Been away!

Well it seems I have been away from my blog awhile! But I did not realise it has been a few weeks!
I have been super busy keeping the little princes busy with summer fun...kinda. They are content to run a muck in the yard and play in the dirt!! But this week we got to go on a little mini vacation to the beach. The little princes had never been before and prince #1 was like 4 or 5 when I took him. So I will share some pic's and a some mishaps of the 2 days we were at the beach.
We left Wednesday evening and drove 5 hours to San Luis Obispo........about half way prince #3 decided he wanted to go home and cried for over an hour about it. He was really mad at the fact that I had took his shoes off! Once I put them back on he stopped! Prince #2 had fallen asleep back before Merced and woke up in Kettleman wanting to go home too! Here is a before picture of the first leg of the trip (I didn't get one of the crying princes it was late)

Prince #2 sleeping and Prince #3 in a good mood!

We stayed with my cousin Amanda. She is a student at Cal Poly. Her mom went with us too...the boys love Kirsten!!! So Thursday morning we got up and headed out to the beach. Amanda picked Avila Beach for the boys very first beach! It was great!

Beautiful Avila Beach

Look at that smile and tell me he isn't having fun!!

Kirsten save me!!

Look what I drew!!

Rare shot of my awesome hubby!

This face says it all....."RUN"!!

At this point Prince #3 was very unhappy about being at the beach...he wanted to go home!
He would not take off his shoes or shirt and would not go anyway near the water.

 

I want to go home!!

Happy to play in the sand!

Buried Amanda's feet in the sand!! And loved doing it!

 Finally Prince #3 warmed up to taking off his shoes and shirt and putting on his swimming shorts...but still would not go in the water!

Your funny Kirsten!

Finally closer to the water!

After a day at Avila beach we headed back to Amanda's and made dinner. Then got ready to go to the Farmer's Market and Bubblegum Alley! But first Kirsten helped Amanda with a job she has at Cal Poly....collecting the eggs on the poultry farm. Well prince #1 wanted to help...and Amanda said he was her best helper ever! And she meant it too....he took the directions she gave and did it perfectly....she said most of the others that help (they are college students as well) are not as good a help as he was!

Helping collect the eggs!

After this we headed to the Farmer's Market. We found a place to park and then headed down the street to the Farmer's Market...where I saw this:

Is it really that cold???

That was just strange to say the least but what you are about to see next is just....well....here I will show you.

My thought exactly!

Cool but really weird!

Yes that is gum! It is called Bubblegum Alley for that very reason! It was actually kinda gross but the kids thought it was cool. Well prince #1 did....prince #2 was actually standing about a foot more away right before I snap that picture of him and the look he had was one of "OMG don't let it touch me!" Hence the kinda of not sure about this smile on his face! So next we had to hunt down some gum so they could add their piece to the wall!

Candy store where we bought some gum!

Prince #2 sticking on his gum

Prince #1 sticking on his gum

After this we walked the streets a bit and stopped at a street performer. He juggled and such...he was pretty funny. Although prince #3 was not impressed with the drummer he had helping him...he stared to cry and wanted to go home.....again!

Watching the funny man! See prince #3 eyeballing the the guy in the corner!

So after all our fun that day we headed back to the car and home to Amanda's. Got everyone ready for bed and we were getting our room in order to go to sleep....when suddenly it seemed a little to quiet in the other room. So I go to investigate and this is what I found:

Had to much fun today!

We put them to bed and put ourselves to bed....to enjoy the next days adventures!
Friday morning we got up and ready to head out. First we waited for Amanda to get back from work so we could go see some of the farm animals she helps care for on the Cal Poly farm. We saw horses, cows, and pigs (we saw chickens too but that was the day before). Next we headed to the railroad tracks to lay coins on the track.......

Will they be flat when we come back?

Then we headed to Avila Valley Barn to see the petting zoo and get pie!! Yummy!

Prince #3's new best buddy Amanda

 The picture above is extra special because I noticed the more we did with Amanda the more prince #3 would do things with her....where as he wouldn't do them with anyone else!

Waiting for pie! Oh and a corn on the cob (prince #1)!

After pie we headed to the Tide pools at Shell Beach. The boys loved it....well prince #3 really didn't care about the stuff in the Tide pools.....he just loved jumping over them!

Amanda and prince #2 looking for crabs!

Little crab little crab come out of your shell!

A rare prince #3 sitting moment!

Shell beach Tide pools

The Gang

A cave

What is in that cave??

The last shot I took with my beloved camera!

Right after this shot was taken my camera was dropped into a tide pool!! Yes I said drop into a tide pool! And yes it is dead!! But I was so lucky my memory card was still in one piece and all my memories of those two days were ok! I have more pictures of this trip I will share another time as my cousin has them on her camera because she took more after mine was put down (sniff sniff)! Yes I was sad my beautiful little $250 dollar camera that I just got back in February was toast...but we still had a awesome time and a great mini vacation! And we totally plan on doing it again next year....only minus the camera mishap and for a longer period of time!

There are days I miss him!

Today seems to be one of those days......I watch my princes and I miss him. I think about him and wonder if he would have looked like them. I watch them grow with each passing day and wish I could watch him grow too. It has only been 6 months.....can you believe that...6 months....some day's it seems like yesterday. As much as I love my boys I do feel smothered at times...especially when prince #2 and #3 want to sit with me at the same time....really boys my lap is not that big!! But I would give anything to be smothered by one more. Today was just one of those days where my Evan Daniel was missed!
Everyone says it gets better with time.....and I know it does...I mean it already has a lot believe me....but there will always be a piece of my heart that is missing....no one else can full it or fix it. Someone once said that he and his wife had lost their grown daughter and he was walking behind his wife and he looked at her and said to himself "she is just a shell of the woman she use to be!" She was never to be the same woman again.
To lose someone you love is hard enough on anyone....but there is something that happens to a mother that loses a child (at any age) that changes that woman. There is always a piece of her missing somewhere..and no amount of time can change that.....EVER!!
Well now that I have said that.....really I needed to say all that...it was just one of those days! I thought I would share a few pic's.......and today I thought I would share pic's of all the males in this house (well except hubby). This first pic is one of my many fave of prince #2....this is our aka Linus...see the infamous blue blankie! This blankie goes everywhere he does....hence Linus! 

Prince #2 aka Linus

Now folks don't be fooled by this cute innocent looking, smiling face.....because he is not that innocence...let me tell you! This kid may look sweet but can and will bully his 12 yr old brother and literally pin his 3yr old brother down on the floor by his hair! All the while screaming bloody murder making you think that he is the victim!! Yes folks beware the cute grin!!

Prince #3..."love me"   mawhahaha

Yes this is my oldest prince...and yes it does look like stitch is trying to swallow him up!!Those who want to pray for me may do so now!! "Dear Lord....please help me keep my sanity!!"

Prince #1.....(sigh)

Now remember I live with 3 more males........I have 2 cats both males. 1st we have Toby...all I can really say about Toby is he is prince #2's kitty and well let just say he is a lot like his owner. 2nd we have Oliver....and well he is prince #1's kitty and well he is just like his owner! And when I say like I mean just like...it is eerie! And yes that is Toby sitting in a chair....these 2 cats will indeed sit in a chair rather than on the ground!!!

Toby

And then there is Oliver.........this one was taken not to long after we got them.....and yes he is sitting in my lap......a very pregnant lap (Evan was in there). Both of these cats love to lay in my lap, back, tummy...well just about anywhere on me!! More smothering!

Oliver

And last but not least our Dog.......Scooby.....yes he is named after Scooby Doo...prince #1 was very much into watching this show at 7 yrs old and so this is what he named the dog!

Scooby Doo

 I think I will share just 2 more pic's......these are of Scooby and Toby.....and mind you.....they are as bad as the kids when it comes to this.......

Waiting for their mommy!

 Yes they are sitting by the bathroom door waiting for me to come out!!! Now I thought that it was bad enough to have small children beating down the door, yelling at you thru the door and even the occasional fingers under the door......but come on now......meowing and scratching at the door........LORD HELP ME!!

Still waiting on their Mommy!

                                                                THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!!

Painted Faces!

Well after having written Evan's story a few days ago...I needed a breather. Sitting here typing and remembering all the things we went through took me 4 hours......yes I said 4 hours! And it drained me both physically and emotionally so I needed to regroup. So here I am again but this time I will share a few pictures of the fun my princes had letting there Auntie paint on them.....she has many a talents and this seems to be another one! She started with victim number one.....I mean Prince #2.

The fun begins!

My Niece..my Sis was glad to get to practice her girl face painting.

I love this pic of her....she is a beauty!

Prince #1

Prince #1 again

Again.......got a shot of Sis in action!

Prince #2 again

Prince #1

My Nephew

Niece again

 Now this was just the first day......I have a few more from this day but Sis was just starting and the first few were well......1st tries...I will leave it at that! Now I will share the picture's from the next day where my prince #3 was a little mad at Auntie after his painting session....and I will tell you why in a minute.

Butterfly Tummy

Spider with flames (got to have flames!)

Shark

Another Snake

Dolphin

Rainbow Sun

And Fire.....I mean Flowers!

Ok so here is were I will tell you why he was mad at his Auntie.....it was all because of the picture above.
 See he had went up and gotten all painted up...helping Auntie practice her face painting. And she painted all the things you saw in the above pictures. He came back down stairs and I said "oh let me take pictures of your cool new paintings"...so we go outside and I took all the pictures you see above...and so the last one I took was of the flowers...and I said "hey whats that on your back?" Princes #2 looked at me and said "its fire!" (me) "oh really fire? are you sure" (prince #2) "yes fire" (me) "ummm no it's not fire there flowers" (prince #2) "NO IT NOT IT FIRE!" (me) "sorry buddy but those are flowers...look I took a picture" (showed him the picture) (prince #2)  "what Auntie said was painting fire...not flowers!! I go tell her right now!" And he stomped through the yard back up to Grama's house to give Auntie a piece of his mind! He was mad!! I was laughing.....hard!! A few minutes later my Sis came outside and said "alright who is the one that told him they were flowers!" (me) "I DID" (Sis laughing) "well he just told me he was mad for giving him flowers and not fire....I told him I would take it off and he said "No there my flowers...but next time I want fire!!"" I laughed some more!!
I have to say this for my princes' they have kept everyone laughing in this family good times and bad...and I am still always surprised with the things that come out of there mouths!!