We have walls!!!

Yay!! I had no idea that they had already progressed so much on our house! Last time our saleslady sent us a pic at the beginning of the month, it was still just dirt! We're really hoping that it'll be complete by the time we move back to AZ on November 1st!!!

Thanks to Matt's sister, Melissa, for driving by our house and taking pictures of the progress for us!! And I'm so jealous of all the rain AZ is getting right now! That's the thing I miss the most about AZ- the monsoon season. *sniff, sniff*

Where the Wild Things Are

Trenda and I have been trying to plan something every Tuesday, just so we can get out of the house. Thursdays are pool days up at Las Palmas, but it seems so far into the week that this helps break things up a bit.

Today a bunch of mommies and kidlets headed to the Santa Ana Zoo! It was me and my three, Trenda, Cade and Ambree, Jessica, Brynlee and Crew, Becky, Jonah and Eli, Michelle and Dylan, Marissa and Malila. It was a tad warm and humid (why did I leave my hair down??), but I think everyone had a good time! I know we did! :) The zoo is a really small one, with no big animals- mostly monkeys with a few others mixed in. They do have a petting zoo and a train ride (we skipped this) as well as a playground area. Everyone packed a lunch and ate on the lawn after we had made the rounds.

Here are a few cute pictures I took today-

Malila, Brynlee, Brooklyn, Blake, CadeWhich came first- the chicken or the egg? Brooklyn, Brynlee and BlakeBrooklyn gets up close and personal with a goat
Blake gives the goat some lovin'
Gavin feeds the goat with some coaxing from Mommy
Washing hands in the troughGavin, Cade, Blake and Brooklyn

How did I spend my day?

I probably shouldn't admit this, but I picked up a book last night before bed, read two chapters then and then finished it today - 302 pages!! Good thing my house was already fairly clean and didn't need much attention today! LOL! Seriously though, it was an really quick and easy read. The chapters were super short and I love that! Makes it way easier for me to read quickly than a book with long chapters. I don't know why?? So that makes SEVEN books read for me in ONE MONTH!! Crazy! Really, contrary to popular belief, I don't just sit on my rear, reading books all day whilst my children run crazy and uninhibited! ;) I'm running out of books (just two left) on my list, so I'm going to have to find some new recommendations!

This book I just finished, Sheep's Clothing, by Josi Kilpack, is about a young teenage girl that is lured by a predator, pretending to be another teen, on the internet. It really made me sit back and think how unsafe the world is "out there," especially on the internet. Anyone can pretend to be someone they are not. Now of course, I'm already freaking out about Brooklyn and Blake in their teenage years!!! Are Matt and I giving them the correct tools to brave the world? Will they be good kids? Make the right choices? I don't want to think about the possibility of my daughter being duped by some sicko person on the internet, yet I know that it happens EVERY day. They've done Dateline show after Dateline show about these psychos. I want to keep my kids in a protective bubble so they don't have to be bombarded with the evils of the world. Satan is trying harder than ever to bring these kids down and it scares the heck out of me!!! Such a great responsibility we have, as parents, to guide Heavenly Father's choice spirits in the right direction. No pressure, right??!

Twice the fun!

What is a twin brother/sister good for?? This is what kept them occupied today! :)



Oh and something funny- Blake has been telling me "Yes, ma'am" all day today! He usually just says, "Yes, Mommy," and I'm not quite sure where the ma'am came from!! So at dinner, I asked him where it came from and he says, matter of factly, "It came from my mouth, mommy!" LOL! Silly boy!

PINK : It's my fav-o-rite color!

Our beautiful PINK temple!!

Friday evening, Matt and I had the opportunity to do a session at the Newport Beach temple. We were there with friends from the ward (also optometry students) and it made it all the more fun! :) This will sound absolutely horrible, but since we've been in California, three years now, we haven't attended a temple in California once!!! We've been back to the Mesa Arizona temple a couple times, but this was the first time that we've attended a California temple. It's always a neat experience visiting the temple, setting aside the cares of the world for a sec to focus on things eternal. It's not always easy or convenient to visit the temple when you have to drive 30 minutes (Newport Beach) or 2 hours (L.A. or San Diego) away from home. Matt and I have been spoiled, growing up less than 10 minutes from the Mesa temple and I guess it's easy to take for granted. So our goal for the next three months before we leave, is to visit a temple at least once a month.

You did WHAT?!?

Our carseats! :)

We were running a little behind this morning, scrambling around trying to get out the door for church. Matt took the kids out to the car and they were waiting for me. I jumped in the car and we were off. We were down the street from the church building and for some reason, I happened to glance in the back seat where all three kids are and noticed that Gavin WASN'T BUCKLED IN!!!!!!!!!! There he was, just bopping up and down in his seat! I freaked out on Matt, because you all KNOW how much of a carseat Nazi I am! Thankfully we avoided any incident on the way to church! Now if it would have been Brooklyn or Blake that we forgot to buckle in, they would have let us know with loud screams that they weren't buckled yet! LOL! I've trained them well! ;)

DONE!!!

My hiatus from blogging is over! We're finally DONE with the last and final Harry Potter book!! Matt and I read the whole thing aloud to each other and it only took us 6 days to finish. Very, very intense! I'm really sad to see the HP story come to an end. J.K. Rowling is an unbelievable story teller! I can't wait to see what they do for the 6th and 7th HP movies!

Harry Potter in the HOUSE!!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

My book 7 is here!!!! I pre-ordered from Amazon and it arrived right on time! I was hoping to reread books 5 and 6 since it's been so long since I read them last, but I barely made it to page 200 in book 5. I hope I can still remember and this book makes sense!

Matt & I read book 6 together, outloud, so we'll be doing the same this time. I'd rather read it myself because I can read a lot faster than I can outloud, but I don't think Matt would sit down and read the book on his own. It's gonna take awhile so I have to be careful not to stumble onto spoilers! This is it! Here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Party on the Potty!

Gavin actually ASKED to sit on the potty tonight!!! Silly boy! He knows the word "potty" and always manages to make his way in the bathroom when someone is using the potty. I was in the bathroom fixing my hair and Gavin came in, tugging on his diaper, saying "Potty, potty!" So I took his diaper off, sat him on the potty (we have a potty seat that sits on the regular potty) and he was happy as can be!! He was sucking his tummy in and pushing it out like he was trying to do something! Then he just played with his man parts for a bit! Although I'm not going to jump on the potty training, I'm hoping it IS easier the second time around! Potty training the twins at the same time just about killed me!!!

Of course I had to document the occasion! ;) Don't worry, no nudity shown!

A Relaxing Day at the Beach

It's been about a month since we've been to the beach, so yesterday, I thought it was about time we went back! Newport was our beach of choice this time. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! A perfect beach day! We had a great time, playing in the water and the sand. I actually took the kids out in the water this time, which is usually Matt's job. This is the farthest I've gotten out in the water since we've been here!! I'm really not a big fan of the ocean. It's cold, it's salty and who knows what's lurking below! *shudder* Toward the end of our time at the beach, we actually saw dolphins out in the ocean!!!! Their fins kept popping up and then we'd see their round backs. It was fun pointing them out to the kids! I wish my camera battery wasn't dead by then- darn it! Of course we managed to get some decent pictures again, but we still have a long way to go before perfection! ;)

Please look past my obesity. I know, it's sick! I'm working on that. That's the reason I'M usually the one behind the camera!

Mommy & Gav

Mommy & Brooklyn playing in the ocean

Blakey takes his truck for a romp through the sand
Gavin collecting seashells
Digging in the sand together
Brooklyn puttin' her toes in the sand

S*M*I*L*E

I had Gavin's 18 month pictures scheduled for yesterday (Wednesday) and when he woke up before 7:00am, my first thought was, "I'm canceling his pictures!" I didn't think it was possible for him not to be tired by 11:00am, the time his appointment was for. So at about 9:30am, I put him down for a nap, hoping that *maybe* he'd get a good hour in before we had to leave. Sure enough, he fell RIGHT to sleep! I ironed his outfit, got myself ready, woke him up at 10:30, got him dressed and out the door we went!

I was a little apprehensive because Gavin wanted NOTHING to do with the whole thing when we had Easter pics taken of all three kids. This time, I had to sit nearby on the floor so he didn't freak out, but I thought he did GREAT, considering I thought we'd be walking out of there with nothing! The photographer (manager) is always very good with the kids anytime we take them in.

These are just from the website, so they aren't the best quality, but it gives you an idea. The last one will go up on the wall! :)

Code Adam

Today while I was shopping in WalMart with Blakey, I heard a mom calling for her child. She kept walking up and down the aisles, calling his name over and over again, louder and more frantic each time. I thought, "Oh gosh, I hope she finds him quickly!" I walked to a different department and I heard a "Code Adam" announcement over the intercom and my heart just sunk! :( This little boy was THREE years old that she was looking for! Tears started to prick my eyes and it just ran through my mind how terrified I'd be if I couldn't find one of my kids. All the WalMart employees were milling around, searching for the boy. Like 3 minutes later (probably seemed like 30 to the mom!), there was an announcement that he had been found and I just felt a wave of relief through my body for that poor mother!! I walked back over to where she was before and she stood holding her boy, tears in her eyes while she talked to an employee. From the conversation, I'm assuming that he hid somewhere. Still- I can't imagine the panic that she must have felt when she discovered her little guy wasn't right with her! I'm just glad everything turned out ok!

I'm really thankful they have Code Adam in place. Heaven forbid that one of my children go missing in a store, at least there are people to help in such an event. I've noticed this sign at many stores I've shopped at- Old Navy, Children's Place, WalMart.

First purchase for the new house!!

I've been casually browsing through bedding sets for all three bedrooms in our new house every time we go somewhere. I had kinda sorta decided on color schemes for Brooklyn's room and the boys' room already, but I found a bedding set for Brooklyn that I fell in love with! I saw it in the store and looked it over, but didn't buy it. I came home and told Matt about it and showed him what it looked like online. I thought about it for a few days and I was STILL thinking how much I liked it today, so I bought it!! It's very girly and cheerful looking! :) I can't wait to actually have a room with a bed to put it on!

First day of nursery and Brooklyn says her scripture!

Well, it's official, I have a nursery-goer again!! Today was Gavin's very first day attending the nursery at church. He walked right in and didn't seem fazed at ALL by the whole ordeal! A little anti-climatic if you ask me! ;) When Matt went to pick him up, that's when the tears began! Weird! It's like Gavin JUST realized that he'd been without his parents for the past two hours! LOL! The ladies assured Matt that Gavin did just fine. I seriously wonder what he thought of us dumping him off in some strange place with some strange people! We'll see how it goes next week. And as promised, I took pictures!!! :) I also had to include his first piece of nursery artwork!! :) ---------->

Last week, Brooklyn got "mail" in Primary, asking her to give the scripture in closing exercises. The scripture, which is the scripture of the month, was actually a small part from the Family Proclamation. We worked with Brooklyn to have her memorize her part and even promised her with a reward if she did it all by herself. So when it came time, she marched right up to the microphone, I prompted her from the audience by mouthing the first word and off she went! She said the whole thing by herself! I think all the leaders were quite impressed! ;) I was practically bawling with joy and Daddy, who was sitting in the back, was beaming with pride! She was a bit proud of herself, too, I think! I made her say it to me after church so I could get it on video.

"Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved
when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Gavin is 18 months old!!

On Friday the 13th!! Gav was also born on a Friday the 13th! :)

Oh my sweet boy! I can't believe that a whole year and a half has flown by so quickly!!! No more baby here! Gavin is incredibly inquisitive and loves to do anything his big brother and sister are doing.

He's still sucking him thumb, but I don't mind. I think it's cute! :) Gavin loves to be outside, just dilly-bopping around- finding rocks, pointing out airplanes, digging in the dirt- such a boy! He does the cutest little dance, and actually requests "keen" (Lightning McQueen in Gavin-speak, meaning the Cars soundtrack) on the stereo! He also loves the beach and the pool and shows absolutely no fear for either!!

Gavin's still an extremely good eater, but it's starting to show a little bit of pickiness. His faves are cheese, yogurt, ANY fruit (strawberries, blueberries, peaches, apples, nectarines, bananas, grapes, cantaloupe), or anything you call a "snack." He still won't touch plain scrambled eggs?

We're officially down to one nap a day now and I have to say I'm enjoying it! We can go out in the mornings to play or run errands, then come home for lunch and naptime. Gavin usually sleeps for 3-4 hours in the afternoon (B&B have quiet time), which gives me a much needed break. Bedtime's at 8:00pm and he typically wakes up for the day between 7:00 and 8:00am.

Gavin hasn't had a haircut yet!! It's finally getting some length in the back, but he has the cutest little curls that I can't bear to snip off yet! The top is long enough to do a little comb-over now. I'm holding off as long as possible on the first haircut!
Words- WOW!!! Gavin is by FAR my most vocal baby! I thought Blake had a large vocabulary by the time he was 18 months old, but I think Gavin surpassed him by a MILE!! He has at LEAST 90 words that I've written down, a couple signs and is starting to put two words together. I swear, all it takes is for him to hear something one time and he's repeating it! Here's the list I have (in random order) and I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting!!

mama/mommy, dada/daddy, "Bake" (Blake), "Bookin" (Brooklyn), "sauce" (applesauce), those, "skeez" (squeeze, as in hug), raisins, glasses, hot, hat, spoon, poke, "bank" (blanket), "dink" (drink), fishie, "nack" (snack), kitty, trash, book, noodles, "sat" (what's that?), food, "pees" (please) & sign, up, down, out, go, off, bath, "wa-wa" (water), "side" (outside), apple, "nana" (banana), "tato" (both tomato and potato), eat, lunch, Elmo, "teins" (Little Einsteins), "kee-coo" (cookie and Cookie Monster), "papa" (grandpa), doggie, cow, touch, watch, bite, no, yes, mine, hello, cheese, car, truck, airplane, train, "keen" (Lightning McQueen), "go go" (yogurt), happy, mouse (Mickey Mouse), "bape" (grapes), get it, amen, ewh, yuck, "boon" (balloon), teeth, eye, nose, toes, feet, sock, shoe, ball, cereal, owie, milk & sign, nap, night night, baby, ball, ice, table, potty, poop, "penah" (penis!!!), bike, all done, "mote" (remote), phone, sink, wash, help, hug, "oofy" (Goofy), pool, hold it, bunny, monkey, AND various names of friends and family!!!!!!! He can also point to his eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, ears, hair, toes, and belly. He makes various animal noises (lion, monkey, duck, dog, cow) if you ask him what they say.

Here's a cute video clip showcasing some of his talking and singing skills, including his rendition of the "Hello Song!" :) The quality is not that great (dark), but I got a lot of great things on here!



I can't believe Gavin will be venturing into nursery on Sunday! :( It doesn't seem like he's old enough for that! I think Matt might suffer from more separation anxiety than Gavin. ;) Matt has really enjoyed being able to take Gavin with him to Sunday School and Priesthood on Sundays. He never got to do that with the twins since he was always a Primary teacher. Check back on Sunday because you KNOW I'll have pictures documenting his first day in nursery!! I'm probably the first mom to ever do that, I'm sure!

I love you Beansie and I'm so glad you're a part of our family!!!!!

Catching the fever!

I have to say that I've become a bit of a Harry Potter fanatic! I kept bugging Matt that I really, REALLY wanted to see the new movie, so last night, we called up a babysitter and went on a date this morning! :) There were all of about 8 people in the theater, including us. LOL! I think we've seen every single HP movie in the theaters now! I guess it's become a bit of a tradition. It's been soooooo long since I've read the 5th book, so I didn't totally remember what happened in the story until we saw the movie. Now I feel like I need to re-read the 5th and 6th books super fast to refresh my memory before the 7th one is released!

Matt & I had a great time out together and stopped for lunch before heading home. It's fun to walk along holding hands and not have to worry about the kids for a sec. :)

A "Wicked" Obsession

I think I have inadvertently forced an obsession on my children!!!!

You see, it all started when I heard that Wicked was coming to LA. I saw commercials on tv, heard advertisements on the radio and I started subtly suggesting to Matt that we should go. I finally convinced him and we bought tickets in November for a show in late February, shortly after it's opening in LA. It was our Christmas present to each other and Matt's parents chipped in too as their present to us. They also gave us the Wicked soundtrack so we could properly prepare ourselves for the actual musical. The first time I listened to it, I thought, "What the heck?" But for about a month or so, I listened to the CD every day so I could become familiar with the music. Pretty soon, I was catching onto the lyrics, and apparently, so were my kids!!

The night we saw Wicked, I was beyond excited. And the moment that first note started, I seriously felt like crying!!! Here it was, the moment I had waited for! That music I had been listening to for a month now was being played right before my very ears! It was seriously an awesome moment!! The whole thing was amazing! I can't wait to go again!

Anyway, sorry, I got a little caught up in the memories! *ahem* Back to the point of this entry. All of a sudden, Blake is yelling "WICKED!" along with the soundtrack. Then Brooklyn is asking who the people singing are and singing right along with them. Then Blake starts asking, "Is this Dr. Dillamond?" and "Is this Dancing 'Froo' Life?" The thing is, I can't actually remember telling them this stuff!!! Is it possible that they'd listened to the soundtrack so many times that they were actually catching my fever?!? And just last night as Brooklyn was helping me shuck corn on the cob for dinner, she asked if we could put on the "wicked witch music" and my 18 month old son is now walking around shouting "WICKED!" right along with the music. I think I should be a bit embarrassed!!

George the Monkey

We made it to another free movie this week! :) Trenda called me up this morning and offered to watch Gavin if I'd take Cade with us. Of course I took her up on that offer - thanks Trenda! We arrived at the theater about 15 minutes before the movie started and there were hardly any seats left!!! We ended up having to sit in the VERY FRONT row. Wowza, that's up close! I don't know how anyone can be comfortable sitting so close to the screen! It didn't seem to bother the kids, though! Brooklyn and Blake have seen "George the Monkey" (as they call it) a few times at our house (we have it recorded on our DVR), but they still sat through the entire movie like they were seeing it for the first time! Cade did very well, too. I think he was a little mesmerized by that BIG screen!

On our last trip to Target, we picked up the Curious George soundtrack. I added it to our mix of playtime music and it's very soothing!

Talk about night and day!!!

Matt has Fridays off so today, we hit the pool again. Brooklyn and Blake have come to rely heavily on their floaties because most of the time, it's just me by myself with the three kids in the pool and let's face it, I don't have eyes in the back of my head! When Matt is with us, we're able to work with Brooklyn and Blake one on one, swimming without their floaties.

Well, today, Brooklyn and Blake made HUGE leaps and bounds!!!! Before we went to the pool, we told them we wouldn't be using floaties at all this time. When we were swimming on the 4th of July, Blake was screaming and panicking if he didn't have his floaties on. Today, he was like a whole different boy! I was able to coax him to "swim" to me from the steps, about 1 foot away from where he was standing. Then I pushed him back to the steps. I took a step back and he swam to me again. Of course we laid on the praise and he was so proud of himself!!! Pretty soon, he was swimming back and forth, back and forth with no problem! At one point, I had to tell him that he has to tell me, "Mom, I'm ready!" so I know he's swimming to me. He was just taking off without anyone ready to get him! He hasn't really figured out how to take a breath and go back down again, but we'll work on that.

Brooklyn was just floating on the steps in the meantime. She's REALLY good at holding her breath for a long time! Matt got her to come out with him and they "sat" on the bottom of the pool together. Then she wanted to do what Blake was doing and so off she went! She still kinda lets her legs sink so she doesn't get as far as Blake does, but she's doing it!

They both were also jumping into the pool all by themselves! Again, on Wednesday, they'd have nothing to do with it. Blake had to be holding someone's hand and Brooklyn would just slide in from the side. I don't know what made the difference today, but it seriously was great watching them swim! :)

Here's a video of my little swimmers!

And we can't leave Gavin out! ;) He is no longer happy sitting in his float, hence the reason Matt was holding him while B&B were swimming back and forth. Gav loves the water too! :)

Cooties!

No, I'm not talking about the kind you can catch from boys! ;)

Today on our trip to Target, I picked up a new game to play with Brooklyn and Blake. They love playing games!! Don't Break the Ice, Hi Ho! Cherry-O, Memory, Candy Land, and Elefun are ones we frequently play. So I bought Cootie. I figured B&B were probably old enough to understand how to play this game now.

So, after quiet time, we broke out the game and played! It was fun, but I lost!! Boohoo! :( Brooklyn won and she was so proud of her bug! She even hugged me!! LOL! After we were done playing, they just played with their cootie bugs for a bit. I think it was a hit!! :)

And what good mother wouldn't take pictures of their child's first time playing Cootie??!? ;)

Brooklyn showing off her bug

Blake and his bug

Mommy just having fun with the camera ;)

PRIDE

Matt and I are big time movie renters. I used to keep a list of dates on our whiteboard of when movies were coming out on DVD!! We have a massive DVD collection, but we've cooled our buying habits and have gone back to renting more frequently.

Tuesday night, we rented Pride. It's based on a true story of a man who ends up coaching a bunch of inner-city kids on a swim team. I have to give the movie two thumbs up! Tears actually welled up in my eyes at one point! Anyway, I just had to put a good word in for this movie if anyone's looking for something new to rent. :)

4th of July ~ 2007

*~*Happy Independence Day!!!!*~*

We started off the morning by attending our stake's annual 4th of July breakfast at a local park. The best part- they serve ice cream at 10:00 in the morning! :) The kids had a great time running around the park, that is, after I forced them to endure a photo shoot!! Haha!!

I can't believe these are my twin babies!!!Everyone looking in the same direction AND smiling???!? I'll take it!!Where did my baby go?Ok, enough of that! ;) I was able to squeeze in a little nap this afternoon (thankfully!), otherwise, I may not have made it through the day!! I prepped most of our dinner and then we headed out to the swimming pool. Since Matt was with us, he was able to practice a little more with Brooklyn and Blake on swimming without floaties. He was a little wild and crazy with them too!

Daddy and Brooklyn under water

Blake swimming toward the wall

Whoa!! Blake sails through the air!Look at me, holding onto the side all by myself like a big boy!And blowing bubbles!!!Back to kicking around the pool with floaties onAfter we swam and got showered up, we had a yummy dinner! Matt grilled some juicy steaks, I made a potato salad and we had corn on the cob and watermelon. Shortly thereafter, we headed up to the "cool place" to watch fireworks. The kids were obviously up way past their bedtime since the show didn't even START until 9:00pm. Matt and I were working on getting the settings right (hopefully) to take some good firework pictures with our new camera. I still have a lot to learn, but we managed to get a few good ones!

Waiting for fireworksOoooooohhhhhh!Aaaahhhhhh!OOOOOOHHHHHHHH!AAAAAHHHHHHHH!

We had a great day today as a family! And it took the kids all of about 30 seconds to fall asleep once they were in bed!!! I'm very thankful for those that sacrificed much in order for us to be able to live in a free country today. This is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave!!

****Anyone want to guess how many pictures we took today??? ;)