My mom found just enough hair

TO DO THIS!

Oh gosh mom, I'm so embarrased!

I can stand up all by myself. Next thing you know I'll be running after the cats and terrorizing the house!

Swifty swines, elephant rides, surf, sun and copious amounts of sand in the bathtub.

Gas up the family truckster, it's time to get the hell outta dodge!

Saturday we loaded up our car as if we were moving and headed towards the Del Mar fair. I have spoken highly of the fair to Phil for about 6 years, I couldn't wait to finally show it off and better yet, take the princesses.
RUN PIGGIES RUN

About 2 seconds after we handed the guy $$$ for the ride I felt extremely guilty. Hope Jess liked the Elephant Ride, it will most likely be her last.

After a full day at the Fair with no naps it was off to the beach for two nights.

TWINS ?

This was Emma's 1st trip to the beach and loved all of it

Even Mama got to relax!

Jessica provided the entertainment of the day. For a good 5 minutes she repeatedly took turns washing her feet then sticking them right back in the sand. We had tears rolling as we were laughing our butts off.

Jessica is an exact replica of her parents. From the second she was up (6:30am) it was "beach! I want beach!" The water was freezing cold and no match for the eager 2 year old

Little Miss "I love to fling sand"

Jessica's new "fancy" way to get her hair wet

I would be more than happy to share video of our first ever family vacation, but the battery is dead and we lost the charger. ACK! Therefore I went crazy with the still photos and literally took over 200 of them. The best part of our 'mini vacation' is that Phil found out that we can have lots of fun even if he only does take one day off. After 3 days, we're beat. Running after kids that want to plunge in the ocean, chase birds, and eat pounds of sand takes lots of work!

click here to see more photos and click on any photo above to make bigger

Mommy needs a sebbatical something fierce

It was about 4pm yesterday as I was watching the brown submarine floating through the bathtub (thank you Emma....this happens once a week) that it hit me. Game Over. I'm done. Mommy needs a break.
Phil came home and the girls were eating dinner as I sat at the end of the table zoning out. I told him, while watching Emma throw her half eaten chicken nuggets on the floor, that I need a 'mommy sebbatical'. He suggested getting a massage or pedicure. NO can do. This requires much more than a quick trip with friends to the local watering hole for adult beverages. This is bigger than 30 minutes of reading Hollywood Gossip while someone makes my feet resemble someone who actually isn't homeless. This requires sand, surf and lots of sun. In no way do I want anything that may resemble a sippy cup, chicken nugget, car seat, diaper, laundry or even a french toast stick within a 1000 mile radius.

And who's invited? Preferrably friends with no children. Why you ask? First off, I really don't want to hear about Johnny and his bowel movements or lack there of. I am completely uninterested in Cindy and her ability to pick her nose till her head caves in. And when it's my turn to babble about my children, please feel free to shoot me that, "I don't have kids, therefore I really don't care" look.
Ok, you can come even if you do have kids...but there's to be no more than 3 minutes each talking about the rugrats. And shopping. Just once I want to shop for myself. I find that it is soooo much easier buying in sizes 4T or 18months, you know the clothes are going to fit. It's taking time with baby in tow and trying on different clothes that just never happens. I'm not looking to film 'Mommy's gone wild"...just nice dinners, glasses of wine, reading worthless gossip mags while sitting on the beach and oh twist my arm, throw in a few 'fu fu' drinks, heck I'll even take intellectual conversation.

In the meantime, we will be getting away this weekend. First stop, Del Mar Fair ( I refuse to call it the San Diego fair) then off to Carlsbad beach where we have a 2 bedroom condo for the next 2 nights. It should be a great weekend.

guess i should note that the princesses will be with us this next weekend. a childless weekend is something i can only dream about at this point

Princess and the Poker Chips

This is Jessica

This is a 'Styling Pony'

This Pony come complete with 4 barettes, 3 hair clips, 6 bead clips, styling comb and 2 sticker sheets. I totally know what you're thinking...."I need to get me one of those!" Mommy and Daddy are especially excitied about this Pony as she comes with hair styling pieces...which means we no longer have to take turns be subject to Jessica's "making us pretty" A.K.A. pulling our hair and stuffing random barettes and hair ties in our heads.

Here is what stands between Jessica and her new Pony

This is the 'Pony Jar' and coins. Upon good behavior Jessica will receive coins to place in the 'Pony Jar' once the 'Pony Jar' is full of coins...wa la, she receives the fancy Pony. We know she can do this. Question is, when? By 4th of July? By the end of summer? Will she be packing up her things for college, laughing at us and our 'Pony Jar' ? Time will tell.

There's only one problem.

These things would be the problem. While on a shopping trip to the dollar store to buy stickers and a 'Pony Jar' we saw critters. Jessica LOVES bugs. Our problem now, she loves these bugs so much it's taking some of the spotlight off the Pony. Not to worry day #1 and she already has 6 coins on the jar.

father's day was great. Daddy got the usual stuff, boxers and golf things

Pop was in town and he too had a great time

oh ya, just another crappy day in So Cal. It was sunny and about 85 all weekend, what else are you supposed to do but enjoy the pool?

Grandpa and the princesses!

Train wreck

Did anyone else see Brittney Spears on Dateline(yes I was extremely desperate for Tv) last night?

Are you kidding me? She looked like she just got done pulling an all nighter down in Tijuana! You're worth how many millions and you can't even fix your hair, find clothes that fit or have someone check to make sure your make-up isn't all over the place before going on National Television?

oh poor blubbering Brittney




















Here 's what I want to know. How was Matt able to conduct this interview without totally gawking at Brittneys oversized, nasty, pregnant breasts spilling from over her shirt (something I find disgusting is when a pregnant woman puts her engorged breasts on display...uh ya we got the point, you're pregnant..you're huge belly sorta gave it away)? I would have had to put a hankerchief over her chest. Matt wanted to know if Brittney was ever upset that she had been referrd to as a "redneck". Hello Matt? Look who you're interviewing, being called redneck would be a compliment. It's sad that she once was a roll model for little girls. What the hell happened?
Of course I watched the entire show, she's a train wreck.

Can you please direct me to the closest boarding school that is now accepting 2 year olds?

TAKE A LOOK AT THIS

click to make larger

Yup it happened again. In case you're having a hard time reading the really 'great' part. It says, Jessica wasn't a good girl at all. She almost made me give up teaching but as I was walking out the door she took her nap.

Embarassed, pissed off, mad, frustrated, disappointed, concerned, upset and pretty much wondering why out of 18 kids mine is the one that's the worst of them all. One thing I'm not....willing to chalk this up to "oh well, she's almost 3, this kinda stuff happens"

Something has go to give and quick. In addition to seeing a movie with girlfriends (way needed) I'll be stopping off at the book store and picking up anything referring to how to Parent a hard to handle child. I'll do the best I can at staying away from the isle of books that may referrence boarding schools where I can drop off this 2 year old. Please feel free to help with any type of book recommendations or anything else that may help me from bursting into tears.

sidenote: Jessica has been at school almost one year and her teacher and I have become good friends, her comment above was more of a joke...but a joke that was trying to get the point across. I have asked Ms Wendy serveral times if Jessica was making her wanna quit. I love Ms Wendy, she a big ole gal who doesn't take any lip, she's great. Who else in their right mind would want to take charge of 18 two year old's and potty train all of them.

'high maintenance' and it's oh so fitting

8am this morning and Emma is screaming for more food. Jessica is throwing a fit because she's not wearing the dress I'm trying to move buttons on. Phil looks at me and says, 'these two are so high maintnance'. We've reached the point with Emma where the honeymoon is almost over. Usually when an adopted child (at least from what I have heard over the past year and a half) has been home for about 2-4 months their true personalities start to show. They no longer sit quitely and just ' go with the flow' sorta taking it all in. Emma now feels very comfortable being demanding, a little bit pushy and oh so whinny. You think you've heard a kid whine till you've heard Emma whine. Good Gawd is it the most annoying thing I've ever heard. And what's up with her standing up in her crib and screaming at 2,3 and 4am? We're running a little low over here in the sleep department.
This Sunday is Father's Day. I had to laugh when I went to buy Mr. Nance a gift. The shelves where almost clear, there was almost nothing to be bought. If Sunday were Mother's Day the shelves would be full and almost overflowing with items for purchase. The difference.....men procrastinate. I can't tell you the hilarious cards I have received for different occasions....the cards that just scream "I waited till the absolute last minute to buy this card". I may even have a card designed for an aunt, sister or teacher....although I truely am the wife...they must have been out of the 'wife' cards at T minus 30 minutes. So what did I buy him? I can't tell you yet it would spoil the surprise. To be honest, nothing terribly fancy. Pop (Phil's dad) while be here on Thursday through next Monday, Jessica can't wait....she loves the man!
Here's proof that Daddy is working hard for that Father's Day gift.

Daddy gets attacked by Jessica and has to play pretty princess

Aloha......

It's Luau time at the Nance Nuthouse.

Does it get any better than a grown man showing up in a lime wedge bra?

Needles to say a great time was had by all.

Phil and some hula babes.

Mama and her hula baby

Jessica showing off her "jumping in the pool' ability

I love summer, lets hop in the pool

Gotta bunch of time on your hands and want to pratice patience? Teach a 2 year old to snorkle

Sidenote: Jessica was much better at school on Friday and was rewarded with the knowledge that the ice cream truck really isn't just some 'neat train' but he actually serves ice cream. We've never let Jessica know that there is such a thing as the "ice cream man"....as for as she was concerned it was a "train". oh ya, I finally got a new banner up top the blog...hope you like it

click on any of the above photos to make larger.

They're paying attention.....and Mama's not impressed

Everyday we pick up Jess from school there's a progress report. It tell's us how she was during the day...did she eat her lunch, take a nap, participate..blah blah blah. And everday is the same..she ate all her lunch (big surpirse there!) she took a nap and was a happy little girl all day. Because everyday the report says the exact same thing, we began to wonder....are they paying attention?
Well.....I walked into school yesterday to be greeted by Ms Rhonda cutting her eyes at me.

What's wrong?
Well Jessica, (big pause and a sigh) was awful today
What do you mean? What happened?
Well, let's put it this way..she was in time out twice before I even got here.
I am sorry Ms Rhonda. She really didn't seem like she was in a bad mood this morning. I'm sure Jess will try to be better tomorrow.
The first thing Jessica did this morning was push Grason down on the floor. Let's hope tomorrow she'll do better.

click on picture to make bigger

We all agreed that Jessica should try harder tomorrow and today was an off day for her. Jessica is never this bad at school. As I loaded her and Emma in the car I explained that she can't hit and push her friends and that she probably made them sad. As I drove from school to Target to buy her some new shoes for the playground I was wondering what might have set her off. Was it that she woke up this morning before 6am because her diaper exploded like a New Orleans levee? At 6am I was racing around swaping out soaked sheets for dry ones and trying to coax her back into bed as it was entirely too early to start the day. I guess if I found myself waking up as I was floating out of my bed, I'd be cranky too.
Once at Target Jess picked out her very own cute pink and green shoes and seemed pretty excitied. Somewhere between the bedding isle and the gift isle it happened. There she was on the floor kicking, arms flailing around emitting screams that I'm sure Nasa was able to pick up on some sort of radar. And that was it, I was that woman. You know, the woman who can't find the exit route quick enough to escape while ushering her obnoxious toddler. That same woman you have glared at and thought, "What the hell is wrong with her and that brat." For about 5 seconds I tried to ask that she remove herself from the floor and kindly get in the cart. Feeling the beads of sweet about to break loose, she was thrown into the cart. This is where I showed her those 'oh so cute' shoes and then stuffed them on the closest shelf I could find. Slapping a huge smile on my face I pushed us out of the store. It was then in the parking lot where my beautiful child attempted to bite me. Emma suffered a smack to the head and I only suffered a small fist into my thigh.

What was I thinking? I had already been pre-warned...my kid was awful. After an hour to cool off in her room, daddy came home to let her out and have dinner. Through the entire dinner she explained to her dad what had happened and why she didn't get the shoes. It wasn't too much longer after dinner she actually asked to go to sleep. She's still at preschool and Mama's hoping like heck she's been a good kid. I'm considering going to Target and getting the shoes to use as a reward for good behavior. One of the funny things about yesterday was Emma's face. Poor kid was going deaf with Jessica screaming behind her. Poor Emma never said one peep the whole way home. Oh ya the life of a mom with a 1 and 2 year old....what was I thinking?

There's a panda bear on the loose!

Watch out!! Emma has learned how to crawl and is on the prowl.

The cute panda diaper cover was bought off of Ebay

Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Fest

We loaded up the family got together with friends and hit the Balloon fest. This year was a blast. Thanks to it being as hot as the face of Mars it seemed pretty empty, which meant more room for the kids to run around. This years bands were Berlin and Loverboy. The lead singer of Berlin actually looked just the same as she did about 20 years ago...not so much for Loverboy, who is now being named Blubberboy. A good time was had by all.

Whenever we're getting ready to go somewhere and we need Jessica to cooperate we tell her "we're going to a party". Last night's actual conversation

Jess, we're going to a party..we need you to get ready

oh ya, I wanna see my boyfriends

This would be where Phil and I look at each other and shake our heads. In case you haven't been paying attention, Jessica is only 2 and totally boy crazy.

long time....no blog

Jessica dressed as Princess Leia at a Star Wars birthday party.
you talkin' to me?

Things have been unbelievable crazy busy, so for now a few pictures.