One more reason why Cali came first...

So it's no secret I lack any artistic or creativity skills...just look at my house decor and it's pretty apparent. I'm totally ok with that. But when school projects come home that require this skill, my kids suffer. Ok not really! But what kid doesn't want to have a cool Valentine box. And that's when Cali comes to the rescue. I'm happy to report the only thing I did to help with Trent's Valentine box was to diffuse a minor meltdown that was occurring when Cali did not agree with Trent on the placement of the ears...um yeah I can handle that...along with Cali's multiplying fractions homework we did earlier this week! Bring on the math and meltdowns...this mom is ready! :)

Merry Christmas 2012!

Bike Riding

Will has entered the world of independent bike riding! After a couple days of dad's help he is now maneuvering and making turns on his own in the street. I think it's about time to venture to the Greenbelt paths! He had his first bike lesson, no kidding, at night...yes it was completely pitch black. No worries there's a convenient street light right in our yard, so Tim seized the moment and I fixed the flat tires and put the chain back on the bike that's been sitting dusty and dirty in the garage--just waiting to be used. This is no ordinary bike...it's Cali's first bike that Tim affectionately spray painted with love so it would look more boy like. Hooray for frugality and an age that's too young to care or notice! He'll get a bike of his own by first grade when he'll really start caring.

Here's a picture of Will after his first rides the other night.

It's a boy!

Well its official, Cali can use my phone in more ways than I thought! I have found the author to this mysterious post. It was none other than my daughter...silly girl! Not sure how she knew how to use this app on my phone, but she did! I think kids come these days with a special technology gene. Love this girl. Thanks Cali for letting the world know our big news! Yes we are having a boy! Although William refuses to believe yet. He insists he saw long hair in the ultrasound and so that means its a girl....no matter the evidence we all saw that would hardly shed any doubt it was a boy! I confess having another boy to melt this mama's heart is exciting. But I'm also super excited to have a really good excuse to get away with Cali more for girl time...because really we need it sometimes with these crazy rambunctious boys that we love and adore!
Below is the pic Cali originally posted from my very first ultrasound. I really don't think any pics from this last ultrasound look good enough to post ( hard to see anything), but since I have placenta previa I will get another ultrasound. I will post then in hopes those pics will look much better...which I'm told they will! :)

Our Christmas Tree

So here's our tree... the tree that was rejected from being used as a decoration tree, not their main tree, from Tim's rehab center a couple years ago; because it didn't look good enough. So who would come to the rescue of this poor tree, none other than my awesome husband. It doesn't matter that it isn't that tall, has many open spaces, or that it doesn't even balance correctly...quite frankly it's a step up from our former tree that was 1/3 it's size that Tim rescued from a hospital dumpster when Cali was a baby; so I had 0 complaints when we set it up! It's pretty fitting as it goes quite well with our completely random ornaments as did our old tree, but since I've never proclaimed to be a decorator we just let the kids do their magic with what we have. I'm sure once Cali's older she'll help us out with our style. And although we could afford a bigger and nicer tree and much better ornaments I'm okay with this one for now...it's a great reminder that I don't have to create pressure for myself to make my tree look as good as those who are more skilled at decorating than me. I can simply enjoy the beauty of their trees and appreciate our varied talents in life. :) And as a bonus I can let my little kids enjoy something they helped create and not go crazy if they mess it up...I do enough of that in other areas of our lives!
Merry Charlie Brown Christmas tree to us!

My Awesome Children

Anyone that knows my kids knows they aren't perfect. They can be the sassiest, bossiest, craziest kids when they want to be. Today I'm super thankful for them particularly my two oldest. They have single handedly kept life running today. They watched their 2 yr old brother for most of the day. And while he was napping they cleaned up the kitchen, Cali made pumpkin pies ( I did the oven part before you think I'm endangering my child), and they broke up 2 loaves of bread for stuffing. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and last night I began to get achy and I knew the flu was coming on. While not the worst flu I've ever had, being that I still have morning sickness has made today not exactly pleasant or rendered me being very useful. Wondering if Thanksgiving will take place tomorrow because i dont think i can ask Cali to do a Turkey quite yet...but I've spent today resting and conjuring up every homeopathic remedy in hopes I'll be fine tomorrow. Thankfully I've got some pretty awesome kids though!

Merry Christmas

Yes it has been a whole year since I posted....guess I know what my New Year's resolution is.



(double click to make it bigger!)

Christmas Letter 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Thank You for all your love and friendship.

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A Little Dancing

Well Cali decided to enter a Dance choreography contest. The theme: Beauty is... I was hoping she'd do a lyrical song (because I think she is born to be a contemporary dancer), but mom's weren't allowed to influence or help according to contest rules. So I restrained myself from providing any help. I think it turned out cute, not her best...something always mysteriously happens when the camera roles. But I think it was a great experience for her to do it.
Here it is below...and of course the boys always want in the action, so I recorded one for them too to post.

At least he caught the ball...

My wonderful hubby got up at 4 am with me on Thanksgiving to help clean toilets...yes I think that's love. He had a Turkey bowl at 8:00. Our parting words. Lisa : Don't get hurt. Tim: I thought you were going to say Don't hurt anybody. Lisa: Well, yeah that too.
He comes hobbling in through the door at 10:00 as promised when he'd be home. Lisa: Tim stop teasing. Tim: I'm not. I'm sorry. Can you get me some asprin? Lisa: Seriously Tim, stop teasing. Tim: I'm not. Can you please get me some asprin? Lisa: (Then I realize he's not kidding) I don't think we have any, but I can get you Tylenol now and I'll call Caryn. What happened? Tim: I went up for the catch and I landed in a ditched filled with mud. Lisa: Well did you catch the ball? ( I already knew the answer...this is not a first, it's just been a while) Tim: Of course. Can you get me some pain medicine?

Don't ask me how he drove home, considering it was his right ankle. But somehow he did it. Even after he made it home, he hobbled around helping me get everything ready for Thanksgiving dinner. It was like when after a lady totaled his car in the snow a few years back and he refused to get in an ambulance, he walked home about a mile carrying his temple bag and a snow shovel (maybe a basketball too--can't remember) which had been in the back of his car. Somehow he becomes a superhero amidst these moments...I guess that's why he is the rock in our family.

I know he's not going to be happy I'm writing this...but he's out of town, so maybe he'll forget by the time he gets back. I'm thankful for my hubby most of all this Thanksgiving...for his positive attitude, his drive, his sacrifices, and his ability to always get back up.

I should have taken a picture the first day, the swelling has gone down significantly...This is day 5.

An Early Birthday Present

Happy Birthday Will...I got you a haircut. Love, Trent
It's kinda hard to see in the pic, but the left side is cut almost to the shaved level. and the back of the top is considerably shorter than the front. With scissors in one hand and hair in the other Trent exclaims, "I accidentally cut Will's hair". Hmmm.To fix it I'd have to shave it, but I'm not going to, because I'm afraid that all the strawberry blonde hair will be gone...and I really don't want to cry on Will's birthday.

Happy Halloween

First an apology...since joining FB in March I have shamefully neglected this blog. My family communicates mostly through FB therefore I have been slacking on the blog.

Halloween lasted several days this year and I think we have way more candy than we need. We had trunk or treat on Wed. Halloween Party at Daddy's work on Thurs. and then of course Halloween. I didn't need to buy those 2 huge 350 piece tootsie pop and dum dum bags. Nope I'm not in Harlingen anymore where they had a cop directing the traffic on my street to protect the swarms of trick or treaters. I think we got maybe 50 trick or treaters including a adult mom and her middle school daughter. I guess she wanted to be a kid again.

The kids were adorable of course...and Will loved loved going up to the door and getting candy.
Instead of saying Trick or Treat, he said "Treat Treat".

Trent was Spiderman and Will was Pooh Bear (but he wasn't too keen on having the head up). We didn't decide on Cali's costume until the week before when at a church clothing/Junk exchange and we found cowboy boots. Yep that solved our problem, and all I had to do was buy a cowboy hat at the dollar store.

yep, its number 8

Well its official, were moving! This will be number 8 in 7 1/2 years of marriage. And yes...it should be home for a long, long time. This is finally a move where we can say we'll be there more than 2 years. Hurray! Tim is now the Administrator at Timberwood Nursing and Rehab in Livingston, TX, and he is loving his job. He finds it challenging...but I think that's why he loves it so much. Well that and he is the boss. He has been working there for about a month and half--only coming home on weekends. So needless to say I'm extremely anxious to get settled into our new home. Yes our new home. I'm saying good-bye to San Antonio and will miss it dearly. On the other hand I will not miss this apartment, nor it's cockroaches and biting ants. Poor Cali, she got bit by her eye while sleeping and the next morning her eye was all swollen. It looked like somebody punched her.

Anyway onto our house, which I am so excited for. I can hardly wait. We'll have many "projects" to do, but I'm way excited. I would personally like to thank the city of Houston for having amazing home prices--we're getting way more than what we would have gotten in San Antonio. I guess that's to help me like the city despite its crazy humidity/heat and the fact I now will be watching the hurricane tracker from May to Nov every year. Favorite parts of the house so far...Nice big and deep kitchen sink, new appliances, and a good-sized laundry/mud room. Oh yeah and Cali is happy because we now have a fireplace for Santa to come down. The only dilemma is the pool! What to do?

We're moving to Kingwood, Tx which is the nearest good sized city (imo) to where Tim works. He unfortunately will have a 45 mile commute everyday...but oppurtunites for the kids, schools, and proximity to Houston were bigger factors in our decision. That and Tim didn't want to feel like he had to put on cowboy boots to fit in somewhere. Although he will now admit that country music is starting to grow on him. Anyway Kingwood seems like a great town, very family friendly and chuck full of tress, which Tim appreciates more than me. I'm just hoping one doesn't fall on my house during a Hurricane. Cali is going to have a blast trying to climb them all..and I'm sure Will will be right behind her. Move in date: July 31st. Hurray!

When I'm Emotional

I admit it. I am emotional. I'm a girl...so it's normal right. Well my emotions came to the surface recently on two separate occasions. The first was yesterday. I was filling out forms to register Cali for Kindergarten in Kingwood, TX (yes, we're moving...details in another post). Which shouldn't seem too emotional as I had already done this for her school in San Antonio. Then I get to the part about allergies and fill out the info that she has a peanut allergy. Nothing unusual...just like the other forms. However this one had me check a box to say whether or not she must sit at an allergy free table. Now all along, I knew that she probably would have to do this...but for whatever reason checking the box made it all too real, and I began to cry. I couldn't bring myself to check it...though I know I probably will have to--to prevent her from exchanging food with others. I wondered what this would do to her. Would she be alone? Would kids tease her or make her feel bad for being different? My heart went out to her, and I sobbed for her. She has always handled her peanut allergy very well...only on a few occasions have I ever seen her truly hurt because of it. I just don't want her to feel that everyday. I'm sure it'll be fine. There will probably be others like her, probably ones with worse allergies. And I'm sure she'll still have plenty of friends. I just can't believe what a simple check the box can do to me.

The second instance was today. The kids and I were having a normal day sitting at the table eating cereal for breakfast. I look over at Trent and he has his hands on his mouth with a distressed look on his face. I figure he just bit his tongue and I'm waiting in anticipation of his delayed cry that he gives when he's hurt. No sound. Silence. I ask him if he's okay. Silence. His eyes are now full of terror. I slightly panic and tell him to talk and tell me if he's okay as I'm flashing back to my 5th grade Health class. Silence. That's when I realize he can't talk...he's choking...really choking...not the something is stuck and I can still cough to get it out. I jump out of my chair. I grab his shoulders and my first inclination is to pat his back. (Apparantly the can you speak part is ingrained enough and not the heimlich part) But just as I'm about to do this...his mouth opens with some cereal, and he begins to cry. I'm not sure what happened: if it went down or came up. There was no coughing or sound. Now just his cries and his "I was choking. I couldn't talk." That's when I lost it and began to cry.

Update on Cali

• Got into the dual-language immersion program
• Mom found a great dance school and both mom and daughter are taking classes
  
• took an art class...and we will gladly accept any paper donations to our house as we are now always in short supply because of her nightly "letters" to us and her daily "art projects".

Cali wanted everyone to see some of her artwork that she's done...

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