Sincerely Shells

A rough patch

2012-01-27T20:02:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks have been a bit rougher (is that a word?!) than usual. I have been so grumpy and just couldn't shake it for the longest time. I don't know why. There isn't really a good reason, but it was like I could hear myself speaking so harshly to the girls and having no patience whatsoever. Not that it has been that easy! Not only did Chloe drop her one and only nap, we also started potty training. I hate potty training!!!!!! It is by far one of the most frustrating experiences in parenting I have had! However! Chloe is doing so well and she has only a few accidents here and there and has caught on so quickly!

To deal with the no nap situation (whhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa), I have to put into place a "Quiet time" which I call Play time. They would be opposed to anything named quiet. I hear parents tell me that when their child dropped a nap, they still sent them to their room to read books quietly or play for 1-2 hours.

...
?
...
that sort of thing exists??!?

We are starting out with a 15 minute time period first. I set the timer and the girls have to go upstairs and play either together or separately for 15 minutes WITHOUT calling for Mommy to help with ANYTHING.

This might sound like a "duh" for most parents but my children for some reason are attached to my hip at all times during the day. I occasionally get a break where they are distracted enough to let me be but it comes with several "Mommyyyyyyyyyy, I need help buttoning this dress" or "Mommmmyyyyyyy etc. etc." So 15 minutes of bliss a day. That is my starting point and eventually, HOPEFULLY, will be an hour!

The good thing is, if Chloe hasn't snuck in a nap while driving somewhere for some reason, both girls are snoring away by 7:30.

Something else I have finally learned in my 2 years of stay-at-home mommyhood is how to schedule my day. Because of the before mentioned at-hip thing, I tried to schedule out the entire day (ex. from 10-10:15, read books, from 10:15-10:30 eat snack, from 10:30-10:40, play puzzles). Ridiculous, I know. Now I am trying to block out my day in much bigger segments that include play time with the kids, some sort of teaching time, my "quiet" time (whoo hoo), a chore time for mommy, and some outdoor activity if weather permits. For example, on Saturdays it looks something like this

Wake up time to 10 involves just getting up and getting everyone ready and fed.

10-11:30 Baking Time: We try to bake something together. It may not last the entire time but they can do something else if we finish up early.
11:30-12:30 Lunch and clean up
12:30-2:30 Make crafts for Grandparents
2:30-4:00 Play time while I clean the Living room
4-5: Play outside somewhere
5-7:30 Dinner and clean up.

I tried spacing my cleaning chores to one room a day. If I spent the whole day cleaning my entire house, it would be wrecked within a matter of minutes. This way I can give special attention to each room and do a quick up of the rest of the house before bed.

I have only been trying this schedule for a few weeks but it works wonderfully for me. With the exception of me getting off track with potty training, it has been nice to not feel so overwhelmed with housework. If the bathroom is looking a little dingy, I know it will get it's "day" soon and I don't worry about it.

I will end with a picture of my dear Clobo. We momentarily lost her in the house one day and I opened up our dark laundry room to find her there...

Hmmm..not a bad idea!!

My little artists

2012-01-27T18:01:00.000-08:00

The girls are constantly drawing and coloring around here. I feel overwhelmed with the amount of artwork that seems to pile up and cover my refrigerator. I saw this on Pinterest and loved it for my kitchen wall that has been empty since we moved in!

K drew this. At first I was a little worried, but then she explained it was an ant carrying a birthday candle, lol. I thought it was a knife.

Our family :)

Chloe's artwork from church :)

I custom ordered the vinyl lettering. Not too bad!

Zoo

2012-01-27T17:53:00.000-08:00

We went to the San Diego Zoo on our "Sunday" which is your Thursday for the rest of the world. It was nice to get out! Especially since it had been such a rough week!

Kaitlyn does this belly dancing type dance with her eyes half closed. So funny!

Clo and Lamby :)

Oh Kangaroo. I totally know how you feel!

Every large cat in the park kept pacing back and forth...kinda scary actually!

Froyo and Disney

2012-01-05T10:20:00.001-08:00

Been lots of fun having the parents back in town. Photos from my phone over recent events.

The Nutcracker!

2011-12-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

I felt Kaitlyn was old enough to go see the Nutcracker this Christmas season, so we got tickets! My mom came with us and it was such a special time!! She did really well, even though our seats were almost literally at the very top. Although she enjoyed it, I think that seeing a play or even a musical will be more entertaining for her at this age!

Cookie Decorating

2011-12-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

We finally got to our cookie decorating this year! The girls helped from start to finish! They did a really nice job too. It got super messy, but was fun nonetheless.

I love Kaitlyn's face here.

Oh my!

My three Fairies

2011-12-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

This poor dog. I think one day I will get bit. Lol.

The Royal Fairytale

2011-12-15T14:40:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law Bronwyn and I took our girls to the Royal Fairytale located in El Cajon. This is totally up their alley! I purchased these tickets on Groupon for only $10 (whoo hoo, love that). I wasn't sure if it would be worth it but it was SOOO cute!!

First the girls had to locate their name tags in the glass slippers.

Then Rapunzel went around to each girl and talked to them :)

While half the girls went to get dressed and get their hair done, the other half listened as Rapunzel told them a story.

Time to get dressed! Norah chose Sleeping Beauty.

Kaitlyn chose Belle (surprisingly since there were Ariel costumes!)

Then while waiting to get their hair done, they got lip gloss and a purple glitter star on their cheeks :)

So beautiful!

Give me a princess pose!

Tea time was hilarious! They weren't supposed to drink any tea until Rapunzel had served everyone. K was done drinking by the time Rapunzel served the last girl. lol. Then she asked her for more.

Rapunzel taught manners like no elbows on the table...she didn't mention anything about chins.

Now it was time to learn how to dance!

Boa Limbo time!

Sooooo worth it! The girls had a GREAT time!

My beautiful girls

2011-12-15T14:03:00.000-08:00

These two warm my heart.

It is hard everyday and I lose sight of my purpose often. When I look on here at my girls, I remember what is truly important and everything else fades.

My beautiful girls...

Ornament tradition

2011-11-26T20:26:00.001-08:00

We started this tradition last year so I was looking forward to it again! It was a little different this year because we discovered Canterbury Gardens here in Escondido. It is a cute little store that gets really decorated for the holidays and sells all types of ornaments. So we headed there after dinner to pick out an ornament together. Then we went to get some frozen yogurt afterwards :)

Here is the ornament we all decided on. It was from the Candy Tree.

Kaitlyn picked out this little disco ball for her.

My little cooks

2011-11-26T18:53:00.001-08:00

Kaitlyn has always helped me in the kitchen since she was little. I really wanted to get Chloe into helping me too as I love bonding with them this way. Grandma Nancy sent a cute little apron for Chloe so we tried it on today. She didn't want to take it off for nap time and even wore it to our Family night out. Kaitlyn actually helps me with the cooking but Chloe is more interested in "cooking" in the sink (which translates into playing in the water!). I am glad she likes this because it keeps them busy while I am cooking!

Princess Minnie

2011-11-26T15:31:00.001-08:00

Minnie is really good with the girls. They just love her :) She is always being snuggled with or played with. Sometimes, I am sure the dog would rather the girls didn't play with her. lol.

Our past weeks :)

2011-11-23T09:43:00.001-08:00

Here are some random pictures from the last few weeks :)

This is Skinny Minnie. She replaced Annie (long story, gave Annie to another family with another puppy). She is very well behaved and as you can see, very spoiled :)

We put up our Christmas Tree last week. I think I put it up earlier and earlier every year! I can't help it!! It was a lot of fun this year as Chloe was really into it!

The girls made a fort out of some boxes! What cutie pies!

Command Center

2011-11-20T14:29:00.001-08:00

I have been wanting to make an organization board for a long time now and finally just did it! I call it my command center. what a nerd.

When it comes to cooking, if I don't have a planned out menu, I will fail. I am a fast food junkie and if I don't have something planned, guess what we eat! My weekly problem would be that I would plan out my menu on a scratch paper next to my grocery list. Go to the grocery store, and then throw my list away forgetting my menu was on it.

I also would get a lot of recipes online and then when it was time to make it, would have to go look it up again and waste all this time on the computer.

I can lay out a few more excuses, but you get the point!

So I made my board. I have a weekly schedule on it including a to-do list and menu for each day (Yes, I realize the lines are crooked and YES it drives me crazy. I made it while watching Desperate Housewives, so it didn't have my full attention). I can write it all up there, grab a piece of paper from the magnetic notepad and make my grocery list. I added some cork board to the bottom for any important things that we can't forget about. I can also print out any recipes and stick them in the little recipe envelope. I even made a little pen/pencil holder out of my leftover cork board. I added a receipt envelope too since I am always having to return things for some reason and throw away the receipt on accident. I hung the board next to my computer.

There you have it. My command center. It's not perfect. It's not very pretty! But it is functioning! lol.

Recipe Bliss

2011-11-12T21:26:00.001-08:00

This fellow blogger is from my MOPS group and I am trying EVERY recipe on here. She just started about a year ago and doesn't update a ton, but so far a lot of her stuff looks yummy! I even made the homemade deodorant. Lol.

Heavy on Wholesome

Can you spare some change?

2011-11-11T21:14:00.001-08:00

The past 4 years, I have been just trying to keep my head above water. Just trying to stay afloat. Doing the bare minimum to survive...you get the point!

I can't say my life is calm to the point where I have a TON of free time. Recently, however, I have had a tad more free time and have been able to put more effort into a lot of things around the home. I have been yearning to make a few changes around here to just be a better homemaker by my own standards. I always want to eat and cook healthier. I want to organize my home better. I want to make things and be super crafty. So I decided to dedicate posts here and there to my new found spare time (spare is the key word here, haha). It is not going to happen overnight! Hopefully, my girls can benefit someday from their Momma's steps into becoming better :) After all, that is what this blog is mainly for, my girls :)

Halloween

2011-10-31T20:09:00.000-07:00

This was fun this year! We haven't really gone trick or treating with the girls before. They were both so adorable and Kaitlyn was all about going door to door. She was very much down to business.

Clo on her sugar high. lol.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2011-10-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

I remember this commercial from a long time ago...

Nike Commercial

Oh my...do you know something? My bed and pillow call out to me every time I enter my bedroom. Sadly, I long to lay in my bed all day and just sleep. I am not depressed, I promise! It is just sooo comforting to me to lay in my bed and feel my cool pillow against my face and get all warm and toasty under my covers. I always struggled with getting out of bed on time when I was working. I would give myself only 10 minutes to "get ready" before I rushed off to work because I couldn't get up on time. I would try to use the heater in my car to blow dry my hair and put my makeup on when I reached my desk at work. I love sleep. :(

Every time I put Chloe down for her nap, I tell her how lucky she is. She even started repeating it back to me without me saying it first... "I'm lucky mom?" haha.

Now that I have kids, I can't really sleep in like I used to. I don't want to be "lazy". I REALLY want to be a morning person. I met this woman awhile back that told me her morning schedule. She got up at 5 a.m. ...ON PURPOSE...and got ready, did her hair and makeup, had her quiet time, then when her kids got up, she was totally ready to start her busy day. Do you know what I would like?? I would love to have the self-discipline to do that. And some days I have actually done that. However, most days I know I can sleep (somewhat) until about 7 a.m.

Then I read this quote, "Beside those that have a family to take care of should not love their bed too much in the morning."

Ugh...

Does anyone have any advice????

Sisters

2011-10-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

My two turkeys! I love them so much. They play so well together...most of the time.

Playing hide and seek. K is actually hiding behind the bush. haha

Chloe "hiding."

Welcome Annie!

2011-10-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

Here is the newest member of our family- Annie the Jack Russell Terrier. We have been considering getting a dog in the past few months. Usually I am not on board with this. Why do I need more to clean up after and I am already stretched as it is?? However, talking to several moms that have dogs with little kids and they said that although it is extra work, it is worth it when the dog entertains your child and vice versa. We felt so bad having to give up our other little dog about a year ago when we lived in our old apartment. It was super poor planning on our part so we decided it was something we weren't going to rush into this time. We asked our landlords (as their pet policy is no pets) if they would reconsider and they decided they would. We searched and searched as to a good fit for our family. We were interested in Jack Russells, Bulldogs, Pugs, or Shih Tzus. We almost got a Shih Tzu but then I read that they are notoriously difficult to potty train. We couldn't find a legit seller for Bulldogs (all we found were scammers) and the only Pug we could find were males. Matt ran across this ad for the Jack Russells and we went and picked her up! Normally, at this time I am so regretting our decision and wishing we hadn't done it but I am in LOVE with her!! She is super sweet and cuddly. AND THE BEST PART is she is already potty trained!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course we have to let her out, but she whines when she has to go and when we let her out she heads for the same spot in the dirt in our backyard. We have had No accidents which was a huge deal for me.

The girls adore her and already spoil her. We are so happy about our decision!

Music Days

2011-10-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

We got to visit out in Beaumont last week and got to join in on the fun music program they have for kiddos. My mom used to take Katers, with Norah and Jalon, to this library when they were younger and we were still out there. It was fun to see all the cousins together!

Strollin with the Homies

2011-10-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

The girls and I went strollering the other day. Katers pushed Beary and Chloe pushed Lamby :) So cute!

My Clobo turns 2!!!

2011-10-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

My little Clobo! You are two years old already!!!! Where did this last year go??? HOW did you get so big!!!

Right now you are always cracking me up. You copy a lot of what we say and you still LOVE your big sister (even though you two fight all the time!). You manage to make your way into Mommy and Daddy's bed every night now although for most of your life you have slept in your crib. You are so good about playing by yourself and you love your new toys. Right now you are really into going for walks and playing with the neighbor friends. You cry anytime one of them leaves. You are slowly allowing others to watch you even at church!!! This makes momma happy since I have never seen a church work so hard to make you happy to stay in Sunday School! Your hair isn't quite long enough for me to style and when I do manage to get a barrette in there, you pull it out. Your sister loves to call you a mad scientist when your hair is crazy and needs to be brushed down. You are fascinated with the word "poopy" and you love when Momma does her crazy puppet show (Jacque and Claude) with the oven mitts. You often make requests for Jacque especially. You still love going to Disneyland and you LOVE Minnie Mouse. Your new show to watch on TV is Shaun the Sheep and you are always asking for it. You still suck your thumb and you love to cuddle with our clothes (clean or dirty) lol. Sometimes you grab onto your pant leg to hold while you suck your thumb which makes it very entertaining to watch you try and walk. You are my sweet Clobo and I love you dearly. Happy Birthday sweetheart!

This was her actual birthday and we let her open her presents when they woke up!

We had her birthday party that weekend and it was a joint birthday party with my nephew Jalon. Chloe's theme was Minnie Mouse and his was Pirates! Here is my attempt at Minnie Mouse cupcakes but the ears flopped by the morning. So much for using edible paper!!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-09-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

We went to Bates Nut Farm to visit their pumpkin patch! It was really big! The girls had a great time and it happened to be Farm Weekend so there were a ton of cool farming exhibits to see and animals to look at!

Our Princess walk to the Mailbox

2011-09-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

The weather was amazing today as it rained for a short while this afternoon! Love it! The girls were all dressed up with nowhere to go so we went for a walk to get the mail. haha.

First Haircut

2011-09-17T19:27:00.000-07:00

I have gotten Kaitlyn's bangs cut but never a haircut. I decided it was time so I took her to a cute kid's salon here in town and got it trimmed! They curled it for her and gave her a bow. They also kept her "baby" hair and gave her a certificate. It was cute :)

Water Wonderland

2011-09-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

Last week we turned our backyard into a water wonderland for the girls. Not sure why we didn't do this all summer and now it is getting cooler, but oh well! haha. They loved it!

First Camping Trip

2011-09-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

My dad invited us to go camping with him and Grandma Lili this past week! It was our first time camping with the girls. Kaitlyn L-O-V-E-D it while I think it was just a normal day of hanging out with mom and dad for Clobo, haha. I think K's favorite part was walking Shiloh and Clo's favorite part was jumping on the bed (which is why there are so many pics of this) inside my dad's tent trailer. The place was in Escondido so Chloe and I could go hope for sleeping and nap times. It had a lake, a swimming pool and a playground for the kids. It was a nice time!! Thanks Dad!

Love my dad's BBQ :)

My Little Preschooler

2011-09-06T13:44:00.000-07:00

Today my little Kaitlyn had her first day of preschool!

I wasn't sure how I would react.

To give a little perspective, other than naps in the car sometimes, she hasn't napped regularly since she was 2 (almost 2 years ago).

...

which translates into 12-13 hours a day with no breaks

...

So while I of course love her and miss her when she is there...

I LOVE PRESCHOOL!

She goes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 to 3:30 which happens to fall duing Chloe's naptime. Coincidence?? I think not!

Here she is before we left.

We had to decorate a bucket that she has to take everytime to hold her stuff.

They have a huge sand and water play area.

See? Wasn't even sad to see me go! Here she is running to play with something fun!

Dress Up

2011-09-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

To play dress up...this is an understatement in our house. It is a way of life around here. I don't think Kaitlyn wears actual clothes anymore.

Thanks to Grammy and her awesome yard sale finds up in Washington, we have enough dress up items to dress an entire kingdom of princesses! This is seriously all Kaitlyn plays with every day. Chloe gets in on the fun now too and all of Kaitlyn's friends!! It is so cute! They get dressed up and have tea parties and go to the "royal ball". They also have dance parties.

Random Pics

2011-09-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the girls over the last two months!

Playing in the ball pit.

I tried! Clo took her ponies out as soon as she noticed them!

Inside Bates Nut Farm (the place with the goats).

My Certified Hubby!

2011-09-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

This post has been a long time coming!

My hubby became a fully certified Air traffic Controller in late July!

I have never been more proud of him! This has been such a long journey to get here. It started when my friend Jessica forwarded me a job posting. At this time, I was working full time and Matt was working at the bank. With a little baby at home and one soon on the way, I so desperately wanted to stay home and prayed for a year and a half to be able to. When I got this job posting, Matt and I both said "Why not?"

So he applied in June of 2009. In September of 2009, he got a letter to come and take a test which tests a person's ability and skills to see if they would be a good match. He took the test and landed on the Well Qualified list. We didn't hear anything until January 2010 in which the FAA inquired as to his preferred geographic locations. Then he got selected for an interview in April 2010 and got a call not too long after that he was selected to be at Southern Ca TRACON located in San Diego! WE could have been sent ANYWHERE!

Of course, I began researching this facility and found some discouraging news. This facility is one of the highest ranked and most busy facilities in the nation. It also had a very low success rate for off the street new hires. When I would tell other people where he was going to work, all they would say was "don't buy a house" meaning it isn't likely he would make it! Ugh!

In July 2010, he got a call to be in Oklahoma City in a week and a half and would be gone for 2 1/2 months training. While we were ecstatic, this meant he was leaving us in my third trimester!!

Two and half months went so very SLOW!!!! In the meantime, I went on official maternity leave, and with the help of my mom and mother-in-law, packed up a house, found a new place to live and moved.

Matt was scheduled to return on October 15, 2010 but his trainer let him finish a day early in hopes he would make it for Chloe's birth! I went into labor at 2 am on October 14, had Clobo at 6:20 and Matt returned that afternoon at 5 pm.

Three days later, we packed up our little family and headed to Lakeside, CA. Matt started that Monday and we went through a VERY hard time during the next three months!

Matt had to complete 5 sectors to become fully certified! At each passed sector, we celebrated and I had tears in my eyes each time! I was sooooo proud of him!!! God blessed him with some of the best trainers at the facility and Matt never gave up!

In July 2011, after 2 years from the time he applied, he became fully certified at one of the most difficult places! He is very much loved at his work and is doing wonderfully!!!! He thouroughly enjoys his job and is so fulfilled there!

K and I threw him a congratulatory party (Clo was sleepin!).

We made him yummy cupcakes!

and hung paper airplanes from the turning ceiling fan

and a congrats banner (which is hard to read)

Of course we also went out to dinner to celebrate!

Congrats Honey!! We are so PROUD of you!!!!

Washington

2011-09-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

We got to visit my dear in-laws in Washington for seven full days a few weeks ago! We seriously had one of the best vacations ever there! We have a ton of photos, so here we go :)

Day 1

We had to be at the airport at 7 am in Long Beach so we had to leave our house by 3:30 am (UGH). I thought the girls would sleep on the way there but they were WIDE awake. They finally crashed at Grammy and Grandpa's house about 5:30 pm.

We visited a nearby park that evening!

Day 2: We took the ferry to Seattle!

Poor Clobo! Crashed again on the couch!

Day 3: I think our favorite times were playing out in the backyard!!! Grandpa set up the tent and some games for us.

We visited a nearby beach when the tide was WAY out so we got to explore what it left behind!

So handsome :)

Poor Grammy! Her shoe broke in the icky mud so I teased her saying I would post this as how people in Washington come to pick up their relatives at the airport.

Building sandcastles with Grammy!

Day 4: We visited Pouslbo (a popular Dutch community).

There was a band of drummers we got to catch! The girls loved dancing.

Day 5: We visited Mt. St. Helens! Wow!! This was amazing!

Day 6: This was our 8th Anniversary!! Grammy and Grandpa took the girls to the zoo while we took off to Seattle for the day!! It was AMAZING! and soooo quiet :)

The Sleepless and Seattle floating house!!! I was in Heaven!

Our crazy tour guide.

Day 7: I didn't get any goodbye pictures but I did get some at the airport! We had such a great time! Thank you so much Grammy and Grandpa!!!!!!

Do you feel God loves you?

2011-07-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

I don't often comment on here about things I have learned from God. Maybe I should? Maybe I shouldn't? I don't ever want to come across like I know it all, or that I am better at something that you aren't, or anything like that. Often, I feel so inadequate on teaching anything about God to anyone, so I don't say anything. But today, I was reminded about God's love for me and hope that it encourages.

Awhile back, I was in a Bible study where our teacher asked us to list how we think God views us individually. My list went something like this:

I know You love me God, but...
I often let You down
I probably disappoint You more than please You.
I can never follow through with anything.
I can't understand how or why You love me.

...you get the idea.

And then it hit me. What if Kaitlyn or Chloe wrote this same list that represented how they thought I viewed them? And tears rolled down my face. My precious Katers and Clobo! Though they challenge me and frustrate me, they are so very dear to my heart and I love them more than they could possibly know. I would be crushed if this is how they thought of me and my love for them. And there I was thinking this is how God felt about me even though I do let Him down all the time.

Today in church our Pastor touched on this subject. Not just knowing that God loves you, but feeling that God loves you. I usually stay far away from that word "feeling" because I thought that we weren't supposed to base anything on our feelings since they change so often. Which is true to some extent. But God made us with a desire to feel love from people and from Him. It is OK to want to feel God's love. It is OK to ask to feel God's love!!!

This is probably a "duh" for most of you I suppose. lol.

I went home a different person and rested in this feeling of God's love. I felt joy today and my kids and I benefited. What an awesome God we have!

Psalm 90:14-Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Big Bear with the Casey's

2011-07-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday and Friday, we had the pleasure of getting away with our wonderful friends Tina and Ryan...without the kiddos!

We went up to Big Bear and stayed at the Grey Squirrel Inn! On Thursday we went out to town to look at some of the shops and then out to dinner at a BBQ place by the beach. YUM. Then went shopping at Kmart! It was so much fun going shopping without the kids! We bought snacks and some fun games to play. That night we stayed up until...drumroll please...11:30 PM. hahaha After I kicked all their tails in our fun dice game, we decided to go to bed.

I thought this dog was going to drown!

Whoa! Hey Now!

Ok...this is worse! lol.

There we go!

They made me act like a dork! haha

In the morning, I got up at 7 am. I guess I am officially old now that I wake up at that time on my own when I could have had the chance to sleep in! It was nice though so I took a walk and snapped this pic outside our porch!

After everyone got up, we headed to the Big Bear Airport and ate at the airport cafe. This is something the Casey's like to do and is now something I would love to continue. It was so fun to watch the planes and the food was pretty good.

Afterwards we went shopping some more (hehe) and then went to the Alpine sledding place. This was actually really fun but I am a big chicken and was scared to go down the track too fast. I think I got passed by two elementary school kids on the other side.

We had such a nice time visiting with our dear friends who we love!!

Dirty Low Britches

2011-07-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

My little Chloe loves to splash in the mud. Apparently she didn't care that she was in a diaper that was hanging down to her toes. Lol.

She was talking to herself in her reflection.

"Hi! I'm Co-wee" (her new favorite phrase!)

Pandamania!

2011-07-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

Kaitlyn got to attend her first Vacation Bible School at church! She loved it and came home each day with such a cute craft and a new song to sing! My heart melted each day as I went to pick her up. I sat in the back of the church and watched her sit up front singing worship songs to God. She even got to go up on stage one time and sing the song (I didn't get to see it though). I can't wait when Chloe is old enough to enjoy it too!

Oak Glen

2011-07-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, the girls and I went to Beaumont and we all headed to Oak Glen for the afternoon. The kids had a great time and the weather was beautiful!

JJ was on time out so I told him to look sad so I could take a picture. haha

K wasn't crying because she was hurt, she got scared by something, but was being over dramatic. So I snapped a picture. lol.

The beach

2011-07-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

After Matt got home from work yesterday, we headed for the beach to meet my sister and her two sons. They took the train so they had to leave shortly after we got there but I still got some pictures. I have to say, this was one of the most fun times I have had with my kids. Although we do a lot of fun stuff, it is stressful and hectic with a 3 and 1 year old. But yesterday, they just played in the sand and we built a castle together. No one was whiny, no one was crying, no one was fighting, no one was complaining about the sand being dirty, and most importantly, no one was trying to run away from mommy and daddy! It was so fun!!!!!

My Princess

2011-07-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

On May 31st (I know it was a long time ago), Kaitlyn and I got to take a special trip to Disneyland in the afternoon to ride on the new Ariel ride. This is both of our favorite Disney movies so we were super excited! I have never gotten to go with Kaitlyn by myself so I was really looking forward to it!

Here we are in line! It was very deceptive, only looked like it wrapped around once...but it wrapped a whole bunch more! We were in line 45 minutes (not too bad considering it was a new ride).

My little Turkey was in a sticking out tongue mood. At least I got some of Ariel in the background!

I thought the ride was cute! Here is K with her new princess gloves which she wore over her sweatshirt the rest of the night. lol.

I love you my little Kaitlyn!

4th of July

2011-07-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

We planned a last minute 4th of July get together with my family here at our house! It was nice to visit as I had to miss our last family gathering. We served Mexican food (lol, I know it is an American holiday) and went swimming! So very nice! We didn't know how the fireworks were out here but I heard that 25,000 people attended last year and that parking was horrible. We decided against going but hopefully next year we will go!

Visit with the Hensley's!

2011-07-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

Matt and Nick were good friends in high school! He and his wife and son came to visit us while they were on vacation down here in San Diego. Matias (their son) was Kaitlyn's new BFF. Such a sweet family! We met them at Sea World (didn't get any pictures!) and then we all went to Seaport Village the next day.

Visits :)

2011-06-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

We have been busy again! We have had lots of visits from our friends and are expecting another visit this week from Matt's friend Nick that he knew in high school.

Here are some pictues of the girls!

Clo loves pudding!!!

Claire (our neighbor) was over for a tea party!!

The Caseys were here with us for one night! Sean is one of K's best friends! These will be the blackmail pictures of the century I think!

I love Tina!!

The girls thought it was funny to put their fingers in their noses...sigh.

Missing our Airplane Grandma and Grandpa

2011-06-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

We had such a nice time visiting with Airplane Grandma and Grandpa!! I am mad at myself for not getting more pictures but at least we will when we are up in Washington next month. At least we got one with Grandma Nancy :) We all went and visited the goats (of course) and went to Old Town one night. Yummy Mexican food!! whoo whoo. On Friday and Saturday morning Nancy took me yardsaling (spelling!?). I...am...HOOKED! I got a spice rack that I am going to paint for $1 that hangs on the wall. I got a new electric can opener for $3 and she got a little mixer (like a Bullet) for $1 that she gave to us that is awesome!! I also got the girls some new books! I was so excited! I can never pay full price for anything. I thought thrift stores were good deals, but now I can't even go there. lol.

Here is Kaitlyn in her new Ariel dress.

Aww! Grandma Nancy!!

Matt and his dad love beer. So apprently this was good enough to take pictures of. haha

The girls and I went on a Nature walk today around our condos.

Here is a famous Kaitlyn pose.

Loving the glasses and the crusty nose. haha.

I love you girls!!

Catch up!

2011-05-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

Lots to blog about today :)

We are all doing ok here! Kaitlyn had pink eye last week which was pretty difficult on us. Not only could we not really get out of the house, I didn't want to drag out every single toy or craft and possibly infect it with pink eye! They watched TV way too much but what can I do in that situation.

Chloe is saying so much now!! I guess this is another good thing about Kaitlyn talking so much, Chloe hears a TON of stuff ALL day long! Some of her new sayings are:

I dance!

I jump!

Be nice, Share! (she hears this one ALL the time from me telling K, haha)

More milk.

All done.

She is getting more and more attached to Daddy and cries often for him, which completely melts his heart!

Matt is still doing great!! He finished his last two sectors in the lab and has moved out onto the control floor for the last time to train and finish his two sectors there! And then he will be completely certified!!!! Go honey!!

We are still doing our workouts! Matt lost 7 pounds and I lost 5 so far. I am mostly excited to be toning up more than anything :)

WE are so excited that Matt's parents are going to visit in two weeks and we booked our trip to Washington to see them late July to August for 7 whole days!!! Can't wait!!!!

These pictures are from a recent Disney trip that I haven't posted yet.

Clo looks so big here :)

Matt took Friday off last week and the four of us went to SeaWorld (ya, I know...we really try to get out of the house as much as possible!) I ALWAYS check the weather report but didn't this time, and sadly forgot some jackets. We were dressed like we were going to the beach, but it was Freezing there!!! We still had a great time :)

Another fun outing we did this weekend, was to go and visit our favorite animals...the goats! haha It was beautiful there and it was nice to get out!

I remember Chloe would cry when we would come here because she was so afraid of the goats. Now she throws corn at them through the fence and cries "Goats, Goats" when we leave because she doesn't want to go. What a cutie :)

I love this picture. I told Kaitlyn to pose with the goat. This is her idea of posing. lol.

Today, we attended a birthday party for our neighbor's son. Their mom has the coolest ideas! She did a carnival and the kids got to play games and win tickets to get their face painted and to win prizes. VERY fun for the kids and so creative!! I will have to steal this idea someday!

The girls had to find matching ducks! So cute!

K got her face painted, well she calls it her face tatoo. She is posing for me again. lol.

Here are some random pics that I thought I would throw in!

K with one of her ladybugs. (They are all dead now, thankfully, haha)

Matt said Clo looks like an old lady in this bathing suit and hat. haha

Random Info

2011-04-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Wow! Four blog posts in one day!

This one is just random stuff!

Matt and I ordered a new workout program that we can do at home and have successfully completed 1 out 12 weeks. It is pretty intense but I saw before and after pics of a friend of mine and I was super impressed! It is a great bonding experience and I am excited to see our new changes and we are already feeling better (we have to eat healthy too, booooo). If I am brave enough, I will post before and after pictures. Here is the link to my friend's story

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.carldaikeler.com%2F2011%2F03%2Fa-smokin-hot-turbofire-success-story%2F&h=b42d7

I have picked up another side job! I have been a mystery shopper for six months or so and now I am a dog walker. The dog belongs to one of Matt's co-workers and is really sweet. Her name is Tori! The girls enjoy it too and it is only three days a week from time to time!

Other than that, we are just busy busy busy! Here are some random pics of the girls!

K and I made a maze using poker chips one day.

The girls LOVE for me to dump the clean laundry on them.

K and I discovered we could make cookies without needing eggs (we used applesauce) so we were celebrating that we could all the dough we wanted without fear of getting sick, lol.

K got some new makeup (sigh). She thinks it goes over her eyebrows.

Ladybug Extravaganza

2011-04-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

Many bugs have come through our house these past few weeks. First the butterflies, now the ladybugs. We got K a ladybug home (which she named the Ladybug Festival) that has a merry-go-round, maze, ferris wheel (oh brother) and such. lol. Her ladybugs came in the mail and into the ladybug festival they went.

Instead of hearing all day "When will the caterpillars turn into butterflies?", we now hear "Can I get a ladybug out and play with it?"

All of the ladybugs that have passed away this week at the hands of my daughters, may you rest in peace.

I cringe everytime I step on something on the floor. I have never been so happy to see it is only a crumb.

At breakfast one morning, K insisted the Ladybug festival be on the table next to her. I was in the kitchen, and I heard this scream come from the dining room. Apparently, not have listened to my directions, she dropped the festival on the table and the ladybugs covered her bagel with cream cheese and her. I have never seen a child more frightened. The ladybugs got their revenge for all their fallen family members.

Today the girl's and I went to the Annual Ladybug Festival in Encinitas. It is really simple but I thought they would enjoy it and we went last year. Here are the pics from that.

Easter

2011-04-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

We had a really nice Easter! The girls got their baskets in the morning and in the afternoon we headed over to my brother's house for a wonderful egg hunt and dinner!! As always, the girls LOVED playing with all their cousins!

My little Clobo

2011-04-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

My little Clobo

You are one of the loves of my life!!! You are at such a fun age right now!

You are sooooo different from your sister in that you can play on your own for hours and be totally fine. You will find anything and everything to play with and entertain yourself and it is wonderful! You are really into closing doors right now and so often I find you in your room with the door closed and you are sitting on your caterpillar chair sucking your thumb and reading a book.

You really love to go in our shower and hang out in there and you enjoy giving your stuffed animals baths in the toilet. You love to lay on piles of clothes or blankets and say "nite nite". I often find you in a laundry basket.

You love to play with stuffed animals and the doll houses. You are always trying to stuff little pet shop animals inside the doll house refrigerators and put them on the doll house potty.

You love to put things in your pink stroller and stroller them around still. I find a lot of my kitchen utensils in there a lot.

You are talking a ton right now and the other day you read me your No No Yes Yes book. My heart melted to see how much you are learning and it makes me so proud!!

I think you are a perfectionist. You get VERY upset when things won't go neatly into whatever you are trying to stuff them in. The other day, you helped me take the clothes out of the dryer and put them in the basket. If the clothing was hanging over the edge, you had to make sure it got all the way into the basket.

I love you my little Clobo!!!!!

Egg Hunt

2011-04-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today the girls and I went to one of our favorite places. The local Boys and Girl's Club host a little pre-school program a few days a week that we love to go to and today they had an Easter egg hunt. It was super crowded but we managed to still have a good time :)

The girls got to make bunny hats :)

Sing and Dance :)

Chloe had a death grip onto me when I tried to put her on the bunny's lap...so I didn't go there. haha

Poor Chloe! This picture just makes me laugh! She is so cute even though her eyes are closed!

A Butterfly Lesson

2011-04-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

Kaitlyn got a Butterfly Kit from my sister for her birthday! We waited patiently for her caterpillars in the mail and when they arrived, all we heard for a few days was "are they butterflies yet??". lol.

Once they became butterflies, Kaitlyn was sure that they were going to fly around her room and sleep with her at nighttime. And of course, they would land on her finger at her command. Poor thing!

She quickly learned that they had to stay safe in their butterfly home until we could release them in the backyard.

We tried to release them on Saturday after Ballet class, but the turkeys wouldn't budge from their house. Maybe it was too cold??

So we released them today! Three of the five flew away right after we got them out. But two stayed in our garden most of the day. While Chloe was taking a nap, I was doing dishes while Kaitlyn was outside playing. She was so quiet and I didn't want to interrupt this rare occasion, so I didn't question what she was doing (I was watching out the window).

She re-captured one of the butterflies and made it a new "home". She then fed it bubble solution and mint leaves she picked from my plant. I am not sure if the butterfly will make it, but at least it enjoyed a nice So. California day once in it's short lifespan.

She is teaching me how to get the food and put it in the special butterfly cup.