Pumkins!

We had some fun last night carving up our pumpkins for Halloween! We did three, one for each of the kids, and I think they turned out pretty cute! James did Ryan's, on the left and Hailey's, on the right. I got to help Jackson with his Star Wars themed Yoda pumpkin, in the middle! It was a chore trying to carve it, but it turned out pretty good, especially at night with the candle in it. It was hard to get a real good picture of it, but you can see it best in the 2nd picture, where the kids look all fuzzy! Yoda has one arm forward and the other arm is back holding a light saber. Ryan did a scary pumpkin face and James tried to do a girl with big lips and eyelashes for Hailey! I think they turned out great! We are looking forward to our church's harvest party tonight and then trick or treating tomorrow around the neighborhood! I will have some cute costume pic's I'm sure, I can't wait! Hope you have a safe and happy Halloween!

Cork Boat Races!!!

That's right, cork boat races! James and I have saved corks for YEARS because James told me that one day we would do something fun with them! Well, that day finally came last week when James and the boys made cork boats and we raced them in the pool! It was so fun, I'm sure we'll do it again and again. The boys helped put them together and each colored their own sail.

Ryan proudly displaying his handiwork!

Notice the LETTERS on Ryan's sail - I'd say Kindergarten is paying off! :-)

Jackson drew a "guitar hero" design on his sail.

Of course we had to have "riders" on the boats. Making the maiden voyage for Ryan was Luke Skywalker and for Jackson it was Lego Batman!

Lego Batman had an accident and went overboard but...

Dad was quick to rescue him and save the day! It sure helps to have a fireman around for such emergencies!

Then James had to join the races himself with his own custom designed boat!

Our cheerleader, Miss Hailey-girl! She enjoyed cheering the boys and their boats while scaring Mom and Dad that she was going to fall into the pool and we'd have to jump into that FREEZING water to save her! Fortunately, she managed to stay on the sidelines the whole time! What a fun time for everyone!

Update!

So, I thought I'd give you quick little update on how things are in the Irvine house. I've been sick for the past three days or so and really hope that I'm not sick tomorrow! I am a lousy sick person, especially when James is gone for 48 hours and I get to take care of everything by myself! I know I've been short tempered with the kids and have been apologizing to them constantly - usually right after I've gotten done yelling at them for something! I feel horrible and it's made even worse by all the guilt I feel for not being able to be 100% for them. I'm quite sure I've ruined their childhoods and doomed them all to years of therapy! :-} I do have to say that if not for the generosity and care from a wonderful neighbor, I would be doing a lot worse!! Thanks, Jenn!

The kids are good, despite their horrible mother, and plugging along just fine. Hailey has amazed everyone with how well she's doing with her potty training, or should I say the lack of training needed! I can say with almost 100% certainty that she is OFFICIALLY POTTY TRAINED! That includes nap time, bed time, and doing the deed all by herself! It really is amazing at how fast and completely she got it, but that's my baby girl! She even tells me to "go far away" if I try to come into the bathroom with her! Ha!

Ryan is continuing to learn by leaps and bounds at school and home! He is starting to sound out words and read and is even doing math by himself, he just doesn't know it yet! He was counting the number of pepperoni's in his lunchable today and as he ate one he'd say now there's "this" many left. He was subtracting! I think he is so smart, but he doesn't always see it! I still can't believe how big he's getting either, I think the days of Jackson handing down clothes to Ryan are soon coming to an end! I've always told him he'd end up being bigger then his "big" brother!

Jackson of course is still a smarty pants and doing really well! Although he does have an attitude at times, but I guess that's all part of growing up, right? Right, I mean, everyone else has this problem with at least one of their kids, right? I'm not the only one?!?! :-} Jackson still loves school and does very well. He also loves to read, which I like to take credit for, and is always reading well past the mandatory 20 minutes for homework time. He likes to read a whole chapter book and see how long it takes him. He regularly reads for over an hour! He's also getting good at math and loves the time tests he takes at school. Those used to make me so nervous, but he loves the challenge. He did all the addition ones and is now trying to do 100 addition problems in under 4 minutes!

James is busy at work lately and moving around here and there. He's usually at the same fire station, but probably once or twice a month they have him move due to people calling in sick or something. He still loves it and I'm so glad he does. What a blessing it is to be happy and content with what you do!

Anyway, there's the update for now. Aside from my cold, we are all doing well and enjoying the fall and gearing up for the holidays! We are doing a theme with the costumes this year "Star Wars" Jackson is going to be Darth Vader, Ryan is going to be Bobo Fet (trust me, that's his name and he IS a Star Wars character) and miss Hailey is going to be Princess Leia! All I had to say was princess and she was all over it! I can't wait and I promise to post some fun Halloween pic's! Take care and enjoy the Fall!

She's a big girl now!

That's my BABY girl I'm talkin' about! Hailey is officially potty trained! Yahoooo! She's been wearing her princess undies for about two weeks now and we've only had about 4 or 5 accidents in that time. She's even making it through her naps dry and we're trying night time for the first time tonight!!! She's been wearing a pull-up at night, but she wakes up still dry, so tonight I gave her the option of wearing her undies and she was all over it!!! She's such a girl too, because she can take half an hour trying to decide which pair to wear for the day! I've started narrowing down her choices to only two, otherwise she takes all her underwear out of her drawer and lines them all up before she decides! (She has about 15 - 20 pairs!)
That's not the only big milestone for Miss Hailey-girl either. We also got rid of the pacifier, affectionately called a nonie by Hailey, completely! She got to go to the store and pick out a new toy to "buy" with all of her nonie's. After about two hours, (do you think she gets the indecisiveness from me???) she finally decided on two stuffed animals and a princess figurine! I was happy since it only cost about $10 total, and not the $50 I thought it would when we went down the princess aisle! I was surprised she didn't get the dress-up stuff, but hey - whatever works! The funny part was when I asked the sales lady to take her pacifiers from her, she kept trying to give them back to me without Hailey seeing! I told her to throw them away but she was sure I didn't mean it and put them in the bag. I had to ask her three times to throw them away before she finally did! Hailey has done remarkably well without them, only asking for them maybe three times and without any effort! I've had the harder time with it, I keep looking for them when I put her to bed and have to remember that they are gone!
Anyway, my baby is definitely growing up and becoming a big girl! I love you, Hailey-girl!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

The Ry-guy is 5 years old!!!! We celebrated Ryan's 5th birthday last weekend with a wild and crazy pool/bounce house party in the backyard! It turned out to be a great day for the pool, with the temp. about 100 degrees! I think just about everyone went swimming, at least for a few minutes! We were able to borrow the bounce house from the fire station again, which is so wonderful! The kids just loved it! We had quite a few friends and family over to help us celebrate and we all enjoyed Ryan's Transformers cake, ice cream, and watching him open the bazillion presents he received! Thank you to all who came out and partied with us - we had a blast! Happy Birthday my sweet Ry-guy, I love you!

Enjoy some pic's of the party!

State Fair!

We went to the state fair about two months ago and had a great time! I know I'm a little late in getting the pictures up, but better late then never - right? Anyway, we had fun seeing all the animals, especially the ones in the petting zoo, and riding the rides, oh and of course eating all the yummy-bad-for-you fair food! It was great! The best part was that we got to go for FREE! James worked some OT for the fire department at the fair and they gave him free passes and free parking for the whole family! Definitely more fun when it's free! Enjoy!

Jackson and Ryan rode the swings as their last ride and it was the best one! Can you tell by their faces!?!

James ran into an old friend and had to have his picture taken with him! :-)

Jackson was brave and rode the 'coaster! He's the one on on the far left with his eyes shut and arms up in the air!

Hailey's favorite part was the petting zoo, by a mile! I think she managed to hug every single animal they had in there, including a couple of pigs, goats, a llama, sheep, a deer... oh the list goes on! She thought they were the coolest!

Here and There

It's been a fun and busy time around the Irvine house lately! We've been enjoying the last few days of summer weather with time in the pool and at the park. We've also been clowning around at home, per usual! Thought I'd post some of the fun pic's I've managed to take, capturing these fun times with my family!

Both the boys did a Walk-a-thon at school to raise money for the PTC. It was Ryan's first time participating and he thought it was great! (Free Otter Pops probably aided in that decision!)

Hailey and Ryan decided it was so nice outside by the pool that they would just make themselves a little bed and take a nap! Can you tell the sun is in Hailey's eyes!

Jackson thought he'd be funny for the camera!

Okay, so they're in the tub!? They don't normally take baths at all anymore, let alone together, but we came home from the BMX track after Jackson's practice night and they were COVERED in dirt! Nobody wanted to take a shower, but the idea of taking a bubble bath in MY tub was something they couldn't refuse! I think they enjoyed it, despite the whole getting clean part!

A Daddy and Daughter moment! James will probably kill me for posting it! :-)

Hailey was playing at a friends house and she got all dressed up!

Busy Bee's!

Okay, so it's been almost a month since my last post. We've been busy, I know - lame excuse - but it's all I've got! I have lots of things to post to catch you up and I promise I'll get to them! Just a quick overview - Hailey is officially potty trained! Yeah Hailey! Ry-guy is now the big 5 years old! Yeah Ryan! The boys are both doing well in school! Yeah boys! Summer is over, boo-hoo, but fall is here! Yeah for sweaters! That's the short version for now! I have lots of pic's to post on all subjects, well maybe not Hailey on the potty, but you know what I mean! I promise to get them on here soon. Just not when it's 12:13 am and I'm keeping my eye lids open with toothpicks! :-) Have a good week and I'll see you back here soon!