You're not bored any more!

Ok, moms, admit it, when our kids say, "I'm bored, mommy," your first instinct is to either let them figure out what to do on their own (by usually shoving them outside) or pop a movie into the dvd player. Well, that's what I usually do, although I do read them books a lot too (just had to throw that in there so you'd know I was a relatively good mom).

Today, however, I decided to change the cycle and did something that was so profound, so in the "good mommy" category it made me proud...I went to their room and got out painting supplies! Yes, an activity that involved setup and take down. I did take a deep breath and had second thoughts while attempting to find the paint sets in the mass of crayons and other miscellaneous craft paraphernalia. I'm patting myself on the back as I type this. I don't have to feel guilty today!! I don't have to wish I would have done something creative! I did!! OK, this post makes me sound like I don't do things like this very often. I do...Anyway, I would definitely say that I get out a lot with my kids but I don't stimulate their creativity on a day-to-day basis. Today's painting session got the boredom out of my kids in record time. Lynnea kept smiling for the camera even when I was trying to get an action shot. Her "painting" of Mickey Mouse. She kept switching from using her right hand to using her left hand. Cara, she may be a lefty!!
Tyler with his, "oh-there's-mommy-with-the-camera-again-quick-take-a-picture-I'm-busy" look.

After dinner, I just couldn't stop myself and I got out the Easter Egg kits I bought last year on a killer sale!! I know!! I can't believe I'm this great of a mom either!! No, seriously, I deduced that since my kitchen was already messy, why not go all the way? The kids all had so much fun and the biggest thrill was seeing how many colors they could dip their eggs in and still have it look pretty. It was pretty fun for me too. I love art...if you could call it that. Mikayla loving the "art" of it. All 3 of them in complete concentration.
What a fun night! Easter is such a wonderful holiday. What an honor to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior! We have life in Him!! May we always remember the real meaning of Easter.

To be content...

Contentment is an idea that I've been struggling with as of late. To be content...How do you succeed at being content in a world where the "amount" of everything matters so much? In the past few weeks I've anguished over the comparisons with other moms, families, kids, activities, income. Here are a few of my thoughts.
"Her daughter is in softball AND girl scouts? I can hardly handle girl scouts!
They can afford to buy so many things and put their kids in so many activities. When will my kids realize that they can't do what other kids do because of finances?
She can make money from a hobby she enjoys and have an awesome career? My creative moments come in spurts and my job is not what I'd call a "career."
She's pregnant with #4? Looking back when I get older, am I going to regret not having more?
They go on so many vacations and get so much time together as a family. I wish I didn't have to be gone 2 nights a week and miss out on family time. When do we get a vacation?

What is wrong with me? Where does all of this come from? It certainly doesn't come from a loving God who wants us to be content with all that we have and provides for all of our needs, both physical and emotional.

So the next time I'm sitting at work wondering which part of my degree was needed for doing data entry, or watching as mothers run from sports, to dance, to everything inbetween, I will thank God that He has given me beautiful children, a chance to earn a few extra dollars, and my family and friends...and in the midst of this, I'll remember the truths of this verse...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:11-13

May the God of peace be with you as well!

My Little Man

I was outside with Tyler and Lynnea the other day and thought I'd take some pictures of my little guy. I thank God every day for this precious little boy with his heart of gold. One of his favorite things to do is sit on my lap and watch a movie with me. Each morning, after I get my makeup on and get dressed (some days this doesn't happen, as you all know), he'll tell me, "mommy, you look so pretty today" or "mommy, I like you like that." He's my child who will always be the first to tell me that he loves me, whether I've said it or not.

In the future, I see this little man as a strong husband, father, and friend. I pray that he will know God in an amazing and powerful way, influencing other people for God's glory. He's started off pretty special and I'm excited to watch him grow.
For now, I'm just proud that he can ride his bike with no training wheels, pick up his dishes when he's done with dinner, and give me great big kisses when I need them. I don't want to rush one single minute...

Sharing Cheryl

My cousin loves my kids...but I would dare say my kids love my cousin Cheryl more (ok, so it's very mutual). What I do know is that every time Cheryl comes into town, it brings out the rowdy, sometimes out-of-control side of my kids and they love every song-singing, game-playing, and super- silly minute of her presence. For some reason, it gets a little crazy around when she's here. Here are some examples...Of course, I did get a somewhat normal photo of them looking pleasant for the camera. It was so much fun to see cousin Cheryl, make yummy donuts, go shopping, wake up nice and early, talk into the night, and be renewed by her refreshing spirit. Thanks, cousin Cheryl, for making us a big part of your trip to California!

The Sweet Things in Life

Last week my family had the honor of meeting my future Aunt and cousins when they came down and visited us with my Uncle Dannie. For those of you who are keeping track of these things, my Uncle Dannie lost my Aunt Lynette to cancer a little over 3 years ago and has now found another wonderful woman to share life with. The best part is that she comes with 2 great kids, Joshua and Catelynn. What a joy it was to share in his happiness and be able to meet Kathy and start talking about weddings! It is such a blessing to know that God has a plan for each of us and that our sadness can be turned into great joy. Even though I will forever miss my Aunt Lynette, we welcome Kathy, Joshua, and Catelynn into our family with open arms!
The kids eating at the kid table.
Lynnea took to Kathy after only a few minutes and had to show her numerous items as well as repeat herself over and over again until Auntie Kathy repeated it herself. In order for Lynnea to sit on your lap, you've got to be pretty special...

And then it was on to selling the rest of the Girl Scout Cookies. We camped out by a post office (we found out that it was closed that day) and tried to get rid of who knows how many boxes of cookies. People were so generous and the girls did a great job of selling them that we only ended up with a handful of boxes...some of which I bought for some late-night snacking. Those Do-Si-Do's are pretty good! So are the Samoas, the Tagalongs and the Lemon. I think I'm going to have to hit the gym harder after these past few weeks of cookie consumption.
One of Mikayla's friends, Chelsea, came by to buy a few boxes and show her support. She is a fellow girl scout but from a different troop. Mikayla had so much fun and felt a real sense of accomplishment when the day was done.

Camping at Doheny

This weekend was quite the adventure. My sister and her family, my parents, and my family met down at Doheny State Beach to enjoy a weekend of tent camping (or in my parent's case, camping during the day, hotel stay at night). We had so much fun, as you can see from the slide show.
The one thing I will say that no one warned us about was, if you're going to camp at this particular campsite, be prepared for little to no personal space in camp and get those earplugs out too! Freight trains and Amtrak trains come through here about every 20 minutes. The freight trains preferred the nighttime rails and I and my kids would agree that it sounded just like it was coming through the middle of the tent. All in all, it was beautiful weather, the kids had a blast jumping in the ocean, making smores, playing with their cousins, and eating good camp food and the adults had fun just being together. It will definitely be a tradition to go camping but we'll have to pick somewhere else next year...

Here's one of my favorite photos of the weekend if you don't want to wait for the slide show. My parents had given the kids each their own kites to fly. Mikayla and Tyler loved it!

Friday Night Bowling

Our friends, Aly and Matt, had the great idea of going bowling on Friday night so we joined them for a rousing...ok, so with the kids it was a little slow...game of bowling. After we picked our jaws up off the floor at how expensive a night of bowling was, we vowed to enjoy every last minute, gutter ball, and strike (although, there weren't many). The guys and the kids bowled first, then Aly and I bowled the second game. After a few minutes of no bumpers and gutter balls left and right, we had them raise the rails to make our game more fun. Of course, believe it or not, sometimes the ball missed every pin regardless of the railings!
Matt teaching Cami how to throw the ball. Cami threw the ball the hardest of all the kids and did it the right way. Mikayla had a granny throw because the ball was just too heavy, and my Tyler had what we'd call a running start.
The girls loved the experience and didn't stop jumping or moving the entire night. The energy astounds me...
Here's Aly and me. We waited until the second game to show our prowess at the game of bowling. Unfortunately, I didn't come through but Aly threw a mean 8 pounder and beat us all.
Tyler was quite the bowler. He loved it and cried when we left the bowling alley at 9:45. I think it was partly because he was exhausted but it's so much fun to see the kids enjoy themselves so much.
Time with friends is priceless and we had a great night!

Pretend City

This past week, I joined 2 mom friends of mine and headed out to Pretend City. It was only built about a year ago and is a great place for kids who love to pretend to be "big" and do things that big people do. As a lover of all things miniature, there were certain parts of this place that were so much fun to see. For example, the orchard. In the orchard, you could pick fruits and veggies (pretend, of course) and you could also rake in a garden filled with bark chips and plastic cabbage. I loved the details!! In each place there was a timecard that you stamped when you completed a day's work. The grocery store had a meat counter, a sandwich counter, and a checkout line. The cafe was stocked with tacos, a microwave, and an order clipboard that you could hang on the wall while you completed the order. Everything was pint-sized, just for kids, and Tyler had so much fun. Having his friend, Jackson, there made it even more fun to pretend.Lynnea, picking tomatoes from the garden. By the way, that grass is carpet! It was so cool!
A view from the plumbing/building area of the rest of the city. Jackson, Tyler and Lynnea jumped into the fire truck to put out a raging fire. What a team!
Then we moved on to the beach where they played with sand.
Jenn's reflexes got checked in the doctor's office and everything was normal! My kid's favorite spot was the "channels" near the beach where the water poured from pool to pool. Tyler raced the fish and Lynnea just liked getting wet.
We had a great day, finishing up with a trip to Wendy's. It's always fun to get out with other moms and have some adult conversation while the kids play.

Cake Decorating

I just had to show you my first foray into cake decorating. My friend, Aly, who decorates cakes and has quite a good business, let me come and experiment with decorating 2 cakes for her. One of them was for a friend's baby shower so I wanted to help her out. Now, honestly, I only did the stars, stripes, and bases but it was fun! Thanks, Aly, for letting me help! I think I could really get into this!

She's Got Talent!

This past week was the long-awaited Talent Show at Mikayla's school. I've got to hand it to the troop leaders, Michelle and Adrian, it took a lot of coordinating, time, and creativity to get these 11 girl scouts to get performance-ready. I agreed to make their neckties to contribute somewhat to the endeavor and the girls all chose the song, "Single Ladies" sung by the chipmunks, to perform to. Each girl got to choose a "move" to do during a certain part of the song and the end result was an adorable combination of dancing styles, team energy, and 3 minutes of time thoroughly enjoyed by the parent-filled audience. There were many other "acts" that night as well. Their mouths are blue due to the ring pops that accompanied the singing and dancing.
As always, the parents must choose something to volunteer for throughout the night to make it all work smoothly and I chose the job of "chaperone" in what I would call the "holding tank" of children waiting to perform. Next year, that won't be my first choice. I'll share with you the reason why in a brief moment.

Here's a cute picture of my son and daughter before the show.
OK, on to the reason why I wouldn't choose the "holding tank" again...if you look behind my adorable children there's a large box of what one might call large legos nestled next to the wall, completely ignored by all of the children. That didn't last long. Within a half hour, all 3 boxes of the noisiest, messiest "Legos" were built into an impossibly tall building and then knocked over...and over...and over...I was tolerating the noise level to a certain degree but all of us parents in the room started to get a little irritated after about an hour. Finally, one mom stood up to the madness. "OK, everyone step AWAY from the blocks." One child started going backwards into the building and immediately, the mom's voice raised, "STEP AWAY from the blocks!" After we carefully disassembled the stack of madness, the parents started putting away the blocks. One of the moms said, "hey, why are we putting it away when the kids got it out...story of our lives." It was a very bonding moment. =) For the rest of the night, the blocks were off limits...with very strict reinforcements.
Here's the group of girls before showtime. They're so much fun!