Emma

When she was born and even when she was a baby, I thought she was the sweetest thing to ever live.  When I looked into her eyes, I felt like I was looking into the soul of an angel. 

Now I know that sometimes the sweeter they are, the more hell they can raise!  Let me put it this way....she really is the sweetest thing, but she's got spunk and sass..and can spit fire when she wants to!
She is named after my Grandma...and that actually wasn't totally planned.  We thought we might use Emma for a middle name, but the babies went into the NICU as babies A, B, and C.  And they stayed that way for the first little while.  Then Emma had a massive pulmonary hemorrhage and the doctors didn't know if she was going to make it.  I couldn't let her go as Baby B...Tim and I looked up the meanings of names we had been bouncing around.....Emma - strong.....Brynn - hopeful.  And that's how she became Emma Brynn.  We call her Emma B, and she REALLY thinks the song "Imma Be" by Black Eyed Peas is about her....you should see how excited she gets every time it comes on - lol!

My little "middle child."  She has finally started coming out of that shell and claiming who she is....and I have loved watching her become more confident and sure of herself!

She's a girly girl through and through...yet she is super coordinated and athletic.  She loves climbing and tumbling, playing baseball, soccer, and she can hula-hoop like nobody's business!!!  I really have to post a video of her hula-hooping....it's the cutest thing EVER!!!

She is smart and can read people.  She knows what people want from her and depending on her mood, she'll play to that and do things to try and please them...or she'll do things to push their buttons.  

She is nosey as all get out...just like her Daddy!  You know those neighbors you see peeking out of the blinds when anything is going on outside???  Well, that's Tim...and Emma!  At restaurants, she's the one turned around just staring at someone else's table and listening to their conversation.

She also looks just like her Dad...same eyes exactly!!!  It's weird, and kind of cool at the same time, looking into little faces that look just like your husband's.  Still blows me away sometimes!  And I guess it's a good thing I still like looking at my husband ;)

They've all taken their turn, and I'm sure they'll continue to do so, but right now...Emma is the leader.  If she goes, the others will follow!

She likes to play shy sometimes, but she actually loves being the center of attention!  Her smile can light up the whole room....it sure does light up my whole heart.  I love her crazy free spirit, and can see past all that fire....into the soul of an angel...my angel :)

ONE YEAR DOWN...

...FOREVER TO GO!!!!

This post was supposed to be about Emma, and the next one about Kallie (we've already been over how I like things in order, right?!).  Well I'm interrupting regularly scheduled programming, albeit rather delayed programming, to say Happy Anniversary to my best friend and the best husband ever!  I can't believe Tim and I have been married a year already!  Really, it seems like just yesterday we were in Maui.  Now it's a year later and I find it somewhat fitting that a first year anniversary present is supposed to be made of paper (if your'e going by tradition)...we sort of have a thing with post-its, so paper is kinda perfect for us.  Example....

Sweet little notes left around the house...on post-its.  Truth be told, about 99% of our notes to each other are probably written on post-its!

One night I came home to find I LOVE U spelled out across our bedroom wall with you guessed it...post-its!  Yeah, we get all fancy over here....don't hate! ;)  The pink at the  top is part of the I LOVE U....I used blue post-its to add the 2 on our anniversary (so it read I LOVE U 2).....

Honestly I could go on and on about all the reasons I love Tim, the way he takes care of us, and the way he makes me feel, but what it boils down to are things like this - it's all about the little things...

Smiley face - eggs and toast style!

Smiley face - Orange chicken and rice style!

I can't get enough of them....every time I see another smiley face created with whatever's on the menu, it makes me smile more than the time before :)

Tim - To put it simply, thanks for all the smiley faces...and for making me smile everyday!  It's been an amazing first year and I can't wait to spend the rest of forever with you!  I love you...Happy Anniversary!!!

Timmy (Take Two)

He's the sweetest and snuggliest little guy ever!  Every morning (except when Daddy is home), he climbs in bed with me, tells me he "luffs" me "so so much," and kisses me all over the face.  MELTS. MY. HEART. EVERY. TIME.  Hands down, one of the best parts of my day!!!

He has my ears and walks JUST LIKE Tim, but he looks nothing like either of us really...I sometimes wonder how we produced such a milky skinned, blue eyed little boy.

He's so silly and makes us (and himself) laugh all the time.

Kallie is always saying, "My brother is silly!"

He calls himself "Mimmy" (but it sounds more like Me-me), and he prefers his hat backwards.  

While I was taking these, he kept taking his hat off and putting it on like this....

He has a crazy attention span....he loves to know how things work and he can sit and play/tinker with something forever!  But if he's feeling tested or put on the spot, he starts goofing off and you'd swear he has ADD!

He still loves baseball and he still says he wants to be a "Ginats" (SF Giants) when he grows up.

We think he's a lefty.

Remember that gray tooth that he got when he fell and hit his mouth; the dentist said it might become brittle and break/crack off......well, it's hanging in there.  And strangely enough, even though I was sad when it happened, it's probably one of the things I will remember most about him at this age and smile about.

He LOOOVES his Daddy somethin' fierce!  When I tell him I love him, it's not uncommon to hear in response, "I luff Daddy!"  He has explained it like this, "Daddy is warm and nice and coozy (cozy).  You're cold!"  Gotta love kids and their thought process!!!  

He has his moments, but for the most part he's calm and laid back.  Always happy about something.....smiling about nothing....and excited about everything!  He is so much fun to be around and did I mention he kinda melts my heart??? 

Changing the channel...hopefully!

I'm really starting to think the blogging odds are stacked against me!!!  I just spent the last hour and an half blogging, only to have 95% of it unsaved and gone when I went to post!  UGGHHHH!!!!  Ok, changing the channel for any of you followers of The Secret out there and going to try again later (saying with a fake smile on my face :)

Oh yeah, and Tim wanted me to mention that he did NOT dress the kids (from my last post)...he merely let them dress themselves and didn't have the energy to fight them either!  Lol!

Life isn't FAIR

Life just isn't fair sometimes.  This last week was the perfect example of one of those sometimes....

Like when you lose Lambchop and never find her :(  And then you drop your new iPhone in the kids' bath the next day....and subsequently introduce them to the word "SH#*@!T!!! (pardon my French).  Like when you can't seem to keep your head above water.  You go to bed late every night (despite your best intensions to be asleep at a decent hour) and when you realize you're so behind on laundry that your kids have no clean jammies, instead of throwing a load in the washer, you dig through the laundry basket, find the least stinky ones, spray them with wrinkle releaser and throw them in the dryer!  Yep, it's been one of those weeks!  Where daddy dresses the kids and even though you cringe when you see this, you just don't have the energy to fight it!

Ugghhhh.....

But on the brighter side of things, we actually went to a Fair on Sunday and the kids had a blast!

 Remember how scary these rides used to seem when you were little???  Well, now that I'm old enough to realize the safety of carnival rides, the characters who break them down, put them together, and run them....add your babies to the equation.....and they're even scarier!!!  

Feeling a lot safer with this one...

 I actually have really fond memories of this ride with the little cars, motorcycles and boats going around in a circle.  And don't worry, I'm sure rope is a perfectly safe and secure seatbelt!

Kallie getting ready to take off...

Timmy

Poor little Emma...her plane wouldn't leave the ground no matter how hard she pulled the handle, but do you think she cared.....

Not one bit!

(Notice the rope seatbelt again)

And I know it's hard to see, but if you look closely, all three of my babies are on this little roller coaster!   Crazy how fast they grow up (tear)!!!  

Thank goodness this ride had real seatbelts!!! 

Nope, life isn't fair sometimes....but seeing these smiles makes me forget all about it!!! 

Kallie had a little lamb....

Little lamb, little lamb,

Kallie had a little lamb,

It's fleece was white as snow.

And everywhere that Kallie went,

Kallie went, Kallie went,

Everywhere that Kallie went,

LambChop was sure to go.

To make a long story short (because today has been a long day), Lambchop is lost, people!  We ran a few errands yesterday (LC came along) and we didn't notice until bedtime that she was nowhere to be found.  Needless to say, I have since been to the post office, the grocery store, and my parents house several times to search for her.  I'm sure all of the people at the Post Office and Grocery store think I'm crazy...if not the first time I called and came in asking about a stuffed animal, then certainly the second or third (I made Tim go in tonight as to save myself some embarrassment).  I even left my name and number with them....just in case.   Just in case they come across her...or someone else comes across her and instead of seeing a raggedly ol' stuffed animal and tossing her in the trash, they see a VERY LOVED stuffed animal and turn her in.  I told Tim that I feel like posting flyers around the places I think she could be (ya know, like when people lose their cat or dog)...maybe even run an add in the paper - "LOST - Small dirty white lamb.  Approximately 12" tall.   1.2 pounds.  Shy, but friendly.  Responds to the name LambChop or LC."  We'll find her best picture to use and maybe even offer a little reward for finding her or any tips that lead to her safe return home.  I'll stop short of calling the police and filing a missing persons report!  I'm not THAT crazy!!!  But seriously, I've looked in parking lots, torn the van apart, as well as our house, and Tim and I may, or may not have, checked out the dumpsters behind Food Maxx :/  I am SO sad!  Lambchop is like a member of our family, and I'm not even being funny right now.  She comes with us everywhere....vacations, camping...

(she gets her own smore ;)

Pumpking patches...

EVERYWHERE!!!

We have driven across town at bedtime to get her when we've left her at grandma and grandpa's on accident; we talk to her, and about her, like a person (obviously); we even take camwow pictures of her (if you have an iPhone or an ipod and you don't know what camwow is, I highly recommend it...so funny!  The kids love it and we all laugh so hard taking pictures of ourselves and each other).

I know some of you might not understand, but my heart felt like it was breaking today...driving around looking for LambChop, eventually realizing that we were most likely not going to find her and that we wouldn't see her again.  Yes, I know we can order a new one (already done), but it's not the same.  I wanted to save LambChop to show Kallie later - "This was your lovie!"  This new Jelly Cat Bashful Lamb that's on her way to our house right now might look like LambChop (well, like she used to anyway), but she isn't the same LambChop that Kallie has been going to sleep with every night...the one that she rubs in between her fingers and on her cheeks when she's tired.  It will be nice and soft and fluffy.....Lambchop is anything but after three and a half years of a lot of love and a lot of washings! The original LC can't be replaced.  That's why I'm still holding out hope (as small as it may be) that she turns up somewhere.  It could happen, right???!  Please let it happen....we miss you LambChop!!!  

Procrastination

I...flat out...suck!!!  No matter how good my intensions are, I haven't managed to get back to blogging!  I have, however, done a lot of thinking about it.  And I think I know what my problem is...I'm a chronological kind of gal.  I like things in a certain order and it's hard for me to jump from A to C without taking care of B.  That's just how I am.  It all started with a trip to Rush Ranch we took (months ago now). I never got around to posting it...and then we went to Disney on Ice....but I couldn't blog about that because I hadn't posted Rush Ranch yet.  And the same goes for our trip to the snow, and the beach, and Easter, and Mother's Day, and all the other fun (and some not so fun) things we've done in between.  It's snowballed and now I feel like I have this HUGE "To Do" list.  And the more things I have to do, the more I procrastinate!  This might be news to some (definitely not those who know me), but I am THE QUEEN of procrastination!  If you look procrastination up in the dictionary, there is a picture of me right next to it!!!  BUT...there comes a certain time and place where I decide I can't take it anymore...where the long list of things I've been putting off becomes too much for me to carry around and/or think about anymore.....and that's when I kick ass!  This is where I'm at right now, people!  I am about to kick some blogging butt!!!  Now whether that means I go back and post lots of our latest adventures....or just pick up from where we are now, I don't know.  We'll just have to see.....but in the meantime, here's a pic of my little cutie.  We've enjoyed some nice weather lately and it never ceases to amaze me how much fun kids can have with something as simple as a water hose and a little water...awe to be young again!

36

This is what life at 36 looks like...

Actually, it looks a little more like this - Emma posing for the camera, Timmy making one of his several weird faces, and Kallie not paying attention at all!!!  I also didn't edit the chocolate off of their faces - probably should have tried this pic before dinner :)  

Oh yeah, and if I was feeling a little special today because it was my birthday, Kallie gave me this  "birthday card" that she made for "me"... and it pretty much says it all - lol!

Bloggers Block

Really....I do want to blog.  I miss blogging...I miss expressing myself and posting pics.  I miss connecting with you guys...all three of you out there (Hello...hellooo....heellllloooooo..........).  But when I sit down to write.....Nothing!  Zilch!  Zip!  Nada!  A big....fat.....ZERO!!!  I have a serious case of bloggers block, and I can't seem to shake it!

It might have something to do with my mood being a little like this...

 (and the fact that my pics keep uploading to blogger blurry is NOT helping)!

There's so much to write about...it's not like we're lacking for dull moments around here.  We've gone so many places and we just had one of the best/cutest Easters ever!  Three year olds, although challenging little stinkers sometimes,  are just too darn cute for words!  Hopefully I can manage to post Easter before the next major holiday.

Until then, here are a few cute pics of Kallie...