HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE RULER

Today is my baby boys 3rd birthday. Although he's really not a baby anymore, he'll always be my baby boy. It hard to believe that 3 years have gone by. I am so blessed to have him.

He was not part of the plan for the hubby and I, but what an incredible gift he is. He brings so much joy and laughter to our home. I never understood the relationship between a mother and son before he showed up. The ruler loves his sisters so much to the point of annoying them, but if he hurts himself they are right there to make sure he is okay. He loves to read Goodnight Moon, Richard Scarry books and his Elmo books. Dinosaurs and trains rule his world. And even though he loves all the "boy" stuff, you can catch him playing with his sisters babies. He loves to put them to bed, cover them up with blankies and kissing them to sleep. He pushes them around in their pink stroller and then starts the process all over again.

He has filled our life with so much love. I didn't realize I was missing anything in my life until he was born. Thank you for being you. I can't imagine my world without you in it.

Happy Birthday. Mommy loves you!

I'm Still Here

If anyone has been paying attention, I have not blogged in a very long time. I have not commented either. I have been so crazy busy that I haven't been able to collect my thoughts, let alone actually type them up and post them. Work is so busy that I am no longer keeping my head above water, I am drowning. The good news is that after next week, Tuesday the 14th to be exact, my world will stop spinning so fast and I will be able to breathe again. I am putting on a conference at the State Capitol (of California, which is Sacramento). It's a large group of folks, about 400, and I am in the last week of planning. At this point I will just be glad when it's over.

The kids are good. The Ruler started a tumbling class last week (so cute!), the Princess has been taking ballet classes for about 3 weeks now and she loves it and the Queen has decided to take a break from all of her extra curricular activities except for band. She loves playing her clarinet and I love that she loves it. The queen just finished her first play, Alice in Wonderland, Jr. It was a long road of practice twice a week after school, but she did great. She had 3 parts in the play and I couldn't be more proud of my girl.

So that's the short story of my life right now, but as soon as I can I will post more details on the interesting or not interesting things that are going on in my life.

Hope everyone is well!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY PRINCESS

Can anyone tell me where the last 5 years went? When did this little girl grow up. Was I not paying attention? As if you didn't guess from the title of this post, it is the princess' birthday today. I sit here tearing up as I think about the last 5 years years and what an incredible journey it has been. I still remember labor, delivery and how excited the queen was that she was going to get a little sister(She not quiteso excited now that she has a 5 year old sister). The queen had a t-shirt that aid big sister and the princess had a little sister onesie that matched. I have great photos of them together when the princess was born, but I didn't have digital camera back then so everything was taken with film. The good ole days.

My princess was born screaming. She was mad!! It took quite a long time to calm her down, get her to nurse and go back to sleep. She cried the whole time I was in the delivery room after she was born and pretty much the entire time I was in recovery. She cried through the nurse giving her a bath and she got herself so worked up that she refused to nurse for about an hour. I knew I was in trouble right then and there. And I was right. She never like to be swaddled. She would just wriggle around and cry until her hands came loose. Then she'd hit herself in the face or poke herself in the eye and then she was really mad. Your hands never agree with you in the first few months of life you know.

The princess is very strong willed and ready to battle with you when she feels very strongly about something. She is so incredibly smart that she gets herself in trouble with that brain of hers every now and then. Her imagination is incredible and I love the stories she comes up with. Out of nowhere she'll just come up with a story that she must tell you about immediately. She colors and paints beautifully. I must admit I do sometimes envy her free spirit and her incredible imagination.

I can't imagine her being anything else but who she is even it it drives me crazy some days. Happy birthday to my princess. You are beautiful, funny and you can whatever you want when you grow. As long as your happy, so am I. I LOVE YOU!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE QUEEN

Today is the queens birthday. She is 10 years old! How in the world do I have a 10 year old? She is my first. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It seems like yesterday I was watching her smile a toothless grin, learn to sit up, watching her crawl and helping her to walk. Now she's this beautiful girl that loves to read and play her Nintendo DS. She is very independent and helpful. She has recently learned to change her brothers diaper. Not because I asked her to, but because she wanted to. She likes to help me do the dishes and make my bed. I know I should enjoy it know because soon it will be over and she won't be interested in all that stuff. the queen is a great big sister. The princess and the ruler drive her crazy sometimes, but she loves them like crazy. She has the biggest heart of anyone I know. Okay, enough sentimental stuff. I sitting here crying at my desk.

Every year since she was 3 we go to IHOP for breakfast on her birthday. She gets a smiley face pancake and the server will put the candles on it and we sing to her. This is the only picture I got because don't you know that the camera batteries died after the first picture.

Tonight we are going to Hometown Buffet for dinner with family and friends. Then we will have cake at our house afterwards. On Sunday we are having a party with her friends from school. We are going to a Tea House and having a formal tea party. It's going to be so much fun!

Happy Birthday to my baby girl. No matter how old you get, you will always be my baby girl. I love you with all my heart and the world is a better place because you are in it.

The Ruler

I'm am loving my 2 year old. He is talking so much and really just figuring a lot out these days. He can count to ten and he is learning his colors and shapes. The shapes are what's so cute to me. He can pronounce circle, square and triangle. Rectangle is a little tricky. I shot some video yesterday with him going on and on about shapes, but listen when he says rectangle. It's so freakin adorable. It's about halfway through video. Enjoy!

Hope you are having a great Friday. Enjoy your weekend. I know I will.

How Time Flies

We've been so crazy busy lately, I feel like I'm spinning around in circles some days unable to catch my breath. It's all good though. My family is doing well. The kids are great and my hubby has finally recovered from a cold he's has for the last 5 days. My job is going well. Lots to do, which is great. I have some job security that is comforting in these times. The hubby still has 2 jobs and in this economy, we can't really complain about that.

I can't believe it's the end of January. The whole month has just flown by. The queen's birthday is next week. She's going to be 10! DID YOU HEAR THAT! 10! I have a kid that's hitting the double digits. How did that happen? And somewhere along the way I had 2 more kids. That still amazes me some days.

Not that much new going on. Just life. The Queen and I joined an indoor soccer league. She plays in the under 10 league on Saturdays and I play on a coed team on Friday night. I love soccer and always have. I played as kid up until my freshman year in high school. The queen and the princess played last year. It was so much fun to watch my girls run around the field and it's a great team sport. I am sooo out of shape it's ridiculous. I get my butt kicked every week, but I still love it and can't wait until the next game. The first week I played was the worst. I could barely walk for 2 days. Last week I pulled my quad muscle and that took me a few days to get over. My game tomorrow is at 10:25 pm. Who plays soccer that late? That's my bedtime. Should be interesting. Maybe I'll play better when I'm sleep deprived. Who knows? It's fun and it's a great workout. I'm rediscovering muscles that I forgot I had.

A few weeks back we drove up to the snow. The weather is pretty mild here and you have to drive at least an hour east towards Nevada to find any snow. My Mom's friend has a house with a bunch of property up the hill that we visited. He has a great driveway to sled down and a warm house to go into when they get to cold. The kids were in heaven. Especially the ruler. He would just lay in the fresh powder and eat it. He was totally content with that. he went down the hill in the saucer once or twice, but he mostly just ate the snow. The queen brought her friend "Z". They had a blast. Everyone would just go inside when they got to wet and warm up. We'd throw their clothes in the drier, they have a snack and back out they went. Better than any snow park I've been to. It was a great day.

This is a great video of the queen's friend "Z' coming down the driveway.

My sister was home from college for almost a month. it was so nice to hang out with her. She came over and watched the kids one night. They were so excited. I was watching my Mom's dog for a few days and my sister insisted I take a picture with the girls, the dog and her (the ruler was asleep). It turned out pretty cute.

That's all the excitement I have for now. I'm going to watch Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. Hope all is well with you and your families. I intend to get back in the habit of reading and commenting on all your blogs. I've been a huge slacker lately and I apologize.

Happy New Year

I am so behind on everything. I came back to work today after a long vaction (12 days to be exact) and I'm having a hard time getting back in the groove of things. I spent the bulk of my vacation with my immediate family and enjoyed myself throughly. We had lazy pajama days, watched movies and we played games. We would sleep in, watch cartoons and have late pancake breakfasts. I wish I could do that everyday, but I do realize that that's not my reality.
Winter break is over. It's back to school, work and life. One things I learned from my time off was that I truly enjoyed my family. Althought the hubby worked most of the time I was off, I was able to spend some time with him also. I love my kids, I love my husband and I love my life. Apparently I needed 12 days off to remind me.

I hardly spent any time on the computer so I'm very behind on comments. My apologies. I'll get caught up. Just need a few days to get back on schedule an then I'll share about the last 3 weeks since I've blogged and I have some great pictures.

Hope your Monday is going better than mine.