The haze in my brain

oh, wait - it's not the haze in my brain -- it's the haze in the air!! With all these fires we have been stuck in the house most of the week -- I just don't think Oliver should be exposed to all the soot and grime . . so we've been working on Ezra's potty training -- sort of just taking it day by day, letting him get the feel for the way his body works . . . I won't give you the details but he really likes his "CARS underwears." We also moved him to his "big boy bed" in Reia's room and found out that he has a consistant wake time of 2AM which falls (nicely) right between my bed time (which is too late) and Oliver's early morning feeding of 4AM - so I'm feeling even more sleep deprived than normal (and my children are feeling it too . . .pray for them). Despite that (forced smile here) we have been productive this week. Aurelia's been working on sewing a blanket for her baby doll:

and has acutally gotten pretty good at sewing nice little stitches if I draw a line for her to follow. I take out all the crooked ones - just like "Ma" in the Little House on the Prairie books.I'vebeen working on a quilt too -- for Oliver -- from the fabric I had in my box. I just have to put the top and bottom together and edge it and he'll be all set.

My "victory garden" is starting to produce. My radishes are quite spicy!

Another good way to kill time indoors is to jump in the jumpy house -- my $.99 ebay find (plus shipping and handling).

Ezra's been using new words like "am" which is pretty exciting in the world of language. He said to me today "I am awake now" -- where as he used to say "I awake now" and some kids say "I is awake" . . .so that's kind of cool. It just makes him sound more grown upthough *sigh* . . .Oliver's been smiling a lot more this week -- he's at a nice hefty 17 pounds now -- WOW! and wearing his six month clothes already! (for those of us who are counting, he turns three months on Tuesday). Sadly -- the only photos I thought to take of him this last week or so have been when he's sleeping.He's pretty cute!!

So that's life around here. Over and out!

Swimming Good Times

I just wanted to post some photos of the fun we had at Rudy and Kris' "Every Second Friday" party. Every Second Friday they generously open their house and pool and let people come by as they please to swim and visit. They bbq in the evening and everyone else brings sides. We always have a great time. This time Ezra fell in the deep end when his chair was too close to the pool and tipped. He was only worried about losing his hat : ) Oliver slept through most of the evening (4PM - 9PM) and Aurelia swam and played with her friend Teaghan.

Here's my handsome hubby : )

Week of What?

I don't have photos today - I can't get them onto my PC from the memory card and my camera is with a friend who borrowed it to commemorate the "Survivor's Walk" on Saturday at the Relay for Life of a good friend's mom who has bone cancer. "Grandma" Shelley is looking really well - lots of smiles - and is getting around really well for somone who should be in a lot of pain. Her cancer is growing and she'll be starting another round of chemo soon, but she was feeling up to walking and that needed to be photographed.

I know a lot of people have been "touched" by cancer and I'm sure you do too - so, please say a prayer today for Jason's cousin Melissa's one year old daughter, Mackenzie, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. It looks like she's going to have to have surgery flanked by chemo treatments. Please pray for her family and for that sweet baby girl as they walk this terrible walk.

Love the people you have while you have them and make each day sweeter. Get to know Jesus and find joy in His love -- if you don't know Him, comment to me and I'll get back to you - I'd love to introduce you to Him -- and for family and friends who do know Him - make sure the people you love know Him too!!

I plan to post photos later on this week so check back then!

Have a good one!

For Uncle Mikey - Happy Father's Day!

Aurelia found the curtain rod while we were painting and felt that it looked like Maleficent's staff (from Sleeping Beauty) -- hence, the monologue.

New Friends and Happy Dads

Happy Father's Day! I wanted to do some special things for Jason this year - so we bought t-shirts from Michael's and wrote things like "My Dad Rocks!" and "My Dad is the Best!" and "I Love My Dad!" so the kids could wear them to church this morning and surprise Jason. They made him little cards and we made up a song to sing to him (but I'm the only one who really ended up singing the song). We wanted to make him breakfast in bed, but we're out of eggs, flour, and jelly. So - we made him toast - but he was already out of bed. When Aurelia woke up she was so bummed that he was already up. She asked me "did we already make him breakfast?" because she thought she had slept in "so late." It was only 7:15!

Other news this week - some doggie friends from the neighborhood came to visit. Our front door was open to let in the cool air while we ate lunch and two goofy dogs came sniffing around so the kids ate outside and visited for a while. Ezra really liked the black and white dog. The next day they wanted to leave the door open again for the dogs, but the dogs didn't come back - so sad.

I got some great grins from Oliver He's such a sweet little heifer. He's in the 90th percentile for height at 24 1/2 inches and in the 95th percentile for weight at 15.5 official pounds. Yowza! He's sleeping better through the night for me at almost 6-7 hours at a stretch between his nine o'clock meal and his early morning meal so if I could just get to bed early I'd be in good shape!

Mima took us to Chuck E Cheese's (it's so close!) for a "goodbye" party. She leaves Monday for Montana (*waaaahhh*) so we'll be without for a month. Ezra enjoyed his candy prize and Aurelia picked out a hook and some pirate treasure with her tickets. We've been watching Peter Pan lately and making a lot of treasure maps so these prizes worked out great for us.

We stayed cool by misting the trampoline and other than that - we're just trying to stay busy and happy -- you do the same!

Paint fumes clogging my brain

Yup - we painted this week - wait, we? I meant me. I painted Aurelia/Ezra's room this week in anticipation of moving Ezra and Aurelia in together and putting Oliver in his own room. Jason brings home so much paint that can't be dumped in liquid state that I had many color options -- well, not really. I wanted some kid colors and the blue I picked turned out to be a greyish/black - but Ezra said that it's "beautiful" and Aurelia liked it to so we went with it. Then I painted a purple stripe above to make it a little less "gothic." We had to paint over the princess but since no one (except me) was much attached to her, she went under. It took about three days since I could only paint during naps while Ezra was not around. Aurelia helped paint a bit too and feels pride at her work on her room. We rearranged too, to fit Ezra's toddler bed in. A & E slept in E's room while I painted and they had much fun talking and laughing for at least an hour before sleeping each night - it was fun to listen to them interact in that way.

What else? We had "Daddy Mark" over for dinner on Tuesday and he brought presents for the kids. Here's Aurelia with the crafts she made with her new cutting system.

And . . . here are pictures of Aurelia during the time she spent with Grama Sama and Uncle Richie on Saturday while I was at a MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) planning meeting. Ezra spent the day sucessfully with my friend, Lindsey's husband and daughter, Josh and Madelyn - I hope I spelled that right) and Aurelia spent the day with my Aunt and Uncle. They got BLUE slurpies, fed the geese and collected feathers! So much fun!

Here's Oliver. He's up to 15.5 pounds now - getting hefty. Ezra's at 25.5 and Aurelia's at 35. Almost ten pounds off from each other. Weird.

Ezra's new skill nose picking.

So that's pretty much it : )

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a great week, ya'll! We had a fun BBQ on Monday with family and friends - we ate good, played in the sprinklers, jumped on the trampoline and rested much! Jason had Tuesday off so we got to hang out with "daddy" and run some errands. Friday was my birthday and I got so many calls and songs and some presents and one FANTASTIC letter from one of my bestest friends which totally made my day *thanks, Erin!!* so I felt super special and loved. Mostly, it was unexpected (all the love) so that's what made it an extra special day. Plus, Jason quit work early and came home with TWO bouquets of flowers, and got dressed up, and took us all out to dinner (can you say "chila quiles" from Los 3 Amigos? YUM!) Saturday, Aurelia, Mima and I went to the Walnut Creek Rep's ballet of Sleeping Beauty. It was interesting to see how involved Aurelia got with the music and dancing. She just couldn't keep still! Ezra spent the day (by himself -- a first!!) with Aunt Kitty, Uncle Dusty, Lily and Isaac -- and he did REALLY well! He actually took a nap! Whoa! Which is good news because next weekend is the MOPs planning retreat and he'll be spending one day without Aurelia at a friend's house. anywho - that's the long and the short of it. Here're the photos!

Aunty Becky showing off her "moves" on the trampoline

Jason and gramps talking

Ezra, Lily and Aurelia having "high times"

Aunty Kitty and Isaac

Gramps and the newest "monster"

Oliver putting on the charms

My birthday roses

Mima and Reia checking out the program

And they lived happily ever after . . .