Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The 3rd Prince


Do you think this baby knows how lucky he is?
Probably not.
He just happens to be his sister's 3rd Prince.
The other night, Naomi was dressed in a badly worn, slightly torn, extremely faded princess dress.
She twirled and swirled around the room.
Right into the face of her newest brother.
I was holding Luke.
Naomi danced up to us, took his little hand in hers and asks,
"Will you be my prince, Luke?"
And it was official.
He is now in the running.
She switches Princes frequently.
Will, Jake and now Luke.
A princess has never been so lucky.
Neither has a prince.
Talk about going for the older ladies...


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Sliver

I can't think of a better word to describe it than...a sliver. A sliver of time that will be permanently imprinted in your mind.
The other day, I had my three youngest kids in the car. I had been at a dr. appt. for Jake with Jake, Naomi and Luke. After an hour of trying to communicate with the doctor over Luke's fussing and Jake and Naomi's mischief, I was exhausted.
I pulled into Arby's to grab lunch so I wouldn't return Jake to school famished.
I passed out the grub.
As I continued driving down the freeway towards my 7 year olds educational institution, I glanced in the rear view mirror to make sure he was eating.
There I saw him.
A sliver of time.
He was sitting in the back seat, merrily munching on his jr. roast beef, in his long sleeve red uniform shirt on a hot day (this kid wears long sleeves in July...) with a complete look of contentment on his face. Almost...magical.
In that sliver of time, my eyes filled with tears.
He looked perfect.
Perfectly content with life.
And in that moment, I was too.
I thought that in 30 years from now, James and I will be looking at each other wondering what to do with ourselves.
And we would do anything...anything for that sliver of time back.
When our car was full of merrily munching children and our wallets were empty.
When our house was small and quaint, but every square inch was used.
For these four perfect faces to wake us up in the middle of the night.
We will realize then, that a good night's sleep was over-rated anyway.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Meet our little Ford Drama

Naomi called me outside the other day to be the audience of her dance recital. Her very own dance recital. It was pretty spur of the moment.
But no moment was dull.
The facial expressions speak volumes.
In these quick pictures, you will get a first hand look into the mind and imagination of our little princess.
Heaven help me.





Wednesday, September 12, 2012

I've Always Wondered...

What do my kid's REALLY think about when they are asleep...
Last night, I tiptoed into the boys room to check on them the 40th time (does anyone else do this?)
I leaned over and kissed them on the head. Will's eyes were completely shut. But on delivery of my kiss, his sleep induced head turned toward me. His eyes still shut, his body limp, his speech slurred, he asked, "mom, do you know how many layers the earth's crust has?"
Barely understandable, I acknowledged that he indeed, was mostly asleep and gave a quick answer.
"Uh, you probably know better than me, mister."
"yeah," he responded. And then his speech really started to slur as he tried to reel off his answer...but before he finished he was already back in a coma.
SO now I know.
They think about layers of the Earth's crust.
Who knew?

Saturday, September 8, 2012

4, 2, and Pre-K Firsts...


Naomi's Very first day of school...ever. If any of you know Naomi, you know her WILL.
 As in...strong will.
The first day, was, uh, O.K. The second day she refused to go. I drug her to the car in her mis-matched pajamas. She was screaming. So was Luke.
I wasn't going to let her get away.
She threatened to go to school in her pajamas if I made her go.
I told her that was fine. 
She caved by the time we got to the preschool parking lot. 
She got dressed by the side of the car.
We went in.
We were a half hour late.
I told her teacher I was sorry and that I was going to kill her.
Her teacher, in her sweetest, kindest voice, replied,
"Oh, let's not do that."
I laughed.
I hope she doesn't report me to DCFS.
I went to pick her up later.
Her teacher told me several times how pleasant and wonderful my daughter is.
Go figure.
My kids are always pleasant at school.
I'll take it.
Way to go, Ne Ne.
(oh, and the night before school started, I realized that I didn't take her to buy a back to school outfit. Luckily Aunt Stacy was here and headed to Target. Naomi's loved it! Thanks, Aunt Stacy.)



I figure you might as well not spend money on a backpack if it's not as big as you. Wait until we load those things up with books.


The boys seem to be doing great. Their teachers both seem super. I am so thankful. Jake just talked to his grandma on the phone. She asked if he liked his teacher. He told grandma that he is going to give it a little more time before he decides. She asked him if there were any friends in his class. He responded no, there aren't, but I am working on it. Way to go, Mooch! He is working really hard at making friends and liking school. 
I asked Will about his teacher. He said she's a 10. Just like last year. I love that positive kid. He love's school except for math. He hates math. Did you get that? If you didn't, he'll let you know. 
Good Luck my babies...
I will still say that 3:30 is my favorite time of day.
My kids jump in my car.
I smile at them.
They smile back.
And we drive home just to be together.

Ford Visitors

do you see little Luke under the mat? He is getting so big.
Grandma Cheryl and Aunt Stacy came to visit. What fun.

make-up party (James doesn't approve)

The kids somehow found out about the Melting Pot restaurant. We called to see how much money it was. Uh, suffice it to say, we opted for making chocolate fondue at home. A Hit!



Bored???? Or just Ford's? We love creativity in this house.

Will's new favorite sport. It was amazing. The first day of camp we found out his Archery coach is also a U.S. Olympic team coach. He was even wearing his USA team shirt. Will went from the first day at hardly shooting any balloons off the target, to the last day where he got 5 bulls-eyes! He did great. We just may be off to the Olympics someday, too. 


Daddy. The greatest word ever.
Legos. The never ending legos. We have done a lot of this since Luke was born. Thanks goodness for LEGOS!