The Gonsalves Family

Weekend Warrior

2012-01-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

Years ago when Dylan's grandma moved in with us, we boxed up all of our books (lots and lots- I was an English major, after all), ripped out the floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall bookcases that the previous owner had installed in our spare bedroom, and made a room for Grandma. And since then, we've pretty much lived without the majority of our books because we had nowhere to put them. A crime, really.

So last weekend, in order to clean out his garage of my books, my rockstar husband built some custom bookcases to flank our fireplace. They look AMAZING. So amazing in fact, that I had to rearrange the furniture so that they can be gazed upon and appreciated by all. And now our living room whose awkward layout has been plaguing me since the day we moved in suddenly makes sense. And our furniture no longer feels disproportionate, and the rug that I thought was too small fits just fine, and I no longer have to kink my neck or rearrange furniture to comfortably watch tv, and it's cozy and inviting and more open and, well, it's just great. Can you tell I'm just a wee bit excited?

Don't they look great?

I think that the best part of this whole project is that now I know what my husband is capable of and I may just have one or two or six hundred more projects in mind for him to do! Yes!!!!!!

He's not my baby anymore

2012-01-17T09:41:00.000-08:00

This little guy had the most awesome hair.... when it was professionally cut. But when I tried to cut it, people kept mentioning that it looked like I placed a bowl on his head and cut around it. And since it's not the 90's anymore, bowl cuts are no longer cool. Oh well. Neither are the moon boots that he's rockin' in this picture :)

So, the other day when I was cutting Grady's hair, poor Landon became my next victim. And now he doesn't look like my sweet little baby anymore. He looks like the two-year-old that he really is. Oh well, maybe he'll grow out of his two-ness right along with his buzz cut and he'll have a wonderful disposition and long, beautiful hair once again.

Hellooooooo Fat Kid

2012-01-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

Emma at 2 months: 10lb 5oz, 24"
Grady at 2 months: 12lb 7 oz, 25"
Landon at 2 months: 12lb 11oz, 25"
Stella at 2 months: 14lb, 25.75"
Wow!

deep thoughts from a 6 year old

2012-01-05T17:25:00.000-08:00

"Nachos are good for poor people because you know how poor people don't have enough money for forks and spoons? Well, they could just use the chips to scoop up the food and they won't need to buy any silverware."

hmmmm....
speaking of being poor (not really), emma made herself some new hair clips this week...

A Special Request

2012-01-03T09:58:00.000-08:00

We begin this new year with burdened hearts. Our good friends' twin one year olds have been in the ICU since Christmas with pneumonia. One of them was released after a week and is greatly improved, but the other one is still battling for his life and undergoing some gnarly treatments in hopes to send this illness into remission. They lost a baby girl to pneumonia when she was one, just a few years ago, so as you can imagine (or maybe you can't!) this is even more traumatic to the family than it may seem.

Here is an update from Ginger (the mother) from this morning:

Ian is continuing to improve, Praise God! He still has a very low heartrate and some other heart issues, they will be doing another echocardiogram to determine function. They also will be doing, probably tomorrow, an MRI and spinal tap to look for any Central Nervous System evidence of HLH. They will be sending blood samples today for the genetic test, but it takes several weeks to receive the results. He gets his second round of chemotherapy today and another higher dose of steroids. They have begun some weaning of the drugs, but he is still very sedated since he is still on the ventilator. He is still very sick, but is no longer the sickest kid in the PICU!

Treatment for Ian that we are getting right now is only to to suppress the life threatening inflammatory process that HLH triggers in response to the virus he caught. Remission is always temporary and the only way for him to be cured is to receive a bone marrow transplant. Please pray fervently for this. From information that the hospital library provided to me on HLH, I read this morning that even with treatment, only 21-26% of patients with (the genetic) HLH survive 5 years. The only hope for a cure is a successful bone marrow transplant.

Joey and Caid went home to LA yesterday and will go back to work and school tomorrow. Please pray for Caid, since I think the family separation will be hardest on him. Please also pray that Henry will continue to get better and stay well. Additionally, please pray that Caid and Henry do not have HLH. They will likely be tested after we get Ian's results, but right now doctors don't know all of the genes that can carry the mutation, so the test really only carries weight if it is positive on the genes that they know about."

So friends, if you read this blog, we as that you would please, please pray for this family. Pray that Ian would be able to receive the treatments that he needs and that his tiny body would respond favorably to any treatments. Pray that Joey and Ginger (the parents) would know peace in their hearts as they make critical decisions regarding their son. Pray that their 6 year old son Caid would be able to deal with all of the turmoil in his life right now.

"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber." Psalm 121:1-3

We said "I Do" in 2002

2011-12-28T10:58:00.001-08:00

It's been a jam-packed 9 years.
5 addresses
4 kids
10 jobs
7 vehicles
and lots and lots of love.

9th Annual Christmas Costume Party

2011-12-19T10:41:00.001-08:00

It's hard to believe that we've had 9 Christmas Costume Parties already! Even though planning a party with a 6-week-old isn't the smartest thing I've ever done, I'm glad we didn't forego the awesomeness!

Host and hostess... the first year that I took the easy way out and dressed in a sweater instead of in a costume. The sweater was super awesome though so I didn't feel too bad!

The Peng family, complete with their newly adopted daughter Lily!

Kirstie and Tony- man I wish this picture did Tony's sweater justice. It was THE UGLIEST THING I have ever seen!

The Dowd family as "4 Calling Birds"

How do you disguise a 8-month pregnant belly? Dress it up as a snowy hillside and call yourself Christmas Eve!

Sugerplum fairies were definitely a trend of the night!

3 Little Kittens who lost their mittens

In case you were wondering where I get my love for dressing up and having parties, look no further!

Arielle, Adrie, and the 2nd place winner, George!

Grand prize winner, Elijah the Shepherd!

Of course there were lots and lots more festively dressed people that I didn't take pictures of. Oh well. Thanks for coming everyone! And if you didn't come this year, you DEFINITELY should come next time for the 10th annual!

Thankful Today

2011-11-23T13:41:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful for:

1. a 15 year old niece who came to entertain my CRAZY children for 3 whole hours so that I could cook and do laundry in relative peace

2. clean sheets and a freshly made bed (see #1)

3. being finished with my 7-year-old maternity clothes and being able to refill my closet with my regular clothes (see #1). it's like getting a whole new wardrobe without spending any money!

4. fresh cranberry sauce (see #1)

5. a sister-in-law who brought me a latte

6. a healthy, chubby-faced, good-sleeper baby

7. a husband who is willing to run to the store for me so that I don't have to change out of my pajamas

8. a 6, 4, and 2-year-old who still take afternoon naps

Because all you really wanted was some pictures

2011-11-12T08:49:00.000-08:00

After a quick 4.5 hr labor, she's OUT!!!!

Proud Daddy!

Relieved, exhausted, happy mommy!

What were we thinking?!

Perfection

Let's just pretend that Landon's face doesn't make us all afraid for Stella's safety...

Landon is actually very gentle with her and LOOOOOVES giving her kisses and hugs...

She finally opened her eyes...late at night when everyone else was sleeping... I don't really blame her!

Grady can literally sit with her for an hour straight, cuddling, singing... it's amazing to see how much he loves his baby sister!

Big News

2011-11-11T21:19:00.001-08:00

Somebody lost a tooth tonight....
It had been loose for just over a week and she's been fretting over it, sleeping with a plastic baggie close by just in case it fell out when she's sleeping, wondering if it would hurt if she let her uncles pull it out for her.

Well tonight, while she was in bed, she pulled it out all by herself. She came out to show us, smiling from ear to ear with a mouth full of blood [are they really supposed to bleed that much?].

She is very excited and proud and said that she's not sleeping tonight because she's going to wait for the tooth fairy who she knows isn't real because there aren't real fairies but it's really just her parents pretending to be fairies.... yeah, yeah, yeah. Just try to enjoy the moment little girl!

ps. what are we supposed to do with her tooth? throw it away? keep it? save it for stem cell research?

A most wonderful surprise

2011-11-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

Dylan was working on fixing our leaky, squeaky kitchen faucet this morning and he looked out the window and said to me,
"Oh look. Aunt Joy's here"

WHAT!!!!!!! How can this be? She lives far, far, far away in New Mexico. She's not coming home until Christmas......
Well, I guess her plans changed :)

Stella June

2011-11-04T19:58:00.001-07:00

We are so happy to announce the arrival of Stella June!
Born November 3, 2011 at 6:53am
8lb 11oz, 21inches

Emma is ECSTATIC to have a baby sister. She said "Mom, God obeyed my prayers because I told him I wanted a baby sister and He gave me one."

Grady is a very proud big brother and glows when he gets to hold her- until she starts crying. Then he pushes her away fast!

Landon loves having a real live baby doll to hold and poke. He points out all of her features (none too softly) and keeps smothering her with hugs and kisses. Thank God he's healthy right now or we'd have a major problem on our hands!

Basically, Stella is one lucky baby girl to have so much sibling love surrounding her :)

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T20:34:00.001-07:00

This year, because their mom is so un-festive, Emma and Grady took it upon themselves to create Halloween decorations and dress up our house. They raided my tissue paper stash and made super spooky bats and spiders and pumpkins and signs and then taped them up all over the front of our house:

Then, for the first time, they (Dylan) carved pumpkins:

For trick-or-treating, Emma dressed up as a ladybug, Landon wore the monster/alien/bug costume that Grady refused to wear 2 years ago, and Grady was a pirate:

Landon really got into the whole trick-or-treating thing and promptly put every piece of candy he was handed straight into his mouth, wrapper and all:

Trick-or-treating is very much alive and well just down the street from our house. Literally hundreds of kids come out and the houses are super spooky and tricked out with all sorts of special effects. But NO ONE comes down our court because of the bend in the road and it's so dark. So, instead of buying a ton of candy that I would eat all by myself, I bought a box of real fruit fruit snacks to pass out. Yep, I'm that mom. And since no once came, my kids are stocked up with snacks that I'll actually let them eat- definitely one of my better ideas!

Not cool raccoons

2011-10-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Not cool at all...

Progress

2011-10-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

5 years ago we sold our little 800 square foot house and bought this house. We loved the location. We loved the additional square footage. We loved gaining a second bathroom. We loved that Dylan could have an office at home. We loved that most of the interior had already been upgraded. And we loved the potential in our back yard.

2 years ago we began our back yard makeover by digging out part of our hillside and relocating our hot tub into the hill...

One year ago we added a back patio and french doors that lead out to it...
And finally, for the past few weeks we've been doing this:
We are SO excited to now have irrigation and, as Emma calls it, "the green kind of grass" (ie. not the brownish kind that we've had for the past 5 years!) in our backyard!

In 3 weeks when we're actually allowed to walk on it, I'll take some more pics and again someday when we have all of the borders planted. I just don't want to overwhelm y'all with more than one project competed per year ;)

The Fall Edition

2011-10-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo recap of what we've been up to so far this fall....

Since Phil Collins isn't currently touring, I took Dylan to an Amy Grant/Michael W. Smith concert for his birthday...

Grady turned 4 and had his first real party, complete with digging for buried treasure....

We went camping with some dear friends from Cal Poly....

Landon turned 2 and got his first set of wheels (he can almost reach the pedals!)...

and he moved into a big kid bed....
and he started shaving....

My great friend from childhood, Christen, got married....

Our niece was a "real life" [homecoming] princess....

I sent the kids into the backyard to burn off some energy and they created this super safe contraption....

(a plank, a slide, and a lawn chair turned into a bridge)

We went to Mt. Diablo on a tarantula hunt....

Dylan took us to work with him and we stopped at Stinson Beach for a little fun....

And here I am, 38.5 weeks pregnant cooling off my swollen feet and hoping that this kid will come out SOON!

A real phone conversation I had today

2011-10-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

Terri Brown (the director of Grady's preschool): Hi Julie, this is Terri Brown calling from Grady's preschool.

Me: Oh, hi.

Terri: Don't worry. Grady's fine.

Me:.....uh.........

Terri: I just wanted to let you know that during class today they were talking about smooth versus rough and each student had a smooth rock to feel when they were talking about that. Well, his teachers were cleaning up and noticed that his rock was missing so they asked him about it and he said he swallowed it.

Me:.......uh........

Terri: it was pretty small so it should pass on it's own.

Me: well, that's, um, good.

Terri: okay, well, I just wanted you to hear it from me before you came to pick him up after school and heard it from his teachers. I didn't want you to panic.

Me: Okay. Thanks for letting me know.

Number 1 reason we need a bigger house

2011-09-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

I just received this email from a good friend of one of our good friends:

"I'm looking for an american family that would need an AU PAIR for 6 months from January to June 2012. I propose to take care of your children, and make the household chores in return could you lodge me and feed me ?!"

WHAT? Free childcare and housecleaning for 6 months? And someone to teach my children French? How is it that we don't have a fourth bedroom in our house?

Lately

2011-09-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

There are approximately 8 weeks left of my final pregnancy and my brain is shot so I don't have much to say that will make sense. I supposed my brain will be like this for the next several months since after sleepless nights pregnant comes sleepless nights with baby, so you'll have to put up with photos without commentary for awhile. Thanks for understanding and if you're wondering what you can do to help- please stop by anytime with a vanilla latte or caramel macchiatto for me and some time to spend with my kids while I put my feet up for a while!

Here's some of what we've been up to lately:

Emma was in an 8 week ballet class and on the last day we got to go observe
Emma had her first soccer game of the season. Go Lightening Lady Bugs!

We went to Fairyland in Oakland for our first fieldtrip of the year We got to celebrate Dylan's grandpa's 87th birthday with him

Grady started preschool
Dylan has been teaching Landon how to longboard
And Dylan got to utilize his newly (almost) organized garage and tools to build something for his wife. Lucky him!(a buffet/potting bench/toy storage for our patio)

First Grade

2011-08-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

Somehow, someway, my itty bitty little girl grew up and she is now old enough to be a first grader. WHAT?!?

We're homeschooling again this year and I am determined to be a bit more consistent this year with our schedule- mostly because our dear Emma thrives on schedules and order- and so, today for our first day, I had a color coded pocket chart filled out with all the different things that we needed to do. She LOVED it! Aside from being more consistent, I'm also determined to be done with "school" by 10am. I mean really, what does a first grader need to learn that takes more than a few hours a day?

Anyway, here's a few pictures from our first day:

(she insisted on holding a My Little Pony along with her sign)

(decorating her journal for the year with lots of flair!)

Meanwhile, the boys were busy building an awesome tower:

Then Grady drew her a picture of a princess mermaid and dictated what dot letters he wanted me to put on the card for his sister:
(the large circles are the shoulders and knees. the words he wrote: "I love you. You're going to have fun in first grade." my heart is melting!)

After our school work was done, Emma was having so much fun that she insisted on practicing her piano. I know that it's just a freak occurrence that she's all excited about school and all, but hey, I'm not gonna complain!

Squirrels

2011-08-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

Um, is it just me or is this picture totally disturbing?

I guess the squirrels around here think they can just lounge around all day. (Yes, it is still alive)

Anyone have a dog we could borrow? Or a pellet gun?

Not quite 4....

2011-08-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

Grady's 4th birthday is still more than a month away, but he decided that he was big enough to ride his bike without training wheels. So off to the park he and Dylan went to attempt this feat on a softer surface than the asphalt on our street. Well, after one push, off he went and he hasn't stopped since! After the park he came home and did hundreds of laps around our cul-de-sac, this morning his dad took him on a ride around our neighborhood, and this afternoon he's been bombing up and down our neighbors' driveways for hours. Needless to say, he's pretty proud of himself!

well, that was worth it....

2011-08-10T10:13:00.001-07:00

12 hours of my time + 1.5 hours of travel to drop off & pick up my kids + countless hours of anxiety & lack of sleep = $16.36. awesome.

Tahoe or bust....

2011-08-09T10:42:00.001-07:00

We have been blessed with some amazing friends whose amazing parents own an amazing home in Tahoe. We've had the privilege of an invitation to this house a handful of times in the winter, but this past weekend, we got to go and do the summer thing. And in the words of Emma, "being here in the summer is WAY better than coming in the winter when it's cold and snowy and all you can do is sled." So there you have it!

The highlight of the weekend according to Emma and Grady: going on the "motor boat." Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen Emma so happy. And once Grady stopped crying inconsolably because his dad fell off the tube in the "really really deep end" of Lake Tahoe, he ended up loving it too! Landon took a nap.

The highlight of the weekend according to the grownups was rafting the Truckee river. 4 adults, 5 kids, a big raft, perfect weather...... it was so. much. fun!

We also swam in Donner Lake,

(Dowds minus Kira plus Emma and Grady)

and just loved spending some quality time with our friends. Thanks for having us Dowd family!

You know you're old when....

2011-08-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

you're forced to choose between your shoes and your back. I had to choose in favor of my back this week and now am a proud(?) owner of a pair of Birkenstocks. And you know what? Since I've been wearing them all day, tonight is the first night in a few weeks that my back is not in excruciating pain. So yes, I'd say that the trade-off between fashion and function was definitely worth it.... this time :) I still hold out hope that once I get rid of this extra 30 or so pounds that are hanging off the front of me and throwing my body out of balance that I can go back to my good ol' Rainbows, but if not, well, at least my back-friendly shoes go well with the wirey gray strands that have been popping straight of the part in my hair lately.

Since May

2011-08-01T14:30:00.001-07:00

Well, since it's now August, I guess you probably wonder what we've been up to this summer. Just admit it, you're dying to know.

In May, this little girl turned 6:

we had a chance to stay at my aunt's HB house one last time before she sells it:

and we hung out at the Concord Airport because that place is awesome:

In June, we overpacked and went camping for 5 days:

our kids went on their first BART trip:

and I ran away for a few nights and drank a really big latte:

In July, my kids super-cooperated for a 4th of July photoshoot:

Emma started ballet class and taught her brothers everything she knows:

we went to Lake Arrowhead for a church retreat:

the kids had a mud fight:

we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom:

Landon learned how to fend for himself:

and the kids had swim lessons, and soccer class, and I had jury duty, turned 30, and found a gray hair.

There you have it! We hope you've been having a great summer too!

How to make a pregnant lady really cry

2011-07-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

2 words:

Jury Duty

more commentary to follow once I dry my eyes and stop feeling sorry for myself, and once i go back AGAIN in august for another waste of my time because apparently the judge doesn't care that i am a stay at home mom who doesn't have days on end to waste sitting around at the court house and would only give me a deferment instead of an excuse after i spent a day and a half serving my duty.

and please, if you are ever planning on getting a DUI, please don't because i (and lots of other people) don't want to be summoned for your trial.

thank you.

How to make a pregnant lady almost cry

2011-07-02T20:27:00.001-07:00

Take her order at Starbucks and then start to make it and then forget all about it when a skinny, non-pregnant, non-bloated, non-almost-30-year-old who actually did her hair and makeup today walks in to order a cup of ice for her bottled water.

And then when the pregnant lady finally asks if you've made her drink yet, find it on your counter and add extra ice because the ice in her drink had already started to melt because you took so long to get it to her. Because watered down coffee drinks are oh so satisfying and just what she wanted. Not!

One reason why I love America.....

2011-07-02T20:23:00.001-07:00

Because we take such good care of our people:

Life After Death

2011-05-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

Our Grandma Phyllis passed away peacefully last week. She lived with us for almost 3 years and even though we have been preparing our kids for the inevitability of this, we have been concerned that this major change in our household and lives would really upset them.

So far, these are their reactions:

Grady: "Dear Jesus, please help me to be a good boy today and please help Jesus to help Grandma have a nice time in Heaven. Amen."

Emma: "Mom. Can we eat outside for dinner tonight because we usually can't because Grandma is here and it's too cold for her to eat outside but since she died and is in Heaven she won't be too cold and we can eat outside. Please?"

and "Mom. I'm really, really, really glad that Grandma is in Heaven because she loved God and now she doesn't have to be really old and sick anymore."

So yeah, I guess their mourning has been a bit less traumatic than we thought it would be. Oh to have such peace like a child!

{one of the ways that we prepared our kids (mostly emma) was by reading a little book called "What happens When We Die?" published by Moody Press. it's a very matter-of-fact yet comforting book about a child's reaction and questions when a bird dies. I would recommend having a copy around the house if you have kids}

The science fair won't even know what hit it.....

2011-05-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

Why we plant a garden

2011-05-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

We plant a garden because our 3.6 year old boy will eat anything that grows. Seriously, if it is in a garden, ripe or not, he will pick it and eat it. Lettuce, kale, chard, radishes, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, hot peppers, onions... you get the idea.

He was hungry before bed tonight so I said he could eat more lettuce that we picked today, so after he brushed his teeth he stuffed a handful of lettuce in his mouth and climbed into bed. Weird? Yes.

The other day Emma and I went to the farmer's market and I bought a bunch of radishes as a surprise treat for Grady. He was SO excited and promptly went to work eating through the bunch.

Often times when I'm chopping onions for dinner, he'll reach up onto the counter and help himself to a handful of raw onions as a snack.

Tonight (and most nights) he'll announce that he doesn't like the dinner that I made. So I've learned that if I explain the ingredients that are in it, he'll usually end up eating it and enjoying it. But when that fails, I'm not above using a little good old fashioned bribery:

Grady- "Noooooo, I don't like this. It is not my favorite dinner. It will NOT make me strong!"
Me- "Well, if you don't eat it, you won't get any artichoke.
Grady- "I don't want any noodles. They're mushy"
Me- "You have to eat them if you want any artichoke"
Grady- "I want the heart part. With barbecue sauce*."
Me- "Sure. You can have as much artichoke as you want if you eat your dinner first."
Grady- silently stuffing his face with dinner....

*And yes, I know that barbecue sauce isn't a normal accompaniment to artichokes, but that and Italian salad dressings are the only condiments that his dad will eat so they're the only condiments that Grady will trust.

Cinco de Mayo

2011-05-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

Lest you think we've fallen off the face of the planet, I'm here to assure you that quite the opposite has happened. We've been swallowed whole by life and all my energies are being spent elsewhere. But, here we are on this very important National holiday and I thought I'd celebrate by sharing 5 fun facts with you:

1. 6 years ago I was pregnant with a baby girl. I was really hoping that she would be born on 5 de Mayo so her birthday could be 5-5-05. She didn't oblige but I love her anyway. And in 11 days, she'll be 6!!!!

2. Yesterday one of my best friends in the whole world woke up in excruciating pain and had to go to the hospital for an emergency surgery. Thankfully, I just happened to be home at 7am when they called and asked if I could watch their two girls indefinitely. So, I have 5 kids right now. (Their mom is better now and coming home from the hospital today).

3. Last night when I was attempting to feed 5 kids dinner, the firetrucks and paramedics showed up to our house again. I wonder what they thought about the pregnant lady who followed her 5 kids out to take a picture with them!!!

4. We have been raising 5 baby caterpillars for the last several weeks. About a week ago, they formed into chrysalises and today, the first one emerged as a butterfly. Pretty awesome!

5. We have approximately 5 weeks left in our first year of homeschooling. And we survived. And Emma still loves me. And we're gonna try it again next year. Phew!

!Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

How to make my day

2011-04-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

Tell me that I'm 6 days farther along in my pregnancy than I thought I was. As in, I'm one week closer to being done with 24hr nausea. And one week closer to not ever being pregnant again. Oh, and of course, one week closer to meeting my fourth (and final) child.

Oh, you didn't know I was pregnant? Well, the cat's out of the bag now. Gonsalves baby number 4(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) is coming sometime early in November.

[Lucky for you, you don't need to worry about calling me crazy, because that's already been established in several of my earlier posts.]

And let me tell you- my kids are EXCITED about having another sibling, although Emma is a bit concerned that all of the names have already been taken so our baby won't have a name. Grady tried to quenched that concern when he decided that we'd call it "Baby Lying in a Manger" (since I told him that we wouldn't be calling it Baby Jesus.) And Landon, well, he doesn't really care- though I'm sure he will once he's bumped out of the baby spot!

Pay Back

2011-04-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week Grandma fell and the firefighters and paramedics had to come to her rescue. My kids are normally freaked out by this- especially my worry-er Emma, but this time, they really just wanted to take pictures with the fire truck and ambulance. Rather than having them hovering around the action, I obliged and took some pictures of them and the neighbor kid.

So today, instead of being stuck inside our messy house on this dreary, rainy day, I bribed my kids to clean up with the incentive that we'd bake cookies and take them to the fire station.

It was a brilliant plan. The kids put away their laundry, cleaned their rooms, made their beds, and cleaned up and vacuumed the toy room. We'll go visit the fire station every day if I get these results!

Once we got to the station and delivered our cookies and thank you notes, we got a tour of the station and the kids got to pose for a picture inside the firetruck for a change. Then, right when they were explaining to us what happens when they get an emergency call and showing us our house on the map, a real call came in and we got to watch them get ready for it and rush out the door! I thought it was pretty exciting, but Emma was kind of upset because she was asking them questions about the call that they got and they didn't have time to answer her. And Grady was disappointed because he didn't have a chance to see an axe before thy left. Oh well, maybe next time...

ps, I just looked at the pictures of the fire trucks and realized that they're different trucks. I'm pretty sure we took cookies to the wrong fire station! Woops! Hmm, I wonder how I can figure that out!

Pleasant Hill's Finest at Work

2011-03-24T13:50:00.001-07:00

Wait. What's this picture about? Is that a police officer holding a gun pointed at your neighbor's house?

Why, yes. Yes it is.

And what's the deal with the 4 other officers holding guns looking like they're going to be bursting into your neighbor's front door?

Oh, just another day on Oakvue Court!

Just kidding. This stuff doesn't normally happen around here. Well, the police come but never with their guns and k-9 unit and 4 other cars backing them up.

Needless to say, my kids were enthralled watching the action unfold from the front window. We made them stop yelling at the officers from the front door once the guns were pulled. Just in case the bad guys came to our house, Grady had his dollar store dart gun ready to go!

It turns out that our neighbor's alarm was going off and another neighbor noticed the front door open so he called the police. I guess they take these kind of calls seriously. Because the police were staking out the house and neighborhood for almost an hour before they went it. From our vantage point, we didn't see any bad guys apprehended. And since our neighbor whose house it was is out of town, we can't ask him if anything was taken or if the door was just kicked in.

That kind of answer isn't good enough for Emma and she kept asking where the bad guys were and how did they get into Bob's house and since they weren't caught maybe they're still in his house.

A little while later, after the police had left our court in peace, Emma came running down the hall screaming that "Someone's outside and the fence is shaking and Landon's going to die!"

Well, really Dylan was on the roof by Landon's room clearing out one of our gutters that was overflowing. All they could see out the window was someone standing on the fence wearing black boots and she were certain that the bad guys were back and they were coming for Landon!

It may be awhile before my kids will be able to sleep peacefully again!

Remember Me?

2011-02-24T08:27:00.000-08:00

Remember when I used to write lots of funny things and include lots of great pictures. Well, I have camera issues and computer issues and not much free time so, well, there you go. The other night my husband said, "You haven't blogged lately. I've been checking just to see if anything is going on with my family that I should know about." Well, Mr. Overworked Underpaid Husband, this one's for you:

Conversation with Emma as we were driving past a bridal store:

E: Mom, when I get married, can I wear one of those dresses?

Me: Yes you can!

E: Well, actually, can I just wear your dress from your wedding so that you don't have to spend any money on me because you never like to spend money on me?

Me: Well, your wedding is the most special day in your life and I will definitely buy you a new dress if you want one.

E: Nooooooo Mom, I won't make you do that. That is too much money. I never want you to spend too much money.

This conversation is just weeks after she informed everyone at camp that her mom makes her wear ugly boy rainboots and won't EVER buy her girl ones because she NEVER wants to spend money on buying girl things.

Oh my dear almost 6-year-old going on 45-year-old, don't be so practical and worried about everything. Just try to enjoy your childhood a little longer, okay?

Monday Musings

2011-01-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

Today my newest nephew will be born. My sister-in-law has been in labor for approximately forever and any minute now Baby Eklund will be making his debut into the world.

Today our dog officially moved out. Rhonda, our bookkeeper, came to pick her up and whisked her away to happiness. And psychological training (see previous post).

Today I have poison oak all over my face and it is slowly swelling my left eye shut. Incidentally, the oil on mango skin (which I am allergic to) is the same kind of oil on poison oak. Unfortunately my husband didn't know this before he came home covered in poison oak oil and contaminated our house.

Today I have treated myself to an afternoon latte with Trader Joe's Salted Caramel Sauce mixed in. Y.U.M.

Today it is January 24th and it is approximately 66 degrees and all of my windows are open, letting in fresh air. Aaaahhhhmazing.

Happy Monday!

On her way out....

2011-01-17T09:06:00.001-08:00

Get this: a dog psychologist has offered to take Lucy on as a personal project, fix her, and then give her back or re-home her. Ummm, did I just say dog psychologist? Do you have to go to school for that or is it just a title you can give yourself if you feel like it? Anyway, needless to say, I have absolutely no faith that our dog can be fixed so, this "psychologist" can go ahead and do what she's gonna do and then re-home Lucy.

Emma is a bit upset about all of this. Afterall, she is the kid who once upon a time insisted that Lucy was her best friend. But we've been explaining that Lucy will be happier with a family that actually plays with her, and doesn't mind having her at their heels all. the. time., and doesn't have to tie her up when they leave for the day because she can't handle being alone.

And as much as I hate disappointing my kids, I'm pretty certain they'll get over it really quickly. I mean, since we've announced that Lucy will be leaving soon, they have made no effort to give her special attention or volunteered to feed her or spent any extra time with her. Nope, they've gone on as usual; locking her inside when they're out playing because she always ruins their games and knocks them over.

As for me, I'm gonna get over it quickly too. Yep, no more hair everywhere, and having to wash cat poop out of her fur, and having to restrain her from jumping excitedly on every single person who walks through our doors, and cleaning poop out of our carpet because there was a thunderstorm and she panicked, and trying to get her to stop whining and freaking out whenever anyone is elevated above the ground (ie, on a chair, on a ladder, on a slide). Nope, there are only are a few things I will definitely miss about her: she keeps cats out of the yard, and she mops the floor (and highchair) clean after every meal. I guess I'll have to learn how to use a pellet gun and teach the kids how to sweep ;)

Where have we been?

2011-01-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

The hard drive on my laptop is full so I can't upload any photos until I go through the last 3 years worth of pics and cull the ones that we don't need. This process is tedious and depressing because when I'm forcing myself to go through the albums, there's no denying that my kids are growing up. Fast. And even though I may not actually print each picture, there are memories attached to them that I don't really want to delete. Sniff, sniff.

I hear that if my husband would only set up a network, I could store the photos on his hard drive and then share them on my computer. But alas, until then I'll have to post without pics. And who wants to just read a post with no pics? Boooooring.

But, just to make sure you'll come back again when I actually get around to posting, here's some glimpses into what we've been doing around here. Photos and stories coming soon. I hope.:

1. My husband won the dessert portion of my family's Christmas Eve cooking and baking competition.

2. Landon started walking. What is it about watching babies take their first steps that reminds me of MJ's "Thriller" video?!

3. Lucy (our dog) spent the week between Christmas and New Year with Dylan's employee Grant. The kids didn't miss her one bit. It took several days before they even asked where she was. Dylan and I saw this as confirmation that we can indeed get rid of her without scarring our children for life. Anyone want her?

Wecome to the next few years...

2010-12-20T20:25:00.000-08:00

Landon got ear tubes put in last week. They'll be in for the next few years, until his ears grow bigger and they fall out (or something like that). He can bathe by himself in treated water and go in swimming pools without wearing ear plugs but if he bathes with his siblings or goes in the hot tub or swimming in a lake, he has to wear ear plugs to keep bacteria out of his tubes.

How do you keep ear plugs in a one-year-old's ears?

You use an Ear Band-It, of course...Are you disturbed by this picture, too? The thing makes him look cross-eyed and smoosh-faced.

Oh well. Hopefully it works.

8th Annual Christmas-Costume Party

2010-12-20T14:14:00.000-08:00

This is NOT another "tacky sweater" party. Oh no. A lot of the people who come wear sweaters that they would actually wear out in public and I certainly don't want to offend anyone by calling their clothes tacky.

Instead it's a party where you can wear your beautiful festive sweaters or think outside the box and come up with a Christmas-themed costume. And eat from a chocolate fountain.

Here are some of this year's best:

Mr. Peppermint:

A gift to God:

Christmas Sweater Gigi & Sugar Plum Princess Emma

A gift to Lee (and Lee):(this was great because Billie couldn't move her arms in the box so she had to drink from a straw and have her husband hand feed her the whole night!)
The winners: Reindeer Family
Rudolph, Dancer, Vixen & Prancer

aaand, of course, Grandpa Vern dressed as Santa:

George & Father John
Christmas Tree & her boy!

If you didn't make it this year, you should next year. For realz.

Empathy

2010-12-16T14:14:00.001-08:00

My kids have had a whole slew of health issues this year.

I'm not really sure why but between the three of them, there has been multiple cases of pink eye, lots of double ear infections, some random rashes, a broken foot, a stitched up chin, and ear surgery.

Unfortunately for my kids, I have never personally experienced any of these issues so I can have sympathy for them, just not empathy.

I could tell Grady that I felt bad that he had to wear a cast, but I couldn't speak from experience and explain to him that it wouldn't hurt when they sawed it off his leg. And I can assure Emma that she'll still be beautiful with a little scar on her chin, but I couldn't really understand why the stitches itched so bad. And poor little Landon- I have no idea what ear infections feel like and why they kept him up at night so I could only give him some Motrin and pray that he could go back to sleep.

Since I'm a mom, you'd better believe that I'd willingly take on any of these ailments just so my kids wouldn't have to go through them, but for whatever reason, that's not the way things work, and my heart gets broken for them each time.

Well, folks, FINALLY this week, I was able to have some empathy for one of my kids:

I don't know what it feels like to have your ear drums cut open and to have tubes inserted. And I don't know what it feels like to wake up from general anesthesia in the arms of a strange lady. Heck, I don' t even know what Tylenol with Codine makes your head feel like.But I DO know why Landon was crying when I took this picture. I know how he felt when we put this little hospital gown on him. I understand what it felt like to have his diaper hanging out the back of his gown for all the world to see. (At least he got to wear cute little diapers with his gown and not stuffed mesh underwear- right ladies?!). I know how drafty and stiff and uncomfortable those gowns can be. And to Landon I can honestly, empathetically say that I hope he never has to go through that again!

Christmas Cards

2010-12-11T21:49:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are, well into December and we finally attempted to get a decent family picture for Christmas cards.

Sure, we have some great pics that our dear friend Dan Ramming took of us, but those were way back in May and since Landon has changed so much since then, I thought we should try for a more current picture.

So this morning, I dressed my family in coordinated-ish outfits (except for Emma because she owns NOTHING neutral), grabbed our camera, the tripod, and headed off to the beach to take some pictures of ourselves. Aaaaaaand that's when the problems started.

Problem 1: We don't live near the beach so we have to drive for over an hour with Emma asking every two minutes, "Are we there yet?" and Landon missing his morning nap because we're in the car and he has way too much fun in the car to fall asleep.

Problem 2: Once we got to the beach, our kids wanted to play in the sand and waves and not sit still for pictures. And we were using the self-timer on the camera so we had a lot of sitting still to do.
Problem 3: We didn't have anyone behind the camera to get Landon's attention so in most of the shots, he's looking/lunging at the sand.
Eventually, we gave up attempting to look like a pulled together, sane, happy family who can sit still for more than .5 seconds.

Fortunately, once we let them loose we got some great shots of them playing so even though our Christmas card pics will be a bit unpolished, we now have some great photos to hang up around the house.
Does anyone with that fancy photo editing software want to edit them for us?

It's that time again.....

2010-12-06T09:27:00.001-08:00

click on the picture to make it bigger and better.

and if you're thinking that this would be an awesome party to come to but you're not really sure if the invitation is for you, well, it is. you should come.

Brave and Not So Much

2010-11-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

I have a 5-year-old daughter who is very, very brave.

This afternoon she was standing on a stool in front of the window awaiting the arrival of some dear friends when the stool slipped and she flew off with her feet going high into the air and landed on her chin, splitting it open.

Yes, she cried.
Yes, she panicked when she saw blood.
Yes, she cried even harder when Grady ran and brought her some Barbie bandaids and an ice pack to fix the hole in her chin.
Yes, she cried the whole way to the hospital while holding a washcloth to her chin to stop the flow of blood.
Yes, she panicked when she heard she was going to get stitches and asked if they were going to use a sewing machine on her face.

But when those saintly ER nurses started asking her how old she is and if she's in kindergarten and if she has her driver's license yet, the tears stopped flowing and she was able to tell them all about her life. And how she fell. And ask if they had pretty bandaids.

Then the ER doc came in, and with Dylan and me holding her still, he stitched Emma up while she asked him questions about what he was doing and told him if what he was doing hurt her or not and asked how many more minutes it would be until he was all done and what color of thread he was using.

As soon as the doc finished with his 4 stitches and my very brave 5-year-old sat up, Dylan announced that he wasn't feeling so well. Immediately the doctor had him lay down on the bed and a nurse hurried in to ask if he needed some water or anything. Never mind that it wasn't his chin bleeding all over the place or getting sewn back together with ugly black whiskery thread. The nurse explained that it was very common for male patients to get woozy from the sight of blood and that what Dylan was experiencing was totally normal. Whatever. He's seen 3 live births and that was a LOT more graphic than 4 measly little stitches.

Anyway, once Dylan was feeling better, we checked out of the ER and took Emma straight to Yogurt Park, even though she hadn't had dinner yet. She even got to pick out 2 toppings for her pink frozen yogurt, since she was so brave. Dylan didn't get any.

The Happiest Place on Earth

2010-11-08T13:15:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Grandpa David for taking all 16 of us to Disneyland!
We had SO much fun!!!!!

Emma's favorite part: Thunder Mountain Railroad and Soaring Over California

Grady's Favorite Part: SPLASH MOUNTAIN!

Landon's Favorite Part: Going on rides with his dad that his mom wouldn't even go on

Dylan's Favorite Part: Having fearless children to go on rides with him

Julie's Favorite Part: Having fearless children to go on rides with Dylan so she didn't have to!

Just another day in paradise...

2010-11-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

Some things that happened around here today:

1. Grady woke up at 6:30 am and made everyone else's lives miserable until we let him out of bed at 7. I've felt like a train hit me ever since.

2. I took Landon in to get his ears checked, again, and he has double infections, again. So, the doc finally referred him for ear tubes surgery. Bummer about the surgery. Good about (hopefully) not having infections anymore.

3. I tried to take a nap. But, UPS, FedEx, OnTrac and Lucy's least favorite of Grandma's caretakers came. Which meant a lot of barking. Which meant me getting out of bed to come quiet her down so that she wouldn't wake up the kids. 4 times.

4. My daughter bought me flowers (with Grandma Jackie's help) because she said that her mommy smiles when her daddy brings her flowers. She wanted to make me smile :)
She also made scalloped potatoes (one of my favorites) with Grandma Jackie today and brought some home for dinner so Dylan didn't have to cook!

5. I left (an hour late) for my weekly-ish blissful evening off. Dylan left with the kids because he doesn't like to be home alone with 3 kids. Grandma Phyllis escaped and was found by a neighbor who didn't have our phone number. She tracked Dylan's sister down through a friend who had an old church directory. The neighbor brought Grandma in and waited with her until Dylan could get home with the three kids. Thankfully we had Bible study here last night so the house wasn't totally destroyed and there were some unhidden chairs for them to sit on while they waited.

6. 13 hours after this morning's wake up call, the kiddos (and grandma) are all in bed fast asleep. And now we can go watch last night's episode of "The Middle" and eat a carton of Ben & Jerry's new flavor, Mission to Marzipan which I found at Grocery Outlet for only $1.50.

Good Night.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:06:00.000-07:00

or as Grady would say, "Happy birthday! Trick or treating!"

I hate spiders

2010-10-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

Grady is very, very afraid of ants. He flips out whenever he sees one. And he's always talking about how beetles are bad guys and bite people. And oh, how he panics when he finds a fly in the house (a behavior for which i completely blame my father). And don't even get him started on bees!!! After being stung twice himself and seeing his little brother get stung he. does. not. like. bees. at. all.

But he doesn't seem to mind spiders (a behavior for which i completely blame my mother). Nope, for some reason he isn't bothered by those horrid creatures with eight legs that creep around looking for helpless victims to annihilate and little people to bite.

So, for the sake of keeping our child happy, and because we're homeschooling so we have to do this kind of stuff, and because my cousin who hates spiders as much as I do invited us, we went up Mt. Diablo the other night for a tarantula hunt.

Grady was the first to spot one, and let me tell you, the shriek out of his mouth was priceless! I guess he wasn't expecting something so large!

(a male)

October is peak tarantula mating season, so these guys are crawling around all over the place.

We were even lucky (?) enough to find a female, which are very hard to find since they mostly just hide in their little holes all the time. Did you know that female tarantulas can live up to 20 years? 20 years!!!! That's just crazy.
(a female)

Tarantulas don't really bite, but rather inject poison via fangs and then dismember their victims. So I guess this means that they're totally safe to let crawl all over you. At least that's what the guides were saying. Being the responsible parents that we are, we took their word for it and allowed our children to touch and play with these arachnids to their hearts' content.

(this image is hard to see but it's a tarantula climbing up grady's pant leg).

We saw 5 or 6 tarantulas on our hike and I'm pretty sure that Emma loved them so much that she wanted to bring one home with her. Seriously, her and Elijah were fighting over who got to hold them the most. The other kids (and adults) on the hunt couldn't even get near the tarantulas until we told those two to step back.

I was certain that when we got home and the kids settled down and went to bed that they would have nightmares about being attacked by giant spiders. I was fully prepared to be awoken in the night by their terrified screams, in which case I would go into their room and comfort them by telling them to not worry because mommy won't let tarantulas into the house. I was NOT fully prepared to be awoken in the night by my husband jumping up and violently ripping off all of the covers and throwing them to the floor to get away from "the spiders, the spiders!" Unfortunately for him, I didn't have compassion on him as I would have had with my children. I just started yelling at him to go back to bed because I'm freezing. Poor Dylan.

A Test

2010-09-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Which is more difficult?

A. Keeping a 3-year-old boy in a cast occupied for 3 weeks

or

B. Keeping a 3-year-old boy (sans cast) off of a newly poured concrete patio for a whole day

Hot

2010-09-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

What did you do on the hottest day ever?

I packed up my kids and drove two hours away to wonderful Sebastopol, CA (which was even more hot) and took them apple picking with our home school co-op. There were great moments; statue climbing, Screamin' Mimi's Ice Cream, a super cool Johnny Apple Seed sculpture, learning about Apple farming, spending quality time with other young families.Aaaand there were some not-so-great moments; Johnny Apple Seed's apple being kicked off the sculpture and rolling down the road, the 101 degree heat, the dust everywhere, and my favorite Sebastopol coffee shop that sells my favorite drink ever (iced horchata latte) being out of horchata. Emma summed her feelings up through tears: "I don't like this day at all!."

Then we got home to find Dylan (and Grandpa David, Uncle Dan, Matt, Uncle Craig and Uncle Charles) doing this on the hottest day ever:
POURING OUR NEW PATIO!!!!!!!!

11.5 months after the initial digging out of our back hillside and moving the hot tub, we now have a patio! And just in the nick of time- Dylan told me I could turn the hot tub on on October 1st and that is the first day we'll be able to walk on the concrete.

Finally, gone are the days of walking in the pitch black night around a corner and across old fence boards laid across the mud to get to the hot tub. I'll be able to flip on a light switch, walk out from my bedroom through the french doors, down a step, across the patio and into the hot tub! Oh man, what a life of luxury I'll live this winter!

And I'm thinking some winter weather (or at least fall weather) sounds pretty good right about now!

Some thoughts I have today...

2010-09-23T15:13:00.001-07:00

1. I should never, ever go to Costco again. I always spend too much money there- and not even on fun stuff. Julia would not be very proud of me.

2. Because of #1, I wonder if I can go a month without grocery shopping- other than buying milk and fresh produce? Anyone want to challenge me to see if I can?

3. I don't appreciate it when people have nut allergies. I have to buy snacks for Emma's soccer team and since there's a kid with nut allergies, I can't buy them anything other than sugary snacks or chips or crackers. No trail mix or granola bars with nuts. Lame-o.

4. For as long as I can remember, our church's weekly Bible study was on Thursday nights. Two years ago they switched it to Wednesday nights, yet I still wake up the morning after Bible study excited that it's Friday. Every time. What a let down when I realize that it's only Thursday.

5. Landon is really cute.

A day in the life of a brand new 3-year-old

2010-09-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

7:10am - wake up. get mad at your parents when they tell you that you're 3 today.

7:15am - get excited because you realize that you're big and so now you can wear your sister's clothes. get mad because your parents inform you that you still can't wear her clothes because they're girl clothes.

7:30am - still mad at the world but you get to watch the fireman movie before breakfast.

8:00am - your mom made you delicious buttermilk pancakes and put a #3 candle in it for you. you're still mad so you refuse to eat.

8:30am - decide to eat the pancake, and then 4 more. things are looking up.

9:00am- get dressed all by yourself in your #3 shirt and not-so-much matching camo shorts so that you can go outside and play with Grant.

11:00am- decorate a big envelope for the mail

11:30am - collect pacifiers from their various hiding places around the house and put them in the envelope because big 3-year-olds don't need pacifiers anymore. suck one of them one last time.

11:40am - put the envelope full of pacifiers in the mail to send them away

12:00pm - eat mac n cheese and apple slices for lunch, per your request

12:30pm - read the book about moods and then decide you're in a pretty good mood afterall. tell your sister that it's not her birthday- it's YOUR birthday!

1:00pm - naptime. without pacifiers :( you get the new big huge blue stuffed dog that you picked out at the store as a consolation prize. you're not quite sure about it.

1:10pm - come out of your room and inform your mom that you want your pacifiers and that you don't want to be 3. mom puts you back to bed and snuggles with you.

2:30pm - wake up from the shortest nap ever. eat a snack.

4:30pm - load up bikes and hit the town for your birthday dinner

5:00pm - first stop: Round Table Pizza
5:15pm - next stop: a park for a picnic5:45pm - attempted kite flying. the wind died down so that didn't work out too well6:15pm- don't cooperate for a family photo op. start the ride home.
7:14pm- home and tucked into bed with your sister's gigantic stuffed dog to snuggle with since the blue one you picked out wasn't quite good enough. snuggle with your dad as he prays that you'll be able to sleep.

8:15pm- still awake and missing your pacifiers

8:30pm - fast asleep :)

So, you're homeschooling.....

2010-09-10T12:48:00.001-07:00

We're two whole weeks into official homeschooling around here and here are my answers to your FAQ's (you know you were wondering!):

(first day of Kindergarten)

Q: Oh, you're homeschooling. How do you do that?

A: I teach my kid. At home, in the car, at the store. Don't you? We're not talking physics here. She's in kindergarten. So we're learning about safety and adding and social skills and coloring.

Q: How do you do school with the other kids around?

A: I include them. When Emma is playing with pattern blocks, so is Grady. And when Emma is brainstorming a list of things that grow on trees, so is Grady. And when we read a story, they all sit on my lap. And when she is working on writing lowercase letters, Grady and Landon are playing Lincoln Logs on the floor right next to us.

Q: Where did you make a classroom in your house?

A: I didn't. We have a cupboard that houses our books and supplies. Otherwise, we use our dining room table, and livingroom floor, and backyard, and laundryroom, and the grocery store, and the zoo, and Mt. Diablo. Basically, the world around us is our classroom. (Does that sound Hippy or what!?!)

Q: What about socializing with other kids?

A: Well, lucky for Emma, we don't live in a cave. We live in a community, and have friends on our street, and friends on her soccer team and friends at church.

Q: Homeschoolers are weird. Do you really want your kids to be weird?

A: Um, do you think I'm weird? Well, I mean, I know I'm a little weird- but aren't we all? Well, I was homeschooled for 8 whole years of my life and I was able to acclimate into normal public school life just fine. And I was never classified as a loner. And I don't have any weird twitches. And I am able to make eye contact with people. And I don't wear prairie dresses and bonnets.

Q: When do you have time for yourself? Don't you ever get a break? Aren't you going crazy?

A: Well, honestly, this was a concern of mine. I mean, with three kids at home, I'm bound to get a bit stir crazy every now and again. However, being more intentional in teaching my kids has helped me establish more of a routine for our days and also helped me to get out and do more activities that we normally wouldn't have done. And when I have a routine, it helps me to function better and be happier. So it's been great. I also have a mother and mother-in-law who are more than willing to give me a break whenever I ask. Finally, I believe that it is my God given responsibility to care for and nurture and raise up my children. And if it means that I don't have a bunch of free time and "me" time, if I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, that's okay!

I read an article this morning that pretty much summed up the way that we want education to look like in our home. You can click here for the whole article, but here's an excerpt:

"We generally start our days the way we normally would- eating breakfast, playing, reading. To this, I gradually add on any schoolwork- half and hour of math here, a science project there, as they fit throughout the week. If life happens to collide (say, a birthday party, get together with friends, or a massive pile of laundry in need of putting away, then we just go with it.

After all, the beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility- we aren't necessarily chained to a schedule.... In an average week, we balance traditional schoolwork with everyday activities."

Always, always listen to your mother...

2010-08-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

...especially when she tells you not to jump from the bunk bed ladder.

Yesterday....

2010-08-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

....was the day I was supposed to take Emma in for her kindergarten orientation.

We went to a pool party instead.

Why the irresponsibility, you ask?

Because our daughter is only 5. And she loves to learn. And she's really smart. And she asks a lot of questions. And because she's still so innocent. And because she loves to help cook. And because she loves going on adventures. And because there are 31(!) kids assigned to each kindergarten teacher. And because we aren't quite ready for her learning to be limited by "school."

So, we're homeschooling.

At least for her kindergarten year. When she's six, maybe we'll change our minds :)

ps. i just realized that this post may seem judgemental to those of you who are sending your kids to regular ol' school. please don't think i'm hating on you or judging you, 'cuz i'm not. we made our decision to home school based on what would be best for our family and i certainly don't pretend to know what is best for yours :)

Some photos from July

2010-08-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

Since we're leaving on Thursday for our hundredth car trip of the summer, I'll leave you with some photos of our life in July:

Facebook

2010-07-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

Since some of you, my faithful readers, aren't on Facebook, you don't get to hear the nitty gritty details of our every day lives around here. Not to worry, you aren't missing out on much.

Here's my status from today:

Julie Gonsalves another reason to never shop with all 3 kids: if your 9m.o. is strapped securely into the to cart and your 3y.o. decides to try to pull him out of the cart, the cart might tip over on it's side, smashing your 9m.o.'s head into the concrete floor and shattering a glass bottle of cherry juice on the ground right next to ...him, effectively covering BOTH kids in juice and glass shards. then, while your two youngest are screaming their heads off, your 5y.o. might want to reinact for you and the employees what happened just so you know that she didn't do it....

Two Wheels

2010-07-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

We were in Huntington Beach last week and my brother taught Emma to ride without training wheels. Now, she's tearing it up on our court, going super fast and not stopping for anyone- she's even trying to convince the neighbor boy to play bumper cars with her!

Here's a little video of her riding, complete with her signature girly screeches of elation...

Way more than you ever wanted to know about our camping trip

2010-07-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

***WARNING: this post is suuuuuuper long because it includes lots of the billions of pictures that we took while camping. i don't expect anyone but the grandparents to actually read the whole thing***

***also, for those same grandparents who are actually reading this, if you want to see any of the pictures larger, make sure you're reading this on the internet and not just in your email and then just click on the pictures to make them larger***

Dylan and I both grew up in families that camped frequently, so by now we're pretty sure that we have car camping figured out- well, at least the packing part. You simply have to bring too much stuff; bring things that make the term "roughing it" very, very removed from your camping experience; and bring so much stuff and pack it in such a manner that the other cars traveling behind you on the freeway travel WAAAAAY behind you for fear that your son's tricycle or a large plastic patio chair might fly off and smash their windshield.

No problem, right?

Once you get to the campground, you'll inevitably realize that you forgot one or two things- like an essential part to the training wheels for Emma's bike or enough butter to adequately apply to the hobo pie irons. Not to worry, just make sure you have zipties available and are only 10 minutes away from the nearest town!

Here are the rest of my helpful hints and packing advice uncleverly listed according to the letters in the alphabet. (And before I go camping again, please remind me that I have compiled this list so that I can reference it and realize how absolutely insane it is for me to even consider camping with 3 kids. Thanks.)

A: Having an Aerobed is a must for the adults in the group because, let's face it, 4 nights sleeping on the hard ground just won't cut it if you're somewhere in your twenties or thirties (or older). Also, you'll have to bring padding for your 3 very American kids (and dog) who are accustomed to sleeping in comfort. In addition to our Aerobed, we also had a wagamama for Landon, a travel trundle for Grady, and some thermarest pads for Emma. Yes, our tent was very full.
B: Make sure your daughter brings her favorite Barbie and baby doll because you wouldn't want them to miss out on an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors.
C: When your brother and husband plan a camping trip and you adamantly refuse to go if it's going to be cold, then you shouldn't let them convince you to camp at the top of the Sierra Buttes. Because there's still snow there... and your kids might want to play naked in the snow.

D: If you have an almost-three-year-old who is pretty much potty trained, you should bring extra diapers anyway because he'll be so excited about camping that he'll forget that he needs to pee and then he'll wet his pants- lots of times. OR he'll sneak into the truck and find your not-quite-empty cup of coffee and chug it and then poop in his pants 20 minutes later. so then you'll have to go to town and buy a package of diapers at a price that will make you want to cry.

E: Emma's favorite part of camping was getting to eat lots of treats and having an aunt and uncle to chat with the whole time.
F: fire.

G: Grady's favorite parts of camping were going in the boats (no water needed) and riding (and pushing) bikes down a hill.

H: Next time your sister is in Nicaragua, have her pick you up a sweet custom hammock. It will provide hours and hours of entertainment for your kids.

I: When camping for a long period of time, it is essential to designate one day in the middle of the trip for a jaunt to town for ice cream. As you well know, ice cream has special powers and is able to make you forget how dirty and nasty and tired and sick of ice chest food you are.

J: One of my favorite parts of camping is that I get to pick out clothes for my kids and I can force them to wear Jeans! This may seem like no big deal to you, but Emma hasn't willingly worn a pair of jeans (or non-stretchy pants) since she was 2.

K: Borrow a kayak or two from a friend so that when you're at the lake (see "L") you can take your kids out on the water for awhile. They'll think you're super cool. The paddles for the kayak also come in handy when you need to "gently nudge" your "special" dog away when she's trying to climb into the boat halfway across the lake because she can't handle it when her family is not on stable ground (water, ladders, etc).

L: Lakes are really nice to camp by and they're relatively safe for small children since there is a nice shore and shallow water for them to play in. If the lake that you intend to camp by doesn't allow camping, be bummed because then you have to camp by a rushing river- which is not relatively safe for your kids. Thankfully for us, the only casualty in the river was Lucy's water bowl that Grady was filling up to make mud pie with. He almost lost his blue sandals too, but Dylan was able to retrieve them where they got snagged down river. Phew!M: machetes are useful for, well, i'm not sure what. i think something about firewood. all I know is that I sure am glad Joel brought one, you know, just in case we needed it.

N: Nasty is the only way to describe how I felt after being squished with Lucy in the front seat of Dylan's truck for 4 hours.

O: Giving your kids a chance to experience the great outdoors is pretty awesome- even if our experience was far from rustic. When Grady saw this tree he said "Look mom! That tree is touching the sky!"
P: in the event that you so happen to own a homemade potato gun, you should definitely bring it along. it will impress your children to no end and make your crazy dog even crazier.

Q: Uncle Joel kept telling Emma and Grady that his favorite part about camping was after dinner (and breakfast and lunch) quiet time. Ha! Obviously he doesn't have kids yet or he would realize that if that's your favorite thing, then don't go camping with a family full of kids.

R: always bring your brother and husband who fancy themselves Macgyver and can rig up a rain shelter in a flash.

S: it is very important to bring a sawzall and rechargeable batteries. this way, you can cut down firewood into manageable pieces quickly and then when the batteries die, you can make friends with the local boyscout camp and recharge your batteries there for a few hours.

T: if you're nervous that your small children might fall into the pit toilet and drown and you aren't quite ready to allow them to relieve themselves at will in the woods, a travel potty of some sort is a great thing to have. (this is also great to have when you're traveling in the middle of nowhere on I-5 and your kids have to go potty RIGHT NOW!!!!!!)

U: When you go for a walk, you might find a creek that you need to cross and your clothes might get wet. So you might need to take them off and continue your walk your underwear. thankfully, no one else wanted to camp in the snow so there isn't anyone else around to witness this.

V: When we pulled off the 89 (?) this was our view of the Sierra Buttes. Pretty nice if you aren't intimidated by camping with a little snow!

W: My kids and my dog LOVE playing in the water. Even if it is snowmelt.
X: I don't have anything to say about X so here's a picture of Landon
Y: ditto

Z: In the event that your husband leaves home without an essential piece to the training wheels for your daughter's bike, be certain to have zipties packed. They'll fix the training wheels no problem- so long as you don't mind her bike looking a bit ghetto fabulous!

Camping!

2010-06-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

I took billions of pictures (180 to be exact) on our camping trip this weekend, but for now, here's just one of my favorites....

(Thank you Aunt Joy for the awesome custom Nicaraguan hammock!)

Concerning Fathers

2010-06-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Single Ladies,

If you plan to marry someday and hope to have children, make sure you choose a man who will be a good father. Someone who will sacrifice his wants for those of his kids. Someone who will be willing to spend time nurturing, encouraging, teaching, protecting, and even disciplining his children. Someone who will strive to protect the innocence of his children in our not very innocent world. Someone who doesn't think he's too cool to pray and ask his Heavenly Father for wisdom and discernment and patience and help and mercy concerning his kids. Someone like this guy...

...or this guy...

...or this guy....

Okay? I'm glad we had this talk.

Love, Julie

Oh, and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to these amazing fathers in our lives!

Sometimes we go for a walk...

2010-06-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

...and my kids wear outfits like this...

...you know, like my old dress from when I was five, and butterfly pants and pink sparkly high tops...

...or you have butternut squash all over your face because your mom never wiped you up after dinner...

...or you sport a too tight wife beater 'cuz you're super classy...

Then this happens...
"Um mom? D go potty in my diaper."

So why the puddle you ask?

Because he's not wearing a diaper.

Then a car comes down the road so he has to run out of the way and finish peeing on the side of the road (notice the puddle following him)...

Then Emma gets ahold of the camera and Grady takes over with the stroller for awhile- please notice that they're heading straight for the neighbor's fence....

Finally, home sweet home!

The tale of the missing sandals

2010-06-13T21:02:00.001-07:00

Grady loves his blue sandals. He wants to wear them all. the. time.

Sometimes, he'll be running around playing in the house and stop everything in order to go find his sandals.

When he can't find them, he panics.
Sometimes, we don't let him wear them, because let's face it, flip flops and 2.5 year old boys are a recipe for disaster- especially when hills are involved.

Well, tonight was one of those times when he was frantically searching for them. We couldn't find them in their typical places- under the couch, in the hall closet, in landon's room, in dad's truck.... we even called Grandma Charlene to see if he had left them at her house. But alas, the sandals were gone.

So Grady went outside without them to help his dad move the barbecue.

And he stepped on a bee.
This is him holding an icepack in his hands (for no apparent reason) and soaking his feet in a sink full of icy epsom salt water. He's not very happy (in case you couldn't tell).

Here's a picture of the sting. You probably can't see anything because, thankfully, he isn't allergic to bee stings and it didn't swell up or anything. But holding up his foot and telling me all about it distracted him from the pain for a bit.

And of course, as soon as we got the stinger out and I went into the backyard to check the barbecue, I found his missing flip flops under the tire swing.

So I guess I'm not going to think he's so ridiculous when he wants to find his sandals anymore, because looking for them for a few more minutes sure would have been better than an big fat stinger in the bottom of his foot!

Me vs. Coffeemate

2010-06-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

It's summertime and you know what that means....

lazy schedules
swim lessons
fresh garden grown produce
amazing weather
lots of vacations
and
iced coffee drinks.

I mean, with 3 kids, there really isn't anything else (except for God's grace) that will help me through the loooooong, hot summer days with my sanity [relatively] intact.

I used to only indulge in iced coffee drinks when my husband would so kindly pick me up one on his way home from work.

Then my sister taught me how to make them at home with chilled coffee, milk, ice, and coffeemate creamer. These were good...... except for the coffeemate creamer part. That stuff is nasty, artificial and it leaves a strange film on the inside of my mouth.

So last week I set out to figure out how to make homemade coffee creamer with real, honest, no-nasty aftertaste ingredients.

Well, it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be and it is easily adaptable to any specific needs. Like, if you don't like real sugar, you could use agave nectar. Or if you don't like vanilla, you could use whatever flavoring suits you. And, obviously, any kind of milk would work here as well, the more fat content, the creamier, but I just used 1% and it tasted delish.

So far this week I've stirred it into hot coffee, iced coffee and hot tea and I haven't been disappointed yet! So, here's my unexact recipe. Go try it out and give me some feedback on if it worked for you or not!

Creamer
1. Put milk in a saucepan (3 c ? or more)

2. Add sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)

3. Turn on heat and simmer (don't boil or the milk will get that nasty skin on top) for like 20 minutes or so, stirring every once in awhile. You want the liquid to reduce out a bit and the sugar to dissolve.

4. Add vanilla extract (at least a teaspoon)

5. Cook that for another minute and then turn off the heat.

6. Cool completely. Store in the fridge.

Iced Coffee
1. pour chilled coffee into a cup, about half way up

2. add a splash (or more) of your creamer. it isn't as potent as coffeemate so you may need a little more than you would normally.

3. toss in a few ice cubes
4. top it off with milk.
5. Stir and enjoy, and make it through the rest of your day with a smile on your face :)

Last Day of Preschool

2010-06-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the last day of preschool for Emma Joy. It started off okay....

(all dressed up and holding the cards she made for her teachers)

The families were all invited to come to the last few minutes of class to watch the kids sing songs. That's when it got ugly...(she was NOT going to perform, thank you very much)

...and then each kid got a certificate and a special award. Guess which kid was the only one who refused to go up to receive her award?....(standing in the back with me and kind of smiling)

...then there was a picnic. This was much better because she got to sit with her BFF Athena [the only other girl in her class who is allowed to dress herself] and eat TJ's cheese sandwich crackers for lunch....(Athena and Emma, kindred spirits in life and fashion)

It's hard to believe that this phase of her life is already over. Man, I'm gonna miss only having to drag 3 kids out the door for school 3 days a week!

Happy Preschool Graduation Emma Joy!

Growing old with someone

2010-05-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Today is Grandma Phyllis' 84th birthday.

A year ago, I wouldn't have thought that she'd have made it to this day. You see, since she's lived here (20 months) she's been hospitalized several times, had pneumonia once or twice, broken some bones, and been found by neighbors down the street a few times. And yet today, on her 84th birthday, aside from some dementia and a slight case of diabetes, she's totally healthy and strong.

Now some people may think we're nuts for inviting a totally dependent elderly person into our home when we already had 2 (and now 3!) kids and a crazy dog. I don't disagree. We are nuts. But in our hearts, crazy as they may be, we believe that families should take care of one another.

So we do. And I'm not gonna lie and say that it's easy. It's the hardest thing we've ever done.

But then we see Emma exhibiting compassion (something that I totally lack) and guiding Grandma to the table or giving her hugs or encouraging her. Or we see Grady checking up on Grandma and making sure she's where she's supposed to be. Or we see Grandma's face when she's sitting on the couch singing along to a Bible Songs dvd with three of her great-grandkids. And that's how we know that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. Our lives are crazier and more hectic- yes; but they are also richer and fuller and more compassionate and less self-centered. And our kids are learning, right along with us, the importance of serving others and being hospitable and generous.

And so really, even though it's inconvenient and often unpleasant and it requires so much more of us than we would like to give, we consider it a blessing to have her in our home and are so thankful to have her as a part of our family.

Happy 84th birthday Grandma Phyllis.... and many more :)

FIVE

2010-05-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, our baby girl turned 5.

Wow.
Yes, the past 5 years have gone by too fast.
Yes, we cannot believe that our itty bitty baby girl is now 5.

She's full of life. Full of questions. Full of compassion.

She's a worrier. A nurturer. An artist.She's a perfectionist. She's inquisitive. She's mature. She loves to do math (yes, really). She doesn't love to eat- still.Happy 5th Birthday to our sweet, wonderful Emma Joy!

We are SO proud of you and are very thankful that God has blessed us so greatly by giving you to us.

[And thank you to Dan Ramming for the great pics!]

"Are you really 26?"

2010-05-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

We had a mother's day tea at Emma's preschool today. All of the mothers showed up during the last 45 minutes of class and we squeezed our post-birth hips into preschool sized chairs and pulled ourselves up to a preschool height banquet table and then had our preschoolers sit on our laps while we drank sweet tea and ate cucumber sandwiches. It was bliss. Each child filled out a questionnaire about his or her mom and we got to see how our children view us. Here's what Emma had to say about me:

My mommy's eyes are __green___.
Her hair is __black__.
I think my mommy is __26__ years old.
My mommy likes to __take a nap__.
Her favorite food is __beans__.
My mommy laughs when __"I be silly"__.
My mommy and I like to __watch tv__.

Perhaps I should spare you my thoughts about her answers. (Black hair? Really!)

Since this questionnaire was handed back to us during the tea, all of the moms got to chuckle about the answers. Some kids said that their moms liked to do laundry (yeah right!), and most of the kids said ridiculous numbers for their mom's age, like 150 or 9354. Well, the age question gave some other moms the courage to ask me what they'd been wondering for the past few years: "Are you really 26!?"

"Um, no, I'm 28 actually."

to which I received comments like:
"Ooooh, 28. I had my first kid when I was 28." [said kid is now in 8th grade so this mom is in her mid 40's]
or
"Oh, to be 28 again! I'm 44 and I'm about to be a grandma!"
or
"Oh man, my twenties were rough. My thirties were sooo much better. And so far, my forties have been very enlightening" [blah, blah, blah]

Needless to say, these conversations confirmed what I already knew but was hoping to disregard: I am by more than a decade the youngest mother in Emma's class. No exaggeration. The mothers of her friends are closer to my mom's age than they are to my age. I know that it's cool to wait to have kids later in life and all, but really, can't there be ANY moms around that are my age? Or even in their 30's!?!

To my dear friends who are not yet married and don't yet have kids: no need to fret. you haven't missed the boat. in fact, if you move to walnut creek, you'll buy yourself another 10 years before you'll even start to feel the need to procreate :)

What About Bob?

2010-04-29T19:35:00.001-07:00

you know, Bob from the movie. His psychiatrist Dr Marvin told Bob to take a vacation from his problems and we all know how that turned out; "Look at me Dr M, I'm sailing, I'm sailing!"

Well, we've had lots of problems around here lately (mostly with childrearing) and so on Saturday night we decided to follow Dr Marvin's sage advice and take a vacation from our problems by going away somewhere, anywhere, and spending some serious focused attention time with our little kids who used to be so sweet.

For the first time ever, we didn't plan ahead or over-think our trip. We packed up our car at 6pm on Sunday with some warm-ish clothes, a camera, and an ice chest that Dylan packed while I was at a baby shower that afternoon containing a gallon of milk, a box of Crispix, two packages of goldfish, some salami, a bag of cuties, some string cheese and half an avocado and rice cereal for Landon, and hit the road for......

.....Yosemite.

When we got there at 10:30 (pm!) we checked into our heated tent cabin and cashed out for the night. Then 6am happened and the HUNDREDS of sixth graders who were occupying the cabins surrounding ours came out. (No, sixth graders are NOT quiet at 6am in case you were wondering.)

We spent the next two days riding on the shuttle bus, walking around, watching deer and throwing lots and lots of pinecones and rocks into the rivers. We didn't go on any big hikes, we had absolutely no agenda, we weren't rushing around trying to accomplish anything, and our kids had the time of their lives. Hmmm, maybe our everyday lives should somehow be lived similar to this!

Being surrounded by so much beauty and awesomeness was a great way to re-group and re-prioritize. Our children still love us and we were reminded just how delightful and wonderful they are!

ps. No trip to Yosemite is complete without a stop at the trout fish hatchery. It's even more exciting in the POURING rain :)

Marine World Africa USA

2010-04-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

well, that's what it used to be called anyway. Now it's Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Anyway, we went there on Friday and were reminded what a little gem of an amusement park we have right here in the ol' Bay Area. Don't be deterred by the fact that it's in Vallejo, one of the most ghetto and unsafe cities in the Country. The park is actually really nice and clean and friendly; there are animal shows and little rides for the kids and crazy guts-dropping-out-of-your-face roller coasters for Dylan (who forced me to go on one with him). It's only 30 minutes from my house, it's relatively inexpensive (especially when someone else pays for you- thanks mom!), and it's a small enough park that you can do most of the stuff in a day without feeling totally exhausted at the end. And, best of all, my kids pretty much thought they were at Disneyland so we can put that trip off for a bit longer :)

Anyhoo, here are some pics

No Snail Bait Needed

2010-04-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have "green guilt?" You know, that guilty feeling that you get when when you throw the plastic water bottle in the trash can because you can't find a recycling bin around? Or when you have food scraps that should go into a compost bin that would make fabulous soil for your summer garden but you've never gotten around to building a compost bin so instead you throw the scraps in the trash? Or when you try the natural remedy for keeping pests out of your garden but when it doesn't work, you pull out the ol' faithful pesticides and obliterate the pest population?

Well, in our not-quite-green-guilt-free garden, we can cross off the need for snail bait. Our solution?

Emma and Grady- the snail population's worst nightmare:(Grady throwing a handful of snails into the bucket)

(yes, literally a handful!)

(Emma showing me the "snail slobber" all over her hands)

("Look mom, these ones are climbing all over each other")

Sadly for my children, their little snail friends will escape tonight- into the trash can! Shhhh, don't tell them, it's our little secret!

What we've been doing...

2010-04-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since I last posted because, well, not a whole lot out of the ordinary has been going on around here. Here are some thoughts and pictures about our ordinary life:

This is my friend Maria at her bridal shower. She got married on Sunday. I was her wedding coordinator and I realized that in my other life- the one where I don't have three small children and a husband who doesn't like to be neglected- that would be my dream job.These are my kids eating an afternoon snack of pirate's booty. Apparently they didn't want me to be taking this photo. Landon really, really wanted some but alas, he's not quite ready for cheesy rice puffs.This is Grady and Emma dying Easter eggs. Grady was really patient and got great color on his eggs. Emma just wanted to cover hers with stickers.

This is Landon, child number 3, making sure that we don't ignore him. Doesn't his little face make your heart melt!

Another incredibly addicting cookie recipe

2010-03-12T09:10:00.000-08:00

My kids have been sick for going on two weeks. And for the first time, "sick" around here doesn't just mean a runny nose or a cough. This sickness includes sinus pressure, bad ear infections and really, really nasty eye goop. On top of it all, Dylan has a man cold- thankfully not the worst one he's ever had but a man cold all the same.

Thank God for health insurance, antibiotics and His mercy which has kept me relatively healthy amidst all of the germs. Also, thanks to these amazing, addicting, not overly sweet, chewy chocolate cookies which have made my life a whole lot more bearable these past few weeks!

Chocolate Truffle Cookies

Note: In the comments of the Baking Bites blog where this recipe was originally featured, several commenters mentioned their cookies had spread quite a bit. I didn't have a problem with that, but two tips I'd be aware of is first, to make sure your butter isn't overly soft - a cool room temperature is what you are looking for (you can tell if the butter is just right for creaming if you press your index finger into the butter and it gives just a little but it isn't easy for you to slide your finger all the way through). Second, chill the batter for 30 minutes if you are working in a warm kitchen or if your batter seems overly soft.

*Makes about 3 dozen cookies

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
approximately 1/3 cup cocoa powder (for rolling)
approximately 2/3 cup powdered sugar (for rolling)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar, adding the sugar in slowly so that it doesn’t puff everywhere and transform your kitchen into a white mess. In a fine mesh strainer/sieve, place the cocoa powder and salt and sift this mixture into the butter/sugar and mix until well combined. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla extract. With the mixer on low, blend in the flour until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips.

If your kitchen is very warm and the dough is hard to handle, refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes before rolling.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll each ball lightly in the cocoa powder and place on the baking sheet. Do not flatten the cookies. The cookies will not spread very much if the dough is chilled, so they can be placed fairly close together.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. They will just barely be set but you don't want to overbake or they will be dry. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cookies have reached room temperature, after about 30-45 minutes, roll each cookie in powdered sugar until completely coated. Store in an airtight container.

Recipe Source: from My Kitchen Cafe/originally from Baking Bites

Peano Beano

2010-03-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

After dinner tonight, Grandma was in high spirits and she insisted upon helping with the dishes. I must admit that this makes me cringe because I know that no soap will be used and everything will be put away -dirty- and into the wrong place. But, who am I to deny happiness to an almost 84 year-old!?

When she started rifling around under the sink and bringing my recyclables out to add to the dishes pile, Dylan went over to the sink to divert her attention away from the trash.

She simply smiled, nodded and asked what she should do with the "peano beano."

Dylan said, "Oh, do you mean the peanut butter (there was an empty jar in the sink)?"

More smiles and nods (You know, like what you might do when you're in Mexico and people are speaking to you in Spanish and you kind of understand what they're saying but not totally) "Uh huh. The peano beano." [as in: duh, that's what I said!]

"Well Grandma, I guess you can just throw that away since it's empty."

"Okay. Yes."

And there you have it!

:)

It's a hard knocks life...

2010-03-06T13:32:00.000-08:00

...for Grady.

This past month, he's had his first overnight trip to the ER visit for a spiking temperature, a run-in with a tree (see previous post) and is now on his second round of antibiotics for double ear infections and some nasty eye goop problem.

The eye goop issue is the most disgusting thing we've encountered so far as parents. I won't go into details on how gross and wrong it is to see. But I will say that for two mornings this week, his eyes were literally glued shut from the goop. In case you're wondering, two year-old boys do not like to have their eyes glued shut. Thankfully, a nice hot shower and some super vigorous scrubbing opened them back up. But now his face is all bruised up from the srubbing.

Dylan says that Grady looks like one of those street kids that you meet on a missions trip that are oozing from their orifices but are oh so exited to be alive and want to play with you and hug you and haven't a concern in the world about spreading disease. I think that pretty much sums it up.....(note: this pic was taken after 3 doses of antibiotic so he looks MUCH better than he did...)

ps. we're scheduled to take family pics with the gonsalves' tomorrow. is it wrong to put cover-up on little boys?

This one time in Tahoe....

2010-02-26T21:02:00.000-08:00

two of our kids got matching raspberries on their foreheads
from two different sledding crashes
into two different trees.

(guess which parent was in charge?)

emma used her hands to block the branches and, thankfully, has bangs to cover up the fat goose egg.

grady wasn't so quick with his hands and, well.... a picture's worth a thousand words, right?
thankfully, kids are resilient and other than grady's repeated comments about getting an owie from a christmas tree, the rest of our weekend in the snow was great!
(helping shovel out our luge track)

(emma missing a run-in with the tree that got grady)

(thanks for the outfit grandma charlene!)

(purple lips from eating snow)

(landon laughing at his brother)

Thank you to the Dowds for hosting us!

Can you say MELLOW!!!!

2010-02-18T13:38:00.000-08:00

He didn't cry at all when the doctor scraped a bunch of gunk out of his ear and declared that he has an ear infection.

He didn't even flinch when she stuck a big ol' swab up his nose to test for RSV.

When the doctor made him turn his neck the direction that he doesn't like to, and then told him he needs physical therapy to unflatten his head, he didn't even squawk.

And as soon as he was done with a bout of smoker's cough and was diagnosed with bronchiolitis, he was all smiles and coos.

Only the shots, the 3 miserable pokes into his fat little thighs, made him upset. He cried at the nurse like she had personally offended him. And then he obediently ate his little vial of rotovirus vaccine.

What a champ!

It's hard to believe that it's been 4 months since we've welcomed this little [fat] guy into our family!

So, what's Landon like? I'm glad you asked....

He's mellow. Chill. Good natured. All around wonderful.
He's been sleeping through the night for about a month now.
He laughs really hard at his older brother's antics.
He spits up ALL THE TIME.
He likes to 'talk.' A lot. (Remember Emma's "waaataaah" phase? I'm pretty sure he's gonna be like that!)
He's a thumb sucker. Yuck.
He LOVES being sung to. And tries to sing back.

How about his stats?

I can't find Emma's 4 month stats, but at six months she was 14lbs 12 ozs.

At 4 months Grady was 14lbs 8ozs

At 4 months Landon is...... 15lbs!!! And that is why I call him the fat kid.

That and because of the comments that every stranger on the streets make: "WOW! He's ONLY 4 months!! He sure is a big boy."

Yes he is. And good for him. If he were a frail little thing, he wouldn't have a chance of survival around his brother who loves him oh so much!

Just another day in paradise...

2010-02-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

This morning, as we were going about our business as usual, our dog started barking at the front door. So I looked out to see what she was so upset about and this is what I saw:A school bus, a fire truck, a police car and an ambulance. All RIGHT in front of our house.

Now, except for the school bus, this is not an unusual occurance on our little 10 house cul-de-sac. Since we've lived her for three years, we've seen this sight six times. Twice for grandma, twice for some other elderly neighbors, and once because our next-door neighbors thought their house was on fire even though there was just a potato burning in their microwave (?).

Anyway, after assessing the situation and making sure that nothing traumatic was happening and double checking that they weren't here for grandma, the kids came outside to watch the action. Apparently, the school bus driver wasn't feeling well so away she went in an ambulance while the fire fighters and police officers were left to entertain the three little boys on the bus waiting for a new driver to come take them to their preschool.

While waiting for the new school bus driver, our friendly neighborhood firefighters offered to take pictures with us:
(Sensing that she was about to be left out of the family photo op, our dog somehow opened the sliding door and ran out to join us)

Huh???

2010-01-26T09:33:00.000-08:00

My name is Julie. I'm 28 years old, a native English speaker, used to work for and create forms for the SLO school district, hold a bachelor's degree in English, am certified to teach both English and English as a Second Language, made the skill of filling out applications part of the curriculum when I taught.... and I found it difficult to fill out Emma's Kindergarten registration packet.

With a neatly presented packet with instructions like please fill out ALL forms and sign the bottom of ALL forms, one would think that filling it out would be a no brainer. Not so.

First there is blue immunization form that MUST BE FILLED OUT COMPLETELY. No problem right? Well, there are sections on the form that ask for the date of immunizations that I'm pretty certain aren't required. And there is another section that has a dark black line around it that I'm pretty sure is meant for office personnel to complete. But, no, there are no additional instructions that inform the applicant that he/she is supposed to or allowed to leave these sections blank.

Then there were the forms for a signed physical assessment and signed dental assessment that were included in the packet of forms that MUST BE FILLED OUT COMPLETELY. However, upon closer look, these forms are not considered valid if they are completed before March 31st, and are not required until the student is in first grade.

And there were two forms that received the special instruction to SIGN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE. However, only one of these forms had a line designated for a signature. Am I supposed to just find some blank space at the bottom of the page and sign it anyway?

After I spent WAY too much time filling out these forms, I'm still convinced that I did it wrong. I'm certain that when I go to turn them in today that the school personnel will scorn me and inform me that I'm incompetent. Nothing like bolstering the parent's confidence as they're signing their children over to the unknown and very frightening world of Kindergarten!

January Faces

2010-01-18T10:21:00.000-08:00

I'm not an emotional person.

At all.

But when Landon started smiling at me last week, my eyes teared up. My heart melted.
These other kids are pretty great too!

My Boys

2010-01-02T21:37:00.001-08:00

We've been adding to the dress-up wardrobe, hoping that Grady will gravitate to the more manly costumes. I'd say we're about half way there....

(cowboy vest, gold sequin skirt, pink and silver high heels)

Emma (aka high fashion guru) has made it her job to pick out Landon's clothes. Oh boy.(orange brown striped shirt, dog sweatshirt, pale green pants with owls and forest creatures, and blue striped socks)

Reflections and Hope

2010-01-02T10:25:00.000-08:00

Have you ever felt like you were running around like a chicken with it's head cut off?

That's how I felt in 2009.
(unorganized, disheveled, frustrated, tired, uninspired, discouraged, unfocused, chaotic, uncreative)

In spite of all of my shortcomings, the Lord blessed us greatly. He provided continued work for Dylan. We were able to stay in our house for another year. Our children are continually growing and thriving. Our new baby is healthy and wonderful. We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.

When I opened up my new devotional on New Year's Day, I read the scripture: "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 2Timothy 1:12)"

So, even if 2010 proves to be as challenging as 2009 (which it very well may), we are going to hold fast to the promise that He, the God of the universe, our Creator, will keep us and sustain us.

And with that, here are some pictures of a New Year's Day stroll along the bay:

Iron Chef and some other fun

2010-01-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

How did you spend your Christmas Eve?

Did you go swimming in 50 degree weather?

Did you win a poetry competition?

Did you frost and decorate sugar cone Christmas trees?

Did you have a cooking competition (secret ingredient: alcohol)?

How about a baking competition (secret ingredient: hot peppers)?
Did you lose both a cooking AND a baking competition to your older brother?

(southwestern pot roast)

(ancho chile flan)

No?

I didn't think so...

7th Annual Christmas Costume Party

2009-12-22T20:19:00.000-08:00

A few years back I wanted to have some people over for a Christmas party, so I invited some friends from church and encouraged people to wear Christmas colors, Christmas sweaters or a Christmas themed costume. Surprisingly, lots of people came and the outfits were AMAZING.

Seven years later, I'm still having the party and people are still showing up. If you're around next year, you should come too!

Some of the brilliance:

some cute kids:

peace on earth & christmas tree cutter:

GAP holiday cheer & some good lookin' sisters:

george's cohorts & stewart in his red birthday shirt:

one big happy family:

Christmas Choir

2009-12-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

If you want to see a lovely video of Emma's Sunday school class singing some Christmas songs, click here

I'm pretty sure our Children's Choir is on their way to greatness!

Another Fat Kid

2009-12-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

Since Landon turned 2 months a few days ago, I thought I'd share some statistics with y'all...

When Emma was 2 months, she weighed in at 10lbs 5 ozs. She was tiny. She was below the charts for her weight. The doctors were a bit concerned. In fact, it wasn't until her 4th birthday that the doctor finally said that since she's at least on the charts for her weight that we don't have to be concerned anymore. She's still the skinniest kid EVER and, aside from the lengths being wrong, she can still very easily wear her size 2 clothes.

When Grady was 2 months, he was 12lbs 7ozs. That's more than 2 pounds heavier than his sister. So we started referring to him as the fat kid. In a totally nice way, mind you. Compared to his waif of a sister, he was fat. And now, 2 years later, he weighs more than her and is one big solid chunk of exuberance and excitement. Seriously, I sometimes have a hard time lifting him because he is so heavy. And he doesn't even fit in size 2 clothes anymore; he's getting big for his size 3 clothes!

So, when Landon went in for his 2 month check-up, I knew that he would be bigger than Emma was (because who isn't?), but I didn't expect that he would be bigger than Grady. Well he weighed in at a whopping 12lbs 14ozs. So yes folks, in case you were wondering, we have another fat kid on our hands.....

It's that time again.....

2009-12-05T21:10:00.001-08:00

Star Struck

2009-11-30T10:23:00.000-08:00

When one of my best friends, Stephanie, married another good friend, Dan, I knew that she had found a winner. Dan is cool, funny, talented and an all around great guy (even if he is from Fresno!)...

.... so, I can't say that I was too surprised when he became famous....
Congratulations Dan!

We are SO proud of you!

And so excited that we officially know someone famous.

But please don't let all of the fame go to your head. Keep it real.

A few things

2009-11-25T16:55:00.000-08:00

1. did you know that brussels sprouts grow on stalks like this? God sure is creative!

2. this tree is reminiscent of our trip to the east coast when emma was a baby. we planted it in our front yard a year or so ago and now get to appreciate it in all of it's autumn glory!

happy thanksgiving!!!!

DMG Engineering: Present and Future

2009-11-17T20:27:00.000-08:00

Dylan had a survey out on Lucas Valley Road today (no, I don't expect that name to mean anything to you) and he thought that we should tag along.

The last time I went surveying with him, Emma was about 3 or so months old and I was carrying her in the Baby Bjorn and she kept grabbing the pole and messing everything up. So when Dylan suggested that we come with him, I was a bit nervous what it was going to be like with two toddlers and an infant in tow. But, since Grady happens to have an official survey outfit, I figured it was worth a shot and we'd at least get some good pics!

Thankfully, when we got to the survey location, Dylan was able to use the ol' GPS and we didn't have to help at all- but, shhh, don't tell that to the kids- they think they really were surveying!

Enjoy this glimpse into the future of DMG Engineering, Inc.!

(appropriate surveying attire: levi's, orange t-shirt, and a flannel)

(sleeping on the job)

(the future of our company)

(Emma got to use the data collector and press buttons)

(nice scab, huh! it's not from the survey but it was too impressive to not highlight!)

My Favorite Things: Chewy Ginger Cookies

2009-11-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

I'm a chocolate girl. I love all things chocolate: candy, hot cocoa, cake, pie, mochas, cookies. I even made a chocolate sauce for pasta once and it was amazing. You name it, if it has chocolate I will love it.

So, I feel a bit unfaithful because I have a new favorite cookie. And it doesn't have any chocolate in it. And I could eat like a dozen of them in a row because they are that good. Seriously amazing. Oh, and they're super easy and fast to make!

Chewy Ginger Cookies
recipe courtesy of Kirstie Morphy who got it from someone else....

3/4 c. softened butter
1 c. sugar (+more for rolling)
1 egg
1/4 c. molasses
2 1/2 c. flour
2 t. soda
1/4 t. salt
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. ginger
1/2 t. cloves

Preheat oven to 325.

Mix butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add egg and molasses. Mix until combined.

Sift together dry ingredients and add to the butter mixture. Mix together until combined.

Scoop out about a tablespoon or so of dough and roll into a ball. Then roll the ball in extra sugar. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 min- just until edges are firm. DO NOT OVER BAKE. Leave on cookie sheet for a few minutes until the cookies set and then place on cooling rack to cool all the way.

Yield about 24 of the most amazing, chewy cookies ever.

Okay, so now you have the recipe. You should go make a batch right now and find out what the best cookie EVER tastes like. Really, even if you don't think you like ginger cookies, you should make these. Because you'll find that you really do like ginger cookies and you'll end up eating the whole batch. And then make another batch the next day because, yes, they are THAT good.

Some questions you might have and their answers

2009-11-03T13:27:00.000-08:00

What's faster than a speeding bullet?
Dylan pushing the "new" Bumbleride Indie Twin. Thank you Craigslist and the girls who showered me with the funds to buy it!

How is life with 3 kids?
Not too bad so far since Landon sleeps like 20 hours a day!

What did Emma wear to school last Friday?
Oh, you know, a red shirt, a pink skort, pink striped leg warmers and purple striped socks.

What color are Landon's eyes going to be?
Well, so far, it looks like he's gonna have baby blues just like his sister. There's also a dimple hiding in those cheeks somewhere.

What costume did you buy for Grady to wear for Halloween?

This AWESOME 3-eyed monster costume.

What did Grady really wear for Halloween since he refused to put the 3-eyed monster costume on?
He wore his Home Depot apron and a tool belt of course!

Who wore the 3-eyed monster costume instead?
Our cousin Arielle. It was awesome!

What did Emma wear for Halloween?
A flower fairy costume (shown here with her Power Ranger cousin Elijah)

And what about Landon?
Well, he wore the token pumpkin hat.

Spooooooky

2009-10-31T15:49:00.000-07:00

In honor of Halloween, I thought I'd post a picture of something very spooky. That I found in my garden. And almost touched.

Yes, that HUGE orange/black thing in the middle of the picture is NOT a flower. It's a spider.

Needless to say, I promptly screeched and ran far, far away. (You never know if these things can jump or not) Then I told my husband to take a picture.

It's still there if any of you want to come take a closer look. If you don't come soon though, it may become yet another victim of Dylan's blow torch.

My Favorite Things: Quick Zip Crib Sheets

2009-10-27T08:10:00.001-07:00

A friend recently asked me if there were any nicknames for Landon. I told her that I'd let her know if we came up with any. Well, I have one. No, it doesn't derive from the name Landon but it sure fits him. Firehose. Man, this kid can pee through more outfits in a day than anyone you know. And if you're the one in charge of changing his diaper, watch out. He has been known to project incredible amounts of pee across the entire room. Just ask the nurse who he shot pee all over at his 3 day checkup. She said she'd never seen a baby pee so much or shoot it so far. I know, we should be really proud but, when it requires changing our sheets and doing multiple loads of laundry a day, it gets kinda irritating!

Which brings me to my next point. I hate changing crib sheets. I hate having to climb all over the crib rails and manipulate the sheets around the crib bumper and getting my fingers smashed in the process. I hate that the sheets usually need to be changed in the middle of the night when you're tired and sleep deprived and your baby is screaming because he's hungry and covered in pee (or poo) that leaked through his super duper absorbant diaper.

The solution to all of these woes: The Quick Zip Crib Sheet. My friend Anna introduced these to me when I was pregnant with Grady and I have to say that I am probably their number one fan. The sheet comes as a two piece set. The bottom part goes under and up the sides of the mattress (kind of like a fitted sheet but put on from under the mattress instead of over the top) and has a zipper that runs around the opening. The top part of the sheet is a flat sheet that fits just over the top of the mattress and zips onto the bottom portion. So, when you need to change the sheet, you really just need to zip off the top sheet and zip on an extra top sheet, thus eliminating the need to climb all over the crib or work around the bumper. And yes, you can do this all with one hand while you're holding your screaming infant in the other.

These are also great for toddler beds, especially when you're working on potty training and are changing the sheets all the time.

If you're going to buy a set I would recommend buying the starter set (one bottom part and one top part) and at least one additional top sheet. Also, if you want a mattress pad for under the sheet, you can buy a flat (as in not fitted) mattress pad that covers the top of the mattress at Target and then you don't have the problem of getting the fitted sides of the pad down around the sides of the mattress.

And although you can purchase the sheets from the manufacturer (www.CloudsandStars.com), your may be able to find them slightly cheaper if you shop around online. But, the manufacturer's site has all of the colors available.

So, next time you're wondering what to ask for for Christmas or a baby shower, you should ask for these!

Here are some pics for you.....

2009-10-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

One week down, hundreds more to go. Here are some of the moments that we've captured so far...

1:22am, fresh out

are you in love?

kaiser's "celebration menu"- reheated food served on real plates

family of 5! the big kids look thrilled!

over the initial disappointment of not having a sister

more to love

landon wears a lot of pink because he pees through so many blankets every day

the three boys

and the sibling torture begins!

tormentor and tormented

be afraid, be very afraid!

landon and his fairy sister

It's a BOY!!!

2009-10-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, I woke up at 2:30am having really painful contractions. Since I couldn't sleep through the pain, I got up and started getting ready for a trip to the hospital. I finished doing some laundry, did the dishes, straightened the house.... you get the idea. Then of course, by the afternoon my contractions had all but stopped and I was exhausted and discouraged. When would I ever get to meet this mystery baby who has been bouncing and bumping around inside of me for the past nine months?

That evening, I was determined to get this kid out so Dylan and I went for a walk around the Lafayette Reservoir. The intense walk up and down the hills kicked my contractions back into gear but just to make sure they kept on coming, I went home and vacuumed the whole house.

Finally, when my contractions were 3 minutes apart, we left for the hospital. After a few hours sitting in triage waiting for a doctor to come check my dialation (because the nurse couldn't figure it out), we were told that the past 20 hours of contractions had not progressed my labor at all. I was still 1.5cm dialated and definitely not in active labor. :( Apparently, Baby G III wasn't going to come out afterall. So we went home so that at least Dylan could attempt to get some sleep.

Thirty minutes later my water broke. We rushed back to the hospital and found out that I was already 7cm dialated. By the time they were wheeling me down the hall into the delivery room, I was already pushing. 20 minutes or so later we were introduced to this little guy.....
Landon Gregory Gonsalves
10/15/09 (his due date!)
1:22am
8lbs 2 oz
21 1/2" long

We're thrilled, excited, in awe and totally thankful for our healthy baby boy. More pictures to come soon!

My Favorite Things: Bissell Steam Mop

2009-10-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

I know that you've been waiting with baited breath to see what other product received my coveted endorsement. Well wait no more. Here it is....The Bissell Steam Mop!

First let me explain some things about myself:
1. I HATE mopping. It's dirty, gross, hard work with results that are never very satisfactory.
2. I have a dog with mental problems who salivates a lot.
3. I have a toddler who likes to spill food, drink- whatever he can get his hands on.
4. I don't mind vacuuming but our house has mostly hardwood floors.
5. My cousin Bryana deserves a medal for introducing me to this product.

Okay, so back to the Bissell Steam Mop. This thing is great!
1. With as much effort as pushing a vacuum around, you can clean and sanitize your floors.
2. It only uses water so you don't have any soapy or chemical residue.
3. It has washable microfiber scrubbing pads so when you're done mopping, you just throw them in the washer and re-use them to your heart's content.
4. It's small and compact-smaller than a vacuum- and very lightweight.
5. It's super quiet so you can mop right outside of your kids' bedrooms while they're napping and it won't disturb them.
6. The steam dries quickly (unlike soapy mop water) so you don't have to wait for long before you can walk around on your floors again.

How it works:
1. Fill up a container on the back of the mop with tap water.
2. Attach a reusable mop pad.
3. Plug in the mop.
4. Within a few minutes, a red light turns on indicating that it is hot and ready to go.
5. Press the steam button as you push the mop around your floors. If you have a particularly gunky spot, hold the steam down on top of the spot for a few seconds and watch it disappear.
6. Be amazed at how easy it was and how clean your floors are.

Some not-quite-perfect things about the mop:
1. Like any mop, you have to clear your floor of debris first or you'll just end up pushing it around.
2. The cord isn't super long so you'll have to unplug and replug it in as you move around the room.
3. You won't get a streak free shine- but your floors will be clean and sanitized. (Maybe since my floors are old and gross to begin with they just won't shine no matter what)

Seriously folks, this product is great and it is definitely worth a try if you have a lot of hard surface floors in your house. If you live nearby, I'll happily loan you mine for a day or two so that you can try it out! Or if you do get one, let me know what you think!

What to do when there's nothing to do....

2009-10-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

We had absolutely nothing scheduled to do this weekend.

That NEVER happens.

We were thinking about going garage saleing on Saturday or perhaps to a pumpkin patch but Grady woke up with a fever in the morning.

So instead, we (I use that term loosely) stuck around and did some projects around the house.

Project #1:
Clearing out our vegetable garden.
It served us well and we are really excited to do it again next spring. We may even attempt a few winter vegetables but we'll see....
(Our final harvest)
(Grady helping)
(Our one and only watermelon)

Project #2:
Digging out a hole in our hill to put our hot tub.
This required ordering a dumpster to put the dirt, hiring Wand (Juan) from the Home Depot parking lot to do some serious manual labor and of course, lots of playing in the dumpster. The kids spent a good part of the afternoon standing on Emma's bed and yelling out the window at Wand. Poor guy!

There's still a ton more digging to do and then pouring a concrete slab and retaining wall but for now, there's a really cool hole in the middle of our hill. Maybe one of these days we'll actually be able to use the hot tub again!

ps. does anyone happen to have a set of 5' exterior french door (in frame) lying around that they're looking to get rid of? That's the next project on our list.... doors from the master bedroom out to the hot tub.