Fun with the Raile's

Update and News

2011-08-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged. I totally missed blogging about Laura's birthday. She turned 5 in November. I didn't take many pictures though. I was too busy hosting our first friend party that got moved indoors because it rained the night before and everything was wet outside. That was an adventure and one I never plan to repeat. haha! It was a whirlwind of a few months. Laura gave us a run for our money.....who am I kidding, she still does. We are currently seeking out professional help and it looks like ADHD. Through all this I'm learning that it is highly probable that I have ADD. And let us not forget Katelyn and her being on the autism spectrum. Poor Clark, between all of us I'm surprised he sticks around. He must really love us. :) School will be starting soon. Katelyn will be in 4th grade and Laura by the sheer fact that she does so well academically will be in 1st grade. It was iffy for a while if she would repeat kinder but her teacher and I felt she'd be too bored and the negative behaviors due to the ADHD could become worse if held back. So on she goes. But the 1st grade teachers have been warned. haha!

Now let's see. Our biggest news of all. We bought a house! Our first real home. (for my long term friends you might remember we owned a mobile home at one time) The most hilarious part is that it is 2 houses down from the house we've rented for the last 6 years. So after a year and a half of looking, losing an agent, being out bid, having games played when we did get a bid accepted, and then deciding to wait a while, we end up getting a house just 2 houses away. And it feels right. We walked in and just knew it was ours. So let the packing beginning!

The home is move in ready. We just need to put our own stamp on it. First order of business: We promised Katelyn (who will be 10 in a few short months), a room makeover. She needs a new bed anyhow and we also told the girls they can each have their own room again. (been sharing since December and for a few months they've hated it) Since Katelyn is growing up and isn't playing with toys as much anymore we promised her this. I'm starting with bedding. Whichever is decided on will be what I base wall color and accent pieces on. However she's got so many favorites and even I can't decide so I'm asking everyone I know......family, facebook friends, and blog readers. Of course I know some of you are included in more than one category so if you'd already place a vote no need to do it here. Please leave a comment with the number of your favorite selection. I'm giving it a week to collect votes and then I'll tally them and announce which one was the winner and I'll post that. Thanks!

Oh and this will all be a surprise. She requested that. She doesn't want to see anything til it's all painted and decorated. I can't wait to escrow closes and we get the keys in our hot little hands. It'll be right around the time school starts and I can go in and paint while the girls are in school.

A view of her room from the door. The wall to left is where the bed will be and the wall between that and the window wall is where the closet and an a small alcove is. Not sure yet what to do with the alcove. A wardrobe and bookcase but do I want to buy them or have it custom made. Need to do this because closet is way too small even for a child.

So now that you've seen all 8 choices......comment with your selection or selections. :)

2010-11-12T22:43:00.000-08:00

It seems as if in the last year all I ever say is that I'll keep up with the blog. But then I fall behind. It seems as if just yesterday I was posting birthday videos of the girls and yet another year has come and gone. Yet here I am posting about their birthdays again. It's that time of year. This week we celebrated Katelyn's 9th birthday. Typically we aren't the party type of family. However since little sister wants to have a party this year, we wanted to do something special for Katelyn as well. How perfect was it that today was a student free day for their school district......

Today Katelyn and I got all prettied up.

Then we picked up 4 of her equally prettied up friends.

We headed to a nail salon where the girls got their nails painted and I got a basic manicure.

Then we drove into downtown Long Beach where we ate cupcakes at a place called Frosted Cupcakery.

It's was a pretty interesting afternoon. If you've ever been around girls of that age you know they are giggly and loud and silly. They say the most hilarious things. Some of the most memorable:

1) While at the nail salon a man came with his wife. He got a pedicure while she got a manicure. The girls noticed this and it had them all giggling. One says something to the effect of "Oh look! A man getting his toe nails done! He must be a girly guy!" One of the other girls says "No he's not. He's with his wife. He's just wupped!" Had the hole place laughing even the couple that came in.

2) In the car they pretended they were zombies taking over my driving. That was a laugh a minute.

3) While at a stop light a couple came jogging towards us. The man had no shirt. All the girls shrieked in horror. "Ewwww!" One hollers "He's coming my way! I'm gonna be blinded!" Another yells "I'm gonna be scarred for life!" A third says "That's just wrong! Put a shirt on man!" The rest of us were just laughing hysterically at the comments flying.

It pretty much went like this the whole day. At the cupcake place quite a few people told me how fun it was to get cupcakes today cause they had fun listening to my group of gals. We had two groups of college aged kids there and a couple of older women as well when we were in and each group said the same thing. Even the workers got a kick out of these girls.

I really enjoyed my time with them. I'm so glad I had the idea to do this for Katelyn.

Happy Birthday my sweet! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Some Friends Are Angels.....

2010-08-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

When Katelyn was 4, she began taking speech therapy. At first she was the only one in her time slot but soon another little girl joined the therapy sessions. Katelyn and Allison became fast friends. The mom and I got along great too. We even learned we were both LDS just in different stakes. In 2008 there were boundary line changes and our section of our former ward/stake got transferred over to Cerritos 1st Ward. Our first Sunday, to our delight, was Allison and her family. Katelyn was greeted with a big hug from her old friend even though we hadn't seen her in more than a year. It sure made attending a new ward so much easier for a child who has trouble with adjusting to new things.

Yesterday we got the news no parent wants to hear....even when the child isn't your own....Allison passed away in her sleep Sometime in the wee hours of Thursday night/Friday morning. At this time cause unknown. The first thing I did was hug my daughters tighter as I burst into tears. We were on our way out the door for the Cerritos Stake mother-daughter campout and Katelyn was excited to go and play with friends. She was esp looking forward to seeing Allison. She's the kind of child who would hound me forever asking where her friend was so I had to sit her down and explain to her. Now she's handling it as best as can be for a child on the autism spectrum. She grasps it on some level but her grieving process, I realized after she dealt with the loss of another friend's mother earlier this year, is completely different than normal developed kids. But I can still tell this is tough on her.

I'm struggling with it more. I have so many emotions running through my head. Why them? Not that I want it to be me....but why am I so blessed to still have my two children to hug? What if it were me in the same shoes? And this is just to name a few. As parents we all have the idea at the back of our mind that we will go before our kids. None of us ever expects our kids to go before us. And then in the blink of an eye, one little girl is taken from her earthly parents to return again to her heavenly parents. Right now there is comfort in knowing that Allison had such a desire to do the Lord's will in her short 8 years on this earth...even to having her family leave a local amusement park early so she could go to her baptism interview when the bishop called while they were having a family outing. We weren't able to make it, the aforementionned little girl who lost her mom was also baptized the same day. But I know how excited Allison was and I know it was a special day with family and friends and sharing the day with two cousins who were also baptized that same day. I know there's a greater reason, one none of us can comprehend right now, as to why her time on earth short and why it happened without warning. Thankfully we can rely on the Lord to comfort us and heal our aching hearts.

Katelyn told me on the way home from the campout that she wanted to do something special. She brought up the subject all by herself. She said she wanted to take the picture she has with Allison (the one seen above) and get copies of it made. One photo will be for Allison's family. She's going to write down all her memories of Allison to include with the photo. I told her I'd help her do that and we'll make a scrapbook page out of it. The other photo she wants me to put in a frame and she wants me to write or paint "Some friends are angels, Some angels are friends" on it. With tears rolling down my face I said we could definitely do both of those things together.

If I could pass anything on to my girls so that they'll remember Allison it would this: Always keep a smile on your face. Live life to its fullest. Never be afraid to try anything. (if Allison had fears, I never knew them) Love your sister. (Allison was such a wonderful big sister and you could tell the love her little sisters had for her) And above all to follow the teachings of Heavenly Father.

We love you and miss you Allison.

"Some friends are angels......some angels are friends."

Adventures in Ice Skating

2010-04-16T21:19:00.001-07:00

There was a family night ice skating party at a local rink hosted by another troop. For most events I take Katelyn and Clark will stay home with Laura. But I figured since Clark knows how to ice skate that he could go and help with the girls and I and make it a true family experience along with being there with others in our troop. Here are the girls before they got on the ice. I was too shakey in skates so I didn't get any of them actually on the ice. And then I was too shakey after to take any more pictures.

For the record...Laura went out for about 15 minutes with daddy and big sister. Then she fell hard on her butt and decided that was it, no more. Katelyn was off and on the ice all night. She loved it even though she fell a lot. She told me later that she just got right back up and wasn't going to let the ice win. Yeah Katelyn! Clark only ate the ice once........right after he helped me finally get onto the ice. Other than that he skated quite a bit and didn't even need to hug the wall.

And then there's me...the mommy...the writer of this blog. Let's just say I'm kind of glad there are no picture even if they would have provided everyone with a laugh.

I got my skates on, stood up, took two steps and down I went. Yep, before I even got to the ice, before I even left the room where they hand out the skates. Yeah that bad. And then I made it to the doorway and down I went again. I ended up crawling on my knees to a bench and then waited til my family skated a bit. Finally Clark came out (when Laura fell and decided no more) and he and another mom (thank you Stacie!) walked me to the wall of the rink. With Clark's help, I slowly made my way to the ice. Slowly is the key word there.

I got onto the ice, grabbed the wall and hung on for dear life. I started sweating and not just my face. I sweated down to my toes. And I was shaking. I fell twice before getting on the ice, I didn't want to eat the ice...or break it. I slowly pushed myself along. I noticed that I kept getting kids stuck behind me...a regular traffic jam on ice. While laughing, I'd sarcastically say "I'm not letting of the wall. I'll stop, you all can go around me. Feel free to grab onto me as you go around if you need to. But I'm not letting go of the wall!" One, maybe two kids at a time would choose to hold onto me. Braver kids would skate around my big butt before grabbing the wall again and would triumphantly shout, "I did it! I got around you without falling!" Yeah, yeah, smart mouthed kids. haha! Every now and then a girl from our troop would skate past me "Hi miss Kathryn, I'm skating better than you!" I'd say "Cool, now shut up and keep skating you brat." And off they'd go laughing at me. Now I hadn't made it very far compared to most but it was a work out when you are unsteady, scared, and well....fat....and about the time I saw an exit from the ice about 1/4 of the way around I was ready to collapse. I saw some moms and said "open....door....fast...please!" I guess I looked white as a ghost at this point. The door was open and I literally fell to my knees. I was shaking so hard I could barely get up to sit on the bench to take off my skates. One of the moms in our troop ran over to see if I was okay. I had her go get my wallet and buy me a bottled water...fast.

Even now I'm still a bit shakey from it. But the important this is that I didn't let my fears take over. I could have given up and not even gotten on the ice after falling twice before even getting on. But I didn't. I got out there and did. I may have only made it a quarter of the way around but I did it! I did it!

And for the record.....Stacie, your sister is still a witch for making it all the way around. hahahaha!

Katelyn's Baptism....January 2010

2010-03-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

I'm FINALLY blogging about this. The hold up was computer issues. First my computer died. I was sharing with Katelyn. Then her computer died. So we were both sharing with Laura. I didn't want to load my camera softward on Laura's computer so I waited for my computer techy husband to fix mine. And I waited and waited. He finally got around to it and I kept hoping he'd go to the old one and transfer things over but he still hasn't done that. So I finally decided to load the software again. Then I couldn't find it. Finally found it today. Woohoo! So here is our long over due blog about Katelyn's baptism.

Katelyn turned 8 in November. But due to family member's prior committments we in December we decided to wait til January to have the baptism. What a nice way to ring in the new year!

Katelyn doesn't have a lot of extended family but she knew right away who she wanted to participate in the confirmation circle. Her daddy baptized her. Her papa Rick confirmed her. Participating in the confirmation was her daddy, papa Rick, papa John, Aaron Skinner (who we knew in the Los Al Ward/Long Beach East Stake), Eric Hayhurst (another friend from the Los Al Ward), Thad Marcroft, Robert Magalogo, Brother Hall (drawing a blank on his first name, LOL!), and Brother Jolley (our home teacher). I keep thinking I'm forgetting someone but maybe not. Most came with their families and a few others came to support her as well. The Dyers and Sis. Miller, The Cox family, my mom and grandma, my sister-in-law Kathy, the Rydman's. It was wonderful of everyone to be there and show their support and it really made Katelyn's day.

Here as some pictures for your enjoyment. The dress Katelyn is wearing was made by neighbor for me when I was 8 and ready to be baptized. Even as a young child I knew what I special dress it was because it was made by someone not of our faith but who understood what an important day it was for me and wanted to do something special for me. I have held onto it all these years....with it being worn by my sister but then going right back into my possession....in hopes of having a daughter to wear it one day. Interestingly I've been blessed with two daughters. But it was awesome to see my eldest daughter wearing the dress and telling her the story behind it.

Katelyn and Clark

Me, Laura, Katelyn and Clark

Sisters.......I gave up after these two photos....look at their eyes in each, they took turns closing eyes and I figured it was a lost battle at that point, haha!

Katelyn on her special day. I love how glowingly happy she is!

Making Tough Decisions

2010-02-12T21:32:00.001-08:00

First, sorry about no photos yet. Still sharing Laura's computer. But mine is almost up and going again so soon I promise.

Second.....I'm pouring my heart out because I'm very hurt, angry, and upset over things I don't know why are happening in recent months. And because nobody in my family is adult enough to tell me why they are doing what they are doing, I am having to make some tough decisions for me and my girls....decisions that will also hurt others indirectly even though they know why I am doing this. I'm sharing these things not because I hope the people who need to read them will see it because chances are they won't. I'm sharing these things so that others can keep me, my girls and my mom in your prayers.

So some of you readers know that I have never had a close relationship with my brother. It stems from childhood and my undiagnosed hormonal imbalances that caused rage and the rage was directed at Richard and I hurt him physically and emotionally. I've said it before and I'll say it again.....I've apologized many times and I won't spend the rest of my life apologizing. It is what it is. Yes I still am quick to anger but the rage is not there and yes there is a difference between rage and anger...a big difference. And I'm not the same person I was during those years. But yet time and time again despite being told by Richard and my parents that he's moved on and forgiven me of that, things happen that prove otherwise. For example, as long as I'm not around his wife has no problem being around the rest of the family. The times we are together she puts on such a fake act of being nice that we all can see it. The rare times we do see them, my brother will say in front of my girls "we'll get together so the kids can play more." Never happens and I'm left with "why didn't he call?" I don't bother calling cause what is the point. The times I have called for things....like trying to plan a Christmas meet up at my place so they didn't have to drive all the way to mom and dad's nobody ever called me back. I even e-mailed and no response. Katelyn recently wanted to call Richard about buying Girl Scout cookies. I was going to call and then turn the phone over to her once I got him on the phone so she could make the sale. Just got voice mail...twice. Both times no call back. Sent an e-mail about it, no response. A few weeks later my troop leader and I are trying to figure out booth sales and one of our choices was down near where my brother lives. After a bad experience with nut sales, we wanted a better area. So I needed to know what the area was like down that way. I called and e-mailed....again no responses. Actions speak louder than words. It's clear he doesn't want me in his life but he's not man enough to come out and tell me and tell me the truth as to why. As far as I know as an adult I've done nothing to him, absolutely nothing. Yet from him I get broken promises to my kids and an 8 yr old daughter who has asked for 4 yrs straight why uncle Richard doesn't call to wish her a happy birthday. So fine, he doesn't want me in his life, I'll accept that.....I'm done trying. From now on I'll be making sure if I go out to mom and dad's that I'm not going out there when my brother's family is. Maybe that way they will actually get to see their other granddaughters more often.

The other decision I just had to make was to cut my sister out of my life. I'm the most hurt by her as I really cannot tell you what I've done to her at all. We are 10 years apart, we do have very different personalities. I don't like the decisions she has made over the years but they are hers and as long as she seems happy I've been happy for her. All I've asked of her is to respect me in the same way. My decisions in how I live my life, how I parent my kids, are mine and my husband's alone and as long as I'm happy she should be happy for me as well. Instead I've had her cross the line when it comes to one of my children on a few occasions....first time I heard she drove my daughter to a friends house where they had drinks and then drove back to my parents house. I don't care if it's one drink, that's my child in that car, not hers. But we cut her some slack cause she was young and stupid. Then she crossed the line again when she told Katelyn her opinions on prop 8, things a 6 year old (at the time) didn't need to know. All we told her was that a yes vote meant a stand for traditional marriages. She's too young to have to explain same sex marriages. Thanks to my sister, who thought she was hilarious when she told our young child, Katelyn suddenly had tons of questions that year about same sex couples. I don't remember what the 3rd thing was but it wasn't long after this particular incident. I was wanting to cut her off then. But Clark said that would just hurt my mom and the girls and I should think about it first. Since Sharla lives in Vegas I decided that maybe he was right, it's not like we see her often anyhow. Just when we did see her we didn't let Katelyn go off for drives or walks with her, we were more guarded.

One hard thing in this is that Laura is always left out. Sharla only has eyes for Katelyn. So often Laura practically has to stand on her head to get aunt Sharla's attention. My mom tried talking to Sharla once about it I hear. Sharla just laughed it off. So we always try and keep Laura happy when she's sad cause she's ignored. Interesting is that just last fall we were on a whirlwind trip to Utah and back and even though we wanted to head straight home, we took the effort to stop in Vegas and go to dinner with Sharla and Paul. Things seemed fine then. She didn't give off any clues that she was trying to cut me out of her life. None whatsoever. Something happened during that visit though.......at dinner Sharla had both girls sitting with her...one on one side, one on the other side. Clark and I were across the table. Once again Sharla was completely ignoring Laura. Sharla was playing tic-tac-toe with Katelyn, Laura wanted a turn too. She kept getting put off. Uncle Paul tried playing with her...nope she wanted aunt Sharla. Clark and I tried....nope, she wanted Sharla. I even said "Hey, Katelyn's had enough, it's Laura's turn" and I was told she needs to learn to wait. And before we could stop her, Laura took a crayon and made a line on Sharla's white sweater to get her attention. It was dealt with right away. I handed a tide pen to Sharla to pre-treat it and then headed to the restroom to deal with Laura. Nothing more was said of the incident.

Then one about a month, month and a half after seeing them in Vegas, I get a call from Sharla. I thought it was a friendly call thanking me for the birthday cards we'd sent. Nope, she goes on to make a slew of false accusations about my husband....who has NEVER done a thing to her. He's never been anything but kind to her.....even when she and I got into a verbal argument during the time we lived with mom and dad briefly (the time I was pregnant with Laura)...an argument which ended in Sharla coming at me swinging and I had to fight back to protect myself and my unborn baby until dad and Clark separated us. Not even then did he say anything bad about her, not even then. And yet here she was saying all this unfounded stuff and even comment she made I told her how off base she was and set her straight on her way of thinking about him.....let's see big example was she thought that he couldn't keep a good paying job and pay our bills when in reality he makes triple what her husband makes. Then she tried saying my kids are growing up in a bad area. Okay so we choose to rent and probably will for a few more years. But we are in a good neighborhood with a good school. She's only been to the house two maybe 3 times and has no idea what the school is like and yet she's making comments like that. Whatever.

The clincher was when she was getting nowhere on supposedly what a horrible husband I have that she decided to attack one of my children instead. I'll never ever forgot the next words "Well at least I don't have a child who is a spoiled brat and gets away with everything." Okay neither of my children are easy. Katelyn we learned the reason for many of her behaviors is her being on the autism spectrum and Laura well she's got many of our bad traits rolled into one....quick witted, independant, stubborn, short fused, and rage at times. And so parenting them can be difficult. But neither one of them is spoiled. They both get dealt with accordingly as needed. Sharla went on to try and say something regarding the sweater and I reminded her that it was dealt with that night so there was no reason bringing that up, it was done and over with. Sharla wanted to keep on the verbal round. I lost my temper and called her a witch with a b....yeah not cool but I was angry at this point...and hung up on her.

Since then I've kept my distance. For a few weeks after I wouldn't even answer her calls...not even when I knew she was calling to wish my girls happy birthday. I was still too angry to deal with her. I did answer the phone when she called to tell me she's having a baby boy. I knew from my mom that the ultrasound was that day and I know what it was like expecting and wanting to share with everyone when we found out what the sex of the baby would be. But I kept the call short and let her tell the girls. Since then we haven't talked, not once. I did notice she was on facebook and tried to add her as a friend but she denied me and then told my mom that the reason was "cause I don't want her stalking Richard." Hello when have I ever done that?! Lame reason not to add me.

I really don't understand her sudden about face when it comes to me and my family. But it has all come to a head. See I did tell my mom about that phone call. My mom even let her know how off base she was and that she should apologize. Well Sharla made some rude comments on something I posted on my mom's facebook wall and let her have it after she was rude to my mom there as well...because mom stood up for me. In the course of the exchanges I said she needed to apologize for those things she said and she says she doesn't that she was not wrong about the things she said. And I said that was it, that is why she's no longer part of our lives and I hope she's happy with how hurt my kids are. She said she was happy that she cut me out of her life but Katelyn will know the truth that I made the final decision.....nothing about Laura. I told her that actually I told her the truth...that aunt Sharla said really mean and hurtful things about Clark and Laura that aren't true and that Sharla can't respect me and because of this should not be part of our lives. If Sharla admits she's in the wrong and apologizes and starts showing my girls equal amounts of attention then and only then will she be allowed in our lives again. Until then no.

Yes I made this decision. In some ways it feels right. I don't want the negativity and anti-religious/Mormon influences around my children. But in other ways it feels so wrong. I'm left feeling confused because nobody can give me a straight answer as to why I'm being treated this way....as usual it's always turned around to me being the evil one and it's all my fault and she did nothing wrong. So I'm left hurt and confused because I don't know what truly led to this, I don't feel this was the real reason she started cutting me off, I feel it is something else and she's not telling me. And I'm left with my mom who is hurt that two of her children want nothing to do with the other and who aren't telling her why while dealing with me who is emotionally upset over all this. And I'm left with having to explain to my kids, esp Katelyn, time and time again why we can't call aunt Sharla and why will never see her again.

Please keep our family in your prayers. In the long run this may all be for the best. But right now there are lots of hurt hearts that need healing.

Long time no blog

2010-01-16T20:28:00.000-08:00

Some of you, my faithful readers, may wonder where I've been. Partly Facebook is to blame. I easily get caught up there. I had to stop playing a bunch of games due that very reason. The other reasons...or excuses depending on how you look at it....are as follows:

1) Since November our family has battled 3 bouts of the regular influenza. No oinking here, just lots of sniffling and complaining about not feeling well. The first two rounds just the girls and I got sick. The most recent round all 4 of us got sick. It started with Laura on Christmas Eve, then onto Clark and Katelyn on Christmas no less, and finally I came down with it the day after. We were all pretty much sleeping or just not well enough for the kids to fight. We sat around watching or sleeping through movies we got for Christmas. Then just as we started to feel better, 3 of us had sinus infections. Clark and Katelyn were so sick from those and it was just days away from Katelyn's baptism. So we called our friend and our home teacher for a blessing and they were soon much better.

2) My computer decided to crash a couple of days before Christmas. Lovely. My computer tech husband can't even figure it out. So I'm having to share Katelyn's computer. My pictures and program are on my computer so until I find the disc to load onto hers I can't share any new pics. Grumble, grumble.

3) The holidays are just plain busy for us anyhow.

4) Katelyn was baptized January 2nd. It was a nice day and as soon as I get those pictures loaded onto this computer I'll blog all about her special day. I have one more desk drawer to go through still. Let's all hope it's in that one.

Hopefully I'll be back to blogging about our family again soon. Until then we hope all our friends and family are doing well.

Happy Birthday Laura!

2009-11-17T12:50:00.001-08:00

Wow! It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in the doctor's office with an almost 4 year Katelyn at my side and looking at a calendar as the doctor said "Here are the dates I have open for the c-section." He pointed to November 10th (Katelyn's birthday), November 17th, and November 24th (Thanksgiving that year). I said there was no way I wanted to be in the hospital on a liquid diet on Thanksgiving. Then I turned to Katelyn and said "Do you want a baby sister for your birthday?" With all the innocence of a child that age she said "No, I just want toys for my birthday." So the 17th it was. After my labor/delivery experience, I didn't want to go through that again so we chose a repeat c-section. Funny thing was that Laura was stubborn from the start....the doctor, nurses and staff in the non-stress test room were all certain she'd come on her own cause she was in position and kept dropping lower and lower. However the weekend before the c-section, she went and turned herself side ways breech with no hopes of turning her and so I would have had a c-section due to that. Not to mention that she took us totally by surprise with this pregnancy anyhow......we were between homes and living with my parents briefly and going to wait til we were settled into a new place when SURPRISE I find out I'm pregnant. Taking us by surprise and stubborn from the moment of conception....that's our Laura. Never a dull moment with her around and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Birthday Tiny Toons! We love you!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Katelyn's 8!!!!

2009-11-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

November 10, 2001 you came into our lives screaming and red faced, letting the world know how unhappy you were to leave your nice warm place. It's been a roller coaster ride ever since for both us and you. But through all the bumps along the way, the smooth spots speed us along. May the ride never end!

Happy 8th Birthday Princess Katelyn! We love you!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Out With October, In With November

2009-11-06T12:19:00.001-08:00

October was a busy month. It seemed to come and go so fast. Here are some of the things that have kept us busy last month.

We started off the month with a trip to Utah for Clark's mission reunion. See a previous blog entry on that if you haven't gotten a chance yet.

I love to read. A couple of days, Laura gave me a chance to read while she played in her room quietly. They happened to cold and even one rainy day too. I thought I'd have uninterrupted reading time. But one of our cat's Al had other ideas.

October for us has meant a trip to PA's Pumpkin Patch in Long Beach for 4 years running now. We take our annual picture of the girls with the giant pumpkins. They ride their favorite rides. We take a few pics with the various cut outs. And we go home with at least 3 pumpkins.

Some of my friends and family know that we've been in the process of evaluating Katelyn for ADD and Autism. I was seeing lots of signs of ADD in Katelyn. Her IEP team felt she showed signs of autism during her triennial evals at the end of last year. We finally got the referral in late August through Kaiser and September and October meant various visits to one of Kaiser's psychologists who asked tons of questions and talked to her and looked at the IEP notes. Even up til the point that the psychologist said "autism", I still felt only ADD would be her diagnosis. I really didn't see her on the spectrum at all. Not that it would be a problem if she were, I have former ward members with kids on the spectrum, one of Katelyn's good friends has Asperger's, a good friend of mine has a son with Asperger's as well. But even though I know some things about it, I don't know alot and therefore just didn't see it. So you can imagine how shocked I was when the psychologist said "diagnosis.....autism spectrum."

It wasn't shock like "how horrible! not my child!" It was more of "how did we not see the signs sooner?!" type shock. Plus all the why's, if's, what now's running through my head. And that all spelled a day of emotions for me. I was at my breaking point of just needing to sit down and cry when there was a knock on the door. My good friend, the one whose son has Asperger's, was standing there with her son. We haven't talked in a while so she didn't know we were doing the evals. She said they were driving by and felt they needed to stop. She immediately knew something was wrong and I just melted. She totally set my mind at ease in the whole matter. She knows both my girls well enough and really helped me not to panic over the eval score (which said "severe autism"). Her son is 15 and he was able to set my mind at ease too. "Sister Raile, she's like me. Maybe not Asperger's. But she's high-functioning. And she has a mother for helping her through this as she gets older." Oh how I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who was watching over me that day and sent these friends when I needed them the most.

Since then we've talked to the autism specialist who also explained a great deal to us and esp about where Katelyn lies on the spectrum and why nobody saw the signs sooner. She gave us some titles of books to read and a website to look at and signed us up for a monthly clinic that they have to help parents understand more about it.

The diagnosis doesn't change who Katelyn is. She's still the same child. The diagnosis will help us, her school teachers, her church teachers and family and close friends to understand her and help her be the best she can be throughout her life.

Amazingly the day after her diagnosis, while we were still in the whole why's, if, what now phase, her Girl Scout troop met with an older troop at the Cerritos City Hall. For their city hall meeting, which is televised for local residents, they got to say the Pledge of Allegience. The troop leader for the older girls asked if there was anyone who wanted to volunteer to say it. None of the other girls wanted to. Katelyn raised her hand and said "I'll do it!" I was outside with Laura so heard all this second hand. But her troop leader said she did great. Talk about one of those proud mommy moments. And a moment that made me see that she's going to go far even though she will have stumbling blocks along the way.

October also meant a trip to Disneyland for just Laura and I. She's been potty trained since April but suddenly started having accidents in September. Those lasted through October as well. Finally I had a heart-to-heart talk with her. I asked her what would help her stop having accidents. We talked about a sticker chart and what kind of reward she wanted. She liked none of my ideas. Finally she said "Disneyland, just you and me!" When I saw she'd gone 2 weeks with no accidents, I grabbed our passports. After taking Katelyn to school one morning we drove to Disneyland and spent a fun filled morning riding all her favorite rides, taking pictures with Mickey, and eating churros and ice cream for lunch before we had to head back home to pick up big sister from school.

Of course who can forget that Halloween is in October. All that yummy candy! Here's our pumpkins before and after carving and our two little princesses.

And now we are into November. It kind of started out with a bang.....literally. Aside from Laura and I both being sick right now, I had one of those "I told you so" moments with Clark. See he's a decent driver though he does tend to speed. But he never seems to pay attention when parking or turning into parking lots. He's scraped my van more times than I can count and grunts and groans like a man if I get uppity with him over it. I always tell him that one day he's going to do some real damage and I'm going to say "I told you so." Well he was too busy eating Laura's fries from McD's since she doesn't eat them and he went to pull into the burger place down the street from our house. I saw the curb but not enough time to say anything and BOOM he goes over it. I cringed and he parked and we both got out to check tires. Yep, he'd popped one. The front passenger side. So bad that it was coming off the rim. I turned to him to say what I've always wanted to say and his face was so angry that all I could do was laugh hysterically. Of course he didn't find it funny. He didn't get mad though. Just said "I'm glad you find it funny." I have a feeling if I did say the other thing he'd have gotten mad though. Oh and of course I had to take a picture. haha!

So that was our crazy month of October and our start of November. How was yours?

We're Finished!

2009-10-24T02:34:00.001-07:00

Friday morning started off great. Katelyn is so excited. She completed her goal of reading the Book of Mormon for the first time before her 8th birthday. I'm so proud of her for completing her goal even though she might not have understood much of what she read. But it's a start of learning to love the scriptures. And she's not stopping there. Nope....today we start her next goal....reading the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price by the end of January. We're all set to go, I even have a chart I found to help us keep track of our reading. The best thing about this is that it has gotten me reading the scriptures again. I hate to admit it but I've been kind of lazy about the last couple of years. So not only am I reading with her, I'm doing my own scripture study as well.

Laura and I also finished reading her Book of Mormon Stories book for the 2nd time. So both girls will earn their little wooden plaque for reading the Book of Mormon this year. They are excited and I'm excited for them. Laura I'm a bit worried about though......she really loved reading anything about Jesus but she was equally excited with all the war stories. haha! What a crazy kid I tell ya! But it made reading with her fun that's for sure. We also will be starting the Doctrine and Covenants together. We have a story book for that too. Funny thing is that she thinks it's a race so she's always asking "where sissy at? where I at? yes! I'm winning!" or "darn it! Katelyn's winning!" Like I said...crazy kid. :)

Utah Trip October 2009

2009-10-06T22:58:00.001-07:00

As you can see we took lots of pictures on our Utah trip. And these aren't even all of them. These are just the ones I chose for the blog to give you all a good idea of how the trip went. So here's the play-by-play of our weekend. But before you proceed, you might want to grab your favorite drink and/or a snack and sit down and relax. Yeah...it might get a little long. LOL!

Day 1, Thursday, Oct. 1......Left our home near Long Beach, CA at about 10:30 a.m. We decided to take the drive up in parts. Today we drove as far as St. George, Utah where we stayed with the Holliday's...a family Clark grew up with in West Covina. While there we got to visit with Anne and Rich who we thank very much for letting us stay the night with them. It was great to see them again! It's been way too long. We also got to visit with their son, daughter-in-law and grandson who also live there. The next morning we got to see their beautiful granddaughter, Hannah (their daughter Julie's little one). The girls got to sit in their son Jon's work vehicle. (Katelyn's says she wants to be a policewoman now thanks to that) And we got to see the gorgeous views from their home.

And I have to add a tidbit about potty breaks on the way up.....if any of you are familiar with this drive you'll laugh with me. Stop 1.....Barstow, CA for lunch at Bob's Big Boy and potty break. Stop 2.....Primm, Nevada for potty break at Wild Bill's casino (casino's = clean bathrooms normally). Both stops scheduled and esp with Primm, I figured that would last us all til St. George. Nope! 20 minutes up the road as we hit rush hour in Vegas, Laura says "Uh-oh, I gotta go NOW!" A quick call to my sis who lives in Vegas helps us with Stop 3.....Vegas, Palace Station hotel/casino, we don't have to even walk through the casino to use a restroom there, yeah! You'd think this would be out last stop. But nope. Getting close to Mesquite (don't ask me which state....could be Nevada, could be Arizona, not sure but it's between Vegas and St. George), Katelyn says, "Umm...I have to go potty." So we stop at a McDonald's in Mesquite and I run both girls in. 4 stops in a 2 hour time span. Sheesh!

Day 2, Friday, Oct. 2......Left St. George early afternoon and headed to our first stop, Provo Cementary. There we visited Colleen's grave (Clark's mom) and placed flowers in the vase. Laura insisted in getting a yellow flower. When asked why she said "Grandma told me she likes yellow flowers." She's never met Colleen, so kind of interesting that she'd say that. Esp since the next day upon telling this story to Colleen's sister Eloise, I learned that my mother-in-law always did love yellow flowers. Each of the girls took a turn placing a flower in the vase, then Clark, then me, and then Clark had a quiet moment with the girls and their grandma Colleen.

After placing the flower on Colleen's grave, we walked across the road to show the girls where their great-great-great-great grandfather (or is it 3 greats? I don't remember...and it's on my father-in-law Rick's side, that much I know) is buried. Those of you who have gone to BYU or have had a child go to BYU may know who Abraham Owen Smoot is. Well that's who my husband and daughters' ancestor is. Through the 5th wife......though Clark says 4th cause he hasn't read the book his parents gave us a few years back. But I could be wrong, since there's only 4 wives he's buried with. However I remember from the book that he had 5 wives but one decided she didn't want to be in a polygamous marriage anymore and left and she was like the 2nd or 3rd wife. So of course she wouldn't be buried with them. I'll have to ask my father-in-law to verify this for me.

Next we headed to Cedar Hills/Pleasant Grove to drop off our stuff where we were staying for 2 days. (our friends Haley and Seth Estrada....Haley's family are more West Covina people we know) Then headed over to our friends Doug and Charise Nowlin (also in Pleasant Grove) so they could watch our girls for us. (thanks guys, it was really appreciated and it was fun to visit and catch up as well!) We ate a quick dinner and then Clark and I changed and ran out the door for his mission reunion that was held in Orem. For those that don't know, he served in the Canada Winnipeg Mission 1991-1993. The reunion was to mark 15 yrs that his mission president has been home from that mission. The following are a few pics of the night:

The sign that was hung on the wall.

Raile, Merrill, and Miles......all 3 came from the Walnut, CA Stake. But were in different wards and different cities and never met til their mission. Clark from West Covina, Merrill from Hacienda Heights, and Miles from Walnut I believe.

A group shot of all the CWM alum who made it to the reunion. They spanned a great distance. One even came all the way from Ireland to attend the reunion.

Clark and I with President and Sister Christensen. Funny story......as we walked in Sis. Christensen handed us name tags and markers for our names and said if I served a mission too then to write that down under my name "because you never know you might run into at these things." As she walked away, Clark and I said to each other that it was doubtful I'd actually have this happen. Not 2 seconds later, the husband of one of the sisters from his mission goes "So what years did you serve?" Turns out he'd also served in my mission (Argentina Buenos Aires West) but we never came across each other. He served from 92-94 but in areas with no sisters and I was 93-95. So I guess Sis. Christensen was right. :)

Day 3, Saturday, Oct. 3......Woke up as early as our tired bodies would allow. Kind of had a rough night. The air mattress my parents lent us had a leak and by morning Clark and I were on the floor. Also Laura had 5 night terrors and I had to calm her each time. After getting showered and dressed we headed into Bountiful where our friends, the Mortensen's, fixed us a yummy breakfast and we got to visit with them a bit. Sorry we were so tired guys. We didn't plan on lack of sleep 2 nights running (in St. George neither girl slept well and Laura had 6 night terrors to boot, with Katelyn having 1 as well). But it was a nice visit and breakfast really was delicious. Oh and the girls tell me to let the ogre know they say hello...that was their favorite part. LOL! I had to take a picture of the front of their house. My dad and I have a thing for homes like this, esp if they have the huge porches.

Next we headed up to Willard to visit with Clark's aunts and uncles. We went to aunt Eloise and uncle Dale's house (Colleen's sister). Clark's cousin Mike and his family were there. Katelyn got along well with their daughter Lexie. They were born the same year. Also aunt Claudia and uncle Dean (one of Colleen's brothers) live up the hill and came down to visit as well. We had a yummy baked potato bar for lunch. As in Idaho potatoes. Eloise, Dale, Mike and Tiana and the kids had gone up to Idaho and picked potatoes off conveyor belts somewhere. That's about 2100 lbs of potatoes for $100. Eloise and Dale store them in their cellar and they last til June. Dale sent us home with a box. Look at the size of those taters. And they are delicious!

The girls got to ride the ATV's. Katelyn remembers riding them at the family reunion a few years back. So she was looking forward to that again. For Laura it was brand new. She fell in love with it. The first picture is them riding up in the hills with Mike. He said he could tell the girls have been to Disneyland a few times.....whenever he'd get really going they'd raise their arms and say "Wheeeeee!" haha! I rode up too....I hopped on the back while Clark drove one. I'm too chicken to ride one by myself. Esp up in the hills. So I sat behind Clark. Look at the views we had of the hills above Willard and of Willard Bay. Just stunning.

The girls found a love of basements on the trip. Each home we stayed in had a different type of basement. They esp loved Eloise and Dale's. They have a play room with a loft and toys for the kids. Katelyn and Laura just loved disappearing down there to play.

Day 4, Sunday, Oct 4.......The long drive home. We said good-bye to the Estrada family. Got a cute group picture of all the kids together. Haley and Seth, thanks for letting us crash at your place! It was greatly appreciated! Seeing you guys again and also Michael and his family (though just briefly) was nice.

Leaving did have a bit of drama. Or rather a comedy. I had showered and then helped Katelyn dress. While Laura slept and Clark showered, I decided to take a small load of stuff to the van. I noticed that it had rained during the night and some in the morning. The only ones up were Juliette, Dillon and Katelyn. They all saw me look out the window and heard me say that it was fine and I was going to run out and take some things to load up. Not 2 seconds of me opening the side van doors and the back, the heavens opened up and the rain came down. It started off light and I was covered by the van. But then WOOSH came the wind and snow flakes! And not lightly either. My only option....hop in the back of the van and shut it and wait it out. Oh but it's freezing. Duh I left the sides open. Close then and I'm snug as a bug in a rug...well sort of. It was still cold. I'm laughing at the timing of all this. It just figures my jacket was under the floor under the ice chest that I can't move from the back. So I sit and wait, wait and sit....watching the faces of 3 very worried children who are looking out the window of the house wondering where the heck I went and I just laugh even harder. Then it calmed down and jumped out and got my jacket fast. As I'm running back in 9 yr old Juliette is running out with her umbrella to rescue me. How sweet is that?! All 3 kids and I had a good laugh over it.

The kids hit it off. So well that Juliette wanted us to stay, "You know with this weather, I'd stay an extra day if I were you." Too cute. Here's a picture of all the kids together...

Juliette, almost 9 holding 8 month old Brent; Laura, almost 4; Katelyn, almost 8; Dillon, 5; Jack, 2 1/2......interesting tidbit: Juliette and Laura were both born November 17th but 5 years apart. Juliette was 6 lbs., 3 oz., 17 inches and Laura was 6 lbs, 4 oz., 17 1/2 inches.

A friend suggested we drive up one of the canyons to see the fall foliage. There was a lull in the rain so we drove up American Fork Canyon as it was just up the street from Haley's house. The colors were amazing. My pictures just don't do it justice. We found a spot for some good pictures but then it started to rain again and since my camera isn't waterproof I felt it best to hop back into the van. We had rain off and on for close to 2 hours of the trip back. Then lots of wind storms as far south as St. George. Anyhow, here's the few pictures I was able to take in the canyons.

On the way home, we made a stop in Vegas to visit my sister and brother-in-law and their doggie Kelso. We couldn't drive through Vegas twice and not stop at least once to visit. So Sunday was the day. We played with Kelso, visited with Sharla and Paul and went out to dinner with them.

Look at this gorgeous nephew doggy of mine. Kelso is a huge boy but thinks he's a lap dog.

Here he is playing with his "cheeky", one of his favorites that's as big as he is. And then playing tug-of-war with the girls with it....and winning I might add.

Laura, aunt Sharla, Katelyn and uncle Paul

Laura, aunt Sharla and Katelyn....with their blonde hair alot of times when we are with Sharla people think they are her kids and not mine

Overall the drive home was 11 1/2 hours. That's not counting the stop in Vegas. We didn't get home til midnight CA time. Girls did well on the drive home. Didn't need a potty break til St. George and then waited til Sharla's place, from there they fell asleep in the car and we had to wake them for a pit stop in Barstow, CA and they they lasted til we got home. Very different from the way up. They also did well in the car with no arguments. Pretty good considering we don't have a dvd player and t.v. for them to travel with and it was our first trip like this.

It was a tiring trip but a fun one and I'm glad we got to go. Maybe we'll get to do it again next year and stay a bit longer so we can visit more friends.

Book of Mormon reading update

2009-10-01T09:36:00.001-07:00

On the way out of town but wanted to share a quick update on Katelyn's goal.....she's doing great! We're into 3 Nephi now. Go Katelyn! Way to go!

Blast From The Past

2009-09-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

This picture and blast from the past moment is for one of my reader's who thought her daughter had a big owie for back-to-school photos. Grace be glad it Maddy's didn't bruise like Laura's did.

And for the curious here is the story on how this happened:

This was taken December 2006 when Laura was 13 months old. She'd been sitting on our bed petting one of the cats while I got dressed. I had just put my socks on and realized I'd left my shoes a few steps away. I got off the bed and as I walked across the room, Katelyn (then just turned 5) walked past me to also pet the cat. Only she tripped over the area rug and fell into the bed....hard. Now we have hardwood floors and the bed is on a frame with wheels. (we've never had a bedroom set just the frame that comes with the mattresses...cheap I know, LOL!) I turned around to make sure Katelyn was okay since I'd heard her yelp in pain to find that cat was flying through the air in one direction and Laura in the other......right towards the bookcase. The force of Katelyn falling into the bed had catapulted both cat and lightweight little sister off the bed. I raced to catch Laura.....but she hit the bookcase a second before I got to her. She hit the bookcase with her nose bridge. The result was a screaming baby with a large cut (luckily not deep enough for stitches) and a very swollen and bruised nose bridge. It took a couple of weeks for the swelling to go down and a good month for the bruise to go away. The cut....well at almost 4 years of age, if you look closely you can see a faint scar from the incident.

Oddly enough about the whole thing is that with Katelyn, as a first time mom I did the whole freak out when she rolled off our bed onto a carpeted floor in the home we lived in. I never placed her on a bed alone til she could sit up and NOT crawl or roll off. When Laura came along, I never placed her on the bed as a tiny infant and we only had just started letting her up there to pet the cats if we were in there. She would never move from the center of the bed. She'd sit there petting the cat as happy as a lark. So it wasn't like she was moving. It was all a freak accident caused by a clumsy big sister. She wouldn't come near our bed for a long time.....and actually neither would Katelyn. Both were too afraid after the whole ordeal. Don't rightfully blame them but in looking back that makes me chuckle a little.

Stake Conference

2009-09-13T18:23:00.000-07:00

Or as I like to title it.....

Stake Conference + Katelyn + Laura = Why Do We Even Bother?

Okay so I know this is what we should be doing. But when we do try it always ends up pretty much like today went....minus the child in the bathroom stall (more on that in a second). What makes today extra frustrating is that Katelyn FINALLY started sitting through Sacrament meetings each Sunday just fine about a year ago (when we do manage to arrive on time by the way...she does well in the foyer too though) and yet she was part of the problem today.

First I've got to explain to my readers who are not LDS/Mormon what a Stake is. Our church is pretty large and we just do go to meetings each Sunday and boom that's it. We have a variety of things that we do within our church. Members are assigned to congregations called wards or branches based on their geographical area. Then anywhere from 6-8 wards and branches make up a Stake. We do a lot of stuff at the ward level but we do have meetings and events on a stake level as well. Typically a church building will house 2-3 wards that will meet at different times each Sunday. One main building that is slightly larger is called a stake center and twice a year we meet there for a Stake Conference with all the wards. Today was one of those meetings.

Now those with young kids currently or those who have ever had young kids know how hard it can be just to deal with them for regular Sunday meetings. I'm sure that is true of any church you belong to. But me....I dread Stake Conferences with my 2 kids. It's hard enough for each Sunday in our ward meetings. Get them around so many others and it's worse. This is why I tend to stay home when I hear Stake Conference is coming up (and Allison feel free to forward this to your dad....the bishop might get a good laugh over some of my girls' antics today....esp the bathroom one)

Raile's arrive 10 minutes before the meeting starts at 10 a.m. Girls sit still that entire time.

Stake Pres. gets up to start the meeting, music starts, Laura says "I gotta go pooootttttyyyy!" So I rush her down the hall. Apparently she had to do more than potty. We were in there a loooong time. Of course part of that included her locking the door (she wants her privacy so I'll just hold the door from the outside in case she needs help) and NOT being able to open it. Other women come in, smile and laugh when I say I'm trying to get her to crawl under. A few other moms tried to get their kids to crawl under and open the door for her. They were younger than her and unable to. Still Laura would not come out. And she wouldn't let me leave her in there to go get help. She'd start to cry. Finally I get her to crawl under for me. I get her washed up and take her in to Clark. Grab Katelyn who is pitching a fit because she doesn't need to go potty and I explain to her what happened and have her climb under the door so she can unlock it. She does. Get her washed up and back in to sit down. And by this time I catch the last 2 minutes of the Stake Presidents talk.

Okay girls are okay, I start to listen to the next speaker. Oh no! A STRANGER sits down next to Katelyn. She freaks out! Starts climbing up Clark like he's ladder. He's getting mad. She won't settle down. I'm on the end so I get to take her out to calm her down. By the time I get back in, we're on to the next speaker.

So we allow her to sit in daddy's lap. She's fine until she decides to start pinching little sister. Daddy takes her out this time. A minute after he takes her out, Laura discovers that her new Sunday shoes light up. So she starts pounding her feet hard on the wood floor where we are seated. People around us clearly annoyed. I sit her in the chair and she proceeds to start banging the shoes on the chairs which is even louder. I ask her to stop, she screams. Sigh. Take her out. Find husband in halls. Switch kids.

I come back in with Katelyn in time for the last 5 minutes of the 3rd speaker and try and figure out what his talk was about. Then it's time for a congregational hymn. Everyone standing and moving gets the heavy perfumes of the women around me wafting through the air. We sit down and through the next couple of speakers I'm sniffling or sneezing and my head is spinning from the smells of the perfumes. But I was determined not to leave the room.

Last speaker begins his talk. I'm finally feeling like my head is not going to explode and throughout his talk I'm getting "I want my sister!!!" in a whiney 7 yr old voice next to me. "shhh" I say. Then "I'm bored!" "I brought crayons and color book" I tell her. "But I don't want to color!" she says. I tell her to shush. Then "I want daddy!" "You can see him when the meeting is over." "But mommy this guy is taking way too long! I want to go home!" I hiss, "Quiet now or I'll take you out for a spanking! I'm that close!" I finally catch some of Elder Evans' (of the Seventy) talk. I hear about being financially smart or something to that effect.

Now here is where it is probably my fault that I didn't hear some of the talk. You see in the choir was one of our ward friends...Robert Magalogo...and he was sitting up on the stand where you could see his face on the extra screens becaus of the way they positioned the camera so those in the back could see the speakers. And when Elder Evans started his being financially smart part, Robert is up there laughing, making faces and hand signs to his wife who was sitting up in the front of the choir area. Now the camera didn't show her, just Robert but I looked to see her reaction because I know she would know he was doing something and her reaction was funny. Even after she turned back around and ignored him, Robert still make nodded in agreement to what Elder Evans was saying. And well I found it all quite comical and kept laughing silently. I hoped nobody noticed that......but Katelyn and she proceeded to annoy me with "what's so funny?" til nearly the end of his talk.

And then "I gotta go potty!" and she was doing the potty dance in her chair. Rush her out. Come back in. Catch Elder Evans' testimony and the choir singing at the end.

So now ask me what I even got out of Stake Conference today. And when I can't answer please help me to answer my burning question......

Why did we even bother going?

I know this shall pass...that soon they'll be grown and I'll wish for their childhood again. But I for one will relish in the fact that I can sit through a Stake Conference knowing it's not my kids causing a ruckus or locking themselves in bathroom stalls for the 1/3 of the meeting.

Book of Mormon Progess

2009-09-09T23:31:00.001-07:00

Another month has come and gone. As you can see, Katelyn made great progress for August. We are well into Alma.....just finished up chapter 43 tonight. She is asking more questions, making more comments as we go along. She really wanted to have finished Alma before school started. However even with where we are now, we are 2 days ahead of our reading schedule before of how she wanted to double up here and there along the way.

Articles of Faith progress....she is still working on learning #4. Even teaching her the song for it, it is just a bit too long for her and so she's taking her time learning it. That's okay though. She'll get it if we practice enough. I'm really proud of her desire to work on both these goals. She may be our challenging child in many ways but she's a great kid with a heart of gold and a desire to do what Heavenly Father wants her to do. Keep up the good work Katelyn!

Fun On The Farm

2009-08-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was spend having more end of summer fun with the family. We went to Tanaka Farms in Irvine, CA where we took their summer cook out tour.

Katelyn and Laura waiting for the tour to start.

Papa Rick met us down there. He got to ride in a cart for the tour.

The rest of us walked.....as you can see aunt Kathy joined us on the tour too.

This is the view from the start of the tour. Way off in the distance to the right, just above the trees is where we were headed. As we walked along the farm we picked different veggies to later bbq in the picnic shelter that you see in the distance. It was a hot day. I didn't bring water. I made it most of the way but hopped in the cart along with 2 other ladies and Rick.

Some cool scarecrows we met on the way.

Katelyn had fun cutting up her own veggies.

This was my lunch. Tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, green onions, egg plant, tofu all seasoned up and grilled for about 15 minutes. Then yummy in the tummy!

The farm also had some sauteed sweet maui onions to eat. These were DELICIOUS!

For dessert we walked down to another shelter where they had all the sweet red and yellow watermelon we could eat. The girls ate at least 5 slices each.

Katelyn and I both loved the yellow watermelon. If you've never had it before I highly suggest finding a farm similar to this one that sells them and buy one to try.

We all had a great time and none of us wanted to leave. On the drive home, I asked everyone what their favorite part of the trip was and then they in turn asked me. Here's all our answers:

Laura: "I liked picking vegetables!" (and because of this she actually ate them willingly! big thing for a little girl who hates to eat them.)

Katelyn: "I liked eating the watermelon."

Clark: "I liked chopping up the veggies for the stir fry and getting to eat all the good food."

Me: "I liked the sweet maui onions, the bbq veggies, being with family, oh and the ride up for the final leg of the tour wasn't bad either."

Aquarium of the Pacific

2009-08-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

Okay so I'm a bit behind on blogging about this but better late that never. A couple of Saturdays ago after realizing we hadn't done anything but swim lessons this summer, I decided that we should take the girls to the Aquarium of the Pacific for the afternoon. Because my mom was set to start dialysis that upcoming week and not knowing how often she'll be up to trips like this with us, I called and invited mom and dad. Dad was at a baseball game with my sister and brother-in-law but mom jumped at the chance to come with us. Here is a pictorial story of our day:

Grandma Sunny, Laura and Katelyn getting ready for a fun filled afternoon in the aquarium

Laura got so excited over every fish she saw that day!

Katelyn had lots of fun too!

We saw eels

We saw fish

And we saw even bigger fish

And schools of fish

We saw the back of the girls...a lot

And the biggest lobsters that I think would taste delicious, haha!

And sea lions (this one had a foot fetish)

that balanced themselves on rocks under water!

We saw sharks

We saw a handsome sea lion named Miller

And we saw the jellyfish.

Then we made our waitress do this

or this

at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. where we ate dinner.

A Doctor Visit

2009-08-20T16:51:00.000-07:00

Okay so call me a procrastinator. School starts in a few weeks and I'm finally making all the doctor appts. On top of that, today's appts were a combo for age 3 and 4 since I totally didn't get them seen for well child visits on their birthdays last year. That's cool though, I was told they didn't need shots then or now. Laura not til next year and Katelyn doesn't need to get seen til 2011 for her next well child visit.

So anyhow.....here are some stats from the visit.

Katelyn....4 ft. 1.25 in. tall....47 lbs 3 oz.....everything healthy, though recommended that she see an optometrist to check her vision since doing eye chart she was not 20/20 on one eye, but I am ahead on that, Clark and I need new glasses and since we got them at young ages and I was already making appts I went ahead and made one for Katelyn too, that appt is on Sept. 11 of all dates. While it won't be the end of the world if she needs glasses let's hope this date doesn't prove to be a bad omen for us.....when I was pregnant with her in 2001, on the actual day all the events happened that ingrain this date in all our heads for the rest of our lives, I had a doctor appt to check how I was doing with diet controlling my gestational diabetes. And it wasn't controlling it at all and I was placed on insulin injections that day. And I hate needles. Blech! So let's hope taking her to the eye doctor on that date doesn't have us walking away with her in glasses. LOL! I also told the pediatrician about the school district recommending her being tested for autism and ADD at her triennial eval. So she put in a referral for me for their behavioral group to do all that. We should be getting a call within the week to set up the appt.

Laura.......30 lbs, 9.6 oz........3 ft. 2.5 in. tall......this pediatrician saw us through Laura's growth problems as an infant when she completely dropped off the charts for the longest time because of that, Dr. P was excited to see how well Laura is doing and says you'd never know now that she had those growth issues. I agree. She is petite and probably always will be. But it's nice to see that she's right there with the other petite girls born within a few months of her either way that never had the growth problems she had. So she's basically caught up with the naturally petite girls. Miss Stubborn refused to the let the nurse do the blood pressure. See big sis started to freak out on it. Nurse and I quickly calmed her and she allowed nurse to do it. But it was enough to scare little sister. We discussed Laura's asthma. She has been diagnosed but only ever has had symptoms when she's had a cold. However during the lovely Santa Ana winds southern Cali gets during heavy wind season, I noticed Laura had a hard time breathing on our walks to and from the school. Dr. P says heavy winds can be a trigger for some kids like Laura and to always carry the inhaler with me because you never know when she'll need it. Might me one season she'll be fine and the next need it. Or it could change daily during windy seasons. And the worst part of the visit for Laura.........blood draw!

At her 2 yr old check up she needed routine blood work that they do at that age. One thing they tested for then was iron levels. Hers came back that was mildly anemic and we were told to give her iron drops and given a list of iron rich foods for her diet. So Dr. P put the orders in the lab for a blood draw for that. She said it would be like last time, just a finger prick. Wrong! Guess she didn't know the lab start doing the regular blood draws at a certain weight and size and Laura was that size. She started to panic. I was asked to put her in my lap. Ha! They make these swivel seats so you can slide in no matter your size. But if you are overweight and need to put a 30 lb, 38-39 in child in your lap there is just no way you can both sit there. Luckily there as a thin tech who loves kids who came over and held Laura. Still.....the screaming and the crying. And not just during the blood draw, after too. We have a small medical office compared to other Kaiser's I've been to. I swear the whole building heard her as some hallways echo. The poor ladies on the elevator with us. And then the huge echoing lobby. And it continued out to the parking lot.

And then an angel in disguise.......just as we reached our van, a man was getting out of his truck. He comes over and says "Oh sweety, what's wrong? Why the tears? Why so upset? Oh the big bad lab people took some blood?" Then he shows her his arm (a dialysis arm like my mom) and Laura stops crying, "That looks like gramma's arm!" He didn't ask for elaboration, just continued his soothing Laura "You should see what they do to my arm 3 times a week. And I don't cry. Not one bit. You are so brave today." Then she wiped her tears as she nodded and said "Yeah, I'm brave." And then he left on his way. And you know what.....though she had her pouty lip on, she didn't shed one more tear, cry one more cry, or scream one more scream the whole way home. God bless my dialysis angel today!

Katelyn's Progress

2009-08-17T19:04:00.001-07:00

I said in my last blog update that I would do a monthly report at the beginning of each month in regards to Katelyn's goal of reading the Book of Mormon before her 8th birthday. I've been a bit lazy about updating my blog this summer. But her it is finally. This is her reading chart as of 8/7/09. As you can from the first blog about it, she has made some wonderful progress. She loves to pick up her scriptures and read a chapter here and there throughout the day. The goal initially was 2 chapters a day, except for the Isaiah chapters where we didn't have to read the whole chapters...just certain verses or only the chapter heading....and those we read a 3 or 4 in one day. But now we are often reading 3-5 chapters a day. I'm sure we'll slow down to 1 chapter a day once school starts though.

As for her goal of learning the Articles of Faith. She has passed off 1, 2 and 3 already. She is currently working on #4 and I'm sure it'll take her a few weeks for that one as it's a long one. But she is plugging away each day to learn it.

Laura is making progress as well. We are 6 chapters away of reading the Book of Mormon Stories book the first time through. We are ahead in our reading schedule with her as well. Everytime Katelyn says "let's read a chapter mommy!", Laura comes running over "me first! me first!" and I read her a chapter as well.

I'm really proud of my girls and their excitement for the scriptures. Well Katelyn at least...some days Laura just digs those stubborn 3 yr old heels in and says "no way!" But she makes up for it the next day when she makes me read 3 chapters. LOL!

The Scriptures and Children

2009-07-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

I think the saying goes "and a little child shall lead them" or it's pretty close to that. Lately am learning this to be true. You see, I have been a wee bit lazy about my scripture reading for a very, very, very long time. For Christmas some of you may remember that Katelyn (my 7 yr old) told me she wanted her own scriptures when I asked what she wanted for Christmas. Considering most kids ask for the latest and greatest toys at that time of year, this was no problem for our Santa to deliver. Last Christmas all toys aside, Katelyn sat grinning over her brand new set of scriptures.

Still we haven't been diligent in reading them. That is until last week. Katelyn reminded me about the reading chart. What reading chart? Our stake has a Book of Mormon reading incentive program. The first time they read the Book of Mormon, they will receive a wooden plaque with a scripture on it (I think...could be a little poem, I can't remember). Each time after that they read it, they will receive a bead to add to the plaque. Katelyn reminded me of this and said she wanted to start reading it. Starting so late in the year, I realized we might not finish it by the stake recognition night. So I sat down with a calender and the chart and figured it all out. Reading at least 2 chapters a day (except for a bunch in 2 Nephi where we don't have to read the whole chapters....just the chapter headings and/or a few key verses for the chapters that say to compare to Isaiah...those we can do 3-4 a day) with me, she can finish the Book of Mormon in time for the recognition. Since she has a November birthday, this means she will also be able to finish it right around her 8th birthday...right before she is baptized. She's excited about that. Not sure how much she is comprehending but she insisted she read the "real" one and not the scripture stories version. The important thing is that she's doing it and she's even asked to read "the other books after we finish the Book of Mormon." I love her love of reading and I love that it's including the scriptures.

And back to my opening line.......well it's spurred me to read mine as well. Since I'm reading the Book of Mormon along with her, I'm using my personal study time to read the Doctrine and Covenants. We have a reading guide to be used for the Relief Society broadcast in September. So I'm using that for myself. So my child is leading me and it feels great!

The picture above is Katelyn's chart. She wanted me to color the picture and I did. Over on the left side is where we started and how far we've come so far. Each night after we finish, she chooses a different color crayon and colors in the chapters we read that night. Then on Sunday she can go to the blown up chart in primary and move her push pin to where she's at currently so others can see where she's at. She was excited to get a push pin and mark her first spot this past Sunday.

And then there's Laura. For the little ones who aren't quite reading yet or those just learning to read (so technically Katelyn falls into this one too....she just preferred not to), they can earn their recognition if they read the Book of Mormon Stories book twice in one year. So Laura is doing this with us. Each night she gets 1 or 2 chapters read to her. Usually 1 but sometimes she wants 2. She will also be able to finish in time for the stake recognition. She's so cute though....she sees big sister actually reading verses so she wants to read too but she's still learning to recognize letters of the alphabet. So I'll read a few words and then she repeats them. It makes her feel as if she's reading the book.

And another goal for Katelyn.....passing off Articles of Faith. She's never been very good at memorizing. During the school year we were more focused on helping her learn poems for class. Trying to help her with Articles of Faith then was too much for her. But this summer we are working on it. She just passed off #1 and for the next two weeks we are working with her on #2. Her goal is 4 Articles of Faith before school starts. Mine for her is 5 but we'll see. Some of them are a wee bit too long for her still. But we'll get there eventually. Still I'm proud of her for passing off #1. I know it wasn't easy for her and she did it!

And a little child shall lead them......

4th of July

2009-07-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

We all know the real history and meaning of why we celebrate the 4th of July. So I won't bore my readers with any of that....even though I personally LOVE this holiday and why we celebrate. But here's the way the Raile's celebrate the 4th......

With FOOD

This wasn't our only food....just the cake on the table before I started putting out the rest of the food. They were too pretty not to get a picture. They tasted good too.

Laura and Samual kept snacking on this bag of Doritos all day long. They even ate them while watching fireworks. They ate the whole bag!

With FUN

The little kids....Katelyn (7 1/2), Laura (3 1/2) and Samual (4) had a great time playing. Their favorite was our water fight. We go all out with water guns of every size, buckets, whatever can hold water. Adults and kids alike participate. No pictures though, I didn't want to ruin my camera.

Laura had tons of fun with the sparklers. She looks like she has a flame coming out of her head here. LOL!

A better picture of her with a sparkler. She really did love them. Big sister doesn't like them though.

Samual had a blast with the sparklers too. Daddy Aaron had to help him though as he was a bit dangerous waving his around.

Jacob had fun entertaining us....and we had fun watching him entertain us. Here he is with a roman candle which are legal in our city.

With FRIENDS

Jacob was a great sport with the little kids. I know he was annoyed a few times but really he was a great friend and kept them entertained all afteroon.

Left-right: Elizabeth, Sandra, Kathryn (me of course).....love how my shirt is still wet from the water fight earlier. We all met and became friends in the Los Alamitos Ward.

The Skinners on the right.....Samual, Elizabeth and Aaron

The Hayhurts on the left.....Erick, Cameron, Jacob, and Sandra

Aaron and the Hayhurts ready to watch the fireworks

With FAMILY

My grandma actually came out this year. She seemed to enjoy it. And no, granny did not participate in the water fight in case anyone is wondering. haha!

My dad is always hamming it up for the camera. I think he was glad he didn't have to man the grill. :)

Grandma, dad, mom, Laura and Katelyn getting ready to watch fireworks.

With FIREWORKS

Our city still allows the ground show stuff...you know the "safe and sane" ones. We live on a street great for setting these off pretty safely. Plus we get a great view of all the illegal air show ones that people set off every year in the city just to the south of us. We don't need to spend money to see a show......we do just fine on our own. :)

Jacob was in charge of setting off the ground show for us.....under very strict adult supervision. He was entertaining us with a roman candle here after we realized it wa a roman candle and that's why it would stand like the others. haha!

Katelyn did very well this year. Usually she's found hiding behind the cars or running around freaking out. Also the neighbor usually lends her his headphones he uses to block out loud sounds while woodworking cause of how freaked out she gets. This year she just plugged her ears and curled up with her blanket and semi-enjoyed it. Yeah she's never been too fond of the loud noises of most fireworks.

To all those who have served our country past or present, to anyone who has had a loved one sacrifice their lives for our country, we thank you for your service and dedication! We hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July whereever you were!

Father's Day and Family

2009-06-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

First off.........

Well actually Happy Belated Father's Day to all the men in my life who are fathers, grandfathers, and uncles. I hope you had a great day! Here is Clark with his favorite girls when we showered him with his cards and gifts. The cake was Katelyn's gift. I bought a plain store bought cake and some decorating gels and did the words myself. Laura gave him a game.....that he can play with her. I guess she liked the game she got me for Mother's Day so much that she had to get a game for daddy for Father's Day. LOL! Clark loved it though. We played it tonight and it was fun. Laura won even. :)

Today was also a day for family. First off, here is an old picture I dug up. It was taken nearly 3 years ago at an Oyler family reunion. Laura was about 9 months old in this picture. Her cousin Jaron (or is it Jarom...I'm telling you I can't keep the Oyler names straight, I love them but there's just too many of them and we see them so little that I draw name blanks 5 minutes after they leave, I'm horrible with names, so if any Oylers are peaking in.....please set me straight) was close to 1 or already 1 when this picture was taken.

Now here they are 3 years later. Look how they've grown! They got along great too. Which was nice since Laura has been a pistol playing with other kids her age lately.

So we spent the afternoon with family. My father-in-law Rick and my sister-in-law Kathy live semi-locally. We probably would have spent Father's Day together anyhow. But they came over for a bbq (thanks to master griller, Clark) because some of the Oyler family was in town briefly. Uncle Dean (one of my late mother-in-law's brothers for those that don't know them...probably most of my blog readers), aunt Claudia and their 3 daughters, 3 son-in-laws and grandson were on a cruise this past week. Their port of call was Long Beach, which is pretty much our backyard. So before heading home, most of them came over for a bbq. Heather and her husband (see an example of how I forget names) weren't able to make it, they just drove straight on home to Utah after the cruise. But we saw them briefly last week when they arrived. (we car sat for them) But we had the rest of the family here. It was a great visit....even if I did start to get a bit too much sun and had to go be anti-social and sit in the cool of the living room while everyone else enjoyed the outdoors. I got a group photo of everyone together:

Back: Allison's husband (another example of name forgetting), Allison, Stacy, Stacy's husband (yes forgetting again...I know they are all laughing at me by now), Kathy, Claudia, Clark, Dean

Front: Jaron (or is it Jarom?), Rick holding Laura, and Katelyn

We really enjoyed the brief visit! We wish more of the Utah relatives would come visit. Of course we know that goes both ways....we need to get up to Utah more often too. But hey....just remember all you Oylers.......California has Disneyland, Sea World, Legoland, Knott's Berry Farm, and the beaches.....so yeah come and visit us. We're all waiting! :)

Dinner Time

2009-06-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Dinner time is always interesting in our home. First off, we have pretty picky eaters for kids. Even with foods they like they will fight you on eating some nights. So we get creative to get them to eat. We have a 1 bite of each food on the plate per age of child. (Laura is 3 so it's 3 bites for her as an example) We also have a weekly chart for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each meal they don't fight eating they get a sticker for. At the end of the week they get fake money we are calling Raile Dollars. A full week of stickers gets 1 Raile Dollar. Raile Dollars can be used for a $1 Store visit or can be saved for something bigger like a new movie, book, game or bigger toy. So far this incentive program is working wonders for both girls. We still have moments but they know those times they won't get a sticker. Also on nights we have dessert, they must earn the sticker or no dessert.

Another thing about the girls is that one is like her daddy and loves meat. Steaks, ribs, ground beef, kielbasa, chicken, ham, hot dogs..... give Laura anything along those lines and she's in heaven. But she will fight you on veggies and fruits. Then there's big sister who loves veggies and fruit and really does not like meat or chicken. Oh she'll eat the occasional hot dog and McD's cheeseburger without a fight. And she does love turkey kielbasa in pasta dishes or stir fried rice. She does love seafood. But for the most part she's not a huge meat or poultry eater. Just doesn't like the taste of it. We do try and add more veggies as side dishes to make her happy. But lately I have been on the search for vegetarian main dish meals.

So that brings us to tonight. I found our first dish to try. It uses polenta. Now I ate this alot on my mission. It was pretty good. But the members there made it from a mix and I have been reluctant to try it. Recently I learned that I can buy it in ready made tubes here. Wow. Took me long enough to learn that. LOL! So I was thrilled to be able to try this new recipe. Here goes:

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
2 green onions, chopped
1 (14 ounce) jar marinara sauce
1/4 cup shredded fontina cheese
3/4 cup shredded provolone or mozzarella cheese
1 (16 ounce) tube ready-made polenta, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly oil a 8x8-inch casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in green pepper, garlic, and green onions; cook until the pepper softens, about 3 minutes. Pour in marinara sauce and simmer 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Mix together fontina and provolone in a bowl. Spread a thin layer of sauce over the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Arrange 1/3 of the polenta slices in the dish, top with 1/3 the fontina and provolone mixture. Spread a thin layer of sauce over cheese. Repeat layers twice. Top casserole with Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake in preheated oven until cheese is bubbly and golden brown, about 25 minutes.

I made a few changes to it. I added half a yellow onion, chopped and 1 zucchini, chopped to the mixture that goes into the marinara sauce. A little bit of salt and pepper to it too. For the cheese, I used the fontina and then a package of 6 cheese blend that uses fontina, mozzarella, asiago, and 3 other white cheeses. Most of us love extra cheese in dishes that call for it so it works out to be double the cheese the recipe calls for. I skipped the Parmesan cheese part by accident but didn't miss it. Also I couldn't find a 14 oz jar of marinara sauce anywhere. All I could find was a 24 oz jar. Worked out fine for us. Just like the cheese, my family loves extra sauce. Plus it evens it out with adding the extra onion and zucchini to it. And the polenta, I also could not find in the size the recipe calls for. The tubes I found were like a 20 oz or 24 oz. I just used the plain. Next time I'm going to try the basil-garlic polenta. I served it with steamed broccoli, a family favorite. But a salad would great with this dish and crusty bread too.

Here are some pictures I took. Looks like I dished up a lot but really the serving wasn't that huge. LOL! Picture just came out wierd.

And the results?

I thought it was delicious but then I've tried polenta before. I loved the slight crunch the zucchini added to the dish along with the extra cheese and sauce.

Clark, who was slightly skeptical about the dish because it was meatless, loved it too. He even had seconds. That says a lot for this meal. He doesn't do seconds very often these days.

Katelyn loved it! She was really excited to try this dinner when I told her last night about it. It made her happy that I made a dinner with no meat just for her. She asked that I make it tomorrow night too. I told her she is in a family of meat eaters and so she is going to have to compromise. Some nights she will have to eat meat. But I told her that I'm going to look for more recipes that use no meat and we'll eat half the week like that for her. So we'll all compromise. She was pleased with that.

Laura....well she's started fighting mealtimes recently. But she ate. She ate all the broccoli I put on her plate. And she ate half of the casserole. She was so funny. She kept saying that she didn't like polenta, she only liked meat. But then she shove a huge piece of polenta and sauce into her mouth and proclaim "This is really good mommy!" She ate more than her required 3 bites...she ate like 10. All while saying she really didn't like it. Broccoli is about the only veggie she eats willingly too (she loves eating trees!). But she chomped on the zucchini just fine and saying they were good.

So this is definitely a meal that will be made again in our house.

Happy Memorial Day

2009-05-24T21:16:00.001-07:00

This is my dad, John. Otherwise known as Papa, Papa John, Papa John pizza guy (thanks to the pizza chain of the same name), and now Papa ribs. Laura has dubbed him Papa ribs. Why? Well each Memorial Day, or the day before depending on what we feel like doing, we gather as a family for the first of the summer bbq's. My dad's speciality is....ribs. Beef and pork. I prefer the pork as do most of the family. Clark, my husband, prefers the beef. Laura loves both. Katelyn...well we've yet to convert her but hey she eats very little meat anyhow even for only being 7 yrs old.

Sunday was the day we gathered for Memorial Day this year. Here is dad manning his grill....the grill that made him want to put on offer on this house 20 some odd years ago. And below that is a picture of his yummy pork ribs. They taste 500% better than they look and they look delicious there.

One special thing about dad is that he is a veteran of 2 wars. He's taught me to respect our country even with its imperfections. He's taught me to respect our service men and women whether we agree or not with the job they are doing. He's taught me to enjoy the freedoms this country offers. So on this Memorial Day I want to send a big thanks to all the service men and women out there for serving our country and I want to send a big thanks to the family members and friends of those who have ever lost loved ones while serving our country. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! You are all my heroes. And dad.....thanks for instilling in me the love and respect for our country. I only hope I can teach my children the same way you have taught me these things.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T20:46:00.001-07:00

I don't want to make anyone feel bad who does not like Mother's Day for whatever reasons they have. So just so readers of my blog know who feel this way please feel free to skip this particular post.

As for me, I love Mother's Day. It took me 2 years to conceive Katelyn and 3 years for Laura. Then the complications of gestational diabetes with both, borderline hypertension with Katelyn, 56 hours of painful induced labor before an emergency c-section with Katelyn, dealing with her acid reflux as a tiny infant, a hospital stay when a high fever wouldn't go down and diagnosis of bladder reflux (which she eventually outgrew) and giving her meds for a few years. Then Laura who gave me such horrible headaches when I was pregnant, another c-section (scheduled...as if I'd go through the long labor again), acid reflux with her, and growth issues that lasted for months and months despite how well she ate. Not huge issues compared to other mom's out there, but hurdles for us nonetheless. So I'm truly grateful for my girls and them in my life and I just love this day that I get to be honored for being their mommy.

The three of us all dressed in purple today. Yes I planned it that way for pictures. The girls had everything planned for dinner.....Katelyn read green eggs and ham.

And then yes we ate green eggs....and ham, broccoli, corn, and toast. Dessert was hot fudge brownie sundaes.

And knowing our family, what special day wouldn't be complete unless there's missionaries around. Yes that is still Elder Anderson. For followers of my blog you'll note he helped us celebrate my birthday in September, we celebrated his in November, he and his comp. Elder Slade helped us decorate our Christmas tree in December, and now Elder Anderson was here to eat lunch with us on Mother's Day. He's part of the family....gotta have family on Mother's Day when possible. :) (this is his 4th comp Elder Lewis by the way)

The girls made photo frames in primary. Had to wrestle Laura's away from her, she thought because she made it that it was hers. I love them both. Katelyn's cracks me up. She has this little angelic pose going. If you know my kids you know looks are deceiving. LOL!

My gifts were nice. Laura got me this game so she and I could play games when Katelyn is at school and daddy is at work. Katelyn got me a new dish set.....and Corelle my favorite brand but she didn't know that, she just picked out the colors I liked and did great. (see the picture of the elders to see what the plates look like) Clark got me the 4th Fablehaven book.

One thing I loved was the card Katelyn made in school. Inside was a paper where the kids had to fill in the blank about their moms, I just have to share:

My Mom is Special

My Mom's name is: Kathryn (and yes she spelled it right!)

She is special because: She's the best for me.

I like it when my Mom: kisses me.

My Mom can do many things! I think she's best at: cooking cookies (my dad would agree on that)

My Mom has a pretty smile! I like to make her smile by: playing with her.

My Mom is as pretty as a: flower (now how sweet is that?!)

My Mom is smart! She even knows: her mom (I must be a genius by now, I've known mine for nearly 37 years! ;) haha!)

I'd like to tell my mom: stories.

On the back she wrote: "I love you because your always nice" and "I love when you hug me"

They also made a special placemat that was laminated for us. The part for the plate has this written in the center: "Dear mom, I love you because your nice and sweet and beautiful and your always happy and Happy Mothers day. Love Katelyn"

I love my girls and my husband and I'm so grateful to them for making my Mother's Day so special!

Disneyland

2009-05-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

At the end of April, our friends, the Hamlets, came down from WA state for a Disneyland trip. For Clark this is a time to see his best friend who lives so far away. So we decided to splurge and got the southern CA resident passports so we can go back all year round. Here are a few of my favorite pictures and moments from the week of my girls.

Laura was in such awe to be there the first day. This picture on It's a Small World says it all with her expression. I'm glad I caught this in picture.

One of her biggest moments, besides the picture with Mickey Mouse that she HAD to have, was that she was tall enough for 1 "big girl ride".....the Matterhorn. Now she's hooked. We just took them to Disneyland on Friday night for a few hours and we had to ride it twice.
Katelyn loves Star Wars like her daddy. We took the girls to the Star Wars show and she was chosen at the Jedi training camp. Despite her having issues figuring out how to work the light saber we are proud to say that she was one of the half the group of kids that fought Darth Maul and won.....so we are the proud parents of a Padawan. Goooo Katelyn!

She also got to meet her favorite princess....Princess Aurora. She was on cloud 9 over that. And the best part was that Katelyn was in pink that day too which made Princess Aurora happy. :)

It was truly a fun week and we are looking forward to many more family memories made at the most magical place on earth....or is that happiest place on earth...either way it fits.

My talk

2009-04-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

Okay it could be a bit better but I really struggle with nerves before giving a talk and then the writing suffers. There's some spelling errors and words left out here and there but I knew what needed to be said. But here's my talk. And in case anyone is wondering....I did manage to slow it down enough to give a 15 minute talk.

Service

(holding up program) I’ve to say that I was a bit surprised to see my name on the program today. On April 1st, I left the kids home with my husband & made a run to the grocery store. Upon my return, he informed me that we were asked to speak in a few weeks. I thought it was a joke. A few minutes later the phone rang & I heard him tell the person that yes we’d speak and I thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke. I still thought he was joking-----and I have nothing prepared. (wait for laughter and look on bishopric’s face) Okay not really, but see that’s what happens when you call and assign me a talk on April Fool’s Day. J

Now I feel I should warn everyone that I really don’t like to give talks. Teaching a class I’m fine with but I really struggle with speaking in Sacrament meeting. It freaks me out to the point that I’ll put off til the last second as if it’ll just go away. Of course it doesn’t and then I stress out over it. This time I was determined not to that and started gathering and reading info from various sources to help me. And I had to laugh when I was reading the Oct. 2008 Conference talk by Sister Barbara Thompson. She shares a story about Eliza R. Snow’s niece. Eliza’s niece was called to speak in front of a group. When her niece arose, she was unable to say anything because fear overcame her. She finally just sat down. Eliza kindly and gently advised her “Never mind, but when you are asked to speak again try and have something to say.” Obviously I have prepared something. However, I’m warning my husband yet again that I’ve been known to get so nervous at the podium that I have given a 20 minute talk in 5 minutes. So I hope he’s prepared an extra long talk today. J

The topic we were asked to speak on is Service. We were asked to read 2 conference talks from the October General Conference to help us prepare. As I read them and studied them, my mind kept being drawn back to a day in January and the conversation I had with our 7 yr old daughter, Katelyn that evening. A little background info: My brother and his wife live in Long Beach. Due to past family issues he and I are not close but we have both moved on from the things that caused us to not be close and can get along at family functions. His wife, on the other hand, can’t get past these things even though she was not part of the family at the time. So she makes family gatherings really hard on me with her attitude towards me. At first I tried to ignore it but in recent years, my heart was hardening towards her in a big way. So much so that I finally took it to Heavenly Father in prayer and asked what I could do to change my feelings since I know I can’t change hers. The answer came very clear “Serve her!” Okay, I got that…but how? Then it dawned on me…….they had just had their second baby just a couple weeks before. Her daughters’ births were similar to mine……first baby, emergency c-section; second baby elected to have a repeat c-section. And just like when I had my second baby and my husband was back to work sooner than he was with the first one, my brother was back at work again……leaving her home still healing from a c-section while dealing with a newborn and an older child (in her case one not quite 2 yet). I remembered with fondness the kind sisters who brought meals to our home the first week after I was home from the hospital. What a blessing not to worry about dinners that week. So I knew then that was the perfect way to serve my sister-in-law. I planned on my making my favorite chicken enchilada recipe….one that no matter how hard I try, I always make too much. I put the extras in a disposable pan, grabbed some microwavable rice, made up a salad, took Katelyn with me for company, and headed into Long Beach. On the way Katelyn was filled with questions, “Aunt Jaimee doesn’t like you, why are we doing this?” I asked her if she’d ever heard of the word “service” and she said yes but didn’t know what it meant. I explained to her that service is when we help others in some way and yes we sometimes serve those who don’t like us. When we arrived at the house, I felt prompted on what to say and what to do……Jaimee opened the door with new babe in arms and though I really wanted to just snatch that baby out of her arms, I put the food on a side table and let her know that I understood how hard it is in the first weeks and month after having a second baby via c-section and that I was blessed to have had church members bringing meals into me (my brother and his wife are atheist) and that I wanted to do something to help out but with 2 active children of my own, I felt it best just to bring a meal by so for one night they didn’t have to worry about making dinner. I told her congrats on the baby and good-night and Katelyn and I left. As we drove away, Katelyn said “Mommy you are happier than when you usually see aunt Jaimee.” The reason was I could feel the spirit strongly that I had done the right thing and I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders that night. We drove on and Katelyn says “So serving others makes us more spiritual?” which took me by surprise….this isn’t the type of questions she normally asks. I answered her as best I could for her to understand. I told her that service can change people. It brings out the best in us, it helps us look outward to others instead of in at ourselves and it helps us to put others needs ahead of our own. A few minutes more and she asked “How does it make us more spiritual?” I think I was a bit relieved when we pulled into the driveway and she got distracted by running in the house and getting ready for bed like I’d asked her to do.

So as I’m reading sources for my talk the question of “How does service increase our spirituality?” kept running through my mind. It was then that I stumbled across a talk from the May 1990 Ensign by Elder Derek A. Cuthbert. The title of the talk “The Spirituality of Service” and in it he discusses 10 aspects of service. I really learned a lot from it and I’d like to share them with you today.

1st----Service helps us establish true values & priorities by distinguishing between the worth of material things that pass and those things of lasting, even eternal value.
Pres. Ezra Taft Benson said “If you would find yourself, learn to deny yourself for the blessing of others. Forget yourself & find someone who needs your service and you will discover the secret to the happy, fulfilled life.”

2nd----Service helps us establish a righteous tradition.
For those of us with children, we can provide service opportunities for them from an early age much like I did when I took Katelyn along when we dropped off food for my sister-in-law. By establishing the tradition of service it will blossom into community service and Church service. In a world where we often hear people ask “What’s in it for me?”, teaching our children about service will develop a spirit of volunteerism.

3rd----Service helps us overcome selfishness and sin.
When you think about it, all sin is selfish. Whether it be lying, cheating, immorality, covetousness, idleness, it is for one’s own ends, not another’s and certainly not for the Lord’s. Service, on the other hand, is unselfish and constitutes a positive power for good.

4th----Not only does service overcome selfishness and sin, but it helps to recompense for sin.
The prophet Ezekial explained this when he declared “None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.” (Eze. 33:16)
Later James taught that to “save a soul….shall hide a multitude of sins.” (James 5:20)
We can express regret and feel remorse for things done wrong, but full repentance should include recompense, such as service gives.

5th-----Service helps us generate love and appreciation.
We come to know others when we serve them---their circumstances, their challenges, their hopes and aspirations.
One of my favorite stories from my mission to the Buenos Aires Argentina West Mission illustrates this so well. As missionaries whether you serve in area for a couple months or long as Elder Anderson’s been here with us, you really come to know love the members. You come to know about them as well. In my 3rd area such was the case of the branch president and his family and myself. I knew them well enough to know that Pres. Brea was not acting his normal self at lunch one afternoon. He left home kind of moody saying he needed to take care of things at the ward building. Odd for the middle of the week. After he left, his sweet wife said she was worried about him but didn’t know what was wrong. My companion and I prayed with her and then we needed to be on our way. We were headed to our next appt. and my companion says “let’s go this way instead.” A path that would take us a few blocks out of our way but would end up with running into Pres. Brea. He was standing in front of a store display of scientific calculators and looking really depressed. We stopped him and we knew he hadn’t been to the church. We felt prompted to just come out and ask what was bothering him. He said he was supportive of his wife going back to school to get finish her teaching degree but she was taking a math class and needed a scientific calculator and though they didn’t look too pricey, it was still not in their budget to buy one and so she’d have to drop the class. And with her birthday coming up, he didn’t want to have her do that so that’s why he was so sad and down lately. What still amazes me to this day (and yet shouldn’t), is that for some reason as I was packing my suitcases to head to the MTC I grabbed my scientific calculator that I had only bought a year before and tossed it in “just in case”. I told him that I had one and I could give it him and he could in turn give it to her as a gift. After all, I didn’t need it and my parents bought me that one and could easily buy be another if I needed one again. He wanted to say yes, really did but didn’t want to have it be a handout. He offered me money for it which I wasn’t comfortable doing but he was persistent. But I told my companion I had the perfect idea……Hna. Brea’s birthday was a couple of days away. We arranged with her mother-in-law (who lived with them) to help us in our plans. We arrived an hour before they arrived home from school and work and grandma went with us and the young children to a little store for some decorations, a couple of gifts from the kids and ingredients to make a cake. Then we went back to the house. Grandma made the cake while we decorated and helped the kids wrap the gifts and make some cards. Hna. Brea was surprised when she came home. Pres. Brea was too but as we were leaving he said “you used the money I gave you, thank you.” It was the only right thing to do in my mind and heart and I knew this because I’d already gotten to know them through just serving in their ward and being in their home for meals. I also learned at this time never to underestimate how much children soak in…..their oldest, an 7 yr old boy, knew that I really wanted a HLJ ring (Spanish CTR). He had put two and two together the night of the party for his mom when she rec’d the calculator. A few days later at church, Hernan whispered in my ear, “Hna. Drew I know about the calculator and the money. You did it because you love us. I know you want one of these.” And he slipped off his ring (the one they get in primary) and placed it in my hand and said “This is because I love you.” I still have that ring.

6th----Service is the principal way of showing gratitude to the Savior.
We need to fill ourselves gratitude for His redeeming love, His infinite atoning sacrifice, His obedience to the will of the Father. As we become full of gratitude, it overflows into service.

7th----Service channels our desires and energies into righteous activity.
Elder Cuthbert says, “Every child of God is a storehouse—even a powerhouse---of desires and energies, which may be used for good or evil. This great potential needs to be harnessed to bring blessings to others.”

8th----Service helps us cleanse ourselves and become purified and sanctified.
Not being perfect, we are all sinners. We all need the redeeming and atoning blood of Christ to purge us of our sins. How is this accomplished? The way is through Christlike service.

9th----Charitable service helps us do as the Savior did.
Christ’s whole ministry was one of reaching out and helping, lifting, blessing, loving and caring for others.
In Luke 22:27, Jesus declares “I am among you as he that serveth.”
In D & C 100:16 we read, “For I will raise up unto myself a pure people, that will serve me in righteousness.”
Just as Christ served others, so should we.

10th----Service helps us to get to know the Savior.
Mosiah 5:13 states “how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served?”
As we immerse ourselves in the service of others, we find our spiritual selves and come unto Him.

In all of these ways, service brings us nearer to Christ, increases our spirituality and brings others likewise. And the wonderful thing about service is that there is no end to it. Pres. Ezra Taft Benson said “Therefore, let us serve one another with brotherly love, never tiring of the demands upon us, being patient and persevering and generous.” We are the hands of the Savior on this earth today. I pray that we can seek for opportunities to serve others and in so doing bless the lives of others. These things I say in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Let's Bowl!!!!!

2009-04-23T17:12:00.001-07:00

Last week we took the girls bowling for the first time. They really had a lot of fun. Not sure I did the first round but we'll get to that soon enough.

Here is Clark helping Laura to roll her ball. She tried the squat position first.

Here is giving Katelyn tips on how to bowl.

She had a lot of fun. When the ball would hit the pins she'd do these little "oh yeah" dances.

Laura had fun....when it was her turn. She pouted when it wasn't.

And she pouted some more.

And wait...is that a smile....nope, she's still pouting.

Caught Katelyn doing one of her dances. This was after her first strike. Yes I said strike. She got a few of those during our rounds of bowling. Actually so did Laura and Clark. Mommy? Well stay tuned.

I think I'm going to have to try Katelyn's technique next time I bowl. Oh wait. Maybe not, I don't think I'd be able to. She did this with each turn. She was bent over so much that you could see her head between her legs and her look of total concentration before each bowl...ummm, roll of the ball.

I think I could handle Laura's technique though. She found that she could roll the ball better if she sat down, placed the ball between her legs and rolled with all her might.

So how did the girls do for their first time bowling? Well here are the averages for our first round:

Daddy....117

Katelyn.....97

Laura.....86

Mommy.....78

Yeah, yeah I can hear you all laughing now. I know what you are thinking......this mama is so horrible at bowling that she can't even get a higher score than her 3 yr old and using bumpers. Well it's true.......I have fun bowling when I go but I am horrible at it.

I did redeam myself the second round though.

Daddy.....128

Laura....73

Katelyn....67

Mommy....94

The girls loved it and are begging to go again soon. Maybe next time I'll get an average over 100 with bumpers......or maybe not. hahaha!

A Busy Month

2009-04-20T13:16:00.001-07:00

We've had a busy month and once again I've slacked on my blog posts. So here are pics of some of the things we have been doing this past month. Enjoy!

Laura had her first hair cut. Okay so maybe it wasn't quite a hair cut. She hopped into the chair and proudly told the stylist "Just a twim pwease! No short cuts!" Yes she was fine with sitting there as long as we promised she would NOT end up with short hair.

One day I left to run a couple of errands. Clark was taking a shower when I got back and the girls were all in a tizzy. They couldn't find Cookie. They thought he was lost. The girls were close to tears. I went into the kitchen for a glass of water and found him here. How appropriate. Cookie in a cookie box hiding. Gotta love it.

End of March and beginning of April is birthday mania here. Here the girls are helping papa John celebrate his birthday on March 30th. Below is Laura at her cousin M's 2nd birthday. It always makes me laugh these days that the girls are 17 months apart and they are about the same size. Other birthdays that I forgot to take pics at......grandma Sunny and papa Rick both celebrated their birthdays on April 6th.

Katelyn has had a great teacher this year. Katelyn was thrilled to be able to pick out gifts for the baby shower for Mrs. Good. Sadly after maternity leave, she won't be back to teaching. The baby will be born with a severe case of spina bifida. As she prepares to have her baby soon, please keep her, the baby and her family in your prayers, I know they will appreciate it.

We celebrated Easter. We colored eggs....which we later used for deviled eggs. We had egg hunts at papa Rick's and our own house. (using plastic eggs for that) And we got the girls new dresses and got them all pretty for church.

There was more thing we did. But that story will be shared separately. I'll blog again tomorrow with that so stay tuned.......

Adventures in parenting

2009-03-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

Kids are hilarious! I'd like to be in their heads for a few minutes each day to see why and how they think of the things they do........

The girls were playing loudly and I asked them to play in their rooms if they weren't going to play outside. A few minutes later Laura comes out tell me they are mad. She goes back in the room and comes out again. This time she says they are running away. Keyword: they. Never once did she say "I am". It was all "we". I think a big sister was feeding her stuff to say. haha! Then she comes out saying "We are running away because you put us in time out!" Hmmmm...interesting....I never put them in time out today. So while trying to keep from laughing, I said "fine pack a bag and go then...just run away." And she did! And I got video of it. Typical mommy in 2009...gotta get the digital camera out first.

http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s265/tessalu2/?action=view¤t=100_2510.flv

After that I told her to go play with Katelyn til daddy came home. She could run away then. I was thinking I'd follow her (with the camera of course) and see how far she'd go. Instead she went into the room and became repentent. About 5 minutes later she came out all puppy dog eyed and with a sad voice and a hug said "Mommy we're sorry we hurt your feelings. We're not runnying away."

Darn it! It would have made for some good pictures and video if she had! ;)

Lady Bug, Lady Bug

2009-03-26T10:45:00.001-07:00

Lady Bug, Lady Bug

This is Katelyn's lady bug project for Girl Scouts.

She placed the larva into the habitat and waited for the lady bugs to come out.

When they became lady bugs, we watched them for a week and then released them in the backyard. Little buggers didn't want to come out. Took like 10 minutes to get them to go.

Fly Away Home.

Totally 80s!

2009-02-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

You know.....

You get where I'm going now....

So tonight, driving home from my sister-in-law's house we turn on the radio. Some local station is taking all 80s requests. Clark and I have the radio blaring, rocking out to all our faves from when we were teen-agers. I turn to him and say "Now I know why my dad always got excited when his 60s music came on the radio." And before he could say a word from the back seat, Laura.....you know...our verbal 3 yr old...and too smart for OUR own good child shouts:

"Sissy...they are listening to 80s music! Mommy and daddy are OLD! hahahahahahaha!"

Okay I admit we laughed at that too. I mean, what parent wouldn't laugh when their tot who knows nothing but Wiggles songs and Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam totally mocks them for listening to songs from 20 some odd years ago?! But I also admit that it made me feel a wee bit old after that.

So tonight I dedicate this post to all my

music loving friends and family

Long live the 80s!!!!!!

Decisions, Decisions

2009-02-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

Life is all about making decisions.....what to eat, what to wear....what choice of medical treatment to take. Yeah you can see where this entry is going today.

Most family and friends don't know that I've dealt with crazy menstrual cycles since I first started them as a 10 yr old girl. Painful, long, heavy. I went through a time frame where they made me throw up. I also went through a time where the pain was so bad I could barely move for a day or two. And let's not forget the major hormonal imbalances that went untreated for years. Hormonal imbalances that caused major rage a week or two prior to each cycle.

As an adult, I get told if I just lost weight. Until recently doctors tell me that's the only reason......totally blowing me off that I've had these problems since I was younger and thinner. Yes the issues now might go away if I lost weight but don't tell me that's the only reason and refuse to treat me. So I finally have found some doctors that are looking at the whole picture.....that it's not "just the weight"....and are willing to treat me. This has its ups and downs as well. Here's why:

See currently I'm having periods where I'll start and bleed heavily for 4-6 weeks at a time. I may get 2 weeks off and then boom I'm on it again. And I'm having to wear a hospital sized pad (you know the onese they give you after you have a baby) to prevent leakage and I still have to be prepared with changes of clothes or a towel or blanket to sit on just in case. Yeah not fun, not fun at all.

So I'm fed up with this. I'm 36, going on 37 and have dealt with period issues since I was 10. I'm so through! I have 2 beautiful girls and I knew as soon as my second baby was placed in my arms at birth that our family was complete. Just wish my husband knew this too but he's realizing that in this case, it's my body and he really has no say in all this.......well til today.

Today I had a doctor appt. I needed to get test results from a vaginal ultrasound they did back in December. (yeah I procrastinate at times) All that showed that everything was fine and no fibroids or anything like that. No surprise there. I've been through that before. So next step discuss treatment.

Doctor wants to put me on birth control or an IUD. Birth control pills just make me gain weight and because I have had high blood pressure issues in the past they don't want to go that route. Neither do I. Another side effect for me is migraines and vomiting from even a low dosage. Like worse than my 9 months of all day sickness when I was pregnant. So they are pushing the IUD instead. Well I've done my homework on that. Nope, doesn't thrill me for quite a few reasons.

Another option is an endometrial ablation. I'm really pushing for that one. However, other doctors haven't been clear on why they won't even discuss it til the doctor I saw today (one good thing about having Kaiser Permanente is you can keep trying doctors til you find the one you like). She told me that though the chances of getting pregnant are slim after having the e.a., that it can happen and there are greater risks if you do get pregnant. So one needs to be using some form of birth control. Since pills are out of the question and I'm not keen on the IUD, that means either I need my tubes tied or Clark needs the big V-----vasectomy. Hmmmm.....wish I had known before I gave birth that our family was complete...I'd have had the doctor tie my tubes before they stitched me up after the c-section. So now I have to discuss all this with Clark. Should be interesting. LOL!

Let's see.....the ob/gyn also wants me to see my primary care doctor to discuss weight management and a gastric bypass. Says Kaiser covers it. I'm not to sure about doing that procedure. I mean my weight didn't come on over night. I know I'm not perfect in how I eat and I may never cook as healthy as some of my friends out there. But we try our best to provide decently balanced diet for our family. Portion control isn't too bad unless we eat out. So that isn't a huge issue. For me, it's sweets (I've got a huge sweet tooth, esp when it comes to chocolate), pepsi, and lack of exercise. I am doing better in the exercise dept, I have been walking Katelyn to school 3-5 days a week since September. I know I've lost some weight....was down 1 pant size last time I needed new ones. I do feel more energy and I don't get tired less than half-way down the street like I did the first few weeks. Well hot days are hard on me but I have never done well in the heat...not even as a young child. I combat that by bringing bottled water with me and I'm fine. My next step is drinking less pepsi. I'm going to get a jar. For every day that I crave a pepsi and DON'T go out and buy a 2 liter, I'll put the cost of it in the jar. That's about $2. When the jar is full I'll deposit it into our account and save it for something special. Not sure what yet. I think that will help me. I've never tried cutting back that way. Luckily I love water so drinking more won't be an issue. Sweet tooth....okay that'll be hard. I don't want to never say never. Maybe if I do the money thing there as well and only indulge for birthdays, holidays, special occasions then I'll be fine and it'll make it that much sweeter when I do wait. More exercise.....well if we can get the heavy bleeding stopped I can get back to water aerobics. I was losing weight that way and loving it too.

But I think I'll still discuss it all with the primary care doctor anyhow.

Oh yeah, the ob/gyn also wants to a endometrial biopsy. Last few times they've been unable to do one because of the pain involved for me when they try. And yes, that's even with taking motrin or advil before the appt. So this doctor is going one step further....she is having me take 3 motrin and 1 valium before the biopsy. I'll need Clark to drive me to and from that appt. People I got really high when they removed my wisdom teeth. I get loopy with drugs to numb me for my c-sections. I'll make sure Clark gets some pictures or video clips for your viewing pleasure when I take the valium for that appt. LOL!

And last but not least....I have blood work that needs doing. It's the time of year that I test for diabetes. I've tested annually since having Katelyn and my first round of gestational diabetes. So that's nothing new. Since I have to do that, the ob/gyn is having blood work ordered to check all my cholesterol levels and also my thyroid levels as well. I'll go ahead and do all that tomorrow and get it out of the way.

So that is all that is happening with me.

Tuesday Tidbits.....

2009-02-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

It so sucks to have only 1 car for 2 drivers these days. Esp when one driver either isn't paying attention to when it's raining or just plain thinks that walking a block and half to the elementary school with a 3 yr old in tow is fun to do in the rain. Afterall, what's a little rain, right? Wrong!

I get the kids all bundled up. I get myself all bundled up. Get said 3 yr old in the stroller so she doesn't get too wet. Or so I hoped. Apparently the gutters and sidewalks in our area aren't too good with drainage. Some spots have ankle deep water. And then one house had a truck parked in the drivway blocking most of the sidewalk. I had no choice but to go around and into calf deep water. Oh yeah and there was a small opening for Katelyn to go through but she had her back pack on. I was getting ready to tell her to take the back pack off and toss it to me and then squeeze through the truck and motor home but she decided to run to fast through the calf deep water. Ugh! Oh well, she'll have to stay that way at school til it dries. It was like 4 houses from the school and I wasn't taking her all the way home to change.

Then we had to cross "the lake"! Okay so it's not really a lake. It's really a 4-way stop sign with cross-walks. But the cross-walks get totally flooded. I had Katelyn jump from curb to street where there was no lake. But I had to push the stroller through the lake. Yeah.....more calf deep water. Joy! Finally arrive at the school. Thank heavens for Charles. Charles is a grandparent who takes it upon himself to help direct traffic at the exit end of the parking lot each morning. He stops exiting cars when needed to let walkers cross safely. Well there is a street with corners but technically you can't cross there to get to the school because it's a driveway on the school side. But in the morning and 20 minutes before school lets out, it's not as busy so many parents (including myself in the afternoon) will cross there). In the morning I use the cross walk, easier with kids in tow. Well Charles saw how wet Laura and I were and knew that the cross-walk gets flooded and he says "Here, let me help." He stopped the cars so I could rush across the street where it's not flooded.

So I made it home without having too many flood spots. But still pretty wet. It wasn't pouring rain, but steady fall nonetheless. Get Laura and I in the houses. She suddenly screams. I turn her towards me thinking her jacket is choking her or something. Just as I have her facing me, she pukes all over me! Awww....the joys of parenting!

So now my little miss is sitting in one of the living room chairs with her favorite blanket and a bucket to catch the puke. She's looking rather sad. Just take a look for yourself. Love the fists....I think she's a little mad at daddy too for making us walk that block and a half in the rain. Looks like she wants to punch his lights out. LOL!

Cookie Sale Update and a Vent

2009-02-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

Warning: This could get long. LOL! But hey it's my blog and if I want to vent here once in a while I can. So there! :P~~~~

First off Girl Scout cookie pre-sale update: Somehow we managed to sell 160 boxes! I'm truly shocked. We had a little here, a little there. No 50 people ordering like stories I've heard from friends whose husbands take theirs into work. But a little here, a little there added up to 160 boxes for us. Not bad for a first time seller who can't go door-to-door or sell in front of stores because she's only a Daisy. She's the #3 seller for her troop. The #2 seller sold 168 boxes. The #1 seller......well I'm shocked on this one. She hasn't been to meetings since October. Troop leaders haven't even been able to get through to the mom. And the mom makes sure she's there and says they want to help with pre-sales orders. But they only had 3 days to do it. And yet they managed to get 500 boxes sold. I want to know how the mom pulled that one off. Amazing!

And now my vent: Relatives! Siblings and their spouses to be exact! Okay I know not everyone has siblings and in-laws that annoy them. But me...I'm blessed with them it seems. Based on the past, I know that my brother and I will never be close. But he's always saying how he wants our kids to grow up knowing each other and yadda, yadda, yadda. We live like 5-10 minutes away from each other and we NEVER see them and rarely get a phone call. Yeah I could call them but I gave up on that a long time ago after I was yelled for even calling. It was a few years ago and I totally stopped talking or being at my parent's house at the same time for a couple years because of it. But we've mended fences over it.

What I draw the line on is when my kids' emotions are involved. I know my sister-in-law does not like me. I'm told it is because of the issues between my brother and I as children. Well guess what?! I'm not that same person! Oh I may get a angry once in a while, I'm an emotion person. But it's nothing like when I was an unstable child/teen ager. And my sister-in-law wasn't even part of the family back then so why in heavan's name does she hold that against me?! A family member told me once that sil doesn't trust me with her kids. Well interesting is that I'm not the one who pushed her child. Nope. She pushed mine when in her little thwarted mind she thought my toddler was going to attack her then 6 month old. Laura even said "Hug" and leaned over to hug her cousion and sil got up off the couch, jumping over her husband and shoved Laura out of the way to "save" her baby. I noticed Laura was falling backward...right into a table. So I had to catch her. She was upset and crying for a while. Another time the two cousins were playing perfectly fine side-by-side. Sil sits down in front of them, grabs a toy out of Laura's hand, gives it to her daughter, then tells Laura "Now, you need to share" when Laura grabbed the toy back. Well hello! What do you expect a toddler to do when you (the adult here) grabs a toy out of their hand that they were playing with first and hands it to another child. I wanted to say much more that day but instead I said "they were playing just fine til you sat down" and then I walked out of the room.

And I do have a 7 yr. old. She might be kind of a slow thinker, a slow learner. But Katelyn is NOT stupid. She sees things, she senses things. Often after a family gathering she'll say "Mommy why does aunt J ignore you?" or "Mommy why does aunt J give you mean looks?" She can sense that sil does not like me. I try and shield her from these things. She doesn't need to know the details right now. One day I'll tell her why uncle R and I aren't close. But not when she's 7. One day I'll tell her why aunt J doesn't like me. But not when she's 7. She's just too young. But when it concerns her I try and to be honest. Like when she wants certain family invited over for cake and ice cream on her birthday. She's a child, she loves all family unconditionally. She wants all the family who can come to be there. When she asks if she can invite aunt J, uncle R and cousin M....I have two options: one is telling her sure but they might not come and then have her ask why; the other is just sending the invite and have them totally ignore it and have her ask why they didn't come when they were sent the invite and if they couldn't come why they couldn't just call and wish her a happy birthday. And this has gone on for ages 5-7 now.

I try not to let the things toward me bother me. But when my child is hurt in the process then the mother bear in me comes out. This is one of those times. See when we started the cookie pre-sales and I was thinking of people we could sell to, I asked Katelyn for ideas. She said "uncle R and aunt J." Okay not a problem. So it was made known to R that we were selling and he called and said he'd be ordering. Because it concerned Katelyn, it was her cookie pre-sale, I let her know he said they'd order. Well 2 weeks has come and gone, the pre-sales were turned in, and guess what.....NO ORDER. When we had first talked it was because he was calling to thank me for a meal I brought over. Due to health of the kids and the stomach flu right around the time they had their second baby, I couldn't get over sooner. But I know from having had 2 c-sections of my own that the first couple of months after having the 2nd baby that any help is wonderful. So I made a dinner and brought it over, handed it to my sil with instructions and left. Nothing more, nothing less. (a side vent here.....R actually called my mom wanting to know why I did it, if there were strings attached...what is up with that?! I don't play games and it hurts me more than angers me that he would even think there were strings attached with it) So he calls and thanks me and says they'd love to order cookies but that the kids were sick. I said that was fine that I could e-mail mom and have her send the info about cookies and he could get back to me, via mom (since they don't want me knowing their info for some reason) with their order. So I did just that. And guess what........NOTHING!

And now I'm having to deal with answering my 7 yr old when she says "Why didn't uncle R and aunt J ever order cookies mommy?" All I can say is "sweetie I really don't know." But inside I am screaming..........

"Because they DON'T care! Because when it comes to our family they don't care who they hurt! Because I am your mother and they hate me and you get hurt indirectly because of this!"

I could go on and on. I'm tired of this crap, I really am. I try to just sit back and enjoy a visit when we all get together at mom and dad's house at the same time. But it's getting harder and harder to do so now that my kids are getting older. I'm tired of having to pretend that I'm not hurt by their actions towards me and my kids.

So if they happen to be reading this..........First, be an adult J! I've done NOTHING to you! I've tried being nice to you, to make you feel part of the family. I'm tired of getting cold stares, rudeness, etc from you. I'm tired of you treating my kids like the plague since you've had your own. I'm tired of you treating my parents like crap because they choose to place me (their oldest daughter) first over you. I'm tired of you making your family late when it comes to going to spend time with our parents and then excuses for leaving early each time. I'm tired of you inviting your friends over when it is family time, not friend time. You see A and her husband enough on your own time....don't bring them over on my parent's time, our FAMILY time! I'm tired of both you and R saying "oh we should get together so the kids can play" with Katelyn in ear shot. And then having to explain to her why you'll never come, never follow through. I'm tired of all your games. I'm through with the both of you. If I never see you again, that would be awesome because then my children will never have to be hurt by the two of you. It's one thing for me to be hurt over and over by the both of you. But you have crossed the line one last time with me when it comes to my children.

To all the rest of you.........sorry for the vent but it's been a long time coming.

My little Daisy

2009-01-31T10:20:00.000-08:00

There's a reason I never worked in retail. There's a reason I left Scandia years ago when they started having me work snack bar/cashier once in a while. I hate trying to get people to buy things! Even if they are willingly doing it. I just don't like to say "Hey buy this product please!" or "Would you like to buy this? It's a really great thing!" Just not something I'm good at.

And then.......I have a 7 yr old first grader named Katelyn who decided she wanted to be a Girl Scout! I was cool with that. Afterall, Daisies don't sell cookies yet.

Wrong! The Girl Scouts decided to have Daisies help sell cookies this year. Ack! Thoughts of selling door-to-door and at stores filled my mind with dread.

Luckily.....since they are so young, those two things are not allowed. Whew! Saved! But wait....

The district asks that each girl sets a goal of 200 boxes to sell. So our troop leaders asked us to try and make that at least. What?! Are you serious?! The bulk of sales comes from the two methods we can't do and we still have to try and reach this goal! "Oh but you and I are LDS, we can pass around a sign up sheet in Relief Society." Maybe in her ward. I called another mom, a mom who is a Brownie troop leader and has 3 girls in the ward in her troop, and she said she's talked to our bishop and he says nope. We can however pass out fliers after church and/or place them on the cars (she'll have her husband do this as he's not a member and can come before he picks them up and do that). But with 4 girls in one small ward selling I know we won't get many sales this way..if any.

Oh we've gotten sales here and there...close family and friends, a neighbor here, a neighbor there. Three staff members at Katelyn's school ordered. Clark took the order form to work and got 4 orders. My dad took an order form to work and has at least 5 orders. (and not just a box per person either for these orders) I took the form to Laura's Fun Friday class and got 3 orders. One of those from a dad who swore up and down he would not buy. Apparently his sister sold for years and they always bought too many. But then...."oh alright, I'll buy some thin mints. and I better call my wife and ask what she wants." The teacher and I were laughing at his weakness. I still have a few more families committed to buying. Got an appt set up on Sunday to see the family of a classmate of Katelyn. All this extended family (one aunt and uncle being active LDS and in our ward, some inactive, some not members) all love Girl Scout cookies and they said when she joined G.S. to make sure we let them know when it's time to buy cookies. So I did.

So slowly orders are trickling in for pre-orders. Then there's still another whole month to sell after. I doubt we'll get anything after pre-orders. I doubt we'll even get close to the 200 box goal. We have sold about 49 boxes so far. 40 boxes is 20% of the goal. So we've reached that. Yeah! 80 boxes will be 40% of the goal. I think we'll be able to make that and I'll be happy. Afterall, it's mostly me selling them. When I do bring Katelyn she gets all shy and can't seem to ask what she needs to ask. So it's been me, my dad, and Clark making all the sales. Given the limitations of how we can sell for Daisies and not knowing too many people to sell to, I think we're doing pretty darn good. I'll be thrilled if we reach our own 40%/80box goal! Anything else will just be icing on the cake.....or ummm cookies in this case....for us.

Though I am happy about our selling......I still hate being a salesperson! With passion! This is the only thing I hate about Girl Scouts.

But I sure to love my little Daisy...........

I love this kid!

2009-01-30T23:12:00.000-08:00

Not that I don't love Katelyn.....but it's a whole new ball game with Laura and how verbal she is at 3 compared to how Katelyn was. But she just cracks me up. Tonight we let the girls stay up late and watch Annie. Now at one time, Katelyn was afraid of this movie. It all started with the "Little Girls" song Miss Hannigan sings. It scared her because she is a little girl. Now she's 7 and "not scared of it anymore."

So anyhow, they are watching the movie and that song comes on. I start singing it just to annoy them. Laura turns around in complete shock and loudly proclaims:

"You can't hate little girls! You're a mommy!"

Of course I can't hate them.....not when they are this darn cute! ;)

Socks

2009-01-15T19:31:00.000-08:00

One of the major holidays is coming up. And that means......socks! "Socks?!" you ask. "Why socks?" You see I have ugly feet. Feet that only my husband and kids see. Oh and my parents when I swim at their house. But I don't let very many other people see my feet. No photos of cute pedicures for this woman....I won't even let the pedi people see these feet. But for big holidays....you know, any of the holidays where you can find cards, candy, decorations, etc in every single store for......I can always find socks. Cute socks for that particular holiday.

Those that I've told this little secret of mine to (which is obviously not a secret any more), know that it started with Christmas socks. I've since branched out to Halloween socks too. And this year I have......Valentine's socks. They were too cute to pass up taking pictures of. So here are my cute socks covering up my ugly feet.

So now it's your turn..........anyone who reads my blog, just for fun go and get some cute socks, not so cute socks, a pedicure on your cute toes, and take a picture and blog about it. Anything goes as long as it is socks or pedicure related. I dare ya! :)

Christmas Photos

2008-12-31T13:27:00.001-08:00

Sorry I'm a bit behind in sharing some fun Christmas moments this year. But I've been enjoying having my husband home for 2 weeks and letting him deal with nutty, wired kids while I curl up with lots of good books that Santa brought. But here are a few photos past and present that I wanted to share before we head into the New Year.

Christmas 2005....Katelyn 4, Laura 1 month old
Christmas 2008...Katelyn 7, Laura 3....my how they've grown!

Christmas 2005....Laura is much smaller than the stuffed animals

Christmas 2008.....only 1 is bigger than her

Katelyn was once smaller than all of them too, not anymore

What's with the serious faces?!

Now this is more like it.....Laura bolting and Katelyn laughing cause I can't keep her little sister in one place very long for a picture. Gotta pay a professional to get these kids to pose for pictures these days. LOL!

I can't forget the cats......and yes they got even later.

This is Al

This is Cookie

He's plotting his revenge

We had a great Christmas with lots of fun gifts.....both given and received. Here are two that are my favorite. My father-in-law got these for the girls. Katelyn was 14 months old when my mother-in-law passed away. Rick took a picture we have of Katelyn as an infant (about 6 months old) with her grandma Colleen and had the image put on a blanket. It's gorgeous and she loves sleeping with it each night.

Laura didn't come along for another 4 years. But she is named after Colleen. Laura Colleen. So Rick used a photo of Colleen on their wedding day for Laura's blanket. Again, gorgeous. She's a little too young to get it yet and hasn't asked for the blanket each night. But I know as she gets older and learns more about her angel grandma that she'll ask to be tucked in with her grandma blanket as well. For now, we are keeping it in a safe spot so cats don't ruin it.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and we wish everyone a safe and healthy New Year.

Christmas Lights

2008-12-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm a bit behind in updating the blog. But I get busy around the house and with the girls right before Christmas so I didn't get around to it. I have so many pictures to share and should just do a video clip of them. However alot of them need some explaining so I'll just do a new blog per day with lots of fun pics. Be sure to check back daily til I'm done!

Today's entry are Christmas lights. Just about every year since my parents moved to Rancho Cucamonga, we've gone to see the city's street that has become popular for it's lights. It's now more "streets" than "street" now and it's best to walk it since the crowds are so crazy you crawl along like a snail in a vehicle. Plus you miss out on little fun stuff.....some homes have a stage set up for carolers or dancers, portable pianos and kids playing Christmas music, a house with a ramp built up for their two golden retrievers to walk up to stand for all to see them with reindeer antlers (doggy reindeer, LOL!), those mini horses with antlers, residents selling hot chocolate/hot apple cider/tamales/popcorn/homemade choc. chip cookies for $1-2. Plus you get a close up view of all the lights. Here's some of our family's favorites:

I loved the snowman family. Too cute!
Santa making his list and checking it twice.

Katelyn wanted a picture of the Grinch.

Santa's Workshop, this is a favorite of mine.

For the Disney fans......Jasmine and Aladin

Cinderella and Prince Charmin

Beauty and The Beast

Katelyn (who moved and made it blurry) in front of her favorite

Princess Aurora

Our 10th Anniversary!

2008-12-21T18:22:00.000-08:00

We've had such a busy weekend that I am finally blogging about how we spent our Friday night. And this was on the heals of a night out without kids when we met with the Elder's Quorum presidency for a dinner out with wives. (it ended up being us...Clark is secretary....and the EQ president and his wife and that's it)

Friday evening Clark and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. That's right...the big 10 years of marriage. We both kept saying that we couldn't believe it. Why? Well in some ways it still feels like we were just married yesterday. Ask us on a different night and we might have said it felt like much longer. But Friday night we felt like it was just yesterday. For those not in the know, here's a little recap of our meet-up, dating, and first 10 years.

We met in 1995 not long after I got home from my mission (Buenos Aires West Mission....the best one in the whole world). We met through a group of friends at Chaffey College Institute of Religion in Rancho Cucamonga. We hit it off so well and soon I was sending a "Dear John" letter to the elder I said I'd wait for. (I swear I never thought I'd be one of those! LOL!) We had a lot of things in common too.......like his best friend had also served his mission in Argentina and so had his dad (one of his comps was my first mission president, Pres. Richmond....and another comp of his was my 1st year Spanish teacher in high school....small world); my sister was born in the hospital just down the street from where he grew up; and one of the guys he grew up with in West Covina moved out to Rancho C. with his family and when we were like juniors in high school or something like that I can remember that Sean brought a bunch of his friends to church and introduced them all...I still remember that one of them was "going to be baptized today" and I remember the truck they all hopped into later. It was Clark's truck. I even remember Danny was there and I think Cory. But gosh I do not remember Clark at all. It totally wasn't the right time to meet.

So we dated for 3 years. Yeah it was no whirl wind romance for us. And even though he didn't fit my ideal marriage material (you know wanting Temple marriage and all), I knew he was the man I was to supposed to give my heart to and marry.

We married on Dec. 19, 1998 at the Hillside Ward Bldg in Rancho. Clark's dad, Rick, was a bishop at that time and so he performed the ceremony. I don't have a scanner or I'd share pics of our wedding day.

We haven't had an easy 10 years. We are so different that we tend to bicker and argue.... alot! We've also had lots of monetary set backs over the years. But we love each other enough to work things out.

Somewhere along the line we became parents to two beautiful girls (okay so I am a bit biased on that) and are owned by 3 crazy cats. Our life isn't as exciting as others but we have fun, we love each other, and we enjoy what we do have.

And this is how we celebrated our big 10th anniversay.....

My parents took the girls for the night (thanks mom and dad! you rock!). We had made reservations for The Melting Pot in Brea. For those who have never heard of this restuarant, it is a fondue theme. You have a 4 course meal and it is European style......everything except the salad is cooked on your table in fondue pots.

1st course: cheese fondue of choice...we chose the Wisconsin trio.....the waitress mixes it up for you and then brings out chunks of different breads, apple chunks and a veggie medley (carrot chunks, celery, cauliflower). I have never had apples and cheese before and the apples tasted great in the cheese fondue.

2nd course: salad and you have your choice of salad, this is the only course that you don't share; I had the basic house salad. It had a honey mustard vinagrette that was soooo good. This was brought out while we still munched on the 1st course but towards the end so we weren't rushed or anything. They really give you the chance to savor your meal at this place.

3rd course: main course.....we did one of the feature meals for two and it had a variety different cuts of steaks, filet mignon, chicken, shrimp, lobster and pasta along with more veggies. The fondue is a broth based one and it is hotter so the meats cook fast in it. The meats are small chunks so someone with a huge appetite might not want to splurge at this place. But over the course of the evening you do get fed well. The veggies are different from the 1st course veggies. For this one they served red potato chunks, mushrooms, broccoli and yellow squash. They also bring out a variety of dipping sauces as well and explain what each tastes good with. Hard to remember so we just tried it all. Everything was delicious!

4th course: dessert......you get your choice of chocolate fondue. We chose a milk chocolate with chunky peanut butter swirled in. They bring out a platter of lots of yummy dippers. Here's a picture----strawberries, bananas, oreo and graham cracker covered marshmellows, brownie bites, rice krispy treats, pound cake chunks, a slice of cheese cake (Clark let me have the cherry cause he knows I love them!). It was all so delicious!

I really can't decide which was my favorite part of the meal. It was all so good and the service was great. Our waitress was awesome. I even got a rose for the night. So here are some pics of the evening:

The yummy desserts!
Me, getting ready to eat a strawberry.

Clark and I....and my pretty rose.

This is why I married Clark...he's so hot, he's steamy!

And this is all we can show you of the rest of the evening. ;)

Happy Anniversary Clark my love! May the next 10 years be as wonderful as the first 10 years!

A Lesson In Honesty

2008-12-18T18:38:00.000-08:00

A couple of 7 year old girls got a lesson in honesty today. Here's the story:

This morning I needed a print out of something in Katelyn's school file. So I went into the office. While in there I realized that the Secret Santa Workshop was today for her class and NOT tomorrow like she told me. So I asked the secretary what time her class went. 9:45 a.m. I went home, got the envelope and filled it out, stuck $25 of cash into it and flew back down to the school. (I walk and I haven't walked this fast since my mission....and heck I'm not sure my comps would think I walked all that fast back then, LOL!) I gave it to the principal who happened to be manning the office at that moment.

When school was over, Katelyn had no gifts. I checked her back pack. Nothing. So I go to talk to her teacher. She says that the principal did call her room but the class was in the computer lab already and so the principal was going to have Katelyn paged to the office to get it. We asked Katelyn and she says "I didn't want to go alone. So I didn't go." Figures. So I head to the office to find out if the envelope is there.

No envelope there or in the teacher's box. The principal comes out and says "When she didn't come, I was going to take it myself. But a grandparent volunteer came in to help out there and I gave it to her to pass along." By this time the grandparent volunteer is not around. So the principal takes me to the library to talk to the librarian. Librarian was on the phone......we overheard the conversation. Another little girl had brought home gifts and mom had not sent in any money. So the other mom was making the little girl bring the gifts back. Librarian ends the call and talks to principal and I. They began digging through mounds of empty envelopes. They find Katelyn's.....bottom part ripped apart. I'm asked if I had cash or check in it.....cash $25. Librarian says "Do you have a Kayla in your class?" No but we discover both girls are 1st graders and both classes were in there at the same time. Librarian lets Katelyn shop since the other child is bringing items back. We head home, passing a sad little girl and her mom on the way.

Not 5 minutes after getting home, the door bell rings. I recognize the mom and little girl. They were the ones we saw coming in as we were leaving. We also pass them each morning as I head home. See they live like 4 houses from the school so wait for the first bell before leaving their home. We live down the street and around the corner so we leave our home a bit sooner. Plus we pick up another girl on the way. Anyhow, the mom has seen me around the neighborhood so knew where we lived when the librarian mentionned that "the mom and little girls leaving were the ones the money was taken from." So the mom brought the little to our home and asked for Katelyn.

An embarrassed and repentant looking Kayla quietly said "I'm sorry I took your money." Katelyn said "thank you." The mom explained to me what had transpired on her end. They had decided not to have their daughters do the workshop since they were done with all their shopping. However the grandparent volunteer handed the envelope to Kayla by mistake. Kayla told her mommy that she knows the name wasn't hers but saw there was money in it and that all her classmates were getting things and just had to buy things too. So she ripped open the envelope and took the money. Being only 7 years old, obviously she wasn't thinking that it would go unnoticed by mom.

This story could have had a different ending. It's very rare that you find honest people these days. Esp in my area. A lot of the parents would have just brushed it off as a loss on our part and let their child keep the stuff. But this mom taught her child a valuable lesson. A lesson in honesty. And in doing so also taught her that it is wrong to steal, taught her how to make ammends (returning the items), and how to apologize for our wrong doings. Big lessons for a child. And though my daughter did nothing wrong, I was able to teach her a lesson in all that by explaining and discussing the situation to Katelyn.

I felt really bad for the girl and knew it was not easy to come and apologize. I let her know that I know what she did was wrong but that I thought it was nice of her and very brave of her to come and apologize for it. I also thanked the other mom for instilling all these values in her daughter because the world needs more parents like that.

RAIN!!!!

2008-12-17T09:54:00.001-08:00

It's wet and raining here in southern California on this Wednesday in December.

The cats have taken over my couch. They think it's the warmest spot in the house it seems.

And Laura has decided that today is a jammie day. That's right...my 3 year old has decided that today is a great day to refuse to get dressed. She will let me change her pull up when needed but that's it. Today is a jammie day and there's no changing it. I don't give in to my kids' demands very often.....but jammie day I can live with. Esp when the jammies are this cute. :)

Making Memories

2008-12-01T10:25:00.001-08:00

Having kids is all about making memories. From the moment of birth we are recording even the tiniest of experiences either in our minds and hearts, in a journal, by photo, or any of the combined. The past few days we've been making some fun memories of our own. We took pictures for these moments. Come...take a look.

First up........Clark on Thanksgiving. After a nice, big, and tasty dinner he promptly fell asleep. Katelyn was heading out the door to help my sister walk her dog so she stuck her bear in daddy's arms and told him to baby-sit. In his sleep, he cuddled with it. Isn't he just too cute for words?! :)

On Saturday we had both the elders and sisters over for dinner. Katelyn and Laura had found out earlier in the month that Elder Anderson had a birthday on November 29th so they insisted we have them all for dinner to celebrate. Clark grilled up steaks and made salad and mashed potatoes. Thanks to his sister, who is on my facebook list, I found out Elder Anderson loves cheesecake so that was what we had for dessert. We got him a small journal to record addresses of members and missionaries and for them to write notes in as well. We left the first one. I had one on my mission and still love to pour through it now and again. That's where I got the idea. The sisters got him a mini football and birthday masks. That's Elder Anderson there with the girls and with his mask on.

While they were at our home on Saturday, we kind of told the girls at one time to settle down or we wouldn't go get our tree yet. Elder Slade (shown here in the red hat) was like "Christmas tree?! Can we help decorate? I haven't done that in a long time!" Later before they left, when they ask the typical missionary question of "is there anything we can do for your family this week?", my husband said "Sure, come by tomorrow night and help us decorate the tree." They were totally excited and even double checked on the time at church the next day.

Elder Slade saw we had a couple of Santa hats. Red and pink. As senior comp he made sure to wear the red hat. What they didn't realize at first was the hats say "princess" on them. They quickly turned them around. haha! Elder Slade made sure to put the breakable ornaments on top. Not bad for an elder who hasn't been around kids much it seems.

Laura gets a boost up to the top from Clark. She had a blast getting hoisted up a few times.

Here is Katelyn putting hooks on some of the ornaments. This is the first year I've had them help. Normally I do it but this year I just let them have fun with daddy and the missionaries. They had a blast and I think it's a tradition I'd like to continue from now on.

Laura and Elder Anderson pause for a photo.

Elder Andersn got the pink hat. A little girly but hey he would have voted yes on 8 if he was a California resident so it's all good. LOL!

The girls and the elders in front of the finished tree before they left for the evening.

And this entry wouldn't be complete without a picture of the finished tree. Everyone did a great job and the tree looks the best ever! I can't wait for family and friends to see it so we can tell them all about our fun evening.

Oh and if you all are wondering where I was during the all the fun........I was in the kitchen heating up some my mom's hot apple cider mix (1 gallon apple cider, 2 cans pear nectar, 3 cans peach nectar, 3 cans apricot nectar, handful of cloves, 6 cinnamon sticks and heat) and baking chocolate chip cookies to warm everyone up. Yum!

We had fun making our memories and look forward to making many more this month and throughout the coming year.

No Doubt About It

2008-11-23T18:19:00.000-08:00

Most people know I love to read. Every since I learned to read at age 5, I just can't get my hands on enough books. I do have my favorite authors but I also enjoy branching out a bit. I read a variety of genres. I am picky on the contents at times and therefore if I were to rate the books I read most would get a 4-5 star rating from me on a scale of 1-5. One thing about books is that every now and then I'll pick up a book that just hits home with me. It doesn't matter if it's fiction or non-fiction. If it's fiction it might be that a character says something that relates to me. If it's non-fiction it could be a chapter here, a quote there. Occasionally it can be the whole book.....such as is the case with my current book.

Currently I am reading No Doubt About It by Sheri Dew. It's non-fiction and she's an LDS author.

Now I don't know about any of you, but sometimes I double myself and the decisions I make. Even if I've prayed about them and know without a shadow of doubt at the moment I made them what I was to...I doubt them. Not all the time, just sometimes. Recently I began doubting a big decision. One I had prayed about, one I knew without a shadow of doubt at the moment where I needed to be, needed to stand on the issue. If you've read my blog a few weeks ago you might already have guessed.......this is regarding my yes vote on Prop 8. Seeing the backlash and knowing that not all of it was coming from the gay/lesbian community. A lot of it in California also comes from members of our own church who chose to vote no. Now I won't go into all the other reasons besides what I'd posted on of why I voted yes. But during this backlash the doubts crept in....did I do the right thing in choosing to look at this issue as a moral issue over a civil rights issue? The doubts were huge. I can't even express them in writing and you all know I can be verbose at times. But they were there.

Then that little still small voice said "Grab Sheri Dew's book out of that large pile of books you plan on reading on top of your dresser." (confession time people....it's a stack of at least 30 books, maybe more) It was a still small voice but it was loud. So I didn't wait a second and started reading it. I've only read 5 chapters. But every single thing Sister Dew says has hit home. And the biggest nail on the head, the brightest lightbulb going off in my head that I had made the right decision for myself when I chose to view it as a moral issue and voted yes came when I read the tail end of Chapter 5...pgs 102-103.

"More than a decade ago, President Ezra Taft Benson issued this charge: 'There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time than there is of us. Never before on the face of this earth have the forces of evil and the forces of good been as well organized....The final outcome is certain--the forces of righteousness will win. But what remains to be seen is where each of us...will stand in the battle--and how tall we will stand....Great battles can make great heroes and heroines' (In His Steps, 8 Feb. 1987).
More than ever before, the Lord needs our faith and faithfulness, our vitality and ingenuity, our unwavering commitment and conviction. We are witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ, the living capstone of all that has come before us and a vital link to all that lies ahead.
This life is a test. It is also a glorious privilege."

Wow, wow, WOW! That is why it hit home with me at this time.......I needed to make a choice. Whose side do I stand on? The world and the forces of evil or the Lord's side? Even if the Lord's side is unpopular with the world, with the minority or may make others angry because I chose to look at an issue different than they wanted, am I willing to stand on the Lord's side? And the answer came to me loud and clear: yes, yes, yes and YES!

Standing on the Lord's side isn't easy. We will get laughed at, made fun of, persecuted, protested against. It doesn't matter which religion you are, it's bound to happen if you choose the Lord's side in any issue these days. But if you've prayed about it and received your answer then the Lord will be there for you. He will help you rise above what the world flings your way. Choosing the Lord's side doesn't mean you have to be perfect either. It just means you are striving the best you can at any given moment to do what the Lord would have you do to guide you back in your journey to Him once again. With Heavenly Father NOTHING is impossible! We just have to make that first step, make that stand.

So I am here to declare that I have made that stand: I AM CHOOSING THE LORD'S SIDE!!!

Are you?

Happy Birthday Laura!!!!

2008-11-17T13:40:00.000-08:00

I said it last week and I'll say it again......How do these kids grow up so fast? You moms know what I mean. One minute you are giving birth to them, the next they are walking and talking and one step away from being potty trained. Sometimes you wish they would be little forever, other times you can't wait to see what the future holds.

Today is a day for celebrating. Today is Laura's 3rd birthday. She came unexpectedly into our lives. Yes we were planning on having another child. But we had just sold our mobile home and we were living with my parents while we looked for a place to buy or rent. Also for almost a year prior the doctors were doing what they could to help me ovulate. Can't have a baby without ovulation I was told and I hadn't done that in nearly a year. Apparently I did once. Apparently we celebrated moving out of our falling apart mobile home. And it just took one time.

I remember the day we found out I was pregnant. With 5 adults and a 3 year old under one roof, we'd all passed around a bad cold. Then we all passed around a nasty stomach bug. Then I felt sick again but nobody else did. Mom woke one day and said "I had this dream that you were pregnant. Take a test please." She can be persistent so I humored mom. I took the test. Positive. Took 2 more tests....still positive. Took the test at the doctor's office....yep still positive. It's also apparent that I don't understand what a positive pregnancy test means even though it's my second child. hahaha!

The pregnancy seemed to fly by. I did have all day sickness again though not as bad as with Katelyn. I dealt with gestational diabetes from the beginning and not at the end like before. That wasn't too bad. The migraines were what got me. I could have lived without those.

This time around I had a choice....vbac or repeat c-section. I did my research. It all boiled down to one question and I knew what the answer would be. "Doctor, can you guarantee me a baby in under 12 hours if we induce or she comes on her own?" He laughed and said "You know we can't guarantee anything if you go the vbac way." I smiled and said "Then set a date to cut me open again!" So we looked at his calendar. He gave me 3 dates: Nov. 10 (Katelyn's birthday), Nov. 17th, and Nov. 24th (Thanksgiving). I looked at Katelyn, who was with me, "Do want a baby sister for your birthday?" With all the truthfulness of a nearly 4 yr old she said, "No mommy. I just want toys." I didn't want Thankgiving. That meant I'd be on liquid diet and no homemade stuffing. So the 17th it was.

Laura came into this world a tiny 6 lbs 4 oz and 17 1/2 inches long. She grew slow but steady until she was about 7 months. But I didn't notice til she was 9 months old that she wasn't just not growing but she was losing weight. She was so skinny it was scary. That started months of trying to get weight on this kid. Finally around the time she turned 13 months the 3 lbs gained, 5 lost cycle ended and she gained. She still gains slowly but she's gaining and growing and that's what counts.

She's our spunky child. Always on the go. A bundle of laughs. Smart....too smart for us sometimes "Mommy there are no carts! The customers need carts. We are customers. Tell them to get more carts!" Loves to talk, talk, talk. (hmmmmm, where does she get that from?) Has an impish sense of humor (Please give that toy back to your sister! (she licks it: Okay here sissy!). Looks like her mommy at the same age. Love meat, meat and more meat. Esp bbq ribs. Favorite phrase when ribs are served "Mmmmmm! Meat!" Won't eat a fruit or veggie to save her life. Loves to make friends...old and young. Just a bundle of energy.

So in honor of her birthday, here is her montage. And it's a bit long because she sat in my lap and helped me choose pictures and she got mad if I didn't choose some. Yeah you can tell who rules the roost in this house.

Happy Birthday Laura!

Happy 3rd Birthday Laura 11/17/08

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

2008-11-10T11:40:00.000-08:00

I know everyone parent says this every year. But I just can't believe that another year has come and gone. Esp. for Katelyn. For those that don't know or don't remember my birth story here is a brief version since without my husband home filling in the blanks, I really don't remember much of it all.

November 8th, 2001......Went in to be induced. Chose cytotec thinking it was the best option. Ha! All I got was hard, fast labor from the start. I tried to be brave. I think I last 12 hours before finally screaming for pain meds. I was given nubane for that. But the labor kept on coming, the pain kept getting worse, I still made no progress.

November 9th, 2001.....Yep still in labor. Still in pain. I was given different meds for pain as nubane just wasn't working. Late in the evening or sometime the next morning they gave me nubane + morphine. Yeah, I don't remember much after that except. I was told by mom that I told Clark that it was all his fault this was happening and that I wished all this on my sister (10 years younger than I) one day cause "that &*%$$ has things too easy being the youngest." It was the drugs I tell ya....the drugs! Oh yeah and another day with still no progress. I had reached 75% effaced and 1 cm dialated and holding there strong.

November 10th, 2001.........Yeah still in labor. Nubane/morphine combo not working so good anymore. I'm in tons of pain. Screaming for c-section since night before. Lead labor and delivery doctor comes in, checks progress (see above....didn't get passed that) and says "get this mama prepped for c-section now!" I remember getting the spinal. After that I'm told I was awake for everything but I sure as heck don't remember. I remember hearing my baby cry (very loudly) and the nurse saying "daddy you may hold your baby girl" and the baby stopped crying the instant she was placed in his arms. But I don't remember anything else. I'm told I was in recovery quite a few hours.

In all it can be summed up as:

Labor......56 hours
Delivery......5 minutes
one 7 lb, 19 inch long baby girl.....Priceless

Katelyn has brought us so much joy in the past 7 years. Of coure we've had our struggles as well. She's our spirited child and we've had lots to learn to figure out how to parent a spirited child. Through it all, I've learned that she gets it from me so I'm learning new things about me as well. She's had her own struggles......speech delays that caused academic delays. But she's making so much progress that it's hard to believe she's the same child sometimes. Esp when we can't get to her to be quiet. We just have to remind ourselves that once we prayed that she'd talk more. LOL!

So in honor of Katelyn's 7th Birthday, here is a montage I put together. Of course I can't just choose pics from 2008. I liked so many, I started with Jan. 2007 and worked my way in order up til this past month. She's grown a lot in a year and it shows. Enjoy!

And Katelyn......Happy Birthday Little Little! We love you!

Happy Birthday Katelyn 2008

Yes on 8

2008-11-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Some of you may not know this about me. Some of you may know this. I am not one to openly discuss my views in regards to politics. I feel it is just so easy to get into heated battles of words because two or more people try to sway the other to their point of view but in reality that will never happen to those who are firm in what they believe. However, I have learned during this election time that there comes a time when we all have to take a stand in what we believe no matter how controversial the topic. For me that topic, that issue, that belief is: Yes on 8. I'm sure by now most of you can see where my line is drawn.....I have two icons on my blog depicting how I'll be voting. But I still wanted to share my views on the whole thing.

First though please do NOT call me a bigot. If you truly know me, you will know I am far from. If you insist on still calling me that, let me share some definitions of a bigot with you. I looked in various dictionaries both online and ones I have on hand. They all pretty much said the same thing but these three stood out to me:
1) A person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her opinions & prejudices, esp one who regards or treats the members of a group with hatred or intolerance.
2) An intolerent person: somebody with strong opinion who refuses to accept different views.
3) A person who has strong beliefs and who thinks that anyone who does not have the same belief is wrong.
I believe in marriage between a man and a woman only. I understand and I accept that others have different views. However, understanding and accepting does NOT equal agreeing with or changing my own views. Wouldn't it be a boring world if we all thought the same thing 100% of the time? I think so. I don't agree with the gay and lesbian lifestyle. I believe it is against the laws of God. However, I do not hate those that live that lifestyle. I may not openly seek out to become friends with gays and lesbians but if a friend, family member, co-worker, neighbor, etc told me they were then I'd still continue to be their friend, I'd still continue to love that family member, I'd still interact how I did before with that co-worker or neighbor. Someone who is truly hateful and intolerant of the lifestyle would never do that. But I am LDS, I am Christian. I have certain beliefs. Those beliefs include marriage between man and woman only and families. Yes on 8 means protecting marriage means defining marriage as between man and woman only and the undertones of it involve protecting our children...which in my case, is my family. If I voted against it, wouldn't I then be called a hypocrite? In my mind, yes it does and therefore I must vote Yes on 8. But this does not make me a bigot. It means I am standing up for my beliefs. I understand that there are those voting no. That is okay. That is their right to do so. I don't agree, I don't understand, but they are free to vote anyway they want just as I am.

Besides my beliefs playing a part in why I'm voting Yes on 8, there is another reason as to why I am. I am choosing to copy and paste here because I have a little one needing my time and because this person explains it better than I:
California voters passed Proposition 22 in 2000 by more than 61%, saying that a marriage in California is between a man and a woman. Earlier this year, four activist judges based in San Francisco wrongly overturned the people's vote, legalizing same-sex marriage.
The Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage did not just overturn the will of California voters; it also redefined marriage for the rest of society, without ever asking the people themselves to accept this decision.
In 2000, I was part of the 61% who voted that marriage should be between man and woman only. When that was overturned, I felt that was a slap in the face saying "your vote really doesn't count." I began asking "If judges can do this with prop 22, what other issues will they do this with?" So by voting Yes on 8, I am letting my voice be heard again, letting the judges know that I am unhappy with them overturning my first vote.

I believe one of the consequences of this overturning and a No on 8 vote is that it opens the door wide open to openly teach about gay marriage and homosexuality in our schools at a young age. I recently found an interesting article about this, I urge you to read it if you haven't already, esp if you live in CA and have children in school or who will be in school in the future:
http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/081103school.html
Please do not tell me that certain things are not taught in schools. I have a daughter in 1st grade. I went to our district website and looked up the info for myself. Here is part of the curriculum under History-Social Science for 1st graders in our district:
"Recognize the ways in which they are all part of the same community, sharing principles, goals, and traditions despite their varied ancestry; the forms of diversity in their school and communtiy; and the benefits and challenges of a diverse population."
Sure some of you might be thinking "but it says nothing specifically about same sex eduation or teaching about gay marriage" or anything along those lines. But you can see where if Prop 8 is not passed that it opens the door wide open to any teacher who wants to discuss it in class whether through a book or an entire lesson on it. Don't tell me that I have no voice as a parent because I send my child to free public schools. Remember nothing in life is free. A portion of our tax dollars goes towards that free education......the free education that my child is receiving. So yes, I do and should have a voice in my child's education. First grade is much too young to learn about these kind of things in my opinion, esp without my knowledge. So my vote is to prevent this from happening further.

My Yes on 8 vote is not taking away the rights of gays and lesbians. I refer you to the California Family Code section 297.5:
Registered domestic partners shall have the same rights,protections, and benefits, and shall be subject to the sameresponsibilities, obligations, and duties under law, whether theyderive from statutes, administrative regulations, court rules,government policies, common law, or any other provisions or sourcesof law, as are granted to and imposed upon spouses.
They already have the same rights, protections, and benefits of spouses. Those rights will NOT be taken away. In the same light, a Yes on 8 vote is not telling them who they can or cannot love. They will still be free to love who they want to. But a Yes on 8 protects my freedom to belief one of my core Christian beliefs.....that marriage is between man and woman only.

Now I am not asking you to go out and vote yes. That is not my goal here. My goal is for those that so strongly disagree with me and call me names like bigot can see where I am coming from. I do not ask that you agree with me. I only ask that you respect my choice to use my freedoms to vote how I want to vote, to understand why I'm voting the way I am and respect that I am doing this after much thought, prayer and study for myself and my family. If any of you are offended by my entry I am sorry, this was not my intention.....I just felt it was time to not be silent anymore and to share some of my main reasons as to why I'm a supporter of this proposition.

Halloween Night

2008-10-31T23:49:00.000-07:00

Laura hasn't napped when healthy since she was 18 months old. It's only when she's sick. Today I was cleaning the kitchen because all 4 missionaries were coming for dinner and I heard her at the computer. But then it got silent, really silent. I knew I hadn't heard her leave the room. I found her sound asleep at the computer. Guess she needed her energy for trick-or-treating because she took a 2 hour nap! I even had to run to the neighbors (the only ones home are the ones we have only talked to 3 times in 3 years) and ask if she could come watch her while I got Katelyn from school. That's how out of it she was.
Apparently she got her second wind because she was raring to go for our ward's trunk-or-treat. Yes they held it on Halloween night. It was only an hour and just the candy, parade, and prizes.

Here they are with Elder Anderson. The two adore him. Which is really funny because when Elder Tate was his comp they liked him more. But with Elder Slade they like Anderson better. Girls are just wierd. LOL!

Here they are with our Samoan buddies. Katelyn and Tiani are the same age/grade and Laura and Timmy are the same age. They only love 2 blocks over from us and we are all fairly new to the ward so we've hit it off big time. I even pick up Tiani for school every morning because 4 of the 5 adults in their home work and the 5th is the grandma and her doctor wants her to limit her walking. I have to take Katelyn anyhow so I gladly said I'd help out.

Back at our house, getting ready to go around our neighborhood. Clark takes them. I sit out with a lawn chair, a good book, a huge travel mug of ice water and I pass out candy all without leaving my chair.

Katelyn fixing her tiara. This is the second year she chose to be Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty for those who don't know their Disney Princesses).

Our pumpkin family. I did the big one. Katelyn drew the faces on the little ones and I carved them for her. They are simple but I got lots of compliments on them tonight.

Cerritos Stake 50th Celebration

2008-10-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday was our stake's 50th celebration. They did a huge 50's themed afternoon. The afternoon started off with a section of the parking lot set up with games played in the 50s. Katelyn loved the jump rope the best. There was food.....hot dogs, chips and lemonade. Plus root beer floats. Food popular then and now.

Later we went through the "time tunnel"....one of the foyers and hallways was set up with tables with things used in the 50s and pictures hung depicting both secular things of the 50s and the stake through the years. It was pretty cool. My girls got to see what an old manual typewriter looked like and an old hair dryer. They were quite impressed.

Then you ended up in the cultural hall. First past stake presidents spoke. They were to speak briefly and then a dvd presentation was to be shown. But my fellow LDS readers will understand and probably laugh when I say that they went a little over time and the kids waiting to perform were getting a bit restless.

Then the fun began.........There was a "cultural arts" program. This was basically a 50s musical. A group of teen aged girls came out dancing and lip syncing to 9-to-5. They were dressed as waitresses from Peggy's Sue's diner. They were a great lead in. Then a cast of 4 men and 4 women were old school chums meeting at the diner before it was closed down. They had some fun one-liners and they sang a variety of 50s songs. I'd say the men rocked the house when they sang their rendition of Sha-Na-Na-Na-Na and Blue Moon. Then every now and then they'd say something like "Hey remember this song" or "Does anyone remember any of the old dances like the swim or the hand jive?" The adults would exit and a few seconds later primary kids from 5 different wards came out. There was one Sunbeam that got loud cheers when he did the hand jive. Man he flew on it! Our ward....Cerritos 1st.....danced to Splish Splash. One of the male teachers dressed in those old striped swimsuits, his bath brush was a giant toilet brush, he had a giant rubber ducky, it was great. But the highlight of that number was........

Laura! Leave it up to one of my kids. She ran out before the rest and started to dance. Then her eyes got huge at the audience and even more huge when she saw she was the only one out there. She looked adorable in that pink poofy poodle skirt up there. Of course I didn't have my camera on just yet. Grrrr! She ran back and then they all came out. And then they got into position (which was kneeling down to pop back up when the music started) and Laura was still standing, finger up her nose with one hand and the other waving and hollering "Hiiii mommy!" over and over til I had to wave at her. I was way in the back by the way. Finally she started dancing with all the rest but she was off cue a few times and would look like "what are we....oh yeah, that's what we're doing." Then the number ended. And you guessed it.....she was the last one on stage dancing. The people behind us were ooohing and ahhhhing over her between laughing and I just had to turn around and say "She's ours!" with a big grin. Never a dull moment with us around. I think she gets that from my side of the family. :)

The evening ended with an all age dance. We stayed for a bit but then headed to Bob's Big Boy for dessert with my parents. I should have taken pics there.....the manager and the waitress loved that they came in costume and had the classic hot fudge cakes and cherry cokes.

And now for your viewing enjoyment, a montage of the girls on their big day. (oh and a big shout out to Kirsten for helping me figure out how to post this! Thanks!)

Cerritos CA 50th Celebration

Prayers Needed Update

2008-10-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

For those following on the status of my friend's Chrissie's son Mike and my grandma here are the much needed updates.

I don't even know where to begin with Chrissie. It's not me going through this, not my child and I don't want to get anything wrong. The link to her post is on my blog list to the right if you want to follow up for yourselves. Just know that they really do need the continued prayers and again for my LDS family and friends, please feel free to add them to the temple prayer rolls as well. Chrissie, I think of you guys everyday and prayer for Mike and your family every day. Please know that if I lived closer I'd help out in a heart beat whenever I could. And girl send me the address to your mom's please, I still have the gift for Katie here and ready to send.

News on my grandma. Gosh again I don't know where to begin. When I posted about it, the doctor pretty much had written her off as dying really soon and having dementia. She had come home from the hospital that same weekend and was weak and in bed, eating only soft foods cause she couldn't move her tongue to chew. She knew who people were but then would say something like "Oh no! The ceiling fan is leaking! The pipes burst in the fan!" or "We have got to hide Kevin (my cousin) and your dad! The police are after your dad and the FBI is after Kevin!" or "John (my dad) so your Sunny's (my mom) 8th husband." (to which my nutty dad would break into song with "I'm Henry the 8th I am, I'm Henry the 8th!", ever the sarcastic one, LOL!) And my favorite when she looked at my mom and said "I had 3 kids.....Phil, Sunny and you." I keep telling my mom she should have asked who she was. (really she only had two kids, uncle Phil and my mom, Sunny but blast I'll never get to find out who she thought my mom was now) It was so bad we had to keep a sense of humor about it or we'd go nuts with her comments. But slowly she began to eat meals. She's insisting on trying to use her walker. She may never walk without the aid of one around the house and may need to be push in a wheelchair when leaving the house. But she's taking a few more steps each day with my dad's help. And the dementia? Well supposedly that's not reversable but she's in her right mind again. So was it dementia or not? We have no clue. She did have a series of stroke though. That's the set diagnosis. They aren't sure if they were over time and the most recent one hit hard or if they were all in one weekend. And once you've had even one stroke it ups your chance of another. And well she's had a series of them. In the hospital the doctor gave her weeks to 8 months to live. She is at home with hospice care a few times a week and a nurse once a week to check vitals.

But she seems to be doing a lot better so it's all what ifs now. I think it has a lot to do with the Priesthood blessing my cousin Sam gave her the weekend she got home from the hospital. That weekend, my sister and her husband came down from Vegas and my brother had come from Long Beach (CA that is) with his daughter. Then the next day, my cousin Kevin was there with his daughter and ex-wife and my cousin Sam and his family from Arizona were all there. Grandma had Sam and my dad give her a blessing (Clark was not there, Laura was home pretty sick that weekend or he would have taken part as well). In the blessing, Sam said that though her time on earth was short, that it was not quite her time. She still had things to accomplish to help her family with before she passes on. The only thing I can think of is that I have felt impressed for some time now to sit down with grandma and go through all the pictures she has and write down names since most of her pics have no names written on the backs of them. Other things were said as well but I don't remember them. Just that main thing stuck out to me. And she has done amazingly well since that blessing. This month has been crazy buzy but I plan on heading out there one weekend and going through those pictures for sure.

Not that I don't want prayers for my grandma, but it just struck me as something powerful just now.....I'm asking for prayers for someone who has lived a long life and may very well be in the final months of it. And I'm asking for prayers for a little boy with a tumor who has a whole life ahead of him. One needs prayers that she may live out her final months (or years if Heavenly Father chooses) as pain free as possible and the other needs prayers that doctors will be able to figure out what kind of tumor it is exactly so they can start treatment on it asap so that he can live a long wonderful life. And man the tears are flowing big time and I'm going to go grab some tissue and get down on my knees and say a prayer right now because I just need to.

Pa's Pumpkin Patch (part 2)

2008-10-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I posted the pictures from this year. I couldn't help feel a bit nostalgic when I saw Laura sitting on the huge pumpkins that are set up right as you walk into the patch. So I thought I'd share pics from previous years we've been so you can see how much the girls have grown.

First up, 2006. That was the year we found out about the pumpkin patch. Laura was all of 11 months old that year. Not yet walking (she didn't walk til she was 18 months old). Look how little she is! Even the smaller pumpkins were bigger than her. And the costume.......a cute pair of jammies I found at a second hand store for $2 that year. In some of the pics she looks a bit stunned at the size of these pumpkins. Katelyn was almost 5 that year. Gosh these kids have grown so much.

These next 3 just crack me up. These are just your larger ones that you might carve up and stick on your porches. Even most of those were bigger than Laura. And they weighed a lot more too. We were still trying to get weight back on her after a long haul of her gaining a few then losing twice of what she'd gain. A month later she finally started gaining again. But I do believe she was all of 10 lbs here and the pumpkin we took home was a good 20 lbs.

Next up, 2007. Katelyn was a month shy of 6 and Laura a month shy of 2. November birthdays. LOL! Katelyn's hair is longer and Laura is a slightly bigger. Still pretty small though. And not quite weaned from the paci yet.

And this year, 2008. My little hams. I told them to look at the camer and smile and both of them struck the face in hands pose at the same exact time. Okay maybe not hams....it's fall....we'll call them turkeys instead. LOL! Katelyn's hair is shorter since we cut it this year. Both girls are much taller. Laura is still pretty petite for her age but she's definitely grown from last year.

Well that was fun! I hope you all enjoyed my little walk through pumpkin patch memory lane as much as I did.

Pa's Pumpkin Patch (part 1)

2008-10-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we took our annual trip to Pa's Pumpkin Patch in Long Beach, CA. We discovered this place when Katelyn took a field trip here in preschool. She had so much fun there that we went back as a family and picked out our own pumpkins that year. It's our 3rd year going.
Katelyn, Laura, Kathryn
Katelyn and Laura on the big pumpkins

The girls rode the ponies.

They also rode a few other rides.

We posed for some photo ops.

We all agree that Clark looks the silliest. :)

And we can't forget what we came here for!

Katelyn and her choice.

Can she lift it?

Yes she can! Here's Laura's choice.

We had such fun and it's fun to see how much the girls have grown. Stay tuned for some pics of the girls and Pa's Pumpkin Patch through the years. :)

Prayers Needed

2008-10-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

I know there are quite a few people who read my blog but don't always comment. If you are one of those readers, thank you.

If you are one of those readers, please read, I'm asking for prayers.

First, you may have noticed the tag on top over to the right on my blog. I'm sure I won't get it all correct, I'm just an online friend of Mike's mommy. But the important thing is that Mike and his family need our prayers in a big way. Mike is an angelic looking boy with a twinkle of mischeif in his gorgeous eyes. He's the beloved little brother of Katie who is 6 and the only son of Matt and Chrissie. He is loved by many. Within the past month Mike needed an MRI to rule out anything having to do with speech delays. His parents were told he had speech apraxia and I believe the MRI was to rule things out. When the results came back there were some abnormalities. While waiting for the appointment to discuss this, Mike woke up one morning with some swelling in his eyes (I think that's right). I believe within a few days he was admitted to the hospital and doctors began running tests to figure out what was going on. At this point all they know is a tumor on his spinal/brain chord. (I might be getting this part wrong too) They do not know if it is malignant or benign. It's all a waiting game. They do think whatever it is that it will be a rare form. Having any loved one go through something like this is difficult. Having a child go through this, esp one so young has got to be hell. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. While not the best of friends and certainly having our differences, my heart is just aching for Chrissie and what she must be feeling these days. Please keep this family in your prayers.....and for my LDS friends/family if you feel the need to do so please add their names to the temple rolls where you live. They are not LDS but she says she'll take all the prayers others can give.

And now sadness has struck my family as well.

Earlier this year, my grandma tripped over a sidewalk in a parking lot and injured her face pretty badly. She was finally feeling better from that and she had a worse fall in front of my parent's house. (she's been living with them for the past 3 years) A long hospital stay, a convelescant hospital stay and finally back home and still she hasn't been 100% to where she was before. Grandma Maxine has always been a spry active woman even when she should have slowed down. But with a fall that bad we were told she wouldn't be spry again. She's had her good days and bad but she seemed to be doing better. Sadly this past Tuesday, while my mom was baby-sitting Laura for me, grandma had another fall. We don't know the details. Mom was out here only a few hours. When she got home, she found gran on the floor of her room. She'd apparently had a bad weekend. Not always knowing who mom was, forgetting things like already getting a glass of milk when she had 2 others in her room already. Monday night she had a really bad night, kept mom up late with her wanderings thinking a car was missing from the driveway among other things. Then Tuesday morning dad found her on the floor looking for a sock saying she had to go find her mama. My great-grandma passed away when my mom was pregnant with me I believe. But because grandma was sleeping when she left, mom figured it was still safe to come out.

Then she came home and found her on the floor. I feel bad. I know it's not my fault. But I still feel as if it were my fault for needing mom to come watch Laura while I went to a doctor appointment. Mom can't lift her due to having her arm prepped for future dialysis so she had to call 911. She was taken to a trauma center. Once she started coming to, she still could not talk or eat, still did not know who mom is, where she is, what happened. An MRI was done (I'm beginning to hate MRI's!) and it was discovered that she had a series of small strokes that brought on advances stages of dementia. The doctor told mom today that it could take anywhere from weeks to 8 months before she passes on. I haven't always gotten along with my grandma. She was very opinionated and well so am I. So we clashed a lot. But we loved each other regardless and it's hard to think that she won't be around much longer. And then tonight as I was starting this blog my mom called. She wanted to know if I would be upset if she didn't have them put a permanent feeding tube in. She already had to sign papers about reviving. Grandma had made it very clear in the last few years that if she ever needed life support that she did NOT want it. But she also apparently made it clear to my mom and to a couple of her close friends that she did not want to live with dementia or alzheimer's either. In this case if mom choose a feeding tube and grandma is able to use her tongue again for eating then she would still have the dementia, that's not reversable. I tearfully told my mom that I loved grandma and don't want her to pass on but that if these were her wishes then mom has a hard decision to make. I can't give my input because the final decision rests on her shoulders. I did highly suggest she get a blessing and then pray about it tonight and see what Heavenly Father wants her to do. I think I'll do the same.

I love my grandma and I never thought it would happen quite like this. Maybe it's because I had one grandparent pass away in her sleep. Then the fact that grandma Maxine has always been so strong, so able, so active. So to see her like this is very difficult for me and all of us. Please keep our family, esp my mom Sunny, in your prayers right now. With her kidney disease, I worry about her alot when times our emotional or stressful. And this is one of those times.

Thanks. I know that through prayer we will all be comforted in what we are dealing with.

Also, My Kids Are Cute....

2008-09-28T23:11:00.001-07:00

Enough said! LOL!

Dinner Time

2008-09-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

It's hard to pick dinners that both girls will eat. That is eat without a fuss. But I found this recipe in a children's magazine my father-in-law had sent to Katelyn. Peanut Butter pizza. The concept was simple......take pita bread. Then slab on your peanut butter of choice. Ours is Skippy creamy by the way. The your favorite jelly or jam. Here we have grape jelly. Then top it with whatever fruits you want. Fresh or dried. Here we had sliced fresh bananas, raisins and a mixed dried fruits. The girls loved it! They loved it so much we had to make two of them so we all had enough to eat. I was most surprised with Laura. The child hates fruit of any kind unless it's in a smoothie. But she devoured these as well. A few days later Katelyn asked for one as an after school snack. That day she had sliced fresh strawberries and mixed fruit. If you have a kid who loves pb & j sandwiches as much as mine do then I highly recommend trying this pizza out. Best thing about it (besides the fact that they'll eat it) is that it requires no baking.

Portraits

2008-09-05T23:31:00.000-07:00

This is the one we got a great deal on for an 11 x 14.

This is my favorite fo Laura. She loves talking on the phone and this is such a natural pose.

Love the smile here! She had a blast on that rocking horse too.

Look how grown up she looks here.

Katelyn, my toothless wonder these days. This is my favorite of her solo ones.

So not her personality. She hates talking on the phone. But still a cute picture.

So I wanted to get pictures of Katelyn because her front teeth were out. Normally we go to JC Penney. Even though we always like a few poses, one or both of the girls always goes home crying after a session. If they are the slightest bit uncooperative their photographers at our local one get unnerved and struggle. Then they changed how much they pick up the phones. You're supposed to call and leave a message and the idea is they will get back to you. Never happens with me. I can call numerous times and nothing. But typically we can walk in and get the pictures done that day no problem. Not this time. We got the girls dressed, went over, at a time/day when it wouldn't be crowded. Nobody was there. Just the photographer. And we were told "Sorry, we can't take you right now and we are booked solid all day. Have you tried calling to set up an appt?" Yes! Told her the issue and she said "Hmmm....that isn't right. We always call back." Yeah right. (said very sarcastically) So I go ahead and book an appt anyhow. We left and even Clark was put off. I told him I'd call around and see if there's other places and check prices. Then we decided to walk around the mall. Since we were there and all.

And right next to the JC Penney we find this place that does old fashionned portraits. They provide the clothes. They had a deal for $15 on 11 x 14. Normally those are like $50. So we figured why not. The most that can happen is we'll only like one pose since the girls never last through more than 2 without hassle. We couldn't do it then but we set an appt. We did prepurchase the 11 x 14 to take advantage of the deal. Then Katelyn got hurt so we had to change the appt. They were totally cool with that. Finally the swelling was down so we went in even with stitches.

The same two girls who hate having pics taken, loved this place! They thought they were getting to wear princess dresses. The photographer was awesome with them and the girls laughed and giggled through the whole session. Today we picked up the pictures. Not one bad one. We ended splurging and plunking down $180 on the most expensive package and taking everything home. And that was a special. Normally it's $199.99. So we got a great deal at this place. The package included a cd of the session. The cd is in color. The actual photos are more muted to make them more old fashioned. But you can get the gist of the it all. I don't think I'd do it every year. But it was great to have these ones at least because they did turn out so well. They will definitely be treasured photos.

Dinner with the Missionaries

2008-09-05T23:04:00.000-07:00

Back: Elder Slade (on left) and Elder Anderson (on right)
Front: Me, Sister Brinegar, Katelyn, Sister Ashton, Laura

The front of the card

The inside of the card

In our previous ward, the calendar filled up so fast. By the time it got to me in primary, the nights we could sign up (Fridays and Saturdays) were filled up. Then there were stake changes and our section of the ward got moved to a different ward in a different stake. It was new for some but not for others. For many of the long time ward members, it was going "home". 15 years or so ago, they were once part of the other ward/stake. For others, like us, it was new. It was a smaller ward. Not many kids in primary or YM/YW even with those that got transferred there. So we had plenty of dates to choose from for feeding the missionaries.

What was cool is they were sisters! Katelyn never believed (even with my pictures as proof!) that "girls" could be missionaries. So we made sure to sign up to feed the sisters. At the time there was just two....Sister Hoover and Sister ? (hey I'm bad with names, LOL!). We had them over twice and Katelyn was finally convinced of the whole girls serving missions thing. Then the local mission president put a set of elders in (Elder Tate and Elder Anderson) along with a 3rd sister (Sister Brinegar). But the way the ward mission leader divided it up it was everyone south of 195th got the elders and those north got the sisters. Now it was Laura's turn to be confused. She got mad the first time the elders showed up. But she warmed up to them fast. Esp to Elder Tate. She didn't like Elder Anderson at first for some reason. Then Sister ? finished her mission and there were transfers. Elder Tate and Sister Hoover got transferred and in came Sister Ashton and Elder Slade.

Now funny story......With the first two sisters we had chicken dishes. But with Tate and Anderson, it just seemed like each time they came (3 times) I didn't feel like cooking in the heat so I had Clark grill. Well Clark doesn't just grill simple things. No, he loves to grill up steaks. They are delicious too. And yes, we ended up serving it each of those times. The first time they were like "cool! we haven't had it in a long time!" The second time it was "Score! Sister Raile can give up cooking altogether for all we care!" The third time they were joking that 3 for 3 was just too good to be true until they showed up and I said Clark was taking dinner off the grill. The 4th time we had all 5 missionaries over. We played a joke on the elders. When they all arrived we told them we forgot we had signed up for both sets and since the sisters had never eaten our steak, we'd be serving it to them and the elders could eat the food storage MRE's we had and they could choose which ones they wanted. They actually fell for it til dinner was served. Ha! But the streak ended when we got Elder Slade. I served the elders chicken enchiladas last time.

However, since it was my birthday, I asked Clark to grill steak for us all. When the elders called to confirm and Elder Slade asked if there was anything they could bring I said "Just your appetites. It's my birthday and we're having steak." He's like "Steak?! Yeah! I haven't had that in a long time." In the background I could hear Elder Anderson whose had it 4 times already, "Steak?! Yeah! Woohoo! Hoot hoot hoot!"

When the sisters arrived, they gave me a container of homemade chocolate chip cookies as a gift. After dinner while we were eating birthday cake (yes, I was able to get it finally), the elders said "Now we the sisters already gave you a gift. That was their part of the it. Our job was to make a card. It's not a Hallmark so we hope you'll like it." Like it? Oh my gosh! This card is better than any Hallmark card! I'm going to save it forever.....really. It's that funny! (and yes I have a silly sense of humor) And we even took pics of us all (well minus Clark, he was the picture taker) and the card for the blog.

Happy Birthday To Me!

2008-09-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

Today (it's still Sept 5 here on the west coast) was my birthday. First off, I won't reveal my age. Just let's say it's in the 30s and I'm not looking forward to the big 40 in a few short years. Second, if you really want to know ask Katelyn. The other day she asked me how old I was going to be and I told her "29" which she didn't buy at first. "But that's not right! Daddy says you are the same age as him and he's 36." So with a smile on my face I told her that daddy only wishes we were the same age so he didn't suffer alone and that I was always going to 29. She said "So daddy lies?" with all seriousness of a 6 1/2 year old. And I said, "Only about mommy's real age." So now she won't let anyone tell her otherwise about how old I am. Yeah!

So here was my day:
*walked Katelyn to school along with Clark and Laura
* stayed home and did light cleaning while Clark took Laura to Walmart
* went to the post office to mail a package to a friend, took Laura with me, she made a point of telling everyone (and it was crowded by the way) that she was Laura, I was mommy and that "it mommy birfday!" So when we left I got a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday Mommy from a bunch of strangers. I love having a social butterfly. LOL!
* went to Ralphs to pick up my cake...couldn't pick it up....area around store had a power outage, nobody could use their cash registers....I thought I wouldn't end up with a cake
* went home, Clark took Laura on a walk to pick Katelyn up from school
* we all drove to the Lakewood Mall to pick up portraits I just done of the girls (I'll do a separate post on that)
* came home and got things set up to feed both sets of missionaries.....yes I planned it that way, our missionaries rock and since I wanted Clark to grill steak for me, I signed up to feed the missionaries too...they loved it (I'll do a separate post on that one too, 3 posts in one night, how cool is that?!)
* took Katelyn to surgical urgent care to get her stitches out....they did have to strap her down on a board but this one had velcro and the two female nurses had me leave the room so she wouldn't fight it as much and within a minute the stitches were out. yeah!
* and in between all this I managed to read and finish my latest book.....Persuasion by Jane Austen, the only one I hadn't read

Let's see.....gifts.....Clark and the girls got me cards and books. The last three books in the Zion Covenant series by Bodie Thoene. I had the first 6 but it's been years since I've had them and since then there are 3 more. Now I have the whole set. I also got some stuff from the missionaries but you can read about that in my next blog post. I got lots of online greetings from some awesome online friends. A shout out of thanks to all of them since I know many of them read my blog even if they never comment. :)

All in all, a good birthday for someone who will 29 forever.

Back-to-School and stitches update

2008-09-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

So how many pictures does it take to get the best shot of a 6 1/2 yr old for the 1st day of school pictures for the photo album and blog? Only about 3 outside ones where she's got funny looking faces because she keeps looking up at the sun and not at the camera.....and then back inside really fast to get a decent one.

Yes, today was the first day of school for Katelyn. But not only that. It was also the first day of 1st grade, the first day of walking to school (she was bussed last year), and the first day at a new school. Last year she was in special ed and was bussed to another school in the district. This year she was mainstreamed and her home school is just a block and a half away. She was a little nervous but did fine as the teacher led them into the classroom. Little sister on the other hand errupted into tears. When that didn't work she stomped her feet and all the way home. "No! No! No! I no go home! I want sssssiiiiisssssyyyy!" It only took about 5-8 minutes to get to school. But it took at least 15 minutes to walk home after dropped Katelyn off. Yes, that's how slow she walked, dragging her feet in between foot stomps, the whole way home.

Katelyn said her first day was good. She met some new friends but since she is so new to the school and she's as bad as me with names....she doesn't know their names. She really likes her teacher too. I think we'll be having a good year. But only if Laura doesn't drag her feet all the way home every single day. hahaha!

Oh and the stitches. I know some know about it. But there's a few that might have missed the update. As you can somewhat see in the pictures, they are still in. She should have had them out last week. However she put up such a fight at the doctor's office that we ended up having to take her to our closest Kaiser ER. While there I wasn't even given any options for removing them. The ER doctor just automatically wrapped her up in a huge sheet, laid her on a blue board, taped her to the board in a few spots and went to work. Then she still kept moving and sticking her tongue out from all her horrible screaming. He ended up having to take her ankles, her forehead, her chin, and put gauze in her mouth to keep the tongue down. Horrible! I know it was probably necessary but NO parent wants to see their child like that. And after all that, as he started removing them, the stitches on her top lip, it split back open. So those ones weren't ready to come out afterall. Only the two on the inside of her lip were ready to come out. Then her lip was numbed and the ER doc had to restitch the top of the lip. Tomorrow she is to go and get them checked out again and see if they are ready to come out. I foresee another trip to ER to strap her down again. I hate to say it......but sedation was much easier for me and her. At least with that she doesn't remember much. But she was quiet and sad for a few days after being strapped down and she's normally a happy kid.

I'll update tomorrow on how it goes......and also how I celebrated my birthday. Yes that is tomorrow. And if you ask Katelyn she'll tell you how old I am (29 forever) and that daddy lies when he says mommy is his age (36). ::::::evil laughing::::::

ER

2008-08-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

I bet you thought I was going to talk about this ER. Well I'm not.I'm going to talk about this one. Or one similar to it. The ER is where my dad and later myself and Clark spent our Sunday afternoon. The ER of Kaiser Permanente Fontana to be exact.
This is Katelyn. The one who got hurt. We aren't really sure what happened. She stayed at my parents' house for the weekend and was having a fun time. We were to pick her up Sunday after church. I decided to call before we left and saw my dad had called us while we were at church, telling us he was taking Katelyn to the ER for a split lip. She was playing in the guest room with the toys all by herself and somehow hurt her lip requiring stitches. We rushed Laura to my mom and then we drove fast to from Rancho C. to Fontana to be with Katelyn. She was fine with them numbing her but freaked out before we got there when they tried to stitch it up. So they needed to sedate her. That was actually pretty funny watching it take effect. She was holding up her hand like she'd never seen it before. Clark had been getting the carseat from dad's car and came in when it took effect, he thought she was waving at him. "No dear. She has no clue you are here. She's waving at the imaginary people." ER doctor had a good laugh at that one. ER doc stitched her up so that she'd have minimal scarring. "She's a girl. Girls are self-conscience as they get older. I don't want her to look in the mirror one day and hate seeing a scar." He was really great with her. Now she had a busy weekend up til that point. So with the sedation, she fell asleep.......we had gotten to the ER at 3 p.m.....we didn't leave the ER til 7:15 p.m. I think she woke up around 6 p.m. But she spet the next hour very woozy and sick to her stomach. To be sent home, she needed to be sitting up and using that bathroom on her own. Well each time she sat up, we were reaching for the puke bucket or bags. Yes, that was one of the lovely side effects of the sedation. Poor baby. Finally the doctor okayed a medicine to ease the puking. It worked for us to get her to my parents' house. They watched the girls while we grabbed a bite to eat and then we headed home. It was a pretty long day. Not exactly the best way for a kid to end a fun weekend. Poor little gal. I felt so bad for her. But she's been a trooper though she feels icky.

Don't these pictures make you want to give her a great big hug? Poor baby.

Laura was very concerned about her sissy. She'd been looking forward to seeing Katelyn. She missed her while she was gone. We had to tell her that sissy hurt herself and that papa John took her to the hospital. So when she finally got to see Katelyn, Laura was being extra nice to her. On the way home I glanced back and saw this. So I had to take a picture. It just warmed my heart to see Laura had reached out to hold her big sister's hand while she slept. And to think this is the same little sister that's been tormenting her big sister for the last week and half just because she's so good at it.

Excuses

2008-08-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

So this blog is for Theresa who was letting me know that I needed to update again. Since we haven't done anything blog worthy around here lately, I decided to give my best excuses for my blog being on sort of a hiatus the last few weeks.

10. I've been acting as referee to Katelyn and Laura who are fighting and yelling and screaming all day long.

9. I've been on a Nora Roberts reading kick. The hot and heavy scenes (while pretty mild compared to the Fabio covered books I read in high school) just get me so worked up that I can't think to blog.

8. We've been feeding the missionaries so often lately because the ones in our ward rock and so I've been working harder at keeping the house clean so they don't ask if they can help me clean house as a service project. Keeping house clean=little time to blog.

7. I've forgotten my password a few dozen times.

6. I've acted as Tooth Fairy twice in the last few weeks. Katelyn now has that cute, wide, toothless grin from losing both her two front teeth. Playing Tooth Fairy means staying up late and thus being too tired the next day to blog.

5. My birthday is coming up. I'm too busy writing a list of things I'd like because Clark and my mom have asked me for ideas. Blogging took a back seat while I've been writing my birthday wish list.

4. We've been busy measuring our bedroom window and getting a curtain rod and curtains. Don't ask! I refuse to elaborate on how we discovered that after 3 years the mini blinds weren't enough.

3. My cat Cookie sits across the keyboard for me to love him up. Can't blog if I can't see the keyboard now can I?

2. Sometimes I think my blogs are way too boring. (esp after reading Tricia's......girl I love your blogs!)

And my top reason for not blogging lately:

1. The Olympics! I can't get enough. From Michael Phelps burning it up in the pool to women's gymnastics to beach volleyball to our sweep in men's track and field hurdles. The Olympics and our Americans rock!

There are you happy now Theresa? My blog is updated, hope you liked it. :)

Miss Katelyn

2008-07-24T17:29:00.001-07:00

These have become my newest favorite pictures of Katelyn. For those that are reading this and don't know about her, Katelyn is a pretty happy child. But she has a lot of fears. We think alot of it is herself psyching herself out about it and because she's young she doesn't understand how to stop doing that. She gets it from me, I know I do this at times and I did it as a child too. Well one of the things she was a bit worked up over was swimming. I think some of it stems from when she had an allergic reaction to the combo of sunblock getting in her eyes and then chlorine from the pool water. She was just a baby but it was horrible. Her eyes swelled up and they were red and they hurt her. Freaked us out big time. So she's been a bit leary in the water. Esp when it comes to sunblock and getting her head in the water. Even jumping freaked her out.

So we were at my parent's house on July 5th. She was still a bit leary. But she saw all of us adults doing jumps and cannonballs and gosh knows what else that you should NOT do once you hit 25 (can you say "traction"? yeah we were all sore for days after, LOL!). Not even a week later, I took the girls back out just to swim. I get them all suited up and I turn around and Katelyn is doing this cannonball into the water like she's been doing it for years. I had to grab my camera. The look of sheer happiness on her face in that one shot is the best! Gone are all those fears of the water. She's arrived! She's happy! See her fly!

Children's Museum

2008-07-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, aunt Kathy came to hang out with her favorite nieces. :) We went to the La Habra Children's Museum to have some fun.

We found some footprints and went dinosaur hunting.

We found a dinosaur.

The girls rode a dinosaur.

Katelyn became a firefighter.

Laura tamed a wild horse
and wrangled a blue cow.

Katelyn roared back at the lion on our nature walk
and became friends with a Canadian moose, he said his name was Bullwinkle but who knows.

The girls became butterflies and flew around the garden.

And then they became explorers and looked for bugs.

Thanks for hanging out with us Kathy! We had a great time!

Pile On Papa!

2008-07-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

I've been lucky to have lived close to where my dad works since I got married. It just worked out that way. When it was just me, we started meeting for lunch once every few months. I'd go to his office and pick him up and then we'd go to one of a few local restaurants. Later when Katelyn was born it became once a month.

Then he switched office locations. That was cool, we temporarily moved in with them anyhow. But we found a place to rent.......like 5 minutes from his new office. I told him we planned it that way. LOL! Not really, but it's fun to joke about. Laura came along shortly after and Katelyn was enrolled in preschool. Dad started coming twice a month because sometimes he couldn't come on days when Katelyn was there.

And somehow it's evolved into every week. Fine with me. Free lunches! Typically it involves McD's now. But sometimes we go to Round Table Pizza or a local Hawaiian food place called The Loft. But mostly McD's and he'll bring it to our place.

The visit starts off with him and his "it's the boogey man!" and making the girls scream when they forget he's coming and get scared. And the visits almost always end in a game of pile on papa. He loves it and so do they. Laura esp loved it last year when she got papa all to herself when Katelyn was in school. It's going to be a sad day when she starts school....no more papa lunches. But I'll still have them. But I promise not to jump all over him. hahaha!

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T23:53:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! Since we have rented the house we live in now, we host a bbq here each year. Normally we have more people over but this year only a few were able to make it. That's okay. We still had fun. If you're ever in southern Cali for the 4th of July, head on over! Esp if you love water fights. That's our other annual tradition. Get soaked to keep cool. After we eat, anyone in the backyard still sitting is fair game. Even the kids who visit the neighbors come over for the water fight fun. Adults, kids, we all join in. Here's some photos so you can share in our fun day too.
Laura posing in the outfit she's worn for the 4th for the last three years. She's so skinny still that she's managed that.
Katelyn in the outfit she picked out. I tried to pick out something a bit more patriotic but she said she didn't want to look like a dork. So she picked out the red, white and blue glitter star shirt.

Clark sitting down for the water fight. That's just one of our water guns. We have at least one that's even bigger than that. The bigger the better when it comes to water fights is our motto.

My father-in-law Rick played his ukele for us. He has some fun songs. I'll have to figure out how to get video on here to share one of the songs I got on video.

Soon it was time for fireworks. While Clark got things set up on our end, we watched the next door neighbors do theirs.

Laura started standing on her head in excitement every time she saw the fireworks. I have no clue why but it was funny.

While Laura stood on her head, Katelyn did the "firework dance" which included some type of hula in it.

Now this is pure genious on my part! When Clark started doing our fireworks Laura was just way to curious and kept wiggling out of my arms to get closer. So I took the car seat out of the van, stuck it on top of a chair and strapped that girl in. She still got to watch them and I didn't have to worry about her bolting into the fireworks.

Clark had a little help with lighting them. Our friends' son Jacob stayed to hang out. He got to be the helper this year. He had a blast. I took him home after.

This is where Katelyn watched ours from....the neighbor's truck. She thought our grass was too close so she jumped in their truck.

Fireworks and bottled root beer (IBC)....what better thing is there than this? :)

Jacob and the giant sparkler

So that was our 4th. We hope you all had good ones as well.

Growing up is hard

2008-06-22T19:07:00.000-07:00

There comes a time in our lives when we all need to grow up.

Today Laura took a big step towards that thanks to her parents and boy is mad.

The changing table that got us through 2 kids was slowly falling apart. Screws missing, 2 storage shelves that never did fit in place from the day it was put together, a support bar falling off this week, changing pad being destroyed by cats with claws and above mentionned toddler with fingers. I wish I could say the changing table had seen better days but in reality we should have exchanged it 6 1/2 years ago cause it was a lemon from the very start. hahaha!

Katelyn was never that attached to it.

But Laura.........she has been alternating between crying and giving us the cold shoulder because we put it out with the trash. (trash day is Monday for us) And the horrors when someone with a pick up truck drove by and was checking out large items out. Poor kid about had a heart attack when she was them touching the changing table. Banging on the window, "Noooo my changing table! Miiiiinnnnneeee!"

And to think this is the same child that weaned from nursing cold turkey on her own at 12 1/2 months and gave up the pacifier pretty easy too.

A changing table......who would have thought she'd have an attachment to the changing table.

Poor Laura....growing up is hard.

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-16T00:22:00.001-07:00

So this post is a day late. But it was just one of those days when I didn't get around to it. But I wanted to dedicate this to the dad's in our life because yesterday was Father's Day.

To my father-in-law Rick.....for being the calm one and the spiritual example the girls can look up to.

To my dad, John, who goes along with all my crazy ideas on fun family activities for the girls. And for the free lunches each week. :)

To the Best Dad, Hands Down! And feet down too! My husband, Clark. Thanks for being such a great husband and father.
I just had to get a close up of this......I bought this for Father's Day 2006 and the girls helped. Katelyn did her hand prints and Laura was just a little baby still and it was easier to do her feet. We compared them today. My how they've grown since then.

And this is what the daddy and 6 1/2 year old does when mommy takes a nap after church. They play with mommy's camera. They are lucky they didn't take one of me too. LOL!

Laura tired out. Being in nursery is very tiring you know.

Katelyn took this
Clark too this

Friday Fun

2008-06-14T12:14:00.001-07:00

Katelyn's school had an end of the year camp out. She wanted papa John to go with her and later daddy too. It's just one night. They left a little after 4 p.m. on Friday and headed to the school. As soon as the tent was up, Katelyn claimed one room of the 3 room tent as her very own. Papa didn't tell her that when he and grandma Sunny camp, they use that room as the porta potty room, LOL! A girl in one of her kindergarden classes was two tents down. Because Katelyn had no baby sister along, Silvana came and joined Katelyn alot. Guess she got tired of her own baby brother. She even stayed in their tent more than half the night til she missed her family. But as soon as the sun came up she was right back in the tent with Katelyn. Too funny! Here they are watching Indian dancers that were part of the evenings entertainment. She had a lot of fun and thanks to my dad for being a good sport and going when his oldest granddaughter asked. You rock dad!

And what did Laura do while big sis and daddy were away? Well daddy helped blow up her pool before he left and she went swimming. She looks a lot like me at this age in this picture.

She was loving her pool.

And yes when I turned my back for a brief second she got nakey. Decided that skinny dipping was much more fun than wearing a suit. I think my mom has a picture of me doing the exact same thing at this age. So like mother, like daughter. hahaha!

she got me!

2008-06-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

My kids always crack me up. They always come up with the funniest things.

This evening I was sitting on the couch with Laura and I look down and she's picking her nose. I told her to stop it. Next thing I know she's wiping her nose finger on my shirt. I say "Heeeeeyyy! Don't wipe that on me!"

And with all her impishness she gets that little sparkle in her eyes, that grin on her face and says "It's okay, I done now mommy!"

As if that makes it any better! LOL!

And then there's Katelyn who finally mastered the art of buttoning clothes. She was so excited. She's also into asking us at odd times if we knew how to do things or if we did certain things when we were kids. So she goes "Did you know how to button when you were a kid?" I matter-of-factly said "Yeah when I was like 3." Clark started to say something and then she goes "Ahem! That was a baby! You have to be at least 4 to be a kid!"

Need a good laugh....come borrow my girls. :)

Saturday at the Zoo

2008-06-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday the girls and I asked their aunt Kathy if she wanted to hang out with us. She suggested going to the Santa Ana Zoo. That sounded great so off we went.

Katelyn and Laura posed on a giant frog statue.

Then they posed on a giant tortoise statue.

We tried to see the animals. But they were all sleeping like this lemur here.

Oh wait! Here's a monkey that was awake. He was kind of mad too.

He didn't want people taking pics of his wife and baby. (hard to see baby here)

Oh wow! The llamas were awake too!

So were the birds in the avery.

They had a jaguar maze. At the beginning I went one way and they went the other to see who would make it out first. I was sitting for a good 5 minutes watching their feet. They'd get to the middle and work their way back to the right. They finally made it out again but came out the entrance. LOL!

In the farm area, Katelyn fed some goats.

Laura did too.

Laura became a turtle.

Hey there's our Thankgiving dinner for this year! He looks big enough to have a feast.

Look at my little hatchling.

We rode a train....this train used to be at Santa's Village where I went a few times when I was a kid.

On the ride we saw this beautiful white horse.

Oh hey! I guess there were some animals awake today! The biggest monkeys the zoo had out that day! hahaha! I just couldn't resist that one!