checked boxes

our summer ended the way it started...

we all slept in as long as we wanted and then awoke to cozy coastal fog that begged for a blanket and hot cocoa. after cuddling on the couch while we slowly came to, we enjoyed yummy, sticky monkey bread that had filled our little home with sweet cinnamon smells!


the only part we were missing was our surfing cousin...
we savored our monkey bread while we remembered that first week of summer break...

Joe, we miss you!!! in your honor, we played "slug bug" all summer long, keeping track of everyone's score!
miguel won with over 200!
selah counted 197
samuel found 190
dan had 68, i think...
and i...well, i just counted it a real blessing to have survived being in a van with five other people who were constantly screaming, "slug bug!" for 10 weeks straight!

so it is...summer has ended. we jumped back on to that crazy train ride called school...filling out paperwork, stuffing backpacks, making space in our heads and our house for a schedule that is not our own and homework that stretches our brains(ALL our brains!)

our summer-o-fun calendar came down, the list of fun things we wanted to do all checked off.


i have had more fun with my four than any summer so far, enjoying them in new ways, enjoying every day!

after a mini panic attack the night before school started, and a few other "mini" attacks over these first two days, we are all aboard and hanging on as the school train races down the track!

hold on to your hats people, it goes pretty darn fast!

though we may have our heads in books and hands to pencil and paper, our hearts will be here...


we may even sneak away to remember our warm sandy days!

:)

is there anything cuter than this??


maybe this...


oh, or this...


and there is this one too...(in case you are wondering why three of my four are shirtless, it is because we were enjoying berries for dessert!)

many are my blessings...rich is my life!

camped out

here's what i learned from camping out in our backyard with five little people(our neighbor grace joined our outback adventure!!)...

1. miguel snores!

2. samuel does not spend more than 20 minutes in any one position while sleeping!

3. you really can see stars at night in LA...and not just the famous movie kind!!
4. using the rain cover is ALWAYS a good idea, even in the "warm" summer months of LA! (we were covered in dew by midnight!)

5. waking your husband at midnight to help you put a rain cover on the tent is NEVER a good idea!


6. sleeping with elia is soooo cozy!

7. the freeways we live next door to are WAY louder than i thought!

8. and finally...sleeping under the stars with our sweet mess is a summer memory i will never forget!

blue by you

guess who's turn it was to go with daddy out to see the blue boys play ball??

wednesday was miguel's big day!

he and dan packed up and headed out to the ballgame, stopping for peanuts and crackerjacks(way cheaper at albertson's you know!) along the way.

miguel's thoughts on the evening..."it was hilarious mom! the best part was getting to sing the song(take me out to the ball game)...but the game was way too long mom, i could barely sit still"!

exactly what you would expect to hear from a four year old tenacious ball of fire!

family builder

just finished my first round of a book called "Marriage Builder" by Larry Crabb.

i say first round, because it was too dense with hard information for me to absorb in one read. this is how i felt after round one...

i cautiously recommend it to anyone out there looking to be completely shaken up and spiritually challenged in their marriage and life.

i say cautiously because it is a very serious book...not to be read lightly. it cuts to the heart of the biblical view about marriage...the idea of "one-flesh" and our true ministry in life as a marriage partner.

i loved it, even though it was painful to realize many of my misconceptions about marriage...to realize my need to confess my many failures and sins as a wife.

ironically, i found it very applicable to the raising of children...Larry Crabb could write the same book again and call it "Family Builder". (if he does, i deserve some type of financial compensation for the idea!!)

he speaks of how God never commands us to enjoy every human in the world...but He does require that we accept everybody...even the really difficult ones!

he explains that the ability to accept others as they are comes from our ability to grasp(really, truly allow to enter in to the darkest recesses of our hearts) God's complete forgiveness of our every sin. this leads to our ability to forgive deeply everyone else's sins against us. (this is where i really struggled to keep reading...i admit i am a bit of a grudge-holder!)


but the joy that comes from letting the truth of my being totally secure, completely significant, wonderfully loved and endlessly forgiven, is, well, amazing...it looks like this...

a must read for every spouse...for every parent...for every human!

laughter

i forget to laugh.
my first reaction to just about everything is angry...snappy, pre-judging, "what!" that is my knee jerk reaction. i am a "mountain out of a mole hill" kind of person.
elia came and told on miguel...he was doing something to someone( i can't remember now) and after her tattling was over she asked, "are you gunna be mad now mom?".
even she knows that is my normal response.

my sweet friend alexes from SF always told me(and was a great example of) how laughing through things makes most grievances go away, or at least not seem so bad.

i am trying harder to live out her wise advice. this post is full of pics to help remind me to laugh!




thanks ali...i miss you so much!

dog days of summer

for father's day the kids and i gave dan a four game package of tickets to go see one of his two favorite baseball teams...the dog-ers...i mean the dodgers.

this was very hard for me to do, being that i was born and raised a sf giants fan!

but, i swallowed my pride(sort of) and it has turned out to be a really fun gift!

dan enjoyed the first game against his other favorite team, the ny yankeys, with our neighbor...and then on saturday he took samuel to his first ever MLB game!(two of our other three will go to the next two games!)

they had a complete blast...enjoying sunflower seeds and cracker jacks while watching a great game!

i am now enduring endless renditions of "take me out to the ball game", which i would not normally mind, except when they get to the part about "...root root root for the hometeam" they insert (in a very loud, deep voice) "THE DODGERS!" UG!!

it seems, for now at least, that our sweet mess is bound to be dodger fans.

don't worry Papa, when dan isn't around i remind them that the SF Giants are our real family team!)

happy birthday august!

we celebrated the first day of our last month of summer fun by making a yummy chocolate raspberry cake with awesome cream cheese frosting on top!

it has become a tradtion in our family to make a cake and frost it for the first day of august...really an excuse to eat homemade cake!
the kids each got their own cupcake to frost and some of the icing even made it on to the cake!

it was sooo yummy!


happy august everyone!

tossed

guess what we did for more summer time fun??


yup...a water balloon fight/toss/race/hot potato game!

we had four rounds of fun(i bought way too many of those little things!)...tossing them, throwing them, smashing them, drinking out of them(gross!)

i got some type of overuse injury from filling and tying those darn things!

a few of them snapped in my lap while trying to tie them...so even i was soaked by the time we were done!