Picture Mania

This post is nothing different than my crazy picture taking habits... Stories to follow each picture.

On Thursday Michael took the boys and I out to dinner at a place called Wild Ginger.  The food was yummy and the whole experience was pretty neat too.  The boys loved sitting on the floor eating dinner.

Riah is currently cutting three teeth, everything he can get his hands on he will put in his mouth.

I think my rose bush is confused!  See those roses in the corner?  Yeah, that is the color of my rose bush however this white rose just bloomed.  It is kind of neat but funny looking!

Here are the boys who are proud growers of these two pumpkins.  We had three but the smallest pumpkin rotted before we could get it off the vine. 

I love this little smile Riah gave me!

If there is a stair you will find Riah trying to climb it.

This story is a longer one but the short of it is... I took my car into the shop yesterday morning and got a rental and forgot to get the garage door opener and I locked myself out of the house.  Michael had to leave work to come and open the house and while we waited for Michael the boys had a few races up and down the sidewalks.

Snow day!  The boys woke up this morning at 5:30am and were ready to head out into the snow.  I dragged the snow box up from the basement, did the snow pant and jacket shuffle and sent them on their way.

Riah was eager to participate in the snow fun too!

Here is our fall tree on Sunday, October 23rd - It was 81 degrees

Here is our snow tree on Wednesday, October 26th - It was 29 degrees

Deadline

I have a deadline that I have not ever had and there is a part of me that is grateful for it.  My next door neighbor had asked me if I wanted to do a craft fair with her.  She knows that I have made a few things that I have tried to sell on etsy and thought that I might be interested in getting rid of it and making a little cash at the same time.  On Saturday my neighbor came over to tell me that she signed us up for a craft fair on the 19th of November.  So needless to say all the half started projects that I began but put aside since I was not having any selling success I have figured I had better get to it!  Today I made twenty one child's hot/cold packs and started tinkering about with the paci leaches that I had in my drawer to work on.  I have three purses that are cut out and one that I began sewing, fifteen more cloth diaper burp rags and one more baby quilt... we will see how many I get done.  My goal is to get the three purses, ten paci leaches, fill and finish the hot/cold packs and the burp rags.  I have a few headbands that I have the stuff for but if I don't get to those I am not too bummed, they are cheap and won't bring in a potential of much profit.  So one month to get it done!

Operation Hammer Fall

So I wrote stating that I was going to let the hammer fall this weekend on the whole sleeping issue with Riah.  Let me say it was a good move.  We had a few wake ups but all in all it was a success.  Riah is falling asleep in his own bed and sleeping by himself for naps and bed time.  He is only waking once in the middle of the night however I think that is mostly due to the fact that he is really stuffed up from the crud that we have had.  So all in all it is good!  More sleep for me and honestly he is sleeping more too... we are getting two naps a day and the morning one is about thirty minutes and the afternoon one of about an hour and then we are getting eleven hours from him at night.  Yahooooo!

"That House"

You know those houses that you drive by and think..."If that ever goes up for sale I would jump at the opportunity to buy it."  Well one of my "houses" came up for sale.  Not only have I driven by it a few times and thought it but a few years ago I purchased something off of craigslist from the owner.  When I drove up to it I fell in love with the outside look, the roof peaks, the wrap around porch and the land around it.  Today as we were out looking at a few houses we drove by this one and saw that it was for sale.  We stopped and got out and walked around the house, looked in the windows and planned where we would put things and dreamed.  We came home to find the price of it... well, it will just be a dream house to drive by and think... wish we could!  Kind of cute... take a look for yourself... "That House".

The Hammer Is Coming Down

If you happen to drive by my house between the hours of 1pm and 3pm or 7:30pm through 6:30am and you hear screaming, just keep driving! 
The hammer is coming down! 
I am in desperate need of sleep and I have decided that this weekend we are going to get on the right track, which simply means Riah will be screaming himself to sleep.  I am sick of not being able to sleep and so I am going to take advantage of this weekend and I am going to let him cry himself to sleep in his crib.  A twenty minute nap a day and four hours at night is not sufficient and I am done.  Can you tell how over I am with this craziness? 
Don't start judging me too harshly, I am checking on him to make sure that he is fine and letting him know that he is not abandoned but I will not be picking up, I will not be letting him fall asleep in my arms and I will hold to it for the next three days!  The only reason I am able to write this post right now is due to the fact that he is in his room aka my room in his crib screaming.  I have been in there three times in the last forty minutes to lay him back down but he is a strong willed little man and I don't think one nap time will cure him of his not sleeping. 
The poor thing is always exhausted and fussy due to not sleeping so I will be assisting him in seeing the light, the magic of a good nap and night time sleep.  Pray for my sanity and for the older two that they are still able to sleep through the screaming.

Here... but not really

Today is just one of those days... I am here physically but mentally and emotionally I am in another place.  I will preface this post with the fact that sleep is not something that I have been getting a lot of.  Riah, bless that child, does not see sleep as a precious commodity that I do - in fact he thinks that a twenty minute nap is all he needs for the day and then maybe two or three at night.  So this post is more about my lack of sleep I think than anything else. 
Today is just one of those days however where I am going through the motions of my day but my head is in a valley of life.  I am not sure what has brought me there specifically but it has been a chore to mentally wake myself up.  Last night after everyone was in bed I spent some time reading my Bible... something, honestly that does not happen as much as it should.  I was feeling the urge last night to just spend some time in quiet reflection with God.  This morning I woke up in hopes that my quiet time would have "righted" my mental state but to my surprise it did not.  I feel more absent than I have in a long time. 
In my life I have a few "reset" buttons I use for myself and today I pushed them all... a hot shower, a nap, and some reflecting writing time.  Here is to hoping that the rest of my day is better.

What's Cookin'?

In the last three years of being a stay at home mom my cooking skills have come a long ways.  When we moved to Colorado in July of 2008 I had never really cooked... maybe boiled some water for pasta, toasted bread... that is about it.  When we lived in San Diego Michael was the cook.  He would make meals for me when I got home from work, granted most meals were eaten by myself due to his work schedule.  When we relocated I became a full time mommy, house cleaner and cook.  The first two were not so hard for me to adjust to... the last gave me nightmares.  I purchased a few cooking magazines and I stalked foodie blogs and websites.  I made a few "dog s***" meals, but I worked through it. 
Three years into this whole cooking thing I have come into my own.  Tonight was one of those nights were I made something totally without a recipe and it actually turned out well.  When I first began this whole cooking thing I was a stress ball trying to make sure that I followed a recipe to the T and had no idea how variate at all.  Tonight I made a split pea soup, granted not something big but I opened my spice cupboard and had fun with it... Michael came home and asked me how it was, I told him, "I was just waiting for you to tell."  I watched as he tried it and to my surprise he said it was good and it didn't need a thing!  Pat on my back!

Smells

I am a smell person.  Smells hit me and stick with me.  I love candles, Yankee Candle is one of my favorite stores.  That being said, I have some smells that are forever etched in my mind that go with times in my life.  Today was one of those days that I had a smell that brought me back to a time in my life.  I took a shower today and when I got out I was actually able to put on lotion... something that does not happen very often due to the fact that I am usually showering in a hurry and then needing to throw clothes on and run.  Today I grabbed a lotion that brought me back to my freshman year of high school - Bath and Body Works Juniper Breeze.  I had purchased Juniper Breeze after a friend of mine, Sarah Gordon, shared it with me and I loved the clean smell of it.  I pretty much wore Juniper Breeze lotion my entire freshman year. 
Some smells that will forever bring me back to some times in my life...
Bath and Body Works Country Apple remind me of my very first trip I took to Romania summer before my freshman year of high school.
Sally Hansen Rose Tip reminds me of the old lady that I sat with every morning of my freshman year of high school at the donut shop.
Bath and Body Works Ylang Yalng reminds me of my sophmore/junior year of high school, my "hippy" time of my life.
Bath and Body Works Coconut Lime Verbena reminds me of my senior year of high school, it was a smell that reminded me of the beach and it was a smell that my boyfriend at the time loved.
Needless to say there are a ton of smells that will forever remind me of stages in my life.  How about you?  Are there trigger smells for you?

Thoughts

So when we got back from San Diego I posted pictures but I had a few thoughts from our trip that hit me while I was there and only now am I taking the time to write it down. 
One thought I had while in San Diego... there are no stinking parks there.  On Thursday we headed out after nap time to try and go to a park for the boys to ride their jeep that my dad bought and we drove past two parks and all of them were charged entrance and then we wound up at a park in Carlsbad and my parents live in Vista.  As we were driving around to find a park I was thinking, "Man, we are not in Littleton!"  For those of you that have not been to my house you would not know this but we have three parks within walking distance from our home... we don't even have to get into the car to go to the park.
Another thought from San Diego... When we landed in San Diego I had to run to Target to get some baby food for Riah.  We stopped in Escondido at the Target off of the 15 and while in Target I was hit with the reality that I am not in Littleton any more.  Living in Littleton is definitely a "white cracker" place, don't get me wrong there is color in our people and there are other languages in town but it is not the norm to say the least.  Escondido Target... well it is not Littleton!
My last San Diego thought... Traffic... need I say more?  Don't worry I will expand on my thought but those that have been in San Diego knows exactly what I am talking about.  Tuesday I took my mom's car and piled my boys in.  That is a feat in itself.  My mom drive a little Toyota Yaris two door.  So I have three car seats and then myself... tight!  We left Vista at noon and had to take the 78 and then get onto the 5 and get off in Mission Beach.  The drive was rough, traffic, stupid drivers, one crying baby, a screaming toddler and a talking child, oh yeah and a little rain.  That was just driving down to Mission Beach, driving back was a lot like driving down but then add an emergency pull over due to explosive pants by a toddler... picture it - I pulled over to a empty parking lot found a cardboard box and laid Ki down on it to change his underwear, pants, and socks.  Phew! 
So, although I loved living in San Diego years ago... I am officially and permanently in love with Littleton! 

Back from San Diego

The boys and I survived our trip to San Diego... I say survived because it seems that while we were there we got the flu.  YUCK!  It was not a horrible flu bug but enough to make me miss home.  Being sick outside of my house with sick babies was no fun.  Between the yuck we did get to visit some family and friends and had some fun.  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

My dad bought the boys a jeep and needless to say I am glad that it does not go all that fast and mark my words, Michael will be teaching the boys to drive and I will stay safe in our basement!

My three little men

My mom and I with my little Riah bug

Auntie Shoshy and Riah

A worn out Zeke taking a little breather after a day full of jumping, jeep driving, soccer, tag....

A very tired little Ki guy... the hair cracked me up!

Riah and Aunt Carol

Riah with Uncle Greggy

Gigi, Great-Great Grandma Talone and Riah

Zeke with his Great-Great Grandma Talone that he got his bright blue eyes from

My babies with Great Grandma Talone

Zeke and Mommy

I love this picture on so many levels... being the oldest great granddaughter with my baby sitting on great grandma's couch.  This will be one picture that will forever be etched in my mind.

A little beach time

Sunset on a CA beach with my babies... nothing could be better!