David & Corin

Oak Glen

2011-10-31T13:54:00.000-07:00

My dream house...

We spent the day at Oak Glen with my mom and sister and niece while Davey put a new roof on his parents house down in San Diego. It was soooo insanely beautiful.

This is probably the most perfect spot I've ever been to. Okay, American colonial home (check). Farm (check). Acres of woods, orchards, streams, animals (check). Kidlets running free (check). Warm California weather (check). I could die a happy woman here.

Love seeing them run like this!

I can't believe what a mini man he looks like! Even little muscles and all!

My sister and Corissa.

Isn't she a doll?!

Who says California doesn't have seasons?? We do. When it dips down to a frigid 75 degrees....the leaves turn orange ;)

.... But it's still warm enough for grapes.

*Siiiiigh* Now that's my kind of home.

Levi and Koty plucking strawberries right off the bush! Yep. I let them eat them. Dirt and all.

Levi enjoying the plunder.

The leader of the pack ;)

I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to spend with the kids and my mom and sister. Even though by the end of the day I was EXHAUSTED!! Running around a farm with 3 kids (4 if you count my niece) is not an easy task sans hubby! But totally worth it. Especially for the little ones. I know they made memories to last forever. Not to mention I got photos that every time I look at make me smile from ear to ear! Totally going to be a wall arrangement.

I would write more, but life is fast right now. I'm lucky I've gotten this much done. My Kade is about to wake up from his nap and I've got about two baskets of laundry anxiously awaiting my arrival. Oh, and a sink of dishes that would love my attention too. Aah the life of a housewife and mama....

Happy Autumn!

JOY

2011-10-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." -3 John 1:4

After a bible study two days ago, Dakota accepted Jesus. I asked her if she would like to pray a prayer of forgiveness and ask Him into her heart. She said "Yes" and I lead her in the sinners prayer. Then I asked her if she wanted to get baptized. (Her and I had watched a group get baptized at church last month. She was very interested and asked lots of questions.)

She said "Yes". Only if I could go with her ;) I told her I would ask Paster Clark, and that I think he would be more than happy for me to go with her.

My God is an AWESOME God.

Speaking of Dakota, I love the conversation her and I had last night at bedtime. This is my favorite time to talk to her, when she's all tucked in her bed and ready to go to sleep. For some reason, she always really opens up at that time and I get to know a lot about her day and how she's doing/feeling etc.

Anyway, I put my hands on her cheeks and told her that I was so grateful that God had given her to me, and that she was such a wonderful blessing. She said, "I was the first, then Levi, then Kaden. Hey, that's three. And if we have another baby, then there will be four!"

I asked her, "Would you like us to have another baby?"

She said, "Ummmm...YES! But I want you to pray about it first."

What a wise 5 year old I have!

I told her that I would of course pray about it, when the time is right, and that Kaden is still little and needs me all to himself for a little while longer.

Davey and I would love to have another baby. I've actually wanted another since Kaden was basically a newborn. That's a first. Usually I don't get that feeling until after my kids first birthdays.

Our life is CRAZY busy with three kids. I mean, seriously busy. And it only gets more busy as they get older and school takes over, and activities and personalities blossom! But somehow that doesn't seem to dissuade us from feeling like a good part of our purpose in life is to grow this big, beautiful family. It's all over the Bible, written into God's word, His purpose for us, to be blessed by the struggles and hardships that a growing family entails. Lord knows, it is HARD. Raising kids is enough to turn a person's hair silver overnight. But through all of it, we've become such drastically different people than we were just a short 5 year ago (definitely for the better, only through Christ, not ourselves, just to be sure and give credit to the One who deserves it.) And I think that's what God really means when He says, "Children are blessings." It's not that they themselves are wonderful all the time and just shower your day with peace and tranquility (HA! Yah right! Oh my gosh, if anyone could actually see what my days look like, they would instantly know this is usually not the case!) because as humans, we're born into sin. All you have to do is have a two year old to know that! Or even a talking infant. One of their firsts words to learn is "NO!" And it takes very little time before they're able to form little white lies all on their own as well. It's just innate in us as humans. But, I think where the blessing lies is in the growth that takes place when a family multiplies. All the lives that shift, the love that manifests, the unity between the husband and the wife (although VERY tested by children), eventually, through a right relationship with the Father, is always strengthened.

But, Kaden is still very small, and of course we'll wait at least another year to start thinking and praying for another baby.

But, that doesn't mean I'm not already going over names in my head! Haha.

2011-10-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, I don't even know where to start!! SO many things have been changing, evolving, starting, ending at the same time.

I guess the biggest thing that has changed our everyday life the most around here has been Dakota starting school. We don't do preschool (well, not "official" preschool anyway. The kiddies learn their numbers and letters and all here at the coop ;), so starting Kindergarten is a huge change of pace for us. The schedules, the lunch packing, the socializing, the DRIVING. Oh my gosh...the driving. I can definitely tell that we have entered the "taxi" stage of raising our kids.

But, in actuality, I love being busy. I would take being busy over having nothing to do any day. It makes me feel alive and productive.....and exhausted.

As for her school, it is absolutely awesome. I'm 100% stoked that we chose this school for her. And the most important part is that she loves it. She goes to school excited, she comes home excited and I feel like she's totally blossoming there. I credit this mostly to the fact that it's a Montessori school. It's pretty amazing. No homework, and very little "corporate teaching", meaning her teacher rarely stands in front of the class and instructs them. It's all about the kids working at their own pace and on their own level.

A surprising aspect of Dakota's school life that I wasn't really expecting was how quickly she made friends. I think I've actually had her pegged wrong. Which, in reality, I shouldn't be "pegging" my kids at all, but I think it's almost impossible not to to a certain extent. I always saw her as more of an introvert. But I had noticed at playdates that she is an introvert for about the first 45 minutes, then once she's assessed the situation, she totally comes out of her shell! Not surprising, both Davey and I are the exact same way. I think it's because we're both super analytical. It's kind of in our nature to "sum up" the environment before we act or commit to full fledged interaction. A little side story...it was SO funny on our honeymoon when we very first got to Paris. Davey had never been (although he had been to Europe before, and he was born in Germany, so you would have thought he would be used to the culture already) and his reaction to Paris the first day was totally unexpected to me. He was stone quiet for 24 hours. And okay, all you who know Davey, you know he is NOT a quiet person. Talkative is definitely one of his personality traits. So for him to be completely quiet for 24 hours straight was amazing! I was really worried that he didn't like being there! The next morning we got up and he was bouncing around the city like he owned it. We had the time of our lives. And to this day, he says that was the best week of his life. It was the best week of my life too :) But it just goes to show where she gets it from I guess. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

On the topic of socialization too, I would have never in a million years thought that kindergarten could be such a soap opera! Wow...we've already had our day of Dakota crying in the back seat on the way home from school...over a boy. Yep. Five years old people. It really does start this young. Well, for girls at least. I always thought I was going to have it hard with two boys. Yah right! They might be difficult toddlers, but man, once Dakota gets into the pre-teens, we are going to have our hands full for sure.

Speaking of brothers and sisters, first of all, I have to comment on my Levi Love. I can officially say....WE ARE OUT OF THE TERRIBLE TWOS!!!!!! Sound the trumpets hallelujah thank you sweet Jesus!!!! Seriously, there were many, many, many days that I thought I really was not going to make it out of his second year with my mental abilities in tact. I really thought I was going to loose it at least, oh, probably 200 times. I'm not kidding. It was that bad. On average, at the height of his terrible twos, probably about 9 months ago, he was going to time out about 8-10 times a day, for about 20 minutes each time. My entire day was putting him in time out and keeping him there. It was literally the week of his 3rd birthday that he starting making huge behavioral strides. All the sudden, the temper tantrums subsided, the time outs got less and less, and the biggest and most helpful part of all, he had this explosion of speech ability happen. He went from only being able to form simple 4 or 5 word sentences, to saying whole paragraphs and describing things and memories in about the span of 4 weeks. Which leads me to the most awesome part of him coming out of his terrible two's; his and Dakota's relationship. Last year they DROVE me crazy with their constant fighting. It was about 80% fighting all day, everyday. But as soon as he started talking more, their relationship totally transformed into a friendship. Now, they fight maybe 20% of the time, and the rest of the 80% of their time together is playing. Whoohoo! I really never thought this day would come! But it has and I couldn't feel happier. Another part of that I think is her going to school and them getting to see one another less. It's the old saying, "Distance makes the heart grow fonder."

But Dakota doesn't go to school everyday. Mondays and Tuesdays are her homeschool days. Okay, let me lay it out here....I was pretty terrified of homeschooling her. I knew I wanted to do it, I knew it was on my heart, but that never changed the fact that I was so afraid of "failure" that it almost took my breath away sometimes. All I can say is, I was so, so way off to be that afraid. Her homeschool days have become my favorite days of the week. I would say that our homeschool style is actually the closest to "unschooling" that you can get without actually "unschooling".

One of the most unexpected benefits of homeschooling her has been the photo documentation of everything we do. In order to prove that your child actually did what you say they did (if there's no work pages or physical evidence to prove it) is by giving weekly picture work samples. So, throughout the day as we homeschool, I'm snapping photos to turn in with her work log. This has given me such a treasured collection of memories! And I know she will love getting to look through all these photos of everything we did together. I plan on making a book every year just of all her homeschool activities. Here is what an average homeschool day looks like....

We usually start the day with some sort of outdoor activity like watering the grass, or watering the plants or even planting new plants....

There's always some sort of educational conversation that goes on...why the plants need water, talking about seasons, learning about bugs. Homeschooling is just an extension of the learning that naturally goes on in a kids life. And it's really exactly how I want my kids to learn. What makes me the most proud is when Dakota comes home from school and I ask her, "What did you learn in class today?" And she says, "Ummm...I don't know. But we did this project and I got to color the Earth green and blue because that's where we live and the blue is water and the green is land and the land has rocks in it!" Hahaha! YES! Now that's it right there! Learning without even knowing she's learning! That's how it's supposed to happen! I don't ever want that little passionate fire burning in her for knowledge to ever get squelched.

Anyway, so we start of with an outside activity, then we move inside and usually go to some kind of craft or art project...

A couple of weeks ago we made this Autumn banner for the playroom. Fun! And I love seeing it hanging over the window everyday. It makes it feel so Fall-ish in the house :)

Next, we usually go on to some sort of math activity or work. She's just starting in the Math-U-See curriculum. Her teacher handed me the book and manipulative's and said, "Just start wherever you think she is." I love it.

Then it's back to crafts. Art and crafts are a super important part of her schooling. It's probably the center focus of her day. And it's not just by my choice, but she requests these types of activities the most. I've made it my mission to let her interests guide our day. We get what we need to get done. But most of the day is really not specifically "planned" out. I have a rough idea of what we're going to do for the day, but many, many times when she seems interested in something specific...we go with it! My favorite memory with her so far was one day when we were doing our morning watering and we saw SIXTEEN hawks circling over our house...which is way more than usual. So we sat there on our patio for at least 20 minutes just watching these hawks and talking about what we thought they were looking for and why. Later, when we went inside and they left immediately, I realized they were circling over our house because they were hungry...and my chihuahua was outside in the backyard with us!! Thank goodness we were out there with the dogs because I'm pretty sure if we hadn't been, we would have been minus one little chihuahua right now. Anyway, afterward we went inside and spent an hour looking at hawks on the computer, talking about them, making a bird book, it was so cool! And it more than satisfied her science requirement for that day.

Anyway, back to crafts, she recently learned how to use a sewing needle...

Go Dakota! You are well on your way to being a sewing queen ;)

So, aside from arts and crafts, we also get some earth science in there, a little history, and of course language arts...

She's not reading on her own yet, but we're definitely quickly going down that path. We do some reading together everyday and then she practices her flash cards for sounds and site words...

Usually toward the end of the day we'll do some sort of other outside activity. One of my favorites to watch her do was when she made a rock collection...

She categorized them into colors and then of course made a book about rocks. We have quite the library going on over the past year of all the books she's made. I treasure them!

Of course, I can't go the length of blog post with out writing about something else I treasure...my Kade!! Oh man is he growing! I have one word....MOBILE. The boy can get around! Full on crawling throughout the entire house! His favorite activity right now is to hold on to the bottom stair and walk along the length of it, back and forth, back and forth, he'll do this for half an hour easy! So cute.

She is such an AWESOME big sister. And Levi is really a great big brother too. I'm really enjoying watching their relationship grow over the past couple of weeks. Now that Kaden is mobile and bigger and sturdier, him and Levi really have fun together. I definitely have a couple of clowns on my hands. Kaden has a lot of similar personality traits as Levi, they both love to laugh! It's so funny, Levi will get in Kaden's face and be completely ridiculous crazy, doing all sorts of weird sounds and faces and Kade will just crack up. I love hearing their laughter through the house <3 Oh, and another thing about Kaden, I've finally decorated his room! That's the one sucky thing about not finding out the gender of your baby, you can't really decorate very well until after the babes born. So, it took me 7 months, but his room is finally looking really good! I love sitting in there and rocking him now. These are some of the elements I've gotten for his room...

The background is the color I painted his accent wall, it's kind of a dusty, light, slate blue. I love it! And the fabric swatches are what I'm making his bedding out of. I'm excited to start his patchwork blanket, but a little intimidated to do the bumpers. I think I'll have to call the pro in (Mooooooom!!)

Ok, so even though we've been CRAZY busy, we still have been able to find time for the important things.

Kaden got dedicated back in August! Here we are with him outside church afterward...

We took the kids hiking today and Kade got gis first glimpse of giant oak trees. He was in awe! (It's crazy to look at the picture above which was taken only two months ago, then look at the one below and realize how much Kaden's changed in only the matter of 7 or 8 weeks. His legs aren't as chubby and his face looks sooo much more mature! He's growing too, too fast for sure.)

Just look at that little face! So stinkin' adorable. And Kaden's kinda cute too. Just kidding! Hahahaha!

And luckily, I've been handy enough to record a lot of the best moments we have with Kade. Here he is talkin' and laugin'....

And he walks with help too!

So blessed to have these kids of ours. And even more blessed to have this husband of mine. I want to start talking less about the kids, and more about us. After all, this blog is called "David and Corin", not "Dakota and Levi and Kaden". So what about us? Well, basically, Davey and I have a lot of dreams. One of our biggest goals is to travel. And I'm pretty darn excited because I've started a travel savings account for us! And it's actually growing!

And that's something super exciting that's going on right now...I started a new etsy shop! And it is doing really well.

It's cool how life comes full circle a lot of the time. A while back I started in photography, and it was fun, but I really lost the passion for it pretty quickly for a few reasons. The biggest was that it simply required too much time away from my family. Hours were required for shoots, then more hours for editing, then more hourse for building client relationships, more hours for branding! It was very time consuming, and I didn't find that the time it required was worthy of the money I made from it. I could have probably made a really good living doing it, but that would have required massive amounts of input. And I just wasn't willing to give what was needed. BUT, God has a plan for everything. I never would have gotten into designing my own cards if I hadn't of gotten into photography. When I did start designing my own cards, I found that I really love it, and I was good at it. Then I realized that I could profit from it. And so I did! Meet District Nine Design!

Even the name has massive meaning to me, it's my favorite district in Paris :) The one where Davey and I stayed on our honeymoon. It's known as the "Opera District" because it's where the famous Opera Garnier is. Such an incredibly beautiful part of the city. And so peaceful too. Just huge, sprawling, tree-lined boulevards, punctuated by tiny cafes here and there and a whole lot of up-town shopping! The most perfect place on the planet.

I'm so excited for where this new venture is going. It's no longer just cards, but is quickly expanding to include photographer resources like templates and eventually (hopefully soon) custom made OOAK logos! I've gotten the huge honor of getting to work for a prominent christian charity organization in L.A. that ministers to foster children and helping them find new families and homes. I'm SUPER thankful to them for making making me a part of their events.

So, the profits from District Nine Design are our travel fund!!! My goal is to earn enough money so that we can take one international trip a year. And right now, I'm already 30% the way to my monthly profit goal. Our first trip we are planning is something we've wanted to do for a long time, going to Israel with our church. I can not wait. We're planning on going in February of 2013. It's about a 14 day trip. If all goes well, it will be the first of many for us.

Here In This Moment

2011-08-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

I still look at Kaden and see him as my little, tiny, newborn baby. But then I see pictures like these and realize that he has been very sneaky these last 6 months, and gone and grown up on me....

After Kaden's birth, I assumed we didn't get that many great photos just because of the extremely short amount of time we had and also because none of them were actual birth photos. But then I finally got around to going through them when he was about 3 months old, and discovered a goldmine of photos from his immediate post birth moments. The first photo was the moment we arrived at the birth center. He still had his umbilical cord attached and was still in the blanket that Davey had swaddled him in the car. These pictures, I already treasure. Here is a little collage I put together to share. Enjoy.....

Music by Bekah Shae, "Here In This Moment" (Candlelight Version)

Since the Beginning and Until The End....

2011-08-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

He is the spice to our family, he is our comedy hour, and the warmth of his heart radiates through his smile. I think my favorite thing about him is his wholehearted laugh. He's open to life and you can see it in his eyes. I always imagine our family as a body; Dakota would absolutely be the brain, Kaden would definitely be the smile, and Levi would undoubtedly be the laugh.

I love him for his unique quirkiness and all the fun and excitement that it brings to what would otherwise be a very predictable life. (And yes, what would also be an otherwise peaceful life! Oh the boy knows how to stir the pot!). He is my little social butterfly, energized and excited by the prospect of a room full of other kids. I'll always remember one specific morning at church dropping the kids off in their classrooms. We were early that day so there weren't any other kids in the rooms yet. We went to drop Dakota off, and being the social introvert she is, saw an empty class room, and went bouncing in to sit and color with Miss Barbie (yes, that really is her name). Then came Levi's turn. Davey said he took him in his empty class and dropped him off like usual. Except this time he turned around to see him looking right at him through the window, with a quivering chin and tears in his eyes. He couldn't stand the thought of being the only one in the room! That's Levi, always looking to connect to others. And I love that so much about him.

Since the beginning of the world, and until the end, he will always be my baby.

Happy 3rd Birthday Levi Love.

Oh, and guess what our little 3rd miracle is up to....

(Besides looking dashingly handsome as always of course ;) *Sigh* Kaden's got his mama wrapped around his little finger already.

Crawling!!! (Or should I say "scooting"?) Well, he can go backwards really well. But he still hasn't figured out how to put it into drive yet ;) And speaking of being unique, Kaden surely is something special in this family. He is our little early bloomer for sure! Crawling at 5 months is unheard of in Davey and I's gene pool. Dakota and Levi didn't crawl until well over 6 or 7 months and neither of them walked until after their 1st birthdays. Something tells me Kaden is about to take the prize on lots of early firsts.

2011-07-22T00:44:00.000-07:00

*Siiiigh* I'm not going to say it. "My poor neglected blog..." True? Yes. Relevant? Nah. The truth is, I really miss my blog. I really miss reading my friends blogs and my online friends blogs so much. But there just isn't enough hours in the day right now. And really, I couldn't be happier.

I've turned a proverbial page in motherhood since Kaden was born. I swear, each child we have opens my heart up in ways I never knew possible. Before Kaden, I felt like it was my responsibility to provide a meaningful childhood to my kids, learning, play, fun, laughter, I knew what all the ingridents were. But I still felt like it was a responsibility. After Kaden, and not over night, but gradually over the last 5 months, my understanding of parenthood and specifically motherhood has depended to a level that I have prayed for a year to reach. I finally feel like I "get" it. These words have taken on new meaning to me....

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." Psalms 127:3

Seriously. I could read it a thousand times before, but only now do I actually understand what an awesome gift each one of our kids is to us from God! A heritage, a reward. It's like, every child we have, his or her special characteristics, personality traits, they only help to reflect those of their brothers or sisters. Each one makes me realize how special the other is. It's by far the most beautiful part of life.

Not to say it's not exhausting. It is. But what is more meaningful than raising up human beings? And especially raising up human beings in the way of the Lord.

Meaningful...hmmm. That's a word that could describe a lot of things we've done over the past month. We took the most beautiful day trip to Doheney Beach last Saturday. It was gorgeous. And better yet, we went just us, and had the time of our lives. Going places just our family is not something we do often enough. We lovelovelove our family and friends, and usually, when we go somewhere, it's with others. But sometimes a family needs to get away and connect personally and privately and this connection was long over due for us. Davey and I relaxed, the kids played in the water ALL DAY, and Kaden was super happy to get to experience his first beach day (just a few weeks earlier he got to experience his first lake day, and he loved it!). Dakota was literally the last beach bum standing. She played in the waves until we finally had to pry her off the beach at 8pm. Both her and Levi cried because they wanted to stay longer. I have memories of that day that will definitely last a lifetime. And I know the kids do too. That's the best part ;)

And now, for some oo-y, goo-y, marshmallow-y nakey baby goodness to sweeten your day. This child lights up my life. Imagine the happiest baby on earth. Now combine that with the absolute most pinchable, kissable, love all over you, round, chubby, cherub face on the planet. Yep, that's Kaden.

Oh my gosh, the baby rolls. It's too much. He is my love.

And I'm figuring, while I'm at it, I might as well just make this a huge picture post. Because seriously, if it doesn't happen now, it just never will. As much as I'd like to say I'll post more in a week or so...I know I won't. I've kind of just conceeded to the fact that I'll only get around to posting once a month for the time being. So here it is, more Kaden goodness....

Ummmm.....that face. Can I just say what a completely over the moon mama I am to have him? Please do not grow up Kaden. But I know you won't listen. Because just look at your big brother. TOTALLY did not listen.

Seriously....how did this happen? There is no longer a single trace of babyhood left in Levi....

My heart both leaps and breaks when I look at him. Why does he have to grow so fast? Although it's hard to feel like you're losing one of your "babies", there are definite advantages to growing up. For one, soooo many less temper tantrums, soooo many less time outs, a lot more happy days, a lot more actually playing nice together with sister, and a lot more talking and interacting. Oh yeah, and Dakota and Levi sleep in there own bed now! We put them in the bed that's in the loft attached to our room because we needed to make room for Kaden to sleep with us. And I am shocked at how easy they have transitioned into it. No wining, no arguing, they don't even bug each other. Stories, pray, sleep. Who knew it could be this easy? And now that Levi is finally returning to a normal childhood state, and not in a constant whirlwind of two year old breakdowns, we actually get to enjoy a whole lot of activities together too. And when I say a whole lot, I mean a WHOLE LOT. The amount of crafting that has been going on here lately is aaah-some.

Koty and Levi got their first lesson in pottery. One of many, many more to come...

And voila. Koty's first thrown pot. Beautiful.

Dakota has been really big on helping me sew lately. She loves it. The older she gets, the more and more I find we have in common. Her and I, I've discovered we're a lot alike. And I love it.

One of our sewing projects were these burp cloths for baby Finn, who I got to go meet recently. He is precious! Just holding that armful of newborn sweetness was pure heaven. I didn't take Dakota and Levi with me, and I ended up missing them so much. When I got home, it was like I saw them with new eyes. I realized what seriously awesome kids we have. I think in general, I tend to take that for granted and underestimate just what good kids they are.

My favorite project lately was this reusable snack bag. I LOVE it. It was actually supposed to be a wetbag for Kaden's cloth diapers. But 1, I thought it was way too pretty to be a dirty diaper bag, and 2, I thought it needed to be way bigger for that. So I decided to use it as a snack bag and it's come in super handy! I'll definitely be making a bigger (and I guess uglier??) one for the nappies. Hahaha.

My faaaaavorite color/material of the moment!!!

And of course, the eldest boy likes to help too. As long as his attention can hold out. Which is about 2.5 minutes ;)

We've also been raising new animals lately. Butterflies....

Thanks Shell! They've all hatched and we released them last week. Except for one. He didn't develope his wings properly. Or Levi smushed them. Either one.

And last but absolutely not least, the apple of my eye. She leaves me next month for school. I'm looking forward to the break. But will miss her like I would miss my right arm. She is my little helper around the house, with the boys, with the cleaning, with the chores, all the time. We craft, we color, we have secret girl dates. I love her to the moon and back.

Time for her to start the long journey of making her own path though. And I couldn't be more honored that I get to help her along her way.

Five and Counting

2011-06-19T23:56:00.000-07:00

Five seems to be a popular number around the Jones household lately. Dakota had her fifth birthday last weekend. It was such a fun party! Lots of family, lots of friends, lots (and lots) of sugar. Haha. Levi is a sweets addict. Multiple times I've had to pull him out of the frig because he was in there eating frosting out of the container....and off of the cake (not the birthday party one! No one get grossed out). I had made a practice cake before the party with my close friend, Rochelle. It turned out really good. And so did the party cake!

A lot of these fabrics were just scrap pieces from other projects, but my favorite was the one with the mustard yellow background. It's called "LovesmeLovesmenot" in Golden. It's by Anna Marie Horner off of her "Free Spirit" line. Love her!

Davey picked these pink roses for me the day before. Can you believe how perfect they matched her party! I was soooo happy!

I love this antique bowl. It's been in the family for at least three generations.

Koty and the beautful Williams girls...

And Sakura!

Kaden and his cousin Gavin (who is going to tower over Kaden. He's seven weeks younger than Kaden and already taller!)....

Loooooooooooove.....

And the best part of the whole party; my beautiful five year old Dakota...

I had a ton of fun planning this party for her. To tell the truth, her and I, we're a little outnumbered at this point. Testosterone has kind of dominated our house now. So any chance I get to do something super girly and frilly, I take!

Since Kaden was born, Dakota and I have gotten so much closer. Our relationship has changed a lot. I would definitely say on my behalf. I've always been thankful for all my kids, but since she became my only daughter, I really began to find a deep value in that. So often I look at her and can't believe how insanely grown, and beautiful she is. I've began to make so many more small efforts here and there to make special moments for her and I. I've enacted a "girl's night" once a week or so when her and I stay up after the boys and eat cookies and milk together. This is definitely a huge deal to her. And to me ♥

I kind of feel like her and I, we're all each other's got in this family as far as womanly bonds go. In my family growing up, I had my sister. And that was HUGE. We were best friends to the fullest extent. And we both had a really great relationship with my mom. So there were all sorts of fun and girly things going on all the time. That concept of womanhood and the female bond had a huge impact on my life. And I want that for Dakota too. Already, I've had such an awesome time with her just in the last four months since I've taken a little extra time for the two of us. It crosses my mind often, the idea that, "This could very well be my only daughter.....ever!" So I really want to get it right with her and give her that super close and meaningful mother/daughter relationship.

Also, speaking of my first born, she starts kindergarten in August!! What?! How did that happen? I have no idea. One minute, she's this little, pale, sleepy newborn freshly laid on my chest...and the next I'm introducing her to her new teacher? Well, her teacher for part of the time. The school we (finally!) choose for her is a charter school that is half time site school and half time home school. I went back and forth for months on which school to send her to. I actually put her on the waiting list for three different schools and she got into all three. I narrowed it down to two that I really liked, then had an extremely hard time deciding between the two. They absolutely could not be any more opposite in terms of their philosophy about learning and teaching. The school that we didn't choose was very, very regimented. The kids wear uniforms (which I actually love), they're taught to hold the door open for all adults (which is awesome), and the girls are always released before the boys; very focused on character, manners, and efficiency. They had two areas of study, biomedical and engineering. But that's it. It's either one or the other. Once the kids get to jr. high or high school they choose one of those. Which those are great fields to be in, definitely the future of our economy. But, that leaves a pretty narrow margin for a lot of people to fit into! On the other hand, the school we ended up choosing for her (and subsequently the rest of our kids), has an entirely different focus, one Davey and I agreed fits our families philosophy to a "t". Her school's main focus is on developing each child's passion. Whatever it may be. Grades K-6 are taught in the Montessori method. Each child is worked with individually throughout the day. There is no "teacher standing in front of the class" teaching everyone all at once. Literally, the teacher and her assistant walk around to each student and sits with him or her and helps that child with whatever they're work is at the moment. It's AWESOME. I was pretty much shocked (in a good way) when I did my class observation day. I couldn't believe how much individual attention each child got. And I actually found myself thinking a lot about our boys while I was there (well, Levi at the time, Kaden was still an unknown). I noticed that all the kids were allowed to sit (or stand) wherever they wanted while they learned. They could walk around if they felt like it. Some where sitting at their desks (mostly the girls), some were sitting on the ground (mostly the boys) and I thought this was great. Just from the few years I've had experience with having a boy, I've quickly learned that they need to move! It's just how they are wired! So this environment I think is going to really prosper Levi and Kaden just as much as Dakota. Not to mention that I get to stick my toes in the homeschool arena too!!!! This is a huge relief for me. The other school was a full site school 5 days a week and I knew I would always regret never even trying to homeschool my kids. This way, I teach them on Mondays and Tuesdays, and they go to class on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Perfect! Enough to be a big part in my kids education, but not so much to be overwhelming. Because in reality, if Davey and I are going to have 4 kids, I really can not imagine taking on full time homeschooling with ALL FOUR, everyday. At least not yet. The coolest thing about the homeschooling aspect of her school is that I get to pick her curriculum (except math, that's given to us. Thank God!). But not only to I get to pick all her curriculum, it can be ANYTHING I want. I mean, any kind of media; computer work, a video, workbook, field trip, etc. The possibilities are endless. The best thing about this is that I can use Christian curriculum. That was something that was so important to us, and really hard to find a charter school set up that way.

I'm really excited! This is going to be a whole new schedule and way of life for all of us. I'm looking forward to getting a lot of one on one time with Levi and Kaden during Dakota's school days, and a lot of one on one time with Dakota on her homechool days. I'm going to be dropping Levi off at my mom's during her homeschooling. What? You think I could teach her with a 2 year old boy running around?! Ha. If only I were that capable. One can only dream. But actually, Levi I think is finally come out of his terrible two's stage. I mean, it was terrible. To the max. He was completely nuts. I would say for about 8 months straight, he was in time out on an average of about 10 times a day. Almost constant. I'm thinking if this is normal behavior for a 2 year old boy, I may just be hiring a fill-in mom when Kaden turns 2. Dude.....insane. Dakota was nothing like that at 2. I laugh now because I thought she was such a challenging 2 year old. Ha! Silly little woman I was! If only I had known what terrors lay ahead of me. But anyway, that was then, and now....he is really coming back around to who he really is. My super loving, happy, extremely funny man. I sure do love him to pieces, and am glad to see him being himself again :) But that doesn't mean I'm ready to homeschool Koty with him around. He still is a toddler boy afterall. One word.....energetic!

So anyway, beside Dakota's birthday party and finally settling on a school for her, we've just been enjoying our summer days around her. The day after her party, was so nice. We hung out at home and in the evening the kids went in the pool and we bar-b-que'ed some steak. One of the nicest days we've had in a long time.

Oh, and then during dinner, Kaden had his first taste of solid food. Steamed red potato....

He liked it so much his hair stood straight up! Hahaha.

And his daddy sure does love him...

And is that not the most attractive picture of Davey? Kissing our baby. Hm. No wonder I keep having babies with him!!

They've developed a really special bond. My heart beats a little faster when I see Davey with Kaden :) Neither of them are without a smile on their faces when they are together.

The very next day, he rolled over for the first time. Back to tummy. No. No. I have already decided he is not allowed to grow up this quick.

I got some pics of my bougainvillea that day too. They're doing really well!

And the newest members of the Jones' household...

Which are totally dieing now! I don't get it; I feed them, I water them, I keep them out of direct sunlight. Well, actually to be honest, I'm probably overwatering them. I have a tendency to get a little compulsive sometimes. Breath. Take a chill pill. And put the hose down.

Besides bar-b-que'ing, hanging by the kiddy pool and gardening, we also did a little bit of this...

And a little bit of this...

And a whoooole lotta' this....

Hey, I said he was growing out of the terrible two's. He can never outgrow his Y chromosome ;)

Ooh ooh, how could I almost forget?! Guess what he's wearing in those pics....underwear! Yep, potty trainging mission accomplished! SO glad. I was so not ok with having an almost 3 year old running around in diapers anymore.

Now if only I could get him to stop calling them his "big boy panties".

Bye Bye Public

2011-06-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

Orkut SUCKS. I'm going private again and never going back. Seriously, this makes me ill. Since my last two posts, I've had 8 hits from Brazil (which if you have a personal or family blog that features children on it and get a lot of traffic from Brazil, I guarentee your kids photos are being stolen and used for foreign sickos social networking fun and games). Anyway, since the last post of Kaden's newborn pics I've gotten 5 of those 8 hits. No wonder because of the nature of the photos. Makes me livid.

I have an orkut profile just so that I can search for my kids photos. I've never found them but I've gotten messages on flickr from other reputible members saying they've seen Dakota and Levi's photos being used on there. When I went on today after I saw that I was getting traffic from Brazil again, I saw SO many innocent girls photos being used as profiles for these scumbags. And I pretty much freaked out on the inside. I don't know if they're linking from specific posts (so I'm deleting the last two or three, which pisses me off because those are Kaden's newborn pictures). I see on my site tracker that a lot of them are googling "David and Corin" which means they come here often enough to remember our names. And also means most of them are smart enough not to come here directly from orkut. Except for the one who did today, which is what tipped me off.

So this blogs going private in 3 days. I'm bummed to have it go down this way. But it's just how the world is now. So sad. It's not worth it. Guess I'll just email pics to friends and family to stay connected because I don't trust any other social networking sites either. So pathetic.

Peace out.

Alive and Thriving!

2011-05-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

I have been absolutely dieing to get on here and share what we've been up to the last few months since Kaden was born! First of all, I have to just lay out some facts about him...

1. He is such an unbelievably happy baby. He's a total smiler!! He also loves to laugh. He laughed for the first time when he was only 3 weeks old. I didn't even know babies that small had the ability to laugh. I looooooooove him!

2. He startles very easily.

3. He's a major puker. Not so much anymore. But when he was a newborn, oh my gosh, ALL the time.

4. He's in size 4 diapers and 6 month clothes.

5. He's NEVER pee'd on me!! I know that seems like, "So what?" But for a boy, that's pretty amazing. Pooping on me, now that's a different story.

6. He's a total blankie baby. He has to be holding on to something all the time. When he nurses, he likes to hold my hand ♥

7. He's teething! He got his first taste of baby oragel today.

8. His umbilical cord fell off in record time. He was only 3 days old! Check it out in his first bath picture, his belly button was already healed and normal looking! I think it took my other kids 5 or 6 days.

Kaden's first bath...

Kaden now....

And Levi being, well...Levi. Anyone who knows him knows what I mean ;)

Another one of Levi being himself. Here we have two wild animals. Hahaha.

Really though, check out that toad! Davey caught him crossing our driveway late one night last week. He saved him for the kids to see. They loved it! We get a ton of wildlife here at our new house. We live right across the street from some serious hills that go on for miles. So far we've caught this toad (which Dakota and I took a hike and released back into the hills), two ground bound baby birds (that died. I cried) and a stray blind chihuahua we found in the ravine in our neighborhood (that I had to turn into the shelter. And I TOTALLY cried). Oh, and how could I almost forget? We've been raising about 200 tadpoles! Davey has a friend who lives on about 30 acres out in wine country. He has a pond FULL of tadpoles and was happy to let davey take a whole bucket of them home. Now we have froglets and a few actual frogs! I figure we'll eventually go release these guys out into the hills too.

We've also had quite the snail obsession around here lately. There's a hole in our front yard where I guess all the cool snails hang out. Dakota goes snail pickin' on a regular basis. It's kind of her passion.

Speaking of passions, I have a new one...gardening!! I never knew I would love it so much. Guess there was no way to know until we moved into a house that actually has a backyard and frontyard! We've laid about 650 sq. ft. of sod in the back, planted 4 five foot tall bougainvillea vines that will eventually grow to cover the entire length of our back fence and seeded our front yard. And now I have three planters out front I'm ready to put some blossoming plants in.

Also, I've gotten to do some sewing lately too. I don't have any pics, but I made Dakota another petal knot shirt. Then I went on a late night spending spree on etsy and drained my paypal account on fabric. So expect to see some new projects up here next time I post!

Speaking of etsy (Gosh I love that site. I'm obsessed with it. I would definitely say that 70% of the time I spend on the computer is on etsy), I'm starting a new shop! Super excited over here people. I love my old shop for the prints, but honestly, packaging actual, physical prints and sending them out has just gotten burdensome. And I hate to say that. I know it's so lazy and unappreciative. I stopped putting my prints in the showcases a long time ago (which is really the only way you make good sales on etsy. It's like advertising). I still sell some here and there once in a while, but I've pretty much put that shop on vacation mode. I haven't even renewed my listings in months.

Anyway, more about the new shop to come; I haven't got a name for it yet. Still just kind of letting the creative flow take it's course, waiting for some inspiration to come my way. I'm sure knowing myself it will probably be something Paris, or feminine, or earthy. Or who knows, maybe I'll surprise myself. As for what I'll be selling....I'm not telling yet! Hahahaha. I just love doing that :D

So anyway, as if life isn't busy enough already, we've got a lot going on and a lot we want to do in the future. But that's what makes life exciting right? Well, exciting sometimes and exhausting others!

As for life with 3 kids, I always wondered what it would be like. When I got pregnant with Kaden I seriously wondered if I was crazy for challenging the balance of a 4 member family!! Well, the final conclusion is in, 3 kids is awesome. Oh please, don't get me wrong, I absolutely have my days. Days when I think, "So this is what the day looks like that I actually have the mental breakdown." Days when the kids are bugging the crap out of me (not Kaden of course because he's perfect. Still on our babymoon as you can tell ;), when all I want is to be alone, when Davey walks in the door and I hand the older ones off and say, "Here" as I sprint to the car with Kaden. Days when the afternoon is punctuated with bouts of me quietly crying in the kitchen while the kids fight in the next room over who gets the toy. BUT, and that's a huge BUT (ahem "That's what she said" Ahahahaha...had to put that in there for all you "Office" fans!) But, I would not give up having 3 kids for anything. It's really true, that with each kid, your love multiplies by about 100. I have no idea how it works, but it does. It has been the single most growing experience of my life. Way easier than I thought it would or could possibly be. Because, really, all those things I mentioned on the negative side, I experienced all that with just 1 kid! So 3 has really been no more stress than just 1 or 2. The saying, "Once you have a couple, you might as well have more" is so true! The first question people always ask us when they see we have a new baby is, "Do you want more?" The answer...YES! Davey and I would love to have more kids. Well, I should say, one more. Four has always been our number. But of course, we're open to just about anything. The thought of another baby makes me happy and excited. Not right away of course, but in the future. I have a very strict "No getting pregnant until I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight" rule anyway. And so far, I've stuck to it like glue! It took 9 months to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight with Dakota and 18 months after Levi. So this one I'm sure will take at least that. But it will happen. And when it does, it is so on!

Our Newest Son!!!

2011-02-23T21:43:00.000-08:00

Introducing Kaden! Our newest baby boy, born on Sunday in the wee hours of the morning. What an awesome blessing he is to us already. And what an awesome entrance he made into our world!

First of all, let's rewind back a few months to about December of 2010 to a simple fortune I got after a birthday dinner out...

"Something on four wheels will soon make a happy arrival in your life."

Hmmm. Interesting. I actually thought nothing of it at first. Until Davey said jokingly, "Oh, the babies going to be born in the car!" We all had a good laugh and it became somewhat of a running joke in our family. Even with Lori our midwife too. Since Levi came so fast, and the birth center is an hour away from us, it wasn't totally inconceivable, but really, not a reality either. But, never the less, I kept the fortune, marked the date on the back and stored it away. See, just before Levi was born I had gotten a fortune as well, that read, "A joyful event will soon take place in your home." I kept that one too. Wrote the date on the back, and it's now in Levi's baby book.

Fast forward to Saturday the 19th (Davies birthday!). The entire day I found myself paying really close attention to the weather. This is something I've noticed I do with all my births. I told Davey that I felt like I would go into labor soon because I couldn't stop watching the clouds roll by. But still, I felt nothing labor-like. Just a feeling. It was a nice day. I loved on the kids a lot. I cried a little when I held Levi. And this made me really think I was going to have the baby soon. I felt like I was starting to "let go" of Levi as my youngest in a sense. A little sad feeling in my heart.

Another interesting side note to the story, I had been feeling like I actually was never going to go into labor prior to this. We still hadn't decided on a house yet and I kept telling everyone I felt like in my subconscious, I was waiting until we had a home lined up before I would go into labor. It was at 5pm on Davies birthday, February 19th, that we signed the contract for a home! We decided to lease a really beautiful place right here in Lake Elsinore. We both are really excited and feel like it's the perfect place to raise our family. We went home and I finally felt that sense of total relief and peace. And sure enough, little did I know, we would go home and that would be the last night I was pregnant.

That night, around 10pm I started to feel really achy. My lower back hurt BAD. And my shoulders too. But nothing else going on. Just a serious case of late pregnancy aches (I thought). Davey massaged me while I leaned on my birth ball and around 11:30 we went to bed. This is when I started to really suspect I may be in very early labor, and by 12:30 I was sure. I had been having pretty good, cramping contractions and I decided to text Lori our midwife just to give her a heads up in case it was the real deal. I told her I felt a little menstrually and was having some contractions but was going to bed and would try to get some rest. Which is what I did. I put on my hypnobabies and tried to get as comfortable as possible because I wanted to sleep at least a few hours in between contractions. I ended up sleeping on and off until 3:30am and was really glad when I saw that I had gotten three good hours of sleep. I figured I would labor into the morning and have the baby probably in the afternoon sometime. I settled back into bed and decided that I wanted to try and stay snoozing between contractions until 5am and by that time it would probably be time to pack up and start on our way to the birth center. At this point, my water had not broken, I hadn't even lost my plug. So I felt really confident that I wasn't too deep into labor. I was actually wishing that my water would break or I would have some sort of definite sign that it actually was labor. But there was nothing.

As I laid back down to try and rest a little more, I had another contraction. But this one was different. Way different. I popped right back up and knew immediately I couldn't rest any longer. My contractions had gone from about a 4 on the power scale to about an 8 in less than 5 minutes time. So I got up. I walked a little. I went into the closet and turned the light on and started to mess around a bit with all of our birth center things. And then another contraction hit. Just as strong. And then another, even stronger. By this time Davey came into the closet and started getting dressed (He could hear me starting to vocalize a bit as these contractions ramped up very quickly). And I got REALLY agitated with him. I kept telling him, "Go back to bed! I can't believe you're in here getting dressed. You're seriously ruining my labor chi." He insisted that it was time to go, that he could just tell. And I insisted that he was insane. I argued with him that I hadn't even lost my plug! My water hasn't broken! And just half an hour ago I was sleeping in between contraction. There was no way I could be at the point where we needed to leave yet. Then another contraction hit. Aaaaaand I was now hanging on the clothes hanging in the closet. At that point I got really confused. Davey was still scurrying around the closet grabbing the necessities and I realized that this labor was taking a serious turn, FAST. I managed to time two contractions and found them to be 3 minutes apart. I admitted to Davey that I was really confused at this point and couldn't understand how all the sudden I felt really deep into labor and it had only been about twenty minutes since I got up.

I decided to head out to the living room and hang on my birth ball a bit just to see if maybe I would feel differently in a different position. But this only confirmed that Davey was right, we needed to leave...NOW. I said I needed to pee and quickly went to the bathroom. Davey suggested that I should check my progress and so I did. And I knew immediately that I was fully dilated. I got stuck in the bathroom while had a good, powerful, long contraction and I could hear Davey and my mom at the door trying to get in asking me to open the door. If I could have talked I would have told them, "I can't get up!!!" The minute the contraction subsided I said, "Let's go."

I had two bellowing contractions as we headed for the door, and as we walked down the sidewalk to the car, I had to stop twice to hang on the wall while I'll moaned through two more contractions. They were right on top one another now and I couldn't believe this was happening. It was 4am, half an hour since I woke up.

Davey got me in the car and thank God he had the brains to grab a blanket as we ran out the door. He threw it in the back and we raced towards the freeway. As we flew down the street I started to feel a serious adrenaline rush. And as we merged onto the freeway, I started to feel something even more serious.....the urge to push. We made it about 4 exits until I knew that we weren't going to make it. The urge to push turned into the necessity to push and I told Davey, "I have to push!! I'm taking my boots and pants off! Seriously! I need to push now!! Pull over! Pull over!" He started to pull off the freeway and called Lori and told her what was going on. She said not to pull over until we had a head out. So he turned right back around and we were back on the freeway.

Four minutes down the road, on a dark, quiet stretch of freeway, on a rainy night, in the middle of the hills of Lake Elsinore, our baby was born. I reached down and with one, big push felt the babies head moving down towards my hands. And with the next push his head was in my hands and I cupped my hands softly around his neck to make sure there was no cord and also to steady his body as I pushed the rest of him out. He slid out like silk and I turned him toward me and lay him on my belly. He was perfection. Davey was hollering, "YAH!!! WHOOHOO!! You did it baby! You did it!" And the loud, strong cry of our newborn filled the car. He was instantly pink, instantly breathing, and instantly loved and adored. I raised his little leg and exclaimed, "It's a BOY!!!" And Davey and I just smiled and laughed and it was an awesome moment.

Davey pulled over and ran to the back of the car to grab the blanket. He wrapped our son in it and got back in and we quickly proceeded to the birth center. The whole car ride there was like we both were on an emotional high. There was SO much happiness and excitement in that car. I held him tightly in my arms and just gazed at him in amazement and Davey and I couldn't stop rejoicing.

Once we got to the birth center Lori and her assistant Kim came running out with a bucket for the placenta (which I had easily pushed out about 10 minutes before we got there) and blankets and towels. I was so grateful that it was still dark (it was about 4:45 am now) because it must have been some scene, them walking us up to the birth center! Me with baby in arms, half dressed, holding towels between my legs, barefoot in the frigid winter night.

We got into the birth center and Lori had already had a hot bath prepared for the two of us. Kaden and I quickly got in to warm up and clean off. For the next three or four hours we did what any other family does at the birth center, Kaden and I had our exams and I had 6 or 7 stitches for a minor surface level tear. We cuddled in bed, Kaden nursed (like a pro!) and we were off.

That's it's. Birth happens. And love happens. Oh, does love happen. Like birth, sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it grows over time. But sometimes, it happens in an instant, like lightening on a winter night. Before you know it, you're staring face to face with nothing but the moonlight out your car window, with this little person you never knew you couldn't live without.

My love for this child was more instant, and more powerful that I could have possibly ever imagined. He is truly something beautiful.

We love you so much Kaden and thank God every single day that he has entrusted us with you.

2011-01-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

It's finally here...2011!! Oh man I thought the new year would never arrive. And now that it has, I feel as excited and overjoyed as I thought I would. I'm feeling very ready to have this baby. At 30 weeks, I started feeling nauseous again. I thought it may have just been a fluke so I pretty much ignored it for about a week. Then after I continued to feel sick, even more and more, I thought maybe it was my vitamins, so I laid off them for a bit but that didn't help. And now, I feel just slightly more nauseous every day that passes. It really is starting to feel like the first trimester again. I'm starting to be bothered by certain smells and my appitite sucks! I'm back at that, "Nothing sounds good to eat" stage like I'm two months pregnant all over again. I'm thinking that by time I actually have the baby I'll be feeling full blown nausea day and night!! Well, it must be what my body needs to do and all I'm sayin' is "Bring on the babe!!" Haha. But, I know that this baby has the perfect time to be born, in the perfect way, right when it's supposed to be and I'm happy to put up with a little more nauseau if I need to. Right now I'm just trieing to enjoy the last little fleeting moments of pregnancy I have...the bumps and kicks, the squirms and the just plain awe and anticipation of wondering who it is in there, which is by far my favorite part of pregnancy.

Speaking of, we now know what Koty and Levi's little cousin-to-be is....a BOY!! Kelly and Vince (Davies sister and brother-in-law) invited us along to their ultrasound last month to find out the sex of the baby and we were so honored that we got to be a part of it. So, Mason's getting a little brother and he is one happy camper. And we're getting another little boy running around our family! Kelly and I have been joking about "what if" our baby is a boy too, oooooooooh....that would be an aweful lot of boyhood on playdates! Literally, four boys under four years old. Wow. Dakota would definitely be the matriarch of the bunch!

It's always fun to sit around and ponder whether this little one is a girl or a boy, but in reality, we only have a few weeks left of guessing. I am SO incredibly excited for this birth. I started the Hypnobabies program on my 30 week mark. And I have to say, it has by far exceeded my expectations. I've actually been on the fence about it since I was pregnant with Levi. I went back and forth constantly about whether it was something I would be into or not. So finally, I started listening to the scripts at night after everyone else was asleep and I could lay there in total peace knowing that I wasn't going to be disturbed. At first it was a little hard to relax as much as I needed to. But, that took maybe a week to get over and now, I honestly can't wait until bedtime so I can have pretty much the only "alone time" I ever get with this baby.

My favorite script so far is the pregnancy/birth affirmations. These are SO empowering and have completely rejuvinated the amount of peace I feel being pregnant and getting ready to give birth. It's amazing how much doing Hypnobabies has even transformed my daily mentality and ability to cope with normal stresses. The pregnancy and birth affirmations are meant to be listened to on a daily basis, and I'm doing exactly that. Even just listening to it in the background during the day is an awesome way to feed my subconcious. I've made a list of my top ten favorite pregnancy/birth affirmations. Here they are...

1. I take full ownership of my pregnancy.

2. All decision for my pregnancy are mine to make.

3. I make educated and informed decisions for my pregnancy and my babies birth.

4. I am strong about verbalizing my feelings and desires.

5. I am willing to allow others to give me what I want.

6. I can say "No" and still be respected.

7. Other peoples negative feelings belong only to them an I keep them away from me at all times.

8. My baby knows how and when to be born and I will be patient.

9. Babies are born on their birthdays. Not when doctors decide.

10. My body is made to give birth easily and comfortably.

The biggest realization I've come to about Hypnobabies is this; It's simply de-programming all the junk and non-sense we've learned about pregnancy and birth through our cultural experience and re-programming it with the reality of pregnancy and childbirth. After a couple of weeks of listening to the program, I realized that about 90% of the suggestions and teachings were simply what happens normally and naturally in a normal and natural birth. When you're alone during your birthing time, and relaxed and in your own environment, your mind and body actually enter into a somewhat hypnotic state on it's own. I'm really thankful there's programs out there like this to help us get back to the center of pregnancy and birth.

So, to say the least, I'm very grateful to have started the program finally and and am looking forward to this birth every single day ♥

In other news, I turned 30 last month! I had an awesome birthday that I actually got to celebrate I think about three times! But what made it even more special was my best friend Pam and her family coming out to spend my birthday weekend with me. We spent the day hiking with the kids and completely enjoying one another's company. We even got to catch some itty bitty frogs!!

See what I mean? These frogs were like seriously adorable. So tiny. And Koty just reached right in and grabbed them! She is such an animal lover. Reminds me of Davies mom all the time.

Anyway, back to the baby and upcoming birth, because that's pretty much all I think about these days. I showed Levi his first birth video (natural birth, at home, water, etc.) He was transfixed on it! When it ended, he said, "Mommy, baby! Baby!" I had to show him six or seven videos, then convince him that we would watch more later. I was really happy to see how into it he was. Now every day he pats my belly and tells me, "Mommy, baby out." Then pats his mouth then my boobs and says, "Baby. Mama's." (Our word for breastfeeding). This is so sweet I could melt into a pile of mush on the floor!! I'm really glad he picked right up on the babies coming out and then pretty much immediately breastfeeding afterward from all the videos. I'm really choosy about which birth videos I let them see. I don't mind them seeing private parts so much (within good taste of course), but I do mind them seeing screaming, emergencies, any sort of forced birth, overused interventions, machinery, mother's strapped down to a beds. I always remember growing up knowing only about birth through the ancient midwifery books my mom and dad had lieing around the house; black and white pictures of hippy couples, simple beds, a midwife and a couple of women hanging around to help. I also remember loving to look at the simple drawings throughout the books. The one I remember the most is of course the baby head emerging from the lotus blossom, which has since become THE emblem of natural/homebirth...

Another drawing I fondly remember (And still look back to from time to time!!)...

Something else made a huge impression on me as a child learning about birth through these books; the role of the male. Every single image I remember seeing that involved a male in it, was one of the male in the supportive role during pregnancy and birth. Since I know how influential the images and stories I heard about birth as a young child were to me, I am serious about how I portray it to my kids, especially Dakota. I want her to see and know that the woman is the center of the birthing process, when she feels supported and loved and nurtured, she is empowered and capable of almost anything....

It just makes for a perfect circle really. Very biblical if you think about it. God really knew what he was doing when he created the family.

Anyway, I won't make you sit through any more hippy pictures, I promise! For now at least ;)

I guess it's safe to say I'm enjoying my wave of late pregnancy "earth mama" vibe of hormones (minus the nausea!). I love the way I feel right after I very first get pregnant and right before I'm about to give birth. You get that serge of life coursing through your veins. I'm telling you, God created the best drugs on earth; oxytocin, relaxin, endorphins, prolactin...All the "love hormones". And just think, the best are yet to come!

I'm off to the birth center for a prenatal appointment this coming Tuesday. And an hour long maternity massage!! I get three of them with our birth package. I know, poor me, right? At first when I saw that massages were now included in all our midwife's packages I thought, "Hmm, that's cool I guess." But now that I've had one, I think,"Umm, no! That's AWESOME!!" Lori (our midwife) is seriously a genius for including massage into her prenatal care. She has an entire room dedicated to just relaxation and massage and a masseuse who ROCKS it! Prenatal appointments have become my zen time.

Happy New Years everyone.

Time & Peace

2010-10-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

*Look Pam...belly pictures do exist!*

Hahaha. My best friend and I were joking about how I have no belly pictures this pregnancy. And I don't. It's really true. It's just amazing how unbelievably difficult it is to do with two other kids! But thanks to my sister we have these super beautiful family photos to remember this year by. (And to remember this belly by!) Thank you Mel. You are such a blessing to us!

But beside having two kids and another one on the way, our life has been absolutely upside down and inside out this year. This has come close to the hardest year of Davey and I's life together. But I would have to say it was beat out my our first year as parents ;) I don't think any transition gets much harder than that.

Although this has been one of the hardest years, it is also the year that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Davey and I have changed more this year than any other year in our life I think. And speaking just for myself, I have become a different person altogether. Not that I don't still hold the same beliefs or values or insights, but I have let go of so many things and grasped on to the few, true, real things that matter.

The year has been dominated by us trying to sell our house. And I can officially say, "SOLD" now. We move out in three weeks. This is a HUGE relief and blessing to us. I feel like a ton of bricks has been taken off my chest. Just knowing that we're moving on, that we were successful at something we put our hearts and minds into and and that we can finally get on with it feels awesome. What I didn't expect so much was how hard it would be for me to actually leave. I guess once I became pregnant I realized that this would make it a lot harder, just given that I would be more hormonal (and whoooooa am I!) but also because being pregnant makes me acutely sensitive to the awareness of time, time passing, children growing (oh, now I have to wipe the tears off the keyboard!) and our general "human-ness" if that makes any sense; memories and pasts that linger in certain places. I've found myself over the last couple of weeks as I walk throughout the house picking up, doing daily chores, coming to a spot and flashing back and realizing that the new owners won't know how many important things happened here. They won't know that this dining room floor was where my son took his first steps. They won't know that the kitchen countertop was where my daughter sat the first time I taught her how to bake cookies. And they won't know that upstairs in a little, quiet part of the house was where life began, a beautiful little baby boy took his first breath. And it's brought me to tears much more than once, like it is now.

This year has been hard because we haven't been able to tell the future. We didn't know when we would be out of our house. But we also didn't know that we would be in the process of letting life go at the same time. My gram is slowing loosing her battle with cancer. "Loosing a battle", guess it sounds like there was a battle in the first place. Which there wasn't. She's in her 80's. It's just her time. But it doesn't make it any less difficult. I love her. I'm extremely close to her. And watching her fade out is hard. But praise God. I praise Him like there's no tomorrow. Because He has given me something I've been praying for for years....

Time.

I've prayed and prayed and prayed that I would have time with my gram and papa before they go. Especially that I would have time to, God willing, minister to them. And it was my privilege to do exactly that a few weeks back. I brought my Bible to my grams bedside, read for her, prayed with her, and she accepted the Lord into her heart. And my heart rejoiced. It was really quickly that she started to loose a lot of her abilities then.

My gram is living at my mothers house now being taken care of by her full-time. She has her own hospital bed by the window in her very own room and my mother does everything for her.
Literally, everything. And just seeing my own mother be completely self-sacrificial, has changed me. She has made me a better woman. She's taught me what love looks like. Real love. It's not always pretty, and it's rarely ever easy. And a lot of times it just plain hurts. But when you love like the Lord teaches us to love, you give everything.

And that's what I've felt like this year, like I've given everything inside and outside. I've spent a big part of the year feeling empty because of this. But lately over the last few months that emptiness has dissipated and something else has taken root in my heart that is much more permanent and resilient...

Peace.

Not a peace that I could produce. Or even imagine for that matter. A peace that I could only experience through my God and His word; His promise of grace and mercy for those that believe in Him and call on Him. Because although this year has been a complete roller coaster of emotions, from excited to scared to anticipating to sad and to joyful....I've gained a strength that only comes from a trust in the Lord, knowing that He has a plan for our life and that His plan is for good; always. No exceptions.

Absolutely not to say that I still don't loose sight sometimes. I'm human. I will always fall short. There's times when I need to be reminded of these things. There's times when I crumble into my husbands arms at night and just cry. Not so much out of sadness or fear or any of the usual reasons one would cry. But more I think out of...fragility. And it feels good to be able to be fragile sometimes. To know that Dave will just hold me and not say anything. Because there is a lot I hold back during the day. When I go to visit my gram, I NEVER cry. I always put myself in her place and know that I wouldn't want to see my children hurting, but rather I want to see them joyful. So I am happy for the few hours here and there I get to be with her and talk. But surely when I am alone, the tears fall. And I crumble. Just for a bit...I crumble.

Then like always, I look at my sleeping babies, my husband kisses me on the forehead and I pick myself up and count some of the bazillion things we are blessed with.

This December Dakota starts back in ballet. Two months later we will welcome a beautiful, third child to our little (not so little?) family. The following Autumn we will start Dakota in private school most likely. Not for sure yet, but it's looking pretty good. And if not, I will joyfully embrace the challenge of becoming a homeschooling mama. And probably we will switch back and forth between private schooling and homeschooling all our kids for the duration of their school life, according to whatever suits our family needs that particular year. And sometime within the year we will decide on where our next home will be. Whether we stay here in our neighborhood, or go further out into the country. Whether we lease a home for a few years or purchase again.

There are so many unknowns. So many variables. But one thing remains...God I love my family. And nothing is more important than time and peace with them.

*Sigh* I can breathe.

New life is on it's way in more ways than one.

2010-09-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we spent the day with our friends the Longs and the Williams in downtown Temecula at the children's museum. We always love our time with them! I brought my camera along and dressed the kids cute anticipating that I would do a little mini session with them afterward. It was such a nice day! We met Davey for dinner and had fun chasing the kids around the cool little spots there in downtown. I was really happy with the shots we got of them. I put the rest of them up on my other blog. They're actually part I of our Christmas pictures. Over this last weekend my sister was sweet enough to join us down in the same area and get some awesome family shots for us. Thanks Mel! You are the best!

I also had another prenatal appointment a couple of weeks ago and everything looks great! And sounds great. Babies heartbeat dropped waaay down from 170+ to the 140's. Now I'm thinking there's a real good chance Levi could have a little bro to grow up with! Plus, this baby acts just like he did when I was pregnant with him. So quiet. And, I'm craving the exact same things with this one that I did with Levi. I could live on Greek salads!!

Speaking of babies, some super AWESOME family news....Davies sister Kelly is pregnant too!!! I'm so happy for them! And on a selfish note, really excited :) I was dieing to have someone to be pregnant with this time around. And since they just moved super close to us, it's been really fun getting be hang out all the time and be excited together. We're exactly 10 weeks apart. So these two little cousins are going to be super close!

Oh yeah, and Dakota came up with another boy name....

Beau Handsome

I actually really like it! Hahaha.

Madame Dakota and Her Crystal Ball...

2010-08-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

So apparently Dakota is psychic. According to her at least. She has many predictions about this new baby. And they are firm.

First of all, she thinks it's a girl. I mean, not like, "My guess is a girl" type of thing. I mean she is adamant. Everyday she talks about the baby, "We could buy her this..." "I could wrap her up..." "We could take her there..." Davey and I both tell her everytime, in an excited tone, "Yah, or it could be a boy!!" She just looks at us like, "Whatever" and goes on with her story. Haha! I'm pretty amused by it and think it's kind of cute. She has said though on three different occasions that she would be happy no matter what. Not sure how much I can believe that coming from a 4 year old, but I guess we'll see!

So her first prediction is girl. Her second prediction is what "she" will look like. We were stopped at the gas station the other day and I was standing by her window just talking to her and Levi and I asked her, "Koty, what color hair do you think the baby will have? Do you think it will be black like daddies or blond like yours and Levi's and mommies?" She said (her words exactly), "Well, I think she'll have black hair when she comes out. But then when she gets older like me, she'll have hair like mine." Okay, now that just creeped me out right there because that is exactly how she was. Full head of black hair when she was born then it all fell out and grew in again three times until it was the color it is now.

Aside from her predictions, she also has names for the baby already. And this time, she actually conceded that it could possibly be a boy and gave him a name also...

For a girl:
Flower Waterfall

For a boy:
Plant Waterfall

These change pretty much weekly. So I'm interested to see what else she comes up with.

Speaking of boy or girl, Davey really wants to find out the sex of the baby. This has been something I've gone back and forth on for a while. It makes it really hard to resist when your spouse wants to know! It would be so easy to go get an ultrasound and find out. HOWEVER...I have decided to be my usual stubborn self and resist the temptation!! I just can't give up that awesome feeling of finding out when the baby is close in my arms looking up at me. It's an irreplaceable feeling to me. Sometimes I wonder if it was only that awesome when Levi was born because he was a boy. He was something new and different for us and in that moment we realized we had "one of each" and it was that fact that brought all that joy. Then I realize everytime, "No. It was awesome because it was awesome. Period." So, no finding out for us. You all will just have to wait! That means you too Dave ;)

Oh, surprisingly enough, the only other person who is with me on the waiting bit, is Dakota. A few weeks ago when I was seriously considering finding out, I thought I would ask her (thinking she would totally say, "Find out!", then I could use her as my scapegoat and say, "Even Dakota wanted to find out!") but to my total surprise she said she wanted us to wait. I even asked her again a few days later, and she still said "wait". That was all the confirmation I needed.

As for Davey and I, of course it's the run-of-the-mill "We don't care either way". And we truly don't. Somebody is going to end up getting a same-sex sibling and that rocks! For me personally, I see it both ways. On one hand, I would love for Dakota to get a sister. Siblings are special no matter what, but there is just something about sisterhood that you almost can't do without. I would really be over-the-moon for her. But, on the other hand, there is a huge advantage to it being a boy. He and Levi would be so close in age, only 2.5 years apart. They would most likely have all the same friends, like the same things at the same time and be really close. And I would love to have another son. For a mommy, there is something exceptionally special about her bond with her baby boy. But, it is what it is. And it is exactly what God has planned for us and carefully set aside just for our family. And I can't wait for that day when we finally get to find out! Such a blessing.

So on that note, I decided that I would add another gender prediction poll to the blog. You all were right on the money last time with Levi, so I thought it would be interesting to see if you could pull it off again!

The poll closes on February 1, 2011. Happy voting!

Martha Stewart Meets Psycho

2010-08-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

To say the least, the house has been buzzing with creativity lately. I'm usually always into some sort of craft or decorating or getting a form of artistic high off of something. But everytime I get pregnant, it pretty much gets insane. Poor Davey, he probably misses his wife ;)

Over the last month I've spent hours in front of the sewing machine. I wanted to make Dakota a birthday dress for her in June. I made it the night before her birthday party without measuring her and also making up half the pattern as I went. I wanted a petal knot top with an a-line bottom. The next day when she got up I had her try it on and it was soooo way too small! I guess I'll always see my kids as little ones. So, I moved the pocket up, hemmed it six inches and turned it into a summer dress for Corissa.

Then I decided to stick by the rules and go by the pattern for her next dress. It was my first Pillowcase dress and I'm super happy with the way it turned out!! I love seeing her walk around in the things I make for her. I know how loved it makes her feel, because I remember my own mother making my clothes all the time. I felt so special.

A couple of weeks ago I made an apron for my best friend Pam. Her and Levi share a birthday (Happy Birthday Pam! I love you!) and I was going to give it to her, only once I was half way through it I realized the pattern didn't call for a lining! And that is so not right with me. So I finished it and kept it. Ironic for a person who finds cooking the most mundane and retched task in the world. Okay, besides dishes. But I guess they go hand and hand.

So after all this girly sewing, I started thinking that I really wished there was something cool I could make for Levi. I figured his birthday was right around the corner so I decided to make him a banner with his name on it. And this is my favorite thing yet. The pictures don't even do it justice. I think a big part of how much I love it is because everytime I look at it, it actually reminds me of Dakota. This was a really fun project that we did together. I did the sewing and she did the turning. Everytime I made a new piece, I would hand it to her and she would turn it right side out for me. She was really helpful! I love the bonding time I get with her when we do projects like this. The first thing I'm getting for the two of us once we get into the new house is twin pottery wheels!!! I'm going to pick up a cheapy one from craigslist and then get her one of the kids wheels from the craft store and teach her how to throw pottery, glaze, and use the kiln (which if anyone knows where to get a small, relatively inexpensive kiln, please let me know!). I can't wait!!

I loved his banner so much I decided to keep it up permanantly in his room over his new 2 yr old pictures (which are on their way!). This is what it will look like when the prints get here...

I always do a mock-up in Photoshop of a wall I'm ordering prints for first, just in case it doesn't look right, then I don't end up wasting money. This one I really loved the way it turned out so I went ahead and put the order in for pebble texture 8x10's. I started tearing Levi's room apart about two months ago because I was so tired of it looking like a baby room. I think this is so much more boy-ish for the little man-child.

Another thing I loved a lot that I decided to keep around are the center pieces I made for his birthday party. I always hate having just a plain table. Which I get asked about everytime someone comes over. "Do you always have a set table?" Yep. I'm really anal. Seriously. I am. I change my centerpieces for every season. Don't laugh! I know it's totally Martha Stewart-ish meets Psycho, but it's how I roll. Anyway, so his party centerpeices are now our dining room table centerpieces for as long as they'll last. It's just succulents and lavender I picked from my mom's front yard the morning of. But it smells sooooo good when you're eating next to them!!

So this I'm sure is just the least of it. I have six months to go people. I could re-decorate the entire house by then! Oh, by then we probably won't even be here. Well, wherever we are, I'm sure I will be decorating it like a mad-woman. I'm all about it!! For now at least. Ask me again in eight months when I have a 4 yr old, 2 yr old and 2 month old. You may get a slightly different response ;)

Happy Birthday Levi!

2010-08-05T15:14:00.001-07:00

Happy 2nd Birthday to the boy who makes my heart go pitter patter...

Speaking of, there's been some pitter pattering of another sort going on around here lately as well...

It's official...Love is in the air ♥

2010-07-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

These next pics crack me up!! Please tell me you guys have seen "Zoolander"??!!! His hair was like this when he woke up. I thought it was cute so I busted out the camera, then he put on Dakota's Hannah Montana headband she got from Gianna's birthday party and I was SO glad I had the camera! What a poser!

Every morning I wake up to, "Aaaayaaaa-yee." It's "Good Morning" in Levi language. This morning when I rolled over to see him the first thing I said back to him was, "Levi, you grew over night!!" I swear I immediately thought he looked SO much older. One of those moments when you realize how fast your baby is growing. Ooh break my heart. As if I don't cry enough right now. All I need is to feel like my little baby boy is growing way too fast. I cry every single day. This pregnancy is totally an emotional one. Ashlyn (my best friend's daughter) drew a little picture of her and Dakota holding hands and they were shaped like hearts and I cried for HALF AN HOUR. Over a drawing. Yes, it's that bad. Anything will do it...commercials, songs...I cried when I took these pictures because when I reviewed them, I thought he looked so old. Absolutely ridiculous.

Speaking of Levi, seriously...he hit the terrible two's at 19 months. This child is Crazy with a capitol C right now. And he has been for going on 4 months now. I'm hoping, mustering all the optimism that I can, that this means he'll grow out of it sooner! Ha, yah. Definitely blind optimism. He's still has the same core personality; loving, affectionate, giggly. Only right now it's buried under a thick layer of two year old, screaming, fist throwing tantrums.

Dakota was crazy at two though also. Super crazy. So I know that eventually his disposition will go back to normal. And I will be one happy mama! I'm always amazed at people when they tell me there kids never went through the terrible two's. My mom says none of her kids did, so blame it on Davey! Haha...she may be onto something ;) Just kidding of course. Kind of.

Davey and I actually got to have a really amazingly long and nice and quiet day out together the other day. My mom watched the kids while we went into Orange County to get a bunch of errands done then we sat down for dinner together and it was the first time in a looong time we've have a quiet, uninterrupted dinner with one another. We talked and talked and talked; a lot about the house and our next move. We just had a meeting with our realtor (who is also a business associate of Dave's) and our bank and things should supposedly be picking up. Apparently we had a super horrible negotiator who was doing NONE of his tasks and totally stalled our sale. Luckily our buyer is being very patient, which we are very thankful and blessed for. Then we got to talking about the economy and Dave is thinking that we're heading for a double dipper recession. One thing I have learned over the years, is when it comes to economic and financial matters...to trust this man. I'm constantly impressed by him. It's not just him that thinks so though, a lot of really trust worthy people in our sphere are thinking so as well. So in that case, we're thinking the smart strategy would be to sell our house as quickly as possible (which is already being done) and then to actually lease a house while we wait for the double dipper to happen. As soon as that happens and housing pricing fall even lower, then jump back into the market and make our purchase. This is sounding really smart to me because of course we want to buy at the bottom of the market. And if we wait it out and see that we're not getting into another recession, then we'll just go with our original plan and find a home with a purchase option.

Anyway, on to the coolest news...I felt the baby move!! I actually thought I was feeling something the past couple of nights when I was laying in bed. Not movements, but I guess better explained as sensations. And I very instinctually knew it was the baby. But didn't really say anything about it to Dave because it wasn't definite. But then yesterday I was putting Levi down for a nap and was leaning crouched over his toddler bed rubbing his back and felt a very definitely *bump!* Then a *swoosh* and lots of wiggling. As soon as I moved positions it stopped. Or else I just wasn't able to feel it anymore. I doubt I'll feel anything again for a long time. With Levi I felt him really early like this, then I didn't feel anything for a really long time.

Oh, and I feel a TON better. Nights are still kind of nauseating, but I am ROCKING the daytime! Whoohoo normalcy here I come!

And now I'll leave you with a little Levi love.....

2010-07-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

Just so you all know, you're about to be bombarded with photo overload right here. That's what happens when I only post once a month ;)

Oh, and the longest blog entry on the face of this earth.

First of all, I cut my hair! SO much easier. I was spending way too much time blowdrying hair down to my waste everyday just to throw it up in a ponytail. I died it too. But it's still super light. Just went back to my natural blond so I could let my roots grow back and finally have nice healthy hair again. For some reason, everytime I get pregnant (and everytime I give birth too, now that I think about it) I change my hair. Must be a woman thing.

Speaking of being pregnant and womanhood...OH LORD. I have been insanely sick. Seriously people, I have never spent so much time on the inside of my toilet in my life. Last week I threw up every single day. Sometimes twice a day. And I don't just mean cutesy little dry heaving in the morning. I mean stomach turning, cramping, "Lord help me now" PUKING. Only I haven't been eating that much because everything everywhere smells putrid and taste like a garbage dump so the only thing coming out was stomach acid. Lovely.

However, the good news is that I haven't thrown up in four days now and I think I'm actually on the road to feeling better. Food is actually starting to taste somewhat appetizing again and for the first time in three weeks we've been getting out of the house!! This is by far the best part of slowly inching towards physical normalcy again. We had such a fun and cool schedule going right before I got sick. Every month we had a different theme and I would have activities ready for Dakota to do everyday that corresponded with that theme. And every Wednesday we had field trips to different places and would spend the day exploring and out in the fresh air. When I got sick, that all came to a giant screeching halt. I could barely get off the couch, let alone plan and carry out activities and day trips. But this week has been great so far. Yesterday we met up with my beautiful friends Isabel and Nicole then we went over to my sisters and hung out for a while. Then today we had a really awesome playdate with Kelly (Davies sister) and her son Mason. Which I want to say, Dakota and Mason, really, they have become best friends in every sense of the word. They literally are inseparable. When we're not hanging out, they are talking about one another constantly. So this has been such a joy to watch; their blossoming relationship.

We took a trip with them to The Balboa Park in San Diego and they had a BLAST. The dino exhibit was definitely Levi's fav ;) He's doing dinosaur impressions everyday since. "RRRRRAAAWWRRR!" He gets so loud that I've had to teach him how to do the "quiet dino".

Dakota and Mason's favorite part was running around the entire park together, exploring and collecting "eggs" (which were really giant seed pods). They make the perfect pair.

On the subject of Dakota, she has been on my heart and mind so so so much over the last few months. A big part of starting a schedule of monthly themes and field trips was in order to prepare her (and me!) for homeschooling. She'll be five next June and that means that she'll start school the following September. Well, according to how the current school system is set up. But, we're not particularly dedicated to sticking to "the system", so five is not a definite age for us to feel that we have to start her. We're not putting her in pre-school either. And this is a big diversion from what all of her friends and peers are doing right now. Both Davey and I decided a long time ago that pre-school just wasn't the path we're choosing for our kids. But either way, I've felt that I need to start preparing right now for what's ahead.

So here's the deal, I've been super schizophrenic over her schooling decisions for at least a year now. Not over what our beliefs and values are on the subject. We know exactly what we believe, we have a strong faith in what we believe and we're willing and ready to raise our kids accordingly. But what I've been crazy over is how to go about it. I'm new at this. Even under the most "normal" circumstances, starting the school process is a somewhat stressful and unsure time. But starting the process in an "unconventional" way is even more mind boggling. There are SO many options. Even though homeschooling is "unconventional", it's quickly becoming very popular, especially among Christian families. There are tons of homeschooling resources, tons of options, and it will make a person insane even beginning to attempt to sort through it all. Seriously, if you ever get the chance, google "homeschool" and see how much comes up! It's like a billion links to a billion other links with five billion options each!

It's taken me months and months to come to terms with a lot of things. I sat down and wrote them out a few weeks ago and it gave me such a sense of peace and clarity. Here is what I wrote...

Things that HAVE to happen in order to homeschool successfully:

1. Both Dave and I going to bed NO LATER than 10pm everynight.

2. Taking a MAJOR chill pill.

*not freaking out when the house is slightly disordered.

*not being consumed by the "small stuff".

*taking "peace-time" for myself once a day (walking the dog alone, taking a bath, etc).

3. Constantly re-evaluating our path/curriculum/goals and be willing and able to adjust them if necessary.

4. Accepting help from my husband on a regular basis.

*support

*housework; cooking, cleaning, etc.

5. Keeping perspective. Always reminding myself what's important; my children, their relationship with God, and their education. Not allowing my life to drift in other directions. Constantly reeling my priorities back into line.

6. Keeping a "servants" attitude. Praying constantly for the Lords intercession in this part of my life. Continuously praying for his strength to work through me. I can NOT sucessfully school my children if I don't completely surrender to the will of God and take joy in serving my family. (This has been my daily prayer for months, "Lord, give me a joy on my heart as I serve my husband and children this day...") This is imperative.

Then I wrote another list...

Things that HAVE to happen in order to be at peace with our decision:

1. Remembering that learning is a natural process and only needs to be facilitated, not necessarily institutionalized.

2. Realizing that homeschooling/private schooling doesn't isolate us, only includes us in a different group of people.

3. Accepting (and being at peace with) the fact that our children will be judged by society with societies standards, even though they're not participating in societies traditional schooling. And subsequently teaching them to view this as a learning experience and as an actual blessing.

4. Prioritizing my (our) life on a constant basis in this order:

*God

*Husband

*Kids (Homeschooling)

*Housework

*Everything Else

5. Always remembering to keep it simple and remembering our purpose; to teach our children HOW to learn, not just filling them with information. Information can be forgotten/discarded. But the ability to LEARN well, enriches a life-time.

This is basically our homeschooling manifesto. Everything we believe is summed up in those ideas. Another big thing we love about homeschooling is the fact that it allows the freedom of individualized learning and just as importantly, individualized socialization. Davey and I believe that there is a HUGE over-emphasis on the "socialization" of children in our society. Here's how we see it...

Kids have different personalities by nature. Their personalities are what they are from the moment they are born. Some kids are very social. Some are not. And many are somewhere on a huge spectrum in between. In the event that we have a very social child, that child will find ways of socializing wherever he/she goes. If a child is naturally very outgoing, given the freedom to express their personality, they'll be outside on a daily basis seeking friends and companionship, playing with the neighborhood kids, making friends at the park or on field trips. If a child is naturally an introvert, he/she will be happy to be less social. He/she will probably have a couple of close friends, participate in a few of activities that interest him/her and be content with this.

To us, pushing an introvert to be social is just as damaging as pushing an extrovert to be passive. Kids need to embrace their own personality in an environment that allows them to feel secure about who they are and what they need to be happy functioning human beings.

We just see homeschooling as more of a even playing field in this respect. Kids generally have a lot more freedom to be themselves and not feel the pressure to "fit in" per se. I remember all through school, easily being able to pick out the introverts who were MISERABLE in such a huge, institutionalized environment. Including myself!

Now this is to say that we decide to go the homeschooling route. Homeschooling has always been what I've always kind of just figured I would do, but really there's always been two options. Homeschooling or private schooling. Really, there are three options, homeschooling, private schooling, and public schooling. But public schooling would be by far a "last resort".

Our first choice for our kids has always been for them to go to private Christian school through Calvary Chapel. Here are our reasons:

1. Private Christian school provides a curriculum that aligns with our families values/beliefs.

*One of the biggest problems Davey and I have with the public school system is it's curriculum. Two examples; Evolution in science (which I could write an entire essay on this itself, but will spare you all) and American History. Today, more and more of God is being erased out of our countries origins in our school's textbooks and history is literally being re-written to suit a liberal agenda.

2. Private schools remove a large portion of peer pressure.

*Of course there will always be peer pressure, no matter where a child goes to school. However, choosing our children's environment, to us, is one of the biggest ways we can eliminate unnecessary influence on them. The chance of our kids being around a strong Christian influence in a private Christian school...100%. The chance of our children being around a strong Christian influence in a public school...probably close to %5. But I'd be willing to guess it to be close to 0%. Not to say that the kids in private schools don't do stupid things or don't break the rules. But, the big difference is the response to those behaviors. The difference is the adults, not the kids.

3. Private Schools generally hold smaller class sizes and smaller student-to-teacher ratios

*This is super important to us and has a lot of the same values that you would find in homeschooling. Small class sizes mean more individual attention and a more individualized approach to learning. There are a handful of differnent learning types. Unfortunately in an institutionlized setting like public school, by nature, there can only be one type of teaching. An instructor with 30-40 children in his/her class can't individualize the curriculum to each students needs. A private school teacher can't neccessarily either. But the advantage comes in the fact that if a child is struggling, it would become apparent a lot quicker in a private setting than public for the sheer fact that there are less kids to tend to. Also, the curriculum is malleable in a private school. There are more diverse options for kids who tend to have a different learning style.

Having said all this, it's easy to see why we choose private school over any other option. But to me, sending all of our kids to a private school wasn't ever really an option because I always just assumed that we could never afford it. It was always one of those things like, "Wouldn't that be nice? Well, I can always homeschool them instead." But, Davey and I have had a couple of long, in depth talks about it over the last few months and he actually seems to think that there is a good chance that we'll be able to afford it. And truly, when he told me this I was overjoyed. What a blessing that would be.

But we don't know what the future holds. In the meantime, we're going to be making an appointment with the Calvary Chapel school right here next to us in order to sit down and talk about our options and time schedule. I know that they generally start kids at 5, so we would need to enroll her by next Spring. I never realized what a process it was to even get your child accepted to a private school before I started researching it a while back. But apparently it's a long to-do list!

Even if we end up not being able to afford private school, and we do end up going the homeschool route, at least I feel like I've made a TON of progress. We've decided that if we homeschool we're going to be putting Dakota in a Private Satellite Program (PSP). I never even knew these existed before but when I found out about it I was so excited! Basically, mostly all larger Private Schools have PSP's. It's a special division of the private school that provides support/advice/record keeping/and education and curriculum guidance to homeschoolers. Each family pays a small tuition fee (usually about $25-$50 per month compared to $430 a month for private school!) and the school maintains all your child's records, test scores, transcripts, etc. And they offer lots of awesome activities. Calvary Chapels PSP program offers monthly field trips, kindergarten and high school graduations, sports, art classes, and one of the PSP programs I found even offers "Friday School" which I thought was kind of cool. One day a week Dakota would go to the actual school for fellowship, worship, learning activities and basic curriculum. It's like homeschooling with all the advantages of a Christian Private School. The best of both worlds.

A huge thing I've been struggling with regarding homeschooling my kids is the idea of "failing" them. Especially Dakota. She is SO sharp, a seriously bright and driven child. Not to say that Levi's not smart, but Dakota has the type of personality and intellect that just grabs onto knowledge and runs with it. The small things I've already done with her have shown me how amazingly quick and studious she is. Her attention to detail and her attention span is AMAZING. You would think this would set a potential homeschooling mom's mind at ease. But a lot of the time, it does the opposite to me! In a sense, I always feel like she has SO much potential and if I take her entire education upon myself, I could somehow ruin her or waste all that potential if I don't do it just right. That's a HUGE amount of pressure. But then, most of the time I come back to reality and realize that really, no matter where she goes to school, homeschool, private school, or public school, I'm still responsible for that decision. Even if she went to public school and they ruined her, it was still my decision to put her in that setting in the first place. Also, I have to remember too that in Dakota's case, I truly believe that she will flourish wherever she is. I believe this down to the very fiber of my being. Just like every parent, you just want to give them the most advantages possible.

So we'll see what God has planned for us. I would totally appreciate the prayers of our friends and family. Right now is an exciting, challenging and exhausting part of our families life. So many changes and so many options. A new baby, a new house, a new school...wow....enough to make your head spin! But also enough to make a person get down on their knees and thank the Lord for the fact there are that many options. What a blessing.

Oh, and this week is Dakota's last week of ballet. Her rehearsals start tomorrow and then she has her big recitals on Friday and Saturday night. We know she's going to do GREAT! The pic above was taken just before she went for her group pic at the dance studio. She's wearing her "Bad to the Bone" outfit, their theme this year. All the kiddies are little bikers ;)

*Update* By the time it took me to finish this ridiculously long post, now I feel like throwing up again.*

*Sigh* The break was nice while it lasted.

Our Best News of the Year!!!

2010-06-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

There are few things in life that have the ability to make you feel exuberant. Falling in love.....Being in love.....Your wedding day.....Finding out your having your first child.....and your second.....and third.....

Which is exactly the news we want to share...We're having a baby!!! Beautiful baby #3!

Exuberant??

...TOTALLY!

Dave and I found out last Sunday. I'm 5 weeks along, due on Dave's birthday! February 19. I actually took two due date calculators; one said February 19 and the other said February 14 ♥ Valentines Day ♥ I don't mind due dates much though. I figure sometime in February is good with me :D

A week after we got back from our camping trip in Sedona, I knew for sure that I had ovulated. I was absolutely 100% positive and I was right!! Clearly. Haha...

They say Sedona is a magical place. And I would have to agree! I got pregnant with this baby without ever having a period. Not even one (I never had one after I had Levi). It was just time...written in the stars truly.

A couple of months ago I literally felt a switch flip in my mind (and my heart)...and immediately I felt like I wanted a baby now. I even told Dave, "I want one like yesterday!" Those words exactly. And here we are, blessed beyond belief!

Words can't express the excitement we feel. Dave is especially stoked. He was happy when we found out we were having Dakota and Levi, but with this one, he seems especially joyful. He tells me almost everyday. The day after we found out, he wrote me a note before he went to work that said, "I love you preggo!" Makes me smile.

My favorite memory so far about this pregnancy is when we told Dakota she was going to be a big sister to another baby. Her face beamed. I don't think I've ever seen a look like that on her face before. We told her while we were all sitting at the dinner table. We had just finished eating and it was a perfect calm and peaceful moment. I sat her on my lap and explained to her that I had a little, teeny, tiny baby in my belly. Since then she's both drawn and painting me a picture of the "new baby". Of course we will treasure them forever.

This is definitely an interesting time to be pregnant. Our home sale is poking along. One thing after another. But we're contently waiting, happy to be focusing on our newest addition in the works. We're not sure how the timing will work out; Whether we'll still be here (which judging by how long this is taking, is a real possibility!) or we'll be in transition, either moving or staying with my parents for a bit while find another place, or we could already be in the new house. Who knows! All I know is what is most important...our family of FIVE!

Happy 4th Birthday Dakota

2010-06-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to the little lady who taught us how to be parents. She will always be our firstborn. We love her to the moon and back!

Joyful Resurrection!!!

2010-04-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

This resurrection weekend, we celebrated by welcoming a baby girl into our family. My brother and his wife delivered their daughter yesterday at 11:24 am. She is BEAUTIFUL. And perfect in every way.

How appropriate I thought; to celebrate the greatest gift that could ever be given to us from our Heavenly Father, eternal salvation, with new life.

My prayer for every single one of our friends and family is that they receive that same gift that HE died to give us.

We love you all and wish you a very joyful Resurrection Day!

2010-03-24T02:03:00.001-07:00

We've spent the last two days down in Oceanside. And all I have to say is....God Bless California. Oooooh heaven! Seriously, I've never seen so many flowers in my entire life. Dave has actually spent three days in Oceanside at his parents house. He went up there on Sunday before me. When he came back he said he'd found this huge field of purple flowers by his parents church and wanted to show me. So when we all went down yesterday he took me over to it, all the way saying, "Just wait, you're gonna freak out Corin." Haha. Oh how I just love him. It was a HUGE, amazing field full of blossoms! It was like something out of a movie. I will never forget the kids faces in that field. Dakota kept saying, "I just want to run through the flowers mom..." And she did. It was awesome. As for Levi, he literally just stood there with drool falling out of his wide open mouth. He was in total awe.

Speaking of Levi, he was the whole reason we were in Oceanside in the first place. He had his ear surgery yesterday and everything went great! Thank goodness. I didn't sleep the entire night before that. I stared at him sleeping for about twenty minutes straight, then prayed, then tossed and turned. *Blah* Plus I had to keep track of the time because he wasn't allowed to nurse after a certain time (fasting for the surgery). The hardest part by far was handing him over to the anesthesiologist. He cried and had to be pried off of me.

But the procedure was super quick and we got to go back immediately once he was in the recovery room. I woke him up and we nursed and I could breathe again.

Now we're off to enjoy this AWESOME weather! We've been going non-stop for the last three days. And I am soooo ready to sit back and soak up the springtime!

Hellooooo Spring!

2010-03-10T21:38:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've ever been happier to see winter go. The cherry blossoms arrived early this year and they couldn't smell sweeter.

The pics above are the new triptych for Dakota's wall. Which actually won't be her wall for much longer. Which brings me to some biggish news.....

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!

Yay! We are super, super stoked! It happened way quicker than we thought it would. We put it on the market in January and within 24 hours had a buyer. We honestly thought it would take at least six to ten months to get it sold in this economy, but here we are, moving out next month! We'll probably stay with my parents for a few months so that we don't have to be rushed into another place. We have been looking though, and I am pretty much over the moon excited with the possibilities that we've seen. Originally we were planning on staying right here in our community, but we've been scouting out some spots in our local area and are seriously considering French Valley and Menifee Valley. They're both very much countryside. Horses, cattle, meadow birds, huge fields and rolling hills; total heaven.

Anyway, so we're both still reeling a bit and a little dazed, like, "Sooo we need to get packing now." That will be interesting with two toddlers "helping" us out. It will definitely keep us on our toes the next few weeks.

Packing is not the only unusual event going on this month. Levi is scheduled to have ear surgery on March 23. *Sigh* The poor child. After his osteo treatments he had an appointment with a specialist to assess his ears. I really thought he would just be like, "Oh he's fine. Have a great day!" He was acting totally normal, he aced his hearing test, I thought he was doing great. But the minute the ENT examined him he said he had fluid behind both his ears and needed tubes :( Then sure enough a week later he came down with a double ear infection (and croup!). I'm not looking forward to him having to go through the procedure but am hoping for the best and praying that this is what he needs to get better.

Speaking of getting better, Davey's cousin Garrett and his wife Andrea just welcomed their first born yesterday. Her name is Heather, and she is a tiny 3 pounds 12 ounces, born early due to complications. So we would appriciate all the prayers we can get for them! Congrats Garrett and Andrea! We love you!

Dakota's Spring Dress

2010-03-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

My hands have been busy this last week...

I have so much to update on!!! Be back later tonight to post!

2010-02-05T22:44:00.000-08:00

Seriously, I fully acknowledge that I look like the grim reaper in this pic. But I have excuses; I've been sick for two weeks. Totally fighting it, but the other day Davey took the day off and I slept ALL day. Finally, I rolled out of bed at 4pm, threw some clothes on and we took the kids to the park. This, me in my half-dead splendor, was the lovely result.

ANYWAY. Levi looked freakin' adorable so I don't care.

Speaking of, the child has had not one bruise or bump or accident since his osteo treatments! Whoohoo!

Children...which brings me to a big topic we've been mulling over for months. To procreate or not to procreate. That is the question. Well, we have come up with a decision finally. We do want more kids. Probably two more. Or how many ever the good Lord wills us.

Just not right now.

I've decided that I want to wait until Levi is at least two years old to get pregnant again. A few reasons...

One, we have A LOT going on in our life this year. Somethings I haven't really made public yet, and some just general going-ons, like two camping trips in Spring, lots of family matters, a bazillion event/birthdays this summer, etc. etc.

Two, when I got pregnant with Levi, Dakota was 17 months old. Levi just turned 18 months. When I think about being pregnant right now at this very moment in time...I think, "WOW. That would be A LOT. How did I do it when Dakota was only 17 months?" But, I only had one child then. Now with two...phew! What if I had morning sickness like when I was pregnant with Dakota?! I would DIE! I was so lucky to not be sick at all with Levi, but who says I would be that lucky again? I would at least need both kids to be able to somewhat play off to themselves for a few hours if I needed them to. Levi is just still to young.

And three, we're just now starting to get to the point where going out and doing things is getting sooo much easier. Today, we went to Tom's Farm and had SO much fun. For the first time, we weren't hauling around a bunch of baby stuff; no bags, no stroller, no sippies. Just us. It was GREAT. We were so free just to have fun! I definitely want us to enjoy that feeling for a while!

And we will.

Then, I'm sure, after the dust of a busy and exciting year has settled, Davey and I will look at our two toddlers, and *sigh*. And I'll get a twinkle in my eye, and take his hand and we'll start all over again.

And it will be a beautiful thing. In just the right moment in time.

2010-02-02T01:33:00.000-08:00

A little dream of mine has come true...

My very own etsy shop was recently born!!! And I'm in love. I thought buying things on etsy was addicting, but oh the joys of selling! It fun, it's easy, it's quick, and best of all, it's just on the side for fun. It's perfect for me right now. This also means that I have officially moved away from client photography. I always knew I wasn't fond of doing commissioned work (through my art in college). And like I suspected, it turned out to be too constricting for me in terms of photography as well. I need to feel free and like I can shift creative directions in an instant. I didn't feel like I could do that when other people were depending on me to deliver something to their taste. But with this, I get total fulfillment out of the artistic process. If people like it they like it, if they don't they don't! And I haven't lost a bazillion hours of my life in it. I feel like a ton of bricks has been lifted from me.

I have gotten very into spending almost every second of the kids and I's days together playing and doing projects (which is going to be a whole other blog post!). I've gotten super deep into making decisions about what direction I want our homeschooling to go in and have to say I'm even more excited about that than I am the new etsy shop! Which is the way it should be.

Feel free to check the shop out...fleurvivante.etsy.com

You can also get there through the main portal of my website.

Until we meet again! Ummm...which may very well be another month ;)

Jesus Was An Osteopath

2010-01-14T21:44:00.000-08:00

First of all, I'm sick of winter. Usually, I'm fully content with Fall and Winter. Not this year. For some reason I'm dieing to get Spring happening already. So, I've noticed that my house is quickly filling up with fresh flowers. I think I'm trying to artificially simulate the onset of Spring. Hey, whatever works!

Anyway, on to the important and awesome stuff. So I took Levi to his auditory specialists and his hearing is perfect! He did SO good. He is really the easiest baby I've ever seen at a doctor. Really cooperative. I don't know how much longer I'll get it this easy, seeming how he's coming up on *gulp* two.

So, hearing....check.

Then I take him to his very first Osteopath appointment the next day. I instantly love the Osteo (Dr. Loveless). We get along like two peas in a pod. Not surprised. He's (obviously) very alternative. We have a couple of great conversations about homebirth, vaccinations, alternative medicine. I love him. We're chattin' it up because he wanted to allow Levi to "get comfortable with him". He inches his way over to him and talks to him in a calm and relaxed tone. It took Levi about 15 minutes to get comfortable enough to lay down on the table. While we're waiting for Levi to adjust to the new surroundings, Dr. Loveless busts out a biology book and proceeds to give me a full briefing on the anatomy of the ear/nose/throat system in infants. Did I mention I love this man?!!!

He tells me that most ENT's will want to remove the adenoids and/or tonsils if tubes don't work well the first couple of times. He shows me where the adenoids are located and tells me that they're important to immune system function and we don't want to remove them if we don't have to. He says he'd rather find the root of the problem and try to fix it first.

Doctor. of. my. dreams. *siiiiigh*

We lie Levi down on the table and give him my make-up to play with. Dr. Loveless puts his hands underneath his head, kind of like he's covering the back of his head, just beneath his ears. And he just sits there. He's not moving (that I can see). I even asked him, "Are you even doing anything?" He assured me he was.

Then, he says, "Oh yeah, he's got misaligned Eustachian tubes." He sits Levi up, points to his ears and says, "Look, his ears are misaligned."

What?!!! Seriously, my mouth was dropped open. What the heck?! I've been to the pediatrician SIX times for this child's ears and they NEVER thought to check this? This isn't part of their training?! Oh wait, no, it's not.

He tells me,"His left Eustachian tube is pointing down, how it should be, this is what allows for proper drainage. But his right tube, it's pointing inward, this makes drainage very difficult. What ear did his pediatrician say had the fluid in it?"

I answer in total awe, ".....his right."

WHOA. This guy is good.

He tells me that a lot of times during the birth process babies can sustain injuries that can last for years if they aren't diagnosed. And even during smooth and easy births like Levi's he could have misaligned his tubes simply passing through the birth canal. He was glad that I brought him in while he was still so young so that we still had time to fix it. Me too!

So he spends about twenty minutes just placing his hands on Levi in different spots. First right behind his ears, then he sits him up and puts both his ears in between his thumb and index fingers, it looks likes he just holding the tips of his ears. But apparently he is actually doing something. Then he puts his hand palm down on his back and it really looks like he's just laying his hands there. I told him that it reminded me of the part in the Bible that it describes the "laying on of hands". He said that just last Sunday him and his wife were at church and the pastor read the verse about Jesus laying his hands on someone and healing him and his wife giggled and said, "Jesus was an Osteopath!"

His next Osteo appointment is this coming Monday. He's going to do the same drill, and if he can get movement back in his ears like he's supposed to have, then we're going to stop and sit back and see what happens. If he continues to get ear infections, we'll know that there is also something else going on. If the ear infections go away, then yay for Levi!

I know it definitely did something. All day yesterday both my mom and I noticed Levi walking around at least four or five times with his hand over his right ear. He wasn't crying or in any pain. Just looked like he was feeling something. Then the really interesting thing was today Davey and I noticed him making all sorts of new babbling sounds that we'd never heard before. Hmmmm.....interesting.

So we will see! Hopefully this will clear his ears up and we won't need to take any further steps. It's in God's hands. But I know he's on our side. Afterall...he was an Osteopath.

*wink*

2009-12-28T00:08:00.000-08:00

Levi knocked himself out again yesterday. We had just finished eating at Chipotle's and the kids were playing outside in the patio area when he fell (over his own feet) and smacked his head on the ground. I knew he had hit it pretty hard by the sound of it and when I picked him up, sure enough, there his eyes went, rolling in the back of his head. Aaaaand...plop. He was out. But it wasn't as bad as last time. I was just about to open his sippy cup to splash the water on his face when he came to. *Sigh* This boy. Seriously. He was alright. Just super pale for the next 15 minutes, his lips had zero color in them and now he sports a HUGE, green bump/bruise on his forehead (over the one he already got from falling off the bed over the weekend).

My sister had a good point, she thinks his balance may be off because of all the ear infections (Which he is on his sixth now. We'll be going to the drs this week. HOWEVER, I'm not all about the tubes yet. We're on homeopathic ear drops, daily ear checks with an otoscope and peroxide rinses now).

This is the last week of 2009. Yay! So much to look forward to next year. But the thing I'm mostly looking forward to is change. Lots of it.

So everyone enjoy the week and party like it's 2009! I'll be doing what I usually do on New Years Eve; Sleepin' right on through it. Hahaha...I'm going to bed. It's reeeeealllly late and I'm too old too hang.

*Update*

Levi was burning up with a fever all night last night so first thing this morning I made him an appointment with the ped for this afternoon. It wasn't his regular doctor for some reason so that kind of sucked but even still, we made a lot of progress. Just from looking at his chart(s) she immediately decided to put in a referral to not only an ENT specialist but also an auditory specialist. Once Levi finishes his antibiotics, which I HATE having him on so much, he'll have his meeting with the specialists and we'll find out what the next step is for him.

After today's appointment, and talking to my awesome friend Jen, I can say I'm pretty comfortable with the idea of him having the tubes surgery. I want whatever is going to help him. The doctor said rinses are fine, but for fluid this far down, it's not going to help. And I agree. I really think he needs much more extensive help. It's hard knowing that he has to go through all this, but it's harder to imagine him not and just continuing to live in pain all the time. But also the fear of him seriously hurting himself someday because he can't balance himself enough to not walk into walls and fall over himself! And yes, he really has walked into walls. Just in the last three weeks he has...

*Fallen off the bed, hit his head on the dresser and bed post.

*Fallen on a planter and fainted

*Fallen on the concrete and fainted

*Fallen into the bathtub

*Fallen off of a chair and gotten his leg stuck in the rungs.

*Hit himself in the head with a frying pan.

*Walked into Dakota's door.

*Walked into my bedroom wall.

*Fallen over his feet and bit his tongue.

*Fallen off a chair and cut his upper frenum.

It's BAD! The boy is a walking timebomb. And I know it's because of his ears. His equilibrium is shot.

Anyway, God bless my poor little man-child. I know all will be well. Just a part of growing up and being human. I'll update once we know more ;)

Merry Christmas & Happy 2010!

2009-12-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

Our new wall canvas layout for the bedroom! (living room? hallway?) Hmm...haven't decided yet. But I've loved this layout for a long time and have never had the right images for it. But this years Christmas pics fit it perfect! So I'm stoked. Although this does mean I'll probably be repainting a wall or two to match. Most of them are green and that would look really horrendous under these.

Aaah, 2009 is over. Another year. Our toddler turned into a young girl. Our baby turned into a toddler. Watching them grow is thrilling as well as heart wrenching. Many blessings we were afforded this year. But Davey and I are eager to see 2010 on the horizon. This coming year holds lots of hope and excitement for us. We're looking at some pretty biggish changes coming to our little family. And no, I'm not pregnant! But we would totally appreciate all the prayers and positive thoughts we could get. Just for God to work His will in our life, whatever it may be.

Speaking of pregnancy, now I feel like I'm okay with no more babies for the moment. Today I was helping Dakota with her pre-k workbook and realized that Levi just now got to that age where he is able to entertain himself for a good hour while Dakota and I do reading cards and worksheets and I found myself thinking, "This is really nice!" Hahaha...it would definitely be a different story with a little babe in tow. But, I'm not going to overthink it. God has his own plans for our family. Beside, isn't the fun part of life sitting back and watching it unfold? One story at a time, one day, one night, one home, one baby...All the little surprises, all the big surprises. Dreams coming true. Some not. Only to find out you were better off because of it. The merry-go-round of life; enough to make your head spin, too beautiful not to ride.

Merry Christmas friends and family. May your 2010 be Blessed and joyfilled!

xoxo

29...It's A Good Thing

2009-12-13T21:54:00.000-08:00

I am continually baffled at how awesome a God I have. Seriously, how did I make it this far? I think all the time about where I came from and what I've done and how many times I screwed up along the way, and for some reason, I'm still here. Not only am I still here, and healthy and vibrant and alive and well, but I have this AMAZING, beautiful family and some of the best friends a person could find. And still, God has given me yet again one more year.

Awesome.

Thanks everyone for making this 29th bday so special. To the Williams for having us over for the ugliest sweater party ever! Hahaha. It was great. And even singing me "Happy Birthday". I loved hanging with you guys and the Lensings and the Brandes and the O'Neils, and everyone! And to my best friends out of state, Pam and KK for all the well wishes, you guys are always in my heart. And to my family who surprised me with a birthday get-together today at my parents. THANK YOU!

Love you all so very much, you make my life the best.

xoxo

Okay, totally off the subject, but I couldn't help noticing...

How much does Levi look like my sister in this picture?!!!

(Oh and yes, that little pink, squishy baby is me; about 10 minutes old, right where I was born, on the living room fold-out couch in our house in Anahiem!)

And while we're on comparisons, I absolutely can not help but marvel at how shockingly identical Dakota looks to Davies mom!!!

Levi definitely got my side of the genes while Dakota obviously got all her daddies side! So amazing. I love that we each got a clone! Hahaha.

And speaking of clones, myself and my mom....

Levi's First Trip to the ER

2009-12-07T16:54:00.000-08:00

Levi's going to have a great story to tell his friends when he gets older and they ask why he has a scar over his eyebrow. He got hit in the head with a frying pan. Yep. Even better yet, he did it to himself.

Davey came running into our bedroom Saturday morning carrying Levi who was rubbing blood into his eye saying, "Levi gashed his head open!" I was sleeping so I didn't see it but apparently he was carrying a pot around and fell and face planted into it. It was a pretty wide laceration, so we decided to take him in to the ER. I was so glad they didn't do stitched, I totally didn't want him to have to go through that. Instead they glued it and taped it and he was SOOO great through the whole thing. Such a big boy! He just sat there and let the doctor do what he needed to. He didn't even cry or whimper once. We were so proud of him.

Yesterday was sweet. We stayed home most of the day and decorated our Christmas tree. Now I spend most of my day chasing Levi around after he's pulled my bulbs off for the billionth time!!! Aah yes, the joys of a one year old surrounded by delicate sparkling glass!

She Grew Up

2009-11-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

I've been dieing to cut Dakota's hair now forever. I finally convinced Dave and her to let me do it. So this morning while Levi was playing, she sat on the bathroom counter so still and patient while I snipped away strand by strand until it looked just perfect.

And she loves it. She walked passed the mirror in our room five times, each time stopping, smiling and running her hand under her new, pixie cut hair.

She grew up. With only a few snips of the scissors.

She looks older. She walks taller. She even talks a little different. Today she said the phrase, "Totally" for the first time. That's my valley girl ;)

So many things to be thankful for today. But this coming year, I'm going to be thankful everyday. I've been practicing. And...it feels pretty freakin' great.

Happy Thanksgiving. Now go ENJOY LIFE!

Our Firstborn Rocks.

2009-11-23T23:38:00.000-08:00

Seriously, she does.

She was in her first parade over the weekend! She did awesome! I so wish I would have had my camera on the parade route with me, but I thought it would get in the way. She was dancing in the middle of the street, passing out candy to the onlookers, and totally waving and marching! I was beyond proud. I heard her called "Twinkletoes" more than once from the sidelines. Ha! Love it! Her little classmates did so good too. And looked adorable. I was very proud of them all.

She is also getting really, really good at reading! Both Davey and I are really over the moon with what an awesome student she is. Our reading and study time has become by far my favorite parts of the day with my kids.

Right now it's pretty much word recognition. But, what is so cool is that she's recently started to recognize that each letter is assigned to it's own sound. The coolest part is that she recognizes this just through learning the words, I barely have to tell her. Like, she always gets "dog" and "gorilla" mixed up. Which is really encouraging to me because she is identifying the "-og" in "dog" with the "go-" in "gorilla". But the coolest thing happened last week when I showed her a flash card that said, "keys" and she stopped, thought about it, and said, "Ka...Ka..."!!!!!! YES! She's getting it! I was soooo proud!

Levi...now he's a horse of a different color. Right now, his absolute favorite thing to do is quietly walk into the bathroom, and when he's so sure no one is looking....hurry up and stick his hands in the toilet!!! I catch him doing it all the time! And if he see's me see him start walking to the bathroom, he squeals and starts running for the toilet, so excited that he got caught! Haha...I love that boy. Somehow, I have the feeling he may be a bit more challenging to get to sit still for studytime than his big sister!

2009-11-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

There's a bird's nest in the tree outside our living room window.

I love it. Because I always think seeing a bird's nest is fun and special, but also because I found it peculiar. What bird builds it's nest in the Autumn with a cold winter on the horizon? But after I thought about it, I decided I liked it. That's perseverance...and better yet...love.

Speaking of love, my kids....I love them more than anything. I've been excessively busy. An odd anomaly of wedding bookings has completely taken over my life in the past two months. I'm happy to report, tomorrow will mark my last wedding for the next four months. And I plan on keeping my calender EMPTY. And filling my days with my kids giggles and the smell of dinner simmering in the crockpot...and most importantly, a clear mind to enjoy it all.

Levi is back to his old self. Thank goodness. It was so out of character for him to be so upset for so long. I finally ended up taking him to the doctor. I should have known, he had ANOTHER ear infection. That makes five in one year. That's ridiculous. Not surprisingly, the pediatrician said that the next ear infection he gets, we'll be having the "tubes talk". I definitely think he needs some sort of intervention. Whether it will be tubes or not, I don't know. We're thinking about taking him to see an osteopathic doctor first. The pediatrician is confident that it's simply his bone structure. Which I believe. Davies mom tells me that he had ear infections constantly as a baby.

The boy is going to give me a heart attack by time he's ten. He fainted at my mom's house yesterday. Hit his head on a terracotta tree planter. *Oi* That child. He has absolutely no concept of danger. Such a fun loving, free spirit. It's what I love about him most, but also fear about him the most. It's a mommy thing.

Our nest...

Dakota and I decided to make our own nest. We had so much fun talking about and looking at the nest outside our house, that I took her for a walk to gather our own nesting materials, then used modeling clay to build one. I thought it would be a great way to get her hands accustomed to the feel of clay. She got to pick out her very own bird at the craft store and we drew legs on her, because Dakota's first observation when we left was, "She doesn't have any legs mom!" Aaah...I love that girl.

I have so many dreams and hopes for our family. I'm going to be done with photography by next year. I plan on finishing up what I have booked, then going back to what I think it my real calling is...being my kids mom 24/7.

I want to move Levi into Dakota's room and make it into a play room for them. No one sleeps in their rooms anyway, except Levi for naps. We can keep a little bed in the room for him. I want to make the empty room into an art room, and maybe some space for schoolwork too ;)

Davey and I's biggest dream is to own a big house on a ranch in Santa Rosa Plateau. But what I really dream about...is a potter's wheel sitting outside on the porch...and my very own kiln to go with. Some day.

Speaking of nests...I want another baby. Hard to believe. My closest friends and family have heard me repeat over and over again for the past three months that we're done with baby making. But I know in my heart I'm not. I go back and forth too much to be done.

But another baby will have to wait for mother nature. Nursing is great contraception. Anyway, only God knows what's best for our family, and I'm happy to wait on him to expand our nest. Beside, I have four pounds left to loose. Haha!

Oh, and I switched my blog back to public. Having it private was just annoying. Especially to me. There were times I had to log into my own blog! Ridiculous. Maybe someday blogger will come up with a better private option.

Man-Child Madness

2009-10-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

So these photos are in no way indicative of Levi's current temperament. Do not let his calm exterior fool you! OH. MY. GOODNESS.

Let me summarize....

Levi's most utilized verbs as of the last two weeks (in no particular order):

1. screaming

2. yelling

3. biting

4. pinching

5. pulling

6. hitting

7. kicking

8. spitting

9. CRYING

10. scratching

11.CRYING

12. whimpering

13. wining

14. CRYING

15. and.....drumroll please..............CRYING!!!!

Hahaha...yes, I can laugh about it now....because he is asleep. Finally. Hallelujah. And after all this, I still look at him and melt. Yep. How is it possible? I don't know. It defies logic. *Sigh*

Anyway, our weekend was great. I know, hard to believe after a list of verbs like that. But it's true. I think we've become desensitized to it now.

We had the lovely Williams fam over for dinner Saturday night and had such an awesome time! Sunday we spent with my family at my sisters. Only days away from getting to meet my new niece!

And yesterday, Levi FINALLY cut the tooth he's been working on for two weeks. *Phew* The end of man-child madness is in sight! Come on teeth....show yourselves!!!

Hahaha...okay, I'm off to zone out for the rest of the hour before crashing face first into my pillow. Goodnight!

Oh, and how grown up and beautiful does Dakota look???! She's really makin' her mama proud lately. Today, she wrote her first letter! She brought a sticky note up to me and said, "Look Mom, I drew a 'C'!" And she really did! Soooo awesome!

Welcome Fall.....

2009-09-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

Just a Hint of Fall by Raymond A. Foss

How she described today
the words, just right,
warm enough so no coat, no sweater
the day just past the start of fall
cool enough for the autumnal colors
just a hint of fall, a snap to the air
the brighter blue, azure sky
after a big of fog to wake the day
shaking of the sheet
into the brighter blue
The reds and yellows on the trees
the warm smells remaining
before the first frost
blooms still in the garden
still, just a hint of fall
her favorite time of year

As much as I love Fall, I love Fall poetry. Actually, I like to write poems. I've never told anyone before. ANYONE. There's one poem I wrote when Levi was born that I cried everytime I read it. Most of them, I throw away soon after writing it. Not that I don't like them, but there's something weird to me about keeping my personal creative stuff lying around. I feel...naked when people look at it. I do the same with my paintings and drawings. If they survive and don't go in the trash, they're locked deep somewhere in my art portfolio in the dark attic.

We spent the first weekend of Fall enjoying our babies at Caspers Nature Preserve in San Juan Capistrano. Beautiful. Other things I can't wait to enjoy with them this season...

Apple picking in Julian

The all-day simmer of the crockpot

The fireplace glowing

Dancing feet on the cold porch first thing in the morning

The click of the heater turning on for the night

The sound of rain drops on the roof

Clouds

Fog

Dreary weeks

Ice hanging on the grass blades

Days spent in our pajama's

Baking cookies

Frost

Dark nights

Two pairs of little, cold hands wrapped around my neck

Davies heavy winter jacket laying around

And best of all...the anticipation of knowing that every dark, Fall and Winter night, brings us one day closer to a new Spring.

He Walks!

2009-09-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

Davey and I had just gotten home from shooting a wedding last Saturday when we sat down to relax for a second. My mom and Levi were playing on the floor. All of the sudden, Levi stood up from a sitting position in the middle of the floor, all by himself, didn't pull up on anything...and ran to my mom!!! Not kidding, six, huge, running steps!!! The boy has had NO interest in walking up until this point, so this was shocking! Everyone's mouth was dropped and eyeballs totally huge! We couldn't believe it and we were all so excited! And since we'd just gotten home from a wedding, I had my camera in my hands! How's that for amazing timing?!

He's been walking every since. Although, he does still occasionally utilize his former preferred method of locomotion...the "crabby crawl". And it's freakin' hilarious. I've got some pics from a couple of weeks ago at a family get together I'll get uploaded sometime this century.

But for now...the walker!

Our Ballerina!!!

2009-09-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

Dakota started ballet classes yesterday! Her and her friend, Gianna are taking classes together and I think it may be the absolute most adorable thing I've ever seen! They LOVED their ballet class sooo much. I could have sqealed they looked so cute out there!

Their first day was definitely a complete success. They both did so great. Really, I was overflowing with joy watching the both of them. They were so attentive, so engaging, totally listened to the instructor (Miss Britney) and put 100% effort into the entire evening.

I couldn't be more proud of them! It was Dakota's very first class ever, and she ROCKED it!

Raising Venus & Mars...

2009-09-05T23:52:00.000-07:00

So they say women are from Venus, men are from Mars. Ummm...yep! That about sums it up! Let me tell you people, having a girl baby then having a boy baby, the two sexes could not get any more different!

First of all....a little about my little man...

Oh.my.gosh. I love him....so, so very much. *Sigh* I slow dance with him all the time. In the kitchen in the morning mainly. I always have the CD player on. I hold him close to me and he loooooves it. Tonight I danced with him to country music outside Claim Jumper while everyone else was eating. Heaven on Earth.

So, right now, okay for the past like 6 months...he LOVES to scream...

He is the loudest little thing by far that I've ever seen! Eer...heard. Oh my goodness at the restaurant tonight, the sounds coming out of this child! He has completely earned his nickname of "Terradactyl Boy". Seriously, that's what we've been calling him for months.

More about Levi...

Recent discoveries have afforded him hours of intrigue!

Hahahaha! Aaaaaand...the typical man life-long obsession begins! Really though, it's sooo funny. He thinks it's hilarious! He just laughs and laughs and laughs!

Obviously, it has it's bewildering moments as well...

There are two things I adore about Levi...

1. His totally cuddly nature!

2. His love of laughter. I love this the most about him. He will laugh at ANYTHING. He's got such a fun-loving personality. Just a really, really, joyful, adventurous spirit.

Something I'm not so much loving about him right now...

1. His affinity for BITING. *Oi* Little blood sucker. Seriously. And he does it with fervor. I mean, I understand he's teething and all, so I have compassion on him, but really, can we get past the canine characteristic already?!

I NEVER had this problem with Dakota. One huge difference I see between boys and girls; the physicality. Levi is way more physically draining than Dakota ever was. I can not imagine having 3 or 4 boys. It would kill me.

My daughter!

This is by far her absolute favorite face to make right now. The "snarl". She's really into experimenting with her facial expression lately. But anyone who knows her, knows that she is very expressive in nature. She's definitely never been one to hold her feelings back.

Two things I absolutely love about her...

1. Her analytical nature. She NEVER jumps before she looks. When confronted with a decision to make, she's all business; very thoughtful, very careful, she thinks things through. Definitely not the type to act spur of the moment, she's got much too much planning to do for that.

2. Her drive. Man, she's a determined one. The girl knows what she wants. And she does not settle for less, for anyone. This is both a blessing and a curse! A blessing because I know for a fact that this personality will take her far in life, absolutely a golden characteristic to have. But totally a more challenging childhood personality! But, I have to give it to her, she is one AWESOME child. 90% of the time, she's a great listener, totally inquisitive and responsive, extremely intelligent, bright, energetic, a true blessing to our family. I really love her dearly. And, she's by far at my favorite age so far. I'm loving life with her right now.

And something I'm not so much loving about her right now...

1. The ATTITUDE. Can we please leave the 16 year old girl attitude to the teenagers?! Really though, the attitude is just crazy. Example....

Me: "Dakota, sweetie, please pick up you plate and bring it to the kitchen."

Dakota: "I KNOW mom! I AM!"

Me: Ummm...excuse me, can you please not drop grapes all over on your way in?!"

Dakota: "UUUUUUGH!!! I KNOW mom! I'm NOT!" *HMPH!*

Really, she actually makes the audible *HMPH!* sound.

Although, there will always be quirky things and phases my kids are going through...man...I just love these children! Really, more than this whole world. They are truly everything to me. And the last few weeks, since I've made major mental priorities changes, they have been both the most challenging and the most rewarding weeks of my life as a mama. I've definitely enjoyed my kids to the max and taken so much of them in.

Everyday is a new opportunity!!! I plan on sucking it in even more in the weeks and years to come! Because these childhood days...oh...they are going going gone.

I had a MAJOR reality check a couple of nights ago as Davey and I sat in our jacuzzi and we watched a group of about five 15 year olds. *UGH* All I have to say is, I went in the house and loved loved loved on my beautiful, sweet, little munchkins. I told Davey, "Someday, we're going to look back and say....Aw! Remember when all it took to make Dakota happy was a princess dress and Levi a graham cracker?!" Man, cherish your kids right now is how I feel. Because seriously, right now they want to be with their mama and dada. They want us. Someday in the near future we will be something to get away from! Nooooo!

You mean Levi won't let me kiss all over him a thousand times a day?! :(

Of course, leave it to my amazing husband to say it best..."It's all just a season Corin. They'll come back around."

Yep, they will. And I'll be in the same place I am right now...standing with open arms, SO ready to embrace them.

I love you Dakota and Levi!!!

2009-09-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

We celebrated my mom's birthday over the weekend at where else but Dland of course! This was the funnest I've had at Disneyland since I was a kid myself! First off, let me tell you how freakin' HOT it was....105!!! Yep, 105 degree in the OC. Crazy hot. But, the totally cool thing was that the heat completely scared everyone else away. The park was EMPTY! We walked on every ride. Aaaaaaand...we stayed until, get this....midnight.

Now, for you all non-mama's and non-papa's out there, let me tell you, this is livin' on the edge people. This is la vida loca. Seriously. With two small kids, I think the longest we've stayed at Dland before was about five hours. We pulled a nine hour day here my friends. And it was so totally worth it. Dakota road Dumbo for the first (and second, hahaha) time, as well as got to go in Sleeping Beauty's Castle for the first (and second) time. She's at the best age right now for this kind of stuff.

Oh, and how could I almost forget?! She finally got to go through the Princess Fantasy Faire! She got to meet Ariel, Jasmine and Belle! We took full advantage of the park being so empty and made sure to get her over there. It's usually about a two hour wait to see the princesses. We got in after half an hour!

So after our Dland extravaganza on Saturday, we spent Sunday totally relaxing. We took the kids to the pool and enjoyed watching them splash around. Okay, so Levi...total waterbaby. He has been since the day he was born. If he gets near any body of water, he freaks out...totally kicking and fighting until he finally gets to go in. Then, once he's in, he totally wants you to let him go! He's all about it. Dakota...she was never like that. She's always been just okay about the water. She could take it or leave it. The really weird thing...all the sudden ever since this summer came up, she has been a total fish too! She wants no one to help her. She jumps in the pool! She swims all around the pool with her floaties on and LOVES it! So crazy! But so awesome.

Summer's been great, but, it's on it's way out. Although I will miss the hot summer pool days and bonfires and everything else summer brings, I am totally ready to welcome Fall. By far my fav season. So many awesome things to be looking forward to!

Congrats Mel & Tim!

2009-08-22T23:11:00.000-07:00

We threw my sister and her husband a baby shower at our place a couple of weekends ago. It was BEAUTIFUL! Everything went perfectly. It was a serious joy to be able to do something nice for them, they are such awesome, loving people.

My sister is the epitome of beauty right now! I honestly don't think I've ever seen her look so gorgeous.

Myself, my sister and my mom. Man, words can't even express how important these two women are to me. I look to them for EVERYTHING. Watching my sister become a mother is so cool. Like, she's finally joining the club my mom and I are in! Hahaha. It's true, when you become a mother you morph into this whole new person. She's going to be an amazing nurturer. She already is. I've called her my "second mom" my whole life!

This is the look that happens when a three year old girl is surrounded by a pile of presents.....that are all addressed to someone else. :(

The happiest daddy on the face of the earth! Love it!

My grandmothers. I was very close to both of them growing up, and still am. I could write so much about them. A recurring thought for me throughout the entire baby shower, was our relationships as women to one another. Such a delicate, yet strong tribe we belong to; womanhood.

The Ruby's came to stay with us over the baby shower weekend. On Friday, we enjoyed the warm summer evening at Dos Lagos with dinner and some live Flamenco music. It was so sweet to watch the girls running around and dancing together. Dakota loved having Ashlyn and Canyon stay with us. In almost every picture I took of them together, she was just beaming.

The weekend was a total success, and now all I can think about is how excited I am for my sister to call and tell me she's in labor!!! I can not wait to meet my baby niece!

Life is Sweet and Precious

2009-08-10T01:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we enjoyed a totally "California" evening with our awesome friends the Williams, the Lensings, and our new friends the Stocks {Hopefullly I got their last name right. Correct me if I'm wrong Isabel and Jen!}. We hit up Bolsa Chica for a bonfire and dinner. Beautiful night, beautiful friends, what else could one ask for? I'm so thankful for all the people in my life right now, and all the amazing blessings that God has granted us. Just a few days ago after I took the kidlets to the park in the early morning, I just drove around our community for half an hour or so and marveled at what an awesome place God has put us in. I feel like, "I don't deserve all this!" My God is an AWESOME God! He's granted us two beautiful, healthy babies, put us in an amazingly beautiful neighborhood with all the amenities we could ask for, and surrounded us with supportive and loving friends and family. If all of you only knew the person {people} Davey and I used to be, you would wonder how any God could Bless people like us too! It's really true. But that's the beauty of it all...He loves the unlovable, as long as they surrender and become broken enough to be fixed by Him.

I'm at a huge turning point in my life right now. One of those times when you can truly feel the tides of change surging. My body has changed, my mind has changed, my priorities have changed. In 7 pounds from now, I'll be at my pre-pregnancy weight {Pre-Levi and Pre-Dakota}. Last week I tried on every single pair of pre-pregnancy pants and they fit. Not just, "I could get them on". But they actually fit well and just like they're supposed to. I feel like myself again. I look in the mirror and think, "There I am". Probably a concept only a woman could understand. No, definitely a concept only a woman could understand.

I deleted my Facebook. It was one of the many parts of my life I have decided I'm {and my family} is better off without. It's different for everyone. But for me personally, it was a distraction. Yes, I liked being able to keep in touch with friends and family. Do I need to know what they are doing every second of every day? Hardly. Here's how I look at it...the friends and family that truly matter, that really want to stay in touch with me.......will. And the friends and family that truly matter to me, that I want to stay in touch with.......I will. It's that simple to me. It wasn't just a matter of how much time I spent on Facebook...but more about the life/mind connection. I don't ever want to think about updating my "status" again. I just want to be in the moment. I just want to enjoy having an ice-cream without updating that, "Corin...Just had an ice-cream." Seriously, I just want to feel free.

And I'm feeling more free by the day. I've also decided to move away from photography {professionally}. It's simply the law of mathematics at play. I can not be 100% present for a business, AND 100% present for my children. It simply is not possible. I knew this when I started, but I had hoped that somehow I could just keep it something on the side. Haha...that was just wishful thinking. When you make yourself available for something like this...people take you up on it! It's not just something you can put in a nice, little cubby hole of your life and visit every now and then, it becomes your life. So I asked myself one of the most important questions I've ever come up with....

"What does success look like to you?"

The answer was easy and quick. Success to me looks like my children receiving 1000% of me everyday, all-day. Success to me looks like me enjoying every freakin' tiny, fragile second of my kids life. It looks like me soaking up as much of their childhood as I possible can. It looks like me teaching them. It looks like me enjoying those last few seconds of the fluttering of their eyes before they fall into sleep.

If my desired end result for my life was to be a successful professional photographer, then I would be on the right path. But it's absolutely not.

When I think truly, and deeply about it, my desired end result is when both my children are grown and off to college or getting married or whatever they choose to do with their lives, I will look back and know, clearly and firmly, that I did EVERYTHING for them. I want to know that I wasted not one single second of their childhood. And I want to know it like I know that the sky is blue.

I still have a few commitments to fulfill; an engagement shoot and a wedding, and possibly a bridal shoot {or boudoir, she hasn't decided yet}, but after that I'll definitely be turning my focus in a major way.

I don't want to sit here and bash all the time I've spent doing photography though. It's been a true blessing that I'm very thankful I've had the opportunity to do. I've met some awesome people and I truly believe that God lead me down this path to open my eyes to many other things in my life. Also, it's been so much fun for Davey and I. He's gone with me on almost all of my shoots and is even doing a wedding with me next month. It has been something we've really enjoyed doing together and I'll miss that. But at the same time, there's tons of thing we love to do together and not doing photo shoots will not hamper our dating life! Hahaha. Actually, it will be great to be freed up to do things we truly love and are passionate about, like visiting museums and talking about art. Something I also can't wait to do more of with the kids. Showing them art and teaching them about art.

Speaking of teaching the kids...Davey and I have made the final decision and are starting our path onto homeschooling Dakota!!! I'm beyond excited. It's something we've considered for a very long time. Actually, before we even had kids! Davey has always been super supportive and encouraging of me doing it so he's very excited as well. We decided to start her out next year after her fourth birthday on some very low-key, super simple pre-K stuff. Really, mostly things I already do with her, just on a tiny bit more of a structured basis. I think it will really benefit myself just as much as it will benefit her, because it will start to get me used to the process and give me some practice in scheduling and creating a very basic curriculum.

The decision to homeschool our kids has given me the last little push I needed to get rid off all the distractions in my life life. Because after starting to research it very briefly, my knowledge that it will take EVERYTHING I've got, has quickly been affirmed!

I've hit a new level of evolution into motherhood. I used to feel like while I have always been a great mother, attentive, nurturing, caring, loving....I always felt as if I still needed my own self. Like I couldn't give up my self. But I've realized...I can!!! Not just that I can...but I SHOULD!!! And that who I was before I had kids, and who I am now as a mother.....is the same person. I think up until now, I've been trying to preserve the parts of myself that I most deeply cherish, mainly my artistic and creative self. But now, I've realized that I don't need to tuck away that part of me and hide it from my kids, like, "You're not getting this part of me!" Hahaha...But rather I can assimilate it into my mothering self. Which is a really big part of why I'm so excited to homeschool the two of them. I feel like there's so much opportunity ahead.

What I'm really looking forward to is in the next couple of years when, God willing, we upgrade to a larger home {we plan on definitely trying to stay in our same community we're in now, just the next neighborhood up} and we'll have an entire room that will be dedicated to their schooling. A place just for learning and to keep all their supplies. By the grace of God, Davey has managed to keep us pretty much unscathed in a horrific economy. He's truly been a rock in the storm. We've maintained our credit scores 700+ and have been able to make it through all of this economic blitz staying in tact. So, hopefully by time Dakota reaches kindergarten or first grade, we'll be moving into our next home. But if not, that's okay too. God will provide what we need.

Anyway, probably the longest blog post I've ever written. But probably the most important as well. Many, many things to look forward to in the Jones house right now. Including my sister's baby shower at our house next weekend!!! And also the arrival of my best friend in the whole world and her beautiful family! It's going to be a very busy week! But the kind of busy that makes life a joy.

I'll post pics from the baby shower for sure. Until then, everyone have a gorgeous week! And thanks friends for giving us a beautiful night last night. Many more to come!

Oh, and a reminder, this blog will go private tomorrow. So if you haven't already emailed me to let me know that you wish to be on the reader list, now is the time...corinjones@ca.rr.com It's been so cool getting to know all of you guys lately through your reader list requests! It's an honor to have so many awesome blogger friends!

Happy Birthday Levi Love

2009-08-05T00:03:00.000-07:00

1 amazing blessing of a son.....365 beautiful days.....2 simple words......

:: TOTAL :: JOY ::

Happy 1st Birthday Son.

Going Private...

2009-07-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

So I've come to a conclusion in my life; I'm ready for the next level. My kids are growing up right before my eyes and I'm ready to start peeling away at all the extra nonsense floating around in my life so that I can clearly and thoughtfully focus on my husband and my children.

For now, I'm going to keep it brief and simply and say that my first step is making this blog private. This is actually something I've been thinking about doing for at least six months now and I'm really glad I'm finally doing it. It's going to remain public for the next two weeks, but after that it will only be open to those of you whose email addresses have been added to the reader list. If you'd like to be added to the reader list just send me an email: corinjones@ca.rr.com

There's so much more for me to talk about, but that will come later, after this blog goes private, and also when I have way more time!

As for now, I'm so excited to be on the brink of starting a new chapter of life...gently putting down a lot of things that have been holding me back from doing things and enjoying time to it's fullest with my babies, and starting to build on new ideas, new challenges, new adventures with the people who mean the absolute most to me...my family.

2009-07-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

Davey and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary over the weekend at La Costa Spa and Resort in Carlsbad. It was amazing! Seriously gorgeous, and so peaceful! I was so sad when we had to leave! Even though I was really missing our babies.

We spent the morning getting a couples massage in our own suite with an adobe fireplace in it, topped off with a swim in the jacuzzi complete with truffles, chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of champagne {which of course we switched out for a bottle of Pellegrino}. Then had lunch and played 10 holes of golf which was a blast! Awesome alone time for sure.

We headed back to the pool and spa for the rest of our time where we totally vegged out and enjoyed the evening together.

It took me about 5 minutes flat to fall asleep by the pool!

One of my favorite parts of being there was getting to enjoy all the beautiful flowers! They were everywhere! And perfectly manicured.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to my wonderful hubby! He went completely out of his way to make our anniversary the most special anniversary yet.

We also had an awesome 4th of July. Levi decided to celebrate Independence day by cutting his first tooth! Yay! Finally! And of course, I was a total mama about it. I could tell the night before that he was going to have a tooth the next day. He was just acting really funny and kind of feverish and tired and cranky. That night I cried the entire time I rocked him to sleep! *Ugh* my little, tiny baby boy is so not little, tiny any more!!!

We were so glad Davies family made it out with us. We had so much fun with Mason! And obviously, he had fun too...

We also took a trip to Lake Casitas the weekend just before 4th of July, and had a GREAT time. It was the kids first camping trip and it couldn't have gone any better. They both loved it to pieces!

We loved camping with the kids so much that we're wanting to plan another trip for the Fall. This time, to Sedona! I really, really can't wait! And hopefully, we'll swing by the Grand Canyon while we're in the area :D

Recently we spent an entire day doing our very own family shoot. My sister did such an awesome job for us! Especially considering she had to put up with me bossing her around all day! The pics are turning out SO beautiful! It was everything I had hoped for and so much more. About a month ago I had redone our living room wall with a brand new collage, eight square matted frames. So I was hoping we'd get eight great shots from our session to fill them with and we absolutely did. So I'll be finished processing them soon and have them up by the end of the week. Then I can finally order my prints and get our living room wall finished!!!

Summertime Rocks!

2009-06-29T00:38:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to Disneyland last week for Dakota's and my sister's birthdays. Of course it was super fun, but I really, really enjoyed the time we got to spend with our family.

My sister's looking more and more radiant everytime I see her! Only a few more months before I get to hold this beautiful niece of mine in my arms!

If only she knew how fast it really flies by. I swear, my kids look bigger to me every morning. They are growing like lightening. Especially this little explorer...

And I really mean "explorer". He's into EVERYTHING now! Crawls on his hands and knees {fast}, constantly pulling on cords {eek!} and plugs, pulling himself up on tables, stairs and the bath. Which, oh.my.goodness. he is going to give me a heart attack by time he's two. He fell into the bathtub last week....WITH WATER IN IT!!! *Aaaaaah!!!* Enough to make a mama's hair turn white overnight! Somebody please tell this boy to cool it! Dakota was in the tub and there he went, pajama's and all. Talk about me freaking out.

Anyway, the highlight of our Dland day by far was Dakota getting to meet Tinkerbell. It was priceless getting to watch her face as she talked to her and hugged her.

Summertime with two kidlets....AWESOME. We are so having the time of our lives right now.

Three Years

2009-06-12T01:35:00.000-07:00

Three years of childhood. Three years of laughing, crying, giggling, playing. Three years of discovering. Three years of learning....for her and for me. Three years of growing. Three years of feeling. Three years of falling in love.

xoxo Happy Third Birthday my Lovely xoxo

Levi's Pretty in Pink

2009-05-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

The sad truth about cloth diaper laundry day...

Levi gets stuck in his sister's old pinkies :( If he grows up to have a gender identity crisis, I will only have myself to blame.

2009-05-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

So, some things I'm madly in love with lately...

Irene Suchocki

Her photography is amazing. So ethereal and luminous. I want her prints all over my house. I have one spot above our bed for a print. It will definitely be one of hers. Probably one of her Paris works, just because everytime I look at them they give me that giddy, "I looove Paris" feeling. Brings me right back to Davey and I's honeymoon. I want to feel that way everytime I walk into our room.

{T to B} A Note-Stones Grey and Woodcut Floral File Folders from Nantaka Joy

I love Oh Joy! The author also has her own shop, Nantaka Joy, where she sells stationary and fine papers. There's three things I'm obsessed with that you will find an overabundance at my house...wall frames, throw pillows, blank stationary cards, and now, I'm finding that I'm getting dangerously close to adding decorative file folders to the list. These make it much harder to resist!!! Haha.

{R to L} Floral Boxed Pillow and Summer Kimono Pillow from Pier One Imports

Speaking of throw pillows, these are my two latest aquisitions. I love them! And of course, the Summer Kimono pillow just went on sale.....after I'd already bought it. And now, my next mark...

Orimono Pillow from Anthropologie

Not kidding, I have been stalking this pillow for over a year now. I'm patiently awaiting it's decent to the sale section. Anthropologie, you underestimate my powers. I will wait on.....

And of course, my most favorite smell of the season... "Wish" by LoLLIA from Anthropologie. Thanks Dave...you're the best ;) It's been a permanent fixture on me for the last two weeks. Plus, helloooo, who could possibly resist a bottle that pretty?!!!

2009-05-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Levi adores his big sister. Actually, they adore one another. Dakota is constantly kissing all over him {he has to be the most kissed on boy in the entire universe!}, I'm sure because she sees me doing it all the time, nevertheless, it's adorable. They get along really well. I don't think there could be any two personalities better suited for one another. She kind of calls all the shots {naturally because she's older, but also that's just how she is...with everyone} and he takes it all very light heartedly. He thinks she's hilarious. She can make him laugh harder than anyone else can. I'm absolutely loving watching them grow up together. And it's happening SO quick. Just over the weekend Levi swung at the park for the first time and him and Dakota just took their first bath together two nights ago. It was sooo fun! They splashed and screamed and laughed. Perfection.

We recently planted both Dakota and Levi's birth trees. It was so neat planting them together on the same day. And it was AMAZING checking out their placenta's. I couldn't stop marveling at them. The entire planting process was much more emotional for me than I had expected. I'm going to be writing more in depth about it on my birth blog later, complete with photos. I didn't want to put them on here just because I understand that a lot of people get creeped out by placenta's.

We're gearing up for a very busy summer around here. Both kids birthdays are coming up {!!!}. For Dakota's we're having a small get together with cake and presents then taking her to Disneyland {per her request} with my family. Then we're having a party for Levi's birthday, probably a big one since it's his first :D We're also going camping with my sister and her hubby, having a baby shower, and hopefully having my best friend out! Plus I have at least one shoot a month booked from now until September. I'm sure we'll also do lots of beach bonfires and lake days too. At least it's all super fun stuff! I'm really looking forward to the whole summer.

I've also been doing a ton of work around the house. Spring re-vamping! As I type, I'm waiting on pucky to dry on my living room wall so I can repaint and hang a new collage of my favorite gallery frames. I pretty much redecorate every season. Not like full on, new furniture, new everything...but more like pillows, photos, frames, rugs etc. Just to give everything a bit of a different look. Hell to me would be eternity in the same colored room. Hahahaha...Anyway, I love love love the way our house looks right now. A few trips to Pier One Imports and World Market, some fresh flowers, and a couple of re-organized walls and viola! Beautification!

Speaking of new things, I'm in the process of re-doing Dakota and Levi's photo albums. I had them all made out on Blurb, then ordered a couple of books and to tell the truth, was kind of disappointed. The quality I wanted just wasn't there. I'm finding I really love actual prints. In theory, the whole photo ON the page thing sounds great, but you just can't get the quality that you could with actual photographs. So, I'm trying to decide how I want to do their photo albums now. I think I'll just order all the prints from the professional printing press I order my clients prints from {everytime I get prints in for people I think, "Man these look awesome!"} then somehow compile them in an album. But the thought of just going out and buying your run of the mill photo album to me sounds so blah. Booooooring. Tips? Ideas? I'm open to suggestions.

Oh, I almost forgot, I got a RedBubble! I already sold a poster and a canvas print. It's super fun! I just posted a link to the right. It's exactly like flickr only people can purchase your work {easier than on flickr} if they like. Genius, huh?

2009-05-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

Congrats to my beautiful sister and her husband....they're having a baby GIRL!!! Yay! I get a niece! I'm so happy for them. They were stoked when they found out, especially Tim. I don't think I've ever seen him that happy. It was an awesome day for sure.

Dakota is especially excited. She really wanted it to be a girl. Well, she said she knew it was a girl from day one. She was right! But it really is going to be cool for her. So far not only her sibling, but all of her cousins are boys. So now she gets someone to be girly with!

2009-05-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

I've been spending tons of time with my sister lately. We see one another usually once a week right now, it's such an exciting time getting to watch her grow a sweet little belly! She's 17 weeks right now. We find out whether her husband and her are having a boy or a girl this weekend! I'm sooo excited, especially because she invited Davey and I and my parents to come along to the 3d ultrasound when they find out. I'm literally counting down the days!

By the way, watch the Dr. Phil show this Friday. My sister and I went to Hollywood two weeks ago to see the show be taped {we had so much fun! Total sister's day out} and the episode is suppose to air this Friday. We sat right behind Dr. Phil's wife {she gave us a coffee mug. Score!} so there's a good chance you'll see us!

2009-04-21T23:06:00.000-07:00

The heat is here! I say it like I like the hot. Paaaaalease...I've had the AC on for months now. However, I loooooove what comes along with it; long, breezy days, fun pool days, bonfires on the beach, definitely good times around here lately. We just kicked off the Springtime with our first bonfire of the season last Sunday. It was such a beautiful day and we had a super awesome time. The day before that I had a shoot and decided to take Dave along with me to lug around all my props. Haha...he's good for that. I call him my mule. Shhhh...don't tell him I told you. Anyway, a good high school friend of mine that I'd recently become reunited with {through facebook of course} hired me to shoot her and her adorable little family. It turned out to be such a fun morning! It was like a little mini-reunion! I can't wait for our kids to get to meet one another. They have a boy and a girl exactly Dakota and Levi's age. So needless to say, we had a TON in common and lots and lots to talk about.

Besides lots of fun springtime activities {and cleaning!!!} we've been enduring a major bout of teething around here. Ooooooh, poor, poor Levi. He's a teething maniac right now. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll pop his two upper front teeth out by next month. He'd better anyway. I think my chin's going to start bruising if he gnaws on it anymore with those hard, swollen chompers. He grabs my face and just goes to town. Deep down inside I love it though ;)

I got a new lens the other day. I have a shoot this weekend so I'll get to take it out for a good spin. So far....phenomenal! The range on this thing is crazy awesome! It's a 18-200 so it's like an all-in-one; wide angle, tele and macro. What more could a girl ask for?! Well....I probably shouldn't even go there because this lens should tide me over for at least a year. Should. Mwah ha ha ha ha ha! We'll see....

Sea World!

2009-04-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

We took Dakota and Levi to Sea World for the first time yesterday with the Williams, the Longs and the Lensings and we had so much fun! Talk about kiddy central, TWELVE kids in all! Wow. I love the picture above, especially because I just realized that Amanda, Gianna and Tony {the three on the right} look just like "Hear No Evil. Speak No Evil. See No Evil." !!! How perfect is that?!

Thanks Isabel and Nicole and Jen for having us along. Here's to a summer of many more family play dates together!

2009-04-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I got to spend so much time with my sister! I loved it! We hung out all day Saturday, with my mom and the kids too. We ate lunch at P.F. Chang's then strolled the mall and headed to Santa Rosa Plateau where I took some pics for my sister. She just graduated into the second trimester and I couldn't be any more excited!!! We get to find out what they're having in about five more weeks! Dakota says she wants a girl. I think that would be awesome but I also think a boy would be sooo cool because him and Levi would be so close in age.

When we were at the mall, Levi got to sit on the Easter Bunnies lap for the first time. Of course he had to go it alone because Dakota LOATHES characters. There was a one time anomaly where she totally loved Minnie Mouse and hugged all over her, Davey and I were shocked. But usually she's extremely adamant about staying away from them. Never any freak-outs or screaming, just a very decisive and final, "NO". Exactly like me when I was little, I wanted nothing to do with those things. Anyway, Levi loved it!

In other Levi news, he's crawling! Well, army crawling. He drags his chunky legs all across the room. He also pinches like crazy now. OUCH. Seriously, whenever I'm rocking him and nursing he lays there and pinches the back of my arms the whole time. Which brings me to another topic...he's barely nursing anymore. Every since he started eating three times a day, he's almost never interested in nursing. He can easily go six or seven hours without. And even when he does, it's for maybe two or three minutes. I feel like this is so strange! But then Davey reminded me the other night, "Corin, he's EIGHT months old. He's not going to nurse like a newborn anymore." Oh, yeah. I guess he's right. But he's still my little, tiny baby in my eyes! Dakota was so much more attached to nursing than he is. She absolutely HAD to nurse herself to sleep every night. Levi, he's totally fine nursing for a few minutes then going to sleep in my arms or on his own in bed. My mom and I were talking about it because it seems so strange, Dakota's so drastically independent and very self-aware. While Levi's so cuddly and "hug me hold me love me" kind of a person. So it seems like Levi would be the one who was so attached to nursing. But my mom and I came to the conclusion that when Dakota was a baby, the nursing was ALL the comfort she looked for, which allowed her to be much more independent, while Levi gets his fulfillment in so many other ways, snuggling, and nuzzling and being a very affectionate person, so the nursing is not his primary means of getting loved on.

It's so cool to see the two of their personalities develop. Dakota and I had a talk at the mall about the Easter Bunny because I wanted to explain to her that he really doesn't have anything to do with Easter, it's just a silly, fun thing we do. I told her just like Santa, he's not real. Then I explained to her {in very simple terms} what Easter was really about. She told me later that day, "Mom, the Easter Bunny isn't real. And Santa isn't real. But Jesus is real." Yes! I love it! What a great thing to hear come out of your daughter's mouth.

On that same note, she prays for us now before we eat. Not every time, only when she wants. Usually her prayers are, "Thank you for Jesus. Amen!" But today they became much more extensive. It went like this...

"Thank you for Jesus. Thankyou for my clothes. Thankyou for my food. Thankyou for my water. Thankyou for bugs. Thankyou for daddy. Thankyou for Levi. Thankyou for mommy. Amen!"

2009-03-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

I took the kids clothes shopping yesterday and bought Levi all 18 month clothes figuring I'd be playing it safe. I had to go back today and exchange them all because every single one of them were TOO SMALL!!! 18 months?! Really?! So I exchanged them all and I can now say my 7 month old wears 24 month clothing. Okay, do ANY babies actually wear their corresponding age size in clothing? Really, I actually want to know, because neither of my kids ever fit in their "proper" size. Except for when Levi was a few weeks old just because he was born a little early, but he quickly grew right into the bigger sizes. I have always wondered who makes these sizes up because I'm starting to question whether they were intended for human babies or Barbie babies. The cool thing is, now that he's in {oh my gosh}......toddler.....sizes, he gets to wear all the cool boy clothes. So now he has all sorts of Tony Hawk shirts and Hurley shorts and mini skater clothes. Awesome.

And since we're on the subject of sizes, a funny observation...Levi has been in size 5 diapers now for the last three months. He's still growing. So what's next, an 8 month old in pull-ups!? Hahahaha...I seriously wouldn't doubt it.

On another note...I chopped my hair!!! YES! And I soooooo love it! I've been wanting to do this for so long now, and finally got to it today. I got so lucky. Levi was sleeping in his carseat, Dakota was being a total doll and I managed a hair cut with a wash and all with two kidlets at hand! Great success! I snapped some pics today and will try and post them tomorrow.

Good night everyone! I've got two warm little {err...three} bodies to go snuggle next to!

Oh yeah, check out my all new photoblog to the right! I just finished it Monday.

2009-03-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in so long I almost forgot how! No, really, when I went to insert my images I literally almost forgot how. Haha. That's horrible. I think my poor family blog has been loooong neglected.

So much has changed over this last month! Mostly with Levi. My little baby is quickly turning into such a little boy!!! I can't even believe how much he's changed in just the last two weeks. First of all, he sits up all by himself now! This is super seriously cute {do you guys ever tire of my insistent OC girl talk???} He just sits there looking like such the big boy, grinning like "Look at me! Look at me!" Also, he says, "Mama". He only says it when he's upset though, and it's more like, "Mummmmah....wawawawawawa......mummmmah....". Gosh I love it. And, two days ago he said, "Hiiiiiiiii" It was perfect! So cute. I'm not surprised because I say hi to him all the time. I'm surprised that he hasn't said, "Hi BIG BOY!" yet. Lord knows he hears that one more than anything. Oh, and the other thing, he hits himself over the head constantly....in order to relax. Is this weird or what? Almost every night when I nurse him right before bed, he starts hitting his head with a full fist! Over and over and over again, but he's totally in relax mode, it's like he's putting himself to sleep that way. But of course I always slowly just put his hand down at his side. I don't want him bruising himself. The other thing he does that's totally new to me, THROWING things! Already! I'm telling you guys, he hurls toys, spoons, anything across the room. There's such a huge difference between boys and girls. Even at such a young age. Dakota NEVER did stuff like this.

He's also eating solids everyday now. This boy loves to eat. He'll eat anything so far, green beans, applesauce, pears, strawberries, squash, you name it, he'll eat it. And he looooooves water. Whenever I take a drink his little {big} legs starts going, kicking and thrashing for me to give him some. He gets excited whenever he see's me drinking any beverage.

In other news, we're ALL sick...again. I'm so sick of being sick. Sick sucks. Blah.

We took Dakota to a long overdue one on one date, just Davey and her and I last Saturday. We went to Disneyland and it was AWESOME! Really, the best day out of the whole month probably. She was such a total joy and we had a ton of fun. Grandma and auntie watched Levi from 9am to 9pm and said he was perfect. Didn't even cry until he got tired at bedtime. But that's not surprising seeming how he is perfect of course ;)

So, though I haven't been on this blog much, I've actually been really active on the web and with my business. I'm actually making enough money to cover my costs and upgrade to new equipment! I'm in the process of deciding between a new camera body {naturally the D300, it's the logical next step up} and a new lens, this behemoth. I'm leaning towards the lens just because it's pretty much mandatory to have a quality zoom for weddings. But then again, it's pretty much mandatory to have a second camera body for weddings too, it super sucks to have to switch lens CONSTANTLY.

Anyway, life around here is amazing lately. I'm feeling a whole renewed sense of joy with my kids, and blossoming in the business. I hope to get to posting on here more often soon. I've missed you guys!

2009-02-19T14:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Davey!!! I didn't have a pic of him, so I decided the next best thing was a {completely adorable} picture of his male offspring. Hahahaha.

Yep, my hubby is 31 years old. That means we'll be on our porch sippin' tea in our rocking chairs in no time. Loafers and all. I can't wait. Really, I can't wait. I think being old with him is going to ROCK.

Levi's been so cranky the last three days. I don't know what's up with him. Today's been one of those days where as soon as I get one settled the other one starts in. *Oi* But Lord, I love these kids. Dave and I watched "Changling" last night. All I have to say is when we crawled into bed with the two of them afterward, both of us must have kissed each one ten times. Makes you really appreciate your little ones!

2009-02-17T21:55:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day this year was awesome! My mom watched the kids from 9am to 6pm while Dave and I took a date to Laguna beach for the day. We ate at an amazing restaurant on the cliff called "Las Brisas". I love that place. Beautiful food, beautiful scenery. We got the best seat in the house for sure, a huge booth in front of an entire wall of windows. We got to stare at the ocean right in front of us throughout our entire lunch.

Then we walked next door to the Laguna Art Museum which houses permanent exhibitions of Californian art from the 20th century. I'd been there before but it was Dave's first time. We had such a great time there, talking about art and artists and getting some long overdue conversation in with one another. I love that him and I have so much in common. We could talk for hours.

I put the rest of the photos on my photo blog.

Oh, and thanks mom for watching Dakota and Levi for the entire day. I'm glad you guys had so much fun. Even more glad they didn't run circles around you! Lord knows they're capable of it :) Love you mama.

2009-02-13T00:52:00.000-08:00

Could he possibly be any freakin' cuter?!?! I think not.

Have a super sweet Valentines Weekend everyone! I will be dating my husband then coming home and smooching all over this adorable face and of course my beautiful daughter as well.

See ya!

2009-02-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

I can feel "three years old" coming up SO quick with Dakota. I mean behavior wise. Ooooooh...toddlerdom is quickly turning into childhood. First of all, the QUESTIONS!!! All...the...time...constantly. This is naturally a very inquisitive ago so I keep that in the forefront of my mind all day long to make sure and treat it as a positive. She asks about everything, "What's that???" I tell her, then the next question always comes, "What does it do's for?" {She means "What does it do?"} This is the question of the month around here.

Also, she's started being very interested in what our names are. She asks all the time, "And what are you called?" Tonight Davey told her to do something and she said, "No Dave." Hahahahaha...Davey turned to me and said, "She gets that from you Corin!" Whoops :)

The other really big thing right now is tags. There are to be NO TAGS in this house according to her. Every single shirt, pants, shoes, even our towels are to be de-tagged immediately if one is spotted. I think this is hilarious. And I figure, hey, what's the harm? It's just a stage, so I go ahead and snip them off when she asks. I should save them all and put them in a giant tag box for her. Haha, I would love to see her face when I present 500 tags to her! I'm sure it would be priceless.

Levi Clinton, It's your Half-Birthday!

2009-02-05T16:06:00.000-08:00

Six months already! Can you even believe it? I can't. The last six months have been the happiest of my life so far that's for sure. He's added such a tender sweetest to our family, I could have never even imagined a more amazing little boy.

I told Davey last night,"Levi's half-birthday is tomorrow!" He kind of looked at me like, "Are you seriously observing that?" And said, "What, are you gonna bake a cake?" Haha Dave. Such a funny guy you are. But then I grinned because actually the thought did cross my mind!

Instead, we spent the day at the Discovery Museum in Orange County with one of my high school friends, Tania. It was SUCH a great day. A very productive reunion. Dakota totally took to her and she had so much fun. We have a ton in common right now, and I definitely believe that we've been put in one anothers paths at just the perfect time in both of our lives. Absolutely a God thing. We're both little fledgling business owners {she's a designer and I'm so proud of her!}, trying to find our way through the gigantic jungle of what is the business world. Looking to find our niche, feeling lots of excitement, anticipation, fear, insecurity, accomplishment and a whole host of other things. Luckily for me, I have an amazing husband who is a stream of knowledge when it comes to owning your own business, I would be lost without him. The thing he always tells me that sticks with me the most is, "Don't think of it as success or failure. There's no failure, only results. If you don't get the result you're looking for, change something. Change your product, change your price, change your attitude, change your approach, change something, and someday you'll get the results you want. The people who get where they want to be in life are the ones willing to face their fear of rejection and failure and push through it anyway." Gosh I love that man. It's like being married to freakin' Donald Trump; a built-in 24/7 inspirational speaker. Hahahaha. So Tania and I and the kids met up with him for lunch and talked for at least an hour and a half. We said our goodbyes and left but I know we'll see one another very soon again.

All that being said, my website is "finished". I say that in quotations because really, I plan on changing a few things over the next couple of months; my portfolio, my pricing, maybe even the design itself {probably the design itself! Considering I change so often}. Anyway, here it is...www.corinjones.com

It's my new baby; an evolution, an ever-changing portion of my life that I plan on growing to whatever level God deems necessary, even if that means not growing at all. I will make mistakes. And I will change to correct them. That's life. And it's what makes life worth living.

2009-02-02T22:21:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've ever gone for two weeks without blogging before, for the life of my blog at least, the last four years. But the last two weeks have been so many things for me, productive, sweet, fun, exciting, busy, relaxing, enjoyable and very, very happy. I've been shifting my focus and priorities around; enjoying the day to day things with the kids, putting more loving thought into Davey and I's marriage, talking and hanging out with people more, typing less. We've had some fun playdates, and have a few planned for this month too that we're excited about. We're going to Disneyland with Isabel and Gianna and Juliet tomorrow {yay!} then Thursday we're meeting up with a really close high school friend of mine at the Kid's Museum in OC, and possibly Wednesday get to hang out with another friend and her kidlets.

So what exactly is new?

For one, Levi said his first word! Last Sunday in the car. We were driving home from lunch, he was babbling as always in the back seat, and as plain as day, out it came, "DADA". Davey and I looked at each other with big eyes. "He said DADA!" I keep telling him now, "You said dada, but I know you meant mama." Haha.

Levi also had his first taste of solids. A week ago Dakota and I had a baby food making day {she loved helping! We had so much fun}. But as I suspected, he's totally happy to hold off on the baby food for now. He's really young still so it's fine by me to wait a few more months. When I put a little spoonful in his mouth he usually just kind of gives me this look like, "Uh, ma, what the heck is this stuff in my mouth, and.....where's the BOOB!" Aaaaah...how I love that little man of mine.

Over this last weekend, we took him for his first museum visit. That's always a special day for us. We took him to the same museum we took Dakota to for her first time, the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. It's so beautiful there! I just love it. And lucky us, the weather has been gorgeous the last week, totally warm and sunny, so it was the perfect day to do something like that.

Finally, the thing we've been doing the most of around here over the last two weeks....SPRING CLEANING!!! I know it's not spring yet, but I'm dieing for it to be here. This is one of my favorite times of the year, dusting all the winter dust off and doing some serious deep cleaning. I bought some new linen sprays for the season, lavender for downstairs, Egyptian cotton for upstairs. Niiiiiiiiice. Love a clean, fresh smelling house.

Beside all that, the kids and I are starting to get geared up for a trip to Nevada at the end of this month. I'm very excited! I get to see three of my really close friends, and of course am staying with my best friend ever, Pam. {We can't wait to come see you guys!}

Another thing we're really excited about this month is Valentine's Weekend. Davey and I are trying to get a date to the Museum of Modern Art planned, then a dinner in LA. It would be awesome to make it happen! We just need *ah um* a babysitter {Anyone??? Mom? Mel?}

Have a great week everyone, and Happy February...seven more weeks till spring!

I know, I'm pushing it ;)

The Daughter

2009-01-14T19:42:00.000-08:00

We're still in the sick zone around here. Dakota's the most well of us all though {I got sick too *blah*}. There's such a huge difference between how men handle being sick and how women handle being sick. Dakota just laid in bed and wanted to be left alone with her Care Bears. I really didn't hear from her much unless she needed something. She took it like a woman.

The boys, well, their taking it like boys generally take being sick ;) "Hold me, love me, help me pleeeeeeeeeease!"

A kiss is worth a thousand words...

2009-01-12T20:40:00.001-08:00

2009-01-09T20:46:00.000-08:00

I'm so sick...

But I smile anyway!

Goodness these poor babies! I have never seen Dakota so sick in my whole mama-life. And now Levi and Davey are both sick too. I've been playing nurse in a major way for the last week.

We took both the kids to the pediatrician yesterday. Dakota's had a 103 fever since last Saturday. That's not normal. And poor Levi sounds awful with his cough and he has a slight fever at times as well. Turns out Levi has an ear infection and Dakota has a double ear infection. This is such foreign territory for Davey and I. Neither of our kids have ever had ear infections or been sick to this extent.

So both of them are on antibiotics now and Dakota also has to have breathing treatments for ten days. Her oxygen intake was only at 95% when she was checked at the ped's office. After her first treatment it went up to 97%.

I can't wait for everyone in this house to get well! I'm so excited to be in the new year and am sick of all these sickies! I want to be out and about enjoying life. There's so much to be thankful for and so much fun to be had! Even though Dakota's super sick, she still mumbles, "I wanna go to Disneyland..."

2009-01-02T20:22:00.000-08:00

I was putting all Levi's "too small" clothes away tonight and when I got to the really teeny, tiny ones, the newborn ones, it took my breath away. Literally. I could feel the tightness in my chest. The reality of how much he's grown just pummeled me with anxiety. And I know that sounds so ridiculous, to be anxious about your baby growing up. But he's my baby. Gosh, he's my baby.

*Exhale* But, they all grow up. It's a total mixture of heartbreak and sweet, sweet pleasure watching them grow. I got tears in my eyes today when Dakota came out of her room with the shoes and socks on she had picked all by herself and had put them on, but it struck me how perfectly they were put on. Not all messy or on the wrong feet, but perfect. Like a child put them on. And she is a child. I hugged her a lot today. And we blew bubbles on the porch while Levi slept. I love her so much.

There's so many things I want to remember about my kids. This weekend I hope to get Davey to take some nice photos of the two of them and I. I want to remember us just as we are right now. Everything seems so symbiotic at the moment.

It's sooooo awesome getting to know your child. I wondered my whole pregnancy what Levi would be like. Now that he's approaching five months, his personality is becoming very clear to us. I want to remember these things...

1. He loves new faces. Just about anyone can make him smile.

2. He loathes his carseat. I call it "the torture chamber".

3. He's perfectly happy not being mobile. He rolled over once and has absolutely no desire to do it again. Hahahahaha...

4. My lips fit perfectly on the bridge of his nose between his eyes; my favorite place to kiss.

5. He has one more roll on his left leg than he does on his right. I ask him where it went every night when we put powder on.

6. He loves baths. But he always tries to eat his hand with soap on it.

7. He rarely wakes up crying in the morning. In the middle of the night he does {if I don't get to him quick enough} but in the morning he wakes up next to me and I get to lay there and listen to him "ooh" and "aaah" for a bit. Our mornings are pretty happy times. Then I turn him over and say hello and he smiles so big.

I love you Koty and Levi. You guys won't remember most of these things. But I will. And I'll tell you about them over and over again. Even when you're married. Even when you have babies of your own. Even when you're old and grey. Forever and ever.

2009-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

HAPPY 2009!!!

Hello new year! I hope this year brings all our family and friends total joy and happiness. You guys have no idea how much you all mean to me. Your constant support and giving and helping has made such a huge difference in our life. I hope that this year I can give back to all the friends and family members that mean so much to us.

I love you guys dearly! And that absolutely includes all my *blog buddies*! You guys rock!

2008-12-29T08:15:00.000-08:00

My sister and Tim watched the kids for six hours yesterday while Davey and I went on a date. We saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" which I've been counting down the days until it came out. It so did not disappoint. I cried the ENTIRE movie. Literally, from beginning to end. That's a first. It was one of those movies you think about for days afterward. Definitely go see it!

Other highlights of the weekend included spending WAY too much at Janie and Jack, my guiltiest pleasure of them all. I love that store, but they're so expensive. Anyway, they are having a 60% off season blow-out sale so if there's any other Janie and Jack addicts out there now is the time to cave!

2008-12-25T11:48:00.001-08:00

2008-12-22T09:29:00.001-08:00

This weekend we took Dakota and Levi to see the Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn in Riverside. It was beautiful! It's a pretty neat thing to do. They have all sorts of outside stuff set up, kind of like a street fair.

On Sunday we celebrated Christmas at my grandma's house. Levi slept through his entire first Christmas! From 11am until 3pm. I had to wake him up just so everyone could see him before they left! I'm glad I did, all of our extended family probably won't get to see him again until next year, when he's *gulp* a year and a half old! Wow.

This Christmas was emotional for me. I don't know if it's because I just had a baby, hormonal or what, but the passing of time and the reality of kids growing up, parents growing older and the general concept of this life passing by was heavy on my heart. Not in a bad way. I thought a lot about the cycle of families. For a period, there's no kids around, just older people, then all the sudden it's like life explosion and we have ten little ones toddling about, screaming, running, playing. I thought a lot about Davey and I getting older and of course my own babies becoming teenagers and then adults and having their own kids. It's all so bittersweet for a mother I think. Davey doesn't really understand when I talk to him about it. I feel like...I just want to hold my baby forever. Don't get so big that you don't want/need me to hold you any longer. *Hmmm* Sigh...now I'm crying again. Definitely hormones.

2008-12-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

THAT'S IT! I'm going friends & family completely on my entire family flickr stream, all the way back to the beginning. I was so reluctant to do this, but now it's my only option left if I want to protect my kids.

Here's the latest flickr mail from one of the leeches on orkut....

From: Puαhelα ◦◦ Abby S. Comille
Subject: Dakota

hi , can i use photos of dakota on orkut ? I beg you. I loved the photos that sweet girl. Take care of them properly and still help you end up with people who use the Dakota on orkut. Maximum use about 20. Thank you.

My response:

To: Puαhelα ◦◦ Abby S. Comille
Subject: Re: Dakota

No, please don't use my photos on any site. She's my daughter and I really would like her privacy respected. Thanks.

Corin

Okay, first of all, I realize how totally stupid and pointless this whole "asking permission" to use my photos thing is. Like me saying, "No, please don't" is really going to stop anyone??? No way, she's just going to steal them anyway. This is how I get photographers flickr mailing me saying, "Just so you know, Dakota's on so and so's orkut site."

Okay, and second of all, what the h*ll is she talking about, "Take care of them properly and still help you end up with people who use the Dakota on orkut." I understand kind of what she's saying, trying to convince me that people are going to use them anyway, so I better let her because she's asking nicely??? But why do all these orkut kids have totally broken English? Are they all Euro or what???

And third of all, TWENTY! Geesh...c'mon are you freaking kidding me???

*Aaaaah* This makes me livid. I'm so pissed and frustrated and upset at the whole situation. But, it's no ones fault but my own. I put my kids pictures out there so there's no one to blame but myself. That's why I'm cutting the orkut kids off completely. No more access.

The only photos that will be available for any sort of public viewing of my kids from now on will be only on my other flickr account and blog {which will be rare}, and that's only if they're either 1. Heavily watermarked, so that they're too afraid to use them, or 2. So processed that she's scarcely recognizable under textures or layers or shadows or whatever.

I hate orkut.

2008-12-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

We took our trip to Disneyland yesterday. It was so much fun! And sooooooo C-O-L-D; seriously cold. I honestly have never felt Anaheim at that low of a temperature before. But it was the best day we've had in a long time. Our friends Daryl and Yvonne went with us which was great because they have a five year old daughter named Nicole and it gave Dakota a nice playmate for the day.

We got our annual passes again which I'm stoked about! Dakota said this morning, "I wanna go back to Disneyland." I told her, "We can go back whenever we want!" Bet she wasn't expecting that answer ;)

Levi was a TOTAL doll. I was surprised at how aware of everything he was. He loved Toon Town. When he saw all the lights his eyes got the size of quarters and he "Oooh'ed" and "Aaaaw'ed" for about twenty minutes straight. He loves new faces, so he was giggling and smiling all day. I swear, all anyone has to do is look at him and he grins from ear to ear.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted! Two kids at Disneyland...phew!

PS- This has nothing to do with Disneyland, but Levi just rolled over for the first time!!! Yay! Go Levi! We're at my mom' so she got to see it too. Aaaah...my little man is growing up.

2008-12-15T09:02:00.000-08:00

Davey and I are starting to realize just how totally fun and special having Christmas is with an older child. This is the first year really that Dakota's been able to fully participate in all the Christmas activities. Last year she was only one and a half and although she enjoyed the season, it's nothing compared to how excited she is this time around.

She helped us decorate the Christmas tree last week and her and Davey and I had SO much fun. We waited until Levi was asleep for the night so that we could have some quality "just the three of us" time. It was so special. She helped put every single ornament on that tree. Her and Davey especially had fun together. I can't wait for Christmas day to come and to be able to see her unwrap all her presents.

We also celebrated my {28th...whoa!} birthday last week and over the weekend. Thanks so much everyone for the lunches, the cakes, the gifts, the well wishes, it was all so appreciated. And thanks again Terry! Davey's dad bought me an amazing and totally surprising birthday gift, my very own .COM website!!! I was so excited I cried! Hahahaha...Davey must of thought I was such a dork. But it's something I've wanted to do for sooooo long but never had the courage to register my own domain name myself because I'm somewhat green on the whole web design front {I know a good amount of html but have a ton to learn}. But now that I've been given the little push I needed, I'm really excited to learn how to build my own site! It's going to be under construction for a while until I can master the ability to make a site I love. I can't wait to get started!

It's awesome to have something I've dreamed about for such a long time, but really, the part that touched me the most was that someone I love has that much confidence in me and my abilities. That's pretty priceless.

A huge thanks also goes to my mom who gave Dave and I the wonderful gift of relaxation for my birthday! She babysat twice this weekend for us! Friday night while we enjoyed a dinner out on our own, then went shopping for a very cool new speedflash {Nikon SB600} for my camera! {I always shoot in natural light, but let me tell you, I've been missing out for a long time not having this flash! It's awesome!} Then Sunday night while we went out to the movies. Thanks so much mom, you mean the world to us :)

This will be a very busy week for us. I have a TON of photo processing to do. I'm also trying to get everything ready for an early Christmas celebration this coming weekend and then of course Christmas the week after. We're going down to the county health office to finalize Levi's birth registration tomorrow and then taking the kidlets to Disneyland with some friends and their daughter on Thursday. Which I'm totally stoked about! Dakota is going to go nuts over the lights!

Have a great week everyone!

2008-12-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

I'm going "friends & family" only for a while on my personal flickr account. So if any of you friends or family members out there enjoy looking at that stream then I suggest you get a free flickr account and add me as a contact so that you can still view the photos. I've been getting added and commented by a few people I don't know and that makes me veeeeeeery suspect.

You'll still be able to see the photos I blog, but not any of the other ones unless you have an account and add me to your contacts.

2008-12-07T23:30:00.001-08:00

Check it out! Dakota and I made a gingerbread house last week. It turned out awesome! I was actually really surprised. I figured it would be this crazy, tilted, toddler-looking decorated thing, but Dakota was so meticulous about it! I layed out the icing and showed her how to put the little balls on the roof and she did it perfect! Although, about eighty percent of them were in her mouth before they were on the roof. Hahahaha...they kept falling off because they were wet. LOL.

We had so much fun. Davey took care of Levi so her and I could get some good one on one time in. This was definitely a sweet memory for her and I.

The next day we took it over to my mom's house so her and Braden could devour it. They looked so cute sitting there picking all the candies off. They're cutest little couple ever.

We also did an impression of Levi's footprint in plaster last week. It turned out really well too. I love having those kinds of keep sakes around.

Have a great week everyone!

2008-12-01T17:05:00.000-08:00

We took our family portraits over the weekend and I'm completely overjoyed with the way they came out! I wanted to at least get a couple good shots of our whole family, but we ended up getting those plus a lot of really great individual pics and a couple really sweet ones of Davey and I.

To me, a successful portrait is one that is not only beautiful but expresses who a family is. That's why I love these so much, because they are so us; rich and sincere with a lot of depth and contrast.

Thanks so much Mel for all the beautiful memories you captured!

Anyway, the rest of our weekend was great. Yesterday Davey and Dakota stayed home and cleaned all day while Levi and I went out Christmas shopping. This worked out perfect! Davey has a lot easier time just watching Dakota, they've grown so close since Levi was born. He said she had a blast helping him mop the floors! I had such a peaceful evening out alone with Levi. He just snuggles right in his sling and loves getting to be so close to me.

2008-11-25T10:03:00.001-08:00

Santa Rosa Plateau at dusk...

We just got a storm in yesterday. Although rain and gloom is my favorite weather, it better be gone by this weekend. Shooting in the rain is not an option!

2008-11-24T10:44:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend we took the kidlets for a hike through Santa Rosa Plateau. It's only about a twenty minute drive from our house and it's beautiful! Dakota had so much fun and Levi loved being out and about. He got to nurse under a giant oak tree and feel the breeze on his face. It was a great day. Especially because that morning Davey got up with the kids and I got to sleep until 11:30! He truly is such a cool hubby. He does this at least one day out of every weekend. That means so much to me.

The best part of all though was seeing a whole pack of coyotes after we went hiking! We were in our truck by this time {thank goodness}. Davey calls this one {above} the model. She was posing for us.

Saturday night we went all the way out to Fontana to go to Victoria Gardens. We ate a {very good} dinner and then took Dakota to see the giant Christmas tree and Santa {who by the way, you will never see her on his lap for sure. She loves to look at him but when I ask if she wants to sit on his lap, I get a very clear, decisive "NO"} and the Snow Show. We had some sleepin' babies by time we got home that night. Such fun.

Yesterday was an AMAZING day for me. Davey watched the kids while I spent FIVE hours at the mall!!! It felt like I had taken a vacation to Hawaii. I shopped, found a bunch of cute clothes and got my highlights done again. The girl who does my hair is super nice and we get a long like high-school buddies. So the best part of the day was getting two hours of pure, un-interrupted girl talk in.

Next weekend we plan on going back to Santa Rosa Plateau. My sister wanted me to take some photos of her and her Husband and I told her I though it would be the perfect place. Plus, then she can take our family Christmas pictures for us. I'm so excited because the last family Christmas photos we took I had to set my camera up on a timer because I didn't have anyone to shoot them. Now that my sister's got an SLR too I plan on taking full advantage!

2008-11-21T19:46:00.001-08:00

Happy weekend everyone!

2008-11-20T16:33:00.001-08:00

Oh, we had such a stressful morning! The kids and I drove out to Lori's because I needed her to fill out some paperwork {so we can finally get Levi's birth registered!} and everything was perfectly fine until we got to Lori's and she took him out of his car seat, he started SCREAMING. Like no other cry I've heard come out of him before. I took him in the bedroom to nurse him {because, hello, that's the cure all} and he didn't even want to nurse. He screamed for FORTY FIVE MINUTES. Nonstop. This was completely not like him at all. I knew it had to do with his stomach because he kept arching his back and holding his legs out stiff like he was in major pain.

I met Davey for lunch down the street and he was still screaming. At this point I was starting to get seriously concerned. Davey kept telling me to hand him over but I didn't want to. "My babies in pain! He needs his mama!" Finally I had to though, all the back patting, rocking and rubbing I was doing obviously wasn't helping him. So I handed him over to Davey, and I'm not kidding, one strong pat on the back and, "BEEEEEEELLLLLCH". And he was fine. Totally fixed. Then, he fell asleep sitting on Davies lap.

I guess sometimes a boy just needs his dad.

2008-11-18T21:58:00.001-08:00

I got Levi to laugh out loud for the first time tonight! It was the best feeling, I wanted him to do it a thousand times again! I was pulling his arms up over his head saying, "Peekaboo!" And finally he just laughed the biggest, cutest laugh ever.

These are the moments that make being a mommy worth every single sleepless night, every single hard day, and every single one of those contractions! Hahahaha...I love my babies this much!

2008-11-11T20:36:00.000-08:00

Where the heck have I been!? Phew...well, I have had so much cool stuff going on lately. First of all, I've been enjoying my babies to the FULLEST. Even though we all have been sick for the last week {all four of us!} we've totally been having fun at home, baking, listening to music and doing a bunch of family bonding.

Davey and I have been going through a little priority revising lately and really sitting down and renewing our marriage and life together. We do that every few years just to stay on track. So we've gone over a lot of goals together; re-framed old ones, made some new ones. We both want to get back to a closer relationship with God, that was a big one. We've also made it a priority to put a financial plan in place to allow us to finally get back to traveling together. Our goal is to go to Europe again, just the two of us, sometime within the next few years. We think probably Germany and France. But we'll see. We've both been twice, Davey lived in Germany for a few months and I lived in Italy for a few months, then we went to Paris on our honeymoon and would looooooove to go back {it really is the most romantic place on Earth!!!}. Anyway, that's a huge goal of ours.

So, where else have I been over the last week or so. Well, to tell the truth, I feel like I've been cheating on my blog...and my flickr. This is why. I've started a new blog...a photo blog. It links to my new flickr.

There's a few different motivations behind behind this...the biggest ones I'll talk about later. But, here's a few reasons...

1. I was really sick of seeing all my photos on white. Nothing looks more stunning than a beautiful photo on black. But I didn't want to change my blog background to black because this blogs primary function is information based, which is of course reading. A black background would mean light text and well, light text just bugs peoples eyeballs out and I didn't want to go there. So a black photoblog was a great option.

2. I'm tired of dumping photos on this blog. Yeah, photos of the kids everyone wants to see, family photos, etc. Those are great for this blog because it's a family blog. But what about all my photos I just really love? The ones I want to showcase. This I feel is not the place for that. But a photoblog is. It's also a great place to send other people who want to see photos that aren't just Dakota being silly or Levi's newest facial expression. A photoblog is good for lots of things.

3. I've come to the healthy conclusion that I HAVE to have a spot all of my own. One that is just mine. Not centered around my husband and kids, but a place I can say, this is me {Even though I recently got a MySpace again, hahaha, that's totally a MyfamilySpace to me. And beside, that's just for fun, to keep up with old friends and suff, nothing serious}. My art, my feelings, my creations; It feels so good for that to finally be in existance somewhere concrete in a spot of it's own. *Exhale* I am still me afterall.

4. Pertaining to my flickr: I've been very conflicted over wanting to be a part of the flickr community, ie getting feedback from other photographers, giving feedback, participating in pools and groups, etc. and not wanting to put my entire family life out there, ALL my kids photos, private photos, that sort of idea. So, I decided to have two flickr accounts. One that would be for my family, which is my old one, and one that would link directly to my photoblog, which is the new one. The new one will of course occasionally get photos of my children on it, but not even remotely close to the amount of photos my old one has. Mainly, it will be for "other" photos; scenic, portraits, flowers, events, etc. I'll talk more about that later.

The photoblog of course is nowhere near running at full throttle yet. It's very much my little baby hatchling right now. But I'm excited about it and love having a special place for all my artistic, most loved photos. And I'm really glad I set up a new flickr, It's already given me a great sense of independence and is serving my need for a creative outlet perfectly.

Anyway, like I said, I've totally just been enjoying my kids lately. Dakota has been a ton of fun. As she gets older, she's becoming this amazingly independent, vibrant, and extremely sharp young girl. Her imagination is blossoming and her communication skills have gone through the roof. Davey and I work a lot with her on this. We've started teaching her about emotions and when she feels certain ones. Now when she's crying, she always tells me, "I feel sad mama." Then we talk about it and it's amazing how much quicker she bounces back after just talking about her feelings rather than crying about it and going into a full fledged two year old meltdown. Right now we're teaching her about angry and happy.

And Levi, well, how do I possibly begin to describe how completely AWESOME this child is??? Seriously, I never thought Davey and I were ever capable of producing anything but a very tightly wound, driven, challenging child. Because, well, that's how him and I are. We're not the easiest going people in the world. We both have very different personality traits, but easy-going is not either of ours, and it's not Dakota's either. Levi on the other hand is like this little ball of completely gushy, lovable, quiet, happy baby goodness. He really is happy and smiley for a very large portion of the day. This blows me away. I thought people just made babies like this up. I didn't know they were actually out there! He's so sweet, he just looks at me like he's in love with me. I can't get enough of it. He just loves to be held and smooched on and snuggled up. It was very difficult for me to be like this with Dakota. I remember trying to swaddle her as a newborn, ha! Yeah right! She would never have it! She's always been so independent and has such a dynamic personality. So it's such a huge change for me to have a baby like Levi who just wants to be loved on day and night. He doesn't care what I'm doing, it's just like "lovemelovemelovemeloveme!"

Both my kids are so amazing, so different in every way possible, but both just stellar people. Dakota, I can totally see being a CEO of a company one day or taking over her daddies business. Definitely a woman in a power position. I really admire her. Sometimes wish I could be as dominating as she is! She's like a little powerhouse. Levi, ooooooh Levi, he seems like my little artist or musician, absolutely more emotional and feeling driven. He doesn't need to be stimulated 24/7 like Dakota did as a baby, he just wants the lovin'.

Well, I'll try not to let too many days or weeks pass without blogging. But there's a lot going on right now that I'm really excited about and will probably be putting a lot of effort into, so this blog may suffer a bit for the time being. But I'll be back!

Take care peeps :)

2008-10-30T20:49:00.001-07:00

Yep, still posting Julian pics. What can I say? The scenery was gorgeous. So pretty.

As for today, poor poor little Levi. His teeth were freakin' killing him! He was drooling and spitting and shoving his fist in his mouth all day long. These teeth better make an appearance within the next couple months or else I'm goin' in after them.

My Loves...

2008-10-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

An Orchard Walk with Dad...

2008-10-28T11:56:00.003-07:00

2008-10-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

My kids are growing up at *this is soooooo not happening already!* rates. I can't believe my eyes and ears lately.

First of all, Levi is TEETHING! What the heck?! My teeny, tiny, premie-looking, little bundle of newborn joy is, what? Not so newborn anymore? That is not possible. I seriously still think of him as my little baby newborn but then have to kind of mentally slap myself across each cheek a couple of times and say, "Wake up crazy woman, the kid is three months old already!" But teething? Oh....*sigh*. I can't act too surprised. Dakota started at this exact same time. And the lovely part about it is that she didn't get her first tooth in until her FIRST BIRTHDAY. Yay. Nine months of teething. Yuck. I hate teething with a passion. My poor, sweet, perfect baby boy...I can't stand seeing him in pain.

As for Dakota...Ooooooooh...let me tell you. T-A-L-K-I-N-G up a storm! She's discovered the ability to talk back at this point. This is always entertaining. She has what I refer to as "politician face" now. She holds her hand up, palm facing me, and lets me know exactly why she believes I'm mistaken about whatever it is I'm telling her to do.

Besides talking back, she's just had a language explosion in general. And not only language, but reasoning and thought process. It blows my mind!

I always call her "baby", just as a term of enderment..."I love you baby." "Okay baby." "Are you tired baby?"

But the other day we were riding in the car and I said something like that and she responded, "I'm not a baby mom."

~oh~

Ummmm...I guess she's not.

Then she told me, "I'm not a baby mom. I'm Koty."

Aaaaah...makes me so proud seeing my babies grow up and yet so heart-wrenched at the same time! Next thing you know Levi will be telling me, "I'm not a kid anymore mom! I'm eighteen years old!"

*Oi!*

That's gonna sting!

2008-10-24T14:58:00.001-07:00

Finally getting around to posting our Julian Photos from last weekend...

{phew} WAY more to come.

A Brother and his Sister...

2008-10-24T08:50:00.003-07:00

2008-10-21T12:09:00.003-07:00

It's sooo sweet to see Dakota and Levi play together lately. Well, really, it's her entertaining him at this point. She can make him smile so much and even chuckle a little sometimes too. He's just starting to coo now as well so it's really fun to hear him try and talk to her. He looks at her like she's just the coolest thing around. I'm so grateful that she's such an awesome big sister to him. She really is like his second little mommy. She mimics everything I do to him; the way I talk to him, the way I caress his cheek, it's adorable.

She also tries to smother him in kisses the way I do. Then he can get a little annoyed with her! I have the cutest pictures ever of his response to her being all over him. I'm going to try and post them tonight or tomorrow.

2008-10-19T22:42:00.001-07:00

Flickr Photos by Corin Jones

We had much family fun over our weekend. Saturday was spent at my parents house with my sister and her husband. Thanks to my sister for taking some much needed photos of Davey and I . We rarely get pictures together anymore. So when we do, I completely cherish them. She got some really sweet ones. Thanks Mel!

We spent all day Sunday in Julian. The drive out there through Pauma Valley was BEAUTIFUL. Once we were there we had a really nice lunch at one of the restaurants on the main {and only!} road through Julian. I love that town! It's so quaint and historic. Plus, all the candy and pie shops don't hurt either! But the funnest part of the day by far was apple picking at Calico Ranch Orchard. Dakota had so much fun and I love the photos I got of her and Davey out there. Levi of course slept soundly the whole time on me in the sling, so I got a lot of opportunities to just enjoy being out there and breathing the fresh air.

~Sigh~

It's great to have so much time with my husband. Enjoying our kids together is such a huge blessing, our favorite times in life for sure. Thanks for making so much time for us to be together as a family Dave. You're my rock.

2008-10-16T20:54:00.001-07:00

Nothin' better than a nakey baby in a wooden bowl...