black and white november

Sister selfie.

5:45 AM lego session. Compliments of Daylight savings. This lasted about 5 minutes before the screaming started. Mya and Winter usually take a long time building amazing lego castles and Addie and Angus usually take a short time destroying them.

It's so nice having older siblings so I don't have to chase after the littles in the church parking lot every Sunday.

Having a serious conversation about Peppa Pig with Addie on the curb.

Early morning kitchen huddle. Mya is rarely wearing clothes in the morning. She starts out in jammies but she's on the top bunk so throughout the night she strips it all off and usually winds up in her underwear. 

Cousins came to visit! Angus is like, too many girls. I'm out.

November stuff

Winter came home very excited about this last week. 

Mya: MOM! Winter got an award!! A parti... ssssomething one!! 

Me: Participation

Winter: What's participation?

Me: Ummm that they really liked your lady bug. (lie)

Winter: *Giant smile*

Thanksgiving at the firestation. 

This is the easiest thanksgiving for me. I just show up with the kids and get fed by the talented firefighter chefs and the kids have a blast. 

Addie's 4th birthday! 

She's getting old enough to really appreciate her birthday and she knows what's going on and doesn't expect a whole lot. This year we went to Chuck E. Cheese for an hour or so. Then we had a "party" with cake and ice cream back at the house. It was basically a trip to vons for cake and balloons and some of the kids in the neighborhood came over after dinner. Doesn't get much easier. 

Mya is still terrified of Chuck the giant mouse but we talked to one of the employees who told her that she was actually the one who would wear the costume and she would tell us before she came out. It was super nice of her. So Mya hid in a booth with Dan and the mouse threw some tickets at the kids and everyone was happy.

This ride was broken and kept going by itself so the kids took full advantage.

(Mya trying to get Angus to look at the camera)

She begs me to ride in this cart every time we go to Vons and I always say no. It's a pain and oh so noisy.

So she was super excited about it.

littles

Angus wasn't planned. We knew we'd probably go for number four eventually, just not right away like we did with Mya and Winter. God had a different plan. But these two are just the most fun pair. They make me laugh all the time. I love how agreeable Angus is when Addie bosses him around. I love how he runs away with her toys 20 times a day just to hear that high pitched scream we hate so much. I love how excited and loud they make each other. And they have the best conversations in the car. I wish I had a video set up at all times. I love that Addie talks to him in a high voice like he's half her size. I love that he outweighs her. I love it that he calls her Ayee. I love them together.

black and white october

 Branching out from vacuums, and washing dishes to actual toys. And he smiling for the camera… Who is this guy?

Dan's fish cupboard under the stairs. It's a whole nother world under there.

Matching. One of Mya's great loves. As a little sis, Addie gets suckered into doing all kinds of things. 

Addie's new smile. This is what she does now when the camera is pointing at her. But it doesn't matter. Like any good mom would, I just keep taking them. 

Stuck in a girls' world. Pun intended.

Addie and Angus beg me to go to Target daily. I hate to disappoint them so I go pretty much daily. 

We attended a little pumpkin hunt playdate. Pretty cute. Each kid was told they could find one pumpkin. Good thing I bought four. 

Ever since we inherited this little lego bus from a friend, it has been the most popular ride in town. We had some friends over with three girls and one baby boy, just like us. 

Whenever Angus poops he tells me a poooooooped ow ow ow ow. It doesn't really hurt but it gets me to change him for some reason. 

Comparing height. Pretty much even now. 

Most likely Winter's last year of soccer. She kind of hates it except for the snacks they give out after each game. I may make her play again next year. We'll see. They have two more games. And yes, I do know the shin guards go under the socks and so do they. 

Those crazy middle kids. 

A Halloween puppet show. Why not? 

Halloween was fun. We had a neighborhood block party with pizza, candy and the Dodger game playing on the garage door at the neighbor's house across the street. Angus went trick-or-treating for the first time. He would go up to the door and say hiiiiii. And they would give him a candy and he would say "TWOOOO?" And they'd give him another one. And he'd walk away and say "dank yoooooouuu" 

Dan the gunfighter, Mya the unicorn, Addie as Rainbow Dash, Winter the Jaguar and Angus the firefighter. And since everyone dressed up, I put on a black wig and wore black and orange so I wasn't totally the Halloween Scrooge. Mya totally thought it was my real hair. 

Addie's knees

Addie's knees are her kryptonite. If she falls on her knees, you will not see them for a good hour. I picked her up from her class at church once and she had her knees tucked under her dress and they said they weren't sure how bad she had hurt them because she had refused to show anyone. So they handed her to me in a little Addie ball and that was the way she stayed until I buckled her up in her car seat and saw a couple of tiny scrapes on her knees. Luckily she had her blanket in the car so she was able to cover them up again right away. 

This has been going on for over a year now. It's such a weird thing but also pretty amusing. Here's a pic of her after she hurt her right knee. I think there was blood involved so she was on the couch all afternoon. 

black and white september

I just realized I skipped black and white August. Wups. I'm actually impressed I didn't miss more months. Mom life is actually getting almost doable. I think I'm out of survival mode and into get stuff done mode. Almost. I think we're all still recovering from vacation and then a quick trip to Las Vegas to see my grandma get baptized. More on that to come. But for the most part, we're doing pretty okay.

Sooooo, here are some pics. Winter took this selfie. And I love it.

She continues to be such a good big sis and plays with the little ones most of the time. They play family a lot. She's the mom and they are her babies. Angus has mastered the fake baby cry unfortunately.  

I love Sundays when everyone has clothes on. I usually try to get a pic... if Dan and I aren't fighting about getting to church on time. It took me nine years to figure out that when Dan says he wants to be on time, that means 10 minutes early and the very first car in the parking lot. 

They were all huddled around a tablet. I took it away and held it up in the air and told them to smile and I'd give it back. You never know what's behind these pictures. Well, you do sometimes because I tell you. 

I love watching my husband be a dad. I knew he was going to be a great one. But it's fun to see him in action. My parents split up when I was 4 so I didn't get to see what a married couple raising kids together looks like. It is a bit tricky at times. But I'm so incredibly thankful that I get to do it with this guy.

This guy still insists on being carried around after he wakes up. Not sure how much longer I can do that. He's 35 pounds. It doesn't sound like a lot. But trust me. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of my kids. I pray that they always love each other well. 

8

Mya is at my favorite age. I say that about all of the ages but 8 is actually the perfect age. It's old enough to have a conversation with, play a board game with (and possibly beat me), help around the house (and do a good job), go to any restaurant and sit still, and she's not embarrassed of me yet, which is coming soon I'm sure.

Something I love about her is that she will talk to anyone about anything. I get nervous, however, when she starts to talk to a grownup, especially someone we don't know. I never know what she's going to say. I try to encourage it though because talking to people with confidence is a life skill that some people my age have yet to learn. It still makes me nervous though.

One time at Target, she asked the light skinned African American Target employee if she was related to the other light skinned African American Target employee. My eyes popped open and I just laughed nervously. The Target employee was super cool about it and laughed too. We had a conversation about how we probably shouldn't assume people with the same color skin are related.

We ran into Winter's kindergarten teacher and her husband outside an ice cream shop. They were walking their dog. Addie asked her if the man next to her was her dad. She laughed and told her it was her husband. Then Mya asked, "So... is your dad dead?" She laughed again and told Mya that he was very much alive and well. It's good that she's a kindergarten teacher because I'm sure she's used to inappropriate questions on the daily. We had a conversation about how we don't ask people if their parents are dead.

We went to visit some old friends who Mya had never met before. We spent all afternoon at the beach and then back to their house for dinner. As we were leaving Mya said, "Bye! Oh and if you have birthday presents for me you should give them to me now because you're probably not going to see me before my birthday." Her birthday was two weeks away. We had a conversation about how we don't ask people for presents. It's optional.

One time when we were walking back to our car from Target, (yeah we pretty much live there) Winter and Mya spotted a lady walking to her car parked nearby, carrying a new unopened Barbie and accessories. Mya asked, "Do you have a daughter?" The lady was alone but I guess she had to go shopping for a birthday gift without her daughter. They had a whole conversation about how she picked the perfect present. Both Mya and Winter told her she did a good job. The lady drove away happy with her choice. We had a conversation about how they made her day.

And lastly, we were at Target AGAIN. It's a half a mile from my house okay? And there are no grocery stores in Azusa. As the Target employee was ringing up my groceries, she asked how my day was going. I sighed and said, "Okay, how about you?" Before she could answer, Mya chimed in, "She has four kids." Mya always asks me why I had so many. Easy for her to say. She's the first.

Newport 2017

This year makes our 6th year vacationing in Newport at the same beach house. We are always amazed we found such a perfect place for our family. Although the house seems to be shrinking as our family gets bigger, we still feel extremely blessed to be able to do this. It was another amazing year spent mostly with family. The majority of our days included walking to coffee at the pier, paddle boarding, riding bikes to get lunch, walking to get ice cream, people watching, walking to the grocery store, playing in the ocean, seashell hunting, rinsing impressive amounts of sand off in the outdoor shower, eating good food, watching an amazing sunset and spending time just relaxing (as much as possible with 4 kids) together. Here are the pics very out of order. But they all took place between September 5th and September 19th =)