Wall of Billy

Whenever we leave the house for any period of time our little stinky puppy has to go in his crate. Some days he's only in there for an hour or so, some days quite a few hours. The kids have decided that Billy must get lonely during these long periods and needed something to take his mind off his time in the crate. Out came the paper, crayons and tape and the kids got to work. Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to the Wall of Billy.

Teigue was a picture making machine during his task, he couldn't stop. It may have been that it was past bedtime, but he was focused. He pulled things out of his creative hat that I had never seen before. He created a likeness of himself and Jayno that was spot on- complete with rainbow of course.

Billy with a cherry tree. And rainbow.

And just in case Billy was ever concerned, Teigue wanted to let him know that he was in fact the best boy.  

We taped all these pictures up on the wall next to his crate, and made sure that they were far enough off the ground so Billy wouldn't eat them (since Billy loves crayons and paper, the kids figured that crayon on paper would be quite the treat for our puppy). Now when we leave Billy is much happier and not as lonely because if he  just picks his head way up and looks through his little holes on the side of his crate, he can see the wall of love that the kids made for him.

More Birthday Pictures

 

Elephants

For Teigue's birthday, someone decided to give him the gift of wheezing, with some extra for Stella. Sitting in Urgent Care for 3 hours is not very fun on your one day you get to turn 5.

Birthday

Did you know a certain little boy turned the big 5 on Sunday? A certain little boy that is the sweetest, most loving, most amazing little boy the world has ever seen? Yup, Teigue Fox turned the monumental 5. Can not even believe it.

I remember my 5th birthday. I don't really know why this birthday stands out from the others, but for some reason it does. I remember being at Westchester Hills and just aching with the wait until people arrived. I think I asked my mom 1,000 times when people were going to get there. I was so excited, I couldn't contain myself. But after that I don't really remember much about the night except for my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Wayne gave me a chalkboard. A giant flip over green on one side and black on the other chalkboard. Loved that chalkboard. I felt so grown up.

Maybe that is why I was a tad obsessed with the planning of Teigue's big day. We decided back in Novemeber that the theme would be Rainbows. have I told you about Teigue's obsession with rainbows? Loves them. Draws them on everything. During rainstorms we go out in search for the big arch. He feels that everyone should love rainbows as much as he does- because they are just pretty and make people happy. How right a 5 year old can be.

So, the party! The day would have been loads more crazy and exciting if a certain little boy didn't have a monster cough all week and was slightly exhausted to start the day. But, oh well- still loads and loads of fun. We pretended that we were Superheroes, threw water balloons at a target aka Daddy, popped a roomful of bubble wrap, played with our buddies...

Then, as soon as everyone left, we crashed.

The party was on Saturday, but his actual birthday was on Sunday. When planning the activities for the party I had thought a balloon drop would be fun- until I discovered that the popping freaked some of the kids out. No big deal, the Fox kids took care of the balloons first thing in the morning. Sorry, neighbors.

Happy birthday to my little Munch, Monster, Munk, Teiguee, Coo Coo Monkey, Muffin...We love you. Thanks for choosing us as your Mommy and Daddy. xoxo

We do have more pictures of the day- our friend Marc took a bunch. When I get those pictures, I will post them.

Love

I love you Stella.

-Teigue

A picture for Stella. Just because.

King and Queen of the Canyon

Yesterday

Mommy! You know what I am? I am a princess.

I know, Jayno, you're my princess.

No, I Princess of the Mud. See, see what I can make? You want a cupcake?

Teigue, did you know that your sister is Princess of the Mud?

She's Princess of the Mud? Well, I want to be a prince. I am Prince of the Cracks! {He points to the areas where the rain water ran down the canyon and created runoff rivers. Teigue likes to take the dry mud and crack it open.}

What do you do as Prince of the Cracks?

I fight bad guy robots that may come into the canyon.

As we hiked through the canyon the kids discovered a little patch of mud. After digging in the mud they discovered that there was an underground stream that must lead to an ocean so they upgraded their titles to King and Queen of the Canyon. You know, because only a king and queen can make water appear. They decided that the stream would have fish come out of it soon, so they needed to make a little pool.

Oh, cool, like McElligot's Pool?

No, Mommy. Just a pool.

We left, taking a bit of the canyon mud with us.

Today

For a good part of the late morning and early afternoon the kids and I ran errands to get last minute items for Teigue's birthday party next Saturday. {Can I just tell you how excited I am for his birthday party? I feel like I did as a kid the night before Christmas or a really fun field trip. I can not wait. My little boy and his *gulp* 14 friends are going to have so much fun running around here. Can. Not. Wait.} That meant that poor Billy was in his crate for a good 4 hours while we were gone. When we got home, the kids and I took a little walk mosey around the block to get some energy out of the pup. 

Note to self: Never take the kids out again when Getting Energy Out of Pup is the mission. Every berry and bush had to be inspected along the way. Mosey, mosey mosey. 

As we headed out I told them that we would not be heading into the canyon because I didn't want them to get all muddy and dirty. It was close to Making Dinner Time and I didn't feel like dealing with the cleanup. Teigue decided that he needed to head into the canyon, really quick, just to see if his river was still there. He promised, promised, that he would not get muddy. Jayno agreed. We headed into the canyon.

Never trust a King and Queen.

Snow...

Ahhh..I feel better now.

Sun Therapy

Here is some Sun Therapy for those of you knee deep in winter. 

The rains have finally stopped for a bit so Brady decided to take the kids to Coronado to soak in some of this amazing sunshine. They brought the big shovel.

They dug, and dug and dug until they had the greatest ever mermaid's pool.

Even though it was 55º both inside the ocean and out, Teigue couldn't stay out of the water.

On Sunday I decided that I needed some Sun Therapy, so we headed on back to the beach. Luckily the mermaid's pool that I heard sooo much about was still there. Brady improved upon his original plan by making a fantastic slide on the side.

Need more Sun Therapy? Come on out and visit- it's like this pretty much all winter here. I need some Snow Therapy though. Maybe tomorrow we'll play hooky and head on out to the mountains...

December

Hello? *knock knock* Anyone here? *brushing aside the cobwebs* Wow. Has it really been a month since I posted? Does it make any difference that I have been super busy? Who knew that getting a puppy would be like having a newborn? Well, a newborn that nips their older siblings and poops and pees on the floor. At the end of the day I am so exhausted that I just veg...well if I make it to the end of the day. Lately it seems I fall asleep before Brady's story to Teigue and Stella is over.  

A new year, new focus. I plan on resuming the daily blog entries. I know that you ahem Joanie just want to see daily pictures of the kids- so I promise. I promise I will do my best. Until then, here are some pictures from December.

We started the month out with a daily visit from our favorite elf, Ollio. The kids figured that at the end of a long day of watching them, he may be too tired to head on back to the North Pole. This may have came to them because a few times Ollio was in the same space that he was when they woke up as when they went to sleep. They figured he was just exhausted and fell asleep. Teigue then decided that every night he would build Ollio a huge tower out of his blocks for him to sleep in. We also made Jayno's dollhouse a nice cozy spot. Thankfully Ollio agreed with the kids and stayed the night a few times.

 One night Teigue needed to sleep on the floor so he could sleep next to Ollio.

What else happened in December? Hmmm...Oh yeah, Jayno turned 3! My favorite little lady in the whole wide world had a birthday! She was greeted in the morning by the most glorious pink and purple sunrise. Sunrise you say? Yes, sunrise. Little Billy had a habit of waking everyone up at 6am. Thankfully we have stopped that and now just Brady or I get up. Anyway...the sunrise...

We then headed to our favorite Trolley Park with our favorite Teentz and played and played and played.

 We also enjoyed some tasty pink and purple cupcakes.

On the few days that it wasn't raining, we headed to the beach during the day...

And to Jungle Bells at the zoo at night.

We had such a wonderful month, even though it rained most days making us miss out on a few of our traditions- Christmas lights at the Del, nightly zoo visits, driving around looking at lights. We started some new traditions, had some new friends over for Christmas Eve, and part of our San Diego family over for the traditional pot pie dinner. Until next year December.