Two days of fun and still going...

We've been having such a great time in Anaheim! If the first two days are an indication of how Disneyland will go tomorrow, then we are going to have a fantastic day!

Sleeping:
Now you may be thinking, "Why start here?" Well, as many of you know that have/had young kiddos, sleep runs our lives at this point. Whether it is sleeping at night or managing naps, it must be considered at all times. So, the first step was to figure out where Ava's playard would be going. The choices were either with Randy and I or with Dylan. We tried putting her in Dylan's room the first night and he was so excited about it! The plan...put her down first then have him sneak in about 30 minutes later. Well, she didn't go down so easy the first night because bedtime was later than usual and she was just feeling out of sorts.

This meant she was with us. I didn't think it would be a problem, but she is the noisiest sleeper!! She kept waking me up! Of course Randy slept right through everything and felt great. Even Dylan slept later than usual. So, the next night I decided we were going to attempt the kids' room once again. This time it worked and we're trying again tonight. Cross your fingers. :)

In regards to naps...Ava got a morning nap the first two days, but the afternoon ones have been challenging because we have been on the go! Thankfully she is such a happy girl! We haven't had an issue with her missing the 2nd nap. Yay!!! Dylan hasn't napped since we've been here, but with all of the excitement, he's been good. This has been huge!

Day One: Hockey Giant and Downtown Disney:
Because we were visiting Randy's family, we are very much surrounded by hockey. Playoff hockey has been on ALL THE TIME! Great for everyone, but me. :) We did go to Hockey Giant which is a big store to buy hockey gear. Dylan and Randy were in heaven! Since Oma and Opa were there, it was like an extended birthday for both Randy and Dylan. ;) Dylan got his first pair of hockey skates and he was SO excited! I don't have a picture because I ran around chasing Ava through the racks, making sure she didn't trip other customers and/or run out the door. Ava was little miss friendly and made friends with 3 grown women buying skates. :) I guess we weren't there for that long, but it felt like forever to me!

Next up...Downtown Disney! I was looking forward to this, but had no idea how big it was!
The last time I went there, it was brand new and there were some stores, but not like it is now! WOW! Oma has talked about how much she enjoys DD and how excited she has been to take us. After going, now I know why. :) After scouring the menus to find a place for lunch that Dylan would eat at, we went to Ride Makerz.

Ride Makerz is such a great place for anyone that loves cars! Dylan got to build his own remote control car! He chose Lightning McQueen,

but there were SO many bodies to choose from and not all were from the movie Cars. After choosing the body you then go to the tire area and choose the tires,

then the accessories like a spoiler, motor on the hood, decals, voicebox in the car, etc. Then...you get to help put it together!

Dylan was in awe. It was so cute. Randy even wants one now. :)

Next up...Build-a-Bear. Originally, we thought this would be Ava's thing, but we couldn't leave Dylan out! Once he saw he could dress his bear like Darth Vader including the lightsaber, he was sold. This was our first time at Build-a-Bear so I just loved everything about it. :) Dylan got the Downtown Disney bear with Mickey Mouse on the foot and Mickey ears on the inside part of the bear ears.

Ava got a purple Hello Kitty that she snuggled even before it was stuffed. :)

Ava got the giggle sound in her kitty and Dylan got the song, "I Want Candy" from the movie Hop in his bear. I tried to get more pictures, but all of these were taken with my phone and Ava wanted the phone. :) Here they are!

We weren't done yet! The Quicksilver/Roxy store was next. Guess who that was for...me and Randy. :) As I was casually looking around, Oma told me to choose some items since I hadn't gotten anything yet. So fun! I got the most wonderful long teal Hawaiian flower dress,

a new swimsuit,

cover-up shorts and a tee. I said thank you over and over. After over 3 hours of fun, we headed home. Despite the tiredness of the kiddos, everyone was in great spirits. I did see a Minnie Mouse red and white polka-dotted skirt/tutu that I want to get for Ava tomorrow when we actually go to Disneyland.

Day Two: Ice Skating!
Today we went to an ice rink to try out the new skates. Dylan insisted on wearing all of his gear and boy was he cute!

The hockey skates are different from the rentals (figure skates) so he had to get used to them. He was slipping all over the place, which kind of surprised him at first. Eventhough Randy warned him that it was going to be different, I don't think Dylan really believed him. :) He did a good job and even stayed positive. He kept reassuring himself by asking Randy, "Hockey players wear these skates?"

I thought it was so cute when he fell because being so padded up, he couldn't get up on his own. Kinda like one of those sumo suits! :)

I even got to skate this time! I had Randy's dad take a picture. :) I haven't ice skated since Randy and I were dating and it was at the same rink. :) I didn't do too bad! I figure if the fam is going to spend a lot of time at ice rink, I need to take my opportunities to practice. Oma chased Ava around while the rest of strutted our stuff.

She had Ava peeking through the glass waving at us.

Once open skate was over, Dylan looked like a hockey player...SWEATY!

We sat for a little while watching the zamboni then hockey practice. He wouldn't take his eyes off the ice for anything.

Opa was making faces at Ava. LOL!

For an after-skate treat, we went to Yogurtland. Yummy!

You'd think we'd be tired right? Well yes, but you know we don't get to rest. Here we are hanging around the house. :)

This was Randy's bike when he was 3!

She crawled up to sunbathe. LOL!

We even got the kids in the jacuz today. Ava is fearless! Yay and oh no at the same time. :)

Tomorrow we head to Disneyland and everyone is more than excited! Disney, here we come!

One-of-a-kind type of day

I had so many plans for today. Nothing too extravagant...laundry, clean up crafting stuff, clean up teaching stuff that has been in the corner for over a year, transfer files to my new laptop and oh, shower. What did I get done from this list? I got two loads of laundry done and started on the teaching pile.

After a 3am screaming wake-up from Ava, I had a tough time falling back to sleep. She is almost done cutting her last molar and it's a killer. I was up at 7:15am with more whimpering coming from her room. This tooth is kicking her butt! She was SOOO whiny this morning that it started turning happy Dylan.   Oh no! I can't handle whining and crying from both kids before my coffee! By 8:30am, a walk in the stroller was more than needed.

It is amazing what a little fresh air and the calming movement of the stroller can do to a kid. One point for mommy!

We got home from Ava's morning nap. Dylan and I got some time to play together at which time we also talked about how to get along with Ava once she wakes up. I also had the chance to get started on the teacher pile. I knew Randy would love this! :)

Dylan did a great job with Ava when she got up. We did a little laundry then I rewarded the group with a trip to our favorite frozen yogurt place. Everything is sounding pretty good, right?! Well, in order to not go into great details, let's just say that I only got 15 minutes of "me time". Dylan woke up early and I barely got into Grey's Anatomy. This means I also didn't knock anything off the list. :(

We are very challenged in the afternoon. As dinner gets closer and closer, the mood of my kids takes a digger. So, we were a bit of a roller coaster over here and I was focused on my afternoon coffee. :)

Now let me end my day with most digusting story! WARNING...if you are easily grossed-out, stop here!

After getting the kiddos out of the bath, I let Ava run around naked for about 3 minutes. In that time, I cleaned up the tub toys and sprayed stain remover on her onsie. As I was in the middle of spraying her onsie, she came running towards me with something light brown in her hand and she was putting it up to her mouth. It looked like a wine cork, but then I thought about when I opened a bottle last and realized that wasn't possible.  Oh...you know what's coming right? I run up to her and find her holding her own poop! She was smiling and it looked like she tasted it!!! Are you kidding?! She was even upset when I took it from her. I then see that she has left a puddle of pee on the carpet as a little pile of poop. Three minutes?! Really?!

At this point I call out to Randy for help. As he learns what has happened, he is dry-heaving while cleaning up the mess. I scoop up Ava horizantally to go clean her in the bathroom. Well, running through the doorway carrying your child horizantally is NOT a good idea. Yes, I ran her head into the doorway. So, now she is screaming, I'm worried about the damage I've caused and I'm trying to clean her poopiness. Yikes! Not only did I have to clean the obvious body parts, but also rebrush her teeth. Yep! I think that was the grossest part! This was far more digusting than the many poop-in-the-tub events Dylan did as a baby! I have to say though, I was in the "mom zone" during all of this. This is the place where you get the job done without physical reaction at the time.

As everyone calmed down and returned to my required level of cleanliness, it was time for her to go to bed. Randy and Dylan decided that a goodnight kiss on the cheek was plenty for tonight. Randy feels that she needs some meals before she is truely clean. :) The boys also decided to spend their quality time together telling Ava poop jokes. Randy even channeled Triumph, the insult comic dog

whose favorite phrase is, "...for me to poop on!" Dylan goes to school tomorrow; am I going to hear about this from his teacher?

So we are now back to normal and the kiddos are in bed. Back to the list. I think I need a glass of wine!

Thanks Billie!

Let's Get Creative!

It has been a good week; challenging at times, but good. :)

Randy left for a work trip in TN on Monday and my mom drove in from San Diego on the same day. This swap always helps with the kiddos. Gotta love Grammy! :)

Dylan usually does pretty well when Randy leaves, however, it has been a while since he has been on a week long trip. Randy and Dylan have become such buddies

that this trip was a bit harder on the boy. In addition to the length of the trip, we also dropped Randy off at the airport instead of him simply leaving for work in the morning and not returning until the next day. So...there were some emotional situations this week. Having my mom here was very helpful because somehow I was able to remain more calm during these tantrums. She also supplied wine and ice cream. Who can argue with that? :) So...while I was working through the kiddo things this week, I came across two articles on Facebook that seemed very appropriate.

This is a stay-at-home mom does all day

Your Children Want YOU!

In addition to kiddo fun, with my mom here, we have had a week worth of crafting. We hit a couple fabric stores and Hobby Lobby, one of my favorites. My mom has made Ava a couple dresses and has plans for more, which is where the fabric store came into play. We had to pick out fabric right? I'm so excited to see what all the finished products look like...there are quite a few. :)

I brought out my multiple boxes of ribbon and I do have A LOT of ribbon. :) I made bows for a friend as well as plenty for Ava.

These are for Ava! The two twins are for pigtails!

Ribbon was 50% off at Hobby Lobby so I got a little excited.

I also decided to try something new. I want to learn to sew so that I can make Ava cute dresses too. I decided to make a "jelly roll" quilt to practice my skills. It is a bunch of 2-inch strips of fabric rolled together. All I had to do was sew all the ends together to make one long strip.

This is one strip...I just need to stretch it out.

Then fold the long strip in half and sew the side seams. This is repeated until it is a lap quilt. Pretty easy! The great part is that I got to practice my sewing without doing much cutting at all!

To top off all of the fun, my introductory kit from Thirty-One showed up today!

Yipee! I love this bag line and decided to be a consultant and sell them myself. I already have a couple parties lined up and I'm excited to get started. I wanted to be able to earn some money, but wasn't ready to go back to work full time. This gives me the opportunity to spend time with adults, sell/buy cute bags and provide some extra money for the fam.

What has been nice about this week was instead of feeling rushed or stressed to get so much done, which is how I normally feel, I felt relaxed in being able to have the time to be creative. I also got to be creative with someone instead of on my own. Hey...I'm social, I need a buddy and moms make good buddies. :)

I'll be back on my own during the day next week so I'm sure it will be a whole different scene. :)

Easter Weekend is here!

So before I go into the Easter picinic we went to today, I feel need to give an update on the key search. For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you know that they vanished Wed. night/Thurs. morning. I have looked everywhere and honestly...I'm stumped! My keys have been gone for three days now! I will be scouring every nook and cranny of this house before the weekend is over. I'm convinced that Ava may have helped the keys run away, but I won't give her the blame until I figure out where they are!

Now onto more fun events. :) This morning we met up with some of our favorite families for an Easter picnic. We did this for the first time last year and it was such a hit that we knew it had to be a reoccuring event. We changed the location this year because Walton Park was already busy with another party. Our alternate location was near a friend's house in the same neighborhood. This park was smaller, but perfect for our group! We also had it all to ourselves, which is always nice with little ones.

I had Ava wear her Easter dress that Grammy made for her. It is so cute!!

I didn't buy anything special for Dylan to wear because I tried that on his birthday and he refused to wear it. So, for now, Dylan chooses his own outfits.

Every family brought 12 filled eggs per child (of their own) so that we can do an egg hunt. Since we have two age groups...2-3+ years old and 6mo - just over a year, we created two areas for hunting. :) The big kids went first...

He's excited I promise! :)

Our friend David. LOL!

So serious!

Going through the eggs.

Randy teaching Dylan how to eat melty chocolate. :)

then the younger sibs took a crack at it. Ava and her friend Brooke are the only walkers in the young group. Once Ava understood what was happening, she got into it. Her friend Brooke helped her to fill her basket. :)

Then we tried a group shot with all of the kiddos. :)

Along with an egg hunt, we have to include food. ;) We had a grill cooking up hot dogs, chicken and burgers as well as all the yummy sides and desserts nearby. Nobody left hungry! Dylan had a great time running around on the grass and playing on the playground.

He even took off his shirt, his new thing, because he was getting hot. Ava was quite happy wandering around then going back to her eggs to eat the goodies.

Ava is visiting one of her little friends, Crew. She loves all of the babies!

I tried to get a family picture, but Dylan refused to be in the picture. Oh well, we'll try tomorrow. :)

After a fun afternoon, the final test is...can we get them down to nap easily? YES! Both were out within 30 minutes of getting home. All in all...so much fun! Thanks friends for another successful family afternoon!

And we continue to stay busy...

I can't believe it is already April!! March flew by so fast! It's not like I had a whole lot going on right? ;) Well, it has taken me almost 3 weeks to feel like I'm back to my crazy normal schedule after all of the birthdays.

I'm back in the gym on Tues., Wed., and Thurs. mornings. I even went both Saturday and Sunday last weekend because I'm trying to jolt my body back from the hiatus of bad food. Now I know, that after the holidays, the other time I have to look out for is March. Yikes! It's crazy how just a few weeks off the schedule can completely effect the mind. As I was running on the treadmill this weekend, I made myself complete 3 miles. My body wasn't dying from the run, it was my mind...I just didn't feel like running.

I read an article in Shape magazine about Alison Sweeney (Biggest Loser Host and "Sammy" on Days of our Lives). She said she schedules her workouts like appointments so that she does it without even thinking. For the most part, I guess that is what I do during the week, but I think I need to be better about sticking to it all week. Once I feel that "love of the sweat" while I'm doing it again, it won't be so challenging. Love the birthdays, but wow...did they do a number on me!

What has been nice on the kiddo front has been all of the fun playdates! Mondays and Fridays can be challenging since I've got both of them and Dylan gets bored very easily. You've got to stay three steps ahead of him or bothering Ava becomes his number one priority. Now, she isn't innocent either! She is only 12 months old and has already figured out what buttons to push to make Dylan lose it. It's actually kind of funny because she has a little grin while she does it. :)

So here are a bunch of photos of some of our fun outings over the past week or so.

While Dylan was at school the other week, Ava and I went to spend the morning with some friends. She LOVES Steven! This is their wrestle-hug kind of thing. :)

After school, we headed to spring training! Padres v. Dodgers with a Pads victory!



 My cool kids. LOL!

This is my attempt at getting a picture of them together. I wasn't fast enough!

He's dancing to the music.

I didn't even notice the sign! I was just happy he was having fun and occupied. :)

Long day, but fun! Then last Friday we went to Chuck-e-Cheese's. Now I wish I got more pictures, but honestly it is so challenging chasing the two around that place. Thankfully we had plenty of friends there to help out!!

You can't tell by her face, but she loved this ride. After a few more rides she actually looked happy. :)

The picture of the two of them in the monster truck won't upload. :( It was pretty cute too. Oh well.

Once the weekend arrived, we did some park time.

Can you tell how hot it was? Look at those cheeks!

Daddy's girl!

The wind kicked up on Sunday and it was time to try out the new kite!

Of course we had to bring baseball stuff. :)



This week has been just as fun and busy. We had friends over both Monday and Tuesday! I did facebook yesterday regarding Dylan waking up a bit upset, to put it mildly. After calming down, we did a little "side chalking" as Dylan calls it. :) Art is theraputic. :)

And the week continues; we'll see what it will bring. :) Now off to pick up the boy from school! Have a great day!