AHhhh School!

Ahhhhh!!!!! My little prince is growing up!

But first, lets pause to see how my stunningly cute boy gives a high five

Okay, now.... My little boy has started kindergarden. He was so excited about his first day of school, and I was too until it came time for him to actually go. Then, I wept like a baby as soon as I got home. Luckily, He loves his class and I like his teacher.

Claire, baby and I have been keeping busy while kindergarden is happening. Yesterday it was a picnic at the park with some cool gymnastics class friends and then today BOATING on a lagoon! It was a lot of fun and I am really grateful for both the Relief Society that organized it and the wonderful women who opened her home and boat to a bunch of women and toddlers.

Sam hated the life jacket and the sitting down rule

But when the boat went fast, he stopped complaining and realized it was pretty fun.

Claire was super happy and now keeps telling me we need to go on the boat again.

AZ Family

You know what? My family is heavenly!
We just got back from visiting our families in Arizona and despite the 110' F temperature, loooong drive with kids, and the unavoidable post trip illness, I would go again tomorrow in a heart beat if we could.
Before our trip we were lucky enough to have my Sister-in-law, niece and nephew visit us for a couple of days. It was a lot of fun, we went to the beach, did yoga, and enjoyed wonderful food (basically the California experience). I especially love how fond my kids are of her and how Jonathan thinks his cousin Zeke is the coolest.
We were also able to visit with a creative friend from our USC days before we left as well. It was wonderful because having conversations about story telling and Art isn't something we get much of in our new area (probably because we need to branch out a bit)
We almost didn't go to Arizona the next weekend, though.
Right before I was ready to pack the kids in the car, Sam started throwing-up. I was crying because we had already paid for a hotel that night and it was non-refundable and I imagined us having to stay home the whole week of vacation passing the flu around. Luckily, I quickly figured out that it wasn't the flu and that he is allergic to or just can't handle something in the happy tot food packet I had given him for lunch. I was so happy that we didn't post-pone the trip because it ended up going smoothly.
Now that we are home, the kids are already asking when we can see their cousins again.

cool abandon gunnery by the bridge

Us at Heart's Desire with Jill's family

On the way home from the beach. Claire is yelling/singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" while everyone around her is passed out.

Sam Crawling on dino foot prints

We promised our oldest that we would stop by the LA Natural History Museum on our way to Arizona

Mostly he wanted to see the Dinosaur show

After catching a chicken by himself he said "I want to be a chicken hunter when I grow up"

Claire absolutely adores her cousin and will actually let her do her hair (I can't touch it) so she can look just like her.

Oh, did I mention he's WALKING!

The Bay Area

So I just wanted to give a shout-out for two things I love about the Bay Area. 

One, the golden gate bridge. I am awed by how beautiful it really is. Honestly, I don't care much for the city, but the Golden Gate will always have a place in my heart.

Second, the bay area has great produce. I learned how to make apricot jam here, and it is like ambrosia. If I ever moved from the bay, I would miss the super fresh and delectable fruits.

Back Again

So it has been almost a year, and I think I am finally ready to update my blog!
Q: What has occurred to  finally make me start updating again?
A: I have finally come to terms that my youngest will never 'sleep through' the night and that I will always feel tired no matter what I do, so I might as well give up waiting until I sleep through the night, because that may never happen.

However, this means that I have a years worth of adventures to catch up on... and little time before I slop down on my keyboard and start drooling.

So here is one year in summary:
We had Sam and it was a great transition to three. My older children have become best friends this year, often passing their days imagining a world where Sharks, Dinosaurs, Skylanders, Pokemon, Lego people, Legend of Zelda, and My Little Ponies all meet to do battle or build things, but most often run around and dance to save the world. As mentioned our baby has decided that he will continue waking-up and spending one on one time with mommy during the night hours, but as a thank you, he will laugh and be the happiest baby I could imagine. We are sadly, no longer the mountain view Boyles, and have moved north of the Golden Gate to a beautiful and friendly city. Which means I have had to pretend to be an extrovert once more, which is probably a good thing. In fact our whole family has been working to be more 'Pinkie-Pie like' which has led to a lot more fun adventures. We have missed our family and friends a lot, so it has made our days when we have had guests. Oh, our oldest has decided to study Violin so I am now entering the world of Suzuki.
Now for the year in photos

This baby's natural state is a smile

Light house with friends

Again, smiles from our baby

We got pet Rats, loved them, but couldn't keep them when we moved. We miss Glados and Pepper, but mostly we miss Glados, because Pepper caused some problems

Cousins at Phoenix Zoo

Since our 3rd baby, we have been constantly tired

Oakland Zoo train

Our favorite feature of our new place.

Marin had awesome firefighters

Beach with family, its cold, but the kids play in the water anyways

This is out of order, but We had our first President's day diner and ball. It was devine

Family pictures

Jonathan was so happy with his Christmas present

Dino-Birthday

Natural Bridges beach with friends

Samuel Born

So now or why I haven't updated in a long time... We had a baby!
Samuel was born a little past his due date of July 4th. I think its because he wanted his grandma to be here when he came. Okay, now for pictures and I'll end with the labor story.

Me two days before delivery

Sam

He is a cuddle-bug

Now for the labor story for those, like me, who find that interesting.
So for like a month before Samuel was born, I had really strong false labor and I was pretty miserable. Luckily, I had the same kind-of thing with Claire so I knew not to go to the hospital until I was contracting at regular intervals for an hour.
Anyways, I started contracting regularly, enough that I couldn't sleep, so we went to the hospital with me second guessing myself the whole drive. Then when we got there, my contractions stayed going, but they didn't hurt as bad. Of course, I worried that I would be sent home and feel like an idiot, but when they checked me I had dilated to a 6 and was still having regular contractions. They kept asking to break my water but I didn't want to because I learned that breaking the water makes the pushing more painful and likely to tare. Then after an hour or so of my contractions not getting any stronger and them telling me I had almost fully dilated but the water looked like it was keeping the head from dropping, I agreed to break it.
They were right, as soon as the water was out of the way, his head dropped and everything got really painful. I was crying and screaming, but luckily the nurse knew this magic hip squeeze thing that made everything a lot better.  Then everything went so fast once I started pushing that the nurse basically delivered Sam and the OB got there in time to catch the baby and stitch me up.
I couldn't believe how close I felt to him when they handed him to me. I instantly felt that he was a loving sweet boy and knew he belonged with me. He had junky sounding lungs, but nothing serious.
I asked for meds as soon as he was out, because I can handle labor, but the after pains... nope.
Then that first night I discovered he makes little chicken noises when he sleeps and I couldn't be happier.