March for Babies and Kites

Participating in the March of Dimes "March for Babies" was awesome! It was a great way to get exercise, have fun, and raise money for a good cause! I feel so super lucky that despite Dillon's prematurity he has been extremely healthy and always right on, developmentally. It was the perfect way for me to express that gratitude.



It was so beautiful. We walked about four miles just along the coast. Annabelle was my walking partner.. I know it would have been more appropriate to walk with Dillon, but c'mon, he's 6 and didn't want to miss out on Saturday morning cartoon watching!!

Here she is before- "Hey Ma! I'm good- lez do this thang!"



And four miles later- "ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"


We have this awesome playgroup here. Its mom's all over the north county and these are some of those ladies- Crystal, Brittany, Michelle, Chris, Me and Stephanie.




*********TOTALLY DIFFERENT SUBJECT***************

Ever since Dillon was about 3 1/2, we've had some kind of incentive system- like a job chart or money jar or star chart... you get the picture?? We have to change it up every once in a while b/c the kids get "over it" and lose interest. Right now, the boys each have a pocket/ envelope thing that hangs on the wall near the calendar. For each job they do without me having to hound them, each act of kindness and each page of homework for Dillon, they earn a "green card." Dillon even gets green cards from his teacher at school. They collect the cards in their little envelopes and then trade them in for prizes or fun activities. They earned their kites and today we went to the park to fly them. We had soooo much fun!




I was so proud of Charlie. He picked right up on it (this was his first kite experience).




Dillon wanted to figure it all out on his own.... which caused me (control freak) some grief, but satisfaction as he did, indeed, figure it all out completely on his own!





It was a gorgeous and breezy afternoon- perfect for kite flying! Annabelle even got in on the fun :)

Spring Break

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, so you know this one is going to be huge! I'll try to keep it as brief as possible. Here's what we've been up to!

Charlie has been doing a lot more of this-----------------




Dillon got the smaller cast removed, so now he can do this again --------------



Annabelle got her portraits taken. The whole time she smiled just like this ------------




She has also been busy growing some of this ----------------------



On Sunday she wore this (my SUPER CREATIVE FRIEND made it for her) ------------



James has been LOVING his ENT rotation and has had some time for this------------

(in fact he doubled his high score on this ride.. a fact that he still mentions a few times a day)

I even got in on the last trip! -----------




I've also been doing this -----------------------



Later today I'll be ordering this -----------------------MARY KAY


and tomorrow, I'll be doing this -------------------------- CLICK HERE

**I promised I'd post these from when my Grandma, Aunt and Mom came to visit and play:
Our visit to the Carlsbad Flower Fields



Teamwork



I wish you could smell what it smelled like!



The women went out on the town and had way too much fun! This is actually a four generation photo!



At the pier. It all ended way too soon!

Every Potty needs a Pooper

It FINALLY happened. Charles slayed the dragon that was his fear of pooping on the potty. There was, however, a sacrifice of many accidents prior. For some reason, he has wet his pants and his bed over and over again now that he is focused on #2. I said I'd do whatever it took to help him conquer this and it finally meant getting rid of all of his diapers and pull-ups, cleaning up several messes and washing sheets over and over.

Last night was a complete success. He did his thing right before bed and while I was up feeding Annabelle at 4:00 am, I heard him frantically race to the potty! Dry Shrek undies and dry sheets makes mommy a happy gal. We'll see how it goes, but for now- SUCCESS!!!

I've been entertaining guests all last week and we did some really fun stuff, but I'm a loser and never ONCE remembered to bring my camera :( LOSER! My mom finally bought a disposable one and as soon as those are developed, I promise to post them! My dad came last Monday and spent a day just hanging out. My Mom, Aunt and Grandma came for a few days too. They parked the trailer in front of my house and enjoyed the G O R G E O U S California weather and sights. We went to the ocean, the farmer's market, saw the Carlsbad flower fields, Strawberry fields and shopping centers. I got a babysitter one night as the four of us and Annabelle (four generations) painted the town one night. We had a ridiculous amount of fun, and an even more ridiculous amount of food!!!

We also spent a couple of days this last week at the hospital - one day for Dillon's check up then the next day for Annabelle's 6 mo. well check and to RE-CAST Dillon's left arm. He was taking a bath and for a split second forgot that his arm was in a cast and reached under the water to grab a toy! That's all it took and he had to have all his friends and teacher re-sign it.




I hate to say it, but I think these broken arms of Dillon's have made him kind of lazy. He seems to feel entitled to my slavery and sympathy 24/7. He's also discovered the casts make great weapons and just this morning gave Charlie a bloody lip. Hopefully they can cut off the attitude when they cut off the casts!!

I took the month of March off from Paper Posies due to scheduling conflicts, but had some time later in the month to attend a crop with a good friend. Here are some of the fruits of that fun evening and one tiny sneak peek of one of my April kit projects! I LOVE THE APRIL KIT!







I am so excited because in May it will be Paper Posies' 3rd anniversary and there will be SO MUCH going on! We are hard at work getting it all put together already. It's going to be nuts over there.. prizes, games, contests, celeb. chats, and sooo much more! You'll all have to check it out!

I've also been working on Annabelle's baby book and will be finished with it very soon, I hope. Speaking of the little thing, She's 6 months old now and looking more and more like a big baby. She's 18 pounds and 27 inches- 90th percentile across the board. She only has about 2 tablespoons of rice cereal and a half of a tiny jar of baby food other than breastmilk each day. She's one healthy girl!!