Snow Pictures

We have had almost a foot of snow on the ground for almost a month, and bitter cold temperatures... but we got outside last week and enjoyed it while we could. It is alot easier to appreciate the snow when you know it is about to disappear! And the funny thing was... this week was the first time I have EVER been excited to see brown grass and mud puddles! :-) e

KIDstuf 2/1/2009 (Howie Manikin)

slightly busy...

Wow... so has it really been 6 months since I posted anything on this blog?! I have been paying more attention to facebook, but mostly, I am just busy! Taking care of the boys constantly keeps me on the verge of just being totally overwhelmed. Brian will be 2 in April, and yet, I still have moments where reality hits and I think "Do I REALLY have 4 sons?!" in a mixture of awe, shock, excitement and horror, all at once! You know I adore them all and would never ever consider doing my life any differently... it is just that I never knew this is where life would take me. SO... outside of the boys, I try to find time for myself too. Not easy, and not abundant, but it does happen on occasion. I love to read or get pedicures or go shopping alone... yes even running errands solo counts as "me-time" sometimes. A couple months ago, a friend at church kind of summed it up when he noticed me NOT holding a child and claimed that he almost didn't recognize me! One thing that I do love doing is helping out with the KIDstuf production at church. I have grown to love it... sometimes it was more stress than it was worth! KIDstuf is a drama production we do every week with music, choreography, skits and all kinds of fun stuff for the kids, all centered on a monthly virtue and a different Bible story every week. I am in charge of The Word, which is the telling of the Bible story. It is usually a skit, but sometimes just a monologue. I re-write or edit a given script to fit in the time allotted, then have to find volunteers to act or do whatever the script calls for. Lining up all of the volunteers and doing all those re-writes can be a little overwhelming at times, but the actual production is so much fun that it makes it worth it... especially when I see my children excited to be there each week. Last week JC was one of my actors in a skit based on Deal or No Deal. I will post my video of that later... it was pretty funny. My video isn't the greatest, but I did what I could. :-) I really want to update this more... and will soon... but duty calls! I will post some pictures next!

Too real to be funny :-)

This is SOOOOO Danny right now....!

"Chee!"

Listen carefully, and you'll hear Brian's first word... Brian saw me hold up the camera, so he said "Cheese!" THAT is his first word (outside of Mama and Dada). Can you believe that?! What a ham.

Vacation Pictures

We just got back from two weeks in San Diego! Awesome time visiting family, not so much fun travelling, but really, what else should you expect when travelling with 4 little boys? United Airlines made things more fun on the way when they cancelled our flight right after we gave up our rental car and while we were en route to LAX... forcing us to find alternative plans and extend our vacation for 2 more days. Luckily, my sister Kathy was gracious and welcoming and put up with all of us again!

While in San Diego, we kept quite busy!! We went to Tony and Tasha's high school graduation, the beach, the San Diego Zoo and Seaworld.

My sister's kids, with my kids!

Here are some pictures from their graduation....

Tony & Tasha are standing, 3rd & 4th from the right...

Tony!

These are from Sea World...

JC, Carlos and Danny went on a couple of the big rides... They LOVED this one!

They were very excited to go on this one... and once they did, they HATED it! Way too scary for them, but hey, at least they tried it once. These pictures are of the car they are actually in. Look for JC's green shirt. Danny is sitting next to him, and Carlos is in the last row.

And these are from the world famous San Diego Zoo...

Summer finally arrives...

The weather FINALLY got above 80 degrees. The boys have been checking the temperature everyday and begging to play in the pool. On Saturday, we finally gave in and JC set up the pool. Personally, I thought the water was freezing, but they loved it!! Guess that is what matters...

Soccer!!!

Here are a couple pictures of Carlos playing soccer this spring...