Bryant the Guitar Hero

Here is Bry's video. We talked about doing one of him on the trampoline or on his skateboard but ended up doing this one because it was convenient. He is just learning to play this and today was his first time on this game. It's so funny watching him try to dance to the beat and hit the right notes. I'm sure he'll be getting high scores in no time. Still it's fun to watch him practice.

You'll hear Elle in the background because she wanted to keep grabbing the camera and so Caleb took her away from it and she wasn't happy about it at all. Also, you'll notice that DJ can't stand to have the camera on someone else.

I hope to have more videos of the kids soon. Enjoy...

Tea with Elle

Here's a little video of Elle playing. It's not very exciting but I thought the people who haven't seen her in a long time would enjoy it.

I'll post a video of Bry soon.
Enjoy!

DJ's Interpretive Dance

DJ woke up (note the serious bed head) and was in a peculiar mood. She sat on our table and danced to various songs silently. So I video taped one of them. This is not exciting but entertaining nonetheless. Napoleon and the Happy Hands Club would be so proud.
(Our close friend Amber Hunter, from Ajo, who is serving as a missionary in Africa would also be so proud. This is her song that she wrote and is singing. Her cd is my new favorite.)

Pondering Sports

Caleb was watching the College World Series tonight and I noticed a grey haired man in the same uniform as the young players. This seemed funny to me. So I pointed out to Caleb that it's humorous how in baseball the coaches dress like the players. We began to consider this concept a little further in other sports.

Can you image Phil Jackson standing courtside, waving his arms around with a tank top jersey and baggy shorts on? Or Mike Babcock geared up and laced up with a hockey stick and skates. How about Tony Dungy yelling at his Defense in a big bulky football uniform complete with shoulder pads?

Just struck me as funny, that's all.

Random Thoughts on This Blog, My Life and Parenting

I love being a mother. I absolutely love it. Many days I feel like I'm not nearly as good at it as I could be, should be and want to be, but I'm so thankful that I get to be. I'm constantly striving to keep my eyes on God so He can continually transform me into the wife, mother, & woman He designed me to be. I have to say though, parenting is hard. I absolutely don't have it all together. Not even close. Sometimes I mess up more times in a day than I do well. I wonder if I do more damage to my kids than good sometimes.

When I became a mom at the naive age of 23, I had no idea what kind of sacrifice I was getting into. Simple things like the ongoing demands and having to remain completely flexible with my own schedule and my money. I didn't know that my children would be born with their own individual personalities. I didn't understand that they would have likes & dislikes of their own regardless of my strong influence on their lives. I didn't realize that they would often disobey, even though I've told them the right thing to do.

I am absolutely not complaining here. Not for a second. And I know I have really great kids. I guess I'm just keeping it real. I often post cute and fun things about our family but I want people to know, I struggle. We struggle as a family. Our kids disobey and we loose our tempers. We have bad days, weeks, and months. Since I choose to be home, our finances take a big hit for a family of 5. Every bit of it is worth it though. We are just people on this journey of life and we're thankful we get to be a family to grow and learn together in love.

I do post a lot of good highlights so the grandparents can see our children and be proud of them. But just so we're clear, we're just people, completely dependant on God's grace. We will do our best so He can be honored but when (not IF but WHEN) we mess up, we rely completely on Him. It is God's grace alone that sustains us. If there is anything we know to be true, it is that.

I don't know why I felt the urge to post this today. I guess I don't want for a minute people who follow our blog to think this is just a big brag fest about how wonderful we are. Trust me, we know how wonderful we're NOT. (just ask our kids, they'll tell you the truth) If there is anything good about this family, it is not of our own doing. Caleb and I were two wandering and broken people when we met and I for one was cloaked in shame. The fact that God merged our two lives and then added precious children to it is nothing less than a miracle directly from His generous Hand. Truly.

**I'll try to make my next post more light-hearted since most of my readers just want to see the kids. Most are probably thinking, "Okay, Jaime, enough of this heart-sharing, philosophical stuff! Just post pictures of the cute ones in the family and save your thoughts for your personal journal." I know, I make everything deep, even when it doesn't need to be. Oh well! Thanks for reading.

9 Years

Today is mine and Caleb's 9th Anniversary! We got married in Laguna Beach, California and honeymooned in Hawaii for 2 weeks. Rough, hu? I only WISH I could have such luxuries nowadays!

These have been the best years of my life. What an adventure we've shared together and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Caleb is my closest friend and my favorite person. I still fall in love with him regularly and I pinch myself because I don't understand why I have been blessed like I have been. I don't understand it but I know it and I'm thankful.

Caleb, I still do.

Summer Plans

I'm determined to make this summer fun and productive, even though this living in limbo can mentally bog me down. I want to have a little bit of structure to keep us focused and motivated, but still have lot's of fun and flexibility. Here are some of the goals I hope to incorporate into our summer:

Sun time: Get outdoors each morning before it gets too hot out. Even if it's just working in the herb garden, jumping for a little bit on the trampoline or a short walk. I don't want us to feel trapped inside because of the heat. If we get out early, that will help us to get our sunshine and dodge the hot weather.
Learning Time:
Teach Bry cursive and keep him practicing his math facts.
Teach DJ to identify all of her letters and maybe start learning sounds.
Teach Elle shapes, colors, animals & their sounds, and simple songs.
Story Time: Start a series and read about 15 minutes to our kids as a group with some fun chapter books. I remember my mom used to read books to us when I was a kid. I loved it. I remember Ms. Piggle-Wiggle, Amelia Badilia, Frog and Toad, etc.
Silent Reading Time: Have silent reading for Bry, DJ and myself while Elle sleeps. Bry has a reading level of a 5th grader but doesn't necessarily enjoy reading on his own. I want to encourage him to develop a love of reading for himself. DJ can't read yet but she can look at pictures and she can look at books that I've already read to her and recall the details on her own. This hopefully will also give me a chance to get started on some of my own books I've been dying to get my hands on.
Library Day: With all this reading going on, I need to plan on getting to the library once a week.

Those are some of the things I hope to consistently do this summer. I also plan to do craft days with the kids and some various outings. I thought by writing these daily/weekly goals down, it would solidify my plans. And so it begins...

Happy Father's Day

This is for Pops & Papa from Bry, DJ & Elle. We think you guys are the best. We love you so much!

You may want to turn up your volume a little bit. Also once you open the video, hit pause for about 30 seconds while the video loads and it will play more smoothly:

Time Well Spent

Today was DJ's birthday tea party. What better way to celebrate her birthday party while we're in the South than with a tea party? We went to a tea house down the road that caters to little girls' birthdays. DJ, Elle and a few close friends got to dress up, be fancy, eat cake and be everything little girls should be. Somehow, the moms even ended up playing dress up over our real clothes (have to emphasize that my dress was OVER my regular clothes because I look quite WIDE in the pictures). Everyone was so fun and played along. It was too funny. The party exceeded my expectations. Delainey, Elle and all their sweet little friends had such a fabulous & fancy time. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story:

9 on the 9th

Okay, so I'm not a "meme" kind of blogger but my good friend at All That Naz, invited me to do this meme. Since she's so creative and enthusiastic, I'm going to honor her idea by doing it at least this once. I can't guarantee this will happen every month... or ever again for that matter. It's not that I don't want to, it's just remembering and finding the time is always a challenge. But today I remembered and I have a few minutes, so here it goes...

9 Reasons to Have a Blog:
1. It's FREE
2. You can share pictures easily
3. You can share your heart
4. You can make people laugh
5. You can document important events
6. People faraway get to watch your kids grow and change
7. It can serve as a journal
8. It can serve as an alibi, if you ever needed one (hopefully you won't)
9. Did I mention that it's FREE?

Birthday Recap

Yesterday was a fun day for DJ as well as the rest of us. She got a big-girl princess bike and then we took her downtown to eat at her favorite restaurant, Jim and Nicks. It's her favorite because she LOVES their mac n' cheese.

After lunch, we decided to go down to one of the fountains and splash around since it was so hot out. Cal and I agreed that we'd let them get their feet wet for about 15 minutes and then head home. I left him and 3 dry children for a brief few minutes while I went across the street. When I came back, well, let's just say far more than their feet were wet but we had a great time.

When we got home, DJ wanted nothing more than to ride her new bike. She rode around the house for hours. Later, we took her for an evening walk and it turned into a jog in order to keep up with her. She learned how to use the breaks and she LOVES being up high and riding fast.

Her tea party is next Saturday and I'll try to post some pics of that. Here are some pics with my point and shoot camera from yesterday:

6-7-8

6-7-08 is today's date and also 4 years after our sweet Delainey Jayne was born. That's right, DJ is 4 years old today. Where do all the days go? When we moved here she was only 2 1/2. How quickly the sand runs through the parenting hour glass.

Yesterday I kept recounting the day as it was 4 years ago. I would recall what we were doing and what stage we were in the labor at that hour. Funny how a mom never forgets the details of child labor. I was induced and ended up with a 23-hour labor. Thankfully, it wasn't hard labor, just starting and stopping with contractions and LOTS of walking down the hospital halls.

I remember toward the very end of the labor I was so excited that I began laughing out loud. Maybe it was because I was tired and delirious or maybe it was because knew I was minutes away from holding our second child, our first girl. Everything I anticipated in her was changed the moment I set eyes on her. I pictured a blond, curly headed little girl. Instead she had dark black hair and one darling dimple. Her dimple was the very first thing I noticed after I said, "she has black hair!" I assumed she would be a shy and quiet little child and I couldn't have been more wrong about that either.

DJ's life has been such a wonderful adventure. In four years she has lived in 3 states and experienced 5 moves. To say she has adjusted well would be an understatement. Somehow, each new turn has been just another place to see and new people to meet in her mind. She never meets a stranger and thinks everyone should know who she is, who her siblings are and the date of her birthday. She thinks everyone should be invited over to play, young and old. She just loves people even if she's only known them for a moment. Recently someone told me they would describe Delainey in one word: Delightful. I would agree.

Happy Birthday DJ! What a joy you have been. In some ways I can't believe you're already 4. In other ways, I can't believe you haven't always been in our lives. You truly are a delight!

Bummer Stuff

Sometimes it seems that every little thing goes wrong! Why is that? When it rains, it pours, right? Here are some bummer things going on with us right now:

The zipper on my camera back pack busted and my camera tumbled out onto our driveway on Saturday. Needless to say, it is not working properly. It's in the shop for 4-6 weeks. I don't know how much it is going to cost to fix it but I'm bumming in the meantime!

Elle girl is sick. She's had a fever for 3 days. I thought it was chicken pox because of a small rash on her lower back but that's already healing up and doesn't really look like chicken pox anymore. Having is sick baby is worse than being sick yourself because you worry about them more. Also, they can't really tell you what they're feeling and you just want to fix it for them.

We showed our house for the second time to a guy this week only to find that he's not quite ready to buy. What a waste of time!

Our computer isn't operating properly and is running a little slugglish. This is very frustrating!

Okay, I know none of this stuff is THAT big of a deal. In fact, our life is incredibly good and God continues to bless us beyond more than we could ever deserve. So, I need to get out of this pity party mode and think on things that are true, good, and praiseworthy. I think I'll start now.

The Sorriest Excuse for a Toothfairy ... EVER!

Bryant lost another tooth today. Being a part of this generation that always uses debit cards, Cal & I scrambled around looking for a couple of bucks to give to our little toothless boy. We didn't succeed. So I heard Caleb going through his coin cup to see if he could find some quarters and round up a decent reward for our son's pearly white ...nothing.

Finally I hear Cal coming out of Bry's room saying, "This was the lamest tooth fairy night ever!" He took money out of Bry's wallet to put under his own pillow. Now, if you know Caleb, you know he's good for it and he'll replace the singles before Bry even notices they're missing. Thankfully, Bry isn't really very good at money management yet and probably doesn't even know what is in his wallet. Nevertheless, as a parent/toothfairy, borrowing from your 8 year old doesn't feel quite right.

Caleb shook his head as he turned in for the night saying, "This is an all-time low for me." I cracked up! This definitely wasn't in the parenting manual! Who knew we were supposed to keep money around in case one of our kids decides to loose a tooth? Poor first child!