Taylor Time

Could it possibly be hard to watch this smiling baby, no way! CCs return to work marks an addition to our family during her work week. Did that even make sense? My days have been busy, busy, busy lately and I have been running from commitment to obligation and then back home again.

BUT, back to Taylor. Before her arrival at our house on Tuesday, I will fully admit that my nerves were in high gear. Hello, three kids! Was I crazy? How could I feed Taylor, while wrangling Keller, and still keep Vera happy. There needs to be some emphasis on Keller in that last sentence, because he is my needy momma's boy at the moment.

I am happy to report that I have completed three days, have my sanity, and am working some of the kinks out. There have been many moments, but my favorite to date is that I managed to take the three kiddos to the post office. You should see the looks I get when I start pulling the kids out of my Xb. Or, when I have Taylor in the sling and Keller swung over my hip. I am quite a sight.

True Love

In-Laws in Tahoe

So cute, I had to post!

Dancing With the Stars + a Really Big Box

Sunday night, I am checking my secondary email account...AND, I have Dancing with the Stars's tickets waiting for me. In my excitement (I signed up 2 years ago!), I accidentally clicked that I only wanted two tickets, not four. Oh well, that tiny mistake aside my immediate thought was, "Wait, the tickets are for this Tuesday!" There is no way that I can find a babysitter and someone to go with me in just a few short days.

I call my friend Deb, as we are both obssessed with the show, just for kicks to let her know and she is in...almost immediately. But, now between the two of us we have four kiddos that need lots of babysitting on a Tuesday. Did we do it? Of course we did! IT WAS AWESOME!!!

Much of our time was spent waiting in lines and peeing every couple of minutes. Our "tickets" weren't guaranteed. They say to arrive at 3:30pm, we got in line at 1:30 and were already number 68 and 69. Yep, we waiting in a line, by a bush for two hours before even making it in the gate. Once in the gate they send you to glorified extra long park benches for another hour or so. Finally, they start seating people and an hour later the show goes LIVE to the east coast. :) The peeing part comes into play, because as you are sitting on the benches, friendly staff keep reminding you that once the show goes live they don't want you to pee. Uhmmm...yeah, right. I totally went the bathroom during a commerical break! Telling me not to pee is like telling Vera not to whine. It is going to happen whether you want it to or not.

Tuesday featured the female stars dancing for the first time. As for the show...the judges are hilarious, the set much smaller than it looks on television, and I think Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are amazing. You have to watch, but the whole Kelly Osbourne section made me cry! If you look very carefully, you can see my shadowed face to the right of the stage (if you are looking at if from the audience view). The only other BIG bummer is that they don't let cameras in, so I have no lovely photos to post!

A big shout-out to CC for babysitting the two kiddos for the long haul and bringing a HUGE box, which = tons of fun.

VERA

First time she has written her name!

Beautiful Sis + 2 Pugs

Underwood Farms

We needed to get the the heck out of Dodge this weekend and so took a little family trip to Underwood Farms in Moorpark. Seriously, it was exactly what we needed. It was time to reconnect as a family and spend a little quality time together...see, don't you want to go too! I could write a brochure right now.


My favorite animal of the bunch. Gotta love her teeth!


This may not look like much, but is was big news in our world. Vera went up on the stage BY HERSELF, with just a little prompting from her parents. We are trying to get her out of her shell a bit and she rocked it.


Family photo, but why so grumpy brown horse?


AND, the best part of Vera's day...pony ride!!!

Vera and Little B

Keller Pup

What? The water was clean!

Wine, BBQ, and Maverick's = Good Times

Jamie's birthday was a fantastic excuse for a little mom/girl's night fun last Saturday! Here we are wine tasting...and I have to give one of the girls big props. See the beautiful lady on the far right (looking at the computer). She is currently holding her new little baby in her arms. Yep, three days after chilling with us at a few wineries, she went ahead and had her third child. AWESOME!


Seriously, could the setting have been more perfect.


Mamas that headed out for a little dancing fun! My wonderful friend Deb offered to be my DD for the evening and...it was an adventure. She has two kiddos at home and so she left their primary car with her hubby, which left us the surfmobile to drive to Santa Ynez and home again. The surfmobile being the hubby's little beater that is perfect for taking out with a bunch of boards and wetsuits in tow. Well, it made it to Santa Ynez and then decided that it was done with us. After much swearing and jumping, the car started...beeping the entire time we drove it home. Good times!

Like Father, Like Son

I swear that we didn't stage this...and he kept going back for more. This was probably the 10th time that he sucked on the bottle. He is his father's son!

BTW, that hair gel = yogurt. I need advice on how to keep my little man from smearing his food in his hair every meal.

80's Rock Mullet

In our boredom last week with J gone, the gym closed, and V sick, I (in a moment of pure brilliance) decided to give Vera a litte trim. If I do say so myself, I cut a very straight line and things were looking good. Being so successful...I thought I would just give her a few layers. Uhmmm...we had to visit a hair stylist to have her hair fixed...this event is even what prompted Keller's first cut. If I was going to take her, I might as well get the Trump look gone as well.

Whoops! It is so something my mom would have done. I definitely thinned out the bottom too much and was then calling it Vera's 80's rock mullet. The day after I did it, I felt bad because I had to make a quick trip to Costco and we ran into a friend. I saw her glance at Vera and immediately blurted out, "I gave her a haircut!" She probably wasn't even thinking anything about Vera's hair and here I am giving my daughter a complex.

After all that, I am loving the bob!

Before:


After:

Water Fun

Can you see the problem with this situation?


George!


Water the plants or water the brother, what is more fun?

J Everywhere

Sis and B-i-L get the Funny Award! Uhmmm...how long did this take you? And, were you cracking yourself up?





It was between Sleeping Beauty's castle, the moon, and Antarctica. Antarctica won as my favorite, you have to love the penguins.

Keller's First Hair Cut

Recently, we were swimming in Oma's pool and Keller had a full on Donald Trump comb over happening. It was time for a cut! Kid's Cut, our first time going there, is geared to all things kid and was AWESOME for his first experience. They have a waiting area filled with toys for every age AND as they cut they give the kids a bucket of figurines to search through...or, in the case of Keller, throw and suck on. Additionally, our salonist (Is it horrible that I don't remember her name?) talked and calmed Keller the entire time. It was not an easy task!


So not excited, but hello, he does have his mama's bottom lip.



It was a team effort, with Vera entertaining him with toys and my sis taking pics of his first cut.

I was helping the effort as well...by poking Keller in the eye with a dinosaur. Thank you for getting a pic of that one sis!

Biggest Ice Cream in the WORLD!

McConnell's Ice Cream Store on De La Vina serves the biggest frozen yogurt in the entire world. Vera, Keller, and I are sharing a small...you can choose three different flavors. It is so big and gets so messy that I have started having them drop the whole into a bigger container to control it.

The picture, CC and V just look so darn cute with their hats on, it is so ladies that lunch (or in this case ice cream) together.

Hanging With My New Peeps

Yes, J really does make friends wherever he goes!

J in Jermany

So, what do you do when traveling alone, but you know that your wife likes people or person in travel shots. SELF-SHOT BABY! J utilized this technique over and OVER again in Germany. Doesn't he look like he could just be photoshopped onto different backgrounds?