Tender Moments

When people see me and the kids out in public I get a lot of looks like "whoa" or comments like "you've got your hands full" even to the extreme of one old lady telling me in Wal-Mart "Do you want me to tell you about birth control?" These things used to make me sad as people don't even know me OR my kids and are making comments and gestures, but now I've moved to be more sympathetic towards them. I feel sorry that they will never know the joy that I know of having three kids so close together in age that it makes me smile everytime I think about it. Sometimes though I want to just be coy and tell them that we are having twins next! Grr....It all sort of makes me laugh though...

Its moments like these that I treasure and thank God for the commission He's given me to raise these three precious little ones. I call these my tender moments:

Thank you God for my sweet wonderful blessings! I treasure them so much!

Thought for Today Tuesday...

Today is the first day of my new little section - "Thought for Today Tuesday". I will be writing every Tuesday about some sort of new thing that we are encorperating at our house, or a thought that really struck me during the last week. We shall see how it goes...

Today's thought is paci's. All of our kids have been paci babies and I remember seeing a SuperNanny episode of a 5 and 6 year old who still had pacis! I swore that would never be my children, so I have tried everything to prevent that from happening. I also didn't want them to suck their thumbs since I was a major thumb sucker until mid-elementary school....

In an effort to find ways to quit the kids from taking their pacis I consulted many friends and their findings. Its funny because each kids is truely different!

With Josh, he was 14 months old when Jenna was born and was nearly weaned off the paci. But with her birth and the fact that she had one, he went right back on the paci full force. We got him down to only at nap/night time by the time he was 16 months, and when he turned 18 months we tried to just take them away out right. That SO DID NOT work! It was the worst week ever! So I tried a different method that a friend told me about. Snipping the ends off so that there is no suction. Works like a charm! He thought the paci was broken, so he didn't want it any more! Paci habit was broke in just one day. Awesome!

Jenna was 16 months when Julianna was born, so we didn't even try to pull the "plug" on her until after the baby was born. I tried snipping the ends by the time she was 18 months...she didn't care!!! So yesterday I just took them away. We put them away and she said "nite nite" to them. And you know what, she did fine! LOL....Its so nice to just have ONE size of paci around the house rather than trying to decide whose is whose.

Growing Too Fast

My little pumpkin is growing so fast! She will be 4 months old on Friday (the first) and already you can see that she is taking after her big brother as far as milestones. This past week she started sitting up on her own - I mean going from lying down position to sitting up by herself! and she army crawls all over the place! Her newest adventure is when you hold her hands she likes to stand up! Agghh!!! I was hoping to cherish this "baby time" and thought she wouldn't move as fast since she's #3 and isn't on the floor a whole lot because of the other two. Well, here's proof that she's definately moving around!

leaning on the chair and trying to push it to walk

standing all by herself

In a lot of ways I can't believe it, but then again I have seen this before with Joshie and a little with Jenna. I should know to just expect it! LOL!! Here's a short clip of her sitting up be herself:

I have really been getting into photo editing lately. I normally use Adobe Photoshop, but a friend of mine on facebook told me about this website called picnik. It works really great for those "quick fixes" or if you want to play around with the saturation or coloring of a photo. You can also add text and silly stickers onto your photo. Photoshop is great for more fine tuning editing, but I have enjoying playing on picnik (plus it's free!). Here's a few of the pictures I have created:

Joshie - high saturation and contrast

Julianna - sepia with 50% fade

Jenna - same as Julianna's but with added saturation


Joshie - low exposure

What do you think? Its pretty cool because you can also creat cards and such too...Don't be surprised if our Christmas card comes from there!

LIght Shoes

Jenna got some cool light up shoes from my mom when Julianna was born and they are finally able to somewhat fit her...She loves them!

LIttle Piggy

You have to give her credit for putting it back from the bottom since its easier!

Happily Married

I found this song on my facebook and thought that it truely summed up my marriage. So happily married and all the little things that we remember about the other person. So glad to be married to Jason - he is my "knight in shinning armor".

Thank you for all your love and support towards me and our kids.

Time Out

Jenna got her first time out the other day. She has always been our strong-willed one. People say that its that "second born" nature.

The Scene:

Joshie was building a block tower out of legos and Jenna decided to kick it over.

The Confrontation:

me: Jenna, go pick up the blocks, please...

Jenna looks at me saying with her expression: "are you kidding me?"

me: Jenna - go pick them up, or you are going to get a spanking.

Jeanna reluctantly picks them up and throws them across the kitchen, looks at me with a look that says it all: "you happy?"

I then proceed to spank her on her diaper

Jenna sits down and cries because now she knows mommy means business. She looks at me though and refuses to pick up the blocks that she threw and just sulks on the floor.

me: ok, time out! Go sit on the chair. You will sit here for one minute because you are one year old. You are in time out because you kicked over the blocks and then threw them.

Here is the classic expression on her face. Can you read her body language?

Play Room

The other night I made myself a latte. It was delicious, but I drank it too late in the evening. So, since I couldn't go to sleep, I decided to organize the play room and actually hang up some of the posters on the walls. This room will eventually become their schoolwork room once they start school at Legacy Academy. Yeah, I know that's in like 2 years, but hey, at least it's done! Now all we need is to eventually paint and it will be complete!

"Reconnected"

As you can see "a storm is a brewin'" near our house. It's about time too! I heard on the news the other day that it has been the hottest and dryest summer ever in the Houston area in a long time. Makes me feel like I am back in Southern California with the dry weather and the near 100 degree weather for 2 months straight! I hate it! I love the Texas storms that roll through here during the summer and have felt kind of robbed this year.

Praise God though becuase it rained yesterday! It was awesome to hear the thunder and see the lightning again. We have a little tradition/ritual that has spawned since moving out here to Texas. Anytime there's a summer storm you can count on me to run out with my camera and Jason to open all the window blinds so we get the best view. Its awesome.

You might be asking about how the kids and our dog handle these storms. You have two extremes in our house. You have Josh who excitedly yells out "I see the thunder!" and you have Jenna who can't let either one of us out of her sight. In fact, she had to be sitting in either mine or Jason's lap during the storm last night. Ginger just cowers and walks between your legs the whole time. She stays close to Jenna because she knows that Jenna is scared.

The coolest thing about this past storm was that we had lightning hit close to our house. The thunder came immediately after and was so loud that it not only shook the house, but made me jump too! It hit our street close to the speed limit sign that is posted in our front yard. It was awesome! Here's a few pictures:

Ground where it hit:

View from the kitchen window...that's the speed limit pole it hit next to

Baseball

Above are some pictures of my boy doing what he loves best - playing baseball. Its hard to believe that he will be three in September. He still has another year before he can play tee-pall out here, so in the meantime we practice out in the backyard.

I know he's my son, and I am proud of him, but I really do think that he has some awesome talent. He can throw a baseball across half of the backyard already, which is quite a feat if I may say so!

To celebrate his upcoming birthday, my sister (Jessica) and I have decided to combine our son's parties into one since Elisha is only two after and the same people pretty much come to both parties anyhow. Elisha will be turning two this year and happens to love basketball. Our youngest sister (Vanessa) is set to have her second child (Lindy Mae) on the twelfth, which is three days before Joshua's birthday and five days before Elisha's. Having one party will make things so much easier for everyone!

We have decided on none other than a sports party. I took those pictures at the top outisde today as we were playing and have decided to edit one of them inorder to make Joshua's invitation. What do you think?

before photoshop:

after photoshop:

I love this picture. Not just because it is Joshie - but because I think it shows so much of his personality. He has such a vivid imagination now. He likes the movie Toy Story and thinks his toys are alive and talk to him. He has been saying that he wants to dress up like Woody from the movie, so I let him. He went around hunting spiders and quoting "there's a snake in ma boots!"

So cute and innocent - why do we have to grow up?

One of them days...

Everyone has "one of those days". Those days when everything seems to be going awry. I am tutoring during the summer to help supplement our income. Usually the day goes on without a hitch.

When I am tutoring and Jason isn't home to corral the kids, they usually color, play with their toys together, or are allowed to watch one movie. With this young kids, it is important that they stay entertained so I can focus on tutoring math. Most days this is not a problem. Not today though.....

Josh had slept in late. I should have known that this would be a difficult day until nap time. When he sleeps too long, he gets cranky and hyped up. Then you have Jenna - who follows in her brother's footsteps. This is what they were doing while I was trying to teach an independant summer school course.....

Needless to say - it was nap time right away....and they slept soundly...

Things that make you go hmmm....

There are always things in this world that will never cease to amaze me. This is one of those things.

We went to the Air Museam in Palm Springs, which was awesome, and the kids got some fighter jets and Blue Angels replica planes. Josh has played with those things nonstop. Apparently this one needed a bath.....

I don't even know when he put it in there! Kinda surprised me when I was unloading the dishes!

Four Years and Counting

Its hard to believe that Jason and I have been married for four years. It seems like we have always been married - in a good sort of way. It might be the fact that in the psat four years we have moved 3 times and have 3 kids (and a dog). So how did we celebrate??

Well, being that we just returned from California (I'll post that week next), we both were still worn out from all our travels and visiting family. Plus, Jason was going to be at work a tad late. So we were going to put the kids to bed early and just enjoy a nice quiet evening at home.

Since we couldn't find a sitter, we had to then make last minute dinner plans. I was really tired from trying to catch up the house cleaning from being gone, so that was the last thing on my mind. Thankfully I have a sweet husband who came home and took Joshie (our oldest) with him to Krogers to get some dinner supplies. Its a rare occasion for him to cook, so I welcome whatever he cooks - even though I know that it will be cheeseburgers!

They came home with not only cheeseburger supplies, but a dozen red roses and a Mocha Frappacino. mmmm...that definately put me in the mood for some cheeseburgers! All in all, it was a pleasant evening - just our family.

Looking back I enjoyed being with our kids on our special day. It was because of this day that we even have them to cherish, so they should be a part of it.

It was kinda funny - we always joked that each anniversary we have been expecting a child. The first anniversary I was pg with Joshua and the second with Jenna. I wasn't pg with Julianna, but three weeks later I was! This year we were tempted to joke about not being pg, but didn't want to press our luck after what happened last year!

Thank you, my love, for being the best husband and daddy to me and our beautiful kids!
Je T'aimes mon amour

Baby on the move!

I know that with baby #1 I read all these parenting books while I was pregnant to see what to expect with my first child. BOY WAS I IN FOR A SURPRISE!! I know that those books are there only for a reference, but I was pretty much expecting a "log" for a baby for the first 4 to 6 months. HA! Another surprise!

Let me fill you in on how our son's miletone's progressed:

• Rolled over: 4 weeks old
• Sat up(with no support): 3 months
• Crawled: 3 1/2 months
• Walked (with no support): 7 months

So, being that Julianna is our third child, I should know that it wouldn't be long before she could "be on the move". I thought though that since she doesn't get much floor time due to her older siblings running all over and me not wanting her to get smushed that she would take a little longer than the other two to reach these milestones. I have rather enjoyed just holding her too..... I should have known...

The picture at the top is where she ended up after scritching to her new found destination...the picture below is where she started.....Life is about to get even more interesting soon with three babies all around!

Interesting - but definately worth it.