Kyle, Kyle, Kyle!

While sweet as can be, Kyle has a mind of his own and stops at nothing to get where he wants to go.  He has a battle scar to show for it, his first black eye.  We are actually surprised that this is the first mishap because while he is very graceful at climbing, he is a bit clumsy on his feet at the moment.  This incident occurred after simply stumbling over his own two feet and hitting the edge of a bin that holds blankets of all things!  Poor guy... 

At least our bodies heal!

He looks kind of proud of this battle scar...

Sewing for fun...

Some of my best memories of visiting my grandmother as a kid, was sewing with her.  She allowed us to use any of her scraps and her machine to make doll clothes, little quilts & pillow covers.  While I never 'learned' to sew, I gained an appreciation for it.  Having my own kids has inspired me to learn how to sew so that I can make them stuff, fix their stuff and just get creative to turn old clothes into 'new ones'. 

My friend recently came across a sewing machine at an estate sale, so I bought it and finally (several weeks later) I decided to 'play around' with it...  The inspiration for this attempt at a creation is from a clothing catalog that I recently came across- mini Boden...  So cute but a bit to costly for me.  Josh is really into octopuses so I jumped at the chance to make him a shirt with one on it, but I guess I wasn't thinking clearly as this was my first 'real' sewing project and do you know how difficult it is to get around all eight legs of that creature?!  Well, in the end he liked it and it gave me some good practice!  Better luck to me next time :). 

I cut out a template of an octopus out of paper, found an old stained up outgrown outfit from one of the kids and pulled out a white undershirt from Josh's drawer.

I cut the fabric octopus out and applied it to the shirt with fabric glue.

I ironed it on to seal the glue...

Then the fun frustration began at the sewing machine!

It is all sewn on, but don't look too closely!  The jagged edges will give it a rugged look after it is washed.

I added buttons for the eyes and all done!  This is J pretending to be an octopus.

He doesn't care about all the imperfections in it, he knows it was made from the heart and its an OCTOPUS!

I am actually taking a sewing class in the morning to make a toddler sized bib, I am very excited to 'learn' the proper ways to sewing! 

Baby Steps- Jacob 11 months

Eleven months old and off to see the world!  It is hard to believe that in less than a month this little guy will be a year old.  Jakey finds a way to delight us everyday, he is definitely a charmer.  Even his brothers can sense his charm... Everyone gets excited to hear Jakey wake up from his nap because he is so happy, it has turned into a race on who can be the first to see him and receive that big smile as a prize.  I am holding on tightly to the moments that he sits and cuddles with me, I know they are short lived now that he can walk! 

Pondering at a new eye level...

lift the leg and pivot the hip

Keeping a hold of my balance

Spotting something I want...

Yay, I am really moving!

Oh, no I fell!

It is still easier to just crawl where I want to go!

I am pretty happy about my new skill!

Fun photo contest

Do you guys remember this picture from our stay at the River House? 

Her parents entered several pictures of her into a Parents Magazine cover picture contest and this one was selected as a Weekly Reader’s Choice Finalist.  The picture with the most votes this week will make it to the semi final round and the winner of that round will win a trip to NY for a cover page picture shoot.  She would totally ham up a photo shoot if selected :)... Please help them win!  You can vote once a day until this coming Sunday (6/27/10).  Just click here.  There is nothing to sign up for, you just click vote and then verify your entry with a unique word or phase that they give you... simple and sweet just like little Marissa!

Father's Day fun...

Happy Father's Day to all those special dads out there!  It was a good day to thank our dads for all the love and providing that they gave us growing up and still continue to do!  The meaning has become even deeper each year that Mike has been a dad... I have seen first hand how deep the Love of a father is!  As a kid, I just expected my dad to love me (because he did), I didn't realize how deep that love ran and how hard he worked to make our upbringing the best he could!  I see it now through Mike... He would do anything for our kids and works so hard to provide and protect his whole family.  Thank you dear and thank you dad, I hope you had a good day!

Now for the fun stuff... Mike, his dad and Josh spent the afternoon golfing and while I was not there to capture any pictures from this outing, I did catch some a few weeks ago:

Using a driver

One of the best parts was riding in the golf cart with grandpa!

Watching and learning

Good first attempt at putting by himself!

Daddy will show him how to hold the club!

Yay!  I think he might have made that one in the hole!

I even got to try my hand at golfing... We won't talk about how that went!

For my dad, we went in with my mom to get my dad a new chair and ottoman. His new job requires upwards of walking 10 miles a day, so this is a great place to rest his feet afterwards!

The boys like sitting with him in it too!

Ice POPS

The heat is on around here so do you want to know our cool down solution?... Ice Pops!  It takes the kids awhile to eat them, so I just send them outside and serve them up while I am doing my chores or cooking dinner.  You can add what ever you want to them (fruits, yogurt, juices, veggies, ground up flax seed...).  A very fun and healthy way to cool down. 

You start by lining up your little paper cups and cutting banana pieces to fit nicely into them

My little helper puts pop sticks into the bananas to make them them stay put... It turned out to be a great way for him to work on fine motor skills.

Put the other ingredients in the blender or just pour juice directly on top of bananas... This time we blended up blueberries, plain yogurt, OJ & ground flax seed, but you can do anything you like.

Pour the mixture into the cups and they are ready for the freezer.

A few hours later they are ready to eat and bring smiles (shhhhh, they don't know how healthy they are!).

 

Beware, these particular ones are quite messy :)!

Bedroom camp out

Our little rock climber is at it again!  He climbs on anything and everything he can figure out.  He has been climbing out of his crib for quite some time but this past week it got out of control!  He wouldn't go to sleep, he would just climb out to come see us, play with his toys or climb into his roommate's (Jacob's) crib to wake him up and play.  With our stern face and voice we would quickly send him back to his bed to go to sleep, but it just wasn't working.  He was keeping us up until 11PM and would be in our room sometimes in the middle of the night and always bright and early before the sun came up.  Needless to say, our whole house was losing sleep over this matter and something needed to be done!  We didn't think he was ready for a big bed yet (as he won't even stay in a crib), so it seemed that one of the only other options is this great invention called a crib tent (and lucky for us, we had a friend who offered it to us since her kidos had outgrown it):

We tried to make it as exciting as possible telling him that he has his very own tent in his bed and it worked pretty well.  Initially he protested it, but over the week he has come to accept it and even enjoys it. I think it gives him some security.  

The Milk man is back...

Guess what I found on my front porch yesterday afternoon?  This cooler box:

I suppose it would be kinda creepy to open a cooler that happened to be left on your front porch, but I ordered this particular one, so I was excited to see it.  It is called a harvest box and after going to their website periodically this past year, I finally decided to try it out.  It came from a farm called Los Poblanos Organics and they offer fresh local produce and other grocery items to people in our area.  You can go to the farm to pick up your box (which I plan to do someday when it is not so hectic to get out) or they will deliver (for free!).  I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but I had heard good things about them so I gave it a try...

This is what was inside this week (it changes each week):  lettuce, cucumbers, summer squash, chard, carrots, strawberries, peaches, mint, nectarines, avocados... I also added on local milk, sweet potatoes & cauliflower to get free shipping.

I can see this working out nicely, I can stock up on pantry items and have my dairy and produce items delivered weekly to my door. For the convenience and because it is organic and most of it was grown locally, I think it was a pretty good deal.  I need to find a few recipes to cook with chard & mint, if you know any good ones send them my way!

Lunch with the girls

These are most of the lovely ladies that we get together with and have play dates and other activities.  The only thing missing here is all the KIDS!  In case you are wondering, we did this on purpose.  A few months ago we started playing with dates that would work with everyone and here we are enjoying each other's company!  The only one missing here is E, who was excused because her family got last minute tickets to see the Lakers play the Suns :)!  We got to catch up, eat in peace & enjoy the nice weather.  The funny thing is that most of our conversations revolved around our kids :), you can tell we are moms! 

You probably thought that I was going to have a post that didn't include the kids, but I guess I can't... That same week we happened to have a playdate at our house.  Here are most of the twelve kids that came over to play:

Frazzled Family

This is an ongoing thing lately... Most of our family pictures look something like this:

This was the end to a long weekend.  At the moment, we all seem to really enjoy Mondays the best because we get back to normal routines and then as the 'normal' week progresses, we look forward to the weekends to spend as a family.  But for some reason at the end of the weekend we are all frazzled?!  I guess that is the life cycle of a family with young kids...

God must have a big plan for us because imagine this frazzled family with another baby squished in there somewhere.  It is the truth, we are going to have another suprise baby :)!  What a blessing it is to have children and tend to their every need and help them grow in Christ!  They are little miracles and we could not be happier to have another one on the way... It will just make our weekends a little more exciting and frazzled, but that is part of our job description as parents! 

Backyard Baseball

Just about every pleasant evening has been spent with Josh and Mike playing baseball in the backyard.  They are a great team... Josh loves to hit the balls and Mike could throw pitches all night.  J actually hit 15-20 balls into the neighbors yard (home runs as they like to call them), but before us being able to get ahold of the neighbors to get our balls back, they threw the balls to another yard that has kids too... bummer!

J takes his swing very seriously!

In his hitting stance waiting for the ball

Here it comes, keep your eye on the ball!

I'm ready for another one

This one is out of the field for sure!

Little J likes to play too!

Gardens & Aquarium

This time of the year is one of my favorites to visit the Bio Park!  The roses are in full bloom and smell fantastic.  The Heritage farm has their elaborate veggie garden growing and the shady walkways are so freshly made up of new annuals!  While those might be some of my favorite parts of the park, I once again failed to take any pictures of those things... This is what I did get-

The 'Big kids' crossing the creek without their shoes on in the Japanese gardens

Waving bye, bye to the train

Look at all those babies among my two friends and I!  They look tired and bored, things are so limited from a stroller!

Kyle was soooo happy to get out the stroller and sooo proud to climb on top of this giant radish!

Watching the fish at the aquarium

K was fascinated with the sharks

It was a great trip!