eat sleep and farm

The kids love watching Jon and Kate plus 8 with me. Tonight we were watching an episode where the sextuplets were kind of out of control. Ethan was watching very intently and then turned to me and said the following... "Mommy, could you not have this many kids until I'm 10." When I asked him why, he said... "Because I'm so little now and it would give me a head ache." :)

Since getting pregnant with this little amazing gift God is giving us, I've been asked some odd questions, but also some very interesting ones! If you've asked me one or some of these, please don't think that I think you're odd. I think only the first one is the most odd to ask a parent.  The other day I thought it would make a good blog post and Laura said she'd enjoy reading it :) so here I am.  There really isn't any order of importance.    1.) "Why would you have your kids so close in age?!" -- this one, I do think is an odd question.  I have a very simple and somewhat shocking answer (to some people) for this question. "Unless God is a fool that can make mistakes, this is not  too fast. "  2.) "Are you totally freaked out to have 3?"  No. We're not freaked out. Yes, we're nervous. Of course we are. We're not nervous about the "day in and day out" stuff -- I know life will go on and we'll get used to 3

Thank you ALL for your kind comments on my post about our "adventure" with Rachel.  I wanted to post and say that she is doing really, really well. I think the meds kicked in and took care of her ear ache very quickly. The Doctor emailed me to let me know that the redness in her mouth could very well have been the fact that her teeth were cutting through, all at once.  I can see all 4 teeth now, so hopefully we're all done with that. :)   Ethan woke up this morning at 3am, with a fever and throwing up. :( I was wondering if we were going to get hit with that since my Mom baby sat him for us on Wednesday night and by Thursday night she was throwing up. Thankfully this appears to be a 12-24 hour bug, because he's already running around the house, no fever, eating everything in sigh and talking our ears off. My Mom also began feeling fine after 24 hours, so it doesn't seem to be one of those yucky long ones.   Anyway... we didn't make it to Marine World today (o

Seems like lately, everywhere I go, I hear people complaining about allergies! I have major sympathy because Jason and I used to deal with severe allergies and it would keep us down and out for most of the spring months.  A friend of mine told me a couple years ago that she uses local honey (from local flowers) and serves it on bread, cereal, pancakes, etc... to her family to combat local allergies. She said she saw great results and her husband, who would suffer severely, was suddenly able to treat his allergies every year by eating local honey before they would set in.  We were on the verge of trying the same thing about 2 years ago but ours seemed to subside. Woo-hoo! It took us a little while to finally figure out that there did seem to be an odd connection. We used to go into Livermore quite often (Jason worked there 5 days a week and we attended church there). Once he quit his job and we began attending a church here in Brentwood... poof! The allergies literally almost went compl

We had quite the eventful night tonight!   Rachel woke up from her nap today with a sudden fever of 102.8 - I gave her some Motrin and within an hour she was back to her normal, playful self. Jason came home from work and played with the kids for a while, then we ate dinner and then went to get ice cream.  On the way home in the car, we noticed she was starting to act "off". We got home and I sat her at the table so she could eat her ice cream and she just sort of sat there, looking sad... almost worried. A few minutes later I started a bath for this kids and when I went to take her jeans, shirt, jacket, socks and shoes off, I noticed she was already shivering quite a bit. I figured the ice cream made her cold, so I put her in the tub and started washing her body.  Within seconds she went from a slight shiver to a very scary convulsing. Her lips and hands started turning blue instantly and she looked like she was having a hard time breathing. I pulled her out of the tub and l

"You make being a Mommy, fun."  -- Ethan, after I built a fort for him and got in it. :) 

I took these pictures of Rachel tonight in her nightgown. She adores this thing and says its her "pincess jammies". Also, Jason isn't really sleeping in mid-air. He had a hard time with the flash. I forgot to set it on the slower flash and so he blinked every time I snapped. 8-) 

Here are some random pix. We went to the park a couple weeks ago and had a BBQ. The kids had a blast playing at our brand new park and Ethan even attempted some bravery and let me put him up in the tree! I ended up absolutely loving the way the picture turned out.  There's also a very recent picture of Rachel kissing Jason (today) and then the kids watching the garbage truck. They do this faithfully every week. :) 

A couple weekends ago we had some warm weather here and took full advantage of it. :)  The kids had a blast running through the sprinklers after their Sunday naps. I think it peeked at 90 degrees that day!  The bottom picture is me at 13 weeks pregnant. Sorry its a bit old. We'll take more recent ones. 

Some of you have heard my "bra story" and some of you have not. I can't believe I'm doing this, but then again... I don't mind looking like an idiot. Those of you who I've shared this with keep telling me "you have to post about this on your website!" and so... here I am, humbling myself just for you. :)   A few weeks ago Jason and I went to Walnut Creek for the day, to celebrate alone time for our anniversary. While we were there, my sweet husband reminded me that I needed some new bras, so we ventured over to Victoria's Secret and started shopping.  I have never, ever liked bra shopping (and soon you'll find out why) and have always thought it was an horrid task, made to make all women feel like their body shapes were impossible to fit and eventually drive you so mad, you finally settle for some outrageously priced bra that shapes your oddly shaped body so no one will no what you look like underneath it all. Yes... I go through much pain w

Finally uploaded some pix from Easter! Our camera was broken, so we used my parent's and I just got these. Kind of a funny fact... our kids are my parent's 6th and 8th grandkids and yet they got them all to themselves on Easter. It was kind of weird. We had fun, but missed all the other cousins. Also, there are 2 pix at the bottom from our Zoo trip in February.

The kids told me they were craving (yes, they use that word) "tortillas wif cheese" this afternoon, so I told them that the real name for that is Quesadilla. They thought that was "the funniest word evar!" as Ethan puts it. So I was trying to get them to say it and here's the final pronunciation. Ethan: Kay-so-diwa Rachel: Tasty-nilla Okay, so Spanish isn't their forte. :)

I have found my favorite cereal! Its amazing. I can eat a bowl of this stuff and maybe a yogurt and I'm good for 3-4 hours. I bought mine at Costco, but I think you can find it at many other stores as well. Its called Nature's Path Organic Optimum Power Breakfast -- so yummy! The lady was sampling it at Costco and it looked like gross stuff, so I almost didn't take it. Then she said "This is very good for you if you're pregnant!" I grabbed a sample and figured it wouldn't hurt. It was, delicious! I think the blueberries give it a very sweet taste. Its loaded with antioxidents, vitamin B-12, Folic Acid, Calcium, Fiber, Flax and Protien. I know some of you already have a morning routine that works well for you, but just in case... thought I'd share! The box at Costco is very large and was only $7.00

Jason got a new job!! He will no longer be commuting 4 hours a day and will be driving about 2.5 miles from our house, to his new office. He is working for a company based out of Sebastopol and doing 100% telecommuting. We cannot tell you what an amazing answer to prayer this is! Its something we've prayed about for at least a year, but kind of thought it would take more time, so we've been waiting on God to show us when the right time is. As Jason tells the story, things kind of just fell into place with this new job. He found the job listing, sent his resume, they contacted him and said "what would you like your salary to be?" he told them, they jumped and said "we'd like to meet you!" From there, everything literally fell into place and it was very evident that God was opening doors left and right. Such a huge blessing! Our prayer is that God would bless him at this company and bless our family and church life through it. We can't tell you how exc

Ethan went poo-poo for the first time in the potty tonight!! He has been very afraid of doing this since he's been potty trained. I know its very common for kids (especially boys) to be uncomfortable with going poo-poo anywhere but their pants, but I was really tired of having to watch him non-stop, to make sure he had no accidents. We went to our park tonight to bbq hot dogs and enjoy the beautiful sunset and he was acting very odd. I noticed he got very quiet and then had "the look" on his face. We keep a small potty chair in the van for our trips around town and so I grabbed him, ran to the car and he went! He was very happy for himself and I think finally realized its not that bad and keeps him a lot cleaner. Anyway, I've been waiting for this moment and I'm thrilled its arrived. Rachel is next... little does she know what's about to hit her. :)

Ethan and Rachel share a bedroom now, as we're prepping the other room for several different things. We have to start moving garage stuff in there while our landscaper gets all the yard stuff out and has room in there to move around. And, we're going to be organizing baby (and kid) bins, cleaning stuff off and then, finally, decorating! Anyway, I told them tonight that they were allowed to lay in their beds and talk, but they could not get out of their beds. I'm in the kitchen doing dishes and I can hear their laughter, giggles and silly conversation. They're talking about our neighbors dog and how he wants to "get the bad guys!" (he's a police dog) and talking about how the kids chocolate milk is their favorite drink at Starbucks, they want to mow the lawn with Papa, etc... I'm washing the dishes and having all these vivid flash backs from when my sisters and I shared a room together. I have such fond memories of our night time fun. We always thought

I realized this morning that Rachel no longer calls Ethan "E-E". She has called him that name since before she could say "Mama". I felt so sad. I'm glad she's maturing as she should, but its so weird to hear her say "Efan". Such a weird thing to post about, but I knew you moms would feel my pain. :)

Our neighbor got a pet snake (I know, what an odd thing to do,right?) and he was showing Ethan the other day. He told Ethan what type of snake it was and then explained where those type typically come from. Here was Ethan's reply... "Actually, do you know what the snakes are? They're Satan." (he says Satan like its some creepy secret) Our neighbor, quite confused says "That's their name?" "No. The snake is Satan. He was in the garden and he did NOT obey God so... God took his legs away and said "You will be on the ground now and be ugly and you will NOT go to Heaven." The neighbor says "Oh, you mean like the story in the Bible?!" "No, its not a story. It really is what God said." So he asks Ethan "So you don't like snakes because they're all Satan?" "Uhhh, no. I like the pretty ones. Only the ugly ones are Satan." The man politely smiles (probably thinking we're total freaks) and then he

I have never understood this craze with Sponge Bob Square Pants. I used to baby sit SO many kids that loved the show. They would sit and laugh hysterically at it and I would wonder... *is the TV sending some sort of drug into the living room to make these kids think its so funny?* I've never quite understood the humor and labeled it one of the dumbest shows out there. Well guess what? My son adores the show. I'm not sure what happened to him. He thinks its so funny and can barely contain himself while he's watching it. I sit there and ask him "what do you like about this?" and he looks at me in total shock and says "Mommy, its Sponge Bob! Don't you know he's funny?!" I'm still lost. Is there something I'm missing? We've known people who think shows like the Wiggles were very odd, but hey! at least they teach your kids something while they watch it. This is just pure stupidity. Jason says if I sit and watch long enough, it will grow on

This morning I needed to fold about 6 loads of laundry and so I told the kids they could watch TWO cartoons!! This was very exciting news for them. They decided they would watch one Tom and Jerry and one episode of Handy Manny. I made sure they were nice and cozy on the couch, with their blankets. Went into my bedroom to fold the clothes and enjoy the classical music. About 20 minutes later I heard some giggling that sounded odd to me. It wasn't their normal laughter while watching movies, so I decided to go check them. Did I find two cute kids cuddled on the couch? NO . Quite the opposite. Two naughty kids under the kitchen table, eating about 25 Hershey's kisses. They tried to act like they were just cleaning up wrappers, but the chocolate covered lips kind of gave them away. :) Not sure I'll get much relaxing in today.

I'm not sure how many of you already know this, but Lowes has the most amazing website! I've been looking online for several "home improvement" jobs I'm going to be doing this summer and theirs is the best! They have organizational tips (so up my ally) and lots of other stuff to help people out with any type of job you're doing. Some of our jobs are basic and some are going to be pretty in depth. They even teach you how to lay your own hardwood floor! I was quite impressed and wanted to share.

My first trimester is officially o-v-e-r! Very exciting. The morning sickness is gone and we're back to normal life. Yay!