The Gainey Family

2010 Vacation, Part III- San Diego

2010-08-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

After 5 nights in Anaheim and pretty much exclusively on Disney property, we drove down to San Diego for 2 more nights. These pictures are all out of order and it won't let me change them, so bear with me! We checked into our hotel and got a great deal at the Courtyard Marriott thanks to a good friend. It was in a great location and the room was really nice. That night we went to the downtown area of San Francisco because I really wanted to go to the Ghirardelli ice cream shop. So, we had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and then ice cream.

The next morning we met my friend Amber and her 3 boys at the San Diego Zoo. We had a great morning playing with them, and after they left we stayed a little longer and did one of the bus tours. Lots and lots of thanks to Amber for saving us a ton on admission too! Joel loves zoos, and I was pretty enthralled by the pandas, since most zoos don't have them and they're so darn cute!

That afternoon we went to the Mormon Battalion Museum, which is really nicely done, and a lot of fun. It was also nice to go there because we got to see what they call "Old Town San Diego," which is a really charming part of town.

So, here are the randomly placed pictures from our first night and day in San Diego!

The Mormon Battalion Museum is very informative, and run by missionaries, so it's interesting to talk to them. I guess they mostly have Sister Missionaries who serve a portion of their mission there, kind of like Visitors Centers. But the day we were there was their P-Day, so there were just Senior Missionaries.
I thought the building was beautiful. I read and heard that it's been recently redone. The Sister who toured our group told me that it used to be more of just an open area and now it's an interactive, guided tour. Very fun.
Christopher and a seal at the zoo.
Christopher and Amber's boys climbing on one of the statues. I forgot how much boys like to climb around!
Oh look, more climbing! C1 was so sad when the boys left. He said he wanted to play with them forever! :)
Cute Panda!
Front entrance
Yummmmmmmmm!
The view from our hotel was gorgeous
Half of our hotel room
The San Diego Temple, which I had really wanted to see, but is barely visible right now!

2010 Vacation, Part II- Fun in the Parks

2010-08-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

So, we spent 5 days playing in Disneyland and California Adventure. Mostly switching off every other day. We brought our baby-sitter Mady with us to have an extra set of hands and hopefully reward her for putting up with our boys and our crazy schedule so much! This turned out great, especially at night when we would have 2 conked out boys and a stroller to carry!

Christopher was tall enough for a lot of the rides this time, but as soon as we got to the parks, he informed us he didn't want to go on any rides that were "tall, dark, or fast".....which rules out a LOT of them. We did make him go on a couple, but for the most part we let him be. He did try Splash Mountain, which he said he liked but didn't want to go on again. He also did Big Thunder Mountain with Joel and HATED it. But he was a pretty good sport.

Here are some highlights (otherwise known as "the times I remembered to pull out my camera and therefore have record of" :) ) :
All of us and the required picture with Mickey. We visited Mickey at his house 3 times! We're regulars :)
Christopher dancing with one of the performers in the Celebrate! Street parade. His moves were...interesting. But he had a lot of fun, and that's what counts anyway!
All-Star Mickey. I really wish I could have gotten a pic of the Rockies one, but it was out in Irvine, so this will have to do. I have a miniature of the Rockies' at home.
Also required, pic of the castle.
Paradise Pier at California adventure at night.
World of Color is a new fountain and lights show at DCA. It had just debuted and is a pretty big deal right now. You have to get a fastpass just to reserve a spot to see it! It was a cute show, but our view wasn't the best even though we woke up early and raced to get those fastpasses!
Christopher and Mickey. They're old friends :)
Mady and the boys on a Dumbo. Christopher always thinks he wants to go on it until we get there and he remembers how high it goes. I never mind because the line is always huge too. This little picture opportunity next to the ride is perfect for him!
The boys playing around
Teacups, which Christopher LOVES. I have decided that it's not my favorite ride. When I was younger I got lost leaving this ride, a nice cast member helped me find my mom. It took a while.....Anyway, this time, we got off and Cameron promptly threw up on me. Yeah.....I think I'll pass in the future!

Christopher's favorite rides were Toy Story Midway Mania, It's a Small World, and Heimlich's Chew Chew train. All of which he made us go on at least 3 times each. A lot of rides seemed to breakdown this trip too. Mady and I had just gotten on Space Mountain when it broke down while we were pretty much at the very top and mostly on our backs. We had to climb out and all the way down the structure of the ride. Also, It's a Small World broke down and we were stuck in the white and blue room for about 20 minutes. If only the music wouldn't have been playing the whole time! And Christopher still wanted to go on it again!

We had a great time. Much better than when we were there in 2008. It was still crowded, and very hot, but we had plenty of time to do everything we wanted to do. There was something for everyone and it's always nice to see the original Disney theme park!

2010 Vacation, Part I- Disneyland Hotel

2010-08-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

We had a really fun vacation in July and I'm excited that I finally have the time (well, kinda :)) and got the pictures uploaded to blog about it! The evening of July 13th, we started the drive to California. We did this hoping the boys would sleep most of the trip, and it worked for the most part. At least, it did on the way out there. Joel and I switched off driving and we drove straight through to Anaheim. Once there, we checked in for our 5-night stay at the Disneyland Hotel. A gentleman from Ault, CO checked us in and gave Christopher and I birthday balloons, which Christopher still says was his favorite part of the trip. Wow, I can get a balloon anywhere! He also gave us both birthday buttons to wear and Christopher a signed picture from Goofy. We then went up to our room on the 3rd floor of the main building. I believe it was room 2105.

DLH is a great home away from home. We ended up so glad that we had decided to stay there. It was really convenient with 2 small kids to have the option to take a break in the middle of the day and not have far to go "home" at night when we were exhausted. There were other benefits too, the whole "enhanced magical experience" and all of that. It was nice to really do Disneyland once and take the time to explore everything.

Here are some highlights from the hotel:
Cameron with my balloon. Christopher claimed the orange one, so I got purple, which was fine by me. It ended up pretty much being Cam's anyway! Doesn't he look so happy?
This is the hot tub. I'm not sure why we spent any time there, cuz it was HOT, but I seem to recall that was the only place we could find to put our stuff down one of the days. Anyway, notice Ariel in the backround :)
The main pool is Peter Pan themed. Well, more Hook themed, but it's all from that movie :)
I know it's kind of weird to put pictures of just waterfalls and stuff, but the grounds of the hotel were really pretty, and soon they're tearing it all down to expand the pool area, so I wanted to remember what it was like while we were there.
They also had koi ponds which will be sacrificed for the new pool, which I'm sure will be amazing. But so is what they're losing.

The TV cabinet. I took pictures of almost every square foot of this room. I am sparing you most of it :)
Mural in the front lobby. Love it!
Just before you walk into the lobby. There are a couple of my boys on their way in.
The very front of the hotel, which is pretty plain without the Mickey statue. It's interesting to note (for those who may not be as Disney-oriented as we are). That unlike WDW, this hotel was not built as a Disney resort. They had to buy it and "Disneyfi" it. Considering this, they did a great job. But it's definitely different than the Disney resorts we're used to.

They are currently renovating this hotel and making it awesome. I really wanted one of the new rooms, but since we only paid ONE arm and ONE leg, it was not to be. It's OK, still loved it! Goofy hangs around the lobby and the pool a lot, and it was fun to just randomly see him around. It's right next to Downtown Disney, and to get to the 2 parks you can either walk thru Downtown Disney to the main entrance they both share; or just walk thru a little bit to the monorail (which takes you into Tomorrowland), or across to the Grand Californian which has a private entrance in to DCA for the resort guests. Like I said, very convenient and helpful!

Grandpa Esposo

2010-07-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

My mother's father passed away July 10th. Here is the official obituary:

Benjamin Esposo April 3, 1925-July 10, 2010 Resident of San Leandro A native of the Philippines and long time resident of Alameda. Ben met and married a widow with three young children in 1956. From 1957 to 1963 four more children joined the family. He joined the US Navy in 1945 in the Philippines and retired in 1964 from Alameda Naval Air Station. During his 19 years of service in the US Navy, he was on several different ships. Some of those ships included the USS Buckingham, the USS Hancock, the USS Lexington, the USS Whiteside, and the USS Hornet. Ben was very proud and passionate about his service in the US Navy. He went on to work at several different places including Alameda County at Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, where he was the specialty chef and the head of the cafeteria. He retired in 1987. Ben was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and brother. He is survived by his brother, Sergio Esposo, and sister, Celsa Reyes. His three stepchildren, Candice Rutledge, Vickie Jones, and Rick Rutledge. His four children, Terri Marshall, Allen Esposo, Tanya Delagrange, and Ben Esposo, and their spouses. He has 25 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. Ben was a true family man who loved having all the kids and their families at his house where he would cook endlessly and spend a lot of true quality time, especially with his grandchildren. Ben spent his retired years involved with the Filipino American Veterans' League. He also had many friends he met with 6 days a week for the past 18 years at the 'University of McDonalds' in Alameda. He loved life and he loved his grandkids and being around them always made him happy. He was a much loved man and will be greatly missed by his family and his many, many friends. Friends and Family are invited to visitation on Fri. July 16 from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. and the Funeral Service on Sat., July 17 at 10:00 am at Chapel of the Chimes Funeral Home, 32992 Mission Blvd, Hayward, CA. Interment to follow. Chapel of the Chimes

While very nice, of course that doesn't say nearly the whole story for me. Some of my earliest memories are of time with my mom's family in and visiting my grandparents' home in Alameda, CA. Grandpa never spoke the best English, or talked a lot at all, but he had a great quiet strength and love that I always felt. I learned things about him fairly recently that make him an even better man in my eyes.

The last time I saw him was in March of 2008, when we took a trip there. I really wanted him to at least meet Christopher. We had a nice visit and a couple of really good talks I will always treasure. I didn't know until I was older that most of our extended family called him Papa. To me he'll always be Grandpa Esposo. Or, as my Dad always says "Espozo" : ) I knew that last visit that I was probably seeing him for the last time, as well as the home I'd always known them to live in. The kitchen that he cooked for everyone in. He was always concerned that everyone be fed : ) The front room we used to watch movies in. The bathroom that always smelled like Dove soap. I love that house. I love my memories there, and I loved my grandparents both very much.

Grandpa had been having heart problems for some time. They thought that was what would kill him a few months ago. But he was a fighter and held on, deciding he wasn't ready. At the end he was very weak, had a fractured spine, pneumonia, and other ailments that came and went. He had been in hospice for a while before he passed away. He went fairly peacefully and by that time I was mostly relieved to know he was out of pain and gets to move on. He didn't believe the same things we do, but I know that he's in a better place and we'll get to see him again. He will be very missed by our family, and it's kind of empty to have both him and Grandma gone now. But such is the cycle of life.

June 2010

2010-06-22T08:47:00.001-07:00

This is mostly just an effort to keep updated. I wanted to post about both boys in case everyone thinks I forget about my firstborn. Rest assured, he's the type of kid who won't allow that to happen! Babies change so fast and I want to make sure that's all documented, I also realize that in the process C1 doesn't seem to be talked about as much. So here's a healthy dose of both boys. And all of us, really :)

CAMERON

Cam just turned 10 months recently. And I think I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I've never quite believed we get to keep him here, for some reason. I don't want to call it a lack of faith. I just tend to run on the anxious side, and if I'm worried about something sometimes I just don't ask Heavenly Father about it at all. I'd rather not know and deal with whatever comes if needed. Weird, I know. And for some other not-quite-known reason, 10 months has been the magic age in the back of my mind. Now he's a substantial size and I guess just been here long enough that I really believe it. I still stare at him every day in gratitude and thank Heavenly Father that he joined our family.

I also marvel at how different the boys are. Christopher was such an easy baby, and Cameron is both more curious and has had more complications. But of course, everyone comes with their own personalities, and just because C1 was an easy baby does not mean he's always been easy! More about that later.

C2 is at an interesting phase, with lots of stuff to keep up with. Teething, crawling all over, trying to eat anything he can get his hands on. And his eczema complicates things a bit. We still have to put socks on his hands often to keep him from scratching himself mercilessly. He still loves to be wherever his brother is, and involved in what everyone else is doing. Something I haven't mentioned before and that is kind of new is that he just LOVES his Papa (my dad). As soon as he sees him, he wants him and only him. He cries if he sees him leave. It's pretty darn cute, if a little annoying for me to deal with :).

Here's a cute recent pic of him with Joel at my office at Coors Field when they came for a game. I just love this picture.

CHRISTOPHER

And here's the big boy! I am astounded as he grows. I can't believe he is now just about school age and still find myself surprised that I'm a mom at all at times, let alone am about to have a child in kindergarten. Everyday I am aware of the responsibility we have as parents, and how complicated it is to worry- or not worry- about every little choice we make and whether it will affect or "damage" them in the long-run. This is a lot more prevalent with older kids than babies or toddlers, I am learning.

Christopher is a very strong personality, and we call him a control-freak daily. He tends to melt-down if thing don't go his way, or something is not what he thought it would be. I'm trying really hard to work with him on it and let him know that most of these things are not really a big deal. But I'm sure to him they seem that way. At the same time, I'm often pleasantly surprised by his reaction to things, and it seems sweeter in contrast to the fact that he has the other reactions. I guess it's that whole "you have to experience the bad to appreciate the good" concept.

He's very smart (aren't they all? :)) and keeps me on my toes. There are lots of times he'll work really hard to get my attention, to the point that I'm extremely annoyed and say "what?!" only to have him say "I love you, Mom" Usually this is in front of others so that I'm properly ashamed :). He's also very sweet and loving a lot of the time. And he does LOVE his baby brother, but he's also becoming more and more aware of the jealousy issues, and getting annoyed with Cam on a daily basis when he wants to play with him and just messes things up.

I think I have decided to go ahead and put him in kindergarten despite the fact that we will most likely move mid-semester and I know he'll have a hard time adjusting. I try to talk to him about it and prepare as much as possible, but I think the benefits of him interacting with other kids and learning new things out-weighs the negative aspects. And honestly, I'll have to deal with his issues with change either way!

Here are a couple of cute pictures my sister Denise took the last time she visited:

LOVE LOVE LOVE these boys. I am learning so much as a mother. It's amazing how much capacity we have to love, to think outside of ourselves and put someone else first. To care more about that little baby than getting sleep, or putting on makeup and looking decent :). I'm so grateful that we get to have our little family. If it grows, all the better! But I have realized lately that I feel really fulfilled and just want to raise my family in righteousness and so that they're happy and have a great life-experience.

JOEL and KRISTEN

Not too much is new with the adults around here. We've been dealing with lots of crazy stuff with friends and family, which has caused us to be very reflective and talk to each other more about things. But it has also made us really grateful for our lack of major hardships and each other, and I think has made it easier to overlook the little things. We're looking forward to the future and trying to deal as best we can with the present. We worry about all of the things everyone worries about in the present economy situation. Joel recently took the second pay-cut in 6 months, which makes things tight and complicates our plans for saving; but we're grateful to have our jobs at all and try to count our blessings.

We are enjoying the little things like watching our boys grow and appreciating the things we get to do, and this time we have to spend with my family and our local friends; and look forward to seeing old friends and Joel's family more, and doing new things in Orlando later this year.

Cameron at 9 months

2010-05-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

At just over 9 months, Cameron weighs 17.9 lbs (10th percentile), is 27 1/2 inches "tall" (25th percentile) and his head circumference is 46.5 (75th percentile :)). He's still nursing a couple of times a day, and takes soy formula and snacks on french fries and Ritz crackers quite a bit. He just started crawling on the 8th-almost exactly 2 months after he first sat up unassisted- and all of the sudden he is all over the place and trying to eat everything on the floor! He also cut his first tooth-the left bottom front- on May 14th and the right one came just two days later. Today his pediatrician said the upper center 4 look like they could come any day as well. He is already way into using said teeth. He likes to try to bite us in the weirdest places! He got 2 shots today, one for regular flu and one for H1N1, and he only cried for a few seconds, when he realized she was going to poke him the second time. His eczema is still kind of bad, especially on the back of his knees and in his elbow bending-area. We still put socks on his hands quite a bit to keep him from scratching himself so much.

Other random things about Cam: he loves to play patty-cake and peek-a-boo; he's been sleeping through the night especially great the past couple of nights, he's really happy in the morning and attacks all of us- but especially Christopher :)- until we wake up. He says "da" often and uses it surprisingly appropriately to get Joel's attention. He says "ma" and "na" (this one seems related to eating), and "hi" and babbles other nonsense a lot. He also likes to dance to music and will do so on command.

Here are some pictures from today after his appointment:

Crawling around in the entryway area.
Sometimes when he's crawling he really doesn't like his knees to be on the ground
Playing with an empty bottle. That's my Dad sacked out behind him after doing some of his campaign walking. I like how he's holding his ipad like a lovey :P
Pretty tuckered out himself after the Doctor appointment. This was his longest nap the past couple of days.

He's growing up way too fast, and I sometimes I'm still surprised he's here. I like to just stare at him while he's sleeping and marvel. Anyway, onward to 1 year! It has flown by and I'm sure won't stop anytime soon. I'm really going to need another cute little baby, hopefully that's not too much to ask for!

Easter 2010

2010-05-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Easter was April 4th this year, so obviously I'm a little behind, but at least I'm doing it, right? Easter happened to be General Conference Sunday this year, so we really had no reason to dress the kids up, but you have to do Easter outfits! So, I woke up early and made everyone sausage and french toast, and we watched Conference, and then we dressed them up and went up to Arkansas Elementary to do a little Easter Egg Hunt (we've done that the past 2 or 3 years now). We had to use the front of the school this year instead of the back because other people stole our idea. So, here are some pics of the kids after they got their eggs:The Boys, The Boys
The Rice kids, JoJo and Lily
Christopher
Cameron, and yes, his lips are blue from trying to eat the egg. So darn cute.
The best pic we could get of all of the kids. The only one where Cameron was looking! Those silly older boys.

Lots of fun, and of course, Christopher LOVES these holidays where candy is involved! Lorae actually took the kids shopping a few weeks early and let them pick out most of their stuff, and then the Easter Bunny added a little bit. This added up to a LOT of stuff for these lucky kids! Love all of them!

Cameron, first quarter of 2010

2010-05-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Oh, there has been SO much going on with Mr. Cameron. We went to a dermatologist for his eczema, and got a new cream that seems to work better for him. It's mostly gone from his head now, but that sure hasn't stopped him from scratching! Although some of the scratching for a while was in and around his ears, which leads to the next malady....

I may have posted that at his 6-month well-care checkup, they found an ear infection that was apparently pretty bad that we had no clue about. So, he started on antibiotics and we kept going back for check-ups monthly. Well, at the next one, they found TWO ear infections, so we tried another antibiotic. Next check-up, same thing. We got a referral for an ear, nose and throat specialist after that one. We went to Dr. Dickey and he strongly recommended ear tubes, which I agreed to immediately. The alternative was yet another antibiotic, but I was over copays and such at this point and wanted to cut to the chase. We had to have him fast the night before, and they put him under for the procedure, but it took all of 20 minutes and after a very fussy baby fully woke, everything was pretty good after that.

I should note that Cameron has actually been very good-natured through all of this stuff. Overall I would say he's always been a fairly happy baby. But we have seen a change for the better since the tubes. He sleeps longer at night, and the scratching around the ears is gone.

So, now for the scariest sickness, which actually happened before the tubes and for which I have a picture to illustrate. A couple of days after his check-up (presumably in reaction to his shots), Cam spiked a fever of 105.6 twice ( a day or two apart), and his skin got all blotchy, like this:
(You will notice, still a pretty happy baby!). Well, I had never seen a temp that high, and I kind of freaked, but I also don't call a doctor unless I'm pretty much dying, so I went to our pediatrician's website first. It said not to come in unless the fever didn't come down with tylenol. So we did that and baths and it came down. At the next appointment (to check on the ear infection), we told the doctor what had happened, and he said it was almost definitely Roseola, a form of Measles! Sheesh, how much can this baby get?? Anyway, I'm glad it passed pretty much without incident and he'll certainly never have that one again!

Other than all of this, he's just been growing away. Now that I'm finally home with him a bit, he's consistently taking 2 naps a day and pretty happy otherwise. He's starting to eat more solid foods and only nurses a couple of times a day. He has just discovered sippy cups, and Ritz crackers, which he loves! I still just love to look at him and marvel that he's here at all. And yet, as he grows, I'm starting to dare hope I can have another one! Crazy how that works :)

Christopher at 4 and a 1/2ish

2010-05-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

Christopher is....hmmmmm...what to say?? The positive stuff is, he's really smart (I know, every mom thinks that, and they're all right, I am sure! :)). He picks up on things I'm amazed by almost every day. He has grown socially by leaps and bounds thanks to his preschool, music class, and primary interactions. He can be extremely sweet and will tell me he loves me completely out of the blue. However, he is still quite the control-freak; and VERY strong-willed. We have daily struggles over the simplest things. I'm really trying to get him to learn to pick his battles and that these little things he gets so upset about really aren't important in the long-run. But most of the times I feel like I fail miserably. We're debating whether or not to have him start kindergarten in the Fall due to the fact that we may move mid-semester and one of the things he has a really hard time with is change. He STILL talks about our old house and his old primary class.

He LOVES his baby brother, though he does have some small jealousy issues that pop up every now and then. Luckily he has yet to actually take anything out on Cameron!

Physically, he is about 41 inches tall(we checked because we're thinking about a Disneyland trip this summer and wanted to see if he could go on most of the rides), and about 35 pounds.

We love our fast-growing boy! I can hardly believe this summer we will have a 5-yr-old. They grow up so fast!

Catching up is hard to do....

2010-05-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

...Seriously! I don't even know where to begin. I've been working a TON lately and I wish I would have at least blogged from my Rockies job, cuz this is going to be really hard! I'm going to try to list most of the things I want to remember here, and then I'll try to elaborate and include some pics in some follow-up posts.

The last week of February I started working pretty much full-time at Rangeview, both subbing for my mom a bit and helping prep for CSAP testing. It was crazy as usual. New people were in charge this year, and it's quite the process, so it was a little stressful. I ended up working a LOT for the school all through March and well into April (prepping for ACTs) as well. Waking up at 5am is not my favorite! Of course April 10th was Opening Day for the Rockies, and I love being back at that job, though staying up that late is getting harder and harder for me. We've had a lot of crazy stuff this year so far. The first No-Hitter pitched by a Rockie (Ubaldo Jiminez, April 17th, a road game in Atlanta, so unfortunately I didn't see it in person). Then on April 21st, Keli McGregor, the President of the Rockies, was found dead in SLC at 48, apparently of natural causes. He was someone I'd met a few times and saw around a lot and exchanged pleasantries with. It was odd that he was so young, and he was in great shape. It hit the Organization pretty hard for a few days. I went to his Memorial which was very nice. Everyone was pretty ok until his kids talked, then it was hard! Through all of this time I have also been doing hair, so obviously this has made for a very busy and tired Kristen! But it helps our finances and that's nice :)

Joel's job has been kind of frustrating. They closed his branch in November, and he had to take a demotion to keep his job. He went back to his original position at his original branch and took a pay-cut. He's just about to take another one, which is frustrating, but I know some people have it much worse financially than we do right now. The part that is hard is it seems to get him down, I know it's hard on his ego and puts him in a hard position at work, and I feel bad for him. But we're trying to have a positive attitude and just keep forging forward with what is within our control.

Cameron will, of course, have his own post to catch up. He's been through a lot of little not-so-fun things (ear infections which led to getting tubes, measles, eczema...), but overall he is a GREAT baby and we love him LOTS! Ditto for Christopher, tho he has lots of little quirks more and more lately!

Also towards the end of February, on the 25th, my cousin Becky went into pre-term labor in her 21st week of pregnancy and subsequently lost her twins. I don't want to go into too much detail, because it's really not my story to tell, but I wanted to make note of it so we remembered the date and everything. She named them Scarlett and Luke and I can't wait until we can see them an am sad they won't be here, but know they will be part of our eternal family. After this happened, she started a team for the March for Babies through March of Dimes, and as a team we raised over $2000 and walked in at least 4 different states in memory of the twins! In Denver it was a 5-mile walk towards the end of April, and I took both boys and my Dad came with us. It was a great experience.

March 18th we took Christopher to see the First National Tour of Mary Poppins the Musical at the Buell Theatre downtown. It was his first professional-type live performance (besides the Disney Cruise Shows), and he did pretty well. It was a LONG play and the first Act kind of dragged, but the 2nd Act had lots of fun stuff and kept him entertained. It was fun to take him to something like that. Totally taking him to Wicked next time it comes around, he loves the music and keeps asking when he can see it!

March 20th was Joel's birthday, he turned 32. We celebrated a week later with a night out with my cousin and his wife. Now he's got 2 years on me til June :).

Towards the end of March, we had a few days off together (Joel took some time of thinking he would go to Florida for something, but that fell-through; I was on Spring Break with the school). We wanted to do a little in-state traveling, but our tax-return didn't come in time. So, we just spent some time as a family and relaxed. Mini-golf, zoo, parks, etc.

Easter will have its own post too, I have some fun pics. We celebrated with our family and the Fowler/Rice/Jones Family. It was also Conference Sunday this year.

Well, that's mostly it. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, as it was I had to go back through my facebook updates to try to remember everything! I would like to note that a lot of people we love and care about are going through some really hard things. It's made me think of 2010 in kind of a negative way so far, although it has also helped minimize and put our trials into perspective. Again, not really my stories to tell, but we think of and pray for them a lot and I wanted them to know that; the ones who read the blog anyway. :)

Pictures and Such

2010-02-18T09:09:00.001-08:00

Here are some cute recent pictures:

Christopher sleeping on the living room chair. He always seems so quiet and harmless sleeping like this :)

Christopher and Cameron one Sunday in their only matching outfits. I love how C1 looks like he's plotting world domination or something.

K, this has happened a few times, but I actually got pictures twice. They both usually wake up in our bed of course, but it's amazing to me that they're totally sleeping and in the same position a lot of the time!

Love, love, love my boys!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-18T08:56:00.001-08:00

As a rule, I hate Valentine's Day. It just never lives up to the hype and I get really sick of the commercialism. That said, I would never force my feelings on anyone else, and Christopher happens to (apparently, at least this year) LOVE Valentine's Day. So I had to write about it cuz he was so cute. Jaime came over during the week and gave C1 this Toy Story Valentine that was a box of chocolates. I don't remember taking this picture, but it was kind of funny, so I'm including it. Jaime also brought us all cute cups of candy on Sunday (the actual holiday). Thanks, Jaime!
This is some of what Christopher got from his preschool party. His teacher told me he LOVED giving out his valentines. She took them up to where the bags were one by one to put their valentine's in for the other kids, and she said he was just bouncing the whole time (he does that a lot lately, especially when he's excited, just jumps and jumps). He gave Cars valentines with a little bag of candy attached. We had fun making them the night before. He said he can't wait 'til Valentine's Day comes again, and when I told him it only comes once a year like Christmas, he was not happy!

He also loved picking out his Dad's Valentine stuff with me. He got Joel a card that played the song "I Want Candy" when opened, along with some candy. It had Christopher written all over it!
My mother-in-law hand-makes great cards for every occasion. This is her Valentine's Day card this year. Those are M&Ms on the front, a HUGE plus in Christopher's eyes!

Cameron at 6 months old

2010-02-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

I can't believe the little baby I feel like I waited forever for is half a year old! He's so fun and we love him so much. My favorite time is in the morning when both boys inevitably end up in our bed (against Joel's wishes and sometimes my better judgement), and we're all together and both boys usually wake up happy and play for a while before we go down for breakfast.

Cameron is rolling over on occasion now and giggles and babbles away. Unlike Christopher, he seems right on track size-wise. At least by clothes. Christopher was always pretty small, but Cameron is busting out and moving to the next size already. Here are some recent pictures:
Cam in his Jumperoo. He loves this thing and sometimes will bounce for quite a while if people are around so he feels like he's part of the group (we've found that he's not a loner baby, he likes to know we're around! :))
In his little swing, where he spends a lot of time next to me at the computer playing with toys.
The first time he really had baby food (the doctor said wait til 6months, but he was just hungry way too often, so he eats baby food once or twice a day now). This was sweet potatoes, which he really likes.

Ringing in 2010

2010-02-15T16:25:00.000-08:00

For New Year's Eve Denise and Steven were in town from Utah (they went to California for Christmas and then came back here for a few days), and I really wanted to spend it with them. My cousin Dan and his family always go downtown for the fireworks, and I never had, so we thought we would try it. Lightrail is free that night, so we hopped on and went down to the 16th street mall and met Dan's family and our friends Lorae and Lester and their kids. Here are some pics:Denise and Lily. Somehow there are no pics of Joseph (lily's brother) from that night, but I know he was there!
My cousin Daniel, his wife Jeanine and their children Abby, Zander, Jason (the one who's face you can't see :)), and Clark (the blond in the stroller who has no business being their child :P)
Just had to get a pic of Cameron in. He didn't go downtown, but here he is at home.
Christopher on the "train" (that's what he calls the lightrail, which he is an old pro at as he and Joel ride it to baseball games all the time). He thought it took way too long. We ate at Costa Vida and got on at the southern-most station, so it was a while. But we got to sit the whole time :)
Joel being a dork on the lightrail
Look, I'm in a picture! Don't I look fantastic? I was more worried about staying warm than make-up or anything. Anyway, here are the Gaineys and Denise and Steven down on the 16th Street Mall waiting for the fireworks.
Lorae and Lester Fowler. Some of you may hear me refer to Lorae as my adopted big sister. She and Lily and Joseph have been part of the family for years now.

It was pretty fun. Mostly I just love to spend time with everyone. Fireworks are never especially wowing to me because after you've seen Disney's, everything else seems kind of like they just shoot pretty lights up in the air. These ones are nice because they do them at 9pm AND midnight, so we took the kids at 9 and then toasted with my parents at midnight and went to bed. Welcome, 2010!

Cameron's First Christmas

2010-02-15T15:50:00.001-08:00

I am way, WAY behind. I find that I don't like to blog so much during rough times, and we've been hit with some things we're trying to work through lately. However, I do still want a good accurate record. I'm hoping this year for my birthday I can print my blog off in one of those nifty books and it'll be great to have! Anyway, here is my recap of Christmas 2009 with lots of pictures!

My family ended up going to California for Christmas, due to my grandpa having medical issues (a LOT of them :)). Luckily, he's doing pretty well now. Just needs to put on some weight, a problem I pray for daily :) hehe, just kidding. Anyway, the decision was made too late for Joel to get time off of work, so this led to our first Christmas with just our little family since we were married! I was kind of dreading it, cuz I'm used to chaos and love having everyone around. For 2008, we were in Orlando with BOTH of our families, so this would be a big change. But it was actually really nice and I loved it!

This is our Christmas tree before it was attacked by a certain little boy :)
All of my cute boys on Christmas Eve. Aren't they so adorable??
Christopher and Cameron ready for bed so Santa can come! Darn red-eye that doesn't really show when I'm choosing thumbnails :(
Our little Santa and his reindeer feet!
Cameron in his Bumbo chair. OK, so it was a present more for us, but it's been really handy!
Some of Christopher's presents. We didn't get Grandma and Grandpa Gaineys package until a couple of days after Christmas, so it was kind of fun to have it spread out. Christmas present-wise it got a lot better after that package came. Especially for Joel and I!
I made breakfast :)
Christopher opening his most asked-for present, the "Mickey choo-choo express"
Cameron starting to "open" the Bumbo with a lot of help! It was not the easiest thing to wrap! (Santa told me :))
Our tradition is to take the boys to Cherry Creek Mall for the Santa picture. It's pretty much the only time we go to that mall. This year was great, no wait whatsoever, and we were done in less than 10 minutes altogether. Love it!

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-10T15:44:00.001-08:00

We hosted Thanksgiving here at the house this year. We had our family (with the exception of Denise, who didn't make the trip from Utah), my uncle Rob, my cousin Dan and his wife Jeanine and four children, Lorae and her husband Lester and their 2 kids, and our missionaries who had just transferred in a week earlier (not pictured, I'll have to get one with them in it). My cousin Carol and her husband Steve and their 2 boys came by for dessert.

Lorae fried a turkey, made her famous made-from-scratch mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and greens. Mom roasted a turkey and made stuffing and gravy. My cousin Dan made mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, a smoked turkey breast, and pumpkin cheesecake. I made southern cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole, rolls, pumpkin gooey butter cake, and double chocolate gooey butter cake.

We had leftovers for a week. My mom threatened us if we ate anything else or brought any other food into the house! But we all had fun and gave thanks for another year!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-09T18:04:00.001-08:00

For Halloween my cute little boys turned into wild animals! The picture with Joel is from our ward Trunk or Treat. All of the others are from Halloween night. Lily and JoJo Rice came over to Trick or Treat, (they're the mustard and ketchup : )). I took a stab at painting Christopher's face, and was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Christopher LOVES to Trick or Treat! He had a lot of fun. Cameron only went out for a little while, and wasn't crazy about his hood, but did great!

Fall Fun 2009

2009-11-09T17:53:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun this Fall. First, Christopher got to go to the circus on a field trip with Rangeview High School (where Mitchell is a Senior and Shauna works). Shauna needed me to substitute to be able to go, and we had a little baby-sitting issue, so this is how we solved it, and he had a blast! He especially loved riding on the big yellow school bus! And of course, the cotton candy!
For some Fall Festivities, we visited Nick's Garden Center where we picked out pumpkins (cuz the ones Papa and Christopher grew this year got stolen off of our porch!) and played a little bit. We also visited Anderson Farms up in Erie, where Christopher got to "drive" a little barrel car, see a real pumpkin patch, and corn maze, and do some other fun activities, like feeding cows. Love Fall!

Cameron at 2 months

2009-11-09T16:03:00.000-08:00

Cameron's 2-month Doctor visit was October 13th. He weighed 11lbs 4 ounces (25th percentile), height was 22" (also 25th percentile) and his head circumference was 40 (50% percentile). He has some rough patches of skin and cradle cap lately, but hopefully that's all temporary. He just started to roll (I haven't actually seen this firsthand yet, just the evidence when I had him laying on the couch and came back to find him.....not where I left him : )) He sleeps 8-10 hours at night (yes, we're lucky : )) and then takes a couple of naps in the morning, but is up most of the afternoon and evening. He eats every 3 hours besides that nice stretch at night. Love, love LOVE him! : )

SOOO behind......

2009-11-09T15:49:00.000-08:00

Sorry! I'm mostly apologizing to myself, because I really want to keep better records, but it has been a while and I know everyone has been asking about more recent pictures too. So, I will post some and catch up on Halloween and such!

First, some funny quotes from Christopher:

Overheard while putting together a photo book in the next room (Cameron was in his little swing and Christopher was "watching" him and a little TV): "Cameron, mommy and daddy told me there was a baby in mommy's tummy, and I wanted a brother, so I got you! I'm your big brother. I only want brothers, no baby sisters!" (this went on for a while, but this is the general idea).

"Papa, get your butt over here!" (this was said very forcefully because he wanted help playing games on Papa's cell phone)

"My name is CHRISTOPHERD" (because his name isn't long enough, apparently....)

"I LIKE to see Grammy naked!" (once when we were trying to keep him out of my parents' room so my mom could change)

1 month old

2009-09-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

Cameron is just over a month now. He's starting to try to hold his head up and spits out a pacifier when he knows it's time to eat. He definitely uses his hands more. He still seems to be gaining weight very quickly. I call him my chunk-a-chunk of burning love : )

We blessed him at Church on September 6th, over Labor Day weekend. Joel's parents were in town and we had our Dads, Steven, and Stuart Robison stand in with, of course, Joel and the Bishopric. We wish more family could have been there, but Rick and Dan were still in Arizona for my cousin Madison's wedding, which was the previous Friday. I'm really grateful to Steven and Denise for taking the time to be here from Utah. Here are a couple of pictures of him in his blessing outfit:

Thanks so much to Jeannie for letting us borrow the outfit! He was already too big for the outfit from Steven, Mitchell and Christophers' blessings. And thanks again to everyone who traveled to be here. We love you! Next time maybe I'll write a blog about something other than my kids.... but no promises : )

Cameron at 3 weeks

2009-09-03T11:42:00.001-07:00

So, Cameron is now 3 weeks old, and I already dread him growing up and am wanting another baby. They're just so cute and lovable! And as my mom says, they don't talk back : ). (In case you are wondering, YES my other child does talk back, quite a bit these days. But we love him lots too : )). Cameron pretty much eats and sleeps and cuddles, and I love every minute of it.

At his 2 week appointment, Cameron was 7 lbs 7oz, "gaining weight like a champ" as his pediatrician said. He seems to be a little turned around schedule-wise; opting to be more wide-awake during late-night hours. During the day he's in a pretty consistent pattern of sleeping, dirtying quite a few diapers, and waking to eat every 3 hours or so. He did get a little stuffy nose the past couple of days, which seems to kind of freak him out, I think just because it's new. We haven't even had to use the asparator (sp?) until now, and he deals with it pretty well. Here is a picture of what he looks like most of the day:

Just vegging in his pack n' play with the vibration and music going (Christopher tries to stop the vibration whenever possible. He is a firm believer in music only! : ))

Speaking of that day at the Pediatrician's office, I had both boys, and Christopher was being very good until the doctor said we should really go ahead and get him a flu shot that day because of the baby. I tried to talk it up to him, but he did NOT want to get a shot, so he crawled under the table. So the nurse did Cameron's poke in the foot first (to repeat the PKU), then I calmed the baby down, put him in his seat, and crawled under the table to pull Christopher out. I held him on my lap while she gave him the shot (to her credit, she is very, very quick), and he still proceeded to scream. I spent another 1o or 15 minutes calming him down and redressing Cameron, then attempted to leave the office. Christopher wouldn't budge unless I carried him, so I ended up leaving carrying the baby in the carrier, the diaper bag, my purse, AND my 4-year-old. Once I got them all settled in the car, I immediately called Joel at work and told him he is definitely coming to Christopher's next well-care appointment (about 2 weeks from now), when he is scheduled to get 3 or 4 more shots! Luckily, that appointment is on Joel's normal day off. Thank goodness. I don't know that I could hold him still for that many shots, let alone deal with the aftermath!

Christopher still loves to help with the baby, and is really enjoying preschool.

So, now Joel's parents are visiting, and we will bless Cameron on Sunday. It should be an interesting week!

Preschool

2009-08-27T11:50:00.001-07:00

Christopher started Preschool Wednesday. A woman in our ward decided to do a program in her home with 8 kids. He's just going to go Monday and Wednesday mornings. I'm excited, because we were looking into it, but everything was so expensive, we were just going to do the Spring. This way he'll do the whole year, and he'll get to know some of the kids in his Primary class better.

When we first mentioned it to him, he didn't seem too keen on the idea, but we've been hyping it up and had him pretty excited by the time it started. He had to wear his Rockies backpack, which he doesn't necessarily need, but is way cute. I had to include both pictures, because he's such a poser!

I dropped him off and he ran down the stairs and started pulling things out of his backpack (we put some paper and a folder and pencil in their at his insisting). My mom had to pick him up because I was doing hair, and he was NOT happy about it! But later when I got home, he told me all about it. The first thing he said was "I didn't learn anything, like you said, Mom! We just sang songs and played the name game." I asked him if he learned the other kids names from that game, and he said no to that too. Then he proceeded to show me a packet where he traced things and started to write his name. I guess if he doesn't think he's learning, but he is, it's fine by me! He's really excited to go back.

1 week old(ish)

2009-08-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

So, baby Cameron is just over a week old now. He sleeps for 5-7 hour stretches, which is wonderful. He eats like a horse and was back up to his birth weight at exactly a week. We had to take him into the pediatrician 3 days in a row because he was a little jaundiced. But now he's great. Here are some pics. They're not great because they're from my phone. Our computer crashed and so we don't have the software to upload pics from our camera at the moment. The first 2 are from about exactly a week old, he was just laying around looking cute and I had to take pictures (my phone is full of pics like this!).

Hard to believe they're not smiling for a reason....

....or thinking about something very seriously.....

This one is my favorite. I put him on the changing table this morning and had to go grab something, and when I came back he was doing this:

This is funny because my sister Denise sucked those two fingers just like this for years. I myself was a thumb-sucker. He's only done it once, but I think it's pretty funny. He almost always goes for his fingers when he's hungry. He seems to think there is supposed to be something in there he can eat.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to be a new mom again. Christopher is a great big brother. Not to say we're not having some growing pains, but what's cute is that he doesn't even realize the source of his frustration. We ask him if he wants to spend time alone with Mom or Dad, and he wants to include Cameron. He also makes sure that Cameron always has his tiny teddy bear, and that if he's in his pack n' play or papasan, there's music playing for him. He also usually "helps" me feed Cameron. Everyone's pretty excited to have a baby in the house. Joel and I are both back to work, thank goodness for Grammy and Papa (and Mitchell too)!! Cameron came to his first Rockies game at 8 days, my first day back. My parents happened to have planned to come anyway, so he beat Christopher to a game by a couple of days. More updates and pictures to come, I'm sure. Everyone will be sick of all the pictures I'll post. Muah-ah-ah! : )

Cameron

2009-08-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

Well, he's finally here! Cameron was born at 5:54pm on Thursday, August 13th. We checked into the hospital at 7:30am, I was settled and hooked up to saline and potocin by 8:30, they broke my water at about 9:30, and I started having somewhat painful contractions. They gave me the epidural, which made me feel a LOT better, but seemed to slow labor down quite a bit, too. I'm not exactly sure how long I was pushing, I think a couple of hours; but it was a LONG time, a lot longer than it took me with Christopher! The baby was stuck for quite a while, and when he finally came out, he was upside down with his arms up on his chest. NOT helpful! But other than a cone head that went down pretty fast, and a huge bruise across his forehead, he's pretty perfect. In fact, he looks a LOT like Christopher when he was a newborn. It's like I gave birth to twins four years apart! OK, there are little differences, but overall he resembles his big brother quite a bit. He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz, and was 20 inches long (Christopher was 6, 15 and 19 1/2).

Here are some pictures from the hospital:

Daddy and son #2

C feeding the baby a bottle (he nurses really well, but we had to supplement with formula the first couple of days, and we like the babies to take both anyway)
Another big brother/little brother picture. Aren't they cute??!!Baby Cameron chillin' in his blanket. We left the hat on on purpose, just know that under there is a horrific bruise!!
So, right now said baby boy is actually crying to be fed, so I'll do the week-old update a little later!

Birthdays and Baby....

2009-08-05T16:17:00.001-07:00

Hmmmm....it's not letting me move the pictures around, so I guess I'll just go out of order. This is just a follow-up to the rest of C's birthday celebration. We did cake and presents on the weekend so that more people could be there. He still talks about how it wasn't his birthday. I feel kind of bad that he didn't get one big party. I really wanted to plan something now that he's a little older, but everything right now is just baby, baby, baby; and I'm so tired all the time. And now next year his brother's birthday will be so close! But we'll do something and plan better!

So, anyway, here is Christopher blowing out his candles. You can also see Joel (he had to make him lean forward a bit, since he was nowhere near the candles) and our neighbor Kimball too.
This is the cake. Most of you know I am not really crafty or anything, except in small spurts, so we almost always order cakes. Plus, I really like the whipped-cream frosting : )
The birthday boy. Isn't this a cute picture? It's on my phone right now.
So, we have moved on from the 4th Birthday and now are anxiously awaiting Cameron's arrival. No one more anxiously or nervously than me! I went to the doctor yesterday (Tuesday the 4th), and my doctor asked if I wanted to schedule an induction a few days early. I said "Yes, PLEASE!!" She said no more than a week, and her Tuesday is crazy and she's off on Wednesday, so we settled on Thursday, the 13th (not crazy about that, but oh well). So, unless I go into labor early, I will check into the hospital Thursday morning at 7:30 and the baby should be born sometime that day! I really am finding that I like having it scheduled. The idea of going into labor actually really scares me for some reason. Plus, I just like being able to plan everything. I will work Friday thru Wednesdays' Rockies games, and then miss the day game on Thursday and hopefully nothing else! I know, I'm such a dork. Anyway, that's the plan for now. I'll update accordingly. We'll be able to upload pics from my phone onto facebook right away from the hospital, so if you're on Facebook, check for baby pics Thursday afternoon/evening!!

Birthday Bowling pictures

2009-07-29T22:03:00.001-07:00

Here are the pics. Not so great, cuz they were taken with my phone. We're kind of having camera issues. Long story. But at least I have some!

Here's Christopher about to give Daddy a high five after knocking down some pins (notice, with bumpers AND a ramp : ))
After a while, for some reason he just wanted to roll the ball down the gutter, which was a challenge considering the bumpers came up for his turn. So, he and Joel switched turns so Christopher could do that. Weird kid.
He celebrated for everyone pretty equally. And he doesn't really understand the whole concept of a Spare. He thinks if anyone gets all the pins down, even in both rolls, it's a strike.

Christopher is 4!

2009-07-29T21:44:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Christopher turned 4. It was a busy day. I had a hair appointment in the morning (to get mine done, not to do someone else's), during which time Joel and Christopher put up Cameron's crib and rearranged the room so the boys can share. This may not seem necessary yet, but the crib has its own storage and we have nowhere else to keep Cameron's clothes and such. So even though he won't be in there for a few months, now we have all of his stuff in there and out of boxes in our living room! Christopher was not completely thrilled at first to rearrange his room, but then he warmed up and helped and now he's really excited. I'll try to get pics of that up here soon.

Anyway, after that we headed out to order Christopher's cake for the weekend "party." We ordered it from Sam's and then headed down to where my doctor's appointment was. I have to see the doc every week now, so Tuesday is appointment day until this baby is born! Which is nice, because Tuesday is also Joel's day off and he can come with me. We had lunch at Costa Vida (this will also be a Tuesday ritual until the baby is born : )), which is a couple blocks from the hospital. Then we went to my appointment, and C insisted on coming in to see the the doctor with me. This is good cuz then Joel can come in, and C can hear the baby's heartbeat and such. My doctor said I'm definitely progressing (I don't want to gross anyone out, so I'll spare you the details!) and that she'd definitely consider inducing me a week early if I'm really uncomfortable. I'm thinking we may take her up on that! She said it would be really easy this time considering my body is already starting to do what it's supposed to. I have to admit, when she said last week that things were starting to happen, I was excited, but also unexpectedly scared. It suddenly hit me that I don't know what it's like to go into labor! With Christopher, I was induced from scratch! So, this compromise would be nice. I just want to get through the Cubs series at work. Cubs fans tend to make our lives interesting and I don't want to make the guys do my job that weekend! We'll see what happens as we get closer.

After that, we went bowling, which is what C really wanted to do for his birthday. My mom and Dad met us at Brunswick and we bowled a couple of games (well, not me, I'm not supposed to bowl) and played in the arcade. Christopher loved it until he realized Shauna and Lily and JoJo never showed up (they all had things come up). I felt so bad when he cried because his friends weren't there! But Saturday we're going to do cake and presents and they promised to be there. Plus, Shauna came this evening and took him out for Cold Stone, so he got to spend some time with her. After bowling, we went to Pei Wei (otherwise known as "Jaime's work," even tho both Jaime AND Mitchell work there) for dinner. Then we came home and let C open his present from us, which was Pirates of the Carribbean Toss Across, which he has already made me play several times!

Today his package from Joel's parents came with 3 more presents which he couldn't wait to open and loved. I'm a little worried about what will happen when he's not getting mail everyday, because he sure has loved getting all of his cards! I'll post more and pics after we have his little party Saturday. We wanted to do something on his actual birthday, and were kind of afraid to put all of our eggs in one basket considering something could have happened with the baby.

Randomness from June and July

2009-07-07T19:42:00.001-07:00

It's been a little crazy since we got back from our trip. We've all been working hard, trying to get ready for the baby, etc. So, I thought I'd just try to record some things to remember/ inform people about.

Pregnancy-wise, things are pretty good. As the doctor I saw yesterday said "On paper, this pregnancy is perfect." However, being that I had a very easy pregnancy with Christopher; and with this one I've had anemia, swollen feet, braxton-hicks contractions, and now acid reflux- none of which I had ever had before- I feel a lot less than perfect! But we are getting really excited about Cameron joining our family. It can't be soon enough for me! Christopher hugs the belly several times a day and lovingly says "Cameron," and is always telling us all the things he's going to teach his little brother to do. The doctor said the baby is in the right position and everything, so now it's just seeing the doctor a lot and waiting!

Denise has been visiting the past few days from Utah. She will be here until this coming weekend, and Christopher started bugging her right away! He woke her up the first morning she was here, and just hung around wherever she was in general. Not sure what that's all about!

Oh yeah, I turned 30 on the 28th of June. I asked my siblings to give me money to get my new phone, a Palm Pre I'm hoping to use as my scheduler and everything. So far I'm having fun learning how to use it. I also got some great gift cards. Jaime gave me a movie one (that will be used for Joel and I to see Harry Potter!), and one to Olive Garden. And Joel's parents gave me a giftcard to Kohl's. Joel and I went out to dinner at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants on Saturday (the day before), and on Sunday my mom made one of my favorite dinners. All in all, it was a nice, fairly low-key birthday. I don't really feel one way or the other about turning 30, tho I joke about it sometimes. Mitchell says I'm officially really old now.

Joel started new classes in school, and is plugging away at work. He also just got a new calling as a Sunday school teacher, and is a little daunted about being asked to teach Gospel Doctrine in our ward. I think he'll do a great job. He knows the scriptures really well and is a good teacher.

Now for some really sad news. I got home from work last Thursday (the 3rd of July) to Denise telling me that some of our friends in Utah had their house basically gutted by fire. This family, the Derflers, used to be in our ward. When I was a teenager, I nannied for their 4 children a bit a couple of summers, even living with them for days at a time, and then Denise and I both baby-sat them. They moved to Utah a few years ago, and are basically Denise's family out there. In fact, Denise's car was parked in front of said house. They have determined it was an electrical fire, but their house is a total loss, as is just about everything that was in it. So sad. Here are some pictures:

I have never seen this kind of damage to a house, and definitely never thought this would happen to someone I know! Our prayers are with them. From what I know, they will be totally rebuilding and renting in the meantime.

On the 3rd, I started working a homestand that will have the Rockies here for 10 days in a row. Considering the first 2 were fireworks games WITH rain delays, and then a day game, the week already seems really long! I'm planning on working right up until I have the baby, both at Rockies and in the salon. It's becoming increasingly more difficult, but I'm determined to stick it out!

Florida Trip part 5

2009-06-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

After our Disney adventure, we went back to stay with Joel's parents. Most of the rest of the trip, we took it pretty easy. We did a lot of shopping (but not really much buying : )), and hanging with his family.

Saturday we slept in after all the exercise we'd been getting at the parks. It was raining quite a bit that day, so we just went out to lunch at Panera, went to the other outlets in town, and I did my sister-in-law Jody's hair.

Sunday we went to church, but only sacrament, as Christopher's been having a hard time adjusting to Primary at all, and we didn't want to confuse him further. (We moved just when he was getting used to Primary instead of Nursery, and he's still "not finding new friends, mom!" : )) Joel's Grandfather came to visit from about an hour and a half away for dinner, and then we went to the condo my parents were staying at, as I wanted to spend a little time with my Dad on his birthday. Christopher swam in their pool and we watched the Magic in the NBA Finals.

This pic is from one of those chillin' with Grandma and Grandpa days. Grandma got a book about Prairie Dogs (an animal Christopher is pretty familiar with. Has anyone seen Buckley road in the summer?? It's like a Prairie Dog Graveyard!) He made her read it several times, I believe... Monday we went to a place called Monkey Joe's, where they have a bunch of inflatables for kids to play on, plus some arcade games. Christopher had lots of fun there for a couple of hours. Joel and I went to the local mall just to hang out together a little bit. I liked walking to get excercise as long as it was in air conditioning!!

Tuesday we went to Sea World with Joel's family. His parents and sister Jody and brother Jacob. My friend Melissa and her daughter Angelina also met us there for the morning. This is the day my camera was dead until I found a place to plug it in, so hopefully Mel will be sending me the pics from the kids feeding the dolphins! It was so fun to meet up with them. This also made me want to move back. C loves hanging out with all these girls, and baby Max too.

I have to say, Sea World was probably the hardest day for me. I love it, but being pregnant it was hard! Not as many places with air conditioning, and to get in some shade in the stadiums you watch shows in is a bit of a hike! Joel had fun because his siblings could go on the thrill rides with him. They got to try to new Manta coaster which I really want to go on!

This first pic is from a new little aquarium right next to the Manta ride. It took us forever to get Christopher to go in there, and looking at the picture just now he said "I didn't want to go in there, mom!" and when I told him he didn't have to again, he said "Okaaaaay, next time we go to Sea World, I'll go in there. Let's go now!" so accomadating, my son!

The Shamu picture.....

His favorite thing was feeding the dolphins, but later in the day he also got to feed the Sea Lions, this is from that. Jacob is holding him and Jody is just to the right. I'm glad they did both with him, because those fish are stinky!!

Joel's family all left a little early, and then we went to the kids area. Christopher had ridden the Goofy kiddie coaster at Magic Kingdom, and liked it, after being terrified. He said he would ride the Shamu one, but got cold feet. Another thing he's been telling me we have to go back to do! Right before we left, we tried to go to the Dolphin Nursery, but it was closed because they'd had a baby dolphin ONE HOUR earlier! So cool... you could kind of see the baby swimming with it's mom, or at least, I'm told tall people like Joel could : P.

Tuesday night we also went back down to the Disney area to hang out with my Dad, because he was all alone after Mom and Jaime had already left. Another Magic game was on that night, so Joel's family was watching that. We played miniature golf at the "Pirate Place" (C's words) and ate one last meal at Ale House.

Wednesday we had to leave. We met up with Joel's Dad at his work to have lunch with him one last time. Then it was off to the airport and back home!

Florida Trip part 4

2009-06-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

Our last day at Disney we did Disney's Hollywood Studios (still getting used to that name change) and the Magic Kingdom. This was really the only day we saw any characters. It was pretty crowded, so we didn't want to wait in character lines, and Christopher certainly wasn't asking to see anyone. He's seen 'em before and he'll see 'em again. Mostly we only saw characters at all because we went to Playhouse Disney Character Breakfast at Hollywood and Vine at the Studios. Christopher loves the Mickey waffle, and I knew they had that, and thought it would be fun to do the Playhouse Disney thing. He loves the show at the Studios, and Cast Members from the actual show come out every little while and dance and sing with the kids. Most of these pics are from that...

First to stop by our table was Goliath from JoJo's Circus (I haven't even seen this show on for a while. Maybe really early in the morning....)
Then JoJo herself. Christopher would only take the pictures if one of us was holding him. He was a little tentative around characters this trip. Another reason we didn't try to see many of them.Then came Leo and June from Little Einsteins.....We had lunch on the dining plan at Mama Melrose at the Studios. It's kind of italian themed and was really nice. C even liked it. Here are my boys coloring and doing the activities in the kids' menu. They like to do those together. When we left the restaurant it was pouring rain! It rained almost everyday we were there. But usually just enough to make it even more muggy!And here they are with Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars.

The ONLY thing Christopher really wanted to do at Magic Kingdom was "drive the car." So, here they are after finishing up that ride. He loved it and even got a fake license.

We met up with my cousin Becky, her daughter Audrey, and our friend Robin and her daughter Ella at the Studios, and briefly with my friend Melissa and her friends later that day at Magic Kingdom. It was especially helpful at the Studios, because Joel got to go on a couple of the thrill rides with Becky and Robin while I watched the kids for them. I really don't mind at all, our whole attitude is that we'll be back, so what we get to do or not do is all fine. We just love the parks and the ambiance and everything. Christopher was kind of low-key about everything, but ever since, he's been asking to go back and go on the Toy Story and Figment rides, to the Monsters Inc. show, and lots of other stuff. I keep having to explain to him that we'd have to get back on a plane and it takes a long time to get there. He's not quite getting it yet!

Florida Trip part 3

2009-06-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

Our first Park Day was Animal Kingdom and Epcot. Joel's Dad came with us, and they did the roller coaster I couldn't go on. Sad day. We also made sure to do the Kilimanjaro Safari. Here are Joel and Christopher on the ride:They had a baby elephant. Cute, huh? At Epcot, Joel and I had a nice lunch at the Coral Reef (Christopher really wanted to see the Nemo musical at AK, so Mike, Joel's Dad, stayed with him and then they met us at Epcot. Here is the required picture of Christopher being eaten by Bruce the Shark:This is at our resort and I just had to include it. Inside this bucket o' soldiers are the stairs to our floor. At first, Christopher was all about the "elegator," but then he would say "mom, can we go up the bucket?" Kind of funny...

Florida Trip part 2

2009-06-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

On the 3rd, we checked into Disney's All-Star Movies Resort for a couple of nights, explored the area and did some fun stuff around Disney property....

At All-Star Movies, we got to stay in one of the Toy Story buildings, which is exactly what we wanted. Here are the boys walking into that area of the resort. The door says "Andy's Room" and when you get inside the area, there are giant replicas of lots of the toys from the movie. Way cute. We were actually in the Woody Building, on the 3rd floor.

Here is Christopher in the little car from the movie that always sits on the "road" to the Toy Story area (Joel knows the name of this car, I can never remember it):

And here is our little fishie swimming, which he just LOVES. This was a big reason for staying at the resort at all. He never really gets to swim when we go down there, so I thought it would be fun for him to play at a fun pool. This was the Fantasia pool and had a big Sorcerer Mickey that sprays water all over. Mission accomplished, because Christopher loved it, even though before the trip every time I showed him pictures, he just said "Mom, I just want to go back on the Mickey boat." Crazy kid!

Christopher and Kitty jumping on the bed. I only condone this until you're about 6 or 7......Shauna!! Notice the towel mickey head on the bed.

We also played miniature golf at the Winter Summerland Course next to Blizzard Beach (one of Disney's water parks). Christopher really likes miniature golf, we actually ended up doing it teice on this trip. Here he is concentrating on setting up his shot. Ok, not really, but doesn't it look like that?? So cute!

Mom and I had to send Shauna a picture of us having fun at a Disney Property without her. She does it to us too. It's just one of the many ways our family shows our love. It's also one of the very few pictures I'm in, so I thought I should include one in all my pregnant glory! I was almost 7 months at this point. We met up with my parents that evening at Downtown Disney. They had arrived in town the night before. Jaime would get in late that night.

Next time we think we'll stay on property more. It's really fun to just be guests! They were also running a great deal on the resorts (I assume because of the economy), and we discovered we really like the dining plan as well. Over the next couple of days we did the parks....

Florida Trip part 1

2009-06-26T18:24:00.001-07:00

So, Day 1 (June 1st) was mostly just flying to Orlando and having dinner. We flew direct on Southwest, and here's Christopher (not really sure why he looks so tired) on the plane. He was pretty good. We brought coloring and reading books to entertain him. Please notice his Kitty smashed behind him. Kitty has mad quite a few trips now. I believe she's been to Florida 2 or 3 times, and on a road trip to Utah and California. Well-traveled Kitty! We got settled at Joel's parents' and waited for his Dad to get off of work, then went to dinner at Ale House (have to have my zingers when we go down there!)
Day 2- We went to some of the outlets down by Disney property, then met up with my cousins Becky and Lori at the Millenia Mall (I think it's actually called Mall at Millenia, but whatever). The following pics are Audrey (Becky's daughter) and Christopher "looking through the fishies" on the 2nd floor of the mall while we waited for Becky to shop in Ann Taylor.

They then also proceeded to chase each other around. I was all for however they could entertain themselves! Doing normal stuff with my cousins and just hanging out made me want to move back even more. The heat and humidity in the summer months did NOT! lol Which is fine, because it's not really possible quite yet anyway.

Florida Trip June 2009

2009-06-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got around to downloading my pictures, and had a lot more of them than I thought! I kept forgetting my camera, and it actually was dead part of the trip as well, so I thought I wouldn't have many pics, but there are a few, so this will be multiple posts, unless by some miracle I can figure out how to include more than 5 in each. Probably easier to break it down anyway.

Everything else is going pretty well. We've decided to name the baby Cameron Wyatt. One of the things that I don't have a picture of is that we got infant mickey ears with the name, if that's not decided, I don't know what is : ) ! It was kind of sketchy for a moment, because trying to get the ears made, they had to use 3 hats and 3 different machines (and yet, not problem getting "christopher" on C's new youth-sized ones...)! I was starting to doubt our decision for a few moments, but we finally got them. Christopher (I realize now that with naming both boys "C" names, I'm going to have to write our Christopher now) keeps saying Cameron can't have his own ears, but other than that, no sibling rivalry yet! OK, on to trip report.

March Arizona Trip

2009-05-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

So, in the middle of March (and all of the craziness, right after we found out we had to move), we took a weekend roadtrip to Arizona, where my cousin Ashley got married, and her brother Skyler had his mission farewell. I had some cute pics, so I thought I'd post them now. Ash got married in the Mesa temple, and Sky is headed to Des Moines, IA to serve his mission. I realized when I got home that I took absolutely no pics of the happy couple, and I'm not sure much of Sky either. I had TONS of all the kids and the wedding setup I helped with! Need to work on that....there are tons of pics of the other stuff on facebook and our family website, tho. Anyway, what I remember about both events we were actually there for: Ashley's wedding was beautiful, her husband seems really nice. My cousin Dan did the food and spilled hot soup on Joel and I at the reception. I had no idea if my feet were freezing or burning! Very weird sensation. And we all expected Skyler to make us laugh during his talk, which he did, but he also had most of us crying when he talked about how glad he was that in the past year Ashley had worked so hard to come back to the gospel and get married in the temple. 3 rows of pews of crying women from both sides of Ashley's family! We're all really happy for her.

Anyway, here are a few of the pics I did take. I still can't figure out how to post more than 5, so I tried to pick good ones!

Here is Christopher at the house we stayed at (an empty houe some of my Aunt and Uncle's friends had just moved out of). It had a pool he was dying to swim in, but never got to, and this little playground, where he loved to look through the telescope:
C made a fast friend (I think his name was Evan) while we were setting up for the wedding reception. He was the grandson of the homeowners where the reception was held. I'm not sure exactly what they're doing here, but they spent a lot of time just sitting in front of that koi pond!
C loves both of Becky's kids. On this trip she only brought "baby Max," and C always wanted to hold him. So, here they are at Barnes and Noble. Joel holding C, and C "holding" Max! We had gone to lunch at Costa Vida, and finished only to find most of the rest of the family decided to come later! So, we watched Max and played around the shopping center while everyone else ate.

Also outside of Costa Vida and Barnes and Noble while we waited, C was "fixing" the flowers in the fountain, making sure they were all upright and pretty. Kept him occupied for quite a while!

Here's our branch of the family outside of my Aunt and Uncle's church building that Sunday. Shauna and Mitchell couldn't make it because of work and school (really the same thing, since Shauna works at Mitchell's school! : )). I was really kind of just starting to show, but I'd been on my feet a lot, and my stomach felt really heavy a lot of the trip, which is why I'm holding it! C was not cooperating, obviously!

Anyway, we had a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, tho it got a little hot waiting outside of the temple for Ash and Spencer to come out! I felt bad for C because he kept seeing swimming pools, and I kept hoping we'd get time he could actually swim. I repeatedly told him we didn't have time each day, and he would say "well, I DO have time!," which I am sure seemed true to him. It must have been so boring to sit around while we all did stuff for the wedding, but he was pretty good all things considered.

Naming the Baby

2009-04-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we've narrowed down some names. We could completely change our minds by the time the baby comes, but I'm curious to see what's popular among our friends and family, so I added a poll on the right. Keep in mind it has to go with the last name "Gainey." These are the most popular among my family members so far. Christopher has a favorite, and I'm not sure what will happen if we don't use it, but it's pretty popular so far. I'll reveal it when the poll is over.

I'll try to post soon. It's been really busy and really hard, with some of the things going on, and as usual, I don't want to post in the heat of the moment. Suffice it to say we have moved, and most of that has been pretty good. Something very unexpected happened to make things a bit difficult, but we're managing so far and we'll see what happens.

Christopher is now insisting on being called "Christopherd" on a daily basis, we're still not sure where it even came from. He has had somewhat of a hard time with the move, but there are things he loves, like the boys and dogs to play with next door, the trampoline in the back yard, and helping Papa dig in the garden. We had a garage sale for a couple of weekends, and I was amazed at how easily he let go of his stuff. He would ask about something, and I would brace for a fit, but I would just say "well, we're letting another little boy or girl have that since we don't need it anymore," and he was fine. We had prepared him a bit by letting him choose between a lot of the doubles we had between us and my parents, so I think that helped. We're trying to get him excited about starting preschool in the summer or fall, but he doesn't seem to think he needs an education at all : ).

Joel is still plugging away at school and work. His commute is a bit more difficult now with no lightrail access and only one car, that's the main thing we're making work, but so far we're getting it done.

I'm very busy with the salon, Rockies games and substituting at Rangeview. The pregnancy is going fine, tho it seems a little harder on my body this time around. I'm looking forward to doing new things with C this summer, and having 2 cute little boys. Hope everyone is doing well!

Ultrasound for Baby #2

2009-03-27T12:27:00.001-07:00

The weather tried really hard to mess with getting the ultrasound done today, but I was pretty determined not to reschedule it. HUGE thanks to my parents who came and got me in the 4WD car and took me down to my appointment. My Mom was already going to go with me, because Joel's work wouldn't let him come in late or anything, and I didn't want to be alone, but it took a good chunk of my Dad's day too, and I'm really grateful! He even scraped off my car after he brought me home so I can run errands later! LOVE Dad!

So, I was supposed to have the ultrasound and then see my doctor, but when I got there, they had just taken someone in to the ultrasound room who's appointment was at 8:15 (mine was at (9:45 and this was just before that), so they were obviously running behind because of opening late due to the weather, and people's travel issues. Luckily, my doctor was able to see me right away, so we just flipped the appointments. My doctor informed me that the bloodwork I did last week (quad screen) was all good, except that I'm anemic. She prescribed a couple of different things for that, and then Mom and I waited for the ultrasound.

It's probably just because I've had so many now, but I could actually kind of see what the tech was talking about this time! Very exciting, because every other time, I've just been like "If you say so...." when they pointed things out to me. I also really like this tech too. I've seen her a couple of times now, and she's great about actually talking to you!

So, bear with me, because these are pictures of the pictures, but you can see pretty well. So, here is what we call the "Oh, my aching neck!" picture. The baby kept reaching back like this, or putting its hands over its face (yep, you totally have to wait til the end of this post to find out what it is, if you don't already know! : P), so cute!

This is just a good pic of the whole baby. It was nice to see these after she was done measuring all the little things she needed to get for the doctor. You can actually recognize a baby!

And last, but not least, here is "The Picture." Nikki (the tech) said "I'm just going to get between the legs and see if you can tell what it is." And just like Christopher, this kid left NO question! Definitely a Boy! That little white thing is actually a hand figure pointing out the "important" stuff.

I admit, I was kind of hoping for a girl, but this baby is such an amazing surprise, we're just so grateful to have another child at all, and we really just want him to be healthy. Christopher, of course, is THRILLED! Although he won't listen to me when I tell him we are not actually naming the baby "Peel." He will probably actually call him that. He has already renamed my cousin Jenny's 2-week-old Bodie "Elephant," and will not refer to him any other way!

K, so now I need help with names! I really only had girl names, and it seems like any boy names I even like are taken by loved ones. Help!!

Another Member of the Family

2009-03-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

Meet Bob the Builder Fishy (we also have a Build-a-Bear Koala Bear named Bob the Builder, and before he settled on "peel", C said we should also use this name for the baby. We're not quite sure where this obsession came from.) We got him shortly before C's 3rd birthday. We wanted him to get used to feeding something before we eventually get the dog we would like to have. So, we have now had Fishy (I can't say the whole name all the time!) for about 8 months, longer than any Beta I've owned. Although I have a friend who had one live for 2 years.

This fish has lived through being watched by families in our ward twice. We have no idea how long he'll live, and I worry about what we'll happen when he passes. Joel and I are pretty chicken, so we'll probably go to every Wal-Mart in the area to find a replacement and hope C doesn't realize it's not Bob.

Anyway, this is the only fish I've seen that I really think has personality. I feed him every morning when I make my cereal, mostly because he is there begging as soon as he sees someone in the kitchen. I am not kidding. He will eat the food practically out of my fingers, and he won't eat any food that's not fresh. If it's been in there a while, he doesn't want it. Also, I swear he posed for these pictures. Check it out: This bright one was the first one I took. Obviously, the flash got in the way, but you can see his pretty colors better, and you can also see that he was already posing! Crazy fish.

Moving unexpectedly

2009-03-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

Well, apparently we are moving. This was not really in our plans, but I feel strongly that it's what's supposed to happen. We did consider possibly moving to help my parents out a few weeks ago, briefly. It would have been at the end of May, when our lease is up. I felt like we should, but then I felt like I just wanted to help my parents, and that maybe I couldn't trust myself to separate the issue, being pregnant and very emotional and family-oriented even without extra hormones! So, I basically left it up to Joel, who felt we should stay put. It didn't really get to the point where we fasted or prayed about it, we just kind of made the decision it would be too much of a hassle, and we like where we're at. Done. Except that apparently Heavenly Father disagreed.

Not quite a couple of weeks ago, our landlord called us unexpectedly. I thought it might be about the water bill, which was a little late. Nope, she said they have an offer on their other property (where they are living now, up near Boulder), and needed us out by April 10th, or we could try to buy the condo. The original plan was to buy the place, but that was a couple of years ago, and it ended up that they couldn't sell it to us at that point for various reasons. Now it doesn't make sense, with the housing market and how much longer we would be there. I'm not really sure what would have happened if we had pushed the point of our lease not being up yet, but I figured we may as well just get it over with. The Rockies home games start April 10th and I would rather just be done moving by then and not anymore pregnant than I already am! But, it is less than a month to move; and being that we're going to move back in with my parents, we have to get rid of some stuff, decide what will go into storage, and what we will actually be able to take with us. Not to mention this is all complicated by all the boxes of baby boy clothes we have! Hopefully Friday we'll find out what we're having and know whether we should keep it or if we need some pink stuff!

So, the pros are: We'll help my parents out a lot with their finances, we'll save a lot of money, I won't have to travel so far to drop C off with his baby-sitters : ), and C gets to play with the neighbors' dogs and boys which he loves. The not-so-great things: leaving our ward (no offense to anyone in the Highlands Ward. I love everyone, it's just hard to be in the ward you grew up in- with your parents- when you're in my situation), leaving the area we're in, and losing access to the lightrail for Joel. The night we found out, C got very upset. He and I had a good cry together, but we're both getting a lot better. Everyone keeps telling me he'll be very resilient, and I hope that's true, because it was really hard for me to see him like that!

Like I said, I'm sure this is happening for a reason, and that it's a blessing in the long run. But it is very unexpected, and a lot to deal with while we already have so much going on. Everyone keeps offering to help, but I haven't even really wrapped my head around everything yet! The weekend after they told us, we went to Arizona for my cousin's wedding and other cousin's farewell (more about those in another post); and I've been working at the school full-time ever since as well, not to mention working at the salon on weekends. So, we've just been trying to do what we can in the evenings. Tomorrow I finish up at the school, and I'll be able to concentrate a lot more on the move. Wish me luck!

Another Doctor Appointment....

2009-03-02T16:57:00.000-08:00

On Feb 23rd I had another appointment. The baby's heartbeat was a bit slower this time, 148. That's about what Christopher's was all the time. The only other interesting thing about the appointment was that I haven't gained much weight at all. My doctor is not thrilled about this, but I'm not very worried. The thing is, I went into this pregnancy weighing the most I have ever weighed (besides pregnancy, of course) at about 153, give or take. Now I'm hovering around 157 at over 4 months in. But my peak weight with C was 165, so I'm not too far away and I have no doubt that I'll get there soon! And I'm only 5'2", so it looks like plenty to me! I explained to the doctor that I'm not necessarily eating a ton, and I choose soup and salad a LOT right now, because I hate feeling really full. She just cautioned me that soup has a lot of sodium, and I may not be getting enough protein. So, I'm trying to make sure it's balanced, but everything will be fine.

Next appointment is March 27th and includes the ultrasound. I'm trying not to be too excited, because I don't want to jinx finding out what we're having, but..... I really hope we can find out what we're having!!

Bowling

2009-02-20T16:54:00.000-08:00

So, this past Friday night (a week ago now), we went to my cousin Carol's son Kyrelle's Birthday Party at a bowling alley in Lakewood. Christopher LOVES bowling. I'm not really sure why. He's had a little at-home bowling game for a while, and I thought if he ever did the real thing, he wouldn't be nearly as excited as he thought. But, he's been twice now, and he still loves it. At both parties, he was the only kid who we didn't have to hunt down for a turn at least once in a while. He was always standing by the balls, saying "Is it my turn yet?". The first time, I was actually really worried, because he insisted on holding a ball the whole time. That couldn't have been good for his little back! This time he was a little calmer (there were also a lot more kids this time, so I think he realized it would be a little longer in between turns). Anyway, here are some pics:
All the kids hamming it up for the camera. From left to right: Zander (my cousin Dan's son), Abby (also Dan's), Christopher, Jason (also Dan's), and Eilio and Kyrelle (both my cousin Carol's).

Sending the ball down. They got bumpers on the lane AND this nifty little ramp to help aim the ball (and give it enough power to get all the way down the lane!).

The (almost) final scores. My camera was dying, so I had to take it a little early. Christopher didn't even care that he won. He was busy crying because he didn't want to stop bowling!

Selecting his ball.

We broke for the kids to wat right in the middle of the game. Christopher looks happy in the pic, but he did NOT want to stop bowling, and we had to deal with a minor meltdown before we got to this point.

A new picture

2009-02-13T11:56:00.001-08:00

And since it's been a while since I posted any pics at all, and I have this one handy, here's a pic for all you C fans.

He's sitting at a Spiderman table that Jo-Jo just gave him (along with the bed and bedding behind him), ready to play a game of Candy Land with Grammy. My mom sent this to me this morning. She's watching him for me today.

So, now he has a whole room set-up at Grammy and Papa's. Thanks again, Lorae! I was joking with Shauna earlier today (we're working together at the high school) that Christopher has taken over her old room (it's the toy room for all the kids) and now Jaime's old room (the one pictured here), pretty soon he'll have the whole house!

Things and people I'm grateful for

2009-02-13T11:12:00.000-08:00

I've been horrible about posting this month. I haven't felt so hot, and honestly, it's been a rough start to 2009 for us. I won't bore you with the incredibly long story, a lot of you know it anyway. I think eventually I'll want to write about it for the sake of journaling, but I am going to need some distance from the situation first. However, due to our struggles, a lot of people have really helped us out, and I wanted to remember that. I don't know if it's pride or what, but I have a really hard time accepting help, and I don't know if I ever say thank you enough. So, here are some people and things I am grateful for during this time:

1. Joel. He works really hard and also is the equivelent of a full-time student. School just keeps getting more and more demanding and time-consuming, and I know it's not easy, but he's doing a great job. He ALWAYS does the dishes, because I can not stand the smell (this is not only when I'm pregnant, either!). For these and a million other things, I'm really grateful he's my partner!

2. My in-laws. They've helped us a lot financially, and I'm grateful for their willingness and love for us. I wish we got to see them more often.

3. My parents. My Dad has always been extremely intuitive when it comes to me. He can always tell when something is wrong before anyone else. And both of my parents help us in millions of ways that aren't always so obvious. I don't know what we would do without them.

4. My siblings. Whether they're just listening or paying my cell phone bill temporarily (thanks Shauna!), it's nice to have them. Each one of us is so different, and as we're all becoming adults and our own people, I really appreciate the different strengths each of them offer.

5. Lorae, who is practically a sibling, but different. If any of you have heard me refer to my "big sister," and been confused knowing I'm the oldest of 6, she's the one I was talking about. We adopted her and her 2 children into the family years ago, and now she's married, so we have Lester too. Anyway, she knows what she did, but it was huge and I can never say thanks enough!

6. Kelly. Kelly is my Visiting Teacher, but she has also become a great friend and advisor. She's been a great help to me through everything we went through last year. She probably understood our situation with child-bearing better than anyone else I know, so it was a great comfort to have her to talk to. And now she just keeps listening to me whine and helping out in various ways. I'll really miss her when she goes back to Australia!

7. My calling. I love working with the Young Women. I learn so much from them and enjoy all of their different personalities. We have a great group of Beehives right now who are really excited to be in Young Womens. It's also a great distraction to throw myself into at times like this! I hope they're learning from me half as much.

8. The Gospel. The past year has tried my faith in some ways, but if I didn't believe in anything, I know it would be a lot worse. I'm grateful for everything I know about the atonement and life after this one.

9. Christopher. This paragraph would be ridiculously long, so I won't elaborate. He amazes me every day.

Widget

2009-01-24T10:16:00.000-08:00

K, so I added one of those cheesy baby countdown widgets. Mostly cuz I wanted to see what it looks like at this stage, cuz when we look at the books, C says our baby looks like a monster. He's kinda right. Not so much from the widget, but look up a good 3D image of a fetus (I think it's actually not even a fetus for another week or so), at 10 weeks, and it's a little monster-reminiscent. On the widget, it's just kind of alien-ish. Anyway, there it is. I don't know how long I'll leave it up, but it's pretty funny. Christopher says the baby is a boy and his name will be "Peel." He won't really put up with anyone saying anything different. He's going to be in for a rude awakening, because regardless of gender, I am not naming my child Peel! : P

By the way, thanks for the prayers, Amber! I really appreciate it! It made me cry to read that, and I'd like to say it's cuz I'm preggers, but you know me, and it's probably not, cuz I'm always a crier! : ). Love ya!

Dr.'s appointment

2009-01-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

I should also add that today I had an appointment and all is well. It took the nurse a while to find the heartbeat, and when she did, it seemed very fast (168 & 170 the two times she could locate it); but neither she or the doctor seemed concerned, so we're calling it good. Christopher was usually in the 140's, so that seems pretty darn high to me, but whatever. Everything else is good. My due date is August 18th, not that that means anything, tho it would be really nice if the baby was born within a couple of days of that, because the Rockies are off those days and I'd like to not miss work if possible. I know, I'm a dork, but I hardly missed any last time and I'd prefer not to this time either! Now of course, I just cursed myself to a really complicated C-section or something. We'll deal with whatever, I just keep praying the baby is healthy and I'm still waiting for the end of the first trimester. 2 weeks to go!

I'm already wearing maternity clothes which I find deplorable, but I gave in because I had to wear the same pair of jeans every single day and that was getting really old. And whenever I washed them (which was obviously often!), they were still tight. The truth of the matter is, before I got pregnant this time around, I was the heaviest I've ever been, and even not pregnant I was growing out of my regular clothes. I'm going to need a workout buddy and a gym membership after this one, because I'm not letting that happen again! I can't afford the new wardrobe!

3

2009-01-23T15:26:00.001-08:00

I've sat down to blog a lot lately but not really been able to think of anything. I'm pretty sure this has a lot to do with being pregnant. Thinking is highly overrated anyway, but I have an especially hard time doing it when I'm preggo. Having said that, I hereby apologize to anyone for forgetting anything the next few months. Feel free to remind me of things frequently! I'm starting to write more things down, but just in case.... : P

Anyway, I thought I would log something I want to remember about Christopher and his obsession with the number 3 right now. Most everyone knows about this, and maybe I've even talked about it before, but I find it pretty darn cute at the moment. Not only is it his age and favorite number, but he actually weighs 33 lbs and his height is 3 ft 3 inches. He tells me often that he's not going to turn 4. I find this ironic as well, because when Mitchell was 3, he was my little buddy and I just loved him and begged him not to age past 3. He alternated between promising me he wouldn't and saying "Nope, I have to grow up!" Obviously he did, since he's dwarfed me in height and now refers to me as his "older little sister." Now that C is 3, I remember why it's such a fun age. Don't get me wrong, he has a horrible independent/control freak streak goin' on, and we're in the middle of potty training, which is the bain of my existence, and some days it seems like everything is a fight; but he's also incredibly sweet and helpful when he wants to be. And they're just the perfect size for a good hug and cuddle at this age. And he's just so darn cute, cuz he's getting to be a boy and not a baby or toddler, but he's still so little and adorable. Everything is cutest in miniature. Anyway, I love him to pieces, and even when he is throwing a fit because there's not 3 of something, or it's the wrong answer, I find his obsession pretty dang adorable!

Tale of 2 Pregnancies

2009-01-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

I am only talking about this pregnancy and the one with Christopher, of course. It seems to me that the only thing they have in common is that early on, I was and am, exhausted! I could take a nap every day! During our vacation, I did! Now it's just whenever I can. Otherwise though, nothing is the same for me. I am nauseaus ALL the time. With C, I only threw up once, in the 4th month. Couldn't eat Panda Express for almost 2 years. This time around, I've already thrown up twice. Ick. I am always either starving, or overly full. There's no in between! It's driving me crazy!

The worst part has to be the worrying, tho. With Christopher, I had already miscarried, but for some reason, I had no fear. I was thrilled with every horrible thing that happened to my body. Perfectly happy to be exhausted, worried when I was NOT nauseaus (Oh, what I would give for that now!) and relieved the very few times I was. Thrilled to be wearing maternity clothes.....everything. This time, although I am so excited, and I really, really do feel like I'm going to have this baby; there's still fear behind everything. Every little pain makes me want to call the doctor (I don't). I feel immense pressure, pressure I'm sure I'm putting on myself. I feel like it's a huge miracle I got pregnant at all, and if something happens, I'm not sure I'll be so resilient emotionally. My magic date (I hope) is February 5th. According to the chart, that's when I'll hit the end of the first trimester. I hope I'll be able to relax at that point!

The best part has been Christopher. Some days I really worry that we told him to soon, just in case something happens. But most of the time, I'm glad. He says the cutest things. Everyday at least twice he says "Mom, I'm happy" and if I don't ask why, he'll keep saying it until I do, at which point he'll say "I'm so happy about the baby" He already "kisses the baby." He gets new toys and the first thing he says is "I'm going to share this with the baby." Other things he throws out at random: "Our baby is a good baby;" "Our baby is cute;" he also says it's a boy. I really and truly don't care what this baby is, as long as it's healthy; but I am a little worried about what will happen if it's not a boy for him. Of course, everyone else wants a girl; so I'll be consoling someone no matter what! The cutest thing happened at church the other day. During sacrament, a little 1-year-old boy (The Perry's, for those of you GWV ward members) toddled over to us and hovered at my knees. After a minute I gave him one of C's cars to play with. C was not happy about this, so I said "How are you going to share with our baby if you can't share with this baby?" I unknowingly completely confused him, because he looked from me to the baby and back again, and then said "Did our baby get out? Is this our baby??" Joel and I had to laugh. Not sure how that looked to everyone in the middle of sacrament meeting, but it was just SO funny! I assured him it will be quite a while before our baby comes out, and that my tummy will get really big first. He seemed relieved that he doesn't have to share everything quite yet!

Expecting and Extremely Excited!

2009-01-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

Well, now we'll really see if anyone reads this blog, because besides family and a couple of others, I haven't really told the news yet. Although I have hinted at it a couple of times in my last couple of posts.

Yep, we're expecting Baby #2. I found out the night we got back from our Christmas trip. I was fairly certain at that point, but part of me still wanted to explain everything away with Holiday stress. But a quick test confirmed it. The first thing I said to Joel was "I'm scared," and I was for a few days. I wouldn't really let myself be excited. But Monday I had bloodwork done, which all looked good, and today I had an ultrasound and actually saw the little heartbeat. I am still in the first trimester, and ideally I'd wait til the end to tell everyone, but we made the mistake of telling our son who understands way more than we think he does sometimes. He has started frequently saying "Mommy, I'm happy about the baby" and he doesn't care who's around to hear! And although it's fairly early, it's the furthest along I've ever been (besides of course, Christopher) in a pregnancy; and the only time besides Christopher I've had nausea and been SOOOO tired! My biggest clue was that I took a nap just about every day on that trip. Not really like me. Anyway, we're very excited and are just praying for a healthy, complete pregnancy and baby to add to our family. I'll keep everyone updated.

I do have to talk about one of the early conversations I had with Christopher. He was much more curious than I thought he would be! We should have realized he would kind of "get it," because he actually understood a lot over the summer. After the whole situation, he started sticking balloons up his shirt saying it was his "baby," and once even remarked to me "Mommy, your baby is gone, this one is mine." This time, it came up because we were around so many babies for New Year's, and he kept saying "I like that baby." Finally, one of us said "Should we have a baby?" I believe that at first he said "no," and then I said "But, if we had our own baby, would you help with it?" and he said he would. Then "Well, there's a baby in mommy's tummy." He climbed up on my lap, took my face in his hands, and started asking all sorts of questions. "How are we going to get our baby out? Does it come out your mouth?" (kind of insightful if you think about how we're always saying a baby is in a woman's tummy!) I tried to side-step that one by saying the doctor may have to cut it out. We're going with that explanation for now. Then he asked if we had bottles to feed the baby, and I told him that we have his old ones upstairs. He said "So, we will feed our baby milk in the bottles." I kind of corrected him about the milk, and then, catching myself, I said at first the baby will eat formula out of bottles (did NOT want to get into the nursing issue!). He ran out of the room. He was back a minute later, rather distraught, and said "We don't have any formula!" I assured him we have plenty of time before the baby will be here, and we can buy some formula. I'm sure there will be many more interesting conversations!

So, that's it for now. More good news to come, hopefully! We have a lot of people praying for us and we're all crossing our fingers!

Welcome 2009!!!

2009-01-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

I say this completely wholeheartedly, since 2008 was a very hard year for me emotionally. But I rush ahead a bit..... We got home from Florida (we came back the southern route, no spinning off the road, thankyouverymuch!) Sunday night. It was back to real life pretty fast. Joel had to work Monday. I, on the other hand, did just about nothing but rest and recover from the trip. I went back to work Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wednesday I went over to my parents and got to see my cousin Ashley before she jetted back to Arizona a little early. It was nice to get to talk to her, because I don't get to see her very often at all. Later that evening, most everyone from my Dad's side of the family came over to my parents'. No one stayed until midnight- not even us! People had early morning flights and other New Years things to get to (I just went home and went to sleep. I've seen enough balls drop). But it was fun to visit with everyone. Doug's family lives in Arizona now, and my cousins are still in Florida. These branches of the family used to get together quite often, but now we hardly see everyone, let alone altogether! Denise made us all get together for a picture, so here it is:

I'm not going to name everyone (we aren't exactly in rows!), but there are 3 branches of my Dad's side of the family. He and 2 of his brothers, their wives, children & spouses (with a couple of exceptions) & 8 1/2 grandchildren (I say that because Jenny is about to enter her 3rd trimester). Again, so great to see everyone. I wish we could do it a lot more often!

Hmmmm...what to say about 2008? It was a rough, humbling year for me. A lot of great things happened. I started my business, C turned 3 (k, that one could go in the good and bad columns! : P), Joel really got going with school, and we got to travel to Florida (twice) and California to see family. Most of this is overshadowed for me by the tubal pregnancy and everything that came with it. I really went through a whole grieving process, and was surprised at how intense it was. There was also the whole economy downturn; and an election that, though I can appreciate the historic significance of, I was not necessarily thrilled with the result of. But, life goes on, and I have every reason to believe that, at least personally, 2009 will be much better! I hope everyone had great holidays!!

Christmas in Florida

2009-01-06T07:07:00.001-08:00

So, we got off the "Mickey Boat" Christmas Eve Morning- They pretty much make you have breakfast (it's assigned and ours was the earliest at 6:30am!) and get off the boat. I do have a pic of Christopher crying because we're leaving, but it looks more like he's sleeping. Still was hilarious though!

Anyway, we got off the boat and drove back to town (although I should mention that along the way, my Dad ran out of gas. So, we had a little detour to go get him gas right around where there are a ton of tolls, and then we got back on the road). We got settled at Joel's parents' house, and Joel and I took naps (I took a lot of naps on this vacation.....). I knew Joel's family would keep C occupied, and I woke up to find them making cookies for Santa. Thus the following picture:That's Joel's sister Jody, his mom Bonnie, brother Jeremy, and of course, Christopher. This is the first year he's really been old enough to start understanding the whole Santa thing, so we've never really done anything like leave cookies out. I'm glad he got to do it with his Grandma. She's so cute about all of the Christmas stuff! This is the plate they ended up leaving for Santa:

The carrots, of course, are for the reindeer. They also made sure to sprinkle "reindeer food" on the lawn just in case. Grandma also explained to C that since they don't have a chimney (who need a fireplace in Florida???), they have a key they leave out for Santa so he can get in. It was the cutest key.

So, after all of this preparation, C conked out in our room:No worrying about this kid trying to wait up for Santa! He was totally out.

That evening my family also came over and we all had dinner together, made by Joel's mom. It was really fun to have everyone together.

The next morning we opened a few presents. Christopher got Pixos (the one thing he really asked for, and we have still not played with yet!), a car from Cars from Jody and Jarred, some clothes, a thomas the train set from Joel's aunt, and money from other family. I'm probably forgetting a couple of things.... He loved opening his stocking as well. All we got him were stocking stuffers, since Christmas was basically the trip, but he loved the (tons of!) viewfinder cards and toothbrush. He actually got 2 toothbrushes, which is good because he loves to crush his teeth! Here he is with Grandma waiting to open presents that morning:

Then we went to DeLand (it's like an hour drive), where my mother-in-law's family lives. They always have a midday meal with all the trimmings, and a white elephant-type gift exchange. C's favorite part was their Dog:

After DeLand, we went home and (I'm pretty sure) took naps! Then we drove down to Orlando and had a Christmas Dinner my mom made for both families. Not as many people this time, as just Joel's parents and Jeremy came with us, but the dinner was great. I had no idea my mom was going to do a full-blown turkey dinner. We had all been eating for days, so there were a lot of leftovers, but it was very yummy.

All in all, we had a great Christmas. I personally really loved having both of my families together. It may be the only time it will ever happen, so we're going to treasure the experience. It was a little hectic, but I always think "the More the Merrier!" I definitely want to thank everyone for compromising and being so hospitable to one another. Love all of you!!!

Cruise, Day 3

2008-12-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

The final full day on the cruise was at Castaway Cay, Disney's private Island. It was a little bit of a bummer, because it was really windy and they had to cancel all of the excursions. Most of my family was supposed to do parasailing. But early in the day, besides the wind, it was sunny and nice, so we had fun on the beach.

This is Christopher swimming. He liked it at the beach almost as much as the Mickey Pool.

Joel spent most of the day making this turtle. I took a later picture with someone elses camera, so I'll have to find it. It was cute because he made the whole shell out of actual shells. Little girls thought it was adorable and started collecting shells for him!

Christopher at dinner, eating his broccoli. Thank goodness he's not like his father with vegetables!When our waiter asked about our day at Castaway Cay, my dad explained to him that parasailing was supposed to be Mitchell and Shauna's birthday present (If I failed to mention, the day we left for the trip was their birthday. Mitchell forever crashed Shauna's day on her 8th birthday), so he brought these little cakes for them. Problem was, we had already had dessert! They brought them back to the staterooms, but not much of them ever got eaten.
That night, after the final show (Disney Dreams, which is Disney cheese in it's purest form, but very cute), the actors and characters were all in the atrium to meet and greet. We went straight to Chip and Dale. After that, the lines were much to long!

So, after a morning and lunch at Castaway Cay, C and Joel and I went back on the ship (It did get pretty cold). C really, really wanted to swim at the mickey pool one last time, but once we got up there he realized it was too cold. We took naps again and shopped and such. Dinner was at Animator's Palate; we went to the show, which C loved again; met the characters; did a little family Karaoke (Denise and I sang "Beauty and the Beast"), and lamented that we had to leave early in the morning. REALLY early. Ours was the earliest breakfast, 6:30! And then we shopped a little and debarked the ship. Christopher was SO upset. Literally crying and had his fat little bottom lip out. The castmembers thought it was the cutest thing! He's still talking about "the Mickey Boat" and wants to go back. Maybe in a couple of years.....

This was the first cruise for everyone but my parents, grandma, and Joel and I. I really hope everyone had fun. I had a great time with everyone and hope someday we can do it again!

Cruise, Day 2

2008-12-29T16:20:00.000-08:00

I know those of you who know me will be totally shocked, but Day 2 actually began with me up at 6:30, jogging on Deck 4. So, I got to see the sunrise! Here is the best pic I got of it:

I meant to wake up early every day, but it was not to be! I made everyone get up on this morning early enough to eat at Triton's. They have (by far) the best breakfast, and they close the earliest. Christopher loved that breakfast, because he got a Mickey waffle. In fact, the next morning he was ticked he couldn't have one! (This was my fault, they used to have those things at the buffets and everything. Some things have changed, darn it!). I had french toast with slices of pineapple in between that was really yummy!

This was our day at Nassau, in the Bahamas. Our (well, my sisters and I) main goal was to get cheap knockoff purses, which we did. After shopping, we got back on the boat. No day at sea on this short cruise, so I wanted the extra time on the ship. And shopping was NOT Christopher's favorite thing! : P

Here's a great shot I got of Nassau from the ship. I'm always amazed at how blue the water is!

Once back on the ship, we took C to play shuffleboard. As with most games, he cheated, but he had a great time.

Stitch was in the atrium to meet and take pics. I sent Joel with C. Who's the bigger trouble-maker???? Anyone?? Yep, probably a toss-up! : PThe towel monkey our room steward left that night. First night was a dog, but I didn't have room for the pic.

So, day 2 was basically shopping at Nassau; back on the ship for some fun on deck and eating (cuz it's free, why pay for something on the island??); shopping on the ship; I took a nap with C (we wanted him awake for the show that night!); dinner (Jaime, Denise, Joel and I at Palo, everyone else at Tritons); oh, and it was pirate night, so they gave us all bandanas, and captain Jack was lurking around the ship; the show that night was Toy Story the Musical, which C did stay awake for, and was totally entranced by and loved; and to continue Pirate Night, there was a little show on the top deck- complete with fireworks- and a full dinner and dessert buffet. All I could fit in me were some crepes, but it was great.

"The Mickey Boat," Day 1

2008-12-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

So, Dec 21st we boarded the Mickey Boat. This is what C calls the Disney Cruise Line ships. We happened to sail on the Wonder (the ships are basically identical, a couple of the restaurants and clubs are themed a little differently, and the Magic does the longer cruises. I've now sailed on each ship twice and love both!) for a 3 night cruise this time. We went with my parents, 5 siblings, paternal Grandmother, and C and Joel and I.

We had a little drama the morning of embarking as Steven's first flight was delayed and made him miss his connecting flight. For a while it looked like there was no way he would make it, and we were totally bummed. We knew it was a possibility, but it wouldn't have been the same without him! He found out that the flight he was on standby for was already overbooked, so we prepared for the worst, as there was no other flight that would get him there on time to catch the boat. Well, by some miracle, he got on the flight, and Joel's brother Jeremy was gracious enough to pick him up from the airport and bring him to the port. Thanks Jeremy!!! He made it on a couple hours after the rest of us and all was well.

Here are Denise, Shauna and C as we waited to go through security at Port Canaveral:

C and Joel on deck during the sailaway party. Can you tell their shirts match? My mom got these for them quite a while ago, and I'm sure this will be the only time we ever get Joel to wear his!
Christopher in the Mickey Pool (you can kind of tell he's in one of the ears). He would have spent the whole cruise there if he could have!

C on "my top bunk". During the day it actually fold up into the ceiling, and he was totally bummed when it wasn't out. We had some reservations about letting him sleep up there, but there were no problems and he loved it!

C in the Atrium Lobby in front of the Christmas Tree.

We didn't board til a little after noon, I believe. So, we ate at the buffet; looked around the ship a bit; made dinner reservations and checked out the kids club (Which I was so worried about and C didn't even end up going to, because there was so much else to do and he was completely happy), got into our rooms; went to the sailaway party; let C swim a little; had our first dinner (Parrot Cay, except for Mom, Dad, Grandma, Steven, and Shauna, who went to the adult restaurant Palo that night); and went to the night's show "The Golden Mickeys", which C unfortunately slept through.

Princess Lunch

2008-12-29T15:29:00.001-08:00

So, I thought it would be fun to have breakfast for the girls at Cinderella's Royal Table, a restaurant actually located inside the castle. But alas, when I called to make the reservation (like 4 months in advance!), they only had lunch for 6. It's very popular (it's also very expensive!). Anyway, it ended up being me, my sisters Shauna and Jaime, My cousin Becky and her daughter Audrey, and my friend Trish, who came back just to meet us for the lunch. A photo package is included, so when you first walk into to Throne room, it was decorated for Christmas, and they took a pic of all of us with Cinderella. Have to find where I put those pics! Anyway, then they call your name ("Royal Family Whatever"), and you go up the spiral staircase to the dining hall.

The Princesses were really only interested in Audrey. This was pretty much fine with us. Shauna did get a pic with one of them. Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, and Mary Poppins all came by the table. Here are Audrey and Belle:
I just love this one. It's Becky, with the wand they gave us, casting a spell or making a wish or something. It was a presentation they told us all to do and then the room got all sparkly. Beck got way into it!

Becky and Audrey:

Me and Trish:

Shauna and Jaime with their menus:

All in all, very fun and girly. And the food was great!

Disney World!!!!

2008-12-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

Ha! I figured out how to change the pictures around! Sorry, pretty proud of myself. Been trying to do this for months.

Anyway, as I said, we got to the parks, specifically Disney Hollywood Studios (still SO hard to call it that! Maybe I'll get used to the name change in about 10 years) at 9am. We were early actually. My friend Trish was letting us into the park with her Silver Pass, and I hate to make someone wait when they're doing us such a favor! We wanted to do the Studios first because we wanted to see the new Toy Story attraction. Here getting off the tram after parking:

The Toy Story attraction was pretty cool. It's an interactive 3-D midway shooting game. I took lots of pics of the waiting queue, but see no reason to post them here.

Here is Christopher in the Playhouse Disney Show. As you can see, he LOVED it. It features 4 of his favorite Disney Channel Shows, and all of their characters. He's seen it before, but I guess it hasn't lost it's appeal! You can tell he's happy from this pic, but you can't tell that in addition to clapping, he was dancing all over the place!

After the Studios, we headed over to Magic Kingdom. I had lunch reservations in the Castle for most of the girls. That will be a seperate post. Anyway, we met up with my cousin Becky and her daughter Audrey. She is 7 months younger than Christopher. After lunch, we all rode the carousel, so here's a pic of C and Audrey on their horses:

And I got a pretty good shot of Spaceship Earth in Epcot this trip:

And of course, pics of the castle are a dime a dozen, but I've never gotten to see it done up for Christmas this way before:

So, on the 20th we did 3 parks (some of the family actually did all 4!). We went with plenty of people. My whole family (Well, Denise got there in the evening and just did a couple of attractions, and Steven wasn't in town yet; but they got to go the 26th), Grandma Montes, Joel's parents, and his brother Jeremy all came. At Epcot Jeremy, who drew my name for Christmas, let me pick a pearl from an oyster in Japan. I got a pretty decent sized one and he even had it set in a necklace for me. Not something I would ever do for myself, but it was a lot of fun! Mostly we (as in, Joel and I) just tried to get in the things C really wanted to do, and I think we were pretty successful. Everyone else hopped around and did what they really wanted to. We opened the parks up and almost closed them down (I think my family actually did). 9am to after 11pm! The next morning we were off to the cruise!

Roadtrip 2008!!

2008-12-29T14:31:00.000-08:00

Get ready, and comfortable, this is going to take a few posts! So, we took our Christmas trip, which started with driving down to Florida beginning the 18th of December. Here goes:

OK, I can not for the life of me figure out why blogspot changes the order of your pics as they load. And I don't know how to switch them, I've tried everything! So, I'll just deal with how they did it:

This is from when we stopped at McDonalds in Oklahoma the morning of the 19th, after spinning off the road in Kansas and therefore deciding to head more south. Seriously, Kansas is way low on the list of my favorite states. It's always boring, but this time we got stuck there for 2 hours (due to lots of accidents, I don't know if I've ever seen so many jack-knifed and rolled-over semis!), and then once we finally got going, we hit a patch of ice, spun around more than once, and (thank goodness!) ended up in the median facing the right direction and got right back on the road. I don't know how many more roadtrips like this we should do. I mean, how many times can we spin off the road and not flip or have a ton of damage?? We've been very, very lucky.

And here is Christopher sleeping in the car the night of the 18th. He was very good, all things considered!
Below are the road conditions as we got going the afternoon of the 18th. Not too bad, but we drove right into some bad snow. We probably would have beat out the storm had it not been for all of the accidents making the highway a total standstill a little before Colby, Kansas. I think we lost about 3 hours or so altogether. We were totally motionless for 2!

Shauna and Christopher enjoying some tunes on the ipod as we got on the road. He can be pretty demanding. I think she heard the same song a few too many times! Bubbly is his favorite, but I don't think she had that one, he had to bug Jaime for it.

So anyway, the first day was a little crazy. And as I said, we decided to drop south at Salina, KS. Conditions almost immediately got better. And into Oklahoma it was great. Then we drove across through Little Rock; through the corner of Mississippi; through Birmingham and Montgomery, AL; and down into Florida. We finally arrived around 5am, and took naps and washed up before heading to Disney World by 9am! (well, Joel, C and I and Joel's family made it by 9am..... : ))

Deck the.....living room...

2008-12-03T08:53:00.001-08:00

I was debating whether to even put up a tree this year, but Joel was all for it, and half the stuff was already out, so we went for it. I totally changed the way we decorated our tree this year. I used to want to do all blue and silver, but this past year my favorite sister-in-law (and NOT just cuz you're the only one, Jody!) bought me the victorian Minnie Mouse tree topper I was totally coveting at Disney World (don't worry, I've repented... : P). So we got stuff to go with it. Eventually hopefully we'll get some of the other ornaments that actually go with Minnie. But for now, we got some poinsettas and balls, and lots of Disney ornaments (those aren't really visible, if we even had them on when I took the pic). Anyway, I love how it turned out! The (mostly) completed tree unlit.

....and lit

C admiring the tree before Joel even got all the lights working. He had a blast helping out!

My Little Boy

2008-12-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

The other night Christopher fell asleep in my arms. It had been a particularly draining day, more attempts at potty training, lots of talking back, not listening, etc. And so I looked down at him and thought How can something so adorable, so docile, so absolutely angelic, wreak SO MUCH havoc???

The accompanying picture was a few nights earlier, but similar circumstances. He totally conked out on the chair in the living room, and I had to take a picture to remember things like this!

Some great things he does, in the midst of all the craziness, that I want to remember:

-Mornings. He usually ends up in our bed by sometime ridiculously early in the morning, and when he wakes up, it's instant. He looks over at our window, and if he can tell the sun is out, he declares it's definitely time to wake up! If I'm not cooperating, he'll start cock-o-doodle-dooing! He also usually tells me he loves me or I'm beautiful (brainwashing by his father) fairly early on in the day as well.

-Just the way he talks. There are things he adds on to phrases that I have no idea where he learned. He says "either" a LOT. As in "I don't want to do that, either!" Even if we weren't talking about anything else. He also says "right now" after a lot of things when it makes no sense. He told Santa "I want Pixos right now," and Santa looked at me like "huh?". I explained it's just something he says, and he knows Santa brings presents on Christmas Eve. He also says "I'm hungry/thirsty about (something very specific)." Then we have to negotiate to get him to eat or drink anything besides said item.

-He loves to help clean, do dishes, basically anything but pick up his own stuff! This is both endearing and extremely annoying, because it pretty much has to be his idea, and even if he's "helping", it tends to take longer than doing it yourself! Lately he's been cleaning the snow off of the car with Joel, and every flake has to be cleaned off. This never happens of course, because we're usually in a hurry, so he throws a fit in his seat for most of the car trip.

-When he says "Mommy, I want to hold you", and we cuddle. I'm sure this will end sometime soon, and I'll be very sad! He's already refusing to give me kisses, or wiping them off right away if he does!

8 Things...

2008-11-28T11:12:00.000-08:00

This is my last post today, I swear.

I hardly ever do these things, and I don't think Amber meant to tag me(you would use my married initial, right??), but I am not completely sure; regardless, it sounded like fun, and 8 is my favorite number, so here goes:

8 TV shows I watch
Top Chef
The Biggest Loser
Dancing with the Stars
Samantha Who
Law and Order SVU
Heroes
Oprah (occasionally)
Ellen (occasionally)

8 Favorite Restaurants
Costa Vida
Senor Rics
Ale House (Orlando)
Bennegins (but it's closed here, so sad)
Outback
Amura Sushi (Orlando)
Panera
Coldstone Creamery

8 things I did yesterday
made cinnamon rolls for breakfast
watched the Thanksgiving Day parade
helped my family look for Black Friday Deals
gave my son a bath
curled my hair
ate Thanksgiving Dinner
took pictures with family
drove home

8 things I look forward to
Christmas (most of the following are kind of linked to Christmas as well)
the cruise we're taking next month
seeing Joel's family for Christmas
seeing my cousins for New Years
1pm church (Though I'll be sick of it by February or March)
Growing our family somehow
my business growing
Joel finishing school

8 things I love
Family
Friends
the Gospel
my job(s)
sleep
travel
warm weather
being a mom

8 things I can't stand
driving on icy roads
doing smelly dishes
ignorance
when my computer doesn't work
potty training
endless laundry
idleness
rudeness
rap music

8 things on my wishlist
more kids
seeing my extended family more
a house
new clothes
my business doing well
a good vacation and everyone being happy on it
eventually I would like to get my ear fixed
being able to travel more

8 people I am tagging ( have no idea if or when anyone will do this!)
Jeanine
Becky
Jeannie
Jamie
Kelly D.
Patti
Melissa B.
Janisa

Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty typical family Thanksgiving. Denise was visiting from Utah. We spent the night so Joel could participate in the Annual Aurora Highlands Ward Turkey Bowl, at which my father got a black eye; and the youth beat the older guys for the first time in many moons, largely in thanks to Mitchell and his friends, who actually play footbell. We girls made cinnamon rolls, watched the Macy's parade, and looked for Black Friday Deals.

Lorae and her family came over for dinner. We had roasted turkey, fried turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, greens, green bean casserole, lorae's mac and cheese, rolls, gravy, and of course, pie. I may be forgetting something else. There was a lot of food!

Being me, I remembered to bring my camera, but neglected to actually take it out to take pictures. So, these ones are courtesy of my sister(s):
Here's one of all the sisters. Everyone curled their hair, so I had to too. Of course, it looks much better on all of them. But remember, I cut and color all that hair!

Then we had to add our Mommy

Here we are the night before at the Mall, when we took C to see Santa. Jaime also bought him a Koala Build-A-Bear.

Here are all the girls at Thanksgiving, when we added Lili and Lorae.

Here's the whole immediate family. Back row: Jaime, Denise, Mom, Dad, Me, and Shauna; Front rown: Steven, Mitchell, Joel, and of course, Christopher.

Pixos

2008-11-28T10:32:00.000-08:00

Well, we decided at the last minute to take C to see Santa the day before Thanksgiving. We went to Cherry Creek Mall as usual, but this year we were with all of my sisters, and a friend of Shauna's.

Does anyone remember last year's picture? Neither Christopher OR Santa were smiling, so this year is definitely an upgrade! C told Santa he wants Pixos. I had no idea what they were until a couple of weeks ago. I still don't really know how to describe them, but he's been obsessed ever since he saw a commercial for them on TV. He's a little distressed that we forgot to tell Santa we'll be in Florida, but I told him we can write a letter to let him know. This Christmas stuff is kinda fun with a kid his age.

We also put up the tree. Pics of that coming soon.

Twilight

2008-11-21T14:14:00.001-08:00

I really, really wanted to like this movie, ya'll (sorry, it slips out once in a while and I just have to use it)! But I didn't expect to. I'm always disappointed by movies based on books I've read. I love books. I also love good movies, but somehow when you read about it first, it just never matches the movie you make in your mind, I suppose.

But I'm really bummed because this is the one chance to make a really good book a decent movie. And what we got was a low-budget (the sparkling effect looks like when Comcast doesn't come in right!), not-so-greatly-acted (They're both supposed to be wry and sarcastic, not sullen and depressed!!) movie. Harry Potter cut way too much out for me and focused on the wrong story lines, IMO, but at least it was made well (tho it did take a couple of movies for those kids to not be completely awkward!). It probably didn't help that I was surrounded by the crowd I was surrounded by. But I should start at the beginning....

I went with my 2 sisters, Shauna and Jaime; 3 students from the high school Shauna (and I) work at; one of my beehives and a good friend's daughter, Morgan; and my friends Denise (who had never read the book), and Kelly. Shauna, Taylor, Morgan and I went to a late dinner at Chili's, and then Morgan and I went to the theatre while the others went to get treats at the grocery store. Everyone was meeting us at the movie. We got to the theatre at 10pm, and there were about 40 or so people (mostly teens) in front of us. They let us into the theatre a little after 10:20. The theatre was half full as soon as they let us in. The dozen girls behind us were definitely LDS, and I wanted to start singing YW camp songs and see how many people joined in, but I resisted. Everyone else got there slowly (Kelly gave us a scare, she got there right as the movie started because her poor husband had to work RIDICULOUSLY late. Poor Simon!) I ended up sitting between Jaime and Morgan for the movie.

Now I have to take a moment and talk about my sister Jaime. Is anyone more hilarious? I mean seriously. She is so blunt and just does not put up with anything she thinks is crap. I love that about her, probably because it's SOO not me! I'm so sensitive to everyone around me, and very careful about being.......um, PC I guess, not offending anyone. She is definitely aware of those around her too, in her own way- if she's on your side she's fierce- but she'll just tell everyone how it is, at least how it is in her opinion. I laughed a lot during the movie because she was just rolling her eyes. At the movie, and the ridiculous reactions of the girls around us....everything. She cracks me up.

On the other side, Morgan was pretty funny too. She is not your average 12 year old, and she was not impressed by most of the things ALL those other girls were. Although she was swooning quite a bit over the guy who plays Edward, whom I am not crazy about. More about that later.

Those girls (whenever I say this, I mean, the majority of the theater), sighed, giggled, squealed, or gasped EVERY time a new character came on the screen. As if they haven't been seeing pictures and clips of all of these people for the past 4 months!! They also clapped at a couple of extremely odd times.

I'm trying really hard not to spoil anything for anyone who may read this prior to seeing the movie, but I have to log a couple of observations. 1) Robert Pattinson (Edward) does some SCARY stuff with his eyes, thus making it very hard for me to swoon the way I really want to over Edward!! He also is a little too sullen. All I kept thinking was how he said he played Edward as manically depressed. Eww. Tortured soul maybe, but manic depression?? 2) Kid who plays Jacob, hair, all wrong. Seriously. 3) Kirsten Stewart (Bella), lighten up, for goodness sakes!! Depressing, depressing, depressing. She's practically monotone. And with both of them playing their parts SOO seriously, the romantic stuff really gets lost. 4) special effects, not so special. 5) make-up, bad. 6) After all the stuff they cut (which I understand, I really do), the spider-monkey thing??? Please. This is not a spoiler, because it's even in a trailer or two. 6) If you hadn't read the book, it just didn't make sense. Denise was totally confused, and I don't blame her.

On the other hand, I thought the guy playing Bella's Dad was a bright spot. And maybe Rosalie. The rest of the Cullens barely had anything to do. Some of the school kids were pretty entertaining.

Hopefully, they'll get a much bigger budget for New Moon. We're probably stuck with the actors, though. PLEASE at least let them improve the way the Harry Potter kids have. Let us all pray.... Anyway, just my 2 cents.

Savage Boy- starring Christopher

2008-11-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

K, call me stupid, but I couldn't figure out how to post a video as an actual post. I know it's possible, and if anyone wants to share the secret with me, please do.

So anyway, my siblings, Jaime and Steven, are in a film class together. They made one of their recent assignments, doing a dream sequence, with Christopher as the star. It's on Facebook and Youtube, but I thought I'd post it here so everyone can see it. He was difficult to work with, from what I hear, so I don't think we have a child star on our hands. But Jaime did a great job editing and it's really cute! He actually won't watch it anymore. He got scared of the stuffed animals roaring at him during filming, and now he has a new clause in his contract for any film he makes not to work with them. Haha, just kidding!

So anyway, since I'm technically challenged, it's at the very bottom of this page!

Halloween Night

2008-11-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

Who can tell Kristen just finally got to upload all her pics on the new computer??? OK, ok, put your hands down. Here is my documentation of actual Halloween Night C enjoying a sugar cookie after Trick or Treating.

C hiding behind his cup, and Lily in her Snow White costume. Ironic, huh? : P

JoJo was a ninja. Here he is with his sister.

Had ti\o include this one even tho C didn't cooperate. Joel was the Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George a couple of years ago. And since C decided to be a monkey this year, he resurrected it. Aren't they cute???

Day at the Zoo with cousins!

2008-11-20T11:00:00.000-08:00

We went to the zoo in mid-October with my cousin (in-law, if it matters) Jeanine and her kids. We always love to hang out with them and we had a lot of fun. Here are some pics.

The kids all wanted to use my camera outside the main monkey house, so here is (I believe) Jason's attempt at taking a pic of me and Abby.

This was by photographer Abby

This one was Zander

And I took this one of all the kids. Clark-the-baby-we-barely-knew-was-there (so quiet!) is in the back of the stroller, and Jason is in front hamming it up. C is sitting between Abby and Zander. Fun bunch!

How C compares to penguins in height.

Lolabelle Salon, Ltd.

2008-11-19T23:04:00.000-08:00

So here (finally) are some pics of the salon. This is the front door. You can't really read anything, but the circle up there says Lolabelle and 15, which is my studio number. The door also says Lolabelle, that one you can read if you're looking for it.
This is my product shelf and side and back wall. I sell Paul Mitchell and Pureology products. You can also see the fridge and some of my tools, and one of my waiting chairs.
The sink, backbar, cabinets, and everything reflected in the mirrors : )

I wish I was there more and busier, as I've stated in the blog before, but I love having this space and feeling really active in the industry again. I'm way excited about the future and really getting going. I officially opened October 20th, and my first client was one I've been doing for a few months now. She's the wife of a paramedic I work with at Coors Field. He helped me a LOT in getting started, as he's getting his masters in Taxation. They were so sweet, they brought me flowers (You can see them on the top shelf about the sink), toasted the occasion with sparkling cider (the bottle of which- after C drinking most of it single-handedly, is also near the sink in the pic), and both signed an official "first dollar". I couldn't have asked for a more awesome first day!

I also had a great time decorating the place, with a lot of help from my friend Charlie who is an UpperCase Living rep. I ordered the stuff on the walls, but she's completely responsible for the cute seasonal stuff around the place. I love how the paint turned out. If I didn't have 5 jobs already, I might try interior decorating! : P

patchwork thoughts

2008-11-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

Like the title says, this is just a random post to catch up a little bit on everything.

1) The salon is getting busier, which is great. But I still would like to be there more, and more regularly. But it's been really good for me altogether. It's forced me to talk to new people, both in attempting to get more clients, and meeting more people in the industry. The people who work around me are great, I'm having a blast getting to know them.

2) I've been subbing at the high school a bit the past couple of weeks. Which means C has been spending time with Grammy and Papa. He never wants to leave there. Monday when I picked him up, he was helping rake leaves. I have pictures of this somewhere. They did the front lawn and the next-door neighbors (who just moved in and are friends from my parents' ward). C was so proud to help. He thinks he's Papa's little shadow and can help him with everything.

3) Just one month now til we leave for vacation. I am SO excited. It's taking everything I have not to post everyday about Disney and cruising and seeing both families for Christmas. I can NOT wait.

4) I hate computers. I have become so dependant on them. We just got ours back, which means I still have to load everything on. Thus, there are no pictures yet, even tho they are waiting in the camera. If I don't check my email, facebook, family website, and friends' blogs everyday, I am lost. Not to mention Joel is going to college online and needs to do schoolwork almost every day. My parents gave us their old laptop to get us through, but it's just a pain to not have our computer with all of the programs we need on a consistent basis, and I can't figure out why it keeps happening!

5) I've been doing the Grocery Game. I never thought I would actually do it, but I joined up and have already saved a lot of money. We spent $54 on over $100 worth of groceries the other day. And it will get much better, because I didn't even have most of the coupons on the list because I haven't been clipping them long enough.

6) I've been flirting with the idea of getting rid of everything we've saved of christopher's. Our storage space is full of all of his clothes, toys, and baby stuff (swing, highchair, carrier), and I just think 'why are we keeping it all?' but every time I really think about it, I cry and feel like doing that would be totally giving up on having more kids. Which is kind of dumb, because we're much better off than when we had C, and if we had to get new stuff, it would be fine. But I'm a completely sentimental person, and I want them to have some of the same stuff. I wish I knew what was going to happen. A good friend who completely understands my situation suggested I just go through all of the boxes and save a few special things I really want, which may work for me. Any other ideas?

I think that's about it for now. I'm going to try to make progress in my catastrophe of a house. Tho I just read an email my dad sent that just made me want to throw everything away. If only I could really do it!

Proposition 8 in California

2008-11-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

In the same vein as my last post, this is mostly for remembrance purposes.

The past couple of days, since the election, people have been protesting outside some of our temples in California. There have also been reports of vandalism, and calls for murdering supporters of the issue, since it passed. I find this ludicris. Our local newspaper had a picture of a woman outside of the Fresno temple, holding a sign which said "Mormons have 10 wives, why can't I have 1?" First of all, do your stinking research! It's amazing that they're saying w're ignorant and unaccepting, and then would say something so uninformed. But more than that, news stories show them doing mock wedding ceremonies and writing "hate" crossed out in chalk. This is not about hate, or beings freaked out by same sex couples. It's about protecting something we deem sacred. I love my gay friends. And I want them to be happy, and in healthy, secure relationships. However, without the protection this proposition gives, there would be effects that our beliefs do not support.

Also, aren't these a lot of the same people calling for unity, equality, and acceptance?? This decision was made by the same system we used to decide everything else that day. It was voted on by every Californian who chose to vote. Not to mention Florida and Arizona, who both had similar propositions on their ballots. Obviously, protecting marriage between a man a woman is important to a lot of people, and not just Mormons. Just because they find out that members of the church donated a lot to a cause they believe in, they decided that they're the people to target their anger at. Generally, they won a lot of things that day, and they may even win this sometime in the future. Something tells me it's not going away.

Anyway, I hope all of the Saints who are out there will be safe. Our buildings can be fixed or replaced, but people being hurt for supporting an issue is really unacceptable. I just wish that people would be honorable and do the right thing, especially when it's what they preach most of the time.

OK, climbing down from my soapbox now...

Election 2008

2008-11-06T17:28:00.000-08:00

I thought I should probably blog about the big news of the week. If for no other reason, because it IS historic, and maybe I or my child(ren) or grandchildren will want to know how I felt about the whole thing in the future.

I make no secret of the fact that I did not vote for Barack Obama. But I knew he would probably win, for several reasons. My reasons for not voting for him are also many. His healthcare plan makes me nervous. I completely disagree with him on the subjects of abortion and infanticide. I also have concerns about whether he knows how to carry out his grand plans. But now, we will see. And certain things about having our first (partially) black president appeal to me. Our country has definitely come a long way. The only reason I thought he might not win was because of how prejudice a lot of people still are. I have no qualms about having a black president, I think in concept it's great; he's just not one I agree with. In the very beginning, I found him very intriguing, and not being thrilled with McCain, I wanted to look at both candidates very closely.

I think my bottom line is: I believe that people who work hard deserve to be rewarded, and that we should all be held responsible for our decisions. My family is certainly not in one of the upper brackets of income, and therefore will (supposedly) benefit from Obama's tax plans. However, I don't necessarily think wealthy people and big businesses should be taxed more to make up the difference. Most of those people went to a lot more school than I did, and have a lot more in student loans to payback. And as for the accountability part, I think a lot of things that liberals stand for disregard that. It's like "Here, go have sex unprotected and whenever you want, we'll create the morning-after pill and legalize abortion for you!" and the idea of universal healthcare kind of falls under the same category.

Anyway, I don't expect everyone to agree. That's what makes our country great. I just wanted to remember specifically my thoughts on the situation. I am anxious to see how the situation unfolds. It was definitely exciting to watch the news and see the people so passionate about what they had come together to do. And I respect their beliefs and their excitement, and in a lot of ways, I hope they're right. We shall see!

Let's go, a GNO!

2008-11-05T08:49:00.001-08:00

For those of you not familiar with the Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus??) song, GNO stands for Girls Night Out. We had a great one a couple of Saturdays ago and I finally got a new computer and gathered some decent(ish) pics. A friend in the ward, Kealey, invited a bunch of us to an annual fundraising event for Volunteers of America called Western Fantasy. It's something her parents regularly support but were unable to attend this year. So, thanks to them, 10 of us had a fun Girls Only night out! Most of the girls are from my ward, and there was also a relative of Kealey's and a friend of hers from college. It was a lot of fun, we got to dress up country style. It's held at the Stockshow complex and there's dinner, silent auction, and entertainment.

Probably the coolest part- the concert. The main guest was Dierks Bentley. Not necessarily my favorite, but I love country music, it's about all I listen to in the car now, so I was surprised to find I knew all the songs he played but 2 or 3. It's a really great intimate concert setting, so here I am right next to the stage.

Addie, myself and Stacey at our table.

Andrea, myself and Stacey.

Here's all of us, and you can finally see that Stacey was VERY pregnant! From l-r in the back: Addie, Kristin, Andrea, Kealey, and Bree (sp?) front: Jessica, myself, Michelle, Stacey, and Emily.

So, thanks again for including me, Kealey! I had a great time. It was a great group and a really fun thing to get to do!

6 years and counting....

2008-11-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Joel and I hit 6 years of marriage. We celebrated Saturday by going out to the Cheesecake Factory (love that place!!!), he also got me a CD I really wanted, and a couple of DVD's. I got him a nice Rockies polo and some new shoes. I'm such a dork, but no matter how much I want to get him something cool, practicality always wins out for me, and he really needed shoes! : P I know 6 years isn't a lot to some people, but it's a while, and we've definitely been through a lot!

I don't talk about my dear husband nearly enough, so I thought I would list some things I love about him.

1) He works really hard. He's working full-time AND doing school online right now, and I know he wasn't thrilled about that prospect. But he's been doing a great job. I just hope I've been as good as I've tried to be about giving him all of the time he needs for school at home. It's so hard some days not to just throw my hands up as soon as he gets home and make him deal with Christopher, but I'm really trying to be as supportive as I can. He is doing it for our family, after all.

2) He's always the first to apologize and forgive. Sometimes, this just makes me more angry, but I'm working on it! I just don't switch gears as fast, but I realize it's a blessing to me that he does.

3) He always puts me first. I have a hard time with this one too. I always have to remind myself that it's our partnership in marriage and with Heavenly Father first. It's so easy to put C ahead of everything else, because I think "well, he's the young child that I'm responsible for, and Joel is grown and should be able to take care of himself". I'm trying to learn that he and our relationship need nurturing just as often, if not more, than Christopher. Not sure this makes sense to anyone else, but it does to me!

4) He really is my best friend. No one gets me like he does, and he takes my side so automatically and vehemently in things that sometimes I'm taken aback. There's no one I'd rather spend my time with. And I guess it's a good thing, since we're stuck with each other for quite a while!

Trunk or Treat #2

2008-10-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

I mentioned before that we always to to my parents' ward Trunk or Treat, so that was #1, but Shauna is the only one who took pictures there and she's in California for the week. So, those pictures will come later.

I've actually been forgetting my camera everywhere I go lately. So, part of waiting to post this stuff is just because I'm at the mercy of those who are much better at remembering theirs to send me the pics!

Luckily, my friend Kelly is generous AND prompt. She sent me the pics from our own ward Trunk or Treat- which was last night- to me this morning. It turned out great. A friend in the ward decided that we really needed to have an event this year, and she was great at pulling it together. It's Fall Break for the schools around here, so a lot of people are out of town, but we had a great turnout! My trunk is a mess, plus I just have a little sedan, so we joined in on Kelly's car and handed out our candy there. She did a great job decorating, as did a lot of people in the ward. I was amazed at the theming! I didn't even dress up. Such a slacker. Anyway, here are just a couple of pics of C in his costume. I think he liked giving out the candy more than getting his own! Weird kid : P Here he is with Kelly's son Kaiden giving candy out of Kelly's car. Kaiden's a bit older than C, but they like to hang out together. C always likes older kids.

He especially loved to give out the eyeballs!

He loves the "big tummy" on his costume. We looked at lots of them, but he was determined to be "a monkey WITH a banana"!

Anyway, we had lots of fun. I think Christopher is good on the candy front, but we will be going Trick or Treating in my parents' neighborhood anyway. You just have to! Plus, he LOVES wearing that costume! After this we picked up Joel from work and went to dinner at Costa Vida (I have been eating there way too much lately.....), and we had to bribe him to take the costume off before we went in the restaurant!

Autumn, new business, Halloween

2008-10-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a few days, mostly because our computer got infected again and it seems kind of hopeless that we'll get it back at all. I don't know why this keeps happening! I'm just praying my brother can save most of my pictures. We already lost most of the ones we had from the first couple of years of C's life. Which all makes me even more grateful for this blog! Anyway, my mom gave me a laptop so I could at least check email and I thought I should post, even if I can't put up pics yet.

I opened for business last week and it was great. A little bit of stress over baby-sitting, but mostly it went as planned. My first client and her husband brought sparkling cider and flowers, and gave me an official "first dollar", it was really thoughtful of them. I'll post some pics of the salon when I get the new computer. I turned out great.

I've decided I love Fall in Colorado and will really miss it if we move away. But there are so few days that are really Autumn! We're already talking about snow and I definitely will NOT miss that!

We went to our first Halloween party this past weekend. We always crash my parents' ward Trunk or Treat so we can see old friends. C was thrilled to wear his "monkey with a banana" costume, and of course, he was adorable. Our ward is actually having one this year too, so we'll go to that on Wednesday. I should have pics from both; and of course, Halloween, soon.

I had a fun weekend I will also be posting pics from soon. We've been very busy lately! I really function better that way. Throwing myself into my new business and attending more of he social church stuff lately has been really good for me. I think I did OK after everything happened this summer, but I did get a little angry for a little longer than I would have liked, and I sort of felt lost and frustrated. Luckily, there has been an increase in new, younger couples and families in our ward lately and I've gotten to meet new people and I love it.

Lots more to come in the next couple of days!

C and his pumpkin....

2008-10-16T11:04:00.001-07:00

It's been a tradition since we've lived here to take pics of C out in front of our building in the Fall when the leaves are changing and all over our landscaping. Since we didn't get any pictures of his pumpkin yesterday, I convinced him to take it down and pose for me a little bit. He picked a pumkpin based on it being "little-big, like me!"
I know this looks a lot like one of the shots from last year, but he really is watching leaves fall this time! I didn't have assistants to throw them over him. Plus, they were all wet!
Always in motion....
twirlingShowing off his pumpkin

......more pumpkin pics

2008-10-16T10:56:00.001-07:00

C wasn't quite tall enough, but he loved this one
Terrifying Dracula!
I think this is supposed to be the one-eyed-purple-people eater, but I didn't see a horn....
The one picture I got of actual pumpkins!
These butterflies were all over just this one type of flower. And you could walk right up to them and they didn't care at all! I think there are 3 in this pic.

"Pumpkin Patch"

2008-10-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Nick's Garden Center (the Pumpkin Patch, to Christopher), where they have a Fall Fest. We did it a couple of years ago with our church playgroup, and decided to go back this year. It was Joel's day off, so it was even better since he could come along. They have a great little setup, and it's all free. Christopher loved it. He was really excited to go pick out his "big little pumpkin." Of course, not-so-smart mom forgot to take pictures of that part! But I got some great ones of him having fun. There will be another post of pics, since I can never narrow it down enough! C finding his way through the Hay Maze
In the bouncing castle
With Daddy waiting to go on the hayride
The cute little tractor that pulls the hayride
We found out C is just over 3 ft tall! He was thrilled cuz he's obsessed with the number 3 right now.

Momma's Boy

2008-10-09T12:28:00.001-07:00

Not the best pic of either of us, but we took it together and C loves it. My mother still calls him a Momma's Boy and says he's too attached to me, but recently I've realized that mostly he's just in a phase where he wants to have more control than he does. I know I posted about him saying he hates me and Joel. And now he more frequently says to me "I don't love you anymore, get a boy at the new boy store" in a sad little voice. He know it hurts me, I just can't hide it, I've tried. But mostly he only says these things when I'm making him do something against his will. Mostly right now it's things with scheduling. He wants to have control over where we go, and when. Most days wherever we leave for in the morning, he'll say "I don't want to go there!" but when we get to that destination, after a few minutes, he's fine. Then when we go to leave that place, he doesn't want to go wherever we're going next! It's mostly just frustrating because it takes us longer to get around, he puts up quite the fight!

So, it's the same thing if I leave him somewhere. He just wasn't ready to be away from me. But just as often as he cries when I leave him at my parents', later when I walk through the door, he immediately puts a hand up and says "No! I don't want to go home with you!" So, I just can't win!

I've also noticed that he uses the momma's boy thing to his advantage. When we try to put him to bed, and he says "I just want to cuddle you, mommy," I can not resist. He knows this, so he'll use it to stay up a few more minutes talking with me. Little manipulating devil. If only he weren't so darn cute!

And finally....."a day in the life of me at the ballpark"

2008-10-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is 3/4 of (usually) the Command Center staff. We always have Wally and I, barring emergency surgery, having a baby, or other reasons to miss on either of our parts. I do the maintenance, engineering, stadium ops, and other random calls; Wally is in charge of security checks, opening gates, atms, and other random calls. Then we always have a member of the Denver Police Department. Shown here is Detective Holly K. She does more than half the games. Then we also have a Denver Paramedic. They've gotten more and more random, the one there at this game took this pic for us. Don't we look happy?? : P During the DNC and playoff and World Series games last year, we also had a member of the FBI in there with us. Fun times.
This is before the game. My view looking towards most of the CC. The paramedic sitting there is Tim. Before the game, one of the bike medics sits with us to dispatch any batting practice assaults. Their dispatcher doesn't get there until later. Just this year the bikes got these nifty neon, reflective shirts, mostly because of the DNC. They love them SOOOOO much. lol : P.
This is my view of the ballpark from my seat. In fact, I think I scooted over to the left a bitto take this pic, because usually I can't see much more than first base. I watch most of the game on TV. As you can see, the more people standing on the concourse, the less we can see. Our view is blocked most of the time during games.

more "A day in the life of C at the ballpark"

2008-10-09T12:02:00.001-07:00

Then they head over to the interactives area, where he plays Tball. I think his swing and follow-through were better when he was 1 1/2!
C as (I think) Jeff Francis.
Then they'll head almost halfway around the ballpark to the playground. Joel hardly gets to watch the games anymore because C will insist on going back and forth between Tball and the playground. Occasionally stopping in the 3rd inning to see Dinger. I don't know why Joel complains so much about it. It's not like the Rockies were worth watching much this year anyway : P
Not sure what this is supposed to be. A Rockies milk truck? I just like the pic of C.
More sliding. He really loves slides. Except at McDonald's, because he's too short for the equipment to get up to them, but he still insists on going there and making me eat that disgusting food......sorry, little off-subject......

As promised....

2008-10-09T11:34:00.001-07:00

My boys in the Command Center with me. They usually come in and see me as soon as they get in the gates, 2 hours before game time. Sometimes they take the Mallride to 16th street first and bring me back a Jamba Juice : ). When they get in the park, the Rox are usually having batting practice. Matt Holliday has almost hit them walking across the back pavilion concourse twice! If only he could do that more during games....
C sitting on the counter next to me, in front of the security camera monitor.
Detective Holly giving C a Junior Officer sticker. He's gotten several of course....

Kristen Gainey, business owner

2008-09-26T20:14:00.001-07:00

So, it is actually done. It's been a crazy week, between setting up the business and substituting at the high school. But Monday I contacted a commercial lawyer to set up all of the actual business work, and so far I think it's well worth the money. He advised me to be an S-corporation instead of an LLC, makes sure the name I want isn't taken, and files all of the stuff for me. Hair people are mostly creative, so the business side is not our favorite. The lawyer was recommended to me by a friend who happens to be getting his masters in taxation. He will be helping me keep my books and file my taxes, which I will have to do quarterly come the new year. Then on Thursday evening I went and signed a 2 year lease. I have to say, I have mostly felt good about it from the start, but all that day I was pretty nervous, It's a big commitment! But, once I got there, I felt completely calm and confident. And I have to say, the company I ended up signing up with is fantastic. They have thought of everything, and make it so easy. They lay out everything you need to so step-by-step. I also met a lot more of the other women in the building, and they all seem very nice. It's very empowering to be in a building completely full of women business owners, and most of them seem to be doing very well!

I officially start on the 20th, give or take. I wanted to give myself time to decorate, move in, and get the word out to my clients. I'm offering 15% off the first visit, and 25% off an entire visit for each referred new client. Next stop, business cards and brochures. I'm very excited.

It's interesting, I've been subbing at Rangeview in the attendance office, and it's not exactly barrels of fun, but the days go by really fast, I'm busy the whole time, and I don't think I've ever had a job like that before! The woman I'm in for is actually leaving, and had I known a week or so earlier, I would have seriously considered taking the job I've practically been offered. Funny how things work out, but I firmly believe they are working out for the best. Starting the company has made me learn a lot very quickly, and I have loved the challenge and adrenaline. It's also helped me get my mind off of the having more children thing, giving me something else to focus on. Now I can go ahead knowing that, while we still really want and will try to have more children somehow, I can be useful another way and if it doesn't work out, I have another "baby" of sorts. Joel has been so supportive and encouraging. He's excited to help me with things like inventory and paperwork. It's been fun embarking on something else together.

Don't despair, and entire entry about Christopher is coming. I have some fun new pics to post, I'll try to get to it this weekend.

100 books...

2008-09-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

My friend Jeannie posted this and I thought it was kind of cool. This is what she posted with it:

The Big Read is a NEA program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six. I have highlighted the titles that I have read.

Unlike Jeannie, I was kind of surprised at how many I haven't read, being a pretty big reader. And I was surprised how many of the ones I have that I don't remember that well, mostly because they were assigned in school. I prefer easier reading for the most part now. But some of my all-time favorites are on the list. I'd be curious to see everyone else's list.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Wow, you guys, this stuff is kind of hard....

2008-09-20T18:36:00.001-07:00

So, still trying to set up my own business. I've done a lot of research, footwork, praying and decision making; and now maybe all for nothing. Let me back up. I went this week to check out both of the places I was interested in having a salon studio in. Decided on one, which wasn't too hard. It just fits my situation better mostly, and offers some incentives that are very helpful. I talked to a guy who can help me with the taxes, and is also suggesting a lawyer to set everything up for me on the business side. I went through a painstaking process of deciding which product line to carry (hard because I was trained on a couple of different lines, but have some interesting connections to another). All of this while still working Rockies games. I had one day off. And finally, I really sat down and figured out numbers. Whether I have enough clients, how much start-up will really cost, marketing, what I still need equipment-wise, all of that. And I figured by this coming week, to sign paperwork and really get the business side started (I can actually start working without the state licensing, I just have to prove I'm in the process of getting it), I need at least $700. Not too bad.

So, this would have all been totally fine, as we were expecting the surplus from Joel's student loans which would have covered it with no problem. However, Friday we found out that for some reason this time the funds were split differently, and we'll be getting the whole amount in March. Warning: severe whining to follow. We don't NEED all of that in March!!! I just need some of it now!

I'm still hoping that we can scrape it together and everything will work out, but sheesh, can't anything go my way this year??

Topherisms

2008-09-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

Thought I would mention a couple of things C does that just crack me up.

First of all, he lives on very few types of food, tho he'll try lots of stuff on good days. He almost exclusively eats: chicken nuggets, quesadillas, avacados (but not with quesadillas, literally a bowl of avacado cut up), pbj (he must "pour" the jelly), ham and cheese (we actually switch off between ham and turkey, but he calls them all ham),waffles and cereal.

Lately, he cries almost whenever we leave anywhere. If we're leaving home, he wants to stay there and doesn't want to go wherever we're going. And when I drop him off at anyone's to be watched or play, he cries for me. However, when I try to pick him up, or leave whereever we went, he wants to stay there. This is a huge pain, and takes up quite a bit of time. Last night tho, he really broke my heart. I picked him up from my parents' after work, and he cried "I want to stay at Papa's!" He proceeded to wimper this in the car all the way home, and when we got in the door, he stomped his foot and screamed it at me. This was all fine, but then he started to to cry in this pitiful voice: "I don't like you guys" and "I don't love you guys." Now, the logical side of me realizes that he's 3 and has no idea what he's saying, but.....ouch! I found myself trying to reason with him and telling him he gets to go a lot of fun places, but we have to leave them eventually and go home, or somewhere else. I'm not sure how well it worked....

Quite often, C is at my parent's house at 9pm, when they read scriptures. They all take turns, and they give Christopher a turn as well. For some reason, he always gets a verse that says "And the Big Bad Wolf stole the cookies......" Sometimes the Big Bad Wolf blows a house down, but you get the idea. We try to explain to him that the scriptures are about Jesus, but remember, this is the kid who thinks Tinkerbell lives in the Salt Lake Temple. : ) Hopefully he'll get really good Primary teachers.

He is already concocting ways to stay up later, although his bedtime is already pretty dang late. More bedtime stories, I need to go potty, I'm thirsty, I wanna cuddle mommy......etc. Pretty sure I didn't try these tricks til I was at least 5 or 6, but I'll have to check with my mother to be sure!

Stressing out a little, family update, etc.

2008-09-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

So, I'm looking into going into business. Kind of. I am trying to get into a salon studio. These are basically malls of individual salons, and it's kind of like boothrenting. You lease the space and basically own your own business. There's the potential to make great money, because you don't have much overhead, but there's still a lot to figure out. Taxes are one thing that are confusing the heck out of me! I want to start off on the right foot, but there's lots of conflicting info out there about it. I think I have someone who's going to help me, thank goodness. The other stuff is start-up cost, having enough clients, deciding which product lines to use, and of course childcare. I think everything will work out, but it's a little daunting to get started!

Not much else is going on. Last homestand for the Rockies, so that's winding down, which is why I'm looking into expanding my hair business at this time. Christopher is still working on potty training. He really is trying, but I'm about to pull my hair out! Joel is plugging along at work and school. That's about it. Anyone with advice on the business thing or potty-training, it would be greatly appreciated!!

Also, I went back and looked at the beginning of the blog, and thought I would do another family update, for anyone who cares.

My parents continue to have their ebay business, and it does pretty darn well. Local Affairs is also still up and running, mostly busy during the summer and holiday seasons.

Denise still teaches 3rd grade in Heber City, UT. She recently moved closer to her work as well. We got to see her a bit this summer. She is also very close to getting her masters degree. I think my mom said it'll be in the Spring. Lots of school, but pretty exciting!

Shauna works at Rangeview High School, running the computer lab and organizing testing. She's Junior class sponsor as well, so lots of planning activities! She also went back to school, with the intention of getting her teaching license to perhaps teach Health classes.

Steven went to BYU for the summer. Now he's back, going to school here, actually taking a film class or two with Jaime; and he just started a new job.

Jaime is working and going to school. She's still dating Andrew. And she's a great aunt to Christopher. Seriously : ).

Mitchell is in his Junior year at Rangeview (yes, he and Shauna see a lot of each other). He still plays football, and this year he is Student Body VP.

I think that's about it, well, a good summery anyway. Any questions?

Pictures

2008-09-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken many really recent pics, but there were some old ones from places I had my phone but not a camera:

These 2 are from Coors Field when he was a little over a year old. Not sure why they stayed so small! The second one is of him peeking into my office. So cute.

This is from this summer, right around his 3rd birthday. He rode an elephant at the Renaissance Festival, we went with Joel's parents.

Baseball Babble

2008-09-12T09:41:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm fairly certain at this point that the Rox won't be having a postseason in 2008. I'm not sure if they're mathematically out of it yet, but they just got swept by a team that has been out for sometime, and if they have a chance, it's very slim. The walk-off balk to end the game on Tuesday in extra innings really killed me. I mean, seriously. I've seen a lot of baseball, and that's the first time I've seen that happen. And lately the team just doesn't seem to care. I think they need a new manager who'll pump 'em up. Or at least give them a swift kick in the pants once in a while! Suffice it to say, I'm not counting on any extra paychecks this October. There's always next year....but this year it wouldn't have taken much to win the suddenly crappy NL West division, a fact that adds to the disappointment.

The 2008 baseball season wasn't a total loss for us. Christopher joined Rockies Rookies this year and got to run the bases. He's played on the field a couple other times, but he really loved running those bases this year! He wanted to go again, but it was mass chaos and we did not want to wait around to see if they'd let him. And he's gotten lots of practice in the free T-ball cage. I think we're going to put him in some kind of baseball or T-ball team next summer. He's getting pretty good. He also logged a few hours at the playground, and in mommy's office, as I've talked about before. Whenever I stop working there, it will be weird to go back, because C probably thinks he owns the place at this point!

As the season draws to a close, I'm looking into business opportunities in hair. Specifically, getting into some type of room or booth renting situation. I'll keep ya posted!

Friendship

2008-09-11T00:55:00.001-07:00

So, it's literally the middle of the night, and I am nowhere near sleep. I thought since I'm up, I would write about something that's been on my mind lately. A few things have kept me thinking about the subject as a whole. I'll try to organize my thoughts, but I make no promises!

First of all, I recently started keeping in better touch and hanging out more with the girl I would have always called my best friend growing up. I realized the last time we got together that we really have very little in common. We're actually probably polar opposites when it comes to religion, politics, moral standards, you name it. But I still really enjoyed my time with her. And even though for years we haven't been very close, we still had so many inside jokes and laughs together. I still want the best for her and think she's fun and admire her for many different reasons, and know that tho we may not always be close, and time may go by that we don't talk at all, we'll always mean a lot to each other because we were always good friends to each other.

Then, an old friend that I have rarely seen in many years reached out to me. I was really glad that he felt he could do that, and that I ever meant enough to him to share this situation with me the way he did.

I also had my 10 year high school reunion last year. An interesting experience to say the least. And of course, I've been getting in touch with many old friends and co-workers through social networking sites, and it's so cool to see what everyone is up to.

I don't know that I would have thought of all of this, but something happened that made me think about what friendship really means. Someone I love very much told me they felt like they didn't have any real friends, and these examples came to mind. I came to the conclusion that there are many levels of friendship, and friends will come and go from our lives, and that's OK.

This has all made me really grateful for some things in my life:

1) My family. Because family is family, and you have to (well, really should), love and forgive each other. And even though we all end up taking out more on family than anyone else, I think in the end it makes us closer despite the hard times.
I'm also glad I was raised to be close to my extended family. At times, my cousins have seen more of me than my sisters, and have had to live with me and know more about me than just about anyone, and now I'm really grateful for that. They put me in check every once in a while and say things that make me realize something about myself I may not have been aware of before.

2) The Gospel. More specifically, the knowledge that spiritually we're all brothers and sisters and in the same boat. At least, in a way. Sometime in my teens, this principle really started sticking with me, and at this point I think I'm pretty good at staying aware of this fact. It really does help with things like road rage, or when the politics of modern-day church life really get to me. I wish everyone was aware of this truth and acted accordingly. I'm not saying I'm perfect at it, not even close. But just think what it would be like if everyone regarded people the way I'm sure they would if they walked around aware that we're all family, all here for the same basic reason, all going through our own problems and trials. We would all be more tolerant, forgiving, and loving. I know I am when I keep this in the forefront for myself.
My husband is really good at this. Anyone who'd been to a public place with him knows this. It's almost embarassing at times how easily he talks to complete strangers, but generally I think it's a great trait. I'm pretty sure he got it from his Dad. I've witnessed him doing those things a lot too.

3) Visiting Teaching. This is another Mormon thing, for any who might think it's a foreign language. I'll be honest, at times in my life, VT has been a pain, and I've taken a negative attitude to being assigned to care about someone, or have them care about me. But I know overall it's a blessing for so many people. And just this year I realized how important it is for me, because when I had what was probably the hardest time of my life, I had the perfect Visiting Teachers for my situation. Over the years I've made a lot of good friends this way, and been made aware of situations and people that I would not have been otherwise.

Anyway, I have realized that we just don't have time to give every relationship our all. We're so darn busy nowadays! We end up closer to some people than others, perhaps because of circumstance more than anything else. I personally love to catch up with everyone, love to see people I used to know and see where they're at now. Sometimes it's a little awkward, but I still think it's great overall. I think that most of these relationships, or lack thereof, happen for a reason. And I really believe we can learn something from anyone who crosses our path, sometimes we just have to look for it a little harder. And sometimes we won't know how or why we needed them until much later. I'm grateful for everyone in my life, whether they've been related, "assigned", or chosen to be my friend!

K, enough late-night rambling. It's now almost 3am and I am going to bed! Love everyone, Seriously!

more Disneyland

2008-09-08T15:25:00.001-07:00

It was bound to happen, I suppose. But I always thought maybe Jaime would be the one to get him in real trouble.... : )

This pic is included because Shauna and I may or may not have spent quite a bit of time browsing Princess merchandise. But because we did, C got to hang out with Peter Pan looking for Tinkerbell!

This is an inside joke for our extended family. Years ago (like 10), we took a trip with my dad's whole side of the family to Disneyland. We made plans several times to meet up at the castle benches, but my family ended up waiting (more than 1 time) hours and the others never showed up. We actually ran into them accidentally once at Haunted Mansion, but otherwise they stood us up. This is a reenactment by the beautiful Shauna.

Disneyland

2008-09-08T15:12:00.001-07:00

MY castle : ) Though I admit, Cinderella castle at WDW is my favorite, especially now with the Dream Suite.
Shauna and Christopher speeding along at, oh, 5 miles an hour : ). C begged to drive, but then he wouldn't~
We got Dream Fastpasses! Well, Joel got 2 of them, and we switched off, but it was cool to get anything.

We went all the way to Disneyland so C could go on a slide! This is actually at California Adventure.
C on the "C" from California at the entrance to both parks.

Back in Alameda and SoCal

2008-09-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Loard's, where mom insisted we had to get ice cream. You all know how I hate ice cream, but we went anyway ; P. It was really good! Mom's sad because they just closed the attached Mervyn's, tho : (.
Shauna attempting to minimize the amount of ice cream all over C's clothes.
Our room at the Marriott, Anaheim. I've never seen anything like the traffic in LA! It took us so much longer to drive down because of it!
The front of the hotel, where we caught the trolley shuttle everyday.

Santa Cruz and Oakland

2008-09-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

This one is self-explanatory
The Boardwalk at Santa Cruz. The rides were expensive, so we skipped them, but we did play a game where I won a stuffed dragon for C. We also played miniature golf, which C was totally into- for about two holes. After that, he would just carry his ball over to the hole!
The beach.
The Oakland Temple, where my parents were sealed.
The gorgeous view from the Oakland Temple.

The Bay Area

2008-09-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

The kitchen at my Grandpa Esposo's in Alameda. Anyone who's had his cooking knows it's the most important room in the house!
My new favorite place to get clam chowder in a sourdough bowl!
The required pic of Alcatraz. Don't know that I've ever actually made the trip over to the island, but maybe when I was very young.....
The also seemingly required pic of the Golden Gate Bridge. To the very left is the ferry we rode in and out on.

The main rooms of Grandpa's house. It's changed a bit over the years, but I have many great memories growing up visiting here.

Utah and California

2008-09-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

This, of course, is the Salt Lake Temple. While we were there (we stopped in Utah for one night to visit my sister, and Joel's paternal side of the family, my parents happened to be out there too), Joel asked Christopher who's house the temple is, hoping he would say Heavenly Father or Jesus. His reply was "Tinkerbell!" This is the point when we realized we may have exposed our son to too much Disney, but that doesn't mean we're stopping!

So, we went from snowy mountains....
To desert hills...... to green California mountains.

I had to include this one because Fairfield is where I was born! Shauna had us stop at In N Out in Vegas for lunch, because she wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Just Chillin'

2008-09-08T13:48:00.001-07:00

I just got done with a week of work for the Rockies, and now I have 4 days off, so C and I really are just chillin'. We're also trying to keep the house in decent shape, since we just worked so hard to get it there. And of course, I'm doing a bit of hair. I'm never really idle, I've realized. But I did get to take a nice bath, read an entire novel, and get to relax a little today, so it's all good. C and I also made runs to beauty supply stores (speaking of which, if anyone ever wants me to get them anything, let me know!). We had to go to 2 because Peel's is being remodeled, and I just didn't want to deal with trying to find what I needed, it's a mess! I think they should just close til it's done. But since no one asked me as usual..... : P

I thought that since I skipped a whole bunch of our vacation from March picture-wise, I would post a few of them today. And since I haven't yet figured out how to post pictures and have them end up where I want them in relation to the text, I'm gonna do it seperately, so there will be several posts from today.

Joely-Poly

2008-09-05T16:25:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I've ever titled a post "Joel," but just in case, I used the nickname given to him by one of my "Disney Princess" friends from back when we were just dating. I still refer to him this way occasionally. But as usual, I digress. I thought since I had recently done a Christopher update, and goodness knows you've all heard enough about me lately, I would do a quick update on Joel too. So, here goes:

Work doesn't change much for our dear head of household, so that's about the same. He still runs a branch of the bank inside a King Soopers grocery store. He's doing great in school online. He just got to the point, with this new block of classes, where he gets to choose his classes. He's excited about that, but they are quite a bit more difficult and steadily more demanding as well. He's currently taking an accounting class and a world religion class, and he's doing very well in both, although to me he seems to be struggling a little more than usual. I don't know if struggling is the right word, but the assignments seem to be harder and he is telling me more about them as he tries to work through it. At church, he recently got released from one of his callings, so he's back to just having his precious primary class, and he truly loves those boys and loves being in Primary.

Other than that, he's just been putting up with me, which is no small feat : ). But really, he's helped me do tons of stuff around the house lately, we've totally cleaned out as we've been going and he's probably done more than me! And he almost always does the dishes for me because, well, I just hate them. Christopher loves to do dishes, but so far only at my parents', so we're going to have to figure out how to carry that over to home! Anyway, now I think you know whats up with all of us, and hopefully I'll be better about the blogs and just log day to day stuff (I'll try not to bore you!). Love everyone!

Update...

2008-09-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

I realized I never updated on the whole tubal pregnancy thing. Following is what I posted to my extended family after I knew everything. It still seems appropriate for most of you, so I just cut and pasted to make it easier on myself! However, this was a little over a month ago now, so below it I updated a little more.

"Just thought I'd update, since most of you know at least part of the situation. Pregnant; miscarriage; not a miscarriage, but an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy I ended up having removed-along with part of me- in emergency surgery. This has been the last month or so of my life. Physically, I feel fine and am basically back to normal, with a couple more scars. But this week, following up with my doctor, we found out my chances of ever conceiving naturally again are very bleak. The tube I have left is to a polycystic ovary (different than what I thought). BUT..... miracles can happen, and I've been told our bodies can do some pretty amazing things. For now we're waiting it out and seeing what happens, and looking into other (mostly very expensive) options. I don't feel hopeless; just discouraged, frustrated, a little sad.... It's hard when your life is not what you thought/tried to plan, I guess. But Joel has been great, and so have all of you (I'd especially like to thank Becky Jo for answering my endless phone calls and just letting me talk to someone!), and I guess Heavenly Father has a different plan than we thought. We're going to roll with it and what is supposed to happen will happen! Sorry if any of this was an overshare for anyone."

So, after this I moved fairly quickly into kind of an angry stage for a while. A lot of frustration because it just seems like there's so much in the news and around about people neglecting their kids to death, or getting pregnant so young or in a bad situation and having no problems. As a good friend of mine with similar issues says "It just seems like crackwhores and teenagers can get pregnant with no problem, and those of us who have loving homes to offer have all the trouble!" I paraphrase, but it's been my favorite quote for a while now. But more than that, in some ways I feel like I'm being punished. And when I think about what we're going to have to go through no matter which way we get more children- which I still believe we're supposed to do- it's very daunting. I mean, considering making payments on our own children, like they're a loan or something, ugh. I still have yet to go to church without breaking into tears at some point......HOWEVER, I don't want everyone to think I'm down all the time. Most days I'm just fine. And I realize that most of these feelings are because I'm just more sensitive to these things right now. I'm sure the news has always had these examples and I just haven't paid as much attention. Same with church talks and lessons. And don't even get me started on that video going around the net about how Obama voted for infanticide! Anyway, I really do have a positive attitude about the whole thing. Like I stated before, I really do think that somehow we are supposed to and will raise more children. And tho it's going to be quite the process no matter which way we get them, imagine how grateful we will be! And how much more we already appreciate Christopher! Just wanted to make sure I'm not just bringing everyone down, but I did want a realistic record, in case at some point my experience can ever help someone else out. Thanks to everyone for caring!

Most recent pics of Christopher

2008-09-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

So, most of you have seen these, and/or gotten some copies (if you didn't, and you would like one, let me know, I have lots!). I thought I would post them, cuz they're way cute. I've always been afraid to make an appointment for professional pics, cuz what if it's just a bad day or something, you know? But Lorae always takes her kids around their birthdays and special occasions, so she took all the kids together around C's birthday this time. It was the best present I'VE ever gotten, and it wasn't even my birthday! I was totally surprised (she kind of kidnapped him while my mom was babysitting for me. I was at work and didn't see them until about a week later), and very grateful. Thanks again, RaeRae, you rock!!

Autumn is coming...

2008-09-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd write more about Christopher. I'm sure that's what most people want to know about, anyway ; P

I really adore my son. Maybe too much. Joel has been getting a little jealous. I'm trying to maintain more of a balance. Everything I've been through trying to have other children doesn't help. But he's a great kid, and I'm amazed at being a mom and watching him grow and learn; both of which go so fast!

Anyway, C is doing great. Potty training isn't going quite as quickly as I would like, but it is progressing, and I'm sure he'll be fine by the time we take our cruise, which is our only real deadline. He almost always goes in the morning, and if we're home he'll go by himself all day. But he's rather scared of "big potties," the #2 thing is elusive for now, and someday I would like to get his little potty out of my living room, but for now I'm just glad he's making progress, so I'm gonna deal with it!

He loves to go swimming. I think I'll put him in lessons sometime in the coming year. We went quite a bit this summer, and with his little floaties on he just paddles himself all over with his little feet. He still goes to plenty of baseball games, but he drives Joel crazy because he won't sit and watch at all. He wants to play T-ball, go to the playground, see Dinger, and hang out in the command center with mommy, so he keeps Joel running around the whole game. He had a blast while Joel's parents were here. We went to the Renaissance Festival, where he got to ride an elephant and got his first "real" sword. I should have some pictures somewhere....

I just took him for his 3-year well-care checkup, and he's doing great. He's way ahead of the mark in skills (with the exception of fine motor, where he's just a little ahead. Most of those things we just don't do very often, so I'm working on that), and he's right at the 25th percentile for height and weight. They checked his vision and blood pressure for the first time, and they were both in good shape. He had to get one shot, but the nurse made it really quick and he barely even noticed. All in all, he's the picture of good health.

I guess that's about it for now. We're really looking forward to our trip at Christmastime. We'll be taking a roadtrip to Florida, visiting Joel's family and Disney World, and taking a short cruise, all with my family. C is really looking forward to "the Big Mickey Boat," and I'm excited to see him have fun. Until then, we're just working away. I'll try to post more often and get some more pics up!