Coming out of the "1st year haze"

My kids are watching "Enchanted Meatballs" right now. You get an imaginary gold star if you know which movie that is. A more concrete schedule is settling in on our family, which I am extremely happy for. It seems like it's taken quite a while for us! I thought finding a new normal after 3 kids would be easy like it had been with our first two, but nope. I know it didn't help having a a husband in the thick of thesis writing/graduate school, or moving to a completely different state either. I've learned a lot over the past year though. After reading a friend's post about remembering herself as a interesting person along side her children, I was motivated to write some of what I've been up to. 

1. I count myself among the women obsessed with all things Jane Austen, or anything from the era she wrote about. I loved the new BBC productions put out for Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey this year. I am dying to watch "Young Victoria." I'm waiting for it to hit the dollar theater, because I hate paying more than a few bucks to see a movie in the theater

2. Trader Joe's has some great stuff. I love their Oreo knock-off, Joe-Joe's. Pile 4 or 5 of them in a small bowl with Breyer's Vanilla Bean ice cream, and you've got a piece of heaven to eat. 

3. I've had to drop some hobbies to create sanity and free myself of unnecessary life clutter. Scrapbooking and beading were put on the chopping block. I cut back on what I read, trying to be better at pacing myself. If a book can suck me in, I'll justify that 1 am bedtime to finish it. But then I hate myself in the morning. Currently I'm reading "Parenting with Love and Logic." It's got good ideas trying to prevent yelling at your kids, and not creating control battles with them. I still love sewing.

4. I love the beach. I know I will miss it a lot when we leave California!

5. I passed my seasonal allergies onto Evelyn. Poor kid. 

6. My crock-pot has become a good friend in the last 6 months. I love nothing more than having minimal dinner preparation! 

7. I miss seeing farmland. We see strawberry patches on the freeways, but it is not the same at all. 

8. I'm becoming increasingly interested in trying to do things that are better for my family, and for the environment. I'm not turning into a hippie or anything like that. I think global warming and "carbon footprints" are hokey. But doing things like cleaning with more natural ingredients, recycling (which is huge in CA), less processed food, driving less, etc. are really good.
9. I've decided I like hats. They're fun, keep my skin looking good, and cover up the not-so-good haircut I got about a  month ago. I've got 5 currently, I think that number will grow. 

That's plenty long for now. I could go on, but no one would get to the end of this thing! 

Funny Kids Say Funny Things

The other night we were reading scriptures and it was Evelyn's turn to read (We read and she repeats what we say). She stopped in the middle of a verse and asked, "Mommy, why are there so many yea's?"

This little boy

I just love him to pieces. His first birthday is still a few weeks away, but I haven't really said much about him the last couple of months, and he's been changing so fast. This will be his official update. He currently tips the scale at an average 20.6 pounds, and about 30" in length. I grow them long and lean I guess. He's got four teeth, working on the fifth.

Evelyn loves this kid (This is her "I love you" face. I don't know where it came from). They have so much fun together, and they really are closer in personality than he and Jilly. Evelyn loves to help with him, whereas Jilly is still kind of jealous at this point. He's getting jealous too, and when Jill's occupying my lap, Gordon makes a beeline for me and tries to push her out of the way with his head.

He pulls this trick and blowing little raspberries. I love it! It's his happy noise. His other happy noises are yelling "Mommaaaay!" and "Daddaaaaay!" throughout the house. He's my first to have Mom and Dad's names down this early.

He really likes the dirt, sand, bark, leaves, etc. Just like most little boys I guess. He's a smart kid, and I can see him trying to "help" when the girls are playing in the sand.

He really likes writing implements. He's usually got one fisted up in his hand while he crawls around the house. A pen will keep him occupied when I need him to hold still. He also knows they write on paper, and he's in process of trying to figure out how it works.

He loves drinking water out of any container, but not bottles. They can't deliver it as fast as he wants it. He also loves eating. Raisins, cheese and fruit are his favorite foods.

This kid is my climber. I've caught him in many weird places. He's been doing stairs forever, and he knows how to go down them too, but will stop at about 6 stairs and then climb back up to the top and yell for me to come get him if he wants downstairs. His favorite climb is the girl's bunk bed.

And once he's up, he heads straight for the water bottle.

Gordo is also our little technology nerd. He loves keyboards in particular, but a mouse, active cell phone (he knows the difference between a good one and dead one, dang it), camera, remote, and the xBox can all capture his attention. Trying to get computer work done with him awake is near impossible because he wants on your lap so he can push the buttons. In this picture, he pulled out those drawers so he could get to the TV and xBox.

He likes being naked. He does wear clothes most of the time though, I promise. He's so sweet and smiley, I hope he keeps this happy disposition, it brings Ben and I so much joy!

New Camera!

And a very nice camera it is. Here are a few of the many pictures we've been shooting with it:

Chasing seagulls.

I guess he needed to ex-foliate his insides; I don't know why you would actually eat sand. He did eat less than I expected though.

Getting the girls to hold still for a picture at the playground. Gordon likes to meet them at the bottom of the slide.

Ben is in the midst of finals, and besides that we've had a quiet February/March. We were all sick with bronchiolitis for a little while there, but we're all better from that and hopefully that will be the worst we see of the cold and flu season. It's spring here, so I hope all the yucky bugs are on their way out.

Watching Basketball with Dad

For some reason, whenever I watch sports, Gordon will sit as still as can be and watch right along with me. It doesn't last the whole game, of course, but for those fifteen or twenty minutes before he starts eating my face or grabbing my glasses, it's the best thing there is.

Do you love your camera?

Then please tell me what kind it is! Our camera is shooting its last pictures, and is needing to be replaced. We are kind of out of the loop as far as cameras go.

Another request: What toys/games do your kids enjoy playing with the most? Our kids, mostly the girls, are not very interested in their toy offerings any more. I've been doing the 'well I LOVED this when I was little, so they'll love it too. ' Umm, not working, I've finally realized. I've asked them what they would like, and their answers are not inspiring many ideas either ("I want a leeetle rubber ducky," " I want a cool Barbie!"). You can guess who said which. I don't care whether you've got boys or girls, let me know!

Craft #1

It seems I get bit by the crafting bug every January. I churn stuff out through March, and then it seems to get out of my system. 3 kids is not conducive to a "craft bug." I only was able to finish this fun project because my mom was in town. I had these boards sitting in my craft stuff, applied Modge Podge (the best stuff ever) and scrapbook paper, and there was something pretty to hang on the wall. Hopefully I can get some more stuff finished before the summer hits.