A long road it HAS been

 Ali's last day of school. Kind of a bittersweet moment. My little girls is going into first grade next year!!!

 

My brother, Jason got married this weekend in Utah. I planned to drive there Friday, and come back Sunday. The drive both there and back was horrible, but at least on the way there I had my sister-in-law Nadean and my brother with me.

  

As we were leaving LA there was a flashing road sign that warned of "Major traffic" due to a chemical spill at the Nevada border. About halfway to the border another sign warned of "Extreme traffic." Not surprising that shortly after that we were stopped. My brother got out and took this picture.

 Traffic still didn't move, so he began to climb the hills where he took this picture. If you can zoom into this picture you would see other people climbing the hills and walking around on the road. I am also waving from our Pilot. After about 13 hours on the road Kat told me, "Mommy we should have just flown there!" I heartily agreed.

 Despite being on the road for what seemed like two years, we made it. And I guess it was worth it for this. Family is awesome!

Proud grandparents! 6 grand kids didn't make it, but here are the 10 that did.

 If nothing else, it was worth it to see these awesome people. My siblings are so amazing.

Speaking of amazing siblings, I came across this picture of my sister in her new shabby apple dress, and thought, "she looks better than the model on the website." Maybe when my blog goes viral someone will discover her.

Anyone want to know what it is like being on the road alone with 3 kids for WAY too long. This little video is exhibit A for the next time I think I can do something this crazy. (PS Ali had been crying too, but as soon as she saw I was filming, she immediately stopped) (Post-PS Sorry for the horrible filming, but I was driving at the same time)

Jack the army man

As promised, here is a video of Jack's crawling skills.

Warning: Not for weak stomachs

We went camping a month ago and I posted about the throwing up on a bug incident. I guess she was more traumatized by that than I had previously realized because last week it came up again. We had just gone out for breakfast with a friend (where Kat ate a huge amount of pancakes and waffles) and I was driving to pick up Ali from school. In my middle seat were the 2 babies and Kat. Kat was next to Jack. She was laughing and talking to him when she told me in giggling words, "Mommy I think Jack is pooping!" He must have been red and grunting. Two seconds later I hear, "He IS pooping!" followed by gagging sounds from Kat. "Mommy he got poop on his leg!" followed by more gagging. "Mommy he is touching it!" followed by the sounds of not only gagging, but vomiting too. "Mommy he is playing with his poop!" more gagging and vomiting. (Side note: Playing for a six month old means that he is touching it then putting his hand in his mouth) By this time I have pulled over (illegally of course, but I wish a cop had dared to come up to me by this point). I opened the car door, got a handful of wipes and started to clean up some poop, but in order to do so I had to reach over Kat. When she saw me cleaning the poop she immediately threw up the rest of the mornings breakfast all over herself (and me as I had been leaning over her at the time). I abandoned the poop clean up and took all of Kat's clothes off and I told her not to look while I cleaned up Jack. While cleaning up Jack she still threw up a few more times, but by this time she was naked, so the vomit merely ran onto her car seat and the car floor (which luckily I hadn't cleaned in a long while, so it was covered with papers). By the time I cleaned what I could and gotten them both buckled up I was late picking up Ali. It took me 4 trips to get all the kids and the disgusting car seats inside. Moral of the story... a new car seat only costs about 40$ at Target.

 Jack is 7 months old!!! He is also doing much better at sitting up and crawling. He army crawls everywhere; sometime I will post a video.

Such a cutie, I had to post another.

So many people ask me which of my two girls Jack looks like. I often respond that I think he looks like Ali, but some people think he looks just like Kat. These are all pictures of them in their respective bouncer chairs.

This is Ali. (She is only 6 months in this picture, not 7 months)

This is Kat (She is also 6 months in this picture)











This is Jack. (7 months)

Tell me what you think.

A post about a lot of things

 My excuse for why I haven't written in awhile is that I lost my camera cord. You know, the one that connects our camera to the computer. Well, turns out that it isn't much of an excuse because we have about 3 of them, and only one was lost. So instead, I will blame my lack of writing on all my little ones that have been keeping me busy.

"Mommy! He is eating me!!!"

Lately I have to keep these boys separate or they start to beat each other up, or bite each other. It is pretty funny. Yesterday, (after Jack got a scratched eye) Ali was worried about Jack getting hurt by Dominic. After I explained that babies don't mean to hurt each other, Ali responded by saying, "Oh like Jack didn't mean to just kick Dom in the head!" I should probably spend less time explaining and more time watching. These guys are starting to move!

I love when they sleep like this with their little bums in the air.

 Jack is not a fan of sitting. Every time I sit him up he cries and throws himself over to his stomach. The only reason he is crying in this picture is because I sat him up. Three seconds later he was on his stomach laughing.

 He is starting to get ready to crawl! I don't like it. I
feel like he is not old enough for this. Anyone have a time machine?

I was able to get him to sit up with the help/ distraction of a mirror and Darth Vader.

This boy is just so precious. No back story, I just loved this picture that Nick took.

  These girls are just getting so big! We got Ali lots of Legos for her birthday, and both of them have been busy builders ever since. Ali came upstairs and asked me to take a picture of her cake that she made. Not sure what Kat is doing...

 Every once in awhile I still see the little babies that my girls once used to be. Usually after a nap or while they are sleeping. Kat had just woken up and just crawled into Daddy's arms for a snuggle.

Ali went on a CRUISE!!!! The Disney cruise to be exact, and she loved it! Abuelita and Tita (Nick's mom and aunt) took her to the Caribbean where for 4 nights they spoiled her!

Here is a little evidence of the spoiling that went on. A new outfit every day, and a different princess dress for every night (except for pirate night, which of course needed a pirate costume).

 When she got home she talked nonstop for about 2 days about all her adventures. She loved every minute of it, and when asked about going again she said she definitely wants to go again. But, she said, she wants to bring Kat next time with Abuelita and Tita. NOT mommy and daddy, just Kat, she made that clear.

Here are all three on pirate night. I asked Ali why she wasn't smiling in this picture and instead making that weird face. Her response, "Pirates don't smile mom!"

 She made a friend while on board named Amanda. While at one of the shows Ali was picked as a volunteer. She was one of the dwarves for the show. I am so amazed at how outgoing she has become since starting school. A few years ago she would NEVER have volunteered, and it would have taken her forever to make a new friend. (Except for Jim, who became her friend immediately)

This is the last one, I swear! I just had to post a picture of her with Mickey!