Meet Penny...

Penny loves Jack, and I think he loves her too!

The most common question I have answered over the last week has been, "Are you crazy?"  And I do believe the answer is a resounding YES! 

Gunner and Penny

So, our family of seven now includes three children (five, three, and eight months) and two lab puppies (9 months and 9 weeks)...let's just say I'm praying for my sanity ;)

Bobbing for toys

Jack is just now stable enough to sit up in the tub without dumping over...and he has a BLAST! I think this is sort of the baby equivalent of bobbing for apples, just splash around enough and a toy will come to you!

The song that doesn't end...

For two months before Christmas, Michael (and eventually Savannah as she picked it up) sang a song to the tune of 10 Little Indians depicting the story of Christ's birth...it went a little something like this: Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem riding on a donkey...and on and on for about 10 versus. It was very catchy, and while I appreciated how well it taught Michael and Savannah the Christmas story, I was so thankful for Christmas to end so we could hopefully move on from hearing the song at least 40 times a day.
It has since been replaced with this song:

And while they are very cute singing it, the song HAS NO CLEAR ENDING! It goes ON and ON and ON until one of screams to be quiet!
Oh, how I miss the days of Mary and Joseph, the donkey, and the Wise Men traveling from the "ornament"!!

RAK '11

I know, I know. I said I wasn't big on resolutions, but I think this is definitely worth giving a shot: Random Acts of Kindness for the big kids.
I sort of thieved this from my wonderfully creative friend Lori, with her permission of course, because I was sort of disheartened by Michael and Savannah's greediness this past holiday season. Yes, I am aware that this sort of greediness is perfectly normal for 3 and 5 year olds, but I cringed every time they would ask if someone was bringing them a present or said "I want that" for every toy commercial on TV. I tried fostering their giving spirit by helping them clean out their toys before Christmas and explaining that we would be donating them to children who don't have as many toys as they have...and they were surprisingly generous with what they were willing to give up for a good reason.

Lori's idea is this: fill a bag with the names of all the people Michael and Savannah know. Once a week (our day will be Monday) Michael and Savannah pick one name from the bag and do something kind for that person.

Michael and I talked today about this idea and, after the basic discussion about what it means to be kind, the conversation went something like this:
Me: What is something kind you could do for Grandma or Lovey?
Michael: Ummm...draw a picture of me and Gunner and Jack and you?
Me: That's a great idea! They could hang the picture on their refrigerator! What about for your teacher, Miss Lisa?
Michael: Ummm...draw a picture?
Me: Let's try to think of another idea. What about taking her a yummy muffin for breakfast?
Michael: Yeh, that's a good idea. She could eat it at snack time.
Me: Ok, what about for Miss Angie (mommy of our friends across the street)?
Michael: How 'bout drawing a picture of me eating a muffin?
Me: HAHAHAHA!

Anyway, we will be giving this a shot tomorrow! I will let you know how it goes:)

End of 2010 Slideshow

2011...a new start with the blog?

{Sweet baby Jack and his new favorite toy, sitting all by himself!}

First off, happy new year! I'm really not a fan of resolutions since I rarely follow though for a whole year, but since things here are finally calming down after the chaos that was 2009, I guess I will give it a shot with several manageable resolutions.

{escaping the house after a long day of rain to splash in the puddles}

First, I will try to keep this blog updated more often. It seems that with Facebook so easily accessible, I don't really take the time to sit down and write about what we have going on. I like the idea of blogging if for no other reason than keeping a record of all the little things that happen as the kids grow up that I don't want to forget: the milestones, the funny things they say, precious videos that I don't want to get lost in the hundreds of files I have saved...

{Jack really crawling, almost seven months old}

Second, I am running a half marathon and challenging myself to be more active this year! As of right now, I am planning to run this half marathon http://www.sandiegozoo.org/halfmarathon/ on March 13th...and yes, that is 13.1 miles and only two months away!! Good luck, right?

Stephen and I are also signed up to run the "World Famous MARSOC Mud Run" at Camp Pendleton on June 5th. You can check it out here http://camppendletonraces.com/mud_sat.html. The Mud Run is a challenging 10K run with hills, tire obstacles, river crossings, two 5-foot walls with mud on both sides, tunnel crawl, slippery hill climb, and the final 30-foot mud pit. We are on two teams with Stephen's Captain and his wife and as grueling as it sounds, I am actually looking forward to it! If you recall, I ran an ordinary 10K two years ago and though it might do me in, so this should be AWESOME;)

Finally, I am resolving to get back to cooking fresh and healthy meals. I really love cooking and don't pretend to be any good at it, but it makes me happy! Stephen bought me a subscription to my favorite magazine, Cooking Light, for Christmas and I can't wait for it to start arriving in our mailbox. That's about it from here...I will leave you with a video of Jack, who just cut his first tooth yesterday, destroying a banana! I needed a fire hose to clean him up after this.