And She FINALLY Has Painted Toenails

Everytime I get a pedicure, Emily is fascinated with my toes. It used to be that she just liked to touch them. Then...as she has gotten older and VERY vocal her interest has turned to begging for hers to be painted. Of course my response always was "no, not today, you're still too little". Then one day it dawned on me, why can't she have painted nails. I think I imagined her with these wet nails jumping on the couch and nail polish getting everywhere, or my mind would jump to her all of a sudden being a 13 year old girl. Well, last Saturday when both her and I were recovering from a bout of the flu, she asked me once again for painted toes. I know she was waiting for the normal response of "no" but this time I gave a "sure". The look on her face and twinkle in her eyes were priceless. She sat so still as I painted her toes and giggled as I stroke each toe. As I looked at her toes more closely I realized she has my same feet, a high arch, narrow feet, and HUGE toenails! She could not wait to run downstairs and show her daddy. I know I opened a whole new can of worms, but it was so fun sharing this big girl moment with my little girl. 

Jacob loves apples!!!

Jacob is not the best eater in the world, as I have been known to say he has ruined my dining experience on many occasions with throwing his food, spitting it out and many, many tantrums at meal time. The one thing that he loves it fruit. All fruit. One day I was letting him eat an apple in the stroller to occupy him while we were out and this is what I found when he was done. Nothing but a stem and a tiny core with one seed yet. YUCK! I guess next time I should cut the apple up for him??

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I love Halloween and all of the fun around getting the kids dressed up and all of the strangers commenting on how adorable each of the kids are. For some reason it is so affirming! This year Emily's friend Drew joined us for pizza and trick or treating. Of course the kids were way to excited to eat. At 6:00 (after Rex was getting really frustrated with my for ruining the moment with all of my picture taking) we started on our way. We went for about an hour around the neighborhood. The kids had a blast. Jacob was so cute carrying his spider bag around like a purse and he was SO excited when the people would put things in his bag. He had no idea it was candy. NOW he knows it is candy and the spider bag has had to go away! After we were done we sat in our driveway in our lounge chairs and let Emily and Drew eat their dinner and of course candy while we handed out treats. I think that quickly became Emily's favorite part, handing out the candy and seeing all of the other people in their costumes and giving them candy. Two memorable moments from the might. 1) When a mom and dad holding a baby would come up and say trick or treat with all 3 of them having bags! (that happened on more than one occasion). and 2) when Emily was going potty and needed to take off her costume she says, " I like my doggy costume. I am cute, I am nice and cozy, and I am just pretty".  I think I must have over done the compliments for the night! Thanks to our amazing neighbor Amy for making 3 great costumes for the kids. Emily's was custom made with no zipper and no hood over her head, just a headband with ears. They were just so cute!

Our litter of 3 of the cutest doggies!
"Who let the dogs out?"
Taylor 3 months old

Jacob showing his candy!

Emily has 20 teeth!

Emily watching cartoons on the TV up above.

Well, I thought it was time for Emily to take a trip to the dentist (maybe it is because I have a few cavities that are needing to be filled so dentist was on my mind!). I didn't tell her ahead of time because she get SO worked up. She has been reading the book the Berenstein Bears Go To The Dentist. That is not a good preparatory book since it shows sister bear terrified and they talk about YANKERS. Anyways, luckily we went on Halloween because all of the dental assistances were dressed up like princesses, so she thought it was SO cool. The pediatric dentist we visited was so great, very kid friendly and of course were very complimentary of her beautiful teeth. I was so proud of how brave she was and what a big girl she is.

A Hot Fall Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Jacob LOVED climbing on the pumpkins!

I have learned to love the Fall season and Halloween now that I have kids. It is so fun. The only damper is living in southern California where it is 85 degrees in October. Chili just doesn't taste the same when you are in a tank top!! After our mishap at Bates Nut Farm a week prior when Emily was stung by the bee we chose not to return, so we happened upon a little pumpkin patch closer to home (thank you Dana for the info). The kids were allowed to pick out a pumpkin of their choice and of course (just like last year) Emily wanted to take home all of the sad looking pumpkins. The ones that were already getting soft, misshapen and lots of dents. After I butted in way to much I finally decided I was going to let her get whichever one she wanted. And of course, she wanted the tiny one she can put by her bed (with every other stuffed animal and blanket that we own). Whatever, it was only 99 cents! Jacob on the other hand was only allowed to get the little one because we couldn't get him to stop throwing the pumpkins as he said "ball". It was a VERY hot day but we let the kids jump in the jumper and go down the slide while all of the rude women commented on how Taylor was going to get sunburnt.

Oak Glen Apple Farm with Playgroup Families

Taylor 12 weeks old, and first time facing forward in the bjorn

Finding the Perfect Apple with Daddy

Emily and the boys (Malachi,Jacob,Lucas and Drew)

Well, we did our first official family outing with other San Diego families since living here a year and 3 months. I have been a part of a great play group for a year now but we have never done something all together as families. We decided to do a very festive Fall activity by going apple picking. I know...many have commented on their anticipation of us slowing down our lives, and to me, we have, Doing this activity with Rex too rather than just me and kids is quite a step up. After the hour and half drive north east (I thought Rex was going to kill me when he found out how far we were REALLY having to drive) I was so excited to arrive at the Oak Glen Family Farm. We started out the day with a picnic lunch with the Jarrett's (Dan, Dana, Malachi (3) Elijah (5 mo), the Davis' (Michele and Drew (4)) and the Todd's (Mike, Jami, Lucas (3)). Some brought lunch and others got a tri -tip sandwich. Although the wait for the sandwich was extremely long, it was worth the wait... it was delicious! Then we went to start the festivities. We went on a 20 minute hay ride where we learned all about the apples they grow there, we went to petting zoo where I was afraid a goat was going to eat Jacob's hand and a chicken was going to peck Emily's leg and then sometime simply crawling on the hay, playing on a wagon and getting VERY DIRTY! And then finally came the apple picking. Due to the large amount of little stickers that were everywhere in the dirt, I opted to let Rex take just Emily because I could already see it... Jacob stumbling onto the ground and falling right into the stickers. Emily was so proud of her bag of apples! We ended the day with a trip to the gift shop where of course we ended up with pumpkin bread mix, apple pie and fresh apple cider. At the end of the day we were all so tired AND DIRTY! It was so fun to spend a day with other families, doing activities that the kids really enjoyed. Although it was a lot of work and our kids are so little to really enjoy all Oak Glen has to offer, I think it was definetly an activity I would like to do again!

The Davis'

                                  The Jarrett's

It was a sad day!

I am a part of an amazing playgroup that gets together on Wednesday mornings. For the most part our activities consist of lunch for the adults (always a delicious treat) and of course pb& j for the kids. In this group there are pretty much always 4 of us girls ( I guess we are women) and sometimes there are more. When it is just the 4 of us, Emily is the only girl (next to Taylor now). Emily usually plays well with the boys and Jacob just follows everyone around (all of the other kids are 3-4) and tries to be apart of the group. Anyways, for something different we decided to have our playgroup this week at the pumpkin farm. It sounded so fun: pumpkins, pony rides, petting zoo, hayrides, and a picnic lunch. Once arriving to the pumpkin farm I had to feed Taylor, change her diaper, change Jacob's diaper and get everyone set up (Taylor in the wrap and Jacob in the wagon). After 20 minutes of getting everyone settled for the pimpkin farm we make our grand entrance. Right away the kids wanted to go on the pony ride. I didn't have Jacob ride because I didn't want to have stand next to him on the pony (I know, I am mean mom). As the ponies are going (and stopping every minute for the workers to pick up another ponies' droppings) I see a bee hovering around Emily. In my head I am wishing the bee would go away and leave her alone. And then I see th ebee land. Right above her lip. I find myself saying out loud, "that bee is going to sting her" and before I could tell Emily not to touch, she tried moving the bee off of her lip. Instantly the bee flies away, I see blood on her face and the tears start coming. I was SO MAD AT THAT BEE! I was so upset because I couldn't even get to her. I had Jacob running around climbing on the hay and Taylor in the wrap. My friend Jami took her off the pony (yes they had to stop the pony ride) and handed her to me. I really couldn't hold her the way she wanted me to because I had Taylor in the wrap up against me. Emily's lip was swelling by the minute. The tears stopped, we went into the petting zoo (Jacob was VERY excited) and the tears started coming again. They just came and came and couldn't stop. In that moment I felt very sad. Emily was in terrible pain but I couldn't take the pain away. I couldn't even hold her because I had Taylor. Taylor was now crying because Emily was squishing up against her (not to mention with all of the commotion Taylor fell out of the wrap and I caught her before falling to the ground).  And then there was Jacob that was lost in the shuffle walking around wanting to pet the animals and yet he couldn't because I couldn't be there with him. All of this happened in the first 10 minutes we were there. In that instance I looked at my friends and announced I was going home. With tears in my eyes I packed up the kids, all three were crying at this time and headed to the car. While at the car I took a moment to comfort each of my children individually before buckling them in. It was very sad. It was one of the first times since having the three kids that I realized that I couldn't meet the needs of all of my children when they were needing me. Lesson learned: don't try and be super mom. It is OK to say "no" to things for the simple reason that it will be too hard. For now, I will be staying in confined areas when by myself with the kids, or even with playgroup. I will save the big outings for when Rex is home with us. Here is a picture before the big bee sting event!