I overheard this conversation while the kids were eating sugar free chocolate pudding today for snack:

Aubrey: What if Mama gives us so much sugar that we turn back into little balls and roll and bounce all around the house?

Braeden: Yeah, like off the fireplace and stuff.

Aubrey: Then it would be hard for us to watch Phineas and Ferb.

Braeden: Yeah we’d have to stand there with our little feet sticking out.

Summer is coming to an end. The kids had open house last night and start school September 7th. They are both very excited. Aubrey will be going to full day Kindergarten. She’ll get to ride the bus with Braeden and a few other kids from our neighborhood. Braeden is going to a new school this year. It’ll be exciting for him to meet all new friends and he already likes his teacher. He met her this summer when he had a reading assessment with her.

This summer seemed to go by so much faster than last summer. The highlight of our summer was our trip to California. We started off in Santa Barbara for Andy’s 60th birthday party. There was a lot of family there. It was really nice to see everyone, especially Grandpa and Grandma Puzder and Gayla, Lexi and Nick – we haven’t seen them for ages! The party was spectacular. So beautiful. The food, the ambiance, the videos, the bounce house, the photo booth and watching Andy and John sing and play guitar with Jimmy Messina! It was such a great time. It was so funny: while watching the video of Andy’s life, Aubrey started crying and said, “(sniff) Grandpa Andy’s turning 60!!!! (dramatic whale – sniff)” 

From there, we took Dee and Andy’s Hummer and drove to see my parents in Arizona. The kids swam in the pool all day and even ended up jumping off their waterfall! Gutsy little fish. Haeley loved the water too.

We drove back to California two days later and visited my brother in Orange County. We took the kids to a park and played in the sprinklers. Tom taught Braeden and Aubrey how to ride a quad. It was fun to see the kids play with their cousin Katie.

We drove back to Santa Barbara and flew back home. The kids travel so well. We didn’t have any problems with them at all – and that was a lot of traveling!

The big kids took ice skating this summer. They both did really well and like the sport, but neither of them like it enough to want to continue with it. Aubrey started gymnastics this week. She saw an older girl do a roundoff off a diving board into a pool and now she is determined to learn how to do that. I’m really surprised she doesn’t want to continue with dance. She dances around the house and makes up dances for us all the time. I did make her choose only one sport, otherwise I’m sure she’d have wanted to do both. Braeden has started Karate. It is a great class. They do a lot of focus work on strangers and how to get away if someone tries to take you. They’ve even had practice getting out of a strangers car and what to do if you were put in the trunk of a car! He can go up to three times a week, but I think we’re going to stick with just twice for now.

Both kids are interested in joining the Scout programs. Aubrey will be a Daisy Girl Scout and Braeden will be a Tiger Cub Scout. They go to their first meeting the middle of this month.

Haeley is rolling everywhere she wants to go. She can get up on her elbows and knees and will sometimes even get up on her toes, lifting her whole body off the floor, but doesn’t scoot or crawl anywhere yet. She’s eating baby food, but only likes the kind from the store, because of it’s super fine texture. Anything more than that and she gags often making everything in her stomach resurface. She just turned eight months old and weighs 23 pounds – more than half as much as Braeden!

We found out this summer that we are expecting baby number four in March.The kids are super excited! Braeden wants a girl (so he can stay the only boy) and Aubrey wants a boy. We are really excited too and just want happy and healthy as the rest of the kids have been. We are so blessed.

We hope you all had a wonderful summer as well. I’ll post again later this week and share some pictures and video I got from Baby #4’s ultrasound this week.

A few months ago, I made a goal to blog every Wednesday. Ha! I don’t know what dream world I was living in. I have sat down many many times to catch up on my blog, but it seems every time I sit down, something demands my attention so I cannot even start!

I thought I might have more time in the summer. Wow, was I wrong. Now, not only do I have to keep up with everything I did when they were in school, I have to entertain them all day too!

Haeley is almost 6 months old already. This month she learned the M and D sounds. It’s so cute to hear her little strands of sounds – she has so much to say!  She rolled over for the first time this month too. She is not really interested in doing much more than rolling over the same direction and has not learned to roll back onto her back yet. She is a very picky eater! I tried her on homemade rice cereal – wouldn’t touch it. Gerber rice cereal – loved it. Gerber whole grain cereal – no go. Back to Gerber rice – now we’re hit or miss, depending on which meal. I was going to try to introduce broccoli this week, but I’m not convinced she’s ready. Maybe next month.

(Here she is in her Tinkerbell bathing suit)

Haeley was baptized this month. We had a lot of people here to celebrate and I think everyone had a good time. Haeley cried through most of the baptism. It was naptime and she wanted everyone to know it. Because we thought her gown might be irritating her, she was baptized in a diaper – all her rolls and baby cellulite hanging out – she was so cute!

Braeden finished Kindergarten and just last night finished reading The Adventures of Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel virtually by himself. He needed help on maybe one word per page. He reads with expression and uses all kinds of skills to figure out words he doesn’t know (context, chunks, pictures, etc.). He is finally on a “real” baseball team. The Mets. Christian is his coach. They are having a great time together.

Aubrey just finished up her dance class for the year with her recital. She was front and center and did a fantastic job. She looked so cute! She loves everything about music and performing. She is creative, artistic and very quick. She’s got a little attitude I’m sure she learned from watching Hannah Montana on TV (hands on hips, mocking voice, and she’s very close to an eye roll).

The big kids will be both be changing schools next year and attending the elementary school closest to our house. They will ride the bus together and are both very excited for school to start.

Christian has been traveling a lot lately. It’s hard to have him gone but we’re managing. The kids and I are keeping busy  with summer camps, hikes and biking, going to the gym and having friends over. I wish l could keep them more interested in weeding – we are drowning in weeds and I have no time to get them. Some of them are taller than the kids! I have them signed up for ice skating lessons this summer. Aubrey wants to be an ice dancer for the Olympics and Braeden has expressed a little interest in ice hockey, so I want them both to see if they like it this summer before the fall sports start.

I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to get to blog again, but I’ll try! We hope you all have a great summer.

ROCK ON!!!

Last week Christian took Aubrey to a dance. I took her out to get a special party dress and shoes. All the Disney Princesses were there and she got her nails painted by one of them. She got to dance with her daddy and with her friends. They sent her home with a princess water bottle and a picture of her and her dad (which got wet last night and sent her into tears for at least 10 minutes saying, “this is the worst day ever!”). 

Maybe yesterday was the “worst day ever” but I think the father daughter dance day was one of her best days ever. I hope she’ll remember it for a long time.

nice tattoo on her arm, eh? (click on the picture, it should get bigger)

She looooves her daddy!

Well, the Barbie birthday is over. It took a lot of planning and preparation and I think it was a success Here’s a picture of the invitations:

When the girls arrived, Barbie called and said hello to each girl by name. Then she gave them a clue which led them to a room where they played their first game (pin the jewel on Barbie’s dress). The winner got a present to open which contained the next clue leading them outside to play another game, and so on. The culminating activity was that each girl got to decorate their own Barbie doll cake! 

One of the games required each girl to have their own Barbie. I thought we would need to borrow some from a friend. Nope. Before opening birthday gifts, this little chick had 16 Barbie dolls (or the like – Hannah Montana and Disney Princess included). Sheesh.

Here’s Aubrey with her brand new Barbie bike. Yes, that’s Barbie riding her own bike on her handlebars. I have had enough pink to last me a loooong lifetime. I wonder what Haeley will be like at this age. . .

The tree just outside my kitchen window.

I managed to get outside and garden for about 45 minutes today while Haeley napped. I got 1/2 of the front yard done.  I am eager to see what will pop up now that I’ve cleared the way for some. There is still a lot to do. I don’t know if I’ll finish before Spring is over.

The kids started swimming lessons last week. The swim school claims that by the time they are done with this session (June 11th) they should be able to swim half the length of a pool by themselves. I hope so because we are planning on taking the kids to a water park this summer and I want them to feel very comfortable in the water before we go! So here are my cutie patuties just before class started.

Aubrey is a splasher. Her kicks make the biggest splash in the pool – thunk – thunk – thunk! Braeden will probably make the most progress because right now, he doesn’t like putting his face in the water for very long. He is still in dog-paddle mode. At the end of this first class, the teacher had them (with help) diving down and picking up a toy from the bottom of the 4’ pool. I am very hopeful.

Braeden had fun too, but I caught him in a mood in this picture.  

The weather has been really nice for us this Spring Break. We really didn’t have any plans other than taking the kids to see How To Train Your Dragon on Friday when it opens. The kids have been playing outside a lot. It’s kind of nice because it’s so quiet inside! As I said before, this neighborhood is really great and full of kids, so they have a lot of built in friends. On Sunday, the kids set up a table and had a neighborhood party and ate snacks.

I’ve been wanting to take the kids out to do something, but we don’t have a stroller yet, so yesterday I traded kids with a neighbor and she watched Haeley while I took her girls to a nearby park. They had a lot of fun playing with each other and with all the other kids that were there. We had a picnic there too. I think the neighbor was worried about me watching 4 kids, but 4 is a piece of cake after having run summer camps! Haeley was a dream baby for the neighbor and didn’t fuss at all – she rarely does.

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged on a regular basis. I am really working on routines in my home lately, and trying to blog on Wednesday morning is going to be one of them. Today, my goal might not be met because I have so much to catch up on and a lot of pictures to upload. If I keep this up though, the posts will be shorter and there will be fewer pictures. Wish me luck!

Braeden: Ahhhh, Braeden. So much to say about this little guy. He is his father’s son. He got married this past Sunday at our home with me taking pictures and Aubrey as the flower girl. This beautiful little girl, Alice, said they had to have a date first. So they ate lunch at Casa Kim and then went into the other room to get married. They walked down the aisle holding hands then Braeden announced that they were married and went in for a kiss. Alice said no kissing and Braeden tried to convince her of it by showing her how to kiss by kissing Aubrey! She still didn’t go for it, but settled for a hug. The rest of the time was spent playing outside. 

Braeden is reading at a level 16/20 at school. He is picking up magazines and books and reading! It’s amazing. He’ll read out loud and spell a word to me when he gets to one he doesn’t know. His comprehension is right on too. We are so proud of him.

Braeden is getting really good at Legos. He is able to finish large Lego kits in just a day or two, and mostly by himself. Sometimes he needs help finding a piece. We have signed him up for an Extreme Lego class after school. He’ll be making Legos that move and learning how to make them go further and faster each week. He is really excited.

Aubrey: Aubrey and I went to register for Kindergarten last week. We celebrated by going to a little French Cafe nearby and she got a hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant.

Aubrey continues to love dance and has learned, through the studio, how to do a cartwheel. I can not get her to go from point A to point B without doing at least one cartwheel along the way. I even caught her trying to cartwheel into the bathroom the other day! She has taught Braeden how to cartwheel too, so now I see all kinds of arms and legs flying around the house.

While she is a sweet, caring, giving child most of the time, she is very dramatic and can be quite temperamental at other times. Take today, for example. Monday and today she did not eat her carrots at school (one of the only vegetables she likes). When she came home wanting a snack, I told her she needs to finish her baby carrots first (I only gave her 4). She did not like this decision and after an escalating confrontation, she was sent to her room to cool down. She is up there now yelling, “I wish there were no parents in the house!” Funny, yes, but not as funny as the time she told me (about 6 months ago), “You are not the boss of this house and I don’t love you anymore”. Geesh! Where does she come up with this stuff?  I’m glad it doesn’t happen very often. As I said, for the most part, she is a VERY good girl who cares for and wants to make everyone happy.

Haeley: Little baby Haeley isn’t so little anymore! She is gaining weight and has all kinds of  little folds on her cute little legs. She’s sleeping through the night now (9pm-7am). She is another dream baby. I don’t know how we got so lucky. She is happy and smiles whenever someone looks at and talks to her. She has been batting at her little hanging toys on her play-mat since seven weeks (She’s 11 weeks tomorrow) and she uses her little tummy muscles to try to sit up whenever she can.

Me: I have adjusted to being a new mom again quite quickly. Guess I had to with school starting up again the day after we brought Haeley home. Right now, I’m planning Aubrey’s Barbie birthday party. I just finished making the invitations to “Aubrey’s Treasure Hunt Birthday Party: Barbie and the Quest for the Perfect Party Dress”. It should be a lot of fun. Christian and I have started an at-home workout program called Insanity. I’ve been doing the program combined with Weight Watchers for 5 weeks and have lost 10 pounds, back to pre-pregnancy weight. I can really see a difference in my abs, so I’m happy. I’m not happy about waking up around 5 in the morning to workout though. This is the only time that we can both workout together without kids around. I guess you do what you gotta’ do.

I continue to teach catechism to 5th graders every Wednesday night. It’s a lot of fun, but quite a commitment. Speaking of commitment: I just found out that the kids will be in these classes every Wednesday night from 1st-10th grade! Holy cow! I’ll probably volunteer to teach their classes. Braeden will start next year.

Christian: Christian loves loves loves his job. He eat, sleeps and breathes his job. We are lucky if he doesn’t touch his blackberry during dinner. We are so happy we moved here because he is so much happier. He has been traveling a lot recently promoting the product they just released: Westlaw Next. Christian has been volunteering for the church on Wednesday mornings from 1-2am. There is a little room in the church where God is never left alone. They have round-the-clock volunteers that come for an hour at a time to pray and meditate. He really likes doing this.

The House: We are still adjusting to this house. We recently moved all the rooms around and Braeden is now on the upper level with us in Aubrey’s old room. He likes that he has more room to play and even an extra closet in which to hide in with his flashlight. He is even starting to play in his room alone sometimes. Aubrey has moved into my old closet (used to be a master bedroom, we think) and likes that she gets to be closer to Mama. She actually has more room for her stuff in her one big closet because it has shelves. Haeley’s room is done and I love it. I painted some pictures for the walls to match the bedding and curtains and the beautiful chandelier just makes the room perfect. The room on the lower level will now be used as Christian’s office – whenever we get the chance to move everything up from the basement. The lake is starting to melt. I hope we’ll be able to get a canoe this summer and I can take the kids out on the lake – how fun!

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I love our neighborhood! The other day -our first really nice day this year- all the kids in the neighborhood were outside playing together. The next day after school, all were out again playing hide and seek in everyone’s front yards until dinner time. If they have neighborhood parties, this will be everything I’ve ever wanted in a neighborhood. If they don’t, maybe I’ll have to plan one

We hope you all are well.