Summer in Winter

Today was a NICE day~

Should it make me sad?

Whenever I scan through old pictures of my children it makes me sad to see how fast they grow. I know it's only going to get worse. I love this time in my life, and it seems to go by so fast! Brett wanted to go have a fire at the beach last Sunday, so we went to be together and enjoy being outside together, eat dinner, and play with fire. I had fun, even with a little sand in my food. These boys go crazy over a fire, hilarious! I love them!

This picture cracks me up! What's that face?

This little baby wears cloth diapers "Part Time." Want to know how I do it?

Here is my 3 boy update:

Corby walks now, a little unstable, slow going, and adorable. One of his feet turns in a little. He still has 4 teeth, and his favorite activity is picking the cilantro plant. He is babbling, and his favorite words are Da Da Da and Du Du Du. 10 months old now. His pediatrician said one of his eyes turns in a little, but only sometimes... so she gave me a prescription to take him to an eye doctor. Did I go? NO. I talked to Brett who said a lot of doctors make up stuff to help out their doctor connections (LIE) to keep everyone happy and drive insurance crazy??? Something like that. I also talked to my sister who has a little guy with glasses, and she said he is still really young, and his eyes are still developing. She said, wait until he's a little older. He wouldn't keep glasses on his face at this age anyways so we will wait and see.

Tino is still as sweet as ever, and my little cutie face! I was downstairs today cleaning out my car, and my neighbor came down with Tino, who apparently had misplaced is mommy. We was in his underwear, couldn't find me, so he walked over to the neighbors home looking for me, and eventually did find me, with some help. Another story: This morning we went on a walk and he was showing me a bunch of cars along the walk and told me how "cool" they are, I agreed with him for a while but eventually I was sick of it and said, "None of these cars are cool!" Nice mom! He was a little confused. Ok, then I said, "Daddy has a cool car, and he can take you to the car show and show you really cool cars, do you want to do that?" So Brett has agreed to take him to a car show in a couple weeks, I wish I could go to! Tino was pretty excited about that, which made me feel a little better about my honesty.

Nix never ceases to amaze me. He swung himself on a swing for the first time today without any parental guidance. He watched his friends doing it, and just mimicked them and did it. He learned to tie his shoes last week. He didn't want much help from me, just a few tips and he was off. He said he did a flip into the foam pit at gymnastics today, I believe it.

I think I'm the luckiest woman in the world to have these 4 amazing men in my life!! I need to remember this every morning, and feel joy as I jump out of bed to greet them, no matter how early it is (I'm usually such a grump)!

Monday a friend of mine chopped my hair off. Brett put a picture on facebook for you.

Surf Rider Beach

If I can I will always try and join my sisters at the beach so the cousins can be together. Today was a drive to Malibu, but we had fun. Funny thing, I forgot my swimming suit, so I just sat under my umbrella most the time and watched the kids play. They had a fun time burying each other and Nix loved the little waves, he body surfed a few of them that came close to the shore.

Tino was following C around like a little baby duck.

The system worked like this: bury them, pour water on their head, then they could get out. Not sure why it worked this way, but they were all ok with it.

Happy sandy boy!

36 weeks

Brett took pictures of us this morning. We are so grateful for his ability to take pictures. We sure love where we live and a friend of mine let me use her white dress so we could all dress in white for the maternity photo shoot at the beach. I will have bare belly pictures up here soon enough but this round belly of mine is so fun.

I was explaining to a friend of mine today that when you have more children, you don't have to worry about dividing your love between them all because you are given more capacity to love with each child. I couldn't think of a better thing in life than receiving more LOVE and being given more ability to LOVE.

I used to be a lifeguard, so I don't feel too bad about being up on the lifeguard tower with the Keep Off sign...

No more hiking for us.

Beach day.



We made a sand castle and were in the process of decorating it and right when Nix finished putting rocks on it a big wave came and we quickly took a picture as the wave was destroying it. One second after the last picture, it was flattened. I think the boys were looking forward to smashing it themselves.

Spring Break Craziness!

We went to the beach today, what happened? We had to drive around forever to find a parking spot, then we had to find a patch of sand that wasn't taken, where did all these people come from! This is my beach! I know this is just an early warning of what's to come this summer. Nix had so much fun playing in the waves. He said he almost drowned, but he only fell a few times, but got up really quickly. Tino on the other hand could do without the water. He wouldn't even let me hold him for fear of me taking him into the water. He loves the sand though, until he wants to suck his thumb. We had a great day in the hot sun. Looks like the rain is postponed until Monday now.

Salt Creek Beach

This beach is beautiful, you just need to plan for the hike down to it when you go. The park above the beach has bar-b-ques, tables, basketball court, restrooms, and lots and lots of grass to run and play on! The waves are great for surfing, there were so many surfers hiking up, hiking down, and in the water and everywhere we looked. We didn't stay long, but plan on going back! You can only drive on this road going down if you have a handicap placard.

Table Rock Beach

Finding great new beaches to explore isn't hard, just takes a little patience and adventure. To get there you have to go down about 140 steps. But the entrance is clearly marked and the parking is free if you can find a spot on the street. It's right off of 1st street in South Laguna Beach, and it's as beautiful picture spot. The cove is small, there are tide pools and I wouldn't recommend swimming here with all the rocks everywhere. There is a spot where people cliff jump, crazy! We had fun playing in the sand, digging and running around, not the best weather for swimming anyways. There was one person lounging, reading a book, and a few people who came down just to take pictures. Nix said, "I want to stay here forever!" He was having so much fun.

Aggressive Seagulls

Warning! If you go to the playground at Laguna Main Beach playground before the seagulls are fed by the irresponsible homeless person, you will be attacked in you have food in your hand. When seagulls are fed by people, they expect people to feed them always. There are a lot of problems here with aggressive seagulls, taking food right out of kids hands. A seagull swooped in and tried to bite food out of Tino's hand. Then one swooped in from behind me and bit at the food in my hand. I couldn't believe it. I had to feed the kids one bite at a time and hide the food in my pocket! I was kicking at those stupid birds! I was so ticked off.

A new beach

On Wednesday, Nix, Tino, and I found a beach, safe for little swimmers. The waves are small, the beach is small. It is hard to get to, and not everyone knows about it. It's in Corona Del Mar, so if you want to check it out with us, let's plan a beach day. Free parking, lots of walking, rocks and stairs, Nix had so much fun!

Happy Birthday Tino

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Tino. We had a Fiesta for his birthday, friends and family came out for a Bar-B-Q by the pool. The kids swam, and we ate the most delicious Salmon and Carne Asada tacos, cookies, flan, and tres leches cake. He is so big, but he still seems like a baby to me. His tricks are pretty cute, he can give high 5s, kisses, say and wave bye-bye. He talks to me very matter-of-factly, he blows into straws, a harmonica, and a recorder. When I say "dangerous" he mimics the sound of the word slightly... he crys and shakes his head with frustration when he doesn't get his way. He is so funny, he always puts a smile on my face, even when I shouldn't be happy about what he is doing, like ripping my recipe book apart or sucking on my cell phone. Happy #1 Tino!

We had a fun morning with daddy, and a fun day at the beach before the party. I was so happy to have my family here to help watch my boys this day!

Our Favorite Beach!

Laguna Beach

The tide pools here are amazing. We came to the beach with the Kiel's to meet an old BYU roomy, but they weren't able to make it. It was still a nice day at the beach, a little cold but the tide pool creatures were out! There was an octopus and sea slug this day. And there are always huge starfish, lots of mussels, sea annename, purple urchins, and barnacles.