Camping and more camping

We drove down to Southern Cali for 2 camping trips and a family visit. It was filled with beach trips, dirty kids, no sleep and Fun of course!
First was San Clemente with families we have camped with for 9 years! The kids had a blast together, pretty much no fighting!!!
Fun time catching up, not sleeping and hitting the beach! Left early with a sinus infection, bummer.
Then time with family in Riverside, spent time hanging with people we love dearly. Celebrated Moses turning 2 with our families. Went on the train to the beach where there must have been a million people that day!! Along with a car show on the pier, surf competitions, boat competitions and hula dancers, everyone and their dog was there!
Then off to the Sequoias for camping with the Dunlaps and Quesadas. Kids kinda slept, hit the lake, ate delicious food, had awesome talks and looked at huge beautiful trees.

The trip all in all was great, very tiring. Drove a ridiculous amount and got shingles the day we drove home.
It has to get easier each year the kids get older, right....

Shadows

I've been noticing lately that I am never alone, I always have at least one little shadow following me. Today when I was doing an exercise video, all 3 got their own work out balls and stood very close to me doing every move I did. Daily when I go to the bathroom, I have at least one little person up in my business, helping me flush, often offering to help me wipe as well. Someone lets me know when I am driving too fast, when I made lunch the wrong way, they also remind me to not take too long at any particular job concerning them. These little shadows like to remind me when I am not working fast enough as well, Zeke asked me a couple of nights ago what was for dinner. I said I don't know I am gonna go cook something up, I sat there talking to Dan for a minute longer, Zeke stopped his playing turned and looked at me and said, it sure doesn't look like your cooking anything up. He also informed me that I had not done a good job cleaning up the playroom that same evening.
Amazing
This morning when I was gonna get up to have some quiet time, my shadow was already laying across me, pulling my hair and whispering very loudly to "git up mama, I hugry!"
Even though I was super tired this morning, having all 3 of my shadows cuddle in bed with me is so sweet, I love getting kneed and kicked every morning before I am ordered to hurry up and serve them!

Rodeo

You might be wondering why I am talking about the Rodeo when it happened back in May! But I wanted to put pictures up and we had so much fun!
Dan was out of town, but I took Zeke and Sofia and joined our friends for a buckin good time!
I think in a couple of years the kids will love it even more!
Zeke enjoyed watching the guys ride for the 8 seconds,
but then he and Caleb would get side tracked by the lure of the bleachers. You know how much fun it is to climb up and down, to throw things under them, to spit out water down below, much more exciting than the rodeo!
Sofia just devoured kettle corn and cotton candy the whole time, she loves horses so of course she loved watching the girls standing up riding with sparkly shirts!!
Fun was had by all!!
The rodeo is one of the many things I love about Redding. I love the way all of Redding comes out for things like the rodeo, pancake breakfast, cool April nights, 4th of July. It is the whole community, I love it!

projects

Before

After



The Lances have been busy doing some projects lately!
We have been slowly working on our backyard which up until this last month has been a mess of weeds! But we pulled the weeds, leveled the dirt, moved the dirt, added good dirt, and behold we have landscaping!!
My parents came one weekend and worked like crazy helping us!
Got my garden planted, I have 4 tomato plants, 2 peppers, cucumbers, green beans, corn, and watermelon. Then I did some herbs as well. We already have little sprouts growing after a week!
Also decided to surprise Dan and make him a fire pit with pavers around it. Worked on it while he was out of town. Believe me I won't do that again!
I borrowed a truck, got 300 hundred bricks and then proceded to unload every last one of those by myself. I leveled the dirt, started laying them, pulled them up, leveled again, then laid them again, got half way done realized it was still uneven!!! So I pulled it back up and put down sand, then laid them again! All the while my 3 kids are "helping" me. Like I said I won't do that again!
Also made a little coffee table/ ottoman with my friend Stacey. She is so talented and has such an eye for decorating and coming up with cool ideas. I love it, although I am not sold on the orange paint, gonna keep trying!
So we have been busy bees, spring always makes me want to do projects. I am tired now.

Did that just happen?

If you want to get really stressed and undo all the relaxtion just accomplished from vacation, then just head on over to Winco with your three kids!
That's what I did this afternoon!
The shopping part went fine, the check out was a different story. First of all using WIC coupons is always more work, worth it of course, but more work. Then as I am trying to pay, the cashier accidentally does something wrong and has to call over a manager. While this is happening I have been scolding and trying to contain my kids and bag the groceries! Zeke is somewhat helping, Sofia is just grabbing stuff on the counter and tossing them into the cart, Moses is taking those things and putting them back onto the conveyer belt. All the while Zeke is pushing the button to move the belt so that bread is crushed and the milk is falling on top of eggs.
Finally the cashier gets it worked out and I go back to pay, when I turn to look back Moses is standing in the cart on top of a box of cherrios and is holding an egg. Sofia is eating my granola through the plastic bag, literally just gnawing on the bag.
Who are you kids I ask!
As we are driving out I say to them that they really need to be big helpers when we are at the store. Zeke informs that he is always helping me with things. For example he says he helps me drive safely by telling me to slow down and stop at red lights. He says he also helps me remember not to say bad words like hate and oh crap.
This is true he keeps me in check!
At least it wasn't hailing when we were putting groceries in the car!, oh wait it was.

Winter turns to Spring

The last 2 years of my life have been such a dry season. There has been so much change and new starts it is still sometimes overwhelming to think about it!
I'm not sure if it is because spring is beginning but I feel like I am finally slowly emerging out of this dry cocoon I have been in.
God has been speaking to me about humbleness. About being invisible so that He can be seen instead of me. It is good.
I feel Him refining me, I think He has been wanting to do this in me for a long time, but I have been still and quiet. Not ready or willing or even able to obey.
I am grateful he is stirring my heart again, I am grateful for what felt like an eternity of silence, because now my heart is ready to respond, it is ready to be renewed, refined by Him.
I am looking forward to this Spring time in my life.

catch up

My life is all about catching up lately! It seems like I am always behind on something! Housework, Laundry, bills etc! And so it is with blogs as well, so this one is a catch up on the Lances.
Where to start, life has been so busy the last few months. Dan is booked with things going on, building stuff, staff stuff, life in general is busy and full. He is tired but doing good, ready for a vacation!
I have also been full and busy, we had our women's retreat, family visiting two weekends in a row, then I got picked for a trial and had jury duty. I am also ready for a vacation! I also decided to go blond, just for the heck of it. Here's the picture mom, I know you will love it!! :)
We had my parents visit and bring my grandparents who live in Indiana! So fun to have them see our life here in Redding, we had an awesome time with them!
The kids are doing awesome, so full of energy and life, never a dull moment. Zeke is all about planes and cars right now, he is constantly taking things apart and building new with all the parts he comes up with. Today I was cleaning Sofia and Zeke's room and behind his bed was a whole pile of broken car parts, wood, sofia's hair clips that he took apart and used the clips to hold things together. It was amazing. And this happens every time I clean their room!! He loves to figure out how things work then build his own version. We are constantly amazed by his mind!
Sofia our little sweet girl. She is all about dressing up and dancing around the house in her crowns and heels. She loves to be delighted in and loves to perform for us. She is really progressing with her speech, we are so proud of her and have seen some real improvement lately! She also loves reading to Scarlet when she will pay attention!
Moses, our little love. He is such a sweet boy, loves being held and cuddled! He is all about hats and dressing up as well. Probably because that is all Sofia does, Moses wants to join in as well. It cracks me up he is always wearing something on his head! He is talking so much it is amazing. He will repeat anything and everything we say, so it keeps me on my toes! He is saying 4 and 5 word sentences right now and it is crazy to see our little baby saying so much.
All in all we are doing great, life is full and we are thankful for this season even though it is hard and tiring. We have a trip planned down to Riverside and the beach soon, so we are so excited that some rest is in sight!!

Retreat

We had our annual Women's retreat last weekend, it was an awesome weekend filled with laughter, tears, hurts and hopes. Dan asked me what I thought was the main thing I took away from the retreat.

I felt like there was a linking of arms.
Throughout the whole weekend I saw and overheard conversations all sharing the same theme. Empowering, encouragement, and hope.
I saw women who have gone through tremendous struggles and pain and have come out the other side with healing and power for whats next. I saw these women coming along side others who are hurt and in pain and they were lifting them up and empowering them to keep going.
I felt like God was showing us how powerful we are together, when we link arms and push each other forward we have so much strength!
I saw how our words are literally life and death to each other.
What it means when we encourage and lift each other up, brings hope and life to one another. And unfortunately when we hurt and are angry with our words it brings destruction and death.
This weekend I saw so many women reaching out and linking arms, giving hope to one another! So amazing, I was so blessed by it!

What can happen in 3 minutes alone

My sweet Sofia never ceases to amaze me. She is so sneaky and busy it is amazing. I was meeting with my friend Danielle and we were working at the table, the kids were quietly playing. That should have been my first clue. Quiet and Sofia is a bad sign. There was a brown marker that had escaped clean up earlier in the morning. Sofia found it and thought is was a good idea to do some coloring. Now this is not the first time this has happened, but this time my walls escaped damage! And a little bath cured the kids faces so no harm no foul right. Until next time!