Plays, bikes, and a big BITE

Today was Alissa's performance. She did great! I got the whole thing on video, that's going to be fun to watch for years to come. Both grandma's came and daddy of course! Alissa was being a real ham, making faces and giggling in her monster mask. What a hoot.

After theater Alissa, Jonathan, and I went with Papa to Wal-Mart and I bought a new bike. Yesterday I bought a Burley d'lite trailer so I can haul the kids around. I am sooo thrilled to have these!! And BOY am I out of shape!! I cruised around with the kiddos and even in the lowest gear I was struggling to make it up hill.. yikes I need to work out. Guess it was good timing on the bike! The kids did well in the trailer, just a couple minor squirmishes but no one got hurt. Before getting the bike I thought I would just love to ride to Roth's and grandma's house.. but that was a bit ambitious as I need to get lots of practice for my poor muscles first.

This evening we went to the BITE with Papa, Grandma Davis, and Bethany. It was great! I had a pulled pork sandwich and turkey drum stick (I'd never had one before and it was great!) and Alissa has noodles. Jon of course nibbled on everything. Then it was on to the rides and games. Alissa walked away with a great big bird, little spider man, and a few other small stuffed animals. She LOVES the caterpillar roller coaster and the kiddy airplanes. I went on the spinning bears with her -- puke. I can't believe I used to like spinning rides.. my equalibrium is all wacko in my old age.

This is a random thing.. but today Alissa said, "Mommy.. Jesus lives with God." I said, "Yes, you are right.. do you know where they live?" Without much thought she said, "In God's house!!".. But of course!! Hehe.. I informed her that God's house was called Heaven. She is starting to understand more about Jesus. If you ask her who he is she says, "He is everywhere." Close enough I suppose.. she's a smart little bugger.

Jonathan has a new word! Well, kind of a word.. he says, "Uh-Oh" plain as day! When he drops something (usually intentionally) he says "Uh-Oh".. its hilarious. He said "ducky" today too. He is pretty verbal already and I love watching him and Alissa interact.. they chase each other around now just belly laughing. What a joy!I better head to bed.. I'm working tomorrow early and kiddos are going to hang with Grandma Davis. Yaahaw..

MONSTERS AND BLOOD!!

Hahaha.. sounds terrible right? Well.. yes and no. First, this is Alissa in her theater class being a scaaaaary monster!! Don't you love the monster claws? I enrolled Ali in her first theater class at AC Gilbert house..it's called "Nursery Rhyme Theatre" and she is having a blast!! I hope she enjoys theater as much as I did.

Curious about the blood? Hehe.. We'll I received a baptism by blood from Jonathan-- Welcome to motherhood with a boy! Jonathan fell face first into a bench and his teeth went through his lip.. youch. He was fine, no doctor needed.. just some cuddles. He had a fat lip last night, but this morning you couldn't even tell he had a spill. So all is well. I survived three and a half years with Alissa without an injury like that one.. boy oh boy it will be interesting with Jonathan.

After class yesterday we picked up "GG" (Matt's Grandma) took take her out to lunch. Lunch ended up being a trip to the beach!! We went to Mo's and chowed down. Afterwords the kids played on the beach. Alissa had a blast!! She chased birds, played in the water, dug in the sand, made me a "hamburger with ice cream on top" from wet sand. It was great!

Jonathan played in the sand for the first time. I had no idea how hard it was to remove sand from a child's mouth -- yikes. He ate half the beach but had a great time doing it. I got lots of pics, I will post them after I load them off my camera.

Birthday's!!

First things first.. this is a picture of Alissa in her new wet suit!! We found it at a yard sale and Ali is in love! It keeps her warm so she can swim in the backyard any time! She is such a string bean she usually turns blue after no time at all -- problem solved!!

We had a fun day today. It was Grandpa George, and Great Grandma Jensen's birthdays so the kids and I went on Birthday Patrol!!

First we stopped by Grandpa George's work and dropped off some yummy treats. Alissa hammed it up a bit when she met his co-workers.. she thinks she is cute, I think she is right. Jonathan was a bit bashful but in terrible need of a nap, so you can't blame him.

After this visit the Birthday Patrol moved on to Dallas where we picked up Great-Grandma Jensen and went out to lunch. We decided on Murphy's. Now, normally that would be a good thing.. but Murphy's is on my bad list now. The food was ok, but expensive.. and that alone wouldn't be so bad but the service was AWFUL. Our waitress hid from us in the kitchen and has quite an attitude. Oooh well, I left a tiny tip so maybe I should thank her for saving me money..hehe. Jonathan has this thing recently with throwing all of his food overboard, it was cute the first 4,000 times.. now it's getting old. Time to put the proverbial foot down and nip this nasty habit. Alissa was a bit rowdy due to lack of nap but she did pretty good.

After lunch we went to Great Grandma Jensen's (sheesh thats a mouth full) house so she could let the neighbors dogs out to piddle. Piddling complete we piled in the car and headed to Eola Hills Winery. We got to see the bottling line which was pretty cool.. but the highlight was definately the Coy pond out back!! WOW! Great big giant coy!! Alissa was in love. She called it "The River" because there was a waterfall.. and hey, when you are 3 a waterfall equals a river any day of the week -- who am I to disagree?? She put her toes in the water for the fish to nibble on.. they weren't interested. Great Grandma says it's because of her stinky feet.. Alissa happily agreed.

After the visit to the coy pond (oh yeah, and the winery too) we headed back to Great Grandma's house and said fairwell. The plan was to head back to Salem so Ali could get some sleep -- but what the heck.. it was already WAY past nap time so we stopped by GG's house for a quick visit. Jonathan ended up falling asleep so Alissa and I ran out to the Dallas Crazy Days thingy at the capitol and got some chow. Yummy chinese (or japenese I never know the difference) and some bbq. Mmmmm! Alissa got a free tape measure from a booth and was pleased as punch all evening.

After dinner we said goodbye to GG and came home just in time to say good morning to Matt! What craaazy hours he has. Then it was off to bed for Alissa who was asleep in .03 seconds.

Birthday Patrol is officially retired. Oh! And if you read this Debbie -- HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! (You too Tom, lol.. )

At work and play...

Don't you just love this picture? Alissa and Grandma Adams running through the sprinkler. Is life good or what??

So on to our day. We woke up, got dressed and fed and headed to the Marion County Fair! I decided I wanted to enter Jonathan in the KBZY Pretty Baby Contest so had to register by 10. I went and picked up Bethany so she could join us, and Grandma Adams met us there.

I entered the contest for fun, and walked out with TWO BLUE RIBBONS! Holy smokes! Jonathan won first prize in the "Baldest Baby" category -- big surprise. And also won first prize in the "Looks Most Like Dad" category. Funny, because Matt didn't come, but the announcer said you could use a picture.. so I whipped out a picture of Matt and VWALLA we have a winner. It was lots and lots of fun.

Alissa got to go on the dragon ride with Grandma -- she LOVED that! The kiddy dragon ride of course, we'll wait a few years for the big one. She also rode on the kiddy car ride -- she chose the Big Foot monster truck.

I stopped by the PRO-LIFE booth and got a new bumper sticker for my car, it says "Abortion does not make you UN-Pregnant - but it does make you the mother of a dead baby." Pretty powerful statement. We also picked up a couple of fetuses (the little plastic ones supposed to represent I think 13wk old fetus) for the kids. It was hilarious, when I picked up the kids from Grandma Davis house in the evening after work and put them in their respective car seats -- Jonathan and Alissa both were playing with their fetuses.. Grandma Davis thinks we are nuts!! Hehe. On the way home, Alissa say "Mommy, what should I name my fetus?" I about died laughing. Some parents give their kids baby dolls.. we just give ours fetuses.. tooooo funny.

So anyway, after the fair I dropped off the kids at Grandma Davis' and headed to the office to do some billing work. I came up with a system and think I'm doing pretty good. It's nice to need skills other then diaper changing! :) After work and Grandma's it was home and sleep! The kids are pooped. It was a good day.

Tomorrow we plan on going back to the fair with Matt! Fun times! Until next time, hasta la vista.........

Busy busy busy...

I haven't blogged in a bit since Jonathan found his legs.. wanna guess why? Man this kid keeps me on my toes. :) As far as goings on, George lost his brother on the 5th suddenly.. I never got to meet Dave, but he sounds like a wonderful person. It would be so hard to go through such a loss. It really makes you re-evaluate your relationships.. people can be gone in the blink of an eye.

I have been doing odd jobs for Mid-Valley Interpreter Services, Inc.. learned how to do billing today and plan on going in once a week to help with this. I also take calls for 1 hour a day (12-1). Pretty easy stuff, and it feels SO good to be bringing in some money. Best of all it is not taking away from my kids. They get to hang out with a grandma one day a week, I'm sure I won't be hearing a lot of complaining from them.

Matt has been working graveyard again since the 1st, so we are all adjusting to this. He leaves for work at 9:30ish at night and returns about 8:30 in the morning. It is strange being alone every night.. well, I have kiddos, a big stinky dog, and a miserable cat.. but not the same without hubby. He likes this shift because he gets the most action..

Grandpa George brought Alissa a Curious George monkey dressed as a policeman from California.. when we got home today Alissa ran up to Daddy and said, "Look! It's a monkey and he looks just like you Daddy!" LOL.. she meant the police uniform I'm sure.. hehe. Jonathan got a Puff the Magic Dragon stuffed thing.. very cute. We went to Grandma Adams house for dinner tonight, yummy pork tenderloin from the grill. Mmmmm.. Alissa enjoyed feeding Pete and Wheelie her icecream after dinner.. and Jonathan enjoyed throwing all of his brocolli overboard to the dogs. Fun times.

I really really love watching my kids grow and learn.. and experience life. They are such amazing people already, I can't wait to see what they will do when they are older. I want so badly to be a good mom, and I kick myself when I make mistakes.. I just hope the kids are forgiving and know that I love them. George was telling me about his mom at the funeral for his brother, and how hard it was on her.. and even now I shiver to think that that could be me some day.. My only prayer is that my kids out live me.. how horrible to bury a child.. even a grown child. I just love them so much I can't imagine the void a parent must feel when they lose a child. Anyways, I will be snuggling extra close tonight with the kids.. I'm thinking about grabbing Ali from bed and dragging her into my room, poor kid.. has to deal with a clingy emotional mommy! Nah.. I will let her be. Maybe. :) What an incredible journey this life is. I feel so blessed that God has given my these two perfect human beings to hold and guide and help grow. I hear all the time people talking about their horrible childhoods.. I want so badly for my kids to grow up.. look back and smile. I want them to talk about how much fun it was being a kid -- how much their parents loved them-- how their childhood was full of warm memories and laughter. This is my prayer tonight Lord -- help me to provide them with this childhood.. guide me and give me strength. Give me the right words to instill in them a love for You and fill their hearts with joy every day. AMEN .. and goodnight.

OMG Jonathan is RUNNING

Jonathan just decided today that walking was too slow for him. He is RUNNING all over my house. Chasing the dog, the cat, his sister, me.. Ooooh boy do I have some serious babyproofing to catch up on. Here is a quick video taken with my phone. Sheesh.. not even 11 months old yet!! This kid is nuts.