California: The Beach

I am a firm believer that if you are in California, you MUST go to a beach.  How depressing to think of missing it?  As soon as we passed into CA, I started looking at the mountains, thinking, "maybe that's the last mountain before you can see the ocean...."  I just love the ocean-it is by far my favorite spot to visit.  Last time we went to CA as a family, the kids didn't seem to care all that much for the ocean, so I came prepared to help my kids love it like I do-we talked it up, I asked them what they would like to do at the ocean rather than expecting things they wouldn't be willing to do, and I prepared myself to be flexible.  I'm glad I did all those things because we had a blast at the ocean!  We spent Saturday morning at the beach with Jared's family/extended family...I already miss it, but the memories we built were just fantastic.  Presenting the ocean picture montage....

James just stared :)  He was so cute, his little body up against the vast expanse of the ocean.

 The boys were a hoot!  They didn't hesitate at all before wrestling in the sand dunes, running to the shoreline, and wading in the water.  Jordan, bless his heart, got soaked from head to toe, but didn't seem to care.  It was such a pleasure to watch them love the ocean/beach so very much!

 Sara loved the beach and the ocean-just not the actual water.  :)  The waves licked at her feet a bit, and she was done with the idea of wading!

 Jordan and I built a sand castle together before the waves ate it up.

 Karianna disappeared for a while with Jared's aunt.  She came back with a basket full of shells.  She intends to clean them off and then display them on her dresser...most of them are huge oyster shells.

 And what kid goes to the beach and DOESN'T eat sand?  Not James, that's for sure!  Crazy thing is, you would figure after a few mouthfuls, he would realize it doesn't taste good and then just stop.  Nope.

 JD made a few tidal pools and had a blast watching the foam flood it!

So glad the kids fell in love with the beach today!

Random

Just some totally random tidbits from everyday life....

1. We have been up and down with sickness in our home.  All the kids have had it-the fever, the congestion, the upset stomachs...Jordan, poor kiddo, has had it 3 different times, it seems as soon as he gets better, another kid catches it, and then he catches it back!  We are finally fever free as of Monday, so I am hoping it stays that way!
2. Jared's company restructured a bit, and amongst other changes, he was put in charge of 3 different degree programs and is the sole advisor for those departments.  That is a crazy amount of responsibility, and while he is a bit overwhelmed, I know he'll do great!
3. I had an observation for work just this morning, and (warning, this is a bit of a brag) I got a perfect score on it.  I love what I do, and it makes me feel good to know that I do it well, not so much for the acclamation, but because I know that means I am helping kids progress in school.  That means a lot to me.
4. I have been able to get some forever projects done this week-yea!  The garage is officially cleaned out and organize-and we can now park a car in it.  I threw away so much stuff, it felt SO good!  I also got the wall collage done on the wall.  It took quite a while to get everything positioned correctly, and I was pleased with the final outcome.  
5. We are getting ready to see David and Sarah get married-yahoo!  The kids are all part of the bridal party in lieu of adult bridesmaids and groomsmen.  Karianna and Sara have beautiful matching white dresses, and they will have tiffany blue sashes.  The boys have white shirts, and black trousers/vests/ties to wear-they look so dashing!  We had the hardest time finding the vests in just plain black.  Andrea finally found some at Kmart, of all places, as part of a 3 piece ensemble.  Though we will nix the green shirts/ties for the wedding, I thought they looked so adorable!
6. On JD and Jordan, I had to get them new shoes last week since their toes were crammed to the ends.  JD is in a size 13, and Jordan is a size 12 1/2!  I can't believe they are that close!!!!!
7. All the kids had dentist appointments last week except for Karianna-she is too old for the pediatric dentist now, according to our insurance.  We are in the process of selecting a new dentist with some of the changes we made to our insurance for this year, and I'll have to schedule Karianna at that point.  The other kids, though, did great going to their new pediatric dentist, whom I love!!!  The entire office was SO kid-friendly, it was ridiculous.  All their dental hygienists came in a swarm to take care of all 4 kids at one-some went to get x rays, others started getting their teeth cleaned, and others started with Dr. Michaud.  I was just so impressed, and all the kids went willingly.  That's how you know an office is kid friendly!  JD had zero cavities, but it looks like he is calcium deficient in his teeth-this is a side effect of Celiac, since before his diagnosis, his body was not digesting all the nutrients from food, including calcium. He had sealants put on all his back molars and his one adult tooth to protect them from cavities and it's something we will keep an eye on in the future.  Jordan had 2 small cavities in between 2 back molars, and he did great with getting them filled!  I was surprised it was Jordan who had 2 cavities, he is super diligent with brushing teeth with me and his teeth are really spaced out.  Regardless, all ended well. Sara had no cavities and her teeth all looked perfect-and I was SO pleased with her behavior, which was stellar!  James of course had no cavities, and though I was skeptical about taking a 1-year-old to the dentist, I am glad I did.  The dentist did in fact verify James has a fused tooth, but that should be nothing to worry about-they will both fall out when adult teeth push up and that will be that.  Overall, great dentist appointment, and we'll be back in 6 months!

 And that's the little tidbits going on right now!  One more picture just because he is cute!

Blast Off!

Karianna passed her 3rd-grade mathblasters test today-woohoo! She has been dying to test for the 3rd-grade level since November, and her teacher finally had her do it today:  50 add, 50 sub, 50 div, 50 mult problems in 12 minutes with a certain degree of accuracy for each portion....Karianna got it done in 8 minutes. That basically puts her at passing off 4th-grade and 5th-grade levels as well, if I am remembering the levels correctly, but she'll have to test separately for those.  She is so proud of herself, and it's so cool to see since Karianna tends to adopt an attitude of "I'm too cool to show an excess of emotion".  She'll have her name read on the announcements tomorrow, as well as have her pic taken with the principal with her mathblasters t-shirt.  I'm so pleased with how quickly she has mastered her math facts.  Just the other day, I taught her how to do double-digit multiplication with regrouping ie 26x43-she was even able to do most of a triple-digit multiplication problem, ie 321 x 245.  It's funny, she will tell you math is her least favorite topic, but she is so good at it... I can't believe how fast she is growing up.  Congratulations Karianna!

Savor

 This just never happens anymore.  James is so wiggly and constantly wants to move around....he rarely just falls asleep in my arms any longer, and I miss it.  So when he actually fell asleep after nursing tonite, I just savored the moment, dozing off myself with this warm little body in my arms. Jared, being the awesome husband that he is, snapped a few pictures that will hereafter be known as my favorite pictures of the year.  I love this little boy-I love all my little boys and my little girls, and I'm so glad they grant me with moments like this every now and again that remind me how blessed I am.

Way To Go!

That's what that sticker in James' mouth says.  You know-the one that is stuck to the roof of his mouth. Way to go, James!

Here's the real "Way to Go!" moment though:  James took his first steps today!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He has been standing on his own for a long time, but hasn't seemed to care at all about walking on his own.  Today he took 3 steps toward me, just to get to a Diego toy that was snared between my teeth as motivation.  It's just a matter of days now. If I thought he was the king of destruction as a crawler, I'm scared to see the damage he induces as a walker!

Q&A

 Question:  How often does this happen?

 Answer:  Never.  Quick!  Take a picture before the fighting ensues!

Spring Cleaning in January

Sometimes we bite off more than we can chew.



Since we have had sick kids, we decided to avoid going on any major hiking excursions (major being the key word-minor was acceptable) and tackle spring cleaning instead.  Jared made up a list of about 25 things we'd like to get done around the house...we knew we'd never get them all done, but we figured we may as well get it all on paper just as a reference.  Plus, crossing things off gives me a bit of a high.  Here's what we got done out of the ordinary cleaning

1. Extra door lock-we installed one of those hotel door locks on our front door.  I feel much safer now, honestly.  The kids are pretty good at asking who is at the door and coming to get me, but Sara, in particular, is still learning, and having that lock there gives me more peace of mind.
2. DVD Reorganization-we no longer have any DVD discs in the actual cases.  YES!!!!  They are now in 2 binders in DVD sleeves-8 DVDs per sleeve.  Now when the kids want to watch a movie, they look at all the empty cases, bring me the one I want, and I locate the matching disc in the binders to turn on for them.  I think I am going to LOVE how this works!
3. Walls-I am working on a frame collage for one of the larger walls in our family room, and I finally got the wall washed down, baseboards clean, and I started mapping out how I want the collage to look.  I just need to put it up.
4. Couches-this one sounds simple, but wow, it opened a can of worms.  We cleaned under all the couches, pulled up the cushions, restocked the toy room with all the toys that were stuck in the couch, and vacuumed everything.  I am still shocked by how long that seemingly simple job took.
5. Attic-I finally got all our moving boxes broken down and moved up into the attic.  We have about 150 boxes.  
6. Garage-I have about half the garage organized now and I threw away a TON of stuff!  I love to throw stuff away!!!  It was quite fun though, going through all my elementary, junior high, and high school papers-a nice trip down memory lane.  I got all the holiday boxes consolidated, repacked, and organized as well.  
7. Lots of little miscellaneous laundry, changing air filters, cleaning out the cars, making a pile of garage sale stuff, sweeping, yardwork, etc.

And with all those things done, I looked around the house today and thought it still looks messy....and this is when I came to a conclusion.  There is NO SUCH THING as spring cleaning.  There just isn't. Because this "spring cleaning" has to happen all the time to keep the house in order.  

While we were doing all the cleaning, we kept doling out jobs for the kids to do. They were great helpers honestly!  One of Karianna's main jobs was to keep James contained.  She did it in the following manner:

Sara's job was to get all the VHS tapes out of the cabinet and into a garbage bag for donation or garage sale.  This is how she did it:

After we got done on Monday, we did decide to get outdoors for a bit.  The boys had been fever free for nearly 48 hours so I knew they'd be okay, but I also knew we needed to keep it low-key to avoid a resurgence in this terrible flu stuff that's going around, especially since we need to be healthy to go out of town next week.  We ended up driving out to Coons Bluff, which had a free entrance for MLK day.  We spent about an hour there, hiking up the trail (which gave me an anxiety attack because it had some steep drop-offs), climbing up the rockfaces, and skipping rocks across the river.  We found crawdads, lots and lots of shells, and we saw the wild horses running across the highway.  Sadly, we hit one part of the highway where a horse had been struck by a car.   He looked like he was still alive, but it was sad nonetheless-he was a beautiful animal.  The kids had a blast, and as always, it was great just to get outdoors.  Coons Bluff was pretty deserted too!  

 I LOVE this picture of James!  He looks like he is just gazing up into the heavens!

 

 A few bees were flying around-Karianna was scared of them!

So into a new week we go, lots of cleaning jobs still left on our list, dentist appointments, doctor appointments, eye appointments, and back to work and school.  Busy as always, that's for sure!

Where's the Baby?

I sent Jordan to find James today as he had disappeared from my line of vision This is where Jordan found him:

 Apparently, James has learned how to climb into the bathtub.  He was playing peek-a-boo with the curtain when I walked in, just squealing with delight.  Guess as far as playpens go, this one is pretty infallible!

Fine.

The kids ask me if they can do play dough at LEAST twice a week.  I almost always say "Maybe tomorrow" because cleaning up playdough is really frustrating.  Well, today my answer to that question was "Fine."  I even said it kindly-I was proud of myself.  I'm trying to be a "Yes" mom more frequently.  So out came the playdough and the kids came flocking.  

 We had some fantastic menus going on-the ice cream cones were the best, and the cookie monster ABC soup was to die for.  I was actually pretty impressed with how well the kids shared their playdough tools, and I could tell they really did try to not mix colors.  I couldn't believe how many playdough toys we have once they were all spread out!

James, of course, had to try and eat the playdough.  He liked it too much, so he ended up just banging the various toys and tools around in his seat.  He had a great time regardless, and it was cute to see him playing with the big kids.  In the above picture, when I said, "Everyone look at me and say cheese!", James immediately craned his head around JD so he could see me.  Love it!

Glendale Glitters

We drove out to Glendale tonite for the last night of Glendale Glitters.

We've never been before, and we were imagining a very temple-esque feel (ie, tons of densely packed lights, a good atmosphere to walk around in, etc).  Well....not so much.  The lights were cool, but not as cool as the temple by far.  And it was packed--I mean PACKED!  I don't mind crowds, but Jared really does, and he was on edge whenever we ventured into the highly concentrated areas.  On top of that, the whole spectacle was very carnival-like.  There were tons of booths, food, and games to play, all of which cost tickets-which were a buck apiece!  We didn't come prepared for that, so although the kids enjoyed watching other kids playing the games, you could tell they really wanted to join in.  So we spent most of our time there walking the lights, playing in the amphitheater, watching a crazy-awesome girl hula hoop with glow-in-the-dark hoops (it was really awesome!), listening to some really awesome bands, and most of all, watching the hot air balloons go up and flare with fire.  My favorite balloon was a witch riding a broomstick-and I am super sad I didn't get a picture!  The crowd was so packed around her, that I didn't want to take my eyes off the kids.  We were there for a few hours, all bundled up in our coats, mittens, and gloves-and overall, though different from our expectations, it was quite a fun family outing.

Just a few pics of balloons and the kids.  Sara kept dancing around when we sat down to listen to the bands, she was the only one doing it, and I think other people got a kick out of her!  The boys LOVED the spiderman balloon and Karianna kept asking if we could go in different directions so she wouldn't get jealous of the games we weren't financed to play.  I told her we'd go back next year with the intent of playing a few games!

Little Sickie!

James celebrated his 13 month-day as a sick little boy!  Thankfully it's nothing serious, just a teething fever, but I do hate to feel his little body so warm.  He has been living with his fist in his mouth for the last few days-and that tooth is just about ready to pop!  I don't remember any of my other kids having a hard time with teeth.  James definitely does.  He has gotten a fever for every tooth, and his appetite always decreases to the point where he will only eat purees and liquids.  I'll be happy when he gets past this point of development!

Oh.My.Gosh.

That was my Facebook status today because at the time, I had no other words for the following story, which is indeed true, shocking as it is. Gross as it is. Whatever works. Brace yourself--here it goes...

Jared's parents have been storing their food storage in our garage since well before we moved in. They didn't have anywhere else to put it, so it has been sitting there since 2008. Jared and I decided today to clean that part of the garage, and we know canned food like that (we are talking oats, rice, wheat) can lose its nutritional value in the heat. Thus we decided to move 48 boxes (6 cans in each box) into the boys' room and store them under their beds in lieu of a box spring.

We had about 30 boxes moved in and in place when I felt some granules moving about in one of the boxes. I slit it open, thinking one of the cans had been opened and would be no good. I found the bottom of the box lined with dark brown stuff that looked like dirt. After asking Jared, he confirmed it was rust. We noticed on the sides of the cans, there were rust spots, and we thought, yikes, they are starting to rust. I took one can all the way out to assess the damage when I realized it was really, really light-nothing was in it. I flipped it over, and the can had no bottom-it was rusted through all the way. We were shocked, thinking, what in the world got through the rust and ate all those oats? We thought we had rats or something like that.

After further investigation, and much to my gross dismay, we finally realized the truth: the oats had somehow molded to the point of liquefying and then turning into a gas. Nothing ate those oats...they literally molded into noxious fumes. We opened several other boxes to find the same thing. Some of the cans weren't showing signs of rust, but there was some puckering in the metal. I took a knife and lightly pressed the tip onto that spot of metal. The knife sank into it like butter and rust colored slime came oozing out-I kid you not.

All in all, there were 31 boxes of oats in that garage, 6 cans each for a grand total of 186 cans of oat flavored, slimy fumes.

**Update-Jared just told me there were actually 34 boxes for a total of 204 cans of gelatinous oats.

Definitely not how I prefer my oatmeal.

So we moved all said boxes back out of the boys' room, fumigated fabreeze style, and ended the day thoroughly grossed out...and very educated on what happens when certain food storage items are left in a garage in Arizona.

That was our disgusting story of the day.

Tidbits

Just a couple of tidbits I wanted to post about the kiddos real quick...

Sara has been getting SO much better at talking.  She has been in speech therapy at preschool for about 1 month now, and we have just seen so much improvement-it's like she is well aware that she needs to try and speak more clearly.  The other day, Jared overheard the following conversation:

Jordan:  Sara, stop copying me!
Sara:  Sara, stop copying me!
Jordan:  STOP it Sara, I don't like that!
Sara:  STOP it Sara, I don't like that!

Not a big deal, really, but Jared said Sara was enunciating so clearly, and that is just awesome.

Another thing Sara has been doing lately is getting manipulative.  She has figured out that she can try and sneak out of her room at night like the boys...I can't get too frustrated about that, I just feel blessed this didn't happen earlier!  The thing about it is when we ask her why she is out of her room, she'll throw this in our faces:

I just missed you.  OR, I just love you.

What else can I do about that except laugh and smile?

And finally, Sara's bedtime routine right now is so cute.  I'll give her a hug, and she'll immediately say, "More huggies please!"  I'll oblige and then give her a kiss.  She'll say, "More kissies please!"  Of course, I can oblige with that as well!  And then, just for fun, I'll tickle her tummy real quick.  She'll squeal with laughter, and then surprise me by asking, "More tickles, please!"  Special times!

Now, on the James front, I love the little tricks he is pulling out as a brand new 1-year-old:

1. James loves birds, fans, and the moon.  If you ask him where one of those things is, he'll immediately look up, point to the sky (or ceiling) and say, "Whooooooooaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!"  Never fails!
2. James loves to play peek-a-boo with his blankie!  Love it!
3. James likes to try and put his binky into his glow worm's mouth.  I started out doing that a few weeks ago just to be funny, and I busted up laughing the first time I saw James take his binky out of his mouth, pick up his glow worm, and shove it at those painted lips!  Too cute!

On the JD front, it finally happened.  He saw something that he wanted so much, he agreed to sacrifice for it...

JD:  You know what, Dad, I don't care if I get sicky poop or if my tummy hurts all night.  Can't I just have one cookie?  Please?  I can handle it, I don't care if I get sicky poop, I promise!

Not happening JD, sorry bud. I did pick him up a gluten-free brownie when I was at sprouts today though...

Jordan earned his first true blue dollar bill 2 days ago.  Our fridge had a layer of grossness on it and I asked Jordan to just wipe the front down for a quarter with a Lysol wipe. Next thing I know, he's got everything pulled out of the fridge and he's putting all the elbow grease he had into a green scrubber pad and the layer of yellow-flakey-I-don't-know-what-spilled.  30 minutes later, our fridge was spotless.  For a 4-year-old, that was pretty awesome, especially since that job description was unsolicited!  I was so proud of him, and get this-when I gave him his dollar, he asked me to replace it for 4 quarters so he could buy a gumball for himself and for his siblings.  Love that kid!

Karianna is currently singing along to Scooby Doo songs.  She was doing it a capella earlier today and messed up the words. She told me she needed to learn those songs better before trying it again.   Nothing too important about that, other than I thought it was cute!  I wish I had a quicker way to record things Karianna says these days-she is past the cuteness stage that Sara is in of course, it's just that the things she says are so grown up-the questions she asks are so mature and sometimes really set me back.  She officially paid me her 60 dollars to go see Wicked in April, and she had absolutely zero hard feelings about it, which was not the case when she bought her bike a few months ago.  Such a huge accomplishment for her, she is so excited to see it!

Its a New Day

 After staying up till midnight the night before, we started off 2013 together!  And we did something awesomely unique that we've never done before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We went to the zoo.  Okay, so we are boring, but it was fun nonetheless, and I don't care what we do-I just like being together as a family.

We did go to culvers afterward to get yummy ice cream. The kids loved it, and as soon as James tasted my ice cream, he no longer wanted his animal crackers--he was hooked.  Happy New Year!