide her so that she can grow up and achieve all her dreams.

In My Daughter's Eyes

In my daughter's eyes I am a hero

I am strong and wise and I know no fear

But the truth is plain to see

She was sent to rescue me

I see who I wanna be

In my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes everyone is equal

Darkness turns to light and the world is at peace

This miracle God gave to me gives me strength when I am weak

I find reason to believe

In my daughter's eyes

And when she wraps her hand around my finger

Oh it puts a smile in my heart

Everything becomes a little clearer

I realize what life is all about

It's hangin' on when your heart has had enough

It's giving more when you feel like giving up

I've seen the light

It's in my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes I can see the future

A reflection of who I am and what will be

Though she'll grow and someday leave

Maybe raise a family

When I'm gone I hope you see how happy she made me

For I'll be there

In my daughter's eyes

- Martina McBride

Saturday Evening Post...

Ok, so yesterdays post did not happen. Oh well. We had a crazy end of the week with a day long power outage, 2 year olds with colds and ear infections, and late night bunco games. To top it all off, Adam came home (he was gone all week) so we wanted to have a nice family night. It's hard to not see your husband all week then have him come home and say, "hey hon, I know I have not seen you all week, but I gotta go blog for a 1/2 hour." I know, my priorities are SO screwed up!! :)

Besides the colds and ear infections everyone has been doing very well. Ashley is becoming more and more of a smiley girl and we are all relishing in it.

Something happened with Aaron this last week and suddenly his vocabulary has exploded!! He will all of the sudden walk up to me with something in his hands and just say the name of the object. We will also be driving down the street and he will just be naming everything that he sees. I only understand about half of the words he is saying, but he is SO proud of himself...and of course we are proud of him also.

Alec is doing very well and is getting into the Santa Clause thing this year. Yesterday in the car Alec was unusually quiet, which usually means that something profound is going to come out of his mouth. He finally decides to speak and he asks, "Mommy, if Santa is always watching, then where is he watching from? Is he invisible? Does he disappear?" I of course was not prepared for these questions and had to think very quickly. I told him that there are little elves all over the place that watch and then report back to Santa. He bought it for the moment, but I have a feeling that more questions are to come. I have to say, the threat of Santa knowing all and it effecting the gifts that he will get on Christmas morning has really worked well. If I mention Santa then his attitude and actions change immediately. So how many years does this work for?

By the way...KOST is already playing Christmas music full time as of yesterday. A tad early in my opinion!

I am ready...

Things I am ready for in my life...

for Ashley to be sleeping through the night.
for my carpets to be cleaned.
for Adam to be done with school (he is ready for this also)
for cool weather to be here (it was in the 90's today)
for all my thank you notes to be written
for my body to be back in shape
for a vacation
for Christmas baking season to be here
for our Christmas tree
for Aaron to be potty trained
for the curtains to be completed and hung in my house
for financial worries to be over
for a new kitchen (my current one is falling apart)
for a night where I can actually go bowling and not have something come up so I can't go
for a piece of pumpkin pie
for Ashley to sleep through the night...oops, I am so tired I said this one twice
for Adam to be home

How weird is that???

When we were over at my Aunt Jane's house the other night for Destiny's birthday party the boys were in playing with the toy trunk. AJ's toys at the house mostly consist of toys from when her kid-o's were younger, which was about 20 years ago. Among the collection were some old Star Wars toys. One such toy was brought to my attention and I HAD TO take a picture of it to share.

Introducing Jedi Princess Leia!!!

I know what you are thinking...gosh, those legs are awfully big for a girl, and although the sleeves are belled at the end, the outfit seems quite manly, that can't possibly be Princess Leia.

Well, let's take a closer look...

Those buns on the side of the head are undeniable!! It's her!!!

This is just about the weirdest toy I have ever seen!

I LOVE IT!!!

Small story

I had a Pastoral Council meeting tonight and was working on my report for it all day today so this is going to be a short post. I have some cute pictures and videos to share, but those have to be downloaded first and that will happen tomorrow.

Just one small story to share. Since I had my council meeting tonight and Adam was not able to be home, my parents came over tonight to watch the kids for me. I was getting ready to leave and showing my mom all the stuff for Ashley and the boys. My mom and I were standing in the kitchen talking and all of the sudden Alec walks up to us with a bottle in his hand with made up formula in it. He proudly announced that he had made Ashley's bottle for the night! Mind you, I have never taught him how to do it, and I never even thought that he has watched me, but he made her bottle and did it perfectly!! I asked him exactly what he did and he repeated what he did, step by step, and it was right! WOW!! My little boy is getting way to big! What a helper he is!!

Happy Monday!

First of all, I have to start off by saying Happy Veterans Day! I have such a deep feeling of gratitude when I think about all the men and women who have put their lives in danger, some giving their lives for the sake of our country and our safety. I am proud to say that my Dad was one of those people who served to make the world a better and safer place. Thank you PopZ!

I woke up this morning, as I do just about every morning lately, to the sound of Ashley crying. By the time I got to her room Alec and Aaron were already up also and in there with her. They had dragged the chairs from the little table in her room over to her crib and were standing on them. They were taking all of her toys and dolls out of her toy bag on the front of her crib and laying them all around her while telling her, "It's ok baby Ashley, don't cry!" SO DARN CUTE!! What a way to start the morning!

Since today was a holiday my Mom, my sister Amy, myself and the kids were all available to hang out. We decided that since Amy's wedding is only a month and a half away that we would head up to LA to go shopping for some wedding stuff. We headed up at lunch time and after some trouble finding parking (it was crowded) we headed out to scour the garment district. Through all of our shopping we were able to get a beautiful head piece for Amy, the ring bearer pillow, flower girl basket, guest book, garter, and material to make the flower girl dresses. What a productive day!!

I have been doing so many photo sessions with the kid-o's lately and there are so many good pictures. As you can imagine the hardest one to get is of all three, sitting in one spot, looking at the camera, and smiling. Yeah, like that will EVER happen. Here is a picture that is about as close as it can get to all those things.

Look at those sweet faces, am I the luckiest Mommy in the world, or what???

Back on track...

Ok, so I thought that maybe I would go on here tonight and type up posts for the two days that I missed and then back date them so that I would technically be able to make my goal for the month. I then started thinking, what in the world I was doing that for? I would go on here and cheat by putting back dates just so that I could win at a game that I am playing with myself? That just shows how competitive I am! So here I am, doing one post for three days and it is seriously bugging me, but I have to keep telling myself that it is ok. I know, I need serious help. Anyway, back to business!!

This weekend was so wonderful! Friday was a gloomy and snugly day outside and I did a whole lotta nothing! We went and ran some errands in the morning, met Pauline, Ian and Cormac for lunch, and then came back for nap time. I was able to get all three kids down for naps at the same time and I had a huge headache so I curled up under a blanket and joined in the nap time also. We all woke up in time to make some dinner and have the house presentable for Daddy when he came home. After dinner we all sat down and played some Chutes and Ladders before bed time. SO nice!

On Saturday Adam had to go to school for a few hours to check in with his professor but was out by 10:30 a.m. We decided to go to Disneyland for the rest of the day and enjoy the nice weather and each other. We of course were not thinking when we made the plans that it was not only a Saturday, but also Veterans Day weekend. We got to the park and decided to go over to California Adventure first. It was not too crowded there and so we were able to go on Monsters, Inc., see the Playhouse Disney show, and spend lots of time on the rope bridges in Bear Country. After this we headed over to Disneyland where it was super crowded and then on top of it, they were filming their holiday commercial that day. Seriously, it's a Saturday on a holiday weekend. Why in the world would they take up half of main street to film something? Crazy. We ended up just going on Small World, which was already decorated for Christmas, and then seeing the princess show and leaving. We got home late but the boys had blast and slept REALLY well.

Today was pretty low key. In the morning we went to Mass then came home, ate some lunch, and got the kid-o's down for naps. After nap time we headed over to AJ's house for Destiny's birthday party. The boys had a BLAST playing in the bounce house and running around with all the other kids. I am sure they will get another good night's sleep tonight!

Not a very interesting post, but I promise that I will be better in the coming weeks. To try and redeem myself I have included a few pics to make this boring post more interesting!

Aaron is such a crack up sometimes! He absolutely LOVES these light up devil horns that Aunt Allie bought for Alec on a super clearance from Old Navy a few years ago. Aaron takes the horns and instead of putting them on his head, puts them around his waist and walks around. To add to his outfit, he has also taken a liking to Alec's green gardening gloves. Aaron puts on a glove (without the fingers in the right place) and plays with his toys with it on. I have even put him down for naps before with it on and he keeps it on the entire time. He seems to think it is so cool to have a glove on his hand and still be able to do stuff. So strange!!

Adam and the boys playing Chutes and Ladders. It is a running joke with Adam and I, but Adam absolutely STINKS at the kids games. We realize that there is no skill involved at all with these games, but it still bugs Adam to no end that he always loses. Adam get's so frustrated and I think it is absolutely HILARIOUS!!!

slacker

I know, I am a slacker...I missed the last two days...I promise to catch up tonight. :)

Alec the budding artist...

One of Alec's very favorite things to do is to take pictures. Grammie and Papa bought him a Fisher-Price kids camera last year for Christmas and he loves taking pictures with it. The problem is, since Mommy has not figured out how to download the pictures yet (yes, I know it has been almost a year already), Alec has taken to using our camera (when given permission) because he knows that the pictures will actually go somewhere. It also helps that the screen is about 10 times bigger and the picture clarity does not compare to the Fisher-Price. Who knew 4 year olds would be so picky? Anyway, here are some examples of Alec's photography from the past few months...

Daddy lounging in his chair being "cool".

Alec's favorite subject, his puppy dog named Crustin. There are many photo shoots involving Crustin. I suppose it is because he never has to tell him to smile and he always holds still. Just my guess...

Mommy and Asher Basher. I am constantly amazed at Alec's ability to center the subject so well. He is always very thoughtful when he takes pictures and takes his time getting what he wants to shoot.

Self portrait. Every good artist needs a self portrait, right?

Ashley, Crustin, Puppy (Aaron's doggie) and a pumpkin all layed out on Crustin's Blanket. Yes, that is right, Crustin has his own blanket (if Alec gets a blanket then Crustin should have one also, right? 4 year old logic...). Ashley was already asleep on the blanket when Alec wanted to take some pictures. When I gave him the go ahead he went and lined up the doggies and the pumpkin next to Ashley. If you look through my pictures you will see that there are about 10 pictures of this same subject from all angles and distances. He is very thorough!

Drama and Smiles

Today started out pretty crazy as I had to not only take Alec to school, but also take Aaron to my mother-in-law's house, because I had my 6 week OB check up this morning. I dropped the kids off and headed to the check up where everything went well. When I was leaving the OB office I had planned on heading to my parents house, feeding Ash, and then head out to do some errands, sans the boys, before picking up Alec from preschool. I had just gotten to my parents house when my cell phone rang...it was Alec's preschools phone number. Never a good sign. I answered the phone and it was Phyllis, the director, telling me that Alec had thrown up and I had to come and pick him up from school. Not to sound insensitive to my kid-o being sick, but I absolutely can not handle throw-up and I was SO bummed that my morning of easy errands was being cancelled. ARGH!

When I got to the school Alec was sitting in the office with a barf bowl in front of him, his hand holding a paper towel on his knee, and the saddest look on his face. I got the low down from the director about what happened. Apparently Alec was on the playground running around, fell down, and skinned his knee. Once he saw the blood on the knee he freaked out and proceeded to throw-up. After refusing a band-aid they took him up to the office and called me.

I thought it was strange that Alec was acting so normal this morning, which he would not have if he was getting sick. We got home and it was not even 5 minutes of sitting on the couch under a blanket before he was up and playing on the slide and with all his other toys. This was not a sick kid...just a dramatic one. Sigh...

Alec eating popcorn and showing off the "big scrape" that made him toss his cookies.

The one good thing about the drama that happened in the morning was that I was able to have a nice day with just Alec and Ashley. I decided after lunch to do a little photo session with Ashley and I was able to catch a few pics of her smiling. It is a rare event to see a smile, and much harder to catch on camera, so I was VERY happy to get it!!

What a sweet smile!! I can't wait until it happens all the time!

I had to throw this picture in also. It is a perfect example of just how much Ashley adores watching her brothers. Any time either of them are around she constantly is watching them.

By the way, anyone who guessed Aaron, Alec, and then Ashley from the pictues the other day were right! Good job!!

My Air-Bear

It seems that I always do a kids post and include all the kids in together, but I never seem to do individual posts, especially for my poor neglected middle child Aaron. I thought that I would dedicate one entire post to him today because we had a wonderful day together.

Being a middle child myself I understand how hard it is sometimes to just exist. You are not the oldest with all the responsibility, yet you are not the baby of the family either. My mom always did a wonderful job making sure that I had my own special place and because of her diligence I think I managed to avoid many of the typical middle child characteristics that you so often hear of. My mom always used to tell me that I was the cream in her cookie. I love that. :)

Aaron is such a cool little kid and is growing up right before my very eyes. He does not talk as much as Alec did at his age, but he does not need to since Alec NEVER stops talking. Lately his words have become much more clear and he is starting to put longer sentences together. Some of my favorites are, "Hiking boots please mama" pronounced "hike boos pees mama" and "I love you baby Ashley", pronounced "I yaya beebee A-lee." So stinking cute!!

Aaron is still filling the position in the family as the shrimp, but he is catching up a little bit. The hiking boots that he loves to wear so much are boots that Alec wore with his Halloween costume when he was 1 year old, and now at 2 years old Aaron is just now fitting into them. At his 2 year check up he finally made it up to the 50th percentile for height but was still stuck at the 5th percentile for weight. I asked Dr. Marino what we could to do help him gain weight and he replied, "feed him a hamburger!!" Wow, I need that medicine prescribed to me!! Actually, I would love to do just that for him, but he won't eat it. Aaron is incredibly picky (I have no idea where he gets that from) and he has a small selection of foods that he will consume. Adam and I constantly have the choice of whether we should make him responsible and if he does not eat what the family is eating then let him go to bed hungry, or to make something separate for him just so that he will get something in his stomach. I swore I would never be one of those parents who made a million different meals for their kids, but I can see how it happens. I think we have found a good balance and try to incorporate at least one of his favorite foods on his plate each night.

As I mentioned before, Aaron is such a little sweetheart. He is SO good with his little sister and absolutely loves petting her head and giving her kisses. With Alec in school three mornings a week I have been able to give some more individual attention to Aaron. We are in Miss Heidi's class this fall and Aaron has grown in leaps and bounds even since this summer. Unlike his older brother in the same class, Aaron LOVES sitting in my lap and listening to the stories and singing songs. He is actually one of the only kids in the class that sings out loud to the songs and it is so cute. His favorite song in class to sing is Three Little Monkeys and his favorite activity is the parachute.

Since we are telling all, there is of course the hot headed side of our little Aaron Michael. Aaron has quite the temper and will show it in a flash if he does not get what he wants. This of course rears it's ugly head the most around Alec. If Aaron has a problem with the way that Alec is playing or if Alec won't share with him then Aaron will just start screaming and hitting Alec with all of his might. It is one thing when it happens at home with his brother, but it is quite embarrassing when it happens in Miss Heidi's class or at the park with other children. The one good thing is that he is very good at taking his consequence and sitting his time in the penalty box. He is such a smart kid but he just needs to learn how to control that temper of his!

When I think of my little Air-bear my heart just swells with love. He holds such a special place in my heart and I can't wait to see what life has in store for him (my money is on him becoming a cop.) I LOVE that he is the cream in MY cookie!

What a smile!!

Aaron in action!

Mommy and her Air-bear.

How well do you know my children?

We have been getting so many comments lately on how much the kids look like eachother. Some have even asked if Alec and Aaron are twins (forget the fact that Aaron is almost a foot shorter than Alec.) I thought it would be fun to post pictures of all three kids at birth and see if people can guess who each baby is. I have to say, looking at them all lined up like this, it is hard to tell, but a Mother always knows, right? Please post your guesses and I will reveal the answers in a few days! Have fun!

Making Choices...

When I quit working about 4 1/2 years ago to be a stay at home mom to Alec I wondered on a few occasions what I would do all day and how I would fulfill my need to be intellectually stimulated. Since that time I have found my fulfillment in many different areas. I have taught Confirmation at church since the year 2000, I am the treasurer of our Mom's Club at church, I am on our Pastoral Council in charge of coordinating family events, I am in a Bunco group, and I am involved with the Family Assistance group at Adam's work. All of these are positions that I love and enjoy doing. Up until recently I think that I handled juggling all of these commitments quite well. I am sure you can guess the event that pushed me over the edge? That's right, a third child.

I made a decision this last week that something needed to give. I have been spending more time working on my volunteer commitments than I have on my house and my family. Obviously this had to change. As hard as it was, I made the decision to give up teaching Confirmation. Just today I attended my last class with my kids and said goodbye to them. Being sophomores in high school, I don't think that they were all that broken up about me leaving (too consumed in their own lives) but I will miss them. Looking back at the last 7 years of teaching it makes me proud to know that I have helped form the spiritual lives of so many kids. I still get to see many of my old students and am so happy to see them still attending Mass and living their lives in a Christ centered way.

Just wanted to say, thank you San Antonio Youth Ministry for giving me the opportunity to teach and be a part of so many kids lives. I know that as much as the kids may have learned from me (I hope), I feel that I have learned just as much, if not more, back from them.

Sing Sing

I think I mentioned in a previous post that Alec refuses to perform at school when standing up in front of people? Well, I was able to capture this video this last week of him singing in the car. Now if we could just get him to feel comfortable in front of others!

Ashley update

It is so hard for me to believe that it has been a month already since Ashley was born, yet it seems like she has been in our life forever! Ashley has been doing very well and is growing so much. I weighed her at my Mom's house tonight and she is 10 pounds already. Her awake periods are becoming more frequent and the night time sleep is getting a little better. Every few days she will have a great night where she does a couple 4 or 5 hour stretches. I love those nights!

Ashley is a very mellow baby and really only cries when she is hungry or fighting falling asleep. She is very content watching her brothers run around and seems to enjoy all the chaos. The boys are equally enthralled with her as well. They are constantly coming over, patting her head, and giving her kisses. The other day she was crying in her swing and Aaron took all of his favorite toys and piled them in the swing with her to try and comfort her. How sweet is that?

Ash still has the dark hair from when she is born, but in the sunlight you can see a faint halo of blonde hair coming in underneath. Her eyebrows are blonde as well as her eyelashes. It is so ironic that both the boys have long beautiful eyelashes and my sweet girl Ashley was born with hardly any. Looks like Mommy will be teaching her how to apply mascara someday!

I am enjoying having a girl SO much and am relishing every moment I have with her!!

Asher Basher in her ballerina costume for Halloween.

Happy Halloween!!

Since I am starting my blogging month I thought I would begin with October 31st and include pics of Halloween! This is one of my favorite holidays and it is SO much fun now that the kids are getting old enough to understand what is going on. It actually gives me a good excuse to go trick-or-treating again! :)

The day started with Alec going to preschool where it was grandparents day. Grammie, Papa, and Grandma all joined Alec in his classroom for some art projects and singing. The report I heard was that Alec decided not to sing, but to stand up with the class and make funny faces instead. Little goofball! Everyone had a great time and Alec was proud to show off his school! After that we had a nice lunch at Mimi's Cafe before heading home for naps.

Once Daddy was home we ate some dinner and then got the kids suited up in their costumes. The boys were Jedi's for Halloween. When I was making the costumes Alec was very specific that he wanted to be a GOOD Jedi, not a bad one. He ended up as Anakin and Aaron was Obi-won. The boys wanted me to make Ashley dress as Princess Leah but considering this was my first Halloween getting to dress up a girl, I just could not do it. She ended up as a ballerina instead and looked SO beautiful!

We all went out trick-or-treating and the boys totally scored on their candy. We let them have one piece each, which quickly became about 3 or 4 pieces each and then we all went to bed very exhausted. It was a wonderful day and I look forward to doing it all over again next year!!

Pretty girl Ashley in her Halloween shirt, snoozing at lunch.

Anakin and Obi-won getting ready to trick-or-treat

Two little jedi's waiting patiently for the door to open. Once they received their candy Alec would say to the people, "Thank you VERY much, have a VERY happy Halloween!!" So darn cute!

The boys got quite a stash! Now I just have to make sure and not eat it all myself!!