Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel

On June 6th ( I only know the date because it was Erin's birthday, even though I never even told her happy Birthday...) the ward did a service project at Los Pen Canyon Preserve. It was part of a state wide Trail Day, so there were a lot of other volunteers, a catered lunch with a live band, and pony rides!

The ward took to spreading mulch around the orchard. Erin had the brilliant fore thought to bring little shovels for the girls. I had the ever messy car with sand toys forever in the back, so I got some for the boys as well. The kids were so cute helping, and really had a good time. I even helped fill a couple buckets myself, baby strapped on front and all. I am very quick to say I can't do things because of the baby, and am trying to change that. It wasn't long before I was reduced to supervising again, but it did feel good to help when I could.

After a few good hours of hard work, Erin and I took the kids over to the pony caraal that was being set up for the pony rides. A few laps on the ponys and it was time for chicken tacos and some blue grass (?) music.

It was a fun day, I always enjoy big service projects. I am glad that the boys were able to "help", but mostly to see that mommy and daddy like to do service. I am so grateful to be a part of a church that is truly built on service.

Isaac Daniel

My Isaac. He always has great ideas. I think this may have been the day that Roman was at Disneyland with grandma and granddad for his birthday.

Isaac put on his new favorite shirt, which happens to be a hand me down that says "I spent the day out with Thomas"... so every one asks when he spent the day out with Thomas... and I have to explain that we never did, the shirt is a hand me down. Don't get me wrong, we love hand me downs! I have just had to explain it about 3 times already, and it feels a little silly :)

Anywho. I was sitting on the computer, and this sight came out from his room, Mr. Potato Head suitcase and all, ready to go to Disneyland. He then opened the suitcase and showed me that Mr. Potato Head had his name badge and was ready to go. Isaac has the best imagination and is so much fun. If only we could bottle his energy!! We could sell it for a fortune... except I would actually probably keep it all for myself!

Big and Little

When Aaron was born, we hoped that he would be the missing link that would bridge the gap between our two polar opposite children. It seemed at first that may be the case. He was built like Isaac, but seemed to have Roman's complexion. As Aaron has grown, he is looking more and more like Roman. I like this picture, because Roman can see what a cute baby he used to be, and Aaron can see what his future will be :)

You can't tell by the picture, but they are up on Roman's top bunk, the white blur is the side roll bar. Roman was up there one night, and Aaron was dying to be by his brother. I love to see how much my boys love each other. Even with the baby, he gets so excited when his brothers enter the room or pay attention to him. And the big boys can't walk by the baby without smiling at him, or giving him a big hug.

Thanks George

George is a good little monkey, and always very curious. Do you ever feel like George? Do you ever feel happy? Are you sometimes loud? Have you ever felt scared? Or hurt? Or proud? Do you sometimes feel sick? Or dizzy? Are you sometimes sad? Or silly? Have you ever been naughty? So that you need a time out? Are you mischievous? Are you curious? Isaac is.

The boys have a few movies of the Curious George that airs on PBS. One of the episodes that we happen to have and enjoy watching... involves George putting non-tub toys in the bath with him. When he pulls the plug, everything goes down the drain and stops up the pipes through out the apartment. Then George gets to watch the plumber take the pipes apart and clear them out.

One night Isaac decided to shove a popsicle stick into the drain of the bathroom sink. Roman told us to call a plumber, like they did on George the monkey. We had to explain that while George did it on accident, because he did not know better... Isaac did it on PURPOSE because he is naughty :P

Aaron is 9 Months...

... and shrinking! Well, not shrinking per se, but not growing. He only gained half a pound in 3 months! He went from the 50th percentile, to the 25th, and now he is in the 10th. The doctor wasn't too worried, because he is proportional. Yes, even his head. (Josh tried to convince me that Aaron has a big head. Josh, of all people. I'm terrified to see baby pics with his over sized nog.)

Aaron is a joy to have in our family. (Despite the fact that he is crying in his crib instead of drifting off to dream land as he should be). He laughs all the time, especially at his brothers. I can tell he can't wait until he can run and play with them. He is rolling all over, no more dirty floors allowed! He still loves his johnny jump up and bounces when ever you try to hold him standing up. My favorite new thing that he does is reaching. He reaches out one hand if he wants you, and has started to do the two hands, and yesterday he leaned his whole body. Practically jumped out of Ben's hands to get to mommy! ( It was the first time I had left him all day, and he probably thought I was never coming home!)

I can't believe in less than 3 months he will be one! I try to ignore that fact and enjoy each day that he is still my chubby little loving baby :)

Grunion Funion

With sisters coming into town to visit, Dana was good an found things to do each day for the whole week. During her "research" she found out that the Grunion would be running Monday and Tuesday nights between 10pm and Midnight, high tide. We decided to have a bonfire and watch the little boogers run.

We loaded up the blazer with Portia's old fence and headed west. As we were unloading the wood at 9:25, the Sheriff came by to remind everyone that the fire pits closed at 10. Brooke and I parked the car and came back to a roaring fire to enjoy for half an hour. We made some awesome s'mores, packed things back to the car and then headed down to the beach to wait.

As we were heading to the shore, we heard some kids screaming and circling around something in the water. I asked the adults in the group if they had seen anything yet... Turns out the kids had given up on the Grunion and were finding sand crabs.

We walked up and down the shore looking for the most romantic spot... where I would want to lay my eggs if I was a flopping fish. We found a great place, and watched many good waves that brought the water high up on the sand. Again, I was thinking like a fish... there were many waves that I would have taken, if I was a Grunion. But my fishy intuition is off...

We waited until 11:10 or so, and agreed that the tide was actually going back out. The Grunion had missed their chance. So we loaded up and headed back home. Not sure that I will ever try that again... Maybe when the boys will enjoy it.

Still Teething!

MONTHS ago Aaron started teething. It was really intense... big swollen gums, a slight fever, and NO sleep for 3 nights. Then nothing. back to regular happy baby, sleeping (basically) through the night.

Now every few weeks he gets fussy and sleepless, and still no teeth. Every time we cycle through, I think we are almost done and that I am going to wake up to a baby with teeth... still nothing. The teething tablets don't seem to work, and he doesn't like me touching his gums, so the baby orajel doesn't seem to even get on them enough. He doesn't like to chew on frozen green beans or sweet potatoes... so we have moved on to popsicles!! This was his first one (these pics are from a few weeks ago, I downloaded my pics and forgot I even had these..) I loved the bright red dripping down his chin. It was a pomegranate and apple popsicle, but we have since gotten pedialyte popsicles, much less exciting I know.

All I know is that this had better be more than one tooth!!! I can't do this 20 more times! It is actually his top gum that is the most swollen, so he might be getting a top tooth first. Never knew a kid who did that, so this could be fun. The bottom 2 both are not far behind though.

Bright side to this whole experience is that he doesn't bite me when he is nursing. So Ben says I shouldn't complain...

All Together!

For my mom's birthday this year, my dad surprised her by flying Joy and the girls home for the weekend. I will talk more about the whole surprise when I get the pics from the day at the beach posted.

It was a short weekend, but we enjoyed the time that we did have, note my jumping for JOY picture :)

Each time that I see those girls they get cuter and cuter! The boys really enjoy having their cousins around, too. They played a lot and shared really well. The boys fought over who got to hold hands with or sit next to Daisy... but they started playing with Lilly this trip. She is getting to be so much fun. She likes to eat people's noses and then will puff up her cheeks and pretend to chew them up!

Brooke and grandma P were also in town, so all the girls were together. We fought a lot growing up, and we still can snap at each other, but I do love them all and wish we had more of these times together. I'm glad that Joy does such a good job talking to the girls about us and showing them pictures so they don't forget us :) Already missing those little Texans. Love you guys!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial weekend is usually a 4 day weekend for Ben, when his "off Friday" happens to coincide, as it usually does. Usually a good time to jet over to AZ or UT. However this year we are trying to stay in SD and save money... trying. We've made it 5 months now, but the travel bug is sitting on my shoulder and chattering in my ear :)

I hate crowds, so we decided to hit the beach that Friday. The plan was to pick up Roman from preschool, hit Quiznos for lunch, meet Dana at Stater Bros, and hit the beach. I'm so good at planning.... why doesn't the "universe" just follow it? First I had to tear Ben away from his never ending yard work. (Actually this time I think he was making a cover for the chimney so that we wouldn't have any more bees. He's so sweet, but sometimes he picks the weirdest times to tackle these thoughtful projects!!) Picked Roman up with out any incident, phew.

Then off to Quiznos. 2 weeks ago we were going to the beach, and wanted to stop at Submarina off Del Sur... all packed up and on our way, and Submarina was GONE!!! The old sign seemed to have been newly plastered over... if only they had made it to the summer, it was a great location to and from the beach! So I told Dana to meet us at Quiznos... if they were still open. Well.... they weren't!!! The sign was still up, but the joint was empty. 2 for 2, what bum sandwich luck. So then we had to go over to the insanely busy TJ parking lot for Submarina. I had some great coupons left from the first time that we didn't get to go, so I guess that is the good news. However, we had to go in seperately to use them :P A little bit of a delay, but sandwiches, *check*

Picked up Dana, and we were on our way. Under some gloomy skies, but I was determined to get to the beach!! We were now at least half an hour behind schedule... and considering that Dana was able to go with us because her whole office was getting off at noon... I worried that the beach might be getting crowded.

Sure enough, we got there, and there was no parking. We waited while a *lovely* couple from AZ brushed off every last grain of sand from their feet before getting into their precious Ford Focus. 20 minutes later, we were parked. In that span of eternity, we also noticed some lovely mounds of sand, bull dozers and "Caution, contact with water may cause illness" signs. Great. Ben used those 20 minutes to investigate. He reported back that further south there were no piles or signs.

We loaded everyone up with bootie and started our hike. We must have looked like a caravan of pack mules. The kids had their toys, I had the baby, Ben had the towels, and Dana had a cooler and a few bags of food. Made our way down the rocky make shift path, and plopped.

It still was not the warmest of days, but it was fun. The baby was content to sit on the blanket and chew on his toys, sand and all. Ben and the boys made a great castle that with stood a few good waves. And Dana stuck her nose in the first Twilight book (and hasn't taken it out, except to change books... she is on book 3, as of yesterday, and her poor husband of 6 weeks is feeling quite neglected). I spent the better part of the day trying to get the baby to keep his hat on :)

Saturday Ben did yard work and I made baby food. No crowds :)

Monday we were going to go to my mom's for a BBQ around 2. I was supposed to make the pasta salad. In the morning, Ben had a glorious idea to clean out the garage (still a disaster from when we moved in, 4 months ago) and do an AmVets run. So I decided to tear apart the toy room and a few other choice parts of the house to gather donations as well. By 1 we had the van packed with donations and all 3 boys. No pasta salad.

Ben dropped me and the boys off at my mom's and then went to AmVets. I ditched my dad with the kids and ran to the store. Whipped up some pasta salad in time for a yummy BBQ. One tip though... warm pasta salad, not so good. The noodles didn't get a chance to cool enough... it was better the next day, out of the fridge. Oh well.

Grandma and Granddad Kerby and Keith and Amy made it too. I am a sucker for family. Any excuse to get together and visit is a good one to me. I love having so much family local, however it makes me sad when I am reminded of the family not local any more. I was so spoiled growing up, 2 sets of grandparents in Southern Cali, cousins galore.... now my grandma has moved to UT and two sisters have left, vowing never to return again (to live anyway).... Miss you guys.