Going stir crazy

Our pool isn't heated until Memorial Day and the wading pools at the park don't start till the end of June, so with my stir crazy kids I put out a little wading pool in the back. They loved it for a couple of weeks then they were over it but by then our pool was ready to swim in. The "pool" is actually meant for their ball pit but I taped the hole up in the bottom because the manufacturers were trying to out do me but with my tape I saved the beginning of summer.

Garden update

A few months back I took pictures of my overgrown garden and patio, horrible, no place for the kids to play. So this was my plan, cover all the dirt and I'm ALMOST done, I know, I know, my patio is tiny so why is it taking so long, good question. I'm not going to answer it. ;) The first step was take out all the weeds and big rocks and lay down a liner, I put down newspaper because one, it's eco-friendly and second, it's wallet friendly. Then I "redistributed" wood chips from the playground in our complex to my patio, hey it's not stealing, it's still on the property just in another location. Todd found out what I was doing and laughed while shaking his head but hey he's not paying for it! I have one plant in a pot so I can move it around because they are mini roses, when the kids want to play back there once I have equipment for them to play with I can move the pot to the front porch so they don't mess with them. Here are some pictures of what I have so far.

25 year old swimming suit

This used to be my swimming suit when I was little that my mom saved. It's a little blurry but that's me.

 And now here is Lauren 25 years later wearing the same suit.

Now the question is...should I save this suit for the next 25 years???

Easter

I'm determined to not catch up all in one post since it's been so long so here we go, first one: Easter.
Here are our Easter baskets, my mom painted these and she passed some down to me to use with my kids, I need to paint my own, maybe when I have all my kids then they can choose what color rabbit they would like. We got movies from my mom for the kids and some candy,  the kids got new swim suits from Grams, I didn't go out of my way to buy any sweets at the store, I knew the kids would score at Aunt Kim's house and they did. Lauren's bucket was overflowing with eggs and the adults played the golden egg again this year. It was a long hunt, finally Todd's cousin Brittany got it, or was it her fiance Steve, either way they won the pot of over 100 bucks. It was a fun day and Lauren and A.J. wore their new Easter outfits, Lauren picked out her Easter dress and she wants to wear it every week to church.

Los Angeles Natural History Museum

So when Todd went on his first business trip to Arizona, I took the kids out to L.A. to check out some dinosaurs. First we went to the puppet show, and I highly recommend it, it is awesome. The puppet is so lifelike it freaked me out at first, Lauren wanted to ride it, she has no fear when it comes to animals. We went throughout the whole thing and even saw a stuffed bald eagle, which you already know about Lauren's obsession right? I took these kids to a new place to get their mind off of dad being gone for a few days and all Lauren can talk about it how she wants daddy to see the dinosaurs and the puppet. Oh well, she loves her daddy! A.J. ran around in every exhibit and the minute we drove out of the parking lot at the end he had passed out. Here are the pictures, sorry some of them are a little blurry, these kids won't stand still.

Todd's new career

Time for some catching up!  We have been super busy and and so here is what we've been up to lately.
Todd got a new job as the Marketing Director at EagleLIFT, it is such a blessing to have him get this position. There is so much potential at this company and Todd is on his way up. The company restores and lifts foundations. They have a patent for the filler they use to fill in the cavities in the ground and it's really impressive, Todd has done two home shows now and he's set up five more, he'll be super busy this summer. We sometimes have to drop off Todd at work because we sold our second car (it was really old) so the kids love it when we visit the office and everybody loves seeing the kids. I'll post a picture of his office after they paint it and he finishes decorating it, right now it's white walls and a massive desk. Because they are called EagleLIFT, their symbol is of an eagle, duh. Well now Lauren is obsessed with eagles, every single bird she sees she says is an eagle. Makes me laugh.
We have been so blessed and so many blessings have happened just this year already. Because of this new career Todd has which is the career he was meant to have, he absolutely loves it, we are looking at homes in the area. We finally got life insurance and while we were talking to our agent, he had a partner with him who also does real estate, she told us of a program for first time home-buyers and we were amazed, we had no idea, so now we have done all the paperwork and submitted it to our loan officer and we are just waiting now, it's looking good! We already know what area we want to live in, first on the priority list is the school district, there is no reason to move to a bad school district, at all. Next on the list was space, we want a four bedroom house, and we found a few, even a couple homes with a fifth bedroom in our price range. Again, we have been so blessed and can't believe this is all happening this year, 2012 is our year! Todd joked saying because we have such bad luck, it makes sense this is happening this year when the world is supposed to end, ha! Just our luck!
More posts coming soon, so much to catch up on!

Early Reading

This is one of two of his favorite books, they are the baby sesame street books, he "reads" them every day. I love this little guy so much, look at those thighs! He turned fourteen months old yesterday, only four more to go before he joins Lauren in the Nursery.