Mother Moment

The other day was picture day at Aria's preschool.  The night before the big picture day I thought it would be so cute to put her hair in sponge curlers for her first school picture.  Aria didn't think it was a good idea and she really didn't want to sleep in the curlers, but with my amazing powers of persuasion (threats and bribes) she did it. 

The next morning as I unrolled the curlers I started to get a little concerned as she had 12 really tight curls right up against her scalp.  Before I let Aria see I quickly thought that if I brushed them out all will be well. 

This is what her hair looked like when I combed my fingers through her hair. 

As I was combing and she was looking at herself in the mirror I saw her hair getting fluffier and more poodle like I had a horrifying moment.  I started laughing.  I know, I know, rookie mistake but it was seriously so funny.  Her face, her hair the fact that I was doing to her what my mom did to me. 

She started crying as I was laughing and I really tried to fix it.  I really think I could have made it look cute, it would have relaxed and she would have loved it, right?  Nope, she was devistated! She started throwing  a huge tantrum, huge tears, rolling on the ground, the works.  I realized my mistakes and threw her in the shower and all was well.

I learned some really good lessons that day:

1) Just because my mom did it to me doesn't mean I should do it to my children.

2) Don't try something that we have never done before the day before a picture.

3) I had a really frightening look into what my future will be like with three girls.  If it was this bad at 4 can you imagine what it will be like at 14?

Please pray for me!

Laila has chicken pox too!!

Laila's turn!

Laila now has chicken pox.  It is very interesting because Laila's chicken pox has been very different then Aria's.  Aria had 50 chicken pox all over her body.  Laila has about 15 pox but they deep and BIG!  I am not sure which one is worse.  All I know is that Laila is going to have a few scars on her face...sad!

25 weeks...a lot more to go!

This is a comparison of a single pregnancy vs a double. The picture on the right is of me a few days before Laila was born and the one on the left is from today. Too similar right?!?!

Now, I know I have 2 babies in there but you gotta see it from my point of view...I don't know how my body can get any bigger!! It never has before. I have a good 3 months left before these babies come!

WOWZA! I am going to be huge! Oh boy I am so excited!

(I mean this very seriously, not sarcastic at all)

Aria's first day of preschool

Oh my, she is getting so big.  She is so excited to be in "school".  This child will do anything to get out of the house!

What we have been doing lately.

CHICKEN POX!!

The worst part is having to stay home!

Laila is TWO!

Laila is two...can you believe it? Either can I. She is getting so big!

We started out the day with our favorite Swedish Pancakes.

Aria is part of a little Joy school in our neighborhood and it was my turn to teach on Laila's birthday. Laila loves when all of her friends come over. She loves to participate and play with all of the kids so it was perfect to have them all over for a little birthday party. They made party hats and we played lots of games.

Then we had cupcakes!!!

When Geoff got home from work Laila opened all of her presents!

and we had MORE cake!

They are BEST friends, I have loved the last year watching Aria and Laila's relationship evolve. These beauties can play house and babies for hours. I feel so blessed to have two healthy, happy girls.

Laila is definitely my little buddy. She always wants me to snuggle her, tickle her back and read her books. She is a little mischievous and has a mind of her own. I am so thankful that she is in our family, she brings us such joy!

By popular demand...

So I have had a few people ask to see a belly picture. Here you go.

What?... you don't take belly pictures in neon splotched spandex? 

I just really wanted everyone to capture the essence of my pregnant body.  I don't get very pregnant in my belly, those babies are residing in my bum.  It is nice and roomy so I totally understand.

THANK YOU!!

I just wanted to thank everyone for their vote of confidence.  Yesterday I was feeling so excited and surprised, last night things sunk in a little more and I am having so many emotions.  I was very comforted to read all the comments and know that everything is going to be okay.  I know that my life will never be the same and most likely it will be a little crazier then it is now, but it is nice to know that I have my blogging buddies to keep me going when things seem really big. 

THANKS !

Hello out there!!

YIKES! I have been so out of touch with everything for a long time. I would like to take a moment to apologize for that. Sometimes I get so behind that it just seems easier not to do anything then feel like I have to do everything. So, I guess what I am saying is that I am a big LAZY BUM! So now that I have outed myself we can move on.

I know I have a lot to update but I would like to start with the most exciting and SURPRISING news...we are having another baby January 3rd. Even though it is a surprise we are so excited.


Here is an ultrasound picture can you guess what it is?


Don't adjust your monitor, you are not seeing double SURPRISE, SURPRISE we are having TWINS!!!!!

a BOY and a GIRL!!

Wish me luck!

Can I do Easter over??

I lost my camera battery charger and I wasn't able to get a new one until after Easter. I was so sad to miss documenting the festivities. Today I put the girls Easter dresses on to have a "do over".

Aren't they beautiful?

Cookies anyone??

One of my New Year Resolutions this year was to get back to eating and living better. Ever since having my girls, eating and living better have taken WAY too much time. I decided that I have had enough and I need to live the way that I teach other people to live.

I am proud to say that I have not had any sugar or Gluten for 4 months. It hasn't been easy but I feel so great!!

The down side to eating well is finding fun things to eat. Today I was really craving cookies, so I pulled out my Xylitol and rice flour and tried to make up my own recipe. This is the result.

I obviously shouldn't be making up recipes. Looks like I will be buying a sugar and gluten free cookbook soon. They don't look good, but they sure tasted good! Geoff even ate them.

Venice Beach

The only nice thing about Geoff traveling so much is that he gets to stay in awesome hotels. After our Disneyland adventure on Saturday, we headed to the beach on Sunday. We didn't swim but the girls had a wonderful time playing in the sand and waves.

All Aria wanted to do was to build a sand castle. Here is the beginning.

Laila is trying to help with the sand castle

I am trying to get Laila in the water, she was scared.

Aria found a sea shell

Laila found the sand.

Oh boy! She LOVED the sand. She ate that sand like she was starving. She must have low minerals or something. I wish I had taken a picture of her poop the next day. It was just sand, nothing else.

It was a glorious weekend. It was so fun to see our dad and to go to Disneyland and the beach. I feel so blessed to be able to do fun things like this.

DISNEYLAND!

Geoff has been working in California for the last month and we have missed him. If he travels enough his company will pay for a weekend hotel stay in between travel weeks. Geoff and I decided to capitalize on this and take the girls to DISNEYLAND!!!

The girls were excited and Geoff loves Disneyland so much that I think he was the MOST excited.

Geoff and the girls in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Buzz light year was the favorite ride. We went 3 times.

The Marry-go-round was the second favorite.

Mostly because there wasn't much of a line.

We of course had to see Mickey. It went much better this time around. The girls were not scared. Laila was a little leery.

This time we even got to see Minnie. Aria was very happy.

Laila's favorite ride was "Small World" . She danced and clapped, it was so cute!

Dumbo was another favorite with the girls.

For dinner we got chicken strips and mozzarella sticks. Laila used the mozzarella stick as a way to eat the ranch. She ate and entire thing of ranch, it was disgusting. Everyone around us was watching her, only one lady thought it was cute.

Aria is so so happy to be at Disneyland.

Geoff and I have different philosophies on vacations. Mine is, go and have fun but don't spend money on anything unless it is absolutely necessary. Geoff's philosophy is to go and have fun and don't think about the money you are spending because it is all part of the experience and chalk it up to a memory made. I am trying to meet him somewhere in the middle, but Geoff totally go his way when he bought the girls these way too expensive toys that they totally don't need. Geoff's excuse is that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth and toys would make the girls so happy. What do ya do??


It was so fun! I feel very lucky that Disneyland is relatively close. I feel bad for our children yet to come. I can guarantee that this behavior of ours will not last long when we start having to pay for more then one kid. Maybe we can photoshop them in...

Work it girl!

I want to share with all of you the creative dance stylings of my sweet baby girl. Please don't forget that this is a "creative" dance class.

You might not be able to make out the intended dance motions due to her age, so I will highlight a few. Hopefully you will be able to pick them out.

• body roll
• shimmy
• chest pump
• bootie shake (or tickle if you are Aria)

The best part is at the end...

Look out!

Laila is 18 months old, you know what that means....Don't ever leave her alone.

It is house cleaning day and this is what happened everytime I turned around.
.

Don't turn around because when cleaning up everything else Laila unfolded all the laundry.

Yup, Laila's 18 months... she's lucky she's cute.

Who needs a house?

This is what our house has looked like for the last 4 days. Our townhome complex has some problems with the plumbing needing repairs. We had about 50 holes all around our house. So we had the plumbers, then the drywall repair men, then the painters. It was very interesting. We are so glad to have a home that is fixed but mostly we are so thankful to have a home. We are so thankful to friends and family for letting crash for all this time.

SAN DIEGO

Hi. So our little family made an impromptu trip to San Diego last week. Geoff found out he had to work in San Diego on Thursday and we left on Sunday. McCall decided to go with Christan too. (he and Geoff work together). We thought it would be fun to take the girls to Sea world and the Zoo but we also thought it might be a chance to see Geoff a little bit. Unfortunately Geoff worked until 11:00pm every night but, hey, we got a little trip out of it.

Fortunately McCall was there. It was So fun!!

Have you ever been to Sea world? Well if you haven't I strongly suggest you get in the car RIGHT NOW and get there. It is a wonderful place full of surprises, fun and serious amazement. The girls loved it, I loved it all around a great time.

Jack, Cash, Aria and Laila ready to see Shamu

Shamu was by far Aria's Favorite. I have to say it was my favorite too! Seriously so Amazing!

We are waiting for one of the shows to start. So excited.

I think Cash loved being surrounded by so many girls!

The exhibits were awesome and fascinating. We are watching the sharks.

Another of Aria's favorite was the Pet show. Laila fell down on the bleachers you can kind of see her goose egg.

We also got to get up close and personal with the dolphins.

Laila thinks she is one of the big kids and wont sit in the stroller.


The next stop was the San Diego Zoo. That place is HUGE not to mention the extreme terrain.

Can you see the huge Gorilla ?

Aria really is a monkey!

This is the only picture I have of McCall. We were each others photographers so we never had any pictures together.

The trip was full of extreme weather, sick kids, getting lost and A LOT of fun. I am so so thankful that McCall, Cash and Jack were there, they made the trip so much more fun! I am trying to figure out when we can go again.