ONE

Cruz turned one on June 5th.  We can hardly believe that a year went that fast, but we are loving his personality and smarty pants that are in full form.  For those of you wondering if he was forever going to be the one-tooth wonder, his top right tooth has finally popped through, making him a 4-toothed man.  Cruz is 99% happy to be a little big man, 1% mad that I've started cutting him off from the food source--at 12 and 4pm those percentages reverse.  I love that you yell "MOM!" to get my attention and when you want to be close you put your back up against us.  We love you--Happy Birthday Cruzer!  

P.S. To all of you paparazzi at his birthday party, send me a CD of your pics--I am lacking for the week and know you have tons.  

Aloha Oe Panttaja's

Just needed to send a tribute to the Panttaja's.  Whoever said in-laws were a bad thing didn't know these guys...and 2 gals.  We love you (even though you will probably never read this) and we already miss the fact that instead of minutes, it takes hours to get to your house. 

Walkie Rockie pants

Cruz is officially a little walker. He really started taking off in the beginning of May, but as we

near the end of the month he is on his feet more than his knees. Cruz acts like he owns every

joint he enters and just runs his mouth blabbing the entire time...a little "daggie" here and a shrilling shriek there (please tell me if I ignore that sound that it will go away?!?!). He is a climber, a ball-carrier (and dribbler), an oven-turner-on-er wanna-be, a gardner, a dirt connoisseur, a basket rider, and a little cuddler with almost anyone. I love him to pieces. Oh yeah, and he STILL rocks himself to sleep...literally.

King of the Ring

Oshyn had the honor of being the ring-bearer for my cousin Kelly and her husband Randy's wedding last week. Here are some highlights:

Mr. Turtle being used for rehearsal.

Uncle Chad letting him pump the gas. "I NEVER get to do this!!"

Everyone thought that someone else was the parents to my kids. I tend to have half a dozen nannies on hand when I vacation with family...it wasn't until the last day that even the mother of the groom knew I was the Mommy of the 2 boys. (You may be thinking how easy it is to mistaken kids and their parents. I was the ONLY one with kids.)Seeing Oshyn with a little skip in his step carrying the pillow. He was soooo proud.

Yep, you guessed it...Oshyn caught the garter. Most of the guys agreed he really would be the next to get married. Lucky for me they had him put in on the pretty ladies arm. Whew!

My cousin Kelly (and Randy too) making Oshyn feel like he was the best ring bearer there ever was...over and over and over again. Thank you.

Cruz found his own best friend--Uncle Robb. There was a point in which I was holding Cruz and when he saw Uncle Robb, he reached for him. Who doesn't want a little buddy?

Urkel or Einstein?

I have been out of town physically (and/or mentally) for the last 2 weeks...I have a lot to catch up on and will do so.

Blog UNDER CONSTRUCTION--Sorry for the inconvience :)
2 down...1 to go

Eight is probably enough

We wanted to reminisce about the good 'ol days (2004, that is) so, May 5th thru the 7th, the Nobmann family moved back in with the Panttaja's. (Actually Nicole and Ralph just went to Carmel for a few days...by themselves!)
A bit different from the last time we lived with them...we both doubled the number of kids we had back then. Six kids now ages 7, 5, 4, 3, 1 and 11months. My days were filled just keeping everyone alive (and having a bit of fun too). I brought over a little scrapbook to do at night when everyone was in bed...yeah right--that never happened. After the 3 days were up I felt like I returned from another planet. I hadn't really talked to any adults (Beau came over after work to help put everyone to bed, but then went home to prepare for seminary in the morning) or been too many places--there wasn't enough time! Funny I didn't realize how much I need adult conversation in my day.
Here are some of the quotes of the day and other funny stuff...probably mostly funny to me, but then again, this is my "journal" right?
Monday:
Walking in to pick Isaac up from Preschool with the two babies--neither walkers...one in the sling and one on the hip and two "big" boys. The teacher said, "If I would have known you had your hands full, I would have met you at the door!" I decided drive-thru preschool would have been the best bet.
After eating scrumptious, warm, freshly popped popcorn from the
Beau's old popcorn popper for our FHE goodie I heard, "Can we have our REAL treat now?"
Tuesday:
Waking up at 6:30a to get a shower, get breakfast for everyone, motivate people to get dressed, eat, brush their teeth, go to the bathroom x 6 kids=leaving the house to get Dean to school at 8:35am shouldn't be too hard right? So I thought it would be nice to walk being that they live about 2 blocks from the school. Well, looking back I think the mistake was feeding the babies breakfast before we walked to school because as soon as we got the 2 in the stroller and the rest with shoes on and peeps in the potty, we heard a faint dinging sound.
Dean, "That was the bell for my school."
Me, "That's just the 1st bell, right? Hurry everyone!! Get in the car!" As we were driving up, 'like a race-car' they told me, I told him to tell his teacher his crazy Aunt had never taken him to school before and didn't know what she was doing. He kind of laughed and then RAN to his classroom. When Dean got home from school he told me that he and another kid had to go to the office to get a tardy slip (Come on! We were there at 8:37am!) I asked him if that was kind of fun...to get to go to the office and all. He said, "No." I said, "Alrighty...we'll be there on time tomorrow!"
I swear Millie said "Z-bar" at the park.
Wednesday:
We went to the park after dropping Dean off at school at 8:20am--thank you very much. Everyone that came through on their morning run/walk would just smile and stare at all of us. I heard a bunch of these..."Those aren't all yours are they?" and "Wow you have your hands full!" One lady took off her head phones and commented, "You must run a day-care!" I just laughed and then played tag some more. We left a few minutes after O-dogg ran straight into a pole--ouch! Sad to say, but I was hoping that he didn't break his glasses more than I was hoping he didn't break his nose. All was well, no breakage either place.
After Cruz took half a dozen steps, Dean said, "He's a circus baby!"

Some daily happenings and sayings:
"I'm going to spend some alone time in the toy room"
"Can I have a treat?" aka Z-bar
"What?"
"Can we buy some ice cream from the ice cream man?"
"Our Mom lets us _____" (I had to decipher when they were trying to pull some fast ones on me)

I always welcome a good challenge and having all of the munchkins by myself was definitely a challenge, but by the 3rd day I was getting the hang of things. I would have to say though that eight family members is probably enough...at least when 6 of them are 7 yrs. and under.

P.S. If you are planning on having this many kids, the Honda Passport is a dream. We all fit comfortably...3 CARSEATS and 2 BOOSTER SEATS!

Comic relief Saturdays aka Tiny Tots Soccer

What a difference a year makes...I can't believe how much Oshyn's grown.  Last year he was the smallest on his team--this year the tallest.  Still the same stomach ache on my part from laughing so hard (minus the huge baby...he came out last year).   

We like to interview Oshyn before/after events to see his take on things.  I have some from water skiing, basketball, golfing and, of course, soccer.  Here is last year and this year's most recent interviews put together.

Floater

Cruz just started learning to float through ISR infant swimming (which is how Oshyn started back in the day). This is a little clip of him after only a week...I'm not sure if the quality of the video will be good enough to see it all, but hopefully you'll get the point. I think Cruz might have had more hair last week before the chlorine, poor guy :) The chlorine is super strong because we go to an indoor pool at the gym, just check out Julie's swim suit...it used to be striped and now its white.
These little ones never ceases to amaze me. I love this stuff.



To learn more about ISR and how to prevent drowning look here or type in www.infantswim.com
I will update you in a week or so.

48 months later...

Faster than a speeding bullet!

More powerful than a locomotive!

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

Look! Up in the sky...its a bird...its a plane...

It's SUPERMAN!

(and the only way I can keep up with him these days, no joke...gotta love the blades--thanks for my b-day present 8 years ago Amanda and Michelle!!)

Breakfast with Daddy

This is what happens when Daddy's in charge!

Just what the Dr. ordered

We got a great big dose of my 2 favorite vitamins this weekend...Vit D (sun) and Vit H (happy to be outside swimming).

Lucky for us, it was 80-some degrees outside, the gym pool is heated, and we have a plethora of Panttaja's to play with.

Always more Oshynisms

Oshyn thinks everytime he wears his bball jerseys he MUST tuck them in. "Mom, that's what they make us do in our games."

When wearing his train conductor outfit..."You can call me Ductor"

O--"Mom! Something smells really GOOD!!"
Me--"What is it?"
O--"It must be Gluten!"
(FYI, we're gluten-intolerant--most things I say 'no' to, are yummy treats)

A father and son we know are both named Russell.
O--"Why are they both named Russell?"
Me--"I don't know, maybe they just like the name Russell."
O--"Maybe they really like to wrestle!"

O--"Why is our backyard so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so small and the Webb's isn't?

I can't believe he'll be 4 on the 15th!! Time flies.

Banished

I'm a 7 o'clock mom. That is when I choose to start my day. That is when my happy face comes out from under the covers. Any earlier (I'm talking even 6:59) and I'm not quite as chipper. I know this is late for some, but for me, this is the time I feel good about...
Cruz has done quite well with this since day 1, but recently--he has attempted to deviate from this plan. Cruz decided a few weeks ago to start rocking and rolling (literally) in his bed anywhere from 5:30-6 am instead of his normal 7am. This is not kosher in my house. Mainly because he and Oshyn share a room...so when one is up, ALL is up (and grumpy at that). I thought he was possibly ready for the day, so I would sneak in their room and get him in hopes that Oshyn wouldn't wake up. And then the trickery began--Cruz would fall asleep on the food source. He wasn't ready for the day. Then I decided to add a feeding later at night in case he was hungry. This didn't work either, he was still making WAY TOO much noise, WAY TOO early...he was just stuck on 6am for some reason.
So, he was officially banished...to the closet about a week ago.
What time did I wake up this morning you say? 7am. With a smile.

Disclaimer: For those who are worried about the lack of airflow in the closet...Beau was too. So he checked it out before we gave Cruz his new vacation home. Plenty of air. Plenty of flow. I LOVE a walk-in closet.

For all (un)intended purposes

When Oshyn was about 1 1/2 or 2 he was doing EVERYTHING on the playground.

My heart used to drop and I had a constant prayer going when he was climbing up the big gaps that they call a "ladder" for kids.

I always wondered what it would be like when he was a bit older...I guess he got bored with the norm.