Return of the Nudy Dance!

The day started out normal kids playing laughing and enjoying their selves. Well Cassidy is our nudy child. She's the one kid that will strip down and run wild. After she does her nudy dance where she shakes her hips side to side singing "nudy, nudy." So once she striped down our Porter and Aubrey thought it was funny and decided to join in. Naomi and Chi couldn't let them have all the fun so they all took a piece of clothing off and ran wild. They were laughing like it was going out of style. Silly kids! I can assure you none of the adults joined in. \"/

"I'm 40% sure this is the San Diego Zoo"

Of coarse it's the San Diego Zoo! (For all you Madagascar 2 fans Melman the Giraffe keeps thinking they are in San Diego and says the quote I used for the title) This was the 1st trip to the zoo for my kids as well as Nate and Jenny's kids. Jenny and I took the kids for the day. They were such troopers with all the walking, but had soooo much fun seeing all the cool animals.

Giddy up Polar Bear!

Cassi and Aubrey hanging out in the stroller.

We got to see the cute Panda.

This is my favorite animal the Elephant. They are amazing!!!

What a day... ya all come back ya hear.

We're waiting!!!

Malachi, Naomi, Cassidy, Porter, and Aubrey all ready to jump in the pool. The hardest part was waiting for it to heat.
We went into the hot tub one of the first few nights. All the kids were so anxious to get in.

Naomi swimming like a fish.

Malachi goes in for the dunk over Uncle Nate.

"No fear" Aubrey jumps right in to Nate.

Let the games begin!

Jenny, Porter and Aubrey.

The kids love to swim so we decided to heat the pool for a day of swimming. They were in and out a few times that day. It was a lot of fun.

Did You See The Junk Drawer?

I came to the conclusion today I can no longer handle having jobs half done in our home. Since I cleaned out the laundry room this week I wanted to finish by cleaning out the junk drawer. So I spent a good hour cleaning it out and yes organizing it. I am very obsessive about being organized. Everything has a place in my home. So after completing this project I felt pretty good about our laundry room. About an hour later Darren and I were in the kitchen and I said, "Did you see the junk drawer?" His answer was "Did you see I took the trash out?" My answer: "Touche." Even though we complete these little projects and feel good about tackling them. They usually are thankless and go unnoticed. So here's to all you junk drawer people! May we continue in our little thankless, yet needed organizing of our homes. \"/

We're Yellow Belts!

Malachi and Naomi started taking Karate in November. They just tested for their yellow belts this month and passed. They were so excited. Now all they do is go around the house yelling "Ay" which they are asked to do when they kick or punch. So they are loving Karate so much I wake up to a loud "Ay". They love to practice all hours of the day.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

When I was a kid we would have Special Nights. We would get to stay up late and do something special with our mom or dad. So I wanted to start implementing that in my family. So one day each week one kid gets their special night. So today was Naomi's special night. She has really wanted to fly her kite the last week or so, but there has not been enough wind. Well today was windy (and cold) but not raining yet. So I got the kite out and said lets go. We went down to the park and I taught her how to fly a kite. At first she was pretty nervous to take the kite by herself, but she did it. She had a lot of fun. Her smile was priceless. Kite flying, what a great pass time. Well after a good amount of time the rain started to fall. So we packed up and walked home in the rain. It was fun to have the one on one time with Naomi and I look forward to the next special night with the next kid.

TWISTED!

Our family are huge gamers. Even the kids love games. Naomi got Twister for her b-day. The kids thought it was the funnest.

Easy does it. Cassidy falling over trying to reach for a spot.

All that game playing tuckered Cassidy right out. She fell asleep in our bed for a nice long nap.

Break time!

Malachi loves games so much he couldn't resist a new one. Even if it's called Pretty Pretty Princess. He said it was all Prince Jewelry. Right!

Naomi's Princess Party! (5 yrs old)

This is the cake that consumed my life. (alright a few days of my life) Naomi wanted a princess party so when we saw this cake set I thought I could figure it out. Why I thought that I don't know. Let me put the disclaimer out that I am not a cake maker, nor do I have a talent in this field. So I stressed myself out over this silly cake for a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. Needless to say it came together, not as well as I had hope. I was literally putting the sprinkles on the cone tops while kids were arriving. So all the fun details like flowers and stuff didn't even come to pass. I don't know why I thought I would have a few hours of time to decorate a cake with a new born, a 2 yr old and a 5 yr old at home. The kids liked it and it tasted good. I guess that's all that matters.
Naomi blowing the candles out.

Even though it took forever to make it took minutes to destroy. Again why do we do these things to ourselves?

This was a really cool pinata. For those of us who feel it is actually dangerous to place a baseball bat in the hands of a 5 year old, blindfold them and let them start swinging than this is the pinata for you. It has a bunch of curling ribbon at the bottom and one is the special ribbon that releases a trap door where all the candy is stored. So the kids line up and take turns pulling their string. It's safe, it's fun, and they can see what's going on.

One of the games that we played was the infamous egg on the spoon game. But this game was with plastic eggs and a bean bag egg inside. The egg is designed to break open when it hits the floor. Great Target find. It was fun.

Musical balloon. Instead of them fighting over a chair we passed a balloon around. When the music stops whoever had the balloon was out.

Present time!

Princess Naomi had a great time with great friends!

And you wonder why Grandpa has a bad back. 3 of the grandkids got their piggy back ride from Grandpa who came up for the party.

Ashes, ashes we all fall down. Or his back gave out? No I think this is where Malachi and him were wrestling.

Tooth Great Firsts, I Mean Two Great Firsts!

Malachi received an academic achievement award in reading. His teacher picked him and did cute little write up on him that I listed below:

"Malachi, I think I want to call you Sponge Bob Reader Pants because every time you read a book you soak it up like a sponge and want more to read!

Malachi has made a tremendous amount of growth in reading thus far in First Grade. I'll tell you it has not come easy for him but through his hard work and perseverance he now is a successful reader.

Malachi is passing his sight word list each week, scoring 100% on his spelling tests, and keeps reminding Mrs. Medina his Phonics book is too easy!

Malachi, you are a wonderful reader and I am so proud of your efforts that I guess I will have to give you that second grade Phonics book, is today okay? Excellent job!" Mrs. Medina

(Picture above is Malachi with Mrs. Medina)

This was so fun for him because the kids don't know that they are getting the award and the letter is read in front of the whole school. We're so proud of you Chi!

We were at Pat and Oscars last night for dinner and Malachi keep telling us he had some chicken caught in his teeth. When Darren looked he told him it wasn't chicken he had a loose tooth. Malachi hasn't lost a tooth yet so this was a little scary and exciting for him. He keep wiggling away at it last night and finally went to bed. This morning it was pretty loose after breakfast so he got a tissue and mommy pulled it out. The first thing he said was "Yea now I can eat fudge bars again." (Darren ate one when we got home and Chi was afraid to have one because of his tooth) Now he's ready for the tooth fairy to come tonight.