dirty dishes and messy floors

    I have seen this poem posted on Facebook multiple times by many of my mommy friends.  I have not been able to find the original source but it really resonates with me.   Most of the time my house may seem chaotic, but we are happy and I know I am a good mom.  It took me a while to be able to say that with confidence but I feel now that I can.

 Dirty dishes prove I feed my family.

Full trashcans prove I clean up after their mess.

 Messy floors prove that I let my child have fun.

Piles of clean laundry prove I keep my family in clean clothes.

A wet bathroom proves that I bathe my child!

So next time you walk into my house and see a mess, think twice before you judge!!!
If you come over to see me, come on in. 

If you come over to see my house make an appointment.

Showing off the next generation of nerds

This year for fathers day I had a idea to have the kids take a picture for my husband.  It wasn't any of the super cute "We love Daddy" pictures I have seen on Pinterest.  Nope.  Instead I wanted to make it personalized for something he would really love.  I knew exactly what I was going to do.  His newest obsession is Dr. Who He has become a quick fan and I will admit he has sucked me in as well. I decided I would dress the kids up in Dr. Who costumes and have their pictures taken.  This was no small feat and I needed my moms help with some of the sewing but after several months of putting these together I took them into picture people for the final product.  I loved how it turned out but I wished the photographer had done more fun Doctor poses with the boys.

From the beginning I  knew that for the the costumes I was going to make the boys the 9th, 10th and 11th doctor and I wanted to make Lilly a dress that was modeled after the Tardis.  I tried to pick which boy would fit best with each regeneration of the doctor and then I set to work putting together their costumes.

I decided Joe would be the 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston).  Joe is a little goofy and just loves to be silly so I thought that would fit the character.  This costume was actually the easiest one to put together.  I bought a pair of black slacks and a grey t-shirt from Target.  Then I ordered a kids costume "Greaser" leather jacket.  It was a bit too big for Joe but I think it still gives the proper 9th Doctor affect.

James was the 10th Doctor (David Tennant).  He is a bit more quiet and reserved than the other boys.  My goal was to figure out a long trench coat and a pin strip suit.  I couldn't find exactly the right suit but I waited until Easter time, yes I was working on this way back at Easter time, to buy the one of the boys dress suits that are on sale during that time of year.  I don't know if David Tennant ever had a tan color suit but it was the best I could do at the time.  He has on tan dress pants a pin stripe vest, yellow shirt and striped tie.  It all came in one set form JCPenny.  I couldn't find any trench coats so it went onto the list of things I needed to make.  My mom and I got an coat pattern from Joanne Fabric Store.  We had to lengthen it to make it a full length trench.  I also got him a pair of Converse shoes, which he absolutely loves and wants to wear every day.  I have to say I think this one was my favorite costume.  I just loved the coat.

Nick was the 11th doctor (Matt Smith). Nick is my sly but silly one.  His smile reminds me of the 11th doctor, plus he loves to say that things are cool.  It was a perfect match.  Obviously the key to this one was the bow tie.  I found a pattern on pinterest for bow ties the only odd thing was that it turned out a little big.  In the end I like the way it turned out with the exaggerated size.  We also made the red suspenders.  I used a pair of black corduroys and a grey button down shirt that we already had.  Little boy sport coats are a bit hard to come by so my mom and I made that too.  We used the same pattern as the trench coat but we shortened it.

Each boy also had a different sonic screwdriver.  I wasn't able to match the right screw driver with the right doctor regeneration. Each of them picked one that they liked.  Since they each picked one and didn't fight I let it be.  Its rare that when they have to pick three different things that there isn't some sort of fight.  So I figured it was just fine to leave them as they were.  Plus one of the sonic screwdrivers was a replica of River Song's  screwdriver so I know I couldn't have everything be a perfect match.  They loved playing with them and trying to open doors and save the planet.  It was hilarious to watch.

Lilly was being a bit of a stinker during the photo shoot but we managed to get one good shot of her.  I decided to make a dress modeled after the Tardis.  My mom and I picked a ruffled jumper pattern and used blue and white knits.  I was a little nervous about making the Tardis pattern on the front and ruining the dress we made so I made a separate piece that I attached to the front of the dress.  The Windows are white knit sewed on to the front and then outlined with black fabric paint.  The white lettering was done free hand with fabric paint.  I was really scared about screwing up the paint.  I don't have great writing but I wanted to make sure I did I good job.  I really loved the way it turned out.  I put a white shirt and leggings under the dress plus my mom made a super cute flower head band to match.

I really loved the final product.   I tried to get the kids to keep a secret but they kept letting little hints outs.  Ray had it figured out but he didn't get to see it until father's day.  I had the kids get dressed up in their costumes and run out with their Sonic screw drivers to surprise him.  He really liked their costumes and even commented on how I matched their personalities to the right doctors.  After opening presents the kids wanted to play outside and pretend that their play house was the Tardis. All in all it was a pretty great day.

Surprise Daddy "We love Dr. Who"

The three Doctors

Lilly as the grumpy Tardis, Ray says she is thinking "look out don't mess with the Doctors"

I think it was a successful Fathers Day gift.  Plus I really think I have some of the cutest future Whovians in all of time and space!

Welcome to our new family member Jake.

I know that I have not been updating this blog very much.  It seems like the weeks just fly by and I never get anything on my to do list done.  Before I show off our new family member I have some sad news for our family.  Over memorial day weekend our sweet pup Bailey died.  He was diagnosed with lymphoma 6 weeks prior.  Luckily it seemed peaceful but it was hard none the less.  We dealt with explaining death to the kids. My friend (who also happens to be our vet) brought over the book Dog Heaven.  The boys love it and we read it often.  It really helped ease their concerns about death.

I will miss our sweet guy

Things seemed to happen way faster than I thought the would in the next week.  I did notice that Raya was lonely and sad.  The kids were also sad since Bailey was the dog that really interacted with them.  Raya is still a bit hands off but in her sadness she was even tolerating the kids petting her and playing around her.  Ray and I decided maybe we should be on the look out for a new dog.  We both agreed that a shelter or rescue dog would be best.  I looked on petfinder.com to see what was out there and to look up shelters near us.

I came across Pet Adoption Fund which is a non kill shelter in Canoga Park that I never even knew existed.  They had tons of dogs listed online so I thought we might as well go check it out.  Ray and I went on a Thursday afternoon thinking maybe we could put our application in and they could keep us in mind when a dog that would fit well with our house was there.  We never thought we would find one that night.  We went in and told them we had an older dog and four young children.  I could tell they were trying to think about which of their dogs would be a good match.  They said they might have a few and they would show us around. 

We went with them through the kennels and there were so many dogs.  As we walked through she pointed to a lab mix and said keep this one in mind he might be perfect.  Then we looked a a Vizsla puppy about 6 months old and another 7-8 month old lab puppy.  She asked which dog we would like to interact with and we decided to try out the first one that she had mentioned.  His name was Jake and he was a two year old lab/shepherd mix.  When he came in the patio he was calm and mellow we played with him for awhile and then took him for a walk.  They told us he was abandoned in his home and found by the real estate agent who was selling the house.  I just can't believe how some people do that with their pets.

After walking him and thinking about what he would be like at home the women working at the shelter said that we could come back tomorrow with the kids and see how all of them interact together.  I couldn't believe it.  We were just going in to get the application started and now we might have a dog the next day.  I was pretty excited and we wanted to share with the kids.  We brought home a picture to show them and talk to them about meeting a new dog and how the next day would go.  James kept asking when we could bring Jake home so I guess we picked a good one.

First meeting Jake "The Doctor" Turner

The next day we came back with the kids and Raya to meet Jake.  Every thing went so well.  He was great with the kids and Raya didn't bark or growl at all.  We were really amazed.  Raya is usually very cranky with other dogs.  James was a little shy and wouldn't go near Jake but I quickly realized it wasn't the dog he was afraid of it was the woman from the shelter.  He gets so shy around new people but it was kind of funny.  Once Jake was comfortable and off his leash James pet him and talked to him.  So after a great first meeting we decided to adopt Jake!  We couldn't take him home with us because they had to come and inspect our home and yard.  The kids were a little sad that they would have to wait a day but they said good bye to Jake and we headed home. 

Later that night they came by to look around the backyard and the home.  We passed except we had to move a bag of potting soil that had been there since before we moved in.  Apparently it can be toxic to dogs.  So that was an easy fix.  They told us they would bring him by the next afternoon.

Along came Saturday afternoon and they brought Jake to our house. The twins had decided we should keep his name Jake but that it could be Jake "The Doctor" Turner.  We just call him Jake for short.  He has been with us for almost two weeks now and it has been great.  He growled a couple of times when the kids ran at him at first and he flipped over on Lilly when she hugged him but other than that he has been a fantastic family dog.  He was house trained already and hasn't had a single accident.  He does pull on his leash and barks at other dogs a lot when we are out walking so I am thinking about taking a behavior class with him and trying to get him better socialized with other dogs so he doesn't yank my arm out of the socket.


A man and his dog, prepping some Steaks to grill

The kids really love him and want to help walk him but he is a little strong for them

Jake

So Bailey we will always love you and miss you. And Jake welcome to this crazy family!

February's update and March's goal

   I have been really bad about updating this blog.  I apologize.  I realize now that I am writing the next months goals that it has been a full month.  So here were our goals.  Fix up Lilly's room and the new guest bedroom.   Make all my own whole wheat bread products. Set and stay within budgets for Valentines day and our Wine Tasting weekend.
    In January I was spot on with all my goals  this month I struggled a little.  I think I took on too much and as a result had some problems.  So I said I would fix up two rooms and that just did not happened.  I did however get Lilly's room done.  We had to change the dresser in her room to fit the new space.  My husband built some great book shelves.  My mom and I made a reading tent and curtains.  I also made a set of Disney sayings with the characters in silhouette.  Everything in her room was based off of a quilt that one of my cousins made.  We tried to take the non-pink colors so that her room wouldn't look like bubble gum.  So here is our big reveal

Our handmade reading tent

She stole her daddy's dresser.  He got stuck with the cheap Target one.

Her crib with wall decorations, since we live in Earthquake ville everything is nailed to the wall.

These were a bit of a labor of love but I am happy with the way they came out.

Ray's part of the project for Lilly's room.  Her beautiful handmade book shelves.

Did I mention the lady of honor loves her room?

Now on to our other goals.
 I did not make all our own bread.  I made bread several times.  I made hamburger buns three out of the four times we ate them and I made all our own tortillas.  My dad purchased some fancy thick cut bread for french toast so I used that and I also borrow some bread from them one night when we had soup.  I think realistically i just couldn't keep up.  I think I am going to try to keep making the amount that I did but not make myself feel guilty when I have to run out and get bread at dinner time because I didn't have five hours to make bread.
    We did stay within our plans for our weekend away.  We only bought gifts for our parents and kids.  The rest of the time we didn't buy any extra wine or trinkets for ourselves.  I also kept valentines day small but we had a great day.  We did finger painting, made some valentines and baked cupcakes.  It helped reel in my habit of buying all the cute junk from the Target dollar bins.


So here's for March.
  House Organization
     We are tackling the building of a guest bedroom.  (why I thought I could add this in last month I will never know)  There is a small room on our patio that we are going to try to turn into a nice guest bedroom for when Ray's parents come to visit.  This one is going to involve a little more DIY projects for Ray but he seems to be on board.

Nutrition
     I am going to give up all of the low fat, nonfat foods.  I know that sounds silly and counter productive but studies are showing that these products do not help with weight loss but that is it better to eat the real food in reasonable portion sizes.  The only thing I can't do is whole milk.  It hurts my stomach a bit.  But we did switch to 2% and sometimes I use Almond milk.  My biggest hurdle will be salad dressings.  I am so accustomed  to light salad dressings that It's going to be a really big change for me.

Finances
     We are using an iPhone app called You need a budget.  I want to continue to use it and refine our settings to fit our needs.  We are going to do a lot of  projects for the guest room so we are going to need to set a budget and stick with it. 

January Update and Febraury's goals

   We are coming up on the end of the month and I think I did pretty good with my goals.  They were to only eat out twice this month, only purchase groceries and household necessities, and to organize our bedroom.  OK, we only ate out when we went to Disneyland which fit into my only twice rule.  The boys each got an evening treat with their dad so there were those three times but  I am not counting them since it was not a whole meal.  I stuck to my spending goal but my mom did purchase some stuff for the kids during this time so I feel like I cheated a little.  Even though it wasn't my money I didn't really need all the things she purchased, but I absolutely appreciate them.  I also organized and completely rearranged our bedroom.  It looks a little nicer and we have been able to keep some of the surfaces cleared off a little better.  We are not perfect but we are getting better.

Switched some dressers around, this one was in Lilly room.  And yes that is a light saber lamp.

Surfaces clean enough to put my pictures back up

February goals
   Organization:   This time I am going to take on two rooms.  I am going to fix up Lilly's bedroom and our extra patio room.  Lilly's room has become the place to store a bunch of crap and sometimes use the guest bed.  Since she is in a crib she can't get into trouble in there but if she takes after her brothers a toddler bed will not be in the far future.  I am really excited about this because I never really made up a fancy nursery for her.  I bought one Valance and the crib set but never made it her room.  Now I feel like I get to do some fun DIY projects for her .  I will reveal all my plans at the end of February.  I am pretty sure my sister is going to be jealous of my craftiness and want me to make some stuff for her daughter so I need to get ready for that.

I have big plans for this empty corner now that we took the guest bed out

  The other room is a small section of our enclosed patio.  I had grand plans for it to be used as a craft room for the kids but in the year and a half we have been in this house I have yet to use it for that purpose.  We have decided to turn it into a guest room.  We will have some work to do and I don't know if we can afford all the changes but we are going to start.  Since its not connected to the house it has no air or heat so we will have to figure that out.  It also needs a door instead of just a baby gate.  I will also have to figure out where to put all the stuff we have stored in there.
    These two rooms might take me until March because we have a lot of weekend plans in February so we will see how these project goes.

Nutrition:  I am going to make all our own bread products with 100% whole wheat.  I have tried a few recipes and I think I can manage.  The parts I am a little worried about are buns and pizza dough but I think I can find some recipes in time.  We are going to maintain our not eating out during the weeks but we have two weekend trips coming up so there will have to be more eating out this month.  But during the week when we are home I will cook and make all bread products.

I should say that cooking all three meals every day for a months as completely tired me out and there really are times when I just want someone to make me a meal and clean up afterwards but I think for the health of my family it is worth it.

Financial:  There are two things this months that normally I wouldn't think twice about the money and in general spend too much.  The first is Valentines day.  I love to make holidays special for my kids, usually I get fun decorations and little trinkets to play with but this year I am only going to make decorations from craft products we already have and I am not going to purchase them a gift.  I think I can make the day special without having to buy presents.  I am going to prepare special meals and have fun projects during the day but that's it.

The second event is our grown up weekend away.  We are going to Solvang for a weekend for wine tasting.  This can notoriously costs a lot of money.  Ray and I are going to discuss our purchasing before hand and come up with a spending plan.  I'm not sure exactly what that would look like but we are going to limit wine purchases and gifts for people back home.  We never leave all the kids so I would like to bring back a small something special for each of them.  Even if its one special chocolate or candy instead of yet another toy we don't need.  We also like to get something for the generous grandparents who work so hard at watching our kids so we can go.  Before we head out we will come up with a Solid budget for the trip.

Ok so there are our new plans for February.  I had pretty good success this first month I hope February goes as well.  It's a shorter month and we have more plans.  I am going to work really hard to not let it fall apart.

Project 365 First and Second Week

This year I really wanted to work on my photography. I figured the best way to do that was to take lots of pictures. So I have been attempting to do p365. I want to take at least one picture a day to look back at the year and see the changes in our lives. So here is week one and two.

January 1, Flying supermans

January 2, Watching her brother play swords

January 3, life is tough on a little girl with three brothers sometimes you just have to curl up and take a break

January 4, my might fighting Jedi

January 5, A Day at hart park, these two were reading the map to find out where to go next

January 6, She loves the buffalo hat from Aunt Jackie

January 7,  It warms my heart to see them play together

January 8, Nick playing in grandmas front yard.  I can't get enough of their smiles

January 9, Ray wrestling with James while still taking care of his little girl

January 10, making a cake for Papa

January 11,Nick and a  milkshake mustache

January 12,  Mommy and Daughter. 

January 13, Joe takes on the Dark Side at Disneyland

January 14, I think they are so sweet when they are sleeping. Plus I forgot to take a picture that day until they were already asleep

 We will see if I can keep it up. I have managed to make it through two weeks.  I never thought it would be this hard to take a picture a day but it really is.

 

Movie night at Grandmas

    Friday Night Movie Nights are the Best!  Although it is important for us to keep a routine with our kids (if we don't the chaos that would occur would be maddening) we find the need to throw in some fun changes every now and then.  So on Friday night we had a movie night.  We have done this at our house before.  We let the kids pick a movie they either haven't seen or at least haven't seen in awhile.  I make popcorn and "milkshakes."  I say that in quotations because really they are not milkshakes.  They are yogurt, milk, strawberries and some honey.  The kids love them and I don't have to feel guilty about feeding them as much junk food.

The love their snacks, but the movie I think concerned her a bit.

milkshake mustache

    What made this movie night special was its location.   After bath time we all went over to Grandma and Papa's house for a fun evening out of the house.  What really makes it special is Papa will put a fire on in their fireplace.  The kids absolutely love it.  Our fireplace at home isn't really kid friendly right now so I never have a fire at our house.  They love to sit on the hearth and warm up.   It also give them time to snuggle up with grandma in her favorite blankets. 

I love a fire in the fireplace.  It seems so cozy.

  This Friday we picked Cinderella.  We have been playing just dance Disney for exercise and the kids really wanted to see the fairy godmother and her magic wand.  I think they may have been thinking it would be a little more exciting but they did watch the beginning of it while they had their snacks. They ran around a little bit looking for the cat but they came back to Grandma's lap for the end.  They wanted to see Cinderella get married.  Since attending a cousins wedding a few weeks ago they are very interested in weddings and brides.

Snuggle time.

   While the kids are resting and enjoying their snacks it sometimes gives us a chance to relax too.  How did Ray spend the evening?  Drinking Scotch that my dad got for Christmas and then reading about it in the Whiskey encyclopedia.  Even Daddy's get to enjoy movie night!

    I love doing little extra things for my kids.  I hope that when they grow up they have found memories of Friday night movie nights and remember the times we spent as a family.  I hope they remember the little twists we put in like going to Grandma's house for a fire.