Happy Birthday #1

My baby is 8 years old today! It doesn't seem like it has been that long since we brought him home that first Easter weekend. I was tired and exhausted from labor, but so happy to have our baby boy home. Now he is growing up to be a compassionate, caring, too cool for school guy. He has a brilliant mind as well. Adam and I always laugh because my one prayer was that he would have some personality. Let's just say there should have been no worry on my part. This guy has never met a stranger and enjoys people much like his mom. Happy birthday, buddy! We love you.

Learning New Tricks

#2 has officially taken off the training wheels. It was amazing. In one afternoon he was riding his bike without help. He has since become an expert. He loves it and in all honesty we love it too.

Look at his smile. Priceless!

Room transformation

As stated in an earlier blog, I am currently getting the little boys room put together. Here is one of the first things that we did. I ordered these decals off etsy and then had a tall friend come and help put them up. They look very good and I love the feel it gives the room.

More outside

I had such a streak of blogs and well, I just ran out of time. Here are some more pics from our time of wonderful weather.

#3 loves to go in and out of the doggie door to our garage. #2 being himself

#1 playing ball and being on the teeter-totter

I finally got him not posing and not wearing his hat. :)

Outside At Last

We love to play in our yard. This day included mowing the lawn. I love the fact that the boys like to be like their daddy.

Me trying to be artistic Even the 8 year old likes to play

WARNING: Cute baby

Spring

Spring arrived yesterday and I can honestly say that I am a happy girl. We had an amazing week of weather and it lifted my spirits considerably. I find that I am more motivated to get things done, play with my children, and just be in a better mood. I like the other seasons, but in all honesty spring is my favorite. It brings such a renewal and freshness to life. In Riverside, we get to smell the goodness of the oranges blooming. It is truly AMAZING! I need to get a candle with the same fragrance or a perfume or something so when I am down and out I can use it. Here are just a few things that are blooming in our yard.

I am most excited about this one. It is our avocado tree. This is the first time we have had it bloom since we have lived here. I can hardly wait for these little buds to produce some good fruit.

My wonderful lemon tree that I love to make homemade lemonade from.
Birds of Paradise, just for you mom.

This is some flower in our front yard, but I have no idea what it is.

Pictures of the boys

I am not biased at all, but I have got some good lookin' men. Watch out ladies...

#4 at 5 months
#3 at 2 months shy of 2

#2 at 4 1/2 years

#1 soon to be 8

New Camera

Well, I did it. I bit the bullet and bought a really great DSLR. It was probably one of the hardest things to spend money on, but I am so glad I did. I have been taking pictures like crazy and even using the manual setting so I can learn how to really take pictures. These are from the first night when I opened the box and got it out. Thiese are our friends Gab and James. They come over and each dinner with us about once a week and in return they watch our children. I can honestly say that I would not have made it these past few months without their help in caring for our children.

Gotta love the brothers, (I love Sawyer's expression, "not again")

Reading

Reading is a very important skill for me and for my children to learn. I am a teacher and see the strong correlation between reading and success. So based on that fact we have a bedtime routine that includes reading. Aiden is often up much later than he should be and like his mother tends to fall asleep while reading. Here is what Adam and I walked into the other night. It was too funny. (G-ma did you see what book he was reading)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

If you didn't know it already, I am Irish. Shanahan was my maiden name and my Great- Grandad was full blood Irish. So today being St. Patrick's Day I thought I would give a little history lesson about St. Patrick and why he is celebrated.

This was taken from this site and gives the brief overview.

According to Coilin Owens, Irish literature expert and Professor Emeritus of English at George Mason University, Saint Patrick is traditionally thought to have lived "between 432-461 A.D., but more recent scholarship moves the dates up a bit." At the age of sixteen he was kidnapped from his native land of the Roman British Isles by a band pirates, and sold into slavery in Ireland. Saint Patrick worked as a shepherd and turned to religion for solace. After six years of slavery he escaped to the Irish coast and fled home to Britain.
While back in his homeland, Patrick decided to become a priest and then decided to return to Ireland after dreaming that the voices of the Irish people were calling him to convert them to Christianity.
After studying and preparing for several years, Patrick traveled back to Ireland as a Christian missionary. Although there were already some Christians living in Ireland, St. Patrick was able to bring upon a massive religious shift to Christianity by converting people of power. Says Prof. Owens, "[St. Patrick] is credited with converting the nobles; who set an example which the people followed."
But Patrick's desire to spread of Christianity was not met without mighty opposition. Prof. Owens explains, "Patrick ran into trouble with the local pagan priesthood, the druids: and there are many stories about his arguments with them as well as his survival of plots against them." He laid the groundwork for the establishment of hundreds of monasteries and churches that eventually popped up across the Irish country to promote Christianity.
Saint Patrick is also credited with bringing written word to Ireland through the promotion of the study of legal texts and the Bible, says Prof. Owens. Previous to Patrick, storytelling and history were reliant on memory and orally passing down stories.
Patrick's mission in Ireland is said to have lasted for thirty years. It is believe he died in the 5th century on March 17, which is the day St. Patrick's Day is commemorated each year.

A clean look

So if you haven't seen Adam in awhile this is what he did look like. He had become Grizzly Adam. It was out of pure laziness, but then became somewhat of an experiment. He felt the need though to shave. Now, Adam has had something on his face since after #2 was born. That means for 4 years Adam has had a beard. The boys were tripping out while he was shaving and even after it was all said and done. I didn't get a real good after shot because Adam really didn't like it so I let it be.

Crazy Daddy!

He was studying while I took this shot. Can you tell it was with my new camera?

The terrible two

There two were born one month apart from each other and are quite the pair. This is #4 for our friends and #3 for us. If they were still our neighbors who knows what kind of trouble these two (almost) two year olds would do.

What cuties!!

Weekend in Bakersfield

At the end of February we took a weekend getaway to Bakersfield to visit one of Adam's friends and our former neighbors. Between the two families we have 8 children so you can imagine the chaos that existed, but in all honesty the kids play really well. Bedtime is a nightmare though. It was their #2's birthday so we had a birthday shindig for him. My friend and I made a farm cake which was a fun adventure. The kids may balloon birds which was also a fun adventure. We had a great time and miss them terribly.

making balloon animals

the final birds

enjoying cupcakes

She finally posts

Ok so i know that i have been out of the loop and i have some great reason why.





#1 i am a teacher = no time except preping for the cst (california standards test) and making sure that my students are actually focused and learning





#2 i am the mom of 4 boys - enough said

#3 i have become a slave to these machines

#3 and #4's room or more importantly the decor

Can you tell I have been super busy and school has been taking over as well as the other things such as four boys. So we had to split the boys up into a big boy room and a little boy room. It is fun to begin to decorate a room. I am excited to stretch my decorating brain out and attempt to pull some things together. Here are a few pieces that I recently purchased on etsy. Let me sat that it will be an outdoorsy theme yet vintage and eclectic.

I bought these prints from here

Then I bought this for the walls. Funny how the walls are basically the same color as ours.