Praying

Snuggled in bed, lights out and getting ready to go asleep, holding J's hand.

Mommy: "Dear Jesus, thank you for this beautiful day, the hike with daddy and Kaila, for all the    people that love us...like Aunty L., Aunty T, Aunty A...Thank you that you love Josiah sooo much Jesus.

Josiah, what do you want to thank Jesus for?"

J.: "ummmmm, candy!"

Mommy: "...and thank you Jesus for candy. Amen"

J: "AMEN!"

Repeat, Every. Single. Night.

Bad Day

 I thought I would give this blogging thing a shot, after all, I am  two.  

6:45 am. I was so proud of myself this morning! 

I stayed in bed until now,  just like mommy told me. She reminded me last night at 3 am when I came into her room asking for a banana, and I even stayed in my crib when K. woke up at 5am crying!

I was so proud!

10:00 am. Then, as we were driving to JC Pennys, I decided to see if a piece of almond would fit in my nose. It did!

 The worst part was that I tripped twice because my jacket wasn't zipped and landed on my face/nose. I had green snot crusted all over, an almond jammed in my nostril, and red, tear-rimmed eyes the whole time.

11:15 a.m.  At the doctor's appointment, they told mommy that K. did indeed have a 8/10 ear infection, 10 being the worst, in both ears. No wonder she has been crying so much! I got a prescription for my bad cold in case it doesn't clear up. After that, two nurses pinned my arms above my head while a doctor stuck something up my nose.  I was screaming and crying, this was a really bad day.  He fished and fished, and finally got the almond out.

When it was all over I was so proud of myself for being brave. I smiled at the doctor, thanked him and even gave him a high-five. 

1:30 p.m. Then, on our way home, I think I ate my snack too fast because puked up my lunch all over myself and the carseat. Mommy said it was Ok, and I didn't feel too bad, so I just hung out in my puke since we were stuck in the drive-through line at the pharmacy waiting for K.'s prescription.

2:00 p.m. K. and I took a bath, and had another snack-since I was kinda hungry again.

3:30 p.m. Now, I can't fall asleep, I've told mommy three times that I'm "AWAKE!" and I'm having a hard time napping. She's letting me write this blog post while she plays with the singing pink doggy toy on the ground and keeps asking to watch baby einstein. 

Silly Mommy. 

Thanksgiving 2012

We started with a little "stay-cation." We headed down to shell beach  a week before thanksgiving where my Granny graciously let us stay in her fully-stocked condo for five nights, three of those were with my mom and dad. We then added two nights at L.'s house, just to stay near the family, since we were heading down there every morning and staying until after dinner.  

Throw in a walk to the beach every day, a stomach flu that went through everyone, some surfing and a 10K run, and you have our thanksgiving...week celebration!

 The day of, we all did a 10K! A., J. and I ran it, mom, dad, T. and G. walked it, and the kids rode it. Here's them crossing the finish line. What athletes! (R wasn't feeling well and opted to rest at the condo, I missed him!)

 K. practiced walking. Look at that smile!!

A few of the cousins, Granny and B. (our amazing hosts, they hosted Thanksgiving for 21 people, and they are in their 80's! Wow! Granny is my role model in life!)  

Showing K. how to do the "Crocodile Crawl"  on the kitchen floor. She was perplexed.

Thank you to my Granny for hosting a great Thanksgiving and for my parents for taking care of our little family all week. 

The Big One

Our baby girl is One! The whole time I was preparing, I kept reminding myself that I should always be enjoying the decorating and preparing, because K doesn't understand what's going on yet. If you ever read this K, just know that we had so much fun celebrating the gift that you are! 

Our amazing neighbor made a beautiful cake for K, and a little cake for her to demolish. 

We had a mini-petting zoo, with our baby chicks.

                           

 Poor little thing was a bit out of it for her birthday. Turns out she had a double ear infection, the same thing J. had for his birthday. We love you K!

Happy Halloween!

We're not big halloween celebrators, and this year we kept remembering that last year, I was in labor...right now. Well, our little K. was not feeling well all day and R got home late so we were all dressed up and ready for bed by the time we had our little trick-or-treating round the neighborhood.

Just in case you were wondering, 1. That's a headlamp on J's head (it's really dark out there!) and 2. K is mid-cry, not mid-laugh.

Happy Halloween!

Country Time!

How many times in your life do you get to hold a humming bird in your hand? This little guy flew in our house the other day. It took him a minute to realize I wasn't going to kill him before he flew off. 

Mud Mash

I had so much fun doing this race! The Mud Mash, 10K.

 It was 6 miles, with a total of 24 obstacles (a three mile loop done twice). A few of my favorite parts were the bamboo "forest," the mud pits (of course), and the fire hose that sprayed us as we were jumping over hay bales. The walls and the hills were the most exhausting obstacles.

 I was the second girl in my race!

It's K's 1 year birthday this week and this was a great way to celebrate not birthing a baby in the fall for the first time in two years! 

Ryan's Fault

So, it's Ryan's fault really. 

He's the one that came home and asked me what I thought of getting a little golden retriever puppy. So, believe it or not, I actually put a bunch of thought into it (seriously, I really did) and decided that I was ready for one too. 

So, I got really excited for a new little family member that looked something like this. Unfortunately, the one we had our eyes on was sold before we got it. 

I looked on craigslist and could only find puppies that looked a little something like this. Not happening.

I sorely missed having a cuddly little puppy friend, and so, we got five new chicks..."for Josiah's birthday." Totally for Josiah. 

Ok, so maybe they were a little bit for me. But we played it up like they were for Josiah. After all, that would mean that I have to admit that we did it because I like watching Modern Family and snuggling with a chicken at the end of the day. No way. That's weird.

 It was totally for Josiah.

TWO!!

Even though we really wanted to do a mellow birthday for Josiah, it was just so fun and easy to spend the whole week celebrating and doing fun things for him (and me!).

 The 9th, his actual birthday began with strawberries and homemade whipped cream on pancakes, a Lucio tradition. 

 Apple picking with Aunty T, he asked  to do this again every morning right when he woke up for an entire week!

Later in the week we picked out baby chicks, I,  I mean, the kids, were so excited and absolutely loved it.

Josiah screamed with excitement when he heard me mention the zoo, so the zoo it was to celebrate his birthday party. 

 Aunty T and Aunty Andrea, feeding the animals.

Hands-down the best exhibit at the zoo (according to Josiah)... the tractor working on part of the park.

 Pizza and salad, simple is good.

Wrapping paper, toys, it was heaven for him, the presents just kept coming! 

The group, it was all our family. We are so blessed to have so many involved family members. Andrea even drove up from San Diego by herself to be with us! We love you all.

Grandma and Grandpa Hayes also threw him a party a few weeks ahead of time, so our little guy had no lack of celebrating how much we love him this year! 

For the Fam

The War Zone. She Won.

Country Time!

I couldn't resist this picture of the kids feeding the chickens. They sat there forever, methodically dropping oak leaves and beet greens through the wire on the ground. Soooo cute!

If I Were a Millionaire (Part 2)

If I were a millionaire (plus some) I would also have a sweet home in the mountains, and, I suppose since I'm a millionaire...no billionaire, I would have a plane to fly between the two homes (for the other home see, If I Were A Millionaire (Part 1)) with ease.  I would have a sweet fly-fishing river right out our door to fish whenever we wanted, and I would have those beautiful mountain views every morning when I woke up and every evening before I went to bed. 

Thankfully, I don't have to be a millionaire to enjoy the most important parts, our sweet time with family, some good rompin' in the creek/fishin, and enjoying time with God in an environment that so clearly showcases His awesome glory. We are so thankful for our northern family and their cabin. It holds so many special memories for R and now for our whole family as well.

I just had to put this on there to say, yes, that's our son in grandma's hat. hehehe

S'mores around the campfire, K. couldn't get enough.