LLC; Rainbow Day

My pal Mandy, yet again, planned and executed a fun learning experience for the kiddos. The theme was rainbows, which I love. How can you not love something that are constant reminders of God's unwavering love?

Anyway, we started out mixing red, blue and yellow ice cubes to make different color combinations:

Then they each colored their very own rainbow books:

After the coloring, we ate! We had rainbow jello cups, PB & J, rainbow fish crackers, rainbow fruit cups and animal cookies with rainbow sprinkles. Seriously, blessed kids!

And finally, a book about Noah and the very first Rainbow:

Once again, I love our LLC buddies!

Sisters :)

My best girls, during the day:

and last night at bedtime...

I see slumber parties, painted piggies and a whole lotta drama in our future ;)

Summer Fun; gardening and special treats!

With summer right around the corner, my kiddos and I got started on our list of summer activities. First up? Gardening!

To be honest, I'm not really into gardening, nor have I ever been. But I thought it'd be fun for Lauren and Jake, so we "gardened" with those easy, inexpensive kits at Target. That way I won't feel so bad when they inevitably die from my lack of green thumbs ;)

And then, we made our first batch of "special treats". I'm sure we'll make many more this summer, but today
it was chocolate covered bananas and they were yummy!

Fun day with my littles. 

To our kiddos

Dear Lauren, Jake and Meg,

I've been thinking about mine and daddy's anniversary a few days ago and wanted share these thoughts with you kiddos.

When each of you were born, your dad and I felt like a tornado swept through and beat against the walls of the house that is our marriage (okay, okay... you oldest two were the hardest). Don't get me wrong; we were thrilled to have each of you. It's just that marriage is hard. And when you throw a couple of kids into the mix . . . watch out. If you're not careful, the relationship that should be the most important relationship can start to look more like a babysitting partnership.We know... we've been there, especially when a new little one comes along.

Your dad and I are fortunate, though. Our marriage was already built on a solid foundation of love and commitment to each other and to glorifying God in all that we do. So while having you guys shook things up a little, we really only ended up stronger in the end. I can honestly say that we are closer and more in love now that we have you guys than we were before you both came along. We are a team.

But let me go back to that last paragraph for a minute: Marriage is still hard. Dad and I argue sometimes. We're on the same page on most things, but every so often we don't see eye to eye . . . sometimes on little things like who's turn it is to change Meg's diaper, what to make for dinner or who deserved to be voted out on Survivor. At other times we argue about bigger things like finances, discipline or situations at work.

We don't often raise our voices, but when you (Lauren) can tell that we're disagreeing about something, you start singing loudly or something to get our attention. Sometimes, you'll even get up and dance to accompany your song. While the issues usually extend beyond us "making fun" of each other, it's good to know that there's nothing too disturbing to you about our disagreements.

Jakob, you on the other hand take things to heart a little more. Once while we were playing around and I jokingly hit daddy on the arm, I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw you your sad little face bury your head in your moose. I immediately hugged dad and said, "It's okay Jakey".

I want you all to know and to feel completely secure in the fact that nothing will happen to cause us your dad and I to stop loving each other. We choose to love each other, even when we don't feel like it. We're committed to each other for as long as we are both alive. I don't want any of you to ever doubt that.

Our marriage isn't perfect. We have to work on it and put time into our relationship to keep it healthy. Some marriages do end, and there are many reasons for that . . . when you get to the right age, we'll talk more about that. Not a day goes by, though, that I don't consider myself fortunate for being married to someone that I not only love, but also really, honestly enjoy being around.

My relationship with you kiddos is so important to me, but my relationship with Dad is most important. I know that keeping our marriage healthy is the best parenting move we can make.

I pray that someday, you'll find spouses and love them as much as your Dad loves me. And I hope that they'll love you as much as I love your Dad. Until then, your daddy and I will try to be the best examples we can be.

Love,
mama

Tears

So tonight as I'm tucking my girl in for bed, I tell her that in a few days, daddy is going to get lasik surgery on his eyes. She's beginning to ask questions (ie, will he look different?) and suddenly I see her eyes fill up with tears. I snuggle her up and ask her what's wrong, and she says, "I don't want my daddy to be hurt." So I comfort my sweet girl and tell her that while it may hurt for a few hours, it will help daddy see for a "long day". She seems comforted by that and then says,

"mommy, can we pray for him?"

And then, just like that, my eyes filled up with tears too.

Jakey Jake

I had to blog about this today because I know I'll look back and never remember that at one time, this boy was snuggly and cuddly and gave the best hugs and kisses. Today, he was my cuddle man and it almost made up for the fact that he poured water on the cat, broke the blinds in the living room, and spilled a whole bowl of cereal all over the floor.

Like I said, it almost made up for it ;)

Just because she's cute

 

For the love hats

 or in Lauren's case, tulle skirts:

 and tupperware bowls:

 

Goofball girl.

Lauren-isms

Within the past week, these conversations have occurred. And frankly, I'm getting worried. She's FOUR and quite the manipulator ;)

Me: Lauren, you have two choices. You can help clean up the stuffed animals or clean up the markers please.

Lauren: No, those are your choices. I make my own choices.

Um, no you don't. Nice try though.
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And a few hours later, she says, "well, if you love me, you’ll get me ice cream tonight."

Clearly I don't love her because the poor neglected girl didn't get ice cream that night.
 
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A little background: Because Luis was coming over, I had bought Twinkies because he loves the Twinkie Delight cake I make. So I had them in the pantry, and the kids were practically drooling over them. Lauren asked if she could have one and I told her she could for dessert that night. She wasn't thrilled about my answer, but went on about her business.
 
Anyway, I was setting up Meg's pack-n-play and Lauren asks if she can help. I tell her she can and she starts pulling up the sides. Suddenly she stops, asks if she can have a Twinkie again (to which I reply 'no'), and then says, "well, if you won't let me have one, I won't help you".
 
Okay then.

Summer fun

I love blogging. It allows me to reflect on the past, to sort through my feelings, to update friends and family,  etc...

And it allows me to steal ideas from friends. Haha! :)

Seriously though, I get a lot of ideas from other friends and bloggers. And when I checked my girlfriend Melissa's blog, I got really excited because she made a list of fun, summertime activities that I would love to do. I had planned on doing some of the "typical" summertime activities, but she had many ideas that never crossed my mind.

Anyway, we sat down as a family and made a list of some activites we'll do this summer. It's exhaustive, and we probably won't end up doing it all, but it'll prevent my kids from learning the "I'm booooooored" whine :)

Mohave Narrows waterpark
Water day with slip n slide, water balloon fight, sprinklers
Watch Cars 2
Watch Tangled
Knotts Berry Farm (forgot to take camera though so no blog post)
Make slime
Hesperia movies in the park
Buy ice cream from the ice cream truck (up until this point, they only know it as the 'music' truck)
Plant flowers/veggies
Donuts for breakfast
Junior University "Cinderella" play
Make garden stepping stones
Dance party
Library story time
Overnight trip to the beach, build a sand castle
Hesperia Lakes for a picnic and feeding the ducks
Game night
Playdates
Camp out in the backyard
Outside messy day; water, paint, pure fun
Make homemade bathtub paint
Fingerpaint
Make ice cream
Wade in the Mojave River
Fish Hatchery
Freddies frozen custard
Swim lessons
Watch fireworks
Pool day at Grammy's house
Hot air balloon ride (if Hubster can stomach it )
Victoria Gardens
Build a large fort
Go outside and find 10 different kinds of flowers
Tye dye shirts
Go to the dollar movies
Go bowling
Go miniture "golping"
Have a pajama day (pancakes for breakfast, pizza for lunch; stay home all day relaxing and watching movies)

I'm super excited, as are the kiddos :) What do you have planned this summer?

Quiet, quality time with daddy

Every night after Jake and Lauren go to bed, Justin rocks and snuggles Meg. I pump milk for a bottle, and he feeds her until she's nice and "milk drunk". He cuddles her, speaks softly to her and loves on her. It's a very sweet sight to see :)

Field trip

We've gone to the Forever Wild Animal Sanctuary before, but this time we went with Lauren's class at school. Last time it was miserably hot. Today? It was miserably cold... in the middle of May. Blah.

But, we still had fun :) Here are some pics from our day:

Not too sure about those snakes.

Checking out the "dead animal bones" ;)

Petting the baby alligator.

The whole class listening to the guide

Lauren and her BFF (in class) Kate holding hands :)

So yeah, the weather sucked. One of these days we'll get it right and go when it's not too hot and not too cold. But then again, we're in the high Desert, and the weather here isn't the most cooperative ;)

But it's all good. It was a nice day spent with my biggest girl. I can't wait to do more field trips with my kiddos as they get older.

Happy Birthday to me!

So, here I am: THIRTY years old. I thought I it would be worse than it was, but really it wasn't that bad. I mean, I'm married with three kids, so if that doesn't make you feel old, nothing will :)

Plus, my husband spoiled me. In addition to a FOUR hour nap, I received this:

It's a pretty sweet camera and I'm officially in love. In fact, Jake (in particular because he's so photogenic) has been hiding from me lately because I've taken my kids pictures so many times, haha!

I can't wait to figure out the photo editing software to make them even more vivid.

Anyway, it was an awesome day and thirty isn't as bad as I made it out to be ;)