Hiking Around Pictures

Oh, that is what a butterfly looks like without his wings spread? Layla not sure what to think about the butterfly on my finger.
Aidan loves the rocks...so much so that he is giving this boulder a nice big hug!! I caught him crumbling off pieces of it and eating it a bit later.....
Layla and Aidan LOVE flowers, they have to smell them all the time, here she picked me some wild yellow snapdragons! You can see the river behind her.
Aidan taking a stop to smell the purple snap dragons. I am planning on planting a little flower garden next week (yes in our NEW house!) with the kids, i think they would love it!
Layla stepping off the trail to pick more flowers. Yes she is wearing a dress with pants, i slipped pants on both of them because they are so little they can't step over the brush and get all scratched up.
Taking a rest before we headed back down the way to the vehicle. There is a river behind them but hard to see with all of the trees.
Layla striking a pose to look extra pretty for the camera!
Throwing rocks in the river, they were thrilled that we didn't yell at them to stop throwing rocks! We couldn't really anyway, Kendall was throwing rocks in too, haha.

Bucko...Poop!!

I really am starting to worry about my little man, he seems to get some bad constipation at least once a week, so bad indeed that he pushes randomly throughout the day until his face is bright red and his body is stiff as a board to gain nothing from the effort. He goes meal after meal not eating but maybe a bite here or there, so i imagine his tummy hurts. He screams out in pain, and reaches for me to hold him and rub his back to offer him some sort of support system during these times. I try everything, i change his diet, fruit usually does the trick by the end of the day, and i heard plums may also get the process to go along. He gets plenty of fiber, plenty of fluids, and i just worry that its something deeper that i cant see physically. It doesn't help when we go away or leave him over night because then he forceably holds it in until he is home, and well it makes it worse. Today he worked all day trying, nothing. That is until bath time, it was although the hot water sped things up (i am actually glad for his sake!). Although it was our first poop incident in the tub, i wasn't upset at all, i was prepared just couldn't reach him in time to plop him on the potty. He sat on the potty afterwards, with his little towel wrapped around him and this sad embarrassed look on his face, i smiled and reassured him that it happens, and i am glad he is feeling better! If anybody else has an idea on what can speed this process up that would be lovely...i'm willing to try most anything to help him feel at ease.

Let's Cheer Up Mommy!

These past few weeks have been pretty stressful for me, and with the news i received yesterday things seem to be getting even more stressful. It is something that i now have to balance school, doctor appointments, paying money to receive medical records for myself, Layla and Aidan, and lastly, figuring out if i need to progress forward with talking to a lawyer, or if its something that could have been for seen and somehow i missed the concept. The kids have picked up on my negative mood, and seem to be acting a lot sillier as if to cheer me up. So i decided if we are going to make silly faces at each other, why not to the camera too?
When i told Aidan to smile big for the camera, this is the face i got. Him squinting his eyes and pressing his lips together...he did this every time i asked for a smile!
So i decided, ok lets get a picture of this face and me doing it with him...so i said "smile Aidan!" and i made the face knowing this was a smile in his head!
Layla will stick out her tongue when i ask her too, so this picture was a little easier to get! :) She hasn't yet mastered the whole far out sticking of the tongue (she inherited my loooong tongue, so i need to teach her how to stick it out properly to take advantage of the full length!).
Aidan really wanted to get his "boos coos" AKA "blues clues" in the picture. So he sneacked it in when i was giving him a kiss, and by the look on his face he is pretty happy to get it in the picture...or is he really happy that i am kissing him? :) Either way these photos and silly times with the two really helped to cheer me up!

Relay for Life

This past Friday was our local Relay for Life sponsored by American Cancer Association. I have walked as many years as i can since Highschool for Relay for Life, and even if i am not officially on a team, i still enjoy going to support the cause. I walk a couple miles by the end of the night and i buy up a lot of the popcorn and candy they are selling at booths since the money all goes to the research. My sister is a cancer survivor (age 12 and 15) and being there to support her is very important to me. This year was just as important too, since this past year we had a good friend (22 at the time) go through the whole cancer ordeal, and at this time Kendall's nephew is going through chemotherapy for leukemia (i think he is 12 or 13). It is such a hard thing to accept, but i have learned that the love and support from family and friends is very important. I can only hope that Layla and Aidan share the support with us as they grow to understand the reason behind walking and standing by those who have been through the trials in their lives.
Zach and Karen smiling for the camera...What a pair. :) Karen worked real hard to make things run smoothly for her team and everything else involved.
It as every year rained for a short period, delaying the survivor walk a bit, here is everybody posing for the camera under the tent during the rain. It was a lot of fun, Kendall got his shirt a bit later.
The survivor walk. I am really glad i was able to make it to this part of the walk, the past 2 years i have missed it for numerous reasons, so making it this year was wonderful! Usually my parents were able to but this year unable to attend, so Zach, Kendall, Layla, Aidan, and I walked by her side.
Kendall and I smiling for the camera! It was real nice that Kendall was able to come and support the cause also!
Kendall taking his turn walking for the Board of Realtors . He has ruby slippers on to show he is the one on his team walking, part of the Wizard of Oz theme..."There is no place like Hope".
Zach surrounded by two little munchkins. They LOVED the little flowers they carried them around to get the air to spin them. This is Karen's bank's site, and that is where we spent most the time when we weren't walking.
The kids walked the whole way around the track, Layla ran half of it, and then pulled the wagon the last 100 yards. They were pretty proud to walk around with everybody else...almost like they knew why they were walking.
Karen's luminary bag, after i put the kids to bed, and Kendall too...(he was tired so he stayed home willingly) i went back for the lighting of the bags, and announcements of the survivors and in memory of. Karen's bag was very decorative, she had Ebony color on it, Adrianna, Layla, and Aidan, so all of her neices and nephews left their art on it. Very special.

Gooo Drag Racing!

This weekend i have spent most of my time with just the kids. Kendall has been working his butt off this whole week, and Saturday spent from 8-5:30 working on either a class for our house loan or showing houses. Since he has been so busy, i have tried to come up with new ways and places to entertain the kids considering i can't take the wagon in my car, and Kendall has the SUV to show people houses. Yesterday we went to Safeway, and although that isn't exciting to the average person, the kids LOVE the shopping carts because they have a little firetruck attached to the front of the cart, and the kids sit in there and honk the little horn. If i stop for more than 10 seconds they turn and go "mommmeeeeeee" annoyed like because they want to be moving.

After that we met a friend at Chili's restaurant. Yes, we are moving up, although it isn't officially open yet, Laurel's boyfriend Craig is working there, and they had a day sponsored by Saint Jude's for special VIP invites to come eat for free, donations excepted, to get the staff practice. It was real nice and the kids were very well behaved. I do not think they have been so good at a restuarant before, i didn't even have to pull out any tricks out of the diaper bag (animal cards, books, stuff like that). I think it helped that we were directly under a tv with dragracing on it, the kids would raise their fists and yell "GO! GO! GO!" at the cars, and when they started driving they would yell "YAY!" and clap their hands...they did this all on their own we didn't even encourage it, very cute. And when our friend Craig stopped by to tell us he already had gotten a great tip, Layla excitedly yelled "GREAT!!!!" Very cute.

The kids went home for a nap, and soon as they woke up i piled them in the car and we went to a BBQ at Gary and Nikki's. They ended up spending the night there since we stayed so late. It was a nice time, :)

Today we picked up the kids, played at the park. At the park we had seen a little stuffed dinasaur that looked like it was pretty new, i put it on the pole so a parent could see it if they came back...however today it was still there, lonely and sad, and Aidan begged to play with it so... all in all he took it home and will not put the thing down. I figured it the parents didn't miss it after 2 days then it wasn't very important to the child. By the time we headed home, Layla and Aidan got to say hi to their little girl friend Stacy. She is 5 months and the kids adore her! They gave her little kisses on her forhead before they left. It has been a good weekend, the only sad thing is most of it has been spent without Kendall...We all miss him, and hope all this hard work will pay off, because again he is off showing houses, on a Sunday afternoon.

Dancing with the Stars has Nothing on us!

Father's Day Weekend!

Our fathers day weekend was a nice time. Kendall got a lot of time with the kids, and surprised us with a trip to veaduawoo. I always love hiking up there, and the kids enjoy it too. Aidan is showing me something of interest on the ground during our hike.
This picture is a little blurry, but i love that she is showing off the little opening between the rocks so excitedly!
Kendall actually found a nice deer antler when we first got up there...the kids were not as fasinated as we were, but here Layla is showing it off anyway. I never realized how heavy antlers tend to be until i saw her struggling to carry it! We kept it. :)
I had to show off the antler too..plus it is 1 of 2 pictures i am in the whole weekend. (not complaining....ok maybe a little!)
Layla walking by a tree that is her size, Kendall took this picture and i thought it was pretty neat that she is looking at it like...hmmm you are my size tree!
The kids are real troopers and walked as far as they could, until they started to lag behind...mostly Aidan, you could tell he was real tired. Layla hitched a ride on Daddy's shoulders, I carried Aidan for a little bit, he just cuddled me until we got back to the car, then they played again like they were never tired.
Here is Aidan between a group of rocks, i am so happy they have such good times up in the mountains! I love the outdoors and glad they do too...even if they are too young to walk very far.
After we got back to the vehicle, Kendall helped the kids collect arms full of sticks...they were having a blast passing sticks back and forth. After Veaduawoo we went to Gina's house for a nice steak dinner.
On Sunday morning and Fathers day i cooked breakfast for us. I told Kendall the night before to sleep in, and i would wake him up at 9, so we could make it to the movie. We had french toast and bacon...Layla got up with me, and we woke Aidan up right before i let them go wake up daddy with their card they had colored for him. A local church that is starting up here paid for a 10 oclock matinee to either see The Hulk, or a cartoon Kong Fu Panda. Of course we chose the cartoon panda movie, and the kids sat through the whole thing! Minus 10 minutes where Layla went for a little walk with daddy to calm down. Kendall was excited to bring the kids since it was free so leaving early wouldn't waste money...a lot of other parents had the same idea with many babies and tots there. It was nice because Gina came with us also, and it was a nice start to the day. Later Kendall went golfing with some friends, and now he is over at another friends watching game 5 of the NBA finals.
Layla smiling before the movie started, she was real excited to sit in her own chair, even though it would half fold up on her since she isn't heavy enough.

Weekday fun

Monday evening, i went to a mary kay party that Karen was hosting..it was nice that my mom drove down to go too and hang out. Here are the beautiful mother daughter duo smiling pretty at Arby's.
Tuesday my mom mentioned she wanted to see the kids more since they are oh so fun, so the kids and i took off on the spur of the moment to my parents house so the kids could get some Nana Grandpa time. My mom and i took them to the park, they had a lot of fun.
Layla would have rocked back and forth on this duck all day if we would have let her, she absolutely loved it!
Nana holding Layla on the teeter totter. She also loved this, but Aidan not so much.
I did manage to get a picture of Aidan on the teetertotter with me by his side. He looks annoyed.
The kids loved watering the lawn and trees in the yard. Although they took turns, Aidan was very unhappy that he was not at the nozzle of the hose...look at that face!
I love this picture, Aidan and Grandpa hand in hand walking. Aidan really looks up to the men figures in his life, i am glad he has such good men in his life to look up to!
Layla snuggling next to Grandpa as she drinks her milk before bedtime. She had a blast talking about "gampa(grandpa), nana, Abby(parents dog), and Doey (zoey, other dog)

Aidan getting a goodnight hug from Nana, while sneaking a peak at Zoey who is behind Nana.

Guernsey Weekend

Kendall pretending to sleep in his new tent that we set up in our itty bitty living room. Had to try it out :) We were able to have the weekend without the kids thanks to Gary and Nikki(way awesome). We headed up to the annual birthday party for Dylan and Skylar at their lake cabin. It is my 4th year i figured out and Kendall's third.
Live entertainment around the fire on Saturday night, Sky and Dylan on the guitars and Paul on the drum.
Kendall showing off his water skiing skills. :)
KEndall showing off his wrecking skills too...he is somewhere in that splash of water.
Trying to get up on the surf board since people made it seem easy...it is not...i didn't get up but hey i tried! The water was 60 degrees and the air temp. was 60, so it was pretty chilly with no sunshine!

Lack of Blogging

Ok since i have so lacked in blogging lately, and really could shoot off a million reasons why, but instead i will just post a nice little video of the cuteness i get to experience now and then (ok daily basis). I am sure i will not have another post until next week since we are headed out of town and the kids are taking a vacation from us at Gary and Nikki's. So, i hope this video will keep those who really do care that i am lacking a blog of any sort satisfied. :)

Enjoy the wonderfulness of having a sibling to hold hands with:

Who needs mom for slides anymore?

At the park there is this slide in which the kids LOVE! When we are there, this is where their time is spent...up down up down. Very cute, but i remember when i use to have to help them, and let them ride on my lap...now i am no longer needed but to watch so they can wave at me occasionally before they go down.

Temporary Place Rant

Thankgoodness May is OVER! Ok, to explain more, May was very very busy for us, and seemed to be nothing but non-stop. Starting out with finals, continuing on to Graduation, Kendall leaving for Vegas, Nikki and Gary's wedding, then heading to Nebraska for 4-5 days, attending weddings on the 24th, then on Monday begin moving. AW!

We are now all moved into our temporary place, fortunately it will only be for 33 more days (yes i am counting...). I am not one who complains about little things, but being here, i have been complaining about one thing. The kids upstairs. I try to grit my teeth but the first day we are moving in and the 7 year old is smacking his little brother (4-5 maybe) with a very large stick, and when his mother yells at him to stop, he chucks this large branch into the middle of the street, and leaves it there for cars to run over. If that isn't enough, he has admitted to throwing things at my car, even though his mother said "that isn't true" right after he bluntly told Kendall "we hit your car". I have pulled up to them throwing rocks into the street (i hope not at the car that was sitting there...) So we now forcedly park across the street in hopes that they will leave them alone. To add to things, we live in the basement, and to get to our door we have to walk around back of the house, stepping over left out and broken toys, trying to explain to two toddlers that these toys aren't ours and to just move their little tot butts inside. To get into our house there is a door at the top of the stairway, which has our deadbolt and another lock. When we do not lock this top door, the kids come into our stairway and "spray" bugs with water? Atleast what they said as they drench our stairs with water. So here they are playing in our stairway, and when Kendall asks them to not be there, they ask to come into our house. Even after explaining, the kids are sleeping, they are like "oh thats ok we will be quiet." um...no, many reasons ranging from the kids are sleeping, and we do not know these kids names even let alone want to lovingly invite them into our home to run around. After explaining to them they cannot come in, they reply "oh well our mom is napping too, we aren't even supposed to be outside." So what i gather is, while their mother sleeps they run around outside unwatched, when she is awake, we hear yelling...a lot of yelling. To top it off, when we walked up to lock the top door to avoid this problem again, they come pounding on the door, loudly, to ask "Why did you lock the door???" Once after i heard them in the stairway, i ignored them until i heard them leave, so i went up and locked the door. A wile later i went to leave, and they had barricaded our door with all their scattered toys and the box the toys are supposed to be in...was this because i locked the door? Even though we don't have a yard, i still hustle the kids very quickly to the car or park when these boys are out, for the older one was kicking rocks at Layla, I turned to him and snapped "do not kick or throw rocks...especially around the babies!" He just smiled . AW! So after all my ranting on a daily basis, and even though the little one is pretty cute, he just tags around with his brother, it is hard to be upset at these boys, because obviously it isn't that they purposely do this, they obviously just have never been taught not to do this. The younger one really likes Kendall, the times i have stopped to chat with him, he is always asking "where is dat big guy?" Ill explain he is at work and he replys "Oh, i want to tawk wit him." Well, that was my first week rant here, but i am thankful we have a place to stay temporary and we can save money without any bills for this place for 6 weeks. Now only if i can stay in my right mind and remain patient with the boys upstairs for a couple more weeks.

On to another note, here are a few pictures of the kids from this week, we have been visiting the park a lot since it is a few blocks a way, and i drove them to another park that has a small fishing pond.
Aidan enjoying the sand at the playground. They really like picking it up and letting it sift out of their fingers onto their legs and feet. Good thing baths are a regular thing around here, considering i caught Layla droping it on her head.
The kids love to pick dandilions, i try and have them understand these are the only flowers they can pick without permission (since in reality they are weeds). Here is Ms. Layla smelling a dandilion after she picked it, she then proceeded to give it to me so she could pick more. Awww..thanks!
As i mentioned above about the little fishing pond, the huck fin pond is for children under 13 to come and fish. We walked over from the playground, and the kids loved walking over the bridge. All i heard when we were at the lake was about the "fishy's!", a nearby mother and son heard and called us over...they had caught a fish already, and offered to let the kids look at it. Layla wasn't sure about the trout, since it wasn't swimming in the water...Aidan just smiled. I am glad the kids enjoy being outdoors so much, it gives me an excuse to go outside too! :)