Sassy

Sometimes you find clarity in the middle of a long night. Let me explain, Every night somewhere in the middle of the night or maybe somewhere around morning, Sassy climbs into bed with me. Most of the time I'm not even aware that she's there until my alarm goes off and I have to untangle her long limbs from mine to get up and turn it off. Some nights she wakes me up by pushing or kneeing me. Sometimes we get to hot and it's hard to sleep. Some nights between her and the sleeping cat on my legs I'm unable to roll over and wake up stiff and sore.  I've always looked at this sleeping arrangement as a sacrifice on my part. She obviously needs me so I give up some of my stretch out space so she can feel safe and warm and get the sleep her growing body needs. The other night changed my perspective. I was awaken in the middle of the night by a strange noise. I got up to investigate and found that the big bag full of little bags of chips had fallen off the shelf. No biggie. But for some reason in my groggy half awake mind that set off a night of night terrors. Every time I started to fall asleep I'd wake up with a nightmare and a racing heart. I was scared. I couldn't calm my mind or my heart. So I did what any rational person would do. I turned on Duck Dynasty and decided to stay awake until morning. I watched t.v. and tried to relax, but I just couldn't.  When all hope was lost my little blonde bed head stumbled into my room. I watched as she climbed up and over the foot of my bed. I couldn't help but giggle when the cat grumbled disapprovingly as Sassy knelt on her tail as she crawled towards me. I don't think she ever even opened her eyes but she was able to find her spot next to me.  And as her warm little body cuddled into mine my heart finally started to calm down. The racing, terrifying thoughts faded away as I marveled at her. I watched her eyes flutter with dreams. I traced her soft, perfect cheeks with my finger. She reached out and held onto my arm like she always has done since she was an infant. I felt so much love for her and in that moment I realized that I need her just as much as she needs me.

This is for you Grandma!

Devin's parents gave us Disneyland passes for Christmas. And now we've been on the Ariel ride 5 million times because its Ava's favorite.

We discovered Roxy loves the dog beach.

The kids and I went to San Diego to misiion San Luis Rey for Owen's school project

Owen got braces!

Jack is having a hard time in first grade. We ended up homeschooling him for a couple weeks. He went back to school just in time for his first field trip.

We spent my birthday in San Diego at a cute hotel. It was a blast.

We took our annual trip to the Apple Orchard!

Santa brought Ava her American Girl doll named Kanani, she's hawaiin. She goes EVERYWHERE with us

I've neglected my blog for almost a year now. In my defense I did go a couple of months with no computer, but i'm back. This is really my Grandma's only way of keeping up with us in between visits. I don't know where to start so i'll just upload a bunch of pictures, probably out of order. Im still getting used to this laptop. Although it does make me feel like Carrie on Sex in the City. If only I could have her wardrobe too. sigh.

Last Awards Assembly of the year!

Jack was V.I.P

Ethan was Student of the Month

Poor Owie didn't get an award, but he sure deserved one!

Ice Cream Party!!!

Thank You Grammy for our Ice Cream party to celebrate Summer!!!

Evening Walk

We needed to get out of the house. So Ava and Jack jumped in her princess mobile, Owen grabbed his skateboard and Devin and I drug Ethan and all his preteen attitude out the door. (That yellow on Jacks face is a bruise. He got hit in that same spot twice in 2 days. The first with his own fist the next with Ethan's bed.)
Jack jumped out half way there so Ava got a chance to drive in the real world. I got a glimpse of her at 16.

This picture cracks me up. He looks like he wants to kill me. awww we are full steam ahead towards teenage years. sigh
And then we reached our goal . Starbucks, where we all enjoyed our steaming hot cups of coffee........just kidding. We got hot chocolate and carmel apple cider. Ava went with chocolate milk. It was a nice walk and i actually got Ethan to smile.

overwhlemed

Ava and Jack checking out her gifts in the morning. She slept in until 10:30 on her birthday.

At Grammy's house in the car Grammy and Papi gave her.

Eating her cake

cupcake table

This is her at 11:00 that night. To excited to sleep.

I am so behind in blogging, frankly, I am overwhelmed. Every time I sit down to blog I struggle with where to start. Do I keep up my number count? Do I start over? I have pictures, but i've lost my blogging umph. huh so I here I go, starting over. No more numbers, just blogging. Maybe next year i'll try again. We'll see. So what can I say???? Ava and Devin had their birthday on April 2nd. Since Ava loves to dip everything she eats, we had a dip party. I made spinach artichoke dip, orange fluffy dip, carmel apple dip, roasted red pepper dip ( that was by far everyones favorite) dill dip and some sweet and sour meatballs just for the fun of it. We also had a jump house and a cupcake decorating station. Believe it or not Ava had fun. Gasp! I know. She is so hard to please and she hates being the center of attention, but she actually enjoyed her party. She thanked everyone as she was tearing into her gifts, she was polite and had fun. Devin behave himself to, but he usually does, usually.

So some fun facts about 3 year old Ava
* she's not potty trained. Go ahead and judge. She's the baby and i've already proved my potty training skills with the last three so who cares right?
* She is so girly. She loves everything princess. She has so many cute clothes, but she only wears princess dresses.
*she loves being a girl.
* She loves pink and purple anything.
*She can count really high. I didn't teach her that because I want her to be a baby
*She knows the name of every princess and who there prince is and what movie they are in. I did teach her that
* She loves Dora the Explorer (yuck)
*She knows all her colors
*She is sooo good on a razor scooter. She flies through the house.
*She is a caregiver. Whenever anyone is hurt she is the first one there with a bandaid or icepack or their favorite blanket.
*She loves coming with me to volunteer at Jack's kindergarten class. I really think she thinks she's older than the kindergartners.
I can go on and on. She is so sweet and I feel so blessed everday to have her.

Waaaaay behind

I'm so far behind on my picture posts its annoying! I have been in pain and when i'm in pain I can't do anything. I'm such a baby. I'll try to post pictures today. We'll see how that goes.