Handwriting

My friend Molly is great about reminding me to take pictures of things I would NEVER think to take pictures of.

Thank you again, and again Molly for reminding me!

The most recent reminder is taking pictures of my kiddos handwriting. Especially right now because Colin is trying so hard to spell.

CLOSE

OPEN

I love the "P" in OPEN

Me and Em

 Emilie had so much fun looking at herself in the mirror in her new little outfit.

I just had to jump in a few with her.

The writing on the mirror is

"When you can't sleep, count your blessing instead of sheep."

I love this because I have such a hard time sleeping.

I read it a few months ago over at My Dear trash, which is an awesome blog.

my girls

Ring around the Rosie, A pocket full of posies

Ashes, ashes

We all

Fall down!

Such a bazaar nursery rhyme... but my girls love it.

you know I have...

Young kids in the house because I  have a giant card board play house in the living room instead of a couch. And I am totally OK with it.

And more pillow pets then kids.

In my defense they are crazy soft and i have a weakness for the lady bug one.

I have a potty in the Kitchen

And my almost 2 year old would rather sit on it with her clothes on and read Seattle's child magazine instead of peeing in it.

 It is a great free magazine. And you know I love all things free.

the treat jar has pretty washable crayon's in it instead of treats

there is always some sort of mini muffins cooling on the counter.

I know they are upside down. I don't know why but I always Cool them this way.

I pick and enjoy my wines based on how cute the labels are.

There are always at least 5 avocados bathing on my window sill, trying to soak up as much sun the pacific northwest can offer in January

Next to the coolest hobo ever

And I can't leave out the wall of endless pictures

Flanked by the "it has a mind of its own" top of the stairs gate

and last but not least the cutest pair of Adidas Samba's always left in the middle of the kitchen

Brought to you by:

I didn't do it Colin

I'm too cute right after I have woken up from a nap to have done it, Emilie

And the of course I did it, Molly

I hope your house has as much kid evidence as mine!

Happy Friday!

How to...

...make a yummy, cheap Safeway cheese pizza even better.
Emilie's slice is the "just" cheese. For Molly and I we add the spinach, mushroom and Olive slices. For Colin we add the mushrooms & Olive slices. He then eats those slices all by himself.


SOOOOOOO Good! 

rain, rain....

go away, coming again another day....

Last year Emilie was singing this song and stopped half way through it and said with hunched over shoulders "Ah never mind it never works."

And she was right, it never works. this time of year the rain just keeps coming.

for Christmas the kiddos each got an umbrella to help in our daily march up the hill to the bus stop. In the rain.

So out we went with our new umbrellas taking them on their madden voyage.
I always forget that Molly is still a toddler and can't do everything that the other two do. Our normal 5 minute walk without umbrellas took 15 minutes with. Thank goodness we had plenty of time to figure it out. This little one is as stubborn as me if not more and she was going to figure it out all by herself.  as she says "I try! I do! mama."

Even Emilie knows to keep her distance.

Great job Molly!! You did great!

I love my past

 Driving around today A Dave Mathews Band song came on the radio. As with all of their songs it made me smile. They always make me smile because they remind me of my past. I love my past. Starting when I was 18 I worked for the Forest Service fighting forest fires as they are called up North and in Southern California, where I worked they are called wildland fires.

I loved my job and I was extremely proud of my job. The picture below was taken my first year I was with El Cariso Hotshots. The crew is station on the Cleveland N.F. North of San Diego but we traveled all over the United States. Looking at this picture reminds me of how young and dumb I was when I started. I thought I knew so much. But I didn't.

These people taught me so much. And I love who I am today because of them. Not all of the memories are good. Some are down right awful. But most of them are amazing. Throughout my twenties I got to see parts of the U.S. that most people will never see.

The job is crazy hard. You have to be strong and smart at the same time. I miss that.

Now a days I feel useless. I know my job as a mom is  important. All I have ever wanted to be is a wife and mom. The 10 years I fought fires was just a job to pass the time until I got married. And now that I'm in the thick of raising kids I'm not sure what to do with myself.

I've almost been out of fire as long as I was in it. At what point is it not OK to say that was job before kids? When will  it have been too long ago? Am I no longer that person? I was so proud of that person. I did a job with 20 other people that not just anyone could do. Once I left the hotshots and became full time I got to work with a great group of guys on a fire truck and spent a summer working on a helicopter. I want to do something amazing again. I want to do something that I'm proud of.

I'm proud of my kids and the great job we are doing but I need more.

I'm sure that this is also just a phase and it to will pass....

I am the hunched over one 4th from the left in the back row

I'm the one with no hard at on the right between a hard hat guy and no hard hat guy.

I wish the pictures would have scanned in better. I need to figure that out too.

*update*

First of all, I am not and will not be having another baby. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't want another one. I just know what this family can handle. And right now 3 is perfect.

Second, after I posted pictures of "my hobo" I was wondering what Playmobil was thinking when they made him.
First off they called him a A Tramp. A Tramp? Really?
Second off they put a policeman with him.
Weird...

On the site 16bit.com this is some of what they said about the set.

The Policeman & Tramp set is really just a drunk, shoeless, homeless guy on a bench with a cop. As such, it's the best preschool/grade school toy the world has ever seen.

Neither figure is groundbreaking or particularly noteworthy from a toy design standpoint, but the "wow" factor is very high. For anyone that has wanted a drunk cavorting around on your desk, this is the toy you've been waiting for.

The best part is that I have been waiting for him! Instead of an office desk he sits above my sink. Which in a way is my office.

Just for kicks here is my second favorite from our new sets.
The Snake charmer. He's part of the "circus set" and yes, he is standing on a bed of nails.

On mamapedia this morning they had a great deal  $15 for $30 at Cafe Press. When I first got the deal it was because I could personalize my iphone case. But once I went to the site I found soooooo much more.

Here are some of my favorites. 

This should be written on my hand. I make everyone of these mistakes. hahahaha

This little miss is the reason why I love to sew. Everything that I sew, no matter how dorky it is she tells me that its what she has always wanted and that she loves. it.

And I LOVE her and she is what I have always wanted.

Houdini...

Back in December I thought I had Molly figured out. At the bottom of  this post you can see my awesome work. Once again she proved me wrong and was able to get out of her backward pj's. My next option was using her old Halo sleep sack that zipped on the front and down. That way I could turn it around. the only problem was that it was for a 12 month old and Molly is almost in a 3t. Off to the sewing machine! I cut the bottom off of the sleep sac and added a few inches of a fleece blanket. It's very ugly but its holding strong. Its been a few days and she is still cozy in her giant sleep sack every morning.

Of all of the 3 kids she is the most opinionated on the things she likes, doesn't like and things she wants.

After nap she was sure that she wanted to wear a diaper cover of her pants. Whatever Molly. After Emilie beat me down for 2 years I'm done fighting over the clothes my girls wear. Emilie wasn't hard to get dressed she just loved changing her outfits a thousand times a day. After many loads of laundry I realized that if I just let her wear what she wants she stays in it almost all day.

The last few weeks I've been feeling like I want another baby. Or at least be pregnant again.  I know that, that is the last thing this family needs. We are finally hitting a nice stride as a family. The only reason why I think I "need" a baby is because I'm really missing those times with my babies. Those quiet times were a little human looks up at you with pure love. And instead of just thinking about those times and missing them. I need to make sure I find that time in the present with the three I have. I also think that I'm trying to control something I have control over. Meaning get pregnant. The only reason why I know this is because after my dad died I said a million times "if only I had more time with him". Having another baby, for me, is kinda like that. A do over. Another chance.
Instead of wanting another baby I need to go sit on the floor with my kiddos, play barbies and LOVE the one's I am so lucky to have.

She was very proud of herself and even when she is tripping and falling on her face she has a smile.

Really Play Mobil????

A few months ago my amazing friend Sam gave my kiddos a GIANT set of Play Mobiles (actually Sam's sister gave us the set :-) ).  I decided to keep them until Christmas and then I forgot we had them. A few night before Christmas we remembered and got the giant tub out and started going through all of them. In that amazing tub of play mobiles there was a hospital set, mid-evil set, family set and about a bazillion more (I Know we are crazy lucky)

but the one that stood out the most and made me laugh so hard I peed my pants was the strangely accurate hobo collection..

I've decided to keep this one for myself and he hangs out above my sink. Every time I see him it makes me giggle. Not because homelessness is funny, but because whoever designed this cute little man thought "hey would should give him a bottle, stick, a park bench and call him a hobo.

Thanks Play Mobile for the laughs!

Happy birthday to My 3 Little Ducks

I can't believe it has already been a year. I actually thought I started this blog on Jan. 1, 2010. Oops guess I was wrong. It was Dec. 30 2009.

Here is my first post of many
http://my3littleducks.blogspot.com/2009/12/here-i-go.html

A lot has changed in a year but one thing is for sure. I still have awful grammar, I still suck at spelling and I take a bazillion pictures. But, I've learned soooooo much from all of the new people I've met through this blog and I wouldn't change a minute of it.

Thank you for reading this little ol'blog and sharing a few laughs we me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

catch up

I feel like I'm finally getting caught up on everything since our trip to Mexico. But then again I'm in complete denial that Christmas and New Years eve have come and gone. I remember thinking a year ago when we were planning our vacation that it seemed so far away. And now it is all over. Holidays and vacations are both so exciting leading up to the day and then its awesome as you are living it....then its over.

BAM! Reality. But then again reality isn't so bad. I love getting my house put back together and getting everyone back on a routine.

The only true bummer part is that Doug and I can't start working off the holiday pounds we gained because we are both sick, again.

Here are some of the greatest hits

Emilie LOVES the bike Santa brought her

Colin of course LOVES all of his new LEGO's and his TAG map



Christmas blew this little one's mind.



And the hits kept coming



She really mastered present opening



She then got busted enjoying her crayons



Colin spent all day building



Then we danced and danced to our new (to us) record player. I had an old fisher price one that I got when I was Colin's age and it finally passed away this year. (Stuff was made sooooo much better back in the day)  All of those awesome old records finally have a new home to spin on!!

Colin's (official) birthday party
finally happened the Monday after Christmas at Chuck E Cheese. He loved it!! It was his first ever friend birthday party and he had so much fun sharing his big day with his best buds.

Happy 6th birthday Colin

You are such an amazing boy!