Mikey turned 2!!!

Mikey turned 2 yrs old yesterday. We have now had Mikey living with us in our home for 10 months. He has grown leaps and bounds. It is amazing how much he has grown over the past several months. He has gone from screaming whenever any child came close to him to now being the one to initiate contact from children. He loves playing with his sisters. He has recently become interested in interacting with his baby brother.
Mikey's favorite things are trains. So when his sisters gave him a Thomas the Train ballon yesterday he was very happy. He carried it around with him the rest of the day.

Mikey loved his Thomas cake I made him. I should have taken cake decorating classes. I was actually pleased with how the cake turned out since I do not have any artistic talent. The important thing was Mikey enjoyed his cake and overall had a great birthday!

We are looking forward to his adoption in 2008. He has been a blessing to our family. His sweet smile can melt your heart. We love you Mikey!!!!

Christmas @ the "Happiest Place on Earth"

Yesterday we went to Disneyland with Becky (my sister), Victor (my brother in-law), their 2 daughters Carly & Emily, Sophia (one of my best friend's), Mark (her husband), and their 2 daughters Emma & Sabrina.
My mom stayed at our place and watched Michael, Jonathan, & Jason (my sister's baby). Sophia's sister watched her baby. So the 6 girls had a great time together and it was great having 1 adult for each child. The 3 older girls are all the same age and the 3 younger girls are all the same age.

Carly, Robyn, & Emma

Emily & LoriAnne

Emma, LoriAnne, Sabrina, Robyn, & Winnie the Pooh

Emma, Sabrina, LoriAnne, Robyn, & Tigger

LoriAnne enjoying herself on the carousel

Robyn, Emma, LoriAnne, Carly, Emily, Santa Claus

The light show and music at the castle was amazing. We were also able to see the Christmas parade. The girls had a great time. We went to Disneyland on a good day. Most of the rides only took us 10-15 minutes to get on. I hope this blog makes sense. I am so tired while writing this :)

Tag #2 The ABC's of me

attached or single- attached to Dave and I always have at least one kid attached to me :)
best friend- Dave but I have many best "girl" friends that I really appreciate!
cake or pie- depends...I like both but I don't eat them too often.
day of choice- Sundays...my 4 kids all take a nap after church and I get a couple hours of "ME" time to read or just relax.
essential item- toothbrush...I hate bad breath
favorite colors- green...green...green
gummi bears or worms- gummi bears...I don't like the thought of eating worms.
hometown- Whittier, Ca
indulgences- ice cream...I LOVE ice cream so we do not keep it in the house
january or july- January
kids- Robyn (4 1/2yrs.) LoriAnne (2 1/2 yrs.) Michael (2 yrs.) Jonathan (almost 11 months)
life is incomplete without- my family & friends
marriage date- July 20, 2002
number of siblings- 1 sister (Becky), 4 brothers (Matthew, Daniel, Jeremy, Timothy)
oranges or apples- no preference. I like them both the same
phobias or fears- I don't like the dark...my siblings use to hide around corners and jump out to scare me so I have always been afraid of someone hiding around the corner to grab me.
quotes- none that I can think of at the moment
reason to smile- my children they make me laugh and smile most of the day
season, spring or fall- I love the spring
tag 3- no one
unknown fact- I was a vegetarian for a period of my life. I have not been a vegetarian for many years but I hardly ever eat red meat.
worst habit- have to drink bottled water
x-ray or ultrasound- both
your favorite food- jalapeno pizza & Green Beans
zodiac- Pisces

Tag #1

The Rules: Each player lists 6 facts/habits/secrets about themselves. At the end of the post the player tags six people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Have fun!

1. I am obsessed with having my house clean. This is not a good thing when you have 4 children 4 and under. I am working on being more relaxed about it. However, I almost always have my house clean before I go to bed. It helps me to wake up in a good mood :).

2. I enjoy doing my girls hair. However, they do not like me to do their hair. I also like my boys hair to be cut short. I gave them both hair cuts last night but I am sure to most people they did not need a hair cut. I just like the "clean cut" look on boys.

3. When I was younger (allot younger) I wanted to have 26 kids. Yes, 26 kids! What was I thinking :) I love being a mom to 4 kids and if I could physically have more kids then I would. However, I am not sure I want to go through this adoption process again.

4. I love spicy food! I would eat jalapeno's with everything if I could convince my family how good they are :)

5. Before Dave and I got married I did not cook much (Dave would probably say not at all). Dave actually taught me how to cook allot of things. Now I enjoy cooking and I think I have made allot of YUMMY dishes over the past 5 1/2 years!

6. I do not like to sit down. I always have a project to do or somewhere to go. I love to take my kids places. I wonder where Robyn gets all her energy and why she can't sit down to relax for a few minutes :)

I won't tag anyone since everyone I would tag has done this already.

I've been TAGGED!

Jeni and Amanda I will catch up on my blogging sometime this week!

Is she really 4 years old????

I can't believe that my oldest is 4 years old (actually 4 1/2). This is her pre-school picture and I can not believe how grown up she looks. I almost cried when I saw this picture of her. The time is going by too fast now with having 4 children. I just want to enjoy every minute I have with them. Robyn is our VERY social child. She remembers EVERYONES name she meets. I am not sure how she does it. I have to ask her who people are. I sure love this girl!!!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We had 2 Halloween parties yesterday. The first party we went to was at my Aunt Sharon's home. The kids had a blast playing with all their cousins. My aunt had halloween bags for all the kids to make and games to play. The kids got allot of candy and goodies too. Then we went to our ward "trunk or treating". The kids were exhausted by the end of the day but they all seemed to have a good time.

Jonathan had a FUN morning!

Jonathan has "play therapy" every Thursday & Friday mornings. He had a great time today! His therapist is so good with him(and Michael & LoriAnne). Today she brought whipped cream for the kids to play in. As you can see in the picture Jonathan really enjoyed it. He was laughing the entire time. LoriAnne did not really like it much and Mikey REALLY did not like playing with the whipped cream. In fact he screamed everytime I put his hands into it. We had fun watching Jonathan play with the whipped cream.

I think Jonathan is getting used to his therapist because he really enjoyed everything she did with him today. Jonathan is such a "mama's boy" that if he can see me he does not usually want anyone else. As you can see in the pictures he is such a CUTIE!

"E" Week at Preschool

Each week for Preschool Robyn's class has a different letter they do for the week. This week is "E" week. So for sharing time on Thursday's Robyn and I make a collage with different pictures of things that start with that particular letter. Robyn wanted me to take a picture of her with ALL her collages and put it on my blog. She is such a "ham".

Picture Day @ Preschool

Robyn had picture day at preschool. I realized today that my "life long" battle with her is getting her to wear her hair down. She ALWAYS wants it in a pony tail. I have made a deal with her that once a week (on Sundays) it is my choice on how I do her hair. So the problem this morning was that it was not Sunday so it was not my choice. I of course "won" as you can see in the picture. However, she cried most of the morning. And she made me promise that I would put it in a pony tail as soon as school was over. :) She is a funny kid!

Isn't it supposed to be fall/winter?

Today it was in the 90's. It is suppose to be in the 90's tomorrow too! I had arranged for the kids to have a "play date" at the park with some friends this afternoon. The kids had fun but I thought it was toooo hot!

A Special Trip for Robyn & LoriAnne

I have a friend who's husband is a Lieutenant for the Whittier Police Department. So Dave took the girl's tonight to meet with him at the Police Department. He let the girl's go inside his SUV police vehicle. They had a great time. Thank you Lieutenant Powell!!!!

A "FREE" Day

Today I had what I call a "FREE" day. I had no appointments (no social workers coming over, no physical or eating therapy for the boys, no doctors visits, etc). We have not had a day like this in a while. So before I ran all my errands I took the 3 little ones to the mall to play (after I took Robyn to school). It was great having some time to just "hang out" at the mall with the kids.

Then it was off to running errands. We went to 2 stores before we picked Robyn up from school and then we went to 3 more stores after we picked her up. It felt great to go and do whatever I needed to and not have to be on a schedule.

A New Nephew/Cousin for us!

On Friday my sister Becky had a new addition to her family. Jason Ryan de la Masa was born at 10:16am, weighing 8lbs 5oz and 19.5 inches. Robyn and LoriAnne went to the hospital with me yesterday to meet him. He is adorable. LoriAnne kept saying "he is soooo cute".

Jason is cousin #19 for my kids. Since I do not have any first cousins at all (my siblings and I are the only grandkids) this is exciting for me that my kids have sooooo many cousins(and there are more on the way).

Welcome to the family baby Jason!

"Girls Day Out"

On Friday Robyn, LoriAnne, and I went to the LaHabra Children's Museum with our friends Brooke, Tayler, and Haylie. The 4 girls had a great time. This museum has so many things for the kids to do. The first room the girls played in was a "toddler playground". The main attraction in that room that Robyn loves is a treehouse you can climb up and at the top is an area you can sit and read books.

One of the other "favorite" things to do is ride the carousel. They usually have an opportunity to ride it 2-3 times each time we go to this museum.

The 4 girls also enjoyed playing on the bus and pretending they were driving it.

The exhibit room right now is "Ocean Adventures" (the exhibit changes every couple months). The girls enjoyed looking at the sea creatures on display and dressing up.

One of the other rooms has taxidermy wild animals that you can touch. Robyn really thought this Lion was "cool".

The girls shopped and stocked up on enough food to fill the cubbards. They all seem to enjoy grocery shopping. They did not want to leave this area.

The last room we went to was the "dress up room". LoriAnne and Robyn both enjoyed dressing up and performing for everyone. This museum is one of our favorite places to go.

A "Proud Mama" Moment!

This morning I told Robyn, LoriAnne, & Michael to go play quietly in their room while I finished getting things ready to take Robyn to preschool. They were so quiet that I decided I had better check on them to see what they were getting into. I found them on Robyn's bed and Robyn was reading to them. Robyn started reading a little over a month ago and she loves to read to anyone who will sit down and listen to her. It was really cute. Robyn was having LoriAnne and Michael repeat the words as she said them. Then she was having them find various objects on the page. It is always a great moment when you realize that all the time you spend teaching your children actually has been working. I love my children! I am so thankful that I am blessed to be their mom!!!!

Miramar Air Show 2007

On Saturday we went to the Miramar Air Show in San Diego. We had a great time. The children really enjoyed watching the airplanes and helicopters in the sky. They also had a chance to climb inside several of the airplanes. They even were able to pretend that they were the pilots :)

Aren't they cute :)

Jonathan sat in the stroller most of the time. He really enjoyed looking at the planes.

The girls really enjoyed being able to climb inside the planes.

Do you think Robyn would make a good pilot? I know she would love to fly a plane.

LoriAnne would like to fly a plane too but hopefully when the girls are older and wiser they won't want to :) For now LoriAnne just LOVED pushing ALL the buttons.

We saw a TON of aircraft so I included a couple of pics. I had a hard time choosing which pics to include though.

There was a Caltrans booth at the airshow and they gave all the kids a hat.

The helicopters were the last things that we saw for the day. It was a FUN day. I hope we get a chance again to go to another air show. It was definitely something the entire family enjoyed.