The Huston Herd

Super Hero Party!

2012-01-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

At our house we do parties (with friends and games and stuff) at our house on certain years. 5, 8, 12, 16, and 18 years. Well this birthday was a party year for Trestin, and he wanted Super Hero Theme! On etsy I found some Super Hero clip art, and went a little crazy printing them out home and sending the images to Walmart as decorations and games! My parents and one of my brothers and sister were also able to come up for the party. Which was really good, because ALL 15 kids RSVP'ed!

We started out the day with our present, and one from Uncle Cameron too!

Ninjago from all of us! That is what he has been wanting, and was SO excited to get one!

He also loves Cars, so Cameron's present was a big hit too!

Time for the party!

Here are the capes I made for each kid.

After the kids arrived and put on their Super Shirt (sorry, a little out of order) they got a Super Card. There were 6 activities they had to do though out the party to become a REAL Super Hero. 1-come up with a Super Hero Name, 2-come up with a Super Power, 3-make a mask, 4-Pop the balloon to save the Super Heros, 5-Safety Patrol, and 6-Help the townsfolk Scavenger Hunt.

Each kid also had a pouch that held their $. They earned $ through out the party.

Everyone got a Super Shirt!

Uncle Cameron's 30th Birthday was 2 days earlier, so we turned the party into a combined celebration! Because EVERYONE wants a Super Hero Party with 16 four ans five year olds for their 30th birthday party! Here they are posing in front of Pin the Lantern on Green Lantern Game.

Trestin followed Cameron around all the day before! So it was PERFECT for them to share a party! I made them both crowns for how old they are! I free handed them with puffy paint and impressed my self in the end!

Posing in front of the Super Hero Changing Station that I made out of pvc pipe that will be used in various other ways in the future!

Thumbs up, we are ready to party!

Trying out the Safety Patrol, aka Cake Walk. I bought off iTunes an old school Spiderman theme song. So when the music stopped, they where to stop walking from one hero to the next, and a hero was called out. If they were on that hero, they got a coin!

Super C's!

Making their masks!

More mask making

Look at all those Super Heros with their strong muscles! 2 kids weren't wanting to be photogenic, so they weren't in the photo. Yeah, there were THAT many kids!

Dumping out the balloons for the Save the Super Hero Trapped in a Balloon, then once popped, they got a coin for saving the hero!

The balloons were really tough, so the adults had to jump in and help them!

Safety Patrol time!

Chillaxin' while watching the Safety Patrol!

Cake time for the birthday boys!

Now onto presents!

Sitting on Uncle Cameron's shoulders while watching presents.

Over all the party was a BIG hit, and everyone had fun! It was a lot of work, but so worth it as Trestin would come up to me and hug my leg and tell me "Thanks Mom!" several times today! I sure to love that kid! Now to get his kindergarten shots on Monday, then he's already for school in the fall! Wow time sure has flown by!

We've got baby birds!

2011-06-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we noticed the below picture! We debated back and forth about what to do. We decided to let the robins, that where making my new birthday gift from two sweet friends, make their new home in my flowers!

Making the nest.

Look at that "Angery Birds" face! She's quite protective of her eggs! Don't think she knows I'm not a pig!

Well yesterday my thoughts were confirmed that the eggs where hatched! Our little Momma and Papa Robin have 3 little babies!

The kids are loving to climb up on the counters and watch feeding times!

They are still fairly featherless, but we still find them "cute" in their own way!

We are excited to watch them grow, and eventually learn to fly! We'll keep ya posted on our little Robin Family!

Aleksia's Day

2011-03-29T20:23:00.001-07:00

It's Spring Break at the Huston house, otherwise known as "Craft Week" this year! After a "cleaning day" yesterday to get the house ready for friends, today was the first official day. Aleksia was up first! I decided to do freezer paper stencils on t-shirts. Trestin and his "friend" are actually going to do the same type of thing later in the week, so stay tuned for that one! Using my AMAZING machine I cut out a bunny and a chick, that actually look like Peeps (which I am in love with! They are tasty and oh so very cute!)! And the words "My Peeps."

Here are the girls sponge painting inside the stencil. The painting shirts they are wearing are a MUST have! Love it!

Now that the shirts are painted, now to play a game! We bought this game at our last White Elephant trip, and it's now one of the kids' favorites!

Aleskia was nice and even let Trestin play with them too! I don't know if they liked it, they only played it about 5 times!

Close up of Aleksia's while it finished drying....

Two little twinners in their yellow shirts and blond hair! The day was a success!

Snow Day Play

2011-03-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

So we've gotten quite a bit of snow this year, and the kids have LOVED playing in it!

This is out our front window, Garrick climbed up the little toy and liked to jump off into the snow.

As Cassiah slept, we went across the street to the school and went sledding on a no school day because of so much snow fall the day before. Yeah, bad Mom, left my sleeping baby! In my defense we where back before she woke up! So here is Garrick doing the running start!

If you look carefully you can see our roof to the right of the big tree in the middle, so we are REALLY close to the school where the good sledding is. Here is a view from the bottom. Trestin likes the mini hill on the left side, where the rest of us like the one on the right. You get the whole thing, and there was a jump from a mound in the snow that we would get air on. It was so fun!

Cheese! Going down as a train

Wipe Out! But he's smiling so we're good!

Trying to readjust her gloves, and alittle wave too!

Aleksia getting air on the bump

Garrick's air time!

Valentine's Fun

2011-03-21T02:05:00.000-07:00

For V-day I found this cute advent type calendar here, and thought we'd give it a try with some tweeking here and there. So I made a garland of heart pockets instead of socks and I was happy the way it turned out (see below post for pic). So here are some photo's from the count down events

Aleksia sporting her pink, white, and red clothes for one of the days. I made the girls matching skirts, and used my machine and freezer paper to paint a cute V-day picture on shirts for the girls. With noisy socks of course!
And no outfit at our house is complete without a hair bow these days!

The boys wanted nothing cutesy, so they got shirts from Old Navy

Picture taken while trying to get a picture of her in her "pink, white, and red clothes". It cracks me up every time!

Sorry you can't see her cupcake with a heart on top like a cherry on her shirt. The baby got in the way. She's all about the babies!

On the day to make cookies and give to neighbors
Helper #2!

I frosted the cookies and would load them on a plate, then my 2 helpers would decorate them!

Cookies already to go be delivered to friends' houses

Making hair bow Valentines for class. "You're as pretty as a flower Valentine!" with a hair bow attached. The boys in their classes got "You stole my heart Valentine" and a wooden heart was painted and written on like a conversation heart and a pin was glued to the back.

Even Dad got in on the hair bow making action!

*not a flattering photo of Aleksia!*

For the last day, which was Valentine's Day, I had gotten cheap-o buckets from Walmart and cut every one's names out of vinyl and put on their bucket so we know who's is who's. Then filled it with little goodies and candies and put them on the fireplace for them to find the that morning.

Playing with her goodies!

Showing off her candy, while still a little sleepy!

See my slinky!

Nuggle?

2011-03-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

Cassiah likes to nuggle (snuggle). She'll go get any blanket, and want to "nuggle." Trestin wanted in on the action too!

I've noticed that if she's really whiny, it is worth the extra time to stop what I'm doing and nuggle her for a bit, and then she's better. She's my little reminder to stop and smell the roses sometimes! Our cute little blessing!

Some recent craftiness!

2011-03-21T00:14:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple craft projects I've done lately

Cassiah is modeling a Superman cape I made for one of my best girlfriends who truly is a Super Woman!

Closer shot

Small 2x2 blocks I cut out and turned into conversation (hearts) blocks with my silhouette! Have I mentioned I love that machine?!

Another conversation block. The kids even got to paint and make some one day to add to our Valentines decor!

I've started a monthly "Craft Night/Day" and this was our first project. I cut a 4x4 post and turned it into this! Turned out pretty cute!

I love having a mantel to decorate! I found a Valentine's Count Down online, so I made a felt heart garland to put each day's note in.

The Rodent Rocket

2011-03-20T23:59:00.001-07:00

Now that Garrick is 8, he gets to participate in Cub Scouts at our church, and in January was his first Pine Wood Derby! Than had lots of suggestions for him to use in the designing of the car, but ended up making the cheese idea! Unfortunately is was on a weekend when I worked, but I really wanted to go! I worked Friday night, so up all day and then all night, then went to the derby at 9am but probably looked like a zombie! Oh well, the things we do for our kids!

Here is his car with some of the other boy's cars.

His definitely wasn't the fastest, but it was well known! I'd hear, "Has the cheese gone yet?" "How did the cheese do?" and so on! He had fun making it and racing it, so that's what counts!

His award and car!

Side view!

Cut out "Rodent Rocket" on my silhouette! Man I love that machine!

Winter Dance Recital

2011-03-20T23:36:00.001-07:00

Aleksia had a Winter Recital (something new for the studio to not just have one in the Spring) in December, I think? Her class is Hip Hop this year, and they danced to Witch Doctor, a version from the Alvin & the Chipmunks Movie, sung by the Chipmunks. It was a fun cute dance that we would practice in the kitchen to help her learn it for recital. Even Trestin would join in, usually two beats behind, and Garrick would join in the fun occasionally!

Here she is at the rehearsal doing her "triple shake."

Dancin' in the isle at rehearsal as the other classes practiced! She loves to get her groove on!

I had 3/4ths of my ADG dancing and lots of other little friends, so I made Hershey Kisses Roses to give to all our little dancer friends. Big hit! I'll have to make more next time!

She's gotten pretty good at the "Hip Hop Face" as her teacher calls it! Even got some attitude with it!

Closer Hip Hop Face!

Aleksia was in the front of the line when it came time to "Timber" & "Grasshopper Leaps" as the moves are called!

Aleksia is in there somewhere, time to take a final bow before the Free Style!

Trestin's 4th Birthday

2011-03-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

Not very awake yet, but ready for presents!

Showing off the birthday crown, Batman cape, and shirt with a 4 & a party hat on it I made for him.

I made him a Batman cake and his nursery teachers from church made him a cake too! Hegot a Batman toy also, notice a theme this year?

Cozumel

2010-11-28T23:17:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't finished our trip yet! Life just happens, and I loose track of time! Well the next day after I hurt my ankle we went to Grand Caymans, but those pics of the sting rays are at home, and I'm at work killing time, so we'll skip to the last day of ports, Cozumel! I hobbled along, like I said earlier, being told "No more tequila!" by many locals! Ha! If they only knew me! Than and I headed out for tourist shopping, then around noon he headed back by the ship to finally go on a fishing excursion. We canceled the Mayan Ruins cause of my ankle, and heard later that it wasn't that great anyways. Than didn't want to leave me with my ankle, but I convinced him to go anyways. I was a bit nervous, but stayed in main areas and did fine. Just hobbling along at my own slow pace! The fishing for him turned out lame, although the guide really did try! Moving to a lot of different places Than said, but luckily he just enjoys being out there! The weather that day was really nice, except for one down pour for 10 minutes, then beautiful again! There was a lot of tourist shops to occupy my time, and it was fun! Granted my foot was VERY sore afterwards, but still had fun!

Sprained ankle

2010-09-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

Later on that night after Ocho Rios we went swimming in the Terrace Pool at the end of the ship. As I was walking down the last step after swimming I rolled my ankle. Now I've done this before (I roll from the outside of my foot and then in when I walk) but NOTHING LIKE THIS! It hurt so stinkin' bad. And of course our room is at the front of the ship! So I hop back (literally, I couldn't put any pressure on it at all!), and the nurse in me kicked in. RICE (rest- lay down, ice- sent Than for it in one of our baggies that we brought), circulation - sent him to look for an ace wrap after the ice, and elevate- up on a pillow), cap refill was a little slow but not bad, can wiggle my toes (bearly but with pain), nice and pink, no gross deformities noted (so most likely not broken). Talked with RN on board (I had just gotten a tour yesterday, since I was curious about all of it being in the medical profession myself) and we'd have to pay out of pocket since we didn't get insurance for on the ship (little did we know that the insurance that we bought before the cruise in case we couldn't go for what ever reason then we could get all of our $ back DID cover us! Grrrrr!), I decided I could survive till we got home to be seen. But it hurt so bad! I cried most of the night! I've had 2/4 kids with no epidural and never cried, but I sure did with this! Plus I was sooo upset and felt like I ruined our vacation! Here we are in the room doing nothing, when we could be downstairs having the time of our life! But my wonderful husband kept telling me that he was just concerned about me, and as long as he was with me, it would be a great vacation! I love this guy!
I finally decided that I needed to go in the next am to be seen since I couldn't even walk on it (we had to get me a wheel chair) and they wouldn't give me crutches without seeing me, so I sucked up my pride and went in. They were all very nice, did x-rays, and found no break, just a bad sprain. They gave me a (huge) air cast that went up to my knee (very limited on sizes on the ship) to have, which I was able to put a little pressure on it then (but still with pain!) so I could kinda walk! And over the next couple days the pain was more tolerable in walking and didn't have to lean on Than so much!
In Cozumel 2 days later as I'm hobbling around the city shopping, there must have been 10 or more locals yell out to me, "No more tequila!" "No more tequila for you!" One boot sales man kept saying as I passed him several times going back and forth, "I give you a boot for the other leg!" Ahhh memories!
But our trip didn't get ruined like I first in visioned! Than actually said later that he was kind of relieved! I was running him ragged doing this and that, taking the stairs everywhere to work off all the delicious food (sometimes 6 flights at a time). It slowed me down which he was grateful for!
So needless to say I can survive a fast moving waterfall, but wooden stairs are my kryptonite!

2nd port; Ocho Rios Jamaica

2010-09-12T13:23:00.000-07:00

Our second stop, on our third day (2nd day was at sea all day) was Ocho Rios Jamaica. It had beautiful vegetation! Full of rolling hills (reminded us of home!). Our excursions where to ride a chair lift up the mountain, then ride a bobsled down, ride the bobsled on an elevated tram back up the mountain, then ride the chair lift back down, then be transported to Dunn River Falls to climb up the falls. The chair lift was so fun to see all the vegetation of Jamaica, very beautiful! The bobsled was fun, wish it would have been longer, but hey we can say we rode in a Jamaican bobsled! And the falls were really cool! Most of the pictures from the falls are on a disposable water camera that we haven't developed yet, but there's a few on here! After the falls we had to trek through some local vendors in their little huts! Wow are they pushy! Than got suckered in, and bought a cane (which he did want to get one on our trip, since he collects them), along with a few other little trinkets. Oh well! Then went shopping in the town, but mainly got our freebies only from our Port Shopping coupon book (TOTALLY worth the $25!). It was a good experience and minus Than being asked if he wanted a joint/smoke about 10 times buy the locals (told you they are pound of their weed!) it was a great day!

1st port; Princess Cays

2010-09-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

There is an island in the Bahamas that several cruise companies own a chunk of the island/beach, so our first stop just such a place called Princess Cays. And believe me it was a place right out of a post card! It was so beautiful! There was no place to dock, so we had to tender in (get on smaller boats, holding 100 people, and ride on it to shore). Than was supposed to go deep sea fishing, but it got canceled due to "mechanical issues" so he ended up renting snorkel equipment like I did. We saw quite a few fish (sorry, haven't got the water cameras developed yet) but it took me a while to get used to it. I'm paranoid in the water anyways, and learning to breathe out of my mouth only, sent me into a near panic attack the first time I tried it in knee deep water! But after a bit I got used to it, but still couldn't stay under very long before needing to come up for "real air." But it was fun just bobbing on the top looking down. The water was soooo clear I could see everything just fine! Being on the beach that Princess owned, the food at lunch was FREE which was nice. A big BBQ buffet! So yummy! This was the only day we got burned! Didn't reapply sunblock as often as we should have! Luckily I got it less! So my fake 'n' bakin' before we left payed off! That day also seemed the hottest, which was really hot! But looking back it was only 86 degrees, but had 99% humidity! We are used to the dry heat. None the less, we still had a blast playing in the water, snorkeling, and relaxing!

Entertainment

2010-09-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

There was SO MUCH to do on the ship! Every night there where people performing; the Princess Dancers, comedians, musicians! The singers and dancers were probably my favorite performers to watch! A very talented group of people! We also went to several "Movies Under The Stars" were around one of the pools (all blocked off) on the big screen they'd play an almost or just released movie on DVD twice after dark (some during the day also, but it was too hot then, but the pool was also open then too). We watched Clash of the Titans, Iron Man 2, and Loosers. Even while I wasn't injured, there wasn't enough time in the day to do everything there was to do, so you just had to pick and choose. But there truely was something for everyone!

The Food!

2010-09-06T22:13:00.000-07:00

So before we left, I told Aleksia that I would take a picture of every plate of food (because she was curious as to what kinds of foods we would eat). WOW was that a lot of pictures! Here are some of the yummier foods. And by the way, the food was AMAZING! We choose the Anytime dining, which we really liked. We could still eat in the dining rooms with the set time dinners, but had SO MUCH more flexibility! We weren't always hungry at a certain time, so it really worked for us. We tried out 2 of the 3 dining rooms (repeating them both) and ate from the buffet, and various other areas. There was 2 buffets, which at peak times where both open, but one or the other was ALWAYS open! So if we wanted a little something before going to bed at midnight, you'd just go down to the buffet and there ya go! And it was all really good food to! Especially at Sabatini's, the Italian restaurant, that we went to for our "Anniversary" dinner. More courses then we've ever had, and the food is probably thee best we've ever had!!

I'm afraid to get on the scale after returning! Between the yummy food and then not being able to be as active (exercising in the am and taking the stairs instead of the elevator) after I hurt my ankle..... YIKES! Oh well, so incredibly worth it!

The Emerald Princess

2010-08-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Emerald Princess ship was amazing! There was so much to do and see. There is so much care and attention to the details, and the service is above and beyond! The crew members are so nice and friendly and you truly got the royal treatment. I had a really hard time at first being waited on. "I'm competent, I can get my own silverware that's right there, or throw away my own garbage, or take care of my own plate!" But no, they would (nice) get mad at you! One time I was in line for pizza and a worker was in front of me. He offered for me to get in front of him, and I said that I was fine, and in no hurry. Well he joked saying, "No go ahead, or I'll get in trouble," well I don't think he was joking! I would recommend a cruise, especially Princess, to anyone and everyone! And maybe someday, when the kids are older, we'll go again. We had so much fun!

1st stop; Fort Lauderdale

2010-08-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

To celebrate our 10th anniversary (9-9-00) we used some of our tax return from buying our house last year to go on a Western Caribbean cruise through Princess. It was awesome! The food, the boat, the service, the shows, the entertainment, the excursions, the ports, everything was amazing! The only downers were missing the kids like crazy and badly spraining my ankle half way through and then having to be in a huge air cast (but we'll get to that later). Than's sister Sarah volunteered to watch the kids so we traveled up to their house Thursday night and flew out Friday am (thanks for the ride Courtney!) We couldn't leave Sunday and arrive soon enough to get on the boat, and Southwest didn't fly from Spokane to Ft Lauderdale on Saturday, so we had to leave Friday (yeah bummer, I know). So we rented a car, and got a hotel and had a good time. We went to the beach, drove down to Miami (which is nuts by the way) and went to the beach down there. Oh, and went to Walmart twice (no place like home!). Leaving the kids was harder then I thought it was going to be. I cried the night before we left, anticipating the separation in the morning. I cried/got teary that morning before we left, as we left, after we left on the way to the airport, at the airport, and in the air. Then again at bed time as I'd lay there trying to got to sleep for the next three days, thinking about them! I big baby I know, but we have never been away from then that long and SOOOO far away! I know they were in good hands and going to have a blast, but missed their cute faces! At one point as we were sitting in the Spokane airport waiting to board, the thought crossed my mind, "Just kidding, I can't do this, I want to go back home with the kids!" But it passed, I made it, and had a great time! As we'd see kids on the ship, or certain things would remind us of the kids, or something would come up and we'd say "Oh Garrick/Aleksia/Trestin/Cassiah would LOVE this!" we'd miss them like crazy and wish they were there with us, but over all it was best they weren't. Again, we had a great time, but hopefully our next BIG vacation is a family one! Enjoy!

McCormick Park

2010-07-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

Every year alot of my Dad's side of the family goes to McCormick Park on the Idaho side of the Snake River. We head down 95 till we get to Cambridge, then head towards the Snake. We love it! I figured, I've been going for around 17 years! We've been able to go most of our married life, and the kids look forward to it every year! We stayed a week this year, and enjoyed every minute of it! The weather was great, hot enough to play in the water, but cool enough a couple days, especially the day we left! Nice and cool for packing up! We missed several family members that typically come, but was super fun that both my brothers were able to make it. Even Brenton's "lady friend" Cori who we got to meet for the first time! She handled our big crazy family great, and don't think we scared her off! Now to finish putting away/cleaning up everything! Yikes, it's a big job this year, hope you enjoy the slide show!

Little Dancer

2010-06-12T23:57:00.001-07:00

So it's a really slow night, and I'm trying to stay awake! I had my camera in my purse, and found that I have pics that I can post! Especially since I've been really bad about putting them on here! So last month was Aleksia's recital, but this was the rehearsal for the recital. They had pictures before, and got the chance to have their hair and make-up done by some "big girls!" And my was it a treat!!!!

Aleksia starting to get her hair done

Curling...

Hair is done, now for the make-up!

WOW! We are in heaven!

The view from the back

The Kinder Trio Class danced to Spoonful of Sugar (ballet) and then Splish Splash (Jazz) and they were adorable. Aleksia is hiding behind the girl second from the left. Showing each other their skirts I guess.

Took a few pics of her all dolled up still outside, as it started to sprinkle

She posed, and I took the pictures!

New Camera!

2010-05-18T15:46:00.001-07:00

I have wanted to get a nicer digital camera for a while. We have a Canon Rebel, but it's a 35mm. We have a bigger zoom lens for it, and was hoping I could find a digital one that it would fit on, so we could still use the big lens. Well I did, and I bought it today! I can notice a HUGE difference in the picture quality! Now I just have to learn how to use Photo Shop better to doctor my photos! The zoom lens will come in handy for Garrick's baseball, better pictures at swimming, Aleksia's dance recital next week, and our cruise...... Now I just have to be better at putting pics on here!

Trestin and his head tilt smile

Garrick being goofy with his baseball. You would think it's an accessory he has it with him enough!

Aleksia makin' a face

The older 3, Cassiah was down for a nap.

The picture quality is much better, you can see her poor rash on her face. That is slowly getting better. Almost gone! And her lop sided teethy smile! That 4th tooth on the bottom right is taking it's sweet time!

Our Baby is ONE!

2010-04-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

Wow how the time has flown by! Yesterday was Cassiah's 1st birthday! Than's sister from Spokane came down for Friday and Saturday with her family. On Saturday Than took Garrick and his niece Sloane fishing (her first time) and she was able to catch a couple fish. The rest of us did a bit of shopping, went to the school and played, visited, and played some Wii! Cassiah had fun with her very own cake, and made a huge mess just like all kids do with their first birthday cake. Cassiah was particularly fond of her Uncle Courtney, who got several snuggles!

Easter

2010-04-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Well as usual I had to work the weekend, but still managed to do Easter festivities! What's alittle more sleep deprivation, really! The kids seemed to have fun, and easter candy is good bribary!

Tri-Cities

2010-04-05T16:05:00.001-07:00

At the very beginning of Spring Break the kids and I went down to Tri-Cities. I went to a very fun Baby Shower on Than's side, and got to hang with my family. Here are some of the things we did during our short 4 day stay....
-Playground of dreams
-bow makin'
-playing

Science Fair

2010-04-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

The kids participated in the optional Science Fair at school this year. Garrick dropped eggs in a tupperwear container surrounded buy soft or hard stuff, to see which would protect the egg or not. Aleksia soaked 4 different kinds of beans (100 each) in 1 cup of water, then found out which kind soaked up the most water.

These two should have been at the end, so pretend! For participating, they each got a medal! Which they obviously like, because they wear it around the house like jewelry!

Closer view of the medal

Garrick dropping one of the eggs. I think this was his favorite part!

Nope, not protected in the beans

Nope, not in the rice either!

Aleksia's pics are mainly on another memory card, but here's some of her beans that soaked for 19 hours.

The kidney beans were the winner, at 1.25 oz of water soaked up by 100 beans. She thought the garbanzo beans would win.

Garrick by his finished poster

And Aleksia by hers

Bows, bows, and more bows!

2010-03-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

These floral hair bows are ALL OVER the blogging world right now. Super cute, and looks super easy! I want to have a bow making party sometime soon with some girl friends (where everyone brings a stem of flowers, then we all share and make super cute bows!), but needed to make some for a baby shower coming up soon. So we decided to try it out. WOW! Aleksia really got into it, and we ended up making 0ver 25 bows just for her! Plus some for a co worker's girls, and some for the baby.

Here is Aleksia creating some combos. She had to be redirected a little, "No honey, a pink flower doesn't go with a blue and yellow button."

Well then Garrick came home and wanted to get in on the action. At first he said he'd make some for the girls in his class, but then with some redirection from Mom, ended up just making one for his teacher. Although he had a ball too, and wanted to keep going. Luckily it was time to put it all away and start on dinner!

Here are some of the finished product!

Here are the baby ones. There is a ribbon around the elastic headband, so the flowers will just clip on to it, and then they are interchangeable for her cute little bald head!

So yesterday I showed them to my Activity Day Girls, to see if it's something they would want to do as an activity in the future. They LOVED them! And then put a bunch in Cassiah's hair! She tolerated it so well, and just LOVES all the attention that they give her!

Hooray!

2010-03-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

We have been working on a gate for the stairs for quite a while now, and we finally got it up!!!

Here is Than finding studs to secure it right.

Tada! It hinges, and swings open from the wall. And is held in place by a very high tech bungee cord! Hey it works! Now I'm not paranoid of Cassiah falling down the stairs and ending up on the cement at the bottom!

A view from the stairs of our little jail bird! She thinks it's funny to chuck her toys down and watch as they bounce down all the steps!

Happy St Patricks Day!

2010-03-17T11:57:00.001-07:00

Aleksia's "homework" for this week was to build a leprechaun trap. So here is what we came up with!

Her favorite part was stamping clovers on the paper with a potato! She thought a potato stamp was pretty cool! So the leprechaun climbs the straw/toothpick ladder, and as he walks towards the money, falls in! Because the top of the box is open! Here she is posing (sorry, didn't have the red eye on, and haven't fixed it in Photo Shop) with it before bed!

The leprechaun fell through!

But he escaped with the money! Luckily he was a nice leprechaun and left some decorations and some green goodies for the kids (shampoo to share, notebook, pencil, gum, and Andes mints)

And also left a fun clover "thing" for the kids to walk through as they came down the stairs from their bedrooms!

Aleksia was excited about the "nice leprechaun" that left us stuff.

Garrick and Trestin checking out their stuff. Garrick asked, "Why didn't he trash our house and turn stuff upside down like in our class room last year at school?" I told him be cause this was a nicer leprechaun, and also since we baited the trap with money, he then thought he'd give us a nice "treat" in return for taking the money!" They bought my story!

Made green clover pancakes for breakfast!

Cassiah wasn't too excited about her pancake. She shredded it, and chucked it all on the floor! So she ate 1 1/2 sausage patties instead! She is SUCH a meat eater! Our little carnivore!

What we've been doin'

2010-02-07T23:48:00.001-08:00

Even though he's not in grad school anymore, we went to one last Graduate Student Free Activity, BOWLING! It was fun, and the kids again beat me! Although by not as much this time! My excuse last time was that I was 37 weeks pregnant! No excuse this time!

Than bowling

Helping T line up his ball

Little Miss Twirlly! See her hair flying!

Crazy boys!

Final scores

Over the holiday weekend in January, Nathan (bro-in-law) came up with his 2 girls and went fishing. Saturday was just the "men," then on Monday they all went ice fishing with Than and Garrick. He was very excited, because he's wanted to go for a long time but Than always told him, "When you're 7!" Well he's 7 now! Then after they went sledding, so they had a good time!

Here they are eating breakfast as the "men" where fishing on Saturday.

Playing Mario Kart. Cassiah wanted a turn too!

Trestin loves his cousin Aubrey! He was her little shadow. She had alot of patience with him, and ended up having a soft spot for him!

Emmaleena handed down alot of her old clothes to us, and Aleksia wore one of her old dresses to church. Here they are modeling their church attire!

Trestin trying out his resistance band that came with my replacement mat I had to buy because I lost my old one in the move! So as I do my Winsor Pilates with my resistance band, he has one now too, and is very excited about it!

Aleksia's Open House for dance! They where dancing to "Spoon Full Of Sugar"

Ear infection! We've been lucky! This is his 2nd at the age of 3, and the only other one was Garrick, and it wasn't a full blown one, just an almost one with some fluid accumulating, but didn't get infected.

Gifts I've made for the kids in Garrick's church class that turned 8. Then they can hang them on the wall. Using my Silhouette for the vinyl, I love my new toy!!! I just got my order of white and black vinyl, 10 yards of each!!! Happy Valentines Day to me!!! Now I just need more time to play!

Valentines Cards

2010-02-07T23:38:00.001-08:00

So this picture doesn't make sense, but if you go here; http://kari-youcanmakeit.blogspot.com/2010/01/photo-pops-vday-idea-genius.html it will. I "decorated" mine, but it's the same general idea.

This is what Garrick wanted to do for his class Valentines. Believe it or not, it's the best smile out of the bunch that we took!

So even though Aleksia was doing the melted crayon "you color my world" that Garrick did last year, she wanted a sucker Valentine too. So we did a couple for her too!

So around Christmas was CRAZY, and I didn't get out any cards this past year. So now that it's mellower, I decided to send out Valentine cards to make up the difference! So some of you will be getting one in the mail if I have your address! So be watchin'....

Three years old!

2010-01-15T12:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Trestin's 3rd birthday! Here he is all excited with his 2 presents and a bag?

In the bag was a rag quilt that I FINALLY finished. I started it over 2 years ago. Now he will have a blanket of his own, instead of Garrick's old one once I made him a rag quilt too. He didn't get that the blanket WAS the present. He kept moving it to the side asking, "Where is the present?"

One smiley boy talking to Grandpa Huston who called to wish him a Happy Birthday!

At first he didn't care too much for the blanket, then it quickly became one of his favorite things! I think it will be big enough, for a while at least!

I made his different this time, with a different pattern on both sides. "Oh Mom, why isn't ours (his and Aleksia's) like that?" Garrick complained. Little jealous. Gotta be some perks to being the 3rd kid with hand me downs!

The kids all love to help cook, so he was pretty stoked about "making his cake!"

We baked it in the cool pan that Grandma Roberts made for us with our name on it! Thanks Grandma!

Favorite part of baking a cake!

He frequently "checked on it."

My pathetic attempt at another "Elmo" cake like last year. He knew that it was Oscar, Elmo, and Cookie Monster. So that's all that counts!

Brothers playing with his new Thomas the Train toys!

The "Happy Birthday" banner I made with my Silhouette. I'm in love!

On your birthday you get to pick where we go to eat. And guess where he picked?

He finally ate enough, so he got to go play.

Peek-a-boo!

Singing to him

Still nervous around the "fire," but he managed to blow them out from a safe distance!

Yummy!

All tucked in with all his Elmos (about 4/5), his new blanket, and the puppy he bought with his $ from G&G Fisher! Thank you, he loves it!

Pick of the puppy!

Christmas

2009-12-30T14:18:00.000-08:00

Too many to put on one post. Enjoy!

It's a miracle!

2009-12-30T13:41:00.000-08:00

Than graduated!!! It's been a LONG road since he graduated with his undergrad in May 2003! But we made it! It was a crazy rush at the end, when all the sudden it was a possibility that he could pull it off this semester, but he made it!

I had great ideas to make shirts for the kids and I, and Than's parents.... but with work and everything it didn't happen. But I did make a shirt for me, and order some necklaces online from Oriental Trading and other decorations! Sorry it's sideways!

More decorations

Decorations amongst the Christmas decorations!

This sucked to make, but turned out cool!

Do you know how hard it is to find grey balloons? VERY! But I finally did, and even bought a helium tank, which the kids LOVED once I showed them what happens when you inhale it!

Cheesy pic before grad with Than's mom and step dad

A nice picture now

The graduates filing in

Beasley Coliseum

Can you see him in the middleish....

As part of a house warming gift the previous home owners left us this cute outfit. It was a bit big (12 mo size and she's only 7 mo) but it was PERFECT! Then with an added touch of a hair bow by me, it was complete!

We had quite a full house: Than's mom and step dad, Than's dad and brother and sister, my parents and sister! The kids eating at the table. Papa Murphy's Pizza!

With our nice new table, we only needed one extra chair to fit all the adults around it!

It was a great weekend, and luckily no one went into labor, because I was supposed to work, but was just on call! Prayers are answered!

Annual Family Picture

2009-12-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

We had our annual family picture in our jammies last weekend. This year I decided to have us all in white shirts with our initial on our tummies from our jammie fabric. I think the turned out pretty cute! Unfortunately Trestin and I where in the middle of an pink eye outbreak (luckily with good hand washing it was localized to just the two of us), so don't look too close at our eyes! I'm happy with the portrait people at JC Pennys, and again wasn't let down. Cute poses and then their "doctoring up" of the photos was cute!

Too bad this is like $30, it was cute!

I really liked this one with our legs and Cassiah! CUTE idea! I got one of them!

That's one good lookin' present from Santa! Notice how Cassiah has a death grip on Garrick's shirt, right before that she about fell off, so she wasn't gonna let go now!

Cute on of our four kids!

Cassiah is chillin'

We lined up almost just right, by accident in the two pictures!

This is the main pose I bought, that will go on the wall! In years past they only got head shots and you couldn't see our pants very much if at all. This year they did awesome!

Still busy, but here's what we're doin'....

2009-11-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

Playing catch up again, but oh well. With all our trees in our new house, it makes for alot of raking. Luckily the kids LOVED IT! "I want to do this every year Mom!" Well guess what son, that's exactly what you get to do, until you move out! The appeal is probably the jumping in the big pile, but I'll settle for what I can get!

Garrick jumping in

Aleksia's turn
Trestin is in there somewhere.....

All three, enjoying the leaves in our new house! After we raked and bagged the leaves, we found out that Pullman has a leaf pick up! I thought people where just lazy and raking them to the edge of the road off the side walk! Oh well, we'll know for next year!

25 (little) cinnamon rolls for Garrick's Birthday Treat at school! That's what he wanted last year too, but I convinced him to take cupcakes, but seeing as Mom wasn't nauseated from pregnancy this year I didn't have a good excuse!

The birthday boy! Well Saturday it was, but no school on the weekends!

One happy class to be getting cinnamon rolls. I heard one girl say, "These are better then my Mom's!" So I think they where a success! Garrick's cute teacher, Mrs. Thompson in the back ground who is due in February.

She finally decided that baby food and real food are okay! She liked Garrick's chocolate cake. She is her father's daughter!

Due to craziness at our house, we didn't get around to birthday cake till 3 days after his birthday! He was a good sport!

Garrick at his first b-ball game! He's not just running from one side to the other to stand under the hoop now. He's actually trying to block people and make 3 baskets last game!

So this past week was Disney on Ice, Worlds of Fantasy, up in Spokane. It consisted of Cars, Little Mermaid, Lion King, and Tinkerbell. It's always fun, but the best part is seeing our children's eyes light up, and the pure excitement in their faces gives me goose bumps! Trestin sat beside me, and he was so fun! He would get SOOO excited every time someone new would come out, and YELL, "MOM, LOOK! IT'S ______!" So much fun! So here is Minnie and Mickey.

Goofey trying to help fix Mickey and Minnie's broken car.

Well they couldn't fix the car, so who came to help... Mater! Cars was my favorite part of it. They where REAL cars being driven on the ice by people hidden inside. It was very cool!

The entire Cars crew that showed up. Minus McQueen of course.

Lightening McQueen! Their mouths moved, eyes blinked, and voiced by the actors from the movie!

Next was Ariel. Here they are dancing to Under the Sea!

Timon and Pumba where my favorite on Lion King, and they where cute on ice too! Simba and the lions where kinda whimpy though, not real big, but easier to skate in probably.

Then Tinkerbell. That one was the longest, and probably from one of the Tinkerbell movies (which we haven't seen) when she becomes a Tinker Fairy. It was cute, but wish it was shorter and Cars was longer. Oh well!

Aleksia's Kindergarten Fall Feast was the 19th. They made stone soup, muffins, and pumpkin pie. They made cute little turkey hats and sang the Turkey song:

Gobble gobble went the turkey,wobble wobble went his tail.

Shall we eat him, shall we great him, shall we let him share this meal.

"Please don't eat me," begged the turkey. "I am quite a friend you'll see.

And soon you will discover stone soup tastes better then me!"

The hat

Albuquerque the Turkey outside of her class room.

So Than defended his Masters thesis on the 20th, and PASSED! He was so nervous and stressing out, but he did awesome! Now to just finish his thesis and hand it in by Dec 1st! Here he is working out the kinks before his Power Point presentation. His title of the thesis is:

Catacholamine Innervation of the Ventrolateral Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis: Role in Corticosterone and Feeding Responses to Glucose Deficit

Try saying that 10 times! I can bearly say it once!

Than's sister Sarah, got Cassiah these ADORABLE Robez boots! Even thought they are HUGE on her, they are too cute to NOT have them on her now! So here she is very stylin' ready for church today! And how appropriate since it snowed all day today! Although they aren't very good snow boots!
Cassiah's stylin' boots from Aunt Sarah! Thanks, we (and everyone at church too) LOVES them!

Catch up

2009-11-04T08:42:00.000-08:00

I've been so busy it seems all I post is catch ups! Well here they are:

Cassiah is now 6 months, so we started solids. Well we've tried, she won't eat them! Her tongue is used to breastfeeding, and it just kicks out the food. All of it! Then after about 2 bites she purses her lips together and will NOT open her mouth! Stuborn little girl. I hope she realizes she can't have Mommy Milk for the rest of her life!
Cassiah enjoys the walker on our laminate flooring. She cruises around so easy but it's not so soft when it comes to play time on the floor. She's now rolling all over and doesn't stay on the blanket very well. Anyways, she likes to "help" with dishes! Although luckily she pushes it closed with her tray as she gets closer, so luckily she can't reach, but she sure tries!

This is as far and she can get and as much as she can reach!

Every Friday till the end of the year (2009) is "Crazy ______ Day", well today was Crazy Hair Day. Garrick's is blue with pink spots and then a blue dot in the middle. He thought he was pretty cool!

Aleksia was pink with the tips of her 3 ponies purple!

So Trestin goes potty in the toilet now (diapers only at night) so we bought him a fish too and 3 little snails, for a grand total of $0.76!!! Sometimes my kids are cheap to bribe! Well Bolt is adjusting to the water, and is 1/4-1/3 the size of Ariel and Buzz Lightyear! Luckily they didn't think he was food and eat him....yet!

Than plotting out his pumpkin design as we carved pumpkins for FHE.

Yeah, he scooped his own goo and didn't "puke" this year!

Aleksia grabbing out the goo

Wasn't too happy that Dad smeared goo on his tummy!

I was hoping to have her sit in the pumpkin for a cute Anne Gettes type picture, but no luck. So she just stood since she didn't fit!

The finished products. Daddy's "puking," Trestin's, Mommy's, Cassiah's, Garrick's, and Aleksia's

The pumpkins out on the front porch with our couple other Halloween decorations!

Cassiah in a so cute outfit that Aleksia wore too. It's almost too small, so we had to get a pic quick!

Garrick putting jello on his cupcakes for school. The idea was that the jello would soak through and create orange blobs, but it didn't work so good! Oh well, he had fun using a syringe and squirting jello onto the cupcakes!

So I was lazy and recycled a costume for Cassiah too! She was Tinkerbell, that I made for Aleksia's first halloween when they where Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Her favorite part was eating the dress!

Robin and Tink before our little halloween party. Due to conferences Aleksia didn't get a Halloween party and get to wear her costume to school, so she had some of her K friends over and their at home siblings over for a little party!

The "quickly thrown together" pinata. Alissa remember when we made a pinata with Hillary and Elis? Fun times! Everytime we make one I think back...... ah memories!

Our eye ball cupcakes! Garrick made some of these for his party at school too.

Soup cans covered in halloween paper held the candy corn and chocolate covered pretzels (idea from Tennille's reception. Kudos to your Mom for making that many, all I can say is WOW!!!)

Kids at the party; Buzzlight Year-Zane, Mario-Lance, Wonder Woman-Aleksia, Batman-Roman, Robin-Trestin, Dorothy-Olivia, Gandolf-Trevor, Little Red Riding Hood-Lucy, and hiding is Flower-Gwen, Bumble Bee-Jeannie, and Snow White-Tatum. Here they are coloring their pumpkins and BINGO boards.
Picking up all the candy after the pinata was thrown on the ground by Trevor since it broke off the hanger that was holding it attached to the rope. Oh well, they got candy and that's all they care about!

Kathleen brought her parachute and had some fun with the kids!

One pooped out little Tink! Too much partying for her!

Cassiah in her pumpking shirt chillin' on the couch!

Trestin tried on Garrick's old Peter Pan costume. It was alittle short, but otherwise fit. Yeah, more dress up clothes! He wore it all yesterday; while my Activity Day Girls where here, to Garrick's B-Ball practice....

At the Truck-or-Treat at church, not many trick-or-treating pics since I had to work all weekend!

One tuckered out little girl from the Trunk-or-Treat

Yesterday for ADG we made pumpkin pies! I love these girls!!! I have so much fun working with them! We had 11 come yesterday, that include 3 friends!

What we've been up too...

2009-10-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

ALOT! Here are some of the highlights

Getting ready for Halloween! The kids are recycling last years costumes since I made them HUGE! Yeah, one less thing to do. Although I did sew some costumes for a coworker, which you will see lower down. Since Garrick is now full day school, he gets a party at school. Aleksia won't because the week of conferences is during Halloween. Well conferences mean half day, aka no school for K which is half day anyways. So the crazy feel bad for my K daughter that I am, decided to have a small Halloween party for her and her K friends, plus a couple more. So pics of that up coming event at a later date. But we've also been decorating. I have the most decorations for Halloween, except Christmas, out of all the holidays. Plus the kids made some more this year! In years past I bought blank wooden pumpkins, with the intent to create them into decorations, well we finally did. Here is a (fuzzy) blank one

Than even got into the whole thing! Here he is painting with Aleksia.

A closer look

Havin' fun painting the pumpkins orange

Then was the designing of the pumpkins! (no pics) They would draw the face on paper, then I'd trace it on, outlined it in sharpe, painted the inside yellow, then I applied glow in the dark paint to the back sharpe outline. And now they are hanging on our windows with a string and suction cup. Very cute and the kids had a blast! I'll get a final pic of them on here later.

One of the last pics of our thumb sucking little girl. She didn't suck it much, just usually as she was almost alseep to get herself fully asleep. But no more! Kinda sad.
Garrick's bottom teeth where too big for his mouth, so after loosing the first two the normal way, he had to go into the dentist to get 2 other teeth pulled to make room for those 2 big teeth to come forward. The dentist said that he may still have to have braces later, but atleast these two teeth will be where they are supposed to be (not 3 mm behind!) leaving the rest alittle sideways. He did awesome! Yes cried for the novicaine, and SCREAMED for the 2 extractions, but was a trooper! Here are the holes!

The holes again, but fuzzy. It wouldn't focus very well.

Look at those monsters! There was more root below the gums then above! Instead of getting $1 per tooth, the nice tooth fairy left $3 for compensation for all the trauma!

All three kids are still in love with Cassiah. They still fight over her. Who got to hold her last, you got to play with her last time, quite hogging her... Garrick is entertaining her here while I did some laundry.

Cheese!

You can't see very well, but Cassiah was facinated by the quail out at the bird feeder! Oh, there are some of our pumpkins!

Little Miss Smiley! What a happy baby we have! Some days all you have to do is look at her and this is what you get! Love it!!!!

Open mouthed smiles

She's trying to sit up by herself, but won't do it by herself!

Silly girl! At 5 1/2 months old she is still only rolling from her back to her tummy, then gets grumpy 'cause she's stuck and can't move. Her length on her tummy before she gets grumpy is getting longer, but hasn't figured out how to roll back over. And won't sit up on her own yet. Compared to little Ava who's only 3 weeks older (family friend) who is CRAWLING from what I've heard, we are a bit slow! Oh well, I'm not ready for another mobile child!!!!

The squirrels are back, and still not shy!

I know we shouldn't feed them, but one time won't hurt? Plus is was old bread anyways....

Yesterday Garrick's class at school earned a trip to Ferdinands for filling up the "Marble Jar." From what I can gather a marble goes in the jar when they do "good stuff." They rode the transit bus, since it stops right across from the school. Well since we live right by the school we tagged along on the bus, instead of paying for metered parking at $0.25/1o minutes! Here they are at the bus stop across from school ready to go!

So if you've been to Pullman, you know Ferdinands! YUMMY! They use the milk from local WSU cows to make ice cream and (expensive) famous Cougar Gold Cheese! We watched videos on how they make both, then got to eat some ice cream while watching them actually making it from the observation deck!

The kids where awesome and good troopers! Maybe because they got a banana split with strawberry & mint chocolate chip ice cream with sprinkles and gummy bears. Not my choice, obviously, but not a too bad of a combo.

Killing time before the bus showed up, they played duck duck goose.

Waiting for the bus across from Martin Stadium, for those former cougs!

Daddy getting a quick little snuggle with Cassiah (notice the costume on the couch on the top right, explanation is below)

Then the camera flashed and she was up, ready to play!

So here are the costumes that have caused me much anxiety! There is no pattern for a Violet Incredible costume, so I had to make one. Well two actually. So I had a pattern for the red shell, then "created" the rest. WOW, not much to it, but trying to create it, was a challenge! But they turned out super cute, and now don't want to part with them. But I got some pics, and will give them to her tonight at work. They are out of fleece, and SUPER warm. So a light pair of clothing under them will all that will be needed on a chilly Halloween night. I hate that the costumes are so stinkin' thin and then the kids have to be bundled up, then no one can tell what they are. Problem solved!

Trestin trying it on.

Sweet siblings! Most of the time

Closer view

Happy 33rd Birthday Honey!

2009-09-21T00:12:00.000-07:00

Today is Than's birthday. Well I guess it's now yesterday seeing as it's after midnight. Oh well. It probably wasn't his best one, seeing as I had to work and he had to give a talk in church today. Well I wanted to be there to hear him, so I got 3 hours of sleep before church, went to only the 1st hour, then came home to sleep some more! He did a great job on his talk, and like he mentioned, it's a great birthday 'cause now it's (the talk) over! I tried out a new recipe I found online the night before, Caramel Apple Pork Chops and boy they where good! I made twice baked potatoes with LOTS of bacon and cheese, then we had his favorite cake for dessert. DQ's Snickers Blizzard Ice Cream Cake! Yummy!

Here's a picture of the yummy cake! He loves the "goo" they put on top, so I ask for a big smiley face, so he can get alot of "goo."

Blowing out the 3 candles for 33 years old. Notice Aleksia "helping" from a distance.

We should have left the cake out alittle longer, but I had to get to work. Luckily he has big strong muscles!!!

A side view; snickers ice cream on top, then cookies, fudge, and vanilla ice cream! Soooo good!

Rolling Over

2009-09-21T00:07:00.001-07:00

Cassiah rolled over for the first time from her back to her tummy on Friday!

Here she is starting to roll...

... keep going Baby Girl...

... tada! Look at me!

The she rolled onto her back, and bonked her head on the hard floor. Guess it's time to get a bigger blanket for her to play on. AND make a gate for the stairs going down! It won't be long before we need it!

Lost tooth!

2009-09-20T23:52:00.000-07:00

Garrick FINALLY lost his first tooth last Sunday (yeah I'm late. It's been crazy at my house and now that I'm at work and it's sloooooow, I'm playing catch up). His other tooth is coming in behind, so now he needs to get the other loose tooth out beside it, then we get to take him to the dentist and have the 2 beside them pulled. I'm not looking forward to that, I'm sure it's not going to feel very good! But from what I've heard it's pretty common, and it will shorten the time for braces in the future if he needs it, so I guess it's going to be one of those necessary evils.

Here he is (red eyes, sorry) after he lost it! It was his bottom left from center tooth.

It's very blurry, sorry, we where running late for church so had to get one quick picture.

He was pretty excited, the Tooth Fairy left him $1. She wasn't sure what the going rate was now a days, but oh well!

p.s. Like my new signature? It took me a while to figure out how to add it, and if you asked me how I did it, I couldn't tell ya! It was a trial and error thing and can't remember what I did.

2009-09-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

The Palouse Empire Fair was last week (Sept 10-13) and the kids had a ball! For the 3rd year a coworker and I ran the Baby Barn and as usual was a huge hit with the baby/toddler crowd! I personally used it alot this year in feeding Cassiah! It was a crazy time with kids in school now! On Thursday and Friday Trestin, Cassiah, and I would head out early and Than would get Garrick and Aleksia off to school then head off to work. We'd be back in time to pick Aleksia up at school at 11:10, eat lunch, and then Trestin would go down for a nap. By the time Garrick got home at 3pm Trestin would be awake and we'd head out to the fair again! Saturday Garrick and Than went fishing in the morning while Aleksia, Trestin, Cassiah and I went to the fair, then they met us with food at lunch. The kids did the rides on Saturday also, so it was a very tiring day for them! Two of my Activity Day girls (sisters) showed steers for the first time and they did amazing! I was so proud of them out there in the ring with these HUGE animals that make me nervous. I am VERY much a city girl! It was so fun to watch them, way to go Anna Lee and Caralena! The kids all entered stuff in the fair again, which they love to go look at and awe at their ribbons (which everyone gets, but I'm not going to burst their bubbles). All in all it was a long but fun time, and they can't wait till next year!

Uncle B comes to visit

2009-09-04T08:22:00.001-07:00

My younger brother came for a visit this week. It was so fun to have him here, even if it was only for a couple days! Despite being young and having the energy and ability to get by on little sleep, our kids wore him out! We had a great time with Uncle B (Brenton), and he's welcome back anytime!!!! Here are some of the things we did during his short visit;

Trestin and Uncle B watching Bolt (which he is hooked on lately. While B was here he watched it at least 4 times, and it actually watching it now!) Taking him to Ferdinands for ice cream (made at WSU from the milk from WSU cows!), it's very tastey!

The observatory to watch the making of "Cougar Gold Cheese" which is quite famous

Of course we took him to see the bears! Than said that WSU is one of 2 schools in the states that has bears to do research with! So it's pretty cool! These two where out in the "play area."

Watchin' the bears

Blurry faced Trestin not wanting to hold still for a pic with the bears

These are the cages they are in when not out playing

At Walmart! B knows how to fix bikes, and I was given one for free a loooooong time ago (thanks Dara!) but it desperately needed some help. So here we are getting supplies. Garrick wasn't feeling good, so he's in the front part of B's cart laying down. You can see his blanket.

Poor sick dude! He ran a high temp, and was beat! Luckily that was his only symptoms! Today he's back at school after missing his first 2 days EVER!

Fixin' the bike

Everyone watching or "helping"

While I was cooking dinner, to distract the kids, B got some of his towels and they where "Super Heroes" flying around the house

We had a picnic (meaning we eat dinner on the floor while watching a movie) with Uncle B and watched Coraline. Chicken roll ups and nachos, they were pretty yummy!

Uncle B and Cassiah before he left yesterday

Good-bye Uncle B! We will miss you! Come back and see us anytime!!!!

First Days of School

2009-08-27T12:29:00.001-07:00

This week is the first days of school at our house! Garrick started 1st grade! He was so excited to be at school ALL day AND to eat lunch at school! Aleksia had a orientation type day the day after Garrick started, then her first REAL day by herself was today. These first few pics of the cookies are supposed to be at the end, sorry.

It has become a tradition to make cookies on the first day of school. It started with Garrick, in trying to make Aleksia feel better about him being gone to kindergarten last year. "You can make cookies while I'm gone!" he told her, like that was to make her feel better by doing something fun. Well Trestin remembered, and when it came time for Aleksia to go to school, "I make cookies!" So we got Aleksia off to school, nursed Cassiah, then we made cookies! He got to pick, so we made; chocolate chip, white chocolate chip, and Heath bits cookies! Here he is helping to measure the ingredients.

Big helper.

Chillin' with Cassiah while the cookies baked. Yes I did wash his hands after this picture!

Yummy!

Eating breakfast on his first day of 1st grade on Tuesday.

I figure this is a nice spot to take their annual 1st day of school pictures, and we can see how they grow from year to year compared to the logs! So here he is sporting the #1 for 1st grade!

Gotta show me the backpack, with matching lunch box!!!

He crossed the street to the neighbor's driveway, then walked down the hill to his first day of 1st grade!

Aleksia eating breakfast on her day of orientation, Wednesday.

Aleksia and her teacher, Mrs. Corbin

Beside her locker. She's one of the few that gets it all to herself!

On the carpet listening to Mrs. Corbin read a book.

Drawing a picture in her new classroom.

Eating before her 1st REAL day of kindergarten. Can you see the excitment on her face?

1st day of Kindergarten

And the backpack with Bus Tag, even though she's a "Parent Pick-Up" it lets everyone know she's a kindergartener, aka Clueless so keep an eye on me cause I don't know where I'm going or where I'm supposed to be yet.

Kid Pictures

2009-08-23T00:26:00.001-07:00

So before school started I wanted to get some pics of Cassiah now that she's smiling and some of all 4 of the kids. I know they change so fast at this age, but I want to get some pics along the way in addition to our annual jammy picture around Thanksgiving! They all did awesome for the 15 minutes of pictures! Got alot of smiles luckily! When it came time to select what I wanted, it was tough, but luckily with a coupon of $3.99 a sheet, I got alittle of several of the poses, and spent less then $30! So I was proud of myself! Here are some of the poses, and fancy Portrait Creations they tried to entice me with (but I didn't fall for it!)!

FHE Activity

2009-08-03T21:26:00.001-07:00

So those of you that grew up in Tri-Cities know what I mean when I say, "Ice blocking at Carmichal Hill." It's a hill at the middle school, that in the summer you put a towel on an ice block and you slide down. Very fun! Well for our FHE activity we tried it at the school across the street (mainly to try it out and see if it would work as one of my events in the "Water Olympics" for the Activity Day Girls activity I'm in charge of next week. It will be a relay race). It's not as long, but at the front of the school is MUCH steaper! Wow we got flyin'! Good thing the girls will be in their swim suits, cause they might just pee their pants!

Than giving it a try (this is at the back of the school, less steep and scarrier for Aleksia!) on two blocks. It was alot less wobbly. Go figure! My butt doesn't quite fit on the ice block like it did in HS. I blame my 4 precious angels!

Cheese!

Trestin just sitting on the block. He liked being a cheerleader better then ice blocking, "Too gary!" (too scarry!) Like his stained shirt. We had breakfast for dinner, and he enjoyed the berries on the waffle alittle TOO much!

Garrick was awesome! He was flying, with his light weight he flew!

This is at the steep part, and his block got away but he made it most of the way. Aleksia chickened out and that's her block tumbling down on the right.

Cassiah watching from the stroller

Than about took out Garrick. Sorry it's blurry, I was laughing!

Grrrr! He thought it was quite heavy! Plus cold, so he didn't want to touch it. Go figure, I cold block of ice!

Than's first time down the steep part. He was a bit nervous, since he said he hadn't gone ice blocking since before his mission!

Girls Camp

2009-08-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well that is what Aleksia called it. It was an all girls camp out for our church. She had a blast! She kept saying, "Thanks for bringing me to Girls Camp Mom!" "Isn't this fun!" "This girls camp is so fun Mom!" It was at Kamiak Butte, which (I timed) is 12 minutes from the edge of Pullman to the camp site! So nice that we have camping so close, and it's in the pine trees! So it's like you're in the forest, but it's in the middle of wheat fields! Very cool!

They had some singing activities, and the little girls where helping with "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly." Aleksia got to hold the "old lady" while Lucy, Poppy, Rachel, and Emily took turn putting on the spider, bird, cat, dog, yeah you know the rest!

Aleksia and her new good friend McCall (I hope that's spelled right!) hold up a prop for another song, that I had never heard, but it was cute!

(Blurry, sorry) Some of the girls that showed up! We had all ages there! So much fun!

Cassiah got to sleep on a pile of blankets on the floor of the tent. I wasn't bringing the pack'n'play for one night! She doesn't roll yet, so we're good!

Aleksia was soooo excited to sleep on the air mattress with me! Normally she sleeps on the ground! Yes an air mattress. I'll pee behind a bush, I don't mind, but I need an air mattress while camping!

Some of the girls at breakfast. Our ward had 3 sites, and we happened to set up ours at the main one where all the cooking was done!

The little girls playing with one of the bigger girls! Aleksia thought something was very funny!

This cracks me up!

2009-07-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

I have become a huge Twilight fan! I've read all the books, and now have the first two on cd, so I now listen to them around the house, on the way to work, nursing Cassiah, so pretty much all the time! So you could say that I'm addicted! There are alot worse things out there, really! I found this on someone's blog, and it CRACKS ME UP! Now our ward at church isn't like this, but it shows just how crazy and popular this series is! I personally, would be on the left side, but that's just me!

The Dunes

2009-07-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry,they are all out of order!

So after we went to the dunes, we stopped at the dam to show the kids the ladders. They loved it! "There goes another big one Dad!!"

Despite the dirty window, we still saw some fish.

Garrick & an almost sleeping Cassiah. Soaking in the river for 3+ hours wiped her out.

"Look Mom, I fimming!" He thought he was pretty cool! All he was doing was army crawling, and he called it swimming.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5" ... jump, splash! Since it was so shallow he enjoyed jumping up and landing on his knees.

Look, finally a picture of me, and I'm waving to you! That's as good as it's gonna get, I'm always behind the camera!

Very pretty!

Our set up on the beach. The kids spent 1/2 their time in the water, and the other 1/2 on the beach playing in the sand.

Looking at a catfish that wasn't very scared of people.

Keeping her shaded in the nearly 100 degree weather.

Trestin having a great time!

Trestin and Aleksia swimming. Well they thought they where swimming!

Having a great time!

Garrick with his goggles and "flippers" (fins on his feet to "help me swim") on.

I know he looks like he's peeing, but he's really just playing!

Using his goggles and flippers

Cassiah chillin' in the floaty under the umbrella, playin' with her toes.

Chillin'. The green shovel was a "stopper" so she wouldn't float away so I could let go of her momentarily to take her picture!

See how far out Than is, and it's still only to about his knees. He can still go out further, but he said it drops off pretty quick. Like from your knees to over your head in about 4 steps! But the shallow forever is so fun for the kids! In our prechildren years, we had a church activity out at the dunes and they played volleyball in the water! Do you remember that Rachel D.? I think you where pregnant?

Little of this and that

2009-07-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

Trestin really enjoyed his fudgcicle!

Now time for a bath!

Since we waited so long to officially potty train T, right before & right after a baby wasn't a good time to try & potty train, now that we are he's doing awesome!! He LOVES his "big boy underwear!" As you can see, he's showing it off!

Than getting Cassiah to smile. She's giving them more and more! So fun!!!

T swimmin' in the pool. Well, more like walking around in the pool with the duck around his waist.

Aleksia swimmin' trying to keep cool on a HOT day!

I think it's official...

2009-07-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

...we have a finger sucker! When she was first born in the hospital she sucked on her fingers alot, then stopped. Well over the last couple weeks she's found them off and on again. Well it's becoming more on then off. When she's awake, it will be either hand, and any fingers she can get in there, and the other hand is usually holding her wrist, almost like she's trying to keep them in there. But when she's tired, it's the middle two fingers on her right side that she favors (see below, this was taken about 10 minutes ago as she was falling asleep on the floor). So it looks like she's signing "I love you!" So stinkin' cute! Than said that this past weekend (my first one after maternity leave) she sucked on the middle two on her right hand ALOT. I like to think that maybe she "missed" me, and it was her way of soothing herself (probably not, but it makes me feel alittle better having to leave her). Well yesterday I noticed that her cuticles on her fingers that she's been sucking on where red. Then looking closer, she had little blisters too! She had been sucking them alot! Poor little girl! But it doesn't seem to bother her, or stop her. Garrick took a binky till around 6 months, Aleksia only took one while she was teething, Trestin really never took a binky, and if you put one in Cassiah's mouth she gags! So the finger sucking is new to us. Hopefully it won't be one of those nightmare cases that she is still sucking them in HS! But we have a long time till then. For now, I think it's adorable. Plus we'll never loose it, like you can a binky, and she can put it in herself! Sweet!

McCormick

2009-07-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

So every year for the past 15+ years my dad's family, who ever can make it, goes to McCormick Park down in Hells Canyon between the Brownle and Oxbow dams. Growing up it was staying up late with cousins, fishing, swimming, game playing, some years jet ski riding (thanks to Wendy and Andy), care free days! Now with children, it's still fun, but different! We've never gone with such a tiny one, but Cassiah did awesome! Her first camping trip, at the age of 2.5 months old! Plus that's the longest we've ever stayed, 6 days! I got to see family I hadn't seen in 1-3 years so it was alot of fun! Plus Than loves it, because it's fishing all the time! With three uncles with boats, lots of family to chat with, weather under 100 degrees (sometimes we roast up there!!!) what is not to love!

On our way home we passed a sign reading that there was to be a funeral procession, and to expect delays of 30+ minutes. Well we met up with them as they pulled onto Highway 95 before Councel and followed them to the turn off to the HS in New Meadows where the funeral was to be held. We figured it must be a police officer since there where over 10 police cars towards the end of the line, and we couldn't even see the beginning of the line! Along the way through the towns we'd pass, it was amazing and really touching! People lined the road to pay their respects with cameras and signs. On one sign we found out his name was Leroy, then as we got closer to New Meadows, a reader board read Deputy Mathews funeral from 1-4pm. Once we got into New Meadows the street where packed with police cars! It was very touching.

4th of July

2009-07-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

In our new house, we are a 5 minute walk from Sunnyside Park where the towns 4th of July festivities are located, which is nice, but since the loud BOOMING of the fireworks would probably scare Cassiah, we opted to watch them from across the street at the school. It worked great, and that might be our new spot to watch them from. Less crowds, easier to keep track of the children, they get to play on the equipment before the show, easy to run home and get something if we forget it (which we only had to twice!). Plus we don't have to show up hours in advance to get a spot. So we did our little fireworks first, then headed over. Trestin wouldn't get any closer then 6 feet of any of the sparklers. "Fire!!!" But he did like the Pop Its!

R.I.P. George

2009-06-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

We never got a picture of George, but this is what he looked like. Yes, LOOKED, we noticed he was dead today. George was an AMAZING little fish! Before George, I'd have to clean the tank every other month. And we are talkin' can't see through parts of the tank cause it's covered in algae dirty! Well after George, I never cleaned the tank! That was over 6 months ago when we bought him! I will miss George, but apparently not as much as Aleksia! She has been crying off and on since we discovered his demise. Trestin mentioned George right before bed (big mistake, she had maybe forgotten), and it set her off again! Through the tears we hear her in bed, "George...(snuffle)... George...(snuffle)... George...(snuffle)... Why did you have to dye?" So after our quiet chuckles (yes, we are evil parents), I went in to talk with her. So I explained that everything dies someday, and talked briefly about the atonement (thought it was a good opportunity!), and ended with;

"Maybe Great Grandma Gray (Than's Mom's mom) is taking care of George now, do you think?"

"But she didn't have a fish tank!"

"Well she does now, to take care of George!"

"Yeah!"

So that calmed her down. Maybe not the best way, but what is the harm in having a little girl think that our dead fish is now being taken care of by her Great Grandma that has also passed on? Knowing Grandma, I'm sure she wouldn't mind!

Aleksia's 5th Birthday Pary

2009-06-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

We give the kids a birthday party on the bigger birthdays; 5th (start K), 8th (baptism), 12th (enter YM/YW), 16th (driving), and 18th (adult). Otherwise that would be ALOT of parties! Well since Aleksia just turned 5, it was Party Time! The weather didn't cooperate, and our swimming/water party moved indoors, but we still had a little water fun! It started out with just some water balloon fun, but then the slip and slide came out and a couple kids where brave enough in the 65ish degree weather.

Free Fishing Saturday

2009-06-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my brother-in-law, Nathan, and his two girls, Aubrey and Emmaleena, came up to go fishing with us. It was "Free Fishing in Idaho" on Saturday, so we went to Spring Valley. The Blue Gill always bite like crazy, and we weren't let down! Our friend Derek Holmes (probably spelled wrong, sorry) and his two boys, Aidan and Ethan came too! The kids caught lots of blue gill, a couple trout where caught, and LOTS of fun was had!

It's a miracle!!!

2009-06-09T20:31:00.001-07:00

We FINALLY got our furniture! After waiting several weeks beyond the 8-12 weeks we where told, it arrived. It was better then Christmas! What a great highlight to an otherwise crappy day (I got a stomache bug that Than had, although it hit me worse. I've not been that sick in a LONG time. Lots of trips to the bathroom all night long from both ends, light headed/dizzy/nauseated everytime I moved, and ache all over! But I'm feeling better tonight).

Here is the truck backed into our driveway!

Here is our couch! They are chocolate in color, but in the lighting looks black.

And the rocker and loveseat! Now with the Cassiah's blessing behind me, I can finally read the last book in the Twilight series, and I'll have a nice squishy spot to read!!!

A view of all three! It makes the room look smaller, but thats fine! We feel like we have a real "home" now with furniture!

Here is our table! We love it! Trestin doesn't get to sit on the new chairs, since he's still too messy of an eater! And when you all come to visit, we can put the leaf in the table, and then 3 can sit on each side! Come on over!

Busy weekend!!!

2009-06-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

So it all started on Friday, when we headed to the Tri-Cities for Than's younger brother's HS grad. It was the same high school I graduated from 12 years ago, and was funny to see some of the same teachers still there. I guess they haven't retired yet. As they proceeded in, I still got all goose bumpy, remembering the excitement I felt 12 years ago. Then as they read off the kids' names that are joining the armed forces, I got the goose bumps all over again, with an over whelming sense of gratitude! I'm not a really patriotic person, so it kinda surprised me! Plus the fact that they all look SOOO young! Too young to be giving themselves, and possibly their lives over to our country! It just really impressed me! The kids did better then I expected them to for a 1 1/2 hour block of sitting, so that was good!

Here are all the 2009 Hanford High School graduates, looking so very young. Or maybe I'm just getting so old, I did turn 30 last month!

Here is Webster (aka Web, Webagail, Webber, Weasel, and Jungle Gym to the nieces) in the middle looking oh so fabulous in purple and gold.

Than getting Cassiah to smile (kinda) and "talk" to him at the grad.

Then we quickly came back the next morning for Cassiah's blessing. And just like me, I finished her dress with only hours to spare! But it turned out pretty cute, especially with one of Jeniel's famous hair bows! Thanks Jeniel, it was soooo cute! We had quite a bit of family come up for the day, which was alot of fun!

Sorry this one's sideways, but it's a closer up picture.

Than gave a wonderful blessing, and still got emotional (he did Garrick, Aleksia, and Trestin's too), but not as much as some of the others. It's always very touching! The others that participated where; my dad, Than's dad, Than's step dad, 2 brother in laws, and my doctor (is actually the bishop of the Colfax ward, yes, he's a VERY busy guy, so we where touched that his wife, son, and son's girlfriend came!).

Time to eat! We had a bbq after sacrament meeting, and it was tasty! We have a wonderful family that helped by bringing and helping do the finishing touches after church! Here's Evan (stepdad), Sonja (Than's mom), Stella (Than's sister's youngest), Kath (my mom), and Ron (my dad).

Maren (Than's sister), Harvey (Than's dad), Nathan (Than's brother in law), and

Whitney (Than's sister).

Sitting at the kids table is Sarah (Than's sister), Emmaleena (niece), Sloane (niece), Aubrey (niece), Garrick, Destiney (my sister), and Aleksia.

Oh, I forgot to rearrange this one, it's from grad, Trestin wanted to "take picture Garrick!" And this is what we got!

What we've been up to...

2009-05-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

...honestly, if I think about it, I don't know! At the end of the day, I think back to what I got done, and it wasn't much! I forget how time consuming a newborn is! That's not a bad thing, but between feeding her every 2-3 hours (which start to finish is about 45ish minutes with burping and diaper change in the middle), taking care of the other's needs (feeding mainly), and cleaning up the small messes behind my 3 little tornados, the day is gone by the time I know it! But in my small amounts of productivity, this is what I've been TRYING to do:

1. Make a blessing dress. Everytime we bless a child, Than always asks, "Why white?" Well it's tradition, which he doesn't always like "traditional," for example our children's names, not too typical. So a friend had her baby blessed in a white dress, but with some color to it, and I loved it! Still the white, traditional, but with alittle extra! So I thought I'd give it a try, and this is what I got. I love it! I can't wait to bless her. I just need to do the finishing touches (ie buttons, button holes, hem the sleeves, and attach the flowers to the bodice.

2. Finish putting this house together before the blessing! We still have some boxes tucked in corners, and my craft room is still a disaster. So I've been working on that too! In a way it makes me excited and provides more motivation for me to finish, 'cause then I can maybe do some more crafty things in my little spare time!

3. Birth announcements for Cassiah, and keeping updated on my "Thank You" cards. Being able to do alittle "crafting" amoungst all the chaos has been wonderful "therapy" for me! Helps keep me sane with 4 kids!

4. T-ball! Garrick and Aleksia both get to play, since it's kids going into K or 1st. Garrick isn't too bad for never playing before, and Aleksia.... is clueless! She provides her father with alot of screaming;
"Aleksia, stand up!"
"Aleskia, stop picking the flowers!"
"Aleksia, pay attention!"
"Aleksia, run to second base (because the batter is now at first base with you)"
And her mother with endless laughter! Here, the assisant couch Sydney, is pointing out where she is to run next, but as you can see, our sweet little Aleksia is not paying attention!

Garrick taking his helmet off after touching home plate

Cassiah had finally conked out in Daddy's arms.

Trying to keep Trestin here with us, instead of out with his siblings where he thinks he should be is a chore! But I brought the ipod, and he was be boppin' to some music. It lasted for maybe 10 minutes out of the hour long game!

Aleksia hitting the ball, after repeatedly wacking the tee instead. Let's just say she's not ready for the REAL Mariners (that's their team, the Mariners).

Garrick obviously likes it, 'cause yesterday he told me, "Mom, I want to play baseball for my entire life!" So he must be having a good time! Plus the fact that his good friend Sam is on his team! It's a nice extra bonus.

Catch up!

2009-05-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

So life has been a bit crazy, so I'll play a bit of catch up.

The kids and Than at the bus stop. Yesterday I rode the bus with all four kids to Than's work (WSU) and we had lunch with him. The kids LOVE to ride the bus! Cassiah is in a carrier on me, so we weren't in the pic.

We have some very friendly squirrels! I have a container that holds the remaining bird food that doesn't fit in the bird feeder, and it drives some of them crazy! They will even come right up to the window, put their tiny paws on the window and look in at us. It's usually when we are eating is when they do it. As if they are saying, "Uh, what's for lunch/dinner?"

Here are some sideways versions of my Thank you cards I'm slowly getting done!

Here are all 4 in their Easter clothes!

Cassiah in her "Easter" dress. Aleksia was so excited to have a sister now to match. She told everyone at church that her baby sister has a dress just like her!

Aleksia was the photographer for Cassiah's first real bath! She didn't do too bad taking pictures!

More bath time, in the kitchen sink. Our one bath tub is at an angle, so it's hard to wash a newborn in, so we settled for the kitchen sink!

An awake little girl!

Thank You Photo Shoot

2009-04-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

So I have this idea! To take a picture of Cassiah with the gifts she was given, then incorportate the picture into the "Thank You" card. I have alot of ideas, but finding the time to accomplish my ideas is the problem! So here are some of the pictures I've done, now I need to get prints, and create a card. Wish me luck!

*Oh how I wish I still had my photography friends around (Lacy, Janene, & Trista)! So don't laugh too loud at my photos!*

Labor Story (per request)

2009-04-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

So several days in a row prior I had been having contractions at night (start around 8pm'ish), as frequent as every 5 minutes, but they would then go away when I'd lay down to go to sleep. Well on Thursday I started having them earlier in the day (like at 4:30pm). So here is the brief "low down" of events:

-3:30pm Trestin randomly starts vomiting. No fever, no diarrhea, no acting sick.

-4 pm take Than to chiropractor in Colfax

-4:15pm pretty good contraction, "Ooh! This is starting early today! Maybe it means something... no! Probably not!" I didn't want to get my hopes up

-6:00pm eating dinner, ctx (aka contractions) fairly strong ones about every 15-30 minutes

-8pm Garrick & Aleksia to bed, Trestin chillin' on the couch with me since he's still puking up everything he eats, and he's been wanting/trying to eat food. So not wanting to put him in bed to then be changing and changing and changing sheets/clothes he watches a movie with me (The Wedding Date, I love that movie! Such a chick flick)

-9pm Ctx every 10-15 minutes, and getting alittle stronger. Still not wanting to get my hopes up, I tell myself that they aren't the real thing, and decide to go put Trestin down (he hadn't puked in over 1 hour) and go lay down so they will go away, like they where doing all week long!

-11pm after laying down (watched Mad Money on computer via Netflicks watch now thing) contractions are alittle stronger, breathing through some, but they are 10 minutes apart. Now realize I've never had to make the decision to go to the hospital, it's always been made for me. With Garrick I had been in early labor for 1 1/2 days, went to my dr apt and he said, "You're a 3, go to the hospital!" And with Aleksia and Trestin my water broke, so that's an automatic ticket to the hospital. So I felt weird, being an L&D nurse, going to the hospital with ctx 1o minutes apart. "And what if they calm down and go away like all the other times! Then I'd feel like and idiot, and be sent home!" "No, then I'd just ask to be induced now instead of Monday." (yes I was having a conversation in my head with myself!) So I went to talk with Than. "It's up to you honey! But it would be better to drop off kids sooner then later!" I agreed, but felt horrible taking a puking Trestin to the Johnson's, who has 3 kids! *Tara, I really hope you're kids don't get sick! If they do, feel free to shoot me!* So we made some calls, and Than went to drop off kids as I finished getting ready to go (all the while thinking, "Oh I hope I made the right decision and this is the real thing!!!"

-12:25 arrive at the hospital. Now a traveling L&D RN was found to cover for me while on leave, well that was her FIRST night! Poor thing, welcome to WHMC, now deliver a baby while not knowing where stuff is! Well another L&D RN was called in to help her, who I really wanted to have in on the delivery anyways (I love all those I work with, but have created a special bond with this wonderful lady, and since this is 99% sure to be our last, I really wanted her). So it worked out perfect!

-1am checked and I was 4 cm! Anesthesia called for an epidural (luckily the one that was on lives 2 minutes away and not the one that lives in Spangle, which is over 1 hour away! This is my lucky day!)

-1:30am got my epidural. Actually once anesthesia arrived, the ctx got ALOT stronger! After I got up to pee just prior to my epidural I started getting the shakes (remember that), but just my legs

-1:50am by now my whole body was shaking (toes to teeth, Than was laughing at me because my teeth kept chattering, so I'd have to clench my teeth together). But the epidural was working! Instead of breathing through ctx, I was breathing to focus on not shaking so violently. I was feeling alot more pressure, but the pain was 80% gone! So since it was, and I was shaking, they checked me, and I was a 10! Wow, that was fast! 4 to 10 in an hour! So back when I was starting to get shaky, I was already hitting transition (the phase of labor when you go from 7-10 cm and can get shaky and panic-y). So those 3-4 ctx once anesthesia arrived that where alot more intense where very effective ones! So the doctor was called, and reluctantly came in, because he didn't fully believe that I had progressed that fast. Well I did!

-2:05am my water broke on it's own. I'm feeling ALOT of pressure, could push, but luckily with the epidural I didn't have the intense pain or the uncontrollable urge to push! So yet again, I was breathing to not push and wait for the doctor to arrive

-2:10am Doctor arrives, and I tell him, "Get you're gloves on!" Apparently he was out in the hallway chatting with the CRNA (anesthesia) and the RN had to tell him we needed him now. He was finally convinced when they got me into position while he got his gloves and gown on and he said, "Oh, wow, there's the head!" WE TOLD YOU!!!! Is what I wanted to scream, but I didn't. I love my doctor, but come on!

-2:15am So after one and a half pushes she was out! Apparently she was anxious to get out too, because once she got out past her eye brows her right arm shot out, almost reaching to be pulled out the rest of the way. Thanks to her arm and a fast delivery (slower helps things to stretch therefore preventing tears or typically the need for episiotomies) I got a small tear.

-Since she came so fast, they took her from my chest briefly to check her out, then brought her back. In all my breastfeeding classes, they showed us a video on Self Attachment, which was amazing! Baby is put on mom's abdomen after delivery, and with no help from mom, baby literally climbs up and latches on for the first nursing! None of my patients have ever wanted to do it, and since this is 99% sure to be our last, I wanted to try it! I'll spare you details, but it was amazing! She literally crawled up and latched on all by herself! It was a wonderful way to end the whole experience!

The whole thing couldn't have gone better! I was able to be taken care of during the whole thing by a dear friend who I absolutely love, actually by two wonderful RN's during delivery (a traveling RN that was wonderful, they couldn't have chosen a better person to cover for me while on leave!!!), it was a fairly quick process without alot of long and drawn out pain (short and quick which is more doable then long and drawn out), had a wonderful/loving/supportive husband by my side, wonderful friends to watch our children even though Trestin was sick (thank you sooooo much Tara Johnson and Rachel Packer!!!), and then the self attachment at the end! Way back before delivering Garrick I was kinda nervous to be delivering where I work, but now I wouldn't have wanted to deliver any where else! It's so nice to be in a familiar environment, to have the people I know around me and taking care of me. I truly work with the best people in the world! Thanks to all those that came to see us on their day off, or took a break from work to come say "Hi!" Now I think our family is complete, two boys and two girls, perfect!

We are home!

2009-04-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

After being taken care of by the best coworkers in the world, we are now home! Other then sore and tired, we are doing great! Unfortunatly we can't say the same for poor Trestin. He's got a fever, lethargic, and vomitting. So he's pretty mellow and low maintenance now (not that he was high before). Here are more pics from the hospital;

I made the kids "Big Brother/Sister" shirts, and here is Aleksia in hers.

Aleksia's turn (if it where up to her, it would always be her turn)

He'd bounce between the couch and the foot of my bed. Poor little guy!

Everyone always wants a turn to hold Cassiah. Trestin's smile/face scrunch is just a face scrunch due to "feel good" as he shakes his head.

In the car seat ready to go home!

He fell asleep at the foot of the bed shortly after arriving this morning to take us home.

Having some fun before discharge!

Beautiful flowers from the hospital.

She's home, she's fed, she's wide awake checking it all out!

She's here!

2009-04-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

Cassiah Kember Huston is finally here! She arrived at 2:15am (alittle under 2 hours after arriving at the hospital), weighing 7 lbs 12 oz, and 20" long! Althought tired, we are doing great. More pics to come!

She wasn't happy until she got her thumb (or fingers) in her mouth!

Daddy and his new little girl

Minutes after delivery

Easter

2009-04-13T10:28:00.001-07:00

The kids with their stuff from the Easter bunny. Since I worked the night before, and was sleeping until about 10:30am, the story went like this: The Easter Bunny left the kids baskets, but they didn't get them until after they cleaned up the toy room and Mom woke up (according to Dad). And the bunny also left eggs, but in a bag for Mom and Dad to hide so that Mom could watch/take pictures after church. Well they bought it! So Mom got to watch AND the toy room got cleaned! Two for one bonus!!!

Here are the kids in their Easter clothes. I made a matching dress for "Baby Girl Huston," and will get more pics of all 4 after she arrives, so this will have to do for now. Aleksia wanted to take everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink in her matching purse to church, so we had to intervene!

So of course before church was beautiful, perfect for an egg hunt outside in our new yard, but since we had to wait till after church, of course as we where leaving it started raining! So the hunt was moved to the indoors, but luckily the toy room was clean! Wish I could have said the same for the down stairs, but we'll take what we can get! Here is Trestin getting a head start before the other two came down.

Searching for eggs in the newly cleaned toy room. To the right is a shelf that Than built for most of the bigger and Little People toys. What a space saver! Thanks honey!

So now we are just patiently waiting the arrival of our little one! I had already had Aleksia and Trestin by now, so even though I'm not over due (due on next Monday the 20th) I feel like I am! I've never hit my due date, Garrick was 2 days early, so we'll see what happens. Unless it's medically necessary, I don't want to be enduced. I'll suffer through, and wait until she is ready. I've been in on way too many failed or long enductions because baby wasn't ready. So we'll see. But like my friend Tennille said, hopefully my next post will be introducing our new addition! Let's hope!

Dying Easter Eggs

2009-04-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

So these loaded in screwy order, sorry, so bear with me! Well for FHE we decided to color eggs, since we don't know when this little one is going to arrive (yesterday I was 38 weeks, that's when I had Aleksia, and tomorrow is how far along I was when I had Trestin). So any day! Plus it was a good FHE (Family Home Evening, for those that don't know) activity. So here are the pics.

Here is Than's "happy egg"

Garrick trying to "do what Daddy was doing" without as much luck!

Aleksia "showing off" her egg. How can a 4.5 year old have so much attitude in such a little package?

Mr. Cheese Man showing off his "Monster Egg" with 4 eyes! Scarry!

The finished 2 dozen (minus 1 Trestin casualty) eggs. Too bad none of us like hard boiled eggs. So these will be hidden by the Easter bunny, then trashed. Good thing they are cheap!

He got alittle messy! Notice his lips. He "kissed" one of his eggs after coloring on it.

So since I knew the colors in bowls would be a disaster with Trestin, I saw these "swabs" for $0.88 at Walmart, and knew we had a winner for Trestin. Here he is "coloring" his eggs.

More coloring of his eggs.

Garrick and Aleksia coloring their eggs.

Free bowling!

2009-03-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

Last night there was free bowling for the grad students at the only bowling alley in town. Hey, who can pass up free? Not us! Than's dad had come up that afternoon to fix the Subaru, so we convinced him to spend the night and go bowling with us.

On a side note; yeah for two working cars! Than is much more relaxed about having both working, so that IF I go into labor at work, I don't have our only working car AND the car seats 25 minutes away! What would have happened is I would have to drive home, pick them up, then Than drive us all as we shuttle the kids to their assigned houses and then off to the hospital. But luckily that won't have to happen now! We are SOOOO thankful for Grandpa Huston!!!!!

So back to bowling, Than and I hadn't been bowling in 6 years, the kids had never been, and Grandpa said he hadn't been since before Than was born, 30+ years ago! And me being possibly a week from delivery, this was going to be interesting! Bowling has gotten a lot fancier then when I remember. The computer could be programed so that the bumpers pop up for certain players! Wow, technology! So between that and a funky contraption for the kids that they just have to push the ball down an elevated "runway" they scored pretty good compared to the rest of us!

Aleksia carrying her ball over

Garrick liked just throwing it. Luckily this time he let go of the ball in the alley instead of 2 feet to early!

Watching Grandpa bowl. They where great cheerleaders (especially Trestin) whether you got a strike or a gutter ball.

Than bowling for the first time in 6 years!

So with Than's good aim, he was able to help Trestin get a...

... STRIKE!

Trestin pushing the ball (which amazingly he could carry and never dropped it once) down the "runway"

A view from the back

Go Grandpa! Go!

Trestin and Dad

Sometimes Garrick used the runway, but usually he liked to throw it himself. Thank heavens for bumpers. Sometimes the ball would zig zag down the alley before hitting the pins.

The final scores. Trestin kicked our cans!

1st place: Trestin

2nd place: Grandpa

3rd place: Garrick

4th place: Aleksia

5th place: Than

6th place: Me

I can blame my performance on being pregnant right? I didn't know how much you bend at the waist to bowl. Well me being unable to bend, the ball kind of "thudded" every time, and lost a lot of it's momentum. Oh well. It was still fun. It send me into some pretty good contractions for a while after coming home, but obviously didn't progress into labor!

2009-03-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

So this is the view out our front window. We put a bird feeder in front of the old stump, and we've started attracting the local wild life! Lots of birds of every kind (Than says we need Ira here to tell us what kind they are), squirrels, and recently rabbits. The rabbits don't eat the bird food, just the greenery around. The kids are LOVING all the different animals that come buy, and enjoy naming them. All the squirrels are Hammy (from Over the Hedge) and the bunnies are either Benny or Betty depending on if we see one or two at a time.

Here is the bird feeder, and our first bunny, Benny, in the bottom left corner.

Here is Trestin. He likes to sit on the toilet. 2-6 times a day he'll tell me "potty" and when I put him on, he goes! But I'm not ready to potty train yet, it's not a good time! Not that there is a good time, but right before we have a baby, with the potential of him regressing after she arrives doesn't sound appealing. So for now we put him on, praise him, and call it good for now. So hopefully when the real time comes, it will be easier!

Grandpa & Spring Time Fun!

2009-03-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

FINALLY some spring weather this past weekend! Prior, even a light jacket was not enough, but on Friday and Saturday, not even a jacket was needed (unless the sun went behind the clouds)! Than's dad also came up this weekend to work on the Subaru for us, saving us a lot of $$$! Unfortunately on the test drive after the repairs, something else decided to go wrong, so he now gets to make another trip up! Yeah for spending more time with Grandpa! But we feel really bad, sorry Grandpa! Here are some pics from our fun weekend!

Trestin "helping" Grandpa. More help then he ever wanted!!!

Garrick watching in awe Grandpa working on the car.

So this is our driveway, and you can see how close the school really is. We LOVE it being so close! It was soo nice, we went and played over on the playground for a while that day too.

Garrick FINALLY getting to climb the tree he's been dying to climb since we moved in. I told him when it got warmer. Well, it got warmer!

As you can see, it is an awesome climbing tree. It reminds me of the Whomping Willow on Harry Potter, but ours doesn't move.

Trestin briefly perched on a branch. He was very unsteady, so he was more then ready to get down after the pic.

Daddy's Bus

2009-03-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I had a brain fart after breakfast, and thought, "Hey, let's ride the bus to work with Than!" In the past Garrick and Aleksia have ridden with him, then I've gone and picked them up once they all arrive at his office. So we got Garrick off to school, poor kid didn't get to go, but he didn't mind, because he gets to go to school himself! So here are a couple pics of our little adventure, that was a cheap way of entertainment! Only $.50 for me, A & T where free!

Waiting at the bus stop with Daddy. The kids where VERY excited!

Trestin was unsure of actually riding on the bus at first. We sat on a sideways seat, and with no car seat to keep him secure, he was a bit nervous and cuddled into Than. But he relaxed as the ride went on.

Trestin getting to pull the cord for Daddy's stop!

Playing catch up...

2009-03-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

Wow I have been slacking! But I have been busy. Between the normal housework, kids, and work... then the "nesting" of wanting to get all these boxes unpacked (plus STILL trying to find the hardware to the bunkbed, it's somewhere around here) we've been busy. So here is what we have been up to, and how we are doing:

One weekend we went down to Tri-Cities to visit with Than's cousin, Owen, and his family that was visiting from New Hampshire. We haven't seen them in over 4 years, so it was fun to visit. We went to Chuck E. Cheeses, and the kids (little and the big ones) had fun.

Kylee (pobably spelled wrong, sorry Steph), Owen's oldest, and Trestin playing on the Spider Stomp

Go Aleksia!

Garrick having fun playing air hockey with Dad, despite getting the pants beat off him.

Father and son time

Aleksia meeting Chuck E. Cheese. Trestin on the otherhand, was alittle braver in my arms, but not much. He wasn't a big fan of him close up. He liked him at a distance.

With about one day of kinda nice weather, the kids FINALLY got to go out and ride bikes. It's really nice having no one living in the house next door, so the kids can ride bikes in their drive way for now.

Garrick, and his new Transformers helmet he's been dying to "try out."

Aleksia and her new princess helmet. Their old ones got too small.

Some of the playground at Garrick's school. It's SOOO incredibly nice to be SOOOO close. The kids are always asking to go play, but luckily it was kinda nice enough to go play briefly.

Swings, one of their favorites.

"Playing ball" they call it

You can tell by his red cheeks and fingers that it's still kinda chilly!

Trestin having a blast!

So this is what it's been doing for the past twoish days. Although now we're up to several inches of snow out there. So much for spring!

We are hanging in there. I'm 34 weeks and counting! I've been early with all three (I know, lucky me), so I wouldn't be surprised to have her around 38 weeks again. Which only leaves maybe 4 weeks left! I'm down to two days a week at work instead of three, which makes a HUGE difference. Especially since I am now on a every Friday & Saturday schedule. In a way it's nice because then when I come home I can sleep 'cause Than's home, but it kinda shoots our weekends. Luckily we aren't planning on going anywhere!

Some more exciting news, is that we have found and ordered furniture! We are members of a company called Network Direct, that buys strait from the manufacturer. So after looking around we found what we want, and we got everything (reclining sofa, reclining loveseat, reclining rocker, table, and 8 chairs) for $600 less then just the sofa, loveseat, and chair at the Ashely Store! So we where totally excited. But, the won't be delivered for 8-12 weeks, with 8 weeks will be around when I am due. But hopefully they will come earlier, or at least not while we are at the hospital! Here are the pictures from the Ashely website:

They are a chocolate color, leather (we've heard is good with kids), and they all recline!

This table, with the leaf in it will be HUGE, and more then fit our needs. It will expand to 90 inches! Now we will have to start having people over for dinner with all the space!

One sick little boy!

2009-02-06T01:56:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night we where just heading to bed, when we heard vomiting coming from the boys room. I go rushing in there to find poor little Trestin in a pile! He then proceeded to vomit 4 more times with 4 more bed changes and 4 more jammy changes before settling in for the night. The next day he was a very lethargic boy, with a temp hovering around 102 all day! I peeked in his ears (one of the perks to being a nurse) with my otoscope and saw a very red ear drum! The next day (yesterday) I had a doctor's apt, and had the doctor peek in there too, and he said, "Wow!" So needless to say the poor little guy is on antibiotics now! Here he is on Wednesday vegging out. One of the few times he wasn't in my arms wanting to "nuggle" all day long. He didn't want to be in his bed, he wanted to be out with us. So he settled for the camp chair.

Despite feeling like crap, he still said "Cheese" for the camera! Poor guy. Notice the sippy (of Gatorade, NOT milk) cup in the cup holder. He didn't feel like drinking much once I let him, but he still wanted it close by.

He wasn't awake much that day! His first ear infection at the age of 2 years old really wiped him out! But today he's up and running and playing almost like normal!

Nanny (Granny) Hat

2009-01-24T23:29:00.001-08:00

My Granny made the kids hats for Christmas, and Trestin LOVES his!

"Who made your had Trestin?" You ask. He replies, "Nanny!" He wears it inside and outside. Puts it on this way and that way. I've never seen a kid so in love with a hat for this long! Thank you Granny!

They like the laminate floors...

2009-01-24T23:24:00.000-08:00

...to play legos on! "They don't get lost Mom!" Plus the fact that they can slide all over the place. So they are slowing learning, as they fall and get hurt, why Mommy & Daddy keep saying, "No running in the house!" It's not to be mean, it's to prevent injuries, which so far have just been minor!

Happy 2nd Birthday Trestin!

2009-01-24T23:08:00.000-08:00

Poor Trestin's birthday was at the end of my three days of working, so it wasn't too exciting for him, but luckily he's two and doesn't really understand anyways!

Trestin watching his "Birday Dake" cook! I think he stayed there the entire time! Notice the Sesame Street "capries." They where an old pair of Aleksia's that I made several years ago for all the grandkids on Than's side to wear for a "Grandkid Picture" for G&G Roberts. He LOVES Elmo, and found them and wouldn't take them off.

On your birthday you get to pick what you want for dinner, which is usually out to eat somewhere. Well since he's a funny eater recently, we opted for Denny's, with it's wide variety of choices. Plus breakfast for dinner sounded good and they do breakfast all day!

Here is my attempt at an Elmo cake. He turned out pink, but Trestin recognized him, and loved it. So that's all that counts.

His "Say cheese" face

He's very nervous around fire (and that's a GREAT thing, especially since we now have 2 gas fireplaces that he's stays back from), so he's trying to blow out his candles from as far back as he can.

He liked the sugar letters. It was probably his second favorite thing about his cake after Elmo.

He's very excited about his Little People Airplane!

Snow, snow, and MORE snow!

2009-01-24T22:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is an old post. But since it's a REALLY slow night at work (no women are going into labor in the Colfax area tonight), so it's time to play catch up from before and after the move. During our 3 weeks of delay on signing we had some big snow storms dumping tons of snow! The kids of course loved it! Mom, not so much any more. Especially since it was the same time that Than had pneumonia, so that left me, the pregnant lady to do the shoveling. Oh well, I survived!

Garrick standing on top of the mound of snow that was accumulating from shoveling the side walk.

Our drive way and mounds of snow!

Aleksia sledding down the hill behind our old house.

Go Garrick go!

This was supposed to be before the last two pics, but oh well. Behind our house was a hill, that in the nonsnowy times is sage brush. Well the kids loved to walk half way up to the flat spot, then sled down. That first drop was quite a big one! I went down with them 5/6 times to get a "path" for them to follow in, then they where off!

100th Post!

2009-01-19T03:12:00.000-08:00

On my 100th post, I get to show you our new house! FINALLY!!! We finally signed the papers, January 9th, only 3 weeks after our original date. But it worked out in the long run because for the weekends before we had horrible snow storms and couldn't have moved anyway. But thanks to wonderful people at church that where willing to help us move with less then a 12 hour notice, we got it done in no time!

We are loving all the space! The kids are as hyper as Christmas morning, EVERYDAY! Garrick is loving walking to and from school too. The first day he woke up earlier then normal asking, "Is it time to go to school?" "No Garrick, you still have 2 hours till school even starts. It's too early!" Now if all the boxes would just magically unpack themselves, I'd be the happiest girl in the world! But it's kinda fun finding spots for everything though. But finding the time to do it is the problem, while working full time night shift. Oh well, we are moved, and that's what's important, and the unpacking will just have to be over time. So come on over for a "real tour," but in the mean time, enjoy the slide show!

When it rains...it POURS!

2008-12-18T21:26:00.000-08:00

Well it's been one heck of a day! While it was snowing outside like crazy (although not as much as for our Spokane friends), it's been pouring inside! It started last night when we found out that we probably won't close on our house on the 19th like we thought. Due to the low rates lots of people are deciding to refinance which makes for more work load for the bank. So after shoveling 3-6" this morning (depending on the drifts) I proceed to try to contact our lender to see if we are able to close tomorrow! Than calls around lunch time saying he's going to the doctor since he doesn't feel very good. Then get another call from the hospital saying he's getting a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. I then go out to shovel another 3" before going to Garrick's dentist apt at 2:40pm. After shoveling I came in and checked my email to see if our lender had replied, and the kids yell out, "Trestin's in your purse and eating medicine!" Tylenol 500mg tablet to be exact. AHHHHH! Called poison control, and they advise that if he's taken 4 or more tabs he needs to go to the ER. Well I wasn't sure, but better to be safe then sorry. I would have preferred to go to my hospital, but since the roads where crappy, and time is of the essence, we took off for Pullman's ER. I had to tune out the Mom in me and focus on the nurse in me. I knew what needed to be done, and focused on getting us to the ER so we could start the process, and not let my emotions get in the way. Well we arrived 10 minutes after ingestion at the ER! Pretty good! Luckily they had me "feed" him the activated charcoal instead of sticking a tube into his tummy and pumping it into him. But that was no picnic! It was black tar, that got all over everything! But I was able to hold him down and force feed him 3/4 of it! They then let us go home, and come back in for a blood test 4 hours later to check a tylenol level.

**in english, and not medical mumbo jumbo, activated charcoal binds to the tylenol so it won't be absorbed then they just poop it out. The tylenol level 4 hours later will give us a good idea of how much he absorbed and is now floating around in his system. Tylenol overdose unfortunately shows no symptoms. It just kills your liver. That's an organ he kinda needs!**

So we get home from the ER, and there's a message on the machine saying Than's x-ray shows pneumonia! So we pick him up on the way back to the hospital later for Trestin's tylenol level. He's gotten antibiotics and nebulizer treatments. Trestin did great for his blood draw, cried less then when I had to shove charcoal down him. An hour later his level was 0! Hooray! So back home, throw the kids in bed, tuck Than in for some much needed rest, shovel 3" more from the drive way, then notify the sellers that tomorrow is a no go. They are going to potentially let us still move our stuff, since I have family coming and church guys coming on Saturday, but they are leery. I don't blame them. They rented out the place they bought, let people move in early and got burned bad, and several months later still haven't settled it. So I understand. It would probably be best to let Than get a couple days of antibiotics on board before moving in the cold. But the kicker is after this weekend I have the 24th and 25th off (but we are probably still going to Tri-Cities) and the 30th off for the rest of this month. So trying to move and clean in that little time is going to be... fun. So we'll see.

I'll end on a sweet note. As we are driving home from the ER, Garrick said:

G - Mom, I said a prayer on the way to the hospital

M - You did! What did you say?

G - Dear Heavenly Father, please help the doctors to find out what is wrong with Trestin. And please help him to get better. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

M - That was very smart and good of you Garrick! (as a tear forms in my eye)

G - I know!

So my sweet little 6 year old remembered to pray for help in times of need, as his mother tried to keep her whits about her and get us safely to the ER. What an amazing little boy we have!

I have a pic of Trestin all tuckered out after his ER visit, but our internet is freeking out, so later I guess!

We decided to find out, and ...

2008-12-16T11:10:00.000-08:00

I was all for waiting, but when I was in labor with Trestin Than and I made an agreement that if I was wrong on the gender, we would find out what the next one was. Well with Garrick and Aleksia I KNEW they where a boy and a girl, but with Trestin I wasn't sure, but leaning more towards girl. Obviously I was wrong. So when we went in for my apt today, the doctor wanted to know if we wanted to know, and I look at Than (who had been teetering on the fence), and he said "Yes." So it's a girl. Aleksia is very excited, especially seeing as she is going to be sharing a room with the new baby once it arrives. Now to figure out names, which seems to be the hardest part for us. Good thing we still have till April! As for now, we are concentrating on the move. Which happens this weekend. Wish us luck! Hopefully no horrible storms this weekend like last. I worked, and the ER was CRAZY with accidents, and I took care of some that had to have surgery. Let's just say it really shook me up, and I am a crazy slow cautious driver now!

Jammies Photo

2008-11-28T21:44:00.000-08:00

So here are the only two decent pics from our session at Sears. It was late in the day, Trestin was grumpy, and the lady taking our pics wasn't very kid friendly. But hey, we only get the $9.99 package of one pose, so oh well. Oh how I wish I lived by some of you photography people again! I never took advantage of your talent while you where here in Pullman! My loss! You can't see our jammies very well either, which upset me a bit. For those of you that don't know, Than HATES to dress up. So since we all get jammies for Christmas (matching of course, made by yours truly), that's what we get our annual family picture in! Nice and comfy as others are there in their frilly dresses and ties. In walk us, in our jammies! Enjoy!

Tagged

2008-11-25T01:24:00.000-08:00

I am Tagged-
I am: a wife, mother, nurse
I know: that everything happens for a reason
I want: to go to sleep! It's a slow night at work, hence why I'm doing this!
I dislike: onions
I miss: my family! I feel like I'm either working or sleeping because I just worked! Working full time night shift SUCKS!
I feel: like my head is bearly above water these days
I hear: the quiet of patients sleeping, ahhh
I want to: go eat my dinner, I'm hungry
I smell: our new hospital. It doesn't smell like a hospital though! Probably because it's still new
I crave: Safeway Chinese food! More of a "always sounds good" instead of a "crave" though
I cry: more then I should, darn hormones of pregnancy!
I search: for clean clothes for the kids, I really need some days off to sort through laundry and put away the clean and wash the dirty!
I wonder: how in the world we are going to move and clean with in a 12 day time period with me only having 4 days off, AND Christmas in the middle!!!
I regret: not having more self esteem/confidence in HS
I love: my family!
I care: making a difference in my children's lives
I worry: that I'm not spending the quality time with my kids like I should be. There just isn't enough time in the day!
I remember: not a hole lot these days!
I believe: in miracles
I dance: only if no one's looking
I don't: do many things I should (I agree with Sarah)
I argue: with my children daily
I write: lots of doctor's orders tonight
I win: not very often
I lose: more often then I win
I wish: we where already moved! And could enjoy Christmas in our new house!
I listen: to Christmas music already!
I can usually be found: at home or work, it feels like a 50/50 thing
I am scared: that something will happen to Than or the kids
I need: my bed!
I forget: alot of things lately!
I am happy: that we are finally buying a house!
I tag: any one who wants to play