Where does the time go?

I remember posting a year ago a Happy Anniversary post to myself. I seriously feel like it was yesterday - how did a year go by so quickly? That's why I'm addicted to blogging, it helps me remember the year as it has passed and appreciate all of the wonderful and difficult times equally. ( ok, maybe the wonderful times a little more! ) That being said:

HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY TO ME! ( ROBERT TOO I SUPPOSE!! )

Tomorrow my mom will be keeping the kids overnight for us, and everyone keeps asking me what we'll be doing to celebrate. Well, we'll be enjoying the silence and maybe even watch an entire movie w/out hitting pause. I hope to cuddle, and laugh and talk while being in the same room together and maybe even by sitting next to each other, instead of in passing or from another room because we are occupied with one of the 3 bundles of joy we call Kyla, Kade and Jack! I may even throw on some makeup and do my hair and go out to dinner, but that's still up in the air......

I have to say that the past 5 years have been quite a journey, and I'm so proud to have made it to the point that we are at. I look forward to the next 5 years and I just want to take a moment to share the wonderful things that make my heart full of love.

If I am having a particularly difficult day / moment / hour with the kids - he will walk up to me and engulf me into his massive arms and chest and hold me tight. He wont let me go, whether the water is running for the dishes, or the kids are pulling at me screaming mommmmmyyy! He holds me there tightly while tears fill up in my eyes and rubs my head until my anxiety goes away. ( kind of like the tears in my eyes right now )

I have enless shows TIVO'd and tons of songs on my phone that I would never have even known where on TV or have thought to download, but he did because he knows I will love them. ( I however don't frequently get to watch these shows, but it's the thought that counts! )

If I have a craving for anything to eat at anytime, I don't think I've ever gone without no matter what the circumstance.

He wants to be a better man.

I feel like no harm will EVER come to me or our kids, almost like he is a protective bubble around us. Maybe that's a little naive, but it's an overwhelming sense of safety.

I love love, and I love being in love with Robert.

Guess what?!?!?!?!

ROBERT PASSED THE TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew my life would change when he got hired on at Edison, but that doesn't compare to what he has just done for our family. Our lives will be different forever, in so many positive ways.

Robert, I'm so proud of you!!!

I missed blogging about 2 birthdays!!

Thursday December 4th was TJ's 29th birthday. 29. Seriously I just can't believe my brother is 29. I remember when he was born, I remember fighting with him and wishing he would just go away when he would want to hang out with me and my friends! So many years have passed since then and so many things have happened. My brother has seemed to have found himself in being a father ( a very good one at that ) and uncle whom my kids ADORE, and an audio visual specialist. I'm quite proud of where he is and am enjoying watching him continue to find success. Happy Birthday TJ, I love you more than you know. XOXOXO

We went to TJ's house on his birthday and had taco's and margaritas - Serina's family joined us and we had a really great time just being there. The kids all took turns blowing out the candle and I don't think ever get tired of singing happy birthday!

Sunday was my dear friend Kim's 34th birthday! We went to a place in Fullerton where all you had to buy was ONE totally reasonably priced entree and it was free flowing champagne and OJ until 2:00 p.m!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, you read that right! I have no idea how many bottles we went through, but I had a headache before I went home and still had one when I woke up the next day..... good times! Happy Birthday Kim!!!!!!!!! As with Jeana, I completely believe that YOU saved me when I went through the hardest time in my life to-date. Being your roomate at that wonderful apartment on the beach was something I am eternally grateful for. I can't believe it's been over 20 years since we became friends in 7th grade. ( Of course we met before that at my moms house and watched the parent trap in Elementary School but we were both too shy to talk! LOL ) I'm so lucky to have you as a friend, and love that our children now know each other too!! I love you XOXO

Thanksgiving and bubble baths....

I'm going to preface this post by saying that if I ever need a break and my kids are being grumpy the answer to all my problems is: bubble bath!

That being said - the kids took a few bubble baths this weekend. We've all had horrible sinus head colds since Thanksgiving ( well not Robert... why is it that the most un-healthy of all of us never gets sick???????????????? ) so the over all mood of the house isn't the best it's ever been.

Thanksgiving day was nice - Robert bbq'd the Turkey this year, and I have to say that I think we all agreed it was the best turkey we have ever had. We watched football during the day * GO COWBOYS!!! We may just get the opportunity to lose another play off game!* and then ate our yummy dinner. Next year though, I want to do lunch so we can have more time to hang out and have yummy turkey sandwiches!

Here are some pictures of our beautiful turkey!! LOL

I'm not sure who's idea it was but it was decided that it would be a cute picture of Gavin if he was holding one of the huge turkey legs..... he got his little lips on it and was in absolute heaven!!




The kids were being quite rowdy ( big surprise! ) so Robert re-focused their attention to wear them out! It was so funny because they were missing for so long, I finally went back there to see what miracle he performed to get them to be quiet....






My mom, Becky, and I met at 6:00 a.m. at Toys R Us on Friday - a first for all 3 of us! We decided though that we just couldn't pass up the deals. I saved so much money it was totally worth it!!!! This was the line to get in to Toys R Us. They had it all organized. They let a certain amount of people in at one time, then there were employees scattered through out the store keeping things in order and ready to help - I was impressed.



I hope everyone had a wonderful healthy long weekend with their friends and family!

Just some cute pictures

We went to TJ & Serina's for dinner last week and Kyla spent the night - my baby girl hates her house she says.... she needs to pack and "just get outta here" This is always spoken only at bed time when it's time to close her eyes for the day. Go figure!

I got this really cute pictures of baby Gavin. I swear I think he skipped over the infant stage completely..... he's not even 4 months old yet.

I've been trying to get the kids to clean up more often, and the other day when I was making dinner they were strangely quiet. Come to find out, they were "helping clean" all of their stuff. This is their version of cleaning up!

Incase you didn't catch the one that was far away... here is a close up. Half the stuff doesn't even go in her room and was inches away from where it was supposed to go before they tried to "help"


I don't know if you can see it under the mess, but look how cute the bedding is! Thank you Auntie Cheryl for having the desire to replace your boys beddings and thinking of me for the ones you were done with!!!!!!! They LOVE them!

I have been out of bubble bath for quite awhile now, so they are making up for lost time.... they would spend an hour in there if I would let them. I took a video but I don't have it on this computer, they were belly laughing SOOOOOO hard at each other - especially after Kyla got in. Kade kept saying he was "Santa, there to bring gifts!"

Saturday my mom and I took the kids to see Sydney play her last soccer game - as soon as we got there Jack saw Sydney and started to run onto the Soccer field screaming: SYDNEY!!!!!
She didn't play the last quarter so she got to hang out with the kids..... After the game was over her whole team came to the table where our kids were and surrounded them. They even stayed put through the team meeting and just listened. It was really funny at the time!

How frustrating.

Robert wants to be a Sub Station Operator for Edison. You know all of the fenced off area's randomly throughout the city that you don't really notice, but they have signs that say: Edison Substation on the sign on the gate? There are machines and towers behind those gated walls and well Robert wants to run one of those - and eventually manage several in a region.

This takes a lot of work, they don't just let you bid for the job and then give it to you when there is an opening. He has to pass a 3 part test, then go to school for 9 months, then do an apprenticeship for another 3 months. Well he passed the 1st part of the test quite some time ago - the battery part. He just completed his 4th attempt at the 2nd part, the technical part - the electrical theory and electrical math / physics part. He went in feeling great and prepared, he came out feeling great and accomplished.

This particular job will be unbelievable for our family in so many ways. Once he's completed the year of school and apprenticeship he'll start going on rotating shifts of 12 hours. He'll work x amount of days one week, then it will switch, then it will be days, then nights, then swing for about 2 months at a time. Robert's brain needs this. He did that for years and he loved it - it's a perfect match.

Wwwwweeeellllllll - he got his test results back today.
Needed to pass: 81
Robert's test score: 80.

The school starts in January or May, and we were really hoping to get in the January one. He may be able to take the test again one more time before January. Then the only thing left is the stress test - or action scenario where they watch how he will handle certain situations.

He's not feeling so great today. Poor guy.

Some stories from the week ~

Last week I must have thought I was 25 again or child-less because I drank twice ( and not my normal "glass of wine"! Both times included Jaeger (sp?) shots. TJ convinced me to meet him and Serina down at Legends when I got off early one day to see the dentist about a tooth ache........ well my tooth mysteriously stopped hurting after a couple of drinks, so good call TJ! We then went back to his house with the kids for pizza and popsicles so Robert could study for his big SCE test the next day.

The kids LOVE being at Aiden's house. I swear, it's like the whole house is a built in babysitter. Even Jack doesn't need me. They just adore Aiden and since they aren't there that often, it's like "new" to them each time I think?

TJ "snuck" in another shot for us - that's ok though right? I deserved it!

Then Robert and I met my friend Anissa at BJ's on Friday night - this included another Jaeger shot AND a pizza with PICKLEs on it. YUMMY!!!!!!!!!

You would have thought that after having some fun during the week that my kids would have punished me all weekend - but they didn't! It was a great weekend! I stayed in my PJ's all weekend, and we cleaned and played, and ate and played some more. I even got a nap in there. I have been keeping the kids up from their naps on Sundays to get them down early and easy to start the week out on a better note. It's going pretty good. Robert worked both days, but Sunday he had a side job so he took Kade with him and omg, Kade was SO proud and had so much to tell me when they got back (o: So cute!

Another great thing about the weekend is the never ending imagination that comes at this age. I was cleaning the kitchen and Kyla runs in and says: " MOM! Grab some quarters and hurry into the playroom, I have something to show you!" They created a store / garage sale! She said the best part about the store was that everything was the "low price of just one quarter!" She did clarify though that how the store works is that you have to bring every toy back after you've played with it "tomorrow" because they have to sell it again. She said it was kind of like a library in that way. hahahaha, I love it!

This is the "toy side" of the store


This is of course where the toys for the store are "supposed to go"

This is a picture of the "whole store" as Kyla calls it. One side is toys, one side is animals. ( and I've just noticed a robe! LOL )

Jack too has been making my life easier in one way ( not the lack of temper tantrum throwing like I was hoping for ) He is eating so many new things. He literally used to eat only about a dozen things and some of them included baby fruit. Now he will eat hot dogs, whole banana's, and try nearly everything you ask him too! Yeay. We all ate the exact same meal 3 times in 4 days.... it was wonderful!!

Kade has become such a big boy since he's been potty trained, he's changed in so many ways. His breakdowns are fewer and farther between now, and it's been so nice. A hilarious thing though - he pees ALL the time. He loves it now. He stands when he pees so he can be quicker I guess.. I don't know if he doesn't finish or what but sometimes he'll say: "I HAVE to pee!" like 4 times in 5 minutes, and sure enough, he'll pee. Well Sunday night he was very busy I guess and the kids all had chex mix in their cups in the playroom. The conversation that followed:

Kyla: Mom - Kade peed in my cup.
Mom: WHAT?
Kyla: Kade peed in my cup that had the chex mix in it!
Mom: Are you sure? Are you kidding?
Kyla: No mom, he really peed in the cup.
Robert: You better take a towel because there is no way he didn't get it on the carpet.
Kyla: There is NO way I'm eating that now.
I can not stop laughing at this point, and all attempts to discipline Kade fail miserably because there wasn't a drop on the carpet, and he looked at me like: "What?"

I caught him putting his penis in the top of a water bottle determined to fill it up with pee as well. Boy he's going to be fun to raise! Uh huh.

After going to bed peacefully on Sunday night, I got to also start my week out with this beautiful reminder about how lucky I am.