Whew...what a weekend!

We FULLY enjoyed the long Memorial Day weekend! Randy and I started off the weekend by getting a babysitter for the kids and going out to dinner and to see Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. It was a fun evening! Saturday morning, Isaac and Randy had a lot of fun watching the NAIA track and field championships at Fresno Pacific University. Thanks to Grandma Arlene, they got the "inside" peek, and some free snow cones too! Saturday evening we enjoyed dinner at John and Lotti Dick's house. It was especially fun because we got to meet their grandson, Owen, for the first time! Our family has been praying every night for Owen since he was born in January, 6 weeks earlier than expected. We praise God for healing Owen, and helping him to grow bigger and stronger each day! Of course it was also fun to visit with Owen's parents, Randy and Jenna, too! Thanks so much, Randy and Jenna, for making the drive down from Oakland! Sunday night we enjoyed our first annual Portals Avenue Block BBQ! Last summer we got together with a few families on our street for a Memorial Day BBQ...and this year we decided to include ALL the families on Portals Avenue! It was a lot of fun! Almost 50 people showed up! It was great weather too! Here's a picture of our neighbor, Patrick, giving the kids a ride on his wagon. But this wasn't all we had planned for the weekend...oh no! Yesterday (Monday) we woke up and drove down to Visalia to visit with GGMa and GGPa Meredith! You see those boysenberries? Those are fresh picked off their vines...and a couple went straight into our mouths too! I won't lie...that IS a big incentive to go see my grandparents! We visited with them for a couple hours, and GGMA made hot dogs and macaroni salad for lunch before we headed home for a much needed nap! And to cap off the weekend, we went to Randy's mom's house for dinner (yup, BBQ again)! Again, the weather was great, so we ate in the backyard! It was a wonderful, relaxing way to end our long weekend! Thanks to EVERYONE who hosted us for meals over the four days...I hardly had to cook at all!
Lunch on GGMa and GGPa's patio. Reading a book with GGMa. Reading a book with Grandma Arlene.Fun with bubbles!

Randy's new blog

So, if you know ANYTHING about Randy Mack and Aaron Wiens' friendship...you know that if one of them thinks something is cool, the other one will think it's cool. If one of them buys a new Dodgers cap, the other one has to get one too. One of them buys a Subaru, he'll feel compelled to convince the other that he, too, should have one "in the family". I think you get the point. And considering the women they married are so alike it's scary at times...it really is amazing they chose different careers (although they are both in the medical field)! So...to get to my point. Aaron created his own blog on Tuesday to share his thoughts on the world of sports and whatever else. So Randy created his own blog last night. You can visit it at www.randymack.blogspot.com, or use the link on the side of our family page. It's a place for him to share his ideas about green gardening, the Dodgers, and anything else he thinks is worth sharing!

Green Idea of the Week

Did you know that you can save money on gas and reduce carbon emissions from your car by turning off your engine while you wait in a drive-thru or are stuck in traffic? Consumer Reports' automotive editor, Rik Paul, stated in a recent article on gas-saving myths that if you think your wait will be 30 seconds to a minute or more, it is cost effective (and good for the air quality) to turn off your engine! With cars' fuel-injection nowadays, it does NOT use more gas to restart your engines. So next time you're waiting for your burger, or Starbucks, or are stuck on the 99 headed south for a Dodger game...turn that key to help clean air be!!!

Look what Isaac did!

Can you see it? This was with absolutely no prodding or helping from me! He just asked to play with dominoes one morning. I was on the floor playing with Violet and he was over on the other side of the room and after about 5 minutes or so he walked over and said (very excited and proud), "Mom, come see what I made"! I was so impressed I had to get out the camera and take a picture. Since Isaac is not in preschool I'm not really sure if other little boys his age can do this too...but I think he's pretty smart either way!!! He is recognizing almost all of his letters and memorizing his favorite books right now. He doesn't yet have the fine motor skills to write his name...but he knows what it looks like!

On another note...this is what Violet looked like for most of the week...DIRTY! It was great weather all week here in Fresno, so the kids played outside constantly! We have a nice patch of dirt on one side of the yard that is half Randy's garden (bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, squash, corn, and an apricot tree), half play area for the kids. So Violet has been enjoying the dirt patch! When we want to clean them up? Get out the new slip and slide Isaac got for his birthday (Thanks Mike and Abi!). We had some fun on that too this week!Move out of the way Violet!

Green Idea of the Week

OK all you Starbucks drinkers out there...reduce your waste by taking a mug or travel cup with you to Starbucks. They'll make your drink in your cup (reducing cardboard use) AND they'll give you a 10 cent discount! And for the times you forget the cup...at least make sure your cardboard makes it into a recycling bin and NOT the trash! Until next week, LIVE GREEN!

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Saturday Isaac celebrated his fourth birthday! He invited six of his little buddies...and, since, I wasn't up for a drop-off party with three and four year old boys, their siblings and parents were invited too. Add Grandma, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Ben and Aunt Alli and...WOW! There was a lot of people at our house! But we had a lot of fun. Isaac picked a dinosaur bounce house for his "special" birthday item...which all the boys and girls had fun in (although Isaac got a little rough at times). Randy bar-b-qued up some great hamburgers and hots dogs for dinner! And, at Isaac's request, Daddy decorated the cake too (but Mom baked it). He asked for green cake and icing; then Randy added the trees, rocks, and dinosaurs...can you guess what they're made of (click on the picture and it will come up bigger)? Unfortunately, there was a good breeze through the backyard when Randy brought out the cake, so the candles didn't stay lit...which then caused us to forget to sing him "Happy Birthday"...but, does he look disappointed? Not at all. Randy, Audrey and I sang to him before bed and made sure to give him his birthday spankings! We tucked in the kids and said good-night. My alarm went off at 9:35 p.m. for his actual birth-time...but he was already asleep, so I didn't bother him. Wow...four years! God has given Randy and me much patience and energy to get through those years (and a couple grey hairs)...and this year was no exception. Isaac is pure boy and then some! His favorite things include...(1) playing with cars, (2) eating...pretty much all day long, (3) playing/pushing Violet around, (4) reading Bible stories before bed...and always listening to a CD when we turn the lights out, (5) watching Curious George on PBS, and (6) playing with his friend C.J. Bergen. Over this past year Isaac played on his first soccer team, went to his first VBS, was a ringbearer for the first time, and went to his first movie in a movie theater (Cars)! We are so grateful that God has given us Isaac and we hope and pray that God will grant him many more years to come!

Since I am posting this on Mother's Day, I thought I'd find some of my favorite pictures and post them (the one above is Isaac at 2...a rare moment). There is a lot of love and special memories that are hidden in each of these pictures; however, those are not words to share...those are mine...my gifts to myself for all the Mother's days to come. My rewards for all the hard work, the tears, and the exasperating prayers on days I could not do it on my own. But I'll share the pictures.

Happy Mother's Day!Sleeping with Violet...one day old.

Happy 18 months!

This week marks Violet's 18 month birthday. At her doctor appointment yesterday she weighed in at 22 lbs and 31 inches tall! She's still the smallest Mack kid (in comparison to Audrey's & Isaac's weight at 18 months), but is actually measuring taller than Audrey was at 18 months. It's hard to describe Violet's personality without comparing to the other two; but I guess that's how it goes with a third. She is very active...trying to keep up with Isaac. She is already learning to run. No jumping yet though. She sleeps great at night and still enjoyes her afternoon naps (she needs the sleep to rejuvenate)! She is still stuck on saying mama and dada...not much else. But she communicates through pointing and some sign language. Luckily, she's pretty patient and doesn't get too upset when I can't figure out what she wants. Good thing Auntie Christa is moving around the corner in less than 8 weeks to help Violet and me learn more signs! Her favorite things include (1) her thumb, (2) her blankie, (3) playing/wrestling with her brother and sister, (4) doing ANYTHING outside, dirt, slides, walking, you name it, and (5) clapping to music (you gotta have rythym to be in this family)! Her favorite foods include (1) dry cereal (corn bran or cheerios), (2) soy milk, (3) bananas, and she'll pretty much eat everything we eat at dinner (cut into tiny pieces)... she is a great eater! For the first time today she actually looked up at the camera and smiled when I asked her, "say cheese"! Did she do this for her pictures last week at JCPenneys? Of course not...we got some good ones of her sucking her thumb (which the photographer thought were SOOO adorable)...can you hear my sarcasm? But, that's Violet. So...happy 18 months Violet! We are so blessed to have you in our family!

Our new feature!

Some of you who know me (Jamie) well, may have been surprised that I did not have a special post for Earth Day a couple weeks ago. And, believe me, I had every intention of doing so...but life just moves too fast sometimes. So I have been thinking over the past couple of weeks how to share our passion with all of you...and here is what Randy and I came up with. Each week (along with our normal pictures and reports) we will post a "green idea of the week". We hope that these ideas will both inform and inspire you to do little things that can make a big impact! For we want to be good stewards of the earth that God put under our care, right? So here is my first "green idea"...

RECYCLE your aluminum cans!!! Did you know that it can take 100 years for an aluminum can to recycle? If you toss them in the garbage, they simply go and sit in a land fill. And with Americans drinking over 200 million soda cans a day, that is a lot of land fill space needed if we don't recycle them. It may only take 60 days for a recycled aluminum can to become a new one on a grocery store shelf...and the amount of energy saved to recycle an aluminum can vs. create a new one is enormous! So...recycle your aluminum...because you "can"!

New foods!

Not much has happened this past week...just normal stuff. Violet, however, has had two new foods to try this week, nopales (little pieces of cactus) and soy cream (the soy version of ice cream...since we suspect she's lactose intolerant) She seemed to like them both...although she made a little face at how cold the soy cream was the first one or two times.

The weekend was a relaxing one...we had a family movie night on Friday night. We set up a blanket and ate brownies and popcorn while watching "Night at the Museum". Violet went to bed after the first 20 minutes but Isaac and Audrey stayed up for the whole thing (until past 9 o'clock) and loved it!