There's no wondering why...

I love this girl :) She's so funny, so cute and just plain fun.

Happy birthday cub2, I love you!

Smart Cookie...

Cub3 has really taken a liking to his grandpa. (my dad.) The feeling is mutual as I am told. :) Anyway this is the sunflowers they planted one day back in may? I'm pretty sure it was mother's day. The only reason I am thinking that is because every year, my kids get my stepmom a plant of their choice. While in the gardening section cub3 wanted to plant sunflower seeds. so okay, we buy some. One whole pack. what's that 10 seeds at the most? for ten cents you can't go wrong. Look at these!

Cub3 took half and was supposed to plant them in our yard, they never made it to the ground. we really should try next year, these are pretty cool.


Anyway, my dad called to see if he could take him out on the boat and since they were leaving early could he stay the night. *faint* um my lil guy, staying the night. He absolutely loves it out there and begs to stay every time we visit so I guess it would be okay. It's worth a try.

So today after school, we met with my stepmom and he gladly went. She had told me they were going to go eat and then go get some boots. Sounds like a plan, he will absolutely love it.

Later on in the evening while I am in watching cub2 with her private tumbling lessons for cheer my phone rings. (sheesh i was only in there for 10 of the 30 minutes, what are the odds?) my sister answers the phone and stepmom is confused at what size boots to get him. of course my sister has no idea, but cub3 is in the background saying, check my shoe! of course she now feels like a dummy for not thinking of that, but it sure makes me proud (and laugh too... teehee) what a smart little cookie ;) 5 and he's practical :)

I hope he has a wonderful memorable time :)

Here he is...

Look at him so nice and happy. This is the little guy we know. He is such a joyful and happy kid to be around. He just makes me smile. He doesn't listen all the time but ya know what? At this age, which one of my kids did? He's 2 1/2 years old. my baby. anyway, I absolutely cannot stand it when my children are sick and I can't do a thing for him. I am just lucky that it doesn't happen very often. Right now, all of my kids, yes all, are stuffed up and range from a little bit of a cough to this poor kid who has a horrible cough. It's not one of those wheezy kinds, it's more like he's choking up something he needs and you hope he continues breathing. Now that's scary. We dosed him up with some meds that he wasn't happy about but that goobery mess had to come up. I don't really remember being that scared since cub2 was a baby. A winter baby and dang she was stuffed up like no one's business. As I said before, I'm lucky my kids don't get sick, heck that was almost 11 years ago and it still scares the heck out of me just thinking about it. UGH.

We took off to go to the fair, not to go in but to get that unhealthy crap they sell on the outside of it. Curly fries, cotton candy, scones, corn dogs, etc. sheesh that's a lot of c's. c for crap, I'm sure. ;) On our way up there cub4 was coughing that scary cough in the back. we figured it was time to dose him up again but we're dumb and left the stuff at home. So we stop at the store to go make the same purchase we just made only 5 hourse previous at the other walmart. wow, we're smart cookies. I found some additional meds and tried those out, it was little meltaway strips, and when I say little I mean little. Those must pack a powerful punch because those things were tiny! That's what we tried the next time. It seemed to work for awhile, he wasn't as scary anyway.

On the way back though, he is getting all yucky sounding again. BLECH. so what did I remember, heck we need to just steam him out. we bring him home, turn on the shower steaming hot and the three youngest sat in there getting steamed out. It worked wonders for all of them. TADA! Well I figured that was only temporary, so did hubby so he went to buy yet another humidifier. Our 3rd ever. Seriously my kids don't get sick. The last I bought was when cub4 was a teeny baby (2005) and before that 1996 when cub2 was a teeny baby. So here in 2007 we have yet another one. I will tell you this much technology sure has changed from when I was a kid and my mom had an ugly off white and brown one. this one is upright and not even that noisy!

That's about it. Ramble, ramble, blah, blah, us and our scary kids.

K.

need i say more? we are okay! we made it. I honestly don't think I could have done it without crying if it hadn't been for hubby and cub4 sitting in the car waiting.
here's cub3
it's okay, mom, i love you, is how he handled it :)

I can't believe it's been so long...

Well, honestly I can for as busy as we've been. We have had quite a few successful art shows in the past summer. We have not a lot to show for it though. Sure hubby got a much needed new vehicle and the girls cheer bill is up to date but seriously, where's all the toys? Kidding. There were just a few things we need to do and it just seems like it has been an uphill battle which no one is winning or losing. That is a good thing I know, but we make just about enough to stay above water for a bit then something comes up but I guess that is life. Isn't it?

Anyway the reason for my quick blogging is so I won't forget these two things. I told hubby he should blog about it but he doesn't know how to use his myspace just yet hm...

two things. first. cub2 was singing a song which I'm sure I'm not even going to remember in a couple years but it's called rehab. so she is asking all about it and joking about hubby and i going. um no not quite deary. we asked if we knew what she was talking about and she said yes! those people who go there have problems, celebrities go there all the time. hubby and i just giggled quietly. we did inform her what it was and we didn't correct the fact that lindsey lohan had to go. innocence is grand.

secondly. cub3 is now going to be starting kindergarten. yes, kindergarten. where did the time go? not quite sure myself but he's ready. we took him in for his open house day and mrs. o is having another baby. it's kind of cool how they are working it with her leave and all but that is another story. (the sub teaches the other class and will teach hers while she's away) well I had to go fill out lunch paperwork in the cafeteria and sign up for conferences. hubby stayed with cub3 who somehow got his very pregnant teacher to bring down the toys from the shelf for him to play. i knew that was going to take awhile so i quietly stepped out and did what i had to do. apparently when i was gone, his teacher mrs. o was showing him the kitchen toys and tried to make a joke directed at hubby. she said something to the effect, 'when daddy cooks...' cub3 just nodded like okay, go on. LOL she looked at hubby and he informed her he does do the cooking in the house. it's funny to me how we just don't seem to match the norm. what's up with that? anyhow hubby found it funny and told me. i didn't want to forget so i put it here. like i said, i'm sure i'll forget but it's here and sometime i'll read it. :)

Happy 13th to my little girl!

Sure, it's a little late but wtheck. My special K, as my Grandma would call her is now 13. I'm so happy to have her in my life. She's an overall wonderful person. Sure she can be cranky but heck so can her mom ;) This was the cake top of one of her cakes. The other was a cute Spongebob one. We couldn't choose, so wtheck she got two ;)

New hair

Yep, cub3 &4 lined up for new hair yesterday. It didn't turn out perfectly but what the heck. Doesn't this make cub4 look so grown up??? I think he looks so much like cub3 now, it's crazy.

Cub3 is now signed up for kindergarten and is all up to date on his shots. He was quite a trooper and that still shocks me he handled it so well. Heck, I don't think I would have handled it as well as he did. Sure there was some screaming and a little bit of wiggling trying to get away but directly after he was lined up ready for that popsicle the nurse promised. He came back home and was good to go. Today, you could hardly tell anything had even happened to him until cub2 kindly asked why his arms were red. She was thinking he hurt himself on the trampoline or something. Um no, that's the shots we were trying to forget about. He insisted on a couple children's tylenol and again quickly forgot about them. :) Nice.

Track Meet :)

1st place in the ball throw :o)

Go Cub2 !

Aren't they sweet?

The similarities...

are absolutely amazing. This is the works of my soon to be 5 year old. Our oldest daughter used to do such things to the poor stuffed animals too. fyi, she doesn't anymore.

The poor victim today is cub2's easter bunny from her first Easter :) It's a little worn and he's been playing outside the last few days too, as you can see all the little tiny blades of grass on him.

The whole reason...

is these little people to the left, I was able to celebrate yet another Mother's Day. They humored me with letting me take their picture this afternoon. I spent the whole day doing absolutely anything I wanted. I'm pretty simple all I did was take pictures, eat, edit pictures, eat some more, take some pics, edit some more, eat and watch my shows on tv. They let me sleep in and made me chocolate dipped strawberried, licorice, and marshmallows :) Talk about yummy.

Dinner was steak, shrimp, lobster tail, steamed veggies, steamed potatoes and fried rice. My gosh today rocked. Thank you hubby for today and mostly for the kiddos.

They are good kids, I feel lucky they got stuck with me as their mom ;)

Thanks cubs for making life worthwhile :)

In the whole scheme of things...

it doesn't matter. I tell myself that often, heck I tell people who are upset at what life has given them that day, this. Why don't I believe it? I do, I really do. I just am trying my hardest to make lemonade here folks. I'm tired of lemons, we've got lemon bars, lemon meringue, enough lemonade to feed an army. What I'm getting at? Hubby got his denial letter today from his second choice school. This doesn't change the fact he's still on the waiting list for his first choice, but it is a bit disheartening. I feel so badly. I am really not one to live with the what ifs, or the should have done this, could have done, etc. but this is a tough one on me.

I knew better, I really did. Hubby knew better but we waited until the last minute. Had he not waited he could have been in the Evening program, or at least that's what the letter stated. Ugh. It literally said, since your application date was later than the Alternative program deadline, blahblah... I knew we should have been more on top of it. We screwed up. This cost us at least a year. (unless miraculously he winds up off the waiting list.)

So we are better preparing this next fall. I have the deadlines in mind and we will meet them for sure this time, he's retaking his lsat in hopes for a better score, we made the late registration deadline for that but he has to go to Salem to do it. OH WELL! He's in. All the testing areas are filled in Seattle so what can ya do? We improvise. That's what we do. Well that's what we normally do, had we been thinking in this mode last year we probably wouldn't be sitting here in panic mode now. It's in the past right, what can ya do? I should rewind though. We missed the deadline for the June LSAT last year, so we had to settle for the late September one then wait for scores then apply. See how that wound up for us not applying sooner??? Like I said, we're on top of it this year! *crossfingers*

Nothing but blue skies...

do I see. I'd love to see the world through his eyes. It's a beautiful place, why not enjoy it.

Just one of those days. I wouldn't say it was a bad day. I wouldn't say it was necessarily good either though. Tuesday night my van started acting up. It was the brakes, that made for an interesting drive home. We were about an hour away from home when the brakes started this ugly grinding noise. I hated stopping. It sounded just awful. Anyhow, skip ahead. We take the van over after hubby gets home and drop it off at the mechanics. Let me tell you this place rocks! I was hoping and hoping they would get the van done in time for me to drive back up to tumbling class for cub2. They did! We are out $600 because they changed the rotors too, but it was worth it. The sucky thing is hubby's car he drives to school is on its last leg. We need to get rid of that car, it's been on its last leg for quite some time now. Oh what to do, what to do. We still have the blazer to rely on, but it's not doing so hot either.

The other happenings, hubby's application status has been updated to a "decision mailed." Yeah, thanks. I was hoping to log in and get a simple acceptance or denial. I just don't think I can handle a denial now. I hate being told no as it is, but this is huge. We haven't put much thought into what we will do if he does not get into a law school for fall. Unfortunately, it is something we seriously need to look at, as it gets closer and closer with absolutely no 100% acceptance into any school. This scares me, it scares me beyond belief. I know he can go on and do his masters, but that wasn't in the plan. We had it all mapped out and ugh! I don't even want to think about it. I gotta think positively! Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.

Anyway, Cub1 pitched the first inning today. I, of course, missed it due to a scheduling conflict. Cub3 & I were busy watching Cub2 at her tumbling class. Cub4 and hubby were busy with my dad at Cub1's game. She didn't get to pitch more than one inning apparently because the other team was actually hitting the ball off of her for one, but her defense was not a good backup today for some reason. I guess it just happens like that some days but still. She's happy with how it turned out, so that's all that matters. :)

While up at the new facility watching Cub2 tumble, Cub3 is throwing a minor fit because he wants ice cream, he wants a drink, he wants to come home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sit back and relax kid. I wish that would work with him but it just doesn't. He's got his own mind that's for sure. He lets you know it and never forget it too. It has been really nice to be able to watch the practices now. I love watching her progress. Cub1 still isn't comfy with me watching, but hopefully I'll be invited in soon ;) I don't want to make her uneasy about the whole situation, I'd hate to ruin her on it :P So I will wait.

Anyhow, it is getting crazy late and my eyelids are drooping. Until next time!

Busy again...

Kinda funny. I told myself I would make time to keep better track of all that happens in our lives. I really like going back on past entries just to get a feel for what we've been through. I've been horrible at keeping track lately. (well for a long time now.)

This post I will use to catch up and hopefully I won't have to do that again. *grin*

I'm not even sure where I left off so I will just go. Hubby graduates school next month. He has enough credits to graduate now, but decided to continue on with his art class. The class is on a contract basis so it's not very pressing. It's a nice relaxed pace and that's been nice. He applied for 2 local law schools, one put him on the waiting list until the end of June which we will know 100% whether he made it in or not. His other school has not gotten back to us yet. That we should know it about a month or so! Art is going well, I'm in the middle of re-doing the website, art shows are starting up again in a couple of weeks. He made it into the juried show again this year! YAY! We are in a couple more galleries and a couple more gift shops, so things are going well. He has also been contacted by someone about the dinnerware going televised. No clue how that will work, but nonetheless exciting.

Cub1 was nominated for All Stars again this year. Baseball has been quite a rough start this year, but seems to be picking up. Cheerleading tumbling class has begun and she is working on her roundoff back handspring. Now she officially has her standing :) Grades are going well, the only one that is questionable is band and that is just as much my fault as it is hers. We need to sign those practice sheets more regularly darnit!

Cub2 didn't sign up for baseball this year, but is doing really well in her tumbling class. She has mastered her front walkover roundoff back handspring and is going to be working on her tuck. How exciting and weird is that! I can't believe how much she has grown in this past year. Reading is going really well for her, she's off the charts in her reading. That's always been an easy subject for her. The one subject that surprised me was math, she's testing at the top of her class and that's the statewide testing too. Crazy stuff.

Cub3 will be signing up for kindergarten this month. T-ball will start next year for him, he's already excited. He is busy drawing up a storm and honestly behaving a lot better lately. He's still an emotional little guy and all but he is really starting to handle himself in a more mature manner. Cub3& Cub4 are really into knock knock jokes lately. The thing that really gets 3 going is 4 won't say who's there *teehee* don't even get them started! You've been warned.

Cub4's idea of a knock knock joke ~ knock knock
~who's there?
~apple juice?
~apple juice who?
~I don't know. (sounds more like I dunno) LOL
the other popular answer is patpat (backpack) he's so cute. He's talking up a storm and I'm really enjoying his happy go lucky attitude. He really balances 3 out very well. He does have his testing moments but doesn't everyone?

As far as myself. I just got back from Arizona helping a friend out with her first wedding! (not that she needed all that much help) She rocked the camera like no ones business! Anyway before that we went to Vegas and had an awesome trip. I really am almost ready to hop a plane and go back. :o) We also shot another wedding just a week before I flew out for vegas and it went quite well. I was pleased. It was a last minute wedding but they really pulled it off.
We have basically a photog gig every month through September so business is good. It's about the right pace for me honestly. With hubby's business I don't know how much more I could fit on this plate!

I think that's about all. Are we caught up?

Happy Easter!!!

Cub4 enjoyed coloring his eggs :) I will be adding more to my flickr account probably tomorrow.

That's all for now!

First haircut...

Cub4 officially had his first haircut. My mom was kind enough to do it. I couldn't bring myself to do it. Not only did I love that little guy's hair, I suck at cutting hair LOL Sure I could bring him into a hair salon, but I haven't stepped foot in one of those since they screwed my hair up in 7th grade. It's been only hair trims since then (eek!)

Anyway, I couldn't even control myself when cub3 had his first haircut. So we went gradual this time. It's not the full blown short like I did to cub3 a few days ago. I'm too chicken. Pics will come later ;)

As far as the eyes can see...

busy, busy, busy. Hubby is back from NC and it went wonderfully. I'm so glad to have him back even though he's tired as can be. I guess that's what a 3 day cross country and back trip will do to a person.

While he was gone, he was called by his ex-employer, which is another casino and they want to put dinnerware and prints in their gift shop. I am thinking that's a good sign if they are contacting him. Usually we have to go out of way to pimp his cheesy wares as he lovingly refers to them. ;)

Also, while he was gone, I got a call to make sure I was still going to put some of my images in their gallery. I'm still not sure why my hubby offered up my services for this but the fact is he did. I couldn't very well back out, although I seriously thought about it. Heck, I felt I had a wonderful excuse, my hubby is out of town, I can't have it their by the deadline. Bah! Worth a try, isn't it? Okay, probably not. I frantically worked on getting my pics, chosen, print-ready and sent to the printers for printing. Well, the good news is, we made it there before the deadline with 2 1/2 hours to spare. YAY!

The cubs are off for Spring Break and hubby starts back to school Tuesday. It would seem like they would be on break at the same time, but who knows how that happened. Oh and one other thing, Drive-Ins (movies) are opened around here again. We should be going within the next couple days. YAY!

Happy Birthday...

My littlest sis is now officially a teenager. Happy Birthday Sis!

Pssst... Cub1 is to follow 3 months from now.

Hubby comes home today after his quick trip!! Yippee!

Play Ball!!!

Ya know, I actually signed Cub1 up for Jr. High on Monday. Yes, Jr. High *faint* She is finally going to be in a school with real after school sports, you know the kind where they compete with other schools and such? She was really excited over the volleyball and not so much over the fastpitch softball and absolutely no mention of girls basketball which surprised me. Anyway, she has been playing baseball with the boys for quite a few years now. She is the only girl in her league this year. We asked when we signed her up whether there was going to be any problem with her continuing for a couple more years with the boys. Honestly we thought this was going to be the last year, but apparently she will be in the same league next year too. The president of the county leaugue said there was no issues with her playing with the boys as long as she wants. Of course they are trying to restart their girls softball league and asked if she was interested, that was the quickest no from all three of us (hubby, cub1 and myself) She has made it crystal clear she was not interested in playing with the girls or that huge ball until absolutely necessary LOL I love that about her.

Anyhow, she was approached by a mother of a boy who was on her team a few years back. She wanted to know if Kayla would try out for the Jr. High Fastpitch team. She said they were accepting 7th graders for tryouts too. So even though she doesn't go to that school yet and she was going to try it out next year, she may be able to try it now!?!? How cool is that? We need to contact her to get more information. That's great they thought of her in any case! She's really making quite an impression on everyone. :o)

Everyone else jumped off the bridge, why not me?

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Welcome Little One!!!

Isn't he sweet? This little man is the newest member to our growing family. My cousin just had her second son, yesterday at 3:40pm, this was taken maybe 2 hours later. You forget how tiny they are.

On a different note. Hubby is on the waiting list for law school. We just put in his application for his second choice today. :( All that waiting and we still have to wait some more.

Here's hoping for good news!

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

It's amazing when you think how fast time goes in the whole scheme of things. Yet when you are waiting for something it seems to take forever. We are awaiting a letter from law school. Hubby received an email last week stating that his app was going before the final admission committee this week. They hoped to have the letters sent out by the 23rd. Yikes. that's today. We are going crazy just waiting, checking the mail, checking his email and let's just hope it's worth the wait! Beautiful things come to those who wait, please grant us patience.

Home safely...

We made it home safely. The girls were ambitious enough to go to school even after getting home at 10pm. Their reward? A half day of school! They forgot it was only a half day due to conferences this week. Good thing though, they are both caught up already. It kind of makes me wonder how they can be gone from school for 4 days and make up all the work in less than a 1/2 day of school. Hmmm... what a strange system.

The pic to the left was taken by Cub2, complete manual mode. Isn't that awesome?!?!?

Once upon a time...

Almost time to go home. It's been quite a trip. I've had loads of fun, so have the girls. We couldn't have asked for a better time. I am so ready to get back to the boys though. We are so bringing them next time. They would absolutely love it here.

Another thing that's different...

I'm not at home looking at the time. I was walking down the street today and was stopped by a man asking if anyone in our group knew the time. Needless to say, I'm walking with four "lil people" who aren't quite so little but still they are 10-14 years old, just because they stand about 5 foot doesn't make them big ;) and my mom. We honestly didn't know.

What a strange feeling. It seems I always know what time it is when I'm home. There is no rush for time here, at least for today and tomorrow. It's been so relaxing.

My feet, ankles and heck my toes are all killing me but I'm having the time of my life. I am so bringing cub3&4 next time.

FYI it was 10 to 8. My mom was quick to grab her cell for the time :o) I was a little less quick to the draw.

Third Place isn't half bad...

Well the girls got third. They had some pretty rockin' competition and they did an awesome job at their routine. What more can you ask for?!?!? Go Cats! ;)

We sure don't have these at home...

These things are so cool looking. Hubby came to CA last year around this time and told me about these cool flowers and showed me pics but in person, wow! I was totally amazed. We are definately not at home right now, these are on the side of the street LOL

Girls are doing great in their competition, we made it through to the semi-finals. YAHOO!!! If all goes well they we be performing 2 more times :) I'd love for them to make it into the finals but there will only be 5 teams who make it to Sunday. Good luck Girlies! I know you can do it!

So this is what happens...

to the other cub's hair after competition. Her hair was in a high pony and curled, this is after her hair is taken down out of the ponytail and brushed. LOL Doesn't she look pleased with her new hairdo?

It's funny because she normally takes it out and washes it quickly, I never get to see this part of the process :)

We just had our second of 3 nationals cheer competitions placing first in both of them and first in State competition too! YAY! Go girls! Our third and final competition is this weekend. Hopefully they can keep up the streak!!!

Okay, so it's worth it...

LOL The girls had cheerleading competition today. 53 minutes. I finally timed how long it takes to do Cub1's hair. I couldn't believe it took 53 minutes and 29 curlers. This pic just cracked me up, this is Cub1 mid cheer. I love how I caught her hair in the air. This is just a crop of a full picture so there is grain galore, but it's too cool not to document :)





Oh here's the before ;)

Make a wish...

After finally uploading the pictures off of my camera, I ran across this picture. It's mid-blow out of the candles. Look at that, there is only 2 candles. 2. They will only multiply in the years to come and he will only get bigger and bigger. It was wonderful to witness the wonder and joy of his day through his eyes. I really need to be better at taking those pics of the camera earlier.

In the blink of an eye...

Time marches on and my baby is going to be 2. Yes, 2. How on earth did the time fly? It goes by so quickly and you just sit back and wonder what on earth you have done with it. I wander back to this blog quite a few times, just at a loss for words to type. There is so much to say, so much to share, and I know I will be very disappointed in myself for not keeping better track.

This little boy has added so much wonder and so much joy to this house. He is such a blessing, such a sweetheart, so kind, so gentle, so loving, so smart, so perfect. He was the absolute perfect addition to our already seemingly perfect family. I feel so fortunate to have these wonderful children. Sure they can be handfuls and a half at times but for the most part they are absolutely, positively wonderful. I am thankful to have them in my life =)