k parents... one thing i have been working on this past year is being "present" with my kids. I hope u will join me. In fact yesterday it was so awesome when moms and more (women's church group) talked about this topic and it spoke right to my heart and confirmed what i have been feeling and trying to do in my own home. So here it is....

Put down the phone, turn off the comp., turn off the t.v., ignore the faxes emails, text etc!
lets interact with our kids and lets teach them to enjoy "play" !

I pray you all will join in and teach our kids that there is way better stuff to do then to be glued to technology. And spend some real quality time with them while they r still willing to play with us and want our attention.:)

play a game, go on a scavenger hunt, read a book or 2 or 5, make lunch together, color, play dough....etc.

I know i am guilty of just handing Sarah her phone (my old iPhone) in the past and just letting her get lost in the games. which can be great learning tools as well! But now I have been more structured with it and with the t.v. We allow 1 hour of t.v. a day and on a stay at home day I allow 2hrs. which usually means one show for sarah and one show for Sophia in the morning while we "wake-up" and then a show for Sarah during "rest time" in her room. and then the rest of the time we r paling and Im practicing being "present" with her. I also spend a whole afternoon each week setting up school lessons and busy bags for Sarah. I have folders for everyday that i can set in front of her and she can go through them and do a bunch of activities the subjects we do is writing, math, tracing, coloring, cutting, matching, memorizing. etc. Our busy bags consist of little projects I've collected from the dollar section at target or michaels and Joanns. I also put a puzzle in there and I also have these really cool magnetic play sets which she loves.
Anyway this was my goal for the past year and will continue this till Sarah goes to Kindergarden. Im not ready to let her go to real school yet! ahhhhhh

When the sickness passes...

The windows are open doors opened and the house is filling with fresh air and everything is cleaned and vacuumed and mopped and the laundry is washing. Everything is getting germ free and it feels wonderful.
You might say I have a problem with germs. I'm kinda a germaphobe (?) I have to clean quite often prob more then the average. I used to spend a lot of my time wondering if this is normal or if it was a result of living with my mom whom I love lots but she is a neat freak herself.Now ive just accepted myself for who i am... Lol r u proud of me?
I'm hoping I'm normal but then again what is "normal" anyway? I think we r all a bit crazy and abnormal. I like things clean that's ok right? I know I'm a mom with three kids so I should just let the mess happen right? Well I do with toys and such but not dirt. I can't handle dirt. I prob clean my floors 2x a day cause in my silly brain i know there is a good chance someone will eat off the floor or lick it knowing my kids. And there are rarely dishes in my sink and if there is a sink full of dishes there is easily an explanation and it's usually either I'm sick or one of the kids are (thank goodness that seems to be rare) We dont allow shoes in the house and and I still prob vacuum 3x a week.
Oh but my room is kinda the exception. I'm not afraid to share my dirty little secret... My room is the "dump all" place. Partly because there is always a baby sleeping in there or my husband who sleeps during the day so I can't really put things away so I just leave piles here and there of things that need to be filed or put away in drawers. So if you ever come over don't go in my room! Lol and if you do I warned you!!
But let me tell you my down fall, it's laundry!! I HATE laundry.! In fact my friend had the most awesome idea and that was that I would bring all my dirty laundry over and we would both have a huge Bon fire! Yea that would be awesome!! Well if we had a bunch of $$ to go buy new stuff it would have been a great problem solver right? Lol
I do not enjoy it at all! People have said it therapeutic to fold laundry... If your one of those people I've got lots for u to come do any time you need some therapy! Seriously anytime! :-)
Can't wait till the girls r older and I can give each a chore to do! Those will be the days! I already have it planned out
Sarah: laundry (she already folds the best)
Sophia: car washer (cause she loves music so she can blast it while she washes)
Sydney: dishes (I think she already like the sink since she loves her baths there)
Mommy: taking a bubble bath!!

Why do think I had kids? Duh!!!

Playing dress up with hair clips

Sometimes a girl can't have enough hair accessories
Sophia wanted all these in hair she asked for more and more and more

After.....

Do you like?

Plastic surgery?

This is me before... I decided to have a "little" work done... I know I'm only 29 but it's never to late to start right? I mean come on it was bound to happen at some point I do live in So Cal.!

Happy girl

My girl loves her stationary play thingy

Sick days....

I'm grateful for they don't come around here very often. My poor Sarah princess pie woke up this morning around 1am throwing up. After mommy did alot of cleaning and changing of sheets (needless to say I only went to bed a couple of hours prior) we snuck downstairs and watched a movie and she continued to throw up :( my poor girlie. I hate seeing my baby sick and something this mommy (who wants to fix everything) can't.!! Isn't that the most frustrating thing about motherhood? We can't fix it all and sometimes we have to watch our babies suffer :(
I took the night shift so to speak. I needed husband to be rested enough to help out today so I stayed up and nurtured our baby girl. Fed Sydney a couple of times and then crawled into bed about 5ish and woke up hubby to go down and be with Sarah. I think I got a couple of hours of sleep... Maybe?
Sarah has been sleeping for a few hours now let's hope it's a few more. I am doing lots of praying and spraying. Yep you read that right. Walking around praying over my family and spraying everything they touch with Lysol. Windows and doors open and fan on so we can kill and air out bad germs.
And let's not forget to mention I'm on my second cup of coffee and maybe even a 3rd later today. Its time like this I will admit I wish Sydney wanted formula. Then I can be all hyped up on caffeine and it wouldn't affect anyone but me. but ok ok ok I won't do it... Yet. Lol hehehe
Ok well our spirits r still up as of now. But we r accepting prayers for us today. Never really ask for much but this I would so appreciate :-)
And I know this is silly but when I post it on Facebook it really does help when people respond saying they will pray. I love having that quick instant connection with friends from all over.
Thanks friends

Theme of today... Let it be and pick it up later

So our days have slowed down and I am choosing to enjoy them! It is officially 1 yr till our lives get busy with drop off and pick up from school for Sarah and I am choosing to enjoy these days where we don't have to be anywhere! Of course except my moms groups at church and our occasional co-op preschool group 2x a month. But besides that our theme for our days it relax and enjoy each other! So we have been enjoying our home a lot and my girls love staying home and playing with their toys and coloring and playing with sidewalk chalk and paints and playdough.... You name it they love it. I spend a lot of my day watching them enjoy these messy days and I know these days will be in the past some day and I want to look back and know that I throughly enjoyed em. My girls have brought me such joy and I'm so grateful for them.! Who knew I would have three 3 girls to raise? Not me! Lol I never imagined I would have these three little blessings calling me mommy and looking up to me and depending on me to feed em bathe em and love em.! My goodness that's a lot to ask of me and I can only bring it back to one point. That God must love me so much and trust in me so much to give these girls to me and my husband.
With that said.... I am by no means a perfect mommy I loose my cool like everyone else and somedays I have zero patients for the "kid" stuff and sometimes I wonder if I am doing a good job at this job I was given and I pray I don't fail and I pray God guides me through this gracefully and calmly and that I hope other people will also see how I am trying and I also hope people see I'm not perfect but that I am doing my best at being a good mommy and I wake up every morning with the same thoughts and prayers that today I will show my children Grace. And that I will remind myself throughout the day that it is an absolute honor to be their mommy and that I get to serve them.! That's a huge thing and words can almost not describe how I feel about this honor.

Thanks Sarah

Sisters

Sometimes this is how life is and u gotta smile thru it

My sweet wake up call

Sydney is getting older

She is learning to use a bottle here and there and sometimes we have good luck and other times well its just not gonna happen.

Sometimes naps r just so good

This is a test post from my iPhone :)

Im back..... again!

 Ok I'm back on the blog land wagon... 

I have a voice and I wanna be heard! lol jk!! (kinda) I am feeling a little like i need a outlet to express how I feel and a way to do that is through my blog I guess so here I go again trying to say ill keep up with this but who knows my life gets so busy for a while and i barley have the time to eat and then all of a sudden I find myself bored with nothing to do so I have decided I need to blog and maybe even set up a alarm to blog just so I can vent and also have a place to look back on to remember where I was and how life used to be with tiny babies.... hmmmmm life sure does fly by. 

Lets see, Sarah a.k.a girl#1 is growing like a weed and is fastly approaching 5!! omg!! 5!!! We can't believe our little baby is all grown up (tear) lol she can't wait to go to kindergarden and asks almost everyday is its time yet. lol I originally thought we would homeschool but I have really learned to rely on God for his direction on what would be best for each of our kids and for Sarah I think she will thrive lots in a school setting and I will also continue to do some schools stuff at home. I love teaching her new things and I have throughly enjoyed homeschooling her for preschool and so fun to see how fast she is learning and almost reading! She amazes me with asking to do more school work, more art projects and wants more books to be read to her. Man I love that girl #1.

As for Sophia she is 19 months old!! can u believe it? girl #2 is growing into a toddler and a very fast and speedy one at that. This girl just started walking at 18 months old! can u believe it? we can hardly believe this little girl of ours who was so content not walking over night decided to take of on her own. don't get me wrong she has been taking steps and cruising since she was 13months old but never really wanted to walk on her own. some  people have been very judgmental throughout this process with her believe it or not and I have kinda learned a lot from this experience and have learned to ignore it unless its helpful or kind or supportive advice. until you have been here you will probably never understand what its like but in the end everything worked out and our little Sophia is just fine! :) Sophia is such blessing to us all she is and has been a great baby and at 19mohts old she still takes two naps and is prob gonna drop one soon but in the mean time I'm enjoying it since i have another little baby. 

Now for girl #3 yep #3!!! she is Sydney hear her ROAR lol she is a loud one for sure :) in fact i hear her calling for me right now.... lol she must have heard me typing about her.... She can wait a few right? nah ill go get her don't worry, lol!! ok where was I? right the "noisiest" ok well she is 4 1/2 months now and man o man is she such a cutie pie! she was a handful the first 2 months of her life and wouldn't let me put her down but she has since mellowed out and calmed down and learned to sooth herself with those fingers of hers and has been such a joy to us all. she loves to talk talk talk and loves to watch her big sisters yell and play and laugh... she is also quite ticklish! she loves to be tickled and laughs so loud! we love it she fits right in! 

we are all adjusting to life with 3 crazy silly girls! Life is such a roller coaster seriously it is! we love this life we have been blessed with!

Life day to day is busy to say the least. our day looks like this....

wake time for mommy and Sydney is usually around 8ish COFFEE time!

Wake time for Soph and Sarah between 8:30-9:30 and then we all eat breakfast and watch a tv show with mommy (daddy too whens he's off)

Sydney naps from 9-11

School time for Sarah she does a folder of work (I set up for her each day of the week).

Sophia naps from 10-12:30 

Lunch all around

play outside if it isn't to hot or go to the store if i need to run errands,nap for sydney (time depends on how long we go out for)

nap for Sophia usually around 4:30-6

so in between 4:30-6 mommy prepares for dinner Sydney usually naps

Sarah does a project or plays with play dough keeping me company in the kitchen

wake Sophia

dinner is at 6:30

Sydney bed @7:25

baths for Sophia and Sarah 7:30pm 

bed for soph 7:45

Sarah bed 8:15 - 8:30

mommy time till Sydney's next feeding at 11ish-12ish.

bed for me and my girl till the next feeding 3 or 4 ish then again @ 6 or 7 then sleep till 8 and up for the next day....(i know i stay up late but if i don't ill never get alone time lol) 

and repeat.... lol!

phew!! 

our days r packed with our routine and I love it. it works for us.

till the next time....