The faces behind the stories!

The faces behind the stories!
My little Loves.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Grandma took a pic of our walk in "the river." :)

I had left my camera in the house for an adventure walk with Matthew, while Joe was at school. SOMETIMES, I have to give them some Mama time with out a camera. :) We found all the slugs and worms that came out from the rain, and then we went on a walk in what Matthew called, "The River." We had a great adventure and I was almost thankful for not bringing my camera when my foot got stuck in the mud! Luckily, I didn't fall in! I love my adventures with my boys!

Today's Favorite Shot...The Birdhouse Out Front

Our Bug Catcher Fun!

The boys and I caught a fly, and then there was a spider. We sucked up the spider and it INSTANTLY started eating the fly! They couldn't get enough of it!

Matthew's Awesome Shirt from Meme

I LOVE this button up shirt that Meme got Matthew... I was so sad when it was too small! I made him wear it with the yellow shirt under, to church, just because I wanted a picture of him wearing the awesome shirt. :)


Joe's "Detection."

Joe "Mama, I detected something!"... Me, "What's that bud?"... Joe: "Your plants are FAKE!" lol... I had to take a picture of the piece of my fake plant he found and detected! He's so stinkin cute sometimes! (That fake plant is waiting for Dada to get home to hang it on the bathroom wall... We just got done painting that room and I don't want to mess up on the hole in the wall! lol)

Monday, January 23, 2012

Leprechaun traps...

















Joe's leprechaun trap in our living room. He is hoping they will leave him money. As I left his room tonight, he said, "Mama, if you see any leprechauns, please take a picture!
I Love my creative boy.
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Morning Update: I did not leave money (I didn't want to encourage a nightly event for the leprachauns)... When he woke up, he came out to the livingroom and said, "Mama, I caught a mean leprachaun!" He held a fake octopus leg up to his nose and said they set a trap for him and got the octopus leg stuck to his nose. :) 

Huge mess vs Tiny mess

Yet again, a fort, aka:"lavatory, aka:tent that Matthew made while joe was at school. This time, he wanted to bring more blankets in from another room. I said, "Well, I don't think so because it might just turn into a really big mess." Matthew said, "No Mama, just a tiny mess." :) Perspective people! lol

Embarrassing moments with Joe...

Walking around Walmart with the boys, a Black man walked by and Joe said,"I know HE is from Africa!" loudly and proudly. Sheesh! That boy has gotten me in some pickles before with the things he "knows!" Ha ha ha Luckily, the man did not hear and the moment went by without much trauma! I just don't ever want to forget that it happened, cuz it'll be fun to tell him when he's older! :)

Matthews Daily "Lavatory."

Matthew has been into making tents with the blankets and our furniture while Joe is at school. What is hilarious to me is that he says, "Mama, come check out my Lavatory." :) He thinks he's built a labratory, but keeps giving it a fancy name for the bathroom. I love that he's still little. :)

Vallejo to San Francisco via The Ferry!

I thought we'd be painting in the house... Dada's idea of a ferry ride to SF is a MUCH better idea! We had a great time. The boys had never been on a ferry, nor seen the "silver men" in San Francisco! Joe wanted to give money to every performer we came across, so we're going to have him stop by HIS bank before we go next time! It was a great day and I'm glad Dada pushed for some family fun!

 
(They were squating to admire this odd little bee we found.)








 (Introducing: "Odd Little Bee." We have never seen one with the "fuzz stuff" on his legs)

Introducing... "pretty flower" that Mama stopped to admire. :)


They are ALMOST too big for Dada to do "1-2-3!" This was sheer comedy!

Introducing: "Cool Ship" that Dada was admiring!

This is the picture that wins the award for "Most Pitiful." We were on the ferry, and I figured Matthew was getting a bit sea sick... turns out, later that night he ended up with a 104 temp and barfed all over me and our kitchen. Poor guy was sick and we didn't know. I just love this pitiful picture.

Look at THAT smile! :) He LOVED the ferry.



I just loved seeing my boys enjoy the day so much.

 



The first of MANY performers Joe wanted to give money to!







Joe gave this guy money, and he asked him to dance. The guy looked at Aaron and rubbed his fingers together for more money if we wanted him to dance for Joe.... Ummm, not nice silver dude, not nice! BUT, as you can see from Joe's face, he was a happy little guy. I love that.

We finished the night with The Rainforest Cafe (where Rick and Kristal came to join us!)... and a ferry ride back... it was a great day! Thanks Dada.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

What Joe Broke the Bank for...

Yesterday, Joe came with me to run some errands. One of the things we had to do was a return to ToysRUs. After my return was done, I walked around with him to just check things out. We walked past this:
He went absolutely CRAZY for it! As a family, we have purchased seasons 1-3 of The Muppets and we've watched 30 minutes episodes together at night. Joe wanted this SO BADLY, but it was $69.95. I told him it was just too much money, but maybe we could save for it. He said, "But Mama, I already have $160 in my bank, please let me get it and take it out of my bank." I said, "That is a lot of money to spend from your bank account buddy!" He said, "Well, after all Mama, money IS for spending." I said, "and saving." He says, "Not THIS time Mama!" ha ha ha So, he picked up his package with full confidence that it was the right decision.  He walked up to the counter and told the lady, "This is for me and my Dada because he watches Muppets with me every night and this will be even more special time!"... How could I disagree with THAT? :)

This morning, he woke up early (We had Awana last night, so he couldn't play with it)... He got dressed and made sure he had time before school to play with his new best toy! He gets to create his own Muppet using all these parts:
He got his man all ready and RAN into show Dada (who was still asleep!).... Good times! Now, he's just needing to save up some more money so he can buy the poor guy some clothes! Of course, those come separately! lol

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Matthew LOVES Red Lips...

I decided today that I wanted a lip liner that is a bit more red than I'd normally wear. I put some on tonight as the boys were getting their jammies on, just to check it out. When Matthew saw me he said, "Woah Mama, I didn't notice that." I said, "What?" He says, "Your lips!" I said, "What about my lips?" He quickly walked over to me and hugged me really tight. He said, "They are red, you are like a new girl!" It was SO cute! :) I had to go snap a shot, so I could tell the story!

How many days until Christmas?

Joe asked me, "How many days until Christmas?" I told him about 350. He said "thats not too long."  To him, Christmas is as Eternity is to me. I need to be excited for it, asking for it, no matter someone elses perspective on it being far away.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Landscapes I Loved Today...

This morning, I was lucky enough to have a little bit of time to just drive around by myself after dropping Joe off at school. I'm sure there are some people around town wondering who the person is in the silver van stopping with a camera infront of their house! It's ME people!





I love all the families I get to take portraits of, but sometimes there is nothing more soothing then driving around alone for a photo treasure hunt!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Goodbye 2011...

Here it is 1/2/2012 and I'm sitting to write out my last 2011 entry, does that work? :)

This year has been, sigh, well, I'm not actually sure what to call it. It's been amazing, it's been tough, it's been peaceful and it's been full of unrest. This year has been a lot of things at a lot of times and I'm just proud to have gotten through it still completely in love with my husband and my children are still alive! lol  I am blessed to have a family who supports us and a God who not only wont give me more than I can handle, but will hold me up when I don't think I can handle as much as He does.

There are two big things that sort of "Define" this year for me. One was in April, when SVT became initials that the Dr's gave to me. The day of my trip to the ER was scary, but it was after that where I struggled most. Learning to give it to the Lord, learning not to panic when I feel a palpitation, learning that I can still live my life. At first, especially with the Dr's telling me it was going to happen again and I shouldn't do any exercise etc, it was really hard for me to live with out being afraid of going back to the ER. Now, it's been 8 months episode free and I've learned that I can live and I can handle a whole heck of a lot with out an episode. The palpitations still really bother me when they happen, and eventually I would love to go to the "Special Specialist" that they wanted me to go to... but, for now, I'll just rely on my creator to know that He knows what He's doing and He made me to live while I'm here. :)

The second was... our move. When we moved to Southern CA, when Joe was 6 months old, when had said it would be for 5 years. Aaron and I both loved Northern CA and hadn't wanted to leave. Five years came and went and we were in our 6th year. We had talked about the possibility of moving back up north, but we LOVED our church and had built up some great relationships in Corona, and Nana & Papa were there. It was really hard to think about moving, but I had also wanted my boys to be raised around cousins... which were all in NorCal. Aaron might have something different to say about this, and might feel differently, but FOR ME, the thing that finally made the decision to move was my heart. Being home alone with the boys when I had an episode, and just the stress of being home alone with them so often... I knew I could really use the help of my parents being on the property with me.  There is SO MUCH that could be said about the move, how it happened, when it happened, that it happened sooner than we thought so I had to bust out packing like a crazy woman... How Aaron stayed behind for 2 weeks packing like a crazy man so i could get Joe to his first day of 1st grade. It was just a touch of insanity... but we survived. :)

Since being in Sonoma... The boys have learned to play outside a lot more. They ride their bikes and just pretend crazy things together outside. I LOVE that they are learning to play together a lot better, although we're still working through a lot of fighting too! Just about every morning before school, Joe wakes up at about 6:30 (the alarm is set for 7)... I set his clothes out at night, so they are waiting for him. He gets himself dressed, comes to kiss me good morning and runs out to Grandma's house. Grandma saves Christian children's programs on her TV and they watch Bible stories together and talk about character. My mom has been an amazing blessing to me in helping Joe to learn about character and the right choices in behavior. Joe's at a tough age and he is such a strong willed intelligent boy that it's hard for him to "reign in" his own mind before he gets frustrated at things and acts out. There are a lot of people here (us, my parents, and the staff at the school including his teacher, school counselor and principal who I have met with), who are working to help Joe learn to have control before he loses control and gets in trouble. (Joe... if/when you read this when you're older... so many people are on your side! I wish I could take you for a walk in the past so you could see the hearts of the people right now in your life who love you, pray for you and encourage you... it's not an easy time, but you're so loved and I know you have an amazing heart that really wants to be the best boy you can be... your mind is just so darn smart for your little body and we all know that.) :)

We're still working on the remodel of our Sonoma house... it's going to be beautiful when it's done, and we're so blessed to be here. It's been a challenge for our family, making the transition from SoCal to NorCal with most of our things in storage for about 5 months... but, it's helped me to see how little we actually NEED! ha ha ha I'm sure I will part with much more as we take it out of storage and I realize I haven't needed it for half of a year!

SoCal friends and family who supported us and helped us as we moved... and for all the NorCal friends and family who are helping us get used to it up here! :) Our family is so loved and I just feel incredibly blessed that the Lord gave ME this life!! Wow, how loved am I by my Savior! Amazing!...

On to 2012!!!