Brighter Vision

I should probably wait to post about it until AFTER I have tried this for myself, but one of my good friends recommended it to me so I'm passing it on! It's a program called Brighter Vision for children and when you subscribe to it, each month they send you a package of learning material for your child - age appropriate. It comes with a book, stickers, worksheets...all focused around a specific subject and completely taylored to your child's age (ages 1-6). You can order the first package for free to try it out, after that it's like $18 per month. It sounds like something Jordyn would just love right now, and having it come in the mail for her would make it even more exciting. So I ordered trial packs for both girls and we'll see how it goes!

Pregnancy is Hard!

I'm going to try to make sense of my feelings...so bear with me.

For me, pregnancy is hard. Everything about it is hard - how I feel physically, emotionally, how I handle everyday stresses, how I think, sleeping, eating, walking, cleaning, etc. But I feel guilty feeling these feelings because I think "Well I CHOSE this, I WANT this baby, this is a huge blessing, etc". So lately I've been pondering my feelings and I've decided that it's OK that it's hard for me. Just because it's hard for me doesn't mean I'm a bad person. And just because it may be easier for someone else (I swear it seems like I have so many friends who don't feel the same way I do about pregnancy) doesn't mean I'm a weaker person. It just means we're different. I always think in analogies, so this is my latest: It's sort of like how school is harder for some than others, or a job may be more challenging to one individual than to someone else, or some people are good at music and others are good at sports. It doesn't mean the person isn't grateful for the schooling or the job, or that it's not a blessing, it just means it challenges them more and is a little harder for them to endure. So, pregnancy is a BOTH blessing and a challenge for me.

As I feel this baby kick more each day, I feel so excited to meet her and also anxietous that something will go wrong. But at the same time I feel this excitement, I also feel like I'm holding on white-knuckled until this challenge is over for me. And I guess I'm just trying to accept the fact that it IS hard for me and tell myself that it doesn't mean I'm any less of a person. There. Thanks for listening :-)

Pools, Bikes and Frogs

Jordyn is LOVING swimming this summer (this is at my parent's pool)! She can finally be a free fish with the help of this tube! She would literally stay in ALL day long if we let her. Her stamina far outweighs everyone else's put together.





Lexi is still a bit timid around the big pool. She had a little fall off the step a few weeks ago and the memory is still too fresh for her. My mom has a kiddie pool outide too, so she sticks to that for now.

Jordyn has been begging for a two wheel bike for so long now and we FINALLY got her one this weekend! It was at Target for $35 and it should last her a couple years. It's a 16 inch bike - which is a tiny bit big for now, but within a month it'll be just right. At 9:45 when we made her go to bed, she was hysterically sad to stop riding. She said "but mom, there are lights on the street so we can keep riding!!".

We bought Lexi a bike too! Her's is a 12 inch, which is perfect for her too. Her's was $29 at Target.

I can't explain how many frogs we have around our neighborhood. Thousands! (Katie, I'm sure that makes you excited to come visit!). This one was just chillin' in the gutter tonight so I snapped a pic of it. Most of the frogs we have currently are tiny, like maybe as big as half your thumb. I guess they help with bugs (to TRY and look on the bright side?).

Recital Success

A big sigh of relief...the much anticipated dance recital is over and both girls got up on stage and did their dances! The bribary must have worked! They did a great job - I am very proud of both of them. It was a long night to endure...the recital lasted about three hours and Lexi didn't go on until the end! My Mom, Dad, Lindy and Ryan also came to support us, which was wonderful. Dance class resumes in a few weeks, but we (I) can put recital anxiety behind us (me) for another year! Hooray!

Practice AND Patience

Today the girls had their dance recital rehearsal. The dance studio they go to puts on a really major recital - only one per year and they rent out a huge theatre. Anyway, today was a full blown dress rehearsal. I was anxious to see how they would respond to such a new environment. Lexi started freaking out at first, and since she tends to be more tempromental, I assumed it would be a total disaster and she would back out. Instead, she performed like a pro! Acted like she'd been on stage forever. Jordyn, on the other hand, is my little performer and LOVES dance class. Never wavers on whether she wants to go. But today she threw me for a loop! Right when it was her turn to go on stage, she freaked out and started crying hysterically! Once she gets like this, there is NOTHING you could say or do to change her mind. So, she didn't do her dance that she's been practicing for 7 months.

Soooo, this is one of those hard times as a parent where you want to be mad and frustrated but you also want to protect their tender little feelings! I just told her its okay to be scared and nervous. But she was also sad that she missed out. So I told her she'd get a second chance tomorrow at the REAL recital and she is promising to do it. I took the girls to Target and let them pick out any barbie they wanted, but it has to sit on the counter until after they dance tomorrow night. (Hey, sometimes bribary is your ONLY option!).

Blackberries Update

Update on my blackberry bush/vine...I harvested my first "crop" today! A big bowl of scrumptious blackberries and it seems as though I'll be getting quite a few more crops before the summer is over! It's very satisfying to eat fruit you've known since it was planted as a little tiny seedling. Now I'm starting to sound a little crazy...

Ultrasound

Here are a couple pics from the ultrasound. My mom went with us - it was helpful with the girls and special for her to "meet" the baby for the first time. (Don't be dis-illusioned, my stomach is actually 40 times bigger than it looks in this pic!!)

The Verdict is In

According to the ultrasound technician...and she's "pretty sure she's not wrong"... it's a GIRL! Can you believe it? I guess somehow we knew it deep down, but we still thought there was a 50/50 chance it could be a boy! But I'm starting to think there is some medical explanation that my family (me, my sisters and my mom) have 99% girls.

The baby seems healthy and normal, which is GREAT. But I have to admit I felt a little tiny bit of sadness. The only way I can explain it is that I'm NOT at all sad it's a girl, I'm just a little sad it's not a boy. It sounded fun to experiene something different. And since we're not sure if we'll have another one (even IF we do, it would be just one more), our chances of having a son are slimming down to almost none! Tucker could not hide his dissapointment. I have no fear that he'll love this little girl with the same devotion as the other two...I just think it's more the possibility of losing a dream he's always had...does that make sense?

Anyway, there's the (not so shocking) answer!! No more mystery (unless by some small chance the tech was wrong...does that even happen nowadays? We thought my sister was a boy till she came out, but that was 17 years ago. Hmmmm)

Like Mother Like Daughter(s)

I discovered this picture in my car today...randomly. And I showed it to Jordyn. She said "Mommy, is that me?". I said no and explained that it was Mommy, when I was little (maybe three years old, on my new canopy bed...is that right mom?). She was fascinated by the fact that I WAS so little but I'm now so big. It was cute. Anyway, when I showed it to Tucker he said it looked like a mixture of both girls. Funny how I can pass on genes to create two girls with such different characteristics, yet they both resemble me. Genes are amazing, aren't they? Makes me even more anxious to meet #3.

Five Random Thoughts of Mine

1. You guys are no help to me! The vote for boy vs. girl stands at 50/50! I was hoping for SOMMMMEEE clue! Ha ha. Our ultrasound has actually changed to Tuesday, so I will make the announcement then. The baby has been kicking a lot lately...Tucker actually felt it for the first time last night. That's the #1 highlight of pregnancy...until it starts to hurt of course :-)

2. I had my carpets professionally cleaned a few days ago and I feel like I'm living in a brand new house again! To the normal visitor, it probably doesn't look that different, but I can FEEL that it's cleaner and I love it! I've done it a few times on my own, but they came and did virtually every square inch of the 1800 sq ft - which would have killed me off. So, thanks for encouraging me to do it, Mom!

3. Lately it's started to hit me that in a few months, any errand I run or task I want to accomplish will become a LOT more difficult with a baby in tow! Three kids at Target sounds almost impossible because the way I'm bombarded with "MOM, MOM, MOM" the whole time I'm there with just two kids NOW wears me out! So, even though my energy level doesn't feel up to this, mentally I'm starting to feel that I should run errands every single day - even if I don't need anything!! :-)

4. It's always important and fun to be pregnant at the same time as SOMEONE you know. I have one of my best friends, Beth, who is three weeks ahead of me. She lives here close to us and our kids are really close as well. It's both of our third babies and we can complain to eachother and not feel bad! It's great.

5. Tucker amazes me all the time. I have honestly never seen someone who genuninely has as much fun playing with kids as he does. He can almost always come home from work and immediately go into "fun daddy" mode. They just love it. But what impresses me the most about it is that he has a TON of fun, plays and laughs with them, but he somehow always accomplishes something more than just play with them. OK, for example, last night they wouldn't eat their food so he sat with them and played a game of questions...like "What is your middle name, where were you born, what color eyes do you have, etc" and gave them points if they got it right. He made it seem so exciting. So while he was playing and having fun, they were also learning things. AND then on top of it, he pretended that every bite they took they would grow bigger and showed them and they totally believed it and ate every bite! Anyway, I'm sure I'm not doing justice in explaining...but I just watch in awe a lot of the time because he has so much patience and has so much fun with them. I just feel SO thankful that he is their dad - he teaches me a lot AND especially HELPS me a lot! I love you Tucker!

I did a bad thing...

I made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies tonight...and ate just that for dinner! How could I NOT do that with FRESH cookies? They were so good. But doesn't it help that there was oatmeal in them? And doesn't it help that I actually rode my bike today? Sure, of course it does!!! :-)

Fruit & Flowers

I just LOVE to plant things and watch them grow. I get such a thrill from it! In my backyard I have planted (edible things) limes, lemons, dwarf Fugi apple tree, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and a blackberry vine. The blackberries take a lot of patience because they vine one year, then flower & fruit the next! So I'm really excited about these!

Here is the Blackberry vine...they blackberries are starting to turn pink! Yummy!

In my front yard we have lots of flowers. I love to have lots of colors and varieties. We've got lots of bulbs that sprout up for a few months straight, but since those only last a short period of time, I love to also plant lots of summer flowers that bloom for a long time. So far, things are looking quite beautiful!

Here is part of our front flower bed. Sort of an eclectic look of lots of beauties. I just love it!

Slip N Slide!

We found a fun surprise package on our doorstep last night from "Auntie" Tiffany! When we opened it, the girls were thrilled to see a Dora Slip N Slide and have asked ALLLLLL day long to do it! Finally we set it up this evening and they had a blast (so did Daddy, of course!). Thanks for the fun Tiff! (Our strange cat actually plays with water...unlike most other cats who hate it!)

Dance Class Pictures

Today the girls had pictures taken with their dance classes. They wore their little outfits that they'll wear for their recital in a couple weeks. They were SOOO excited to get all dolled up and girly with their makeup and costumes. It was just too cute. Lexi is in a Toddler gym class and Jordyn is in a Tap/Ballet/Jazz class and they've been practicing their "routines" since January. So hopefully they're ready! At the very least, I hope they'll have fun doing it.

Baby Magic Lotion

My family has this thing about SMELLS. We have extra keen noses and can smell anything bad from miles away, but we also love good smells. One example is (and this was taught to us by our wonderful mother) that babies MUST smell GOOD - all the time. There are lots of baby lotions to help accomplish this (not that a natural newborn smell isn't THE BEST...but add on some spit up, etc and you DO need some help!), but Baby Magic has always been our favorite. For as long as I can remember! Well, sadly enough the company was bought out by Playtex and the lotion was re-bottled and COMPLETELY changed! No remnant of the original smell left at all - zero, zilch, zip!

Long story short...NOT that there aren't other good-smelling baby lotions...but this has been the smell of our babies for the past, who knows, 16+ years. SOOOOOOO, since it is discontinued and GONE from any store shelf...good ol' ebay came in pretty handy. I bought three bottles of it for like three times as much as I would have spent at the store a year ago, but I couldn't bear the thought of my next little one not having this yummy smell on him/her! I'm pathetic, I know. But I'm happy about it!

I'm Such a Wimp!

I feel like such a wimpy mom lately. But, seriously, it's 95+ degrees here and the kids are begging me to push them on the swingset. OK, so I'm feeling officially pregnant and can already tell my feel are swelling, PLUS I have arthritis in one foot & knee which isn't that comfortable...so I can last out there pushing them all of about 5-10 minutes and then I find myself madly thinking of ANYthing else we can do except be outside!!! How sad is that! My poor kids don't care if it's 1000 degrees. But I can see their cheeks flushing fast and I know we still have like 15 degrees hotter to go. Ugh. Summertime in Central CA is the price you pay for beautiful winters I guess.

Ultrasound Date

Just thought I'd start the 'countdown' of our Ultrasound to find out if it's a boy or girl (and of course if the baby is healthy)! Two weeks from today...June 12 is the date. Hopefully the baby will cooperate and we'll finally be able to start picking out names. Of course we think it would be fun to have a boy, but somehow with my family's track record it seems so unlikely. What do you think? Vote at the top of the page.

One of My Favorite Things

I just have to publicly proclaim my love for Chili's Boneless Buffalo Wings. I have loved Chili's ever since I first went there...I was probably 17 or so. I even worked there in college. It's for sure my favorite restaurant - y'know, like an old comfy pair of pajamas. I can ALWAYS find something there that I like. But I can hardly ever go there without getting the Boneless Wings. I love Buffalo Wings anyway, but their Boneless Wings are SOOOOO good. You really should try them if you haven't (and if you like sort of spicy things). Yummmm!

*In case you can't tell by the subject of my post...I am feeling quite a bit better AND am certainly having pregnancy cravings (wings!). :-)

Tahoe!

We're back! We had the most wonderful trip to Tahoe. It was so relaxing and fun! We had a family reunion for Tucker's side of the family and there were 9 adults and 10 children (ages 3 months up to 10 years old!). We rented a home in South Lake Tahoe and we couldn't have picked a better location and house. It had a 10,000 sq foot backyard for all the kids to play in (sanity saver for adults!) and we were a mile from the lake and many other beautiful and fun hikes, biking trails, waterfalls. It was just perfect. We ate lots of food and played lots of games and just hung out with all the family. Jordyn and her cousins even swam in the FREEZING lake! Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the US, and because of this it stays really cold. This time of year the surface temps are somewhere in the 50's! Yeah, I said freezing!! Anyway, Tucker's parents plus three of his sisters came with their families...his three brothers weren't able to come unfortunately. We had so much fun spending time together. And Tahoe is just SO beautiful. Here are some pics of our trip...

A little longer...

I'm officially going to take a little longer break from blogging...maybe another week or so. So don't write us off forever! It's just gotten hard not having my computer and hopefully it will be fixed soon. We're having a family reunion in Tahoe this coming week so after that hopefully I'll be back on the blogging wagon. TTFN

Anniversary

Today is our 6th anniversary! 6 years! They've really been six full, good years. I have a husband who I love very much and I feel so blessed in our lives together. Plus 2 and a half wonderful kids! :-) Our anniversary always feels squeezed between a few birthdays and Mother's Day, but we managed to go out to eat at Red Lobster for a quick bite. First restaurant I've been to since before I was prego. I finally felt SORT of up to it. Anyway, it was a fun little date! And a little See's candy for dessert always makes it even better!

Birthday Gift

I probably shouldn't admit to this, but who really cares! One of my guilty pleasures is playing Tetris - I've loved it for like 20 years. I hardly get a chance to play anymore...until recently. Tucker got me a Gameboy Advance for my birthday - with Tetris. One of those guilty pleasures that I wouldn't buy for myself, but I'll sure take one if someone's giving it to me! I find a few minutes here and there for a game of Tetris. Now...if I can find a Super Mario Bros for Gameboy...I'll be complete! Yeah, I'm still stuck back in 1990. Who needs these new $400 systems? Not me!

A Few Thoughts...

1 - My laptop is dying - having all sorts of probs. I haven't been online much because of this. I don't want it to die yet! We've had it 3 1/2 years, but have used it SO much. Yet another expense...

2 - Today is my birthday. I'm 29. Not a big deal and I don't have any issues w/turning 29, but it is starting to sound older than I feel. Or...maybe a better way to describe it is that I don't really feel any certain age (if that makes sense). I just feel like me! It is a little strange, though, to turn 29 because I remember my mom being 29. I think that was the first age I connected she even HAD an age! I was 6 or 7.

3 - Lexi has perfected the art of climbing out of her crib. This is a sad thing for us. It means that she gets out like 5 times a night before falling asleep. And she is getting up about 1 1/2 hours earlier in the morning because she CAN! Guess she's ready for a big girl bed, huh?

4 - My grandma (mom's mom) had a really hard week. She's been in the hospital and had some cognitive and physical traumas recently. My mom has been down in Anaheim at her side. It's very hard to see someone who has been a pillar of strength my whole life become so weak and needy. She is actually doing a little better now and is home, but is still very fragile.

5 - I am starting to have better parts of the day (nausea-wise), but definitely NOT whole days. The nausea just a nagging, lingering feeling that I am obviously getting sick of. I know pregnancy cravings are normal, but it is so strange that the past week that I have craved: Orange Juice (which I NEVER drink because one sip usually gives me heartburn...the past few days I've drank a half gallon per day!!!) and Spaghetti (which, again, I eat MAYBE once per year. One of my least fav meals usually). So wierd! (I'm a little embarrased to post this pic of me, but I thought some of you may get a kick out of my budding belly).

Better go...kids are hysterical and need to go to bed. More later. :-)

Silly Girls

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Photo Sharing
It's amazing to me that the girls could be this wild and silly one minute...and then a few minutes later be asleep in their beds! But wow, they sure are entertaining and fun for Tucker and I (and exhausting!).

A Child's Point of View

Just had to share this funny story...

So, the other day Jordyn spotted a toy on the counter that actually belongs to a dollhouse at my mom's house. She pointed it out to me and I said "Yep, we'll have to take it to Grandma next time we go over there". She said "Uh oh mom, Grandma needs this. We better email it to her!".

I got a kick out of this and thought two things:
1 - Maybe...Jordyn...just maybe someday!
or
2 - Maybe I need to spend less time on the computer!