Breakfast Pizza

Wood fired pizza for breakfast? 

Yes, and it's genius!

Bella Familia Pizza was again at the Farmer's Market at Whole Foods so I indulged in their Sunrise pizza with Evelyn. Made complete of course, with their fantastic lemonade. I think I'm turning into a pizza stalker....

Good day, very good day indeed!

Float or Swim

It's a school night and yet we still braved going out for a Bar-B-Que party. I went a little early with the kids and gave them the opportunity to swim before everyone arrived.

Even with his life vest on Mr. Edward was still afraid of the water (and even though he even recently went swimming with his mom) so I didn't push him to have fun or enjoy it like his siblings were. 

Lady Ryder somehow got super brave in the water since last time I took her and she really liked floating on the lounger and calling out 'look at me!' to everyone she could see. Heaven forbid if you didn't respond to her accomplishment. Considering she was up late last night, up early this morning, and didn't take a nap her behavior was phenomenal! She didn't throw any  fits (except when a baby dared touch her Jaguar that she left on the ground), she just wanted to be noticed more.

When Cliff arrived I told him about Mr. Edward's fear, and how I swam with him for a bit with no improvement, so he got in the pool and had a good swim lesson with him. Sometimes, a boy just needs his Father before he can find his confidence. After Cliff's lesson, Mr. Edward swam laps in the pool back and forth completely solo. He finally got to experience how much fun swimming can be!

Coming Together

We finally set up Alex's new bed today. Of course, we had to run to home depot first to get the screws we lost for it, but it's done. I also hung up curtains in the kids' rooms to help block some of the light from waking them. Alex's bed turned out great and we love the new furniture arrangement in the room.

For dinner we threw together an impromptu dinner date with Jared so he could try the fish as well. Honestly, we did it so he could try the fish and we could bribe him to fix our computer network. We enjoyed fish tacos with the leftovers, and chicken tacos for the kids.

Handy Mattress

We purchased a new bed for Gator a few days ago and gave his bed to Bug. Cliff didn't like the mattress that came with his bed so we went out today and bought him a brand new one. We only had my car (and had to go back for rope) so we tied it to the top of the roof. On the freeway we discovered how poorly we tied it down in front so we stuck our hands out the sun roof and held it down all the way home.












Now all complete, he has his new bed, in his new room, in his new house.

Fish Fry

Last weekend the boys all went fishing and they came home early loaded down with fish (and recovering from sea sickness). This week we chose to host a fish fry game night.

Our plans got changed and it turned into a much smaller dinner with just Ronnie and his family, but it was fantastic having them over.

I've been really in the mood for a glass of wine lately and even though wine and a fish fry don't really go together, I enjoyed it all the same.

40 fish fillets to split between 4 adults and 3 kids was more than we could eat, but we sure tried our best to finish it off.

School Colors

After taking the boys to school Evelyn decided she just had to have her backpack on too! She did everything with it on her back all morning; ate breakfast, colored, went potty....all refusing to take it off. Speaking of coloring, she was very serious about her coloring today. She was making 'ovals' and several letters that she remembered how to write like 'a' and 'w'. Simply adorable.

It's days like these that make me so happy I'm her Mom

Birth Certificate

Only took 2 years, but I finally got Evelyn's birth certificate today. 

Lucky her, it's two pages because my name is so gosh darn long. 

Mom was working at the police department we stopped in to say hello and Evelyn got a tube of her very own pink chap stick. She was very good about putting it on and giving it back to me to hold on to, and then when we got home, I forgot to continue watching her and taking it back after she put it on.

Needless to say, utter failure. 

i-P.O.S. photo

Chapped Cheeks

I finally picked up Evelyn's birth certificate today. Only two years late, but better late than never I suppose. On the way home we stopped in at the PD to say hello to Mamaw. Evelyn wasn't happy that she wasn't going home with her, but Mamaw gave her a pretty awesome gift to tie her over: her very own pink chapstick. Evelyn loves chapstick and does very well putting it on her lips and giving it back when she's finished.

This afternoon I got tied up with Isaac and forgot that just before I went to deal with him Evelyn had asked for her chapstick. 15 minutes later (which she was very quiet during) she comes downstairs with rosey, shiny pink cheeks, and neck, and fingers. It only took about 2 seconds for me to realize what it all was. I wasn't mad at her, I know better, but it was pretty funny

This is why you don't give a 2yo chapstick unattended.

Sleep Happens

Since Noah got to take all his naps on the couch Evelyn started wanted to fall asleep on the couch too. I know, I'm letting her regress, but it'll be my battle later to deal with.
She does really well getting to sleep, but it's weird how when she moves around and ends up in these strange positions that she can stay asleep. I guess that's why they call it 'sleeping like a baby'. It doesn't matter how they are laying, sleep just happens.

Glacier Point

What a great way to meander out of Yosemite! Besides, getting lost in that stupid circle, that is.

Today we head home but before we leave we plan a few more adventures. after getting lost in the Valley stuck in a circle of one way traffic, we finally found our way to bridal veil falls. It was early enough to still find a parking spot and check out the waterfall with only a couple hundred others instead of a a couple thousand.

I love my camera but I'm finding new lens has some annoying limitations. some places there is just not enough space to get back far enough to be able to get the picture I want.

We made another stop at tunnel view to get some family photos and some individual pictures in front of the valley. group pictures are hard. After a few attempts with a timer, a dumpster, and running across the parking lot with no success a nice family helped us get our picture. of course he completely missed the waterfall we are aiming for the background but beggars can't be choosers.

The last stop for the day was driving up to glacier point. They were doing controlled lightning fires which made the drive a bit more interesting. At the top we were all very relaxed and enjoying the amazing view.



All the pictures from our weekend

Bear Box Crock Pot

Today was an awesome, full day in the Valley!

We all woke up early, mostly caused by some pesky Blue Jays who were fighting over something and making a whole bunch of ruckus, and made breakfast and dinner. Egg, bacon, sausage, and gravy burritos for breakfast and pork shoulder for BBQ Pulled Pork sandwiches in the crock pot for dinner. I'm not sure how I ever survived camping without a power outlet and a crock pot; getting to throw your dinner in a pot in the morning, go do all the exploring you can handle, and then come back for a stress free dinner is awesome! And, with an extension cord we were able to keep it in the bear box too (wouldn't of been safe or smart without the box)!

After breakfast we hopped on the bus and went for a short hike to Yosemite Falls where the kids got to play in river. They had a blast and even though they were very tired from the night before no one got seriously hurt and everyone had fun. Taking group photos in crowded Yosemite, however, is not very successful or fun. Evelyn didn't go in the water with her brothers, she liked throwing rocks too much to actually get wet. Walking back to camp we traveled through a little meadow and saw a deer and it's suckling baby. The animals here don't care about people at all. Cliff got super close when he took his picture and they barely flinched.

Since the kids went to bed so late and woke up so early we went back to housekeeping for lunch and a nap for the kids. While the kids dozed, Kathy taught Cliff and I how to play Spite and Malice with her new souvenir Yosemite playing cards. Not only did we have fun playing a new game, but the cards were quite educational as well.

Before dinner we walked to Mirror Lake with the kids. It was more of a pond, but they had a really cool duck field that had been stacked off the trail just before the lake. I'm pretty sure Evelyn stole a rock off the top of one, but Alex made a new one so I suppose it all evens out.

The water was chilly, and it wasn't very full but the kids had a great time splashing in the water and digging trenches. Dinner was divine and there's something very satisfying about ending the night in a hammock next to the fire with a strawberry Daiquiri in one hand.

We did discover one bad thing about our family in Yosemite: Bears. Or rather, our own Bear. While calling Isaac back to camp we started to freak out our neighboring campers. We had to explain that we have our own bear, not there's a bear in the camp site.


More Pictures Here

Over Booked, Under Planned

Last week we made plans to have family game night tonight and Cliff called me and asked me to cancel so we could go to Yosemite. I cancelled on my family, but I totally forgot that I had Noah today so we had to change our plans from leaving in the morning to leaving this afternoon. Noah, Evelyn, and I had a great time playing and I had everything organized set out and ready to go by the time we picked up the boys from school. Shortly after that Noah was picked up and we headed out for our weekend getaway with the boys.

We made pretty good time on the drive there, but because we had left a bit later than we planned (and we had the supplies for dinner) we got camp a little late and therefore had a late dinner. It worked out well though. The kids were super excited and stayed up super late, but kept good attitudes while us adults made good use of the plugs in Housekeeping Camp making a batch of Strawberry Daiquiris with the blender we brought.

Alex and Evelyn on my hammock before dinner time

As we all got ready for bed I noticed a large bug checking out our toothbrushes. It was just a harmless beetle

 of some kind but the boys thought it was pretty fascinating. 

Empty House

All the kids are out of the house and Cliff is on a fishing trip with my brothers, my Dad, and my nephew leaving me in a house all by myself. To take advantage of this fine situation that I've found myself in, I chose to stay up until 5am watching Glee (I may be turning into a Gleek) before retiring to my empty bed. It's lonely and a little spooky in an empty house.

This morning I woke up prepared to clean the house, but instead choosing to do laundry and watch more Glee. I think it's safe to say I'm now a Gleek. I got almost all the laundry done and most of it put away before Cliff got home (early-which was fine by me).

There's something so enjoyable about time completely alone with nothing you have to do, I think it actually improves the time you spend with others. You appreciate them more and fell more like yourself.

Anti-Climatic River-Maids

No kids in the house and nothing that we had to do this morning so Cliff and I escaped for morning movie date at the new Blue Oaks Theater. We saw Harry Potter finishing the marathon we started a couple weeks ago. I enjoyed it, but I'm going to have to go back and read the books now so that I can see what I'm missing from the movies. The rest of the day we relaxed and tried to not explode from all the free popcorn and sodas we got during our movie.

Awesome moon rise at the baseball game

Cliff left for his fishing trip at the same time I headed to my Rivercats game. I love baseball, and after the first few innings when I finally found my correct seat next to Bridget, I was able to enjoy the few good plays during the pummeling we received from the visiting team. Very exciting game though. Or rather, so boring it was actually exciting to see what would happen next. I've come to the conclusion that the wave isn't necessarily a sign of support, just boredom. It's pretty funny when the crowd does so many rounds of the wave that you loose count somewhere around 8 passes and it keeps circling around. 

Bottom of the 9th inning and the Rivercats were loosing 1 to 5, but with the bases loaded and a full count. The batter gets walked and next player up at bat get another full count. Then.... strikes out swinging. Very Anti-climatic. But the fireworks were nice.

After the game I walked to my car (successfully avoiding all the crappy traffic) just to drive into the traffic so that I could check out the mermaid bar. Cliff told me about Dive Bar downtown and when a groupon for it came out I discovered they have mermaids on the weekends. After circling around looking for parking, because I can't parallel park, I finally found a place and walked over so I could check out the sights.

I wasn't dressed up, but I wasn't looking to find 'love' either so it didn't matter. It's almost amazing to see how much these girls put out on display in public trying to find temporary love. I'm very grateful to not be in the club scene anymore, but I realized something very important: it's all about the shoes. You can look at the shoes a girl has on and know what she's looking for. Casual flops, black heels, all the way up to the sparkly red shoes. The shoes speak louder than the clothes but strangely enough I found myself missing wearing heels. Something about wearing a comfortable pair just makes you feel pretty, and maybe a bit sexy too.

I got sidetracked, back to the funny part of the night. I drive back into traffic then circled around town looking for a parking spot so that I could go see the mermaids to take a picture to show Cliff. I find a spot, wait in line to get in the club, walk into the very crowded dating scene, only to discover...no mermaids. And, the place was too crowded for me to want to hang out and wait for one to appear so I just used the restroom and left. I'll probably go back to check out the mermaids another day, but only with someone to talk with, not that you could hear over the noise on a Saturday night.

Delta Date

It's been a pretty great week. We've been busy enough that we haven't been able to have any melt downs and then today Mamaw wanted Evelyn which means I get a free weekend.

Mom had to do some shopping at JC Penny's so we arranged to meet after Evelyn and I had breakfast. Her and I went back the waffle barn, the very first restaurant she ever went to, and she was so well behaved. I take it for granted sometimes but I've very lucky with how well my 2yo behaves in a restaurant.

We did some shopping at the mall and before we parted ways Evelyn got to pick out a brand new pillow for Mamaw's house. She was super excited about it.

So happy with her new pillow

This evening Cliff and I were able to escape to the Delta with the Stones for some divine ribs and outstanding company. We stayed too late but both Cliff and I got our baby fix keeping the baby happy in the heat. 

Walking

Today is Mr. Edward's last day at Barrett Ranch and the first day we got to walk to school. We had to walk quickly so that he didn't miss the bus but we made it with plenty of time and without being winded. Mr. Edward ran most of the way while Mr. Mann complained that we were walking too fast.

The bus driver seems really nice nice and I was quite fond of him but we won't be seeing him anymore.

Walking to school in the morning was great. The weather was perfect and much to my surprise, Lady Ryder did great staying in her stroller the whole walk to and from school. She even did great after nap time when we had to walk in the heat.

First Day

Today is the first day of school. Wow! That almost didn't come soon enough for me, and this last week leading up to it sure was dramatic.

We signed both boys up in our local school but found out there wasn't room for Mr. Edward so he was overflowed to a nearby school. I considered having Mr. Mann put there as well but then found out that the overflow school went to a different middle school than the one that Mr. Mann will be attending next year. Bad idea to have him make friends only to loose them 1 year later when he entered a different middle school so we accepted the boys being split into two different schools.

I finally got excited about the boys in two different schools and then last Friday I get a letter saying Mr. Mann is also being overflowed. Crap.

Monday I got the bus passes for them and just yesterday afternoon I got notice that Mr. Mann will no longer be overflowed and then today school started in two different schools. The day went well.

Cliff and I met Kim at Mr. Edward's bus stop, walked Mr. Mann to his class, and then drove to Mr. Edward's school to walk him to his classroom.

During breakfast Lady Ryder discovered her elbow and I just couldn't resist asking her if she could lick it. It was hilarious, so of course I pulled out my camera and we did it again. 

Cliff has had a nasty cough and luckily we were able to get him in to see Bruce right after school. Lady Ryder did not like the thought of seeing Bruce and we had to remind her multiple times that Daddy was seeing nice Mr. Bruce, not her.

Serious Chalk

The kitties (the kids) wanted to draw with chalk and all the shade was in the front of the house on the driveway so that's where we went. I expected they'd play for maybe 30 minutes before wanting a new game. The neighbor walked past about 15 minutes into it and Noah just had to have him dram him a kitty. And then, something else, and then something more. I have great neighbors, he didn't complain and stayed and drew pictures for a good 10 minutes before he had to leave for the mail.

The kids were adorable playing together, wanting to see each other's names, and sharing chalk with one another. I was wrong. The attention span of these 2 year olds was 90 minutes! Much longer than I expected, but we had a great time and now I have a beautiful driveway that makes me smile... Well, at least until it rains I'll have it.

Reading Pig

If you give a pig a pancake is her favorite book right now. She'll listen to you read it over and over again, and then go read it to herself over and over again. I love how much she enjoys the written word!

It Fits!

I managed to clean out (or shove out of the way) 1 out of the 3 garage spaces today. Just enough room to fit my car into the garage for the first time in it's entire car life. Probably the last time too since the garage isn't actually clean yet....

Puzzling

Calm day at home and the babies got a chance to play with a puzzle together. It amazes me how long their attention span can be. They played together with the puzzle for almost 20 minutes! Noah is in this stage where he likes to smell Evelyn's hair and give her lots of hugs. It's super cute, but Evelyn gets tired of it pretty quick and starts asking him to stop. 

Today was also the very first time I have ever parked my car in my own garage. It's a tight fit, but it counts.

Naked Tantrum

Kicking and screaming, stereotypical toddler tantrum. And, she's naked. Too funny to take seriously!

Swim Day

School is starting next week and I didn't have Isaac today so I took Alex back to the pool for some afternoon swimming. We had the whole pool to ourselves, and as a fun surprise I brought an underwater camera so we could get some fun pictures of Alex doing his 'Alexgator' tricks.
















We had a great time and I even got to teach Alex a valuable lesson in instant gratification. As in, not everything is done instantly. When I explained to him that we had to develop the pictures we took before we could see them he thought that meant that as soon as we took them to the store they'd be able to show up the photos. Having to wait an hour was almost more than he could bear.

Cold!  Evelyn was much braver about being in the water without holding on to me

More pictures from the afternoon

Ants on a Log

One of my favorite snacks is ants on a log. Evelyn really wanted to try it and found out that she really liks it (and was able to bite and chew the celery no problem). It's her first time eating something like celery. This is a big day.... I'm still not ready for her to grow up yet. 

Underwater Pool Table

More issues today and we're at our whits end so I posted to facebook. I've received more help and support than I could of imagined and I truly hope at least one of the suggestions can help us repair our family. It's currently quite broken.

Besides that dark cloud, today I planned a water play day with the kids and it was great a time to give my new camera lens a try. I've fallen in love with my camera all over again! The kids had a great time splashing in the pool, and playing in the water table together. Noah went home after about 40 minutes, but Evelyn kept splashing for almost an hour more! She even stopped and told us when she had to potty and then went back to playing and splashing. When she had played enough, and it was time for me to go inside and start dinner I stripped her out of her suit and dried her off but she escaped my grasp and tried to go back to splashing the water on the table. I had a stubborn, naked baby refusing to come inside.  

I got a lot of fun pictures of all the kids here

Death in the Family

The week(s) have been spent doing crazy amounts of unpacking and cleaning the filth from the new house, and the dust from the old house. I'm happy to report we are 100% finished with the S. Whitney home forever!

I was able to finish moving all the little things we forgot just in time to get a nasty migraine and my chest cold to take over my weekend. Cliff and I both spent our weekend taking turns sleeping while the other watched the baby. I'd like to say we're all better now, but I can at least say we've improved.

This last weekend also was when Evelyn started sleeping in her very own big girl bed. Cliff and I finally put the crib together sans the drop rail and added the bed rail from when she was a co sleeping infant. Friday was her first night and she was pretty stoked to go from the mattress on the floor (what she had been doing for a few days prior) to her very own bed in her very own room. That was, at least, until she discovered she still had to go to sleep. She's been doing very well in her bed, and has figured out how to get in and out on her own. We still have to coax her to sleep, but she's actually sleeping through the night and waking up happy!

I'm in love with my new dryer and I've been going through all the clothes from our move pretty quickly! In our hasty packing some dirty clothes got mixed with clean clothes and I couldn't tell which was which anymore so I've had to re-wash them all. At least the dryer works with just one cycle so I'm actually happy to be doing the washing. The simple joys in life.

Painting is still something I need to tackle, but I finally found a decent matching yellow for my guest bathroom and we're going with a blue accent in Evelyn's room instead of the chosen purple. The funny thing is, Evelyn's room was the only room we had pre-picked colors for and we're not doing anything close to it. I still love the purple basil color from Olympic so I'll probably put it elsewhere in the house, like maybe my room.

We've been having some behavioral issues, and I have a lovely video of it now, that has been consuming all my energy but I am so grateful that school starts in just 9 days. And bad news turned good, Isaac wasn't accepted into our local school meaning he'll have to take a bus and be gone a little bit longer during the day.

We got our internet all set up, and I purchased a router and I've had nothing but problems ever since. 6 calls later and it still keeps refusing to stay connected or let us adjust any settings. I returned it, and ordered one that Jared suggested so we'll be out of internet until that comes in. On the story of internet, when Comcast connected me I was told I had on-demand. I made 3 calls that week confirming that my on demand wasn't working but that I should have it so they sent out a technician. He was really friendly and he discovered that I'm NOT an on demand costumer and I'm getting too many channels. He was reluctant to call when he discovered I was getting channels I wasn't paying for but I assured him if I wasn't paying for them, and we never watch them anyway, I wouldn't miss it. I'd rather be getting what I pay for and everyone to be honest. It was pretty funny, but I'm happy with my internet, I don't need standard TV. Commercials suck anyway.

Finally, as one more explanation for my absence besides all that I've otherwise mentioned, my cameras have died.  I have a house full of them, and not one works. 4th of July Cliff accidentally threw my pocket camera and tried to kill it but it's still working. The problem being just after the filming episodes of this last week worth of temper tantrums the batteries in three cameras have been exhausted. The little camera works, just the charger for the battery is in a box. Somewhere. As for my beloved Nikon, it refuses to focus and makes icky sounds when you try. I took it for repair and the good news is the camera is fine, the bad news is the lens is pretty shot. I'm hoping we get a new one from craigslist soon. Having all these moments pass that I wish I had a camera for has made me feel naked and a little like a loved one has passed. Luckily for me, this loved one has the ability to come back to me. I wish we all had that ability too.