Never a dull moment

Well last night I was given the RARE opportunity to go out with a friend for his birthday. RC had to stay home with the kiddos as we don't really know anyone to watch the kids, man I do wish family was closer but we will get to that later. RC came home to dinner cooked and only a few dishes in the sink, three kids needing baths and then bed time. Should have been easy enough.

I headed off to the local Dave and Busters (by local I mean 25 minutes away) and since I showed up early I want to Target (pronounced in my head as Tar-jay complete with a French accent) to scope out some last minute stuff for RC, which the girls and I will go purchase later today. Yep. We suck at keeping secrets.

ANYWHO, I finally went to Dave and Busters and for the first time in quite a while was uncomfortable, Had no idea who anyone was (besides the birthday boy and another coworker) aww well, I have made a pact to myself to stay more social this year and not use my kids as a hinderance. YES I use them as a way to get out of social events to avoid getting dolled up or being in akward situations where I don't know ANYONE. I know. HORRIBLE, but you gotta do what you gotta do. ANYWHO. Here I sat at Dave and Busters when (here is where maybe I get to be a little gross and add TMI) I feel "weird" to say the least.

My friend had shown up earlier inthe week and tonight she took hold of my life and my mental state. Long story short, about 10 months ago we had a miscarriage and it pretty much ruined me as I'd gone through it before but this time it was REALLY unexpected and took me a while to even PRETEND I was over (which last night confirmed was not even effective as it sent me into a whirlwind). ANYWHO, back to the story. My said "friend" came in gung ho and I had a moment where I thought "no way, not again and for about 6 hours last night I waited for it to get worse and it never did, so yay me but man does it make you think for a second.

I personally never wanted to take away my ability to have kids but the thought of having my heart pulled out like that again after the ordeal with Rian and that and other nameless things, I just don't know anymore. I guess me and the hubby have some talking to do. Of course I will wait for him to approach me because currently any talk of babies or life or changing my body or his just makes me tear up and want to hide in a hole. Mostly because I feel guilty that I know so many folks that struggle to have babies and here i am considering ripping that part of my body out. UGH. Mentally I am a wreck but externally things are GREAT!!!

Well on a different note, I got home last night, terrified and of course couldn't only focus on myself because well...we have kids. Rian was up AGAIN, late last night, fidgety, whiny and miserable. FOUR molars came in all at once and he goes in bouts of torture as they push through more and more. I give it a week before they all fully in and MAN will we all be happier campers. So I guess RC had a pretty easy night, outside of a whiny baby, a whiny teary eyed wife and a ton of concern for no reason (apparently) and also realizing that in less than 12 hours he would officially be a year older...

YEP I threw that in there, He is 31 today (notice how I capitalize HE as if he is GOD...well he might agree to that one). We wished him a happy birthday and the girls woke up early to make him a happy birthday sign which I of course posted on Facebook on my drive to work. Ugh. I can't believe he is soo old. Maybe its time to trade him in for a newer model. haha. TOTALLY kidding, I love my husband and although I drive him nuts, question him constantly and pretty much just do my wifely duties of nagging him...I would NEVER trade him in. He is my rock and although he may not say all the RIGHT comforting things at the right time and he may tend to Uhm...roll his eyes at me every time I want to talk through an argument or frustration we fit perfectly together. We laugh, act childish and love one another (i believe) unconditinally. I am lucky that we have come so far and I am excited to celebrate just one more birthday in a line of many in the years to come.

Okay enough sappiness, here are two pics. One from the girls and RC this morning and one from last night right before I left. Hey I could be an emotional wreck internally but I am not a woman who will pass up an opportunity for a pic. I'M ONLY HUMAN!!! hehe.




And in case I forgot to say it: Happy LATE birthday Shawn and Happy BIRTHDAY OLD MAN to my super duper hubby!!!

Presents, swimming and...Bunnies?!?

So for christmas we went to Palm Springs to visit my grandparents. The last few years that has been the family tradition and to be quite honest, it's been really great. Last year we dragged along RC's sister and this year we were able to take RC's mom. I know they SAID they had a good time but you just never know because maybe they wouldn't tell you otherwise. NOW, they are pretty much my own family (because we know eachother better than most in-laws I think...) so I think I can safely ASSUME that they BOTH had a good time, each year.

And before i REALLY start the rambling here is a funny story: The nights that Neya PASSED out before everyone else Rian totally body slammed her multiple times. Hilarious yet painful to watch...but did we stop him. NOPE! Yep that's good parenting if I ever saw it :)


Okay sorry, got a little off track there. ANYWHO. We went to Palm Springs and although we got a late start (two hours late to be exact) due to RC's work schedule we were off and got there with enough time to set out milk and cookies for Santa and to get the kids in their bed and us ALSO off to bed as Santa got to do the rest of the work (a.k.a. wrap last minute Santa presents and get them stockings filled!) Oh how I love to see the looks on their faces.

Carina seems to believe that Santa doesn't exist, but so help me, I will keep her "believing" up until her very youngest sibling is having the same sentiments. Even if I have to threaten her within an inch of her life. haha. Totally kidding, but man did that sound scary!

Christmas morning came and LIKE USUAL they RIPPED through the stockings and the Santa gifts but this year we were horrid parents and we made them wait a good two hours before opening the rest of their gifts. OMG, it was hilarious. I remember being a kid and my uncle and aunt always being the last to join the party and this year since he was not present I went ahead and filled that part. OHHH how it was FUNNNN!!!! Hehe. However, we had good reason, we first waited till my Bisabuela (great grandma) got picked up and then we also made sure everyone was fed and such, and of I took a shower because well...it just made me grin to see them wiggle with anxiety in their jammies. And THEN they ripped into the presents and all bets were off...



That afternoon although it was only 55 degrees (roughly) they went swimming in the hot tub and man are they nuts. They had a blast though, and I must admit...swimming in December as a kid is a pretty cool treat, especially ON Christmas day. My grandparents had gotten a pet bunny about 9 months ago that found his way into their backyard and adopted THEM (whether they liked it or not) and he ALSO had a good time with the kids. Here I show an innocent little picture of him getting loves from the girls but LATER on that day he showed Neya "love" by making attempting to make her leg his girlfriend. OH man! She was a bit traumatized and decided "I don't like how the bunny likes to have FUN!" Hehe. Needless to say after everyone got a few drinks in them that was pretty much the joke of the night. Oh the joys of family and the ability to tease one another :)


Anywho, here are some other good pics of everyone. My mom, dad, grandma, bisabuela and my bro Gabe, not to mention a SWEET pic we got of RC, his mom and the kids. NOTICE in ALL the pics ALL the kids are looking at the camera. MAN we are getting good. The trick this time...shaking a noisy pill bottle just as I took the pic, Haha. Oh yeah. I got tricks up my sleeve!

FINALLY

Here are the pics from the photo session that I had the kids do with my parents. I swear. I had to call the photo place because they were STILL not up online and NOW there they are but of course, just after xmas. Ugh, talk about totally untimely. Haha. Either way here they are, hope they make you smile!

We bought these ones and of course those of you IRL saw the one of all three kids as we used them as our xmas cards :)


We didn't keep these ones but they made me smile either way:

She hit me first!

Why is it that when our kids get in trouble. Who ever KNOWS they are in trouble due to hurting or affecting another child feels that if they come tell us their side of the story first that it will make their punishment easier.

Case in Point:

Sitting downstairs, suddenly hear Neya screech, the crying begins and we hear footsteps running down the stairs. We jump up and who meets us at the stairs, well Carina. What does she say you ask...Well here goes:

Totally out of breath and with a look of "Oh I hope this saves me" on her face she blurts out:

"Neya was kicking me and I asked her to stop she didn't listen so I hit her!"

RC and I look at eachother, my frustration lights up because I had JUST told her last week HITTING HER IS NOT THE FIX, and here she is on the stairs thinking its a justifiable reason. UGH!

They just don't learn.

So out of frustration and irritation and probably a lack of sleep I blurt out that they are grounded for a week and quickly rethink this, make dad the good guy and he tells them only till Wednesday. I swear parenting is a constant rollercoaster. Just when you think you can predict your kids every moves they go and change things on ya!

Christmas comes early...

IN the Hernandez Household! Okay so not entirely but kinda. The neighbor kids and our kids have been friends since Carina was in Kindergarten so we did a little gift exchange between all of them. It was very cute. THey all shopped for eachother and then RC and I also got them a set of walkie talkies so they can sit across the street and talk to eachother. Figure it will lead to other fun games outside and at the park and such. So we are kind of excited. Once they opened them up we realized that we might end up getting a second set...but for now we are going to try and enforce sharing. Haha. (Note: the kids outfits change throughout the pics, that is because we did Bath Time and NOT because we did a fashion show in between. LOL) We are going to Palm Springs to meet up with my side of the fam (grandparents, parents and my little bro Gabe). We were originally going to take ALL the gifts to Palm Springs but realized space is a hot commodity these days in the car so we decided to ONLY take our gifts to the kids and were were going to open up Grandma Jackie's gifts with her last night. This turned out great, they were excited, we rushed them into the shower and told them we had a big surprise for them. When they got downstairs they were stoked...to say the least. Funny and well...frustrating moments of the night: 1. Rian was opening his gift after the girls did their gift exchange and he got SOO excited. It was a little truck from Grandma Jackie and we didn't want him to feel left out and it was HILARIOUS. He was rolling all around, he was ooh'ing and ahh'ing and the FUNNIEST part was that he busted out with "oh sweet" clear as day MULTIPLE times. It was HILARIOUS. That kid. He kills me. 2. We piled all the kids presents into a seperate pile so they knew where to grab their stuff from. The difference. The younger they got the bigger the presents. So Carina SEEMED to have a smaller pile. Any mom KNOWS where this is going. She gets through them all and although the SAME amount of money was spent it takes more to buy things for Carina at the age that she is at. So she for about 15 minutes had this pouty look on her face and I was starting to get frustrated cause she just seemed so ungrateful. Grandma excused herself (and I was terrified she was hurt...but she went to do personal things) and then Carina looked at me and said...mom I'm sorry. ALL ON HER OWN! So the frustration went to pride when all on her own our 10 year old said she realized that she was being poopy, she was sorry and that it just sucked at first to see that Neya and Rian got Really BIG gifts and hers were small. Then she realized hers cost the same if not more and she was better. It was amazing. We have waited a long time for her to get to this point. So glad it happened at xmas time! 3. Neya got this cat toy. OMG. It moves, purrs, licks its paw, rolls over and just about acts TOTALLY alive. Kinda crazy. It's so cool that Jackie (grandma) said that her mom (grandma...aka great grandma..billie) even loved it and she hates ANYTHING that has to do with cats. Well Neya opened it she was STOKED, loved it and the kicker. So did Rian. Anyone who has met him knows he has a TOTAL cat thing. Goes crazy for them. Well this was no exception. He was sticking his hands in the box, trying to grab at it and as soon as we took it out he wouldnt put it down. Kissing it, petting it, holding it and Neya was EVEN being nice about him taking over her toy. So funny. Oh how your kids amaze you at certain times. The holidays do a lot of things for everyone, some in a spiritual way, some in a rekindling with family way, some in just a total life and appreciation revelation and for me it makes me look at how lucky we are to have one another. To have Rian have made it, to have had Carina to turn me into the mommy I never thought I could be so young, to have Neya to make us realize that patients don't come naturally and to have one another...which means SURE, we aren't perfect, we don't always smile and act cheery to one another, but we love eachother and really that is all that counts. As time goes on I hope my kids do exactly what Carina did this year and realize its not about the size or amount of presents its about the thought, the meaning and the joy of just ripping open presents to have something New. hehe. And I will leave you with a few last pics from the night:

OH and a video of Rian putting "gas" in his car. Yes it is a juice bottle (empty and NOW cleaned out) but daddy taught him this "trick" in an hour while mommy was at the mall! Yay Daddy!

Boyfriend?!

So last night I went to the mall with Carina, my oldest baby. We went for some last minute grandma gift shopping and we ended up finding something for Uncle Gabe as well, what a great mall trip it ended up being. The weird thing was that the dreaded conversation came up:

Carina: So mom, are girlfriends supposed to buy boyfriends presents for xmas?
Mom: Well if you want to...what would you like to get him?
Carina: Well those things he wears on his wrist and a hat, he LOVES those beanie ones with the little hard part in front (she meant the mini bill kind)
Mom: okay we can do that, lets look around

Then after we are done shopping she says with a little red in her cheeks...

Carina: Mom its kinda weird shopping for a boyfriend
Mom: Why?
Carina: cause I had crushes and "little pretend boyfriends" before but this time it seems more serious

THIS is where I wanted to throw up, and instead had to collect myself and just explain that she was getting older...I GUESS! What the heck. When did my little girl grow up so darn fast. Granted she doesnt even barely hug SAID boyfriend but yes, we bought him a present and the WEIRDER part was that she knew ANYTHING about him. haha. I know, that is soo silly of me, as she knows all her friends inside and out why should a male be different but still. It was the slight in to the fact that not only am I getting older, but my babies are getting older as well.

Alas, they cannot stay young forever, but to preserve those moments here are the rest of the pics I promised from our camera (yes my extra appendage has been returned to my side) from the night at Zoolights.

Zoolights

So every year I hear about how GREAT Zoolights is. What is it you ask, well its exactly what you THINK it is, ZOO all LIT up. Hehe. I will tell you exactly what the sign says "over 2.5 MILLION lights". It was pretty cool, they have hanging monkey, some lit up elephants, we saw baby otters and well, all around although it was...

A: Quite a hike from parking to the ZOO
B: Cold and Dark
C: Interesting with 5 kids and 6 adults

It was ALSO really fun. We had some time to reconnect as grown ups while still entertaining the kids and although of course, like any outing at a PUBLIC entertainment place, we spent WAY to much money. I don't even want to go over those numbers, but lets just say we had to buy THREE little light up toy things, and I am sure you all know any ZOO or Amusement Park is all the equivalent of Disneyland prices when it comes to souvenirs. Either way, the money was worth it after all as Matt said "it's only money".

Ugh this is soo true. So often we get caught up in the price of things or how it SUCKS to spend money but in the end, it is ONLY money and we work hard to keep our fams happy so if spending an extra few bucks on a simple glow stick that will inevitably break and end up in the garbage is what makes the kids smile then so be it. Our kids aren't spoiled, they don't get ALL the finest things so it's nice to see that the LITTLE things are still good enough. PHEW!

Well here are a few pics from that night...INCLUDING the TWO group pics that we bought (yes we are those tourist types!)

NOW keep in mind, there are ELEVEN people in these pics! That is 5 kids (under the age of 10) and 6 grown ups and in BOTH pics we managed to get EVERYONE to look! I know. GASP. What an occasion, it must be christmas time...the time when MIRACLES DO HAPPEN! Hehe.

GROUP PIC: Hernandez Clan (you know all of us), Troj Family (Matt, Ashley and Xander) and the Landers Crew (Alison, Dave and Jack...Neya's Husband)

Then we saw this nifty sleigh thing in the middle of the zoo where they were taking pics so we decided on a MOMMY and BABY pic. This was a harder challenge than we thought it would be but we did manage to STILL get everyone to look. Yay us!


I have other pics on the camera but SOMEHOW I managed to leave that at home. Yes I know we all thought it was an extra appendage but apparently even a mommy has an off day. Please excuse me for my sheer moment of dillusion where I thought I could LIVE without my camera for an entire day ;)

Sweet Pics

We recently went to Xanders birthday which I blogged about a couple posts ago and at the party Ashley (Xanders Momma) had her step sister and her boyfriend there and they were taking some "professional" pics. Very cool. Here are a few of the kids that turned out really good and of course a couple of Xander because he is like an extended "kid" of ours. haha. Oh and by the way, these pics SUPER make me miss Rian's little mohawk. Talk about mommy having an identity crisis for her soon. Don't worry some day I will be mature enough to realize "it's only hair". hehe.

We also noticed there weren't nearly as many pics of the girls, but I STRONGLY believe that is because the photographer was there to take pics of Xander and of course the "big kids" were always in a different area than the "little kids" which included Rian AND Xander...so...sorry Laneya and Carina...I nabbed all the pics of you I could find!