Lil' E says....

We were putting Esther to bed and trying to have prayer time and Esther was picking her nose. Steve said "Esther, don't do that." And Esther responded with "Wait, I almost got it. It's a big one."

A Whirlwind Weekend

Last weekend, our famiiy made the familiar trek up to Morro Bay, except, this time it wasn't the typical visit. We were going for ONE main reason....to see Pia graduate from nursing school. We couldn't be prouder. She worked hard, kept her nose to the grind and is going to make one AMAZING nurse. And she's been offered a job and starts June 14th. We were so blessed to be able to be there to share in it and celebrated it as well. Way to go, Pia...we have set an inspiring example for your kids.

She did it!!!

In the nursing lab, they had all the dummies dressed up for the special occasion. The kids weren't sure what to think of them. Colt was definitely a little wigged out, while my daughter was...what else, interested in free food.

While we were up there, we were able to see Colt in a skateboard competition. He competes every couple weeks in the Central Coast Monster Skate Park Series in the 7 and under division. I was SO excited to finally see him compete in person!! Check out the pink helmet. :)

Waiting for Colt to skate.

He placed 3rd!!!

Colt and Matilda are SO good with Esther and Gideon...I love seeing them together.

The crew listening to Cafe Musique at the Back Bay Music Festival in Los Osos.

It was my mom's birthday the Saturday we were up there...a pretty special one, celebrating with all her grandchildren.

A typical morning up at the Laurie house.

Wordless Wednesday

Lil' E says.....

I used to post cute things Esther said on Facebook, but since I am no longer on there (too much to explain, so let's just say that the negative outweighed the positive on being a member), SO many of you (all 5) will miss out on the cute and wonderful and sweet things Esther says on a daily basis. So I am adding a new segment to my blog...Lil' E Says.
So this weekend, we went up to my brother's in Morro Bay and we spent some time in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. We were "hit up" by quite a few homeless people. Anyway, Esther was looking at them inquisitively. I told her that some of them didn't have homes and that some had no where to go because they might not even have families to love them. She gave me a weird look and that was it...no further discussion.
Well, today Esther and I were in the parking lot of Vons, putting our cart away and a homeless man came up to us and asked for change. My wallet wasn't on me, so I said, "Sorry, I don't." When he walked away, Esther said, "He has no bed. I have a bed....big girl bed. Jesus loves me." Then she smiled a big smile. We then had a conversation where I told her that Jesus loves that man too, just sometimes it isn't enough. It's about choices and he might not have a bed or home because he made bad choices or something bad happened to him that he couldn't control. We then talked about our need to share Jesus' love with others. It was one of those "teachable moments"...one of our first.....and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wordless Wednesday

Fun ages

This was taken maybe 6 weeks ago. Started by me asking Gideon to peekaboo, but he was SO not in the mood.
Esther wraps it up by singing the never-ending "finkle, finkle little star" song. Gosh, I love this age. :) (check out how she tells me "no, me do it"...story of our life right now.)

Our baby is 3

A month ago our sweet, funny Esther turned 3. And it was QUITE the shindig. Not only was it Esther's first kid party, it was the biggest playdate I've hosted. 10 kids and 7 mommies and I survived. It was a gorgeous Friday morning and those 2 hours flew by. They ate, dug, swang and played. My little girl is growing up.

Our Ni Hao, Kai Lan chinese wonderland.
Little umbrella cupcakes for her friends and a Ho Ho cupcake for our birthday girl.

Getting ready to blow out her candle.

Her friends.

My mom was my right hand that day. Don't know how I could have done it without her.

Most of the kids

The next day (Saturday) was Esther's actual birthday and we spent it getting pancakes, balloon animals and some great deals at yard sales.

That evening we had all our family over for dinner. We had a great dinner of asparagus mac n cheese on the patio. It was the perfect evening.

My "girls" in the playhouse.

The whole fam damily. Except me, of course, the photographer.

My girl being, what else, silly.

Getting ready to blow out her candles.

I can't believe she is 3. She is the funniest little girl I have ever met and has about 20 different goofy faces. She is constantly singing songs, dances around the house to ABBA and praise music, loves animals and is a great helper in the kitchen. She's fearless, becoming a great swimmer, knows all her colors & tells me all the time that she misses me (even if we spent the whole day together). My life is definitely brighter and more challenging with her in it. What a miracle she is. In the words of her Amma, she is definitely "our icing on the cake."

Don't hate me...I'll try and make it up to you

Where have I been you might ask? Well with 2 growing toddlers who keep me on my toes, my ministry as the Coordinator of MOTs, Women's Bible study & some health issues, you can figure that out for yourself.
Well it doesn't matter, because my blog is back, renamed "The Ocho" (a homage to Dodgeball & my husband's weird fascination with that movie). I will try, in the next few weeks, to fill you in on all the lastest happenings of this year...wow, can you believe it's May?

Anyway, to wet your appetite (I know my kids are cute, I'm not gonna lie) here are some pictures of our last few weeks.

Steve had to go out to a Air Force base near Las Vegas for a couple of weeks and for 4 wonderful days we joined him. Got a killer deal on a room (one of the perks of being in the military) and had a wonderful time, just being a mommy and not having to deal with cleaning and laundry and 2 animals vying for my attention.

2 of the cutest kids I know.

MGM has a killer pool, complete with lazy river and a nice reef area for the kids. We spent quite a bit of time out there.

Shark Reef Aquarium.

A great view made even grander by 2 cute kids.

In between the weeks Steve was gone, March ARB had their Air Show. So fun to bring the kids this year because last time we went we didn't even have Gideon and Esther was too young to throughly enjoy it. What an awesome, awesome day....plus always fun spending the day where daddy works.

Esther and Steve showing off the Predator. So funny that this is a picture of the drone that Steve works on now and in the background is the plane Steve used to work on.

Gideon checking things out.

We met up with Esther's BF Sydney and her brother, Riley. Man, did those kids enjoy those loud jets. Esther said those were her favorite.

A picture I should probably frame for my dad for Father's Day.

Capturing the moment of Steve's arrival home.

What can I say, post-bathtime is a crazy time.

A great Mother's Day picture of my grandma, my offspring and mysef.

Seriously one of the cutest pictures Steve has ever taken of Esther and her Nannie.

So I hope you can forgive me and keep me accountable on keeping my blog current. My kids are growing so fast and in the words of Steven Tyler "I don't wanna miss a thing."