Where have I been?

Where have I been?
I feel like I haven't been seen or heard from... but really... I'm around.
Let me explain. I have the amazing privilege of working with the children in our church. There are a lot of them, and I have grown to love and appreciate each one. Some are funny, shy, wiggly, smart... others are just their own! They keep me on my toes, and I will try and help them grow and develop by giving them a little bit of my love.
I have help... from amazing women, and together we put on a Olympics activity for them. You'll appreciate more of what we did once you see some their faces (even the silly ones).
Enjoy for a moment.

We had pillow case races..

building and moving races...

sword diggs...

Warrior balloon pop games...

Shooting games... (look at the poor stuffed animals)

And a few awards!!!

Relatable?

Simon's birthday photos

These pictures might make you think... "geesh... I'm on Simon overload"! While this is true most days for us.. this photo shoot was actually so much fun. I'm crossing my fingers his new attitude lasts but for the last few days he has been smiley, cooperative, funny, and in my humble opinion.. pretty darn cute.
Shonda was so nice to take these pictures of him for his birthday. I will cherish these forever!
Thanks a million Shonda!

Valentine's Day Love

Being Valentine's Day and all, I thought I was being passed a love note by a stranger at church today....

Where's the love?

The funny thing is... our boys were REALLY great today! Our secret unadmirer's disapeared before we could thank them for their unsolicited advice.

I HOPE THEY HAVE A HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Home Sweet Home

(click to enlarge)
Just the 5 of us! This is the most rare picture in all of our albums! All of us... together... not crying (as far as you can actually see), and no toys on the porch!

Someday I'll look back at these pictures and they'll probably be the most sweet since they are taken at OUR house. The house our boys will always remember as their first!

(this is the kind of mood he was in during the whole photo shoot... figures huh? hehehe)

Sick days

This is how we spend our sick days.

While this was effective for awhile...it didn't last long before Trenton got really sick and bribing him with tents, tubes and other fun things quit working. So, we've been on the couch for three days. Hopefully the sun will stay out long enough for us to enjoy some of it.

Birthday Party!

We LOVE Simon!
We love parties!
We love Simon's Birthday Party!!!

I can't believe he is two! A few of his favorite things are...
Cookies
Cookie Monster
Cheese Burgers
Trenton's toys
Dancing
Flipper (his stuffed animal)
Trains
Turtles
& Family

Thanks for coming, celebrating and loving our sweet little Simon!

It's HERE...

I did it!
I finally finished our video.

Here is my warning... this is 16 minutes long!
It is broken up into sections. So, if you dare watch the whole thing, pop some popcorn and enjoy.

Cabo 2009 from Raina on Vimeo.

Christmas toys

Really... who golfs in their living room?

Christmas

Looking at the mound of gifts only made me feel like we were so spoiled!!

We made birthday cakes for Christmas Eve and after we sang songs,
we dumped all our sprinkles in all the crevices.
The cakes, not so yummy... the sprinkles, PERFECT!

To top off the holiday it snowed!!! It was beautiful, and didn't last too long. The boys were crazy for the sled, our snowman, and they had fun building a snow cave with Emile.

Thanks Shonda for the OMSI pass! We couldn't wait to go see the DINOSAUR (said with a roar)! He was just as big as we imagined.

He's coming...

We're totally ready for you big guy!!!
Merry Christmas

Things in mexico...

move a little slower.

can be a lot more beautiful


are family friendly


arrgh full of adventure

and can be like paradise in the middle of winter

(to be continued...)

Finally Ready

We're ready to go trick or treating! Emile and I are the top news stories.

(if you are unsure about Emile's... he's the balloon boy)

And the boys... Capt Hook and the croc!
Happy Halloween!

Argh Matey...

Here at our house... we are gearing up for Halloween!!!
What are you gonna be?

T.M.I.

I cried like a baby last night, but for all the right reasons! It started when Emile was being weird on the phone that morning and told me, without any explanation, to "trust him". Trust what? It was almost like he was begging to me to pry. He started sending crypted texts like "tonight's gonna be a good night. Stay tuned for more texts and don't ask any questions. Trust me." and "310...scenic..." . Most of the messages I couldn't really understand, except I knew he was planning something. Dinner, I guess.
By 3pm, I get a text that says. "I will be home around 4:15 today. I need the house with just the boys for about 30 minutes, so be prepared to leave for a bit. Dress casually nice 4 tonight"
I come back from my 30 minutes, and nothing looks any different from when I left. Except the boys have shoes on and he said to get in the car. Every detail of this night makes me want to jump out of my seat with excitement, but I'll try not to bore you. Basically every step was chorographed, and every place we went was oddly planned. It turned out that while I was gone for 30 minutes, he was frantically packing bags. For EVERYONE! He stashed the goods in the trunk where I would never see, and away we went. The boys got dropped off, for what I assumed was just a nice evening out to dinner, and we took the town. We enjoyed Brazillian cuisine. ( Do all brazillians eat this way? I'm pretty sure those ladies must NOT be eating what I ate!)
After dinner we saw a movie, drank hot chocolate in our favorite truffle shop, drove around and then suddenly pulled over at a beautiful downtown hotel's valet. Now is about the moment where I heard the scratch of a record player doing the rewind sound. Did he just pull over at a hotel? This is NOT my husband!!! Well, we enjoyed the amazing modern art for awhile in the lobby, and then he handed me the key to our room. I'm still not believing that I am awake at this point, and when I open the door, he has set it up with music, flowers, and yes...even a few secret surprises.
That right there is where I lost it!
Totally started blubbering.
I have NEVER had ANYONE be so nice to me. He didn't miss anything. He even remembered my chapstick and hair ties. He grabbed enough diapers, milk, binkies, blankets, shoes and crackers to leave the boys, and the dog in good hands. He kept me guessing all night, and not expecting a single thing. I didn't have a clue and each turn was a shocker!
The only bummer in all this is I didn't have my camera with me.
I'm just left with one picture I took when I got home.


I am SO SO SO in love! And even more because this was for absolutely NO reason! No birthday, no anniversary, not even a sanity break. Just pure perfect kindness that I have never seen before and was most unexpected.
He can go golfing ANYTIME he wants to for awhile!!

Fall festivities

Do you like that Emile? I guess I'm just lucky he didn't get a picture of me with caramel oozing down my fingers.
This was the best treat we've made at home yet and we unfortunately couldn't get Trenton past his phobia of sticky things. He just kept yelling "it's sticky-o".
More for us I guess.
Thanks for enjoying this with us Mom and Dad.

We managed to go to two fun pumpkin patches. I just can't get enough of the picture below. Blow it up and check out Simon's toothy weird grin. He's such a ham!