March Madness!!!

Sorry guys, this post has nothing to do with basketball (march madness has to do with basketball, right??) The past month and a half has been such a crazy whirlwind of events, I feel like I've barely had time to catch my breath, let alone sit down and blog :-/ So here I go, be prepared, I'm catching you up on about 7 weeks worth of activities.....I'll start with the big things, then round things out with some pics of day to day happenings :)

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March 1, 2013 was Kaylie's 3rd birthday! Can you believe it? 3!!! Wow. No more babies in our house, so bittersweet! We started the day with birthday donuts, then it was such a gorgeous warm day we met Melissa and the boys down at the beach to celebrate both Mel's and Kaylie's birthday!! Love that we got a pic of the beautiful birthday girls together :)

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One of Kaylie's gifts was an awesome new backyard playhouse from Grandma, Grandpa & Gigi - both kids absolutely LOVE their new playhouse, what fun! Thanks Grandma, Grandpa & Gigi - and thanks Josh (and Dad) for building it!!

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A few days later we celebrated K's birthday at the park with all our family and friends - such a fun time! I tried my hand once again at decorating a cake with fondant - I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! Ballet shoes courtesy of the my talented friend, Heather - I wasn't quite ready to tackle ballet slippers yet :)

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 From Top-Bottom, L-R: Kaylie (of course), Cole Kamerlander (18mo), Logan Wilson (3), Miles Turner (3), Carter Jobin (3), AJ Turner (5), Matthew (5), Callie Kamerlander (4), Jake Patton (5), Cailin Kamerlander (6), Aiden Antoine (6), Andrew Patton (5), Aliya Martinez (5) - oh what fun!

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Next up, EASTER! Each year the holidays are more and more exciting, I love watching the kids learn, grow, understand and anticipate the special things more and more. I love that they go to a church and preschool that teaches them the true meaning of Easter, what a blessing. Of course, they're still super excited for the fun treats the easter bunny leaves behind :)

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The preschool had a big easter egg hunt for the kids one day - not sure if you can zoom in on M's face or not, but he has such a look of JOY on his face, he LOVED it! Kaylie enjoyed her marshmallows :)

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Easter morning was spent at our house hunting eggs and finding surprises in their baskets, followed that afternoon with a hunt and dinner with the Blands at my parents house :)

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Next big thing......drumroll please.....we are officially on the hunt, the house hunt that is! We kind of just stumbled into it - it's something we've been thinking about for quite some time, ready to get a place of our own, so we got pre-qualified, talked with a few realtors and the hunt began! This is probably the main reason I haven't kept up on the blog - When not at work, with the kids or sleeping, I'm thinking about, dreaming about and planning our future home....we decided after a few crazy weeks to take a week off - hence the time to blog :) While we have a local realtor for North County, we're primarily looking in the Temecula/Murrieta/Menifee area - we have (lots of) family out there, and the price is right. But we'll see what God has in store, we're not closing any doors just yet! Because of this, we've been going out there ALOT more and have gotten to spend more time with our nieces, which is SUCH a blessing! I am so excited to live closer to them and get to see them all more often - the kids LOVE their cousins, aunts and uncles, there ask us to move out there all the time:

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We got to have dinner with Rudy, Brittany and our adorable niece Emma one night :)

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Simone agreed to watch our crazy kiddos for awhile one afternoon so we could view a few homes in peace :) They had a blast with Shiloh!

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Can't leave out my latest cake pop creation - Darth Vader! 

He was a challenge and a half, but I'm happy with how they turned out. I also now know how much I need to charge for my services! An actual business plan might be forming....

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Besides the big events above, here are some other fun things that have happened in the past month or so...

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Josh and I started date nights with the kids - at least once a month, if not twice a month, we will each take one of the kids out on a one on one date - Father/Son, Mother/Daughter, and so on :) First time around I took Kaylie withe me to Rubios and Target - yes, it was a special thing for her, she asks me to go to Target all the time :)

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Matthew and Kaylie are growing up so much! One of the many days we took the bike/scooter out for a ride - they have a BLAST!

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Matthew has really gotten the hang of karate, even finished his first session with his white belt! What's even cuter is that he practices with Kaylie at home :) 

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Just because - one afternoon on our way out from preschool, M & K took a seat in the gazebo and M says "Hey Kaylie, lets take a picture like we're picking our noses?" Well why not :)

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A few of K's favorite things right now are to "blow bubbles" (dandelions)  and to pop the fuschias by our front door (when you squeeze the little buds they pop, she loves it) - our pretty princess :)

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So that's it for now - don't worry, I won't leave you hanging like that again :)

San Diego Zoo Photo Tour

Ok, not really a tour per se, but I had fun taking pics today, so there'll be a lot of them :) 

After a very chilly, rainy day yesterday, I was very happy to wake up to sunny weather - my mid-week day off with the kids and it was perfect weather to have an adventure! We piled into the car, lunches packed, and headed to the Zoo. It was really a fantastic day, heading in whatever direction the kiddos desired. Did lots of walking, saw plenty of reptiles & amphibians, elephants, apes, monkeys and more :)  Looking forward to many more visits this year!

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Alright, you were warned - here you go!

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Very beautiful, very WINDY day - hair below is proof :)

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They're in front of a large aquarium of swimming turtles and coy fish :)

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M was SO excited for the Aerial Tram Ride, which took us right to the Koalas, Ice Age Theater, and the short track to the elephants :)

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Had to pick up a few new friends....M was excited to take home Buck (from Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs) and Kaylie got to take home a mini polar bear (baby to her larger polar bear at home :)

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Look how GIANT that elephant is! Or how tiny K is, either way :)

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Elephants!

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Her polar bear stayed cozied up to her a large part of the day :)

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Giant elephant collars?

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Makes me laugh :)

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In the rock caves - the second photo is their "dinosaur faces"....#matthewsdeathstare

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Matthew posed/directed me to be a T-Rex in this shot, then took the photo himself!

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Yep, these are my kids :)

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Just aping around :)

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The End :)

Weekend Highlights :)

Saturday was GORGEOUS!! A wonderful summer day in mid-February :) Seriously. So blessed. 

Of course we had to take our first 2013 trip to the beach - swim suits, sand angels, fun in the water and all :)

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Today we got to enjoy church, t-ball & some sibling swing time :)

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Today also marks the day we officially implemented "operation no naps." K loves to stay up until 10:30/11 most nights, and after a long day myself, all I want is some quiet, kid-free time in the evenings. Its been going on for months, I can't remember her going to bed at a decent hour - I know she used to, I just don't remember when that was!! M was still taking naps as well - he could go either way, but really, to make bedtime all around easier, it was just time. There have been many times over the past month I've talked about cutting naps out - but it just terrified me that even if I cut them out, she could still stay up late.....then I'd lose my mid-afternoon break and still not have me time in the evening.....but after a particularly frustrating late night last night, I knew it was time. I explained to them both the rules of quiet time - which they both stuck to for about an hour, maybe even a tad longer - so I still got a break, and they got to play! Win-Win!!!

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When it came time to head to Costco around 5 to pick up a pizza, this happened about 2 min into our drive there...

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And even after taking her out of her car seat, carrying her into Costco (it's so loud in there!), transferring her into the cart, and even moving her several times to get things out of my purse....she didn't bat an eye. She was out. She found a way to take a nap on our first no-nap day. Haha, oh well. Really, it was just a cat nap. . .when all was said and done this evening, she kept to her room and fell asleep about an hour earlier than normal. Not totally at the goal yet, but I'll take it!

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Wish I could sleep like this, whenever, wherever :) Doesn't she look like a little angel?

From our family, to yours :)

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Decided to get a little creative with the kids Valentines this year......and voila, 3-D Valentines!!! 

Pretty simple, great effect, lots of fun :)

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 I had fun decorating the house a bit more this year, getting a little crafty :) I'm in love with the flag/pendant banners - after using the banner in the kids photo shoot, I added it to the mirror above our mantels - and as you can see they're on the kitchen wall, too :) Please forgive the "duck face" - I have never done a duck face photo before, and when I saw myself taking the photo in the mirror I thought - why not?!?!?!?!? Exactly. :-P

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Valentine's morning - I just love Valentine's day :) I wanted to make it special for the kids....they woke up to hearts pasted to the mirrors in their rooms (pink in hers, blue in his) - Then they had a snack waiting for them on the table, complete with heart sprinkles and daisies in a vase, and for breakfast I made heart shaped Egyptian sandwiches, one of our faves :) After that I got to sit in on their Valentine's parties at preschool - what fun! I love seeing them in their environment, and they are always smiles from ear to ear to have me in class :)

 

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What a great Valentine's Day - I sure do love my funny Valentines :)

Best of Today...(well, yesterday, technically) :)

I haven't posted a "best of today" lately.... So the best of today (for yesterday, February 13th) ....

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I'm blessed to have Wednesdays off with the kiddos, so I got to spend the day with them! We started out by parking at the duck pond and walking to Jamba Juice for $1 smoothies with our good friends Jessica, Sammy & Micah :) After walking back to the duck pond we got to go "hiking"/exploring for a little while and feeding the ducks.What a great time :)

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Later in the afternoon, I asked Kaylie if she wanted to dress up - "If you want, you can be a princess, Matthew can be a dragon...." K: "I want to be a dragon!!" And so the dragon and the superhero were born :) I just love her dragon face, and look at my handsome boy, looking all grown up!

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They were (and are) my best of today :)