Seeing the Sea

Thanks to Mikayla's teacher, who gave us a coupon too good to resist, I was able to take the 2 oldest kids to the Long Beach Aquarium yesterday for the price of only one child. Will lovingly offered to take the baby to work and I resisted at first but was so glad I succumbed. The line to use the elevator was longer than any line I've seen at Disneyland!

We had so much fun looking at all the fish and even got to touch quite a few sea dwellers. Mikayla's personality allows her approximately 2 seconds per tank so, true to Mikayla form, her time per exhibit was a lot shorter than Tyler's. I had to constantly tell her to "stay with us please" to which she said, "aww, but I want to see something else." Here they are, so excited to start the day. Here is Tyler showing Mikayla the fish she couldn't possibly miss...the lovely fish kept the kids entertained by practically suffocating himself when he would breathe air and shoot out a stream of water. Spectacular, I tell ya. It made up for what he lacked in the looks department. These jellies were some of my favorites. I didn't use the flash for this exhibit. However, I did leave the flash on to take some aquatic photos only to see the sign at the end of the tunnel that stated using flash photography is prohibited. Luckily I didn't kill anything with the stunning light from the camera. Then we went to the Lorikeet exhibit. I just have to make mention of the fact that I haven't heard anything quite as loud as a cageful of Lorikeets at feeding time. My ears were ringing from the sound...oh, and I was ducking for cover after getting divebombed by several daredevils in need of a good time. One of the workers, after seeing my discomfort at getting a facial from bird feathers calmly announced in her best Disneyland voice, "don't worry, folks, they're amazing flyers and won't hit you. They just get really close" (chuckling to herself at the ignorant aquarium-goers actually nervous about the flying rockets. I being one of them). Thanks for the post-facial warning. We exited quickly afterward while Mikayla held her ears with her hands.
We then spent a little time climbing on the lifelike animals.
Oh, that crustacean looks a lot like Mikayla!
Here's a fun picture. I was noticing all of the holiday decor around the Aquarium and, after I took a second look at their snowflakes, realized they were made out of 6-pack plastic rings. Pretty creative, and ironic, if you ask me. I'm sure there was a message there.
Speaking of crustaceans, here is one that had to be mentioned due to its incredible ability to give me the chills...in a bad way. Not only does it look like a strange, hinged spider, the gills in the back move back and forth in a wave pattern. It's quite disgusting. It's called a horseshoe crab and it got my award for the least favorite animal to look at.
The touch pools were the highlight, for sure. I loved touching the soft and supple sea anemones. It brought back fond memories of the saltwater fishtank Will used to have...but then it brings back different memories of when one of them died. We'll save that story for a later date. I think even writing about it would make me shudder.
It was nice to be able to just relax with the kids and not worry about what time Lynnea needed to be fed. I did keep wondering what was missing...I kept looking around for the 3rd child who wasn't there. Habits are hard to break.

Simple Things

Christmas with the parents...always so much fun, and so much opening-present-chaos. This year, as with pretty much every year, we spent the morning with Will's side of the family and then, after naptime, headed over to my parent's house to spend time with my family. I don't get to see Cara very often and I hardly ever see Bryan so it was fun hanging out. I think this is, what, Bryan's 4th time holding Lynnea? She tends to like guys better than girls so Bryan was pretty safe-she likes him a lot anyway. And this is the picture I got when I said, "Tyler, take your thumb out of your mouth and smile." I guess Grammie is pretty comfortable. A close-up of my dad and me. I have amazing parents! My parents and sister were very generous in their gift giving and the kids got all kinds of fun, new toys to play with but their biggest surprise came from their grandparents-new bikes!! All 5 of them got new bikes. It went from the smallest, Lynnea's rocking horse/walker, to Austin's teeny bike to Tyler's 12" and then up to Ethan and Mikayla's 16"ers. Wow, dad, I'm so sorry you had to assemble so many things. Although, in a way, I kind of wish I would have been there. I love assembly!! I've become reacquainted with it through my son's legos.

Mikayla on her new Princess Bike. Tyler on his boy bike. I think Austin liked Lynnea's horsie too.
The kids also got a few gifts that will be treasured for always. As most of you know, or have read, my Papa passed away this last year. At his funeral, one of his longtime friends and fellow woodworking pals told my Nana that he wanted to make something special for each and every one of Papa's great grandchildren. Time passed and, before Christmas came, the special gifts reached the hands of my Nana who, in turn, passed them on to Tyler, Lynnea, Ethan, Austin, and my cousin's son, Ryan. They are beautiful, handmade wooden toys that are so lovingly crafted. Here is Tyler's, a grasshopper. This bee is Lynnea's. Since there were only enough toys for the younger kids, my Nana also gave a precious gift to Mikayla. She had found a bowl, made by my Papa a few years before he died. She wanted Mikayla to have it and put some of her precious items inside (sorry, the picture turned by itself). What a gift! Thank you, Nana, for your generosity and your love for your grandchildren and thank you, Alton, for making this Christmas so special knowing that Papa had amazing friends like you. This Christmas was simple, precious and full of family. Even after all of the gift opening, all of the wonderful food and beautiful decorations, reflecting on the best gift of all, Jesus Christ, is the reason we celebrate the season. He is our ultimate provider and Saviour! Merry Christmas!

My Every Day

...and you should have seen the child. It seems like my whole day is cleaning something...or someone. Can anyone else relate?

What a Gift

We had our own little Christmas this morning after we ate some cinnamon rolls from a can and put on the traditional yule-log-on-the-tv. Yes, we could have burned actual fire in our fireplace but there are way too many flammable toys on the hearth. The kids loved all of their toys. Thanks, Uncle Dannie, and Robert and Doug and families for all of the fun gifts. Dannie, as you can see, Lynnea loved her Winnie-the-Pooh. It's similar to her "teddy" which she loves very much. I have a feeling it will be "real" pretty soon (you'll get what I mean if you've read the Velveteen Rabbit). We gave Tyler some Legos and an ornament. One of his favorites was a $2 plastic dinosaur since all he asked for for Christmas was a "bat." Since I couldn't find any, I settled on something with wings that looked ugly-and he loved it! Ah, the simple things in life. Mikayla had wanted a Pocahontas doll from the Disney store. This gift proved to be quite an adventure to acquire. One day while shopping with my mom, I thought I'd hop in to the Disney store, pick up a $5 Disney Barbie of Pocahontas and be done with it. Somehow, in good old Southern California, Pocahontas must be a pretty popular princess because the only dolls they had on the shelves were the blondes and a few Snow Whites, who Mikayla doesn't care for that much. I actually had the Disney lady call the nearest store to see if Pocahontas still graced their shelves which is something I don't often go to the trouble of doing. By the way, the Disney employee really exuded Disney spirit in the extreme of even almost sounding like Snow White. She discovered the coveted toy at another mall about 20 minutes away but also stated that the Pocahontas they found was having a bad hair day. I decided to take my chances that it was "fixable" and drove to get it. Let's just say Pocahontas looked like she'd been experimenting with an electrical outlet. The cashier said it was definitely tameable with the brush so I forked over the $5 for the unlovable doll, got it home, opened it, smoothed out her hair, wrapped it, and, on Christmas day, got the reaction I'd been hoping for...sheer joy! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and experienced the joy only Christ can give!

There are no words...

This Christmas was extra special. Look, even Lynnea thought so!My cousin, Julie, her husband, Bill, and their little baby, Ryan, drove down from Northern California to be with us for a few days before Christmas on their way to Arizona to surprise Bill's mom for Christmas. As I write this, they're probably already there and I am already missing them terribly.

Many memories of Christmas, for me, revolve around cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and grandparents so having Julie here around Christmas was such a blessing, especially after what this year has put her through. I'm still amazed by her optimism and zest for life. What a treasure she is in my life! Her husband is pretty amazing too! Tyler took to him pretty quick and even had a quick "rest" on the blow-up air mattress with Bill, complete with sucking of the thumb and his pal, Lightning. Lynnea found him extremely helpful getting around the house and Bill even walked Lynnea-speed so that she wouldn't fall. However, that still didn't stop the eventual de-pantsing of the small child. She was "blessed" with Mikayla's small hips.Bill and Julie brought with them their adorable miracle, Ryan. Let me just say that I could hardly put this guy down all week. He rivals Tyler when he was 7 months in the heft department and literally felt like a sandbag in your arms. Ryan has such a sweet disposition and piercing, beautiful blue eyes. OK, so he wasn't that nice to mommy and daddy when he stayed up all night one night but look at this guy. Wouldn't you forgive him in a heartbeat! Here he is, all smiles, with daddy.On Christmas Eve, we headed over to my parents for some yummy seafood chowder, singing with Gramps around the piano, and several fun gifts to open (can't wait to taste the salsa, Julie & Bill!). Lynnea let Grammie hold her for a little while. Just wanted to thank you, Bill, for being the official babysitter of the week while Julie and I ran errands and just had time together. That was a huge sacrifice, I know. It was greatly appreciated.

What a Program!

So last night was Mikayla's Christmas program. There were a few things that kind of made me go... OK, I had to include that picture...gross, huh? Ya, that was in the "leftovers" that Will brought home from work. Oh, yes, it was included in the meal like it was actually edible. "Here's your chicken, complete with the head and toes to gnaw on just to remind you what, exactly, you're eating."

On to the program. See, if you live here in sunny SoCal, you might have forgotten about the torrential downpour and resulting puddles that we were so blessed with last night. Yep, thanks God. Perfect timing for an all-school, let's-park-further- away-than-our-house-is, stand-outside because-there's-no-seating, son-jumping-in-all-the-puddles kind of night. So here is a picture of the star and her class. Oh, I didn't tell you, her class sang last...at the end...for the finale...I thought the little kids should have been first but, instead, they tortured all of us kindergarten parents by saving the best for last. We also witnessed the fainting of one of the 3rd grade performers...of course all we heard was the music stop and parents rushing to the front. The poor kid was wheeled out of the auditorium, completely embarrassed and probably vowing never to step foot on a riser ever again.
So, as we stood outside under the cement canopy, listening to the kids sing, my kids provided their own entertainment. Here are some shots of my kids with their dinner, pretzels. My daughter is practicing standing (as always)
and my son, inbetween climbing on the tables and wanting hugs, hams it up for the camera.
Here's a picture of me and Tyler. I had to show off the hat that my talented sister made me.
And here's Will with his baby. All in all it was a fun night-and I continued the night by attending a B1 (adult fellowship class) cookie exchange. Yummy!

Our Third Miracle

Third babies kind of get the raw end of the deal. They're last, they get hand-me-downs, their scrapbooks are lost in the closet somewhere, unfinished, their nap schedules get mixed-up because mommy sacrifices them for errand runs, and their birthday celebrations are short, sweet and to the point. OK, so the last one isn't really true but, unfortunately for my Lynnea, she was born too close to Christmas, along with 1/2 of our friend's kids. Due to the amount of parties we've had to attend, I decided to postpone the party until January.

For now, a few $1 balloons and a cake from Vons were enough to celebrate our little girl's birthday this last weekend.The cake was a little heavy on the butter cream and left us all with a layer of frosting on our tongue but the chocolate shavings on the top were pretty good. That's what you get for $6 at a grocery store.Mikayla and Tyler sang a hearty Happy Birthday to her and she had help blowing out her candle. She also really enjoyed her sugar...not like she hasn't had it already. The third child gets spoiled early.
We gave her a piggy bank with coins since she loves using her hands. Oh, and she wore her namesake shirt on her birthday.Mina gave her this shirt that says "treasured" since her middle name of "Wai-bo" means "great treasure" in Chinese. It was such a special gift from a special friend. She finally fits it and look at how happy she is in it!

So Much To Do, So little time to blog about it.

Well, I haven't been THAT busy but I have been slacking on the chain activities as of late. Let see, we forgot to read a book, we didn't make paper stars (because I was kind of lazy and didn't want to get the paper) and yesterday, we didn't bake anything. This last activity didn't happen because Mikayla was at a friend's house all afternoon and then dinner needed to be done so I decided not to make cookies. Oh, and I was dealing with her "after-friends" attitude all afternoon as well. It's a little hard to have fun when dealing with a girl who'd rather be with friends than family. That's for a whole other blog entry.

My finger is healing pretty nicely. It still hurts and pulls a lot but I thought I'd include a photo (at the end of the entry, for those of you with a hankering to see stitches.

I had to include a shot of Lynnea using a fork. This is a rare sight since it's more work for me to clean up after she uses it than when she just uses her hands. Am I stunting her growth to say that I don't let her use utensils? Is that so wrong?We also attended Hannah and Lauren's birthday party this weekend. It was a fun day filled with snowmen of all shapes and sizes. Mikayla's marshmallow snowman disappeared mysteriously before we even took it home (many tears were shed over this catastrophe) and we were lovingly given parts for a replacement snowman a few days later (thanks Rebekah!). Tyler enjoys the frosting part of the cookie and they loved hanging out with their friends.Will and I also went to a Christmas party for our adult fellowship from church. It was so much fun hanging out with our dear friends while our parents watched the kids so graciously. We feasted on tacos, quesadillas and yummy punch. We also got a picture of the 2 of us which only comes around once in a blue moon. If you look closely, you can see Will's hair...it kind of blends in and it is the shortest it's been in a while.
Oh, and we also actually completed a chain activity this afternoon. "Eat a popsicle while pretending to be in snow" was successful. Yay mom!!Oh, and here's that picture. Scroll no more if you're queasy with stitches.

Playing Around

OK, so the chain for yesterday of reading a book didn't quite happen as expected but I do read to my children, I really do. It just seems that whenever the chain calls for reading, I fail miserably. Today's activity is making stars so I'll post that later. For now, I thought I'd just post some pictures of the kids and mommy, playing around. Unfortunately, mine ended with a trip to the ER but, first to the kids. Tyler's favorite thing to do is roll around on the floor with Lynnea. She loves it, as you can tell. You can also tell the instant that she's done rolling around by the pterodactyl-type yell she emits for all to hear.All three get along pretty well and I actually got them to pose for a picture together.Lynnea is getting pretty mobile and loves climbing, standing and finding things to push around. She felt so proud of herself on this toy-she got up there all by herself.Now, when mommy plays around, sometimes it results in injury, as it did yesterday. I have a few photo purses to finish by Christmas and decided to hurriedly cut out some fabric with my rotary cutter and mat. Now, you really have no idea how often I've done this and been sooo careful. Today, apparently, wasn't one of those days. All I can recall is holding the ruler against the fabric, running the rotary cutter up the side and feeling an odd feeling of cutting through something a little thicker than fabric. At first, I didn't feel or see anything but the blood quickly came. I immediately called my mom who made it to my house in record time, and she drove me to the hospital where I met Will. 4 stitches and a $100 copay later, my finger is throbbing and I will forever have more respect for a brand new rotary blade. Of course, this was the same day as Mikayla's flu episode that had me up until midnight holding a trash can under her face half the night. Ah, when it rains, it pours. Thankfully, we're all home again, Mikayla recovering nicely and my finger is dreading 10 days from now when the stitches get pulled out.

On to making some paper stars!