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Showing posts from 2009

Christmas cards, and treats

I wish you were my neighbor and I could show up at your door with a 1/2 dozen "professional" carolers and a loaf of cinnamon bread. Last night we went out, few in number because Ari came down with a fever. We met with good friends and neighbors. At one house Jacob was talking to their 5 year old who either had a cold or just a real rough voice. Jake came over to me and said "I can't stand talking to him, he just needs to clear his voice." Then about 5 minutes later my 8 year old then had the audacity to tell me "Isn't about time we wrapped this up, I am ready to go." He said he was trying to be subtle by tapping me on the shoulder for 5 minutes first. I have sent most of my Christmas cards out this year. I have about 5 of 50 left with unknown addresses I am trying to track down. You better feel pretty special those of you who recieved cards because I agonize every year over sending Christmas cards because of how fast the stamps add up. It i...

Lily

Two year olds are so much fun. Lily can be the cutest little thing when she is singing, talking, coloring, or building with her "Jengas." I am hoping that she will be the first child to master fine motor skills before she turns 10. My boys still cannot write very ligible and Ari seems to be headed in the same direction. Lily loves to spend a lot of time with the crayons and blocks. Her singing though is the absolute best. She is always singing. If I try to join in, she often tells me that it is her song and I can't sing it. But man can two year olds get nasty fast. She loves to tell Dave and me "no" every chance she can get. She loves to wake up in the middle of the night complaining about monsters in her bed. We just try to take it as affirmation that she is two. I am just glad that she will be a little older by the time the baby comes in April. Maybe she will sing him/her lullabies in the middle of the night and let me sleep.
Here's what we have been up to the last month. Our new fireplace insert that we keep going all the time and goodbye $400 propane bill. Dave's 35th! Couldn't fit all the candles on the cake. We didn't have to light the fire that night. How Lily and I spent several hours on Turkey day. She was sick and only wanted to sleep in my arms. Happy Turkey Eaters! Look who cut down the Christmas Tree. Lily loves to hide in the cupboards. Jacob wondered if we could leave some empty so they could all fit. What the pictures don't show: The kids singing for a Stake Christmas music fireside. Lily was up there too and singing her heart out. It was definitely entertaining. I cried in my talk at stake conference-definitely prego hormones. We had snow fall in our backyard but melted when it hit the ground. The everyday general craziness of 4 kids and a mom who still throws up occasionally. Taking the boys to the doctor with me to have ultrasound and "enjoying" every m...

In other news...

Our family has been completely disrupted by a jelly bean sized being. I can no longer cook, open the fridge, change diapers, and be reasonable. Yes, I am enjoying my most favorite part of pregnancy- "day" sickness. I would love to call it morning sickness but the only time I get total relief is at night when I am asleep. I have tried sleeping during the day but that didn't make me feel any better and Lily went wild with a crayon on the walls, tv, windows, table, etc. Luckily my mother-in-law came out for 10 days and ran my house. She was an angel to my family and my husband told me he would give me another week before he expected me to run our home like her. Keep dreaming honey. We are looking forward to April with fear and excitement. Now my goal after this icky stuff is over is to get Lily out of diapers. I have been changing diapers without relief since Jacob was born 8 years ago. I have always done double duty with a toddler and a newborn. So I am really loo...

No more triple digits in Cali...

So happy that fall is finally here. We just spent the last week sweating and avoiding the outdoors as it was very hot here. Suddenly the heat is gone and we are in the 70s and freezing. I am loving it.I realized that my children are now completely warped Cali kids. Jacob had an assignment that asked what would you wear in 85 degree weather. His answer: A sweater. Life has been pretty crazy around here lately. Dragging the boys to soccer at least two times every week, Dave working ridiculous hours, school in full swing and 8 puppies running around. Our dog had puppies last month and they are now equipped with claws, teeth, and can run. Hopefully they will be finding homes soon. Also if we find homes for them soon we can tell everyone that they are poodles instead of german shepherds.

I Hate Picture Day

The boys received the dreaded picture notice the other day. First of all who wants to pay 50 dollars for a picture that they can't control. I know that is some of the "beauty" of school picture day but come one. So I have decided that it isn't worth it and I will just go to Penneys for a picture. But then I remember that they use this picture for various school things like yearbook and student card(It seems crazy to me that they have both these things in Elementary but whatever the schools have lots of money to burn right?) So I decided to choose my battles and not tell the kids what they could wear only that I must comb their hair. Jacob and Thomas's hair is getting kind of long right now and to top it off last night was bath night so their hair dried in a mess while they slept. So I pull out the comb and mousse and get to work on Tom's hair. By the time that I finished I had made him "too handsome" and he was embarrassed to go to school. ...

A memorable Vacation

We spent part of July with my family in Utah and Dave's in Idaho. Our most memorable moments 1. The 300 yard pioneer trek. Thomas screamed the whole way back about how he hated pioneers and the whole experience because there were stickers/poky weeds on the trail. 2. Saying goodbye to our dog Missy. We permanantly left her at Grandpas. I have sacraficed and given the indoor animal thing a try for 4 years and I was ready to move on. She just didn't work her at our new place. I will say though that I have figured out why she never ate any food. There is so much more crud on the floor these days. 3. Spending 25 plus hours in a car with my kiddos. They were actually pretty good. 4. Seeing all my family especially new baby Laura. 5. Hanging out with Alainna. We were the lucky ones who got Aunt Alainna with us on several occasions as we drove around Ut. 6. Lily learned a new song on the drive. "A bushel and a Peck" I wish that I had the techno how to post a vi...

Finally some pictures

Hooray we have new windows! The installers left this morning and we now have 5 beautiful vinyl windows and one of them is a bay window. We are taking advantage of the tax credit for energy efficient windows and hoping that we can stay a little warmer this winter. So all day yesterday we had no windows in our house and at the end of the day our house was full of flies. Thank goodness that global warming has taken a vacation in CA because it has been a burning 75 degrees the last 2 weeks. Of course it happens to be the weeks that my kids are in swimming lessons so they have been freezing. Yesterday one of Daves work colleagues came by to look at our goats. Seeing that we know nothing about them except what I have found googling, this guy is a definite expert. He told we should butcher them soon or sale them as they are ready. If it was a matter of me being ready they would have been butchered 2 weeks after we got them. They have been a real pain in the neck. I have gotten used ...

My money curse

Dave is the young mens president in the ward and there is a big hike coming up in Yosemite. The sad thing is that the leaders are way more excited about it than the boys. Suddenly, Dave finds that he needs all this hiking gear- Boots, backpack, self-inflating mattress, pedometer, and that is all he has mentioned right now. So 500 dollars later his wife is on the verge of a heartattack. Would I feel better if I went out and bought the 3oo dollar wheat grinder or a new camera to replace our dead one or an acoustic guitar that I have been thinking about learning to play? I don't know but I would definitely use them more often than his inflatable mattress or maybe not. I also wouldn't be able to hold any bad feelings over his purchase if I made some of my own. Curse you thriftiness gene. I love you and despise you. I love how you saved us through college though I am sometimes embarrased for myself looking back with how little we had but at the time it was great. I hate tha...

Summer begins

I always stress about writing a blog. What if it is not funny? What if nobody enjoys reading it? Do I really have anything blog worthy to write about? Don't get me wrong, I don't think my life is dull. I just struggle when it comes to writing it down. But this summer, I am going to try to blog a little more frequently. So here goes...(disclaimer: Don't be surprised if this turns into one of those journal entries that I write every few years about getting back into journaling and then never again.) Kids are out of school. Yeah and AHHHHH... First of all, I am not looking forward to making lunch everyday. The girls just kind of eat whatever and call it lunch but throw in two more opinions to the mix and it gets stressful. I had a friend who recommended the kids planning the menu for lunch over summer and then they also get to help cook. I am excited to send them outside and enjoy the sun, the dirt and some freedom in the great outdoors. The fundraiser for the youth ...

A real princess...

Ari got 2 princess teeth yesterday at the dentist. Everywhere else we went said they wanted me to go to a hospital. Thanks to the advice of dentist brother in law we kept looking. We finally found a very experienced ped. dentist who treats his patients in office without sedatives. Not that I am totally opposed to sedatives but I definitely didn't want to sign up for anesthesia for a 3 year old. Ari was in the office for less than an hour and she came out with two beautiful silver molars. I feel rather lousy that I have a daughter with silver teeth but I don't know that there is a lot I would/could of done differently. But considering that I have one daughter missing a tooth and one with multiple crowns, I am not off to a great start with these two. My only saving grace is that Tom has ZERO cavities but then he does have the lip scar from crashing and almost biting all the way through his lip. I hope I have scared all of you away from asking to babysit your children if ...

Living the Little Shop of Horrors...

I used to think this Steve Martin character was funny albeit disturbing. But now I feel it is more a reality than I am willing to admit. We have been through 5 dentists since moving here. The first dentist was from Mexico and was really nice. He even called me "Mi-ja". Well actually he said that every 2 seconds and it got real annoying. But I was willing to look past that until I had a really bad tooth. He told me it had a really big cavity and we should just pull it out. Huh? I thought dentist had sworn an oath to protect teeth at all costs. Needless to say, after having a root canal and Dr. Mijo putting a crown on that he did a really bad job doing. He then again reccommended me just getting that tooth pulled. I finally saw the red flags and went to another dentist. Meanwhile my kids needed their teeth looked at so I went to dentist #2. This was one of those dental clinics with lots of dentists. It was called Gentle Dental and the irony of that just kills me. T...

My kids & their filthy music

Lily has been spending crazy amounts of time like this lately. I am sure our septic system has reached its toilet paper quota for the year. You may question my sanity in potty training a not even 2 year old. I didn't choose this she just really loves it. And the good part is that I am not stressed out with high expectations because of her age, but I am secretly hoping that after a week of this we can go back to stress free diapering. I can't complain too much because she is doing a pretty good job of it. However the filthy music that I have had to listen the last week is really getting to me. The routine seems to be that after the bathroom thing she watches the "potty show". Every song of course refers to pee and poop in some new and exciting song genre- regae, ballad, and up beat. Think of the controversy a 10 second potty scene caused on God's Army and that made it a PG movie. With all the scene time spent in bathrooms on this show it must make it at le...

Thinking of investing in Dentistry stock...

I took Ari to the dentist the other day because she had a large brown hole in her molar. I will admit that I have been real lousy about brushing her teeth. She would scream at me and sometimes I was so anxious for her bedtime I skipped over that portion of the routine. So I will take all the blame except for the genetically bad teeth that goes to metal mouth Dave. So a special trip to the pediatric dentist and we receive the sit down with the account counselor to talk about how to set up a dental mortgage- complete with all the scams and paper work, tears and worries of how will I ever be able to pay this back. She has six cavities and needs a crown where the brown hole is. Because of her age (3.5 yrs) and the number of cavities, they want her to go to a ho$pital and use the services of an ane$thesiologist. Even better I am trying to figure out what we need to pay to go to get this done. There is nothing so fun as calling a hospital and asking for a number of what you might pay. ...

Back online

Where do you even begin when you have been offline for nearly 3 weeks? - The email, all the blogs I have not been able to read, or the catching up on all the news. After suffering through an internet bankruptcy I am back again and can finally explain about the "kids". We are now the proud owners of three goats. I would post a picture of them with their head stuck in the fence as that seems to be their favorite pastime. Usually it just means that I send the dog out and the get so scared that they manage to pull their head back through. Between them and our 50 lb puppy who likes to jump fences, the animals have kept me very busy and I haven't even begun to mention the four other animals that live in my house!

Tommy New Year

Kindergartener Christmas 06 A thumb sucker 04 Summer 05 Spring 05 Happy 6 Thomas! We are happy to have you in our family! You are tough as nails, very sincere and love bread. You make us laugh with your funny voices and surprise us with the things you say when you eventually speak. Sometimes we overlook you because you are the quietest but we couldn't live without you. We spent the day in the snow(had to drive to get there) then had 4 families for pizza and brownie sundaes. Great Day and Tom ate about 3 lbs of snow.

The Dreaded Family Pictures

Finally took some pictures. After 2 hours of preparation-finding the right clothes and getting hair done, I was in a foul mood and all ready to start taking their pictures. I tried bribery and everything I could think of. I think my best efforts will be spent learning to photoshop smiles on to their faces.