Our Tree

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I like to experiment with camera settings to make pictures like these

Dylan's Pokemon House

Dylan wanted a "Pokemon House" for Christmas. Unfortunately those don't exist in stores so I had to make him one. I think it turned out pretty well. I refurbished an old doll house. The things we do for our kids...

Snow in Baytown, Texas!

Our house in the snow! That is a big deal in this part of Texas. Happens once in 10 years or so.
This was when it first started to snow.

Snowman the youth at church made. Also the missionaries.

Lights of Christmas and Parade

The boys show off their light-up clothes

Us in the Baytown Christmas Parade. We were on the Blue Santa float, who delivers gifts to people in need on behalf of the Police Dept. It was fun, but cold!

Landon blew it up

This is what happens when you put one hotdog in the microwave for over 20 mintues. Don't try this at home. Please. My house still reeks.

2 quotes I love

HAPPY MOMENTS, PRAISE GOD. DIFFICULT MOMENTS, SEEK GOD. QUIET MOMENTS, WORSHIP GOD. PAINFUL MOMENTS, TRUST GOD. EVERY MOMENT, THANK GOD!!!

I believe God gives us one of Three Answers to Prayer:
1) yes!
2) not yet.
3) I have something better in mind.

Glow in the Dark Fun

Babysitting? Grab some glow bracelets & a dark room and you are ready to go!

Zoo trip. November '08

Okapi - my favorite zoo animal
nice giraffe photo
strange creature at the zoo
Cheetahs

our pumpkins

the first picture is some sort of pumpking-squash hybrid. The second and third picture are our family pumpkin that we carved using the pumpking carving kit my sister got us. It took a while, but it was fun and worth it.

Pumpkin patch. I love Fall!

We had so much fun! The boys each picked a pumpkin to take home. Dylan picked a bumpy one which reminded me of the book called 'The Ugliest Pumpkin' by Dave Horowitz. I love him! Anyways, we had fun at the patch and are excited for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

I love my job!

I work on Mon & Wed, and I really like it. One thing that really surprised me is how NICE everyone is. I work with about 20 girls so you would imagine there would be gossip, fights, drama, etc. But there ISN'T!!! Everyone is really nice. The two teachers that I share a room/class with are super nice and we get along great. Maybe it helps that I only work 2 days, and not 4 like everyone else. The kids were crazy the first few weeks, but now things are calming down and it is much better. The first day trying to get 13 toddlers (age 18 months) to all go to sleep at the same time in the same room was nearly impossible. The crying! But, they have gotten into a routine now and it is much better. I love the 'special needs' girl that I work with. She is such a sweet heart. It is hard seeing how frustrated she gets when she can't do the things that she wants to do, but I am figuring out ways to help her. It is hard to see her with her peers and see the difference in their abilities vs. hers. But, I think I have the best job in the whole place. Lots of times she just lays her blond head on my chest and we just rock, while I watch the other kids creating chaos around me. Ha! I love that little girl.

Sign in a Dallas Restaurant

This is a sign I saw in a restaurant in Dallas. This was during our evacuation trip to escape Hurricane Ike and it made me think a little...

Hurrican Ike

Pictures from Hurricane Ike. This was my parent's yard. First picture is of their neighbor's house. The neighbor's tree hit my parents house and roof. Luckily, it did not penetrate to the inside. The last picture is of my sister.

Evacuation Vacation

Well, thanks to Hurricane Ike we decided to go to Dallas and stay with my second-cousin and his wife. They have two kids, a big screen TV, and a Wii, so the kids think this is great fun. Charlie and Giselle have been super hospitable and we even got our own room with a bed. Our house in
Baytown seems to be ok so far, just a blown-down fence. My parents house is ok, but has fallen trees on the roof. They say we will be without power for a couple weeks. Ouch! I hope not. I don't want to impose on my friends too long. Houston got hit pretty bad. Not sure about Will's work yet. We'll keep you posted...

Stupid Turtle

I got peed on by a turtle this morning on my walk. Ew! I found him on the side of the road and was going to 'rescue' him but then he peed on me and a neighbor told me it was a snapping alligator turtle and that they are dangerous and bite and carry salmonella. So, it put him back in someone's yard.

School Bus Blues

Dylan HATES getting on the bus and cried a lot both times so far. I have to push him on and then walk away fast. He likes it once he gets moving though, and likes his school. Any ideas to make the morning less traumatic? We made him a bus chart this morning that he can put stickers on and will get a reward at the end of the week, if he does good. Maybe that will work?

Ew!

This is what happens if you don't put chlorine in your pool for 4 days.

My Crazy Life & Summer

This summer has been fun. Lots of swimming, water parks, etc. Still need to hit the beach before school starts...
I spent all weekend worried about something that turned out to be fine, then when I thought everything was fine, my mom ended up in the Emergency room for 7 hours. She is home now and is staying with me for a few days.
We are gearing up for fall when Dylan will start kindergarten (yikes!) and me and Landon will go back to Wee School two days a week. It will be weird only having one kid at home all day.
anyway, I didn't know what to write, but wanted to write something. So here ya go!

Shadow boxes

Top is Landon's shadow box with his blessing outfit and part of a knitted blanket.
Bottom one is some of my old medals. I told Will I would make him one for his Alaska things, but he didn't seem too interested. Maybe someday...

More Shadow Boxes

Dylan's shadow box with his Preemie clothes, mold of fist, and picture.

Super Shopper

I just got 9 shirts for Dylan (polos for school), 2 shirts for Will, one shirt for me, running pants for me, a new bag/purse, one Cars pillow, one Thomas the Train pillow, and a Thomas the train rug for the toy room. PLUS, I got 6 baby onesies, and two baby girl outfits (for shower gifts), and a shirt for my niece. All of that, for less than $100. Amazing! All good quality stuff, too. I am psyched!

You did WHAT??

My kids are so crazy. Last week I had to take a locked door off the hinges to get inside, and also retrieve a cell phone from inside a wall. That one was tricky! Next stop...potty-training!

Must Read!!!

I just finished reading a book called "One Tattered Angel" by Blaine Yorgason. It is SO good. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with it! It is a true story about a little girl baby who spent time off and on at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake, and since Dylan spent some time there when he was a new baby, it really got me. It is so good! So inspiring! It really made me greatful for my kids and everything I have been blessed with. It will make me think twice about ever having 'a bad day.' And, it has a good surprise ending! You gotta read it! Check it out at the library, order it online, locals can borrow my copy... JUST READ IT!

Bizarro dream

This is a strange one...First I dreamed I was on a date with some guy, but Will was with me too (We were still married.) So the three of us were on this date and then when I started to like the guy Will got jealous. Then the guy was weird and started fighting some other guy so me and Will left. Go figure. Then, all of a sudden I was in this big building with my friend Britney and I was trying to find a bathroom. I found one that was for 'High School Teachers Only' but I really had to go so I went in anyway. It had shallow metal tubs that had blue water in them instead of toilets. So I sat down in the tub and started to go, with my friend looking on (there were no doors or stalls, just a room full of people and blue water tubs.) Then, all of a sudden I am in a church (still in my potty tub) and I am in a pew with people I don't know singing and dancing and going all crazy. Then they start passing communion around (I think it was supposed to be Baptist church) and instead of bread they had oyster crackers and instead of water they had M&M's. I took them anyway, figuring it was like sacrament at our church. Then, I was walking down the hall of the church -finally free of the potty/tub - and there was a statue of Joseph Smith but they had taken off his face and put on some other guy's face. It was crazy. That is about when I woke up.

Stars and Stripes

I just made a ZILLION paper red, white, and blue stars to decorate for tomorrow.(We are having a family BBQ at my house.) They are really cute, but they take forever to make because each star is made of 4 cut out stars that you color or decorate and glue together and then hang up. I am going to keep them to decorate the boys' room after the 4th is over. I spent way too much time on them to throw them away. At least it kept my mind off my sore throat though! It gave us something to do today besides TV. Sick days are no fun. I always get sick on holidays! I am cursed! Maybe I will feel better tomorrow...

Domestic Me

We got some big, red, yummy tomatoes through someone at church and so me and my mom decided to bottle our own salsa. It came out pretty good! We made a hot kind and a milder one. Yum-o. The down side is that it took us 5 hours and we only made 19 jars. Next year we will do a double batch.
With it being hurricane season here we are really trying to get our food storage up to par. We have tons of huge buckets of rice, beans, wheat, etc. This week we got some really hard plastic 5 gallon water bottles and I ordered a camp stove and heat cells for that. We are getting there. We already have the tent, sleeping bags, 72-hour kits, diapers, powdered milk, canned food, 55 gallon water barrel, propane heater, lantern, wheat grinder, etc. Anything else we need?

Papa Bear

Will laid the smack down on some kids on our street who were playing a little too rough with Dylan. They were shooting him with a dart gun and forgot that he is 5 years younger than them. He talked to all the kids and later two of the kids and one kid's parents came over and the kids apologized. It was cute to see Will so protective. We will give them one more try before we ban them from ever playing with him again. Don't you mess with my boy!

Baby Borrowers

I saw this new show on TV tonight (at least it is new to me) called "Baby Borrowers." These 4 couples of teenagers who think they are ready to have a baby find out what it is really like. They have to wear the pregnant belly, take a child-birth class (with all the gory details) and then they have to take care of a real baby for 3 days and nights by themselves. The real parents are watching on camera the whole time, and can intervene if they feel the need. It is hilarious! They have to do all the baby shopping, changing, bathing, feeding, bed time, etc. It is so funny watching them get mad at each other and be totally clueless as to what to do to make 'this thing' or 'it' -as one guy calls the baby- stop crying. It is nice to see them be worn out and frustrated. That is such a universal parent thing. Anyway, in the end they find out it isn't as easy as they thought and I'm sure they all re-consider having a baby. Most will probably break up. Anyway, it makes for some funny TV! I love it. It is great birth control.

'Nuff Said

Here is Dylan's funny face. We got a little camera happy today at our Father's Day dinner...

Funny Faces

We got in a bit of a silly mood today... I won't put mom and dad's on here to spare them the public humiliation. They were good too, though!!! ( I may be bribed...)

So Forgetful!

Ever feel like you would forget your head if it wasn't glued on? I think I would! I got a pulled over yesterday and got a ticket for having an expired inspection sticker. (Texas does NOT send reminder letters when it is time to renew, like Utah did. I wish i would have known that!) So, since it was expired for longer than 60 days -oops- I have to pay a $175 fine and talk to a judge at the courthouse. Ouch! Then, I realized that Will's inspection sticker on his car is expired too (in January) and that I gotta get that done first thing in the morning! Man! Then, I forgot to cancel an payment to the bank that I was supposed to cancel, and it got sent. Dang! So, now I gotta deal with that mess and see if I can fix it. I swear I am losing it! (If I ever had it to begin with...)

I'm no Beetoven

I am taking piano lessons. Yes, I know I am a bit old for that, but I ain't gettin' any younger! No time like the present. I am just beginning to put the notes on the lines and sight-read. It is hard. I can't imagine playing all 4 parts at the same time- (Soprano, Alto, etc.) -and paying attention to the length of each note (quarter note, half note, etc.) ! I don't know how people do it! It will take me a long time to get there, but it is fun to learn new things. I am open to suggestions and tips, if anyone has any.

Why Why, Lorelai?

I am so obsessed with Gilmore Girls! It is pathetic! It has been off the air for like 2 years now and I still watch re-runs of it if I ever get alone time. Why? Why am I so obsessed with this show? Anyone got any answers for me?

Kids say the darndest things...

I asked the kids at my Wee School how old they thought I was. One said "16!" and I said, "No." Then one said, "60!" I should have stopped at 16...

Lakewood Pool Club

Today Will, the boys and I went to Lakewood Pool. It was their opening day and anyone could come for free, so we went. It brought back so many memories! I could have stayed there all day! I kept thinking I saw kids I knew from when I life-guarded there, but for that to be true they would have had to have not aged at all in 12 years. J I did see some people that I knew though. There was this one kid Matthew, that I used to life-guard when he was about 7 years old. He is 19 now, but we remembered each other. I had to help rescue his sister one time. It was the only save I ever had to do as a lifeguard. And he remembered it. I couldn’t believe how big he was now. I saw a couple other people I knew, but mostly I liked seeing the pool. I don’t know what it is about me and pools. I just can’t get enough of them. And this one in particular. It was shallow enough for Dylan to walk around in, has a baby pool, and a diving board – all the essentials. I was shocked to find out though, that they had done away with lifeguards (gasp!) and it was now swim-at-your-own-risk. The horror! I felt so nostalgic being there again. I spent most my childhood swimming there all day long, and then all of my teen-hood summers working there. I was excited about going, but was surprised by the rush of emotions that hit me when I got there. It was great. Will was happy that he finally got to see that piece of my life that he had heard so much about. I was very saddened to learn that they might have to close it. To me it will always be ‘The Lakewood pool’ – sandy bottoms, the yellow baby pool, and a thousand summer memories.

I think this is hilarious!

Grandpa Keith and Grandma Sheryl with the 'Graduate.'

Dylan graduated from Pre-School this year and will start Kindergarten in the fall! I can't believe it! He is getting so big!

Dylan and Landon love the beach! This picture is from last summer. We haven't gone this summer yet, due to crazy gas prices. But, we will soon. Those boys love the water! And, as you can see, the sand.