Just Life...

There's SO much I'd like to get out on this blog sometimes, but lately I have very little time to blog.  Since Ethan is no longer napping, and I always have several hours of work to do each day, I try to be very productive while he has his "quiet room time".  This means that lately I've been trying to ONLY work... no social media or Pinterest or blogs.   A few random tidbits on my mind right now....

*Ethan has been ROUGH the past few weeks/month.  He won't nap, yet he's quite exhausted.  Then we spend the evenings with him having horrible behavior and needing to get to bed by 7:00.   Lately he won't play with anything or do anything constructive, he just roams around the house or gets into trouble.  Thus, I'm quite happy for him to have started school.  I'm really hoping this helps him out and his behavior at home gets better, because goodness gracious it's been TOUGH.

*Feeling majorly antsy to craft and create and re-decorate... but really don't have the time for it right now.  I'd really like to get Alayna a "big girl bed" and re-do her room a little since she turns three in two weeks.  I'd also like to finish decorating the master bedroom... since we've lived here almost two years.

*Trying to gear up for a busy fall :)  Birthdays for my entire family and lots of photography work :)

*My hair has been falling out in gobs for the past two months.  Trying to figure out what's going on... just got blood work done and will go back to the doctor next week.  I hope not to be bald but I guess I can always get a wig, lol.  Seriously though, it's a major bummer because my hair is already super thin.  I'm trying not to stress about it.  I hope we can figure out why this is happening.

*Alayna wakes up dry most nights but STILL won't go #2 in the potty.  SO frustrating.  She asks for a diaper and then goes in it.  We put her on the potty and she acts like she tries, but nothing ever happens.  She's gone #2 like three times in it.  We've tried everything, but I definitely prefer one diaper a day to her pooping in her panties, because that is NOT fun to clean up.  We'll get there one of these days right?  Who knew my boy would be so much easier to potty train than my girl.

*I can't beleive Alayna will be THREE in just two weeks :(

*When will my kid's obsession with potty talk end????  It's a constant battle with them, and I'm mighty tired of it.

Hmmmm.... that was mostly negative huh?  Well to be honest, the past month has been a little rough.  You see all my happy pictures on Instagram, I guess this was a little mind dump :)

Ethan's first day of junior kindergarten

Ethan had his first day of pre-k (junior Kindergarten) today.  He's been looking forward to it all summer.  In fact he's been so excited about it we had to make him a countdown calendar.  He was up and dressed by 6:20 today, even though we didn't need to leave until 7:50 :)  He was a little nervous when we dropped him off, but still very excited.  We stayed until the bell rang and walked him to his classroom. 

Since Ethan was up and ready so early we got to sit outside and watch this beautiful sun rise.  The humidity made for a gorgeous one!

Matt met up with us at Ethan's school to say goodbye :)  Kind of cool for Matt that now our kids get to go to the same school he went to for elementary and junior high (Redlands Christian), and cool for me because this is the school where I taught second grade :)  Now I get to be on the other side as a parent... it's crazy.

 

Alayna was pretty stoked to spend the morning with me.  We skipped the gym today since I had to get some fasting bloodwork done.  Afterwards I was STARVING so we had breakfast at Panera Bread :)  We then stopped at the fruit stand, got gas and went to Ross.  It was quite nice!

 

When I picked him up he had the hugest grin on his face.  He said he LOVED school.  The things he told me was that he thought his teacher was very beautiful, he got to play on the playground and they read Bible stories. I asked him if he made any friends but he said he couldn't remember anyone's names, lol... he's bad with names like his mama I guess.

Activities for the heat

The heat has been quite intense for a few weeks now.  Not only is it hot, it's been hot and humid, which I don't do so well with.  I am definitely not Southern.  I can handle 103 if it's dry heat, however throw in 30-40% humidity and there's not way I'm voluntarily doing anything outdoors but swimming.  Now that creates a bit of a challenge for my kids and I, because we LOVE being outdoors.   We've spent a lot of time indoors the past few weeks (except when we're swimming).  Here are a few things we've been up to:

Building with Marshmallows and Toothpicks.
I was amazed that this activity kept the kids busy for nearly an hour.  They loved it.  However, don't let your kids do this if you don't want them eating a whole lot of marshmallows :)

Crown Making
Today, per Ethan's request, we made crowns, which the kids painted and then decorated with jewels.

Don't you love all the paint on his face?  hehe.  He wiped black paint onto his face and then tried to wipe it off.

After we were finished they were so cute... they walked around the house holding hands proclaiming they were the king and queen of the house :)

This activity also took up nearly an hour, mostly because they were quite excited that I let them paint with my good craft paints (a first).

They then proceeded to dance around their "castle" holding hands, which was the family room :)

One day we made rice Crispy treats.  Naturally they also enjoyed devouring them :)

Of course there's always the usual playing with of toys, like building towers out of blocks, and many other things that I failed to take pictures of.

We haven't even eaten outside due to the heat, which is rare for us during the summer.  When it's still in the high 90's at dinner time, that's just too miserable to eat outside.  I'm ready for some more reasonable weather now, say maybe in the 90's with low humidity :)

We still have two more weeks until school starts for Ethan (three days of Junior Kindergarten), and we plan on spending as much time as we can in the pool and doing fun stuff!

Two Nights In the Desert

Last summer we did absolutely nothing fun as far as vacations go.  The only trip we took was up to Ripon for Matt's grandma's funeral, which isn't exactly something you'd consider a vacation.  It was a rough summer with lots of struggles and not a whole lot of fun.  So, with that being said I can't tell you how nice it's been to have such a fun summer.  To go on vacations to Colorado and Hawaii, spend lots of time swimming, and enjoying one another has been so refreshing for my soul.

We were able to get away for two nights with our kids to the Worldmark Resort in Indio.  The Oates got us a room for super cheap, and not only was it a room... it was a two bedroom condo with a full kitchen and living room... super nice.  So we packed up and headed from the hot 103 of Yucaipa to the hot 112 of Indio :)

We were either swimming or hanging out in the lazy river or our room.  The kids had a blast and it was fun to get away and take them on a little vacation.  It was also fun that the Oates were staying there, so we got to hang out a little.  The kids were so excited to stay at the resort.  They even got their own room with twin beds and did great sleeping together.

Thanks Oates for letting us come out and stay here!

I didn't bring my camera but here are a few cell phone pics....

Ethan loved the splash pad

What trip to the desert wouldn't be complete without some Instagram pictures of the Windmills?

Alayna on the splash pad

More windmills

Us ant the Oates... right before we headed home on our last day

Me and Faithy

Matt and I chillin' in the kiddy pool

These ducks would come up to our window every morning... probably hoping we would feed them bread, however we were good and didn't ;)

swimming

Alayna finally decided jumping in the pool is fun... she hadn't done this all summer

The kiddy pool is a pretty nice place to relax

Beach Day with the Flores'

This past Saturday we set aside our "to do" list, packed up and headed to the beach to spend the day with the Flores' on Danny's birthday.  This was the first time we took our kids to the beach this year, and they were thrilled.  We all had such a great day.

Oh, and I just have to mention that all of these pictures were taken with my old camera (the Canon 30D) and a cheapo plastic 15-55mm kit lens.  Matt and I shot a wedding the next day and there was no way I was going to get sand on my nice gear.  Just had to throw that out there to show you that you can indeed take great pictures with not the best equipment ;)

Ethan didn't really venture into the water far, but had fun running from the waves.  Alayna on the other hand loved it and despite shivering she wanted to go in again and again.

 Ethan and Christian had so much fun together all day.

  Jolene buried the four kids in the sand, but they didn't stay there too long.

Alayna spent much of the day just like this... laying in the sand.  I think she just likes the warmth and finds it relaxing, because she does this whenever we swim.  I thought she had fallen asleep at one point, but she was just contentedly laying there.  Oh, and my new best friend at the beach is baby powder.  It gets sand off of the kids so easy, much easier than trying to wash them down.

We ended the day with dinner at Buca di Bepo's.  What a perfect summer day.  Matt and I agreed we need to take more Saturdays like that.  Saturdays are usually filled with yardwork, cleaning and sometimes photoshoots at the end of it all for me.  It's good to just go play :)