this is a random post...but, last night we went over to the "family earth night" event in town. i don't know how much we learned about being more "green", it's hard to say that your really that environment-ally aware when i drive a jeep liberty that only gets 15-18 miles to the gallon MAX. besides the car i drive, we DO do some stuff to help the earth out. anyways, the girls were happy with their free snacks & derek and i both got a free light bulb that is supposed to last 9 years! hmmmm...we'll see about that. if it's still working in the year 2017, i'll be VERY impressed.
kellie...leia REALLY can't wait to see micah! :)
i took this picture of leia the other night after i went in to check on her in bed. she had fallen asleep "reading" this book (this was kaia's book). no, we aren't really starting to potty train her yet (except for the occasional put-her-on-the-potty-before-bath time-thing)...we're planning on getting the little potty out this summer after she turns 2. but, hey if she teaches herself before then...great! :)
yes...that's a picture of my long toes. i just had to say thanks to derek for watching the girls so i could go get my feet "prettied-up". it was way past due. actually, it was for his own good too...since having kids i've realized that my heels get so rough (especially when i've been wearing flip flops...which is all the time) that they actually kinda feel like sand paper if i haven't gone to get 'em "sanded" in a while. i don't know if it's just because i'm too busy to get regular pedicures or if my skin's just drier after having babies. sometimes kaia and leia will look at my heels and say "mama do you have an owie? (or just, "owie" in leia's case). getting a pedicure is on my list as one of my favorite things to do for some "me" time...a facial is the absolute BEST...especially a pumpkin facial cuz it feels like your face is burning off and then when you leave you look swolen and red for a few hours...but that's how you know you got your $'s worth and it worked! any guys reading this are probably saying, "what?"...trust me, it's a girl thing. any girl understands. suffer for beauty, right? anyways...thanks babe! :)
this pic was taken yesterday when they were supposed to be napping...i didn't really care if they slept, i just wanted them to rest and read book and have a little "quiet time" in their rooms. when i went in there to see what they were doing, this is what i saw. so cute. anyways, to make a long story short, they never actually slept...which is why i think this happened last night...you know how i was bragging about how well the girls were doing at staying in their beds? last night was a whole other story. leia got out of bed 3 times crying...i don't know if she was having a bad dream or what. all i know is that i've gotten really spoiled the last couple of weeks getting "real sleep" again for the first time in a LONG time and last night i was reminded of how it could still be. tonight, so far so good...they're both fast asleep and i hope it stays that way until the sun comes up, at least. for some reason, when leia gets a nap during the day, she sleeps better at night. weird.
okay, i don't know what's wrong with me lately. i'm NOT pregnant and i'm not PMS-ing so i can't explain it. this is what happened...i was driving all by myself to pick up a pizza tonight and i was tired of my usual cd's so i put it on the country station & the song "Don't blink" came on. i've heard it before, but since i'm usually in the car with kids, i guess i've never really listened to the words that closely. that's right...tears again (i'm saying "again" because i'm referring to my "love you forever" post from last week). you just have to listen to the song yourself if you haven't heard it and you'll see why i cried. then, tonight i wanted to see what the video's like, so i look it up online and as soon as i saw the baby on the swing...tears all over again. i guess what triggered it with the baby swinging is because we were at the park today and leia still swings in that kind of swing and i just pictured her (and kaia) married and having their own kids and me thinking back to when they were like that baby in the swing. i'll be okay. :(
this is a little chest that innocently sits on our dresser...when i look at it i've only ever just seen a couple of palm trees with something at the bottom of the tree trunks. what does this look like to you? well, to our little kaia, it evidently looks like derek's legs. they girls were laying in bed with us the other morning and she says, "daddy, those are your legs". we were looking around the room like, "what is she talking about?" then i finally spotted it...she thinks the skinny little palm tree trunks looks like daddy's legs. i'm sorry, maybe it the evil-laughing side of me (that really comes out when i'm tired...huh babe?), but i was cracking up. yeah, we've realized that kids are very honest and things they say aren't always meant to be flattering. like last saturday morning as i was walking out the door to go get my hair done...i was telling the girls bye-bye and kaia asked where i was going and i told her that i was going to get my hair done cuz i have roots & i told her, "see, right here where my hair's darker than the rest" and she replied with, "Oh yea" (with such repulsed attitude in her voice). oh well, at least when they give you a compliment, you know they really mean that TOO! :)
this is what i saw the other day when i went to see kaia wanted me to come look at. i asked her to go pick out her clothes for the day and she sure did...down to the headband and watch. she was so proud of herself the way she made the headband look like a person's head (also...i love how the watch is facing up so the "imaginary person" could tell the time. never a dull moment here! :)
wow...we survived (okay, i'm exaggerating). i didn't want to post about this until he got back for safety reasons. derek just got back in town (he was at a work convention in vegas) , he's been gone since 5:30 a.m. monday. that's right, that means 3 full days and 2 nights away from him. that was the longest i've been away from him since we've been married (almost 6 years) and the longest for kaia and leia ever. not to be pessimistic, but i guess i was kinda thinking that i was gonna be just exhausted, grumpy, impatient by day 3, but it was so much easier that i thought. i do however, have a even stronger respect for single mom's. actually since kaia's on spring break right now, we were so busy the whole time he was gone that it flew by. we're glad you're home babe...we missed you. BTW...it's your turn tomorrow! :)
i couldn't believe what i saw a heard on American Idol tonight. i was on the mac on the couch kinda watching "idol" tonight and at the end i thought i heard ryan seacrest that they were gonna sing "Shout to the Lord", and i instantly just assume that i heard wrong. nope, i had heard correctly. i don't know what to say...a show as big as american idol with such a huge audience filled with people that have SO many different religious beliefs and the fact that they sang that song seems like a bold decision. derek and i just watched and listened to them sing that song in disbelief and thankfulness. i know that the show is gonna get a lot of negative response because of it...but, oh well. all i can say is that we had chills.
i was reading this book to leia the other day after we got back home from taking kaia to pre-school. i had read it many times before without even feeling like crying. i don't know what it was...maybe it had to do with the fact that i had just read heather's blog entry (titled "I am never leaving"), about how their oldest daughter was crying after she figured out a song/video she was listening to was about a daughter getting married & leaving home and that she never wants to leave home, or jacinda's blog entry (titled "i just wasn't ready"), about her decision to wait to put her daughter, kiara (who's kaia's age) in kindergarten until next year. maybe it has to do with the fact that i'm thinking about how leia will be 2 in 2 months...i don't know. all i know is that i was reading this story as usual & i had to stop to try to hold back my tears...first discreetly, then leia looked up at me to see what the problem was & as i looked into her eyes, i pictured her being in pre-school in a couple of years and i lost it. i went from calm tears to practically bawling. leia looked so confused, like "what happened to my story?" she reached her little arm up a hugged my neck...that made me cry even more. what's funny is that i used to think the story was sweet, but i thought part of it was very unrealistic and kinda weird. it's the part of the story where the mom's son had moved out of the house and late at night, she drove across town with a ladder on top of her car as she headed over to her son's house...when she gets there she climbs up the ladder to her son's window and climbs in and holds him like a baby & sings to him while he sleeps. weird, right? not this day...i totally understood why she did that (at least at the time i did). anyways, if your kids don't have this book...i recommend it. my girls love it (especially when i get all the way through it, sorry leia). even though it's a great story, Lord, please make sure i don't ever climb up a ladder into their bedrooms when they move out one day...no matter how much i miss 'em. :)
as you all know, leia is in a bed now & we had no idea how this was gonna be, but i am proud to say that derek and i have gotten the best sleep this week than we have in the last 2 years! the 1st night in her new bed, derek laid with her 'till she fell asleep and she was out for the entire night (we said that we weren't gonna make a habit of doing that because we remembered that we did that with kaia when she was first in a big girl bed & eventually she wouldn't go to sleep unless we laid with her)...anyways, the 2nd night, the second we were done tucking them in & left the room she started crying so we thought, "if she thinks we're alseep she'll stop crying and get back in bed". so, we turned off all the lights (it sounds mean but she is in the room with kaia & they do have a night light) and ran into our room so she would think we were asleep. it worked, after about 10 minutes of crying...she stopped. we waited a minute and then went out to see where she was. she had crawled back into her bed and curled up in a ball and was hugging 2 of her stuffed animal dogs (one in each arm) ASLEEP! it was so cute (see 1st pic). anyways, except for that 1 night of a little crying, she's been going right to sleep and sleeping until like 8:00 or 8:30 every day. i never thought the day would return where we would wake up on our own because the sun had risen and the room was actually light when our eyes opened!
NIGHT 2...
AND, NOW...
we have to give a lot of the credit to kaia...i'm sure leia wouldn't be so receptive if she was in the room by herself. thank you baby kaia.
and, we actually said "bye-bye" to the crib...it was on craigslist friday night and sold by saturday!
it was kinda sad not seeing the crib in it's old spot...but i'm just so thankful that both of the girls like their new sleeping arrangements better, and so do we! :)
kaia and leia love their texas papa!
a quick group pic...
my dad stayed in san diego, so we went got a hotel room next to him this weekend...i hope after this, the girls "good sleeping phase" continues!
yesterday we drove over to Del Mar beach (it is now one of my new favorite california beaches...it was beautiful. and perfect weather!)
at first the girls thought the water was too cold to even touch their toes...about 1 1/2 hr.s later, they were pretty much drenched from head to toe...
they loved trying to out-run the water...fun for hours. :)
leia didn't like the sand sticking to her hands (or feet for that matter...she kept walking up to me as i was laying out on the dry sand and look at her feet and say "uckie" (yuckie) & then walk back out to the water rinse them off again and then walk back up to me, look down at her feet and say it again with a look on her face like "why does this keep happening right after i just washed them off?"...she's so funny).
i guess having fun was worth having sand stuck to her! 
as long as big sis kept playing, so did she
i'm ready to move to san diego...i kept telling derek, "if we lived in san diego, i'd be here all 3 times a week". seriously (but who wouldn't?)
ahhhh...finally one where they're both looking
papa warmed little leia up...she finally got a little too cold that her teeth were chattering (poor baby)
Filippi's pizza...a great way to end the day!
...if you've never eaten there, you have to try it...it's the BEST pizza!
we already miss you Texas Papa...see you in June!
