A Visit with Grandma :-)

Grandma with the boys (Alice already at school for the day)
Grandma with Max-can you believe he is only 2 months? He's huge already-but I love it!!

Mom's Visit was too short for all of us. She came to help me out with the new baby but I think he was the least of our worries. We tried to take the kids to as many different "kid friendly" places as we could just to tire them out. Also, they got a kick out of Grandma reading books, and reading and reading, I'm surprised she didn't lose her voice!! I know I will miss her being her in the mornings when I just had to get Alice ready for school now I'll have to get all three monkeys ready!! I definitely appreciate all she did while she was here and always get sad when she leaves (although I think she was glad to get back to her much more serene and non-chaotic life!!)


I found this park in Irvine, it has a mini train that gives you a tour of all the different things you can do. Here everyone is getting ready for the train ride..They also had pony rides that both Alice and Jack did and they have a little zoo inside the park as well.. It was a cheap way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Taking a breather at the zoo. It was a little muggy that day.

These pictures are of us going to the Children's Museum. This is a really fun and interactive place for kids to play and learn. The only problem was we chose a day when it was free to get in (unknowingly) so it was too packed for us to even move and enjoy ourselves!

This area is teaching the kids all about the different modes of transportation. Of course Jackie loves the race car!!

Here's Alice on a life sized horse!

They have a real train just outside of the museum that the kids can go in and sit and there is even a compartment that is on the upper level that they can climb up into as well.

You can't really see what this is but it has all the different organs inside this stuffed "person" that the kids are supposed to put back inside.

New Car!!! (finally) and Alice's Graduation 2009

Since time is no longer on our side, we had to go out and purchase a new and bigger vehicle, the Corolla was no longer going to cut it for 3 kids (and what comes w/3 kids? 3 bulky carseats!!). I love the new truck and so do the kids. Ron is just happy that I'm happy and it's nice to drive something that I actually get out of without rolling!!

This is Alice telling her joke to the audience. I was so proud of her! Her joke was: " What do you get when you cross an elephant and a fish? What? Swimming trunks!!" She also had to get up and tell everyone what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said she wants to be a singer!
When she had to get up during the Christmas program we couldn't hear anything she said, this time she was perfect!

We were waiting for the ceremony to start and then we turned around and there's Alice! All the girls and boys looked adorable in their cap and gowns. I know I'm her Mom, but doesn't she look beautiful??

This is her picture prior to going to the graduation that evening. She was so excited and as usual, had to put her hand on her hip and pose!! Alice is starting kindergarten on Aug 31 and will be able to meet her teacher a couple days before that. She is one of the younger ones in her class but she is doing great. I love the preschool that we put her in, and the teachers!

Is it July 9th yet?

We went to the Strawberry festival again this year with our friends, Viany, Yossani and Nathan! This ride that the three older kids are on is a kid version of the Tilt a Whirl, they love it (surprisingly no one got sick-they had just eaten pizza and corn dogs)!
Alice went on a couple smaller rides with Jack. This particular one is the Jet Ski but he did not like it. I had to run over and ask them to stop the ride, Jack was yelling-"Don't like it, Don't like it"!

These two pictures are from Alice's school. She is going to graduate on June 11 from pre-K (they even took graduation pictures in a cap and gown-very adorable). I will post pictures from her graduation of course. This was at Alice open house where we were able to see all the different activities and crafts that she's been doing over the course of the year. We are very proud of her!!

As far as I go, I am 35 weeks and look like I'm 42 weeks. I am so ready to have this baby or am I, sometimes I'm bi-polar on this, am I ready to not have any sleep and have 3 kids? I do know I'm done being huge with an aching back and going to the bathroom all time. I will have to say though, this pregnancy has been a complete 360 from Jack's. I haven't had a migraine or even a headache and not once have I been sick with nausea, which is such a blessing. I don't think I could've went through that again. I do think this will be a big baby (otherwise I have no other explanation for my hugeness!!).

Seriously, has it been that long????

The kids both got scooters (of course a garage sale find) but they like to act like they are working in a mechanic shop, like their daddy!!
Jack: Monkey see, Monkey do!!

Funny story: Ron picked me up for lunch one day and we took Alice and Jack to McDonalds where there is a playland. Well, it's the type of playland where it's goes from the inside to the outside. Jack was fine going up but when it was time to go down the slide he got a little scared....So Ron had to go up and get him..It was quite the spectacle and I couldn't not take a picture!!




All you could hear Jackie say was, No, No!! He wouldn't even go down with Alice.

All is well...not even upset, just his normal cheeesssy smile!!

Holidays....

This was the absolute best picture I was able to get of Jackie boy. Yes, he is saying cheeezzzeeee..
Alice had a school performance of holiday songs, skits and jokes. It was very sweet. All the pictures of the performance are too dark (they had all the lights off so getting a good picture/video was hard). This is before we were leaving that night.

Christmas Eve night, the kids were so excited to open presents!!


Christmas morning, Alice took a picture with each and every gift she received but I'll save you all and just show you one.

Jack got stuck that morning with playing with the first gift he opened and refused to open all the other gifts, good thing he has a big sister to help!!

We all had a nice Christmas and New Year (although we went to bed at 9pm New Year's Eve). We appreciate all the gifts, cards, etc that we received!! But all I can say is thank goodness it's over!! And just think next year they'll be another baby here, yikes!