The 3rd Birthday.....

Davis's 3rd birthday was Sunday and we celebrated him by having a get together with some friends for a little BBQ and cake. John rented a jumper and the kids had a blast!



Last week, Maddy's preschool group had their first field trip: a ride on the Metrolink train down to Union Station in LA. We walked to Olivera St. and looked around, ate some Mexican food and were on our way home. Davis got to join us and the kids loved it! BTW...the Union Station is beautiful on the inside...very "Hollywood" looking. I thought it would be trashy, but would love to go check it out again!

Birthday Girl!

Our Awana girl..... Maddy's 2nd yr of Cubbies started tonight and John's leading a group of 6th grade boys.


So we just got a chance to celebrate Emma tonight and a low-key birthday it was! Us Long's don't do big bashes for the 1st birthday and this one was about a low-key as it gets! I feel kinda bad that I didn't do more....... Oh well! Emma LOVED her little baby doll that we got her. She's carried it around all night!

So, as usual, I took a ton of pictures tonight. And, as usual, Emma has her eyes closed in almost EVERY picture! ARUGH! It's SO frustrating! I have so many pictures of this girl that are pretty cute, but her eyes are closed or partially closed in EVERY single one! It really is darn frustrating. Here's just a small example from tonight (and I have about 30 more, but I'm tired of posting pics!).......

Happy 1st Birthday!

Today is Emma's big day and she's turning 1!!

It's a happy/sad day for me since she's my baby and this birthday is significant (to me) in that the chapter of having a very little one around is ending. =sniff, sniff= My favorite age, so far, is 6 months-1 1/2 yrs, so I'm excited to continue watching Emma discover and learn new things and change daily.

Emma has been such a joy to our family and I can't imagine life without her. She's the smallest of the 3 kids and isn't quite at the 20lb mark. I think Maddy hit that mark around 6 months! LOL.... She's also the quietest of the 3 and ADORES her big brother and sister....and they adore her just as much.

Since I am leaving to go to a Women of Faith conference this afternoon, we'll celebrate Emma on Sunday and I'll have more pictures to post then! Happy Birthday Emma!

My Preschooler....

Yesterday Maddy had her first day of Preschool, Grace Kids. I mentioned it in another post, but we are doing a co-op preschool through our church that meets once a week and is run by all the moms. There is a limit of 25 kids and each mom has a job to help things run smoothly. We do the program alongside our kids, with the exception of 1 hour in which we have "mom time" and the kids have their lessons, etc. The church provides nursery for the younger siblings and it's wayyyyy cheaper than regular preschool, but it totally prepares them for kindergarten. I'm so thankful for this precious, uninterrupted time with Madelyn before she's off to school next year! =sniff, sniff....=

Family Gathering...

I recently just got back from visiting family for about 2 weeks and have had something going on every day since, so I've had little energy to update my blog.

My family got together to see each other, of course, but mostly to celebrate my Grandpa Q's 90th birthday! My Grandpa is an amazing man and awesome example of godly character. His body may be 90, but his mind is so sharp. He's still very witty and crackin' jokes a lot...and still has it in him to razz my dad. LOL..... Not to mention, he drives a pretty cool truck! We love you Grandpa and it was soooo great to see you and celebrate you! And everyone else of course! All the little cousins had SUCH a great time playing together and for there being 6 kids 9 and under, they did really well! Since we don't get to see each other much, we felt it was pretty special that the cousins got to play 2 times together in 1 year. It definitely helped reinforce a relationship and fun memories! Oh....and I had all 3 kids by myself on the plane ride home, but the kids did awesome!!

I have a TON of pictures, but since I'm not in too much of a bloggin' mood, I will post just a few favorites....

11 Months!

I couldn't bare to look at my blog because the snake pictures are SOO gross to me....they give me the creepies!! And I'm creeped out even more now b/c my neighbor 2 doors down found a snake in his backyard on Saturday! ECK! And at the bottom of our hill there is a boat storage place and they found 3 snakes in one day. AAAUUUGGHHH!!!! I'm packin' my bags and gettin' outta Dodge.

Ok, not really, but I am excited to post something different and not have to look those pictures anymore. :)

On a happier note...... Ms. Emma turned 11 months on Tuesday and is still darn cute, IMHO. For a month or two she's been taking 1-3 steps here-n-there, but has been really timid and unmotivated to walk much more than that. Makes it easier for me, that's for sure! But her big sister spent quite a while holding her hand and walking with her around the house 2 days ago and ever since then, Emma's figured out that walking isn't so bad after all and now she's getin' around pretty good. She's still wobbly, but it's amazing how much of a difference a day makes!


We leave early Tues morning to go visit my family in KC. My sister and her family will be driving down from Canada and we'll all get to hang out and just "be" for a bit over a week. I'm so excited to get away, get rejuvenated and see everyone! I'm also SO excited b/c John was coming for a few days too but I was going to have to fly with the kids by myself both ways. He surprised me and changed his flight so now we go there together. YEAH!!!! We're also getting together with my extended family for a grand ol' party to celebrate my special Grandpa Q's 90th Birthday! Can't wait! :)

Rattlesnake Slim....

I can't believe I failed to mention that about a month ago my dear hubby saved my life!! And my sweet Daisy girl. :) LOL...well sort of anyway....

I was outside playing with the puppies & cleaning up some things and went to throw some trash away. Ol' faithful started barking and I didn't pay much attention to her, but then realized that she was barking at the sprinklers coming on. Silly Dog! But in about 2 seconds, I remember thinking that our sprinklers weren't on and it was either my neighbors sprinklers or something else. I peered over to the noise and FREAKED OUT when I saw a rattlesnake with it's rattle in the air giving us a warning! Daisy was definitely close enough for the snake to bite her, but she followed me as I bolted to the garage. I called for John and my strapping, strong man shot that bad boy good 'n dead. But I'm still freakd out! Everytime I hear the sound of sprinklers coming on, it reminds me of the sound of the rattle and even these pictures give me the heebie jeebies. I don't do snakes!! I'm definitely thankful it was me outside by the trash and not one of the kids though. And I'm most thankful for my little poochie and hubby. :)



All is good here on the homefront. Things are pretty much business as usual. Emma is sweet, quiet and smily and I'm enjoying this favorite age of mine; Davis is funny and charming and has his mamma pretty well wrapped around his finger; Maddy continues on with the terrible two's at 4 yrs of age, but always makes sure it's never a dull moment in the Long household! She's a great big sister and adores her baby sister!

The biggest thing for us is another job change! LOL..... I don't know if I ever updated my blog on the saga of John's work, but he prepared HARDOCRE for about a year for a job with law enforcement. It's what his heart really desires and I definitely support him. While he was waiting to hear fromt he Sherriff's dept, he interviewed with a commercial landscape company and an oil company. Things didn't work out and he was accepted into the Sherriff's Academy.

As things go, about the same time he started the academy, the landscape company called him back and offered him a position. It was a major, major decision, but my sweet man put his dream of being a Sherriff on the back burner and decided to take the position since it was local, regular hours w/not too much overtime and better pay. He really wants to make sure he's home to do things with the kids, coach when that time comes, etc. Anyhow, he took the job as Director of Operations and really started enjoying what he was doing and was able to work with several of his good friends. That was about 2 weeks after Emma was born.

Welllll...... 3 weeks ago the oil company that he had interviewed with called him back and offered him a job. They had fired the guy who John would have originally worked for and offered John that man's position..... Vice Pres of Operations! John was appy where he was at and originally turned it down. But, after thinking about it some more, this other company provided a greater future for him and seems to be on the brink of tremendous growth. So....John called them back and accepted the position! It was a happy/sad thing but we both felt the decision was right and he started on Monday. I'm SO proud of him!! Who would've thought he'd be a VP @ 29?!! :) As for what the company does, I couldn't tell ya cause it's SOOO over my head that I don't totally understand it. You can check it out at www.laturbine.com. OH...and the great thing is that it's about 2 miles from our house!