Absolute Favorite Holiday!!

Blowing kisses!

Look at those blue eyes!

As you can tell by the title, St. Patrick's Day is my favorite day of the year. I know everyone else loves Christmas or Thanksgiving but yesterday is the day I love. I love that Spring is almost here and flowers will start to bloom. There is no stress on St. Patty's day unlike any other holiday. You don't have to cook a giant meal for 30 people. You don't have to make travel plans or stress about which side of the family you will spend it with. It's just a day to relax and be happy. I'm really jealous because my brother-in-law is studying abroad in Ireland right now. Can you imagine being in Dublin walking down Temple Bar yesterday?! I hope he is living it up because some day when the kids are older Paul and I definitely have plans to experience it. I was horrified yesterday morning when I looked in my closet and realized I didn't have any green shirts. For some reason they keep getting ruined from one thing or another. At least the girls looked adorable though.

A lesson taught by my little girls

I want to "write" this down even though it is something I will remember for the rest of my life. From all my other posts you know how busy I am and how exhausting it gets. A couple days ago, I was having a rough afternoon. Paul was working late again, the weather wasn't good enough to send the kids outside so they were going stir crazy, my house was a complete mess from having a play date earlier and to top it all off I had a test to finish that I couldn't get done during nap time because Audrey wouldn't stay in her room for quiet time. All in all I was a run down, unhappy Mommy. I went in the kitchen to figure out what to cook and a couple of minutes later Audrey comes running up saying, "Mommy come look, come look and see what we did." At this point I'm about to cry because I'm thinking oh no, what now?! She takes me into Peyton's room and I burst into tears. Happy tears. She took it upon herself (and a little help from Peyton) with no prompting from me to completely clean Peyton's room spotlessly, down to the last piece of play food put nicely in it's spot in the play kitchen. Moments like these are rare and precious and every time I'm feeling overwhelmed I am going to think about my sweet babies and how they made me feel that night. Paul and I have so many ambitious goals that we want to achieve but I also need to slow down and appreciate the now. I need to balance keeping my eyes on the prize and enjoying my babies while they are still small. I'm going to have to work on not always striving for perfection because I will always be lacking. Who would have thought such a huge life lesson would be taught to me by my almost 4 year old and 16 month old little girls?

Who needs a pool when you have a perfectly good sink?!

Also note the fabulous outfit of the day that Audrey chose-zebra striped pants, pink shirt, 4 different necklaces and a yellow head band.

Princess Handbook

A funny thing Audrey has started doing lately that makes me want to roll my eyes (Who am I kidding? I do roll my eyes.) is referring to herself as princess. For example: "Princess doesn't want to go to bed." or "Beautiful princess wants to go to the park" you get the picture. So we are all sitting at the dinner tables a couple days ago and Audrey says, "Princess doesn't want to eat dinner." Paul without even blinking an eye responds, "Chapter 4 in the 2011 How to be a Princess Handbook says you have to eat all your dinner." The best part about this, she quietly sat and finished her dinner.

Peyton is a little Houdini. Our house looks like a jungle gym right now because we cannot put our chairs near the table. All four chairs are scattered around the dining area because if they are within range of the table Peyton will be up there in no-time. Forgetting to do this the other morning, I turned around after pouring a bowl of cereal and she is smiling at me standing up in the center of the table. Where was my camera?!

Good news for Paul, his lazy student is finally done so he can move on to the next ones. This guy made every excuse in the book not to fly because his check-ride was coming up and he didn't want to do it. Paul is very happy to be switching students after this one. He is studying like crazy for his ATP which he is going to schedule for the end of the month. I'm really excited for him because its such a great accomplishment to add to his resume.

I'm cruising along in my classes. Lots to do this week for some of my major assignments coming up. I'm finishing my term paper on In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton. If you haven't read it, I really recommend it. It's an emotional rollercoaster but the journey is worth it. No other novel has haunted my dreams like this one. I'm also finally scheduling my appointment to get my California driver's license. I have put it off for long enough and I need to suck it up and do it. I think part of me doesn't want to give up my last piece of Arizona. Or maybe its because I detest California. Probably the latter of the two. Well my ten minutes of free time is up so until another day....

For those of you that don't have facebook, this is how I have found Audrey during naptime a couple times now. Sleeping in a doll crib does not look very comfortable!

Audrey and her fabulous self. She loves to choose her outfit and accessorize.

Crazy Life!

I just cannot slow down! I feel like life is pulling me along so quickly and I am dragging my feet behind me. The last few months have gone ridiculously fast! I turned 22 in December which is crazy to me. I mean 22 already?! I ended up making a last minute trip to AZ and just met up with old friends and went out to dinner with my brother. Then obviously Christmas came and it was so relaxing and fun! The girls had a great day and the kitchen turned out fabulously! The girls play with it all the time. Then I started classes in January. Talk about kicking into overdrive! Even though the classes are a little more difficult I know I found the perfect major for myself. I never imagined I would find something I am so in love with to study. I have never enjoyed classes before but history makes me giddy. Yes, I know I am a nerd. I came to terms with that a long time ago.

So, January came and went in what felt like 3 days. Then it was February already which meant our 3 year anniversary was coming up. If you know us well, you know Paul and I don't really do gifts for each other for any holiday. Its not that we are against them or anything we are just so innately frugal that we would rather save the money. We aren't really into "stuff" like knicknacks for around the house. We lead a pretty simplistic life. But anyway, I had planned a trip out to Arizona on Feb. 17th for a dentist appointment. I know, its kind of crazy that I still go back "home" to my dentist but I tried one out here and it turned into a horror story. If you are reading this in Tehachapi, DO NOT go to Dr. Walch. I planned on being home that Monday because our anniversary was on Wed the 23rd but things didn't go exactly how I wanted them to. Both the girls and I got really sick out in AZ so my Aunt Mary and Mom were both taking care of us and we couldn't drive home. Peyton ended up having RSV, I had a bad sinus infection and Audrey had a bad cold. So we ended up driving home on my anniversary that Wednesday. Paul and I were going to have a date that weekend to celebrate but our babysitter got sick as well. So as of yet, we still have not celebrated our 3 year anniversary. It really makes me envy all my friends out here that have family close by. To you ladies, DON'T take it for granted. A friend of mine, Christen, offered to watch the girls this Saturday so we can finally have a date night. She is so sweet.

So now we are in March and things are not going to slow down anytime soon. Paul is studying for his ATP written that he scheduled for the end of the month.  Meanwhile, we are kind of battling it out for the laptop. His Dell took a dive a while back and has never recovered so we are down to just my old vaio. Everyone pray it lasts a while longer because we are not ready to purchase a new computer yet. I have tons and tons of schoolwork each week and a huge paper I need to start writing that is due in April. I don't like waiting until the last minute because something is guaranteed to go wrong!

Audrey....oh my moody almost four year old teenager. She is something else! She will be so sweet and loving and then the attitude comes in and wow it is not pretty. She is still obsessed with ballet. She puts on her little dances for me with all her costume jewelery and it is the cutest thing in the world! I cannot wait until we can put her in a ballet class this year. She loves art projects still. I bought her a bunch of Ispy books and they are her favorite. She will sit on the couch for 30 minutes finding all the stuff and watching her concentration warms my heart. She is still a complete Daddy's girl. The look on her face when he walks in the door from work is priceless. She runs at him so fast she squints her eyes. She calls it her "super fast" run. She is such an amazing little girl and she is growing up way too fast.

Peyton is certainly one-of-a-kind! Even our pediatrician is baffled by her. "I have never seen a child as stubborn and strong-willed as Peyton"-quote straight out of Dr. Rao's mouth. The girl would rather starve to death than eat or drink something she doesn't like. Honestly, back when we were trying to get her on formula she would have ended up in the hospital from her stubbornness. She is only 16 months and already in her terrible twos. She is incredibly smart and knows everything I say to her but deliberately does not obey. Although, she already enjoys the potty and will go pee on it a few times per day so that is great. If she potty trains as early as Audrey did I will be a very happy Momma! She isn't always a trouble maker though. She is still a mommy's girl and we enjoy our cuddle time together and our little games we play while giggling like crazy.

Life is crazy but I love it. I love my husband and our kids are happy and healthy. What more could I ask for? Well maybe a pause button...that could be useful.

Crazy day for Dad?

Those two are so silly together

Valentine's Day party at Audrey's school

Audrey loves the dress up box as you can tell.

Peyton is loves going to big sister's school and hanging out with the big kids.

Audrey and Klayton-they have so much fun and get into a lot of trouble together.