Allie Finally Came to Visit

Yep, after almost a year and a half my sister finally came from Ohio for a visit! We were so excited!
I had so much fun with her. This is her first visit that I haven't been pregnant or breast feeding in more than 5 years. That meant that we weren't restrained by feeding/nap schedules or pregnancy fatigue, nausea, crankiness, etc. It made for a great visit.
We got pedicures!
Watched movies - kid movies, but still fun.
Went shopping and bought matching shoes! Not for the sake of having matching shoes (we're not 6 anymore), we just fell in love with the same pair.

We stayed up late talking.
Ate junk food. (Bye bye diet!)
And we made Cake Pops!

Lots, and lots of Cake Pops! Yum!

Oh ya, the kids were there too! They had as much fun as I did!

They watched new movies, care of Auntie Allie. (By the way Tangled is so cute!)

Wrestled!

Gave lots of Loves! (This was the first time she'd met Cameron.)

Played together outside.

Showed her all of the tricks they do on their bikes.

Posed for pictures.

Snuggled.

Tickled.

Laughed.

Played Hide and Seek.

Drew with sidewalk chalk.

Blew bubbles.

Ate Ice cream.

Allie gave most of the weeks baths!

And of course read tons of books! Allie brought each of the kids some new ones.

It was a GREAT week. We love you Auntie Allie. Can't wait to see you again!

Mother's Day 2011 - Carter's Gift

Mother's Day was wonderful this year. Nothing fancy just a nice relaxing Sunday.
It was nice and relaxing because I didn't have to feel guilty about not doing a single load of laundry or dishes or anything else that I didn't want to do.
After Gregg and Carter made me breakfast (bacon and biscuits & gravy) I spent the morning playing with my camera while Gregg took charge of the boys. Awesome!
Later Matt, Mandy and their brood came over for a little Mother's Day BBQ. Mandy and I got to hang out and visit, (and feed babies of course - Mandy has 5 month old triplets,) while Gregg and Matt took care of dinner and the older kids.
Matt even did the dishes after dinner. It was a perfect day!

I did get some Mother's Day gifts.
Flowers - a favorite of mine.
Fancy Chocolates - Okay it was actually a bag of Peanut M&M's, but I did eat the whole thing with out having to share!
Carter gave my the sweetest gift a Mother could ask for, besides the beautiful poster he made for me at school that is. I had asked Mandy to snap a quick picture of Me and the Kids as the evening was winding down. Her and I were previewing it on the camera and I told her something like, "Thanks this is great. Too bad Gregg wasn't in here I could have had a nice little family shot." Before I even noticed that he'd left the room, Carter was dragging his dad in by the hand and telling Kyle to get back on the couch for another picture. He said, "I got him Mommy. Now you can have your family picture." Gregg isn't a fan of posing for pictures, but how could he say no when Carter took the initiative to give Mommy what she wanted on Mother's Day. He just grinned and sat down next to me. My Carter is such a sweet boy!

My Beautiful Flowers

Me and my Munchkins

My gift from Carter!

I love my kids! I love being being a Mom! I wouldn't trade it for anything!!

A Visit from Grandma Lou

Last week my Mom (Grandma Lou) came to visit from Ohio. It's always very exciting to get to spend time with her, but it was especially nice this time because we hadn't seen her in almost 9 months. She split her time between our home in Bakersfield and my brother Nolan's home in Fresno.
Her fist day was with us. The weather was beautiful so we spent the day shopping with the kids and having lunch at the Market place shopping center, the kids love the big fountains there.

Later she and the boys made everybody a special dessert. Chocolate covered ice cream pops. Yum!

They were an obvious hit!

The next day the kids and I drove her to Fresno to spend some time with Nolan, Melissa, and Jordan. We spent the afternoon at their house before heading back to Bako. The boys and Jordan love spending time together. It's fun to watch them play together and make up games. They get along great (most of the time) and we try to get them together as much as we can.

It was also nice to be able to hang out with my brother who had the day off. Kyle loves Uncle Nolan, and his motorcycle!

They drove her back a few days later just in time to celebrate Kyle 3rd birthday with us. Again we got to spend the afternoon together. It was a nice day.

Grandma Lou's visit was short, but it was wonderful, and relaxing, and I got to spend some good quality time with her. Sometimes our visits are so crammed with activities that we don't really get to spend time together. This time was different. She really got to spend lots of time with each of the kids this time too. Carter climbed into bed with her each morning she was here. She and Kyle read lots of stories and got lots of loves. And a highlight was her getting to see Cammie start walking and being able to help her practice.

Can't wait to do it again!

Here she is stealing a kiss from the Chubby Girl before we left for the airport.

Baby Steps

Cameron started walking. She has been walking along the furniture and walls for two or more months now, but she hasn't had the confidence to let go until recently. Actually it was on Kyle's birthday at Matt and Mandy's house. There were several people out back and she didn't know anyone was watching. But Gregg and I were. We saw her stand up and take about 3 short little steps to the chair where Mandy was sitting with out holding on to anything. I was gad I got to see it. After that we started working with her to build her confidence more and more. She is doing really well now only crawling when she wants to go really fast or she gets sleepy and starts having balance issues.

So I guess it's official - She a "Toddler" now. Bitter Sweet.

This is from her second or third day. She's obviously doing better now, and getting better everyday, but I think it's those first shaky steps that are the most important to capture.

Kyle's Birthday

We are done having parties for a while, so for Kyle's birthday this year we did some other small things to celebrate.

His morning started out with a chocolate muffin for breakfast.

Later we spent a typical Friday evening with our good friends Matt and Mandy's at their house. Mandy was very sweet and baked brownies for Kyle so that he could have some candles to blow out on his special day. He was caught of guard and got shy for a minute when she brought them out back and we started singing. He got over it in time to make a wish and blow out the candles!

Macy, Cammie, Kyle, and Carter.

The next day Nolan, Melissa, and Jordan brought my Mom (who was in Cali visiting from Ohio) down from Fresno. We had decided that since the family would be together, that would be the day we'd celebrate with cupcakes and gifts.

For months when asked what he wants for his birthday all Kyle would say is a bounce house, so his gift from us this year was exactly that. It worked out well. He was thrilled!

He played, and played, and played...and then played some more!

Hugs for Jordan!

Chasing Cammie!

Pretty Girls!

When it was time to do birthday candles he jumped up and blew them out so fast I didn't even have time to snap the picture. It was pretty funny. I think his birthday song was about 4 seconds long.

Then gifts. Grandma B got him a great little tent. Very cool!

And some dinosaurs...

...a Buzz Light Year blaster from Grandma Lou!

Bear hugs from Uncle Nolan.

Loves for Auntie 'lissa.

A Happy Birthday Boy!

Kyle was beyond thrilled as the bounce house was being set up. I was able to get this cute little video of him. ;-)

Kyle is 3!

Last Friday Kyle turned 3! He is so proud to be a "Big Boy".

He got a two wheel bike (complete with training wheels) like Carter's about 2 months ago. We were going to get him one for his birthday, but he kept steeling his brothers so we caved and got one early. As it turns out that that was the best decision we could have made. Kyle and his bike are inseparable! They are like best friends. The first few days after he got it he would get up in the morning and go right out to ride it, now he can at least wait until after breakfast (most mornings anyway.) When he would get tired after riding around the back yard for hours on end, he would sneak it into the playroom to sit on it while he watched t.v. Once the bike got dirty it got banned from the house of course, much to Kyles dismay. Sometimes he still randomly says to me, "I'll be right back Mom. I'm going to go check on my bike" like it's a family pet or something. Oh, he makes me laugh!

Kyle has the best sense of humor! He has me laughing all the time. I wish I could explain it. It's not like he's telling jokes all the time or anything, it's just more of the timing and delivery of his thoughts on whatever is going on at the time. (Alright I've been sitting here for a solid five minutes just trying to think of a good example and I'm coming up short at the moment. I'll have to get some video of him sometime, but until then take my word for it he is funny!) He cracks Cammie up all the time too. She thinks he's even funnier that I think he his.

He is still very particular (okay O.C.D.) about lots of things with no rhyme or reason. He still has huge kicking screaming meltdowns that land him locked in his room for a mandatory cooling off period, for him and us. But as he gets older and more capable of doing things on his own (the way he prefers), and as his communication gets better, he is getting much easier to deal with. He is finally getting old enough now that sometimes we can actually reason with him which is HUGE!

He insists on peeing outside, usually out front. He says that the potty is too tall so he just has to go pee in the dirt. Sounds logical except for the fact that we keep a little step stool in front of each of the potties for that very reason. Lol. What are you going to do. I can't fight with him about it all day long. Frankly I'm just glad he's not going in his underwear.

He is very, very sweet. The best cuddler I know!
Favorite foods right now: Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, Chicken Nuggets, Chocolate, Raisins, Milk in large quantities.
Favorite shows and movies: Diego, Dora the Explorer, The Backyardigans, The Cat in the Hat, The Letter Factory, all 3 of the Toy Story movies.
Other Favorite things: Motorcycles, Dinosaurs, Going fast, Fire engines, Being outside.

I try to hold him and rock him like a little baby and he kicks and screams (laughing the whole time) telling me, "I'm not a baby! I'm a big boy! Only Cammie can be the baby!" Little does he know, he will always be my little baby!

Our sweet, sweet little Beaker Man!

20 Years

Today marks 20 years since the passing of Gregg's father Arnold. I never had the honor of meeting him, but I couldn't let this day pass without a small acknowledgement.

A great man is gone, and has been for sometime.
One day when this life is over I hope to meet him and the pleasure will be all mine.
I'm grateful for his family, that I inherited some years later.
I know that he is proud of them as he watches from above with our maker.

Arn,
You were greatly loved, and you are dearly missed.