Owen Peed in the Potty!

Yes, those are the kind of exciting updates that you can find RIGHT HERE at the Hines Family Happenin's blog!

Myke has started putting the boys each on their own little potty chair each morning after taking off their night diaper and pjs.  We have two little potty chairs that we had set out in their bedroom..just to get them familiar with potties in general.  Each morning (just started this a few days ago) they would each sit on their potty and read a book before getting dressed and coming down for breakfast.  Well, yesterday Owen peed!  Yay!

I was still sleeping in my nice warm bed when the door busts open and Myke and the three older kids run in.  I started to groggily open my eyes wondering WHY they heck are they running in here and waking me up (I had gotten up earlier to feed Ella and then had fallen back asleep...as is Myke and my usual routine....he gets the older 3 up so I can sleep a little more after feeding her).  Anyways, I was a little annoyed at being woken up until I saw that Myke was carrying what I thought was a big mug of coffee for me.  Ohhh!  Coffee delivered to my bedside?  Alright

, I'm okay with that...UNTIL I notice it's a big pot of Owen's pee!  They were all SO excited to show me that Owen had peed in the potty...and of course we had to make it a big deal for him...but Arrgg!  I cup of coffee would have been a little bit nicer to wake up to.

Starting of 2014!

I'm just going to throw a bunch of photos at you for this blog entry.  It helps me to share what we've been doing and to show some of my favorite caught-on-my-iphone memories from the past few weeks.  Amazing how we can now take photos ALL the time with the smart phones.  I have always been one to have a camera and take photos (even back in the days of rolls of film) but now it's even crazier.  I'm non-stop snapping pics.  Where as I have probably have viewed a total of FIVE photos from my father's ENTIRE childhood (and I think less of my mother's), I have taken that many of just Ella yesterday.  The times they have a'changed!  

Love this photo of my brother with the boys (though it is blurry--Apple definitely hasn't perfected the camera app on their iPhones...but can't complain!)

the girls!  hike @ Torrey Pines

playing cards (another blurry iPhone pic)

Chloë can ride without training wheels!!

Myke can run!!

Grandpa & Ella

My blondies

A photo taken from my iPhone while jogging on the beach (I carry the phone to track my distance...and to take pics on occasion)

Train trip from Encinitas to downtown San Diego- the boys first time on a real train!

They loved it!

And her first time, too!

Chloë & Gramma

Downtown San Diego

Ella & Chloë and their little friend, Addie

New Year's Eve kiddo Party in our front yard

Yes, we went to Chuck E. Cheese!  Chloë has been before, but it was a LONG time ago..first time for the boys.  They all LOVED the mini-air-hockey table the best.  Besides the fact that I made all my kids bath in a scalding water & bleach solution when we got home (KIDDING...kind of...), it was a great time!

Ready for Pajama Day at preschool!  

Thanks to Aunt Heather for the matching PJs for Christmas!

(Eli is holding a stuffed animal ladybug..he never lets that thing go these days!)

Checking out the beach with my boys

Love these guys!

Owen post-chocolate donut a a neighbor's birthday party

apparently this was on "Modern Family" - sent to me from my next-door neighbor

What a great name for a dance academy!

So here we are...mid-January already.  In just three weeks we get ready for our next round of visitors. Until then, we are on our own for the month of January.  By "on our own" I mean just the six of us.  Myke, myself and four small children.  We kind of get into a little groove when it's just us...and then it goes all up in the air when visitors arrive.  Not to say that visitors are a bad thing, because that's FAR from the truth.  It just changes the dynamic of the household and the day-to-day a bit.  It's great because Myke and I get more date nights, the kids get more one-on-one attention, the kids get time with grandparents/friends/aunts/uncles/etc, I can take the kids on more extensive outings and adventures and try new things that I wouldn't otherwise try.  Having more "hands on deck" lets you do that.  So I love it.  Not to mention the helping hands around the house.  The entire 3 weeks that my parents were here in December I think I unloaded the dishwasher ONCE (and Myke did it ZERO times).  The two of us usually each unload it at least once a day EACH.  Also, I don't think I folded ONE item of clothing during those three weeks.  It was wonderful!  Laundry is non-stop here.  There is almost always a pile of clothes waiting to be folded on our couch.  When my parents were here it was folded so fast and timely that I was backed up with a line of baskets of folded clothes to put away in everyone's drawers.   Ha..if it's not one problem it's another, right? :)

So, on another note, I've signed up for my VERY FIRST 10K race/run!  It will take place on February 2nd here in Encinitas.  I'm super excited...and training for it has taken my running to a new level.  I'm really finding that it's more a mental game than I had realized.  After having Ella, I wanted to get back into running...and by running, let me just explain: I'm not a long-distance runner by any means.  I enjoy a good run.  But we're talking 2-3 miles, tops.  In fact, when I would run 3 miles without stopping, I would have considered it a success.  So, I had talked to some friends about doing a 5K with me this past Fall...but they basically scoffed at the idea of spending money to run 3.2 miles.  They said that I COULD run more than that and I should skip the 5K race idea and go for the 10K.  I needed to stop "building up" to a 10K when I could actually run that much sooner than I let myself initially believe.  Long story short, we verbally planned to sign up for one in early December together but it ended up falling through due to our schedules/the holidays/etc.  I had been running 3-4x per week up until that point and didn't want to let that training fall to the wayside...so I ended up just searching for an upcoming local race and signed up for it.  And there you have it.   Three weeks to go.  I'm ready.  Before my training I had never run more than 3.5 miles at one time.  Ever.  The past week or two I've been pushing it..and Monday I ran 8.5 miles!  Definitely a record for me in terms of distance.  Ella was and usually is my running partner (I BARELY ever get to run without pushing a stroller.  When I run with "JUST" the single jogger I consider it a TREAT...the double jogger is a beast in comparison!).  She's the best running partner ever.  Never says a peep.  Just enjoys the ride and sometimes takes a little nap.

Just moments after our 8.5 mile run!

Two and a half weeks until the race and I'm feeling ready!   

Christmas Quick-Recap

The past month has been a whirlwind...but definitely a fun whirlwind of holiday hustle-bustle and cheer!  It was a WONDERFUL Christmas!  My brother and his significant other, Adriano, surprised us and flew in from where they live in Santiago, Chile to spend Christmas with us here in San Diego.  He had told me a few months back that he was coming on a  Delta BuddyPass (which is basically standby) so I had been so excited about the thought of my parents and my brother all being at our house for the holidays.  We decided we wouldn't tell my parents and we would surprise them.  Well, when it got up to the date they were going to attempt to get on the flight...the flight was full and there were no seats available for BuddyPass ticket-holders.  I was bummed, but figured they would have better luck the next day.  There is only one flight from Santiago to the US each day so they had to return to the airport each day to try to get on the flight.  To make a long story short, they came to the realization that they most likely wouldn't get on a flight unless they purchased an actual seat (versus a standby-type BuddyPass), so they did just that.  Except they didn't tell me they had done that. Instead, day after day I just kept getting texts from Hale (my brother) saying "No go" and "The flight was full again:(".   I was disappointed more and more each day and figured it just wasn't going to happen.  Well, in fact, they HAD gotten on a flight and were in L.A. for a couple days...even hanging out with one of my best friends, unbeknownst to me!  They decided to surprise Myke and I as well.  And they sure did! 

So it was a great Christmas having my family all together.  We had a full house with 10 people but it was such a fun time.  Plenty of sight-seeing (it was Adriano's first trip to the US), hiking, eating, drinking, eating, and eating and drinking.  And repeat.  I have 4 new pounds to show for it.   It rarely happens that we're all in the same place at the same time....so when it does I cherish every moment.

It was a wonderful week together :)