Another fish in the family...

In Utah, we discovered Laney's love for water {much like her fishy dad and brother}.  We visited the splash pad in Highland several times and Miss D couldn't get enough of all the squirting water.

She tested the waters with the small spout but quickly became unamused...

On to bigger, better things.

Bianca was there too...sporting a sweet wedgie. I would be sporting a wedgie too if I had cute little buns like that!

Bianca wasn't nearly as adventurous as Laney.

I don't think this girl could be any happier.



6 years ago...

A boy and girl got married.

 

 

I'm not kidding when I say "girl".  Just ask my mom, I was a CHILD...what kind of mother lets her daughter get married at 19? I'm only kidding mom.  But seriously.

Even if her daughter claims to be oh-so-mature. ha!

6 years ago we rented a 400 square foot apartment, which was just enough room for 2 love birds.

6 years ago we were both in school full time.  I was working on a bachelors in Psychology and Scotty was working on a bachelors in Accounting.

6 years ago Scott and I were both working at the UPS Store, each making about $8 an hour.  Soon after we were married, he quit the UPS Store for a framing job paying TEN bucks an hour...livin' large at that point :)  I'm pretty sure our monthly overhead was only about $750, but I was worried we weren't going to be able to make it work.

6 years ago Scott had {a little} more hair, and I had a few less pounds.  Just kidding hun, your hair is still as thick and beautiful as it was the day we met. Love you babe. heehee.

6 years later we have three {beautiful} healthy children. two bachelors degrees, an almost Masters degree, a home (that's bigger than 400 sq feet!), and two great jobs that thankfully pay more than $8 an hour.

 

 

We feel blessed to live the lives we do.  Each day brings something new for us to tackle and something new to enjoy.  We laugh everyday, cry on occasion, and love the three little rugrats that rule our lives. 

 

 

I love you, Handsome.

Face painter extraordinaire!

We have a myriad of unique and interesting professions in my family.

I have a brother-in-law who is a Funeral Director, a brother who is a Border Patrol Agent and paramedic, another brother who is the Assistant Superintendant at a golf course which includes some exciting things like picking off pesky rabbits with rocks, and mowing lawns :). I also have yet another brother who has become a Farrier or horseshoeing expert (that is some SERIOUS business by the way. more on that another day). 

There is also my talented aunt Denise.  She is naturally very creative and artistic, but has recently taken up the art of face painting.  We aren't talking a rainbow on your cheek at the elementary school carnival, either.  It takes some real skill to do what she does. 

Over the 4th of July, we got together and let her paint the kids' faces.  Bianca was in HEAVEN.  I have never seen a more giddy girl...sparkles, jewels, and pink.  There aren't many more important things in a 3 year old diva's life, right?!?

Bianca held so still, but she could hardly stand the wait to see herself in mirror.

She smiled and posed in the mirror all night long.

 You better believe we jumped at the chance for painting the next day at brunch. 

Once again, the mirror was essential.  I even saw her sneak a few kisses into the mirror. no joke.

This girl KNOWS she's a knockout.

Jack joined the fun too, but he needed something manly like Spiderman, complete with jewel in the center...because every spider looks more tough with a diamond middle, no?

Let's be honest people, if the kids are doing something cool, I am most likely going to be in on the action.  I'm still a child, didn't you know that?

Lookin' good.

Thanks Denise, for your fabulous work...we can't wait to get painted up again!

Summer nights

There aren't many things better in life than a summer evening in Utah.

Around 7:30 things cool down a bit, and it's perfect to run through the sprinklers, and relax on the lawn.

Life. is. good.

I can't wait for 21 more nights just like this one...

Tidbits...

Jack and Bianca are at such a fun age right now (I feel like I say that all the time).  Their little minds are constantly racing to put things together and figure things out.  Whenever I call and tell my mom about their latest hilarious moments, she always says "Did you write that down?" to which I reply "No, but I should"  

So here you go Mama...

These three instances happened all in the same day earlier this week...

Jack came into the bathroom fully dressed for the day, but his pants were on backwards. 

"Hey buddy, your pants are on backwards"

"I know, mom"

"how about you take them off and put them on the right way..."

"No fanks, I like them this way 'cause if they're backwards then I don't have a hole in my knee anymore.  And I don't like holes in my knees"

"Ok, can't argue with you there pal"

I learned two valuable lessons with that conversation.  1) For heaven sakes, buy the kid some new pants. 2) with Jack it's obvious that "out of sight, out of mind" works...do I'm going to go ahead and use that to my advantage.

****

Lately, we have really been working with the kids on things like being kind, being grateful, being obedient...you know, all the important things that kids need to learn so that people don't think they were raised in a barn.  Several times a day the kids will here me say "Are you being kind?", "Are you being obedient?", yada yada yada I'm a broken record. I know.

Anyway, the conversation went like this...

"Jack, did you clean your room up like I asked you?"

"Yeah, mom"

"Great!! Thanks so much, buddy!"

"Mom (as he rolls his eyes), don't worry...I'm BEING welcome"

That kid.

****

Most of you know how psychotic Bianca is about her wardrobe.  If you need a little refresher, you can re-watch this video (and just so you know, she hasn’t grown out of these tantrums…she’s only gotten bigger, stronger, and louder. We still have tears at least once a day over what she wears.)



Lately, I’ve been letting her pick her own clothes (for the most part), and with that has come MANY conversations about things that “match”. That’s kind of a tricky concept to a three year old. (Heck, sometimes I still don’t know what things match.)

A few days ago, Bianca put on this little number...

"Mom look, white and white (as she excitedly points to the little white spaces on her shirt and pants). They match!!"

Looks like we still have a long way to go with this girl.



Hand's On...

Olympia has a lot of great things to offer, especially for families.  One of our favorite places to take the kids is the Hand's On Museum.  It's full of little exhibits that are just that, hand's on. 

 The doctor's office is Bianca's favorite place to play...she likes to give the babies check-ups and look at the x-ray machine.  She HAS to wear the stylin' white lab coat.

 Watering the garden...

The grocery store.

"Hey babe, I want to take a picture of you and Delaney...can you make sure and flex your giant guns for me?  Oh, you already are? OK, thanks..."

Silly Scotty.

The construction zone.  Jack was determined to get EVERY single rock into the dump trunk.

And he did.

Geez, who is that little girl with the crack?!? Who is her mother?

 Playing in the Moon sand box.  Even Scotty and I got in on the action. 

Have you ever played with moon sand? Totally fun.

 Here is the water table that we have to pull Jack {and Scott} away from every time we come. 

We always leave completely soaked, but it's well worth it!

And even though little Laney is still too young to join the fun, she is certainly never forgotten...

Later at the park

Crawlin' like crazy! 



Here's to great summer beginnings...we can't wait for a little more heat and sunshine to roll our way!

Preschool, and the age of curiosity...

Jack is at such a fun age.  His brain is constantly working about 6 trillion miles a minute, and so is his mouth.  I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that he asks ATLEAST 200 questions a day. This morning I recorded about 2 minutes worth of conversation between us. And for the record, I answer EVERY one of his questions.

These are the things that came out of his mouth...

Mom, what's your tongue? what's it do?

Mom, what's your throat for?

Mom, what's your stomach for?

Mom, does Uncle Max ride a horse all the time? (not sure where that one came from)

What does a horse eat?

Mom, what does a stag beetle eat?

What does a praying mantis eat? Can I touch one?

What does a Hercules beetle eat? Can I touch one? (Jack is really interested in bugs and spiders lately...we spend a lot of time at the library looking at nature books)

Mom, do tarantulas molt? Do we molt?
Mom, what's the Vinegaroon eat? (vinegaroons are like scorpions) 

Mom, what does the wind do?

Mom, what's the rain for?
...as I'm starting to get a little distracted, he puts his hands on my cheeks and pulls me toward his face "Mom, mom, look at me in my face, talk to me at my face!"

And then it keeps going, and going, and going.

This kid is hilarious...exhausting, but hilarious.

****

In other news, Jack recently started preschool!!  There is a little bit of a back story, so here it is...

Last September a friend commented that Jack might benefit from a headstart preschool program due to some of his social and behavioral delays. 

Delays? What delays? Isn't my child perfect? :)

  I wasn't offended by her opinion, but it got me curious as to why she would make a statement like that.  I made Jack an appointment to be evaluated...I mean, it's not like I had anything to lose, right?!?  To my surprise, they passed him though to the next round, and then the next of evaluations. (This was a process that took several months.)

  The evaluations were very enlightening.  It was a great for me to see exactly where he should be, and areas where he was excelling or falling short.

In the end, the conclusion was made that Jack is a VERY bright child (you can tell by his vocabulary in the above conversation), but there are certain mental processes that seem to have small glitches...namely his ability to sequence {even with things like numbers and letters}.  And when his mental processes aren't clicking like normal, it tends to make him lose focus and get frustrated. 

After all the evaluations (and LOTS of paperwork), he was accepted into the program and then started right up.  He goes 4 days a week, and has a bus pick up and drop him off at our doorstep...Oh, and it's totally free. Yeah, not complaining about that.  He is in a class with 10 kids and 2 {fabulous} teachers, then meets one on one with 3 different specialists...a speech therapist, occupational therapist, and behavioral specialist. 

He LOVES riding the bus...

On the first day, I walked him down the drive way, then got on the bus with him to make sure he was situated, and the little turkey says "Mom, get off the bus...this bus is NOT for moms" Oh brother, I didn't realize kids could already be embarrassed of their parents at age 4 :) heehee

One of the major highlights of starting school was the Spiderman backpack.   He is SUPER cool.

Surprisingly, it's been a hard adjustment for Bianca.  She and Jack are quite close and for the first few days, she sobbed and sobbed when the bus picked him up.  As you can see, her heart break didn't last long...now she loves to sit on the front steps and wait for the bus.  It's pretty sweet. 

We couldn't be more happy with the way things are working out.  He has only been going to preschool for a 6 weeks, and we are already seeing huge improvements.  His teachers and specialists are confident that by the time he goes to kindergarten, he will have no problems fitting right in. 

And I'm not hatin' the three hours a day that I get with just my sweet girls either.  I forgot how easy it was to go places with only two in tow :)

Laney - 7 months

Good heavens, when did this little doll get to be 7 months old?!?

Miss Delaney continues to be one of the happiest, most content babies around...

**Her smile and giggles are contagious.  You can't help but smile back at this girl. 

**Laney Lou has been sitting for a few weeks now, and is about to crawl.  She gets anywhere she wants to go by getting on all fours and lunging forward.

**Laney has two teeth on bottom, and two in the top that are going to pop through any day now. 

**She loves to eat.  We haven't encountered any dislikes yet among food...She especially loves sweet potatoes, squash, apples, pears, and gold fish crackers.

**Though she loves to eat and was a hefty 9 lb 8 oz at birth, Laney weighs in at barely15 pounds, putting her around the 20th percentile.  I think she will have the same petite build as Jack. 

**Laney takes two good naps, and sleeps 12ish hours at night. 

Are you convinced that she is the dream babe yet?!? 

Yeah, she is. 

In fact, if I could guarantee that all my babies would be like this, you could go ahead and sign me up for 3 or 4 more. True story.

Jack and Bianca continue to love on this sweetie all day long.  Where ever Laney is, Jack can be found.  And no one gets her laughing harder than he does... 

Man, we love this girl! 

CodeSmart Inc

Recently, CodeSmart Inc (the company I work for) was nominated for the 2011 Fastest Growing Business in the South Sound.  The awards Ceremony was on Tuesday night, and we won!!  Over the last two years we have grown from 4 employees to 23 (and I'm almost positive it was ALL due to the killer administrative assistant...yeah, that's me. heehee), and had a revenue over 1.7 million...which in a dead economy is definately something to brag about.

I don't think I have ever talked much about my job on this blog, but it's the best.  I work from home, and choose my hours.  The management team has always been great to work with and are completely understanding about the fact that I have three kiddos that take top priority during the day.  I feel so lucky to be able to work from home...and the paycheck certainly doesn't hurt either :)

Ok, thus ends the shameless plug,  now back to the awards ceremony...

These two tall guys in the back are Hans and Mark, part of the Management team.  Good guys.  Vicki, to my right is a Business Analyst and Project Manager.  Garrett (the bearded one) is one of our Developers, and that's his cute fiance Corrine.

Here is Chad giving a little speech about CodeSmart...He is the owner of the Company, and the one that hired me.  Vichet is on the far left, he is part of the Management team as well.  Chad, Vichet, Hans, and Mark are the ones I work with on a daily basis.

These two beautiful ladies are married to Chad and Vichet. Love these gals.  And such awesome wives to be married to men that work Ca-RAZY hours!!

And that's the back of my head...I didn't even know the picture was being taken. or else I might have shoved the rest of the salad down my throat and turned around.

I just had to add in this picture...how cute to serve salad in martini glasses. A salad bar...get it? heehee

The evening was great, but I missed Scotty...he was at home playing Mr. Mom (Froot Loops and ice cream sundaes for dinner anyone?!?  Just kidding. But seriously. No wonder he's the favorite parent.)

****

In other news, little Laney has been really sick.  A visit to the doctor and some tests confirmed our suspiscions of RSV.  More on that in the next couple of days...