Fisher, camps & love

Look at me posting again so soon. I apologize ahead of time for all the Fisher photos. He's just so photogenic =)

I think Fisher knows he's ours now. He's definitely getting more comfortable. He still does puppy things like nibble on everything. He bit me in the butt this morning but I forgave him quickly. I can't stay mad at him. He follows me everywhere except upstairs because he's nervous about the unknown land that the stairs lead to. We're okay with that for now. He's pretty much potty trained. He hasn't had an accident for several weeks now. He does pee when he's scared though so we try not to scare him. I put him in his kennel so I could run the roomba. That was before I knew about his scared pee reaction to loud moving robots. He peed in his kennel. So the next time I ran it, I sat by his kennel and we talked about how the Roomba is helpful and although noisy, it's not mean. He did okay that time. 

He gets separation anxiety when I leave the house but we're working through that too. My neighbor told me she could hear him whining while I was at Costco so I try not to leave him unless I have to. I take him with me to run errands. 

He walks pretty well on a leash. Not perfectly, but he's improving.

He's addicted to woodchips which are all over our front and backyard, so that's fun. I talked Dan into clearing them all out of the back which he graciously agreed to. I haven't mentioned the front yard but I think that's next. 

He's learning not to chew on people or furniture or the car. We give him his bone every time he chews on something he's not supposed to. We very much love him already.

Our friends took Angus with them to a Monster Jam Rally. I think that's what it's called. I'm not really a truck rally kind of gal. Angus on the other hand was in heaven. Best day ever.

We had the pleasure of seeing two awesome people get married. The venue was so lovely and fun. I love weddings. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good pic of the happy couple but I got a few of some of the guests =)

Dan and I took this in the hotel room for Winter who asked to see our "fits." One of these days we'll take a good pic of us in nice clothes.

All the kids went to different Winter camps with the church last month. We're broke now but they all had a blast.

We celebrated our annual Valentine's Day fancy dinner at home. Dan made a lovely spread as usual.

And Mya made cake pops for her friends for Valentine's Day. I thought it was a bit ambitious since she'd never made them before but they actually turned out amazing.

If you don't know Dan well, he is type A. One of the things that bothers him the most is when I buy more of something like cereal when we have 2 or 3 half-eaten boxes of cereal. So he forbids the kids from opening the new cereal until the old cereal is finished. Even if that means that the old cereal and new cereal get old and moldy, as long as no one opens the new cereal before the old one is eaten. This is him explaining that the right side of the drawer is off limits until the right side of the drawer has been eaten. =) 

Happy almost March!

 

These guys

I already know that this will be my favorite season of parenting. I know I shouldn't say that with so much more ahead, like graduations, moving into appartments, weddings, grandkids, big family gatherings and more, God willing. But this right here is where it's at; 9, 11, 14 & 15. 

I'm just so proud of them. I feel like we are starting to see the fruits of all the corrections, punishments, words of wisdom, encouragements and all of the constant training that comes with parenting. I know that life doesn't always go as planned. You can't control the outcome of your kids' lives. And we are by no means done with them. But I just wanted to take a minute to acknowledge how much I enjoy this current life and how much I enjoy these people. This is what I imagined when I thought of having four kids when Dan and I got married. 

After we had Mya I wasn't so sure I wanted to do the whole baby thing three more times. And Mya was a dream baby. But slowly, one at a time, we had three more. There have been some really rough times. And it was really hard for me when they were little. Really hard. Most days I prayed that God would make up for what I lacked and make them forget about the times when Mommy lost it or was the opposite of what I felt like they needed. But now, I tend to forget about that because they are turning out okay. By the grace of God, they are.

I try not to flaunt the good things too much because I worry that it will make those who are going through hard stuff feel worse about their situation. So hopefully it doesn't. Hopefully this brings encouragement to those with littles. And maybe it brings a smile to those who love me and know me and my kids well.

I think it's important to acknowledge that life sucks sometimes, but sometimes it doesn't =)

 

Demons at Baby Beach

Last summer or maybe the one before that, Angus invited the devil's angels to Baby Beach in Dana Point. So if you go, be cautious. 

The kids and I took a trip down south to see my friend Mari and her fam. We all met up at Baby Beach. After the kids had played, swam, paddle-boarded and kayaked, we were sitting around talking about scary movies. I mentioned that I don't watch a lot of them because I don't want to invite demons into my house. 

That was Angus's queue. He stood up and raised a toy sword to the sky and yelled, "I INVITE YOU DEMONS! COME ON!"

I yelled, "Angus stop!! What in the world?! 

Mari commented, "Well, I guess we're not coming back to Baby Beach."

The kids, some wide-eyed, and some laughing hysterically, had no words.

Angus has always had an extra portion of confidence when it comes to going up against someone stronger than him. He always wants Dan to come and tackle him at bedtime. Dan's not a giant man but he's easily 3 times Angus's weight. But still, Angus is like, "Okay Dad, I'm ready. I think I can take you this time."

Mya found a "demon slayer" sword on Amazon so of course I had to get it for him for Christmas.

November, December & a Happiest New Year!

Well, 2025 is here. It has been a bit of a whiplash start to the year. Jan 2nd, we got a puppy, Jan 7th, a wind storm came through, our power was lost, fires started, school was canceled, and homes were wiped out. Our hearts and prayers go out to all who have lost their homes or have been injured or affected by the fires. Dan hasn't been on the fires since he's on light duty these days, still recovering from shoulder surgery. We received tons of texts and calls making sure Dan was okay which we so appreciated. 

I'm not going to talk about how fast the years are going because everyone says that. But they are. They are going really fast.

These last couple of months were so jam-packed with events and to-dos that I'm pretty sure I forgot something like a concert or award ceremony or birthday party or something. But the holidays have come and gone and now we say hello to a new quarter of the century. I very much enjoyed sitting around, watching movies & eating everything bad for me that I could get my hands on the week after Christmas. Now it's back to all of the normal responsibilities and some extra ones like walking our new puppy =)

    Heard around here from my 1st & 2nd born =)

Me: Winter, stop. You're not Angus's mom.
Mya: I'm his mom.

Me: Addie, do you know how much I love you?
Winter: Less than me.

Here are pics from November and December. They are in order but not from oldest to newest because I can't seem to figure out how to do that after all these years of loading pics on my blog. I think I figured it out but it would take too long and this post would be a happy March post by the time I got around to doing it. 

So. Let's start with our new puppy! Fisher. He's everyone's favorite guy. Super mellow and super sweet. He's 8 months old and already pretty big. I love his huge paws. It has been an adjustment as expected but honestly, he's a really good dog.

Common can you stand that face? Such a good Fisher Booooooy!

New Year's Eve was a fun night with a fun family. Nobody stayed up until midnight because we are all usually in bed by 9:00

Cousin sleepover 💞

We celebrated Christmas afternoon/eve with the Bakers. Dan made an amazing meal of steak, twice baked potatoes & veggies. I made an amazing salad that took me about 1 whole minute to throw together. But it counts as me cooking I think.

I introduced Wendy and Jason to readers. They were amazed at the clarity they provide. I sent them home with some old ones that aren't strong enough for my aging eyeballs. We also got some giant mugs from a neighbor we thought we'd use as props.

We forced the kids to go on a 5-mile hike a few days after Christmas and they didn't complain nearly as much as I thought they would. Mya says that if we would have started hiking with them when they were little, they'd be used to it and would definitely be enthusiastic hikers. She plans on doing that with her kids of course. She likes to provide helpful tips as to how we could improve our parenting =) 

She's the best mom.

We really are so blessed to live in the foothills of SoCal. 

We are hamster-sitting again. We love this little guy. His name is S'mores. He bit me when I was holding him a few days ago. I don't know what I did to offend him but I'm not holding him anymore. He actually fits in the palm of my hand. He's pretty cute, when he's not attacking me. 

Auntie Wendy's Christmas PJ's. Winnie the Pooh this year. Love it.

Angus was in the kids' Christmas Choir this year. They were predictably adorable.

Nothing says Christmas like camouflage and sea creatures. I didn't realize we would be taking such a nice picture with such a perfectly Christmassy backdrop that morning. I have to remember that Addie and Angus are always in front in pics so they need to represent.

Also, Dan got the kids ready because I had to be at church early because I was singing in the grownup Christmas Choir. Everyone in my house likes to sing. 

Winter had a Christmas party with her besties. 

Our annual family Christmas party 💚💖

Also, Winter had a birthday! She's now 14.

Another annual Christmas party with more cousins

Mya's show choir Christmas performance. It was so lovely.

And Mya's orchestra performance. 

And Addie & Angus's performance. Winter had one too. I must not have been close enough for pics at hers. Yes, we went to three separate holiday orchestra performances.

Angus was a drummer boy at the church living nativity. 

Addie pretends that she doesn't adore Angus but I have proof.

They decided to draw pictures. In the bathroom...

Did I mention that Addie has been tutoring Angus? We are paying her far more than she would ask for and far less than a regular tutor so everyone wins. It is going extremely well. He's doing great in school and she is being impressively patient with him.

A few tired moms (mostly Mari because she just had her 7th baby) took a lovely 24 hour break and camped on the beach. Obviously it was amazing. We watched the sunset. And then early the next morning, I snuck out and watched the sunrise. Not too shabby.

Let's rewind to Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I don't have to host and I always get to see some favorites, including 3 Jasons. 😄

This is Thanksgiving #2 at my cousin's. 

And Thanksgiving #1 at the Bakers'

Addie turned 11 💕

Mya made the cake. She wasn't proud of it but I think it looked amazing.

Addie had two of her besties over for a bday party/sleepover. There were a million giggles, lots of sugar, and an impressive amount of energy the next day after I'm sure about 3 hours of sleep.

Our annual Great Wolf Lodge trip. We've added families to our tradition.

I took the kids to see Moana 2 & Mufasa because my excitement to see those two movies could barely be contained. I love that I have movie buddies. We have a tradition before we go (aka a way of saving money). We each fill a snack baggie of candy from home, then we go to the liquor store and pick a drink. We're talking gatorade & snapple people. Then I get the large popcorn at the theater that comes with free refills. I ask for extra containers so we can all share. We go and sit down in our discount matinee seats with plenty of time to spare. I empty all the popcorn out into the spare containers, then go back to refill it before the movie starts. 

For Moana 2, we had the theater to ourselves for the most part. For Mufasa, it was a bit more crowded since it was the day after Christmas. There were annoying teenagers in front of us who talked through the whole movie and brought a laser they used every once in a while on the screen. I gave them a few stern shushes and reminders to be quiet. Oh AND the toddler behind Mya sneezed so big that soggy popcorn landed on Mya's head and shirt. She told me that when we got home. We had the time of our lives for the most part and brought the extra popcorn home to Dan who detests going to dirty movie theaters for reasons I've already mentioned but loves the popcorn. The only pics I got were blurry but better than nothing.

And that's a wrap! I don't know about you but I'm exhausted. 

Hugs and love to you all. 

Here's to an amazing 2025!!