Avery 4 months

I still don't have a camera so I wasn't able to take a picture of Avery at 4 months. Here is a picture of her with her Daddy the week before. Avery at her 4 month appointment weighed 13 lbs. 4 oz and was 25 inches long. She is wearing her 6 month clothes which is bigger than her brothers were at this age. Avery sure melts our hearts when she smiles and laughs. Her only issue is that she never sleeps. She doesn't sleep through the night and she doesn't take naps during the day well. I hope this is just a phase that she grows out of soon! She rolls on to her side but not quite all the way over yet. She is starting to grab toys and we just started a little rice cereal. We can't wait to see what she learns next.

Day 3 San Diego Trip

Day 3 of our trip we slept in a little bit to recover from the day before. Avery and I walked across the street to the outlet mall and did a bit of shopping, while Michael got stuff ready for the beach. Usually we play on Mission Beach since we are familiar with it and there are lots of services available, but this day we decided to try Oceanside since it was close to where we were staying.

Michael got to wear his new wet suit and then he rented some for the boys in hopes of keeping them a little bit warmer. They weren't quite tight on the boys so they still got a little bit cold.

Michael also got a body board and took the boys out to ride the waves for a few hours.

Our friends the Pobsts live up in Huntington Beach and drove down to hang out with us. Michael had a good time playing in the water with Matt.

And this is where the pictures end! Just a few minutes later a huge wave came up to where we were sitting and submerged my bag that had our cameras and Michael's droid phone. We were set up about 10 feet from the highest point of the tide, I assumed the if the tide was coming up it would give us a little bit of warning. Well it didn't, it came up with full force past where we were sitting. Our electronics got drenched with salt water and were actually filled with sand when we took them apart. Even though this was very unfortunate, we have a lot to be thankful for. I was holding Avery where as before she was laying on a towel by herself. I didn't see the wave coming but I was able to hold her up and at least keep her head above water. She would have gotten really hurt if she had been by herself, so in the end all is well we will just replace our electronics and move on.

San Diego Trip Day 2

Day 2 of our trip, we woke and headed out for Legoland. We went to the Sea Life aquarium first. I love aquariums and this is pretty nice, although the Sea Life at AZ Mills is actually a little bigger.

My sweet boys exploring under water life.

Our family in the shark tunnel (Avery was asleep in the stroller).

Michael and I sneaking a hug.

After Sea Life we headed over to Legoland and rode a few rides and let the kids play for a bit.

We also went into the Legoland Water park for a bit. It was not sunny out but the water was a bit heated. The boys had fun on the slides until they got a little too cold.

After a long day, we still wanted to party a little more. We headed down to Mission Beach. We always eat at Joe's Crab Shack. I love the atmosphere and looking out at the ocean while we eat. The boys had a good time and liked the crab even though they thought they wouldn't. This was probably the best night of our vacation. After dinner we headed down on the beach. It was dark but we had fun walking around and the boys did races along the shore.

Day 1 San Diego Trip

Our first day of vacation we left our house around 5:30 Wednesday morning. We had some issues with our luggage on top of our van, but we got it resolved and got to Yuma for a late breakfast. After everyone got fed and went to the bathroom we were able to drive the rest of the way to San Diego. Since we got there before it was time to check in to our hotel, we decided to grab a quick lunch and head out the beach. It was overcast and kind of cold but Mission Beach is always fun!

Daddy and Avery checking out the water. Her reaction was pretty good, she usually loves the water.

Mom and Avery snuggling to keep warm. Our beach umbrella was perfect at keeping the wind off of Avery.

The boys played in the water and sand until they got a little too cold.





Avery just chilling in her bumbo chair.

After we played for a little bit and were good and sandy, we packed up and drove north to our hotel in Carlsbad. We cleaned up and went to Olive Garden for dinner. A pretty good first day of vacation. We decided 3 kids are a lot of work to take on vacation, but we sure made some good memories.

Riding a Bike

Our Ethan has a lot of talents, physical skills such as riding a bike are sometimes lacking though. This is mostly from a lack of confidence and a fear of getting injured (he gets this from me). We've been trying to get him to ride his bike without training wheels for probably a full year, we had even bribed him with $20. Still Michael would take him out and he would whine and cry the whole time and just allow himself to fall over. Well about 2 weeks ago Michael found this video on youtube, Ethan watched it and was actually inspired to go out and ride his bike. Just last night he earned his $20 bribe by starting himself and riding all the way down the street and back.
I couldn't figure out how to post the video but this link should take you there.

http://youtu.be/eaIvk1cSyG8

Extreme Couponing Uggh!

I don't usually share my negative thoughts on here but I need to get this off my chest. I'm sure some of you out there are getting into extreme couponing and I am really pro coupon use but its just getting to be too much. I use coupons from my Sunday paper, off the internet and use them effectively with the in store ads. I just only buy a couple of each product that I actually need. So this is my beef with this new trend:
1. products get wiped of the shelf because the extreme couponer in front of you just bought 30 tubes of sausage and you can't get the 2 you wanted to cook for dinner
2. someone is always fighting with the cashier holding up the line because they weren't able to use all 4 of there coupons on the same product
3. and the one that really pushed me over the edge, my sunday newspaper is getting stolen for its coupons!!!!!
I think extreme couponing pushes people to be more dishonest than they would ordinarily be, because they are so driven to get everything for free. When I watch the show it seems so obvious to me that this is a form of hoarding and not just being a smart shopper.

Summer is Fun!

Last month I was not too excited for summer to come, I was thinking about the heat and going back to work. While both of those things are still happening we have filled my days off of with lots of fun summer activities. We have our kids movie at the theater on Wednesday mornings. Even if its not a movie we are dying to see, its fun to take my kids to the theater and Avery has been so good during the movie. Next we have our summer reading program at the library, the boys get so excited to earn the prizes. These next two weeks we have swim lessons almost every night. I sit and watch my boys bob up and down in the water, they are always looking to see if mom is watching their moves. It just warms my heart to see them having fun. And finally at the end of the month we are going to San Diego for some beach fun and Legoland!
When I was a kid I dreaded summer too, it seemed so long and boring. But it now it seems my summer days with my kids are already flying by fast.