Molly's 4th Birthday Party...

Yesterday we celebrated Molly's 4th birthday. The celebration was 2-weeks premature, but we are going to be out of town 2/3's of July so it seemed reasonable to celebrate early. Molly was very specific this year on the kind of birthday party she wanted. She wanted it to be at a gymnastics studio and she wanted to have ice cream. But keeping ice cream frozen at the gymnastics studio didn't seem easily done, so we compromised and I made ice cream cone cupcakes (an idea from one of my parenting online forums).


Having the party at the Tricks Gymnastics was FABULOUS because it meant no set-up or clean-up at our house. Love it! The kids were led in an hour long gymnastics session, which wore them out, while the parents hung out on the sidelines and chatted. Molly's favorites were the trampoline and three-person swing.


I particularly love the look of terror in Kaya's face here.


Garrett and Paige also got to climb around in the gym and play in the foam block pit, which they were extremely happy about!


After their time playing in the gym, it was time for snacks, cupcakes and presents.


I loved the note Kaya wrote on her gift to Molly. "You are a varee good firend". How sweet is that?


Here Molly with her friends and cousins at the end of the party. Thank you all for sacrificing part of your Saturday to celebrate Molly. It meant a lot to both her and me!


Then of course there was the post-party celebration. Kaya and Keilani came over to play and have pizza for dinner. Then Keilani stayed the night which Molly was SO excited about. They were both so exhausted by the days event that they were asleep by 7:30. And then in the morning we had blueberry pancakes and were off to church. Here is Molly and her best buddy before heading to church. Love them!


All in all... a successful birthday celebration. It sure makes me appreciate my mother and all the work she put in to make our birthdays special! I'm tired...

Turning four....

In a few weeks, my sweet little girl is turning FOUR! I almost can't believe it, but she reminds me daily that she will soon be a year older. So it seemed time to head out and do her four-year portraits. I wanted to do something fun that she would enjoy, so what could be better than a kid in a candy store. I called the manager of the Candy Barrel in Old Sacramento and asked if I could do a shoot in their store. She was happy to help!


So this morning, off we went. It would have been virtually impossible for me to do with all three kids in tow if I wasn't able to convince my friend Emily to come and lend a hand. She was a trooper and gladly entertained Garrett and Paige while Molly and I played in the candy store. Click on the collage below to see it better.


We also stopped by a few of our favorite photography spots to snap a few.


I must give props to Garrett and Paige as well. They were SO good the entire time we were there. So of course I had to reward them for being so good...

Screaming Contest...

This video will give you a little insight into my life and its chaos. Molly and Garrett have recently discovered that "Screaming Contests" are hilarious and they run around the house screaming in eachother's face as loud as they can. Interestingly enough, Garrett can out-screech Molly any day. It's pretty obnoxious. And loud. And similar to running your nails down a chalk board.

Happy Father's Day

Today is Father's Day. I desperately want to make it a "perfect" day for Steve. So when the twins awoke at 6:00 a.m. I jumped up quickly and told him to put his earplugs in. Needless to say, the babies woke up grumpy and teething, and Molly (who was awaken by their bellowing) woke up crying. Steve only slept an extra 15 minutes before the bedlam drew him out of our room. Happy Father's Day Steve... welcome to the chaos.

Although the day started rough, the rest of it was pretty relaxing. Pancakes with berries on top. Church. In-n-Out for lunch. Afternoon naps. Chinese food for dinner. And evening fun in the backyard pool. I proposed a long cadre of fun things that we could do as a family, but all Daddy wanted was a relaxing day. I think he was wise, and even I feel better after a day of being lazy.

Happy Father's Day, Steve. You are a loving husband, an involved father, and you work yourself ragged to provide for our family. And no one could be a better example of love, kindness, hard work and commitment for our children. I love you forever and always. And Happy Father's Day to our dads! Dad... I'm proud to say that I married a man that is so much like you. And it's because of your example that I waited around for a man that treats me like gold, just like you treat Mom. Dale... Steve got his desire to work hard and provide his family from you and I am now the benefactor of that. Thank you so much for your part in raising a wonderful man.

Feeling fancy...

Yesterday Molly went through all her barrettes and proceeded to put as many of them as she could in her hair. She came out and announced, "Look Mom! I'm FANCY!". Then she asked me to take her picture and totally posed for the camera. That girl just makes me smile...


Today however, Molly was feeling a little less fancy. I picked her up from summer preschool and she was in tears, obviously exhausted from playing hard all week. I asked her why she was crying and she said, "I'm just so sad. It will hurt if my tears don't come out!" Isn't that precious? I squeezed her and let her know that sometimes even Mommy feels like that. Needless to say, she is now napping. Here's hoping that when she wakes up she's feeling fancy once again.

Non-compliant model...

I took Garrett and Paige out this morning to scout some new sites for photo sessions. Paige lasted about 60 seconds before our shoot was over. Here's her "before" and "after". Please ignore the watermark... I'm too lazy to remove it after marking it for my professional site.

Molly's second sleepover...

Last night Molly had her second sleepover ever. The first sleepover was a little unplanned when she ended up staying with friends when I had to go to the hospital to be checked out for preterm labor with the twins (see post here). This sleepover, however, was much more planned and she was EXTREMELY excited about it. It was her friend's fourth birthday and she celebrated with a Strawberry Shortcake celebration and after-party sleepover. Here's Keilani with her cake and some of the little girls waiting for their turn at the pinata (photos stolen from Keilani's Mommy, Faye).


After the party was over, three of the girl friends stayed for the night. Faye got them all in their jammies before letting them make pizzas for dinner. Here's a couple pictures she took of them enjoying dinner.


Apparently all the girls were asleep by 8:00 p.m. which is AMAZING, although they were all awake by 6:30 a.m. Molly is already looking forward to reciprocating and having Keilani come to our house for a sleepover.

Shake that booty...

Every couple of days we have a dance party at our house. It's usually just after naps and just before dinner. It is strategically at that time to wear the kids down before supper and keep their spirits up during their grumpy time of the day. It also helps me engage them in something so I can get dinner complete and on the table before Daddy comes home. We have a Hillsongs Kids Worship CD that is they are pretty much addicted too and we all dance around the room like crazy people. Here's a few clips of the kids individual dance moves. Molly's primary move is the "Spinning Dizzy Blond" which both Garrett and Paige have adopted. But Paige prefers the "Side-to-Side Penguin Waddle" and Garrett prefers the "Up-and-Down Pogo Stick". As for me... I just move as the music inspires me!

16 months old...

Next week, Garrett and Paige will be 16 months old. That's hard for me to believe! I took their 16-month portraits today and thought I'd post one to make up for the nasty rash pictures I posted earlier - haha! Anyway, they're growing up so fast. Garrett is saying tons of words now including Mommy, Daddy, hi, up and baby. Paige's vocabulary is pretty much limited to uh-oh and occasionally Dada, but she doesn't have any problems making her needs known. Garrett runs everywhere, and every evening before bathtime he and Molly run laps around the house while screaming at eachother. Total mayhem. Paige prefers to watch their antics and giggle from the sideline. She is developing such a sweet little personality and she is constantly trying to love on her brother and sister, which Molly loves and Garrett could care less for. They are so much fun and they definitely have made our family complete.

Got Benedryl?

I have been sick for a couple of weeks now. I started feeling fluish with swollen lymph nodes, and then it turned into an infection. So they put me on an antibiotic (Bactrim). The infection cleared up but I continued to feel sicker and sicker. So they ran a complete blood panel on me, and everything came back fine except for signs of me having inflammation, which wasn't surprising considering my huge lymph nodes. Well, yesterday I hit the wall. I felt absolutely awful and couldn't get off the couch. And then by noon, I was COVERED in red spots from my knees to my neck. Needless to say, it turns out I'm allergic to Bactrim. I stopped taking it yesterday and today is the first day I've started feeling a little bit better. Hopefully as the antibiotic clears out of my system I will continue to get better and better. Anyway, I wanted to share the pictures of my rash in case this ever happens to anyone else out there. I absolutely freaked out and was happy to find out it was just an allergic reaction. Hopefully it goes away quickly!