The Taylor Family

The Massive Summer Update

2011-09-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

Summer started with sleep. Lots of sleep, and not getting out of bed early. We had a gigantic family reunion at the end of June. I love spending time with my family. All of the kids were good. We didn't have any major meltdowns or injuries. It was great. While we were there, Mike had an interview (over the phone) with Best Buy and was hired on our last day there. He is super happy with his new job and is loving it.

Here are my parents with all of the grand kids who were at the reunion.

After we got home, I realized that it was Alexis' birthday in a few days! I was too tired to deal with a party, so we bought her some presents, took her out to pick out her cake, frosting, and ice cream flavor, and invited over family. SIX!

The following week, Emily went to her first year of girls camp. No, she is not twelve yet, but our stake (and maybe others?) has decided to take the girls the year that they turn twelve so that they are staying with the other girls in the same class at church. I'm glad that they did this, because she would have been very sad not being with her friends every year.

After she got home, and before Mike started his new job, we decided to take the kids to the beach for a couple of days. They had lots of fun playing in the sand and water, I taught them how to boogie board, and we met up with some cousins and had a BBQ. It was a fun and relaxing time.

Mike started out his new job with a week in the Los Angeles area for training. While he was gone, I took the kids and visited Corinna for a couple of days, and we took all the kids to the beach for a day. They had lots of fun again. We love our cousins!

Immediately after getting home, we had to pack Mike up and take him to the airport for a week in Minnesota for more training! I decided that would be a good time to head up into the hills, so we spent the week at Big Meadow. It was wonderful getting out of the heat and enjoying the peaceful nature.

Once we got home, summer was pretty much over, so the final week was spent preparing to go back to school. The kids are all doing good and liking their teachers.

First day of school! Emily has to catch the bus early, so she gets her own picture.

I wasn't going to go to Big Meadow for Labor Day this year, but Alice and Eddie talked me into it, so we headed up the mountain again for the long weekend. We had a great time with friends that we hardly see, and there were lots of kids to play with.

(I don't know why blogger suddenly decided to post all of my pictures to the side, but there you have it. I took a lot more pictures, but I'm tired of fighting with it to get them posted.)

So far this year...

2011-04-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

Early in January, I finally heard enough of Alexis complaining about learning to ride her bike without training wheels and decided it was time. We had a warm, sunny day, so I went out and took the training wheels off and called Alexis outside. She was excited for about a minute, then decided she was scared and wanted to quit. I told her that we were out there, the wheels were off, and we were doing it now! I ran up and down the street with her for about half an hour before she was confident. Now there is no stopping her! Since no one else was home, I had to take the pictures while running next to her, but they didn't turn out too bad.

If you look closely, you can see the "tongue of concentration". When she is concentrating really hard on something, her tongue comes out, or pokes out her cheek. I'm glad she didn't fall and bite it!

Later that month, I got a call from her teacher saying that she was chosen for student of the month! She said that Alexis is very sweet and nice to everyone. She has never cried or acted up in class and tries to help other kids in her class when she can.

Here she is getting her medal from our PTC president. And with some of the other kindergartners. (It was also the 100th day of school, so that is why the little boy next to her is wearing that)

And finally with her teacher Mrs. Ramey. We love her! She is the best kindergarten teacher ever!

In February, Mike and I were able to take a little mini-vacation and flew to Austin, Texas. We had fun visiting the state capitol and the Texas state history museum. We also went to the University of Texas (go Longhorns). We drove to San Antonio to see the Alamo. We got there at 5:35pm, only to discover that the Alamo closes at 5:30pm! Slightly disappointed (especially after we paid the $10 to park, and they did not inform us of this). We were still able to look through all of the openings, we just didn't get to read the signs or take a tour. Oh well. We walked along the riverwalk. It was a very beautiful place. We need something like that In Bakersfield!

March (and so far in April) have been super busy months because baseball and softball season have started. I am running most nights of the week. It gets a little crazy some nights when both Emily and Dustin have games or practice. I am looking forward to Spring Break. We don't have any big plans, but these kids are not going to be happy when they discover that they have to clean! I decided we are doing one major house project a day (such as cleaning windows). I've also decided that at least Emily and Dustin are going to learn how to iron clothes. Every Sunday morning I call for clothes to be ironed. Sometimes I get a shirt or dress, sometimes I don't. Then it comes time to get dressed and I'll be in the middle of curling my hair when a frantic child will show up wanting something ironed. I won't do it at that point. Therefore, they will be learning to iron and be in charge of doing it themselves.

Well, I've ranted enough for today!

Christmas Letter 2010

2010-12-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy year! Mike and I have been going back to school. We both got our AA's recently. Mike continues to work full time at T-Mobile. I hold the house together, drive the kids to all of their activities, and sometimes get to take naps! Mike was just called to teach the nine year olds at church, and I have been leading the music in sacrament meeting since March.

Emily just turned 11 and is in the 6th grade, which is at the middle school in our district. She is very social and likes to spend time with her friends. She enjoys playing all sorts of sports, like volleyball, basketball, and softball.

Dustin just had his 8th birthday and was baptized. He is in the 2nd grade this year. He loves to learn and reads books that should be too hard for someone his age. He likes to ride his bike and play baseball. He tried football for the first time this year and decided that he didn't like it.

Alexis is now five. She started kindergarten this year. She loves her teacher and meeting new friends. She is learning to sound out words. She likes to dress up and wear jewelry. She wants to learn to ride her bike without training wheels, but I am still a little wary of her arm. The surgeon said that she could not have any trauma to it for a year.

We have all been good and healthy. We decided to skip the expense of buying and mailing Christmas cards this year, so we are going this way. We hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Love, Michael, Priscilla, Emily, Dustin, & Alexis

Now for November!

2010-12-13T18:03:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving with Mike's family. The food was good, but it's always good when I don't have to cook it! The kids stayed up at the lake and Mike and I went home and did a little midnight shopping on "black Friday". We were home and in bed before most people left their houses. We drove by several stores on the way home just to laugh at the people who were camping out. Crazy people.

Anyhow... Dustin's birthday was that Saturday, so after I got the kids home, I made the cake and we celebrated after Mike got home from work. This was his eighth birthday, so he got new scriptures with a case, a CTR ring, and a CTR tie.

Looking at the pictures in his new scriptures.

Holding up the new tie.

Blowing out eight candles.

Dustin was baptised the next Saturday, (which was actually the first weekend in December, but it's still going here). We were happy to have some family and friends come to celebrate with us. We had a nice lunch at our home afterwards. It was nice and relaxing to sit and visit. The dog even behaved herself! I forgot to get the picture of the boys in their whites, but oh well! I took a picture of them after. Oh, I forgot, we also bought Dustin his first suit!

The boys were in their suits, I choose a black and white dress, I came out of my room and Emily was wearing a black and white dress, and Alexis was sporting bright yellows and pinks, so I changed her into a black and white dress also and decided to get some family pictures while we were all dressed up.
Unfortunatly, someone is making a face in every single one of them, except for this one. Alexis' hair is all messed up, but nothing I can do about it now. Everyone wanted out of their dressy clothes by this point, so they weren't cooperating very well.

That's what's been going on around here! The kids are eager for Christmas to get here (and vacation). Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Halloween

2010-12-13T17:45:00.001-08:00

I know. That's all that needs to be said. The school had the annual, crazy, unorganized, Halloween parade again. The kids love it, so can't complain too much. Emily did not dress up for school. I don't know if it's because the middle school will not allow it, or if it's just because that's not cool!

Dustin wanted to be a mad scientist. His idea of that was to wear a lab coat and to have toxic green hair. So we made it happen.
Alexis got her pick of Emily's old costumes. She choose the "snow princess" one. This is the costume that Emily wore the year Alexis was born, so at about the same age.
Emily wanted to be a pirate, so we borrowed everything and she was happy. It was a beg, borrow, and steal kind of Halloween around here. Mike is dressed as a guy in a jersey. Saturday was super busy, a day full of parties.

We had to celebrate Emily's (and Eddie's) birthday, then rush over to rollerama for a skating, costume party. (Her orthodontist rented the place for all of his clients) I think I had more fun than the kids, they kept falling. As soon as that was done, we went straight to the church for our annual "trunk-or-treat". It was a busy day. Luckily Mike got the day off and was able to spend it with us.
Emily = 11.
Eddie = Emily + 30!

Alexis' baby teeth

2010-10-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday, we were sitting in church waiting for sacrament meeting to start when I heard "Eeeewwwww! Gross!" from the pew behind me. I turned around and said "What?" I was then informed that Alexis was pushing her bottom front two teeth completely flat with her tongue. As we were getting dressed she had said that her teeth were loose, but I just brushed her off thinking she's too young to lose teeth. When we got home one of them was hanging there and she refused to eat, so Mike pushed it out.

There it is. Notice the other bottom tooth moved over into the empty space.

So, the other tooth hung on until Friday, when it was so loose that she wouldn't eat again. So, once again, Mike pushed it out.

Here she is all cute and toothless.

Braces

2010-10-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

During the summer, I decided it was time to get Emily braces because she was entering middle school and I know how brutal those kids can be. Her teeth were/are terrible and I don't want her getting made fun of for them. She spent most of the summer in spacers and then moving her molars back. She finally got the braces put on last week and chose pink and green rubberbands. The ladies said that is a very popular choice right now (as I bit my tongue).

Award Day

2010-10-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

Dustin got the first student of the month award this year (again). His teacher said it's because he always does his work queitly and on time. He is very helpful to her and his other classmates. He is very well behaved (at school). Above is our PTC president giving him the award.

Here he is modeling it and his brand new school shirt.

And this is him with his teacher.

First day of school 2010

2010-10-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

Emily started in the sixth grade at our local middle school. She has to catch the bus at 7:30 every morning, so her picture was alone because the other two were no where near ready. I walked her to the bus stop the first day and quickly realized that it's not cool for mom to walk you to the bus stop.
Dustin was pretending to be mad about going to school. I knew he was really excited. He started second grade this year. Alexis could hardly wait to start kindergarten. She'd been asking me to go since her birthday. She didn't understand why she was five and not going to school.
My pictures are washed out because I was in a hurry and forgot to check the settings. I need to remember to do that.
So far they seem to be doing well at school. I haven't heard many complaints. Except from Emily. She keeps complaining that she is getting in trouble for talking in class. Really?

Alexis turns five

2010-07-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

Five! My baby is five! I'm sad. Everybody keeps asking me what I am going to do when she goes to school and I just want to cry and yell I don't know! So, just don't ask me. It kind of ruins my whole day.

Her birthday landed on a Saturday this year. Mom and Pop have been serving at the temple every year so far on her birthday, so we decided to have a party. We rented a giant, inflatable water slide and invited a bunch of kids over. I had Carissa and Caitlyn here while Corinna was on vacation, and Jerry, Laurie, and their kids all showed up too! She had about nine kids from church show up, so it wasn't too big. (There are 30 kids her age). I made three cakes, and they all got eaten up! The main cake was this one. I am not taking credit for the decorating. I baked it, but about half an hour before the party started, none of the cakes were frosted, Mike had disappeared, and I was feeling desperate. I called my neighbor Jaime. I honestly don't know how I would ever survive without her. I just wanted it frosted, she went above that and it was beautiful! Thank you Jaime! Just remember, I owe you!

The kids all had a great time playing outside. We had no drama or crying so I am calling it a success! Here is the birthday girl with her presents.
And blowing out the candles!
I love the kool-aid mustache!

Legoland and Disneyland

2010-07-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

This year we participated in Disney's "give a day, get a day" program. We were also able to get "buy an adult, get a kid free" tickets to Legoland, so we took a few days in May and went to both. We drove down to Los Angeles on Saturday morning. I spent the afternoon apartment shopping with Alena, while Mike and the kids went to a mall and walked around. We drove to our hotel that evening and walked around downtown Disney. We got to see the fireworks and we ate at the RainForest Cafe. I got a migraine and spent way too much on a bottle of pills, but it was worth it!

Sunday morning we woke up and drove to Carlsbad. We ate breakfast at a Denny's and went in to the park. It was kind of fun, but definitely not worth paying full price. Emily was a little bored. Dustin liked it. Alexis was scared of all the rides, but we dragged her on them anyway.

Emily ran into the curb and got stuck here. She's raising her hand to get the attention of an attendant.

Dustin cruising along.

Alexis on the little kids track.

See how much fun she was having? I think we made her get on this one. YeeHaw!

Alexis really liked it. It was nice and calm.

Dustin thought it was a little goofy too.

That night we drove back to our hotel only to discover that THE HOTTUB WAS NOT WORKING! I really needed a nice relaxing soak too. The kids swam in the freezing water anyway. That night we went to downtown Disney again and watched the fireworks again.

Monday was Disney day. We got up early and packed up the car then got to Disneyland just in time to... Wait in line! We had to redeem our tickets at a booth. It wasn't so bad. We got into the park about half an hour after they opened. I didn't take very many pictures because I was too busy having fun. This was my first ever trip (since being married) without a stroller. Kind of strange, but much easier to manuver. Emily got picked to do Jedi Training. She fought Darth Maul. I'm telling you, the people who work there must be dying in those costumes with all that makeup on. It was only the first weekend of May and it was pretty warm out.

In the teacups, waiting to go.

Dustin and Emily. They were not with us so that they could go fast.

I think we waited in line almost an hour for this two second picture.

Emily fighting Darth Maul.

The highlight of my day was running into one of my best friends from high school. Her parents moved her away between our junior and senior year. We wrote and talked to each other, but then she all of a sudden dissappeared! So I hadn't heard from her for about 12 years. It was so awesome! We met at about 7pm, and the park closed at 8pm, but we were in there until about 8:30, so we stayed together and talked as fast as we could! The kids crashed before we got onto the freeway, so it was a nice, quiet ride home.

And FYI, this is what happens to a Reeses when it gets lost in the bottom of a backpack for two days while walking around in the heat. Yummy!

Seattle

2010-07-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

I went on my annual girl trip to Seattle this year. My friend got us $37 plane tickets (plus taxes and fees, but still super cheap!) It was kind of a last minute thing, but we had a great time. It was actually January that we went, but I took my super cheesy kodak easy share camera which I hardly ever use, and I just now downloaded the photos.

We poked around the city, we drove to Mount Rainier and saw lots of snow and waterfalls, we took a ferry across the bay and walked around, we went to the very first Starbucks, visited Pike Place Market, and I paid $17 to scare the crud out of myself. That's right. I went to the top of the Space Needle.

We were only there for an extended weekend, but we packed it full of activities. It is such a beautiful place. Everything is green and lush. (That's because it rains ALL THE TIME!) Here are a very few pictures because most of them did not come out very good! Enjoy!

Downtown Seattle from on top of the Space Needle. Mt. Rainier is in the background to the right.

The entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park. It started snowing on us not far up the road. It got heavy and scary real fast, so we turned around. It was so overcast that we couldn't see anything anyway.

I liked how this tree was growing out of the rocks. That is one tree split into many trunks. You can't tell, but they are all connected together at the bottom.

I loved how green everything was. Even in the winter when the trees are hibernating, they are covered with a green moss. This picture just doesn't do the beauty of it justice.

A lot of the trees also had ivy growing up them. I really like nature photos, can you tell?

The infamous Space Needle, from below. I was getting sick just looking up it. I don't know how Alena got me in the elevator. Oh, I forgot to mention, you are at the top in less than a minute. Ack!

Little Lies

2010-07-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

Overheard by me during lunch:

(Alexis) "Open."

"C'mon. Open."

"It's okay applesauce. I won't eat you."

And now, deep thoughts, by Alexis Taylor

2010-05-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Alexis comes to me the other day and asks,
"If I cut my finger off, will it grow back?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't know, they just don't grow back."
"Well, my arm got better, and my owies get better."

Ummmm, I could not think of a response for that. Why is it that we can injure ourselves horribly and our bones will heal and our skin will regrow. Our blood vessels can mend themselves, and our nerves regeneraete. But our limbs don't grow back? So I replied,

"I'm not sure why. It doesn't make any sense, does it?"

I guess that was enough for her because she didn't ask any more whys. I'm going to have to start reading some deep science books to answer this ones questions.

I'm still alive...

2010-04-15T13:11:00.001-07:00

I kind of dropped off of the face of the Earth for a while. Alexis ended up having surgery on her elbow and it was like having a baby again. Even though it was her left arm, I had to help her to eat for a while, and I had to take her to the bathroom every time. (She couldn't get on and off the toilet by herself, couldn't balance once she was up there, couldn't wipe, and couldn't wash her hand.) I also had to help her get dressed. It was not fun trying to find clothes that I could fit over the huge cast. For a while she wore a tank top and a shawl. We just took a blanket with us everywhere to keep her warm.

For Christmas, Santa had already gotten her a scooter, so he had to scramble at the last minute to find something else. (He didn't think it would be very nice to give her something that she would not be able to use for a long time.)

She only had the cast on for three weeks. They had to put pins in to hold her elbow in place. The pins were sticking out of the skin, so they had to remove them before they got infected. After that she was in a sling for another three weeks. We have to take her in for x-rays every couple of months for a year to make sure the elbow stays in the right place. The way it broke, it went through her growth plate and if they had not fixed it, her arm would have either stopped growing or would have retarded growth.

Right now both Emily and Dustin are in baseball, so that is keeping me busy. It's kind of a pain on school nights.

For Spring Break we went to Portland, Oregon for my niece Amy's wedding. She is the oldest granddaughter (of my parents) and the first to get married. Alexis was the flower girl. Since I am smart and organized, I forgot my camera at the house we were staying in. All I have is a picture of her in the dress when I tried it on her.

I am hoping to be able to get some pictures from the bride and groom once they are settled in. We had a good time seeing the sights. The kids traveled well, which was very nice. This is the first time they have ever been in the car for more than three hours. I take them to the beach, to the mountains, and to L.A. and that is about it. They watched a lot of movies and played with the DS's. It kept them nicely busy.

On the way home we hit a huge snow storm over Mt. Shasta. There were a lot of people driving badly and sliding off of the road. We were scared that someone was going to slide into us, but decided to keep going. They closed the road right after we got over it. It took us an extra three hours to get over the summit. Here are a few pictures of it.

It was beautiful. If we were the only cars on the road it would have been okay. We just got really stressed about the other drivers.

Today was Alexis' last day of preschool. She got out early because her teacher (unexpectedly) got pregnant at the beginning of the school year. She has to have her babies by c-section, and they just bumped her date up to the Monday after next, so she decided she wanted a week off to prepare her self and her house. At the last minute (literally after school started today) she decided to have a little graduation. So once again, no camera. I took a few pictures after we got home.

They made cute little hats and diplomas.
And a few days ago they made these cute hand print stepping stones. We got to bring them home today. She had a great time in preschool and learned a lot. She is more than ready for kindergarten. Thanks Miss Michelle!

We recently made some blankets for Project Linus and donated them for Disney's "give a day, get a day" so up next an (almost) free Disney trip!

November

2009-11-30T19:01:00.000-08:00

This month Dustin got the student of the month award. It was a surprise for him, so that is his pleased grin. I made some turkey cupcakes for the ladies that I visit teach and some for Alexis' preschool class. I thought they looked like turkeys, but my kids asked me what they were.

We spent Thanksgiving at Mike's dads house. The day after was Dustin's birthday. Since it was black Friday, Mike had to work. So we let him open his present that morning and had his cake on Sunday. Unfortunatly, uncle Eddie had a little bike accident (and broke both collarbones) on Friday, so Alice was going to stay home with him and my parents were going to bring the kids over, but...

Miss Alexis decided to climb up on the kitchen counter and fell off. Mike and I were both cooking dinner, so we were right there when it happened. Mike picked her up and I lifted her sleeve. The arm was already swollen and had a nasty lump on it. And she was screaming. We decided we'd better not put her in her carseat, so we called an ambulence. We were having friends over for dinner and they pulled up right when it happened and heard the screaming. We let them in and immediatly gave her a blessing. When they sat her in the ambulence, she was very pale and was swaying. She looked like she was going to pass out. That's about when my parents pulled up. Mike rode with her in the ambulence. I went inside with our friends and we went ahead and ate dinner, then did the cake and icecream for Dustin. They had to cut Alexis' shirt off of her. It was new. She cried about it, so the EMT's went back to the hospital and took her a teddy bear. They xray'd her and could not see a break, but her arm was sooooo swollen, and she flinched and yelled and almost cried every time it was touched. They put it in a hard splint and a sling and sent us home. We were told to see an orthopedist today. So today, they took her out of the splint and straightened her arm to xray it from all angles and she started crying again. It is still very swollen and black and blue. It just looks wrong. It looks like her elbow is broken, but with the swelling as bad as it is they cannot cast it. They put her back in the splint and sling and told us not to touch it for a week. They will re-xray it next week and decide what to do. They said that when they are this young, the bones are still pliable, so they can go up to two weeks before something needs to be done. It is not hurting her as long as she doesn't move it. Too much excitement here. Let's hope for a quiet December.

The end of October

2009-11-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

Emily turned ten! We had a little party with just us, my parents, and my sister Alice and her family. She chose chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so I added a sprinkle 10.
Next came Halloween. It started with Alexis on Thursday. Instead of having a dress up day at her preschool, they had a scarecrow day. This is how she looked when I picked her up. So cute!

Friday morning was the traditional Halloween parade at school. It was a complete mess as always, but the kids have fun.

Dustin, Luke Skywalker.

Emily, supergirl.

Alexis, the little mermaid, Ariel. I have always let the little ones dress up when they go to the parade, they like it. And finally, Saturday night. Here are the kids in front of the house before we left to go trick-or-treating. Mike made our porch scary, so that is a tarp that says "keep out" behind them. He had the spiders and the strobe light going on. He probably had more fun than the kids.

October

2009-10-26T18:49:00.001-07:00

Emily got the first student of the month this year. Go Emily!

Here is our PTA president giving it to her.
Here she is closing her eyes against the morning sun.

Next came Grandpa's wedding. Mike's dad got re-married. It was very dark in the church and my flash is missing (any body know where it's at?), so I only took a couple of pictures in there.

Here are the cousin's minus Savannah. I never did get a picture of her.
Dustin, the ring bearer. He's so handsome, I think I'm going to have to peel the girl's off of him when he gets older.

Emily was a bridesmaid. Loved the spiral curls.

Here's Alexis. I made her this dress because they felt that she was too young to be in the ceremony and I knew she would be heart broken if she was the only one there without a spiffy new outfit. I took her to the fabric store and let her pick out what she wanted, so we ended up with a pink dress with a sparkly overlay on the skirt.

Lastly, Dustin again. The poor boy lost his two front teeth. He's speaking with a hiss/lisp now. It's funny. The first tooth was hanging by a string so Mike pushed it and it fell out. The second tooth then went completely crooked and Dustin started showing me how cool it was that he could turn it all the way around. It was nasty so I grabbed him and made Mike yank it out. Yes, I am mean like that. It bled. A lot. So that is why there is a little bit of blood on his nose. Mike felt guilty and bought him a pack of pokemon cards, so he was happy then.

All I want for Halloween is my two front teeth!

Up next, Emily's birthday, then Halloween.

I know, its been forever...

2009-09-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

Okay! I'm back. I took a nice long summer break. I enjoyed staying up late and sleeping in. I did not enjoy being a referee.

Here we are walking to school on the first day. Right as I pressed the button, Dustin ran in front of Mike, you can see his shoe if you look. I wanted this picture, but the sun was behind us and the shadows were bad, so I did not take another one.
Emily, first day of fifth grade. She was obviously very excited to be there. Especially after she saw the stack of books waiting on her desk.

Dustin, first day of first grade. He actually was very excited and couldn't wait to see what friends were going to be in his class and to meet his teacher.
Here he is exploring his desk. He sat right down and started chatting with the little boy next to him like they'd known each other forever. It was so cute.
Here is Alexis the next day on her first day of preschool. She was super-duper excited. She hated being all alone all day last year while Dustin was in K. She was always asking me if she could go to school. She goes two days a week and doesn't stop talking about it in between. She keeps track of the days and knows when she goes. So she is loving it!

Mike and I are still plugging along in school. It's been about eight months. Only three more years to go...

A few summer happenings

2009-08-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a long summer. School is keeping Mike and I very busy. With his new job, we are not having a lot of time to do things. I haven't taken very many pictures at all this summer. We spent the fourth of July at my sister's house. She lives right by BC, so we get a nice, free show. This year we walked down the street to a friends' grandparents home and the show was even better! There was a really nice breeze, and it blew the fireworks right over us. At the end of the show it rained ash on us. A few of us even got hit by some large pieces of exploded cardboard. It was fun. We spent the day making bottle rockets out of old water bottles. Here is Alexis holding hers.
My bro-in-law Eddie made a "launching pad" to shoot these off. They are powered by water and air. They shoot pretty high and you never know where they are going to land. I couldn't catch a flying one, but here is one ready to go, I think it might also be Alexis'.

Dustin wanted a "faux-hawk" but his hair would not co-operate, so he ended up getting his hair cut into a real mo-hawk. It looked cute for a while, but now that it is grown out, it is looking a little shabby. Here he is on the fourth. I tried to get pictures of the kids playing with the sparklers, but most of them turned out all blurry. I did not have the camera on the correct shutter speed for night. This is the only one that kind of turned out. Alexis had her fourth birthday on July 10th. We ended up accidently having three parties for her. It's a good thing I made a cake and a ton of cupcakes. The first party was a little girls only party. Alexis invited over a few friends and they dressed up and played a few games. I painted all of their fingernails while they colored princess pictures. They also all made necklaces with beads and filled them with sand. I let the girls decorate their own cupcakes. They had a lot of fun. Here are all the girls dressed up. We were supposed to have one big family party that night, but it didn't work out. Alice and Eddie had taken the day off of work and were leaving for a weekend trip, and Mike's sister and her kids couldn't make it until late, so we had two separate family parties. That's okay, then the house wasn't full all at once. I think Alexis had a really great day. Thanks to everyone who came and for the nice gifts.

Dustin's kindergarten graduation

2009-05-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this school year is over already. Dustin had a great time in Kindergarten and is eager to start first grade. He will really miss Mrs. Ramey. (He's absolutely gaga over her, but don't tell him I told you) She was passing out the diploma's so fast and so many parents were around taking pictures that I didn't get a really good one of them together. Oh well.

Here he is in front of the cute backdrop that they made.

And a close up of him and his diploma. He doesn't know how to smile for pictures. This is his fake, picture smile. (I hate it, he has such a cute real smile) So, now on to summer time. I am going to have to think of some busy things to do or they are going to drive me nuts. Emily will be in the fifth grade next year, and Alexis is going to start pre-school two days a week. That's going to be nice. It will allow me to actually get my own school work done without any interruptions. WooHoo! Oh, by the way, in case I didn't mention it before, Mike and I have both gone back to school. We do two classes at a time, and they are nine weeks each. Tomorrow is the last day of our second set of classes. It has been interesting. I think that the first couple of classes are to get you used to how things work at the school, and then they are really going to start laying the hard stuff on us.

Mike also (finally) got a job. He is working for T-Mobile. It seems to be going good so far. They just gave us the benifits package to fill out and it looks like it's pretty good, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper per month then we have ever payed. I am still trying to adjust to him being gone, and now the kids are here! So, if anybody is planning any little one-two day getaways and want some tag-a-longs let me know! (I meant me too, not just the kids)

The logic of the little one.

2009-05-20T22:10:00.000-07:00

Mike will probably kill me for this one, but it was so funny that I have to share. Mike wiggles around a lot in his sleep and his pants always come down a bit by morning. This morning he was sleeping on his stomach with his arms up under his head. It was warm so he had nothing over him. Alexis came in to wake him up. She climbed up on the bed and patted him, then got this huge look of concern on her face. "Daddy!" "What?" "Your butt cracked open!"

I really needed a good laugh!

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-05-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

31. There I said it. That wasn't so bad. This year for my birthday, I decided to take Disney up on their offer and enjoy a FREE day at Disneyland! It was a good day! The lines were practically non-existent. We walked onto almost every ride. Oh, by we, I mean my friend Alena and I. That's right, I went with NO kids. The weather was perfect. No sweater needed. Besides a nasty soaking on Splash Mountain (that took about three hours to dry from) I had an absolutly wonderful day. The only ride I didn't go on was the new Nemo submarine ride. That was the only thing in the park with a line, and it was a huge one. Everyone I know that has gone on it has said that it's not worth the wait, so I didn't wait. I didn't take a camera, so I have to wait for Alena to get me the pictures. I have to at least post the one from Splash Mountain. I don't know how good it will turn out, since it's a picture of the picture on the wall, but it's hilarious. It will have you laughing. I'm glad I can laugh at me and then share it so others can laugh at me too. Hopefully she'll get those to me soon! I would recommend Disneyland without kids any day!

Dustin's tooth

2009-04-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

Dustin finally lost his first tooth! We've been waiting for this for a long time. Since he was about three years old we could see these huge teeth waiting under his gums on his x-rays at his dentist appointments. He has been complaining of this tooth hurting for about a week now, and I kept asking him if it was loose, but he was saying no. So there it is. It's too bad the tooth fairy is broke, Emily has lost two in the last few weeks herself.

Easter Sunday

2009-04-13T14:33:00.001-07:00

I made the kids dresses again. This year I did not make them match because Emily didn't seem to like that very much last year. Alexis asked me for a "ducky color" dress. I found this adorable material with lady bugs on it, and made her a red jacket to go with it. Emily wanted a green dress. She's being anti-girly right now. No pinks or purples. So I found this material at my moms house with blue flowers and just bought a little bit of plain blue material to complement it. Mike hated it until she put it on. Then he said "That looks a lot better on her than it did just sitting there". Thanks Mike.

I also let Dustin pick out one of Mike's ties and cut it down to kid size. Mike has I think 55 ties, so I figured he wouldn't miss one. These are the only two pictures I got of them, I posted them both because neither one is that good. They were complaining about the sun and making funny faces, so I gave up. That and we really needed to get to church.

Spring Break

2009-04-13T13:40:00.001-07:00

This year for spring break we stayed at home, cleaned the house and had a yard sale. On Thursday night, Mike suggested we go to the L.A. Zoo. I ignored him. On Friday morning, Mike's cousin Mark called and said he and his family were going to the L.A. Zoo on Saturday and asked if we'd like to go too. We agreed to if the weather stayed nice. We were expecting thunder storms. Well, it turned out to be a beautiful day. Not too hot, not too cold. Only a few clouds floated over, some of them were very dark and scary looking, but not a drop fell on us. The zoo was having some Easter activities, so we did a few that were not too crowded. We petted the bunnies. (Dustin is in this picture too, see the extra hand?) I let the kids each pick a giant egg to have their pictures taken in front of.

Alexis made some bunny ears. (Emily felt she was too old for this and as soon as she said that Dustin put his ears back)

We were able to make it around the whole zoo and see all the animals there. We were there a little over five hours and we took a nice long lunch break and several smaller snack breaks, so the kids all stayed happy. We didn't feel rushed, so that was good. The only animal the kids wanted a picture of was the flamingos. I'm not one of those people to take pictures of every single animal in the zoo, so that was the only animal pic I took. After we left the zoo, Alexis really wanted to go to the beach. Unfortunatly, we had not planned this, so we didn't bring any beach toys. She didn't want to play in the water, she wanted to play in the sand. We drove over to the Santa Monica Pier and got there just before sunset. So, we walked on the pier and watched the sun set, we watched some people fishing, we walked around the rides, then we went down in the sand and let her push it around with her hands for a little while. Once the sun had set, a very cold wind came in, so we didn't stay there for very long.
That is a monkey on Alexis' back. While we were walking around the rides, a lady walked up to Alexis and asked her if she wanted it. She was so happy, so I hung it around her neck and sat it in her hood so it would not get lost. Oh, and that's cotton candy on their faces. We didn't get home until 10:30pm. The kids had all slept at one time or another, so I had to force them to go to bed when we got home. I was so tired. At least our legs got a good work out!

March in Bakersfield

2009-03-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is in response to Shawna's picture that she sent out yesterday. I'm sorry I have to do this, but you all know that this is really the only nice time of the year around here.

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

2009-03-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

Every year for Dr. Seuss' Birthday, our school does something. Usually it is a crazy hat contest. This year our new principal decided to have a shirt making contest. So, I traced the outlines on the shirts and the kids colored them in. These are both pages from Dr. Seuss' ABC book. He wrote 44 books, so we put that on the backs jersey style.

Emily's shirt.

"BIG Q little q what begins with Q? The quick queen of Quincy and her quacking quacker-oo"

Dustin's shirt.

"T.....T t.....t What begins with T? Ten tired turtes on a tuttle-tuttle tree"

2009 begins

2009-02-17T21:17:00.000-08:00

So, not much has been going on so far this year. We are busy surviving. We all got a touch of the stomach flu a few weeks ago. It wasn't that bad. Dustin and Alexis both threw up once and were done, and the rest of us just got horrid stomach aches and sat around for a day. Emily is currently playing basketball, but we haven't got any good pictures of that. She is also starting softball soon. Dustin is now complaining that he wants to play again and we need to sign him up. He is doing really well with his reading and is very excited about that. He kept telling me all last summer that he wanted to learn how to read so that he could play video games better. The picture is of him getting a star student award. Apparantly they only hand these out a couple of times a year, and this was the first time this year. He is a huge teachers pet. He would do anything to please her, so it kind of didn't surprise me that he got it. Alexis has been asking me to help her write her name, so I write it and she picks the letters at random and writes them all over the page, but they look right, so that is a good start. Mike and I both started back to school. We are now in week four. Only three and a half more years...

Christmas Time

2008-12-21T16:20:00.000-08:00

Here are the kids with Santa at our previously mentioned Ward Christmas party. We took photos for all the kiddos. The funny thing is that the guy who was Santa has a couple of kids and many grandkids in our ward. The only kids that were screaming were his own grandkids. I thought that was hilarious.

And just to get everyone in the Holiday Spirit... I present "Christmas toes" (These are Alexis' feet)

And speaking of Alexis, we've had quite a fun few weeks with this girl. It started out when I was in my room, sorting laundry and she was in the living room, playing with money. She came in to me screaming at the top of her lungs (anybody who knows Alexis, knows she is a very quiet girl, this is totally out of character for her) So I'm telling her to calm down because I can't understand what she's saying, finally I hear "I swallowed a penny" I thought she was too old for this stuff, I thought I was past the putting things in the mouth stage. Nope. So I called the doctor just to see what they say, and they tell me to take her to an urgent care and get xrays. How fun. So we do that, and from the looks of the xray, it was a quarter, not a penny, but she calls all coins pennys, so I wasn't all that surprised. So they tell me to fish through her poo, and if it doesn't come out in 48 hours, bring her back. (this was all on a Monday) So Mike and I looked (mostly Mike, she kept going when I would leave the house) (haha) and we never saw (or felt) anything, so on Friday night they call to see if she had "made a deposit" yet, and told us to give her laxitives, both oral and suppository. Oh yeah, fun. So I took her back in again Saturday night for more xrays, and guess what? It's gone. She must have snuck one out and not told us. So who knows how long we were doing that yucky stuff for nothing.

Then last week she suddenly got very sick, running a fever of almost 104 and coughing, so back to the doctor. She was panting by the time we got there and her heart was beating like a hummingbird. She was also just laying there. Not fun. It took them several breathing treatments to get it under control. She has a bit of asthma, and it only acts up when she's sick. She has bronchitis right now, so she's on some really strong antibiotics, steroids, and several different breathing treatments a day. So, that's why I painted her toenails. It makes her happy. Other then that we are all doing good, and the kids are ready for Christmas. So Merry Christmas to all my readers out there. I know I hardly ever post, so most of you won't see this for a while, but have a good one!!

Dustin's 6th Birthday

2008-12-07T15:51:00.001-08:00

Dustin's birthday was on Thanksgiving this year (poor kid) so we decided at the last minute to have his party the weekend before. He invited over a few friends and they had a great time playing with his new things. This was the favorite present. They had a lot of fun seeing who could get the rockets to go the highest. And I had a fun time sweeping them off the roof!

When I asked Dustin what kind of cake he wanted he answered "Chocolate. With chocolate frosting." He must be my kid. So I asked what would you like on top of your cake? and he said star wars. That left it open quite a bit. So I googled "easy star wars cakes" and you would not believe the cakes that popped up. They most definatly did not look easy. So after a few pages, I found this cake. Anyone who has seen the movies will recognize this scene.

It was a little soft and the men kept sinking in, so that's where the toothpicks came in, and I could not get the lava frosting red enough, so Mike finally made me quit before I made it any worse. So once again I ended up with one of those cakes that doesn't look as good as I want it to, but it tasted good!

As for other things, Mike and I got called to be the activities chairpeople about two weeks before Halloween. So we had to throw together the Halloween party at the last second. (With no committee) Ugh! It was not fun at all. (for us, everyone else seemed to have a good time) So we had our Christmas party planned for Dec. 13th, and we got to church two weeks ago to find out that they did not reserve the building for us, and the only open date was the 6th. So it's been a bit of a stressful two weeks, and I am sooooo glad it's over. Everything turned out beautifully this time, and I actually got to sit and eat for about five minutes. I hate to admit it, but I actually work better under last minute stress. Way back in high school I wouldn't write my term papers until the night before, and they were always decent. The longer I have to do things the more I second guess myself and redo them, usually the first thing I come up with is the best. Okay, so now you've all had a little peak into my inner self. Christmas and Mike's birthday are coming up soon and we are not prepared. But I can at least try to post soon after they happen!

Halloween

2008-11-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

Halloween night at my parents home. Everyone is so excited, can't you tell? After this we went to Alice's ward party and had a great time. They had some fun carnival games and a spook alley. We didn't do any door to door trick or treating this year because fewer and fewer people are handing out candy. A lot of the churches around here do the "safe halloween" parties now, and they attract huge crowds.

This is Alexis at school for the kids' parade, she had to get dressed up too. It was very windy (our yes on prop 8 sign blew away) so that's why she's holding her hat on. Isn't she the most adorable thing you've ever seen?

Here is Darth (Dustin) Vader. He wouldn't put out his light sabor, but at least he carried it.

And here is Tinker Bell Emily. (She's a little obsessed with Tinker Bell lately, can you tell?) I actually made this costume, wings and all. The wings were shaped a lot better when I made them, but they got desroyed really fast.

Emily's 9th Birthday (and Eddie's 39th)

2008-11-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

As everyone knows, (or should know) Emily was born on Eddie's 30th birthday. I remember him coming to the hospital to see us and I tried to stammer out an apology (lots of drugs, not enough sleep) and he said something to the effect of "No! This is great! Now I never have to celebrate another birthday again, it will be all about her" We can't let that happen, we always sing to him, but this year we put together a few cupcakes and made him blow out some candles too. Emily invited three friends over, and spent the entire night giggling with them. She wanted a Tinkerbell cake, so once again I made one of those cakes that tastes a whole lot better then it looks. But like Mike said, it's better then a cake that looks perfect and tasted horrible. Thanks to everyone who came and sent birthday cards.

2008-09-05T21:15:00.000-07:00

My first view of the canyon.
Down the trail a ways.
No trees blocking this view
The Colorado river. We wanted to hike down there, but the shortest trail was 7.5 miles one way. We were confidant that we would make it down, it was the getting back up that worried us.
And, finally, a beautiful sunset under those monsoon clouds.

I know I said I would post the pictures below, but the silly thing posts everything backwards. Does any body else have this problem? Or am I just blogger illiterate?

My (semi) impromtu trip to the Grand Canyon

2008-09-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's funny how things come about. I was having a rotton day a few weeks ago. It turned into a giant pitty party for me and I ended up crying. This is not something I do often. It's about once a year or less, but once I get going it's very hard for me to stop. I tried to tell my husband that he should feel lucky because there are women out there who cry all the time and about anything, so he rarely has to deal with this, but he went into "fix it" mode and just kept asking what's wrong? How do you explain to a man that you have no idea what's wrong and really don't know why you are crying? That sounds just plain crazy! But that is pretty much where I ended up at. Feeling crazy. As most of you know he has been off work for several months due to the latest round of broken foot. So I decided I'd had enough of it and just needed a vacation by myself, just to get away for a few days. A few hours after I finally calmed down the phone rings. It is my dear, wonderful, almost saintly (I hope she gets a kick out of this) friend Alena. She said to me "I want to go to the Grand Canyon, wanna come?" Without thinking I blurted out "YES!" A few hours later and a little convincing to Mike, the plans were layed and set into action. We had less then two weeks to prepare, but everything turned out wonderfully. We took along two more friends, Diana and David. It was seriously the best hole in the ground I have ever seen. There were quite a few times that I was extremely grateful that I didn't have my kids with me because I would have been a nervous wreck. This way I was able to relax and enjoy the beauty of it all. And except for losing David for a little while and those crazy monsoons that blow through once a day, the trip went great! We drove there on Friday, set up camp and went to bed, spent Saturday and Sunday hiking/exploring and drove home Monday. Below I will post a few pictures, I took a lot, but there are only so many angles you can look at the thing from, and a picture will never show the full beauty or the enormous size of the place. Hope you enjoy!

The first day of school

2008-09-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

I know this was a few weeks ago, school started on August 18th here, but here are a few pictures of the kids on day one! (I was probably way more excited then them)
Dustin finally started kindergarten, woohoo!

And Emily is starting fourth grade. She's not so happy about the level of work expected of them this year, but I'm sure she'll survive. I was a little surprised when I walked into her classroom to see that her teacher is the younger sister of one of my friends, so I've run into her a lot over the years at birthday parties, baby showers, etc. It's a small world sometimes. I brought Alexis along in a stroller so I didn't have to keep too close of an eye on her, but I didn't take a picture of her. She spends her days now asking me "where Dustin at?" "He's at school" "oh, yeah, school" Every day we have the same conversation. I wonder when it's going to sink in?

Summer 2008

2008-08-15T13:57:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody! I am finally going to post pictures because school is starting next Monday, and with all the events soon to be happening, I figured I'd better catch up now or I'd be in big trouble. So the following are pictures of a few things that went on this summer. Enjoy!

Preschool Graduation

2008-08-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

Dustin graduated from preschool in May. Even though we have a ton of pictures from it, I'm only going to post one, you get the idea. They gave them a little diploma, a Clifford book, and a book that they made with pictures and things that they have done throughout the school year. It was really cute.

Student of the Month

2008-08-15T13:51:00.001-07:00

This is how long it's been since I've posted pictures, here we are with school about to start and Emily got student of the month in May. They have a big assembly and give the kids medals.

Princess Pony Party

2008-08-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

We went to a friends birthday party and they had this adorable little horse there. It's hooves were even painted with glitter! So here are pictures of all the kids taking a ride.

Even boys can ride princess pony's!!

Summer Baseball

2008-08-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, most of the summer was filled with baseball. We forgot to take the camera to any of Emily's games (oops) but here is a picture of Dustin in the out field.

Alexis' 3rd Birthday

2008-08-15T13:30:00.001-07:00

Alexis turned three (back in July) and she wanted a Dora the Explorer birthday party. So we got a generic princess cake from Costco. She didn't care, she was just so excited that she had so many friends over to play with.

This is her when she was done opening her presents, she got a lot of new dress up clothes and wears them all the time. By this point I think she was done smiling for the camera, so she only gave it a little effort. But she's still cute!

Camping

2008-08-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

We had a really fun time camping together. We were at Big Meadow with my parents and a neice and nephew (Karyn & Ethan) and some of my parents friends that they used to work with at the Los Angeles Temple. The kids had fun riding bikes, building fires, and falling into the stream. The adults played a lot of games and read. It was pretty relaxing. We had a few minor problems, but nothing disastrous.
Here are all the kids on a rock. They really liked climbing up anything that they could, even little Alexis.
And here is the evidence that Mike actually went. This is the only picture I have of him, but then again, I don't have a single picture of me there... hmmm...

How bad am I?

2008-08-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, it has now been two months since my last post. I mentioned on my last post that I got a new camera for my birthday. I still haven't played around with it enough to figure anything out, but I plan on doing that soon. We just downloaded all the pictures a couple of days ago, but they are on the other computer, so I'll have to add them later, it's too late at night to bother with that now. So far this summer we have kept busy with baseball and lots of it. For two months we had a game almost evey night. Emily's were on Mondays and Wednesdays and Dustin's were on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am relieved that we are finally done, it was getting really hot out there! I also failed to mention that Mike had foot surgery on May 16th, and finally got the cast off two weeks ago. He is now wearing a walking boot but it's still painful. He has quite a large scar down the side of his foot. We celebrated Alexis' 3rd birthday last month also. I can't believe it, where does the time go? As for me? I spend my days staying sane. I am so ready for school to start. Enough said. I am also getting us ready for a big camping trip next week. I'm probably more excited then the kids. (I know I'm more excited then Mike) I haven't been on a big camping trip since I was 17. The year I turned 18, I rushed out and got a job as soon as school was over (because I didn't want to go somewhere, so I had an excuse) Then the next summer I got married and Mike has never had time off to do this. I've taken the kids by myself a couple of times for weekends, but this is our first (and possibly last) huge camping trip! I will definatly post about that when I get home. It's going to be a very busy couple of weeks!

I survived the big 30!

2008-06-02T22:01:00.001-07:00

It's been almost a month ago, but I turned 30! I decided I needed to leave my 20's with a bang, so I made Mike throw me a last minute party. Everything came together wonderfully and I had lots of friends and family over to celebrate with me. Mike got me a new camera, but I still need to sit down and figure out how to use all those features. I always have these images in my head of how gorgeous my pictures are going to turn out, but they never look that way. This camera will give me the ability to make everything turn out like I want, once I get to know it.

I had to add this picture in here because my absolutely wonderful neighbor and friend, Jaime, made this for me.

http://www.urmstonwritings.blogspot.com/

Here is her web site if any body wants one (or anything else she makes)

More of my sewing

2008-04-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

I know everybody loves it when I brag. This is my first attempt at a rag quilt. They are pretty popular right now (at least around here) I made this for a friends baby and since I was giving it away, I decided to take a picture of it and share it with everyone!

The lastest on Mike

2008-04-26T18:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, which should be almost everybody since this happened very quickly, Mike got a lap band put in on Thursday. These have had great success in helping people with diabetes, and we are hoping that eventually he will be able to quit insulin all together. He's doing good, just feels like he got beat up in the belly area, he should be able to go back to work soon. Here is the beautiful photo. I know one hole was for the camera, one was for the tools, one for the sucker and one to put the lap band in through, but I don't know what the fifth hole was for. Maybe Jim can shed a little light on that?

However, on another note, he was walking a few weeks ago and heard (and felt) a *pop* He walked on it for a couple of days before telling me that it hurt worse then when he broke it last January. So we went and got it x-ray'd. They told us that it was definatly broken, but that they needed to compare it to the post surgery x-rays to see if it was any different. Well, we got a phone call last week telling us that it is broken and he is going back to see the surgeon on Tuesday. I'm going to have to assume that they are going to take the screw out and do something else, and hopefully soon so it doesn't get any worse. We'll see.

Our Easter Sunday

2008-03-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I cannot get blogger to co-operate today. It will only let me type on the bottom and I cannot re-arrange the pictures like I normally do. So we are all out of order here. But I think you all can guess what's going on. We've got lots of pictures of every body dying eggs, some of the hunt (mostly Alexis, sorry, but she is just so cute!) And then, my kids after church in their nice clothes. Got to brag a little bit, I made the girls' dresses, purses and hair bows. Aren't they adorable? I figure I've got to do it now because Emily is going to get to that age really soon where it won't be "cool" any more.

February's gone!

2008-03-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

Even with an extra day, it still dissapeared. Although two weeks of the month was spent dealing with the rest of the family getting this horrid flu/virus thing. Luckily Alexis and Dustin only got it for one day each, but they both had the flu shot this year, so I think we were in the minority and actually got one of the strands covered by it this year. Mike had it for three or four days but was still managing to go to work for at least half a day. Me? Oh it was great. I had the high fever of 103 to 104 for five days before I started almost passing out every time I got up. I finally went in to Kaiser and sat there for a few hours getting some fluid and oxygen pumped into me. (They gave me the O2 because I almost fainted on them while going to a room) I still ran the fever for a few more days. I got to the point where I couldn't get up to feed the kids anymore, so Mike's dad took the little ones, and I left Mike and Emily to fend for themselves and I slept and slept and slept. So the illness itself lasted me a full week, just like Emily. Then for the full next week, I was still so tired and weak, that I was falling asleep two to three times a day. So this stupid illness took two weeks from my life! (On the plus side I lost five pounds and haven't gained it back) So now I am preparing for our Easter break. I started to make the girls dresses before I got sick, then didn't touch them for those two weeks, so I want to get them done this week before school gets out. I don't want to feel rushed, that's when you make mistakes. But we also (we being Emily) have a huge animal project due by Friday, that (of course) got left until the last week to do. Why do I do this to myself? School has gotten so crazy. She has so much homework for being in the third grade. I didn't get regular every night homework until I was in junior high. And I don't remember having to do big projects like this until I was old enough to take care of it on my own. What am I going to do next year when I have to help two of them? Blah. Oh yeah, I got Dustin all registered for Kindergarten on Friday. WooHoo! He has been driving me nuts the last couple of months. "I'm bored" I hear that probably 20 times a day. So I give him things to do. He actually (kind of) cleaned my toilets for me. He helps with the dishes and laundry. Pretty much anything I ask him to do, but it doesn't last long then we are back to the boredom again. I have been spending about three hours a day sitting in my front yard so he can ride his bike. As you can imagine, that doesn't help my house cleaning very much. I don't understand what happens there. I go to bed and everything is fine, then by the time the morning rush is over I look around and wonder what happened to my clean house, and why do I even bother cleaning it when it's just going to end up looking horrible again the next day? Okay, I think I've ranted and raved enough for one night. It's kind of late and I seem to be jumping from one subject to the next. My tired brain doesn't work very well. Good night all!

Thirty Five !!!

2008-01-28T16:56:00.000-08:00

It's official! Mike is half way to seventy! (hey, he's the one who came up with that, not me) Well, that's all for the pictures. I haven't taken any since then. I am bad at taking pictures. As for other events in our life...
Mike called into a radio station a few weeks ago and got us on the air to play a game called "relationship roulette" They asked him questions first, then they called me at home and asked me the same questions. I am happy to say that we won! They gave us Lenny Kravitz tickets for his show in Santa Monica. It was his first show on this tour, and it was great! He played alot of different instruments along with singing. I didn't realize how talented he is.
I spent the last week at home with Emily. She had some strange flu/virus that knocked her out from Sunday to Saturday. She just stayed in bed, barely eating or drinking, and ran a fever of 103-104 for several days. I am happy to say that she survived church yesterday and went back to school today. No one else has got it yet (knock on wood)
Well, that's all that has been going on recently.

Christmas cards

2008-01-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

For those of you who didn't get a Christmas card, I am really sorry. I didn't think about them until the 20th of December or so, and I did my best to get them out, but after wards I realized that I forgot some people. So here is the photo that we put on our cards this year.

Joseph

2008-01-28T16:46:00.000-08:00

Dustin was chosen to play Joseph in his preshcool play. He was so handsome standing up there. (I know that the end of January is here already, but I haven't downloaded pictures in a while)

There is a little boy named Joseph in Dustin's class at school, so he asked me, "If I'm going to be Joseph, who's going to be Dustin?"

Alexis' 1st haircut

2007-12-06T13:40:00.001-08:00

I was brushing Alexis' hair, and wondering why she has this spot on the back of her head that is always ratty looking (see below picture) Even when it is freshly clean and I brush it out wet, it's still there. Then I realized she is almost 2 1/2 years old and has never had a hair cut! This was her left over new born baby hair that never fell out. So here are the front and back before pictures.
I took her to a new place near our house called cool cuts 4 kids. I was hoping that since it was for kids they would be able to handle it if she started having problems. It was very nice, as you see they have nice little fire truck chairs, and they have little tv's in front of them. So she sat there and watched Dora the Explorer. She was a little nervous because she demanded her "paci" and sucked it very rapidly. But she held still and didn't cry or complain, although she kept looking at me and the stylist like we were crazy.
And here's the after picture. She took one to two inches off the back of her hair to even it out, and she cut off all the ratty looking hair. Then she trimmed the front of it so it lays across her forehead a little nicer then before. She got a sucker and a free hair bow. They took a polaroid of her and put it in a card with a lock of her hair. I took this picture when we got out of the store, she still wasn't very sure what was going on, but I'm so glad that she didn't scream or cry.

Dustin's 5th Birthday

2007-12-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

Dustin celebrated turning five last Tuesday. We had everyone over after church on Sunday. He loves the movie "Cars" so he picked out a cars cake. He was so glad that his cousins were able to come. We still had a full house even though there aren't too many living around here anymore. He got a few more toys from the movie to add to his collection, and he got a little football and the game hungry hungry hippo. And the big gift was a new bike! He has gotten way too big for his other one and was looking quite silly riding it. He was starting to take Emily's and ride it while she was at school, then he looked even sillier riding a pink and purple bike with streamers around, so it was time for a new one.

Emily's Baptism

2007-11-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

Emily got baptized last Saturday, November 3rd. She was nervous, but stayed calm. We also confirmed her while everyone was there and that was a good thing because we had four baby blessings the next day. Thank you to all of our family and friends who came. We appreciate all the love and support. It makes getting through this crazy life a lot easier when you have a lot of people who care about you.

This first picture is before we started the whole program. Mike was really loving being in this "straight from the 70's" polyester jump suit. *note to Bakersfield stake: spend a little money on some newer cotton suits!*

This is Emily in her absolutely beautiful gown! I put the finishing touches on it that morning. Talk about last minute. (Although I did have a friend who's mom was in the car driving to the temple while finishing her wedding dress, so at least it wasn't that bad...)
And here we all are back at home. I can never get everyone to smile at the same time. I realized after we took this picture that we were all wearing white except for Alexis. Oh well. It was a beautiful day and everything went smoothly. There was a wonderful spirit there, and we had two friends with children that also got baptized. So it was a lot of fun with them all there. After wards Mike invited all of them over to our house. I had only planned food for 25 people, and we probably had double that show up. I got comments from a few of them about how I had fed the multitudes and how they didn't know how there was enough food for everyone. So we also had a little miracle that day.

2007-10-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Today was Dustin's Halloween party at school. His school really loves parades, so here he is today in the costume parade.

2007-10-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday was Emily's eighth birthday. How time flies. We celebrated on Saturday with as much family as we could. She's starting to get into the "tween" stage and really likes a show called Hannah Montana about a girl who has a secret life as a rock star. So here she is blowing out the candles on her Hannah Montana cake. Mike and I bought her some scriptures with her name on them, and a new CTR ring.

2007-10-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, our ward had our annual "trunk or treat" So here are the kids before we left. (Dustin is smiling too) Below is a picture of how Alexis got out of bed the next morning. I think she got up some time during the night to have some candy and fell back asleep with it.

2007-10-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

Dustin is really enjoying preschool. They do a lot of fun activities. One of the first ones of the year is the Bike Parade. The kids take their bikes to school in the morning and decorate them, then at the end of the day, they ride around in front of the classrooms. Dustin sped by me so fast that I couldn't get a picture of him during the parade, but here he is in front of his classroom afterwards. The name of his class is the "big dogs" and Clifford the big red dog is their mascot. So that thing on his helmet is supposed to be Clifford.

Volleyball

2007-10-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

Emily is playing volleyball this year and they had their first game last Saturday. She was the first girl to serve that actually made it over the net. They still need to work on what to do when the other team serves, all the girls just stood there and watched the ball hit the floor. It was funny. The coach said it's just the age, that they learn it eventually.

Dustin's first day of preschool

2007-10-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted for a while, so here are a few things that have been going on the past few months. I missed taking pictures on Emily's first day of school. We had all gotten into the bad habit of staying up a little too late and sleeping in in the morning. I tried to push back bedtime for a few weeks before hand, but that didn't go over too good. So the first day of school was a little hectic and rushed and I didn't even think about pictures until I read every one else's blogs with the nice pictures on them. Oops. So I made sure to take pictures on Dustin's first day of preschool. We had a meet the teacher day the week before and he wasn't very happy to be there, but the teachers are great and took him to meet the class fish and turtle and he was all smiles after that. So the first day wasn't bad. I tried to take a picture of just Dustin, but Alexis wasn't having that and had to squeeze her way into all of them.

What's been going on?

2007-08-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

I just wanted everyone to know that I was going to post pictures from the family re-union today, (I know, it was a month ago) but every once in a while my camera decides it is going to "eat" all of the pictures on it. When this happens, Mike has to take out the memory card and work some magic to remove them. Eventually I will get a bit better of a camera. We bought the kodak easy share because it is so easy to use, but it doesn't take that great of pictures and if you try to blow them up, they look horribly grainy.

On another note, we finally got Dustin into a pre-school! He will start next Tuesday. He is less than excited. All I hear from him is "I don't want to go to school" Thank goodness that I didn't start him in kindergarten this year. It would have been a disaster. We go to a play group with some ladies in the ward once a week and last week he discovered almost all of the kids in his class started school already, so I think he is finally starting to figure out it's inevitable.

Today I have been getting ready for our big Labor Day camping trip. I think it's going to be a little scarce this year. Everybody keeps moving away and not coming back. If mama feels better after her "procedure" today, they will go too. So we'll see. I know there are always plenty of people up at Big Meadow for this weekend, but it will be a bit lonely without a lot of family around.

Alexis' second birthday

2007-07-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it has been two years since my little one was born. Time really does fly. Makes me a bit sad. We celebrated Alexis' birthday on Sunday, so everyone could make it. This first picture is the kids before church in the outfits we bought them in Hawaii. That's right, genuine tourist clothing! This was the first time I made them all wear them on the same day, so I had to take a picture.

This is the cake I made. I know I'm not as talented as some of you, but this is actually pretty good for me. When I asked Alexis what kind of cake she wanted, (no, I wasn't expecting her to answer) she said "quack, quack" So I got on the internet and typed in "duck cakes" and a whole bunch of pictures came up. Then she got really excited and started yelling "QUACK QUACK! QUACK QUACK!" I got a bunch of really good, easy ideas, and here you go! (By the way, the ducks are in a bubble bath)

Alexis really like it when we all started singing to her. She thought it was great. Just look at that precious face! We tried to convince her for a while to blow out the candles, but she didn't get it. Even after all the other kids were done eating and moving on to playing, she sat there and ate every little bit off her plate. It might not look perfect, but it tastes great!

Finally done eating, we brought her into the living room to open the presents. It took her a little help to get going, but once she had it figured out, there was no stopping her. Just to let you know how sweet she is, after she opened each present, she took each one to a different person. Either she was sharing, or she just wanted them all out of the boxes faster.

Transformers W/ Dad

2007-07-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

Well on 7/7/07 I (Mike) took Emily and Dustin to see Transformers. We started our day at Albertsons buying sour patch kids and Gummy worms. We had already gotten drinks from home. We showed up an hour early and messed around in the lobby and I took some pics of the kids (see Below). Then we went to theatre number eight and there was a sign that said "line starts here" so we just went in LOL its me what do you think I would do. Ok this is the part where I cry during the movie, ok one of the parts. Optimus Prime is shown Transforming (SOOOOO AWESOME) WOOOOOOOO it choked me up, and to be sharing part of my childhood with my children was great Dustin yelled out "there's Optimus dad". The other part I tear up at is the part when the new Camaro shows up "man is the money gonna roll in when that thing hits the showroom" but all in all everyone who is, was, or are currently a fan of Transformers should at least see this movie twice.....

Mike

Fourth of July

2007-07-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the fourth on two different days. On the Saturday before, we went up to Lake Isabella to watch the big show they put on over the lake. Mike's dad lives up there, so we went with him. We also met up with some of our friends from Ridgecrest, so I've got a few shots of their kids in here too.

Alexis really liked the fireworks. She kept yelling for everyone to look.

After the show was over, everyone was in such a big hurry to leave, we decided to stay a little longer to let traffic clear out, so we trapped the kids in the back of the truck, that way we didn't have to worry about them getting run over.

Getting ready to go to Alice and Ed's on the Fourth to watch the BC show from their backyard. Alexis once again liked the big fireworks in the sky, but she wasn't too happy with the ones we were setting off in the backyard. She would look for a second, then bury her head in our shoulders. At least she wasn't screaming.

Alexis enjoying some good food. I mostly took this picture so you can see her cute hairdo. This is the first time she sat still long enough for me to put clips in. A little while after I did it, I saw something in her hair so I called her over to see what it was. It was a "made in China" sticker.

Hawaii

2007-06-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

So, we took a vacation to Hawaii last week. Mike's cousin, Kevin lives there so we stay with him and his family when we go. The weather was beautiful, and we all had a lot of fun at the beaches. I even tried surfing! Kevin said I was alot better then most people when they first start, but I only made it onto one knee with one foot up. The waves just weren't in my favor. (sorry no pictures of that, we had to go too far out to get to the waves) So, enjoy the pictures. The first one is of Dustin, he kept asking to be buried in the sand, so I finally took care of that for him.

A Hawaiin sunset from sunset beach, North Shore, Oahu. See how nice and calm the ocean is? During the winter months they have lots of surf contests here because the waves are so huge.

Dustin finally got brave and jumped in the nice, 80 degree water.

Emily tried out boogie boarding.

The kids spent every night catching geckos, look closely!

The Hawaii temple, also on North shore, Oahu.

This is Waimea Falls. They allow you to swim here, but there are signs all over saying there is bacteria in the water and not to swim if you have any open wounds, so we opted not to.

At Waimea Falls, there are peacocks everywhere. They are so tame they just walk right up to you.

Our last day in Hawaii. We had to take a picture of all the kids on a surfboard.

Everyone else is doing it

2007-04-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

These are our new puppies Max and Rex.

This is Mike and I at "La Bufadora" in Ensenada, Mexico. We went there on a cruise in February. (Many thanks to Alice and Eddie for putting up with three extra kids for a few days)

This is the most recent picture I have of the kids. I wanted to take pictures of them on Easter when they were all dressed up nice, but we had to hurry to church early because I had to sing, then afterwards, Alexis fell asleep and the other two were over excited because "papa" and the cousins were here. So I'm going to dress them up again in a few days and take some nice pictures. (I didn't buy them new clothes for nothing.)

Hi everybody! I like looking at everyone's blogs, it helps to keep up with what you all are doing, so I decided to create one too! Hopefully I'll be able to figure this thing out and start posting some pictures.