A few steps...

Well I can officially say that Blake has been taking a few steps!!! Its so cute to see him walking since he is still so little...Way to go little Buddy!!!

Leah is not far behind, and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened while we are away...she is way more daring than Blake so I'm sure it won't take long for her try!

Party & Packing

Busy Busy Busy...its been a busy few weeks..I am happy to report the Images of Hope event was a HUGE success!! We had around 270 people attend and first calculations show we raised about $81,500!!! Thank you to all of you who contributed to such a great cause! To date the fund has raised over $581,000 and their are 29 babies born as a direct result of money raised by Generations of hope.

We were one of the featured families this year.

This was our display and story...

All of the featured families had beautiful pictures and stories that would melt your heart...

Its been such a privlege to give back to the community...

We brought up some of Alyssa's old things for the babies to play with.

Blake really loved the little scooter bike...

Leah loved the purple car...

The little cuties sleeping soundly on a walk...

We are off on Thursday to DISNEYLAND!!!!!!

We are so excited, we can't wait!!

Alyssa has been eagerly packing her suitcase, I guess Leah thinks she is coming too!

Leah coloring for the first time with Grandma Joyce...

 Big Girl snuggles with my little buddy!

The babies had a playdate with their twins friends Dawson & Logan.

It was so cute to see them interacting together...

Alyssa's little friend Braxton came over before school one day and for lunch and then I took them to school. They were so cute, and Braxton kept wanting to hold Alyssa's hand, I left the back room to get something and came back to him with his arm around her...By the time I came back it had turned to a shoulder hold, but pretty adorable none the less!

Well I'm not sure I'll be back on before we go...I have a very long list of things to do for our trip and also to get ready to leave the babies at home...sniff sniff....its going to be very hard to leave them, I know they will be in good hands...

Bon Voyage!!!

Seriously?!?!

What is wrong with people...Is it that some people don't know how to filter or just that people don't think before they speak?

I just got off of the phone with someone who is donating an item for our Silent Auction Friday, our Charity fundraiser for People with Infertility and can't afford treatment. After saying I could pick the item up when my husband got home so he could watch the kids, she proceeded to ask me how old my kids were. I replied with a 4 year old and 16 month old twins...

She got really loud and said "OHMYGOD I AM SOO SORRY!!"

Seriously???? Who says that?? I wanted to reach through the phone and smack her...I wish I was witty enough for a good come back...it seems even more annoying because of the Charity she is donating to, how about a little tact people??

The Face & more...

Not much to report around here...busy getting ready for my Images of Hope Event (IOH) that is on Friday. I have a ton of last minute things to wrap up for that...Next Thursday (17th) we are off to Disneyland so I'll be busy next week getting us organized for that, and organized around the house so Erv and Joyce can move in to take care of the babies...I'll leave you with some silly pictures from the week!

Such a silly baby...Standard Leah Face...

Looks like innocent fun...but mostly she was...

yelling at her brother...

Really yelling at her brother...

Pondering all of lifes big questions...

Is that a real smile?

This little Monkey is now climbing onto everything she can...She has no fear!

She is also very agile and hangs and swings from things like an acrobat.

The girls love to kiss their puppy...Alyssa always gets grossed out after about how stinky his tongue is...

Leah goes in with her face all scrunched up like she knows too that its stinky...

My little snuggler...

Such a nice little boy...

How stinking cute is this shirt!!

Vent of the Day!

Why Oh Why does laundry have to SUCK so bad? First let me start by saying that is NOT my laundry pile, nor is that my baby at the top of the picture that you can barely see...It does somewhat resemble however the amount of laundry I have to put away...I just have mine in mulitple baskets hidden throughout my house...

Just when I have that "Aww finally finished" feeling of having all the laundry done, my darling husband throws a hidden stash of laundry back in the basket...Not to mention the darling twins who seem to go through ridiculous amounts of laundry...Laundry is a job that has no end...No wonder it is so annoying!

Back to my folding!

Bittersweet...

Sniff Sniff....I just had a truck come and pick up the last of my baby stuff...We gave away Alyssa's old crib to my cousin who is expecting in May. Friends and family had picked over the good things, we have gotten rid of our 3 bouncy chairs, sleeping bags, car seats, car seat blankets, baby toys, nursing pillows, bottle warmers and all of the clothes that they've out grown up til now...Granted we still have 2 cribs and 2 high chairs, but the little newborn baby stuff is gone.

Its kind of sad to see these things go, its sad that there won't be another little one to use these things, its weird after spending a significant amount of my life wanting these baby things and the babies to use them, that now this chapter of our lives is over

Its GREAT that I have 1/4 of my basement back, It's great so many people will get use of the things we don't need anymore, and I'm happy to be able to donate a lot of great quality items to those in need.

I am happy that we can move forward as a family and look forward to things you can't do as easily with babies...trips, camping, sporting event, concerts etc...

Bye Bye Baby Stuff!!

Another cold week...

 Thankfully the barfing and diarrhea has stopped. Sadly I still have some head congestion, as does Kirk and an ugly cough. Leah today had a rapsy voice and Blake a runny nose...My guess we are in for a bout of colds now. Booo...

We didn't do too much this weekend in the cold weather, layed low...made a trip to the mall and that was about it. I have a gazillion loads of laundry to get caught up on, but truthfully my motivation these days in pretty darn low...

Yesterday I heard through a friend of a friend, about a little 2 year old boy Josh, who was sent home from daycare with flu like symptoms. 102 fever. Went to the Dr, diagnosed with Pink Eye and something viral, but nothing serious...just the flu. The mother put him for a nap and 2 hours later she went in he was blue. Long story short the little guy was in the hospital over the weekend, yesterday he was declared brain dead. Today he dontated his organs to 3 other little kids...He tested posted for H1N1.

These kinds of stories are hreatbreaking and bother me for days, I guess it just hits too close to home with little kids myself...Suddenly the laundry, the cold weather and the barf in my carpets doesn't seem so important...I just can't even imagine those poor parents yesterday, I thought of them all day.

So we spent most of the day in our jammies and just hanging out for snuggles with Mickey Mouse, Fishy crackers and made some Star shaped Pizza's that Alyssa had specifically requested. Everyone was in good happy moods, I was the happiest to spent such a cold day inside loving my pumpkins. Mom and dad came over with a nice Ham dinner for us, a nice end to a good day...

Our pictures in the winter all look the same, I guess since we do the same thing most days...they are just variations of the same thing.

Alyssa making her Pizza dough with the babies constantly under foot...makes kitchen work a little tricky...

The star pizza she made, ok I made it...

Leah's cheeky little smirk, she does this face probably 100 times a day...Blake eating smushed fishy crackers off the floor, maybe thats why we are always sick here!

The Spirited little girl is hamming it up at every opportunity...

Such a monkey this little one is!

Ohmygosh...you should see these 2 fight! Its crazy already...I can only imagine whats to come!

Alyssa's Online Shopping order arrived, she was super pleased with her dresses she bought. They all actually fit her pretty good too.

One of her new online dresses

We've learned to point to different body parts and somehow when we did nose, the babies discovered their nostrils, now when you ask where there nose is, this is what you get!

Alyssa has never liked mess of any sort, dirty hands or face...This little girl purposely puts food all over her face, in her hair...she is often covered in food at the end of a meal...Blake is a nice eater most of the time, occassionally he will throw food off, but it usually after watching monkey girl do it first...

Just clowning around before bed...

His little face just melts me...

When Alyssa was little she was obsessed with The Wiggles. The babies have now followed suit and crying immediatley stops when the Wiggles are on...I have a love/hate relationship with them...

Alyssa is at such a fun age, often after we put the babies to bed we pull out some popcorn and little kid board games and the 3 of us have a great old time. Alyssa here is telling us the Rules...we make her play the real rules and no cheating, most of the time she wins anyways. Its so much fun, I can see us playing games like this camping or down the road when the other 2 are older...