So Happy Togetherrrrrrr

Kade had a project for school where he had to have a family picture, and I shamefully realized we didn't have a decent one since Kellan was...8 months old?? haha, yeah. So, I brought my best friend with me to a nearby park and had her snap the family photos and the ones of Duane and I and I took all the ones of the boys. I love them so much and am so glad that I finally broke down and did them!!

Kade Liam, the happy boy

I did manage to find lots of happiness in the crazy that has been the last few months. Kade is such a funny, crazy, smart and challanging boy. I love these pictures because they really radiate Kade and his spirit.

I knit this hat for Kade. It's not my best work, but I love the chunky knit and how adorable he looks:)

October/November

I know, I said somthing along the lines of not keeping you hanging for that long anymore and I'm here to tell you that I failed.

The last few month have been uneventful in activities we've done or places we've gone. We've pretty much been home bodies. Well, this kids and I have, Duane is still slaving away at school. This last quarter has been brutal, he does 4 days a week, 12 hours a day, 16 units. He's been staying in Stockton at his Dad's house to save on gas, so for those 4 days I am by myself with the kids.

We had a long long 8 week break in receiving disability from Oct 30th-Dec 23rd. Longest 2 months of my life. The doctor didn't send in a re-evaluation after detirmining Duane needed a 4th surgery, and then it took forever for them to fax in the new one, so it was just a long and frustrating process. This is why I didn't blog. The place that I was in emotionally wasn't one to share with everyone. Not that I was outwardly depressed, because I am always happy for my kids, but I just had nothing to report! haha, so that's been the last couple months. Sitting, waiting, wishing. I tried to get a job and went for training and everything was just not working out to allow me to get there. It became apparent to us all that working was not the right thing for the kids and my dad. I belong at home taking care of them, so that's where I've been. To top it off, Duane's car broke down and he's had mine, so Dad and I have been sharing his car. Hence the homebodiness:)

If this is a depressing post, I don't mean it to be. I really am happy that things are falling back into place for us and becoming more normal. I am just so incredibly thankful for all that I do have in my life. Through this all, I have been able to keep my eye on the silver lining and focus on my kids and their happiness.

Sighh, glad that ones done:)

Color the Skies 3

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that last year and the year before we do something called Color the Skies. It's an event benefiting Children's Hospitals. They lift off a whole bunch of hot air balloons and have vendors and jumphouses and Kade's favorite, a firetruck, helicopter, and ambulance. This year was the first year that the balloons actually were able to go up because of the wind. My best friend since kindergarden, Breanne, and her boyfriend came with us. It's been so fun to be able to spend time with her since she graduated from California College of the Arts in SF. I love love love her and so do my kids:)

It was a super fun day and with 4 kids, we were happy to go home and rest for a little bit:)

Rain in August

This last week has been weird weather. This summer has been pretty moderate, usually under 95 degrees, whereas we are used to up to 115 degrees in the summer. This past week though, we finally hit 108 and we were all dying! Then I looked at the forcast and saw that temperatures would be in the 70's over the weekend...yay!!!! Just what I had been waiting for! So, yesterday morning, Saturday, we woke up to wind rushing in our window and and it was soooo nice and exhilerating. We jumped out of bed, put long sleeves and jeans and the new Paul Frank socks I have been DYING to put on the boys(Kellan's first toddler sized socks...tear!), and SWEATSHIRTS on and had breakfast on the go as we walked down to the park. As we started walking, it was sprinkling! Now, any normal parent would think,"Oh, it's raining, we had better walk home." But it has been sooo hot, we were all so excited we just went to the park:) Once the sprinkling stopped, we took the kids out of the stroller and let them play for a little bit. It was so nice and cool and early enough in the morning to where Kellan wouldn't put down his sippy and blanket haha.

hanign out with daddy

sweet face baby


my monkey




showing me how torn up the flag is...i love how he notices all of the little details


slide monster


taking turns driving the "train"



Pretty much the only good that cam eout of this weekend. Duane was really sick all weekend and I was fussy. Did not make for a very good time:/...but a fresh start tomorrow!

Taekwondo

At the swim school, one of our longest and most loyal clients name is Jojo. He starting swimming with us when he was 3.5 years old, now 6, and is still my favorite student to date. He is so adorable and sweet and SO good at swimming. His parents are THE nicest people I have possibly ever met, so gracious and sweet and I am proud to call them my friends:) Jojo stared taekwondo around the time he started swimming and he has been doing soooo good. He has some national titles I believe and in such a short amount of time! I don't know how it all came to be, but the space that the martial arts studio was at had to close down so Jojo's mom worked really hard and found a space and started their own martial arts studio and call it Jojo's Martial Arts Academy. They just opened and are offering trial lessons.

Kade has been in a really aggressive police officer phase for some time now. No matter how much we talk to him about it and explain a police officers role, though he understands, it is still fun for him to act like he's an officer arresting and shooting people and roughing people up. Not only is it the officer, but the football player(Kellan gets tackled more times a day then I care to count:) also. I have decided to try out taekwondo to help channel that aggression and help him understand how we use our bodies and for what purposes, and also to respect our and other peoples bodies. So we went to the trial lesson on Friday.

Kade has a little friend named Brayden who is my friend from growing up, Kaci's, son. Kade and Bray Bray tend to wrestle. I am the anti violence, anti-guns mom and unfortunately, Kade is allll about it. The thing with him and Brayden though is that they have big fat smiles on their faces and really love to play together. I'm trying not to be too anal about the whole thing and just let him be a boy...sighhh:)

Kade was excited all day to go, but once we got there he kind of shut down. Didn't want to move, take his shoes and socks off or do anything, just watch. Now if this was a swim class, I would put him in the pool and tell him that if he was going to cry I would be leaving. Usually the children stop crying after a couple minutes when their parents aren't around and it is great for them. With this though, it's a different environment, it's not a situation where a screaming kid is welcome. After about 45 minutes of watching and me trying to get him involved, he finally became interested enough to go and play with Brayden a little bit and eventually was working with the instructor.

The kids doing their kicks. Kade sat and watched with me. I love the one of Jojo looking a me. He's always makign sure Miss Lacy is wacthing him haha



Starting to get a little more excited while he watches


Warming up with Bray Bray finally!


Yay! He's talking to the teacher AND practicing with him. I'm so excited!




This is what I'm talking about. They start out with nice hugs...don't they look sweet...


Annnnnnnd then they knock each other down haha...its so bad! but SO cute! Kaci and I were like,"Boys, no no! Be gentle and nice....Oh wait, Lacy take a picture!" hahaha


Luckily we are going to do a few more trial classes before we decide on what we will do, but it is something that he has been asking about all weekend, so we will play it by ear:)

A's Games Galore

Comcast Sportsnet, the local cable sports network out here, held an A's tickets hunt where on Twitter, they tweet out clues and you basically hunt them down to find the 50 tickets. Well, Duane was in Stockton for jury duty and got an update to his phone that was a clue that he KNEW was Stockton at the Ports stadium. So, he went down and sure enough there they were. He ended up winning the tickets.

So, for the last couple of months, we have been trying to squeeze in as many A's games as possible, because they had to be used before September. After we went to a bunch of games and took large groups of people too on Friday, we still had 7 left over before the weekend. So, we decided we would take Kade for some Mama and Papa time on Saturday. We had SO much fun with him. We took him on BART which is the commuter train to the Bay Area. It was his first time and he was sooo cute about it. He really is such a special little man. He is so smart, so in awe of everything around him, so sensitive, so beautiful, so....I don't know how to explain it. So full of life. I am really glad we got to take him for some time with us.

Then on Sunday, we tried to give them away on Facebook and no one went for them, and we found out that Kade's favorite player, Gio Gonzolez was going to be signing autographs before the game, because it was Hispanic Heritage Day. So, there we went again. We ended up leaving last minute so missed meeting Gio, but Kade didn't notice. He was stoked about the train again and eating his hot dog:)

It was a busy weekend and I don't think I ever want to do 3 games a weekend again, but we did have lots of fun and it's been such a good summer being able to enjoy Duane's favorite past time, the A's!

This is the first game we attended this summer, they were $2 tickets so I jumped at that! Nice little date night:)




Ok, this one is hilarious. It's the first date night we had in like...a year. No really, not kidding. We were a little bit giddy to get out of the house!!!



This game was some awesome seats my mom bought for Father's Day for Duane previous to the ticket win.We were right behind home plate and got to meet the players and get lots of stuff signed, basically Duane was in heaven. It was also 70's Throwback night, so the A's wore their 70's uniforms aka BRIGHT YELLOW. The promotion upon getting in the coliseum was a free Joe Rudy jersey, hence the bright jerseys:)



This is a game we took Duane's family to. It was a day game, super hot and I got burned bad! I always forget to put sunscreen on myself, but slather my children up, will I ever learn?! I of course, forgot to take pictures, but we were walking through the tunnel and Duane and Kade looked so adorable. Kade is wearing another jersey they gave away that day:)


This was this last Friday. We took a group of Duane's friends from school, we tailgated and our best friend, Catherine and her daughter came with us too. Duane and Catherine are die hard A's fans, so they are really cute with their maching jerseys...let me just remind you of a certain picture really quick...

Ok, now that we're past that, here are a couple of pictures from that night...I'm just gonna prpare you, I couldnt find my makeup...yeahhh...that's how often I wear it:)



These ones are from Saturday night, my favorite game yet.

Walking out the door to go to the game!

Kade and Daddy on the BART

Kade is a little unsure about the train at this point, but SUPER excited.



My favorite picture of the night.



I didn't take any pictures on Sunday, because...well, I was kind over the games haha. It was a day game and I made the mistake of wearing a black shirt and dark washed jeans...yeahhhh, I don't know what I was thinking haha

So, that's all of them I think, we had a blast and Kade and Duane especially enjoyed the games. I'm really just there to cuddle with Duane when it gets cold and watch Kade get so happy. He now knows all of the players names and the chants/songs that go along with each player haha...wow, sucha mini Duane!