Juggling it all...

Albeit almost 6 months ago, but better late than never. Samantha turned 9 years old in January and I cannot believe how big she is. Every once in a while I will catch a glimpse of her and just think to myself...WOW, you are all mine...I get to keep you forever!! I love that she is in our family and it would not be the same without her.

Here are some videos of the  Tough Mudder challenge that Scott took part in (January 2012). So incredibly proud of these guys... I present to you... the Dirty Dads! And here is a FUNNY video I took of the final obstacle...not of the boys, but still so hilarious to watch!

Here’s another Brody story for ya... A few weeks ago the kids put in a Wii game to play. Shortly after the game began Samantha calmly walked over to me at my desk and in a super low voice said, ‘umm Mom, Brody just said a bad word’. Mind you we have taught our kids that words like stupid, jerk and shut up are all bad words so I wasn’t sure what to believe or expect. I then said ‘are you sure it was a REAL bad word’...to which she enthusiastically said, ‘oh, I’m definitely SURE this is a bad word’. Well, not wanting to spoil the plot I told her not to tell me and that I will just have him tell me. I called Brody over and with an oh-so-cool-matter-of-fact-tone I just asked Brody what he said while playing the Wii game? In his equally oh-so-cool-matter-of-fact-tone he said [referring to the Wii game] ‘oh, I just told Sam let’s get in there and kick their ass’! I know the boy should have had a bar of soap shoved in his mouth, but really??!! How can you not chuckle...or in my case t

I know I’m biased, but I really do think my kids are hilarious and say the funniest things. Here’s a Brody story for you... Last Sunday (May 20th) we were eating dinner with the TV on in the background turned down pretty low. We were all talking about random things and then some image flashed on the TV. Scott looked to Brody and said ‘what is that?’. Side note: we are always trying to quiz him on what things look like and what he sees and if he can make out objects at certain distances away...given his eye issues.  Well, I don’t remember what the photo or image was on TV, but I remember his answer being not quite right. So a few seconds later something else appeared on TV - I think it was a cactus - and we quickly asked Brody ‘what is that?’... and he said cactus. And then a dog came on the screen and he just said dog (like the trained animal HE is ;-). And then...the next thing that came on the screen was a photo of some restaurant’s wine cellar and wine selection. So I asked,

It's sort of a given when you live in this desert land that your kids have to go through this right of passage called city league swim team. And I gotta say... BRING IT ON! Growing up I always wanted to be on a swim team, nevermind that my strokes often look like someone is having a seizure in the water, but none the less I wished I had tried. Well, you better believe that this mama is living vicariously through her kids when it comes to swim. Sweating palms. Nervous stomach. Pacing back and forth... this is usually how you can find me and Scott on the sidelines. I LOVE IT!! She was pretty good last year for her first year, and this year she really did even BETTER...bringing home 3 first place ribbons. I actually only ended up bring my camera to one of her meets, shameful, I know. But in my quest to be ever more present in my kids' lives I didn't want to be all camera-crazed, jockeying for the BEST position with all the mom-tographers videoing their super-star athletes. R

3 weeks ago today we celebrated the twiners 5th birthday. Nope, I refuse to believe my babies are now 5! I don't know when I should officially stop calling them babies, but you better believe I'm milkin' it for all it's worth... they are my BABIES!! Aside from the fact that Brooke was absolutely determined beyond a shadow of a doubt that we would be celebrating her birthday in Disneyland, we had a super low-key birthday celebration. I have no idea how she got that bee in her bonnet about Disneyland, but the weeks leading up to her birthday were filled with questions like 'what's the first thing we're going to do, mama, when we get to Disneyland?', or 'will there be fireworks on our birthday at Disneyland just like on the commercial?' Seriously, it was heartbreaking to tell her the sad and pathetic truth that we would be spending her day at the all-you-can-eat Peter Piper Pizza lunch buffet. Not even in the same ballpark as going to Disneyland,