happy halloween

christina was super aunt this weekend. she and my mom took the kids on friday morning and had them all weekend. they had so much fun going to chuck-e-cheese and zena's soccer games. this morning my mom, christina, susan, jen, and ray took all the kids to a fair at our church. there were rides and lots of games to play for candy. christina and my mom took them trick-or-treating later in the evening. this year mason was a ucla football player and dahlia was a ucla cheerleader. i figured i should enjoy dressing them up in matching costumes before they learn to choose their own. i was bummed to miss halloween with them. i think they had a great time though. thanks to my family for watching them for us.

surprise, the baby is here!

miles and i got a huge surprise yesterday. i went into labor early and connor robert was born at 12:04 pm. he is 5 pounds 1 ounce and 17 inches long. he is only 34 weeks old so they are keeping him in the NICU for now. we don't know when we will be able to bring him home but we are hoping it will be soon. he is doing great. he is breathing on his own and they started to feed him today.

i am doing good. the doctor let me go home today. driving away from the hospital without him in the car with us was really hard. it was so sad to leave him there. miles and i are super exhausted from the whole experience but i will write down the whole story tomorrow. we just wanted to let everyone know how happy we are that our little son is here. we feel very blessed.

boo at the zoo

miles and i met jen, ray, and bodhi at the zoo today. we took the kids with us of course. they were having a halloween event. it is was really cool. they had lots of snake and spider exhibits. there were a few spots to trick-or-treat, and a nice pumpkin patch photo area. mason was being a bit of a pill. he didn't want to go through the trick-or-treat lines. whatever, i wasn't going to force him to get candy. we didn't stay very long. i got tired walking up all the hills. the zoo is really a workout. it was really nice to have miles with us. he doesn't come on many of our outings and the kids love to be with him. we all went back to our house and let the kids play together in the yard. this was much nicer for me. sitting in the yard watching the kids play while eating salad and sandwiches. now if only i could have a glass of wine.

carving the pumpkin

mason could not wait until halloween to carve his pumpkin. he was so excited to make it into a scarecrow. we bought one of those carving kits that comes with a pattern book and he really wanted to make the scarecrow. miles did the carving and mason was the helper. he was so funny saying he wanted to pull the pumpkin guts out and then dropping the spoon saying "yuck, it's all slobbery." dahlia wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin guts. she kept saying messy and screaming while she ran away. i used to love to pull out the pumpkin guts. that was the best part. what wimpy kids i have. of course they both loved looking at the glowing pumpkin. the holidays are getting fun around here.

pick a pumpkin

christina and i took the kids to the pumpkin patch this morning. they had fun looking through all the pumpkins and picking the best one. mason wanted a tall one. it was a large pumpkin patch with pony rides and a bounce house. my kids don't really like the whole bounce house thing. they were all about picking a pumpkin. they did get a balloon animal from the balloon guy. i don't think this balloon guy was very good and i felt a bit bad for him when mason stared at his balloon with complete disappointment. "that's not a robot" i quickly ushered him away before he started to cry. it was crazy hot again this year at the pumpkin patch. i don't like the 100 degree heat in october. i am over it. time for some fall weather please.

after the pumpkins we went with zena to her soccer game. it was fun to see her play. the games are very short. only one hour. that is good because my kids were already going crazy sitting there. they were too tired to stay for church so we skipped it this week. mason and dahlia both crashed out on the way home. of course that meant they stayed up super late with all the energy from their long nap. sigh.

32 weeks pregnant

well i am almost 33 weeks pregnant so i thought i should show off the belly. here is a photo of miles and i at the wedding we went to last sunday. i am not big on taking pictures of myself while i am pregnant. i feel like i just look like a big fatty. oh well. i thought i should post at least one. especially since we got all dressed up.

i am so happy that the baby will be here soon. i am super uncomfortable now and it would be fun to meet him. we are almost ready. we just bought a bookcase from target that we are going to put bins in and use as a makeshift dresser. we priced out a matching dresser like the one we got for mason and dahlia and it was going to be $750.00. that is not in our budget right now so we settled for the temporary $75.00 bookcase. i still think it looks nice. the only stuff i really needed to buy for the baby was diapers, wipes, new bottle nipples, and a cute take home outfit for the hospital. we have all the other stuff from mason and dahlia. poor third baby gets all the hand-me-downs. i don't think he will mind.

i am thinking i only have about 4-5 weeks left. both mason and dahlia were early so i am hoping this one will be early also. i don't want him to stay in and just get bigger. yikes. i am already worried about labor. ohh. it hurts so bad. luckily i tend to have fast labors. oh i just remembered i still need to get the celebratory bottle of veuve clicquot champagne for when i come home from the hospital. mmmm. i can't wait.

the wedding

our friends gary and stephanie had their big wedding yesterday. stephanie has been planning this event for a year. everything was perfect. just beautiful. so many adorable details. my brother bob was the best man and i thought he did a great job. his speech was classy and funny with just enough sentimentality. i was nervous for him. it was so nice to see gary and stephanie get married. they always go to our yearly river trip and parties and they feel like family to me. they have been together for over 10 years. so sweet.

the wedding for us was a bit more complicated than most. it was in redlands, about an hour and thirty minutes from where we live. my sisters and i had trouble finding a babysitter for all our kids. normally we would ask my mom, but my whole family was invited to the wedding. we had asked a friend who declined so we decided we would get a hotel room nearby and take turns watching them. ray had the first shift, i had the second, and miles took the last. i felt a little like the girl in 27 dresses running back and forth from the wedding. the kids were a handful of course and at one point during ray's shift mason managed to set off the smoke detector. bad kids. he turned on the heater that then started smoking enough to set off the alarm. at least he didn't start a real fire. ray was able to turn it off and open the windows before any of the staff noticed. my shift went pretty well. ray and jen stayed the night there, but miles and i were happy to drive home and relax on our sofa. the kids were asleep in bed so we got to watch a little tv. so nice.

heritage day parade

we went to placentia's heritage day parade today. my niece zena was marching in it for her soccer group. we had to wake up super early to get there in time. i just put the kids in the car with their pajamas on and then got them dressed at my mom's house. they were basically still asleep when we had to leave.

the parade ended up taking a lot longer than i had expected. it was three hours before we saw zena march by. the kids were getting a bit bored so auntie christina entertained them by tickling them. it was so funny watching them laugh hysterically. the parade is very cute and has a real small town feel to it. the firetrucks were a big hit with mason. after the parade there is a party in the park with kettle corn and lots of craft booths. we didn't get to stay very long because we had to go to a birthday party. zena was sad to see us leave so soon, but we will see her tomorrow at our friend's wedding.

mr. fix it

oh good. i could use a handy man around the house. could you build me a dresser for the new baby?

magic rocks

mason got a magic rocks kit from granny for his birthday. he could not wait to try it out. i remember these from when i was little although i don't think i ever had one. miles took them outside for this project. the directions have lots of warning about staining clothes and such. the kids can't really do this one by themselves. miles mixed the chemicals and the kids threw in the rocks.

i have to say ours didn't really turn out like the photo on the box. the crystals kind of grew sideways instead of up. some of them grew up. it kind of looked like a mess. oh well. mason still thinks it is cool.

happy birthday little guy

today is mason's birthday. he is four years old. what a sweetie. we of course went to disneyland to celebrate. we bought him his first annual pass. you can use the price of your free birthday ticket toward the cost of an annual pass so it is a really good deal. i think he was a bit exhausted after all the celebrating yesterday so we only stayed until 6:00. jen and bodhi met us there. they were trying to get us to stay until 8:00 to see the fireworks but mason was done. he was asking to go home so we left. that was fine with me. i am so tired.

mason is at a really cute stage right now. i think he really wants some friends. he loves to interact with other kids. as soon as we get an income i am going to put him in preschool. i think he would love it. he is 32 pounds and 41 inches tall. he is pretty good at recognizing all the letters in the alphabet and can count to twenty. he can write some of the letters, but seems to make some of them backwards like the "s." he is pretty much potty trained. he was very difficult to potty train and i am so happy that he finally seems to get it. he can almost write his name without help. not bad. i really want to spend the next year focusing on teaching him. i want him to be ready for kindergarten. oh yes, he also has been sleeping ALL NIGHT in his own bed. oh my gosh. this is a big one around our house. he has always slept with us and now he seems to want to sleep in his own bed. what a big boy.

happy birthday mason. mommy loves you very much.

party time

we had a birthday party for mason and my mom today. it was so fun. mason is four. four! i loved the party. i get so excited about my kid's birthdays. much more excited about their birthday than my own. we just had a small party for the family. my girlfriend carla also came with her two kids so mason was thrilled to have another friend to play with. it was so cute to see him interact with emily.

mason wanted a transformer theme which i was so not thrilled about. we kept the decorations to a minimum so it wasn't a big deal. as guilty as i feel using paper plates and plastic tablecloths i have to say the cleanup was a breeze. we had carne asada tacos and salmon tacos for lunch. we did a mexican theme menu. it was yummy and super easy. i should have made margaritas. i guess i just forgot since i am not drinking. we did have pacifico beer and some wine for everyone though. miles made these spicy carrots that were over the top spicy. i only tasted one and that was enough for me. i am a whimp. my favorite part was eating the cake. we had two cakes for the two birthdays. chocolate and white. what more could you ask for? mason got lots of presents and of course insisted on playing with all of them at the same time once the party was over. my living room is filled with toys right now. tomorrow we head off to disneyland to celebrate his real birthday. hurray.