Happy Halloween: the pilot, the princess and the dog

This halloween Nathan was an x-wing pilot from Star Wars and Laura was Rapunzel from Tangled and Noah was the dog that Nathan and Laura both were when they were around two.

This year they went trunk or treating at the church and it was such a pleasant experience. Bright, sunny and lots and lots and lots and lots of candy. The theme was toy mania (based around toy story 3) and all the cars (and owners) were decorated in theme. It was fun.

What can you tell from this outfit?

So, I am sharing this to prove someday to my darling daughter that her mother did let her have a say in what she chooses to wear on an average day.

This photo says to me that she must wear her favorite shirt even if it is cold and I told her she must wear a shirt underneath and it has white in it so it MUST match. AND she must wear one of her favorite skirts because it has pretty flowers just like the top. It says that the smile on her face of pure pride and comfort and confidence is something I will never be able to teach her and that I am proud that she already has that spirit.

All of these pieces of clothing on their own are adorable, but together??? I want to remember this part of motherhood and the busy-ness of everyday life.

It wouldn't hurt to use these later when she is a teenager or maybe even a fashion designer someday either. So I ask, what does this photo say to our family and friends?

New Haircut

It seems a never ending battle with Laura and her hair. She has beautiful hair but she never wants it combed. The crying, the screaming, the tangles, it is all a bit much every day. I took her to get a new haircut. It is quite short in the back and a little longer and layered on the sides and a new kinda angle for her bangs. I also got some new product for her hair and although it was quite expensive, it has worked amazingly well. She is such a little doll growing up so fast. She is 4 going on 40 though and feels it her job to MOTHER everyone.

Update: Nathan, Laura, Noah and School

I have been feeling pretty bad about the lack of blog action here and thought it was time for an update.

School is going very well. As of two weeks ago I was getting 600 out of 622 points for a percentage of 96.5 in the class. I think mister 102 should check but the last time I looked 96.5% was a very good "A". So I should be studying for my final on Friday but I am here, cleaning my house, doing laundry and blogging. I love, love, love this class and signed up for a psych class for the summer session. My thinking is if I have to just take it one class at a time I had better just keep plugging along. My parents have been wonderful with watching the kids and helping me study. My mom is a trooper trying to find creative ways for me to remember the nutrition info. My dad has been wonderful playing countless games with Laura on Friday mornings. The kids often tell me to stop the nutrition talk, but then ask questions about the health and energy of foods they are about to put into their mouths. Nathan even thanked me last week when he was sick to remind him to eat protein because he had forgotten that the protein helps fight colds with "the making of any bodies and white good cells". I tell you I just got tears in my eyes when he said that.

Nathan got glasses around Easter and LOVES them. He mentioned that he was glad he got lots of compliments on them because he was thinking of losing them. I choked back my gasp and said that is great honey. Picking them out was an adventure. He only liked the molded frames ones (that just happened to be the most expensive) because the other kind are pinchy. He is just getting so big now. I can't believe he is almost seven years old and only 20 days away from first grade ending. He still hasn't lost any teeth but the two bottom ones are coming in behind the baby ones. He is anxious to lose them as I think he might be the only one in class to not have lost a tooth! He is excited to plan his 'Lego Agents' birthday party and I am searching the web and blogs to find ideas and have been excited to put some energy into that when this class is over.

Laura is growing into quite the young lady. She is constantly wanting me to take her picture and seems to "pose" for every shot. I think I might have to check into the modeling thing, if only to pay for college! She is ever so helpful with me and mother's Noah sometimes a little too much. She is busy with painting, coloring and crafting. She loves to do her homework right along with Nathan and her handwriting seems to be the best in the family yet. She is determined to pick out her own (unmatched) clothes each day (much to my dream land of dressing a daughter) and still cries each and every time I try to comb her hair. I have lost the battle with the 100 some odd felt clips I have made her and moved onto hairbands to at least keep the curlies out of her face. They seem to be working, so even if I can't get the comb to it at least it looks messy cute. I will try and post some pictures of her creations. SHE picks out what she wants me to make so she calls them her creations. I am only too happy to oblige, even when it isn't what I would have picked so long as she is excited and wants to wear them.

Noah, sweet, Noah. I wish every single day that he just stop growing where he is. I am finding myself tearing up every day with something he does. He is in the next phase of Nathan hand me downs and it has put me into a whole other world of emotional mess-dom. As I was putting him down for the night in his crib he learned to pucker and make a kiss sound. I just melted and started crying. How cute is that sound? He and Laura have quite the bond going on, but he just gets so excited when Nathan is around. He wants to do everything the big kids do and mostly can. I fully expect him to be riding around on a bike after Nathan and Laura next month.

The kids have found a new love with Daddy in watching old cartoons. I have been meaning to write about this for a while now. All four of them crack me up, huddled around Mike's office computer screen watching, Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Secret Squirrel (Laura has the Morocco Mole voice down pact), Road Runner, Woody Woodpecker and so on and so on. My kids LOVE vintage cartoons. They laugh and laugh and laugh and I think it is great.

All, in all things are good. The kids are happy and that makes me happy. I have a whole new confidence from my class (college really is different when you want to be there). I hope to be better about blogging because I do so enjoy keeping up with the ones I follow.

Three Little Ones

So I sorta promised in a comment on a friend's blog that I would post some outtakes of my three little ones. I am really starting to dread trying to take pictures of the three of them together. It just seems like it will never come together. I guess I have to get good at head swapping in photoshop. I will admit that these outtakes tell the real story and I guess that is what I should be thankful for. So Maggie, this is for you....

It starts out like this...

Then quickly turns to this...

Then there's always the ones that start like this...

Where this is as good as it gets...

Not quite as cute as hers with Brennon crying, but I will have to dig one of those up to share later.

Laura's 'ni hao, kai-lan' party

Here are a few shots from her special birthday party. It was lots and lots of fun to plan with Auntie Joni. It was fun to plan all the chinese food and games and little goodies that went along with the cute characters. It was so loving of Dusti to take pictures. I wouldn't have been able to capture much if it were up to me and she always takes the greatest pictures, so I am one lucky mommy to have her for a friend. It was a fun party and I am still thanking my lucky stars I got her off the 'Chicken Little' theme - Kai-lan was much more fun!

Happy Birthday (little) Laura!

My little baby girl is now four years old. She had a great 'ni hao, kai-lan' birthday party on Saturday and there are some wonderfully beautiful pictures courtesy of Dusti, which I will post soon. This close up shot is from Chris, the expression on her face just tweeks my heart.

She just keeps asking me today, 'Am I really four now, mama?", 'Am I bigger now, mama?", "I'm not three anymore?" It is like she just can't believe it. I can't believe it either. I asked her if she could stop growing now and she said "No, I have to get bigger silly!" I know she does but I just wish I could hold onto this version a lot longer.

Project 365 - Day 354

The kids wanted to make their OWN lunch today. Okay I say. For some time now I have been cutting the crust off of their bread (partly because they always leave it behind and partly because it doesn't fit into Nathan's lunch with the crust, but I digress). Nathan was so excited to see the heel of the bread left and wanted to use it for his lunch. He requested I take a picture (please ignore the enormous amount of carbs with the chips and pirate's booty - at least there was a mandarin orange).

Not to be out done was little Laura. Although she couldn't decide what she wanted exactly and so you see two sandwiches. One with turkey and cheese, the other with honey and peanut butter. She too wanted two kinds of chips but didn't take as many. She was supposed to eat the mini oreos AFTER the lunch but I was apparently taking advantage of my duties being replaced a little too much and came back to see not only had she not eaten the sandwich but she ate the cookies and not just the cookies only the INSIDES of the oreos. Well, at least she ate the mandarin orange.

I gotta love these moments. They will not last long so I had better remember them.

Project 365 - Day 350

Laura exclaimed she had an email message for Daddy. This little toy phone has a phrase setting and one of the sayings is "I Love You" when you push a certain key. She ran back to her Daddy's office to give him her message. Could that be any sweeter??

A Christmas Story by Laura

Not to be outdone by Nathan's little story, Laura has come up with one of her own. She declared hers is really funny. I couldn't agree more and am sharing how she told it.

The Snowman Going to Fake Work by Laura Rose Lacerda

Oh no me, Frosty I'm going to be late to my fake work snowing. I had better hurry before it rains.

And I almost forgot Crystal my wife to take with me.

So they ate cookies with blue frosting and then they drive to go to work.

And then they made it to work and so they meeted their elf friends and then they were helping them make toys for Santa to deliver to the kids.

And so Santa got Rudolf in case he doesn't lose him and then they make more toys for Santa to deliver more toys to the kids.

And then they meeted crazy elf fish friends.

And then they meet Buzz and Woody.

And then they meeted Garfield with his family.

And then they buy some candy at the candy shop.

And then they go back home and they went into the airplane in the sky with Santa.

And then they meeted Shrek and Fiona at the swamp with their family. I guess Puss was there and Donkey and Pokeynose too.

And then they goed to sleep.

And then they woke up and then on the next morning they got presents from Santa. They got parent presents.

The End.

Fourth of July Photos

As I stated in my picture of the day we had a very nice Fourth of July at my parents. Everything was very low key and my dad and mom bought a small kit of fireworks for the kids. They loved watching the fireworks - even the ones that didn't really work.

Laura was very unsure of holding a stick of fire in her hand and just kept saying 'is this okay?'

On the other side of the coin, Nathan wanted one for each hand but he kept holding his breath so he wouldn't inhale 'the yucky smell'.

These little bags of gun powder were a HUGE hit. That is all they kept wanting to do - throw these little bags of stuff on the ground to get a spark and a noise.

Summer Days

So here are some shots of how we have been enjoying our summer. I have been trying to stay at home and am really working on trying to simplify my life. I am trying to follow the rule of making everything have a place so that it can be put away and I am trying to follow the rule of if it takes less than 30 seconds to complete or put away to do it now and not put it off. BUT that is just way off the subject of these photos isn't it?

Here is my boy Noah, growing up waay too fast - have I talked about that? Yeah, I know but look at him. He is looking less and less like a baby these days and more and more like a toddler. He is crawling all over the place now and boy is he fast. He is now into drawers and has the cutest little laugh/giggle thing that he does to show he is just tickled to be getting into things.

So here is little Noah wanting to be with the big kids...

That smile is pure joy to me. He just loves with every ounce of his being.

I started doing this squinty eye thing with him a while back. It started as winking and telling him 'I love you' and then turned to me squinting my eyes at him to see if he would do it back. He caught on very quickly and now this has turned into our little "i love you". He will flash a squinty eye thing at any moment during the day - totally random and totally funny. He also started doing this for the camera as "his pose".

Now he is doing it to Nathan...

Back at me for the camera...

You can almost here the giggle can't you...

"Are you still looking at me mom?"

Now, isn't that light much better? I have no idea what I did or didn't do but the joy and adoration in his little baby face is all I need.

Nathan has become increasingly harder and harder to get photos of. When he does look at the camera he does this doggie thing they learned in school because he was a "retriever" in his kindergarten class and they often posed for pictures with goofy faces. GREAT - just what I needed right. I thought I should at least stop deleting these irritating pictures because at some point I will be able to use them against him when he is older. I know, I need help.

Here he is, just Nathan. I swear this one needs to stop growing too. He is no longer a little boy and just keeps looking older and older to me every time I look at him. We have had our battles lately but I am looking for new and fun ways to deal with him every day and most days if I turn things into a game or let's try that again a different way it turns out pretty good.

This is pretty much how Laura likes to enjoy the pool. She is not as rough as Nathan and enjoys doing her own thing, her own way, in her own time. Gee, should I be concerned how the teenage years will be? Please don't burst my bubble or I will have daily nightmares.

She finally let me take a picture of her face. Mind you I can't seem to get her to wear a clip so her hair won't be in her face but that is another post and example of her super strong will. She is another one that just keeps on growing, despite my pleas. She is looking less and less like a toddler and more and more like a little girl and I am just so proud that she is the way she is. Now matter how difficult it may be at times I do love her sweet soul.

I was lucky enough to capture these little lovey moments between them. Both Nathan and Laura adore Noah and obviously the feeling is mutual.

Is that the look of love or what?

The Little Helper

Laura was pretty good about the job of picking up the leaves, but then again she is the little pleaser and my little helper afterall. My dad decided this would be a good job for her and told her he would give her 25 cents for keeping it up. She is supposed to take all the little growth off of the "trunk" of the tree when she sees it. Now everytime we are back there she inspects that trunk and rips any smidge of a new leaf she sees peeking out. My little girl, what can I say, she always wants to help - let's see how long it lasts....

Mother's Day Photo Shoot - Outakes!

I couldn't help uploading all of these photos. They were just so telling of what it is like to try and take pictures of these kids. I hope my family will enjoy!