Kira is 18 months!!!

Yesterday was Kira's half birthday. It's just amazes me how much time flies. It seemed like we just brought her home yesterday. She's grown so much and has developed her little personality...with a mind of her own, ahh - why do they grow up so fast. I didn't get a chance to take pictures of her on her actual half birthday, so we tried to take some tonight before bedtime. She was so tired and she was such a goofy girl.

Kira acting silly.

I thought this was so cute I had to post it even though she's got blood-tinged snot coming out of her nose.

Kira up close.
Kira's famous open mouth kisses.
Kira laughing at me because she'd lick me when she kissed.

Well, it was a really busy weekend for us. The weather was beautiful, I don't know what's going on (actually I have a pretty good idea that it's global warming), but the weather is really starting to freak me out. Thank goodness it was Mike's long weekend, he was able to stay home all weekend with us. On Friday, Mike took the kids to the school's PTA barbeque while Annie and I went to swimming class. On Saturday, Jake had his second soccer game. He did alright, but he didn't seem to get into the game until the last quarter. Maybe he was hungry or something. We didn't have lunch before the game because Iwas afraid he'd get stomach cramp. On Sunday, Jake went to a birthday party and Mike and I got to go to the Seahawks home opener, I don't want to talk about it :( The only thing I will say is that it felt good screaming at the top of my lung. You ought to try it if you get the chance.

Pics from first soccer game

Soccer and more

Jake started soccer a couple of weeks ago and his first game yesterday. He really enjoyed playing last year and he's really enjoying playing soccer now. He spent some time practicing late summer at the Boys and Girls Club and he's a pretty good soccer player.

The weather was great on saturday - no rain :). Jake scored 2 goals, but unfortunately his team lost to the Black Panthers. There are 6 kids on his team this year, 4 were from last year's team and they played pretty well together. I'm sure there'll be lots more goals to come for him.

Kira at Jake's soccer practice.
Kira swinging.
Jonah at the playground.
Kira driving. Bikini Babe
Jake at the Seahawks second pre-season game.

Jake's Birthday Party

Jake had his party today at Pump It Up. All in all, 22 kids were there, the biggest group we've had so far party-wise. I'm so glad that so many kids were able to attend and celebrate Jake's birthday with us. A big THANKS to everyone! Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to open presents there, so Jake opened his mountain of presents once we got home - I don't think he's ever had that many presents to open in one sitting, he was so happy and excited to play with all the toys he got.

I was so tired by the time we got home, all I wanted to do was sleep. I procrastinated with his cake and cupcakes so I ended up staying up really late saturday night, but I think everything turned out pretty good and Jake really liked his cake, so it was well worth it.

Jake's Soccer Cake

Soccer cupcakes

Jake's birthday throne Present time

Bowling and Seahawks

Seahawks played their first pre-season game this year on Saturday. I had suggested the Mike take the kids to the pre-season games because they're less rowdy vs. the regular season games. So Jonah got to go to the game against the Bears yesterday and Jake will go to the game on the 29th. Mike and Jonah left the game before it ended because Jonah was getting bored sitting there since he doesn't really understand football yet. In the end I think they both enjoyed some boys bonding time.

On Saturday morning, the kids and I went bowling with my friends from work, Brian, Emily, and baby Ashley. As usual, the boys had a great time. Kira did OK until the end, she got tired and was throwing tantrums...I felt bad because I left kind of abruptly leaving Brian and Emily. Baby Ashley did wonderful while her mommy and daddy bowled, she was being a cheerleader waving her blanky and shouting out cheers.

Jake and Jonah (Jonah has a chip in his mouth, in case you're wondering)

Kira and Ashley - so serious Ashley enjoying some footsies

Children's ER here we come again...

I was lucky enough to leave work early today, thinking I had time to go to the grocery store and run some errands and pick up Kira earlier than usual to spend more time with the little princess....little did I know that I would end up spending most of my evening in the ER at Children's with none other than Jonah.

At 4pm, Mike called me and told me that KinderCare called him and informed him that Jonah got a cut on his eyebrow and may need it to be glued...great news at 4pm on a friday at that. How did he get a cut you ask? Well, apparently Jonah was playing on top of the slide when another kid accidentally bump into him causing him to bonk his head on the slide and subsequently slide down head first into the ground. Great, I know. So I called Jonah's pediatrician's office, who said that since the cut was so close to his eye they'd feel more comfortable sending us to Children's and in case he needs to have stitches he'd need sedation. So I picked him up and drove straight to Children's with Kira. I knew he was OK because when I picked him up, he was outside on the playground playing, however the cut kept oozing so medical attention was definitely needed.

We got to the ER at 4:45, about 1 hour after the incident. We waited for more than 1 hour to get into the ER. Then stayed another 2.5hours for them to irrigate and glue the area. The thing that I felt worst about the most was that they didn't want Jonah to eat at first, because they didn't know whether he'd need sedation or not, so he was starving until 7:30 when they figured out that Jonah didn't need stitches. Meanwhile, I had to keep Kira happy with Cheerios, apple juice, crayons, and whatever else I had to do. She did great thankfully.

We finally left Children's right after 8pm. I got him McDonald's because that's what he wanted and he was so brave at the hospital. Anyways, this was a picture I took while he was eating...it doens't show the cut very well but I think you get the idea. I'm glad that it wasn't worst than what it turned out to be.

Happy Birthday Jake!

Jake is 7!!! Where did the time go? It's as if it was yesterday when Mike and I went to the hospital at 5 in the morning to have him. Well - over the last 7 years Jake has grown alot, he has become an independent, intellegent, and very responsible little man. For his birthday we went to Red Robin, the boys favorite restaurant. We will have a party on Sunday for him at Pump It Up, it should be a blast. Looking back at all the pictures over the last 7 years, it's amazing how much he's changed and how much he's stayed the same. Every year he loses a bit more of his "babiness", eventually it'll be all gone and I'll be so sad... I love the little guys so much, all of you parents know what I'm talking about, the do anything for him kind of love. I feel very lucky to have him in my life, can't wait to see what he will become...

Jake at birth. He weighed only 7lb 14oz, the heaviest of his siblings.
Jake at 1, he was really sick on his first birthday, poor guy.

Jake at 2 - loving his birthday cake.

Jake got a train table for his 3rd birthday...he still plays with it.
Jake at 4 years old, little Mariners fan in training.
Jake had his first real birthday party with his friends at 5 years old.
Jake turning 6...getting into Transformers.

Jake's 7th birthday dinner at Red Robins.

Waiting to enjoy his sundae while they sang "happy happy birthday".
Jake's new bike!

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Jordan, aka baby Jo (at least that's what Jonah calls her) turned 4 last week. She had her party at Logan Park today. The party went really well, the kids were kept busy with various activities and they had a great time at the park. The weather held up too, which was really nice. I was really afraid that it'd rain and ruin the cakes that I worked so hard on. I volunteered to make Jordan's birthday cake, I've always wanted to make a princess/barbie cake but never had the occasion to do so. Stephany was kind enough to entrust me with Jordan's cake and left it pretty much up to me. I originally was only making a princess cake, but then after I baked it, I realized that it probably won't be too tasty because it had to bake for a long time for the middle of the cake to set. So I made a castle cake to go along with the princess theme. I think it came out alright - not entirely happy with the castle cake. Overall, I am satisfied with how the cakes turned out, since I've never made either kind before. I think all the kids, especially all the little girls, really liked the cakes.

Kira playing on the playground. Jonah making his placemat. Jake "on top of the world".Cinderella is Jordan's favorite princess, so I tried to make a Cinderella cake, but it came out like this. I had a really hard time with the hair, I can't figure out Cinderella's hair-do. It would probably look more like Cinderella if I put fondant "gloves" on her arms, but I had a difficult enough time making her body look neat, so I decided against it.

Cinderella castle cake. Could've been way better with fondant.
Jordan excited for her cake, I hope...I think she was from her expression.Jordan waiting for the birthday song.
Jonah helped blow out the candle.

Jordan opening our presents...Jonah was so excited he told her what it was before she even opened it.

We got ther 2 beach barbies and a Barbie convertible cruiser. Steph said she'd kind of a tomboy, so we're trying to convert her to a girly girl :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY JO!!!

Kids Run the Bases!

For the last couple of years we've taken the boys to run around the bases at Safeco field whenever the Mariners runs the promotion. Today was the day for us this year. I guess it's been really popular because traditionally it has been 1 game out of the year - this year, there are 3 games where they allow the kids to run the bases. Coincidentally, today was Dave Niehaus Day - since he was conducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, we didn't arrive at the stadium early enough to get a bobblehead - which I didn't really want anyway (but Mike did, naturally).

It was a 1:10pm game against the Orioles - miraculously the Mariners won! Anyhoo - because it was an afternoon game, it didn't suit well with little Kira, since it interferes with her nap schedule. She did pretty well until the 5th inning. I was able to rock her to sleep and found a quiet comfortable place to sit for about an hour. It was perfect timing because by the time she got up it was time to "run" around the bases.

Video: The boys run the bases - then Kira and I walked the bases.
Sorry for the shaky video, I got a little dizzy watching it, so consider yourself warned.

I had to go with her because she is simply too little and unstable to travels the distance on the dirt/sand by herself. She was a trooper, she walked all the way from 1st base back to home. She enjoys walking, I think she likes the freedom. The boys, of course, had a blast and ran around as fast as they could, they also had experience too since they've done this twice before. I'm sure next year Kira will tear up the turf and actually run with her brothers.

Oh yeah - this weekend was SeaFair weekend too. I'm just glad I didn't get dragged to go there. I've only been once and swear I'll never go again. But it sure was nice watching the Blue Angels fly over Safeco during the game. Even the baseball players looked up when the planes flew over. There was a fly ball that should've been caught while one of the planes was flying, but it worked towards our advantage - the Mariners need all the help they can get.