the great california vacation - part 1

We made it home, and the boys are still sleeping.  (They should be after 12 straight hours of travel and NO naps).  I thought it was a perfect time to upload some photos.  The mass amount of laundry can wait.

I learned that you should not go on vacation without your husband.  But if you do decide to do this, make sure you take your AWESOME Family with you.  I could not have made it without 6+ extra hands.  I know everyone in the airports thought we were crazy to take 5 kids on an airplane, but somehow we survived.  My boys both had FREAK-OUTS, but luckily not on the same flights!

I LOVE all the memories that will be forever stored away from this trip.  The exciting part is that I think Amos will have some forever memories too!  They may become vague but I'll have my mass amounts of pictures to remind him.  Silas, not so much!  He had fun though.  Everyone can now fully appreciate his obsession with a ball.  If he's upset, give him a ball.

Here are some of my favorites, and yes, this is limiting myself.

Most of these pajama pictures took place at about 6:00 in the morning.  We've learned that our next vacation needs to be in the same time zone, or on the east coast where are children will sleep later rather than getting up two hours earlier.  It took all week to get them to sleep in until 6 am California time.

Luckily there was lots of good coffee, and enough hands that Mom got to sit back and do this sometimes.

On our second day there, we celebrated the reason for the whole trip:  Uncle Joseph's graduation!!!! Too bad for the kiddos, it took place at 7 pm.  They stayed home with the uncles and slept through it all!

WE ARE SO PROUD OF HIM!!

We spent the next few days catching up on sleep and relaxing at the house.  The kids loved Grammy and Gramps "new" house.  Especially because it had a pool!

The oldest two were pretty good swimmers by the end of the week.  Amos was in the pool until 6:30 the night before we left.

The rest of the first few days were spent like this.

 Clara Beth wins the award for most smiley!  She was perfectly content anywhere and everywhere.  If everyone wasn't waiting in line to hold her, you would almost forget she was there!

Well, I think that's enough pictures for one post!  Plus the boys are awake and ready for breakfast and a doctor's visit!  I'll save our more exciting parts of the trip for the next post. 

bribery and haircuts

Bribery prevailed at the Vance house today.  Two episodes of Spiderman and 3 popsicles resulted in 2 successful haircuts.  In case you haven't seen my boys lately, this is what their hair looked like.

I've been watching Amos' ducktail develop over the last several weeks.  Just biding my time.  Then last night, I decided it had gone on long enough.  I casually mentioned the idea of a haircut.  The tears quickly filled his eyes as he informed me he didn't need a haircut.  I then offered not one, but two popsicles.  That got him thinking.  And this morning when I brought up the idea of using the clippers, we decided we could watch Spiderman too.  He actually did really well.  And it turned out close to what I was hoping for.  Still need more practice.

Silas was a different story.  He did not like the idea of me messing with his hair.  Luckily his head is mostly curls and hides MOST imperfections.  Here's my new boys.  Ready for vacation next week!

As a side note, here's the after haircut mess.  I wish you could see the hair that was covering everything in a two foot radius.

mother's day 2014

Or I should say Mother's weekend!  Jason informed me Friday after work that he was cooking the meals for the rest of the weekend.  He was relieved to find out that I had planned Hamburgers - his specialty.

The weekend started with going to see Mom's Night Out with my sister, Mom and some friends.  I only watched a short preview and was more excited about hanging out than the actual movie.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by LOVING the movie.  From the first line to the last, I was laughing my head off.  Literally.  I don't think that I've EVER laughed so hard in a movie.  It seemed like it was written exactly for me to and I related perfectly to all the humor.  What helped was that it was written by Christians.  I honestly didn't know this before going in and it took me about half-way through the movie to confirm it.  It was very well done.  The main character was a Mom trying to love Jesus, but also trying to "be enough" for everyone on her own.  I can relate.  And in the end the message wasn't, DO BETTER, or TRY HARDER, but RELY ON JESUS!  How refreshing!  Just what I needed and even worth staying up past 10 pm. Side note:  I also came home to all dinner dishes done and counters cleaned!  Awww!

The next day was even better.  Some women from our church gathered together to encourage each other after a semester of studying 123 John.  The fact that the Get-together fell on Mother's Day weekend wasn't intentional and actually kept some women from joining, but for me it made so much sense!  The food was DELICIOUS (Panera), the fellowship was WONDERFUL, and the encouragement was SPIRIT-FILLED.  There's nothing like sharing what God's doing in me and hearing how God is working in others!  I am blessed to know these women!!!

I came home and found this note on the chalkboard.  "Happy Mom's Weekend! No cooking, No diapers, No Dishes!"

Somehow Jason had trained Amos to change Silas' diaper! Ha! Just kidding.  After naps, we filled the small swimming pool and Amos enjoyed splashing around in the freezing water while we watched him.  I guess the previous late night took more out of me then I thought because as soon as I tucked Amos into bed, I came back and crashed on the couch.  It was 7:45.  After moving to the bedroom, I didn't wake until 7:15 the next morning.  I blame pregnancy.

Leftover Panera provided a yummy Sunday breakfast. And I was presented with my Mother's Day Cards.    Neither of us had responsibilities at church, so we were able to worship and learn together that morning!  We had also decided to share our news of expecting baby #3.  It's fun to have a second family to share wonderful news with.

Mom was craving soup and salad from Olive Garden but after hearing about a hour wait, my craving subsided!  I was satisfied with my favorite shrimp dish from Red, Hot and Blue.  Everyone then napped, except for Dad.  I woke up to him cleaning the kitchen and unloading the dishwasher.  I really was quite spoiled. The weekend ended with a trip to the park, dinner and drive around looking at houses.

I love being a Mommy!

a taste of our april

time outside

I took a lot more pictures this week.  It helped that we got to spend so much more time outside with mostly nice weather.

For the last few weeks we've been down to one car.  It can work, but it became a bit inconvenient.  Especially when the boys were still sleeping when it was time to pick Dad up.  They, of course, took wonderful naps, because if we hadn't been picking him up they would've already been awake.  But I did get to snap a couple of "sleeping" pictures.  My kids are such light sleepers, that I never chance it.  Amos woke to the camera.  The good news is that Papa fixed the car this weekend, and we no longer have this problem.

Here's our typical lunch time.  Amos usually turns something into a gun, and we talk all about as I convince to keep eating.

 Silas gets in on the action too!

 We're in shorts and t-shirts.  Finally switched all the clothes over!  They spent a lot of time exploring puddles and digging in the dirt.

 Followed by lots of this.

 Then the rain came, but that didn't stop us.  Just gave us more puddles and mud to play in.

 Amos quickly ditched the rain coat and boots.  He told me he couldn't feel the rain with his boots on.

 Our excitement for the week came when Nana, Papa, Uncle Jeffrey and Teigan and Emma showed up!  With the beautiful weather and outdoor projects to do, we spent most of Friday and Saturday outdoors.

 Papa brought the powerwasher and we changed our deck and part of the fence from old gray to new wood again.  We were all quite amazed at the result.

 We added a inch of water to the pool and these guys were in heaven!

Silas was content hanging out with Nana and playing Pat-a-cake.

Family headed home on Sunday.  Amos was a bit disappointed when waking up from his nap to find everyone gone.  I thought I'd cheer him up with a cupcake for his snack.  He was pretty excited, but soon told me that he didn't like the top stuff (icing) and wanted me to take it off.  He said he didn't really like "icing muffins".   I wish I had this guys sweet tooth.  Or lack thereof.

 This guy had NO problem with "icing muffins." Yum!