A month of firsts

November has been a big month for Chase. He's reached a lot of exciting milestones this month. He took his first steps

which have since progressed into full blown walking!

He got his first tooth which he hasn't been cooperative enough to let me catch a picture of yet!

He got his first ear infection which resulted in a prescription for his first antibiotic. The amoxicillian he was prescribed resulted in his first allergic reaction which caused a horrible looking red rash all over his poor little body.


He woke up with this rash on his first Thanksgiving which also happened to be the same day as his first birthday! Luckily the rash didn't stop him from enjoying his first birthday cake!



Thankfully Chase is all better and now that we know to stay clear of all penicillin medications he should be fine!

It has been amazing to share this first year of Chase's life with him. He truly is an amazing gift to our family. I had no idea that babies could be so sweet and angelic, and I continue to marvel at his sweet smile and personality. I look forward to seeing what this next year has in store for my little angel.

Halloween

Well since it's almost Thanksgiving I thought I should get these Halloween pictures posted! Although it feels like a really long time ago, and I can't remember all the details, I know we had a great halloween this year. The boys, especially Dawson were thrilled with every aspect of the holiday from the decorations, to the pumpkin patches, and of course the candy! Here's a peek of them in their halloween glory.

Here's the rest

I hate getting pictures taken. With all the boys, it's always super stressful. I have to figure out outfits that will coordinate, find a time to schedule so that we won't be interupting someone's nap, get everyone dressed, get to the picture place before everyone gets dirty, and then getting everyone to sit, and smile at the same time. It makes me exhausted just thinking about it. Luckily after all that effort, we got some great pictures this time around! Here are some of my favorites.

Multiply and replenish the earth!

Before your eyes pop out of their sockets, No we are not pregnant. The title of this post is to acknowledge that we have in the past 8 years made three perfect little boys. We got this picture taken the other day and I am surprised that DeAnne has not posted it yet.

The past two days DeAnne and the boys have been meeting me for lunch. It's been really fun being able to spend an hour with them in the middle of the day.

This past week I have made a conscious effort to put my wife’s needs first and my efforts have paid many dividends! I went to the Midgley’s sealing last week and although I’m sure they don’t remember what was said, I remember the sealer gavethem(all of us) some great and wise counsel. He said that just as you only see one of you and a never ending number of your spouse when you look into the mirror, we should treat our spouses like there are a million of them and one of us. Selflessness is the key to a great marriage!

Life is great right now! I have been enjoying every minute!

DeJa Vu?

Do these pictures seem familiar to anyone else? Because this whole experience felt very familiar to one I had just last year with a different child. In case you can't remember check it out here. (I'm so proud of myself for finally learning how to do that!!) Anyway, splitting open your forhead while we're out in public places seems to be the cool thing to do around here. I guess Justin wasn't about to let Dawson outdo him in the manly scar on the head department.

Since Justin has been off track this month, we've been hanging around the house more than the boys like to, so Thursday morning, we decided to go to the Corona library for story time. It was a huge success. Justin went to his story time by himself and had fun, and Dawson and Chase came with me to the toddler story, and actually made it through the whole thing, (huge accomplishment!) After story time, we picked out a few books to check out and while I was checking them out Justin and Dawson threw pennies in the water fountain they have there (they do this everythime we go and always look forward to this) Well just as I finish checking out and start heading towards the door, Justin comes running towards me crying. I look down and his whole face is completely covered in blood. Apparently he had tripped and hit his head on the very angular ledge of the fountain. Those of you who know me, know that I am extremely squeamish where blood is concerned, but I held it together and put my hand over the gash to stop the bleeding, (as far as sanitation is concerned, it probably wasn't the smartest move, but after a brief glance around I realized that I had nothing with me that I could use, so my hand it was. Where oh where were my trusty baby wipes when I needed them?) By then we'd attracted a fair amount of attention, possibly due to the fact the my son was standing directly in the entrance of the library pouring blood all over the floor. Finally some library workers come to the rescue with paper towels and plenty of questions for me to answer because apparently they have to file reports about this and they think I have nothing better to do than answer questions while I try to calm down my bleeding 5 years old, keep Dawson from running out of the library, and bounce Chase in my free arm while he is fussing his little head off. During this interogation, they inform me that I am not allowed to leave with Justin. He will have to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. City policy. At this time I call Nazar and tell him to get over there because there is no way I am sending my 5 year old alone in an ambulance since I'm pretty sure they won't let Dawson and Chase come along for the ride. Finally the ambulance showed up, along with a fire truck full of firefighters. After they came, everything got a lot better. They were all so nice, and so helpful. One of the firefighters immediately made friends with Dawson and took him out to see the fire truck. Another arranged for Chase to be held by one of the oh so useful library workers. The paramedics took great care of Justin and after about 15 minutes they told me that he was going to be fine and that I could take him to the hospital on my own if I would prefer that. Nazar got there just as they were finishing up, and so he was able to take Justin to the hospital and I took the little boys home for naps. I was so thankful that Nazar was there to take him because although I held it together while we were there, as soon as Justin left with Nazar, I lost it. Even though I just did this same thing with Dawson last year, it still felt so traumatizing and overwhelming to see my little boy go through all of that.

Luckily kids are resilient.

When Justin came home from the hospital, he walked inside and said, "hey Mom, look at my stitches!" in such a proud little voice. Since then, the only times he talks about his injury is when he is trying to get something. For example, "Mom, can I have a treat since I have stitches?"

I'm so thankful that he's okay, and that there were such wonderful people to help me through this, and that Nazar was close enough to come to the rescue, and that Justin was wearing a red shirt that day so that it didn't look quite as gruesome, and that hydrogen peroxide takes blood right out of clothes because wouldn't you know it that I was wearing white that day! Hopefully it will be years before Chase decides he needs a manly scar like his brothers! By the way, the blue lips and teeth in the picture above were not caused by the accident. Those came from the blue ring pop that I gave him after he conned me into it with the above mentioned manipulation tactics!

30 is the new 20!

I have never felt so alive and excited as I continue on this journey we call life. As DeAnne mentioned, I've been waiting for what seems like forever to finally be out of my 20's. I wanted to share a couple of my thoughts today about what I have been feeling and thinking.

One thing that continues to astound me is how much love and patience our Heavenly Father has for me. You're going to be shocked but, after 30 long years, I still make mistakes. You'd think that after all these years, I would have perfected this earthly state. But the great news is that I can still wake up everyday and start over. He knows who I am and that I want to be like Him. When I fall, he picks me up and tells me to try again.

I have been trying to be more grounded lately. I feel like the last couple of years, I've been drifting back and forth. I have been trying to read more self-help books and learn from people that are a lot wiser than I am.

The underlining message that I have been able to pick up on is that we need to control our minds. We need to have a positive mindset. Now simply what this means to me is that I need to continuously foster good thoughts. What I mean by "good" is being able to look at the glass as being half full all the time.

A quote that I think is so true is "we become what are are thinking about 95% of the time"
I believe this quote to be true, because if we are constantly thinking of negative things, we become negative and depressed.

I seemed to have gone on a tangent. I guess What I am trying to say is that I am grateful for the opportunity to be alive and healthy. I hope that I can better understand how to continually better myself.

They say that you are in our prime in your 20's. I think that my prime has just started:)

Guess who turned 30?!

I'll give you a hint, it's not me! I've got years before that milestone! Yep it's Nazar. Although he will not legally be recognized as being 30 until November 9,(it's a long story) in reality he turned 30 years old on Sunday. Now while some people have a hard time with this age, Nazar has been looking forward to leaving his twenties behind for some time now, he's also thrilled about the gray hair that he is steadily aquiering, so obviously he does not follow the norm in this area! To celebrate the occasion Nazar and I (just him and I, no kids) spent the weekend in Costa Mesa. We stayed at a great hotel right across from South Coast Plaza and had an amazing time shopping, eating, and just hanging out. Some of the highlights were going to the temple, eating sushi (did you know that not all sushi has raw fish?!), shopping until I was literally about to drop, touring the Queen Mary, and going to a murder mystery dinner show. We had so much fun, I especially liked the murder mystery dinner. I laughed so hard I cried which I wasn't expecting to do at such an event, but I highly recommend it. It's called the dinner detective, and I would put a link to it, but I still don't know how, so you can google it if you're interested. Overall it was fabulous weekend, and I want to give a big huge thank you to my mom for taking my busy busy kids so that we could do it, (and also my dad and Andrea I know you guys helped too), I know they are a LOT of work and I really appreciate you being willing to take on the challenge. And thank you Nazar for spending your 30th birthday with me. I had an amazing time and I'm glad that it doesn't bother you that you are soooooooo much older than me now! (sorry, silly private joke between us.)

I appreciate you!

I have been a big dork lately.
I have been married for almost eight years now and I still can't seem to get it right!
My biggest downfall has been not knowing how to
follow the wise counsel given in Abr. 5: 18
I guess I am beginning to understand that part of
becoming one is to fully understand your better half.
DeAnne has to continually remind me that I need to appreciate her more.
You would think that this would be extremely easy to do, but I still fall short.

This post is going to be my attempt to appreciate some of the things about DeAnne.
Let's see.....

Waking up in the middle of the night to take are of Chase/Dawson/Justin and letting me sleep in.
Waking up at the crack of dawn and getting all the kids ready for the day.
Feeding three hungry boys.
Walking/Driving Justin to Kinder.
Going to the gym.
Doing at least 3 loads of laundry and folding all the clothes.
Cleaning the house constantly.
Playing with Dawson to keep him entertained.
Picking up Justin from school.
Making lunch for everyone.
Fighting to put the boys down for naps.
Helping Justin with his homework.
Being a constant referee and making sure the kids don't kill themselves.
Comforting someone on the phone.
Preparing and making dinner.
Teaching all the boys how to be kind and give plenty of compliments to mommy.
Giving the boys their baths.
Reading bed time stories.
Tucking the kids in bed and saying prayers with them.
Spending the next hour reprimanding Dawson/Justin for getting out of bed.
Spending time with me and making me feel like the best thing since sliced bread.
Having a million and one talents that are still being discovered daily.
Being able to melt my heart with just a smile.
Keeping our family moving in the right direction.
Being spiritually in-tune.
Having legs that go on forever.
Helping me understand my true potential.
Always challenging me to be better in every way.
Making me laugh until both our faces get stuck.
Kicking my bottom at any board game we play.
Reading a book a week(sometimes two).
Making yummy deserts for us to share and eat.
Keeping me accountable.
Willing to stay home with our kids and being an amazing example for them.
Making life fun.

I know that this list is not complete, but I just wanted to take a minute and publicly appreciate you.

I love you,

Your hubby!

5 Years

Justin turned 5 years old on Sunday. I can't believe how fast the time is going. I remember so clearly being pregnant with him, and holding him as a newborn. When I look at him now, it's hard to believe that he's the same person from those memories. He has grown into an incredibly sweet, loving, sensitive little boy. For the past 6 months I kept telling him that I wanted him to stay 4 years old forever. He told me that he couldn't, but the he would stop at 6 years old! If only he could. Well enough of my sentiments, I thought I would take you through Sunday morning. In true Justin fashion, the story is sure to amuse!

So I hear him wake up in his room and exclaim "It's my birthday today!" He then runs into my room and after my birthday wishes to him, he immediately says "look at how tall I am!" (He is under the impression that you only grow on your birthday, and that he was suddenly 6 inches taller from the day before!) He spent the rest of the morning measuring himself against things. Like he would walk by the table and say, "yesterday I only came up to here, and now I come up to here!(raising his hand a foot higher) Now for the next part of our day you need a littl backround info. Maybe about 2 years ago, Nazar made me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day. Justin thought that was the coolest thing, and has since insisted that for every Mother's Day and Father's Day we make breakfast in bed for the parent we're honoring. Well months ago he requested that for his birthday I make him breakfast in bed. I tried to tell him that I would, but he would have to stay in bed long enough for me to do that. He assured me that he would just go back and get into bed when breakfast was ready! He even had the menu planned out, french toast. So after presents (he insisted that that was the first event of the morning), he went and got into my bed (his bed just wounldn't cut it for him) and waited paitiently for breakfast. I do my thing and bring him up his french toast and a smoothie on a tray. He looks at it and says,

"Um Mom you forgot something."
Me "What did I forget Justin?"
J "you forgot to put whipped cream on my french toast, and it's my birthday, so I get whipped cream"
Me "okay Justin I'll be right back"

So I come back with whipped cream and put some on his french toast. Then he says,

"you forgot something else mom"
me "what else did I forget?"
J "well you know how daddy put a flower in a cup for you when he made you breakfast in bed? You forgot my flower"
Me: "How about I give you a flower next time?"
J: "no, I need a flower right now"
Me: "Okay I'll get you a flower."

I run outside and fine a flower, and then I stick it in an empty baby food jar and bring it up to him.

J: "Mom that's not a cup, that's a baby food jar"
Me: "It's fine Justin"
J: "okay"
half a second later

J "I'm done, take it away servant!"

He even did a dismissive arm wave when he said it! I almost died laughing! Where does he come up with these things?! The rest of the day was fun (not as funny as the morning, but still fun) After church we celebrated with Nazar's family, and tonight we will celebrate with my family. Overall, a great birthday! I look forward to what the next year will bring from my spunky little 5 year old.

I can see clearly now. . .

So amazing! The surgery went perfectly, and I can see better than Nazar now (who has great vision) It's hard to believe that I'm not wearing contacts. If anyone is considering lasik, I highly recommend it. The surgery itself was not bad at all, and aside from about an hour of really irritated eyes right afterwards, I have not been in any pain. I woke up the next morning and felt great. I drove myself to my follow-up appointment that morning, and my vision has just been getting better and better ever since! It's almost a little bit anti-climatic because it was so instant and it feels so normal to see clearly now. In retrospect, those 2 horribly long weeks in glasses (and believe me, they were every bit as bad as I expected them to be) have made me so much more appreciative of my new perfect vision!

Last Chance

Did you know that without my contacts, I am considered to be legally blind? Yep, my vision is so bad that the big E on the eye chart is just a memory from my younger days, since I can't even begin to see that it's there now. I'm guessing that this comes as a surprise to some of you. Probably because you were'nt aware that I even wore contacts. In fact, I'm willing to bet that unless you are a member of my immediate family, or one of my 5th grade classmates, you've never seen me in glasses. Why you may ask? Because I despise them! I wore them for 1 year in 5th grade before I convinced my mom that at 10 years old, I could not live without contacts. I've worn them every single day of my life since then. So in the past 16 years I have not worn glasses for more than 2 hours at a time. To give you even more of an idea, Nazar has probably seen me in glasses less than 10 times (we've been married for almost 8 years!) Well all of this has changed. For the next 2 weeks you will have your chance to see me in glasses. I'm getting lasik eye surgery on August 13, and for this reason I have to be out of my contacts until then. While I am thrilled to no end about the surgery, these next two weeks seem like an excruciatingly long trial that I will have to endure. It's probably impossible to understand what the big deal is, for those of you who aren't blind like me. You would think that I could see just fine as long as I wore the glasses. Well unfortunately that is not the case for me. Even with the correct glasses prescription, it is very very difficult for me to function on a normal level. I have no depth perception and no peripheral vision. Basically I can see only when I stand perfectly still and look straight ahead. I havn't even been out of my contacts for a full 24 hours yet, but it feels like eternity already. Driving is completely out of the question for me, so I'm planning on being a hermit as much as possible for the next 13 days. It's hard to explain how insecure it makes me feel to not be able to see. My inclination is to revert into myself and stop functioning until I can see again, but with 3 kids to take care of, I know that I have to suck it up and get on with my life. Looking back I'm sure that these 2 weeks will only be remembered as a minor annoyance, and then I'll have the rest of my life with great vision!

Growing Up

We've been super busy around here lately. The boys have been reaching some new milestones that I thought I would share with everyone.

Justin just finished his 3rd week of kindergarten, and by now he's a pro. Actually, he loved it from day one. It was me that had to get used to it. It was hard to leave him there those first couple of days. But he loves it, and is learning so much. He seems so grown up to me when he walks into school every morning with his Thomas backpack on!

Dawson has decided he is way too cool to wear diapers anymore. This has been an argument between him and me for several months now, but we have finally reached a compromise. He doesn't have to wear a diaper as long as we're at home, (and awake), but he wears one when we go out. Now I'm guessing that some of you are thinking that I'm crazy trying to keep him in diapers longer, but I'm just not ready to deal with potty training right now. For those first few months they have to use the restroom literally every 5 minutes, and it gets so crazy trying to herd 3 boys into a public restroom 4 times during one trip to the store. So for now, he's doing great at home, and maybe he can convince me that he's ready for the next step soon!

As for Chase, he's probably grown the most since I last blogged about him. He just had his 6 month checkup (at 7.5 months!) and he was one ounce shy of 20 pounds. According to his doctor, that puts him in the 50th percentile, but I'm really not buying that because it does not seem possible that 50% of babies can be bigger than Chase. Have you seen his thighs?!? He is still as cute as ever, but I'm sad to say that he is mobile now. He started rolling, scooting, and sliding around weeks ago, but as of 2 days ago, he is officially crawling. Watching him master his new skills makes me so proud, but still sad, and a little apprehensive. I know that it's almost guaranteed that babies will learn to crawl, but when my own baby does it, it seem so amazing to me! As silly as it is, I secretly think that Chase is a genius for figuring out this skill! It does make me sad though that he is growing up so fast, and that soon he won't be a baby anymore. The apprehension comes from the thought of him walking in a few months. I'm terrified for that milestone because then I will really know what it is to have 3 kids. Up until now, Chase has just been along for the ride, but very soon, he will be up and running, and I will have 3 very busy boys to keep track of.

Well those are the headlines for now. I have a million things I could blog about, but my days have been so amazingly crazy, that I'm lucky to just get these basics written down!

My first tag

After a couple of years of blogging, this is the first tag that I've ever done! I was tagged by Cheryl who is one of the most amazing women I know, so I just couldn't let her down!

The tag is to simply mention 6 things about yourself so here goes.

1. I HATE feet. I always have. I can't stand anyone touching me with their feet. Even with socks on. I'm just completely grossed out by the thought of something that is always on dirty floors or in stinky shoes touching me. Just ask Nazar. I can be dead asleep, and he'll accidentally brush me with his foot, and I will karate chop him until he moves it. The weird thing is that I make an exception for baby feet. I love Chases's little chubby feet, and will kiss them all over, even Dawson's feet are okay to touch me (I've stopped kissing them a while ago) but Justin's feet are already gross to me. I don't know when it happens, but apparently I have an age limit on feet that are allowed to touch me!

2. I was such a girly girl growing up. I was a cheerleader, I was a competitive gymnast (until I grew 6" in one summer) I was on the dance team in high school. I loved all things pink and sparkly. I grew up with 3 sisters (I have a brother also, but he's the oldest and was practically out of the house by the time I can remember) You can imagine how I feel a bit lost as to what to do with all these boys. I constantly worry that I am going to raise a bunch of wussy boys because I don't know how to teach them manly things!

3. As a small child I was painfully sensitive. I would cry at the drop of a hat. In preschool and kindergarten I would cry if my mom was not the very first mom to be there for pick ups. I would cry if a teacher told me I made a letter backwards. I would cry if a worker in a grocery store told me to stop touching something. I was even held back a year in school because I wasn't emotionally ready for it. Even after an extra year in preschool, I used to get unsatisfactory marks on my report cards for self control. Luckily in 3rd grade my mom homeschooled me, and apparently the isolation of being homeschooled drove me out of my shell and toughened me up because when she put me back in school the next year she would hear from my teachers how I was a good student, but I would never stop talking!

4. I love to sew. I took sewing in high school, but didn't really pick it back up again until after I had Justin. I love mixing and matching fabric and turning it into something cute and fun. For me it is my creative release. It's just for me, I have a whole room of my house just for this purpose, and the boys are strictly forbidden from entering.

5. I am a terrible housekeeper. With my kids around, it is virtually impossible to clean the house during their waking hours, and when they're asleep, it seems like such a waste to use my precious free time to do something so mundane. So for the most part I just don't clean. I try to keep the house reasonably picked up (sometimes I fail miserably even at that) but as for actualy cleaning, it rarely happens around here!

6. Fountains and shallow pools of water creep me out. I hesitated even writing this, because I know it makes me sound crazy, but they really do. I don't know what it is about them, but fountains, especially larger ones make me uncomfortable. Now I'm not so afraid of them that I won't go near them, but I just have an unsettled feeling when I'm around them. For example I'm not too crazy about the reflection pool in front of the LA temple, or for anyone from La Mirada, those creepy pools and waterfalls in front of the library are the worst. Now I have no problem with swimming pools, or even lakes, but for some reason fountains set me on edge. Weird. I know.

So that's me. Now I will tag 6 people. Marcy, Jaime, Cheryl Gardner, Christie, Amanda, and Callie I want to find out some fun and weird things about you guys!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Geez Mom!

You know you need a sister when your mom forces your into these leg warmers and claims that they're not girly because they're blue and grey! Mom, just because something has blue on it doesn't mean it's for boys. Geez, I really hope you have a girl before I go to high school, or this could get really embarassing.
Your little BOY,
Chase

Unique

I found this on my aunt's blog and thought it was fun

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I am the only DeAnne Kalayji in the U.S.! However, there are 5 Deanne Blair's. Good thing I got married! How about everyone else. How many people share your name?

Uninspired

I've lost my will to blog! It's the same for me with keeping a journal. Sometimes I do really well at keeping it updated, then I'll go for months (sometimes longer) with no entries. So lately I have no desire to blog. I'm not sure what has gotten into me, but I am at a loss for creative things to write. I know that we've been super busy so I'm sure there are many updates that I could be giving, but I can't think of what they are right now. I'll think about it and get back to you all in a timely matter (hopefully). In the meantime, we're all doing fine!

How to lower your property taxes

I normally would not use our family blog to do this, but I get asked all the time how people can lower their property taxes. If you own a home and feel that your home has decreased in value more than you purchased it for, then please go to:

http://riverside.asrclkrec.com/acr/forms/755P-AS3RS0%20Owners%20Request%20for%20Review.pdf

Print the form out and fill it out. If you need comps to support the decline in value, please e-mail me @ nazar@homesbynazar.com your: Name and address.

I will try my best to get the comps to you asap.

Thanks!

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year. Nazar got up with the kids in the morning, so I think I might have had 8 hours of continuous sleep. (a miracle in my life!) Then Nazar and the boys made me breakfast in bed! I had french toast, my favorite!! Justin gave me this precious gift that he had made



I love that this sweet gift captures him, so that I can always remember what he looks like this mother's day.

Nazar brought this home for me


I love this! I think this is an ingenious idea. Instead of flowers, which are beautiful, they have fruit flower arrangements which are both beautiful and delicious! Plus it has chocolate covered stawberries, and that makes it perfect! Nazar got major brownie points for this one!

After church, we had my family over for dinner so that we could celebrate with my mom. Nazar cooked and it was awesome. After all that, he cleaned up, and put the kids to bed. More brownie points!! All in all it was a perfect day. I felt so appreciated by Nazar and my boys and grateful to spend time with my mom. Every year I realize that more and more I am becoming like her in so many ways. I'm thankful that she has always been such an amazing role model for me.

Dawson

I've been looking back over past blog entries and realized that in typical middle child fashion, Dawson has been getting jipped of facetime on our blog lately. So this post is all about him.


Wow, what can I say about Dawson?! If I had to describe him in one word, it would be spunky. This little guy has more spunk that I know what to do with. Dawson is such a free spirit, and cannot stand anyone messing up his plans. He is way too familiar with the word 'no' and doesn't hesitate to use it in any situation. Most of the time he really wants to say yes, but since it wasn't his idea to begin with, the answer has to be no. Dawson is a button pusher. He knows exactly what buttons to push with each family member to get a reaction. He also knows how to turn on the charm. I hear "mommy, I love you." about 10 times a day, and it never stops melting my heart. Although he just turned 2 in January, Dawson has been talking for ages, and can communicate his thoughts and wants very well. Last night we took him to get ice cream, and after finishing his own ice cream, he reaches over and takes my ice cream. When I reach for it back, he looks me in the eye and says, "Mommy, don't think about it."

I love this kid. He adds so much flavor to our family. Plus I think I can give him most of the credit for me being able to lose my pregnancy weight so quickly! Thanks for keeping me on my toes Dawson.

slacker

I didn't really realize the effect that Justin has on my life until he left. He's been gone for 4 days now, and I can honestly say, I feel a little bit lost without him. I've been so lazy since he's been gone. Without Justin around there is no one calling me on my mothering skills. It's common for me to hear Justin say "well you're the mom, so you do it", when I ask him to do too much for me, or "You're the mom, so it's your job to play with me" if I'm not spending enough time with him. Well now that he's not here, I'm getting away with a lot more. Dawson doesn't care so much what I do during the day, as long as his needs are met. (having his diaper changed, being fed plenty of snacks, and having free reign of the house, including Justin's room.) I have to say that it's been so much quieter without the arguing between Justin and Dawson (and between me and Justin!) Now as I reread this, it sounds like it should be a nice vacation for me having Justin gone, and it has been at times, but I actually feel unmotivated and unsure of how to spend my time! It's weird for me to realize that Justin is a huge motivating presence in my life. He challenges me, and that makes me grow. Without him here, I've been wasting a lot of time. I'm still in my pj's and it's almost noon, the house is a mess, and I don't think I've done laundry since he left! Thank goodness he gets home this afternoon or it could get really chaotic around here! I'm so thankful for the unique personalities each of my boys have. I'm thankful for Justin for challenging me and helping me to be a better person. I'm thankful for Dawson for letting me relax a little and just be silly when I get tired of trying to be supermom. I'm thankful for Chase for just being so darn cute and loveable, and most of all I'm thankful for a wonderful husband who does all of those 3 things for me, and more importantly who puts up with all of my craziness, and loves me in spite of it!

I'm leaving on a jet plane

This morning Justin left to go to Idaho with
my parents. As I was helping him get dressed, he asked me

J: “Mommy, you know that thing
at the airport that they stick your
stuff through?”
Me: “You mean the metal
detector?”
J: “Yeah, what does that thing do?”
Me: “Well it’s to make sure that nobody
brings weapons onto the plane. You know
like guns and knifes”
J: “Oh.”

So that was the end of the conversation. 20 minutes later we go downstairs and he sees his backpack and I tell him that I’ve put a couple of new surprises inside for him to open on the plane. Of course he is super excited about this. He walks off to wash his hands, and gets halfway across the room before turning to me and saying, “ there’s no guns in there right?”

I love this precious little boy. I am sad and proud that he is mature enough to go on this trip without me. He’s growing up way too fast. I am thankful for moments like this when I realize how innocent he is that he thinks that all guns are plastic toys for little boys. I know that he won’t be like this for long, and I treasure these special moments. I love you Justin. Have a wonderful time, and know that I'm missing you every second.

Getting Old!

Now I realize that at 26 years old it is laughable for me to say this, but I feel old lately. I have a theory that every child you have ages you at least 5 years, (mentally and physically) so that would put me at just over 40! There are a few things making me feel this way. First of all Justin is starting Kindergarten in July, and I'm not sure why, but I'm having a hard time getting used to the idea. He's gone to preschool for the past year and a half, but for some reason kindergarten feels so much more official. I don't feel old enough to have a school age child, and I don't like that Justin's growing up so fast. The other thing that's aging me is that I've had a nasty headache for over a week now, and it's driving me up a wall. I feel like a little old lady with all the pain medicine I've been taking, and all the sleep I require. The pain is right behind my left eye, and it's constant and throbbing. I'd appreciate any tips if anyone has experience with this type of headache. I've been alternating prescription motrin, and tylenol every 3 hours, and that barely takes the edge off the pain. The last time I had this kind of headache was about 2 years ago when Dawson was 5 months old. I'm wondering if it could be something hormonal that happens 5 months after giving birth?! Has anyone else experienced this?

Completely Smitten

I just can't get over how much I love this little guy! He just melts my heart about 15 times a day. I've never considered myself a baby person. I know that I enjoyed the time when Justin and Dawson were babies, but I don't remember being so enamored as I am with Chase. Maybe it's because he's my third, and I've finally realized how quickly these little guys grow up, or maybe it's because he is such an easy baby. Whatever the reason I am thankful everyday for the opportunity to know this precious little spirit.

Peace on Earth

Or at least at my house today. I have always been extremely blessed to have boys who take great naps. I'm talkin like 3-4 hour naps. Nap time is the reason that I can have all these crazy boys, and not go completely insane. It's my time for myself. Most days during naps, even though I should be catching up on my never ending list of chores, I do something that I want to do, whether it's sewing, talking on the phone, watching T.V., or just laying around. So about 6 months ago when Justin started fighting me at naptime, I started panicking. But I got through it because I figured out that he would still give me a good nap every other day, then it turned into every 2 days, then every 3, until finally nap time for Justin was just a distant memory. Well today there is peace on my earth again because for the first time in what seems like forever, all 3 boys are asleep at the same time!!! I hardly know what to do with this unexpected free time, but I've decided to get our Easter pictures posted before Christmas hits and it's just too ridiculous to post them anymore!


We had a great Easter. I've been teaching Justin about why we celebrate Easter, not really knowing how much was sticking. So yesterday morning, before church, I was so proud when I asked him to tell me about Easter and he said "Well Jesus suffered for our sins and then bad guys killed him on a cross. Then he rected (short for resurected I'm sure!) so now we can live forever with Him." The kid's amazing, and I know that the credit cannot go to me! Anyway, we spent the afternoon and evening with my family, and Grandma spoiled the boys with plenty of Easter treats like she always does! They loved hunting for eggs all over the house and yard, but were a tad disapointed to find that all the eggs were empty. Grandma explained that they would get the candy after they found all the eggs, but I think they had a hard time understanding what the point was with no candy!! We had a wonderful dinner, and left completely stuffed.

New Look

How do you like our blog's new look? Now I realize that everybody else in the blogging world has figured out how to personalize their blogs ages ago, but I finally figured it out today, and I have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself. I am not a computer person at all, so this was a huge accomplishment for me! Now just in case anybody reading this still might need help with this, here's the blog that walked me through it
http://sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com/
As you can see, clickable links are something else that I havn't learned yet! Maybe next month.

Catch Up

We've been really busy this past month, not busy enough to excuse me from not blogging for so long, but pretty busy still. I know this is ridiculous, but sometimes I blame my lack of blogging on writers block. I have plenty of things to write about, but I just can't seem to put it in words! Here are some of things we've been up to.

We celebrated Dawson's 2nd birthday (only 2 weeks late!) This was my best attempt at making him a birthday cake!

And here he is enjoying it!

Chase had his first date! This is London, and even though they acted unaware of each other, deep down I think sparks were flying between these two.

Justin discovered his super hero powers



We blessed Chase



And he turned 3 months old



So those were the highlights! A few of the lowlights included me getting my wisdom teeth pulled, Chase getting thrush, Justin throwing up on me at Disneyland, and Nazar having a nasty cold that he still hasn't been able to shake. Well that brings us up to date. Hopefully I can get over my writers block and blog more frequently during this next month!

Things that make me smile

Last night Justin brought his globe and put it on my lap and said,
"Mommy can you show me where Jesus lives?"

This morning Dawson asked to hold Chase and while he had him on his lap he said,
"I feed Chase" and proceeds to lift up his shirt and shove Chase's face into his tummy.

Now for Chase, he makes me smile a lot, but especially when he flashes his new found smile!

He's been smiling since he was about 5 weeks old, but I could never catch it on the camera until this week! He's also started rolling over (way too early if you ask me!)

I am continually amazed by each of my children. I feel so blessed to be a part of their lives. Thanks boys for being so awsome!

You tell me

I have been asked repeatedly if Chase looks like Justin or Dawson when they were babies. Well I can't tell, so I thought I'd get some outside opinions. First you have to try and guess who is who, then you can decide if they look alike! Let's see how well you know my kids!

These pictures were taken on Tuesday. We went on our annual day trip to Big Bear. We knew that there had to be tons of snow since it had been raining down here. We didn't realize that they would still make us put chains to go all the way up. Since we were ill equipped, we decided to just find a hill off one of the main roads and go sledding for a bit. After what seamed like eternity, we found a place you can pay to play. The place was not that crowded and we had tons of fun (well, with the exception of Mr. Dawson) He didn't like the snow last year and not much changed this year. However, with some sneaky bribing from his mom(you can get Dawson to do just about anything with some candy:) he was tolerant. After we were done, we got some food from this hole-in-the-wall. They charged us $4.50 for 5(Costco purchased) imitation chicken dinosaurs and some ghetto fries. An editor's note.. When there is a sign on the window of a restaurant that says C it does not stand for Cool or Clean.

All in all, we had a great time and we have plans on going next year!

PS. The big mustard yellow blob that deAnne has attached to her is Chase. He loved it!!