My baby......

Is quickly becoming NOT a baby.....


I just adore this face. Owen loves his little Kids Songs movies and is starting to actually ask to watch them now at times. He will go stand in front of the tv and babble something that sounds like "moooie". I asked him to go sit on the couch last night if he wanted to watch it and so he did and then laid his head down and was watching it. I could not pass up the opportunity to take a picture. He is growing up so fast. It excites me but saddens me at the same time.

Ready for a bike ride! We are almost good to go. We have to get a rack for the back of the van and I have to go buy my helmet today. Ian and Nathan have theirs coming to them from Amazon. How sad is it that Owen and Nathan's heads are the same size. I mean less than a single cm difference. My one year old has a huge head! (although their head shapes are different). It just so happens that this helmet fits Owen pretty good while Nathan's round noggin won't fit into it anymore. He thought wearing the helmet was pretty funny last night but lets see how long that lasts when he is forced to wear it in the trailer......

Hodge Podge

So this is going to be an all encompassing post of the past couple of days instead of me breaking them up by subject. Call me lazy....

I have been wanting something that I could use to display the boys' artwork and I found this AWESOME blog called Knock Off Wood and saw this cute display she had on there. This blog makes me want to learn to build. First and foremost I want the farm bed and then the recycling center and then a coffee table and nightstands...the list goes on. So we are starting out small and with a piece of board, some clothes pins and some paint we got a cute display for the boys. I added in pictures of the boys with their old primary class (we got a package in the mail from our old Stake President with the pictures and a whole book on Chicago. Man do we miss them!) and some of Jacob's art work. Jacob was awarded yesterday an award for "Being kind to others" and got a certificate, a free personal pizza certificate and a free ice cream cone certificate. He is very proud of himself (as are we) and is driving me batty about the doggone ice cream cone!:) So, this is now proudly displayed as well. Along with the birthday cards he got yesterday in the mail from his old Westbrook Class. Talk about one happy boy!

The whiteboard we got from my mom and dad. It had been sitting in their garage. I am loving it as we are using it for Jacob's homework and for Nathan to write on. So far its a hit and Ian drilled that thing to the studs of the wall so we "think" it is Nathan and Owen proof. It has yet to be hung on so I guess time will tell.

Here are some pictures of some recent projects he has done on George Washington and for Chinese New Year. He is especially proud of his dragon but I love George!!


Then we have Owen. What can you say about this kid. This video shows you how smart he is:) It is a tradition in my house to get squirted in the mouth with whipped cream. It is a fond memory I have of my Grandma Riding. We happen to have whipped cream still from J's birthday and Owen knows where it is and begs for it every time the fridge door is opened. So, I took advantage of this fact so I could show you how smart he is:) He did not mind too much, I promise!

This is him constantly! On the doggone table! He drives me nuts.

Tonight we had the prettiest sunset so Jacob and I decided to take a picture. Here is one of the sunset and one of Jacob taking his picture. I need to download his photos and see what he has captured. He loves his camera so much!


So, this about sums up our few days. We got Owen's bike trailer today! We just need helmets for the three of us and a rack to transport the bikes and we will be good to go. I can't wait!

Holy SCORE!!!

Can I just say yet again how much I L-O-V-E Craigslist. Yes, there are flakes and yes people want to sell CRAP for a lot of money but if you look and I mean really look you will hit a gold mine! We got our tax return this week and have decided we want to start biking with the boys, so the past week we have been searching for bikes for Ian and I and a trailer for Owen. I am happy to say Ian found me a $250+ bike for $90, him a $450+ bike for $150 and a trailer for Owen which we will pick up tomorrow for $70, it is going on clearance new for $245. YEA! Now we just need helmets for the three of us and a rack to tow them on and we will be set. We are hoping this weekend may work if we can get it all together. I think those are pretty good deals. That is almost a grand worth of stuff for just over $300.

BUT the BEST deal of all is the couch we got. I have wanted to get a full sized sleeper for the play room so that the boys would have something to hang out on when they watch movies or play their video games and so we would have something for guests. I have searched now since we moved in and have found a lot of junk with people asking WAY too much. Another issue is most of the sleepers are queens and its just too big for that room. Finally this weekend I found it. The perfect couch. The ad's pictures looked almost too good to be true and the best part it was for $50 which was my goal from the beginning. I had Ian call and prayed the people were not smokers, which would have broken the deal. To my delight not only did they still have it they were NOT smokers. So off I sent my handy hubby who returned with a couch beyond our imagination. Did I mention its a Lazy Boy? Not a single stain on the entire thing. It puts our couches in the livingroom to shame. Too bad its too small for down here:)

It turns out the guy selling it had a roommate who just up and left owing rent and could not be found so after waiting he is now selling the guy's stuff to get the money owed him. Works for us! After over an hour of hauling and praying we were not going to bust the couch or the door jam (sleeper couches are HEAVY and when you have three landings to turn on not so much fun!) it is finally in the room. More furniture arrangement tomorrow but for now its there. I had to run down here to look the couch up. Ian and I figured it had to be at least a $600 couch. The mattress is totally spotless and has a 2006 tag. I about died when I looked up on Lazy Boy's website and found that the same couch STARTS at $1,399. Are you kidding me!! HOLY SCORE!! So all in all that is approximately $2,500 worth of stuff for $360. I am one happy girl!

Here is a picture of the "boys" new couch. I forsee LOTS of "sleepover" parties.


Okay family and friends you can come visit now! We have a place for you to sleep!

Say What?

Owen is surprising us daily of how much he understands and how well he can communicate for his young 15 month age. This is a little TMI but I have to share. Tonight at dinner he started going to the bathroom. It was very obvious if you know what I mean. We tried to ignore him until he grunts and then says to me "poo poo!!" I about fell out of my chair. Then he grunts again and says "bi-per!" as in diaper. Say what? Ian and I were laughing so hard we could not talk. Just the image of his beet red face grunting and then saying that was too much. Then of course because he sees our reaction he kept saying it over and over. How does he know these things? I mean I have always been one to talk to my children as adults. Even as tiny, tiny babies I had whole conversations with them all day long. Lets face it I am a talker and there were many, many days, weeks and months where it was just me and Jacob or me, Jacob and Nathan. So, I guess it should not surprise me that Owen communicates so well but I don't even think Jacob was saying those things at that age and I thought he was a pretty advanced talker. Maybe I just have forgotten? Owen just cracks us up. Although I could do with out the "mine" and "no" which are becoming more and more frequent in his use of words, when you add in his "peas" and "tan-too"s with his sign language its just too cute.

I am so thankful to have three healthy boys. Its not to say they don't have their own challenges but I look at those who have children who can't communicate with them and it breaks my heart for those parents and the child and makes me all that more thankful for what I have.

Nathan and Owen

Just because I have a few cute pictures of them to share, I thought I would post them here!


He loves to stand there and watch his movies


My strong man! He played with these paper towels for over a half hour until the strap finally broke. It was quite amusing listening to him grunt and launch them the two inches at a time.

Nathan waiting for Jacob's class to come out and have pudding.

Happy 7th Birthday JACOB!

Okay so I am two days late blogging this, I know. Just don't tell Jacob:)

I think Jacob had a pretty good birthday. He was happy and that is what matters most.

Nathan I spent some of the time while he was at school making him a big poster for the front window and then we took him and his class pudding cups with whipped cream and sprinkles for a birthday treat at the end of the day. They all seemed to LOVE it so that was nice that it was a hit.

Note that he asked I take his picture like this....

After we got home Valerie and the girls came over with a present and hostess cupcakes and we all sang to him. Then a nice surprise, Daddy was allowed to skip working out and come home since it was his birthday. Ian spent hours and hours trying to figure out what special new bike to get Jacob so he was sooooo excited to give it to him. It was funny Jacob did not even SEE The bike when we put out his other gifts. He saw the transformer box right off and was captivated. You can see on the video. We had a good laugh.



Jacob is still trying to figure out the bike. It is a lot bigger, has hand brakes instead of pedal breaks and so it has a learning curve. Ian and I are shopping around right now. We want to get bikes for us and a trailer for Owen and of course something to transport the bikes off our hitch so that we can start going out as a family. I am dying to go! I need a money tree for sure.

After bike riding and Owen's nap we headed out to Santee (the town we lived in when I got pregnant with Jacob!) and had dinner at Sonic. It was the most beautiful day/night. Almost 75 at the high so it was so nice sitting outside in 70 degree weather. We also met old friends from Ian's last ship and bought some yummy girl scout cookies from their daughter and enjoyed a bit of catching up. I can't wait to take the boys out to their house. They do a lot of 4H stuff and have quite a few animals. Hopefully soon!


After dinner we headed home to have Jacob's requested ice cream cake. Rather than a cake we decided on cupcakes from Coldstone Creamery. They are small and were very good. After all the SUGAR the boys had throughout the day we limited them to just half the cupcake and I think they knew their limits as well because there was not a single complaint (shocking!).


All in all a great day. I just can't believe he is 7. I was thinking this morning that today seven years ago we came home from the hospital. A whole new chapter of my life had begun. I can't imagine my life being any different (although that money tree would be nice!). I am glad birthdays are over for a while here. What were we THINKING having all three kids birthdays within four months and Christmas in the middle? Wait, we weren't thinking thats the problem!!

As a side note a HUGE Happy Birthday to my little sister Christina!!

Commissary Superbowl Taillgate Party

Two weekends ago, the day before the Superbowl we ran to the commissary to grab some things for our party and stumbled across a bit Tailgate party put on by the commissary. The boys were in heaven and we walked away with bags of goodies, including drinks, books, chips etc. They had a TON of food to "sample". It was pouring rain so I don't think they got the crowds they were expecting but it was a great FREE treat for us! There was a lady taking pictures for their website and asked if she could get a couple of us. Talk about not being picture primped and ready but oh well. Here are the two shots she took that are now on their website. We are famous! (HA HA). Of course Jacob and Nathan were rocking out to the music, faces stuffed with food. Gotta love it!

Oh how we LOVE the San Diego Zoo!

FINALLY over a month after Nathan's birthday we FINALLY made it to the zoo today for a few hours. We stood in the LONG line to get our member passes and am happy to say that is the last line we have to stay in. A perk though, they looked up our old membership and let us renew instead of get new ones so that saved me $12. Works for me! I love that their policy is active duty military gets in free everyday. This means we only had to buy the year passes for me and Jacob and Nathan since Owen is free for a couple more years. Next time go we can walk right in YEA!

We decided since we got a later start we would head straight to the Children's Zoo area. We had a yummy packed lunch and then saw all the kid exhibits. They have added so much since we were last there! There is a new awesome play ground, and insect house (which game me the creeps! some of the bugs were HUGE and not too appealing). We also saw some of the Cats which Owen loved. His favorite, by far though were the goats and the sea otter. We can't wait to go back again soon. Nana needs to come visit us soon so we can take her to see the Otters and Meerkats among other things!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The top picture is a picture taken right around mine and Ian's first Valentine's Day together in 1998. We were seniors in High School and the yearbook crew asked to take our picture for a page in the yearbook themed Valentine's Day. They did it with a few couples and then asked the question "What Did You Do for Valentine's Day". I don't think I have changed that much but boy does Ian look like a baby!

And here we are last night. Me, no make up, in sweats chasing three crazy boys and Ian cute as ever:) I can't believe yesterday was our 12th Valentine's Day together! What a difference a decade makes!!

We had a fun day yesterday. Ian brought me home the most beautiful flowers on Thursday when I was feeling so yucky.

It has been nice to enjoy them and they still have some life in them. I LOVE fresh flowers. I think just having them in the house lifts my spirits.

I was feeling crafty this week so I made a couple of cute wreaths, one out of burlap and wire and one out of a foam mold and felt. I love the way the felt one turned out but holy cow did it take TIME. I cut out a bunch of hearts for the boys to decorate but Nathan was the only one who ended up having the time to do it. He made each member of our family a heart decorated with the first letter of our name with candy hearts. Because I had so many left over Saturday night Ian and I wrote messages all over the rest of them and taped them all over downstairs, on the doors, windows and left two saying "hi Jacob" and "hi Nathan" taped to the size of the computer monitor (the first place the boys go when they wake up). They thought it was great! Nathan got another package from his beloved preschool Saturday filled with Valentines and a special candy treat from his teachers. He was happy to get the package but cried for about 20 min in his daddy's lap because he so wants to go back. Poor baby. He was much better after his cry and we decorated one door with just some of the valentines he got from his friends. Our house is definitely "heart attacked" at the moment!


I still was not feeling well yesterday so I ended up bringing Owen home early from church. The boys were begging me to buy them chocolate covered strawberries but I knew I could make them cheaper so I did those and then made this homemade Samoa (think girl scout cookies) Bars as Ian's special treat. They turned out delish and thank goodness we shared some with the neighbors but they were WAY labor intensive. Click HERE if you would like to see that recipe along with ones for the other girl scout cookies. I think if I make more thin mints will be what I will be going for!


Owen "helping" me taste test the smallest strawberry. What a hilarious mess!

When the "boys" got home from church this little friend was waiting for them on the porch!

After checking him out and having lunch they hopped back in the jeep and went fishing. Jacob has been begging since we got here to go so since it is his birthday tomorrow he finally got his wish. They came home telling me "mom guess what we caught? NOTHING!" But that is not exactly true. Nathan cast the entire pole into 20 feet of water and Ian somehow managed to fish THAT out. So they did not walk away totally empty handed.




Dinner was YUMMY with a treat of tbone steak (We could not remember the last time we had steak for dinner!) potatoes, bread, asparagus and don't forget that dessert! All in all a great day and then the boys worked it off with pillow fights and wrestling. I am surprised someone did not end up bleeding.

The boys enjoying dessert. Check out Jacob's new tooth!


After the boys crashed Ian and I worked on recovering our dining room chairs until way too late. Half way done! 3 more to go and they look SO awesome.

Today, if I can get Ian out of bed, I think a zoo trip is FINALLY on agenda! YAHOO

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home.....

Growing up in church there was a song we would sing called "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home" and the lyrics went like this:

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home,
Glad as I can be;
Clap my hands and shout for joy,
and climb upon his knee,
put my arms around his neck,
hug him tight like this,
squeeze his cheeks then give him what?
A great big kiss!

This song often comes into my head when Ian arrives home from work or out running errands. On a normal day Keira (our dog) lets us all know of his arrival long before we realize he is home. As her barking and running for the door starts Owen is quickly on her tail. It is so funny to watch them both shaking with anticipation. On Tuesday Ian had to come home early so that I could go to Jacob's school meeting and I happened to see him drive by and knew this pandemonium was about to begin so I had to grab the camera to capture it. So here are three of the "kids" reactions to daddy's early arrival home:

It melts my heart to see the kids (and dog) SO thrilled to have daddy come home! And makes me thankful for the time he is home now because all too soon this will be far from a daily occurrence. I don't really care to even start to think about that quite yet.

I think I mentioned in my previous post that I am dealing with a stomach flu bug. No bueno to say the least. Ian took Jacob and Nathan out for a bit so Owen and I hung out here at home and I had to take a couple of pictures of my cute cherub of a baby boy. Poor baby has eczema so bad some days. He is still cute though and getting SO talkative! He now will do the signs for please and thank you without you really having to remind him and I would say 75% of the time he will say "pease" and "ta-too" while doing them. He has a proud mommy and daddy. So, don't mind my dishelvedness in the picture. We were having fun goofing around and getting him to actually smile at the camera was about a 1 in 20 picture so I thought I would share.