Baby Bella

Welcome Bella!  My Dad now has 6 kid (5 of them girls) and I have a new baby sister.  She is a sweetie.  I got to hold her for a few hours today.  Love that newborn stage!

FAITH

I have to start this post by letting you know I HATE bugs and especially ones that can sting you! So, you can imagine how fearful and upset I was as I saw a wasp fly into my house via the back door Bryce was holding open.  I tried my best to stay calm... told Jeremiah to grab Bryce and go in the other room.  Jeremiah took of up the stairs screaming leaving his little brother behind.  Carli came to the rescue and as I swatted at the uninvited guest with my broom she so bravely did her best to help.  I told her Carli say a prayer that the wasp will leave (I was actually just trying to give her a way of "helping" without getting involved) without hesitation she went right into a prayer and as soon as she started to ask that the wasp would leave it did.  It was flying around in crazy circles on minute and suddenly changed course and headed straight out the back door.  I looked at Carli and with nothing wavering she said I knew that would work!  If only my own faith could be so pure... the faith of a child is amazing.  I am lucky to be with little children all the time... I learn so much from them.

Why I still LOVE CALIFORNIA

CA is facing some major problems lately and I was starting to ask myself why we live here.  Then I was sitting in my backyard yesterday enjoying the beautiful California spring day and decided it was the perfect day for the beach so we went!

Ok, so it is still a little chilly at the beach but we stayed 4 hours and had so much FUN!  As I sat there watching my kids play in the sand I was happy to be a resident of CA.  The beach is just the beginning!

Warm sunny days perfect for making wishes...

Date nights to Disneyland...

Season passes to Disneyland... and well you get the point:)

 

Looking for Lucky

Carli thought she may be able to find a lucky four leaf clover in our backyard....

Jeremiah thought it might be worth a try....no luck on the clovers

However, they did receive a visit from Lucky the Leprechaun on St. Patty's Day.  Carli had been trying to catch Lucky at her school all week.  He was making messes all over her school last week and leaving treats for the children.  He must have followed her home because when we woke up on St. Patty's Day we found a huge mess in her room with a note from Lucky!  He didn't only leave a mess he also left Lucky Charms and chocolate coins for the kids!

The Little Mermaid

As leader of Achievement Days I thought it would be fun to take the girls to The Little Mermaid Ballet.  I LOVE this calling it is so much fun and the girls are great! Carli wanted to come with us too.  The ballet was really amazing and I think all of the girls enjoyed it.  I know Carli did.  She changed her mind about going at the last minute when she saw the babysitters I got for Bryce and Jeremiah... she wanted to stay with the babysitters.  After dragging her to the ballet she couldn't get enough.  She was literally on the edge of her seat the entire time. 

Getting Pretty

Carli had a special day with her Nammy.  They wanted to get "pretty" for the ballet on Saturday.  So, Carli went with Nammy to get her hair done and then Nammy painted her nails... of course as you can see in the second photo Nammy was doing it all wrong according to Carli.

The Long Awaited Video...

Ok, so maybe only long awaited by my Mother-in-law... but she has been waiting.  I had to edit this without sound so I didn't wake the little ones... so if it sounds funny, sorry:)  Mom- I hope you enjoy this because I kinda hate posting video it is a pain... so this shows I love you!

Bryce LOVES to dance and he learned to snap his fingers at a very early age.  He dances like this anytime and anywhere we here music.  He is just a little boy full of pure JOY and it shows in all he does!

Pink Day

Today 800 of our teachers in the RUSD (20 of the 35 in our school) were issued pink slips.  It makes me sick to think of it!  I need to "vent" so I am warning you if you don't want to read about complaints then move away from this post... I am using this as my therapy...

 I am not sure how our school is going to survive this harsh lay off and I feel awful for these teachers.  Teachers are one of the most important "workers" in our community.  Our children spend 6.5 hours a day with them.  Our children are greatly influenced by these leaders in their lives (for bad and good).  After earning a Masters degree and completing student teaching and passing test then they are offered modest salaries to teach the young people of our country.  And we repay them by sending them out of our schools when times are tough.... what is wrong with CA?  Our values are definitely backwards if you ask me.  Teachers should be handpicked and paid top dollar to secure that we have only the brightest and best teaching our children and then they should be treated with respect and offered the tools and materials they need to create an optimal learning environment  for our children.  Instead, we throw them out when the money gets tight and leave our children to suffer.  Class sizes will be back up (maybe to 30 in Kinder).  To compensate for the large classes our school is discussing making Kinder full day so they are able to fit in all the academics with such a large class size.   I feel awful for our teachers and worse for our children I wish I could just pull my kids out and put them into private schools.  A place were testing is not the "end all" because it is connected to funding and where teachers jobs depend on parents paying tuition not the governments terms.   I am tired of the education (or lack there of) that children receive! Don't even get me started on the health care (that my daughter has not been able to receive for the past 2 years!).  My husband works in  a similar field as these teachers.  He completed a Masters degree and 3,000 internship hours and is now employed at the county.  The truth is at this moment I have to feel grateful and blessed because he has a job when others in the mental health field have been laid off just like the teachers.  People who spend their lives serving the community should be treated with more respect!

I actually have a really funny post of Bryce dancing and a cute post of Carli getting her toes done... I will post these as soon as I can pull myself out of this mood...

Crazy Balloons

When I went shopping last week it seemed like Bryce convinced someone in every store to give him a balloon.  He LOVES balloons!  He also convinced an 8 year old at Disneyland to give him his balloon (not in pic)! Anyways, he let them go and they got up in our part of the house with high ceiling.  I thought they would come down in the morning.... you won't believe this but those balloons stayed up there for almost 2 weeks!  It was torture for Bryce.

Bryce looking at his balloons hoping they will come down to play...

The trapped balloons!

16 Months

Bryce will be 16 months old in 2 days!  Life has been passing so quickly!  He is such a wonderful addition to our family.  He's a very easy going happy little guy.  He smiles if you just look at him and I cannot help but smile back! He LOVES Jeremiah and Carli and follows them around like a little shadow.  He squeals for JOY whenever they play with him.  He loves to dance, skate, sing, read be outside and climb.

He has started climbing up into the chair where I read him bedtime books to"read" to himself while he waits for me to finish with the other kid's stuff.  I thought this was just too cute so I had to get a pic.

He still LOVES to skate EVERYDAY and is actually getting pretty good. It is amazing!

At 16 months he has about 40 signs, 5 words (his favorite is THIS) and he says "want to go".  He loves "to go" outside to blow bubbles, slide, swing, throw balls and color with sidewalk chalk and skate, of course!  He loves animals and knows the signs and what sound they make for most of them.  He can even snap (as it is required to sign DOG).  Bryce is very loving he walks up to all kids and babies and gives hugs and kisses (not all of the kids like this).  He loves to give kisses and blow kisses too.  He does a lot of climbing and I often find him up on my counters and tables... which I kinda hate.  He is ALL boy!  We have tons of girly toys in our house but he goes after the swords, cars, airplanes, trains and balls.  Bryce is a Daddy's boy and often looks out the window for "DaDaa" throughout the day... and when he hears the door he runs as fast as he can screaming DADADADADA and throws himself into Matt's arms.

Punky Brewster

Do you remember Punky Brewster???  Carli has become her... well Carli likes to think she is Hanna Montana but I think she is a little closer to Punky.  What do you think?

Notice the church shoes and purple socks.  Yes, she went to school just like this:)

She wanted EVERY clip in her hair... I do my best to please")

Another day another outfit... LuLu shirt (it has matching pants) with Gymboree pants (has very cute matching shirt and jacket) and flip flops from a Gymboree summer line with a blue bow of course... the one color NOT in her outfit... yes we do have tons of pink and purple bows but those would actually match!  Gotta love this skater girls style!

When she is not too busy accessorizing you can find Carli busy playing "family" with her doll house or making "pizza" for some family member.  She has also learned to count to 100 and is very close to reading.  She loves to skate with Dad or sword fight Jeremiah.  She also LOVES preschool and who wouldn't?  They have been on a Field Trip to the dentist, grocery store, lunch bunch with pizza and had green eggs and ham for Dr. Seusses Bday.   And that is just what they have been doing in March. Next week they are expecting a visit from Lucky the Leprechaun! I also got to read to her class for the Bday it was so much fun!  She is a busy and little girl that is full of LIFE! 

Growing up FAST

My little boy sure is growing up fast!  Every time I turn around he is taller, smarter and missing more teeth.  He is getting close to the end of second grade!!!!  I cannot believe he is that old.  This school has flown by.  I guess that happens when you have a great teacher who sees the your child for the wonderful person that he is.  He received an award this month for excellent effort.  This is a huge accomplishment for Jeremiah.  It shows he has had a lot of growth.  He often receives awards for academic excellence as academics come pretty easy to him.  He knows he doesn't have to put forth a lot of effort so sometimes he doesn't.  This year has been different he has had a teacher who has challenged him and pushed him to really work hard to create his best work.  We are so proud of him and the effort he has put into his work at school this year.

He has been busy with Basketball, boy scouts (he still has a year... but my friend lets him come..shhh), piano and reading.  He has been practicing Zipp-a-dee-doo-da and Star Spangled Banner on the piano.  He also taught himself We Thank Thee oh God for a Prophet. He still loves reading every night you can find him with Super Fudge books or Harry Potter.  He  says football is next but Matt and I are not sure about that.... 

Basketball Season

Jeremiah was the one his team counted on to bring the ball down most of the time.  He has mad dribbling skills... 

He mad lots of baskets for his team too!  It was a fun season I am sure he will play many more.