If You Give a Kid a Cupcake...

Cooper, Kaid, Addison and Ella!


you'll have a really fun time with your kids!! Yesterday we invited friends over to play and have a story time. I love this blog called Homemaking fun, and found a fun story time idea for Kaid and his friends. We read the story If You Give a Cat a Cupcake (from the same author as If You Give a Mouse a Cookie), and then the kids decorated cupcakes and colored in activity books. They seemed to really enjoy the fun while Kristen and I enjoyed each other's company!

Fun in the Bath!

Kaid very obediently covered up his "peepee"

She is getting so big and so cute!

He usually screams and cries when I try to wash his hair...but he did this all by himself!

It ended like this!

All cuddly in their towels! (don't mind me, I had just been for a run!)

Kaid HATES to be clean! He cries when I try to wash his hands. He throws fits when it's bath time. He used to love to take showers, now he won't go near one. Uhh...Boys!! I recently stumbled over the best way to get him in the bath...bathe him with Brielle! He loves having someone to play with! She is getting so strong and so big that she loves to sit and play in the bath now. Kaid started noticing that and asked me the other day if he could take a bath with her. Of course I said "YES!" It has been fun and easy at bath time ever since!

Under the Trampoline

This weekend Brian and his brothers spent time making their very own croquet mallets. (I know, such a talented husband I have! He really has a knack for wood working.) They turned them on the lathe and painted them each their own way. On Sunday night we were playing croquet in the backyard with the new mallets. Brian got a little overzealous and hit a ball under the trampoline. The trampoline is in a big whole in the ground, so when things go under it, they are essentially lost forever. Brian could not loose a croquet ball, so his mind started working. He got a towel and convinced Kaid, (I think he tricked him by reminding him there were a few of his own lost balls under there too!) to shimmy his way under the trampoline. He retrieved the balls, and I got a couple of very cute pictures of Kaid. What a good kid he is!

The Sandwich Hug

Last week I was walking around in the kitchen Holding Brielle talking to Brian. Kaid came running in, pushed a stool to the middle of the room and asked me to come over to him. When I got there he grabbed Brielle and I up in a huge hug. Then he very loudly declared "Sandwich Hug!" Since then he has been coming up to two or more people and loudly requesting a sandwich hug please. He thinks it is the coolest thing he has ever thought of. "You know mom, a sandwich hug. Like the cheese sandwiches that I like to eat!"

The Sandwich Hug

My oh-so-cute kids!

Happy Father's Day!!

Dad, Brian and I enjoying an amazingly good lobster dinner!

Christmas 2008

Easter 2009

Opa and Kaid in June 2006

First I must honor my husband, who is the most amazing dad to our kids. He is the perfect other half to our parenting combo. He is loving, playful, and he knows how to effectively yet kindly discipline. His patience runs far deeper than mine! I know how much the kids love him when I see the awe and love in their eyes when they look at him. He is a man of integrity and he teaches that to our kids by word, but mostly by example. Brian loves our kids with a passion that rubs off on all who see it. We are a better family with him at the head. Brian, we love you and appreciate all that you do!!

But I can't forget my dad. I love you. You have been and continue to be the steady place, the rock, to which we can always turn. Dad, now that I am a parent, I know how much you sacrificed for us when were kids, Thank You. Thank you for taking the time to be interested in the things that I was doing, and the things that I do now (even if you weren't interested at all, I never knew). My dad is the most amazing "Hot Rod". He love his grand kids with the kind of love that really makes me miss my Opa. Thank you for loving my kids so much. For being the Hot Rod that they love and beg me to be with. We love you dad!

To my Opa...I love you and miss you everyday. Opa taught me SO much in the years that we spent together, that he is still a part of my everyday. Father's Day could not pass without memories of Opa. Ron-chon-chonnie Rarinson!!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's that I love!

Why...

can't pantries just clean themselves out? Why do I have to spend my ENTIRE afternoon doing it? Now I have a backache and I'm ready for bed already! On the bright side, my pantries are quite clean! I know I'm a dork, but clean makes me a little giddy!

What Makes Me Happy

Today we were driving home from Nana's (Brian's mom) house in San Diego. Kaid had been asleep for a few hours, (I was the luckiest mom around today to get a 2 hour nap in the car!) and when he woke up he was nothing but smiles. He was so happy! He said, "I love you mom! I love you lots." Of course I was beaming. Then tonight when I was rocking Brielle to sleep (which I don't usually do, but she was a bit out of sorts from the trip) she sang to me! It was so cute! As she drifted more and more towards sleep it got more and more faint, until it finally stopped. I felt so lucky to hear her sweet voice sing to me. What amazing kids I have. Little moments like these make the hard one's more bearable!