Rushed update.

Haven't updated this in a while. Nolan has recovered nicely, since the last post. He just has 2 little scars, his bellybutton is all back to normal. His birthday is in 2 weeks from today! This year has gone by so fast. We are having a party for him the weekend after. It started off as just a small cake and ice cream thing, and has morphed into me inviting pretty much everyone local with/without kids, and is pirate themed, with a pinata and a bounce house and everything else. ha We are getting the yard all fixed up for that. We tore apart the old deck, took down the patio cover, and the atrium. 2600 lbs of wood altogether. Now there is just a square of dirt where the deck once was, and also where the atrium was. I know we are rebuilding the patio cover first, and that is probably all that will get done by the party.
The week after, Devin's brothers will be here. Maybe they know how to build a deck. ha!

School is going great with both the kids. Nic is already about 1/2 way done with 1st grade math. I have bought some materials on my own that are at the same level, because before we move on, I want to make sure he knows it really good. So we've just been reviewing what he learned over the summer. He has been reading books to norah and nolan before bedtime, which is freaking adorable. Norah is starting to read small, simple words too. So cool. Next Friday, CHEP is having a field trip to the beach to see the tidepools. They will love that.

I will have to add more to this when I have more time. (lol when is that??? )

baby boy

Flushed, and delirious.

Nolan had his surgery yesterday morning :( He couldn't eat after 11:00 the night before, and he usually wakes up to nurse every couple hours, so it was a long night. No sleep was had. We had to get up for the day at 4:30, to get to the hospital on time. After it was all over, he slept for most of the day, still disoriented from the anesthesia, and groggy from the pain meds. They are not done, and he has to go back in 6 months, for another surgery. :( Then he'll be good as new.

For now, here are his "battle wounds". The bandages don't come off till monday.





He is back to his normal self today though. I haven't had to give him medicine at all, and he's back to crawling all over. Since he slept all day yesterday, he is refusing to nap today. boo.

3rd, 4th, and smuggled fireworks.

Every year, here in Orange, they have a carnival thing on July 3rd. We have gone a couple times, and this year by far, was the most fun. I don't know if it was because the weather was better than it has ever been this time of year, or if the kids are finally at the age where they don't need to be chased around everywhere. I enjoyed myself, since all I had to do was hold nolan, and sit in the shade listening to music, while devin and the kids played on the bouncy house things. Then when the sun went down, we were treated to actual fireworks.

Race!


The 4th, we stayed home and were boring. But, we smuggled in some 'legal' (lame) fireworks from a neighboring city, since they are outlawed here. BOO. They don't even sell sparklers anymore! Oh well, at least we have a yard to secretely burn things in. I remember being in this house as a kid, and this neighborhood was the shit on the 4th of July. Our neighbor across the street would light real fireworks right in front of the house, and the whole neighborhood got together for a block party. One house would do the bbqing, one house would do the decorations, everyone was involved and it was awesome. Anyway, this is all we get now.

The End of America

Everyone should read this book/see this movie. Seriously. That is all. (and Jemma, Naomi Wolf reminds me of you.)

A day at the beach

The weather was nice, so we decided to go down to the beach. Very relaxing. :) Now that the kids are older, and we only have 1 kid to chase, I think we'll finally be taking advantage of the beach this summer.

I have been slacking on the blogging!

Things that have been going on:

I chopped off all of my hair. (I was over the post partum hair loss crap, and decided to just start over. I haven't been carded since cutting it, so I guess I look old. Either that or they are starting to recognize me at the liquor store. HA!)



Devin is still in school. This week is midterms, so he's been studying constantly. He's already been EPA certified, and even in customer service (which I didn't know you could do.) 5 months to go!

Nic has about a month of school left, then he'll have a kindergarten graduation ceremony. It seems a little late, since he's already in "1st grade" in most of his subjects, but I'll take it for the photo op! I have to turn in work tomorrow, and we'll be getting the summer session stuff already. I can't believe we have been homeschooling for a whole year already!




Norah busted her nose open, and ended up with 4 stitches. =( She was climbing on a chair next to my bed, slipped, and hit her face on the bed frame. They numbed her up at the hospital with lidocane gel, so while they were sewing her up, she was singing.


She's still my little beauty.



Nolan wants to crawl SO BAD! But, he won't let me put him down long enough to practice. Every time I do put him down, he turns onto his knees, but that's it. Next week, I'm sure, he'll be mobile.



Yesterday was my mom's birthday. She spent the day at the nursery picking out flowers for her garden. I have been sick for the past couple weeks, so I didn't feel up to making a cake, but Norah picked this one out, and it was perfect and delicious.





My grandma is still not speaking to me. We are into month 4 now. Oh well, she can suck it. haha

Bad Religion!

So the show was awesome. We got there right before they went on, and squeezed ourselves fairly close. A few songs into the show, Devin said, "That's the UFC guy!" so I looked, and right in front of me was Joe Stevenson. (We couldn't remember his name, so we looked him up when we got home, and his stats say that he is 5'7. NO WAY! That guy was shorter than me! haha )

I had just as much fun people watching as I did seeing Bad Religion. My favorite guy, by far, was the guy up on the balcony with the ridiculously HUGE mohawk, singing along with such conviction, only he didn't know any of the words. It was great.
They played old songs, not so old songs, and a brand spanking new one, Resist Stance, which I have a video of, but the internet hates me, so I can't share it here, but here's a LINK.

I'm sure you can't tell, but I love Bad Religion. :) And I got to see them FOR FREE! I am going to be happy for quite a long time.

Somebody pinch me.

I just won tickets to see Bad Religion tomorrow night! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Seriously though, can you think of anyone more appreciative than me?



Nobody ever wins these things! And, I DID! :D :D :D :D

BAD FUCKING RELIGION!

I have not seen them for 10 years. I am so excited. I CAN'T WAIT!

Birthday season 2010

March is the longest month of the year.

Norah's 4th




My dad's 64th (it's a projector, his favorite thing in the whole world.)



Nic's 6th



It's not over either. Tomorrow is Nic's birthday. We are taking the amtrack to San Juan Capistrano, going to the zoo, and taking the train back. Then it's presents and cake.
Norah's was Chuck E Cheese. (remind me never to do that again.)
My dad's was here, and full of silent treatment from my grandmother. YAY!

I feel like I have been working constantly this month, and at the same time, have got nothing done.

New Lens

My new lens came in the mail today! And I was so excited to try it out, that I didn't bother to even brush the kids hair before shooting them. ha (also, blogger turns these pics into crap when I upload them. The originals are crystal clear.)














my teething boy...


Wow, I'm off to give the kids baths!

It's been awhile.

Nolan is no longer the sleepy newborn, but has practically over night transformed into a real babbling, playful, not sleeping all the time BABY. So I haven't had time to update this. He is sleeping in his bouncer next to me now, so hopefully I don't wake him up with the clicking of the keys.
Devin is in school (yay!) and is doing great. He has a test every Friday, and the worst he has done so far, is miss 2. So, so far so good. Homeschooling Nic without him here has been a challenge. He is no longer here to hold Nolan while I teach Nic, so I have to wait for nap time to try to get anything done, and then he always wakes up 1/2 way through, and I have to distract him with toys. It's been hard, but do-able. Next year will be better. Nolan will be more independent, so I won't have to have him on my lap the whole time.
Norah's birthday is in 2 weeks, and it really snuck up on me this year. Usually, I have presents stashed away starting a little after Christmas, but this year, I have been so busy with everything else that I didn't even realise how close she is to being 4. AND how close Nic is to being 6! How do I have a 6 year old?! I am old. Anyway, I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, and she said, "a real helicopter and a real motorcycle, so I can go really fast." Yeah, she's not getting those. LOL I am trying to come up with the money to get her a drum set though. The girl is musical, and that's the crayon she has picked out of the box. Loud as it may be, she has rhythm.
Nic is really into Star Wars, so I'm sure that will be the theme of his birthday. I can't really think about his birthday yet though. One kid at a time please!

school is cool.

This morning, Nic had a class, and while he was there I talked with the supervising teacher, and got a progress report for him. He is still on track or above on everything. She actually said that he is one of the smartest kids in kindergarten. The only problem is, the people in his kindergarten class would never know that. In class, he is the one that is off doing his own thing, and distracts the class. When all the kids are sitting down doing work, he's off drawing on the board, or washing his hands. When I went to pick him up today, I could see the frustration in the teacher's eyes. But you know what, I don't care. I thought about not taking him there anymore, but how else is he going to learn how to behave in that type of setting. I decided to stick through it, and try everything I can to make him understand how he is supposed to act while he's there. I thought he would do good today. I peeked in at him a couple times, and once, the teacher was reading the kids a book. All the kids were sitting down listening, and he was standing up next to her....but he was listening to the story. The second time I peeked, everyone else was sitting down writing, and he was up playing with the pencil sharpener.
I asked him if he would rather go to school every day or stay at home and learn, and he said, "I want to stay home. I just can't think when I'm at school." So it's nice to know that we're doing the right thing for him.

Speaking of school, Devin FINALLY got approved for the other 1/2 of financial aid, and will be starting school on the 25th. I am so freaking happy. He will be done July 15th, and they will help place him somewhere after that. He's been trying to get in to this school since September, and it's finally happening!

Trippy.

Today was turn in day for Nic's school again. Nothing new. He's still ahead in math and right on track in everything else. My mom came with me today though, because last weekend, our old landlord called her to tell her the old house is finished, and gave her the code to the lockbox so we could go see it. It was WEIRD being back in that house. Everything is the same, but polished differently. They moved some walls, but mostly just changed the carpet to SHAG. Seriously. And downstairs, it's wood. Nothing matches, and it might look good in pics, but when you're there, you can tell everything is the cheapest of the cheap. They are actually asking $2850 a month, plus all utilities! You can make a mortgage payment for waaaay less that that.

Anyway, here are pics. (because when do I go anywhere without my camera?? ha ) And also, these are mostly for Michelle.

Our plant, that they have taken such good care of.


Color blind much?


The 70's are making a comeback.


My room! (I think Michelle would be the only one to notice the difference.)



Kitchen (That's the cheapest dishwasher they make, I know because I bought it. )


The huge window is gone!


The front.

Blast from the past

While I was uploading videos, I saw these, and it's a trip watching them. Jesus kids grow fast.

This is Nic, 2, when we lived in Salt Lake. Counting the stairs in our building.


And here's Norah, just shy of 2, when we were living at my parents house.


And since I just posted a video of him pacing, here is Nic pacing back when I was still pregnant with Norah, so he's 1. He's an oldschool pacer. (our camera was a POS back then, so it skips and is like 2 seconds long.)

Thanksgiving

This year, my grandma's boyfriend was invited to dinner. He is someone that she went to school with, and recently found again through facebook. Yes even my grandma has a facebook. Back in the 30's he built race cars, so that's his claim to fame, and also pretty much all he talks about. Anyway, as soon as he sat down to eat, my dad spilled a whole glass of cranberry juice in his lap. As the meal went on, topics of conversation included "what is that sound?" (which went on for a good 20 minutes before we realised that it was a hearing aid), race cars, and of course Norah's contribution, "do you remember when I learned to poop in the toilet?" Oh yes, Thanksgiving was great.

dessert


Nolan


Norah


and Nic, running.


*these videos are widescreen for some reason, and blogger cuts off the right 1/2 of them. Boo.

Nic

Yesterday was another turn in day for Nic's school. While he was with the rest of the kids doing Thanksgiving-y stuff, I talked to our supervising teacher. Apparently, last time we were there, the teachers were asking her if Nic was ADHD, because he is constantly moving, and kind of in his own world. I have always thought that's what it is, but he was diagnosed with autism - high functioning. I guess it fit at the time, but as he's grown, I just don't think that's what it is anymore.
Anyway, I spent a good hour and a 1/2 talking to the teacher and the special needs liaison about how to go about getting him re-evaluated by the school district. Since we are homeschooling, I didn't think we could do that. I guess he can still be evaluated, but not treated unless he is enrolled in school. I have to fill out a bunch of papers, and write a letter to the school board, but he will get re-evaluated. Then in January, the health network for our insurance changes, so I can take him to a not ghetto doctor, and have him re-evaluated again through them too. I am predicting that the diagnosis will be different than it was when he was 3.

A Month Already??!

Nolan is a month old today! This month went by so fast. I guess that tends to happen when you are super busy. And the waking up every few hours to nurse sort of makes the month feel like one giant day. But he is the sweetest baby in the world. Maybe it's because he's my 3rd, but he has been my easiest baby so far.
I had my PP appointment yesterday and got on their scale, and I am 2 lbs under where I started! I guess having babies is the new diet. ha But, I have to go back in 2 weeks because apparently I am still anemic. Boo.

After I got through with that, we all went to Knott's because it's veteran's month, which means cheap admission. There was practically no one there, so there were no lines. We were only there for 4 hours, and we went on everything. And we even spent about an hour at the photo studio, getting the kid's cowboy pictures done.

Devin's liquids, pops' digital

Someone took a video!


Evicted

Jeff P | MySpace Video

Liquid light and Halloween

Devin and my dad had their second show together this last week. I think everyone loved it. Devin did all of the liquids this time, and my dad just did the digital stuff. They don't have another show set up yet, but I know there are bands that want to work with them, they just have to actually schedule something. This band that they have been working with wants them to do the lights for a music video. I guess we'll see what happens with that.

liquids


more liquids



Pops








Halloween was also this weekend! I love Halloween. It is my favorite holiday. This year we didn't really do anything super fun, because having a baby took most of our attention. BUT, we still had fun. Nic started feeling sick Halloween morning, and just got progressively worse throughout the day, and by bed time, Norah was feeling sick too. This morning, I woke up with a sore throat, so that sucks. We still went trick-or-treating last night though. We are lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that is really active, so it was lots of fun. We went through 8 bags of candy, and had to turn off the porch light by 8:30 because we ran out of candy.

Nolan slept almost the whole time.


This was before we left. We look happy, but I was sweating to death since it was in the upper 80's, Norah lost her shoes, Nic was acting like a zombie because of his cold... Devin and I were bickering at each other the whole time.


Sleepy baby


Nic chatting it up with the killer clown




We had lots of fun, and got enough candy to last until next year.