Melissa’s Blog

Bret was off today for President’s Day. We started out by going on the open space trail with the kid’s bikes. It was kind of cool, however, they kept stopping to play. They were a little weirded out biking at a new place. They scared me going down the hills but they were fine. Here are some pics I got:

The kids were on their bikes most of the day and I am not kidding. I grabbed the cones and made a course for them which even made it more exciting. Dad and I sat there and watched while on computers then I worked in the garage a bit. I am loving my new phone and thinking how did I ever live with out it. So great to get e-mail, etc anywhere I am. Tonight we went to Chick-Fil-A with Buffi, Brittany, and Grammy. The kids played and played in the play area. They had so much fun together. We were there for a while and the kiddos wanted to play cars for a bit when they got home. It is now 9:15 and they are still awake, ugh.

Today I was finally feeling really great. I am hoping it continues and I get back into losing weight but most importantly I just want to feel well. The kids are still loving being on two wheeler bikes. They are both pro’s, starting and stopping on their own. They have become very confident-both stand up on the bike and Justin is going down curbs. Today we celebrated Tierney’s 3rd birthday with Alan/Roberta/Grandma/Pa. We went to Dave and Busters and Justin was all over the games. Both kids had a great time. I barely saw Justin in the game room. Can’t believe little T is 3, happy birthday my sweet niece. We came home and the kids rode their bikes. They were so happy that two neighbors saw them riding. The kids brought out their Lego’s and played really well for a while. Nikki continued playing it by herself and it was nice to hear her playing on her own.

So Justin has not been wanting to sleep with pants or underwear. I do try and sneak a diaper on him in the middle of the night. But the other night he said to me “why do I have two footballs by my penis”? I can’t remember laughing so hard. Luckily he was tired so he didn’t ask too many questions.

I have finally joined the rest of the world and have a phone I can text with, do e-mail, surf the web, etc. Bret was so great in setting it up for me. At first we chose a phone that wasn’t that great-we didn’t know. So the entire time I listened to Bret say it isn’t an Iphone. We ended up exchanging it and getting a better phone. It is a pretty cool phone.

Kiddos are in bed and I am going to relax finally.

All we have been doing lately is biking, the kids are loving it so much. We have taken the bikes down the Venta Spur path to the little park. We have ridden in drizzle, cold, etc. The kids biked around the neighborhood and I jogged a bit. We stopped at our neighbors as the kids really wanted to show that there were no more training wheels on their bikes. Today I dropped them off at school then ran to the grocery store. Dad had to go to the foot doctor to have his warts lasered off. Poor guy, that hurts. When we got home from school the kids biked some more. We just biked in the cul de sac and I got my bike out as well. It was fun riding around with them. Justin is becoming quite the daredevil. He is going over curbs now and taking his feet off the peddles. Nicole is able to start on her own almost every time now. They helped me for a bit with the hedging but then headed in the house and played. After dinner, daddy headed out to the pre school meeting. So weird to send dad. I feel a little guilty but I am a little burnt out from ICNS. Hopefully dad will just play on his laptop and rest. The kids played Mario Cart for a bit. Still working on cleaning the grout and will probably be a few more days until we finish. Upstairs the kids raced each other down the hallway and back and forth. I finally got their teeth flossed and brushed. We just snuggled in my bed and read lots of books, it was really sweet. And gave me a warm fuzzy feeling 🙂

I will let the pictures tell the story of today’s blog:

It was so exciting! These were the bikes Grammy bought. We picked up Brittany from school then went to Grammy’s. At Grammy’s the kids rode bikes. Justin was off on his own pretty fast. So weird to watch them ride on a two wheeler. When Nicole saw Justin doing it by himself her determination came in and soon she was riding a two wheeler as well. It is crazy they are our babies and now they are riding two wheelers. Both are doing really well-It was an exciting day for us.

This morning our day started off by going to Lake Forest in the woodsy area. The kids threw as many rocks as they could in the streams. Nikki made snowman with rocks and added hair (sand). Justin carried the biggest rocks ever. He was so excited for the big splash.

When we got home from Grammy’s. The kids rode around the cul de sac. They perfected stopping on their bikes and Nicole is able to start on her own most of the time. It was so hard to make them stop riding, they are just loving it! We just had a quick dinner then played bop the balloon. Kids got a bath and some books then off to bed.

On Sat morning dad went to trombone practice. I walked our friends dog so they could get ready for a birthday party. The dog, Tyson stayed here during the birthday party. I then did some gardening and relaxed a bit. I had Tierney for a bit, such a cute little girl. She was so silly and happy playing with the toys. She loved the kitchen and the stroller…plus the play house outside. The kids came home from sleeping at Grandma/pa’s. They had a great time but were tired. We headed over to Olivia’s birthday party. The party was fun with lots of games and balloons. It took Justin and Nicole a while to get into it. After a while Justin kept saying he was tired, so I called dad and he came to get Justin. Nikki stayed with me and just played and played.

Dad was pretty much up all night as he is on call. I gave the kiddos showers and dad took a nap. While dad was napping we played outside. The kids were busy riding their scooters. We did rockets then we took out the Moxie girl stuff. Then it turned into a picnic lunch. It was nice and I was able to get the front hedge done. We all ran to the grocery store then Grammy, Buffi, and Brittany came over for dinner. The kids were so excited. They played with Brittany for a bit. The kids noticed the movie Despicable Me so we let them watch it. Luckily nothing too scary. Nikki really liked the movie but Justin didn’t really. Nikki was pretending she was the little girl from the movie. Nikki had trouble falling asleep tonight but Justin was out quickly.

On Friday the kids had their Valentine’s celebration at school. It took us all morning before school to finish the Valentine cards. They had fun putting everyone’s Valentine’s in their mail boxes made out of shoe boxes. I was supposed to work but for some reason it changed. I came back early to take pics and bury kids in the sand. It was cute all the kids wanted to be buried. I was surprised that the kiddos did pat on the back’s for mom’s. They also gave each mom a rose, it was very sweet.

It may be hard to read. Nikki said I love you more. My mom is good at playing games with the kids. Justin said My mom is good at building sandcastles with people. I love you more. I just smiled-I loved what they said about me. Here are more pics from the day:

They loved going through all their Valentine cards, plus eating some of the candy. After school I took the kiddos to grandma/pa’s to stay the night. Dad and I were able to go out for a nice dinner and just come home to the house to ourselves. It was nice to be together.

Time to catch up on the blog. Some days I feel ok and others just kind of blah. I have definitely been a loner lately and not hanging out with friends. Yesterday was Grandma’s birthday, we surprised her and came over in the morning for breakfast. The kids were so excited to surprise grandma. They made her some pictures and a Valentine. We were there way longer than I anticipated. Then we stopped off at a friend’s house to drop off a baby gift. The kids were able to jump on the trampoline and play for a while. Then we went over to the Mission Viejo mall and played for a bit. We went on the lights, play area, Disney store, pet store, etc. We hadn’t really just hung out at the mall in a long time. At the Disney store they were having a good sale so I ended up spoiling the kids. Justin got a Tigger stuffed animal and Nikki got a Bolt one. Then I bought them cars, Justin got Luigi and Guido and Nikki picked out Sally. When we got home they were so excited to play parking garage together and had a blast. We are working on making Valentine’s for their pre school friends. They need to bring them in on Friday. So far it has been good practice writing and cutting.

So Buffi and Brittany are here as well. We have been trying to do lots of stuff with them. We went to Newport Beach with them. Nikki got to do the jumpy thing that she loves so much. Justin didn’t want to do it but went on the ferris wheel and played some games. Also we took them to the Spectrum. The kids and I tried to go earlier to play a bit but we ended up not having as much time as I hoped. We went into the pet store and a boring store for me. Or what the kids call boring. I am in need of clothes still. We had dinner with Buffi, Brittany, and Grammy. Nikki wanted to go ice skating so badly. She was so happy to be on the ice and she picked it back up again. She loved everyone watching her. She skated for a long time. Justin went on the ferris wheel twice. Nikki was so sad to have to go home and stop skating she cried and cried. It was close to bed time. She didn’t get over crying for a while. The kids are loving having Brittany and Buffi here-it is really cute. Both kids really look up to Brittany.

Dad had to get computer glasses and looks so cute in them. I will have to post a picture soon. The kids had pre school today then we headed to the library for a Thomas and Friends thing. It would have been cute had there not been so many people. Justin played on the library computer for a bit and Nikki and I read a few books. Then they colored a bit. We went out to dinner with Grammy and gang, then headed to Grammy’s for a bit. The kids got some new coloring books so they worked on that. As we were leaving they got all crazy, playing tag with Brittany. We got home late but it worked out as dad was busy working-he is on call this week. Plus we got a new TV for upstairs and a new Tivo so that has kept dad busy.

Picture of dad in his glasses:

We have been such home bodies lately but it has been kind of nice. We  had lunch then we were off to pre school. I worked today. Today they did a pat on the back for Nikki. It is when everyone says something about him and the teacher writes it down. Nikki really liked listening to what everyone said about her. This is what everyone said:

-Justin says I love her more. I like to play cars and parking garage with her. She says that its boring when she gets tired of playing that. I think thats funny.
-Nikki’s mom likes how thoughtful Nikki is and I love her more
-Violet says Nikki is good at puzzles
-Ella says I just like Nikki
-Anushka says Nikki is good at helping her mom. She is good at playing Scooby Doo
-Melody says I think Nikki is good at numbers
-Izabel says she is great at playing toys and she is very nice to me. She likes and loves her brother. He is a good boy and he loves her
-Nathan says Nikki plays with me
-Sushant says me too (to what Nathan said)
-Rakshana says I love Nikki. I play with her. She likes to play with me.
-Jaffer says he likes Nikki. He likes to play puzzle pieces with Nikki
-Sansa says I love her. She likes pancakes
-Danial says I like her. I like to play cars with her
-Areebah says she loves Nikki
-Sushant says I like Nikki. She plays good
-Mrs. Nowicki says that Nikki is good at playing. Nikki has good ideas and includes everyone.

Yesterday I tortured the kiddos and took lots of pics of them. Actually they were troopers and it turned out to be really fun. Here are the pics:

So I drew hearts on the kids feet and then I let them draw on mine. They had a blast and covered the bottom of my feet. Here are more pics:

I ended up putting my feet in the bath then the kids did the same. They decided to take a bath since they were already in a bit.

Back to today. After school I started dinner. The our contractor didn’t show up tonight like he was supposed to. It is re-scheduled for tomorrow. We went out for a family flashlight walk which was nice. The kids had fun exploring. Now that they are in bed, time to relax.