pierced

It's amazing to me that our kids love us so much no matter what. It seems like all we do is yell at them or correct them. And we always know that any time we want a hug, they are more than happy to give us one. A giant one. 

This is me on the couch trying to wake up while the coffee brews sometime around 5:45AM. I've never been a morning person. Still not. They don't care =)

Before washing machines and dishwashers were invented, people must have spent all day doing dishes and laundry. I have these modern day inventions yet I still can’t keep up with the workload. But still so thankful for them. This is our 2nd load of the day.

The big girls got their ears pierced Thursday! Winter was super anxious to have ears with holes in them. Well I think she's mostly wanting to wear dangly earrings so she can be even fancier than usual. She wasn't really nervous about it, or if she was, she didn't talk about it. Mya wasn't sure if she was going to go through with it. She wanted to see how Winter's piercings went and then go from there. 

Dan wanted to be the one to take them. Fine by me. I'm not good with that stuff. I nearly fainted when my ears were pierced. So we made an appointment with our pediatrician's office that does piercings. We thought that would be probably the most sanitary, kid friendly place to do it. Not that I have anything against tattoo parlors. That would have been a pretty interesting experience for them. 

So the day came and Winter went first. She cried. She didn't want to get the second ear done. So Dan tried to get Mya to go next. I believe her reply was "NO WAY" after seeing Winter's experience. So Dan had the lady pierce Winter's second ear, tears and all. Again, Dan tried to get Mya to get hers done but she still wasn't having it. So they left. Winter two holes. Mya none. 

On the way home, Mya had a change of heart. Dan patiently drove back to the pediatrician and they agreed to take her. And she bravely sat there and let them pierce her ears. No tears. 

I'm so proud of both of them. That's a super scary thing and they were both very brave. 

Before...

After!

Here are the two videos. If your kid is scared about getting his/her ears pierced, show them Mya's, not Winter's =)

I'm not sure if they have them everywhere but the pediatrician used hypoallergenic earrings. You don't have to clean them or twist them. You just switch them out after 6 weeks and supposedly they can wear anything after that. Fingers crossed. 

Angus doesn't like to go to sleep without saying goodnight to his big (tiny) sis. It's a nightly thing. I love these two. 

The girls are always asking me to buy them shoes with heels on them. I found some sparkly ones at the thrift store yesterday so I had to get them. Mya was delighted. She had to get dressed up so that her outfit matched the shoes. 

She loves looking for big birds out in the back by the water. We see some really cool ones actually. A bald eagle lives close by so we see it frequently and we see egrets daily. 

My friend Annie sent me this awesome little gadget for my birthday that connects to the bluetooth in my phone and allows me to snap selfies. Like a bluetooth selfie stick. So fun. I might have to start putting some effort into my appearance now that I can be in the pictures... but that sounds like a lot of work.

scooting through march

We said good-bye to the cousins Friday. And despite the fact that Addie and Angus messed with their stuff and tormented them every chance they got, they really loved staying with us. There were tears and big hugs as they departed but we will see them again soon. Cannot wait to meet their new little brother, my new nephew who was born March 7th at 8 pounds, 6 ounces. Johanes Louis Maximus Wagenbrenner. Never have I heard a stronger name. =) 

It was also my birthday Friday! This is my birthday present. (Winter took the pic)

It's so shiny and smooth. I'm pretty excited about it. Now I can run over little rocks and sticks like they're nothing. I can't wait to take it to the beach to ride on the bike path. So basically I'm just a 7 year old girl in a 37 year old body.  

Addie wanted to take a picture of me on my scooter too...

Friday night, Dan and I ate dinner at a quiet little restaurant, Tap and Kitchen, in Pasadena. It was lovely. These days we just crave a little quiet. 

Winter continues to be a 2nd mommy to Angus and Addie. I'm so glad one of us is maternal =) 

Angus is pretty smart. He may not sound like it when he talks, but he's actually very clever. This is the basket I use on the stairs to bring things up and down. I actually never use it. It just sits, wanting to be used. We usually just throw stuff up on the stairs as far as we can and hope someone will bring them up with them on the way to their bedroom... Or we throw things down from the 2nd floor. If they are breakable, we aim for the couch. Anyway, Angus has trouble getting up on my bed. I don't help him because I don't really want him up there "helping" me with laundry. So the other day, he went and got this from the top of the stairs, flipped it over, and turned it into stairs. I had to applaud his resourcefulness. Now he'll never have trouble getting up on my bed unfortunately.

It rained one day last week so Angus wore his rain boots all day. And nothing else.

Winter always tries to bring insects and creatures into the car from church. I have a strict no little creatures in the car rule. But Winter has never been much of a rule follower. We have a huge church campus against the foothills of Glendora so there are TONS of creepy crawlies for Winter to capture. Sunday she caught about 20 snails brought out by the rain. I repeatedly told her to put them back so they could live happy little snail lives. And she did several times. She managed to sneak this guy home. She said she let tons of them go so it was only fair that she take one for a pet. Addie said it looked like a beautiful mama snail. She had to show her BFF Grace of course. One of them named the snail "Tinkles." 

The kids celebrated daylight savings by making a dinner fort on the front patio.

Winter got an award at school for "outstanding character." She was beyond happy and proud.

Speaking of character, Winter wanted to go swimming the other day when it was like 60 degrees. I rolled my eyes and told her for the millionth time since October that the pool is freezing and I'm not taking her until they heat it in May. She told me I was the worst mom ever for the millionth time since October, then found a way to go swimming in the garage. In a cooler. With her barbies. In a sparkly skirt. 

She inspired Addie to put her bathing suit on as well. She dresses herself now mostly. Sometimes she puts stuff on backward =) But she's still pretty cute.

We acquired two free Disneyland park hopper tickets so Dan and I decided to go, sans kids. Neither of us would ever pay the ticket price to go to Disneyland so we knew we had to go. We couldn't take the kids because we only had two tickets and taking kids to Disneyland just doesn't sound fun at all. 

So, Tuesday we broke the news to the girls that Mommy and Daddy were going to Disneyland without them, hugged our frowning children good-bye and left, happily. My super amazing mom watched the kids from 8AM to 8PM so that Dan and I could experience a whole day at the happiest place on earth for the first time together. It was pretty funny because there sure were an awful lot of crying children at the happiest place on earth. Every time we'd walk by one, Dan would say, "Happiest Place On Earth." 

With help from the Disneyland people we were able to use the fastpass app and never waited more than 20 minutes in line for a ride. It was as good as it gets really. We spent most of the day at Disneyland then headed over to California Adventure. There, we ate and drank and sat and rested our tired bones. Then it started raining. Disneyland must make a killing selling ponchos when it rains. Everyone had one. We weren't too upset with the rain though. We just headed to a restaurant for dinner to wait out the traffic and headed home around 7:00. It was a pretty perfect day. We took lots of pics because we probably won't be back anytime in the next decade.

I think because Dan has to be such a good driver at work because he drives a giant emergency vehicle, he has a lot of built up bad driver rebellion in him. He was a horrible example for the children practicing their driving skills.

Good thing Dan wore his homeless Vans and not his new ones. 

marching

March is my birthday month. So it's the best month in my opinion. My favorite thing about March, besides my birthday, is that we spring forward during daylight savings. Yay! I can feed the kids dinner at 5:00 then send them back outside to play until bedtime. And bedtime comes extra fast because it's an hour earlier than we're used to. Everybody wins. It's so funny that daylight savings wasn't even affecting my life at all until the littles came along and everything revolved around bedtime and naps. I love spring time, except for the many bees it brings.

Our little front yard is looking very colorful and charming. Happy almost spring.

Here is Angus enjoying his occasional bike ride through the house pantsless. 

Funny thing happened the other day I have to share. So, any time Mya hears my text message alerts, she has to inform me of who they're from and sometimes reads them. I really should make a rule that she isn't allowed to read them. Maybe I will. I received a text from a fellow mom with three little boys saying, "Anyone else's kids going batshit crazy tonight or just mine?" Mya read it allowed to me. I replied, "What?!" and she started reading it again. I yelled, "No, stop!" and laughed. I think that was officially the first time my 8-year-old has said a curse word. But it went totally over her head and she didn't even know what she was reading. I have successfully kept my kids from learning foul language because I mumble those words under my breath and rarely yell them. Mom points for me.

So, Dan's brother and sis-in-law are in the hospital as we speak delivering their 3rd baby, first boy. We get to hang out with our nieces which we love, especially Mya and Winter. They are always begging us for slumber parties with cousins and friends. We have them 'till Friday so they're ecstatic. Here we are enjoying a nice dinner on the patio. The chilly winter temps (70 degrees) have us all in sweatshirts. =)

And speaking of babies, I went to see my cousin Jamie's first new baby, Elle, for the first time. OMG how perfectly scrumptious is this little angel baby? Too much. My mom asked me if holding her made me want another one. I yelled at her for even suggesting such a crazy notion. 

And it's not because I don't love babies. I adore babies. They're the best. They're precious and tiny and you can carry them around anywhere because they weigh like 10 pounds. In fact, two months is actually the best time to take the baby places. Unfortunately, you don't realize that until that itty bitty sweetie becomes a toddler. Then you really can't take them anywhere. 

For instance, Dan needed some new shoes last week. He's been sporting the same vans for about 15 years. I'm not even exaggerating. I told him he looked slightly homeless last time he wore them to church and he was shocked. He had no idea. We decided to go shoe shopping. Dan can't shop by himself. For one, he doesn't have any real fashion sense because he really doesn't care about trivial things like fashion. And he's color blind so he would probably come back with pink shoes. It was quite the ordeal. The local Vans store is just 8 minutes away and not even located in a big mall. Awesome. But it took a long time to decide on the color and style, then the young lady had to go fetch them from the back, then she brought out the wrong ones, then she had to go fetch them from the back again. Meanwhile Angus and Addie tried on every hat in reach and rearranged the shoes and lied on the floor to look in the shoe mirrors. Totally fine actually. 

But at one point, Angus removed one of the tiny metal poles that held the hats and accidentally kind of stabbed himself in the leg. He had a little meltdown but he recovered quickly. I saw three other shoe shoppers (one with an infant) come in, pick out their shoes, pay for their shoes, and leave while Dan and I waited for our shoes, chased the crazy monkeys around the store and were reminded why we don't take them anywhere. I finally gave up and took Angus to the car where he could pretend to drive and press all the buttons like the windshield wipers and hazards and blinkers until Dan and Addie came out. And to make a long story short...ish. We didn't leave with any shoes. They didn't carry any of the four pairs that he picked out in his size. So, I went to the West Covina Mall during nap time to get three of them. Now he has shoes that make him look like a normal civilized person.

And speaking of shoes... These multifunctional Nikes are getting plenty of use.

And in other news, I joined the gym! I'm one of those weirdos that actually enjoys things like running, sit-ups, crunches and what have you. I've been bugging Dan for months to sign me up and he finally did it. He wanted to be the one to make the deal since he feels that most establishments take advantage of women and try to charge them more because they can. Yeah, that's just one of the theories going on in the mind of Dan. Totally fine. I'd rather him ask all the questions and fill out the paperwork. I would actually prefer not to join a gym. I'd rather run outside on the street or climb some stairs or watch a free YouTube video that offers exercises to get the perfect butt. Before I had kids, that was totally doable. Now, not doable.

Working out is a sure fire way to get your kids to not leave you alone. It is quite the scene when I attempt a 10 minute ab sculpting video. Just 10 minutes. All of a sudden everyone wants to work out with me. Angus is army crawling under me while I plank. Addie is sitting on my belly while I attempt crunches. Winter is complaining that it's too hard and Mya is too close to me, doing kicks and things. And although they are very encouraging and like to cheer me on, it's not a whole lot of fun for me. 

So we are gym members now. Me, Angus and Addie. They call us triple A. Cute. I go in the morning while the big girls are in school. The first day, the lady came and got me out of my yoga class to whisper to me that Angus had to go pee. I laughed and told her he had a pull-up on and he could wait. Namaste. The second day, after about 10 minutes of stair climbing, the childcare lady informed me that Angus pooped in his pull-up and needed to be changed right away. It was pretty bad. It stunk up the whole childcare room. Those ladies are saints. 

I wasn't upset about being interrupted because that stair climber is no joke. Hard stuff. But then I remembered that I probably didn't have any extra wipes or pull-ups on me. I went to the car to check to see if I had anything in there, even though I was pretty sure I didn't. I opened the front seat to find baby wipes I'd left there because I was cleaning a mystery gunk off the seat the day before. Yessss. Then I opened the trunk hoping for a miracle pull-up to be stuffed in the corner or something. I actually just bought a box of pull-ups at Target and forgot to take them in the house. I thanked Jesus for letting me always be super forgetful so I could change Angus and get back to the torturous stair climber. I plan ahead now and bring a pull-up and wipes with me which is good because every day since, Angus has pooped 15 minutes into my workout. Every single time. 

Oh and I made the best workout playlist. So I thought I'd share it in case you needed some new tunes while you work out. And if you don't work out, this playlist is also good for cleaning, or dancing around in your kitchen in your underwear. Whatever floats your boat.

This is a grown up music list. Not totally suitable for children. All of these songs are available on the Amazon music app I mentioned in my previous blog TIME OUT.

1. Liquid Lunch - Caro Emerald

2. Sit Still, Look Pretty - Daya

3. Cheap Thrills - Sia feat. Sean Paul

4. The Sign - Ace of Base

5. I Want You - Savage Garden

6. No One - Alicia Keys

7. Stars - Demi Lovato

8. Work From Home - Fifth Harmony

9. Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift

10. Confident - Demi Lovato

11. No Digity - Blackstreet

12. Hey Ya! - Outkast

13. Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke

14. My House - Flo Rida

15. Where is the Love - The Black Eyed Peas

16. Pump It - The Black Eyed Peas

17. Let's Get it Started - The Black Eyed Peas

18. Hey Mama - The Black Eyed Peas

19. London Bridge - Fergie

20. Clumsy - Fergie

21. Worth It - Kid Ink

22. My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark - Fall Out Boy

23. Shape of You - Ed Sheeran

24. I Love It - Icona Pop

25. Do Wop (That Thing) - Lauren Hill

Happy Wednesday and happy almost Spring!