long time no post.

I just realized that I have not blogged in a long time!!! I guess I will just do a quick update to catch up.

We are all doing well. the girls are growing and changing everyday. Amber is now 9 months old. She is "army crawling" all over the place. She has two teeth and one on the way! She knows how to wave, clap and stick out her tongue. She is full of giggles and smiles and loves playing with her big sister. She has recently found her screaming voice and every once and awhile she will let out an ear piercing scream that leaves my ears ringing and her giggling with her success. She is doing really well on soild foods and it has been fun for me because I am making all my own baby food for her. She pretty much will eat anything, which may be the reason why she is HUGE. Almost weighing 20 pounds and now wears 12 months clothes. I think she may pass peyton up soon.

Peyton is now 2 1/2. When she turned two I thought that maybe we were going to escape the terrible two curse. She has always been such an easy kid to deal with. Well 2 1/2 rolled around and watch out! Not that she is NOT a good kid because she is, but she is just testing the waters, as my mom would say, so some days are more challenging than others as far as her sassy attitude goes but she is a joy to be around most days. She is so so smart, already knows the whole alphabet and the sounds of all the letters which allows her daddy to work with her to try to sound out words. Not joking you she sounded out the word cat the other night. don't believe me just come over and witness it ;) . She recently started gymnastics and loves it, to the point of not being able to sleep at night she is so excited about going. She is fully potty trained. We did a three day potty training boot camp and that did the trick. She dosen't even wear a pull up at night and hasn't had an accident in weeks!!!

Brandon started working on his masters again. He is taking two classes, one of them is a weekend class which leaves me alone alot with the girls but I try to stay busy and thanks to our wonderful friends here in Santa Cruz so far we have found fun and exciting things to do every weekend he has been away.

Well that is a short catch up but I will try to keep my blog up to date from now on. (yea right ;) )

A cup of coffee...

Don't get me wrong I love my life. Being a mom is not only rewarding its lots and lots of fun! But there are moments like this morning that the only thing that gets me through is taking long, deep, breaths.
Warning: Don't read on unless you care a whole lot about my day to day life because its sort of laborious. (I warned you)
After a long night of kids crying and a tooth ache keeping me awake my husband got up with the kids and let me sleep in until 9am. Which I was delighted about. He and Peyton came into my room to wake me up so Brandon could leave for work. Peyton leaped up onto the bed and gave me a huge hug and said "Mommy wake up...I missed you." Needless to say she melted my heart and I got up with a smile on my face. Staggered into the kitchen looking for the coffee pot and started a pot of boiling water for my oatmeal. I noticed that the baby and Aunt Laurie were still asleep and Peyton was happily watching a tv show so I was looking forward to enjoying a quiet moment with my cup of coffee. Just as the coffee started perking Brandon came in to kiss me and peyton good bye and left for work. (I am always a little jealous at this time of day but alas...)
I hear the baby starting to cry so I look at the coffee pot and see it needs a few more min to finish so I go in to get the baby up. I soon realize she is NOT a happy girl. She had her 6 months round of shots the day before and I could feel she was warm with a low grade fever and probably a bit sore. Poor baby I pick her up and try to comfort her but she is not having it. Screaming I noticed that she was also cutting her first tooth. Delighted at the sight of her first tooth I smiled at her and she stopped and smiled back before she continued on with her crying. I took her out to the kitchen and sat her in her highchair and handed her a cold teething ring to munch on. That seemed to calm her so I looked back at the coffee pot. Its finished and ready...hurray! My water for the oatmeal is boiling too so I pour in the oatmeal flakes and some apples and start to stir. Just then Peyton comes skipping into the kitchen exclaiming that she would like to get dressed. BY HERSELF! "Were is my coat?", Were is my pants", "I get dressed by myself!" I tell her "Peyton, mommy is busy right now. she is trying to eat breakfast." "NO...I get dressed" (throwing herself onto the ground) I normally don't give into this behavior but at that moment all I wanted to do was eat and have a cup of coffee. So I go into her room pull out a coat, some pants, sunglasses and shoes and tell her to get dressed. I figured that would keep her busy for awhile. As I walked out of her room and decided to stop into Laurie's room to see if she was ready to get up and have some oatmeal with me. The moment I walked into her room I smelled it. The unmistakable smell of urine. Sure enough she had wet her bed. (A rare occurrence but it does happen) Deep Breaths...I quickly get her out of bed and into the bathroom for a shower. I pull off her sheets put them in the wash and hear the baby starting to cry again. So I pull her out of her high chair make her a bottle and lay her on her boppy. (luckily she can now hold her own bottle now) I pass by the coffee pot and see that the red light is still on, happy at the sight that at least it is not getting cold. I go back into the bathroom and get laurie into the shower. Peyton comes walking into the bathroom with one arm of her jacket on, her shorts around her neck and pair of sunglasses upside down on her head. "What are you doing mommy?" "I am giving Laurie a shower" I smell she is poopie but that will have to wait. I finish laurie's shower and begin to get her dressed all the while hearing the baby crying...again. I leave Laurie for a moment to check on the baby and see that she had finished her bottle and was not happy about it. So I put her in her walker with some toys to play with and run back into the bathroom...still not happy. I finished with Laurie and get her into the kitchen for some oatmeal, that is now cold. Baby still crying. So I pick her up and take her into her crib to see if she will fall asleep to take her out of her misery. I go back into the kitchen and see Peyton again. She was walking around the living room so proud that she had dressed herself I had to stop and find my camera to snap a picture. Baby still crying. I go back into the room to give baby back her pacifier and grab some clothes and a diaper for peyton. I change Peyton's diaper and get her properly dressed for the day and turn back into the kitchen and realize that Laurie had spilled her drink all over the table and kitchen floor. Deep breaths...I clean up the mess and sit laurie in the living room chair where she seems happy watching peyton dance around the room to "Yo Gabba Gabba". I stop myself for a moment take a deep breath and realize that the baby must have fallen asleep at some point, peyton was happy watching her show and laurie was happy watching her so maybe now was the time I could finally get my cup of coffee I walk into the kitchen coffee light still on. I pour my cup just the way I like it with cream and sugar and take a drink. It is Delicious! Hot, creamy and sweet. I sit down close my eyes and enjoy this moment. With every sip I feel more and more alive like it was assuring me that I was going to make it through the day. With two sips left of my cup I felt like I could muster up the energy to begin to think about cleaning up the kitchen when I hear the baby start to cry... again... Deep Breaths...Is it wrong that at that moment I was actually looking forward to the babysitter coming so that I could go my dentist apointment?

The girl's first boat ride!

During our trip to San Diego to visit Brandon's family we took a ferry ride to Cornado Island. It was the first time both girls had been on a moving boat. So it was really exciting for them (and for mom) Amber loved it. She laughed and giggled the whole way because of the wind. She kept lifting her arms up to feel the wind blowing. It was pretty cute. Peyton liked it too but was a little scared at first. She held on to Auntie B's arm very tightly but had a smile on her face the whole ride.





Cute video of Amber and Mimi blowing in the wind! :)

A Tribute to My Mom

Today is my mom's birthday. I won't post her age on here but it is a good one and it ends in a 0 :). I stayed up all night making this video for her. The goal was to make her cry but while putting it together it made me cry! Whenever I see pictures of my childhood or think about the memories I always get choked up because I realize how very blessed I was to be born into this family. When I think of me as a little girl I get warm fuzzies. :) My childhood was just that good! Don't get me wrong we had our fair share of trials, for example I lost all four of my grandparents in the span of two years. But even during that time I have good memories because everything we did my mom was sure to make it fun! She went out of her way to make us feel safe, secure and loved! My only wish is that I will be half the mom my Mom was. I also hope that I look as good as she does when I get to her age. My mom is beautiful and anyone will say so! (Even my guy friends in highschool thought so! :) ) So this is a tribute to my mom! She deserves it for all the warm fuzzy memories our family has. I hope this video captures a glimpse of my mom's heart, because it is big! :) I love you mom!

"The Girls"

Anybody who knows me at all knows that I have a group of friends in my life whom call themselves "The Girls". We have been "The Girls" for over a decade now starting when we all met freshman year of college. (Lindsay and I have been friends since high school) I feel so lucky to have these girls in my life. Not everyone has friendships like this and I don't take for granted that these friends have been there to see me grow up. They knew me before marriage and kids and I love that they never let me forget who I am. Through the years life has taken us all in different directions but we have still kept our friendship alive. Last year ALOT of big changes happened to all of us. I had a 2nd baby and moved to santa cruz and Jes moved to Nashville. I am not going to lie there were days that I was sad because I doubted that our friendship would last through the changes but last week we got the oportunity to meet up again in good old LA and had a few days to spend together. All my fears where gone the moment we all group hugged and started off again like we had never left eachother. I could cry just thinking about how special these girls are to me. I picture the four of us as old ladies and still meeting up somewhere in this world to group hug and continue on like we had never left. I love you girls more than you will ever know! Can't wait until 5th annual GGW 2009!

The 1st Annual Strawberry Day!

Gizdich ranch is a farm here in Santa Cruz that you can go and pick your own seasonal fruit. The Marchassault's had gone and told us how much fun it was so they were kind enough to go again with us. It was a delicious day all around. here are some fun pics of our strawberry adventure.

The Dad's took it upon themselves to carry the babies they did not apreciate us wives calling them "cute" but we could not help ourselves, don't you agree?
Caleb and Peyton LOVED running through the fields and picking strwaberries they even ate a few right off the bush...shhhhh don't tell :)
My pretty strawberry girl. Yes I put this dress on her because I knew how cute the pictures would be in it. hey atleast I admit it! :)


this pretty much sums up their relationship....awwww black mail for the jr high years!
this is a picture that peyton drew of the strawberry fields. When I asked her about it she told me they were sad strawberries. I asked her why they where sad she said because they lost their mommy and daddy. I was confused by this until I told my friend sarah about what she said. She thinks in Peyton's head we ate the mommy and daddy strawberry's and left the babies still in the field. Makes sense? what do you think?
that night we decided to have a strawberry feast back at our house so the kids played while we made dinner.

Strawbwrry margaritas, strawberry salsa over grilled chicken and strawberry salad. Yum! And of course we did not forget dessert!
Such a wonderful day with good friends and strawberrys nothing could be sweeter. We had such a good day we decided to make it a tradition. hopefully there will be several more strawberry days in the years to come with us and the Marchassaults!

Father's Day and Dedication

On Father's Day we had are two girls dedicated before the church. We never had Peyton dedicated so it was special to do both girls together. Even though Brandon and I dedicated our girls to the lord the moment they were born it is always special to do it publicly and in front of a body of Christ knowing that we have accountability and support from others. During the dedication our pastor presented us with a red rose bush. the bush represents new life because it was full of new little rose buds and the red of the rose represents the blood of Christ over this new life. I am trying really hard not to kill the bush! So far I am doing good with it :) Praise God for my family and all the blessings he has given me. I dedicate these little ones to you Lord and promise to raise them to the best of my ability to grow into Women of God that will change this world! Amen

Stranger Danger or Not?

This last weekend Our life group decided to go to a local park near downtown and have a Bar BQ and pass out food to the homeless people living at the park. It was a great day! A feel like several people were blessed. I was able to pray with a lady in particular that had recently had a heart attack and was discharged from the hospital to live on the streets. She had to take her heart medication with food but had none. She said she was about to take her medication when I came walking over with a hamburger. She had tears in her eyes when she told me she felt like God was hearing her prays and providing for her needs.
I have done alot of outreaches such as this in my day but this was the first one I did with kids of my own. Its funny because when brandon and I lead King's Kids groups to feed homeless people the parents of the kids would often be very afraid and not allow their kids to go on our outreach or insist they go and stay with their child at all times. Brandon and I used to comment on how over protective that seemed and how sad it was that those parents didn't understand the value of exposing their kids to different types of people and teaching them to love ALL just as Jesus does. Well if any of you parents are reading this I want you to know I GET IT! I have to admit I was in overprotective parent mode with my two year old. I was sizing up each and every person that got near her and never took my eyes off her. But even in my mama bear mode their was one moment when I saw her run over to one of the homeless guys sitting on the grass and sat on his lap! Not even joking you! she sat in this scruffy, dirty, homeless mans lap! I love this quality in her that she is not afraid of people and jumps into every situation with both feet in but that was a little to much for me to handle. I pray that she never looses that quailty in her but I think we are going to have to have a talk about stranger danger very soon!

A Conversation with Peyton

Setting: Peyton sitting at the table eating mac and Cheese, Laurie sitting next to her, mom getting Laurie dinner.

Peyton: Mommy I scared of Caleb.

Mom: Why are you scared of Caleb?

Peyton: (nothing)

Mom: You don't need to be scared of Caleb. He is your friend. He might chase you sometimes but that is because he is playing with you, because he is your friend.

Peyton: (Nothing)

Mom: Who else is your friend?

Peyton: Laurie is my friend

Mom: Good. I am glad Laurie is your friend. Who else?

Peyton: Mommy and Daddy are my friend

Mom: That is good mommy and daddy are your friends but they are also your parents. Who else is your friend?

Peyton: Cookies are my friends
Spoon is my friend
Cheese is my friend

Mom: Ok...those are not your friends. They can't talk to you. It is good to have friends that can talk to you.

Peyton: (quiet and thinking for a moment then shouts)
Elmo is my friend!!!!

shoe fetish at two??!!!

So my two year old has a shoe fetish. Every afternoon when I get her up from her nap she has gotten into her shoe drawer and is wearing a pair of shoes. Her shoe of choice is of course her fancy church shoes. She gets very upset if I try to take them off of her so she usually keeps them on for the rest of the day. If this keeps up into the teen years I think we are in trouble.

baking time!

One thing I used to love to do with my mom when I was a kid was to bake. So I decided Peyton was ready for her first baking experience. Plus GAS (Great Aunt Sally) Just made her an apron so it gave me the idea to put it to good use. We made Brownies and she loved it! She actually did a good job pouring the ingredients and than stirring. I think her favorite part was licking the spoon though! :) I even taught her to wash her dishes when she was done. Thanks GAS for the cute apron!

The Gape!

After Amber was born Brandon's Grandma gave us a gift card to babies R Us. We decided to use it to get a gate to go across our porch. Since we don't have a yard Peyton does not get to play outside much. I would often take her out there but it is hard because I have to always be with her because she likes to run into the street. This does not work well when you have a baby that is inside and you are chasing your toddler down the street. I swear it would be so much easier on us Mother's if we could be two places at once! So we had this idea to get a gate so that she could play out there with out constant supervision. The day we got the gate Peyton watched as dad set it up. she was excited at first but soon realized this was something that going to take away her freedom. She actually called it a cage at first. (now she calls it a gape) once we got it all set up she sat and cried in front of it for a good 20min. Funny because we got it thinking that we were giving her more freedom to be able to play without us having to watch her all the time but she saw it has taking away her freedom. Now that the gape has been up for a week now she is starting to get the idea that she can play on the porch and she is warming up to the idea. THANKS GRANDMA for the gift Card. It is so nice for me to be able to leave the door open and let the wonderful Santa Cruz air flow through while peyton gets to play in the sun shine!

Mother's Day Fiesta!!!

Well sadly I don't have any pictures of this because I forgot my camera that day. maybe I will steal some from Rachel when she gets them up. But this Mother's Day was the best so far. It was only my third one but it will be hard to beat.
mother's Day morning I preached my first ever sermon. Preach it sister! Actually I was kinda stressed about it and even the morning of I told Brandon...this was not very nice of you to do to me on mother's day. I am suppose to be relaxing today! he said to me...I did this because I know how much you love to be used by God so it was my gift to you on mothers Day. Well I sort of shrugged him off but actually he was right.Tthe morning was such a blessing to me. I really felt God spoke through me to touch people's hearts and it was an amazing feeling. Its been awhile since I have felt that feeling so it was truly a gift.
That afternoon Rachel picked me up and we went and got pedicures and did some shopping at the mall while the boys took the kids and were setting up a party for us. When we got to the Marchassult's house There were Margarita's, a sound system with Mexican music playing, carna asada and even a Pinata. The Boys told us that since our pastor's wife Julia got to go to Mexico for Mother's Day they thought they would bring Mexico to us and give us a Fiesta. So cute!!! I think they had more fun blind folding their wives and spinning us around to hit the pinata than anything!!!
I can't say enough how blessed I am by these friends. They truly are a blessing in our lives. Having to live in a place were we don't have family around is hard especially on holidays but thankfully God has given us a family here with our friends the Marchassult's. Love you guys!

A Mother's Day Message

Peyton's emergency room scare!

Well I wasn't sure I was going to blog about this but I decided maybe it would be good therapy for me and also to let family and friends now exactly what happened.
A week ago Sunday we were sitting down for dinner and Brandon put Laurie's (Brandon's Aunt that we take care of) pills on the table and while our backs were turned for a few short secs. Peyton reached over and got a pill and took it. The pill she took is called Topamax which is an anti seizure medication. She took 200mg which is about 10 times the dose they would give a child peyton's size. We rushed her to the emergency room and for 24 hours she was hallucinating and going in and out of consioucness. She suffered from insonmia (I don't think she slept for 24 hours) and she could not walk or talk to us this whole time. It was so scary!!!
I have learned alot from this experience. One...she is alot faster than I give her credit for. But probably most importantly God has worked on my heart and mind alot. After this happened I began to become a little parnoid about her well being. Like laying awake at night thinking of all the other ways she could get hurt while my back was turned. I was having so much fear in my heart that all I could do was pray. During those long nights following the accident God really ministred to me. He told me that this fear I was having was not from Him. He does not want me to parent out of fear but out of Faith. Faith that He has a plan for her and He will take care of her. A friend of mine reminded me that as much as I love her God loves her that much more. I thought I had given her to God when she was born but during those long dark nights I REALLY had to give her to him. I finally just had to surrender and give him control of her life and the most amazing thing is that as soon as I did that God took my fears away!!
Praise God Peyton (and I) are happy and doing well. We are back to normal life and honestly I don't even know if she remembers what happened to her.
Last Sunday I had the oportunity to preach at our church for Mothers Day. My recent story made for a good sermon and I know God used what he taught me to touch others as well. God works all things together for good! I will put up the link to the pod cast of the sermon soon for those who are interested in hearing it! Thanks to all those who prayed for us during this scare. Prayer works! To God be the Glory!

Road trip to LA!

Last week the staff at our church went to the Catalyst Conference in LA. So instead of being home alone with the kids all week Rachel and I decided to get away ourselves. Rachel's parents live near LA as well so we packed all four kids in the car and made the 6+ hour trek to LA. We were not sure if we were crazy for doing this or not but it indeed up being ALOT of fun. Caleb and Peyton entertained each other the whole time. We actually had to turn off their little TV screen in the backseat at 10pm because they would not fall asleep. The babies did really well too! Micah does not like being in his car seat so he had to cry himself to sleep but Amber was fascinated by another baby crying that she stayed quiet just listening most of the way. And Rachel and I talked and talked and talked and I realized just how blessed I am to have her in my life. Here is the photo blog of our road trip!
we put the toddlers together in the back hoping they would get along and they did! They were so cute back there singing and dancing and watching their movies together. I think Peyton offically has her first crush!

We stopped at a McDonalds for Dinner and PJS. They had these cool video games that Caleb and Peyton loved playing with.
Caleb cutie patootie in his PJS
lolliepops kept them happy!
we made it to LA. Rachel droped us off at my moms house. The first day we went to Victoria Gardens out to lunch and played in the water fountain. It was nearly 100 degrees that day!
Got to spend some time with my brother and his wife. here is my brother holding amber for the first time! So cute!
Amber in the car on the way to see her boy friend micah in big bear. so excited!
We drove up to Big Bear to spend the day with our friends
Caleb and Peyton threw rocks in the lake for nearly an hour. They are super cute together!
on the way home we stopped at yet another Mcdonalds for dinner and PJS

This picture sums up how precious these two are. Caleb asked to hold Peyton's hand on the way to the car. It is not the greatest picture because I pretty much had to drop everything I was holding (including the baby) to find my camera to capture the moment in time. It will be great black mail for when they are older though! :)

Yeah for fun friends!!!

update on the girls...

The girls are growing and changing so fast I thought it would be a good idea to do an update on them. They do new things everyday its hard for me to keep up, let alone people who don't see them everyday. So here is what they have been up to!

Amber is now 3mo. old. She is turning out to be a beautiful baby (not going to lie we had some fear when we first saw her with a swollen face and thick black hair lol) She smiles all the time at anyone who will give her the time of day. she is a very good baby but gets easily over stimulated with her big sister around so we have to be careful and make sure we let her sleep.

she giggled for the first time two weeks ago while Peyton and I were singing the 'Wheels on the Bus'
she is very close to being able to sit up. She is a big strong girl weighing over 13 pounds all ready!
her hair is so long I like to play with it. I can even get it into a pony tail!


Peyton is now 26 months old. I think she says at least a new word everyday. Some of my favorites have been 'adorable', 'amazing', 'cute', 'hungry', and 'munchies'. She is starting to get very interested in swimming. she kicks her feet in the bath tub and blows bubbles. I think we are going to sign her up for swim lessons this summer. We just got finished with "toddlers sports academy" a six week class that taught her a different sport every week. I think her favorite was basketball. She actually could dribble the ball!!! she also liked picking flowers on the grass during soccer!
she all the sudden likes to play with her doll that Nana gave her for Christmas. I think it is because she sees mommy with Amber and now knows what to do with it now.
She is a good big sister. A few days ago I took her out with me while Brandon stayed home with Amber. The whole time we were running errands she asked "where Amber go?" It made me realize she has adjusted to Amber being apart of our family and it feels weird to her now when she is not with us.
She is really into dress up!! The bad thing is that the dress up clothes are taking over our house with no place to keep them. On a daily basis she is a butterfly, a princess, a bunny, or going to a tea party. I love that she has an imagination and is not afraid to use it!

So those are my girls! Never a dull moment. They keep me happy, tired, frustrated, elated but most of all full of love!