Crazy Love Gamble-Style

Who steals my heart on a daily basis? Yep, these girls.

There is so much less hesitation then it appears.  A worm, she is sure to name Daisy. Have a good weekend : )

Oreo has been feeling left out of things lately. Sure he gets to be crawled on, sat on and harshly petted on a regular basis, but for some reason  he wants more. So I obliged him by treating him like one of my  children, and what else do you do with kids then take their photo??   There.  My work here is done. Here's a few extra photos that have nothing to do with anything.  I just like them. Now back to my favorites, the REAL kids.  I tried taking Ava on a test run/walk today to see if she  could hang.  The answer is NO, to the fifth degree. Not because she can't keep up, just because she  refuses to try.  She is at that wonderful age where the majority of the things she does is deliberately  just to test me; my patience, my love for her,  my ability to choose her over every single other  person or thing.  I have failed that test. Thankfully, as parents, I'm pretty sure we are not  supposed to

 I have been inspired. Oh by a million things, but in particular, as of late, the IDEA of running. It seems all these people who claim to be "non-runners" around me are now running. And not just running, but running 5k's and  half marathons.  WTH? I thought you said you CAN'T run?   Now I actually believe I can't run. I haven't run a day in my life.  I always had a slip that got me out of it in school.   I still die from asthma on a regular basis.    I've even had hip surgery. Do you see how many awesomely perfect excuses I have??  But then I get to thinking, if THEY can do it,  can't I??   I am very competitive.  That might be what this is. My husband today was like "WHAT!!?  You are  not just walking?  You CAN'T run!" So now I pretty much have to right? Well I am going to try.  Right now I am starting  with a 1.5 mile route that I alternate between  walking fast and

 I super can't get over the cuteness of this dress on little tiny Noria.  So much so, rather then just showing you one or two cute photos of her wearing it, I will  provide SEVERAL.  But really?  What else is new.  I love digging out the Summer clothes.  Although that nice hot day was short lived,  it's already cold and rainy again.   But there is hope... I also want to share a little video of Ava skiing on  her own.  This is on Buttercup, so not a super steep hill but a good notch above the bunny hill.  She is so good at turning!   Please excuse how shaky the video is, I took it on  my phone, skiing behind her.  I was more concerned  with watching her then actually making a good video. I love how that guy almost takes her out.   She didn't even flinch, such a trooper.

This whole skiing thing is pretty crazy. I am not a skier at all, unlike the rest of my family, which are more like ski racers. That level of expertise is a bit intimidating to a non-skier like me who basically just wants to become proficient enough to ski with my 4 year old daughter, not start racing anytime soon, or ever, truthfully. When we started this I was perfectly happy staying on the bunny slope where there are no scary chairlifts.  Thankfully I have gotten past that stage, my daughter was ready to move on way before me.  She had mastered going down that hill with no harness, on her own, the very first day. I'm perfectly happy with her staying on that harness forever but can tell that my mom is WAY over it.  Turns out it's a lot of work snowplowing behind a child for hours on end. Mom was ready to let her off the leash, I was worried.  Mom kept saying this while we were on Mount Hood Express, which has all sorts of

It is not exactly easy for me to leave either  of my kids, but when an opportunity arises  to spend some real quality time with  one of them I really try to make it happen.  We wanted to take Ava skiing and I wanted to  be up there on the mountain with her, which really gets tricky with Norah so Auntie Linda volunteered to watch her overnight on Thursday with John picking her up the next day, but me  not seeing her until Saturday!   That is the longest time I have ever been apart  from her.    It was bitter sweet.   It is amazing how much simpler things seem  with just one child, no naps to juggle, stairs to block, night wakings, needs to be met... But I missed her terribly.  I just kept thinking  about her, whether she was having fun, if she was sleeping well, getting spoiled, missing me.  It was great spending that time with Ava though.  I talked up the whole thing, telling her it was going to be a Special Ava, Mommy & Gran

Great Weekend So Far...

We brought out the old bouncy house,  princess ball pit thing that we've been  storing in the attic for awhile.  I'm not a big fan of princess-y things and it  always seemed to get balls everywhere, go figure. But we saved it because it was always a really  big hit with Ava and we suspected baby #2 might love it equally as much.  Ava seems to LOVE everything we bring  back out for Norah, she has played with this  thing non-stop.  She turns it into a million  other things which really equals her destroying it as quickly as possible, all the while plotting  what to do with it next. She has drug it all through the house, turned it  upside down to make a fort and flipped Norah out of it over & over which she assured me  Norah LOVED and judging from her laughter that seemed to be accurate.  Norah loves it too.  She loves getting in and  out of it a million times a day.  She loves all  the games Ava makes up with it and she 

Ava loves preschool. She brags to her friends that she goes to school now, counts down the days  until Monday rolls around again and  just in general won't stop talking about it. One of the added perks to her attending preschool  is that she gets invited to the schools field trips.  I think they go on one each month.  Today we got to go to Commonwealth Lake Park with her class, they are studying all things to do with ponds this month so this was a good way to wrap up that lesson plan.  We got there a little early so we had an  opportunity to walk around and feed some  of the ducks.  Oh and take pictures, that's what we do. On a side note, we went to the park the other day and this mom took pictures of her3 kids  ages 5, 10 & 17 the entire time with her phone.   The kids were barely allowed to play at all. All they were allowed to do was pose for 1.7 million photos their mom wouldn't stop taking! It was bugging m