First Day of Kindergarten

Today one big boy went to kindergarten, excited and happy to start a new chapter in his life. Today one Mommy cried (behind her sunglasses so the big boy wouldn't see) as she sent her child off to begin the day.
I didn't think I would be very emotional about today but I was wrong. I certainly think he is more than ready for this new adventure. I knew this day was coming for a long time. I have been counting down the days. :) But there was something about sending my firstborn child to the big scary world that just made me cry this morning. All the way there I was questioning whether I have done enough to teach him correct principles. Have I taught him how to protect himself, stand up for himself, be kind and do the right thing regardless of the situation????? I guess we'll find out soon enough. I've got to end this post because it's pick up time now.

He's come a long way.

Outsmarted by a 3 year old

Every day I wake up and wonder what Julia will do to outsmart me. Let's give a brief rundown of some of her antics from the last 2-3 weeks. Lipstick all over the wall

Lipstick all over the face

Paint all over the hands and legs and floor

(no pictures for the following)

Nail polish all over the closet door

Nail polish on her toe nails, belly button and chest

Sharpie marker drawn all over several pages of the English/Portuguese Dictionary

Attempted murder of Cole by pushing/shoving him into the hot tub while Mommy was in the pool.

Mascara all over the bathroom mirror

Petals off the majority of flowers in the front yard

Crayon drawn all over the carpet. (we have a low pill carpet that shows everything)

Ballpoint pen all over my Bible

I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

"Relocation" of various earrings and sewing supplies. New location of many of these items still to be determined.

It's a good thing she is so cute!!! I don't remember Blake being this "clever" at 3. And here she is asleep after another day of "work".

Cousin Mania

Last Saturday we went to Legoland. We traded Cole for Jonathon and brought Jeffrey down with us because we knew he would have fun with Jonathon. Then we traded Lucy for Blake. It was rather comical to me that our minivan was full of kids that weren't mine. Here I am with 3 nieces and nephews from 3 different siblings and one child of my own. It is really important for me to have a good relationship with all of my siblings' children so it has been especially fun having Andy and Amy in town this summer and having the opportunity to get to know their kids better. Digging for bones. The "cool" cousin boys who pretended that they weren't having fun at such a kiddy place.

The cousins who exclaimed 50 million times how much fun they were having. Blake loves Ethan.

Julia driving. Please note how awesome her mullet is getting.

The train

Bob the Builder and Blake.

It's a good thing Carol's friend is a plastic surgeon

No that's not a caterpillar crawling on his head.

This weekend we went down to San Diego to visit my sister Carol and her family and to go to Legoland. Cole was going to stay home with Carol while the rest of us enjoyed Legoland. Literally 5 minutes before we walked out the door, Cole tripped and fell right on the marble step leading from her family room to her kitchen. Carol took one look at the gash in his head and realized that he was going to need stitches. 20 minutes later Cole was laying on the kitchen table of a very kind plastic surgeon getting all fixed up. In no time at all Cole was back at the house again and we were off to Legoland. It could have been a horrible 8 hour wait in the ER which would have ruined the whole day but instead it took just a few minutes. Thanks Carol for knowing a great plastic surgeon.

Just call him Scarface. The girls will love it!!!!!

Angry

A little gem from the judge who today overruled the voice of the people in my state.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker. "Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage; marriage under law is a union of equals."

Really? Seriously? Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage????

Here's a thought. Why don't we all just become genderless? Since marriage forms the bedrock of society and apparently gender no longer fits in this equation then gender should also not fit into the equation of society as a whole. So let's just chop off all differing body parts and become one great big genderless people who all dress, think, talk, and look the same. We can all be genderless drones.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Birthing Blake finally met its match.

Strong Man Mike showing off his giant arms.

One of many lakes

We finally made it!!!! Tired Mike and Tiffany

The view from the top
The end. Happy, dirty and tired campers.

This week we were supposed to accompany our friend Tiffany on a trip to Havasupai in the grand canyon. We were packed and ready to go for our 3 day adventure when we got the news that our reservation had been cancelled due to flooding. This was very upsetting because we had spent hours packing and preparing and had a place for our kids to go. So Mike suggested that we hike Mt. Whitney instead. He had just gone 2 weeks before with some friends and loved it so we thought we would give it a try. We were hoping to be lucky enough to get a permit at the visitor's center from the unclaimed pile. Luckily we got a permit and I was so happy that I literally jumped for joy.

We spent the first day hiking up 4 miles with our heavy backpacks on. (ok so Mike's was heavy, mine not so much) We set up camp and spent the night next to a huge waterfall. On Wednesday morning we arose bright and early and by 7:30am we were off with our little day packs. We hiked up 7 more miles to the summit and by the time we arrived I nearly cried because I had such a mixed set of emotions....excitement, exhaustion, satisfaction, fatigue.......etc etc. There is a little log book that you sign at the summit and people write comments such as "wow I did it". The only thing I could think of writing was "that was harder than giving birth to my 10lb baby with no drugs." And that's what I wrote. Seriously. Ever since Blake's extremely difficult labor and delivery, when I am doing something physically challenging such as running a half marathon (or beating those stupid boys in my leg of the Ragnar relay race) I always repeat silently, "you can do this Amy, if you birthed Blake you can do anything." So from now on when I am doing something hard I will remember Mt. Whitney (the highest mountain in the continental united states 14,497 ft.) and remind myself that if I can do that I can do anything. Apparently I am as awesome as a 12 year old boy scout now since this seems to be a favorite hike amongst that crew.

Oh we had fun. It was so much fun. It was hard but fun. I really could not have done it without Mike's encouragement and support. I know this is so cheesy but I feel like I can do anything with him at my side. He just makes everything easy. He was positive the entire time. And we were so glad that Tiffany came too. What could be better than being out in nature with 2 of my favorite people on earth.

One more note. I was amazed by the sheer beauty of it all. There were several breathtaking lakes, meadows, flowers, pine trees and waterfalls along the way.

I did it Mom!!!!

Target Dress

I have 2 distinct memories of shopping with my mom for clothes as a child.
1) She always wanted to buy me clothes that were "my color". She determined I was an "autumn" which meant I looked good in golden yellows, greens, browns, you know fall type colors. To this day I stay away from anything black because she used to tell me that black did NOT look good on me. (I buy every other color though- sorry mom)

2) Many times I would hold an item of clothing up to show her and she would say something like, "$20!!! We can make that for a lot cheaper than that." I found that especially irritating as a child because I wasn't particularly interested in sewing and didn't want to invest the time or energy in imitating something.
Well fast forward several years. Now I am the mother shopping for my daughter. I don't allow myself to buy Julia any dresses because she has a TON that i make for her. I don't care about buying things in her "color". But Mom won on the sewing thing. She successfully indoctrinated me with it. Every time I pull something out at the store I always think, hmmmmm I could make that for a lot cheaper. But then I put the item back and forget about it. Well a few weeks ago I was shopping at Target and ran across a darling dress for Julia. I knew I couldn't break the no dress buying rule but I really wanted the dress. There was also no way I was going to plunk down $10 for it. Too cheap for that. So I devised a plan. I bought the dress. I took it home. I studied out the style. I laid it out on newspaper and traced it. I took this pattern and made a knock off. I did it. I sewed something without using a store bought pattern. I don't have good spatial-visual skills so this was a very scary project for me. Figuring out how to sew it was the easy part. Creating the pattern was the more difficult part. If only I would have taken some pattern drafting classes in college.

And then I took the dress back to Target and got my 10 bucks back. (did I commit design theft?) Thanks for inspiring me Target.

My version-(sorry it's a little wrinkled)