ALyssa is 4 months

My baby has been 4 months old for almost a week now! She is getting so big too! She can roll over front to back and back to front. She coos in a high pitched squeal of delight, and she can't get enough of her pacifier and her brothers and sister. I will post stats when I have gone to her 4 month checkup. For now, just enjoy my amateur photographs of our little princess.

TEN YEARS!!!

 Randy and I have been married for TEN YEARS! That seems so crazy to me. Randy had to work in Woodland Hills California for a few days, so I decided to tag along with him to celebrate our anniversary. My mom and sister Michelle were VERY kind to take on the three older kids for me while we were away. 

We had a little tag along for our anniversary trip, but since she is the cutest, sweetest, best baby ever, I didn't mind so much.  She, of course, slept on the plane ride and was all smiles while we traveled.  We went out to dinner that night at Red Robin. Randy and Alyssa were great company.

 

 The next day, Randy went off to work, so Alyssa and I hung out in the hotel room at the Hilton. I think she liked all the undivided attention I gave to her. I love this girl so so much!

 

I actually probably would have stayed in the hotel room the entire time if I didn't have to go out to get lunch everyday. I mean, TLC, HGTV, Food network, are extremely addicting when you don't have them at home. Not to mention I had to finish a book and write a review for my sister-in-law. It was so incredibly quiet! I guess when you are surrounded by the constant noise of 4 children and their friends, quiet is hard to come by often.

on June 6th, the day before our actual anniversary, Randy took me to the Chart house restaurant in Malibu. It was right on the beach and we got a table by the window. The food was great and the ambiance amazing! We had this super yummy chocolate lava cake that had vanilla ice cream and heath bar on top. It was soooo good. I'm glad we shared it. It was so nice to go out together and reminisce about our 10 years together. 

We didn't take many photos of our trip (I forgot the camera) but I did take a couple of goofy photos at dinner.

 

 

One of the Best. Dates. Ever.

 our little third wheel was kind of sleepy. But of course she was a little angel all through dinner.

 We were waiting for our waitress to come so she could take our picture, but by the time we flagged a different waitress down, it was too dark for a good one. See those silhouettes? Yes, that's us!

I'm so glad that I chose to marry Randy. These have been the best 10 years of my life. Yes, I know I hadn't done a whole lot of living in my 19 years before I got married, but I wouldn't have it any other way.He is the best husband I could ever ask for. He is kind, considerate, smart, funny (though I still argue with him that I am the funny one) a spiritual giant, an amazing father, unselfish, loving and downright amazing in every possible way. I'm glad he makes me want to be a better person and he teaches me new things constantly. Thanks honey! I love you so much. I'm excited for an eternity of laughing, being together and loving you.

Venting...

I'm just venting, so if you don't want to read this, you can skip it. 

I'm getting so tired of our neighborhood! Today while I was home with the kids, (sometime between 11:30 and 3:00pm) somebody came into our yard, pulled out one of our tomato plants, picked our strawberries, pulled out our tomato cages and put them in the yard, picked all of our new peppers off of our pepper plant and pulled out our flowers in the front flower bed! I'm pretty upset about it too. We have worked so hard on our yard and garden and have spent countless hours and money on it. It feels like such a waste of time! This isn't the first time we have had issues either. We have had a number of things stolen out of our carport and also out of our cars. We have had two scooters stolen, a gas can full of gas, and some other little things as well. our neighbors have also had issues with stolen items such as bikes, lawnmowers, cameras and purses. I'm so tired of it! Not to mention that a month or so ago somebody literally took a giant dump in our garden! I'm serious! a giant adult turd was in our garden the morning after we planted all our vegetables! We thought it may have been a huge dog, but since the garden had just been tilled, we could clearly see adult size footprints around the turd. I have also struggled with our neighbors dogs pooping in our yard nearly every single day and people littering in our yard as they drive by. I find cigarette butts, soda and beer cans, paper garbage and once I actually found a bong! Crazy I know. It doesn't seem like such a bad neighborhood, but sometimes I wonder. How can people be so disrespectful of others property? I understand the occasional neighbor kid messing around, but all these problems have sure added up over time! our neighbors are pretty nice too. It isn't like I can point to one and say "wow, they are just terrible neighbors." Sometimes I wish I could. It would make it a whole lot easier to deal with our problems.

Today it was probably a bored little kid wandering about the neighborhood that happened upon our yard to destroy our gardens. The stolen items were probably taken by bored teenagers. I just hate feeling like I can't leave my house or put nice things in our yard because they can just disappear or be destroyed at any time! what am I supposed to do about it? Not plant a garden? Put up a giant fence and padlock everything we own? Seriously.

Another Jam packed post

 Time goes by so very quickly!! We have done a ton of things so far this summer, but I don't want to get so far behind in blogging that it gets too overwhelming. So, I'm going to another quick catch up post again.

Tyler had his graduation program on May 25th. He had a speaking part and did a great job. He even sang the songs with the rest of the kids! (he doesn't like to sing in things like this.)

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 My mom came to see the program and afterwords we took the kids out to lunch. To our surprise, Tyler picked Carl's Jr.

 We also attended the air show May 27th. Long story short, we got there, we got rained on and froze. We had only been there about 15 minutes when the show was postponed because of the weather. I ran to an open hangar, but we decided we should just leave instead of hang out waiting for the weather to clear up. We ran in the pouring rain back to the car about 1/2 mile away. It was 50 degrees outside and we were completely soaked! I was carrying the baby the whole run back because her stroller seat was wet. It was so so cold! We drove to my sister Michelle's house to warm up and use her clothes dryer. She gave me pants, socks, a sweatshirt, a blanket and some hot chocolate and I was feeling much better!

Luckily the rain cleared and we were able to see the Thunderbirds like Randy wanted to. We didn't drive back into Hill Air force Base, but we parked on the road and watched the planes. The kids loved it...so did Randy.

Randy and the kids waiting and watching

 Randy

 Thunderbirds

 For the summer I have decided to kick up our chores a notch. I made the kids their own list of chores to do every day before they play. They get their own white board to check off

 Every day they also have to pick an "extra chore" from the chore jar. After that, they can be done or choose to do more chores for money. I think Tyler is going to take all my money before the summer is over! (Lily is still a little young for these extra chores, but I make her pick one and then she attempts to do it and then I actually do it for her.)

 I can't have a post without a few pictures of our baby girl thrown in the mix can I?

 We have been enjoying strawberries from our garden today. They taste so much better than store bought strawberries! This bowl was gone super fast. Tyler loves them.

 Jake and lily picking from the garden.

They are so stinking cute aren't they?

Quick update in pictures

Some outtakes from Alyssa's photo shoot. I love the "I'm annoyed" pictures.

Is it just me, or should the caption on this read "SLooow Dancin' Swaaaying to the music..."

Totally creepy baby. "I've got my EYE on you!!!"

cutie

 

Jake graduated from pre-school. The program was adorable.

I never showed lily with her brace on after she broke her arm. This is the only picture she would let me take on the day of her pretend wedding.

Jake learned how to ride a bike....well, he is still learning how to get going on his own.

The boys went to father and sons camp out with their daddy. Aren't they super cute? Yep, I thought so.