The Ghost from Ghost Busters has invaded our house!

Or should I say Owen's head? Last week the coughing started. All night EVERY night all three boys but mostly Jacob and Owen. Friday Jacob said his throat was killing him and sure enough it was coated in white and he had red puffy eyes with green oozing out. Of course this was at 7:00 at night so off we went to Children's Hospital for a 4 1/2 hour event. He was miserable. And after all that they said it was a virus and sent us on our way. YEA! By the next morning the green goo was gone but fast forward to Sunday and it was BACK but this time coming out of the baby. And here we are Tuesday night and its still there. Nasty as ever. UGH! That poor baby cannot catch a break I swear. As our friend Danica said "it is the universe saying we should never have left Illinois" and we are beginning to think she is dead on!

The boys are on spring break for the next three weeks so hopefully with any luck by the end of this week we will be good to go so we can actually leave the house and go and do things the next two weeks, especially with family coming into town next week.

I wanted to share a couple of funny pictures of the kids. Just random shots from the past few days. You can see how rashy and slimy Owen's face is. But thankfully, no green in the pictures. For now just trying to muddle through. Last night was the first night in a week and a half that I only had to get up just once to sooth Owen and give him his plug (pacifier) so he would stop coughing. I am praying tonight is a repeat.....





This is how we find Jacob often these days. More and more he is wanting to read and is doing SO good! It is like he has hit that spot where he is going from slow motion to fast forward. It is so fun and exciting to experience with him. He is really excited to start chapter books and has been enjoying The Magic School Bus series as well as the Magic Treehouse Mystery series. He is also writing in his journal a lot that his Nana gave him. He loves it! He got this little notebook from school for a birthday and wrote me a note and put it on the fridge. It says "I love mi mom" I love seeing it there during the day. It is the little things like that that make me LOVE my "job".


Look at all that HAIR! He looked like a clown:)

Grandma and Grandpa

My Grandpa passed away early this past Thursday morning. It was time and we had been expecting the call but it still makes you sad to get it. Our last visit with him was so bittersweet. He was always a hard man but when we saw him he was so child like and sweet. It is interesting to see life come full circle. I am thankful for the knowledge that I have that he is happy where he is and reunited with all of his family who have passed before him and that someday I will see him again. He was my last living grandparent. I am also thankful to have Ian's Grandparents be such a big part of my life. I could not have asked for better grandparents.

My parents drove down to San Bernadino Friday so that my dad could visit with his brothers and attend to a few other things. They then drove down here the extra two hours to see us for the afternoon before heading back home to go back to work tomorrow. What a fun afternoon. I did not tell the boys they were coming in case things did not work out and they were out with Ian running errands when my parents arrived. Their reactions were so funny. My dad of course had to hide and jump out and scare them. Silly Grandpa. The only drawback was the visit was short. The boys were bummed when it was time to say goodbye but we are all thankful for the few hours we had. We took them to YUMMY Chick Filet for lunch and a trip up to see the San Diego Temple before we parted ways.
Typical Grandpa Nathan and Jacob. Always rough housing!



These were all taken on the Temple Grounds.

Jacob LOVES his grammy. They have a special little relationship that is so cute.




Owen was having fun with Grandpa showing him Moroni at the top of the temple blowing the horn. They were so cute together. He loves his grandpa very much and just ran right into his arms when he came. I was surprised.




The following shots were all taken by Jacob:

Library FUN!

One of the librarys near our house just opened up a little outdoor play area for young children to play in. Owen was refusing a nap and a heck of a grump so I decided to take him and Nathan before we picked up Jacob from school. They had a lot of fun and even played together a bit. Here are some pictures:



This next one of Owen makes me laugh. He was throwing the soft blocks as hard as he could and yelling "ooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Of course when he saw me laugh he only got more into it:)

Breaker's Beach, Coronado Island

The weather has been so great we were hoping today would hold out so we could enjoy a warm day a the beach. Thursday are early days for Jacob and Ian managed to get home by 2:00 (YEA!). However, the weather was not quite as warm but we decided to go anyway. We headed down to Coronado Island to go to Breaker's Beach which is on the Naval Station. I love this beach for a couple of reasons, namely its really pretty clean which is due to the fact that ONLY military are allowed on it so that keeps traffic to a minimum which also means there are TONS and TONS of shells that are just perfect! oh and sand dollars! We had so much fun finding them. The only down side was it got really overcast and windy which in turn made it COLD. We were going to have a pic nic dinner but ended up leaving early and having our dinner in the car while we took the long way home through Imperial Beach and back up. All in all a good fun family outing.

Here are some of our pictures. It was quite cold and so at one point we zipped Owen into my huge sweatshirt with me:) Poor Nathan was practically convulsing from being so cold by the time we got to the car. I LOVE the pictures of them with their shells and of Owen's baby toes! Ian was showing the boys how to search for pismo clams. And then there is a picture of our sand dollars we found!










The highlight of my day though has to be getting this note sent home from Jacob's teacher!

He has reached the level he needs to be for the school district standard! He has been working so so hard. I actually teared up when he gave this to me. Proud and relief all tied into one. Yea Jacob!

Lucky!!

Happy St. Paddy's Day! I know I am so lucky and blessed to have all the "men" in my life! I did this cute little surprise for my "lucky charm" (Ian) this morning. I got if off of a website called Love Actually which has some super cute, cheap ideas to show your significant other you love them. This cost me about $4 to do. I got the little pot from the $1 store and painted it with paint I already had. The rolos were under $3 and then I already had the colored paper. I think it turned out pretty cute. I got distracted trying to put the clover on a stick so the writing bled but oh well! It says "I am so lucky to be loved by you!" It put a huge smile on Ian's face this morning so that is what counts. I did not think I would be able to hide it until this morning but somehow it worked out.

Happy St Paddy's Day!!!

Jacob's Art Night

Tonight was Art Night for Jacob at school. He and his classmates have been working hard on a few projects and four teachers got together tonight to display it for the parents and also had crafts set up for us to make with our student. I decided it would be a treat to have Ian and I take JUST Jacob and so Valerie took Nathan and Owen for the hour we were gone and even fed them dinner! What a great friend:)

Jacob made a butterfly and a sun flower....here he is displaying them.....


There were two different crafts you could make. One was a duck and the other was a plate that on one side was a lion and on the other was a lamb. Jacob, of course, HAD to make both. We had fun and it was a treat to have it just be the three of us. Rare, and special. We are proud of our toothless wonder!



The very first picture is our little self portrait:) Good thing Ian has long arms and I could slouch in the gutter. We had some good giggles taking it!

A Good Day

Today was a good day!

Finding out Ian made board.....


Going to the zoo with some of our best friends!!


Love these guys!


They completely redid the Elephant compound and added so much stuff! It was phenomenal. I can't wait to take Ian!!



Try and get four kids to look and smile at the same time. Good luck! But they are all so darn cute together.

We rode the skyfari. I am not so found of heights. But its funny how when your child starts freaking out a bit (Jacob) how quickly you forget about your own fears to make them feel better:) He and I (and Owen) had fun seeing everything from up in the sky.

Then it was time for dinner at....STUDIO DINER! A little diner next to a movie lot that Ian has been wanting to go to forever. We got a coupon in the mail and I figured he DID make board so good enough reason for me to celebrate. We went early to beat crowds and had some really good laughs. Owen colored for the first time and enjoyed smacking his daddy in the face with his menu (quite comical)







All in all a very good day!:)