HQzilla

It has been a pretty busy few weeks: My mother and I are talking, we all had the tummy flu, we made some really awesome friends, went to Disney California Adventure, and I got 1 yard of new fabric. Pretty sweet, huh?

Izzy and her Valentine that Ty surprised her with. :)

She got a set of Tinker Toys. The first thing she made was a microphone.
The second thing was a castle that was quickly destroyed by HQzilla. 

HQ wanted her own microphone :)

Between "play dates" (I don't know why I don't like that phrase), parties, church, appointments, bowling, and just helping others out we actually haven't spent that much time at home. It's been a fun little change.

She knows how to party.

Why we don't normally let HQ get herself ready...

My little nerds reading. 

Ty stayed with the kids while I was out with a friend. This is what I came home to.

Ty made this for HQzilla just so she could knock it down when she woke up in the morning.
Her face lit up like it was Christmas!

Izzy and a buddy improve at bowling.

Lunch with some friends. 

 We also tried homeschooling with an awesome family we know. We had all the kids (a total of seven kids) together and did school work. We did some of what we do and some of what they do. The girls really liked it and were surprisingly not that distracted by their friends.

Praying before school work. :)

Hard working girls!

Locke was not very happy that he wasn't allowed to crinkle the girls' papers.

Izzy got her own Bible and has rarely been away from it so far.
She loves finding all the verses she has already memorized.

Uh, HQ there is something on your face...

Painting together. I love all these faces!

Ty and I were able to sneak in a quick afternoon date a couple days ago and he took me to check out Momen+, a fabric store I have been curious about. I quickly fell in love. The women who worked there were quite pleasant and very helpful. I am glad we didn't bring the kids. It was so orderly and clean, but also very colorful, and I know HQ would have had a hard time keeping her grubby little mitts to herself.

The fabric I found. I am planning on making a bag for the kids' school stuff.
I thought this was perfect.

Now it's time to get a little sewing done as I watch Ty finally try out "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword", a game he got for Christmas. Tomorrow we should be hitting the beach. Izzy's been begging for some beach time for a while now. We're looking forward to it.

Little Bowlers

Candy?

 Last week we learned about a local bowling class specifically created for homeschool kids. Since Izzy had just received a bowling ball for Christmas we were really excited about it. There are about 40 kids there between 5-15. She LOVED it. This week we brought two of her fellow home schooled buddies. They also loved it!

It isn't overly structured which I like. They play 3 games or for and hour and a half, whichever comes first. The girls learned a little bowling etiquette and how to hold the ball. Today was Izzy's second class and she already seems to have better control of the ball.

Checking their scores. 

Izzy's form is pretty fantastic (she's the one on the right). 

:D

As we left we passed a bowling league created for elderly women. One of the girls asked real loud, "Why are there old women here bowling? Aren't they supposed to be weak or something?" I walked a little quicker towards the exit hoping that none of them heard her.

After bowling Izzy's friends came over to play for a bit. They all got dressed up and had a ball. One of them played the piano (she's really good!) and the others snacked on their celery and apples... just like you would at a real ball.

Having a picnic during the ball.

Bike helmets work better when they are on backwards.

Tonight Ty and I went to a seminar about homeschooling on a tight budget. We learned quite a few things that we look forward to putting into practice. I love being around fellow homeschool moms. They're always so encouraging!

Tiring Week

Oh goodness has it been a tiring week! Mostly emotional. Almost all of our friends are going through something very heavy right now so we have just been doing our best to be there for everyone and then Ty, HQ, and I ended up with colds. Pooh!

Ty missed the kids and me so much that he brought us all to work with him one day. That basically means we all sat in the car while he ran in to each store, did his thing, and then we hung out together as he drove to his next stop. One stop he had was a two hours long. There was no way I was going to have the kids (or myself) sit in the car for that long so we drove around to find somewhere to play. Marina Del Ray apparently has a severe lack of parks (at least where we were) and fast food places with play places. So I whipped out my spiffy iwant app and found a place called "Under the Sea" 3 minutes away from where we were.

We went in to supervise Ty at one of his stops. HQ and Locke both wanted him to hold them the entire time so we figured we wouldn't go into any more stores with him.

Sitting in Locke's car seat and looking at Izzy. 

Sitting in HQ's car seat and getting used to waiting.

"Where's Daddy?"

 We LOVED Under the Sea. It is an indoor playground. Everything in there was clean and safe. The customers didn't have that "creepy" vibe and it wasn't crowded. It also had the cute "under the sea" (mermaids, fish, etc) theme which I like.

Locke quickly made some friends.

Who can say no to bounce houses?

Izzy and this little boy were inseparable. They played "Mario Kart". I think he fell in love when he discovered she knew exactly what he was talking about and added other elements to their game. 

HQ playing air hockey with a little buddy.

Izzy telling some friends, "And here is my dad playing World of Warcraft. We can call it WoW."

Izzy's artwork. Consider yourself lucky that you get to see this. This is in her magic art book (thanks Jessica!).
Most of the pictures are too magical for just anyone's eyes. 

 We had some bird yuck on our windshield which was pretty gross. Izzy was especially offended by it. Ty decided to surprise her by going through one of those drive through car washes. We call it "the poor man's Disneyland". She loves car washes. :) It was HQ's first time, but she fell asleep right before it started. She didn't sleep much at all last night (which means neither did I) so I wasn't going to wake her up. Not even for a spectacular once in a lifetime event like this.

Going through a car wash.

Crazy New Year

I think they're so cute :D

Our little princess...

It has been quite the eventful 2012 for us and we are only five days in. We don't waste much time I guess. On the 2nd Ty and I went to Vegas for two nights (which was given to us as a Christmas gift) for our first vacation without the kids since our honeymoon. I didn't really take any pictures because we were just too busy really being in the moment and smooching. Seriously. I love smooching my husband. :D 

Ty got me my favorite beer (Strawberry Blonde) and then picked up Rogue's Bacon Maple Ale because it "reminded him of me"... romantic? I know. We gave it a try. It tasted like campfire with a bacony aftertaste... we didn't finish it.

On our last morning there we learned Locke was in the ER. I don't know how most mothers handle, "Don't freak out, but your baby is in the ER..." especially when she is 5 hours away, but I didn't handle it so well. After learning he was OK I was still VERY ready to be home.

He has a cool little owie on his head from his IV, but he's ship shape!

The mini ketchup was Izzy's favorite gift we brought back for her.
She was oddly happy that Ty and I got to enjoy a 2 night "date". 

Weirdos in boots. 

And to top everything off, today we learned Ty was promoted to full time employee! YAY! Eventful 5 days, no? I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of the year. Just hopefully without the ER visits. :)

Resolutions

I always thought "Resolution" mean making a positive change in your life. Last year I made one "resolution" which was to have "no soda". Well, I had soda 14 times in 2011. So I technically failed. BUT I never ordered it (I just stole it from Ty) and that was a HUGE decrease from the previous year. When I looked up "Resolutions" it just said, "New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual makes at New Year's Day". So instead of making one of the same 10 New Years Resolutions that everyone makes I decided to make a 2012 check list. Which is, apparently, the same thing. 


1.) Read one book for pleasure a month. (No, I don't read romance novels...)


2.) Sew one item a week 


3.) Sell something I sew


4.) Learn basic Japanese


5.) Complete P90X 


6.) Only use one bag of sugar total until the month of December. (This may sound weird, but I have my reasons). 


7.) Sign up for and complete a Bible study


8.) Stay on the anti inflammatory diet (not the one that allows bread/pasta) I guess I can't really "check" this one, but it is a commitment! 


9.) Take a dance class with Ty.  


10.) Finally "upcycle" all the clothing items I have in bins at the bottom of my closet and blog about them. It will help with clutter and be fun! :D 

Pictionary Man

Happy New Year!! New Years Eve is something I never really got into. It usually just meant TV marathons of some sort were on and trying to stay up till midnight because... well, it was just what you supposed to do. Even in my "party phase" I still didn't get the appeal of New Year's Eve but I celebrated it just the same. Having kids just made me want to celebrate and appreciate everything I guess.

Picking out their celebratory noise makers.

Making pizza.  HQ loves squishing the dough!

We were invited to three parties this year (one child friendly) but we really didn't feel like leaving the home. Ty worked a 14 hour shift that started at 3am and we knew he had to leave for work again shortly after midnight (for another 12-14 hour shift). So Izzy and I did our best to make it beautiful here. We made chicken pizzas, stuffed jalapenos, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream (which didn't strike me a New Year's Eve-y but I let her choose the dessert). We made sure to have sparkling grape juice and an actual bottle of champagne. One of my brothers came over around 8 and we played board games until midnight. Izzy made it! HQ made it to 9:30 and Locke went to bed at his regular time. We watched the count down on the internet (since we don't have TV) and toasted at midnight. We were even able to see some pink fireworks from our window. Izzy made sure to give her uncle a smooch at midnight for good luck in the New Year. She then immediately went to bed saying it was the "Best New Year's EVER!". My brother stayed to to visit for a little bit before heading home. Ty did NOT want to go to work, but he made it out the door knowing he has the next 3 days off.

Pre party drinkin'

Ty took a nap in the hopes of being coherent at midnight. Locke fell asleep next to him. :)

Playing Pictionary Man!

It was a great celebration! I love my family. I am so blessed :)

Big Babies

Christmas was only 4 days ago and to look at our home you would have never guessed. We usually like to keep our tree up until New Years, but with Locke eating branches and ornaments we were ready to get rid of it.

Izzy announced that she would like to give karate a try (still into the "all things Japanese"). So Ty and I are looking for a decent place to send her. She said, "I promise I will never use my karate power for anything bad... or even evil". With a promise like that who can say no?

I asked Izzy to make our grocery list. This is what she came up with :)

Locke has dropped his naps down to one a day which is bittersweet. It's nice that I don't have to schedule "outings" around his two naps, but it was also nice to have him down for two just so I could get a little more done (dishes, sewing, etc) sans baby. He likes to climb in the dishwasher so I don't do them when he is awake. 

After struggling to knock the fan over Locke fell asleep on the floor.

 Little HQ is completely anti diaper now. She is actually offended when she sees one. I pulled one out for Locke and she took it out of my hand and put it back in the box and said, "No, Hahee (what she calles herself) pee in potty". I explained it was for Locke. She thought that was just fine. My babies are so big!

My kids are so lazy.

Well, Ty and I are fighting off a cold, so we hope to take it easy and get rid of them quick. We have a very exciting vacation (which was a Christmas gift!!) coming up for just the two of us :D It will be the first one since our honeymoon!