The Flood Family

Curls!!

2012-01-29T18:07:00.000-08:00

I tried this ridiculously simple thing I found on pinterest - it's changed my life. :-) Ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration - but WOW! I have never mastered the hair curling thing, I'm not good at it, it takes me FOREVER!! and the curls fall out super fast. This is amazing!! It takes 3, count them, 3 minutes to do, sleep on it and presto!!! Super curly!
This is Clare and I last night, my hair was dry, hers wet:
(disclaimer - this is not sexy! At all. Chris says I look like the mom from that 70s show.)

And this morning: TA DAH!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-28T21:34:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! This year we...

Got a new Christmas card. (Thanks Heidi!):
We tried on Santa hats:
We made gingerbread men:
(Ok, we bought a kit and we decorated gingerbread men!)

We wrote and mailed our letters to Santa:

We got an adorable Christmas card from Shea:
("Dear Mom and Dad. I love you vary much. Love Shea." The picture is of me at the "hose" on the couch with my laptop (hmmm? Do I spend too much time on the computer??) And dad at BYU in his office.) First grade art (and spelling) rules!
We got surprised on Christmas Eve by Kim and Reilley! Yay!:
We got EVERYTHING we wanted!:

Look how happy we are:
We sewed, and sewed and sewed:
(Until the wee hours of Christmas Eve to get the Belle dress done. She loves it, but loves the $3 one her brother gave her more! Urgg! :-)

We got a family picture!!
(All the Floods minus Michael's family.)
Merry Christmas!!

First Ballet Recital

2012-01-28T21:24:00.000-08:00

Her first ballet recital! She loved it. Loved. It.

Waiting in the green room for her class' turn:

Backstage:
I thought she might get nervous and just stand there. But nope! She did every move.

Love you little ballerina.

Joy

2012-01-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

Doing laundry with a one year old is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world. Who remembers that pulling clothes out of the dryer is that much fun?? He is thrilled by it!! And who knew that putting clothes in baskets was so exciting? He laughs and laughs and is tickled pink by himself. And then pulls them out again and laughs some more.

And who remembers that climbing stairs was so exhilarating? It's like he has gate radar that tells him the second the gate's been taken down and he makes a beeline for the stairs where he laughs and smiles and giggles the whole way up.

Let's not even mention the excitement and danger of the dishwasher! Oh the thrill! The things he pulls out and dumps on the floor clang and bang and make such fun noises. He's beside himself with joy.

And walking! Walking! So exciting, so much fun! Liberating! Exhilarating!

I adore this child, I wish I were as thrilled as he is by everything around him. Oh, the joy!

Imaginative Play

2012-01-26T07:25:00.000-08:00

I LOVE when they reach the stage where they can use their imagination with their toys. Clare is there now and will go for hours off on her own with toys. I overhear the MOST adorable things. This day all the princesses and Strawberry Shortcake were taking a vacation. She lined them all up to see how they looked before they were allowed to get on the plane.

(Oh, and don't you love her outfit? I don't love when they to the stage where they have to pick out their own clothes. :-)

One of my favorite Pinterest finds yet

2012-01-22T18:25:00.000-08:00

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this! We've had it a week now and it is totally, completely empty tonight. It's a healthy snack bin. Shea and Clare helped me pick, shop for, wash, cut up and bag all the veggies and fruit. Then we filled the bin. It has a little light ranch cup for each of them and celery sticks, mini cucumbers, baby carrots, fresh broccoli, clementine segments, grapes and some cheese sticks. The idea is any time they're hungry anything in the bin is fair game. No more snacks of goldfish, doritos or cookies!!! They have LOVED it and have eaten more vegetables this week than ever. They are such good eaters and love good food - I wish I'd done this sooner for them. We're off to the grocery store tomorrow to refill our bin - this week, we're adding pickles!!! :-)

Winter fun

2012-01-20T22:20:00.000-08:00

One thing we really like about Utah is playing in the snow. It's only really snowed twice this winter and both times we were out there at 7:30 in the morning because the kids couldn't wait!

These three's first snowman EVER!!
Snowman #2 was much more impressive.

We were going to make a GIANT snowman but only got this far:

When we realized we'd never be able to lift ball #2 onto it, so we turned it into an EGGloo instead. :-)

Fionn loved playing in the snow at first...

But got tired of it pretty quick:

They can't wait for it to snow again. I think a bigger, better, igloo is on the way...

Just reading her scriptures

2012-01-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

I love this girl. :-) I walked in the room and she was in this sweet little spot, in a princess dress, turning pages and telling herself Book of Mormon stories.

Shark Teeth

2012-01-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Shea had two permanent teeth come in before his baby teeth fell out, so he had two rows just like a shark. It was cool and all, but the dentist thought the baby teeth should come out so the permanent teeth had more room. So first things first, he hadn't lost any teeth yet, so we had to make the tooth pillow. The patch is the pocket, how cute is he??:

Originally found here

Then he got the teeth pulled and got to stay home from school and eat milkshakes, applesauce and Yogurtland (there is one in UTAH now!) all day.
There were two huge holes at first, but now you can't even tell there were any teeth or holes there at all and his permanent teeth have moved right to the front.

His offering for the tooth fairy:
Since these were his first teeth, he was very interested in what we thought the Tooth Fairy would bring him. I told him that she used to bring me a quarter. He looked at me and said, "The price has gone up since then, right?!!" :-) Little did he know, the tooth fairy would bring him $5/per tooth!!!! (It's a long story and was an ACCIDENT!) We assured him it was probably only because it was a special situation that they were shark teeth and the dentist had to pull them, but not to expect that next time. We'll see if we have tears or not when he really looses his first tooth!

9 Months Old!

2012-01-20T18:55:00.000-08:00

Yeah, this is super out of order and should have been posted in Oct, but I just found these and couldn't resist posting them. He's so dang sweet!!!

Just Riding Horses

2012-01-20T18:35:00.000-08:00

We live right next to a horse pasture out here (which is totally freaky when taking out the trash late at night only to be whinnied at by a horse standing a foot away!) Anyway, the nice girl who owns the horses lets the kids ride occasionally. They LOVE it!! We really need to take a trip to ID to visit Aunt Andy's horses!

Goo

2012-01-16T16:39:00.001-08:00

I'm gearing up to get all caught up on posts, but in the mean time - at FHE tonight we were talking about keeping our bodies clean and pure and Chris asked what were some things that we shouldn't put into our bodies. Shea's immediate answer was alchohol, poison and goo. :-)

Happy Halloween 2011

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

I guess better late than never.
This year we didn't do a theme Halloween. I was a little bummed I didn't do it - I'll have to really make up for it next year - all I did this year was make Clare's dress. It did turn out adorable and she's worn it at least 4 or 5 days a week since Halloween. Here's pics of my cute Harry Potter, my darling Rapunzel and our sweetest cheeky monkey.

Carving Pumpkins
(How they really feel about gross pumpkin guts)
(And when I made them smile)

His first pumpkin!
Annual Halloween stew
Annual Halloween jammies
Our Vampire Pumpkins! How cute are these??!!
Harry Potter, Rapunzel, Cheeky Monkey!

My favorite thing Shea said today:

2011-12-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

Shea: "That play they made us watch at school today was so boring. Seriously! So boring!"
Dad: "What was it?"
Shea: "It was like A Muppet Christmas Carol but with people."

11 months!

2011-12-12T14:06:00.000-08:00

My sweetness

Hospital Trip 2011

2011-12-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

We haven't been to the hospital yet this year. And here I was thinking we'd make it through this year without a trip!! Alas...

It's cold here and my kids are bored, so I promised them yesterday we'd go to this awesome indoor play place this afternoon. They have tons of trampolines and foam pits. A huge rock wall, etc. etc. We were having a great time when Shea fell off a platform while climbing up to trapeze into one of the pits.
He didn't loose consciousness, but I knew he was really hurt. I mean he's a pretty big wimp, but he was being even wimpier than normal and thankfully mom's know when things just aren't right! I was pretty sure he had a concussion so we headed up to the doctor's. So glad we did, he threw up right when we got there and a few more times after that - definite sign of a concussion. The Dr. confirmed it and sent us to the ER for a CT scan. (Anybody know how much one of those is going to cost?? - Yikes!!!) Thankfully the scan came out good. Concussion, but no serious brain injury.

Things Shea learned today: A liquid diet for 12 hrs rocks - milkshakes, milkshakes, milkshakes! A concussion is called a brain shake in German and Dutch (this is now his preferred term) and a concussion gets you out of school the next day (awesome) and out of PE for 2 weeks (not awesome).

Poor kid at home afterward clutching his hospital vomit bag and waiting for the Tylenol to kick in:

Three!!!

2011-10-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

I can't get enough of pictures of all three of them. I love them so much and am so grateful they're mine.
(In no particular order -because it'll take me too long to order them.

Family Bowling

2011-10-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

Bowling was the clear choice for us when we wanted to celebrate the end of the first week of school. We love to bowl.

We're perfecting three different styles -
Roll it:

Throw it:

And bowl it!

Thanks for coming to play Aunt Courtney!

Trampoline Time

2011-10-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

Fairy Tale Ballet

2011-10-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

We signed Clare up for Fairy Tale Ballet when we moved here. Whoever thought of this is genius and I mean genius! The girls spend the first 15 minutes learning real ballet stuff (can you tell I'm not a dancer - like that technical term?) and then they all put on the dress of the day. The first day was an Aurora costume. All those little girls in matching Aurora dresses. So cute!!! Then the teacher read them the story and then they got to dance it out. Clare is in LOVE!! Look at these pictures - she's never had so much fun in her entire life. We're waiting with baited breath for Cinderella day. :-)

Oh coconuts!

2011-10-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

My idea of what to do with a fresh coconut:
Shea's idea of what to do with a fresh coconut:
(Disclaimer - since he'll hate me for these pictures when he's older. Shea DID NOT know that only the girls wear these. He thought all Hawaiians walked around in a coconut bra. When Chris enlightened him he abandoned his efforts to glue them to his skin. Phew! :-)

Vacation!!!!!

2011-10-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

My mom and dad rule! They flew us out to St. Louis a few days after we moved so we could get a break and have some fun and boy did we!!!!

We went to the Arch. So fun!!
I took this picture from the top of the arch of it's reflection in the Mississippi.
You had to ride these little "cars" up to the top. Shea dubbed it the "escape pod" and was convinced if something happened, it would release and we'd float away to safety. :-) It was soo claustrophobic, I was just trying not to hyperventilate the 6 minutes it took to get to the top.

Us with Grandma and Grandpa at the Arch:
We went to a Cardinal's game. We're making a habit of going to baseball games in every city that we live in or visit and this was one of the best! We had a BLAST!!

All except my cute niece Makell, who was NOT a fan of the fireworks and noise. :-)

We took a weekend trip to Nauvoo and Carthage. It was a really special trip. My little sister and Chris and I were able to go through a session at the gorgeous Nauvoo temple. It was so beautiful and so great to be there with Chris and my sis. Nauvoo was super fun, the carriage ride, the blacksmith shop, the family barn, we had a really good time. Carthage was especially touching and I'm so glad we were able to go and take the kids. I don't know if it made an impression on Clare, but I think Shea will always remember it.

We went to the St. Louis zoo:
Holding a giraffe vertebrae and a Zebra tail!

We had so much fun hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, going shopping, eating out at their favorite restaurants and just enjoying each other!!

One day we did bubbles in Grandma and Grandpa's yard. Shea tripped over one of the little kids and ended up with 4 big wounds. Poor guy.
Reading stories with Grandpa:

Love you guys! Thanks for such a fun two weeks!!!!

Leaving LA

2011-10-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

Deciding to move and then moving was so quick that we only had time to do a few of our favorite things "one last time."

The California Science Center:

Natural History Museum:

(I told Shea and best friend Connor to hold hands in the parking lot - and then I thought it looked so cute I made them let me take a picture. I think the exact quote from the boys was, "Ugh, Mom! Ugh Jenna!" :-)
The best friends even got a special night out at a kids restaurant! They got matching tattoos and balloon animals. (Were they excited?)

Disneyland, of course:
Belle thought Fionn was adorable and couldn't stop giving him kisses.

The Beach:

4th of July Picnic with Friends and Dean's Birthday:

Shea update

2011-10-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

Shea at 6 1/2 is delightful. He's getting so big, he can be reasoned with and talked to like a big kid. It's so fun to have "real" conversations with him. And as much as I hate that my kids just keep getting bigger and bigger - it's nice too, in lots of ways, Shea is such a great helper! He's my trash taker outer (which he loves. yay!) our weed puller (which he does not love. :-) And he's the best baby helper ever!

He's getting to be a really good reader and it makes him feel so accomplished. He's taking piano lessons and loves that he can play a few easy recognizable songs. And his biggest news - he's in French Immersion 1st grade. So he's learning French too. I'm so proud of him and how kind, sweet and loving he is.

For his last birthday he got this snap circuit, electricity set (thanks Heidi for the recommendation. It is awesome!) He and Chris love to sit down together and figure out how to make these awesome little electrical things. A fan, a flashlight, an alarm clock!
Kindergarten Graduation:
Shea and Ms. Peral:
Shea's class danced the Charleston at the end of school Dance Festival. They drew moustaches on the boys and put them in suspenders. Can you tell how excited Shea was about that? (Although he's since decided that he wants a pair of suspenders. Turns out they were fun to play with.)

With friends:

Last day of Kindergarten at Clover:

First Day of French Immersion First Grade:

Clare update

2011-10-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

Clare is definitely 3 1/2. She knows what she wants and man will she let you know if she's not getting it! Good thing she can also be a sweet, cuddly little love bug. I love all the time we get together during the week. We have lots of fun reading, having tea parties and playing dress up - her favorite activities. It's pretty much useless to get her dressed in the morning, she's in a princess dress ten minutes later. When I asked her what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas this year she said, "A Belle dress. And a Jasmine dress. Oh, and a Tangled dress. And maybe Tinkerbell too." Mommy better get out her sewing machine!

Tea Party time!
Reading to every lovey in the house:
On our last trip to Disneyland, she got to meet some of her princesses! (A highlight of her life! And let's not dwell on Disneyland too long, I might start to cry. We miss it soooo badly!)

She started preschool a few weeks after we moved here. I drive her 15 minutes to Spanish Fork every MWF for 2 1/2 hrs. I love that it's not a co-op and I don't have to be there. (Fionn's nap is during her preschool time, so 3 days a week I get 2 mommy ONLY hours!! WOW!) She's very independent and loves that she gets to go to her own school and do her own thing.

First day of school:
(I know, princess dress AND princess backpack. Agh! Remember that earlier mention of how this girl knows exactly what she wants??)

One day we went to get sparkly pink cupcakes! (In honor of Grandma, who calls her, her little cupcake.)

Fionn update

2011-10-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

This little guy is amazing. He is so sweet, so mellow, sooooo loving. I can not imagine our family without him. We adore him. He has three teeth on bottom and two top teeth should pop through any minute now. He's very close to crawling. He loves his siblings. They can make him laugh by just looking at him. He FINALLY sleeps through the night. Hallelujah!! He eats lots of cereal, baby food and baby snacks as you can see - look at this little fat rolly polly - I finally have a fat baby!! Yay. I can't get enough of his soft, little, fat, wonderful, smiling self. I love you sweet angel Fionnster!!

I missed his 7 month photo, moving, vacation and all that. But here's a few catch up pics. He'll be 9 months old next week!!! Where has the time gone??

MOVED!!!

2011-09-12T11:14:00.001-07:00

Sorry that it took me so long to update the blog with all the move info - and thanks Lauren, Renning and Em for hounding me to finally get it done! :-) Here's what's up....

We moved! boo hoo hoo. How we miss LA! But we're excited about a real job. That's right, after 8 years of marriage and 11 years of school - Chris has a real job!! He's not finished with his dissertation yet, but BYU hired him ABD (all but dissertation) on a 1 year contract. We really struggled deciding if uprooting the family and paying for a move were worth it for a 1 year contract, but in the end we felt that the experience, how great this would look on his resume when finding a long term position and a year's worth of a living wage would be worth it.

Our move was awesome. BYU had a moving allowance and my parents contributed so we splurged and got a moving company. It was amazing!!! They even packed us!! My favorite part was while they were waiting for the shuttle (the big truck wouldn't fit into the Village) they took everything down to the playground. My entire life on the playground. This is when I learned that 1- I have WAY too much crap. (Really, an entire bin with just balls????!) and 2 - there are certain clothing items that would have been better packed in non-transparent bins. I'm sure the totally visible lingerie was a highlight for all my neighbors walking by that morning.

Me taking pictures while Raoul did a bang up job packing my kitchen! AWESOME!
By the end, our belongings stretched from one end of the playground all the way to the other, wrapped around the corner and for some of the way was in two rows!!!

So, here we are in Springville UTAH! We've been here for 6 weeks and we're getting settled.
The things we miss:

We really, really, really miss our friends! Really!! Really!! A lot!!
We really miss playground time at the village twice every day.
It's starting to cool down here a bit, but we miss our gorgeous, gorgeous LA weather. Utah is so hot in the summer. Ugh.
A couple days ago in the car Clare said, "Mommy, is there a Disneyland in Utah?" I said, no honey, sorry! She thought for a minute and then said, "Well there's a beach right?" Nope, sorry babe. I could see the wheels turning in her mind and she goes, "What are we going to do here???" :-) So yeah, we also miss Disneyland and the beach!

What we love:

Our house!!! I've promised pictures to several people so I attached them below. So. much. room. And it's clean and new and there's no mold! (Gotta love those Village showers!)
I love that I can do laundry whenever I want, without carrying it down the stairs, across the playground and fighting everyone to pay for moldy washers.
I love my kitchen, my new appliances and my under mount sink.
I love that I can take trash to my own trash can right outside my door and that I can drive groceries right to my house and walk them through the garage and into the kitchen instead of carting them halfway across the village.
I love my mountain views - gorgeous, gorgeous mountains out the front and back windows!
I like that we're totally in the country. Between us and the Walmart across the street there's a protected wetland area, horses, cows, sheep and somewhere there's a rooster (that Chris swears he's going to shoot very very soon.) There's very little traffic, no freeway noise and no police helicopters at night. :-)

But... we have tons of mosquitoes and the spiders - ugh. Chris caught a 2 1/2 inch wolf spider in our garage yesterday. She was seriously a giant. I'm so glad Chris caught her - otherwise I would have had 100 wolf spiders in my garage - she was carrying her egg sack!! The kids named her Charlotte and kept her in a jar for the day so their aunts and uncle who were coming to dinner that night could see her.
They wanted to keep her for a pet. Oh my NO! I draw the line and giant sized wolf spiders!!!!! Chris let her go in the wetlands behind the house, I wanted to let her go into the toilet but I was outvoted. (By the way, I had a nightmare that she climbed back over the fence and into Fionn's crib and her eggs hatched - ugh, I've had the heebie geebies all day!!) Sorry, I got distracted by the excitement of the spider, anyway -

Shea does not go to the local elementary (whose roof I can see from my kitchen - of course, I like to make things difficult) instead, we got him into a French Immersion program 25 minutes away. Chris takes him on the way to school in the mornings and me and the little kids pick him up every day. It's a. lot. of driving. But he really likes it. We have a few concerns, but we'll wait and see how it goes because we really want him to speak French and he's finally on board and totally excited about it. Shea starts swimming lessons next week and had his first piano lesson on Friday. We're excited about both those for him.

Clare goes to a preschool 15 minutes away in the other direction 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hrs. She loves it, I love it. Fionn doesn't necessarily love it (more time in the car for him) but Clare is really, really happy there. We both hope that we meet some little girls in our neighborhood soon - she's really missing playing with other kids! Tuesday was her first Fairy Tale Ballet class. (pictures to come later.) I don't know who came up with this, but it's genius! In each class they do some basic ballet moves, then all the little girls get into the princess costume of the day. Last week it was Aurora. Then they sit in a big circle and the teacher reads them the princess story, then she helps them dance out the story in their princess dresses. I have never in my life seen 13 little girls that happy. Clarey thought she'd died and gone to heaven! Tomorrow is Ariel day! :-)

Fionn is ADORABLE! He's 8 months today and the light of our lives. He is so mellow, so sweet, so cute. He eats real food, bananas mostly, had two adorable little teeth and learned to clap! I've been sleep training him the past 4 days and I've finally had 6+ stretches of sleep for the first time in 8 months. We're both happier. If only the poor kid didn't have to be in the car as much - I'm grateful he's so good natured, he doesn't seem bothered most of the time.

Chris is teaching 3 classes at BYU. He's gone a lot. Well a lot for us. He's teaching, preparing to deliver a paper at a conference in Oct and trying to crank out his dissertation so he can apply for long term positions in Dec. The man is busy. Which neither of us are used to because he's been home so much for the past 4 years. We're getting used to it. As far as grown up jobs go - this is a great one. He can leave (aside from when he's teaching obviously) whenever he wants and work from wherever - it'll be nice to have him at all parent teacher conferences, ballet recitals and swim meets! He even gets to volunteer in Shea's class a couple times a month.

I'm home. Working. And driving. And really missing my friends, but I'm not going to feel sorry for myself (as of yesterday!) :-) To all those I've complained to lately - the talks in stake conference were for me! Quit having a pity party and serve! - So that's my new goal. I'm not going to whine and complain about how lonely I am, how nobody in this ward has befriended us, how I haven't met anyone - yada yada yada. I'm going to start taking dinners to random houses on my street until I meet friends. (Ok, maybe not, but I'm going to start doing something!! ;-) Today's been a much better day and I'm taking brownies to our next door neighbors tonight to start.

So, that's it. Sorry this was so long. It's been a while. More catch up posts to come. Anyone who comes to Utah - please call us!! We LOVE visitors. Love you. Miss you!!!!

Here are the house pics.
Downstairs:
Living room

Kitchen

Dining

Family room
(My dad asked if the red thing was a sheet! No dad, it's a cool sliding three panel fabric window cover - geez. :-)
Upstairs:
Our bedroom
(I know, I really, really need new bed linens! And I'm still on the fence about hanging anything upstairs on the walls, what a pain for only a year right?

Kids' room

Fionn's room

Out my kitchen and living room windows:

Out back

Random Happenings at the Floods

2011-07-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

Silly String! (Ugh)

Gorgeous New Photos!!

2011-07-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks again Emily! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my new pics!!!

Shea 6yrs:

Clare 3yrs:

Fionn 4months:

Celebrating their new status (statuses? status'? stati?)

2011-06-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

Clare's new shirt is a bit too shiny and sparkly to read, but...
Introducing:
Big Brother
Big Sister and
Little Brother

(Thanks Aunt Summer for the t-shirts!! We LOVE them!)

Things you DON't want to hear...

2011-06-05T22:09:00.001-07:00

Something you DO NOT want to hear when you go to pick your daughter up from the neighbor's after work:

Her with the neighbor's DIAMOND earring in her hand. And when you ask in a super-high-pitched-please-say-this-isn't-happening voice, "Clarey, where's the other one?" You hear:
"I don't know, mommy."

Something you DO NOT want to hear when you see said neighbor's husband coming home from school and you've said to him, "I'm so sorry about the lost earring!!" And he says, to you, "What earring? The ones I had custom made for her?"

Something you DO NOT want to hear when you relate the sad tale to grandpa... Gut wrenching LAUGHTER!!

Camping!

2011-05-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Shea got to go on his first camp out a few weeks ago. He and dad went to Malibu Creek for the Stake Father's and Sons. They had so. much. fun! (I LOVE this picture of them!!)

Getting ready to go bug hunting.

Success!

Just hanging out.

Fishing! He finally got to go fishing! They didn't catch anything, but sure had fun trying!

Silly string

2011-05-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

Shea tried it out in the bathtub first, but then decided I was a much better target!!

My two new favorite things.

2011-05-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

I know I'm not Oprah, but I have a list of favorite things too! Here are my two newest additions:

Halftees

Genious! Seriously. Sometimes I want an undershirt, my teeshirt is a little short, I don't want to button my sweater all the way or my pants are a little lower rise - you know what I mean, sometimes you need a longer undershirt. But sometimes, you really don't want that extra bulk of a full undershirt, but you still want the sleeve and neckline coverage. Voila, the halftee!!
I'm loving them! (And let's talk about nursing with a halftee, awesome!) Anyway - check them out!
http://halftee.com

Mabel's Labels

Check out these adorable labels. They're dishwasher and microwave safe, the clothing ones won't wash off in the wash. They have bag tags and household labels. But I'm in love with these cute kiddo ones. You can pick the color and the symbol - they're cute and skinny and fit on anything, but they're super durable and won't come off either - they're great!! No more lost sippys, snack boxes, pencils etc. for us!! And if you want some free ones, go to their website and sign up to be a Mabel's Label Buzzmama.

This blog used to be funny!

2011-05-23T15:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry faithful readers. I was just (I have no idea why - and NO! I did not have an hour to waste!) looking at old blog posts and I realized that my blog used to be funny. (Sep '08 was really cracking me up just now.) I apparently used to pay attention to my kids when they talked to me and I also apparently used to have time to blog the funny things they'd say and do. Now I feel lucky if I can get a shower every few days (shh! don't tell) and man does the blog suffer (from the lack of time, not the lack of showering!). So sorry! And thanks for sticking with us even though I'm lame (r) now!! :-)

Babies

2011-05-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

Love these three!

And I love it when babies sleep all splayed out like this. There's something so carefree and trusting about it.

He's 6!!!!

2011-05-22T19:31:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Buddy! (nice belated blogging mom!)

We had a Ben 10 party!

We had cupcakes at school

Mom made a Ben 10 Omnitrix cake

We had pizza and opened presents

Fionn hung out with Renning

The kids chased the aliens (the dads and some brave older brothers) around and tried to save us all from the invading horde.

It was a great day and I can't believe my baby is 6!!! Happy Birthday Shea!!

4 months

2011-05-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

He is so sweet! Delicious in fact! We are loving him so so so so so much!! He is a smiley, laughing delight!

Aren't these cute? We found this old hat of Shea's - I'm not sure he loved it, he looked pretty surprised at his reflection.

Already? Really? He's only 6!!!!

2011-05-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

Chris went to pick up Shea the other day from school and this conversation ensued when they were walking home:

Shea: When ___'s mom stuck her head in the classroom to pick her up today, I liked her face so much that it made me crazy like a nutcracker.

Chris: What does that mean?

Shea: It's like when you're the only one that gets a cupcake and no one else does... (A little quiet thinking...) Yeah, it was like that.

Mommy, upon being told of this conversation: Oh crap!

She LOVES to read to him...

2011-04-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

I find this scene all the time. She'll prop a book up on whatever seat he's chilling in and "read" him stories. I'm not sure which of them loves it more. :-)

3 months!

2011-04-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

Fionn at 3 months is a pure delight! 50% for weight, 25% for height 75% head circumference. (Gotta love that massive Flood noggin')

Smiles!! Coos!! Sweet little laughs!! Bubbles!! (none of which I captured in the photo - but it's all true, I promise! :-)

I love, love, love, love, love this baby! :-) :-)

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter. It's fun that our kids are getting older, Shea really grasped Easter and the Resurrection this year. We were able to have some really nice conversations about our Savior, which made it better than ever.

We dyed eggs -

Mommy made the whole family Easter outfits to match Clare's dress -

Chris wanted me to make him an Easter bow tie - I told him I'd only do it if he'd let me make it all matchy matchy. I LOVED it!!! I think he regretted the whole deal, to tell you the truth. :-) For being a good sport, I promised to make him some more, non-matching ones!

My boys in their bow ties -

My little Easter cuties -

Happy Birthday Clarey!!

2011-04-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

Clare turned 3 !

We had a super fun princess party:
We had cute crown cupcakes:

We made tiaras and crowns:

Look at all these cute princes and princesses:
We had the requisite princess pinata:
And.. we had lots of fun!

Thanks little princes and princesses! We love you Clarey, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Little Fionn

2011-04-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

I know! I know! It's way past time for an update. :-)

I can't believe he's already almost 10 weeks old! Time flies when you're totally overwhelmed and sleep deprived. :-)

Fionn is gorgeous and sweet - he's sleeping better so I'm loving that. He has the most ridiculously high pitched cry. It's the cry other babies have when they're being tortured. When he breaks it out in public, everyone thinks he's dying. But other than that he's perfect! :-)

I could just spend all day kissing and cuddling him. Seriously, look at this sweet, soft, gorgeousness!!!!

One Month:
Two months:

Fionn's First Photos

2011-01-25T21:49:00.000-08:00

Look at this handsome man!

Thanks again Emily. They're great.

Introducing...

2011-01-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

Fionn Christophe Flood

Tue Jan 12, 2011 9:12pm
8 lbs 21 inches

As you can see Chris and I finally agreed on a name. :-) I love his name, I had to come around to the traditional Irish spelling. I didn't want people to always mispronounce it, which they will, so sorry buddy, I guess you'll just have to get used to telling people that it's pronounced Finn!

I'm in LOVE! He is gorgeous and sweet and soft and tiny and perfect. I forgot how amazing a newborn is. His smell! I could just eat him up. The teeny tiny mewly sounds. So delicious!! Clare is obsessed and wants to hold and kiss him every second. Shea is pretty much indifferent but thinks he's cool. Grandma and daddy have to take turns holding him when he's not with me. His birth was long, as is usual for me, but easy and recovery is so far great! We had so much help from wonderful neighbors. I love you girls!! Thank you for everything!!!

We're happy as can be! Welcome gorgeous boy, we love you!!!

Aebelskivers anyone?

2011-01-09T20:31:00.000-08:00

We got a pan last year up in Solveng and finally put it through it's maiden voyage over the Christmas break. Chris' family always had them during the holidays growing up and now we're all hooked!! I think I ate about 20! They are soooo delicious! Chris has promised to make them for us every holiday season from now on. Now that I've been thinking about their buttery, crispy, soft, sweet, deliciousness, I might have to make them for breakfast tomorrow. Anyone wanna come over?? :-)

Shea's imagination

2011-01-08T23:05:00.000-08:00

is awesome! He is so smart and funny. I love the things that he thinks up and says. For example, a few Sundays before Christmas he was forced to entertain himself as Mommy and Clarey napped and Daddy was "watching" (ahem, snoozing during) some football. So Shea found an empty box and filled it with toys. Shea wasn't discriminating, he included the Little People Nativity characters, some assorted superheros, transformers, Star Wars bobble heads, Bakugans of course his nutcracker collection. Sounds like a good mix to me! The best were the things that Chris overheard over the course of that hour. (It's good to know that he's listening during Church and Family Home Evening.)

- Batman and Optimus Prime had a discussion with each other about which Church to join.
- Optimus attacked the Roman soldiers who hurt Jesus.
- The nativity camel was translating Jesus' baby talk for the assembled crowd.
- The pirate nutcracker and Drago teamed up to attack the opposing team of Anakin and the three Wisemen.
- Mary was shown how to leap tall buildings by Anakin.

And that's just what Chris could remember by the time I woke up. Thanks buddy, you are highly entertaining!! :-) Keep it up.

Clarey

2011-01-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

Clare is so much fun right now. She is at a super fun age where she can tell us everything she needs to and we can play and pretend together but where she still wants to cuddle and be cuddled. She and I have had so much fun this fall and winter spending time together while Shea's been in school. I'm afraid she's going to have a really hard adjustment in the next little while when I'm not just hers anymore. Here's a few funny things she's done/said lately:

1- Today I was getting dressed and she came in and started giggling. She said, "Mommy, your belly has a nose!!" (Yes, my belly button has popped out - Baby, you're done! Come out!!!) :-)

2- She got her very first nightgown. I hadn't ever gotten her one because they ride up and they're irritating and I didn't want her to be cold, but I guess I never thought about it from her perspective. This girl LOVES dresses and skirts. There was a super cheap nightgown online that I bought, when it got here, and she put it on I realized - She was ecstatic! A DRESS! That she gets to wear to bed?!! She gets to be a princess in her sleep? It was a revelation to her and a dream come true. She NEVER chooses other jammies now. Good thing it's big - she'll be able to wear it for a long time :-)
3- Clare is in LOVE with the princesses. As much as Chris and I always said we'd never let her wear tacky princess dresses and have princesses and barbies - you just can't deny the girl if that's what she loves. This was her reaction to seeing the princesses in the Disneyland Christmas parade. Look at that face! She loves them!!
For Christmas she got a Princess computer and a Princess scooter. She was so happy with both!

4- We watched the beginning of Sound of Music the other night and a few days later Chris went in to tell Clare to stop singing and go to sleep. He heard her singing, "Jesus wants me for a nun."

5- She was in the bathroom the other day getting ready for bed and all the sudden she started screaming, "Mom, a bug! A bug! A bug!" I went in there and found this:
She had crawled totally on top of the potty to escape the teeny tiny bug across the bathroom.

Love you Clarey!

My little readers

2011-01-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

They LOVE to read. It makes us so happy! With me, with dad, with each other or alone. I find them "reading" on the couch several times a day and a day could never end without story time! I love it!!

I think I can

2011-01-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

8 more days!!!!!!

Baby, your momma can't wait to get you here!

I'm thankful...

2010-11-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

for this one:

The most supportive, considerate, wonderful, loving, helpful husband around. I am the luckiest, luckiest girl!

for this one:
So funny, original, smart, handsome and loving. I miss him so when he's in school and have LOVED having him home all week!

for this one:
I had no idea how much I would love having a daughter. She's sassy and sweet and beautiful and smart and this girl and her mamma are tight!

for this one:
I'm so grateful to be pregnant one last time. Don't get me wrong, I'll complain to anyone who'll listen (sorry Chris, Lauren, Jaimee and Mom!) about the heartburn and the tree trunk ankles, but I really feel so so blessed to be doing this again!

and...
tonight I'm grateful for the cute new purse Clare picked out for me for my birthday! :-)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

New favorite dinner

2010-11-20T13:43:00.000-08:00

Personal chicken pot pies!

So easy...
-Saute some onions in olive oil. (Remove onions)
-Add small diced potatoes and carrots, cook until fork tender. (Remove veggies)
-Add diced chicken breasts or roaster chicken, cook until done. (Remove chicken.)
-Use pan to make a quick chicken gravy, or toss in a can of chicken gravy, add a little water so it's loose.
- Toss back in all the veggies and chicken.
- Cut some circles from ready made pie crusts, and lay them in your muffin tin. (I rolled out my pie crusts, so they wouldn't be so thick, since the pot pies were small.)
- Fill with filling and place pie crust rounds on top. From pie crust scraps cut your families initials and place on top.
- Bake at 425 for 20 minutes -ish.
- Delish, healthy and easy. The kiddos loved that their letters were on top and they gobbled them up!!
Thanks Alicia for the idea!!!

(Don't you love my awesome styling for the photo? The pink and green plastic plates the kids ate them on. I know, I know, classy!!) :-)

My 36th.

2010-11-19T13:07:00.000-08:00

I actually like having birthdays. Even now that we're up to these impossibly high numbers. It's all thanks to Chris and my parents - they are sooooo good at birthdays! I had a wonderfully relaxing, happy, low key day. It was exactly what I wanted and we capped it off with a family dinner at PF. My all time favorite food.
Then there's the fact that Jaime and I share a bday and Lauren's is a few days later - which always makes for some fun birthday celebrations. This year was Jaime's 30th and she decided to have a Barbie party. I wasn't all that excited about dressing up as a Barbie, they don't exactly come giant and pregnant :-) but Bedtime Barbie and the party turned out to be so much fun! Anyone having a girls only party soon should do this. It was a blast!! Everyone looked so cute and it was actually fun getting dressed up and it's always fun hanging out with the girls!!
We ended up with:
Dressy Barbie, Holiday Barbie, Toy Story Barbie, Bedtime Barbie, Sweetheart Barbie, Bridesmaid Barbie, Asian Barbie and Doctor Barbie. (Not pictured, Lingerie Barbie and Ballet Barbie.)

Success!

2010-11-18T13:00:00.001-08:00

Clare is potty trained! Yippee. :-)
I've been holding off putting up this post, I didn't want to jinx us, but I think it's official now. She hasn't had an accident in a week and has now been dry 4 nights in a row too. I have to say my potty training method is pretty painless. Do it for a few days until I get sick of the accidents and then go back to pull ups for a month, then do it for a few days until I get sick of the accidents and then go back to pull ups for a month or so and so on and so on... I'm not sure exactly what try we're currently on, but this time it took right away. Only two accidents and voila!! Success! :-) Now I have 8 weeks diaper/pull up free until baby arrives. I guess that's better than no time at all.

Girly girl

2010-11-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

Much to daddy's dismay (he hates all that princess/barbie stuff!) we definitely have a girly girl on our hands. She loves wearing dresses and skirts every day (thanks grandpa for keeping her stocked up!) loves having her hair done pretty and is now all into the princesses (she will only wear the Cinderella pull-ups) barbies and polly pockets. I love it!! :-)

She earned a toy a few weeks ago and chose her first pollys. We spent hours putting the shoes on, taking the shoes off, putting them on, taking them off and on and on and on.

Annual Farm Trip

2010-11-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

The annual co-op field trip to the farm really makes it feel like fall around here.

Clarey riding Rosebud again! This is the pony our family gets every year!
Picking the perfect pumpkin.
Clare's co-op class.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween from the Vikings of "How to Train your Dragon."

Astrid and Hiccup
The whole Viking fam (don't you love Stoic?!)

We had SO much fun. I love love love sewing family costumes every year, it's so much work, but it's sooo much fun. Although, with 5 next year, Chris and I might have to start bowing out. We'll see. The first thing Shea said to me when he got his on when it was finished was, "Mom, I'm totally going to win the costume contest!" He wouldn't take his off for days and that's all the thanks I need!

Oh - we did win 1st place at the costume contest, Shea was very excited!

I love my life!

2010-10-04T13:07:00.001-07:00

I love my family and lots and lots of family time - but today, I'm loving some quiet ME time!
It's a gorgeous "cold", rainy LA day and my house is clean and cool. Chris and Shea are at school Clarey is sleeping and it's just me and my computer, my DVR and my diet cherry Pepsi. Life is GOOD!!!

When it's HOT! HOT! HOT!

2010-09-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

This past Monday, "the National Weather Service's thermometer for downtown Los Angeles headed into uncharted territory at 12:15 p.m., reaching 113 degrees for the first time since records began being kept in 1877."

It was slightly cooler at our house, but just slightly. So what do you do when it's that flipping hot at the end of September????

We head over to Lauren's with all our friends, where we crank up the AC, wrap up in our favorite blankies, eat treats (oh sooooo many treats!) and watch the new Tinkerbell movie.

That's the only way to play when it's this hot!!! Thanks Lo! we had so much fun!!

Happy 35th Dad!

2010-09-28T20:04:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Chris!
We love you so much and hope you had a happy 35th!!

Clare's first Haircut!!

2010-09-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

She was really excited and I can't count how many times that day she said that either she or her hair were beautiful. :-)
I couldn't agree more!!!!!
Thanks again Kelli!

Clare's first day of Co-op Preschool

2010-09-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

Clarey got to start school the day after Shea. She was most excited about the pink backpack and pink lunchbox. We're in the co-op with our best friends from the playground and nursery, so I'm not sure how different it will be for her. Hopefully it will be a great experience to do her own thing, get out of the house, sit and listen to a lesson and do some fun crafts.

Watch out for the photo overload here, she looked so darling that first morning in her new school outfit and with her excited smiles, I couldn't resist posting all of these!

Bye guys, I'm off!
Oh my gosh! She's so adorable!!!!

Shea's first day of Kindergarten!

2010-09-17T21:48:00.000-07:00

He was so excited. He smiled everywhere he went the morning of his first day of school and kept saying over and over how excited he was. How cute is my big guy?

Walking to school.

Standing outside Room 3!
Saying good-bye to Clarey. I love this photo, they are such good friends!

Putting his lunch in the basket and his backpack in the closet.

Sitting on the mat with his friend Harsh. They're so excited to get started!

His first words when we picked him up on that first day were, "That was so much fun!!" Shea is so happy! We are so happy and excited for him. He's got a few friends from last year's pre-k class in his class again this year and he's already made a few new friends too. When he's tired in the morning and not wanting to get out of bed, I just have to mention that it's a school day and he bolts out of bed, so excited to get there. I was worried he'd be tired after a full day of school, but he's wired when he gets home, he's had so much fun all day. I was also worried about Clare missing him a ton, but she seems to be loving all the one-on-one time. I'm so happy to be able to spend lots of time with her, Shea got 3 years before she came and so I want to enjoy every day of the next few months of her alone time. So far this year is off to a great start! (Except for the part about getting up and ready to go every day at 6:30 or 7. UGH!!)

Last day of Kindergarten Countdown

2010-09-16T20:23:00.001-07:00

On our last day of Kindergarten Countdown we saw Walking with Dinosaurs at the Staples Center. This was a big investment for our family (tickets are PRICEY!) but we've been wanting to see it since we saw the first History Channel expose on it. We are SO glad we went!!! If this show comes anywhere near where you live, YOU MUST GO!

From their website:

After 65 million years they’re back!

After years of planning, the award-winning BBC TV series, Walking with Dinosaurs comes to life in a stunning theatrical event.

Internationally renowned designers have worked with scientists to create 17 life-size dinosaurs, including the terror of the ancient terrain, Tyrannosaurus-rex! Be amazed and thrilled as the greatest creatures ever to walk the earth return before your eyes.

It’s a dazzling 10 million pound arena spectacle of unprecedented size and quality set to captivate young and old alike. Marvel at the story of their 200 million year domination of life on earth. Watch them walk. Hear the roar. Be there as they fight for survival and supremacy. From the ripple of their skin to the glint in their eye, you will know the dinosaurs really have returned! So make sure you have your seat to see the return of the dinosaurs!

Check out the Dinos we saw:

This one's my favorite!

These dinos were amazing. It was hard to get clear photos with no flash, so here's just a few of the awesome, gigantic creatures we saw. The only time the kids got scared was when the mama T-Rex came over to our side and roared. It was pretty intense!

To give you an idea of the size of these dinosaurs, that baby T-Rex (above) is a person in an 8 or 9 foot tall costume! If you look closely, you can see his / her leg running from the body to the foot.

The brachiosaurus and her baby were AMAZING. When it stood up straight it's head was touching the lights in the arena. It was so huge!!

Countdown to Kindergarten Day 5

2010-09-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

We relaxed a bit on Day 5 - this was turning out to be a tiring week! We hung out at the mall, got the correct sizes on our brand new school shoes and had big pretzels for lunch. I love this pic of the kids sharing a pomegranate lemonade.

Countdown to Kindergarten Day 4

2010-09-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Disneyland!
We had so much fun and our friend Sarah came with us, which made it even more fun. (Don't you love Clare's fruit snack hanging out of her mouth?)

Sarah took us to the Imaginarium, is that what it's called? It was so fun! Who knew there was a free arcade and games at Disneyland?! Shea's favorite was playing the drums.

The carousel!

And Shea got picked to be a Jedi at the Jedi Training. I was so glad Sarah was there - Clare absolutely HATES the Jedi training. Darth Maul got in her face once and she can not take it now. So she went on a few rides with Sarah while Shea got to battle Darth Vader!! He was so happy!!!

Happy Day 4!

Countdown to Kindergarten Day 3

2010-09-08T22:00:00.001-07:00

My little ones were so sick last night. It was a horrible night. Clare had a super nasty fever, it was that panting, shaking, shivering terrible kind. Her Tylenol finally kicked in and she fell asleep. 2 minutes later, Shea woke up with really bad stomach pains. He also said it hurt to breathe. He was crying and miserable. We were really worried about both of them. Chris went to bed around midnight and Shea finally fell asleep around 2am, right when Clare's Tylenol wore off. She was so so sick, I held her for an hour and then I couldn't take it any more, I wanted to distract her or something, anything to take her mind off it and get her to stop panting and crying so I turned on a princess movie. It worked like a charm and her Tylenol kicked in during the movie. I can honestly say I've never watched Cinderella at 3:30 in the morning before. What a treat. :-) (not really.) I finally got Clarey in bed at 4 and Shea woke up at 4:20 just as I was falling asleep, wanting more medicine. I got him taken care of and back in his bed. I FINALLY went to bed just before 5am. UGH! Chris, thankfully got up with the kids, who, incidentally, woke up at 8 singing! SINGING! I swear. I got up at 9:30 determined to still do Day 3.

We made it and had a really fun time.

My kids love, love, love the Natural History Museum. They could seriously go there every day and never get tired of it.

Elephants and the map of the museum. (Shea loves those maps and plotting our course around.)
The dino teeth puzzle at the dino lab. A favorite!

And we found a Chick-Fil-A in LA! There were some in SoCal, but way too far away to go to. I'm so happy to have one close-ish now!! My absolute favorite!!!! Theirs too!
Another fun day with my babies! I love them, I love spending time with them, I love this week, aside from the sick kids and no sleep that is. :-) Disneyland tomorrow!

Sprinkler fun!

2010-09-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

Clare was too chicken to join in the fun, and just watched from the sidelines, but Shea took full advantage of the 20 minutes all those sprinklers were on!

o

Daddy's rule.

2010-09-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

They think of things like soda box catapults. All you need:
A soda box
Three pencils
Three rubber bands
Bottom of a dixie cup
And some craft pom poms or marshmallows and
PRESTO! Days and days of entertainment.

Try it! :-)

Countdown to Kindergarten Day 2

2010-09-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

Wow!
Today was...
the most boring countdown to kindergarten day EVER! :-( It literally and figuratively rained on our parade! So our planned beach day was out thanks to the rain and both Clarey and Shea were sick. Clare has a cold and fever and spent most of the day lying in bed or on the couch whining. Poor thing.
And I'm not sure what Shea did but he hurt his back today and spent a large portion of his day in bed and on the couch. (Don't you love his posed I'm sick and hurting pic?!) :-)

So aside from the sickies, I did make it to an OB apt. Baby is doing great. 21 weeks down, lots, lots, lots more to go. :-)
And just to make things really exciting today, we turned this:

into this:
I know, I know - too much excitement! :-) I promise little guy, tomorrow will be better!

The love

2010-09-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Star Wars love at our house will never die.

Countdown to Kindergarten Day 1

2010-09-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

Today was FANTASTIC!
We had so much fun kicking off our Countdown to Kindergarten Week! It started at the batting cages, watching Sean bat. Shea wanted a turn but was too young, but he thoroughly enjoyed watching. Then we played in the arcade (where I missed seeing Al Pacino yell at his son because Clare picked that moment to have to go potty.)

Then we did 18 holes of mini golf. SO. MUCH. FUN!

Then in the parking lot we ran into "Danny" from CSI New York. And with my new found courage to ask stars for photos (thanks again, Tamara!) I asked and voila. Chris was so embarrassed!
"Danny" Carmine Giovinazzo
"Danny" with me! (his son, and a giant ray of sun)
We ended our super fun day at Round Table with Sean and Rachel. We loved watching baby Dean smile and talking, talking, talking with our good friends. We all had SOO much fun. If only this week wasn't going to end with Shea going to kindgerarten, we could do this every week! See you back tomorrow for Day 2's update!

Hollywood Bowl Dates Rule

2010-09-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

Thursday night was our third Hollywood Bowl date this summer. My husband spoils me. He loves music and the arts and has made sure that I get plenty of opportunities to love them too. Last night was the American operetta Candide. It was awesome. Aside from the incredible show (I'm so jealous of their voices, but that's a whole different post!), the bowl is dark, it's outside in the amazing SoCal weather, you get to sit next to your husband and bring and eat dinner and dessert while watching the show! My husband and the Hollywood Bowl rule!
(Oh, and our awesome babysitters who agreed to sit for us for 6 hours!)

Some kind of record.

2010-09-05T20:10:00.001-07:00

Yesterday morning my kids slept in til 9:14am.
They must really love me. :-)

My new FAVORITE breakfast.

2010-09-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

I almost always end up having to purchase the sample at Traders. This week it was their Steel-Cut Oat Muffins. OH. MY. HECK. I have never, ever, ever tasted a better muffin. The giant, hot, buttery delicious bran muffin from Marie Calendars is almost as good. Almost. These are absolutely to die for. And then they spread it with Mascarpone AND raspberry jam. I was so happy at breakfast this morning. And then I looked at the nutrition information. And I was less happy. But just slightly, they're that good!!!
9:27 pm isn't too late for breakfast right?

Countdown to Kindergarten!

2010-09-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this is the title of tonight's post. I can hardly bear it. The time has finally come.
My baby is leaving me. In celebration of his last week with us, we've planned a countdown to Kindergarten! He picked every single thing he loves and we've crammed it into his last week.
Our schedule looks like this:
(And yes, I had to look up how to correctly spell Kindergarten!)
We're so excited to spend all this time together doing what he loves. Man will I miss my baby. For all our friends here, come join us in the fun!!!!

Root beer

2010-08-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

Chris loves root beer. LOVES root beer. I can almost count on one hand the days of our marriage when he has NOT had one can of root beer. For special occasions I buy him Henry Weinhards. I'm not a root beer aficionado and even I think this one is superb. So on our anniversary I made a little trip to BevMo and picked up one of each root beer they carry. 22! I did not think there would be that many. We thought it would be fun to take notes on all those root beers and make a little root beer catalog. During our little root beer experiment, we discovered, The Root Beer Project. This guy is on a quest to brew the best root beer ever, so he's traveling and tasting and reviewing every root beer known to man. (And I thought 22 was a lot!) One of my favorite quotes, "Am I really writing about soda like a wine snob?" Yes, he is, but its cool and he has a great "recommended list" for the next time you're near BevMo and in the mood for a root beer.
(Oh, and by the way... our favorite is still Henry Weinhards!)

Family vacation

2010-08-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

We had the funnest family vacation this summer. We spent a week at a gorgeous resort in Anaheim with my entire family. It was so fun to spend time with everyone, especially for the kids. They adore their grandma and grandpa and were spoiled rotten! I wish I'd gotten pictures!! We did so many fun things. Of course, Disneyland and California Adventure. We came to Santa Monica and had fun on the promenade and the pier and had a super super fun afternoon at the Skirball. We flew kites and did some serious digging and building at the beach. We went to an Angels game, shopped and ate at the Grove and did lots of driving. :-) Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for SUCH a SUPER fun time!!

Clarey and cousin Tate at the Skirball
My gorgeous sister Jaimee and her gorgeous daughter Makell
My cute brother letting his twins get a nap at Disneyland
With Aunt Julie and Grandma and Grandpa at the Angel's game
Lots of driving. :-)
Posing (or resting) in the big California Adventure letters

Sushi baby!

2010-08-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

Two years ago Chris gave me a gift certificate for a cooking class at Sur La Table. A month or so ago, I FINALLY went and took the class! It was sooooo much fun.
I learned to make sushi from Andy Matsuda, "LA's sushi chef." Check out what I can make now! And we have a Japanese market just down the street so I've been making sushi like crazy!! Wanna come over?? :-)

Summer fun

2010-08-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

Our summer has been so relaxed and fun. We're so enjoying having daddy home and spending lazy days with friends. We've done a few museums and other fun things but we're mostly home relaxing, playing games, reading, swimming, watching The Last Airbender cartoon and LOVING being together before our Shea goes off to full day kindergarten.

The Pool:

The Dino show at the Natural History Museum:

Kidspace:

Summer Sounds at the Hollywood Bowl:

Computer time:

Guitar Lessons

2010-08-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

Daddy gave Shea his first guitar lesson recently. Sadly the guitar has been returned, it was much more along the line of toy and not the serious musical instrument that it was meant to be. We're on the hunt for a new one asap. They had so much fun!!

Trying it out standing up.

Figuring it out and having tooo much fun!

Star Wars Pancakes!

2010-08-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

Does life get any better than this??

NOPE!! :-)

Oh, by the way...

2010-08-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

Our last baby is a boy! :-)

We're very excited. I'm happy I haven't saved every article of clothing Shea ever wore for nothing. And that giving away all of Clare's clothes to my sister and sister-in-law was a good choice. Plus I knew it was a boy, and I'm always happy when I'm right. Now, if only we had any boys names. Aaggh!

Shea was very concerned during the ultrasound that the doctor was pressing too hard on my stomach and moving the skin all around. He was sure it was hurting me, it was too cute. And Clare, even after it was firmly determined that it was a boy, refused to believe it and kept saying excitedly, "It's a girl!" :-) Shea did a little victory dance on the stool when it was announced that he's getting a brother. I guess you can't please them all. :-)

There's no accounting for taste

2010-08-20T20:41:00.001-07:00

I try to discourage my kids from choosing their own outfits. Still, sometimes, it can't be helped and this is what we get. :-)

Easter in August??

2010-08-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of catching up and for my future blog book, I have to post these cute pics of my kiddos and friends at Easter. And I promise, I didn't know I was dressing them to match their Easter baskets - but how cute are they??

As of 11 this morning...

2010-08-14T13:08:00.001-07:00

Yep, that's 3 too many accidents for me. I HATE POTTY TRAINING! Every time I start I give up after one day because of this. I hate it!! It makes me so grouchy. :-(
I made Clare help clean up accident #3. She thought it was funny.
Come on Clarey! You can do it. Let's have an accident free afternoon girl!!!

Anton in my Trader Joes??

2010-08-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

You're kidding me right? That's what I think every time I see a celeb someplace I frequent. It's so weird to me that they're real people and that they need milk and almonds too. It's just so odd to have a crush on someone on TV and then see them in your Trader Joes!! I love it!!
So this morning I had to run up and grab some flowers and some tortillas. As soon as I walked in, I saw him. "Anton" from Dexter. Chris and I love this show and have had a great time watching it from the beginning. Anton has been one of my favorite parts! He's so hot (yeah, Chris knows I think this. :-)
So as I always do with famous people, I gawk and follow them around in what I think is a covert manner, trying to get a better look. I was so excited that he was there, I called my friend Tamara, the only other person I know who watches Dexter religiously. I'm a little giddy as I tell her he's here. She says I have to go talk to him. I said NO WAY! I'm waaayyy too chicken for that. But she convinces me that they love it when fans come up and talk to them, so I did it!!
I walked up to a famous person that I watch on TV! I asked him if I could take his picture. He asked me my name, introduced himself, (oh, hi, David? I had no idea that was your name! For shame.) shook my hand and then he asked if he could be in the picture with me. Ummmmm, let me think about that for a second! Shut up!!! YES! He put his arm around me, scrunched down and took a pic with me. He was sooooo nice. I might change my mind and ALWAYS ask them for pictures now.

Oh happy day!! David/Anton whatever your name is, you're a hottie whose show and character I've loved. Nice to meetcha!!

A blog post? What?

2010-08-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

As Clare would say, (or rather screech at the top of her lungs) "Whaaaaat?"
Has it really been 2 1/2 months since I posted? So... where does one start? Hmmm. At the beginning I guess. :-) (Jaimee Jo! This is for you! Okay, and my future blog book! :-)

Shea completed his first season in organized sports. I've never seen little boys as happy as these were when they were handed their T-ball trophies. Shea could not believe it was his to keep (it still occupies a place of honor in our home.) He honestly didn't know he was going to get one. He was so excited! And then there was Coach Daddy, who was as excited as the boys were. His first coaching job was fun, but he was happy, happy when we were done.

The kids got bunk beds in prep for Baby #3's arrival. They're big fans of their big kid beds. So far no falling off or broken bones. Knock on wood.

On memorial day this year we went out to Hollywood to visit Chris' parents' graves. It was a wonderful experience. I'm so glad we went and am looking forward to going again next year.

And Shea graduated from Pre-K! How we loved our first real school experience. Teacher Renee and Teacher Kim were absolutely amazing. I love those ladies and am so grateful for the kindness, patience and love they showed to my little man this year. We were so lucky to have them!!

Shea and his school buddies.

I adore this photo. This is Mimi. :-) Shea's first "girl" friend. At this age he didn't distinguish her from any other friend, but he definitely played with her more than any other girl. Her mom told me one day after school that she talked about Shea non-stop at home. I love her turning his face to look at her. And look at the two little girls on either side shying away from the two of them. It's tooooo cute!!

My adorable, sweet little man. I can't believe how big he's getting. I cry every time I think about him going to full day kindergarten in ONE month!! :-( I will miss him so.

Rex and Cameleon

2010-05-23T22:59:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned, Shea is convinced that I'm having twins. Tonight at dinner he named them. His baby brother will be Rex (and in case you're wondering that's the shortened version of Tyrannosaurus Rex) and his baby sister will be Cameleon (yeah, like the lizard.) He's been talking to my belly and calling them by "name" all night. But don't worry, I won't let him get his hopes up. Before she was born, he named Clare Shamu and we didn't let that stick, so there's really no chance for Rex and Cameleon. :-) There's really no chance, for that matter that it's twins either, right?!!!

!!!

2010-05-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

The first so I was sure and the second so Chris was sure. Now we're all sure! I'm terrible at keeping my pregnancy's quiet. I want everyone to know our good news when we do. So now you know! We're a little unsure of how to be the parents of three! Being outnumbered and having only two arms and hands for holding, two legs for lap reading etc. all scares me! But I guess you just figure it out. We're due in January and couldn't be happier! When we told Shea he just kept saying over and over that he wanted it to be twins. Hope not!! And now Clare's obsessed with putting things (today it was a phone and a battery) down her shirt and saying it's her baby. Good times!

Fire fighter birthday

2010-05-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

Shea thinks he wants to be a fire fighter when he grows up. And he REALLY wanted a fire fighter birthday party this year. So we took some friends to the fire station for his party. It was very fun! The kids got lots of good fire safety info, they got to see all the equipment, climb on the truck and even shoot the hose!! What's not to love??!! Thanks LAFD!
(Although it was a close call at the beginning, our tour started by the engine getting a call, and us watching them leave! Luckily it was a quick call and we were able to wait until they got back to have or tour - but I think the kids were a little confused to get there and then wave goodbye to them! :-)
Waving goodbye!

Wow these guys are cool!
And man, they have cool equipment!
Shooting the hose. A fan favorite!
Teaching them how to crawl below the smoke. (This was very cute, he had them crawling all around the place. )

Coming down the firefighter pole! There were lots of requests to try this!!
Shea and firefighter Jun. How cute are they?
Then presents and Fire Truck cake. Not my finest cake ever, I have to say. I decided not to do fondant, which is easier, but sloppier looking. Oh, and I'm pretty sure there's not a truck out there that leans like that in the front. :-) Oh well, it tasted good and the kids sure didn't care if it was leaning.

I did however, think my fire cupcakes turned out super cool.
Thanks friends!!

Happy Birthday Shea!

2010-05-03T22:59:00.000-07:00

He had a great birthday!
On Thursday morning he woke up and got to open his presents from us and Clarey. Here he is waiting with his eyes closed. What did he get?
A real big boy bike! Finally! He's SO happy.

Mom got to go to school to celebrate with him. We had fireman cupcakes for the whole class
they gave him 5 hip, hip, hoorays, sang to him and he got to wear the birthday crown!!

Then lunch at McDo - his "perfect lunch" (his words)
and Disneyland with our best friends.
(In the car on the way down)
Then PF Chang for his birthday dinner. His favorite restaurant!!! Can you tell he's happy? :-)
And finally home, where awesome Sean and Rachel met us to give him his birthday gift. Thanks again Sean, for introducing him to comic books! What? Cartoons in book form ??? Even better!!!! (I definitely think a life long love has begun!)
Finally bed time! I had been telling him ALL day long, happy birthday. He asked me sometime at Disneyland how many times I was going to tell him happy birthday. I told him a lot! Geez, it only comes once a year and I wanted to make sure it was special! So as I tucked him in bed, he said, and mom don't worry, I had a happy birthday! :-)
Whew!

New favorite

2010-05-02T23:46:00.000-07:00

Yogurt Parfaits.
My kids are asking for them every day now. Breakfast, snack, lunch it doesn't matter. I started making Laura's homemade granola. DELISH! And so so so so easy. So we do layers of vanilla yogurt, homemade granola and whatever fresh or frozen fruit I happen to have. We love them!! You should definitely make some too!

Homemade Granola
4 C Old Fashion Oats
1/2 C Wheat Germ
1/4 of a bag of Coconut (around 3/4 cup)
6 T Brown sugar (if you're watching your sugar intake, you can cut this down to 3 T)
OPTIONAL: you can add any kind of nut, cinnamon, raisins, sunflower seeds, banana chips, anything!

BOIL TOGETHER:
6 T Oil (you could cut this down to 4 and it still works)
4 T Water
1/2 Cup Syrup (you can use any kind you would like - corn, maple etc.)

Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and mix together until it is all wet. Then get your hands in there to clump it up. Lay out granola onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 275 for 20-30 min. You want the edges to be golden brown. NOTE: when you take it out it will still seem soft. It hardens as it cools.

ENJOY!

DVR rules!

2010-05-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

Except when there's a glitch and it records 27 straight hours of E!

Seriously?!!

5!

2010-04-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

These have been the best 5 years of my life. Happy birthday my little man.

April 29, 2005

April 29, 2006

April 29, 2007

April 29, 2008

April 29, 2009

April 29, 2010

Lately

2010-04-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

My kids have said and done some super funny things lately and I'm sharing with you. :-)

- This morning when I went to wake up Shea to get ready for school, he looked at me, rolled back over and mumbled, "Just let me finish this dream, mom, it's good."

- The other night I went in to check on Shea at midnight before I went to sleep and this is what I found:
Him sound asleep in his "nightcap." I laughed and showed Chris then took it off because he was a sweat ball! In the morning he was bugged that I'd taken off his night cap as he calls it. His head was cold mom!

- Every time Clare picks up a phone now, she starts pressing buttons and says, "I'm just checking my email mom." When I pick up my phone or open my computer she asks me if I'm just checking my email too.

- A few weeks ago at preschool Shea was really sad when I picked him up. I asked him what was wrong. He said that he was trying to play with one of his girl friends during recess. She didn't want to play, but he kept trying. Apparently he pushed her too far because she told him that he was "ruining her life." In the saddest voice he said to me, "Mom, I didn't know what I was doing to ruin her life!" It was so sad. Already?? Girls are hurting his feelings already???? NOOOOO!

- Clare has to do everything I do right now. And I mean everything. Which I love! I can't put make up on without her demanding to sit next to me. She's decided that she's in charge of the "lips" and has to put it on for both of us. I can NOT shower without her. She loves to get in the shower with mommy and sing the "raindrop" song. If I try to sneak one in w/ out her, she'll take off her clothes and cry and sob outside the door the whole time. She has to exercise when I exercise, "work" when I work, check email and make phone calls when I do. She even does stuff I don't do anymore - today she took off her jammies and tried to give her teddy "milkies." :-)

- Shea discovered his underwear has a hole. He was deliriously excited. I wish I had captured the look on his face. He put on some brand new underwear and came out of his room all worried that there was a hole. When I explained that it was there on purpose, and what it was for, his joy knew no bounds. It's even easier?!!! I don't even have to take them off??!!! Eureka! Our friend Aaron came over a few minutes after this joyful episode and Shea ripped off his pants to show him how awesome his new discovery was. That? Not so awesome! Pretty embarrassing actually when Shea's body parts started coming out of holes in front of company. :-) Sorry Aaron!!!!

- Happy Tuesday.

Night at the Museum

2010-04-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

Living in LA rocks. Ok, maybe other stakes do this too - I hope so, it is SOOO cool. Our stake's Father and Sons Outing this year was a Night at the Natural History Museum. Boys and daddys got to spend the night at the museum, do all sorts of activities, talk to scientists, look at the animals, make a fossil cast and stay up half the night playing with flashlights! And my baby was old enough to go. Yippee! Shea and Chris had the. best. time. ever!

Shea has been looking forward to this for months! Here he is, all packed up and ready to go and so so very excited...
Here he is, paying extra close attention to the scavenger hunt instructions...

And with his team (the other 3 boys from our ward)...
Sifting through sand looking for teeny, tiny little precious gem chips with a magnifying glass. He found ALL the gems (periodot, citrine, turquoise, tigerseye, carnelian and amethyst!) Daddy taped his gems to a piece of paper and they labeled them and got to bring them home to show mommy and Clarey.

Putting together a Saber Tooth Tiger skeleton!!
Pretending to be scared of the dinos...
Getting ready for bed in the Hall of North American Mammals. They were near the buffalo and right in front of the cougars!! They didn't turn out the lights until 10:45 and Shea then spent a good 1/2 hour shining the flashlight at the ceiling with the other boys. Apparently totally entertaining.

Shea had to take both Tigger (of course) and his dino slippers (totally apropos).
Overall, I don't think Shea and his dad have ever had a better time together!
Thank you Los Angeles Stake!!!!!

Bummies!

2010-04-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

Cutest bare bums EVER!!

April Fools!

2010-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00