I'm Awkward

It has been a fun past couple of days! We have been at Hotel Gramma & Grampa's. We actually spent the last two nights at my parents house because there were several things we needed to do out that way and instead of spending a bunch on gas we figured sleeping there would be much easier. Plus, my parents certainly didn't mind having the grandkids there! 

These last couple of days we have been going to graduations and parties and hugging lots of people and it really hit me. I am severely hugging challenged! I mean, I always knew I was, I had so little of it growing up it's become kind of weird to me. I never feel safer than when I am in Tyler's arms and I hug the crap out of my kids.. the poor little ones are making up for my lack of hugs. But I always screw up hugging friends! I had hoped 20 hugs into this weekend I'd be OK, but nope! I trip, bump into them, say something awkward, or worse touch something awkward... am I the only person who has this problem?

Enjoying her "not so high" chair.

Wearing his fuzzy gorilla shirt given to him by some lovely friends :)
He kept grabbing it, so you just have to trust me when I say it's cute.

Izzy is at SD's again this weekend, so HQ has been a little mopey today. It even seems like she gets into Izzy's things in the hopes that Izzy will jump out and say "Hey! That's my most specialist ___(insert whatever HQ is holding at the time)" but when Izzy doesn't appear she quickly looses interest in her things.

The last minute "getaway" at my parents totally put me behind on my sister's dress. I need to stay up tonight and get it to the point where she can wear it so I can figure out where to hem it. She told me she wanted it to the knee, then at the knee, then below.... so we are just going to try it on and pin it so she can see it and make up her mind. The tough decisions of a 15 year old! :)

Elegant Sammiches

Wanting Daddy's sammich after eating a huge lunch of her own.

We had a good productive day today. More packing and selling. 2 hours after listing the fabric I talked about the other day I was able to sell it all! We also got rid of a good little chunk of dvd's again. Spring cleaning is more enjoyable when there is money to be made with the stuff you are parting with. Thank you craigslist.com!

Why packing take 127x longer when you have kids :)

Feeling like good work had been done here I treated myself to a beer. Anytime a beer is opened Izzy feels the need to smell it. I don't know if she's expecting the smell to change or what, but it never fails. Today after taking her usual whiff she backed up and announced, "Mom, I will never drink beer. Beer is disgusting. Beer is only for grown ups who like to drink beers that are disgusting." The girl's got tact!

Whoa! My feet are pretty darn incredible! 

After not being able to locate her Celebi Pokemon toy Izzy felt the need to  write, "My toy Celebi is gone"
and have me text it to nearly everyone I know...

Completely of the topic, but the current exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is called "Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty,' and I've got to tell you I REALLY wish I could be there to see it! I have always loved his work. He has always had a more dark, edgy take on elegance. Here are just a few items that caught my eye.

Unfortunately he is also to blame for this awful mess...

Thigh Rolls

So HQ climbs up the ladder to the top bunk in their room now but cannot get down... this means I hear a very urgent "Mommy!" coming from their room about every 5 to 10 minutes when she decides she's ready to get back down. Little goof.

The girls asked for me to read book after book after book today. I love that they love books! HQ still loves turning the pages more than she likes hearing the stories, but she really gets into the stories when I do the voices or break out the puppets. Locke just smiles the entire time.

Good Morning!

:D

 Izzy has been talking about how she would really like to live in a house so that she can have a tire swing and a club house. Unfortunately we can't move out of the over priced area we live in due to our child custody stuffs so apartments it is. My parents decided to help Izzy build a club house in their back yard. The girls have been having a blast with it. I believe they are going to pick out some carpet for it next week. I know Izzy is hoping for pink, but I'm not sure if they make outdoor carpet in pink. I guess they'll find out!

Working on their club house with Aunt Shannon.

 Today Ty and I noticed a new roll of fat in Locke's thighs. We have quite a chubb on our hands! That's ok, I like chubby babies :)

Locke's impression of King George from Pirates of the Caribbean 4

They're Funny

It feels like day 1,387 for American Girl Doll watch. Every morning Izzy asks to go to the office to check if Scarlett has arrived yet. 7-10 business days is a long time for a 5 year old to wait.

Reason #1 To have kids: They're funny

More packing today. Izzy gets giddier the closer to the move day we get. But I am curious how HQ will take it. Will she hate it? I hope not. The new place has stairs and she LOVES stairs. 

Daddy's so funny :)  

Kitty Door Pro!

Anyone want any of these? I was cleaning out my fabrics and I don't think I will ever use these...
If you want any, let me know! There is some good yardage here. (The My Little Pony and Fairies are Flannel)

Time to join my husband in some old NES reminiscing. Tonight it's A Link to the Past! :)

Izzy Wants Wings

Izzy wanted me to put up this picture...
"THAT'S MY FAVORITE PICTURE OF YOU AND ME!
Cause we're at the airport watching airplanes and you KNOW I want to be a pilot when I get as big as you."

"Mom, how long is school?"

"12 years and then there is college."

"College?! I don't want to go to college. That sounds silly. I just want to be a pilot."

I honestly can't believe Izzy still wants to be a pilot. It has been her plan since she was 2 and a half. I think what I wanted to be changed quite often. Ballerina, assassin, marine biologist, owner of an orphanage, doctor, costume designer... the list goes on. I however do the opposite of what my parents did and encourage her desire to be a pilot. We read her books about pilots (such as Amelia Earhart) and show her pictures of planes and listen to her when she talks about them. She has recently introduced the idea of being a pilot/hunter/doctor/princess combo... so we shall see if her love of planes wavers. But right now, I think it's pretty awesome that after 3 years her affinity for planes is still here. 

I am getting super excited for the move. I am not fond of packing at all, but it does mean going through some things and getting rid of the excess which I always enjoy. It just feels good to get stuff we don't need out. Craigslist has been quite a help in this endeavor! Izzy started packing up her toys and while she did so HQ started to unpack. When we put the toys back in the box HQ managed to open the bottom so the toys would just slide out. My little engineer! We made sure we left plenty of toys for them to still play with before our move in day which is still 3 weeks away. How exciting! 

Role Model

The bond between Izzy and HQ is growing stronger and I love seeing it! HQ shadows her sister and they "chat" in their room. Whatever color Izzy chooses to wear HQ tries to find something the same color or close to it whether or not it fits her. It's so weird to think Izzy is a role model to someone already! Locke is pretty crazy about both his sisters already :) 

Sisters sharing a seat!

Snuggles!

Out of the blue Izzy said, "Mom, you know what you should do when people are mean? Hug them. Lots of people are mean when they are sad and hugs make people happy". I suppose I don't have too much worry about with her as HQ's role model!

Spy on People

Ty stuck this in my recipe holder :)
Who doesn't like knowing they're loved?

This morning I had a nice little scare. The girls had spent the night at my parents' house and my dad left at 7am this morning to bring them home. It takes between 35 mins to an hour to get here from their place depending on traffic. By 8:15 I thought I would give my dad a call and I got no answer. It was rainy and I got a bit nervous. 15 minutes later I had gotten a text from my mom who asked if the girls had been dropped off. She was a little worried as well. I told myself that if I didn't hear from him by 9:15 I was going to call the non emergency number to get accident information. I had also been hearing sirens all morning which didn't help anything. At 9:10 we saw them drive up. That was the longest near hour I have experienced so far! Apparently my dad had lost his phone the night before and today there were accidents on both freeways he needed to take which led to a lot more traffic.

Washing "THE GWEAT KILLER WHALE"

So we are moving. We are VERY excited about it. We are moving back into our old neighborhood into the same complex I lived in when Ty and I started dating. We also moved into a two bedroom in the same complex when we got married. However the rent was pretty high and we just couldn't do it. Now they have lowered the rent, it includes utilities, a heated pool (which we get a view of yay!), security access, recreation room with pool table, easier to access laundry rooms (when you have three kids it's much needed!), gym, sauna, and storage. . Izzy is super excited to move back there. Mostly for the purple elevator. She has many fond memories of living in that complex.  We gave our 30 day notice today. We have a lot of work to do!

There are many reasons why we are moving back to that area, but the biggest one is probably childcare. My family lives about 7 minutes (max) away from where we are moving and my mom doesn't work. She LOVES kids and especially loves her grandkids. Being able to watch them is a joy for her. Second reason is that most of our life is still out that way. Our friends, our church, Izzy's school, and her friends. Although we have made some awesome friends here too. 

 

Realizing he has hands.

My packing helpers.
Don't worry, HQ has a diaper on!

I have been able to sew every day the past 5 days. Hooray for Locke developing a little more independence! I don't get much time each day, but enough to be productive. I was able to hem 2 shirts for my mother in law, replace a zipper in Izzy's dress, and finish the bodice to my sister's graduation dress. I has felt AMAZING to sew. Ty likes it when I sew too. He says I seem even happier when I do. We usually try to do something somewhat together while I sew. We'll watch something on netflix or just sit in the same room while he games and I sew. It's quite nice :)

Izzy came home with this today.
She showed it to me and said, "Daddy Sacha got me this telescope. Can we spy on people with it or just
look for falling stars?" We haven't tried it out yet, but I am curious how well it works. 

Poor Hazel

I was contacted by youtube and told that some of my videos violated copyright stuff, so they blocked some of them. What? I watched the blocked ones and I gotta say, I am still confused! Am I supposed to pay royalties to the person who invented bubble wrap every time I say bubble wrap? Oh well, just back to blogging for me :)

My two favorite men :)
Notice the angelic aura coming from Locke?

 Izzy's bribe for completing level 3 of her phonics came today. She wanted a stuffed pokemon doll. I don't believe it has left her side all day.

Izzy and Celabi 

So handsome and confused.

Ty and I went on our second date since having Locke. We had a good 3 hours of childlessness. Being light on cash meant getting creative. We went out and got a cookie and then walked around the mall like teenagers. It was quite nice :) While we were there I got to use up a mother's day gift card to Joann's I had received. Woohoo! I got me some twin needles and a few $1.99 dolly patterns for Izzy to learn with. She's getting an American Girl doll (Izzy has named her Scarlett) and I figured making her own dolly clothes would be a lot of fun. I am just too lazy to design/make patterns for Scarlett. :)

This is Hazel. Isn't she terrifying?
I found her while cleaning out a closet. This was the first cabbage patch doll I ever owned.
You can't see it, but she's all marked up with eyeliner. My brothers felt the need to draw smily faces on her feet and number two on her tushy... poor Hazel.

Library Date

"Mom, we need more kids in our home" -Izzy

"Where should we get them from?" -Me

"Well, we can get some from your tummy and then we can see if some other kids want to live with us. You and Dad are the best and me, Locke, and Harley are nice and funny! I know we can find more kids who want to live with us! .... Wait, will I have to share my toys with all of them or can we buy them their own?" -Izzy

Ty asked me and the kids our for a library date today. YAY! I love the library. Especially ours. It's a beautiful big building with a gorgeous park, a special section for kids with a great story time, and TONS of books. It's also "beach/ocean" themed which we like. Plus, almost everything the library offers is free. In this economy who DOESN'T utilize the library? You'd be crazy not to! :) We picked up our Octopus books (our theme this week) and one Cinderella book. Izzy was surprised to learn that Disney's Cinderella is based off a book that is quite different than the movie.  But she still enjoyed reading it. OH! I'm not sure I mentioned it, but Izzy now reads at a second grade level! She's only five! Yay! She's quite proud of herself. She works hard, she's earned a little pride :) 

Some pictures of our library... yes, I am bragging!

                    

The girl's favorite spot!
Today Izzy was sucked into a whirlpool aboard this ship!

 So our home is one blessed MESS right now. I don't have any idea how it happened! I suppose I got in over my head in cleaning/organizing things and pulled out too much to do without putting enough back in it's place first. I forgot any chore would take 3x as long since I have 3x the distractions. Kissing owies, reading, making a tent out of the kitchen table, getting out paints/clay, making sure everyone is fed (including myself!), and just plan old not ignoring my family means what once took 20 mins now takes at least an hour. Haha, it's not so bad. HQ helped by reorganizing every thing into random piles and then took a marker and some glitter to the kitchen table. At least we got some redecorating done!

Some tummy time and goofy kids :) 

Bread of Idleness

I can't stand the way I look in video so I decided to still blog as well. I felt quite productive today. I finished adjusting the pattern to my sister's graduation dress, made Ty's favorite dessert, did the dishes (blech!), and helped Izzy with her Phonics and math all before noon. Yay!

I have learned that going from no kids to one kid is a huge difference in how you live your life (I don't care how many pets you have, it's different and harder). Going from one to two is also a big step, but two to three is just plan crazy! I have heard that once you hit three, four or more isn't THAT much harder. Hmmm.. I don't know. I also remember hearing, "there is no cure to laziness, but having a large family helps." Although I don't believe I was every really a lazy person I sure as heck rarely taste the bread of idleness now! However, I wouldn't do anything differently. 

In her new gymnastics out my mom got her.
My mom even got her teddy bear a leotard...

Ooooh! Feet!

Reading!

Enjoying her new tutu given to her by a new friend :D

People have been coming up to us while we are at the grocery store or wherever and commenting on how happy we look especially for people with "so many" kids. We like our kids. We love our life. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it. I have wasted so much time and energy in my life choosing to be bitter. Choosing to be depressed. My life has been downright awful and scary at times. I have lost a sister, a friend, a baby. I have been homeless, raped, beaten, and lonely. I have been a single mother, gossiped about, and walked all over. I have hated my mother, dealt with a drug addiction, and been suicidal. Although I really dislike thinking about any of those things all that has made me who I am today. If my horrible past can help someone, awesome. It's helped me and I now feel I am living the dream. Choose Joy!

...What a weird non sequitur tangent! But eh. I have been talking to many people lately and what they choose to get them down saddens me. It's not like I will never hurt or cry again, but it wont run my life. Smile, God seriously does love you!  

Today's Video!