I'm lame

I never update blogs.

Tale as old as time

Twas a good weekend. Grandma Dianne, Grandpa Jerry, and Kristen came to visit in celebration of Lucy's birthday (which is actually tomorrow, April 28!). They got a priceline hotel deal and we got to take the swimming a couple different times. The kids loved it. Julian was so brave and excited. First thing he put on his swimming ring, adjusted his goggles, walked calmly to the edge of the pool, and SPLASH! jumped right in! He repeated this scenario about 200 times with no fear. At one point he asked if he could try swimming without his swimming ring. I told him, okay, I'll be right here in case it doesn't work out. So, he adjusted his goggles and just jumped off the steps and tried to start swimming. He sunk like a stone of course, but he was doing everything right, kicking his legs and swimming with his arms. I grabbed him in a split second of course so he didn't suck down too much water. He was a little scared, but not enough to deter his jumping in again, but not without his swimming ring for now. He's excited to learn to swim without the ring and I think he'll have it down with a few more times of going swimming this summer.

We also had the chance to go with Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Wayne to see the Hunter Central Stake production of Beauty and the Beast. Julian was absolutely on the edge of his seat for the entire 2 hours and 45 minutes. Lucy made it about 2 hours until I had to take her home due to her banshee wail, and Vincent made it about 10 minutes before Nicole had to take him home to put him down for a nap. The play was very good and I was actually quite impressed at the quality of a local production with just amateur actors. Julian is now looking forward to being in a play himself. His preschool program will be good practice. I will unfortunately be out of town for work and miss it. My heart is absolutely broken over this, as are Nicole and Julian. He's been preparing for this all year and he's so excited. I've explained to Julian that I really want to be there but won't be able to, so we'll video his program and then when I get home from my business trip we'll have a party with popcorn and watch it together. I'm trying to keep him positive and excited and happy about the whole thing and not get too down about the fact that I won't be there. He's a good kid and is rolling with it fine. I hope he does so the day of the program as well.

Lucy's birthday is tomorrow and we're still debating what her gift will be. Talk about crunch time!

Finally Spring

Brief update in the world of brief updates...it's been a long time and this blog, which started as a sincere plan to keep you all updated on our family life, has become yet another task that we rarely have time for.

Needless to say life with 3 childrens is BUSY. It's not so much that baby that complicates things, but the stages the other 2 are in. Vincent is a model miniature citizen. He rarely cries...well, actually, since Christmas he has turned a bit fiesty, but he is a baby so that is expected and he certainly cries way less than Julian did. Lucy was generally a good baby too, but Vincent is a true model of a happy baby a large percentage of the time. He is still not crawling and has just barely gotten his first two little teeth poking through the gums. He's anxious to be moving around and is trying to work out the coordination which is not aided by his exceeding size, proportionate to his age. He does not fit in hardly any of the clothes we used for Julian at the same age. But he is trying, so we are hopeful that before his 5th birthday he will master crawling, or at least a modified army crawl that will enable his moving about and getting into things. He is also super anxious to be eating whatever we're eating, is generally bored with baby food, and looks forward to receiving his drivers license. He's truly a man among babies and I love every minute I get to spend with him.

Lucy is our girly girl. We never dreamed one girl could love dolls, stuffed dogs and cats, etc. so much. She is a beautiful, sweet, loving girl, with a sassy stretch a mile wide! She gets that from her mom, I'm sure! She is smart and is learning her letters and numbers from Julian (a true master of letters and numbers). She loves reading books with us and is just generally a joy to be around. Just watch out if you ever have to tell her no, or if she happens to get the smallest cut or scrape! She keeps the bandaid companies in business for sure, prefering a bandaid to any other accessory item with her outfits.

Julian is our little man. He started baseball this year and is having a blast with that, as are we. He's on the Angels and is #3. It's pretty cute to see his WARNER #3 on his baseball shirt. He has cleats and baseball pants and is just adorable making dirt sculptures on the infield at his games. He's a seasoned pro on his two-wheeler with training wheels, but is resistent to losing the balance assistance provided by them. I think it's about time I start moving them up a little at at time without telling him. He loves his video games, writing letters and numbers, and is starting to understand the concept of reading. He is playing Alladin in his preschool program and we all look forward to his acting debut.

Nicole and I feel run ragged 99% of the time. What were we thinking having 3 kids so close together in age!!!!!???? With both of us working, it takes every ounce of our time away from work to keep the household running. We spend time with the kids until they go to bed and then real work of our day starts...getting the house cleaned up, preparing for the next day, walking the dog, etc. (oh yeah, we got a dog, who is a total pain in the butt, but 2/3 of the kids love 2/3 of the time...in all fairness he is a pretty good dog, but he is a dog and we've discovered what we suspected in the first place...that is, we are not dog people. His name is Benny, by the way, and he is a Chihuahua Beagle cross...and has inherited the worst traits from both breeds :)) Nicole is busy wrapping up the school year now and I'm busy not wrapping up anything at my job. I'm having to travel a lot in the coming months and this is hard on both the family and me. But right now I think I am just grateful to have a good job and the benefits that come along with employment, which include, but are not limited to, having health insurance, and making the house payment.

Life is good. Busy, but good, and happy for the most part. Parenthood is way harder than I ever expected it would be, but infinitely more rewarding also. TTFN.

Jason

a bit of time has passed...

so, it looks like the last post gives the pregnancy update, and as with everything else, there is little time for stuff like this and it hasn't been updated. But, we're going to try to do better to keep this as current as possible. Well, Vincent is just now 4 months old and he's an amazing little sweety! He has such a cute, calm and sweet personality. Here's a little video of his cuteness....as well as an appearance from Lucy who gives us an update on her mac and cheese progress for lunch. It's sort of rare to have captured anything but a quizzical look from this guy because whenever we pull out the camera, he instantly becomes concerned. I'll update more later about our new little guy and our two big guys, but, Vincent still wakes up once or twice a night, and I'm sure it's not too far off.

I also forgot to mention that we're pregnant again. Due end of May. Nicole is sick as a dog. She thinks we're having a boy because she was sick like this with Julian, but not as bad with Lucy. Lots of name ideas floating around, but we'll probably wait a while to pick one.

Disneyland, here we come!

Fall is here. Leaves are falling. We had our first skiff of snow over the weekend...not enough to stick around, but enough to excite the kids. The kids have their halloween costumes ready to go and are excited to go trick-or-treating. Julian is going as a Jedi, complete with hooded cloak, and Lucy will be Yoda. Julian's preschool had a halloween program on Friday and it was so cute to see him sing and dance with all the other little costumed kids. He is the perfect Jedi with a surprising proficiency with his Light Saber.

Nicole and I are excited for halloween too. It's one of our favorite holidays, just because it's fall, the weather is cool, snuggling is cozy, and lots of scary movies on the tv. I am more fond of the scary movies than Nicole is, but she tries to watch them with me....until she falls asleep, that is! I will brew a batch of apple cider and make chili to warm up our cold bodies after a rough night of trick-or-treating, and the kids will no doubt make themselves sick from candy consumption. Good times!

The saturday after halloween we will board a plane to head to Disneyland. Lucy doesn't really understand what's going on, but Julian is excited. We talk about the trip every night before bed. He's excited to Pirates, and the Haunted Mansion.....although I suspect his tune will change on one of both of those when he sees how scary they are! This vacation is going to be fun. In order to be as cool as possible on the trip we're trying to keep expectations low so as not to be dissappointed when we get to disneyland and the kids either fall asleep or throw temper tantrums. We're hoping to be pleasantly surprised, but like I said, we're prepared for anything, with a good attitude, but realizing taking kids this little to the huge park may not turn out as well as we hope. I think we'll have fun either way, but it's going to be very different for Nicole and I than previous trips. This is our first family vacation and we will probably not go again for a few years, so we're trying to maximize on the fun factor. Good luck to us!

I know a secret.

I do.

A merry holiday

Christmas was nice. Everyone got the stomach flu, but we still had a good time. Crab was good but hectic with the kids. Mom's house was crowded but not in a bad way. It was great having so much time off work with Nicole and the kids. I passed a kidney stone at the ER the day after christmas. The kids got lots of great stuff, too much really, but Julian had a blast. It was so great to be there at mom's house with all the siblings, spouses, and new babies. The family is growing year by year. I wish my dad was here to see it.
Julian is talking in spurts. Last night he started saying, "oh no, not again!" over and over again. He has been a model citizen lately. Lucy is such a happy little thing, she's just a joy to have in our family. Nicole is a great mom and a great wife. I wish I could take her away on a sweet vacation or at least a night on the town to show her how much I love and appreciate her. But, we're so wimpy and sentimental....we don't want to leave our kids...so we enjoy the little moments we get together and try to make them special. And by special I mean we try to get the laundry done and the kitchen and toys all picked up after the kids go to bed before we fall asleep ourselves. It's a busy life, but it's good.