To Brighten Your Day...

Cali likes to pull her bottom lip in and then go "mmmmm, mmm, mmmm". She does this all the time.

Trying to crawl.....

ISN'T SHE ADORABLE?? I LOVE THIS GIRL SO MUCH!

Cali sat and tried to crawl for quite some time today, all the while with that little piece of yarn on top her head; which was Wesley's (he is home with a fever today) contribution to the darling outfit given to Cali by one of my many talented friends. Thank you Kelly! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the little Onesies!!!! (and leggings:-) )

Cali's favorite thing to say these days is, "mmmmbu, bu, bu, bu". She really wants to move, but hasn't exactly figured it all out yet. She sorta scoots around on her bum to get toys she can't reach, and she loves to pull herself up on me. She is so happy and loves her brother and sister to entertain her. She had her first night in her crib, with out mom, last night. It went well. She fussed and cried a lot around midnight, so I went up and let her nurse, put her back to bed, and then she slept until around 7 am. Very nice. I hope we can pull another night like that. I actually really missed not having her in my room. I am just like that though. I like having my babies close. But, I know it is defiantly in her best interest to move on. She was getting to the point that she would not sleep unless she was with me. Not good. So, we are moving forward. *sigh* I am learning things about being UNSELFISH by being a parent, that I never could have learned any other way.

WHAT THE....???

I went outside today to check the kids and let them know they had 10 minutes before time to come in for the evening, and what do you think I find??? Muddy and wet , Wesley was riding his little red bike up the side walk without training wheels!!!! I was shocked and excited (not that he was wet and muddy, but that he was riding a bike!). I remember our neighbor helped him remove the training wheels last week. I walked out and they had all the tools out and were "working" on the bike. So, I guess Brinson taught Wesley how to ride since then! COOL! He was a bit tipsy, but doing well. Wow:-)

Carpet Man

What do you think this guy is up to? Ahh the things you see here in Houston:-)

Fear

This is just a rant on fear and how I HATE IT!

Fear is something we all feel at different times in our life. Right now, my 5 year old is discovering new fears and insecurities; Like fear of what his class mates think of him. Tonight for Family Home Evening, the kids made pictures of our family. It was a homework assignment for Wes, so we figured it would be a fun activity tonight. Wesley is a silly kid. I love his silliness. After he finished his picture, he decided he wanted to make the whole family look like clowns in his picture, so he glued red pom poms to all of the faces he drew. They were bigger poms, so they covered up the faces. But he laughed and loved it. Then I explained that he was going to have the opportunity to show his picture to his class on Friday and guess what he said? "Oh no! I need to take the clown noses off or all the kids will laugh at me!". Which, is true. Some of them probably would laugh at him. Grrrrrrr............. And so it has begun. Fear of what others may think.

Fear has had me an emotional wreck. And I have decided it needs to be conquered in some areas of my life. Other areas I don't care to much about overcoming the fear, like my fear of ever going sky diving. I will never do it and my life will be better and longer for it. :-) My fear of myself? What I mean by that, is the fear to reach out to everyone around me and follow through with thoughts and promptings that come to me and not worry what others think of me when I do. I truly desire to be better at loving people and following through with the thoughts and promptings, silly as they may seem at times, to talk to someone, sit by someone, call someone, embrace someone, pray for someone, forgive someone, and on and on and on.

How many amazing experiences do we miss in life, because we set our faith aside and let fear take over??

Six Years!!!

Six Years Ago:
Courtship!

Engaged!!

Married!! September 18, 2003


Happy Anniversary Debbie.
I love you!
Brady

Bonus Picture: First dinner in our first apartment. Poor couple has no furniture!!

Today was Aubrey's first day of School. Isn't she sooo beautiful?
I got together with a few of my friends from church and we are doing a little preschool one day a week. We rotate through, so all the moms will teach, be a helper to the teacher, or babysit the younger babies so that the mom teaching can teach, and the helper can help. We came up with our own curriculum and schedule so that it isn't just a scatter brained thing we do from week to week. I am excited.

Here the kids are at circle time where they sing, say the pledge of allegiance, and do calendar time. Miss Michelle was the teacher today.

A couple of our collectibles:-)

The kiddo's playing together.

Aubrey wants EVERYTHING these days. She is getting good at grabbing and actually getting the things she wants. The other day she snuck a slice of orange and started sucking away at it. About gave me a heart attack. It reminded me of a time when Wesley was a baby and his Uncle Chris gave him an orange slice to suck on when he was 4 MONTHS old. Now that he is a daddy, I am curious if he gives Will orange slices?? lol

Our little Cheerleader! Go BYU!!!

Labor Day the Swim Team did a little parade through the neighborhood. They had a fire truck come to lead the way and all the kids followed on bikes. It was really hot that day, so I was amazed that Wesley rode his bike the whole time. I followed in the van. Brady ran home and grabbed his bike about half way through. After the parade, they met back at the pool and went diving for coins. It was a fun little activity for them. Go Crocs!!!

Love how the kids are all off in their own worlds in this picture.

Love even more that Wesley wore his goggles on his head the whole time. lol

Our neighbors followed in their jeep and let some of the swim team ride with them. They are the smart ones:-)

ps Wesley just came in and asked if he could have a party right now and invite all of his friends from our block over for snacks! I told him only if they brought their own snacks. :-) funny kid.

Stories To Remember

No pics this time. Just a story I don't want to forget.

So, apparently walls and doors are not good Enough for Aubrey anymore. She has moved on to "humans", as Wesley would say. Baby humans, at that. A couple of days ago, I was working on some sewing projects when I remembered I needed to run into my bedroom and shoot a quick email to my hubby and let him know he had left his cell phone sitting on the computer desk. I had Aubrey doing water color pictures, and Cali playing happily in the 'high chair' (that really isn't a high chair, it is a booster seat strapped to one of our tall kitchen table chairs....'high chair' get it? ha ha ha, I am so funny). Anyway, I was only gone out of the room for a few minutes; like maybe 5-10, when I went back and started barking my orders for Aubrey to get things cleaned up so we could leave and went over and cleaned up my sewing mess and then Cali started to fuss so I went to get her and realized her arms and legs were all red and yellow! Yes; it was water color. It reminded me of that part in the movie Nanny McPhee where the Nanny runs out of the house screaming, "They've eaten the baby!" except I was screaming, "She's painted the baby!". Not quite as dramatic as eating a baby, I know. Still. Still. You know what I mean. Aubrey told me she made Cali's finger nails pretty. Boy did she ever!!!

We went out for Chinese tonight to celebrate Grandpa Tingey's birthday. No, he is not here visiting, but what better excuse could I have come up with to get out of cooking. Saying I wanted to keep the kitchen clean since I spent the day battling a colony of ants that found their way into my kitchen, sounds lazy and lame, right? Really, I kept asking myself, "What am I going to do about all these ants?" and the words to a motivational speech (last 5 minutes of speech) I listened to last night came sounding in my mind; "You just do it, and you do it and do it, and do it, and do it!" So anyway, thanks for having a birthday today Grandpa Tingey!! We love You!!
So while at the restaurant, Dad ordered some hot and sour soup. When the waiter brought it, Wesley said, "Why did you get soup? Are you sick?". That cracked us up.

We attended our first PTO meeting last night. It was good to be able to go to Wesley's classroom and have his teacher go over what they are doing and will be doing in class. I feel like I understand his school stories a little better now. He still rides the bus. Last week he asked a couple of times it he could be a car rider. But he is back to being okay with the bus again. Aubrey likes to walk him down to the bus and then be there when he gets off.

The other night Wesley told us he does not like Thanksgiving because he does "not like turkey. I only like beef turkey!", he says. What he means is, he only likes beef JERKY. lol.

Aubrey's favorite word right now is "why?". Need I say more. I am starting up a little Joy School with a few friends for her. That will be so good for her.

Brady is reading a book about the 1906 earthquake. I am reading Devi Nambudripad's "Say Good-bye to Illness" book.

And that is all for now........I am becoming a very slothful blogger. I will try to be better.

Pay Backs Are So Not Cool!

Meet Aubrey; AKA, "The Artist". I remember when I was a child, I was fascinated with filling in big empty spaces with color, be it shoe polish, paint, crayons or anything that could leave a mark. Big empty spaces meaning, walls, doors, etc. My mother confirmed this to me when she left me a note on my face book page after she had read my current status message where I told the face book world about my lovely daughter and her amazing art work today. She said something about this being pay back??
Two words for today: PERMANENT MARKER.
A lot more words flying through my head (never leaving my mouth, really) as I walked around up stairs and found wall after wall, door after door, dressers, the TV, both desks, toy bench, and Aubrey's pants marked up with black permanent marker!!!!
I am always getting after her for drawing on the floor with crayon and writing on my walls with pens or pencils. But today takes the cake! PAPER! WHAT IS WRONG WITH USING PAPER?? I know the answer to that; Paper limits you. Walls go on and on. *sigh*

Here is a little sample of the door work....

and one of the walls. I could post many more pictures, but you get the point. Luckily, I was able to cover up the walls with paint. And then a friend of mine brought me a magic eraser. Now, I will be scrubbing my little heart out for the next few days, but I am happy to say that the magic eraser is working:-)

Now, on to a happier note, CALI IS SITTING UP!!! It is sooo nice! She is a much happier girl sitting up. She is still a little tipsy at times, but doing really well. I am so happy for her. She will be 6 months this month:-)

She is a doll! How could you help but wanna love and hug, and kiss this adorable little sweetie?

So Happy. I am sure she will NEVER even be tempted to write on any of my walls;-) ha ha ha lol