Prayer

Tonight after I put Kristen to bed, she continued to talk to herself. Finally I said to her, "Kristen no more talking!". She responded, "I'm praying to God". To that I said, "Oh, you can do that".

She broke Santa

So today we went to JoAnns and Kristen was just in one of those "touch it all" moods. I tried to calm the mood, but sometimes it's easier to have her touch stuff than to fight it the entire time I am trying to shop. Well today she was carrying some bags for me and was pretending to cover up Santa's eyes.

(Let me break there and tell you a little about Santa. He is large, decorative, gold with a long white beard, about 4 feet tall, made out of clay, most people think he's beautiful (not so much me). Hopefully you are getting somewhat of a good mental picture.)

Well as Kristen was playing peek-a-boo with Santa, I had had enough and said, "Come on Kristen I am leaving now." As Kristen turned around she kicked Santa (this I didn't see), on accident, and he came falling down to his breaking point. As I watched Santa fall, I also watched the lady that worked their wince and let out a mild screech of, "OH NO!". To that I replied, "Oh did she break him? (Handed her Santa's broken off hand) Sorry about that!" And then walked off as quickly as I could. Embarassed yes, but mostly I didn't want to pay for the $200.00 Santa!

Baseballs

In our house we call our bicep muscles "baseballs". (Thanks to you Dad!)

Tonight Kristen asked her Daddy to see his baseballs. Paul said, "Oh I am not that strong." Kristen said, "You didn't eat all your food?"

To get big baseballs you have to eat your food!

"Good job MOM!"

Yesterday we went to Disneyland and on our way there someone cut me off (pretty severely) on the freeway. Well I totally honked, like laid on the horn for a minute or two (JK only 30 seconds) because I felt that the person needed to understand that they almost killed my entire family. After I was done honking Kristen said, "Good job, MOM!!!!" Not so sure what to think about that....

Serious Bed Head

All you need is Band-Aids

Tonight we were driving home from Life Group and Kristen kept asking me to turn around and look at her. I explained to her that if I turned around and looked at her that I would probably crash our car into the car in front of us and we would all be hurt very badly. She replied, "It's okay Mommy, we'd just use lots and lots of band-aids!"

Finally an Update....

Sorry to all of you faithful blog readers (Stacy!) for not being more up to date on blogging. I just get so overwhelmed some days with all that has gone on that I just decide not to blog...that's not a good attitude to have now is it? So here it is a bit of an update....

Kristen has now started preschool 3 days a week. She absolutely loves it and has a blast everyday. She has some friends in the class that she is very fond of, and she loves her teacher Ms. Kelly and TA Ms. Jeanine! The past month we have been trying to get into a schedule that includes school and I think we are finally there...wow school gives so much to think about in terms of figuring out your tasks and time within the day to do the tasks! We are excited for Kristen and her new endeavor!

Austin has been talking up a storm. Here are some of his words:

Mmmmm Gickey-Mickey
Tool- Stool
Nilk-Milk
TiTi-Kristen
Aplane-Airplane
Cracker-Crackers or Cookies
Noonie-Smoothie
Hole Me-Hold Me
Mamu-Marmee
Eyes-Glasses (eye glasses)
A Bou- A Book (or Read me a Book)
Wuv Uuuuuu- I love you
So Soar- Dinosaur

So there you have it, an update! I promise to get better with the blog in October!

Kristen's Knees

About a month ago I took Kristen to an orthopedic specialist for her knees. She has been having chronic pain in her knees that we just can't figure out the reason why. So all that to say that the last time we were at the Dr.'s office Kristen had X-rays taken of both knees. This time when we went into the Dr.'s office she said, "Mommy today they are going to take pictures of my knees and my knees are going to say 'CHEESE'!!!".

Ladybug Party Pictures

These pictures are out of order..but you get the idea. Silly Blogger couldn't get them the way I wanted them. Dad, if you are reading this the picture of Kristen opening a present is the camera! She loves it!

Kristen's Ladybug Party

Saturday, July 19th we had Kristen's Ladybug Party. She had been excited about this party for about three months. We talked about it almost everyday, thinking and planning what she wanted to do with her friends. So this was it. We had friends and family over and we celebrated ladybug style. We ate a little Rubio's Baja Fresh lunch, played "Find the bugs" game and each child potted a flower to take home. After we potted flowers we came inside and Kristen opened her presents, and boy was she thrilled! After presents we sang Happy Birthday (thanks to Amanda!) and ate Ladybug cupcakes. It was a fun party and most importantly Kristen had an blast. Each child took home a mason jar filled with live ladybugs to take home to their gardens!

Some sweet pictures

One of my favorite pictures....

One of Paul's favorite pictures...

The new table where we have food available to ALL animals and babies...

Kristen's "mad girl" face...

Kristen's "happy girl" face...

Falling

Today Austin fell off of our Radio Flyer horse and was stuck between the wall and the horse with his head down and feet straight up. He also fell off one of our kitchen chairs. He fell off of my back while we were playing "horsey". He fell off of a kiddie stool that he was sitting on. It was a falling kind of day I guess. He is fine, no serious injuries. Actually no injuries at all, just spooked a couple times and a few tears. He's so tough.

Inspired...

One thing I forgot to mention in my post below was a very special moment at Chuck E. Cheese. Kristen was riding a ride while clutching her three, very dear, tokens in her hand. The ride stopped and she turned around to see a little girl sitting on the "Barney" ride. Kristen said, "I wanna give her a token, Mommy". She proceeded to put the token in the ride for the little girl and said, "There you go!". The ride started and the little girl had a smile on her face. Kristen was so happy for her, gave her a smile back and went on with her, now two, tokens.

She inspires me...I love her love for others.

Pictures from Kristen's Birthday

Kristen's 3rd Birthday

Today was Kristen's 3rd birthday..and I still can't believe my baby girl is 3! Where does the time go? I know I am going to blink and she will be 18...well let's not think about that. Anyway today was a very fun and relaxing day enjoying her.

It started off with Kristen waking up and yelling MOMMY at the top of her lungs! I went running into her room to see her with her hands on her face saying, "look at all this, balloons, hats," and I said, " HAPPY BIRTHDAY!". She was so excited..it was so sweet.

Later in the day, Daddy came home early from work and Uncle Joe (Paul's brother) came over. Kristen and her Daddy decorated her cake and then we headed to Chuck E. Cheese. After winning 400+ tickets we ate a little pizza played some more and then headed home for cake and presents!

Before we left, Paul put out the presents so that when we got home Kristen would see them right away...and she did while jumping up and down. It was so cute! She got some presents and a doll that she has been wanting for quite awhile...her name is Carrie. Kristen is the best little mommy. I love watching her interact with the doll....I pray she will be a great mommy one day. After playing with all the toys, we ate some cake, played outside, and went night night!

I kind of wanted the day to be longer..I think birthday's should be stretched out over a 3 day period...one day just doesn't have enough hours to reminisce about the good years that have passed. Ya know what I mean?

Still can't believe she's three...but so excited about this next year of life.

Fun things about:

AUSTIN right now....
1. He says "animal" all the time, he is obsessed with animals right now
2. He loves to try and count and sing his ABC's
3. He climbs on EVERYTHING and thinks it is funny when he gets to the highest point. These places include the kitchen island, window sills, backs of chairs, tops of tables, counter tops, etc. (The other day he had climbed on top of the counter in the kitchen and was standing over the stove top...uh oh!)
4. He is a cuddler
5. He talks, a lot, and repeats almost everything you say
6. He loves Mickey Mouse
7. He likes to drink whatever Mommy or Daddy is drinking (coffee, tea, soda, water, milk, etc.)
8. He likes to walk on his tiptoes and pull at the front of his shorts in a crouched position
9. He climbs on Mommy's back anytime I get down on the floor
10. He doesn't really like to eat

Wave of Milk

Sometimes I think that I am having a bad day and then I realize that someone else is probably having a day much worse than mine. So if you have had a bad day today mine might not be as bad or it might be worse, but hopefully it will make you laugh!

Well we had gotten home from Trader Joe's and I went to put a bag on the counter, the handle broke off (silly bags) and POP went the GALLON of whole MILK! All over my floor and underneath my fridge...right before dinner...so needless to say dinner was a bit later tonight.

A new song

While driving to Orange County today Kristen and I made up a song about her horsey that is on a stick (you know the ones with a head on a stick that you put between your legs and ride around on?). Here is how it goes:

Kristen has a horse with no legs
Kristen has a horse with no legs
All Kristen's horse has is a stick and a head, a stick and a head.

(Repeat)

Kristen's horse has a stick with a head
Kristen's horse has a stick with a head, but poor horse has no legs!

Noses

Kristen has stuck a few things up her nose in the past month. The first thing was play dough. She did this at a restaurant, then began to cry because her nose was stinging..we couldn't figure it out until I tilted her head back and all I could see was orange goo in her nostrils. Paul tried to pinch it out which didn't work too well so I had her blow her nose and you should have seen the amount of play dough up there...let's just say she has big nostrils.

So yesterday she was rubbing her nose telling me that it hurt. I asked her why her nose was hurting and she said that the button was doing it. WHAT??? A button?? I couldn't believe it...I got tweezers and went in for the kill...no luck. The button was totally out of site. I had no idea what to do, then it came to me, have her blow her nose. There it came the pink, gooey, button. Thank goodness we didn't have to go to the ER for a button up the nose.

Cinderella's Legs

Yesterday Kristen was playing with her "polly pocket like" Cinderella, Ariel and Sleeping Beauty. She walked away for a minute and before I knew it Austin was dipping Cinderella's legs into his yogurt, like a spoon, and sucking it off. I reacted to quickly so I didn't get a picture...so bummed.