dan the handyman

he's coming over today to look at our upstairs bathroom. i think we have a slow leak from our tub behind the drywall. we'll see...

also we took the minivan off-roading this weekend. she held up well but i don't think we should ever do it again.

in addition, rian is taking me away on the train to los angeles in a couple of weekends. we will celebrate our 8th anniversary there. he is doing all the planning and i am trying my best to stop demanding information inquiring about his plans.

pumpkin patch

this is our 3rd year coming to this pumpkin patch. two years ago i was just about as pregnant as i was this year. here are the munchkins (liv, wally, jude, skyler).

skyler is a huge fan of nulls (tunnels).

the teepee was a big hit.

the kids did many rides.

so did i.


i painted wally's face. it's a lizard obviously.

here we are 2 years ago:

rockin it in the new minivan

we had a really big car decision to make after my nissan xterra sold within a few days of putting a 'for sale' sign on it. we had 2 nights to decide between a minivan or suv, and then actually find one that we liked. we did a lot of research and tons of praying. on the second night before heading home when the car we went to look at had just sold, we found it... God had the perfect car for us waiting there. stats, you ask? 2006 toyota sienna limited. 42k miles. pearl white. i never thought i could love a car, much less a minivan, this much. it is awesome.

sometimes we drive around town with the kids out of their carseats. jk.

this tiny mirror allows you to catch anything naughty going on in the back without the kids knowing you're watching!

i don't really know what's happening here.

after watching a few sesame street podcasts from the ipod, we made it clear that car dvd's are only for vacations and rewards (ie: bribing them when we have doctor appointments and errands all day).

what we do

i'm a big fan of taking a drive. especially early morning. or in the rain. or during a sunset. or under disneyland fireworks. or in my new car (more to come on that later).

here we are driving towards the beach during a beautiful post-rain day. this morning we had some ants in our kitchen so i said enough. the kids and i, in our pj's, loaded the car for a drive. we stopped at chick-fil-a to use my free breakfast entree coupon. then we drove. ok, we went through starbuck's drive through for a peppermint mocha. you know, it's almost christmas, plus i'm pregnant. that's the excuse i give rian.

today we had no plans so after the drive we did this craft. then we ate a picnic lunch out front (less crumbs to attract more ants). then the kids played alone upstairs for an hour (seriously). while they napped i did laundry and read 1 and 2 thessalonians. and then i got so hungry but there was nothing to eat. then rian came home from golfing with clients (second time this week. wth?). then he left for the office and skyler woke up. actually that's where i am now. i keep calling up to her room saying, "lay down skyler, it's not time to get up" even though it is but every time we do this lately, we hear her bounce back down and lay quietly for a good 10 minutes. it's this awesome new little trick we do with her. but then it stops working the second or third time.

and this was our day. plus it's friday, so i'm a bit ecstatic to have the weekend ahead of us. i will head to the chiro once the kids are up, then warm up our dinner of last night's leftovers and then celebrate the weekend with a family outing.

someone is awake making her dolphin sounds. and i hear wallace climbing out of his bunk bed. here we go...

early october

Skye at our first pumpkin patch trip this season.

Many of our lunches are picnics out front or back. So much easier to clean up!

Skyler fell into the corner of her dresser drawer, which required another trip to urgent care for liquid stitches.

24 hours later she smacked into our bedroom door while running around the corner. I promise I'm not just sitting on the couch all day, letting my kids jump off of things and run around crazy... Is this not the biggest goose egg you've ever seen?

We got together with our old lifegroup for a bonfire. It was so nice and I realize how much I miss these friends. I have such fond memories of meeting each week together.

Wally & Jayden.

Two cuties waiting to be loaded in the car.

Tball & dinos

We decided to introduce Wallace to his first sport this fall. This morning we went to Citrus Ranch Park in Tustin for his 1st (of 8) Tball classes. He's been excited all week but this morning when he woke up, he wasn't sure he wanted to go. Halfway through during a water break he ran up to me saying "I LOVE it now, Mama!". He had a great time. Rian does a lot of it with him and I keep tabs on Skyler and talk to the other moms. Super fun and relaxed.



This is a familiar car situation. They love singing their "kid music" together. Excuse the blurriness... it was a backhanded blind shot took while driving.

Sweet sweet Gypsy. Skyler especially has taken to using her as a stool. And she puts up with it. Sweet dog. I have no idea how long they had been doing this when I finally came outside.

Skye and I staying cool on the 110 degree day last week reading her all time favorite book.

Wally loves do draw. LOVES it. Months ago his circles became suns with rays and those became faces and lions and now he's really into drawing dinosaurs.