Snow Globe

It has been snowing, nay, blizzarding here for the past three days. 

It's so beautiful!

I can't tell if Andrew is laughing or crying here. My money is on crying.

It started Saturday, snowed all day Sunday...

church got cancelled

...then it kept at it all day today.

Today school got cancelled,

and it's cancelled tomorrow as well.

Jim left today for Vegas, and will be gone the next three nights for recurrent training.

We are running low on supplies, so I will load all my maniacs in the car tomorrow and brave our way to Freddys. 

Can you kind of see all the flakes? My camera had a hard time focusing on anything.

It has really felt like we are in a snow globe. The flakes are huge and many.

It's hard to walk in the freshies. It goes up to my high shins, so I'd say it's well above his knees here.

Today I looked out the window and saw Evan laying face down, Avery sitting on top of him, pushing his face in the snow.

"All right kids, that's enough. Time to come in."

Chili, cornbread. 

Borrow two eggs from Neighbor Lady. (see? supplies are low)

Bonus: she gives Avery two boxes of beads that she hasn't used in years. Necklace making ensues.

The Joys

Most days, the "joys of motherhood" get buried deep, deep below the muck and mire of having three kids, so I want to write down some recent joys I've had.

The other night me and Jim were downstairs watching the Olympics long after the kids were in bed. Around 11, Avery came down whimpering and crawled under my blanket. She snuggled in close and immediately fell asleep. I rarely get to cuddle with her anymore, so of course this was a complete delight. Her warm little body, her long hair on her face.
I help in her classroom every Thursday. Yesterday I was sitting in the back switching out the take home reading when her group came back from library. She didn't know I was there yet, so I was able to watch her in pure form.
She and her sweet friend Bella ran up to each other, pressed their palms together, and whispered about something.
Later in the day when she got off the bus, she ran up and gave me a hug. I took her backpack and we walked home together. Stepping in the door I say,
"I made you some dinner, are you hungry?"
"It smells really good!" is her reply.
How can she know that little things like that make me so happy?
Then as we were eating (crockpot chicken parmesan - always a huge hit), I had this sad thought about kids who come home to an empty house and scrounge up something to eat for themselves. I don't know where that thought came from, but it made me feel so happy and fulfilled to know that what I do is of huge importance.*

Waiting at the border after ballet.

She loves to pose next to flowers.

After Avery's class, I head over to Evan's class. I spend the last 30 minutes of his day there, then take him home in the car, which he gets wildly excited about.
Yesterday they were eating a snack. I came in and sat down at the end of the table; he didn't notice I was there for about five minutes. He was eating and talking and swaying around from the waist up, sitting there in that chair.
Finally he looked up and yelled a surprised, "Hi Mommy!"
He scrambled out of his chair to come give me a hug, all the while jabbering about how we were going to go outside and play soon.
Then he started singing "octopus, octopus, swimming in the water..." and he sang the whole song with the actions, just like that.
I am learning a lot from his teachers about communicating with him. They are so patient and wait for every word to be said and every word to be understood. It is fun to watch him perform his classroom routine.
Outside, he introduced me to a few friends, especially little Camilo. Their relationship is so sweet. Camilo is extremely shy, but finds comfort following Evan around. He wouldn't talk to me when I asked him some questions, but stayed right close to Evan.
When it was time to go, we held hands all the way to the car.
We went to the library and got some books. He picked some out that Avery might like, and picked some "Polar Express" ones for himself.

"Cars" is our current obsession. 

Andrew. I don't know how to even explain the joy he brings me. He IS the joy of motherhood. There are so many wonderful things about that baby, I'm going to tell you the one thing that he does that is NOT wonderful. He poops. All the time. Probably five or six times a day. Come on!
Ok, but that sweet little boy makes me want to have twenty more babies! (but I won't, you can relax). When I say "give your mama a hug", he grabs my shoulders and lays his little head right down on me. And he lays there until I am good and ready. I've never had a head-layer-cuddler. It is awesome.
One morning Evan was making the noise with his tongue "blu bla blu bla blu bla" back and forth over his top lip...and next thing you know Andrew is giving it a try. That little tongue is all "bla bla bla bla".
He eats kind of daintily - with finesse. And for some reason he is the cutest when he is sitting in that high chair. He just kind of eats with his pinky in the air while chaos around him ensues.
Uh! I'm this close to getting him out of bed and snuggling with him right now. I just love him so much. He is my sweetest baby and I kiss kiss kiss him on his little cheeks.
Like I said, even with all the "demands" that come with a little baby, the joys come two fold. He makes me love being a mom.

He's really good at scattering.

*I read an article recently about how the job of taking care of your home and being a mom is such an important one, and if it isn't accomplished, whole civilizations suffer. I like to think about that when I am elbow deep in it all.

Happy Birthday Evan!

Evan's birthday this year was such a "here a party, there a party".

We celebrated with Pluto at Disneyland,

then he was sick and in pjs for his real day,

then he opened presents all week long as they came in the mail.

Lots of plains, trains, and automobiles for him.

He requested "batman cupcakes",

so this is what we came up with.

He didn't feel well enough to eat any of it, but we did sing and blow out the candles twice, per his request. 

Later in the week this package finally made it to our house. It was delayed due to winter storms...

I asked Evan about some things he likes:
cartoon: charlie and lola (but I don't think so. I'd say his favorite is Nightmare Before Christmas or Polar Express. Those are the most requested).
best friend: avery (I was expecting some of his friends from school, but he said this so quick and like, duh mom. It made me smile big)
favorite toy: polar express (any train. he loves trains!)
thing to eat: batman cupcake
place to go as a family: santa
color: orange
favorite teacher: teacher laura!
friends at school: exavier, caiden, and not cooper, sam.
what would you like to drive? a mighty machine, like grandpa's loader.
what was your favorite thing at Disneyland? spaceship man was scary...train was scary, nope it was fun.
what makes you sad? when someone takes my airplane, i say "it's mine!"
what makes you happy? legos!
favorite thing to do at school? play toys.


I was looking at birthdays in years past. For some reason we are always on vacation for his birthday.

Disneyland!

The Disneyland pictures are here! Come and get 'em!

We had so much fun. Moments of pure happiness. Moments of tired (whiny) children. Moments of please don't let this day end. Moments of I'm so sorry I made you go on that ride.

Overall my sentiment is...we need to go back. There's so much we missed and so much I want to do again.

Alas. Maybe in a few years we will return.

Until then...let's look at a thousand pictures, shall we?

This cracked me up.

It was also the first of many "too scary" rides I forced upon my children.

We took three strollers. It was brilliant in keeping everyone happy and fresh.

Our first character encounter was Buzz! 

Don't you love how shy your children suddenly become when face to face with their cartoon hero?

We went on the Farris wheel. It was so fun, but the swinging ones were a bit too...scary.

The only time of the whole day that Andrew made a peep (he's a dream baby I tell you!) was when this thing started swinging too fast for him. He was scared, poor thing.

When we got off the Farris wheel, Jesse had replaced Buzz.

Evan was sooo shy around her.

I might say "this was so fun" a coupla times, but this was so fun. 

The Cars land is so awesome! I loved it! I think it was my favorite. 

Worth standing in line for an hour? I think so. Yes.

Avery took a good nap most of the hour wait. We would switch off holding her because she's not a little thing anymore. It broke our back a bit.

Grandma and Grandpa were such good sports about waiting around with Andrew.

We loved it when every last one of us could go on the ride.

Bumper Cars are equivalent to the game "red rover".

I just sit there while everyone rams into me. 

I would rather we all keep a little distance and drive around nicely.

This was as the night was coming to an end. Avery asked for cotton candy all day, so we got some and ate it by the fountain. We were just hanging out together, happy, with all the excitement around us. 

This is a favorite moment for me. This kind of moment makes everything worth it. 

After this we went on the white water ride and got soaked. I love that ride! It's always so fun. We ended the night giggling and excited and happy. Evan got the most wet and he wanted to go again. 

Right out of the shoot the next morning, there was pretty Belle!

Avery was so shy of course. She didn't make a peep to any of Belle's questions. 

I wonder how much the characters at Disneyland make. They are so great and the BEST part by far. 

Such a dream come true. 

I definitely learned a few things about Disneyland. I swear I will be better at it next time we go.

First of all, I won't force my kids to go on scary rides. I will stick to these kind of nonsense rides that the kids just love.

More and more this picture is breaking my heart. At first I thought it was funny, but now I just feel so bad.

I will not make my kids go on scary rides. 

I will go on all the dinky happy rides that they want to go on.

I will research all the kid friendly rides that I don't know about, and we will go on those.

My dear children, please forgive your mother for taking you on these scary rides. xoxo

The weeks before coming to Disneyland, Evan kept saying he wants to go to the castle and hug Mickey Mouse.

But when the time came to hug ol' Mickey, Evan was too shy. 

Andrew giggled at him quite a bit.

We came around a corner on the way to Frontier Land, and there was Woody. Just all by himself practically. 

Again, this was a total favorite moment. 

This makes my heart melt. It really does.

Evan keeps saying that Woody is "too tall". 

The train ride. Huge hit.

This is what I'm talking about right here. The tea cups were so fun.

I held on to the steering wheel so that they didn't even know how spinney it could get, and it was just way fun.

I got to sit between my kids at the parade (thanks g and g for saving us a spot!). It was such a blast to watch their faces. What a brilliant way to end the night. 

My kids were screaming for the characters like they were rock stars. 

Avery would wave and wave. 

Snow white blew Avery a kiss, smack dab.

As we were heading out of the park for the night, I just couldn't bare to go yet. 

So we went to a bakery and ate some delights as the park shut down. 

The next day we went to Goofy's kitchen. 

So fun. So much food. So many great characters.

Evan got to celebrate with Pluto! Such a great memory.

Shy. 

Cinderella was so sweet.

Evan loved the Mad Hatter. He keeps pointing to this picture and saying this guy is "so funny".

 He was really so funny. 

Later we drove to the ocean.

It was pretty chilly, so we didn't stay too long.

From the moment we got there Evan ran around having so much fun. 

He chased birds, wrote in the sand, ran in the surf.

Avery didn't like the sand. She put her shoes back on and declared she only likes the big rocks like at the beach by our house.

Hotel life.

The next day we went to a science museum in downtown LA.

This space ship is so amazing. This is a case where pictures do not carry the same kind of awe you feel when seeing it for real.

It looked like it was made from a patchwork of newspapers. It's so weird. 

I imagined that it would be shiny metal, but it's papery looking.

So, we were having a pleasant flight home. 

All three kids were fast asleep. 

With about an hour left in the flight, Evan puked big time all over his lap.

And he puked again and again.

Poor thing.

The flight attendant said he was the third kid to throw up on the airplane that day.

Then the kid behind us threw up in the aisle. 

And then Evan threw up again. 

It was a complete zoo back there with all of us cleaning up puke. 

haha. funny now. not totally funny then.

I love you Disneyland!

I love you my sweet family!

I love you vacation!