BACK!

I was having some internet problems, but now I'm back! Here are some photos of the kids over the last few weeks:

Gianna in her Easter outfit, which she only wore 1/2 way through church because she had a blow out and needed to be changed.

After church on Easter, I slammed Ezra's finger in the car door and this is what it looked like a few hours later.
This was Gianna with a cold a few weeks ago, caught her just after a sneeze.

She is so good to let me put this thing on her head!

Not that quirky, but take a peek at my life!

I was having fun reading about the quirkiness of my friends and I started to worry that nobody would tag me! Not that I'm that quirky, but I wanted to play to! Thanks Meris! I'm running out of people to tag, but here they are: Jen, the Brooks', Julia.

First the business:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2.Post the rules.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag at least 3 people.
5.Make sure the people you tagged know you tagged them by commenting to them.

I sway- It started when I was a nanny and has continued since I've had my own kids. I sway in the grocery store line, I sway at church even when there is no music, I sway when I am talking to people, everywhere I stand!

I use coupons- I pretty much hate to buy things at regular price. If I don't have a coupon, I try to buy things on sale. I love a good bargain. And I say "Q-pon."

I use rubber gloves to do dishes- All the time, even to wash one dish.

I have piles- I like to think my house is pretty clean, usually, but there are a few piles of "stuff" around the house, in the kitchen, next to the computer, and on my dresser. The things these piles contain are: coupons, newsletters, grocery ads, post-it notes of grocery lists, photos, bills to file away, miscellaneous papers that are just too important to toss in the recycyling. I try to go through them about 1x a week. Sometimes they merge, but there are rarely moments when the house is pile-free.

I always put shopping carts back- Even with 3 kids now, I'll purposely park next to a cart return area, or even walk back to the store with the kids after putting the groceries in the car as I hate to leave shopping carts alone, next to a car, in the planter, etc. And I hate when I see people putting their carts in these places, I want to say to them, "I hope you don't go whining to the store when a cart slams into your car and dents and scratches it."

I like getting recipes from the backs of packages- From the backs of pasta boxes, soup cans labels, magazines, etc. My favorite lasagna recipe is from the back of the Barilla no-boil lasagna noodles. Just today I was looking at a bunch of different pasta boxes to see if any recipes looked good. None did, so I just got the lasagna. It's nice being able to see the recipe and buy the ingredients that I need all in one trip!

Infant Development

Today we went up to UCSC to participate in an infant development study. It was interesting, I almost laughed out loud because I just didn't understand what they were doing. They were studying how infants between 2 and 18 months learn about height, or something like that. All I know is that if they started doing something weird, Matt instructed me to get out of there fast (being the Psychology major he was, he knew how these experiments could be, haha). I was holding Gianna on my lap and we were in front of a little stage. The curtain was raised and there was a litle box and a blue tube with about 5 little red cotton balls at the base of the tube. There was a little ding (like when you're trying to click on an icon that isn't opening for you) then a hand with a yellow rubber glove picks up the box, shows us that inside there are a couple of little stars, then it is placed on top of the tube, which is then pushed up and down. Then the box is placed back next to the tube and the curtain goes down. This happened about 10 times with different a couple of different sized boxes and a red tube instead of the blue one, I was somewhat distracted as I was trying to keep Ezra and Justus quiet at my side. Gianna was happily sucking on her hands the whole time and only once looked away. When they squeaked a little toy, her attention was brought back to the stage (at least we know she's not deaf!). We were videotaped and it must be a pretty funny thing to watch as Ezra asked a couple of times, "what are they doing? why are they doing that?" Then, towards the end, he said he had to go pee. Anyway, not exactly sure what we contributed to the study, but I'm glad we were able to help out. Go slugs!

It's a Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood, sort of...

I had 2 interesting interactions with 2 different neighbors today. The first was a conversation with 1 neighbor who just got back from a long road trip. I asked how it was and she asked how the baby was doing. Then, she said that her and her husband are trying again to have a baby (from another neighbor I know that they've had a few miscarriages over the years). I responded with an, "I'll pray for you" and she said, "Thank you so much." The funny thing is that I rarely say this to my friends, much less people I hardly know! So, a seed was planted, and I really hope that this couple is able to have a baby.

The 2nd interaction was later on in the afternoon. I noticed out of our front window there was a lady and her dog on our lawn. The dog was sniffing around and looked like he/she was about to do some business. I really hate when dog's poop in our yard, especially when it stays there and we have to pick it up. The lady had a plastic bag with her, but I opened the window and asked if she would move her dog to another yard. She looked a little offended and said that the dog probably wasn't going to go. I said that it grosses me out knowing that my kids play on this grass. She moved along. It wasn't until later that I realizd that this is a neighbor who lives down the street. Oops, I might not have said anything if I recognized her. It still grosses me out though.

Playdough

Leah gave the boys a box of playdough for Christmas and I usually bring it out for them to play with while I finish making dinner. Today I sat down with them to play with it and it was a little stressful. I realized that I don't like mixing the different playdough colors, who would have thought I'd be like that?? The boys could care less about keeping the colors separate so I was able to follow along with them and help them build whatever it was they wanted. We made lots of snakes at first. Then, Ezra got bold and asked me to build a fighter jet. Surprisingly, I was able to craft fairly recognizable F-14, at least recognizable to a 3 1/2 year old.

Then, this is what the F-14 looked like after playing with it for about 30 minutes.

I am not a fan of the playdough smell. I'd rather eat paste. Although, I was never really in to eating weird stuff. Justus does like to nibble on cat food here or there. He's really not that weird though.

Gianna hasn't really done anything weird yet.

One man's junk is another man's treasure.

On a weekly basis, I've been trying to go through the toys, books, kitchen stuff, clothes and anything else in the house to clear out what we aren't using and donate it to the California Grey Bears. Some of the hardest things to get rid of are stuffed animals! I'll pick one up that hasn't been used in a while and remember who gave it to one of the kids, and I just can't do it! If I can't remember who it was who gave it to us, it usually gets tossed, but for some reason, I picture these little critters and the faces of those who so lovingly gave them to us. Actually, one of the ones that has been so difficult to part with is the dumb, blue, ugly dog that my brother won at the Boardwalk for Ezra when he was a baby. I keep thinking that it will be funny to give my brother when he and his wife have kids. The 2nd hardest thing to get rid of is this silly little happy meal toy that makes fart noises. It's hilarious! For this one, I'm just waiting for the batteries to run out, then I'll toss it. I'm going to go fill up a bag with some stuff now.

Big Kids

These kids are just growing so fast, it's crazy! Ezra learned how to ride his bike without the training wheels over the weekend. He kept saying as he was riding around, "I'm such a big boy now!" Truly he is. He's also sleeping on the top bunk, although will occasionally sneak in the crib with Justus when the light first goes out at night.

This is Ezra posing next to his aircraft carrier. It holds a couple of fighter jets, a jumbo jet, some people, and a space shuttle.

Justus learned how to ride the scooter and generally loves to have his helmet on.

Auntie Gigi (Giselle) threw a lovely baby shower for Gianna on Sunday. The group gift was a scrapbook album full of pages already decorated! I just have to put the pictures in. It is awesome, I can't wait to fill it up.