Recently in pretty, happy, funny, real Category

I had to laugh at the answers Andrew gave about me. According to him I am 13 years old (I love how that age is "old" to him.) I am prettiest when I sleep. (LOL) I like to make cookies. I always say I love you. (Awww.) And I am funniest when I go to sleep. I asked him why I was funny...did I snore or talk in my sleep? He said it is because on Saturday morning he woke up and Brian said he had to be quiet since I was still asleep. He said I was silly because daytime was for being awake, not sleeping. Hence my funniness. :-)

On special occasions Brian will get "real" donuts. For years I have been looking for the kind I used to love as a kid - chocolate cake donuts with nuts on top. He had never seen those. Finally on Mother's day we found one! I savored the moment and the memory. (You may notice at the top left side there is a piece missing from the bite I couldn't resist taking, but I tried to hide it in the photo. LOL.)

Two Quick Notes:

First - I wasn't able to do this week's book discussion of Style, Sex and Substance. I should have the next post on Wednesday, 5/16.

Second - Today is your last day to enter the RoL Birthday Care Package Contest! The winner will be announce tomorrow. Good luck!

Okay, now we return to our regularly scheduled post...

Today is Mother's Day in Mexico so Bella's Spanish class made cards for their madres. Here is the cover of Bella's card to me. (She didn't notice her "typo" until after I took the photo. ;-) Today was also the boys' preschool moms' party. Each made me a wooden flower frame with their photo in it. So cute!

The other day I invited my in-laws over for dinner. My mother-in-law brought over a cake she made for dessert. There was enough cake left over for Brian and I to share for dessert the following night after the kids went to sleep. Well, John Paul must have heard about our plan. The next day I was putting Matthew to sleep and after I put him in bed I went into the kitchen and found that JP dragged a chair over to the counter and helped himself to our dessert...

I told Brian that there were two large pieces of the cake left but this is all I found on the sink...

The guy didn't even have a stomach ache! I can't imagine what JP's bottomless pit appetite is going to be like when he is a teenager!

This week's {pretty, happy, funny, real} will be like last week's. I wanted to share a few photos from Matthew's birthday. Since they could be considered in more than one category, I'll just lump them as one big {p,h,f,r} category.

We had a small party for Matthew on his birthday. I love the birthday sign that Bella made to go with the circus theme.

While I was decorating the family room Matthew kept himself occupied by decorating our long hallway. I think he mistakenly took a roll of toilet paper for streamers.

On every first birthday we make cupcakes and let the birthday boy eat one on his own. (Once the child really gets into it Brian says, "Come one! Do you have to let him make such a mess?!" My mind immediately start playing the song "Tradition" by Tevia and I respond, "Of course, sweetie! That's half the fun! And think what a fun post this will make." ;-)

I also wanted to get photos of the kids and when I was taking Andrew's picture he was more concerned that he had to keep an eye on John Paul so that he wouldn't eat his cupcake when Andrew wasn't looking.

Lastly, here is the birthday boy playing on his new birthday toy. :-)

This week's {pretty, happy, funny, real} is going to be a little different. I wanted to share a few photos from the trip Bella and I took with her class last week. They could be considered in more than one category so I'll just lump them as one big {p,h,f,r} category.

Bella's fourth grade class has been learning about California history. She is working on her Missions project right now, which is special since Bl. Junipero Serra is buried at the Carmel Mission. (Our family parish.) Last week her class took a two day trip to Sacramento and the Gold Country.

After our stay and tour at the capital, we headed to our camp in Coloma, CA. The surrounding area was so pretty and the camp was situated right along the American River.

We stopped at various places and museums - Sutter's Mill, Sutter's Fort, A Gold Mine, etc.

One of my favorite visits of our trip was to the California State Railroad Museum. It was amazing! I told Brian we have to go back and bring the boys with us. They would love it.

We learned all about the First Transcontinental Railroad. They actually had the Central Pacific Railroad No. 1 Gov. Stanford, which was Central Pacific's first excursion train in the 1860's.

I hope you enjoyed this tiny peek into California. :- )

The kids are looking pretty in their Easter outfits. I let the boys go a bit more casual since anything fancier would have only been worn once.

Brian's parents made an Easter egg hunt in their backyard. They were as happy as the kids!

Today is Matthew's first birthday! Yay! We had a party for him at my in-laws on Easter. It has become an unintentional family tradition for my in-laws to get a cake with the wrong spelling. One year they spelled Andrew Joseph as "Josef" and last year John-Paul had a cake from a fancy French bakery and it was spelled "Jean-Paul." This year the tradition continues, but we're getting closer!

I can't help but think about how Matthew is grown over the past year.

Time is flying too fast! Savor the moments.

Wouldn't you know it. Yesterday I carved out a half hour where I could post this week's {p,h,f,r} and the power went off. Blast you, Murphy's Law. Once we got our power back on I didn't have time for the computer so I am posting this now instead. Enjoy. :-)

It's a Lenten Friday so of course I am craving meat. There is a juicy turkey burger in the fridge just calling my name. If that was not enough, I am also craving something sweet. Like a delicious pastry from one of our favorite Carmel bakeries. If you are ever in downtown Carmel, you must stop and visit there. It is a local and tourist favorite.

I was so excited and happy to take this photo! There was no wild craziness, screaming or wrestling. The baby was sleeping peacefully and the boys were quietly painting and I was washing the dishes. For a few precious moments I felt like one of those picture perfect families where the members smile and white sparks shine off their perfect teeth. It only lasted a few minutes but what glorious minutes they were!

Okay, this is more like the family photos I am used to. It seems that John-Paul finished his yogurt but still had a bit left in the container. Not wanting to waste, Matthew decided to finish it for him.

Is it my imagination or are kids getting tech smart earlier and earlier. JP knows how to work my iphone with ease and the other day I saw Matty playing for Andrew's Leap Pad. Kinda crazy.

After taking my walk on countless grey and drizzly days we finally had some sun. Welcome spring!

This photo is really fuzzy because it was taken with my iphone in a dimly lit movie theater but Bella and I were very happy to have a girls' afternoon out. We went to see The Secret World of Arrietty.

Andrew asked if he could play with the playdo and I said yes. However, I did not realize he was going to open every container we had and recreate the Cars scene were Lightning made the bumpy road.

I know I have been OD-ing on the ocean photos but I can't help it. Yesterday a storm was brewing and I had to get my walk done before the rain hit.

This morning Matthew was happy to walk around the preschool after the boys went into their classrooms.

I'm not sure which he was headed for, the tricycle or the sand box/play area.

Three days out of the week Matty and I have a couple hours to get things done. Here he is "helping" me by decorating the house with baby wipes.

Here he is helping me empty the dishwasher. (By the way, why doesn't he have any pants on? He always wears pants. Hmm, maybe he learned how to throw them in the wash. That would be nice.)

Well, now I know what to do if an earthquake hits while I am walking.

Have a great day!

It has been a busy and stressful week and I haven't had any free time to post to the blog. Right now I have a ten minute window to make a quick post so I'll catch you up on the latest.

I've been busy, busy with the school fundraiser and after a meeting this morning I stopped into the Adoration chapel to pray. It felt good to regroup and only focus on Our Lord for a bit. I decided to take the scenic route home and I am glad I did. How can you stay stressed when you stop and look at a scene like this? So pretty.

This week John-Paul started pre-school! He has been so happy there. He and Andrew have recess at the same time so they enjoy playing together with their little friends. I know JP loves it because when it's time for him to go, he has a tantrum and doesn't want to leave. But after I pick him up and give him a kiss, he rubs my lips with his finger (that's how he soothes himself) and he rests his head on me, ready for a nap in the car.

Matty must have found John-Paul's secret candy stash because this is what I found him eating for breakfast.

Since we had that laundry room flood, we had to not only empty out the laundry room but also the hallway closet that held all the jackets and cleaning supplies ect. Everything was thrown into the closest bedroom, which was Bella's. The poor room looked like a war zone.

Thankfully everything has been dried out, the carpet padding has been replaced, the carpet has been washed and $600 later (ugh!) I got my laundry room back... and Bella got her room back. (Now I just need to catch up on all the piled up laundry. Oh joy.

I am a day late posting this but it was an insane day yesterday and I never had time to post this. Better late than never. :-)

I think it is funny that these pair of pajamas have lasted long enough to survive all three boys and their mischief.

I hope you enjoyed my week in photos.

Thanks to our complimentary stay at Pebble Beach last weekend, I have lots of photos to show! It's a little out of order so the story makes more sense.

My happiness was seeing the ones I love the most having a good time.

Maybe this should have been in the funny category but we were excited to be treated to such delicious food! On Friday, after dinner at the Italian restaurant Peppoli's we were too full for dessert. However, we were hungry later that night so we ordered their room service dessert special. It was chocolate raspberry cake/soufflé with a raspberry center, a dish of raspberry sorbet with vanilla ice cream on top and hot chocolate fudge to drizzle over it all. Ohmygosh, it tasted so good!

If that wasn't enough, in the morning they brought us room service breakfast. It's a good thing we had a lot of walking planned to work off our meals!

We are truly blessed to have this once a year mini-vacation but Brian always dreads me coming back home afterwards. It takes him a few days to reprogram me to let go of all the pampering, special treatment and being able to use the bathroom uninterrupted. I have to get back into the mode of stinky diapers, sticky hands, dirty dishes and piles of dirty laundry.

He says I'm like Lucy after she comes back from the home show...

After seeing all that luxury her own house makes her say, "Yesh!" LOL! (If you don't remember the episode, you can watch it here.)

Well, I'm happy to report that I'm back to myself again and ready for the next mini-disaster to photograph for next week. ;-)

The other day I ordered these heart notecards from my friend Caroline at her etsy shop peaseblossom studio. I thought they would be cute for Valentines Day. I was happy when they arrived in the mail in this pretty package.

If you recall, two weeks ago I shared about Andrew's current obsession with Spiderman. On the weekend he was able to spend some Christmas money at Target. He nearly fainted when we walked down the super hero aisle and saw this Spiderman mask. He knew exactly what he wanted. You can't tell by this photo but underneath that mask he has a huge, happy grin. (And yes, he still wears his Spidey outfit/pj's every second he is in our house.

Note to Self - Never leave the Cheerio box on the sink unattended because a certain two year old may try to serve himself a bowl. (Thank God I caught him before he got to the milk!) Oh, and this is considered "funny" because if I don't laugh at these things I will lose my mind. ;-)

Finally, after a long day of mischief John-Paul will sometimes just collapse wherever he may happen to be. Don't ask me exactly how he happened to fall asleep on his chair like this.

I'm not sure if it would be considered "pretty" but I parked next to this cool car at the market the other day.

My kids were relatively fast walkers (and late teethers and talkers) but I think Matthew may be the youngest of the bunch to walk at 9 months. Last week he was only taking 1-2 steps. This week he is doing 3-4 steps. I love then they start to toddle!

My happy guy makes me smile, especially in his "mama's boy" shirt.

I think it is funny how light and curly Matthew's hair is compared to the other kids. I also think it's a little funny that people assume I'm the Mexican nanny since he doesn't look like me. (Hello, I've got a tall white husband, people. ;-)

We haven't heard from our cookie bandit lately but he struck again when I found this in the kitchen...

I went to the boys' room and heard giggling from the closet...

And there was my mischievous fella having a mid morning snack. :-)