A Haircut

Shane has been bugging me for a couple months to cut off Rowan's curls and I finally had to give in this week. I've been putting it off and putting it off because Aidan's curls never came back. My baby is no longer a baby, he is a little boy. (Deep sigh). Somedays I wish they could just stay little forever. Today I gave juices boxes to the big kids for snack and had to give him one too and he drank it without making a mess. (Even deeper sigh) I guess he really is getting big.

6 YEARS OLD!!

Kiara is officially 6 years old. Well, actually she was 6 last week, but then she got sick so blogging was put on the very back burner. I can't believe how fast she has grown. It really seems like not that long ago that I was pregnant with her and scared out of my mind to be a mom. Now that she is 6 and in kindergarten with a whole new world open to her, I think I am even more scared to be a mom. Thank goodness I get to grow up with her.

Just a few thoughts about my little girl. She is such a joy to have in our house. It is never, ever boring with her around. She is a little princess, a drama queen, strong, brave, kind, a social butterfly and never afraid to tell you how it is. If anyone breaks the rules, even mom and dad, she is the one to make sure we know about it. If I am sad about anything she is the one to come give me a hug and tell me she loves me and how glad she is that I am her mom.

She is drama all the time and can make me crazy, but without her our house would just be boring. She gets Aidan to make up shows with her, dress up with her, do naughty things with her and just have fun. She has never wanted to sit still and be cuddled, even when she was a baby. She always wants to be doing something whether it is being outside drawing hopscotch or going to the store. Kindergarten has been so much fun for her this year because she has gotten to exercise her social side a lot. She is a such a good friend. If someone doesn't have anyone to play with a recess, she goes to play with them. She will come home and tell me she played with someone new just because they didn't have a friend today.

She may be the complete opposite of me, but Iwouldn't trade her for anything. She has been through a lot and I'm so glad that she has made it through all her medical bumps without any change in the little girl she is supposed to be. Thank goodness she is mine and Shane's for always.

Happenings in Pima

As the weather is getting warmer we have been spending more and more time outside. In fact, I can't seem to keep them inside. Aidan keeps escaping outside leading to Rowan escaping too. They just want to be outside so they can dig. We got some extra dirt to level out our front yard before putting grass in and the piles are now full of holes that have been dug by bulldozers and shovels. Shane is working hard on getting the backyard fenced in. Aaron has been helping him which has made it go a bit faster. I will be very glad when that is all done so I can send them all outside to play in the dirt without worrying about cars or canals.

We had a good Easter. Shane's sister, Kim, and her kids came up to stay with his mom so they all came over for an Easter egg hunt on Saturday.

We spent all this weekend outside too, having a yard sale and playing. It was nice to get rid of a lot of stuff and have my laundry room back. Now I can actually do my laundry which may or may not be a good thing.

Rowan has discovered the joys of sunglasses. He wants to wear them all the time. Of course, part of it could be that we think he is so darn cute when he has them on and make a big deal about it. But hey, he is pretty cute.

Spring Break!!

Disclaimer: Very long post with unashamed plugs for 2 of my favorite things!

Last week was Kiara's spring break from school, so we decided to take advantage of it and go on a trip to San Diego. One of those timeshare companies had offered us a deal, so we decided to just go ahead and take it and sit through the presentation and then enjoy the rest of our time there. We went on Monday and went to the timeshare thing. Because our baby had not taken a nap, he was very, very cranky and the guy could barely talk to us at all. We told him we were not interested and after some more crying by Rowan, he sent us on our way after only 30 minutes of his 2 hour presentation. We were never more happy to let Rowan scream : )

Tuesday we went to SeaWorld. I had never been before and I thought it was wonderful. The kids and Shane had a really good time too. It was so hands on and just plain cool. The kids had fun at the tide pool where they got to pick up starfish, touch sea cucumbers and see other stuff close up. They also liked getting to touch the rays. We came right at feeding time so they even got to feed the rays. The sharks were also a big hit. We got to go right under the sharks so they were swimming all around us. That was really neat. The penguins and polar bears were also favorites. We didn't go see Shamu's show, but we did go and see the killer whales in their tank. They swam right up to the glass over and over. That was the first thing we went to see and we had to pull the kids away to go see the rest of the park. All in all, in was a really fun day. I was so impressed by everything SeaWorld had to offer. They even had special diaper changing rooms and nursing rooms. They wouldn't have been important to me before, but as a mom I was really impressed. Rowan even enjoyed himself. He liked touching the critters and he really liked the sea lion show we went to see. I was pleasantly surprised that even Rowan had a good time. Another thing that it has over Disneyland is that it has Pepsi instead of Coke. When we went to the sea lion show, they even had an otter bring 1 of the trainers a Pepsi. I was very impressed and asked for a Pepsi otter for my birthday. Shane said he would see what he can do.

Kiara touching a seastar.

Kiara and Aidan in front of some really big shark teeth.

Wednesday we went to the beach. We got lost going to Coronado Beach, but ended up at Imperial Beach, which was wonderful. It also gave us a chance to see how real people actually get to live on Coronado Island. It was just us and the surfers for a couple of hours. Kiara and Shane went looking for shells and came back with a whole bunch of them. Shane even found 3 sand dollars. Aidan was content to dig in the sand and make towers for his bulldozer to knock down. He even was so kind as to knock down my sand castles too, just to save me the trouble. He's just a nice guy like that. Rowan was very excited to be out of the car seat and out of the stroller and had fun crawling, walking, digging and doing anything else he could in the sand. After we had been there a couple hours, Rowan fell asleep and took a good nap on the beach. We may just be raising a beach bum. There were lots of surfers there to watch and it was a relaxing, fun day.

Our beach bum.

Shane, Kiara and Aidan wading into the waves.

Rowan heading for the water.

On the way back to the hotel after the beach, the kids were completely wiped out and crashed in the car. This is just how tired they were:

Ok, well Rowan wasn't that tired because he snoozed on the beach

Another really cool thing that we found in San Diego was the coolest Target ever!! We had forgotten a few things, of course, so we went looking for a Target. We found a Target with 2 stories, an elevator, an escalator and an escalator for your cart!! Needless to say we were very impressed. We almost took pictures, but decided that might take our love of Target into the realm of crazy obsession. It was a lot bigger than any that we had been to before and we found lots of stuff on clearance! Yay for Target!!

The kids enjoyed staying in a hotel and even managed to sleep in the same bed without killing each other. It probably helped that they were exhausted by the end of every day. They liked riding in the "alligator" as Aidan called the elevator and took turns very nicely about who got to push the buttons.


We came back Thursday, but stopped at the San Diego temple on the way out of town. I had heard from lots of people just how beautiful it is, but now I can really appreciate it. It really is beautiful. Shane and I want to go back with a babysitter or by ourselves to be able to go inside. I am sure it is just was beautiful on the inside.


Now we are back to the real world with lots and lots of dirty laundry, lots of shells and tons of great memories. It was a great vacation and everything went wonderfully. I am really glad we went and can't wait to go back again! Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this crazy long post.

Pictures

I have been meaning to post these pictures forever and finally remembered. These are some of the pictures Leah Davis took for us when she took our family pictures. I went to high school with her and she has started taking pictures and is just wonderful. She followed the kids around and just let them be kids and got great pictures doing it. I couldn't believe she got Aidan to smile for a picture, but she is a really a miracle worker! Thanks again Leah!!!

I feel like she really captured the kids.

Here is Kiara: America's next top model in the making!

Aidan who is all about the fun and never sits still if he can help it.

He is also always happy and just enjoys life to the fullest.
Rowan who is all smiles
and a daddy's boy!
I put the black and whites on just for something different. Hope you like them. You can see some of Leah's other work at her photography blog at http://leahdavisphotography.blogspot.com/.

My Yellow Sponge Dilemma

Everyday I have an ongoing struggle with myself about the joy that is Spongebob Squarepants. My kids and husband think he is just the best thing there ever was. I disagree wholeheartedly. I think he is completely riduculous. Now you would think that I could just say that we're not going to watch Spongebob, but here is the problem: All my kids, even my 1 year old will sit and watch Spongebob happily allowing me to actually get something done. (In fact, they are watching Spongebob right now) They were all sitting on the couch and Spongebob came on and all 3 of them started dancing and Kiara and Aidan started singing the song at the top of their lungs. When Shane is home all 4 of them will sit and watch it. Don't even try to talk to any of them during Spongebob.

I guess my dilemma will continue, or I will just get over it and spend 30 minutes on myself everytime their favorite yellow sponge comes on...

Bathtime

Rowan really likes to take a bath. In fact if he has to get his diaper changed before getting in the bath, he gets incredibly upset and does his best to get back to the bathroom.

One day I took him in the bathroom with me while I was filling up the tub. He kept lifting up his leg trying to get in the bath. I was sure he couldn't get in without my help and turned around to get something off the counter. I heard a splash and sure enough he had jumped into the bathtub clothes and all. He was very proud of himself and happy as could be because he was in the bath.

After getting his clothes off and giving him a bath, I took him in the living room and set him down to get Aidan into the bath. I was chasing down Aidan when I heard an odd noise. I went back to the bathroom and guess who was in the bath again: yep, Rowan. Ahhh bathtime!