Life with the Hathaway Girls

No excuses...

2010-12-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

I have no excuse, I should not have let 2 and a 1/2 months go by without a single post! I suppose I could say life got in the way, or I've been sick, or working leaves me with no time, or many other things. Honestly, I haven't made it a priority. I'm hoping that will change! When I read my previous posts I remember why I keep this online journal... and that I need to do it regularly! So (again!) I'm going to try and start fresh... weekly updates at the very least! So look forward to some new posts coming your way... I've got a LOT of updating to do!! :)

YW topics...

2010-08-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

I'm a couple topics behind, so I'd better get it out there before I get a new one today! The first topic I missed is: What do you think the world will be like when you're all grown up? My answer? I honestly don't like to think about it! The world seems more and more full of inconsiderate, blatantly rude, selfish people... and the world seems to think that's okay. I have a feeling it will only get worse. :(

Last weeks topic was drawn while I was away on a vacation, and I believe the topic is: If you could make a law, what would it be? I would make a law that said infedelity was illegal and jail time mandatory for offenders... it seems so rampant in this world. A lot of problems stem from it, and if there were more tangible consequences, maybe people would think twice about it!

Personal Progress

2010-08-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

I am now the personal progress leader for the young women of my ward! I am really excited! My first challenge to the girls was to create a blog and write on it at least once a week... I realized that I was a bad example since I haven't been updating my blog that often. So it starts again now! I have to update my blog regularly... and I'm hoping I can do this at least every Sunday. I've been giving the girls a topic (drawn out of an idea jar) to get their brains going, and I thought I'd better use those subjects too.

The first topic was:

If you were given a Million dollars

to do only charitable things with, what would you do?

I think I would have soooo much fun finding ways to help people! There are a lot of people that aren't destitute, but could use help... and even a little help would make an amazing difference in their lives... I would want to help those people. I would want to do lots and lots of things for them and do it all anonymously. If I saw someone driving an old car that obviously needs to be replaced, I would buy them a new one and leave it in their driveway anonymously. If I met someone that needed a repair on their home, or clothes for their kids, or food on their table... I would find a way to pay for it without them knowing. I would love to walk into a restaurant and tell the waitress that everyones bill was on me... and then watch the simple joy that people got from such a simple gesture! I think a million dollars could go really far and make a lot of people happy!

The next topic is:

If you could give...

If I could give people a reason to smile everyday, I'd be sooooo happy! Making someone's day, makes my day better! It's simple, but so true :)

What??? I haven't posted since when?

2010-07-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

I just came on to check my blog and discovered I haven't posted since May! That is not a great way for me to document my life... not a great way at all. So much has happened since then... Kaitlin's first school play, Kourtney's graduation from pre-school, a vacation to Vegas, getting my wisdom teeth out (which I'm currently in pain from), and probably more. I'll get on this weekend and give a full update with pics... if you don't see my post by Monday, email me/yell at me so I can get my butt in gear!

Bragging...

2010-05-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

I'm totally going to brag... I try not to do it too often, but I'm just so darn proud of Kinsie I can't contain myself! She was tested for GATE and (drumroll please)... she passed with flying colors! When she came out of the test, the psychologist said "Kinsie is really smart! She was such a joy to test!" The child of mine that I swore was a genius, actually is (sort of)! We are so proud of our little smarty pants! We have applications in to go to Rhodes (the school with the GATE program)... which also happens to be the best school in the county... we're crossing our fingers the kids all get in!

D-land Fun!

2010-05-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

The following pictures are from 2 separate trips to D-land. For obvious reasons, this is our favorite place to hang out as a family! Do you notice Kinsie's signature move when I take her picture?

No joke, this was a woman's

real shoe... weird.

More Puppy Pics!

2010-05-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

It's official... I'm now one of those lame people that dresses their pet. Yep. That's me. {L.A.M.E.} I used to make fun of those people... a lot! It seemed so ridiculous to waste time and money on clothing for an animal... a creature made with hair on almost every inch of it's body. But alas, I've seen the light. My poor little tiny puppy gets soooooo cold! Clothing is an absolute necessity for her shivering little body!So yes, in most of these pictures, our little Skittles will be dressed in the absolute cutest clothing made for little dogs.

She loves to snuggle up with

any warm body she can find!

She KNOWS that box contains all her goodies!

The lid comes off and in she goes!

And yes, her shirt is blinged out

with "High Maintenance"

She hates this hoodie, so she won't

sit still for me to snap a good picture!!

Another trip to the Wild Animal Park!

2010-05-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

We love the Wild Animal Park! We go there as much as possible... and with the cheap, cheap price of a season pass can you blame us?

They always have to feed the ducks... who am I kidding, it's really me that always has to feed the ducks!!

I love, love, love that I captured

this bird flying straight at me!

We LOVE the butterfly jungle every April!

I don't know this woman, but I loved her

reaction to the butterfly flying right to her!

Okay, I know this isn't a butterfly, but it's such a strange looking bird... I always have to take it's picture =)

We were so close to the cheetah we could have touched it (and possibly had our hand bitten off) but so cool!

A Day at the Arboretum

2010-05-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

During spring break, we decided to grab a picnic lunch and spend the afternoon at the LA County Arboretum. If you've never been there, you should go! The third Tuesday of the month (or something like that) it's free. ;)

We love to walk around and search for a peacock showing off it's spray of beautiful feathers for the ladies... or a giant turtle swimming in a pond... or a goose attack a child that pissed it off...or a bird dive into the water and catch a fish... or beautiful flowering trees... or odd looking plantlife...

In other words, it's a great place to stroll around and see some cool things... and we saw many awesome things that day!

A puppy...

2010-05-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

We added a new member to our family! We got her at 8 weeks old weighing just 3 pounds! She is energetic, loving, frustrating and adorable... let me introduce you to {Skittles}

I've taken much better pictures, but for some reason my camera won't let me download them :( It is beyond frustrating... so recent pics will be up as soon as I can figure out the problem!

Phrase of the Day...

2010-05-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

This time the phrase of the day comes from me. :) Something I never imagined I'd have to say...

"Oh no, stop... We don't eat baby Jesus!"

Said while stopping the new puppy from chewing off baby Jesus' head.

It's times like these...

2010-04-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

There are so many pregnant people everywhere I go! I have been invited to 5 baby showers already this year... and I still have 13 friends having babies before the end of fall!! That is a LOT of babies! I love little babies. The first kicks. The growing tummy. The tiny fingers. The tiny toes. The smell. The smiles. I love it all.

It's times like these that I feel sad that I can't ever have that again. I see all the happy new mommies around me... and I'm happy for them... I really am... but then I realize how sad it makes me. I wanted so badly to have another baby. I still do. I'm not sure if the desire to have another baby will ever go away... but I keep thinking the pain and desire will become less and less as the years go by. It's been almost 3 years now... and the pain seemed fine... until everyone I knew started having babies at the same time!

It's times like these that the sadness is a little more profound. All these babies are constant reminders of something I want and can't have. Today, I feel sorry for myself. Tomorrow, I may feel differently. I have to go back to the times when I would tell myself that I already have 3 blessings... asking God for any more is just being greedy. But that of course is easier said than done.

It's times like these that I have to force myself to forget. To forget what I can't have... and try to remember life before the surgeries. Life is so much better without the pain. Before the surgeries I was in constant, excruciating pain. I traded a life of misery, for a life of no more babies... and while it's not exactly what I wanted... I have to remember.

It's times like these that I find comfort in voicing my feelings. Talking about it really feels good. I feel better after taking control of how I feel, crying it out a little, and then knowing I can move on. I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll feel this way, but I know my little outbursts of sadness seem to happen less frequently than they used to.... which gives me hope.

It's times like these that I really am happy for all my baby-producing friends... just don't be surprised if I want to hold your baby for an extraordinary amount of time! And don't be surprised if you notice a little frown as I do... it's not because I'm not happy for you and your beautiful child... it's just that I'm a little sad for my child that never was.

The Party

2010-04-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

I firmly believe it's not a party without balloons :)

I was brave and decided to attempt a castle cake at the birthday girls request... next time it'll be better!

Thanks to uncle Dana there's

always an awesome jumper!

She apparently loved the burger ;)

The pinata... danger and fun, all rolled into one!

I think it's safe to say that everyone had a good time! I know that Kourtney had a blast! :)

A Birthday Photo Shoot

2010-04-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

At the request of my newly turned 5 year old, I conducted a photo shoot. Basically, I followed her around the room while she told me when to take pictures... and each new face she made (on purpose) was solely her own doing... enjoy :)

My Baby Turned 5!

2010-04-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

It happened... I officially have no more babies in my house... just kids :( Yep, it's true... Kourtney has turned 5! I must say that life would not be the same without her... from the whispers in my ear that "I'm the best" to her silly faces and contagious smile. She's an awesome little girl that makes me happy. To celebrate, we took the kids out of school and joined my cousins for a day at the LA Museum of Natural History. We started with a picnic in the park...

Notice the sleeping bum in the backround?

This was the coolest part of the museum!

They've seen real, live elephants, yet they were somehow still entranced by the dead, stuffed ones!

Morgan getting eaten by a polar bear!!!

Abe's arm eaten by a fox!!

(or whatever that animal skin was)

Posing as statues :)

After a fun filled few hours at the museum, we headed to Build-a-Bear and then the Rainforest Cafe.

My sister and her family joined us for dinner... I can't believe how big Baby David is getting!!

She loves her new kitty!

Two of the cutest 6 year olds around...

I have a feeling they're gonna be trouble someday!

Who can pass up a chance to make a funny face?

Phase 1 of Kourtney's birthday celebration was a success! It was a great, exhausting day :) Now I'm ready for her to stop growing!

Oh Man, where do I begin...

2010-02-17T21:13:00.000-08:00

I am not blessed with an amazing body... it doesn't look great and it doesn't act great. I've had so many problems over the years that have required medical testing, medications, and surgeries... so why should 2010 be any different? I've started out the year with a doozy for sure... I've been having some trouble with my stomach and I've been sick off and on since Christmas. Things escalated 2 weeks ago, and then on Saturday things got scary. PLEASE STOP READING IF YOU GET SQUEAMISH OR WILL THINK OF ME DIFFERENTLY IF YOU HEAR SOMETHING REALLY GROSS ABOUT ME!!

I went to the ER after discovering that when I was going #2 it was pure blood. I immediately knew that it was a very bad thing and off we went to get it checked out. The ER doctor said I probably have a bad bacterial infection and gave me a prescription for 2 antibiotics. Let me just say, I am not great at taking pills... I have to psych myself up every single time, so I was a little nervous at taking the new antibiotics that they don't make in a liquid. I tried everything, but I could not get it down without gagging because it had the most vile taste ever!! So I finally decided to crush it and take it with some chocolate syrup... I got it past my tongue and was excited! I said to Jeff "Oh, I got it!" Then it hit my throat and I immediately started throwing up. So off we went, back to the ER on Valentines day. They said I need the drugs badly so an IV was hooked up. Simple right? Wrong! It took them 9 tries to get the IV in because I was apparently dehydrated from all of the toilet deposits. Yes, I am bruised up if you were wondering. I had to go back to the hospital on Monday for another treatment, and then Tuesday I started having a nurse come to my home to administer the IV drugs.

So here's the skinny on things: I saw a specialist... he mentioned bacteria and he mentioned Cancer. I have a colonoscopy scheduled for tomorrow morning to do some biopsies and figure out which one it is. If you have any questions about the prep for the colonoscopy, or the colonoscopy itself... just ask! I'm not shy so I'll tell you all the gory details if you want... but I don't plan on posting it publicly at this point.

Oh and something fun we learned... the nurse doesn't come back everyday, she taught Jeff how to do it...so JEFF will be hooking up my IV each day! A little nerve-wracking!! Anyway, wish me luck and pray they diagnose me with a bacterial infection!

Conversationof the Day...

2010-02-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

While driving Kourtney to school this morning, she started talking to me about orphanages (she's always very concerned about all the orphan babies).

Kourtney: Mom, can we go to an orphanage and buy a kid?

Me: You can't buy kids honey, you can adopt them, but you don't actually buy them.

Kourtney: Why? Are they too much money... is it because we can't afford it?

Me: Ummmm, no sweetie, you just aren't allowed to buy people. Why are you asking?

Kourtney: I want another sister.

Me: really? You don't want a brother?

Kourtney: No. I don't like boys.

The entire conversation made me smile... one thing I can say I've done well as a mother is to teach my children to really care about other people. Orphans hold a special place in their heart for 2 reasons: We bought christmas presents for children at an orphanage one year, and they watch the movie Annie! I have a feeling she'll ask me again if we can "buy" an orphan!!

Tap, Tap... Is this thing on?

2010-01-16T20:56:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure if anyone checks my blog anymore, and I don't blame you! I have definitely neglected my duty to journal and document the life of my family. Right now there is so much that I've missed that's it's overwhelming to think of all that I need to write about! And pictures.... oh man, the pictures... updating pictures from the last few months is extremely daunting. I think what I may do is document backwards until I get caught up!

Most recently, Jeff and I did service for the Disney "Give a day, get a day" program. We signed up to help a theater in La Mirada move a costume donation from Irvine to their storage facility. When I say that there were thousands and thousands of costumes, I am NOT exaggerating! It was a collection valued at over $500,000... and it was amazing. This woman, Cathy, had been building her collection for years... as a hobby that her rich hubby supported... and when she decided to retire, she felt she didn't NEED the $500k or more that she could get, so she'd just GIVE it away! I can't even imagine having the freedom to do something like that. We worked all day and it was hard, tiring work, but it was a lot of fun. It was great to meet and work with so many other cool people! I almost felt guilty doing service knowing I was going to get something out of it! I said "almost". Now Jeff and I have free passes to Disneyland, and thanks to his mom's monetary gift to us, we'll be upgrading to passes! It was totally worth the hard work we put in! :)

Hmmmm.... before that, what the heck did we do? I'm thinking New Years was the next big thing in my backwards update. I have to say this was the best New Years we've had in a long time. Jeff actually had the night off this year... which was probably one of the reasons we had such a good time! We started out by heading to a party at our friends house... taco bar, music and dancing, bounce house slide, and a great group of friends made for an awesome party. Generally, I don't like to take kids with me to a party, but this time we let them join us... and they had a good time until about 10pm when they crashed on the couch with all the other sleeping kids! We danced the night away, chatted up some friends we hadn't seen in awhile, connected with some new friends that we're really enjoying, and had a blast! We left the party around 1am, but the night didn't end there! We threw the sleeping kids in the car and headed straight to the Rose parade! Yup, you heard me... we're those crazy people that go and attempt to sleep on a street in the middle of Pasadena when it's 40 degrees out!

Luckily my parents went down a couple days early and had a spot snagged for us (crazy story that goes along with that... I'll come back to it). They had their motorhome parked on Sierra Madre Blvd (where the kids slept) and a big section was staked out for the rest of us! We attempted to sleep... and yes attempt is the correct word... on the cold, hard ground... and at first I wasn't freezing at all. There must be something about 3am, because all of a sudden I was teeth chattering, muscles shaking cold! I sat by the fire, that was fading way too fast, and tried to stay warm... tried is the operative word here. Apparently I've lived in Socal way to long... I don't think I even own anything that would have kept me warm. Jacket? What do I need one of those for? Warm socks? Um, can you say flip flops year round? Anyway, I think you get the picture... it was cold and I was unprepared.

Around 7 am everyone (and by everyone I mean the 5 million people all sleeping on the street around us) started waking up and things warmed up rather fast. We were towards the end of the parade route, so the parade didn't hit until around 10am. There were so many crazy entertaining people to watch though, so the time flew by! For example: There was a lady across the street from us wearing a shirt (that should have been longer) and black, thin, spandex pants... to be nice I'll just say she wasn't someone you'd want to see in spandex. Her standing there wasn't the problem... it was when she turned around and bent over that things got interesting! My brother started saying "full moon! full moon!" and we noticed that she was missing a vital undergarment and her stretched-too-thin spandex was revealing everything as the sunshine bounced off of her! Not only did she bend over once, she kept doing it!! And everyone on our side of the street would erupt in a contagious laughter! There were lots of screams of "whoa!" "Oh my" "why does she keep doing that? Stand up, please stand up!". Like I said, entertaining crazy people.

The entire time (all night long too) there were vendors walking up and down the street, and a lot of them were selling silly string. While we were waiting we saw a lot of people using it! One group of about 15 people came running across the street, screaming, armed with silly string, and just plastered another group of people. About 30 minutes later the group that was ambushed grabbed their silly string, ran across the street and retaliated against the first group! They did this several times and it was great to watch them having so much fun!

There were so many other great stories... but I'll move on to the drama my parents had trying to reserve a spot. They went down a couple days early, staked out an area that they wanted, and noticed that there was a square spray painted on the grass with initials in it. They wanted to make sure they weren't planning on a spot that was already reserved, so they went to the Pasadena police dept and inquired about it. They were told that people do it in an attempt to reserve a spot, but it's illegal... so the space was there's to take. Apparently people will spray paint "their" square as early as October!!! My parents waited until the allowed time to set up their chairs in their space (noon the day of new year's eve) and seeing nobody that was claiming the space, they claimed it as theirs and set up their stuff. Soon after, the crazy woman showed up!!! She started ranting and raving about "her" space... she was not willing to listen to reason, and refused my parents (and surrounding parade goers) offer to move down and make space for her party... she yelled and screamed at my poor mom... and called her names. Not just silly names like stupid or idiot... she called her the devil! Then added some more describing words to it that really crossed the line. Then the woman began throwing my mom's chairs... this crazy lady literally picked up her chairs and threw them!! So my mom called 911. Crazy lady told the police she'd marked that spot on Halloween and had come to check on it every week since then, so it was hers... she was then informed that she was wrong and she needed to find a new space... that did not make her happy! She left the area, threw other people's unattended chairs out of the way, and stole "their" spot. Oh, but that was not the end of the crazy lady antics. She came over and yelled at my mom some more and threw herself on the ground and acted like she was having a seizure (freaking out her 15 year old daughter)... after a few moments of my mom completely ignoring her crazy stunt, she got up and brushed herself off and walked away. She then came back and called the police... asking them to come arrest my mom for putting up her chairs a few minutes early! After that didn't work, she threatened my mom by saying "I'm gonna go think of a way to get back at you!" Okay lady, sure... you go do that. My poor mom that had to face the crazy lady!

Anyway, besides that little bit of crazy, it was an enjoyable time! The energy on the parade route is amazin... it's in no way the same as watching it on tv in the comfort of your warm house. Pj's on the street is the way to go! We (mostly me) definitely want to do it again next year!!! But we'd love to have an even bigger group and definitely better warm clothes and better sleeping bags! Oh, and a bigger fire! All in all, it was a great way to kick off the new year!! :)

Note: I forgot my camera and am awaiting pics from the fam.. I'll upload them as soon as I get them!

When did I become one of those people...

2010-01-06T22:08:00.001-08:00

When did I become one of those people that never updates their blog? I got a job and apparently lost all sight of journaling my life... so here's to a new year and a fresh start.

Update #1: I started working in October at the Avocado House. Come visit me for breakfast or lunch!

Update #2: Jeff is in backgrounds with San Bernardino County... we're keeping our fingers crossed that he gets hired!

Coming up in 2010:

Our 10 year anniversary is in February!

Jeff turns 40 in March

Kourtney will turn 5 and start kindergarten!

and I'll be turning 30 in September!!

It'll be a big year! I'll do my best to document it!! =)

Halloween Tricks and Treats

2009-11-03T17:44:00.000-08:00

Every Halloween I stress over costumes for my girls... for some reason I have a need for them to coordinate... which can make things a little trickier!

They've been cops and robbers

The Wizard of Oz characters

Cute Animals (kittens and a bunny)

And this year was no different... I wanted them to be something that fit together. After much debate, I came up with a doctor, nurse, patient combo. Kinsie was the doctor, Kourtney was the nurse, and Kaitlin was the patient who'd be struck by lightning. A week before Halloween we went to the school Family Night... filled with games and treats and costumes... and it's a good thing we did... because Kaitlin and I were both sick on Halloween and missed out! I must say I'm pretty proud of how they looked this year as well... especially considering that I spent a total of $30 for all 3 costumes! I bought fabric and Jeff's mom sewed the scrubs for us, and then we made Kaitlin's costume ourselves. Which means I was extra bummed when Kaitlin wasn't able to dress up on Halloween and we missed out on 2 parties :(

Jeff was able to take the younger 2 to one of the scheduled parties... and they even took a trick-or-treat bag for Kaitlin, but I was stuck in bed with a fever, chills, and a horrible cough. I'd have to say it was my least favorite Halloween so far. Sadly, the next night the younger 2 came down with the flu as well!! At least it held off a day for them so they were able to enjoy themselves!

These are pictures from the family fun night the week before

Beautiful, but Badly Behaved Girls

2009-11-03T16:30:00.001-08:00

I know I'm biased, but I think my girls are beautiful. In fact, I love to take their picture and show them off to everyone like I'm doing right now :) I like to consider myself lucky... 3 pretty girls that LOVE to smile pretty for the camera.... most of the time that is. On this day in particular, they each took their turn smiling for me...

But when I wanted a picture with all 3 of them together, their uncooperative, misbehaving sides came out... after several attempts to get them to all smile together, I opted to videotape the chaos instead (without their knowledge of course... they still thought I was trying to snap a picture). I have to say it was rather difficult to not laugh the entire time... is it bad that I still find my children absolutely adorable even when they're fighting like they do in this video? :)

Updates are Long Overdue!

2009-11-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

Back in October, we went up to the mountains of Tehachapi for a family reunion/memorial for my grandmother who passed away this year. It was a weekend filled with cousins, and aunts, and uncles and food, food, and more food. It was a lot of fun to see family that has been absent from our family functions for awhile... and the kids enjoyed meeting up with my cousins kids, whom I don't think they'd ever met! My parents were in charge of the food for the weekend... let's just say we ate well enough to each have walked away with a few extra pounds :)

This is my cousin Elizabeth and her adorable baby Chase

Some of my cousins kids decorating some

of the 18 dozen sugar cookies I made!

Busy. Busy. Busy.

2009-10-13T20:19:00.001-07:00

Life has been crazy lately! I have every intention of starting to update on a regular basis again! I have a bunch of pictures to upload, so no big post right away. I WILL share something that I saw today though, to hold you over in the meantime. ;)

I love the rain. A lot. It's one of my favorite things. I could just sit and listen to the rain all day and night. I know I'm not alone... lots of people enjoy it as much as I do, and I encountered some of them today! I was driving on the 60 fwy today, headed to Kourtney's school, and it began to rain. Not a hard rain, but a soft steady sprinkle. In the lane next to mine I saw a BMW convertible with the top down. From behind, I could tell that the driver and passenger were two grandma-type women. My first thought was "oh my! I wonder if they're freaking out because they're getting wet now!" I sped up a little bit and passed them. As I drove by the two women their sheer joy was undeniable! They had the biggest, happiest smiles I have ever seen. They looked like little school girls out playing in the rain. I could just see the years fading away and their youth shining through. They looked like two of the happiest women in the world at that moment... and it made me smile. :)

Random Cuteness

2009-09-04T12:19:00.001-07:00

The following pictures are all adorable (in my opinion) but don't warrant an entire post of their own, so I decided to throw them together for one big random post.

On the first day of school I was getting pictures of Kaitlin and Kinsie in their new school outfits (a yearly tradition) and Kourtney and her bed head decided to pop in!

Doing Kourtney's hair, since the cutting incident, has been super easy... but boring. So I decided to try something new!

What do you think? Personally, I think she has the cutest little face and she could be bald and still look beautiful!

My kids love to pop in to pictures!

Kinsie got in the way of a pic of a sleeping Kaitlin. We were on our way home from a pirate birthday party in Apple Valley, and she fell asleep with a pirate patch on and a ring pop in her mouth... just before I took this picture the ring pop fell out!

I love how this picture shows off Kinsie's blue eyes!

First Day of School!

2009-08-31T13:19:00.000-07:00

I love my girls to death... but I was soooooo ready for summer to be over! School needed to have started about 2 weeks ago, because that's when they started to get on each others nerves and drive me crazy. But alas, it didn't start until today. Kaitlin was wishing and hoping to have Mr Smith as her 3rd grade teacher... and she got him! We cannot be happier. He seems like an amazing teacher, and we've never heard one negative thing about him! Kinsie was hoping for Ms Olsen... and she got her! When we saw Ms Olsen this morning she let us know that she was even more excited than we were to have Kinsie in her class! I have a feeling it's going to be a great year. :)

My 3rd grader... can you believe it?

She growing up so fast!

She informed me yesterday that I am no longer allowed to call her Kinsie... she now simply goes by the title "first grader"

Walking off to class with her teacher!

And my monkey Kourtney... she doesn't start school for another 2 weeks! Sadly, she misses the girls already!

Kourtney, Kourtney, Kourtney... what am I going to do with her?!

2009-08-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

9 months ago, Kourtney cut her own hair... it was a crazy, crazy cut that landed her with a pixie to fix it. Apparently, she was long overdue to do it AGAIN! She'd been taking about wanting long hair for the past 9 months, so I wasn't worried about scissors and my sneaky little monkey! This time, I was on the phone getting an appointment to finalize her preschool enrollment. She said her bangs were in her face, so I told her she could go in my room and get a headband. She came out as I was ending the conversation... this time, instead of staring at her in silence for an hour, I laughed. And laughed. I cannot believe she did this again. So a hat was thrown on her head until we could get to the salon in the morning... this is the before:

She was soooo not happy to have her hair cut back into a pixie.... but I think she looks absolutely adorable!

Last trip to San Diego for the summer...

2009-08-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

As summer is winding down, we decided to head to San Diego one last time... we're so glad we have passes to the Zoo and Wild Animal Park!

We're waiting for the bird show... which was awesome!

My favorite part: the Lorikeets!

...which I was informed are, in fact, a type of parrot ;)

All summer they've had Dinoland... the kids enjoyed all the robotic dinos and weren't even scared!

Kinsie wanted to know why this one had high heels!

The lions were soooo close!

Watch closely... Kaitlin gets bit :)

Camping at Leo Carillo

2009-08-24T16:19:00.001-07:00

So much to talk about with the camping trip... so I'll sum it up to save time:

-Went to the beach every day

-Beach was cold and cloudy... and most days really windy

-Ate too much good food

-Went on many scooter rides

-Rode in a convertible for the first time

-Squirrels ate some of the food in our tent...and left lots of crumbs

-Squirrels ate a hole through Jared and Jannee's brand new tent to get to their bread!

-Put food in a bin to keep it safe... the bananas in the bin made everything other food taste like banana!

-Got dirty and took mostly cold showers

-Campfires and smores :)

-3 of us had our car batteries die... at the same time.

-Lots of laughs relaxation, and fun

-Ants invaded our tent by the hundreds

-Threw away our broken, bug infested tent.

-Went home a day early

-Too many pictures to post... but I'll do my best (in n0 particular order)

Vegas!

2009-08-11T09:05:00.001-07:00

Jeff and I decided that we needed a weekend away. We recruited my sister Shelly and her husband to babysit, booked our timeshare on the strip, cashed in all the coins we'd been saving, and were off for a few days of frugal fun. :) Yes, I know that frugal and Vegas don't really go together, but we wanted to give it a try! We figured that at the very least we could sit by the pool for a couple days and just relax.

We hit zero traffic, bypassed state line (where I would generally stop and want to shop), and was in Vegas by lunchtime.

Our room was beautiful and overlooked the amazing pool at the Flamingo. Why I didn't take a picture of the view, I don't know.

It was 140 degrees outside the whole time! Okay, well maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration... it was literally 113 during the day, and 103 at night... it was hot! Knowing that I would look like a sweaty mess in all future pictures, I made sure to snap one showing that I attempted to look good at the beginning of the day.

Jeff has a way of making odd faces to screw up my pictures! It is possible that it's because it was my 15th attempt to snap a picture where my eyes were open, my double chin was hidden, or my smile wasn't weird... I guess I can't blame him too much ;)

Ah, a decent one :)
Our one splurge of the trip was lunch at Bobby Flays restaurant Mesa Grill... it was A.MA.Z.I.N.G. We chose lunch instead of dinner to save money though... lunch was a third of the cost of dinner! I wanted to eat there for every meal... but Jeff insisted it would NOT be the most frugal thing to do. He was right.

In keeping with our frugal theme, we were offered a free limo ride up the strip and $70 to gamble with (in exchange for a one hour owner Q and A) we figured free was good so why not? They gave us free snacks and drinks, we chatted with a nice man, learned some new tricks to maximize our timeshare, and got paid for it! The limo driver took us from the Hilton on the strip over to the Las Vegas Hilton so we could use our casino voucher. We handed the cashier our tickets, she handed us a $70 voucher, then we cashed out and left!
Gotta love a free limo ride :)
From there, we hopped on the monorail (our first time on it) got off at the Harrah's stop, and walked to the Wynn. It was a hot walk, but not unbearable... I think it was only 109 at this point!

When we got to the Wynn they gave us each $10 to gamble with... luck was on our side a little because Jeff won $30... so we cashed out and stopped gambling! We participated in a free slot tournament (and were 2 seats away from the lady that won $500) and then headed out for a walk back towards our hotel.

After a disappointing dinner buffet at the Flamingo, we made a simple complaint and was offered our money back (so a free dinner... very frugal). We decided to walk to some of the hotel nightlife (the Bellagio fountain, some Karaoke, and a piano bar) but on the way we swung by Planet Hollywood... that $70 we acquired earlier was burning a hole in my pocket! I sat down at the Wheel of Fortune slots, took out a $10 bill and put it in. I accidently hit the button for a max bid... the wheels started spinning... I freaked out "no! I didn't mean to do that!" and what do you know... I won $40! So we cashed out. :)

The piano bar was great (except for the cigar smoke being blown in our faces) so after a couple of hours we headed back out onto the strip.

We had so much fun and it was sad to leave... but any more time there and we would have had to change our theme from frugal to broke.

Chickens!

2009-08-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

On a whim, we decided to get little cornish game hens and let the kids make their own! They had more fun than I'd even imagined! They got to season them themselves (with supervision of course) and put them on the BBQ... would totally recommend it... they loved it! :)

Sweet Kitties

2009-08-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

I found the kitten asleep like this the other day!

Shortly the other cats joined her...
Then Kaitlin decided to join in too! They slept like that for a while :)

The Rainforest Cafe

2009-08-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I took the girls to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch... they'd been begging me forever! Since I had an awesome coupon (Thanks Sara!) I decided to finally take them :)

After lunch and a LOT of window shopping, they were exhausted! I didn't even tell them to go to bed! They went back to their rooms to play and the next thing I now, I find them like this!

Oregon!

2009-08-11T07:27:00.001-07:00

We had so much fun on our trip to Oregon! I took hundreds of pictures that I loved and wanted to share... but the thought of uploading them all was a daunting task. Which is precisely why I hadn't updated yet! I finally decided to post a slideshow... that way it at least gets done! I apologize for the less than stellar slideshow!

UPDATE COMING SOON!

2009-08-10T10:02:00.001-07:00

We've been so busy! I'll be posting a few updates in the next couple days!

Oregon here we come!

2009-07-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

The girls and I are headed off to Oregon for a trip with my parents. I'm hoping to have tons of amazing pictures to share when we get back! Have a great week everyone! :)

4th of July

2009-07-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Flag raising ceremony. Pancake breakfast. Friends. BBQ. Fireworks. Homemade ice cream. PERFECT.

The Magic Castle Was NOT So Magical.

2009-06-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

There's something you must know about me. I love magic. I know there is a trick to all things that appear magic... and thus none of it is really "magic", but I love it anyway. I love to watch a master magician fool me over and over again. I love to buy into his illusions as fact... because there is no real explanation as to how else he could have accomplished such an illusion. That being said, I love making trips to The Magic Castle. If you've never been there before, go here and check it out. It's one of my favorite places to go. I love getting all dressed up and going to a place with so much history, and class. Then being surrounded by friendly lovers of magic, and some of the world's best magicians... it's a wonderful place. I really enjoy sharing such a night with friends... especially if they've never been before! I love watching their faces as they witness magic up close that has little to no explanation for how it was possibly done.

Thursday night was to be one of those nights. I invited our friends Kalli and John to come along with us, they'd never been, so I couldn't wait to introduce them to the castle. The kids were sent to stay at my parents for the night, we got all dressed up, and we headed down to Hollywood. The night went perfect. We hit no traffic, had a yummy meal at the castle restaurant, saw an amazing show from magician Mark Matsumoto in the close-up room, then headed to the Palace of Mystery to see a show from The Pendragons.

That's when things went terribly wrong. It hit me while we were waiting for the show to start. All of a sudden I felt sick... really, really sick... food poisoning. I excused myself to the restroom and ended up losing everything I had eaten at dinner. I felt horrible! I thought it was over and went to take a seat in the lobby... not too far from the restroom. The show had already started, but I knew there was no way I felt like sitting in my original seat due to the sick feeling that was still lingering. One of the workers recognized that I had been seated in the show and was so kind to let me in the back to an empty seat by the door. I watched the show... half enjoying it, half worried I would lose it at any moment. The show ended, and we went directly to another show and grabbed some of the last available seats. As I was sitting there I was thinking that I wasn't sure I would make it! I gave up my seat and rushed out of there... just in time. I spent the next 20 minutes losing the rest of my dinner... and wishing I could just die.

I regained my composure, headed out to find the rest of my party, and sadly said I needed to go. We missed the best part of the night! The feature performer hadn't performed yet, and he was supposed to be awesome, and we missed the second performer in the close-up room. We also missed a few other things that are special to the castle. I spent almost the entire car ride home with my face in a bag... just waiting. Everyone was pleased that I managed to make it home without losing it in the car.

I felt horrible... I ruined the night for our first time castle guests, missed out on my favorite magic shows, and was embarrassed beyond belief that I had to lose my dinner while all dressed up in a fancy place! The Magic Castle was less than magical on Thursday... and I can't wait to go back and do it again... minus the food poisoning of course!

I did manage to snap a couple pics...

John and Kalli

(little did they know I'd be ruining the evening!)

A Picnic Disaster.

2009-06-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

Even though I'd been feeling sick, I agreed to take the girls on a picnic with my sister and her daughters last Monday. We headed over to the children's museum, found a shady spot under a tree and had a nice calm picnic. It was a beautiful day! From there we walked to the community garden to check out my sisters section. She has a square in the garden planted with several different things... the kids got to help water and walk around a bit... they love that kind of stuff.

The plan had been to have the kids play in the fountain by the museum, but apparently it's closed on Monday, so we decided to head down the street to the splash pad at a nearby park. We arrived, got the kids out of the car, walked over to the splash pad... and it quit working. :( There was someone there trying to fix it, and after about 20 long minutes of waiting with impatient kids, it finally started working again. The kids sort of enjoyed it. Gena's kids loved it, Kourtney and Kinsie liked it for a little bit, and Kaitlin stood by my side and whined about how cold it was. I told her she didn't have to go in, but then she whined that she wanted to play too... which led to whining that it was too cold. It was a vicious cycle that was completely frustrating. At this point I was also starting to feel worse. After they played for about 20 or 30 minutes they all said they were done (except Kaitlin who was still pouting about not getting to go in) so we headed back to the car. It was as we're getting in the car that Kourtney realizes we're heading home... a full out tantrum ensues. She screamed and yelled the entire way home. She didn't want to go home yet and she was making that known. Despite my feeling crappy, I was surprisingly calm outwardly (and was seething only on the inside). I get home and have a screaming 4 year old, a crying 7 year old, and a happy as can be 5 year old... I sent the grumpy kids to bed and had a relaxing couple of hours with Kinsie. The beginning of the picnic was great... but it ended so horribly. How do you teach kids to be grateful when it comes to things like that? In my eyes, she should have been grateful that we did any of those things! But instead they only want more and more and more. Do I spoil them too much already? I don't feel like I do... but the disaster at the end of that outing makes me not want to do anything for my kids since they lack even an ounce of appreciation.

Anyway, here are some pics of the kids pre-tantrums.

Summer break so far...

2009-06-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

So far summer break has been filled with sleepovers, swimming, picnics, zoo trips, the flu, and movies. The girls started out our summer break by waking up every morning at 5am! Thankfully that only lasted a week... now they get up around 7:30 everyday. Much better in my opinion.

The girls have had multiple sleepovers in each others rooms as well as a sleepover at grandmas. Kaitlin went to a sleepover at a friends house, and had a special sleepover by herself at grandmas... and they took her to Disneyland! I'd have to say she's had the best break so far.

One of the many sleepovers

The saturday after school got out, we took a trip down to the Santa Ana zoo with my sisters and their kids, as well as my mom... it was a fun little day! If you've never been there, I must say it is small and about the only animals you'll see are monkeys. When we were heading back towards the entrance, Kaitlin said "we didn't see any tigers or zebras!" When I explained that there weren't any, she was incredulous! "That was it?!" was her response. Apparently my kids have been spoiled by the San Diego Zoo.

I spent most of last week sick... so keeping the kids entertained all day has been a challenge. I'm hoping that all the sickness is over now so we can get out and do a lot more fun things soon! Still ahead this summer is a trip to Oregon, a camping trip at Leo Carrillo, and a couple trips down to San Diego.

Kinsie's last day of school

2009-06-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

I was skeptical that it would happen, but it did...Kinsie made a miraculous recovery and made it to her last day of school! She slept the entire day before, and woke up chipper and ready to go! I took her to school and then went over to the park to help get ready for the party. The kids arrived, via bus, a little bit later and enjoyed every bit of that playground.

One of the dads cooked up hot dogs for the kids, and then the teachers set up games for the classes to compete against each other. It was a lot of fun! I had a good time hanging out and chatting with the other moms too! :)

Smudge

2009-06-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

I am happy to say that Smudgity Smudge (as I like to call her) has fully recovered. She is an active little kitten and now healthy as can be! She is so good, she lets Kourtney torture her...

Kourtney seems to think Smudge is her own personal baby.

Smudge slept like this for an hour before I finally decided I should snap a picture!

Kaitlin gets an award!

2009-06-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

Kaitlin got an award at school last week! She received a rotary award for improvement in her writing skills... we are very proud of her. :)

A house full of sickies.

2009-06-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

I see sick people. I see them everywhere. On the couch, in my bed, perched over the toilet... everywhere.

It started with Kourtney a few days ago... she came into my room one morning with a horrible bark-like cough. Unfortunately I know the sound well. Every morning and every night for the past few days she barks like a seal... however, during the day she seems fine. She's too sick to inflict her germs on anyone else, but not so sick that she's miserable all day long... not bad.

Then there's Kaitlin. She's had a horrible drippy nose for about a week (which we had decided was just allergies). Then she started losing her voice off and on, and now she sounds like she's coughing up rocks.

And finally Kinsie... the worst one of all. She started out with a sudden high fever on Monday afternoon. She missed school on Tuesday and battled her fever all day. Around 2:20 pm I took her temp and discovered that, despite advil and tylenol, her fever was 102.7. I called the doctor and and was sitting in his office by 2:40 pm. She weird part was that she had absolutely no other symptoms! As she was laying on the table, moaning every now and then, she says to me:

Kinsie: What's gonna happen mom?

Me: I don't know...the doctor is probably just going to take a look at you.

Kinsie: No, what's going to happen?

Me: What do you mean?

Kinsie: (with great fear in her voice) Am I going to die?

Oh it was so sad! I reassured her that she was going to be just fine... and she seems to have believed me. The doctor checked her out and found nothing wrong with her. He said it's possible that she'll get worse before she gets better. And here we are today... it's worse. She got up a couple times last night... and then at 5 am she got up and said she was dizzy. Then she said she was going to throw up. And she did. At this point she can't even keep water down. She also says her throat hurts. She's lying on the couch right now, pale, obviously sick, hugging a bowl... and she no longer has the energy to talk non-stop! It's so sad to see her this way. At this point she will miss her last day of school outing... a picnic/bbq in the park :(

I know it will pass. I know it could be worse. But as a mom, there's nothing worse than seeing your child suffer...even if it's just a little bit. It wears on you, and exhausts you... add lack of sleep and you've got a frazzled mom for a few days.

Is that a Llama?!?!

2009-06-07T17:31:00.001-07:00

I came home from my parents the other day with a gift... and it was a gift that meant a lot to me. When I younger, I would visit my grandparents house and fight with my cousins and siblings over a cherished seat in the house...a seat on the llama. There's not a time I can remember where that llama wasn't part of our trips to the grandparents. I loved seeing that llama. A couple years ago, we went to visit my grandparents in Oregon. I walked through the door to their house and saw my llama friend and was so excited! I couldn't believe they still had it. So at the age of 26... sitting on a llama made me happy. My parents went up to visit my grandparents in Oregon a few months ago, and while they were there my grandpa said he wanted me...yes ME, to have the special llama! I felt so honored! Of all the family he could give it, he chose me. :)

It's a heavy llama, and sort of awkward to carry, so I asked Jeff to go out to the car and bring it in for me. Apparently I had never explained the importance of said llama to my husband...and since he hadn't been with me, he was unaware of the cherished memory I was bringing home with me. I opened the door and smiled as he finally got to see this important piece of my memory...and he reacted like this:

Jeff: Is that a llama?!?!

Me: Yes! (beaming with pride)

Jeff: That thing is not coming into my house. (shuts door)

At this point I could have been crushed, but I wasn't. I knew that the moment he heard the story of my llama he would understand. The llama stayed in the car that night. I pled the case for my dear friend...and I came out victorious. He brought in my llama the next morning...and now I get to see it everyday!

Does the llama fit into my house? Uhhh, no...in no way, shape, or form does a llama fit my decorating style...but I love it anyway. I've had a visitor notice my llama friend already...the question was exactly what I expected "Is that a llama?" And I proudly answer "why yes it is!"

Kourtney's Graduation

2009-06-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

Kourtney has finally graduated from pre-school! Yay... now she moves on to... MORE preschool! It's such a silly thing... I don't know why they do it really, but it was cute to see her sing songs and shake hands with the teacher. She is now officially school-free for the summer... I think she's going to drive me crazy with the question "when is summer vacation over?" She's already asked me 3 times today!

Next year will be her last year of preschool before heading off to kindergarten! I can't believe my baby has gotten so big!

Thank You and a Couple Updates

2009-05-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You Laci!

We absolutely love the hair clips...

and they look adorable on my girls!

Update: The kitten is sick... she's now on medication and getting tested for a few things...we're hoping she makes it. The doctor said the treatment he gave her will at least get her through the weekend.

Another Update: I will be having another ultrasound in 5 weeks... they said if it hasn't resolved itself by then, they'll want to do surgery :( Apparently it's not just a complex cyst...it's a very large hemorrhagic cyst (which means it's bleeding into itself). I'm bummed... but it could be worse! I think I'll just consider each surgery as a little break, from reality, that I get to have once in awhile. A little down time is always nice, right? I'll update when I know more.

Zoo Trip and a Smudge

2009-05-26T09:24:00.001-07:00

Kinsie got to ride on her first school bus for her first field trip ever! She was beyond excited. She woke up around 5:50 am, came out of her room half asleep, yet extra wide eyed, ran down the hall screaming "I'm going to the zoo today!", did a lap around the house and ended up back in bed. It was hilarious. Jeff and I went along too, and because there were so many parents there, we ended up only having to take care of Kinsie! So Kinise was queen for the day...and loved every minute of it.

Kaitlin has been working hard and saving her money so she could get a new kitten. We looked at many, many kittens but none of them felt right to me. On Saturday night we went and saw a cute little frightened kitten at a woman's home in phillips ranch...and that kitten came home with us. After much debate over the name...we decided on the name Smudgey. I felt it was too masculine (my vote was for Sprinkles) but Smudgey it is. She gets called all sorts of things: Smudge, Smudgey Smudgerson, Smudge-Smudge...and Kinise's disgusting favorite: Mrs ButtSmudge. We're trying to steer her towards some of the other nicer names.

She was skiddish at first, but has warmed up quite nicely and finally feels at home here.

Isn't she cute?! :)

update...

2009-05-24T21:58:00.001-07:00

I'll say it flat out. I'm not a very private person. If I have a story, I'm going to share it...if something personal is happening to me, I make it public. I've always felt that if I'm going through something, I want other people to understand... because these trials affect who I am and the decisions that I make. So I apologize if all of my private-matters-made-public make anyone uncomfortable...

I had an ultrasound on Thursday to determine if I had an internal infection that affected my kidneys (kidney stones were also a possibility)... thankfully, my kidneys looked great! However, they found that I have a large cyst on my ovary again! The same ovary (my only ovary) that I just had surgery on 3 months ago! When the ultrasound tech asked me if I was having pain on my right side I knew it...I immediately said "I have another cyst, don't I?" She confirmed it and stated that it looks pretty big...and that's it's a complex cyst...all of which are bad things. I'm a little stressed about this. I have had 6 major surgeries in the last 7 years...3 of which were actually in the last 2 years! I thought this last surgery would be IT...my final surgery. Now I'm thinking it won't ever end. Every surgery puts me at risk...and increases my chances of needing another one...it's a stupid viscous cycle!

Whether or not I need surgery, the doctor is talking about putting me on a hormone replacement therapy. The HRT has a lot of risks... and the thought of it makes me beyond nervous... but what option do I have? My remaining ovary was supposed to take over and function for the missing one too... but it appears as though it's not. I've suspected it for some time, but we thought removing the cyst would fix my imbalance... now that it's back, it may be the imbalance itself causing it. In theory, fixing the imbalance would fix the cyst. But using an HRT to fix the imbalance increases my risk of breast and ovarian cancer, as well as cardiovascular disease and blood clots (which my grandma died of at the age of 29)... just to name a few.

I will see the doctor this week to go over the treatment options again (in detail) but it's scary...it's hard to know what the right decision is. If only I had that crystal ball I asked for last christmas! Wouldn't that be nice? Yes, in fact, it would. It would eliminate the chance of ever making the wrong decision! I need one of those. So if anyone's keeping tabs, I now have the completely ridiculous goal of attaining a crystal ball...in addition to my ridiculous dream to win the lottery...maybe if I won the lottery first I'd have enough money to buy me a crystal ball! ;)

Writers Block

2009-05-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

I've been having a case of writers block lately...I hate going more than a couple of days without a post, but I've been at a loss for what to write about! My life has been full of either sad things, silly-everyday-unimportant things, or just nothing at all!

So I'll start off with the silly-everyday-unimportant things:

-for some reason I hate laundry so much that I put it off until I have like 10 loads to do...and I do it all at once...it's my least favorite thing about being an adult. When I win the lottery I will never have to do another load of laundry again. That will be a very fine day indeed.

-I signed up all three girls for soccer...practice starts in August...games start in September...If you want to spend any time with my family in the fall you can look for me at Canyon Hills Jr High in Chino Hills.

-I spoke with a lawyer about my incredibly-close backyard neighbor...He said if I'd called him sooner we could have filed an injunction...dang it, why didn't I think of that sooner. He suggested I get the fire department involved because they can apparently move things along faster since it's a fire safety hazard...that's the next step.

-I got to go out for a much needed girls night last night at BJ's...thanks to some really crappy service, it was practically free after speaking to the manager! We spent a few hours just talking and it was perfect...a little me time always seems to recharge my batteries.

-We will be going with Kinsie on her field trip Friday to the zoo! That should be fun and I'm sure I will have loads of cute pictures to post.

Okay, now the sad things:

-I'm still having some pain and problems, so I'll be having an ultrasound in the morning...I'm praying it's something simple that some drugs will fix...I may require a short stay for some IV antibiotics, but I could use some free "me" time...so that wouldn't be so bad!

-My mother-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer and has her surgery scheduled for next week...it makes me nervous...radiation will start in a couple weeks and I'm praying she does well with it.

-My grandmother died yesterday. She's been sick for awhile, but her death still seemed a little sudden. My parents are on their way to Oregon right now to be with my grandpa...he'd been married to my grandma for 62 years! He lost his mother about a month ago as well (yes I did say his mother!)...I feel sad for him...I wish he would move back to be close to family for support. It's been a hard year for him. Hopefully my parents can at least convince him to move closer...it's a 13 hour drive or a 3 hour flight plus a 5 hour drive to get to their home! I know he doesn't really want to come back to California, so we're hoping he'll move to someplace like the Las Vegas area...3 hour drive or a 45 minute flight...much better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

So, that's been the last week in a nutshell...I'll post updates to everything as it comes...hopefully some more happy stuff too!!

A world full of crazies...

2009-05-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

Everywhere I go I see crazy people. They're driving down the road, they're shopping in stores, they're walking down the street...they're everywhere!! Crazy people everywhere talking to themselves. I wonder what a time traveler would say if they traveled here from back in the 50's...I'm guessing they'd agree with me and think the world has gone crazy. I see these crazy people and it takes me a minute to realize that they are not actually mentally insane...they're not talking to themselves while they walk around the store, or drive down the road...they're talking on their handsfree phone! I think I'm the crazy one for not automatically assuming that that's what they're doing! Then today, I saw a lady walking down the street, gesturing with her hands, talking to herself...and she really was talking to herself!!! There was no earpiece in sight...and she really did look genuinely crazy!

A fabulous weekend!

2009-05-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

I love the word fabulous...it sounds so fancy. I think people should use it more often! My weekend was truly fabulous (for the most part). Since this post is meant to be 100% positive, I'll have to put a twist on some of the events that occurred, so keep that in mind so you don't think I've gone insane! :)

On Friday, Jeff and I prepared for our big Saturday party as much as possible...we were pleased with our progress and decided to take the girls to BJ's for dinner. We had a gift card from Christmas that was finally burning a hole in our pocket. We headed out for an early dinner around 5 o'clock, got seated right away and had a great dinner! The kids were well behaved and they actually ate all of their dinner, so we decided to end the meal with a pizookie. It was THE best pizookie I've ever had...Cookies and cream, need I say more? It was heavenly.

The next morning I awoke late and discovered my beautiful children being "active"...isn't it great that they can have so much energy so early in the morning?! I wish I could harness that energy and put it to good use! They were happy as can be enjoying ALL of their wonderful things all over the house...they were so happy, and that's really all that matters, right?! :)

I decided to start prepping the food around 10am...guacamole was first on my list. I had 10 avocados to cut and I knew I needed to be very careful with every single one. I tend to cut myself often, so knife safety is very important to me. Everything went great, and I decided to make things "interesting" around avocado #7. Even though the pits were coming out easy, I decided to place a half an avocado in the palm of my hand and stab the pit to take it out...I have always wondered what it felt like to be stabbed...I no longer have to wonder! I can now say I know what it feels like...how many people do you know that can honestly say that? And who doesn't love a good trip to the urgent care? I love being surrounded by such caring people whose goal is to serve me and make me feel good. I saw a very smart doctor who said I would not be getting stitches because it was too deep of a cut. I'm so glad I made sure to stab myself nice and deep to avoid nasty stitches...that was such great news! Just a nice little cleaning of the cut (it's always good to test your pain tolerance), a prescription for antibiotics, a simple little tetanus shot, a quick wrap of the hand (which matched my outfit) and I was on my way! That visit went much better than I had anticipated...and to top it off, I am not allowed to wash dishes for a whole week! What a great start to a great day! :)

We had about 30 people come for the party and it was such an enjoyable time...seriously! :) I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time. We see our friends frequently with kids in tow, but it's nice to be kid free for an evening and really enjoy ourselves! The ping pong tournament was a success...the competition was good...and Scott is still the reigning champion. I'm thinking the boys need to all practice a little more for next year! During some of the competition outside, we had the wii going inside...I loved playing it with a big group! It was so much fun! Carlos hula hooping on the wii fit was definitely a highlight!

All of my blood, sweat and tears paid off as well, because everyone seemed to really enjoy dinner! How can you go wrong with Carne Asada though? A bonus to the evening was definitely the addition of my backyard neighbor!! She came to the window and stared at all of us for a minute, then noticed we saw her staring at all of us, to which she responded by peeking around a corner in her house to watch us--and we could still totally see her!!! It was hilarious! She made several more appearances throughout the evening...wasn't it nice of her to add a little more laughter to the party?

We ended the evening with a soak in the hot tub, and I have to say it was the perfect ending to a great party. I can't wait to do it again... someone else needs to plan another adult party so we can hang out like that more often!

The next morning I woke up and it felt like I'd been hit by a bus! It's so good to know that I must have burned some calories with how sore my entire body was...a party and some calorie burn? What could be better? Anyway, we went to church and then from there we gathered up all of the extra food and took it to Jeff's brothers house for our mothers day party. My sis-in-law Jannee and I chatted by the pool while the kids swam for a couple hours, then we all got in (minus my left hand) and lounged around in the pool for a little while...it was a nice relaxing day. I must say that the weather was absolutely gorgeous on Sunday as well, not too hot...not too cold. A nicely heated pool was also a plus!

It was good to end the weekend on such a calm note after so much activity on Saturday...if only every weekend could be exactly like that one...I would be one happy lady all the time for sure!

There is so much about this weekend that I can't even put into words...I am so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful friends!

AAAAAH!

2009-05-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Ok...forget what I said earlier...this post is not 100% positive...it's 100% CRAZY! We were in the backyard doing some gardening and sweeping off my patio and my new neighbor (the one that almost lives in my backyard) says to us:

Her: Excuse me! Oh, Hello...I just want to let you know that I noticed when I look out my back window here I can see inside your house...

Me: (thinking to myself...what?!)

Her: Yeah, I can see your whole backyard and I can see you guys inside your house...

Me: (thinking to myself...is she really saying this to me?)

Her: But we're not the kind of people who will look at you in your house...we're not like that...we're really private people...

Me: (thinking to myself...you could've fooled me!)

Her: So don't worry about us watching you...we won't do that.

Me: okay, thanks.

It totally creeped me out when she said that!!! She went inside her house and Jeff and I just looked at each other with our mouths dropped and eyes wide! I wonder if she saw our expressions...it was hard to hide the disbelief!

What in the world should I post?

2009-05-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

This has been my question for the past week or so....what do I post? I know I'm long overdue for an update on my life, but there has been nothing happy to say. First off, I've been fighting a bladder infection that turned into a kidney infection...so I've seen urgent care twice and my regular doctor once in the past couple of weeks...I'm on round 2 of antibiotics and hope it's finally getting better! I've felt like crap off and on with this stupid infection, so I haven't had the energy to snap adorable pictures of my beautiful girls. I know, it's sad.

Then I got a call from my MIL who asked me to go with her to get the results of a breast biopsy...unfortunately it was bad news and she has cancer. I've been putting up a brave front and telling everyone else to "Be positive! She'll be just fine", but I think it finally hit me last night...I think I was saying that to convince myself! This is serious and me telling people not to worry, isn't really going to help anything. But I am a fixer. If there is a problem I'm going to try and fix it. This is a problem I can't fix. I really do believe that she will get through this and be a survivor, but I can't fix everyones pain and worries in the meantime (including my own)...

Our annual ping pong party is this weekend, so I'm hoping it will lift our spirits and give me something happy to look forward to! I promise to give a 100% positive post next time with fabulous pictures from a memorable party! :) For now, it's back to cleaning my house in preparation, figuring out how much food to cook when I don't know exactly how many people are coming, and trying to keep the kids from destroying any progress I make!

Scary Dreams

2009-04-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

Jeff has some weird dreams. I think I've mentioned before that he'll talk in his sleep...and say some really strange things! This time, he DID something strange!

Me: Jeff why are you kicking me?!?!? (as he's kicking me in his sleep!)

Jeff: What?

Me: Jeff, you're kicking me!

Jeff: No, I'm kicking the seal.

Me: What?

Jeff: There was a seal biting my hand...so I was kicking it so it would stop!

It cracks me up! He wasn't kicking hard...just in case you were worried for my safety. Hopefully that's as violent as he'll get in his sleep though...I need to find a way for him to have happier dreams :)

A day in the life...

2009-04-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

Of ME!

I've seen people doing this, and I was curious to see what my life looks like on paper...so here it is.

5 am: wake up and realize I'm practically falling off of the bed...discover it's because not one, but two kids are squishing me out of my bed. Ask them to move over...go back to sleep.

6 am: Kids wake me up-- I help them get ready for school.

6:15 am: Kinsie comes into the kitchen wearing a purple dress, black tights, and brown boots...I tell her she has to change...Kinsie walks away sulking.

6:30 am: turn off alarm (I wasn't supposed to be up until 6:30), get the kids breakfast, make lunches, brush hair, get Kourtney dressed, check backpacks, find shoes.

7:15 am: Get in the car, realize Kinsie forgot her share-toy, go back in the house and get her toy,back to the car, realize we forgot the pictures that need to be returned, back to the house, gather pictures, get back in the car.

7:20 am: check to make sure everyone is buckled and drive the kids to school

7:50 am: Come home, get Kourtney and myself breakfast

8:10 am: tickle Kourtney, listen to giggles of delight

8:20 am: Kourtney asks to have some strawberry gel...I point to everything in the fridge that could be considered a type of "gel" or is strawberry flavored, finally determine that she's asking for strawberry jello...she eats, I make a phone call from the office area.

8:30 am: Find Kourtney has made a mess. Clean up strawberry jello off of the floor, the table, the chair, my kitchen rug, and her.

8:40 am: Kourtney decides she wants to play on the computer...I set her up with Charlie and Lola...hear squeals of delight. Get a package from ups (it's the wall mount for a broken surround speaker) I remove the old mount and install the new one and hook up the speaker.

9:00 am: jump out from around the corner to scare Kourtney--hear screams and giggles. Repeat.

9:05 am: Pick up the house, clean up breakfast mess, wipe off counters, sweep floors. Notice the baseboards under the bar need to be cleaned. Clean one spot, realize the spot next to that now looks dirty, clean that, repeat process.

9:30 am: Notice that now that the baseboards are clean one of my kitchen cabinets look dirty. Clean the cabinet. Notice that the cabinet next to that one looks dirty. Clean that cabinet. Repeat until every cabinet in the kitchen has been cleaned.

10:00 am: Realize that if I don't take a shower now I'll have to wait till I have 2 mess makers running loose in the house...so I shower and get dressed.

10:30 am: Play letter games with Kourtney

11:05 am: Realize it's 5 minutes past the time I should have left to pick up Kinsie from school...run out the door to go get her (making Kourtney sad in the process because she wanted to keep playing)

11:30 am: Get home, make lunch for the kids (leftover spaghetti, cheese pringles, and juice) ...leftover chipotle bowl for me (take a moment to be proud of myself for buying one bowl and making it last for 3 meals)

12:00 pm: Unload the dishwasher, reload, wash pots and pans, wipe down counters again.

12:15 pm: clean up lunch mess, sweep floors again

12:25 pm: read to the kids, play letter games, laugh, enjoy the giggles, listen to silly stories.

1:15 pm: Lay down and try to relax while the girls play...only 5 hours of sleep made me tired.

1:20 pm: Give up on trying to rest...the kids sensed that I was trying to take a break and magically had a plethora of needs that couldn't wait.

1:25 pm: stop the kids from taking chips without asking, sweep the floor (again), help Kourtney try to write her name, help Kinsie write a note for her friend.

1:45 pm: YAY! Jeff gets home from his 16 hour shift...but then must go straight to bed...he has to leave for work in 6 hours. :(

1:50 pm: Leave to go get Kaitlin from school. Listen to Kinsie do math facts in her head--my favorite one was "20+20+20=60! I'm so smart! I'm smart enough to be in college!"

2:35 pm: get home from picking up Kaitlin from school. Realize it's Friday so there's no homework (Woo Hoo) Instruct the girls to get their rooms picked up.

2:45 pm: Kaitlin's friend Abbie arrives, talk to her mom, stop Kinise from getting her fingers smashed in a closing door, get ice for the hurt fingers, talk to Abbie's mom.

3:00 pm: Phone call from my sister. The neighbor girl (Breanna) comes over to play. The kids all go out to the backyard, I take a moment to check my email.

3:15 pm: Decide to start making dinner (I'm making up a new recipe so it takes time), before I can start I decide to take out the trash, as I pull the bag out of the trash can the bag breaks...clean up mess, take out trash as phone rings...talk to my sister who is stuck in traffic on the 60 and wants to know whether or not to get off, look up sig alert info online, instruct her to stay on fwy.

3:30 pm: My sister arrives, drops off baby David (8 months old) and leaves. Continue to make dinner, while keeping track of the 5 kids outside and baby David--goes surprisingly smoother than expected.

5:00 pm: Take the neighbor girl home, feed the kids dinner, clean up kitchen mess.

5:30 pm: fish cat food out of baby david's mouth, clean up dinner table, sit down to eat.

5:45 pm: Take a walk with baby David and get the mail, sit on the floor with the baby and let him play with the ads.

6:00 pm: My sister comes back, I feed her dinner, clean up the mail mess, play with baby David.

6:30 pm: Sit and chat with my sister, notice the girls have gotten wild, ask them to quiet down...they don't...scold them and send them to the playroom.

7:00 pm: Relax with my sister and watch tv.

8:00 pm: Say Good bye to Jeff (off to work again), get kids set up with blankets and a movie.

8:15 pm: Help sister find outfit to wear to wedding tomorrow, pull everything out of my closet, watch her try on 150 different outfits (that may be an exaggeration), settle on 3 possibilities, hang up everything I own.

10:00 pm: surf the internet with the sis, watch prison break, relax.

10:45 pm: Say goodbye to the sister and the sleeping baby david, clean up the kitchen, tuck the girls in, finish up this post

11:00 pm: Climb into bed and fall asleep instantaneously (at least I hope that's how I'll fall asleep)

By doing this I discovered that I do an awful lot of cleaning and I don't spend enough time playing with my girls. Tomorrow will be a new day...

Spring Break: Part 2

2009-04-22T09:23:00.001-07:00

I absolutely love Pismo Beach! I can remember camping there as a child/teenager, and it's one of my favorite places to go. I was so excited to take my girls there...and I was relieved when they loved it too! I was a little nervous to drive all that way with just me and the girls, but it was thankfully a fairly uneventful drive. I can't say the drive up was perfect for two reasons. #1: A police pursuit on the 101 which ended in a standoff (policemen with their guns drawn on the fwy!) which caused a lot of traffic but was kind of exciting to watch! And #2: The WIND! It was so windy on the drive up that my car was being blown into the other lanes! I can't even count how many times I tensed up when I would feel the wind gust up...I was sore the next day from the drive! But nothing serious happened and we arrived in one piece to my awaiting parents.

The next day we loaded up and drove to Solvang! I have always loved solvang...and it was Kaitlin's favorite part of the trip.

This is a doggy drinking fountain...I'd never seen one before and thought it was funny. Yes, my kids are pretending to be dogs and no, I did not let them actually drink out of it!

There are so many beautiful fountains throughout the town.

My kids were fascinated by the clogs! We had them try on a normal size pair too...they were surprised at how uncomfortable they were!

While were were walking through the quaint little dutch themed streets, the girls saw a store that they wanted to go in. They said it was filled with BEAUTIFUL things and we had to go inside. I walked over to see what it was and was shocked. They were dying to go into an antique store! Surprisingly, they loved every inch of that store...and they were angels! They walked around the very large store with their arms folded and jaws dropped...and admired all of the beautiful and expensive things. Kinsie's favorite was the clocks, and kaitlin's favorite was the music boxes. We had the pleasure of hearing one of the larger music boxes play...it had a full size violin and a piano and the kids were enthralled by it. It was for sale for the bargain price of $72,000! When we were leaving the store, the lady that worked there complimented me on my very well behaved children and said that it must be the result of exceptional parenting! I wonder if she realized that she totally made my day?! :)

At one end of the town is the Santa Ines Mission...we did a walk through of the grounds and watched a squirrel eat fruit off a cactus!

We were told about this amazing park and decided to head there for lunch. It was the coolest park I've ever seen...and pictures just don't do it justice! It's designed to look like a viking village...and then they through in a hansel and gretle house too!

I love this picture of her jumping!

From there we headed to a miniature horse farm. They were so freaking cute!

I wanted to take one home, but they wanted way too much money for them!

Can you believe that is a full grown horse!

From there we headed to the outlets...my generous parents did some shopping for my kids! They got them some of the cutest outfits! After we were done shopping we decided to stop by the beach! We headed over to the pier and took a little walk. The kids were walking down the pier and I made the mistake of pointing out that we were right on top of the water (you could see the waves through gaps in the boards)...it freaked them out! So the whole way to the end of the pier you could hear little squeals as they watched the ground!

Kaitlin ran to the end, paused for the cute spanish men

to take our picture and then literally ran back!

We ended the day with a campfire and smores...and boy were we exhausted!

The next morning we woke up early and drove up to Morro Bay to see the tide pools during low tide. The girls gathered up soooo many shells! We didn't get to see starfish, but we saw tons of sea snails, crabs, sea anemones, and coral. The girls loved it of course...I wish we could do that every weekend!

One of the cool things about Kourtney is that she'll try just about anything...she has no fear! She'll taste everything (at least once) and touch anything--even if she's afriad, you can still get her to do it!

After we were done with the tide pools we headed back up the coast to San Simeon to do a tour of Hearst Castle. We stopped in Cambria on the way to find a restroom and change out of our swimsuits...you all know what Cambria is right? Think spiders...lots and lots of spiders! It's the setting for the movie Arachnophobia! The town is adorable...but completely creeps me out! I didn't say a word to the girls about the spider movie...but while I was changing Kourtney started singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song!!!! It sent chills up my spine...and I couldn't get her to stop!

After a super quick change we continued the drive to Hearst Castle. We decided to do the experience tour since it was the girls first time. If you've never been there, you're missing out. It is beautiful...from the views, to the architecture, to the pure size of it al! The largest guest house (there are 3) is 5,800 square feet...and the main house is 68,000 square feet!

These were taken on the bus ride up to the house.

This is part of the front of the main house...and Kaitlin who refused to smile for me.

They don't look happy but I swear they loved every minute of it!

Can you imagine having a view like that outside of your guest house?

Everytime I see this pool I want to jump in it so badly!

Kinsie said that Hearst castle was her favorite part of the trip...I think the artsy part of her loved all the statues and paintings. They have a movie about WR Hearst building his dream. The kids enjoyed it so much that they insisted on buying the DVD of it--and they forced Jeff to watch it right away because they just knew he would love it too because it was "so cool!"

Hearst has Zebra on his property too and we were so excited to see them!

They just get to roam free...there's a baby out there too!

Those Zebra are on the hill behind the girls

We stopped by Morro Bay again on the way back

We then took a detour to San Luis Obisbo's downtown area...it's a cute little downtown with a creek running through it. They also have something called bubblegum alley. Since the 60's people have been putting gum on the walls of this alley...so we decided to join in! We each picked a spot and added our gum!

The girls thought it was cool...but were also grossed out by it!

On the way home from our day trip we had a problem! We started smelling something strange and were thinking it was coming from the car next to us...then we saw smoke, and we thought that was coming from the car next to us too...then we realized it was coming from my car! The car was not overheating...but we realized it was also making a funny noise. After some thought, we turned off the air conditioner and realized it had something to do with the a/c.

We headed back to the campground and I called the repair shop that had just put my car back together from the accident. They called a repair shop in grover beach for me and I headed over there immediately while my dad took the girls swimming. It was determined that the repair shop did something wrong and the a/c tubing (is that what it's called?) was rubbing against a belt...it rubbed a hole in it and all of the freon leaked out! Luckily, I could still drive home the next day...but I couldn't use the a/c!

The next day we loaded up and drove down to the beach for some fun in the sun!

Pismo is a great place for clamming!

And gigantic sand crabs!

And apparently ladybugs!!

There were ladybugs everywhere! Kourtney would either pick them up and put them all over herself...or she'd say she was done with them and try to bury them!!

It was a great trip...and we were so sad to have to come home! I could easily move there if I had the money...now that would be dreaming big! The ride home was much easier than the ride up...there was no wind (thankfully) but I did still hit traffic...so the no a/c thing was horrible. I got back in town around 7pm and it was still 85 degrees!

Thanks mom and dad for a great trip!! We're up for another one anytime!

Spring Break (Part 1)

2009-04-14T20:40:00.001-07:00

Spring break is already off to a great start...and it is far from over! The festivities started on Saturday with a baby shower in Tehachapi. I drove up with my sisters, their babies, my bro-in-law Dave and Kaitlin. It was adventurous to say the least...let's just say there was a strange bug next to me as I was driving, Dave was impatient and wanted to kill it, and everyone in the car was freaking out for various reasons. It was hilarious and scary at the same time. Once we got back on the fwy, it was a fairly uneventful trip. The baby shower for my cousin was fun and we didn't get back home until almost 1 am (easter morning).

The Easter bunny came Sunday morning and brought some fun baskets for the girls...bug catching stuff, beach towels, swimsuits, squirt guns, and other various trinkets filled their baskets.

Kaitlin and Kinsie decided to model their new suits for me...Kinsie saw the tag on hers and said "Look mommy! The easter bunny got them from a store called Justice! I had no idea the easter bunny shopped there!"...she was so excited at the thought of him in the store!

After opening up baskets we got ready for church and off we went! Afterwards, we went to Jeff's Parents for an early easter dinner. It was yummy...I ate way too much. From there we went to my parents to play some games...we had a lot of fun and stayed out way too late.

Monday morning we headed to the park for a play date! My friend Carolee was in town (from PA) so we all came to see her and do a little catching up. It was of course a lot of fun to hang out and it's sad that they'll be east coasters for another 3+ years!

Then this morning we headed down to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It was the perfect day! The weather was cool, the kids behaved themselves, we hit barely any traffic...we saw all the animals we wanted to and more...it was a great day. I have a million amazing pictures and tons of video, so I've tried to only post a few that are my particular favorites.

This was Kinsie's first time to feed the birds...

she loved it...can't you tell by this picture?

I caught a lot of video of it too...but I'll just show you a little of it.

The Wild Animal Park is featuring a Butterfly Jungle right now that is AMAZING! Kaitlin is holding a giant owl butterfly in this picture...when the wings open up they are a brilliant blue color inside!

There were butterflies everywhere! They would just fly along and land wherever they wanted...even peoples heads!

I'm not sure what she's doing here...but I thought it was cute!

This is a one month old elephant...

it was so cute running around!

Don't you just love how Jeff loves to ruin all of my pictures! I sure love it (insert sarcastic eye roll here).

We sat and ate lunch by the lions...

who were also enjoying their lunch...

When we were done with our lunch I asked Jeff to take a picture of me and the girls with the lions in the background...he took a couple...I asked if it came out good and he said yes...this is what I got!

Uh, where are the girls?! I think that's the top of Kailtin's head...he did a great job didn't he? ;) I think he was trying to be funny...apparently I didn't make it clear that I seriously wanted the picture with everyone in it.

It was really a great day...and I'll have to post more later. Tomorrow we head off (minus Jeff) to Pismo Beach to go camping with my parents (their treat--how could I refuse?). On the agenda: Hearst Castle, Tidepools, Solvang, and whatever else we decide to do. It should be fun! I'll try and post about it on Sunday. Have a good week everyone! :)

What would you do?

2009-04-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

I'm conflicted. I hate to make waves...and I prefer to be nice and avoid confrontation whenever possible...but my privacy is being violated. Behind my back wall is a mobile home park. It's a very nice, very quiet community and we've barely known it's there. There used to be a huge tree and bushes that completely blocked our view of the park. Then they tore out the bushes...we were sad. Then they tore down the worn down looking home that was there...and that made us happy again. The next thing we know, a new home gets placed in the empty space. It's a new, very nice looking home...and it literally feels like its part of my backyard!

It's about 2 or 3 feet away from my wall.

When I stand at my back slider this is what I see.

You can't tell from my pictures, but our hot tub is to the right in the back yard...in plain view of our new-very-high-up-right-in-our-back-yard neighbors! Our family room is in the back of the house too and consists of a large 8 foot window and an additional 8 foot slider...there goes walking around naked! Seriously, it is way too close. I already feel violated.

However, I can picture this poor little family who finally saved up enough money to buy a new home. I bet they are so excited to finally have it...I'm sure they're more than anxious to move in! The painters have been there all day, they've been pounding and screwing things in...the plumbing is getting all set up...it's almost ready for moving day. And I'm about to crush all of their dreams.

I didn't know if there was anything I could do, so I called the city. They said it has to be at least TEN FEET from my wall...which it is not! After talking to the very nice code enforcement lady for awhile, we decided that I would call and speak to the manager and let them know the new home was in violation. I called, but the manager is gone until tomorrow...so I let the city lady know that (per her request) and she said to call the manager in the morning and then get back to her...but first she asked me to email some pictures of it. I emailed the pictures and was called back moments later...she said she was sending someone out right away!!

I feel mixed...part of me is happy that I should be getting my privacy back soon...but part of me feels HORRIBLE for causing trouble in someone else's life! Things are already started in motion...and there's nothing I can do to reverse it! I feel bad....and I feel bad that I feel a tiny bit happy about it moving soon! What would you do? If you think I'm evil and should have sucked it up and kept my mouth shut please let me know (nicely of course)...but if you're on my side and would have done the same thing let me know!!!! I would love some support right now so I can stop feeling like crap.

Our Little Speed Demons! (wink,wink)

2009-04-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the Chino Valley Track and Field Meet...Kaitlin and Kinsie's very first meet! It was a long, long day in the hot, hot sun...but it was fun!

The first race for the little ones was a 50 m dash. The little kindergarten boys took off running, crossed the finish line, and kept going!!! They got halfway around the track before the adults could get them to stop...the entire stadium erupted in laughter...it was awesome!

I, of course, didn't listen to my mother and got fried! My face looks like a tomato and I have a very disturbing farmers tan/burn line now. Yes mom, I'll listen next time and lather up with sunblock!

Kaitlin and Kinsie were absolutely adorable to watch! I made a little video montage that basically sums up the events of the day...I hope you enjoy it!

Click here for video montage

Kourtney Turned 4!

2009-04-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that my youngest child is now 4! How in the world did that happen? It seemed like she was going to be my little baby forever...and then the next thing I know she's a year away from kindergarten!

She was born April 1st at 9:30am. She weighed 6 lbs 3oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. The first thing the doctor said to me when she was born was that she looked like a porcelain doll! She had a beautiful, flawless face. She was basically sick from birth...but in between her bouts of pain and sadness she was the happiest, funniest baby. To this day, she exaggerates her expressions and loves to make people laugh.

She stayed so tiny for so long that I always forget how old she really is! Her turning 4 really snuck up on me! Because she was unexpectantly my last baby (and she was so small), I tend to baby her more than I should...but she's so dang cute she makes it hard not to!

I've added a few random photos from her life (in no particular order):

Her first picture ever taken! She was about 2 seconds old here!

Here she is doing what she did best...throw up!

Her first swimsuit!

She was always happy to be strapped on at disneyland!

Her first b-day!

First trip to the beach.

First day of pre-school.

Last year for her birthday we went a little overboard...so this year we decided to tone things down a bit. We decided to let her have a full day of friend time, so I took Kourtney and her best friend (her cousin Emma) out on the town! Okay not really, but we did hit a couple different places.

We started with a trip to Chuck-e-Cheese. I must say, 9am is the best time to go there! We spent 3 hours there, and during that time only one other child showed up (and then left 45 minutes later). It was perfect...it was like our own private party!

Next we headed down to The Shoppes in Chino Hills for some girlie shopping time! We ended up with roses, cupcakes, new sunglasses, and an adorable daisy hair clip. The girls had a great time and were extraordinarily well behaved.

After our shopping, we headed home to enjoy the Strawberry Shortcake Jumper in our backyard! They definitely tired themselves out after that!

A blueberry filled cupcake that she just had to have!

Then she only ate the frosting :(

It was a fun-filled day of celebration and I was completely exhausted by the end!

Happy Birthday Kourtney!

The Accident...

2009-03-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you all for your concern! Fortunately, the kids and I were not in the car when it happened...thank heavens for small miracles. To get onto our street from taking the kids to school, we have to make a left turn with no stop sign or light. Early in the morning, the traffic backs up and we have to hope that someone is nice enough to stop far enough back to let us through. As Jeff was waiting to turn, the cars in the closest lane stopped to let him through...he couldn't see that there was someone coming in the other lane. He inched forward, saw the other car and slammed on his breaks but the other woman didn't put on her breaks or swerve or anything...she just barreled right into him!

He called me and I immediately ran down the street and couldn't believe the condition of both cars...thankfully nobody was hurt!

I am now in a rental car...which is generally fun when it's only for a limited amount of time. I got the estimate today. I gasped. I could not believe it and had to ask him to repeat it to make sure I'd heard him right! I was told the cost of repairs is $6000! And to top it off, it's going to take at least 3 weeks to do it all! 3 weeks in a rental...that my insurance only partially covers if I want something bigger than a ford focus. That's crazy. I don't know if we have to pay our deductible yet...but pray for us that we won't have to--my deductible is $1500! Yikes...I'm regretting that decision. We upped it right after the whole job situation went down and we were trying to save money...if only I'd known it might have been cheaper to keep my $200 deductible. :(

Anyway, so that's the story with the accident...I'll post again when we find out who is technically at fault! (please not us, please not us!)

Conversation Of The Day

2009-03-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

While driving Kaitlin home from school today, the conversation went somthing like this:

Kaitlin: Do you want me to tell you about how I met my friend Maria?

Me: Sure!

Kaitlin: (said without taking a breath) One day when I was standing at the loop, this girl walked up to me and said "HI". Then she took me over to see this other girl, she was really beautiful. Then that girl took me over to say hi to Gabby. Gabby is Maria's little sister. Then Maria came over and said "Hi Kaitlin" because she knew me already, she's in my class at school. She was in my class in kindergarten too, but she had this really bossy friend named Alexis. But she's not friends with her anymore beacuse she doesn't like her. But now Maria is my friend. But we're not friends in public...just at school. She even let me be in her club now because I know all the moves.

Me: Moves? What kind of club is it?

Kaitlin: Dance moves.......we dance with poles.

Me: (stunned...trying to NOT jump to wrong conclussions) You dance with poles? Is that what you said?

Kaitlin: Yeah, we do all sorts of dance moves with the tetherball poles...but we're only allowed to use them if there's no tetherball on it.

Me: (said hesitantly) So you're part of Maria's pole dancing club?

Kaitlin: Yep! (big innocent smile)

I can't even tell you how proud I am of my 7 year old pole dancer!!! She even let me document the "moves" on video so I could share her "skill" with the world! Unfortunately, I could not get the dang video to load! So you have to take my word for it...it's awesome!

Scratch that! It loaded! Please enjoy in a totally innocent-non-creepy way!

Not a good way to start the week....

2009-03-30T08:44:00.001-07:00

Phrase of the Day

2009-03-28T21:39:00.000-07:00

My favorite phrase of the day was said by Kourtney. I was cooking dinner and she said with great concern:

"If I don't get some vegetables right now I think I'm going to die!"

Completely Inappropriate!

2009-03-20T07:36:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of days, I've had conversations with my children that were just plain wrong (to say the least). I'll start with Kourtney. Yesterday she told me that she was going to get married. The conversation went something like this:

Kourtney: I'm going to marry baby David when he grows up.

Me: You can't marry baby David!

Kourtney: (eye roll) I'm going to wait until he grows up!

Me: Honey, you can't can't marry baby David because he's your cousin!

Kourtney: He won't be my cousin when he grows up!

Me: Yes he will.

Kourtney: No he won't. He'll be all grown up!

Me: Kourtney, he'll still be your cousin even when he's all grown up...he'll be your cousin forver.

Kourtney: No he won't...I'm going to marry him when he grows up.

I gave up...she'll understand someday...or she won't and I'll be seeing her on Jerry Springer in 15 years! Oh my, I can just imagine that.

The next inappropriate conversation was with Kinsie. We were having breakfast for dinner a couple nights ago. We had just bought a new kind of sausage and we'd been discussing it.

Me: Wow, this sausage looks gross.

Jeff: Yeah, but it tastes good.

Me: I know, but why does it have to look so yucky?

Kinsie: Mom, why does the sausage look like a little boys penis?!

Me: Kinsie! We don't talk like that...that is not okay to say!

Sadly...I agreed with her! We had to try not to laugh because once she said it, that's exactly what they looked like to us! They tasted good, but I'm going to have a hard time eating them now!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

2009-03-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today is Jeff's birthday...sadly I've seen him for a total of 15 minutes (just long enough to wake up and get ready for work). He went to work last night and came home at 6am this morning...then he was up at 11:30 and off he went to work again...he'll be there until 5 am tomorrow morning. So basically he has spent his entire birthday working. I felt so bad that he was going to spend his day like that, so I decided to surprise him! Jeff had to work a double shift (an 8 hour shift before his regular shift) but his regular coworkers would start at the normal time. So I figured I could get someone to bring something to him halfway through his double shift. It took some careful planning...my first step was to get in touch with someone he regularly works with that lives in our area. So I stole his phone while he was sleeping yesterday and got his friend, Deputy Bonilla's, phone number. He was more than willing to help out! He offered to come to my house, pick it up, and deliver it to him at work. I decided to send dinner and cake for his shift. Jeff's favorite food is hot dogs, so I decided to BBQ up some 1/4 pound hot dogs and send them with some buns, chili, cheese, onions, ketchup, mustard, and relish...everything a man could want on a hot dog. I threw in some chips, plates and forks...then a big beautiful cake (which I forgot to snap a picture of). I barbecued up 75 hot dogs, put them in foil tins, wrapped them in foil, and put them in a soft side cooler. Unfortunately, I didn't wrap them well enough and the hot dog juice started leaking out of the cooler! So about 2 minutes before he showed up I had to clean and repackage all of the food! It was a little chaotic...but thankfully my sister was here to help me out!

He sent me a message earlier saying he was having a "blah" day, so hopefully his day will turn around when he has his little surprise party at work!

Happy Birthday Babe! I hope you realize how much you mean to me! :)

An update about nothing.

2009-03-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

~There's not really much to update. I'm doing well with my recovery. I've started driving again and I'm moving around and rejoining society again...however, when I do those things I get extra sore and tired. So taking it easy is still a necessity.

~I've resumed my travel studies and completed 2 more of my required courses! Yay! I've completed about half of the courses now. Hopefully I can stay focused and speed through what's left!

~Jeff had a friend from work that died in a car accident this past weekend...he was only 21. It's so sad...cherish every day because you never know what will happen. Which leads me to today. Am I supposed to cherish days like this? Today I had to drive the kids to and from school by myself...it's been 2 and half weeks since I've had to do this, so I'm apparently a little rusty at the whole timing of the process. I was watching the clock anticipating the kindergarten pickup, and then the next thing I know, it's 20 minutes past the pick up time! Yikes! So I rush (which is a challenge in itself) out the door with Kourtney and head down to the school. When I was about halfway there I realized that I was so late that I'd have to go into the office...it was then that I panicked! I took a glance at myself in the mirror and, to my horror, realized I was a mess. Not only was I wearing unmatching pjs, I was without shoes, my hair was thrown into a serious mess of a ponytail, and my face was partially covered in a mud mask!!! Panic. Panic. Panic. Not that I care what the people in the office think of me, but seriously it's a little embarrassing to look like such a complete wreck.

I grabbed a couple of tissues while I was driving and licked them (I couldn't find water) so that I could at least attempt to get the mud mask off...it's gross I know...but what else was I supposed to do? I walked into the office with Kourtney in tow sporting her mismatched pj's, crumpled messy hair, and massively booger smeared face. We were a sight for sure. If I was able to run, we would have run back to the car as fast as we could...instead we slowly walked back out giving everyone a chance to notice what a disheveled mess we were. I know I'll probably laugh about it later...and it's then that I will truly cherish the events of the day. For now, I will at least cherish the fact that I can be there to pick up my girls from school everyday...that they're alive and healthy (minus booger faces and coughs at the moment). I am so lucky that I get to spend every day doing what I love...caring for my girls and pursuing dreams that I'm passionate about. Okay I didn't mean to get all philosophical there, but untimely deaths always make me think about what can be lost so unexpectedly.

~We are planning our annual ping pong party and we want you all to be able to make it! Email me if there are any dates in April or May that you wouldn't be able to make it...We'll try to pick a day that works for everyone! :)

Kinsie cracks me up...

2009-03-02T17:22:00.001-08:00

Kinsie cracks me up all the time...she says the funniest things. Today she came to me and (out of the blue) said "did you know that Cinderella's stepsisters had big wedgies? And her evil stepmother had a wedgie too!" It was one of those "what the? where in the world does she come up with that stuff" moments. Then just a minute ago (again out of the blue) she says to me "Grandmas and grandpas aren't that lucky" I then asked her why she thought that, to which she responded "because they're going to die soon!" She cracks me up every day. This is what she wore to school today (I didn't know until she came home).

She completely picked out every aspect of her outfit...and had an explanation as to how everything matched. Her justification for wearing a red shirt with her pink tights was that there are pink stars on her shirt that match her tights. Her brown shoes match the buttons on her skirt. And her pink sweatshirt matches the pink in her tights too. It was a very eclectic mix...just like Kinsie :)

A mystery....

2009-03-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

This morning, Jeff came home from taking the girls to school and clued me in on an interesting mystery. He said "someone put manure on our yard". My response was "what?!" I immediately started thinking that somebody must have taken pity on our poor neglected yard and decided to help us out. I was feeling a little embarrassed. Then I went outside to take a look...my response to what I saw went something like this: "What the...that's not manure...that's an actual pile of horse crap! Where in the world did that come from? I'm confused. Jeff did you see this?" To which he reminded me that he's the one that told me about it. Yes folks...there was a actual pile of horse poop just sitting in the middle of my yard. I do not live in a rural farm area...there are no horses around where I live...but there it sat. So where did it come from? I've heard of dogs getting out and strolling through people's yards in the middle of the night, but never a horse! So it's a mystery that I have a feeling I will never know the answer to...and that is so frustrating! I contemplated including a photo to prove it...but I started thinking that putting a picture of poop on my blog is crossing the line of what's appropriate. Any theories on the magically appearing poop would be appreciated! :)

I'm glad to report...

2009-02-28T19:58:00.000-08:00

Friday's doctor's appointment went really good! The doc said I'm healing well, and I should start feeling better and better every day. I was practically having a coronary anticipating the drain removal...and it wasn't as bad as the first time! I made sure I was properly prepared this time by loading up with vicodin...and let me tell ya, it helped a lot! It did still hurt, but it was much less intense than the first time. Thankfully, I did not pass out this time...that was such a relief.

In just the past 2 days I've developed the ability to "roll" on my side! It's technically me scooting my body onto it's side (it takes me a few minutes to accomplish this)...an actual "roll" is still impossible. From there I'm able to use my arm strength to push myself up to a sitting position and then, ultimately, get out of bed on my own! Seriously, this is an enormous accomplishment! It's still much easier (and less painful) to have someone help me get up, but it's nice to know that I'm able to do it if absolutely necessary.

I'm also happy to say that I finally took a shower! It felt so good!! It had been 9 days since I'd had a real shower (to be clear, I wasn't allowed to shower--I did not, not shower by choice!) I then attempted to blow dry my hair and I realized that I'm not quite ready for that yet...and I realized I'm in need of a haircut! Baby steps...

Recovering...slowly but surely!

2009-02-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

Things are getting easier everyday. I can go to the bathroom without help, I can get off of the couch without help (as long as I'm not in a reclining position), I can even get dressed without help (unless I drop an item of clothing on the floor). I'm moving around pretty good now...I can't stand up straight because of how tight the muscles are from the repair, but I have hopes that someday soon this will get better! I have lost 8 pounds since my surgery (with every intention of losing even more) and I have gained a newfound love of cleaning my house. Now that I'm not able to clean it myself, that's all I think about! I want to clean my house so bad! Jeff is doing a great job of keeping things picked up, and he's doing great taking care of the kids...but as I sit with nothing better to do, I've been noticing places that have been neglected. My baseboards, the moulding around my windows, the walls, my kitchen cabinets...they could all use a visit from a Mr Clean magic eraser!

Yesterday I had a visit with my doctor. He removed some bandages and then removed one of my drains. I had 2 drains, sewn into 2 holes in my skin (below the large incision across my abdomen) and he basically cut the stitch and then ripped the 5 inch drain out in one quick motion. It was beyond painful! The dr then left the room so that I could get dressed. I stood up and knew immediately that something was not right...it was then that I began to pass out! Things got dark, I lost the ability to stand on my own two feet, I started sweating like crazy, I lost feeling in my limbs, my heart was racing...it was scary! Thankfully, Jeff kept me from falling and he basically held me up (for what felt like an hour). It was a scary experience. Unfortunately, I go back to the dr tomorrow morning where he will remove the second drain...I'm so scared that I will have the same reaction! It hurt so bad...I'm am definitely dreading it!

Other than the horrible drain removal, things have gone fairly smoothly. I spend most of my day reclining in bed. I get up every hour or so and walk around, use the bathroom and interact with any other life form I can find (human or not). Walking is uncomfortable still since I'm not able to stand up straight, and I walk pretty slow, but it's the only exercise I'm allowed to do right now. If I don't drink a ridiculous amount of liquid, I get a fever...so I spend a large portion of my day drinking and peeing. My drinks of choice right now are apple juice and water. At this point I'm not able to get myself out of bed (or of of the couch) if I'm reclining at anything more than a 10 degree angle. I completely rely on my hubby to get me out of bed! I tried once to do it myself, but I have no use of my abdominal muscles right now, so it was impossible. I can't even roll onto my side yet...it's just physically impossible still. I look forward to regaining strength so I can do it for myself...I wish I knew how long it was going to take! I still get tired really easily (naps are part of my routine) and I tried to go without the vicodin and realized that it was a very foolish thing to do...so dizziness is not uncommon for me from the still needed drugs.

There are a plethora of complications that I could have been plagued with, so I am so grateful that my recovery is going so well! I am actually up for visitors now too! Even having an email to read is helpful...so stop by or write me anytime. I must warn you that I have not showered for a week (I think I get to shower tomorrow) so I may be an utter mess! I have washed my hair and I'm able to sponge bathe--but I think we all know that's not quite the same. My hair will not be done (it takes too much energy) and I won't be wearing any makeup but I promise I will, at the very least, smell good! :)

Thanks again to all of those who brought my family a meal or treats and for all of your prayers and well wishes! :)

A hole...

2009-02-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

I saw the doctor yesterday and learned a little more about my surgery. He said that what was probably causing me the most pain was actually a hole in my muscle roughly the size of half a dollar bill! I would always say that it felt like I was being ripped open (it was a raw-open-wound feeling) and that's what it actually was! He also said there was a lot of damage to my lower muscles from being cut vertically and horizontally...he said my muscles were a big mess! He spent 20 minutes fixing those problems before he could even repair the separation. I was instructed not to work out (other than walking) for at least 3 months because of the extensive repair he had to do. The Dr also took away my pain pump yesterday :( He said I was doing great and didn't need it...but I wish I still had it! I coughed yesterday and I thought I was going to die! Then when I was laying in bed last night, the cat ran across my stomach! It hurt so bad I screamed. I'm doing better with the pain today though. My biggest problem at this point is boredom!

I'm Still Alive!

2009-02-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

After 4 hours in surgery and a couple hundred stitches later, I'm home and doing great! The pain is there, but it's tolerable. I'm actually glad that I chose to recover in the comfort of my home instead of in the hospital. The doctor was able to save my ovary...Yay! And he said that the pain I was having when I used my abs was from really bad adhesions. He cleaned them up and laid down an adhesion barrier that should prevent it from happening again...only time will tell if it will work. He also sent my cyst to the lab to make sure that it's not cancer. I'm moving around pretty good, and so far the only trouble I have is getting out of bed. Jeff has been a perfect little nurse! I was up about every hour or two last night and he got up with me every time (without a single complaint!). He's been helping me with everything...he's better than any nurse I've ever had! I go see the doctor in a couple of hours and I'll get a peek at the new me! The doctor's were both great...and one even sent me a bouquet of flowers! Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes...they really meant a lot to me! :)

Crazy busy....

2009-02-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

I was hoping that I would have something substantial to post after Valentines Day, but we just spent the whole day getting ready for my surgery. We did laundry, cleaned the house, and I made and froze enough meals for one week. I've had 4 valentine parties, one church craft night, a family birthday dinner, a broken down car, 2 pre-op appointments (where they point out the various ways I could die), had my blood taken twice, gotten a handful of prescriptions, and seen the chiropractor 4 times (all in the last week)... and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Things have been crazy. The only good thing about the craziness is that it helps make the time go by faster...I'm a nervous wreck.

My next post will hopefully be on Thursday. If I'm too drugged up to do it, I'll make sure Jeff posts something letting you all know how the surgery went...and that I'm still alive!

Upcoming Surgery

2009-02-09T20:59:00.000-08:00

It's official. My surgery is next week (FEB 19TH)! It all happened so fast...Yikes! I'm a little bit scared...and a little bit excited. The doctor thinks he'll be able to fix me, so hopefully this will be my last surgery for a very, very long time.

This may be TMI...so if you don't want to know the specifics, stop reading now.

Basically the doctor is going to start with an exploratory laparotomy. Which means he'll do a large incision across my abdomen, open me up, and look around. The first priority is to take care of my cysts. I have one on my ovary (I only have one ovary now) which he will try to fix...he has to be careful because any damage to my ovary would be devastating to my health. Then he's going to tend to my other side where I have a cyst where my ovary used to be. According to the ultrasound, it might be leftover ovary! It has blood flow through it, so it's basically really bad. He'll take care of that--however best he can--and then he'll go through and clean up my scar tissue. The last step will be to put a brand new adhesion barrier down...supposedly it's better than the last barrier that was put in. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

After my doctor is done, a plastic surgeon will take over and repair my abdominal muscles (they've been cut too many times), take away some extra skin, and then close me up. After a few hours in recovery, I'll go home (the same day) and then start a very long, very painful recovery.

I'm scared of the unknown. I'm scared I won't be able to tolerate the pain. I'm scared that there could be complications. But I'm excited for the possibility of finally feeling better and hopefully (eventually) being pain-free.

Please keep me and the doctors in your prayers...

Phrase of the day...

2009-02-07T16:41:00.000-08:00

While eating ice cream and watching ice skating, Kourtney said:

"Cows sure don't know what they're missin'!"

Cake Wrecks

2009-02-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

I came across this blog today...some of the older posts are better than the newer ones...it's pretty interesting--some of them you have to look closely to see the errors...and some of them are pretty obvious!

Cake Wrecks

Fun link...

2009-01-31T12:34:00.001-08:00

I came across this website today...the shirts are really cute for little kids! Check it out:

Uncommonly Cute

Dinner video

2009-01-30T18:56:00.000-08:00

The video is pretty much self explanatory. Enjoy!

Flashback Friday

2009-01-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

In the spring of 2006, we went on a cruise in the Bahamas. It's a long story...but it was pretty awful.

These are a representation of one afternoon. The view was beautiful...as we were evacuated to the opposite side of the island!

This is on the island where we swam with the dolphins (the highlight of the trip). This picture was taken during the evacuation as well.

While on the cruise ship, the wind did not stop blowing! I have no pictures where my hair doesn't look like this!

There were places on the ship where we were literally blowing away...this is one of them...I'm holding on for dear life! Okay my hair doesn't look as bad in this one, but it's pulled back into a wind-blown-mess-of-a-ponytail. According to the captain, the wind was blowing 80-90 mph!

Thanks Sara!

2009-01-28T21:43:00.000-08:00

Notice: Please read the previous post for this post to make sense! :)

So apparently this is where Kourtney learned about Bullet Trains!

Choo Choo Soul

Thank you Sara for being an avid Playhouse Disney watcher! ;)

WHERE DID SHE COME UP WITH THAT?

2009-01-28T19:43:00.001-08:00

I love conversations with Kourtney. I never really know what's going to come out of her mouth. Tonight our conversation went something like this:

Kourtney: I'm going to put this money in my pocket okay?

Me: Ok...are you saving it for something?

Kourtney: Yes......a bullet train.

Me: What? What kind of train?

Kourtney: A bullet train...I think they have seatbelts...I'm going to ride on one.

Me: Ummm, ok...I think there's a bullet train in Japan...

Kourtney: (said with soooo much confidence) Yes, there is...it's in Japan.

What the heck? Seriously. What? Where in the world did she come up with that? Did Dora The Explorer have an episode that I missed or something? She was so sure...there was no hesitation what-so-ever! She is determined to ride on a bullet train. Will a regular train work? No...she was adamant...it has to be a bullet train!

Super Gross...and an Embarassing Moment

2009-01-27T22:04:00.000-08:00

I keep forgetting to post this story...Have you ever gone to kiss your little ones, and instead you put your mouth over theirs, puff up your cheeks, and blow air into their mouths? (I hope you know what I'm talking about and it doesn't sound totally weird right now) We do this on occasion to coax a giggle out of our little girls--they seriously think it's hilarious! The other night Jeff went to do it to Kinise...only when he blew in her mouth he basically unstuffed her nose because simultaneously snot came shooting out! It was totally disgusting! It got all over Jeff's face! Needless to say, I'll be checking to make sure the kiddos are booger free next time.

At dinner the other night, the kids were imitating a scene from Madagascar 2. We caught it on video (along with my messy house--it'd been a long day, the cleanup happened after dinner

) During the same taping Jeff embarrasses himself...and he said it was okay to show the world! Before you watch it, I'll explain that usually when I go to snap a picture of Jeff he insists on making some sort of ridiculous, silly, ugly, weird (the list goes on) face...basically anything but a nice pleasant smile. (why he does this I don't know) I caught some of it on video this time.

And the WINNERS are...

2009-01-24T18:03:00.000-08:00

Yes. I did say "winners". We decided to give away more than just one! So the FIVE winners are:

Laci

Lopez Life (sorry I wasn't sure of your first name)

Alexi

Lydia

and last but not least...

Shannon

What I need you guys to do is send me an email at laura.hathaway@verizon.net with your address and I'll send it off to you ASAP! CONGRATS!

Our Little Vacation: Part 3

2009-01-24T10:06:00.001-08:00

For the last day of our trip, we headed down to the San Diego Zoo. It was a lot of fun, but we were so tired from the previous 2 days of walking non-stop!

this is in one of the aviaries...

Kourtney didn't want to smile...so Kinsie helped her!

I love Pandas...they're so cute!

This Panda got stuck between the 2 rocks for a minute...

I wish I'd caught it on video!

This is actually a baby koala on top of it's moms head

This Orangutan cracked us up...she rolled across the entire enclosure real slowly...then once she hit the other side she decided to roll on back. We watched them for a while...and she just rolled everywhere she went!

Who's actually on display here? The kids or the animals?

My battery died on my camera, so I had very few pictures of our last day. After we left San Diego we stopped in Carlsbad at Islands (I forgot how inexpensive it is!) and we had a great dinner. The girls kept asking us if we could go back to the hotel...they weren't ready for the trip to be over! It was a pretty quick trip but we managed to pack in a lot of fun!

Our Little Vacation: Part 2

2009-01-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday of our trip, we hit the San Diego Wild Animal Park. My parents had been before, but we had not. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I ended up absolutely loving it! My favorite thing is all the interaction with the animals. The kids fed every animal they could, touched animals they don't usually get to touch, and saw things up close that they've never seen before. It was great! We can't wait to go back again!

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but it's a momma Gibbon and a little baby Gibbon...they were rather entertaining to watch swinging all over the place!

While waiting for the safari, the girls checked out a Rhino skull.

Kourtney was the only one who would touch it! (no surprise!)

Just chillin' waiting for the safari to get going.

I love this picture of Kinsie.

Kinsie loves Rhino's...seeing the baby was so exciting for her!

There are 7 pregnant giraffes right now (all from 1 daddy)...I can't wait to see all the babies!

We seriously could not have asked for better weather...

it was such a beautiful day!

We were close enough to touch it!

(but we weren't allowed)

Seriously a great day for a hot air balloon ride...

but we were too cheap to spend the $20 a person fee.

I never thought I would enjoy an aviary, but there were so many cool birds in them, it was hard not to love it!

this poor bird looks like it's missing half it's face...

My favorite part of the day was feeding the Lorikeets...

These poor deer looked like they were sick of being fed!

And of course, Kourtney was the only one

who would hand feed the ducks!

We ended the day with a swim in the hot tub and then we headed to Ruby's for a yummy dinner! My parents left to go home from there...which was sad because we really enjoyed having them with us for our vacation! Thanks mom and dad!