My One Year Old

The last of my babies has reached their first birthday!  Happy birthday to my Ella-Bella (yesterday). 

We had a wonderful day with friends, family, and plenty of goodies!  Now it's time to celebrate Valentine's Day today...then Myke's birthday next week....then Chloë's birthday the week after that.  February is fun!  

My Baby is Turning ONE!!

Ella Maureen Hines

Tomorrow is the big day.  Ella will turn one year old.  I can't believe it has been a year since she came into our lives and changed it for the absolute better.   I could not have asked for a better baby (and I'm not just saying that because I have to as the mom).  She's been such a perfect addition (and completion) to our family.  A happy little chiquita, a snuggler, a momma's girl, and just overall a very chill and laid back baby girl.  She goes with the flow which is perfect for the fourth child (and ideal for any child, right??).  Anyways, we just love our little Ella-Bella.  It's great to watch her grow and change and exciting to see what she'll be like as a toddler/little girl...but, at the same time, I want to hold on to my baby Ella forever and snuggle her soft baby skin.  I could not have asked for a better year than this last one.  Love to my Ella-Bella!  xoxo

cutting the cord

first time holding my baby girl, Ella :)

Super Bowl Sunday (part II)

So my 10k was on Super Bowl Sunday (see previous post) and then afterwards we headed to Lego Land for some family time together with the kids.  Super Bowl Sunday was the PERFECT time to go!  Very few people there and NO lines for anything!  The kids had a blast.  Here are a few pics:

Eli on the train

Choo-choo

Why am I up posting at 6am?  Because Myke rolled over in bed and elbowed me in the head around 5am and I haven't been able to fall back asleep since.  I gave up trying once it was almost 6.  I have too little free time to waste it lying in bed trying to fall back asleep!  Also, now that Ella is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT CONSISTENTLY !!!!!! I don't have the broken nights of sleep anymore.  It's wonderful and amazing :)  She was definitely the child who took the longest to sleep through the night (by which I mean the 10-12 hour stretch on a regular basis).  So I'm enjoying that.  I'm seeing breakfast time with the kids again after a year of missing it (our routine was that I got up and fed/changed Ella in the night and then would go back to sleep, pillow over my head, and Myke would get up with the kids when they woke up and get them dressed, do breakfast, etc.  I would usually mosey down around 7:30/7:45am.  So now that I'm up in the morning the kids are all weirded out.  It has been almost a year since I was regularly at the breakfast table with them.  AND, if I get up with them now and let Myke sleep in they are even more weirded out.  I "don't do breakfast right", apparently.  Ha.  They obviously got very used to Myke and his morning routine.  So on those days Myke usually comes down and kicks me out of the kitchen and takes back over anyways.  

So, we're in February!  Birthday month is here!  We had originally planned on having a big triple birthday bash for Ella, Myke & Chloe but now we're doing 3 smaller separate things.  Not really birthday parties...but just a small celebration for each on their birthdays or their birthday weekend.  I thought it would make it less work...but it's not really.  And we're going to Disneyland on the 20th.   It was mainly for Chloë's birthday as an alternative to a birthday party.  She's excited about it- even though she had to give up her talked-about-for-the-past-year-plans for a "Luke Skywalker Pool Party" birthday.  Ha!  I know we're in SoCal..but the pool is 56 degrees right now.  Ain't no one getting in there!  I don't think she even knows who Luke Skywalker is!  

10k DONE!

Before the start.  Super Bowl Sunday 8am.

Action-selfie Anie took while we were running

post-race

The girls

Completed my first 10K.  A few months ago I didn't think I could ever run over 6 miles without stopping.  I enjoyed running...but a couple miles was what I enjoyed.  Anything over 3 miles sounded painful.  It's definitely a mental game in the end.  And definitely not as hard as I thought it would be.  Thinking of doing a half-marathon next.  Anie (my friend-since-college who ran the 10k with me) is trying to convince me to sign up for the one she's doing in June. We'll see!  

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 :)