Flower's, Hat's, Gloves and Hot Chocolate!

FLOWER'S, HAT'S, GLOVES AND HOT CHOCOLATE!

Sydney turned 7 years old. I'm not sure how it has happened that I've been a mother now for 7 years as I know I have not aged one single year, ha ha. We celebrated in true Sydney style with a tea party. Being the social butterfly that she is we narrowed the guest list down to 13 girls. I'm telling you that was really hard for her. Sydney said "This was the BEST day of MY LIFE!". I loved it too.

The Birthday Girl coming down to her guests.

A game of Pass the Parcel. 

Hat decorating. Good job Sydney!

Tea Time! 

Eyrn and Lily looking so cute!

Preston even had a "Magic hat" has he called it.

Haley and Konatsu using there best table manners. 

Sydney is such an amazing little girl. She is so thoughtful in all she does and says. She takes her responsibilities as the Big Sister VERY seriously. I have been known to say quite frequently to her that "I am the Mother, I can handle this...". But I really do appreciate all she does for me and how much she loves her sister and brother. She told Todd and the other kids one day that, "Mom should not have to do all the work, and Daddy should start to cook." I don't think we need to go as far as Todd cooking but it made me feel good that she notices that I work hard for everyone. 

More recently she has been talking about getting baptized

 and wants to starting to read The Book of Mormon on her own. I know this is because we have such good friends and teachers at church who are good examples to her and reinforce what we are trying to teach her at home. 

Sydney has sooo many interests right now. It is hard to keep up with it all but I don't want her to miss out on anything. So right now she is playing softball, going to gymnastics classes, musical theater and art classes. She is really good at all of these activities so when softball season started I didn't have the heart to take her out of anything. So far she is thriving and her school work seems to be improving also. 

(Sydney March 17th,  about an hour old. Todd said she was so quiet and awake, checking her Daddy out.)

Sydney's birthday more than any of my other children's birthday's make me reflect on how lucky I am to be a mother. Maybe because she is my first, maybe because I came very close to not being able to raise her and see her grow up.  

When she was only minutes old I had to hand her over to a nurse so I could be taken care of. We thought I would be gone for about an hour or so. I remember the nurse had to use some force to take her from my arms as there was an urgency to get me to the operating room. An uncontrollable urge made me hold her tighter for a minute and look straight into her eyes. I can still see those dark, bright newborn eyes of hers in my mind.  Something in me did not want to hand her over. I didn't know it would be days before I would hold her and weeks before I would see her clearly again. Through those first few hours, days and weeks of bad news I always knew I would be here and I would be the one to raise her. I know how lucky I am and try to never forget what a treasure motherhood is. 

Happy 7th Birthday Sydney.

We love, love, love you!

Diet Coke Update

(Above picture not taken today)

Sunday , "A Day of Rest", well that's what it is supposed to be. But the reality is when you have children ages 7, 5 and 3 there is never any rest. Sunday is no exception. Now that church starts at 11am my children who usually can't get out of bed during the week on there own before 7:30 arise at 6:30 am. We then have a BIG breakfast (trying to fill them up to get through lunch time church), I clean up, get everyone dressed, we eat again, I clean up again and off we go. At this point I have had at least 2 diet cokes. I have been known to go to the store on Saturday just to get a few of these Beauties to get through a Sunday. Then when we get home everyone is tired and hungry and we go through the lunch/dinner, cleaning up, crafting faze of the day. 

Again I'm hitting the Good Stuff. 

This Sunday I had two sick, cranky, not so fun little girls to stay home with. Much harder then the average Sunday I've decided. They have been sick for a couple of day's so they are past the napping and watching t.v. phase of illness.  

At one point I was losing it a little (a lot really) and was getting ready to load the girls in the car, saying the heck with it "who cares if it is the Sabbath, Heavenly Father would totally understand what I'm going through right now", and heading to McDonald's for an XL Diet, extra ice.  

But I Did It!!!  Instead I resisted the temptation and instead sent the girls to separate rooms and read a book for a half hour. I'm feeling pretty good. 

Only 33 day's to go!

Best Week Ever

Todd and I decided to write out what our "Best Week Ever" was and make it happen, NO MATTER WHAT! 

What is the Best Week Ever mean? Well basically it's Todd and I getting in our workouts, dinner's planned, FHE happening and other important things done in a non-rushing, non-hectic manner. Also it includes some FUN, FUN, FUN. Like beach evenings and dates for Todd and I! But the most important part of the BWE is that no matter what we get the things done that are written down. The great thing about writing it all down is that Todd and I are on the same page. We have a schedule together and then if something changes we can help each other out. We are hoping this leads to some good habits and less stress. 

We are starting next week. I did mine this week but had some hiccups. Like Sydney staying home for two day's sick. That can really screw up a mom's personnel schedule. Then preschool carpool went south due to Field Trips and Bella being Unique of the Week hitting us. But I have to say over all it was a good practice run. 

In MY perfect world each day I would be happily working out early in the morning and Todd would be getting kids up. I know that can't happen every day but it did a few mornings this week. See usually if I work out early in the morning I come home and everyone is still sleeping! That means rushing around, maybe a little yelling and STRESS to get Sydney to school by 7:58! Todd really stepped it up this week. He is NOT a morning person.  I got home this week and all the kids were up, beds made and everyone was coming downstairs dress and on schedule. I'm really proud of him because he is NOT a morning kind of guy (did I say that already!). Also it's hard to get Sydney out of bed. Some morning she has to be carried down from the top bunk to get her to start moving for the day!

Next week will be even better because we will be putting both of our BWE schedules together. 

Are you still waiting to find out what that picture at the top of the pages means???? Todd and I have caught the fitness bug at the same time! Todd has started a regular workout schedule and he wanted to stop drinking soda. So in support we are both off soda. I'm a little scared. To make it even better!!! (not really being truthful in that statement)  I'm off sugar again for 5 weeks too. O.k. I'm on day 3 of no sugar and we are on day 2 of no soda so wish us luck.

Quick update- I started writing this post yesterday. Last night Todd and I went out to dinner and neither of us had a coke or dessert. Wow!

 

12 Things I Am To Tired To Do Today....

Today I am to tired to...

1. fight Preston to change out of his P.J.'s today, so I let him wear his footie PJ's with his rain boots because they are the only shoes that will fit over the feet of the PJ's.

2. fold the laundry, so it is in the washer going on it's third wash cycle because if it goes into the drier I will have to deal with it and if I leave it in wet it will get that funky smell. 

3. send Bella upstairs again for a weather appropriate outfit. She will learn that foggy weather does not mean t-shirt and shorts.

4.  do all the dishes from the two and half days without clean tap water. 

5. blog about my amazingly AWESOME life because that would require more than a list.

6.  make a real dinner. So I served the kids breaded chicken from a box, carrot sticks, apple sauce and milk. They were in heaven by the way. I'm starting to wonder why I cook so much.

7. to eat anything other then left-over mango tart. 

8.  make Sydney's Habitat project. So what if she is the ONLY kid in her class with a diorama that looks like a 1st grader actually made it. (I did supervise the use of the hot glue gun not that tired).

9. bath the kids. Sydney ended up giving them baths, I helped.

10. change out of my workout clothing, going on two day's now.

11. drive thru Mc Donalds for an XL diet coke. That say's something.

12. take Sydney to the Doctor for a fever. I'm waiting to see if any other symptoms appear. I usually run to the Doctor when any of the kids have a fever and 90 percent of the time it's a virus. I'll be wrong this time for sure because I'm playing the odds. 

 

Getting that off my chest makes me feel good enough to go up and tackle that laundry, maybe.

Road Trip!

(Had to slip in this picture of Todd. He found this stylish "Daniel Boone" hat 

in a gas station in the middle of ?? and had to have it.)

Road trips always create memories, there's no doubt about that.  Driving to Utah and back with 3 small kids is always a little unpredictable.  At the end of the day, it was "mission accomplished" for our full agenda:  Drive round trip in 4 days, take kids skiing (despite blizzard conditions and a 2-wheel drive mini-van) , stay with Grandpa Ray in Las Vegas, visit Grandma Libby, Uncle Nate, sleep-over at Aunt Gena's with all the cousins, Lunch with Great-Grandma Wilson, Todd's cousins and aunt Susie (and anybody other family/friends we can squeeze in) and build a snowman (or a snow bunny in our case).  

Oh yeah, somewhere there's a "relax and enjoy our  vacation" in there.  Are we the only ones that feel more tired after a vacation than we do before going?!  

Tumbleweed in the grill - a badge of honor for any true road trip.

You can't do this in San Diego!

(carrot bunny ears? It's all about imagination, right?)

Preston pitching in...and Sydney finishing the job.

Rule #1 - Make a snowball bigger than yourself 

(just don't let go of that thing Pres!)

  

Our snow angel (Bella) and Sydney looking like a pro with Paige.

Preston loving snowballs of any shape and size.

Catch up time

Here are a few photos to catch up on the latest and greatest around our busy household.  

Fun in the February rain!

 (It's not always sunny in San Diego, just most of the time!)

Woohoooo!  It's Friday night "Movie Night"!

(And raid Dad's closet night...)

Crazy hair day at Torrey Hills

Preston got into the act at home with his mohawk.

We love our baby crib, but we've all graduated to "big kid beds"!

(It's been with us since Sydney was born in NYC)

Preston getting comfy with all the new space - plenty of room for all the friends.

Have  you heard the news? Red Mango has opened up at the Del Mar Highlands! I found out during sacrament meeting via text message (thank you M). Funny this should come up on the first Sunday of the Month. 

Lunch anyone, say Tuesday noon-ish?

(Purely for research purposes)