Oh Christmas..... how I love it all.

I love the age of my children and the wonder of what Christmas brings to them. This parade was actually the very first parade they saw and they loved it!!

















At the Christmas tree farm the kids took a ride on Santa's sleigh. They thought that was so cool!



















Admiring the Christmas tree after all the hard work they put into it. In the center of our tree we have the nativity scene, so we talked about what the true meaning of Christmas is!

Getting Bigger

I am 29 weeks along and I have had some challenges. I have been off work since 26 weeks along. I have had contractions with work, so off I go. What this means...a frugal Christmas, which isn't a bad thing. I sometimes think kids get too much and I sure struggle with saying no to my ever so cute kids! I am feeling my age this time around with this pregnancy. I hardly have enough energy to make it through a day. I pray and hope that I can make it to 39 weeks. There are some days I really don't think I can make it and have some anxiety over this thought. Thankfully I have a very helpful husband who does a lot for me!
I had pictures done with this pregnancy. I never did with my other pregnancies but this time I just felt like I had to. I still felt awfully big and not so pretty but this is (well it better be) my last pregnancy. I love my pictures that were taken. www.keriannphotography.com You can also check out her blog for some beautiful photography ideas http://littlekiwisphotography.blogspot.com/

Bandon Oregon Fun!!!

On our way there and on our way back we stopped by our friends house in Oregon.

They had dogs, a garden, a pond, and lots of running room. The kids didn't want to leave!

At the campground they had a very cool daily junior ranger program for the kids. One day it was a visit from smokey the bear.

Another day they talked about lighthouses and made some.

One day was a bike parade but have no pictures of that.

Play on the beach next to the light house.

We saw a great white shark washed up on the shore. It was a highlight for Charles.

Love this wild animal park zoo!!

Black spotted leopard baby. The coloring was beautiful!

This was Johanna's favorite animal!

The goat being silly.

Baby tiger!

Beautiful clear day on the beach.

On the dock in Bandon.

Charles went crabbing and caught 12 crabs. We cooked 5 of them and ate them all up ..yummmm Johanna loved doing the cracking and she ate some too.

What a feast!

Okay know for the real reason why we go to Bandon.... the chips and fish. The best I have ever ever had!! Right on the dock and you must get there early otherwise there is a line down the street for these delicious treats!!!

We are home!

We are home from out 7 day trip to Oregon. It was jammed pack with lots of fun and activities. Everyone stayed healthy and the weather was nice and cool. I have been doing laundry all day (7 loads to be exact and I still have 5 more to go). I work 12 hours tomorrow, but as soon as I get some rest I will post more about our trip.

Enjoying our campfire and yummy marshmellows!!

I can finally breathe

After feeling like I was going to have an anxiety attack when thinking of having 3 children, I can finally breathe normal now. I still don't know how we will do it or where this new child will sleep....but I am getting use to the idea. So in my desperation of trying to get things in order before a baby comes to rock our world, I decided that we needed to potty train Charlie asap. Well, it is going so-so with some frustrations, mostly because I don't think he is ready. Will keep you posted on that. I also decided that the kids can and should share a room. We moved Charlie's toddler bed into Johanna's room to see how they would do. It was a horrible, miserable failure! He (and that means we all) didn't sleep for a week. Charlie would talk, laugh, play around the whole time. We threatened, we bribed, we tried it all to get him to sleep. The day we moved him back to his bed was the day he took all of Johanna's sheets off her bed, took her wall decorations off her wall (where the tacks went ..who knows) and when we went in the room he just smiled like he was proud of what he did. Sooooo really we have gotten nothing in order yet.
I have to slow down and just take life the way it comes at me and enjoy my time with them. I feel like I need everything just right before I add a new one but I am learning quickly that this isn't going to happen. So what do I do......eat!!! That will make me feel better, right???

No seriously, one of my other goals is to not gain 40ish pounds again, this has yet to happen in my gene pool. Will let you know if I am still determined at Christmas time.

A BIG Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soooo........ it isn't a tumor, it isn't menopause, it is a baby!!! Wow! I am in total and utter shock. In fact it was hard to breathe for a few days after finding out (at 9 1/2 weeks). No wonder I haven't been feeling good!! No wonder I was tired all the time. Here is the baby, it was waving at me and I really think laughing!!

I never ever thought I would have 3 children. I always looked at those who had 3 children in awe.....(how do they do it, it must be crazy at bed time, etc etc).
So what if I just now lost all my pregnancy weight from Charlie,
so what if our extra room is filled now with new furniture and exercise equipment,
so what if I have AMA after my name on my medical records (advanced maternal age),
so what if Charles had a vasectomy right after Charlie was born
so what if we got rid of all our baby stuff
Children ARE a blessing from the Lord! And God must of really wanted this baby to be born into this world.

The bad, the good and the unknown!

After the 4th of July illness, Charlie came down with another fever and rash. We cancelled our camping reservations and thought we would stay home. Two days into our vacation (we were at home) we decided to do something fun..the railroad museum. On the way there we decided that we would much rather be in Tahoe soooo we turned around on the freeway went home and packed for Tahoe. We forgot lots of things and ended up at Motel 6 but it was well worth it!


For those of you who know Charles this was something out of his norm to do (just pick up and go). Way to go Charles!

These two girls are inseparable!

Charlie wanted to be at the beach everyday and even though his lips were blue and he was shivering he didn't want out of the water! It was good we went.

Now for the unknown: I have been having some "medical" issues lately that have been unexplainable. My doctor wants to talk with me tomorrow at 1130. Madalyn is coming from Monterey to watch the kids so Charles can be there with me, I think I might need a shoulder to lean on. I am nervous and anxious and my prayer is this: that I would have a peace that is beyond my understanding and that I would trust in His plan for my life. Till tomorrow.........

Daddy Day Spa

Two lucky girls live in this house. Charles painted our toenails today to match. Johanna loved having daddy paint her toenails!!!
p.s. don't you just love pudgy toddler feet!!

Bubble experiment

Ingredients: 2 cups water, 1/2 cup dish soap, 1 tsp sugar and mix it up and pour it into a kid friendly container:



results: home-made bubbles


try different things to make bubbles: a straw, twist a pipe cleaner, a strawberry basket and of course the traditional bubble wands.

gentle blowing gives you lots of bubbles and giggles too! Of course a nice mess but the laughter was worth it.

It was nice to have my sicky kids laugh again!

Oh what a fourth!!

Well our big plans didn't quite turn out this fourth.



We went to the fire station first thing in the morning for a pancake breakfast. Kids wouldn't eat anything. They wanted to go down the big blow up slide. Once they were at the top they decided that it was too high and started to cry, so I climb to the top and slide down with them. The result: huge burns on my elbow and heels. It hurt! We left shortly after this happened.

A few hours later Charlie broke out in a high fever and Johanna had runny nose and cough. So we did a lot of this.

And this.....

And this: looking out the window wishing we could join in the fun of our block party. They had food, music, two blow up water slides. This was the hardest thing of the day, watching my kids wishing they could partake in the fun.

It was a bummer of a fourth!

so far my favorite meatless meal

Pita with goat cheese and portabella and tomatoe

see recipie at www.myrecipies.com

Lazy Summer

Summer seems to be flying by! With a list full of things that I wanted to get done (fun and not so fun), the summer is going by without a one thing done. Going to Ontario for my grandfathers funeral took so much out of me but I am now recovered. From here on out I plan on getting a grip and doing some of those things on my to do list.

The highlight of my summer is Johanna's tap/ballet class. Claudia gave me Fiona's old tap shoes and I thought I would make good use of them.

Oh and my other accomplishment is going meatless two days a week (despite extreme complaints from my husband!)

My go to

When I am feeling down or blue or that things are out of control, I go to the one thing that I can control. I decide where the pictures go and what to put on this page. I am also reminded of the good times and the joy in the faces of whom I am scrapping. This was a slow morning that we just hung out on our front patio on a hot July morning of last year. I love my daughters faces in this hat it really shows her personality.

I hand-made the flowers and "distressed" them for an old fashion look.