busy

Things are busy around here. I've got 4 little ones running around playing, being loud and very VERY dirty!! We are expecting daddy to come home HOPEFULLY at the end of this week. He doesn't have a plane ticket in hand yet but he won't until the last minute we haven't been able to plan anything yet :) He's 'supposed' to be home for 2 entire weeks this time!! YAY! He needs to take a Typhoid medication/vaccine for prevention while living in Mexico and it takes an entire week to take the dosage and another week for it to sit in his system before he can be exposed so... we should get him for 2 weeks!! This time, we are taking it easy. Hopefully not doing much but spending time together. We were all so exhausted after his last trip back home.

Well, I've got to get these kiddos ready to head to JoAnn's. My kids dislike that place with a passion but I love it!! lol. Plus, we've got to get these Halloween costumes finished up, it's just around the corner! Enjoy your day everyone!

Field Trip

We headed out to the farm and had a field trip during harvest season.

Blake enjoyed driving the tractor.

We tasted fresh pine nuts for the first time (yum!)

We picked the best tasting grapes EVER!!!

We learned that Budweiser is really the workers Gatorade, haha!!

We saw grapes in all different stages of drying from green, to needing to be flipped, to raisins.

From the dirt on this face, you can tell they all had a blast!

Blake's dragonfly that got hurt.

They hunted for rabbits and caught a bunch of frogs and brought them back to our house.

The beautiful sunset on my families beautiful vines.

Such a fun day with great people!

Shooting

Blake was so excited to shoot his new BB Gun! He is still a little too little but he has tons o fun anyways!

Brayden's shot has improved and he hits his targets more times than not now.

All three boys posing for the camera with their bb guns. See Blake with his eye ON the gun, lol.

Mommy giving lessons to the littlest. After all... girls need to know how to shoot too!

My boys and their toys!

Daddy came home

Well, I'm not really sure how I'm going to catch up on all the cute pictures and stories to tell so things will be out of order for awhile but... I'll do my best. Daddy missed Blake's birthday in the middle of September so when he came home for a week, we gathered together to celebrate seeing him again and Blakie's birthday!

The kids (and I) were so excited to pick him up from the airport! Blake brought 'elliot' (his kitty) just in case daddy forgot who he was and wore his too small FAVORITE blue shirt and cowboy pants. Ab's wanted to be 'super pretty' so she wore her tinkerbell costume with her mismatched high heels!! (on a side note she dropped daddy off in her minnie mouse outfit and purse, lol) and Brayden just wanted to see daddy so he came ready to pounce on him just as soon as he saw him.

Here is daddy and his kiddos!

After 7 weeks, it sure was nice to see that man again!!

Even the dogs were so excited to see him. He couldn't even put his stuff down until he greeted the dogs for several minutes. It was really kinda sweet!

After a nice long nap we were ready to celebrate Blake turning five years old. He's as big as a nickle now (just ask him, he'll tell you!) He chose the food; nacho/taco salad. It was so simple and oh so yummy!

Homemade refried beans, taco meat, two kinds of chips, lettuce, cheese, homemade salsa, sour cream - YUM! And the drinks for the adults in the back. See mama's vanilla vodka!

Then on to the cake. This little boy loves blue. He always has and it has gotten more and more difficult to make and create a 'blue' cake every year. I think his octopus cake turned out pretty cute this year though.

Took me almost an entire day to make and only seconds to destroy, lol.

He opened his presents and got lots of fun things. His last present was the long awaited BB gun! I'd say he was pretty excited, look at that smile! It was too dark to shoot that night but the next day we loaded it and shot till it got to hot to shoot some more. I'll post pictures of that tomorrow.

The night ended with a very sleepy little boy. He remembered to set his favorite shoe out and hoped that the Birthday Fairy would arrive sometime that night. Can you see where she kissed him? See the fairy dust?

Sure enough, she brought the 6 quarters and he found them in his boot waaaay too early in the morning, lol.

He was so excited about the Birthday Fairy that he woke up somewhere between 3am and 4am and joined us in our bed with his quarters on his chest the rest of the morning. When he woke, he tossed his quarters in him piggie bank and I wasn't able to get a picture... stinker!

His favorite color is blue.

He will only wear wrangler jeans

and loves his plaid blue and white long sleeved button up shirt.

He wants to be an American Solider when he grows up.

He LOVES school.

He doesn't sit still.

He's loud, he burps, 'gasses', digs in the dirt, is always dirty and is all boy!

And I love this little boy more than he'll ever know.

Happy birthday Blakie!

I'm so glad you are as big as a nickle now!

the abc's of me!

a. age: 31

b. bed size: king

c. chore you hate: folding and putting away laundry although my newest least favorite is cleaning the boy's pee smelling bathroom, daily (seriously... just aim!)

d. dogs: yes please!

e. essential start to your day: a few minutes, to myself, in my bed, with NO kids

f. favorite color: pink

g. gold or silver: silver. or white gold?

h. height: 5'9"

i. instrument you play: i used to play piano. don't know if i still can though

j. job title: mommy, wife, homeschool teacher, chef, housekeeper, crafter, picture taker...you get the picture

k. kids: brayden james, blake austin, abigayle hope. i love them!

l. live: central california (but not for long)

m. mother's name: debi

n. nicknames: leannie

o. overnight hospital stays: many many times with childhood asthma and childbirth

p. pet peeves: being late, chewing with your mouth open, cre8ive name spelling

q. quote from a movie: really? so not me.

r. righty or lefty: righty

s. siblings: brother; landon

t. time you wake up: whenever ab's does

u. underwear: pretty

v: vegetable you hate: peas

w. what makes you run late: very rarely am i late. i plan for early!

x. x-rays you've had: teeth, back, wrist.

y. yummy food you make: mexican, japanese, breads, cookies. i just love to cook and bake so... give me something you'd like and i'll search, try and perfect almost anything till it's super yummy!

z. zoo animal: my kids. they often act like animals and i often feel like i'm living in a zoo, lol. ok seriously, i'd say the hippos. they are so amazing to watch swim around and around.

THREE!!

YAY!! Blogger worked today!!! I've been trying every week since it stopped allowing me to post pictures and just today it let me! I uploaded the pictures backwards (yes it's been that long and I'd forgotten how blogger posts them backwards until I saw it, lol. So please forgive the backwards story)

I have TONS to catch up on but first I must start off with Abigayle's third birthday. She turned three just a few days ago and since daddy is still in Maine, we only had a "skype birthday". You can kind of see him on the computer screen below. Our day started at 4:50 in the morning when Brayden woke up. I told him to go back to bed since it was too early but he convinced me to lay in my bed until he was allowed up. BIG MISTAKE!! He tossed and turned and neither of us slept till I finally told him he could get up at 5:15. Then at 5:20 Blake woke up screaming bloody murder that his tummy hurt. I fly out of bed, trying to figure out what was wrong but he couldn't tell me anything since he was still so sleepy. I managed to distract him with cartoons while I got Ab's who was screaming in bed cause she was woken by all the craziness, lol. What a way to wake up on your birthday, huh? lol Anyways, it wasn't long before everyone was happy and our day began. We sang, we tickled, we loved a while then we started school. Everyone managed to finish all their schoolwork by 9:10 in the morning (that's what happens when you start before the sun comes up!!) So we had the rest of the day to celebrate!

Ab's chose a strawberry cake and her momma's oven cooked a bit to hot leaving it a little darker than she'd like. Then that very same momma was distracted when making the frosting and added too much milk making it too thin to cover the little bit too dark cake underneath. Good thing she's little and cute and loves her mommy even when she does silly rookie things like that. It sure tasted yummy though! We sang happy birthday over skype and opened a few presents. Her real party (and I promise this cake will be waaay better!) will be sometime when daddy gets home before he leaves for Mexico.

Here is Ab's telling my mom that she's three over the phone, lol.

And here she is eating her favorite breakfast, a fried egg. Soon as we sang Happy Birthday to her, she dipped her finger into the yoke and smiled :)

Happy birthday little girl!!

She loves the color pink,

She love to play dress up,

She won't fall asleep unless you sing "Jesus loves me" to her in her bed.

She sleeps in her bed 'aww night yong!' (I must say she says it so cute!)

She rocks her babies when they cry and covers them when they are cold,

She chooses how her hair gets done daily,

She often carries an imaginary kitty around in her hand and remembers where she puts it if she doesn't have it with her.

She still loves to be cuddled.

She still thinks I nurse her even though she's been weaned for MONTHS and asks daily for more 'night-night'

Mommy asks her to stop growing up so fast and she'll respond "me try" with her lips frowned and her eyebrows down.

Mommy loves you baby girl!