On our way back to normal!

Thankfully, we seem to be on our way back to normal. Kaylie was still pretty miserably sick yesterday and we had another rough night sleep last night, but as the day went on we saw more and more of normal Kaylie shining through. By bedtime, she was running around the living room like a crazy person with her brother, haha. Praise God, looking forward to getting out of the house and having some fun!

.

Here are a few pics from our mellow day:

.

Kaylie having some fun on the swing, multitasking, just like her mama ;)

Followed shortly by dozing off while swinging!

.

Matthew got to spend the night at Grandma & Grandpa's last night (thank you!!), but once he got home this morning, our activity was making our own crayon shapes! We peeled the crayons, broke them into pieces, melted them by color groups and then poured them into silicone molds I found at Ikea a while back.  They turned out great - hearts, arrows and stars, for Valentine's :) The melted wax left inside the heart pans I used to melt the wax in looked pretty, so I'm using them as decorations until Valentine's Day :)

Living in Kairos Time

I read an article the other day written by a women named Glennon Melton, a mom to 3 kids. The article boiled down to how tough of a job being a mom really is, how so often we hear from older people who have been through it "enjoy every moment, it goes so fast" and things like that, and then we (or at least I) tend to feel guilty that we don't enjoy every moment, that sometimes it is just plain hard and unenjoyable.  She went on to point out there are two different types of time. . .well here, she says it best:  "There are two different types of time. Chronos time is what we live in. It's regular time, it's one minute at a time, it's staring down the clock till bedtime time, it's ten excruciating minutes in the Target line time, it's four screaming minutes in time out time, it's two hours till daddy gets home time. Chronos is the hard, slow passing time we parents often live in.  Then there's kairos time. kairos is God's time. It's time outside of time. It's metaphysical time. It's those magical moments in which time stands still. I have a few of those moments each day. And I cherish them. " (You can read the full article HERE)

It really struck a chord with me. And today was definitely a chronos time kind of day. Last night into today Kaylie woke up every few hours with a croupy cough, rapid breathing and fever. And she wasn't much better during the day - that and the rain meant all three of us were stuck inside with not much to do. When Kaylie woke up only 45 min or so into her nap, I was about at the end of my rope - I was tired, I needed longer than 45 min!! But then I brought her in bed with me, and she fell asleep in my arms. She hasn't done that since she was teeny tiny. And she slept like that for an hour. Then we moved out to the lazyboy and she fell asleep in my arms out there, for another hour or so. Those were the moments kairos time kicked in today. I got to hold my crazy, energetic, sweet and fun-filled little baby girl asleep in my arms for hours today. I got to stare at her sweet face and feel her sweet, warm little body so close to mine, for hours, when normally she's off and running if she's not in her crib sleeping. Even in the midst of a l--o--n--g  day, those were precious moments, and I want to cherish those.  Now they are both fast asleep, and praise the Lord she hasn't been coughing as much, so I'm praying tonight is a much better night. I'm also praying tomorrow I'm able to focus more on the kairos moments once again :) 

.

My poor, sweet, feverish little girl, watching a movie on the couch :(

The (not so) Amazing Growing Crab!

Matthew got a "growing" crab in his stocking for Christmas, so this week the crab got to take a swim, so to speak. Of course, on the package it says something like "can grow up to 1000 times it's original size" or something crazy like that. Well, "can" was the operative word. After 48hrs it had maybe doubled its size (maybe), which was cool - but not the massive giant crab Matthew (I, ha) was hoping for. This happened last year too - we had a tiny abominable snow man we left in water for 3 or 4 days - that one didn't grow even a centimeter! Maybe 3rd time will be a charm? Or maybe we should stop wasting our money on "growing" toys, ha :-p

.

Before . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . After

Lately

Been a busy but pretty average week at home, just wanted to update the blog with a few pics and a video. So here you go, enjoy!

.

Matthew having a great time at Grandma & Grandpa's -
He loves flying airplanes :)

.

 Kaylie in her new cozy pretty in pink parka, with her doggy of course -

Isn't she a cutie?!

(Thanks to Ronya for the new additions to K's wardrobe!)

 .

Loving the "fwing" in the backyard :)

 .

Jesus Loves Me <3

Sunday

A fun Sunday: Church, Farmer's Market to visit Heather and eat cupcakes, then topped off with dinner w/ Grandma, Grandpa & Gigi :)

.

My cuties before church :)

 .

AJ, Matthew & Kaylie at the Escondido Farmer's Market, 

eating some of Heather's delicious cupcakes!!

 .

Yum!!!!

Sea World!

Yesterday we had a family day at Sea World, now our second time with the kids. We got to do a few new fun things this time we hadn't gotten to the time before. We started off the day by experiencing the Elmo 4D show, awesome 4D glasses and all. It was so fun to see Matthew & Kaylie reaching out to "touch" things as they were flying towards them - Matthew was a little frustrated when he didn't catch a piece of cookie that flew his way :) Then Josh bought some fish to feed the sea lions with - pretty cool to throw fish to the sea lions, not so cool for the scary big crane birds to intimidate Matthew and steal some of the fish. Oh well.  We had a delicious italian lunch at Mama Stellas, then caught SLL (Sea Lions Live) - the show itself was fun, but the pre-show was the best part! About 10 minutes prior to the show, while everyone were still finding their seats, one of the actors came on stage and did a silent comedy routine, and it was hilarious. Matthew rode the helicopter ride in the Arctic area and he still talks about how it scared him and he doesn't like it - oh well :-/ Finished the day at Bay of Play, letting the kids run around and riding on Elmo's Flying Fish. Fun day :)

.

The kiddos, ready to see Elmo in 4D!

.

Matthew & Daddy, fish in hand to feed the Sea Lions!

.

Matthew has such a great smile :)

.

The Boys

.

The Girls

.

Matthew & Mommy

.

Kaylie & Daddy

Discovery Lake Park

We had a great morning at Discovery Lake Park with Jessica and her boys, Sammy & Micah. We hadn't been to this park in forever (since before Kaylie was born!) - it's always fun to explore a "new" park. This park has a fun little water feature that goes on at various times throughout the day and stays on for 15 minutes - pretty much a geyser that fills up this arena area so they can wade around in it, then it goes down a waterfall and empties out once the 15 minutes is up. The boys had a blast (Kaylie was a little more hesitant, but still seemed to enjoy it.) After the boys were thoroughly soaked, we took a walk/bike ride down to the duck pond and fed the ducks. Great park to walk, ride bikes, feed ducks, play around, we look forward to going back again - thanks for the suggestion Jessica!

.

Fun Facts

For my records, to compare and contrast at some future date, here are some fun facts about the kids :)

Some fun facts about Matthew right now. . .

1. He loves Dragons. It all started when Grandma and Grandpa introduced him to the movie "How to Train your Dragon." Now he loves all things dragon. Clothes with dragons on them, dragon toys, dragon stuffed animals ("Santa" got him Toothless the dragon for Christmas) - he loves it all. He calls his toothless dragon (whom he sleeps with by the way) Fanciful the dragon - which is the dragon from the stories my dad, his Grandpa tells him. I love that he loves his Grandpa so much and that they share those stories. Matthew even comes home and tells me stories about Matthew & Fanciful the Dragon, going on adventures. In addition to the dragon, the main character in "How to Train your Dragon" is Hiccup, a not so average young viking. Lately, Hiccup has been Matthew's imaginary friend who has accompanied him on all his daily activities. Love :)

2. He loves Tomato Soup. I know I mentioned it in a previous post, but he seriously loves tomato soup. Specifically from Trader Joe's, bowl upon bowl of it. What a great thing to love!! Perfect on a chilly day with a grilled cheese sandwich. Yum!

3. He loves the colors green and blue. 

4. He loves to "read". He is just starting to learn to really read, that's our next focus, but he loves to sit with all his books and read them from memory. He spends a good amount of time doing that, reading to me or Kaylie, or just to himself. I love hearing all his excitement and voice inflections as the stories unfold. His current faves to "read" are Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

5. He's a little goofball - he loves to call people silly names. His current fave is "stinky bug" and I think that's his fave because it's as close as he can get to "stinky butt" without getting into trouble. He's so funny, he loves just to be silly.

6. He loves Angry Birds. He could sit at the computer for hours (if we let him) and play angry birds, he has so much fun with it. He also loves a coloring app on the iphone, he could also spend hours on that as well. It's amazing what he can do already on the iphone and computer!

7. He's finally starting to sleep in a little (well, sleeping in for him) until 630 or so. Hoping that lasts!!!

Some fun facts about Kaylie right now. . .

1. She is very polite - she almost always says "kink you" (thank you) at the appropriate time, without being prompted - when bringing her a meal, or a sweater, or giving her a kiss, almost anything you do for her she promptly looks at you, smiles and says "kink you." I even offered her something at dinner the other night and she said  "No kink you." Wow. We must be doing something right! In addition to "Kink you" she also says "Gah Bees You" (God Bless You) whenever you sneeze. I won't even really realize I've just sneezed until I hear her say that, and I love it, every time :)

2. She LOVES her brother. She follows him around like a little puppy dog. She loves to play cars or trains, or "read" books with him, or run around and get crazy (oh boy, they about ran circles in the carpet the other night chasing each other around and laughing). 

3. She loves her puppy. She has a stuffed puppy she loves to sleep with. She also loves blankets (no particular one, but she loves whatever she's using at the moment).

4. Her favorite songs are the Itsy Bitsy Spider (her favorite part is "washed the spider out") and Twinkle Twinkle. 

5. She loves to wrestle, even more so than Matthew I think! Mostly with Daddy or Grandpa, Mommy isn't much of a wrestler.

6. She's a goofball too - both kiddos are goofballs. She has (unfortunately) already caught on to "butt" as a funny word - she'll be jabbering and laughing and I'll hear "jibber jabber "butt" jibber jabber giggle" - oh boy. :)

7. She loves being a little mommy to her baby dolls. She will hold them so gently, hug them close and give them a little pat, put them to bed etc. Love it. 

8. She's a better sleeper-inner, thankfully, usually waking up around 730. Love that about her, hope she stays that way!

I'm sure there are MANY more things I could add to this list, and I might come back to it and add things on later, but for now I think that highlights who they are right now. They are so much fun. I'm so blessed to be their mommy :)

Josh the Tool-Man Williams

Ok, ok - totally cheese, I know - but I just watched Tim Allen's new show (Last Man Standing) which of course brought back memories of Home Improvement - take that and add it to Josh's true handyman prowess and voila, cheesy post title :)

Like most houses built in the 80s, ours came equipped with lovely florescent light boxes, yellowing plastic light panels and all, in the kitchen and bathrooms. It's something we've wanted to change for a long time but have just never gotten around to it. Just a few months ago our friends, Andrew & Jessica Davidson, decided to take their light box out and turn it into a much nicer recessed lighting area. Josh helped out a little with theirs and I think that's what gave us a little more push to make a change to ours. Josh was able to take off the week between Christmas and New Years, and in that time he was able to complete the kitchen and the guest bathroom (with a little help from Andrew as well :)  The recessed lighting is so much classier, and did SO much for the lighting in the bathroom in particular - he was able to finish it all professional by himself in a week's time! I'm so thankful to have married Josh the Handyman :)

.

29 and Feeling Fine!

Today is my 29th birthday. 29. Can't believe next year I'll be in my 30s!!! But I'm actually really looking forward to my 30s, most of my friends have already entered gracefully into their 30s and I think it's going to be a fun time in my life - the kids will grow into elementary schoolers, lots more activities and hobbies and fun stuff. I'm sure it won't all be great, that's life, but I think overall it's going to be a good decade in my life :) That being said, I'm going to enjoy every last minute of being in my 20s this year ;) 

For Christmas, my Grandma, Gigi (Great Grandma) to Matthew & Kaylie, gave us Seaworld passes! So today we activated them and took the kids to Seaworld for the first time - it was fun! We saw sea lions bathing in the sun, humongous sea turtles swimming around Turtle Reef - just like Nemo says Matthew - also saw lots of penguins, and a show. As we were about to enter the penguin exhibit, Matthew says "After this, I really want to go see Shampoo!" I'm sure that's a common mistake for any young kid seeing Shamu for the first time, but I thought it was cute :) We saw the Blue Horizons show, which was a lot of fun and kept the kids entertained which was awesome. We left the park at 2 - all and all a pretty good trip, didn't get to see it all, but we get to go back which is nice (Thanks again Gigi!) Ended the day at my parents house with a delicious dinner, birthday dessert and the company of my family. I am blessed :) Here's to a great final year in my 20s!!

.

Matthew was so excited to be at Seaworld! (btw, isn't he growing up so fast?!?!)

.

Father/daughter pic :)

.

Father/Son pic :) (We'll get more actual Seaworld pics at a later date, haha)

Happy New Year!!

A few pics to start off the new year - 2012, woohoo!

.

She's getting so big so fast!

.

The boys at our family date night to the Old Spaghetti Factory

.

Enjoying a movie with their buddies - Snoopy & Hello Kitty :)