365 Day 316

To save money and time we did our own family pictures with a jimmy rigged backdrop and light, 2 grumpy kids, me with a headache, and a remote for the camera.
It was challenging, my pictures aren't incredible, but I'm happy enough with the results.

We were just killing time until the last kid could find a smile when we got this one snapped. I love this picture and how sweet it looks.

365 Day 315

She loves to dress up and play Merida. Today she wanted her picture taken like the "Bear 'Inja'" pose.

365 Day 314

I was working with Daddy again so we stole a moment for a quick lunch date at Black Bear.  

365 Day 313

It's finally getting cold which means it was the perfect time Trust me that you wish computers came with scratch 'n sniff!

365 Day 312

Happiness is: Watching 'waterfalls'.

Today we are appreciating the simple joys in life!

365 Day 311

No boys tonight and Cliff had to work late. We tried to get a last minute dinner date with our friends but they were busy. My husband is the best, he decided to turn the night into a date night out at Black Bear Diner. 

Bug was precious. She wanted pizza and a salad. Yes, my daughter loves salad, and not drowning in dressing. The waitress let us substitute salad for her fries and the fact that Bug actually ate her whole salad seemed to charm the staff. 

Trying to get a eating shot is more difficult than I expected. 

Dinner was fantastic and of course, I couldn't ask for better company. 

365 Day 310

All finished with the Parent Teacher Conference. 

Bug's getting a chance to drive us home. Or rather, that's what she thinks. 

365 Day 309

Bug thinks I should rock the Merida hair today. 

As much as I wish I was a red head with curly hair, this might be a bit much for me. 

365 Day 308

Cliff is trying out a new beard (is that what it's still called?) and I'm trying out a new backdrop.

I told him he should shave his beard like this for Halloween  wear his cowboy hat and a dress shirt but he wouldn't go for it. Instead he's going to wear it to work. Good thing he pulls off facial hair well.

365 Day 307

I have terrible luck with voting. In high school I learned about how it actually works and personally I think it's a bunch of crap. It should be majority vote, not majority of each state, but that's just my opinion.
I think voting is a waste of my time but while still in high school a very political and dear friend would nearly preach how every vote counts. Driving to my first polling office I got in a roll over accident and was taken to the hospital by ambulance (I ended up just fine but I didn't know I could refuse the ambulance at that time). No voting for me.

A few years later I thought my local office was open until 8pm. I arrived at 6:30 and they closed at 6pm.

The next major election I was registered in the wrong county (and not about to drive the long distance to the correct one). Voting and I have not gotten along, not that it ever bothered me very much.

This year I felt very strongly about who I did NOT want running my country. I registered and asked for an absentee ballot (just in case). It is pointless to vote in California if you're not a democrat who loves hand outs from our government parents. I voted anyway. Technically for my first time ever. My vote did not count.

365 Day 306

For bedtime Bug likes to be taken to bed in creative ways: hang glider, upside down hang glider, fly, drag, etc. Today she wanted to be dragged to bed by her feet. Normally this works out well for everyone but today she wanted to drag Sister Jag as well. About 5 minutes after getting into bed she started crying that something was wrong.

I finally got it out of her that it was her face and that's when I noticed the most faint signs of rugburn. She only wanted Daddy though and she cried until he came to kiss her head. All that crying made her sweaty which made her head sting.

Holding Baby Jag on it worked for a little while, but in the end she wanted to be held by Daddy and given a bandaid for it. We don't normally give out band aids without blood but since we really wanted her to sleep we made an exception. Sure enough, a band aid was all she needed to finally settle down, smile, and curl back up in bed.

Happy Halloween!

This year was so much fun!

Again, we drove out to the Delta to hang out with our friends while we trick or treated. It was a school night so it wasn't as practical as staying home, but it's always worth the drive to see them. They fed us dinner (which the kids wolfed down in hopes to start getting candy sooner) and my boys were out of sight before I even got their pictures. I managed to get Bug to stand still for a nanosecond and Liv convinced her to stop once more so I could get them both. That was it. They were gone getting candy.

 Last year Bug went to a few doors but mostly only if she was holding Mommy or Daddy's hand. Not the same story this year! She went running up the driveways after he brothers and friend yelling "Waaaaiiiittt! Wait for meeeee!" and then when she made it to the door she'd scamper to the front of the group (or at least in front of tall Gator) and say 'trick or treat'. She even remembered her 'thank you's!

I refused to bring the stroller for her this year, she's getting too old for it. She's not good about walking which is frustrating to me (my fault, I know), yet she managed to do the entire loop (a little over an hour) walking on her own the whole time-no complaints!

When the night started off she didn't want anything to do with her hair, but after we bribed her to wear it for just a few houses with a package of smarties she decided she didn't want it taken off. As the night neared a close one of the kids accidently caught her hair while she was on a porch. She was so upset I had to go get her and put her hair back on. The lady handing out candy came down and waited patiently while we got her back in costume and then gave her two pieces of candy for her efforts. I didn't realize she hadn't gotten her candy yet but I thought it was awfully sweet of the lady to be so patient.

Last year our biggest giggle came from a very large black cat that goes over the walk way (you walk up between it's legs) and it tilts its head from side to side. I don't know why I keep forgetting to take a picture but it looks like this one only standing up and obviously bigger. Last year Bug wouldn't even let us go near the house. This year she charged on towards the door. Until she caught sight of the kitty and then she stopped dead in her tracks. She decided she didn't like it's face and didn't want to walk under it even if she held Daddy's hand and even after her brothers did it just fine.

 I noticed there was another smaller path away from the cat coming off the garage and asked her if she still wanted to get candy from that house. I walked with her up to the door (she liked not going under the kitty) and she got her candy but her groove was obviously thrown off  She noticed the kitty's butt on our way back towards the driveway and she just kept repeating "Scary face. Mean  Kitty. Bad Kitty. I don't like the scary face". Mommy guilt crept in. If she wakes up with nightmares over this I'm going to feel terrible. It took her almost a full year to get over the trains, what was this going to do? Daddy assured her it just made of plastic and not real. We spent another block listening to her carry on that she doesn't like plastic cats and that they are real and scary. Ooops.

Our mini cowboy of the group was not so interested in getting candy. He enjoyed eating it, but didn't care about getting it. He liked the trees, and the lights, and of course the rocks best. Often times he'd hang back with his Daddy while Daddy did some adult trick or treating. That is a good way to make the night enjoyable for all! It's good to know your neighbors so well!

The kids all ended up with full buckets. Gator kept me on my own sugar high of almond joys while Hyde spent the entire night practicing eating and walking at the same time. I'm genuinely surprised he didn't have the worst stomach ache this morning.

Of course I can't post my blurry pictures if I'm not going to post a picture of the handsome cowboy in his chaps! I'm hoping to catch the boys in their costumes later so I have evidence of Gator the Pirate and Hyde the *Inja* (what Bug calls it!).

365 Day 305

Happy Halloween all!

This is before Bug was wearing her wig but it's got two of my favorite people so it's my favorite of the bunch!

365 Day 304

It may be the day before halloween but we finally were able to take the kids to the pumpkin patch. I was sad it wasn't the weekend so there wasn't as much to do and we couldn't stay as long but we had a great time all the same!

365 Day 303

Today was the day we opened our envelope and discovered that we're having a....

Gator was excited and even though Bear wanted another sister he was really happy too. Bug, however, was not so thrilled. She wants a sister. I'm confident she'll come around and I think it's all for the best. Now I'll have 1 boy and 1 girl. As much as I would have loved to even the numbers in our family I'm thrilled I get to raise a son of my own.  

365 Day 302

Today we were planning on taking Gator to the pumpkin patch to make up for being stuck at home last week because of his brothers bad mood. We got all packed up and were walking out the door to pick him up when we discovered that our water heater had busted and created little rivers through our entire garage.

I'm grateful that we are no strangers to flooded garages because of the duplex so we were almost prepared. 90% of our boxes are plastic now and the few that were not were mostly baby clothes. A pain, but not detrimental.

I love Cliff but he is not happy playing handyman. Getting a new heater and installing in (especially when he wouldn't let me help lift because I'm pregnant) quite literally took the whole day. It's in, and works, and the garage is again dry.

The way I see it we spent that much money and time on this thing I might as well take it's picture!

365 Day 301

While painting during our date night the lady behind me ran into Cliff's elbow. Naturally it was just as he was getting ready to add black to his light yellow flower.

Okay, accidents happen, but this lady didn't even acknowledge it and certainly didn't apologize. She had been leaning on me the whole time. I'd love to say maybe she's just that clueless, but I think maybe she was just rude and desensitized to other peoples personal space due to her plus size. Luckily for all of us Cliff and I kept a positive attitude about the situation. Black is very hard to cover though... 

365 Day 300

If you don't know what you're looking at it's hard to tell, but this is our little baby sucking on their toes! Did it most the time we were there. 

We have a toe sucker!

365 Day 299

Naturally, for my second pregnancy I had a filling fall out, just like with my first pregnancy. What makes that so special is that Dentists are afraid of pregnant women (can't blame them with today's population that lacks common sense but is way too sue-happy for anyone's good). Last time it happened I saw a dentist but I wasn't comfortable with them so I did nothing about it until after the baby was born. At which point more issues had formed on that tooth and I lost it. 

I'm not ready to lose another one so today I went to get a second opinion from my beloved family dentist (I wish my insurance covered him) because my covered dentist I don't fully trust. The visit went well but I forgot to eat breakfast before I left so I drove over to the Cheese Shop for a sandwich.

Then I remembered I forgot my cash and debit card today. No sandwich for me.  

365 Day 298

Not quite as awesome as the Gorilla Pimp, or as entertaining as the farm worker, but oddly he can pull off the yellow and purple pimp. We had too much fun in Goodwill tonight and I realized we need to have a 'Goodwill Costume Party'. So many options, so hilarious, and more unusual than the stereotypical 80's party. *In no way am I putting Goodwill down*