snow day!!!

today was a fabulous day! we drove up to mount baldy to play in the snow. on the way, we called my dad to borrow some sleds, but he had none. then, we missed our freeway exit and on our way to turn around, God provided a wonderful sled on the side of the freeway! we continued our journey. we wanted to go to "those really white mountains in front of us", but didn't know which ones those were or how to get there. so we drove north til we could go no further and started east just keeping the mountains in sight. it was an adventure! off the 210 the "mountain ave" exit seemed appropriate, so we took it and it led us straight to where we wanted to go! on our 4 hour (yes, 4 hours) trip up we had fun in the car. we tried a few "short cuts" (as we were in horrendous traffic!). some worked, some required breaking through cables and a 4x4 vehicle. we did not take those. the kids were remarkable considering how long they were in the car! once we got "there" (wherever that was) we pulled over and it was BEAUTIFUL! can you see it???
our God is so amazing! we love to be out in His creation! here's a few photos of the kids...
we sledded on the little hill. sy just hung out in the ergo while mommy pulled ky around in the sled on mostly flat snow. that was her favorite part.

after sledding, kiki wanted to build a snowman. they got a good start and then we took our photo...

with somebody else's finished product. this is what we were envisioning anyway. why reinvent the wheel? after some exploring and a nice snowball fight, it was dark so we headed back to the car. right when we got there it started raining so it was perfect timing! we'd brought hot cocoa and warmed up in the heat of the car.

the kids had a blast. definitely a GREAT day!

the rancho

"i had fun at the rancho" ky said smiling as we drove away. today we visited rancho los alamitos with our parkday friends.

the kids were excited to share with daddy about the horses, sheep and goats they saw. the "200 old houses", meaning a 200-year-old house, was interesting. the tour circled around so we saw a few rooms twice and the house was in so many added-on compartments which i think lead to them thinking we were seeing more than one house.

jojo was so caring to help his sister with a turn at the pump. :)

cleaning out the pantry

mommy cleaned out ALL the cupboards in the laundry room completely reorganizing, moving shelves, and donating to "the goodwills" again! i didn't count but i know there were more than 30 bottles of bubbles in various parts of every cabinet! so the kids enjoyed bubbling while i cleaned - for 7 hours straight!!! at the end i told them, "i'm sorry guys. i didn't tell you in advance that i'd be cleaning all day. when i woke up this morning i didn't know i was going to spend all day cleaning either." oh well. i'm crazy!

our first hair cuts!

ky & sy both got their very 1st haircuts today. auntie heather blessed 5 grubbs with new do's today! only ky & sy are featured here because it was a milestone. i've waited almost 3yrs to fill in this line in ky's baby book! here they are... before & after
we just cut off the baby hair she was born with!!!
okay. it was really just a trim. i thought about photoshopping something dramatic for her, but do i really have the time for that???

i bet nobody will ask "boy or girl?" anymore!

climbing high

grandpa joe came over to go to the park with us!

when i was pregnant with sy, the kids saw grandpa almost every week (and a few times a week when i was really sick) while i went to the ob. it's been a while and we've not made a good effort to regularly see eachother, so today was the first day of the rest of our lives. oh. today was the first of hopefully regular time together. :) we went to a new park in our area and the kids had lots of fun. grandpa got to play a couple games and also sit back and watch me play with the kids, which i don't do a lot of at parks because i'm usually busy just keeping track of 4 kids!

we had a great time and look forward to next week!

sy is cruising!

he can now make his way all the way across the couch, past the saucer, and to the bookshelf! it's really incredible because he still doesn't really crawl. he spins in a general direction on his tummy. well, i was surprised. daddy keeps saying "he wants to walk!"

definitely not from my true love, but...

sing with me! on the 10th day of the new year my true love gave to me... 3 puking kids, 2 blow out diapers, and an overflowing toilet! (there will be no pictures accompanying this post!)
it's been a fun day. i just needed to get that out. so. my washing machine is working overtime today!
my dear kiki who is the only kid not sick came and "taunted me" (singing oo, oo, oo, oo, oo to the na, na, na, na, na we're working on not hearing in our house) while i was cleaning up the full 2 inches of water from the bathroom floor. i came out to speak with him and asked why he might need discipline. "idk". i thought i'd guide him to the answer - which he really didn't know because he wasn't really taunting me. "what was mommy doing?" - "cleaning the bathroom" - "what did you do wrong?" - "i went pee pee" - ok. nevermind.
then there's jojo. he wanted french toast for breakfast. we didn't have enough eggs. i said we'd go to the drive-thru dairy when sy woke up from nap and have french toast for lunch. (ky had only thrown up once at this point and it seemed like we'd be able to manage a 10-minute car ride). ky went down before sy woke up. so we had to wait for her too. when she was stirring i loaded up sy and jojo got in the car. kiki said he needed to run back to go potty (you already know what happened there). i came back in to get ky to put her in the car, but had just stepped into the house when i heard jojo yell from the car. i ran back and saw he was going to be sick. i got him out of the car just in time - only the driveway and the neighbors lawn were offended. then kiki came yelling at the front door with only a shirt on, "mom help! my shorts got a little wet when the toilet overflowed!" WHAT?! i ran inside. sure enough, water's still running... i shut off the water. grabbed every towel i owned which had not yet been used to clean up other fun things and threw them down to try to avoid ruining our carpet and vanity. ran back outside to retrieve poor sy (who's been strapped into his seat the whole time) and tell jojo to come in. whew! i told jojo that french toast just wasn't going to happen today. BUT he looked so sad and asked really nicely, so...
once things were back together and a load of towels started in the washer, i loaded the kids in the car to retrieve some eggs from the drive-thru dairy. i stopped momentarily to wash off the driveway and dilute our contribution to our neighbors' lawn at which point i also hosed off my pants - unintentionally, of course. oh well - i thought - nobody at the drivethru will care if my pants are wet.
on the 2 1/2 mile drive to the dairy, ky got sick 4 or 5 times and jojo twice. i had containers for that purpose. each time i thought - what in the world am i doing!? but it didn't stop me. each time i asked jojo - do you still want frenchtoast? and just like his mother, he would not be deterred from his mission. we've been learning about perseverance, but i am not sure this was the time to stick with anything!
sy fell asleep on the way home. ky & jojo wanted to try some dry toast, which proved unsuccessful as it came back a minute later. kiki had lunch. we read "the magic school bus and the giant germ"(how appropriate) for "school" and now they're all asleep. except sy who of course woke up right about the time the others went down. after all mom was free to play now! :)