The Cookie Tree

Last night we decided to again try to start a tradition for our Christmas. When Kyle was growing up he had a very fond memory of the "Cookie Tree". They would decorate sugar cookies to hang on the tree and then each night they got to choose a cookie and they did this all the way up until Christmas.
We had tried to start this in our little family a couple years ago when Parker was small....it didn't work out well. Parker was mad that he had to put the cookies on the tree and couldn't just eat them. He didn't want to frost them, he just wanted to lick his fingers. AND if that wasn't enough "candies not for cookies", is what he kept saying while we were trying to stick candy lights on the tree cookies.
So last night we did it with Parker and Zoey with Cooper watching intently. This year it was Zoey's turn to be more interested in the eating then the actual decorating, but at least they are both very excited to decorate the tree with cookies.
Parker also ask if Santa was going to eat these cookies or if he got some of his own. I told him that Santa would get his own fresh plate of cookies on Christmas Eve and ask him what he thought Santa's favorite cookies are. Parker insisted that Chocolate Chip are Santa's favorite...AND that Santa wouldn't mind sharing with him when we made them.
I'm looking forward to finishing our Cookie tree today.....and a very fun and funny Christmas with my crazy kids!

I'm Back!!!

So as anyone who knows me will tell you....I dissapear from time to time. I have however come back among the "on top of it women" and I'm now updating my blog. I will tell you that I have been away so long only because I have three children now, and it was more of an adjustment that I had anticipated. I am only NOW getting into what seems to be a schedule...and he's five months old.

These pictures are from a photo session we did for my parents 40th wedding anniversary. Cooper was just about three weeks old, and was the best for the event out of the three children. Cooper was born on June 10th at 8:00 am by yet again another c-section. He came out and wasn't breathing well, so there was some concern there, but about an hour after I got into my room, they said everything looked good and would bring him to me as soon as they could. Two and a half hours later I finally got to see my baby. That is a long time to make a mother wait, and I was not happy about it. Cooper was born on a week that was filled with rain...and flooding. It was perfect for me, because I got to sit in my room and stare out the window at the beautiful shade of green everything had turned, and I got to hold my Cooper and talk with him by myself.

Cooper is now five months old and is growing so much faster than my other two did. Not sleeping as well as they did, but he's growing. He started rolling over at 4 months old, and is almost crawling now, if he could figure out how to get his head off the floor at the same time his knees are moving. I don't know if it's because he's my last baby, or because he's so easy going, but he seems to be a little more patient with me, as I am with him.

Zoey is 2 and a half now, and she is ALL girl. I did not know that girls could be so tempermental. She can be the most loving child at times, and the most irratable the rest of the time. She is however the sweetest girl when it comes to giving her brothers and Kyle and I love. She loves to give kisses and then she will tell you how much you love kisses. She also LOVES to dance. This girl will dance to any form of music and loves to have the radio going most all of the day....just like mama! Our favorites to dance to are "I got a feeling" by the Blackeyed Peas, "Party in the USA" Miley Cyrus, and "You belong to me" Taylor Swift. I love my little girl and I can't wait to do all the fun GIRL things with her. She's got me and Kyle wrapped around her little finger.

Finally there's our little man Parker. He started Kindergarten in September and he has grown up before my eyes. He is SO stinking good at math. He loves numbers and figuring things out...just like his daddy! He loves his teacher and has become espically popular with the little girls in his class. I can already tell that I'm going to have to keep an eye out for these girls when he gets older, because if Parker is anything like his dad, he will be oblivious to the advances of the female persuassion.

We're looking forward to the holidays...and I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and updating my blog more often!

I can't breathe!

We are in the countdown to baby number three everyone, and I have to say there are more can'ts right now than can's.

I can't breathe. I don't know what it is about Parker and this last little guy, but they seem to want to reside up as high as they possibily can. I have more chest pain than with either of the other two and my lungs feel as if they never fully get oxygen.

I can't sit...or stand....or lay down without some form of pregnancy pain. If it's not the little guy inside me giving me pain it's his older brother and sister jumping onto my belly, or just trying to lay on me.

I can't eat. If I do eat something I get heartburn about two minutes after, if I don't eat, I get nautious and throw up. Or if I do eat there is a nasty aftertaste that makes me even more sick to my stomach.

I can't wait to be done with the whole pregnancy thing. I have enjoyed being pregnant, and I love my kids, and if it didn't hurt so much and cause me increased amounts of stress, I would probably have a couple more....but I cannot tell you the great feeling it is to know that this for us right now is it. Two boys and a girl is AWESOME for me and I wouldn't have it any other way.

On a lighter note, I CAN tell everyone of my friends that reads this that I really REALLY appreciate the help that I've gotten over the past few months. About three weeks ago I had to start with a weekly visit and stress tests for the baby, which take no longer than three and a half hours. I have gotten so much help with my kids and so many listening ears that I can't tell you how blessed I feel to have such great people around me....Family too!!

44 days left until Cooper makes his debut.....but then again who's counting, oh wait....ME!

Catchin' Up

So it's been MONTHS since I did anything on this page....so here's an update for our family.

Kyle started school again last week to get his Masters!! I'm so excited for him. He's been wanting to do it for awhile, and now that work is paying for half of it, it's a great time to do it. Parker has been loving the warm weather, so when he woke up this morning and it was cold and snowy, he came into my room and said MOM!! What is going on out there? I told him that I was sorry but it just got cold again, to which he replied "Well sorry doesn't fix it."

Zoey has also been loving the warm weather as well and has loved following daddy around the backyard while he does some cleanup and such. She runs from one end of the yard to the other, then screams when it's time to come in.

As for me, I am pregnant...enough said. I love having kids and the being pregnant part, but I wish they had a really good pill for all the aches and pains that go along with it. For those that don't know we are having a boy, and have decided to name him Cooper Jay Rands. It took A LOT of talking Parker into that name. He was convinced that his name was Rufus. Don't ask me where he got that name or who told him that was his brother's name, but we would ask him DAILY about names and he would say No we're going to call him Rufus. I don't know about anyone else but Rufus Rands was nowhere in my book...NOWHERE. So it took a lot of talking and telling him that he could call his little brother Lil' Coop, and he could be Big Park, but he's finally on board with the name Cooper.

So that's what's happening with us, and for anyone that knows me I can't post on here without adding a picture, so I found some pictures that John Y. took of my kids awhile ago, and I can't get over how dang good my kids look. We're doing some family pictures after we get Cooper here, so I'll get more on here, but I just had to show these.

If I do say so myself...I have some really good looking kids

Third times the Charm

I wanted to update those that don't know and those that were speculating....We are pregnant again. Due in June. I need to stop drinking the water around here.

Christmas Memories

So this mom has gone from bad to worse when it comes to keeping up with things. Yes Virginia, we did have a christmas and it was great. Parker is trying to explain to Zoey what is going on. He told her that they were going to get presents and toys...as you can she it was a very intriguing conversation.

This was our Christmas card photo this year, and yes, Kyle and I are not in it (see other blog for my thoughts on that :) ) I did think my kids took a great picture this year. They are both so grown up and they let me mess with them a little more this year.

During the holidays, Parker's pre-school got to have breakfast with Santa. He was so excited, and even shared the experience with his sister without getting mad. I do have to say the chance to sit with the big kids at the table was Zoey's favorite part.

I did enter the gingerbread house contest at the Gale Center again this year. Parker loves to sit at the table and watch me and ask me millions of questions, and Zoey wanted to just eat everything that I was trying to work on. We had a great holiday season this year and I look forward to next year's mayhem.

Pumpkin Patch!

Now I am officially into the swing of things. Parker's pre-school class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch, and I'm ready for fall now. It wasn't too cold, but cold enough for jackets, and it was so much fun to watch Zoey running around trying to pick up the pumpkins

First she started out with the smallest, then she put it down and moved a size up and so on until she was trying to lift pumpkings that were larger than her. She was also moving them to where she thought they looked better.

Parker and Zoey both liked the tractors alot. Unfortunatly we had to try each and every stinkin tractor in the pumpkin patch! Needless to say mom was losing her cool after about the fifth tractor.

So it was a great day, Parker got to spend some fun time with friends and Miss Lisa, and Zoey got to run amuck. After the pumpkin patch we headed home for hot chocolate...and a nap! We're Ready for Fall at the Rands house!

Parker Favorite Part

For the most part of our trip we stayed in the Howard Johnson Hotel in Aneheim. If it was not for this hotel, we probably would have gone crazy. The rooms were clean, but not luxury by any means, but we would stay there over and over just for the pool. As you can see from the above picture it was a giant pirate ship. From different points of the ship you could shoot water and there were three small waterslides attached that were small enough that we would just send Parker to play and we didn't have to watch him like a hawk. However, the best part of it was the bucket you can see at the top. Every two minutes you would hear a bell start to ding...and as the dings got closer the more quickly children would run to get to their spot before this 500 gallon bucket would tip and drench all that were standing under and or near it. It was so much fun!!

You can see Zoey in the picture here, and Parker is standing just beyond the boy in the black. This is just as the bucket starts to pour.

I know it's not a great picture, but if you can see the little guy just to the left of the girl in pink....that's Parker. He loved getting right in the middle of it.

Zoey was content to walk around the little three foot pool. She didn't want help.....she was going to swim on her own. I absolutly LOVE that she finally fit into her swimsuit...(thanks Lizz W.!!)

And This is Parker just after the bucket drops. He played by the pool one night for almost 5 hours. It was so nice and warm that he didn't want to come in. So if you ever need a great hotel in Disneyland with something to bribe you kids to go back to the hotel...I highly recommend this place!

The End of the Fun

Well I pulled up my pictures all kinds of backward, so we'll start with the end. Who knew that out of the whole trip that the beach would be the kids favorite part. Kyle and I both thought, well they will want to hang around maybe fifteen minutes and then they will be bored. When we tried to leave both of them dug in their heels. The simple things in life ARE the best.

Zoey decided that she wanted to sample all that the beach had to offer. I don't understand what is so appetizing about sand, but I couldn't get her to stop eating it.

Sea World was our second to last stop...and yes we were sitting this close. Kyle and I both thought hey you only live once, lets sit in the "Soak Zone". This might be fine for the dolphin show, but we were so soaking wet that it was like we jumped into the pool with Shamu, and got right back out. I forgot totally that Shamu lives in salt water until I was drinking it. We got to spend the rest of the day drying out and forming a nice salt crust on our skin. It was amazing to see...just very wet.

Since Mommy's favorite animal in the whole world is a Dolphin, we spent a good portion of our time at the dolphin feeding area. Parker thought it was awesome to feed them little fishes and kept asking me what they tasted like. How do you describe the taste of fish to a four year old...well son, fish tastes....fishy. Anyhow, he loved it and Zoey seemed to enjoy herself too.

We did also make it to the San Diego Zoo, and this was the absolute best picture in the world for me. My two busy little bees stood long enough with their heads in this thing to get a picture. It was GREAT!! In the end the zoo was a zoo....a big gigantic zoo, but nothing I would go fight the crowds for. Which was another interesting thing. We didn't stay too long because they were having a beer and wine tasting....at the zoo. We got out of there before too much tasting got going, because there were lots of people...and they all drove.....enough said :)

Universal Studios

The next park was Universal in the Rands trip. Parker got to this part of the park (above) and thought that it would be really fun to go on the clown ride. I was very hesitant to take him on it, but he really wanted to go. So we got all strapped into the motion simulator roller coaster and took off. Lets just say by the time the ride was over...Mom was right. He didn't like it much, but did enjoy meeting the characters, but he wouldn't talk to them. I think he thought it was his way of chewing them out for such a horrible ride.

This was the most fun for both kids. They have a whole Curious George play park for the kids. The outside is nothing but water either spraying you, or being dumped on you, but you go inside this building and there are thousands of nerf balls all over the floor that you put into buckets and send through different tubes. You can suck them up with a tube that drops them into a basket that when it gets full enough, drops them on your head; or you can put them into a volcano looking area that will blast them into the air. I think Zoey liked the fact that I put her down and she got to run as far and as long as she wanted to.

Zoey was obsessed with having her own bucket and putting the balls in herself. Heaven help me, she's already into the "don't help me mother" phase of her life!

I had to talk Parker into this picture....I have no idea why! :)

As most of you know, Spongebob was one of Parker's first loves, can you tell by the shirt? This trip was fun for me and Kyle because it brought to life some of these characters that he's just seen on TV or movies. It was so fun to see him light up and be excited about things. He told me George was fun, but he's such a silly monkey

I liked meeting Donkey from Shrek. There's someone in the cart that does the voice of donkey and can obviously see whoever is coming up to the cart, and carries on a full conversation. Zoey would laugh at what Donkey was saying, but when it was time to say goodbye Donkey ask if she wanted to pet him, so I leaned in and got the bloody murder scream...she didn't think Donkey was all that funny after that.

The Rands Go to California!

So it's been a couple weeks, and for those of you that didn't know. We went to Disneyland!!! It was a such a great trip. We went for 12 days to California and we got to go to Disney, Universal Studios, the San Diego Zoo, and Sea World. I'm not going to put it all into one post, so enjoy the next few posts.

We started off on Saturday Morning and DROVE to California. Let me caution anyone who wants to do that with a 4 year old and a 15 month old. Bring Sedatives!!! We got to Las Vegas and Zoey was through being in the car, and was quite upset when she realized we still had a long way to go.

We did make it to California and the next day we headed over to Disneyland. Parker was excited, but didn't know why, and Zoey was along for the ride but was unimpressed. Until we got to the t-cups that is. She enjoyed that ride alot! She liked all the colors and fun music, and Parker was just happy to be on a ride.




Parker really wanted to show us that he could lift these....poor guy dosn't know they are cemented to the ground.

Parker really loved meeting Mickey and Pluto, he really didn't have much interest in anyone else. He is now obsessed with Micky...has already told me all the Mickey things he wants for Christmas. I think we're in Trouble

Parker loved all of it. To my surprise, Parker really liked Splash Mountain. Kyle took him first and after he came running off and wanted to do it again...with mom. That's Kyle with his hands up in the back, and Parker is sitting right in front of him, holding on for dear life.

The parades were a lot of fun for the kids. Zoey liked the Disney parade more, and Parker loved the Pixar parade. Zoey blew kisses to Ariel, and Parker yelled at the top of his lungs when he saw Buzz Lightyear "He's real mom...he's real he's real!!" It totally made the trip worth it. So we'd seen Disneyland. Then it was off to our next park.

He's off to School!

I can't believe that it's already time to start thinging about school for Park-man. I swear I just birthed him! The summer has flown by and now he gets to start pre-school with Miss Lisa. He was so excited to go last night to the open house, although he thought he was starting school and got to ride a big yellow school bus. I infomed him that I would be the only bus service.

He got to do his first project and play a fun game of BINGO. Then after it was off to buy him his first backpack.....bet you cant guess what he chose. Anyway we are looking forward to him starting school. I think it will help him focus.

Not realizing that he was starting school a few months ago, we scheduled a vacation the week after to Disneyland, so we are also looking forward to that, and LOTS of good pictures!

I Love you Parker and we want you to always do your very best in school...and remember that you are a really great kid!

Parker's Party....and Mommy's 30th!!

Well the Birthday extravaganza ended with the party of the centry for Park-Man. He got his Transformer Party that he'd been asking for, for months! He got to have four friends over and he chose his very favorite people. Caden Romph, Jared Keller (his cousin), Zach Yrungaray, and Nathan Gaisford. He calls them his very most favorite friends.

I thought instead of party hats this year....we'd do masks....and am I glad I did!!! I thought this was the funniest thing I'd seen! They didn't stay together very well...and they came off after about a minute, but it was well worth the money spent for the picture.

I had assigned each boy a Transformer name, just to keep with my theme and it looked really fun on the invitations. As you can see, Caden was Optimus Prime. I thought it fit in rather well with the party....don't you?

Among the games I had them do a relay race to "earn" their treat/prize bags. The very last obstacle, which went over better than I thought was carrying a spoonful of water to a bucket. They had to fill it up at least half way, but they were having so much fun, they filled up the whole bucket. I thought this photo of Nathan being so careful was really cute.

And finally to end Parker's birthday, and start my own birthday celebration, we let off popper fireworks in the back yard. They loved it! It was such a great party, and I have to say that Parker has some of the most wonderful friends!

The next day after the mess was cleaned up and I was completly exhausted, it was MY birthday. So Kyle did the most wonderful thing ever and suprised me with a manicure/pedicure while he watched the kids!!! It was three hours of "me" time and it was the best gift he could have given me. Then when I was all relaxed and happy, he took us to see a movie and then out for ice cream. All in all turning 30 wasn't so bad.....I feel terriably old....but as it says in the song "Lord have mercy on my next 30 years!"

Parker's 4th Birthday!

We started Parker's birthday weekend with a dinner out with Grandma, Grandpa and "Doots" (Aunt Steph). We went to Joe's Crab Shack and Parker got through his meal as fast as he could to get outside to the toys. Parker usually likes to get chips and dip with Grandpa at Applebee's, but he was content with what Joe had to offer.

On the day of the birthday Kyle and I were so excited to give Park's his present. We thought he would think that a big boy bike would be the coolest thing ever......we were wrong. We put the bike in the kitchen and ask him if he'd like to go see his present, so he went running to see...looked right at the bike and turned and ask where his present was. It just takes the wind out of your sails when you are more excited than the four year old. He is starting to come around to the idea of the bike..but it's going to be a long road to get him riding it confidently.

The highlight of the birthday for Parker was his cake. He told me for months that he wanted a Transformer birthday cake that transformed from a guy into a car......Dream on son! I can do some cool things with cake....but that is NOT one of them. I decorated it while Kyle took him to the store and I got the best reaction when he came home. It totally made up for the bike reaction.

No better reward for me than that big smile on my little guys face! It was a great birthday...and the party was still to come. I can't believe that he's four already...and starting pre-school in just a week or so. Now I get to look forward to what next years birthday will bring....