Rands Family

These kids...

2012-01-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

Alayna is a bit of a thief. At our gym, the kids get a numbered sticker on their back when their parents check them in. My sweet baby makes her way around the other kids swiping stickers as she goes. If one of the children tries to get away from her, she boldly persists till she's accomplished her goal. The attendants in the kid's club fondly refer to her as "Swiper."

Madeleine and Ian helped themselves to some stickers we had stashed away and were putting them on themselves, empty soda bottles, etc. Ian had one on the front of his shoulder and Alayna reeeaaalllly wanted it. Her method at first was to tug on his sleeve with all her might, which is sayin' something. The girl's got some strength. But Ian is strong too and was able to shake her off. So what did she do next? She turned the tugging into hugging and when she was near enough, that sticker became hers.

I was in my room "working" on the computer while the kids played in the backyard. I heard what could have been crying, but I'm not the mom that goes running out at that sound so I kept working. Soon I heard Ian come in, snoop around in the kitchen, grab a snack and then he slowly made his way to my room. I think he was supposed to be "rushing" to tell me Madeleine was hurt. Good thing it wasn't serious because that message was not delivered with much urgency today.

Merry Christmas!

2012-01-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

We had a really wonderful Christmas! The kids were thrilled with all their gifts, which is what pleases us the most. Madeleine seems happiest to now have a her very own Snuggie and a gigantic pillow pet. Though Ian wanted a Nintendo DS (we assured him he wouldn't get that) he's super happy that we got several new games for our Wii and more remotes too.

Spencer surprised me with a new camera and I have to admit, I couldn't be happier about it! Ian had to hold his smile for a minute while I got my bearings, hence why the smile looks so painful and fake and actually not like a smile.

The giant pillow pets. Grandma Montelius, these are from you.

Alayna got this sweet trike and Madeleine and Ian got new bikes too.

We had planned to go to the Children's Museum on Christmas Eve like we did last year, but since Ian had an ear infection we spent that whole morning at Walgreens in the clinic to get medicine. So instead of wasting our passes when we'd only get to spend a couple hours there, we went a couple days after Christmas instead. I'm certain it was much busier than it would have been two days earlier, but we had so much fun anyway. I took this picture on the way there.

Alayna on the pulley seat. You're supposed to try all three to see which pulley makes it easiest to pull yourself up.

On this one there's a camera that takes three photos of you doing three different poses. Then it plays it back and you match your moves. It gets a little tougher as it speeds up.

I think this is the Power Tower or something like that. It'a a 3 story high climbing structure. Adults are welcome and I did it, but it wasn't roomy. Fun, but a tight squeeze in places.

"Tw-ITCH-er" This section was all about lice, mosquitoes, bed bugs and one other bug I can't remember. So this version of Twister would say Right Hand Bed Bug, etc. You could also look at each bug under a microscope and learn lots of interesting facts about them in other parts of the exhibit. These few pics are a tiny sample of all they have to offer at the Children's Museum. We love that place!

I didn't get pictures of it, but the day after Christmas we went down to Galveston and went to Schlitterbahn to experience the indoor waterpark. It was pretty cold that day (for us) so even though the water is heated, it still felt really, really crazy to be running around in swimsuits and getting wet. Once we got going, and especially when it warmed up a little in the afternoon, we had a really great time! Perhaps this will be the beginning of a new tradition? We'll see.

End of Year update

2011-12-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

I would love to say I will get in more than one additional post this year, but I should be realistic. And since this is probably it, I will try to make it a good one. And since this will take the place of a Christmas newsletter from our family, let's make it a proper update on this bunch, shall we? Yes, let's!

Madeleine: Loving 2nd grade at the wonderful school located just behind our house. She has 2 fabulous teachers and is in a class full of top performers so they move through the curriculum quickly, which suits her very well. For extra-curricular activity she does gymnastics twice a week. She is a very graceful little girl and she's doing great in both classes she takes (tumbling level 2 and gymnastics level 2). She is such a good big sister (almost always to Alayna and pretty often to Ian) and a very helpful child. Madeleine is looking forward to turning 8 in May and being baptized soon after. Anyone planning a trip to Houston for that?

Ian: This kid absolutely cannot get enough of video games. His top fave is Super Paper Mario, which is a really fun game, but since it's one of two games we own (the other being Wii Sports) it may be by default more than anything else. Luckily he has some other things going on in his life to give him a little balance. He is still at a nearby Baptist church for pre-K but he has moved into a kindergarten class since he was already proficient in the pre-K skills. (We plan on him doing kindergarten again next year once he is old enough for K at public school.) He told me today that he thinks it's pretty cool that he goes to a school where they are teaching the gospel. I couldn't agree more! He's playing basketball again through the YMCA and enjoying that somewhat. I think we all know what he would rather be doing, but again, we are aiming for some balance. :)

Alayna: Words to describe Alayna....busy, funny, sweet, busy. Oh, did I say busy twice? I should have said it 3 or 4 times! This girl is at the age where she is into everything, and climbing on everything else. Our Christmas tree has multiple conspicuous bald spots at Alayna-height. And you better believe that if there is something or somewhere we want her to stay out of, it's a never ending battle to get our way. But we love her and she is pretty hilarious. She's a good little talker. For quite some time she has been shaking and nodding her head. Awhile ago she added "yeah" to her repertoire. She's figured out that "uh huh" and "huh uh" can be used to indicate "yes" or "no," respectively, and she's expirimenting with that. The problem is she says "huh uh" when she means "yes." I'm sure in no time at all she'll have it all figured out. We're eagerly waiting for her to start saying Maddie's name. She's been saing "Eee-uh" (Ian) for a long time and "Mama" and "Dada" too. Madeleine is feeling a little left out.

Spencer: Really enjoying work at ExxonMobil. He is doing such a good job and his superiors are all thrilled with what he's accomplished. One of his colleagues at the company Christmas party told me that Spencer is single-handedly changing his department. That might be a slight exaggeration, but a very kind thing to say and an indication of how well he's doing. In February he will be starting a new position as an Asset Portfolio Manager and he couldn't be happier about it. It's exactly the position he was hoping to attain and we feel extremely fortunate that he was able to get to it so quickly. The only move associated with the new position will be down the hall from his current office. At church, Spencer serves as the Sunday School President.

Rachel: I find it most difficult to do my own update. Each day for me is so full of things that are hardly worth mentioning. And so now a year has gone by and I feel like there's not much to note. I'll say this: I feel like we have really settled in to a good life here in Texas. We have made some really wonderful friends and that is such a source of joy for me. I have not been doing many household projects lately, but I have a feeling there are several in store in 2012. I love being a stay-at-home mom. It sure isn't glamorous, but I find it really challenging in a good way. And I love my kids. They are just so wonderful. I think about them and think, "Are those awesome kids really mine? Wow! I am a lucky mom!" Of course there are times when my thoughts are a little less gushy, but that's part of the gig I signed up for, right? I wouldn't trade it. At church, I am still the Nursery Coordinator overseeing about 45 kids ages 18 months to 3 years.

We hope all of our friends and family are enjoying a wonderful Christmas season! We are grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and this special time of year to celebrate His birth. We are also grateful to have each of you in our lives and for the happiness it brings us to know you. Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

(Family pictures were taken in Mesa, AZ in November by Jessica Drew)

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation

2011-11-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

*Warning: This post is also not well thought out, but I had to do it. I wish I had done it earlier to devote more time to it, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

This post has been a long time coming. The main thing of note from the summer was our mega road trip from Houston to Oregon (and all over other parts of the West) and it took a looong time to recover from all those days in the car. We've been recovered for quite some time, but then school started and everything else and I just barely looked again to see this post sitting as a draft since September. Ooops!

The picture above was at the Mulolla Rodeo. I think the rodeo each summer is the main thing Mulolla is known for. We loved it. I much preferred the quaintness of this little outdoor rodeo to the Houston rodeo and all its giganticness. Is that a word?

Since thrift store shopping is one of my favorite pastimes, I was sure to do as much as I could while on vacation. At some point before our trip I found this sleeper for Alayna. Then in Oregon I found one in Madeleine's size at one of the secondhand stores there. What are the chances?? How many size 7 footed pajamas even need to exist?? I couldn't resist them. Now our girls wear matching p.j.'s about once a week.

There's a fabulous little park right around the corner from Spencer's parent's house. We played in the water there several times during the 2.5 weeks we were there. While the weather actually felt cold to us Houstonians, we loved being in a cooler place for a while. And of course being with cousins and grandmas and grandpa made it even better!

Ian and Noah are exactly a year and a day apart in age. They had such a great time together this summer! We are hoping and praying and crossing our fingers that Mark gets to do his residency in Houston so we can have them nearby.

Alayna at another fun park one day. The summer in Oregon is so beautiful! It makes you want to live there. The non-stop drizzle during the winter doesn't.

We spent one day at the children's museum. So fun!

On our way home we were able to see friends from college who are now in different parts of the west. This is Allen, who introduced Spencer and me. I wish we lived closer! Spending the morning together wasn't nearly long enough, but it was better than nothing.

Grandma Sandi and Aunt Shelley took Alayna and her twin cousin Maren to the library one morning for an activity geared at babies. Just look at that cute face!

Grandma Montelius lives right by Spencer's parents so we were able to spend lots of time with her too. She's awesome. Kris and Cameron (not pictured) are Spencer's cousins who came out from Ohio for the reunion. You can just see how helpful everyone was.

Here are the twin cousins. Maren was born on July 1 last year and Alanya was born on July 13. I just know they are going to be BFFs. :)

On one rainy day, we went to the Family Fun Center and played a few video games as well as climbed around in the Kidopolis playland.

Spencer and I left the kids with grandma and great grandma while we went rafting on the Deschutes River with Holly, Mark, Drew and Aunt Shelley. It was so much fun. Though the water was super cold and I vowed to not get all the way in, tradition says you must at a certain point and I gave in to the peer pressure. The frigid water took my breath away but obviously I survived.

Spencer drove us out there then had to fly home to work for week before flying back for the reunion. This must have been one day while he was home. Check out Madeleine's ~~hideous~~ gorgeous necklace. The things weighs a ton and I doubt it was really meant to be worn as a necklace, but she sure thinks it's the most beautiful thing around.

Here we are with the whole Rands crew on beach day. Pretty creative sand building, right? I had absolutely nothing to do with that. That was all Grandpa Paul and Uncle Drew. Very impressive, don't you agree?

A family picture on the beach.

One last photo-op with Grandma M before we had to hit the road and head for home.

Last but not least, our family photo from the professional photo shoot.

I think I will have to find more pictures to post because there was so much more to document. Stay tuned for another post on this topic. Hopefully before next year!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

*Warning: This post is not very well thought out and is a major picture dump. Sorry if you're expecting something more eloquent.

Halloween was so great this year! We went trick-or-treating with a couple families from church and it was pretty much perfect! Spencer kept Alayna with him at the house with the other dads and another baby. The other moms and I took the bigger kids out. Madeleine and Ian are both big enough to really get it and really enjoy it. Plus we were with really great friends! No complaints from us whatsoever! Hallie brought an extra cow costume for me to wear. Madeleine told me I shouldn't wear it. "That will be so embarassing!" I'm not sure if she thought it would embarass her or me, but I did wear it and I wasn't embarassed at all. I'll have to ask if she was. Ashley's the cute witch in the middle. You maybe can't tell but she is wearing a witch hat.

This was not for Halloween. It was just an instance of Maddie putting Alayna in dress-up clothes. I love her nice round tummy.

Carving pumpkins was so great this year too! Again, Madeleine and Ian are big enough to help, and appreciate what we are doing. And they took a break from fighting with each other while we did it. The icing on the cake was part-way through when Madeleine went and got the scriptures to read to us during the carving. Thinking ahead, I tell ya.

Ian as Ben 10. I'm pretty pround of his costume. I bought the pants at Goodwill for about $5 then used fabric paint to put the stripe on a white shirt we already had. And the omnitrix (or ultamatrix, who knows?) we already had too.

Good likeness, right?

This picture is horrible, but Madeleine's costume is adorable. She had decided a few months ago that she wanted to be a fairy and we were planning to use some stuff we had and add a few things to it, hopefully items found at the thrift store. Well, I happened upon this dress with the wings at Goodwill for $5. Amazing, right?! The dress was about 6 inches longer and there were some tears in the tulle, but I was able to make it the right length above the rips in the fabric and put the ribbon back on and it turned out just perfect.

Alayna was Marie from the Aristocats. I haven't even seen that movie, but we've had this costume from when Madeleine was a baby so this is what Alayna got to be. She only wore it to the Trunk-or-Treat at church and since it was actually pretty chilly that night, I think she was glad to be in such a warm get up. Her face in this picture cracks me up!

We made it to a couple Fall Festivals too. One at Maddie's school (no pictures from that one) and this one at the church where Ian goes to Pre-K. They really went all out! There were several different bounce house type things. On this one, you see how long you can stay on the surfboard while it moves around. Ian told me I messed him up by telling him to look at me for a picture. Oops! Sorry!

They also had a pony ride. Oh and by the way, everything was free.

Alayna wasn't too sure about the pony ride. She was quite upset at first, but once they got moving and she realized Spencer was staying with her she calmed down. I'm not prepared to say that means she liked it, but she didn't cry the whole time. Just a little at first.

I can't believe how fast the year is going by! I feel like I'm being catapulted into the holidays. Am I ready? Probably not, but I better get there.

October, so far...

2011-10-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here wondering how in the heck I have let so much time go by without posting anything to this blog of mine. And to tell you the truth, I can think of a few reasons. One is that I have a new calling at church as the Nursery Coordinator. As the person in charge of overseeing 3 nurseries with over 40 kids total, I have spent a good bit of time and mental energy there instead of here. Also, Ian's birthday just passed (which I will cover shortly) and again my time and mental energy was required there. Finally, and probably the real culprit, is that I finally got into Pinterest and nearly every time I sit down at my computer I get sucked into Pinterest for more time than I care to admit. And though I feel bad for neglecting my blog, I am so in love with Pinterest! Corralling so many awesome ideas, recipes, etc. into one neat little spot is genius! I feel strangely productive after browsing around and gathering ideas even though I've really accomplished nothing. Anyway, this post isn't supposed to be all about Pinterest. I better move on to more important things.

Believe it or not, Ian turned 5. It actually is so silly to say that because it is not at all hard to believe. He's seemed like a five-year-old for at least a year already.

We had a Ben 10 themed birthday party and it turned really great. You'll just have to take my word for it though since, as usual, I forgot to take a single picture. (I have previously mentioned his love of Ben 10, who you can read all about here, if you're so inclined.) It was decided long ago that Ian would dress up as Ben 10 for Halloween this year so I let him wear his costume to the party. We played a couple games, ate yummy food, played at the park, had cake, and opened presents. Same as most parties I guess, but since we were at the park and not our house it was much less stressful. Plenty of great friends were there and Ian got lots of fabulous gifts, so to him it was perfect.

He had a couple gift cards to Target (thank you, Grandpa Gus and random lady at Target last week) and this is what he picked out. The plug-in-and-play video game controller. He couldn't be happier. Well, that's a lie. If we let him play non-stop like he wants to, then he couldn't be happier. We gave him another video game for the wii, too, so he has lots of games he wants to play and that equals lots of motivation for getting the homework/reading/chores, etc. done in a hurry.

I can't say enough what a wonderful kid Ian is! I can almost always count on him to be quick to obey whenever I ask him to do something. He's also a really good eater. His most recent favorite foods are carrots and apples. He's a great conversationalist, even if his favorite topic is video games or tv shows. Every now and then it will be about a book he's read. And he is a really good reader! He loves to lay on the rug in our entryway where the library books are and read and read and read. It's awesome. We are endlessly impressed with how smart he is. And we'd love to take credit for it, and maybe we can take a little since we are trying to be good parents who teach our kids a lot, but he is just really gifted. I have a feeling his smarts will keep me on my toes. Anyway, he is just so sweet and so kind and such a blessing in our lives! Happy birthday, Ian! You are the best and we love you!!

11 Years and counting....

2011-09-23T10:43:00.001-07:00

Last Friday, Spencer and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. Congrats to us! We went out to a lovely dinner, lazily walked around the shops while we waited to go see The Help (which we really liked). It was so nice to just hang out together. Our lives have become so busy that it takes real effort to fit in time to just hang out and often all we get is a few minutes here and there. So we greatly appreciated being able to spend a good hour and a half just talking, walking around, holding hands, enjoying each other's company. Of course we usually enjoy each other's company, but most times we are enjoying it simultaneously with our kids' company, which you know is not the same. And being out of the house meant we weren't multi-tasking, like watching tv together and folding laundry.

Lately I have been reflecting a lot on how truly fortunate I am to be married to Spencer. As a 21 year-old bride, I was so in love and was so sure I had snagged the best possible husband. Now as a 32 year-old veteran wife and mother, I am reminded daily of how right I was. And I really had no clue back then. I couldn't ask for a husband who works harder to provide for our family. Or for a husband who is so concerned and interested in our children's lives, their progression and devleopment. Or for a husband who readily sees past my many flaws. I'm sure I should be better at showing my appreciation for all he does for me and our kids. And I hope he feels equally blessed to have me as his wife.

P.S. Sorry to be so sappy. Sometimes there's just no way around it.

Pre-K and Basketball

2011-09-18T19:13:00.000-07:00

Here's Ian on his first day of pre-K. He is going to a nearby Baptist church's pre-k program and so far he is really liking it. His teacher is very nice and it sounds like he's already made friends with the kids in his class. No surprise there. Ian might be the friendliest kid there is. His schedule is two days a week from 9:15-2:30, which I love. I wouldn't have minded a bit if we got him into a program that was 3 days a week, but this one was the right for for us. I will admit that I am jealous of the moms I know from back in California who all had babies around the same time I had Ian and they are starting their kids in kindergarten. The birthday cut-off here for school is September 1 so his October birthday means he won't start kindergarten till next year. And while a part of me wishes he was in school across the street already, I know that this year of pre-K is going to be a really good transition from preschool last year (2 days/week for 3 hours) to kindergarten next year (5 days/week for 7 hours). One of his comments about school so far is that it's kind of long. Yeah, good thing he's got a year to get used to it.

The other thing Ian gets to do right now is basketball. He's in the tiny tots league at the YMCA and it's pretty awesome. Most of the kids (Ian included) do not have any baskeball skills already so their "game" last weekend was quite a sight. Aside from one kid on the other team who was a total baller, the kids hardly dribbled (very few can actually do it at all), they weren't making many shots even though the basket was only about 6 feet high, and more than once I saw kids stealing the ball from their own teammates. Like I said, pretty awesome. Anyway, Ian is excited to be in basketball. He's a pretty good shot and he's interested in practicing dribbling so maybe he'll be the baller at one of his next games.

Madeleine's version of events

2011-09-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

Madeleine wrote this account of Ian's zipline fiasco for school. Her teacher told her it was the best story in class. I hope you can click the picture to enlarge so you can see all the cute details. This paper's a keeper!

Why we are the best parents around.

2011-08-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

I know I already have earned "meanest mom." A couple weeks ago Spencer and I earned "Parents of the Year" hands down. We accomplished this feat by allowing our 4-year-old son to ride on a friend's zipline, without his foot in the rope for added security and without a helmet. Why would we do such a stupid thing? Well, Madeleine and our friends' kids were all riding it this way like a bunch of old pros and we obviously didn't think through the situation very well. So, here's what happened:

He climbed the ladder up to the start of the line (which truthfully was a red flag in and of itself) and started his ride down the zipline. Spencer and I and the dad of the other family were all standing there watching and cheering him on. Then he hit the end and the momentum he gathered along the way sent him flying. His feet went up in the air and his back hit a tree about 10 feet away, then he went down and hit his head on the ground/brush at the foot of the tree. Thankfully, he sprang right up, but he had cut his head pretty good and the blood was gushing. Needless to say we were freaked out. Considering how awful the whole thing looked and how bad it could have been, we are really lucky. We didn't feel lucky to sit for 5.5 hours in the ER, but it's a blessing that we have access at all the necessary medical care, right? Anyway, that gave us plenty of time to think of all the things we could/should have done differently so we could have saved our boy the pain he had to endure. He ended up with 4 blue stitches. They came out last week and the doctor let him keep them. He's hoping to bring them to school for show-and-tell soon.

I have pictures of the wound pre-stitches, but I thought it would be a little too gruesome for some. Honestly I don't even like to see it.

His glasses went flying too went it happend and they seemed to have vanished into thin air. I looked around for a few minutes before we went to the ER and then throughout the week our friends continued to look for them, all to no avail. We couldn't imagine where they could have gone, but they definitely weren't in the yard by the zipline. Until Saturday of that week (this happened on Monday) when they finally appeared in the grass. Very strange. Good thing he had his old, taped up pair to wear in the meantime.

Without a doubt, Parents of the Year, right?

One New Outfit

2011-08-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

Madeleine had a pretty great first week of school (mostly). She was really well behaved the first couple days so I let her have access to one new outfit. Her excitement at the prospect of showing up to school in this ensemble got the best of her and made it difficult for her to sleep the night before. So, although she felt like a million bucks thanks to these clothes, her behavior took a bit of a backslide. Spencer and I thought rather than give her everything back at once, she could earn one outfit each day. Hopefully that way she would keep trying her best to be nice. Obvioulsy we think that's a pretty ingenius idea, but she feels robbed because she thought she could be good for 2 days and get everything now. I can understand her frustration, but I do think she is beginning to see it our way. Since I also took away all of her dress-up clothes I am thinking that I will let her earn one real outfit and one dress-up too. Any ideas? I welcome any and all advice on how you would deal with your own strong-willed child.

The Favorite Child

2011-08-23T10:15:00.009-07:00

I know I can't really have a favorite child, and for the most part I don't, but I sure love having one that doesn't talk back and pick fights with anyone else. Are you sensing a theme in my recent posts? Can you tell there's been a bit of dischord around here? Sheesh! Anyway, Alayna is about as sweet as they come. And she is really funny. She's at that stage of babbling really intently but of course none of it comes out as real words. Also, there is no mistaking it when she is trying to communicate that she wants something. She stares it down and does a sort of growl/grunt. I'm thinking she might be ready to try and come up with another way to get that point across since the current method seems to hurt her throat a little and make her cough. Another of her talents is shaking her to say "no." She pretty much always means "no" when she does it, too. If I ask her if she wants her milk and then ignore her head shake and give it to her anyway, she promptly throws her cup to the floor.

This picture makes her look like she is moving at light speed, doesn't it? Madeleine picked out her outfit this day, cute baby skinny jeans and a tunic. Very fashionable. You can kind of see how darling Alayna's hair is getting to be. The back and sides are filling in finally and she's got a little curl going on. And she's so blonde! Her hair likes to fall straight into her eyes and she won't keep bows in her hair so lately we have resorted to the one ponytail on top. She really works that look.

Here again in her favorite place. Notice the final touch on her fashionable outfit--the shoes. What 13-month-old doesn't need a pair of pink platform sandals?

One last bit. She's pretty excited about learning to eat using utensils instead of her fingers or having someone else feed her. On several occasions she has turned her nose up at something I try to feed her on a fork or spoon, but if I let her hold it herself she'll gobble it right up. She's a cute girl and we can't get enough of her!

Meanest mom EVER!

2011-08-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

According to Madeleine, that's me. That little girl has been giving us a heck of time lately and our efforts to crack down and help her to shape up have earned me this new title. I don't think it's true, but perhaps it is.

As I have previously indicated, Madeleine is really into dressing up/dressing fancy/looking cute, etc. This is the thought that came to me as I was trying to figure out what I could take away in an attempt to motivate her to be a kinder, sweeter, more obedient child. So a couple weeks ago I cleared out her closet of all items that were not totally plain and told her she had to earn them back by changing her behavior. She also would not be allowed to have her new school clothes if she didn't earn her other clothes back. I hoped she would quickly turn things around, but I guess we have given her reason to believe that more and bigger fits equal getting what she wants. Well, we are determined to not give in to that anymore (I thought we already weren't giving in). And so we in the midst of an epic battle of the wills.

She had to start second grade in old clothes. I did let her carry her new book bag and her new lunchbox. Maybe I shouldn't have, I'm not sure.

And I let her decide on her hairstyle. I don't think the "meanest mom ever" would do that! I am happy to report that she actually had a fabulous day! Especially compared to how our days have been going around here, it was like a 9 out of 10! Can you sense my happiness and relief?! If she can keep this new attitude up for a couple more days I'll have to have another "first" day of school post for her so we can showcase one of her new outfits. She's been really excited about it. Wish us luck! I might get that title revoked soon enough. :)

Quote of the Year

2011-08-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

Background: Ian is a fabulous kid who doesn't complain about much, but he regularly gives us grief about going to church on Sunday. We've told him that in our family it's non-negotiable and we will do it every week no matter what, but still he complains. The other thing that must be pointed out is that he is fascinated with the computer. This took place one Sunday on our way to church. Are you ready for it?

Ian: "Mom, why do we have to go to church?"

Me: "Because we need to go and learn more about Jesus."

Ian: "Can't we just do that on the computer?"

Me: "Where do you think we would go on the computer to do that?"

Ian: "I don't know...maybe heavenlyfather.com."

Did you check the link? After this conversation we had to check and we were pleasantly surprised to see that it took us to mormon.org. Pretty cool, in my opinion. And I know that it's only August and a better quote could come along, but this one is staying strong for now and I just had to share.

P.S. I cannot wait for Madeleine to start school tomorrow!

you're fighting about what??

2011-07-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

I know none of you could possibly think that our kids are perfect. And even though no one asked for it, I will give you some proof.

Not a day (no, not even one single day) goes by without Madeleine and Ian fighting over who gets to sit in the coveted seat at the back of the kitchen table. This might make sense if the tv were on while we're eating (since that seat would have the best view), but it's not. It seems like maybe the reasoning has become that that seat is closer to Alayna's highchair. Either way, it makes me want to scream.
You could hear statements like these at almost any mealtime at our house:

"I want the blue plate!"
"No!! I want the blue plate!!"
"Mom! He got the blue plate yesterday!!"
"You get what you get and you don't get upset!"

Our older kids also have a real talent for arguing over what they watch on netflix. There are a few shows they agree on, like Avatar: the Last Airbender and the Fantastic Four. But mostly if Ian wants to pick something besides those two, Madeleine will fight it. Pretty much if it's not her way/choice/idea/etc. it's worth fighting over.
If you're like me, you hope that prayer-time will be a brief moment of peace in your home. But again, if you're like me, you are disappointed on that one. Those two even have to fight over who gets to say the prayer. Unbelievable!

I could come up with several other examples, but I think that's proof enough for now. At this moment however, I am pleased to say that Alayna is sleeping and Madeleine and Ian are playing nicely enough together with the fort they built in the playroom. So, for this moment, I am enjoying some relative peace and a break from wanting to scream.

One year old!

2011-07-19T19:21:00.005-07:00

Here's our sweet Alayna Camille screaming her lungs out just after she was born on July 13, 2010. That first washing wasn't fun for her. Since then, she has come to love the bath. :) In fact, she has been very good natured and a real sweetheart about most everything. Just a good baby!
At about 6 months she was chewing on everything, working hard at getting teeth. Now at 1, she has eight teeth and the doctor said Alayna's molars look quite swollen so I expect we'll be seeing more teeth soon enough. As a 9-month-old, Alayna was exploring all over the place! She had mastered crawling by then and really wanted to go everywhere. She particularly enjoyed climbing the stairs, and still does. Her sweet personality began to emerge more and more around this age.And now she is a big 1-year-old. She is such a wonderful girl! She truly keeps a smile on our faces since everything about her is absolutely precious! She started walking a few days before her birthday. A baby just starting to walk has got to be one of the cutest/funniest things ever. It's adorable!
We got to celebrate her birthday a little early while we were in Oregon with all of Spencer's family, including our niece Maren who was born about 2 weeks before Alayna. Maren was kind enough to let Alayna share the spotlight that day. Back here on her actual birthday, we just had a little family party. Since she doesn't know to expect anything, I think it was just the right amout of celebration. I must say, the cake was delicious. I had to eat waaay too much of it. Alayna liked it too:
Happy birthday, baby girl!! We love you!

I currently love...

2011-07-18T19:56:00.002-07:00

This is Spencer's and my new favorite thing to watch in our free time. It sure makes us wish we had more free time! Any other FNL lovers out there?

And in case you are wondering, I have gads of topics to post about. It is a little overwhelming which is probably why I haven't done it yet. That, and that I want to watch another episode of Friday Night Lights instead of blog. Stay tuned. I'll post something better soon, I promise.

Road Trip

2011-06-03T06:53:00.002-07:00

Spencer had a training in Baton Rouge this week and since we didn't want him to get lonely :) we invited ourselves along. Getting crowns at Burger King on the way there was suprisingly fun.
The kids and I spent our days hanging out at the pool and in the hotel room. We agree that the pool is fun, but I don't share their excitement for the room itself. They were so thrilled to come in one day after the maid had been in and see that the beds were made. Easy to please, I tell ya! But back to the pool, Ian finally got the hang of swimming without his floaties while we were there. Happy day!

One evening after dinner (where the kids posed with the LSU tiger) we explored town a bit. After going to see the river and how high it is right now (really high!), we went over to the capitol building. The steps were begging to be climbed.

Madeleine is always looking for good photo opportunities and I am usually happy to oblige. It was a fun couple days and it got us really excited for summer break. Today is the first official day of it and Madeleine is celebrating by sleeping in past 9 o'clock. Isn't that the life?

This and that

2011-05-28T07:35:00.005-07:00

Alayna is in such a great phase right now! She is getting to be just a little more independent and I think she's pretty pleased with herself about it. One thing she is especially good at is eating. She will eat anything! In this picture she's chowing down some turkey meatballs. But her favorite food is likely the same as your kids--pizza! She has 7 teeth to help with the chewing but since they're all in the front, she has become an expert gummer. And now that she is so proficient at feeding herself, that is what she prefers. No more baby food for her, please. I still give her baby food occasionally when I don't want to have to bathe her again after letting her feed herself canned peaches or something equally sticky and messy.

Ian just finished his first year of preschool. He loved going to school and really soaked up all they were teaching him. I have learned from experience that sometimes the reports I get from my children about what they've done at school or church or a friend's house, etc. might be slightly less than accurate. Not so with Ian. He would tell me some of what he'd done at school and when I got an email from his teacher telling about school that day, he was always right on. He just explained it differently. His teachers gave him a glowing report of how smart he is, how much he learned and how much they loved having him in their class. He's really looking forward to pre-k in the fall.

Although Alyana is only 10 months old, her doctor said she can have cow's milk already. Something to do with her iron count or something? I don't know, but I was really glad to find that out beause I was getting ready to wean her off breastmilk and she wanted absolutely nothing to do with formula! And she won't drink from a bottle so we're skipping them and going straight to sippy cups. I think it's so cute how excited she gets when I give her a cup of milk in the morning.

Madeleine with her friend, Liz, at the final Honor Roll breakast of the year. Madeleine stayed on the All A's Honor Roll all year long. Great job, Maddie! Do you like the powdered sugar on her smile? So cute! I bet what you really love are her beautiful accessories. She really scored on her birthday with the headbands and such. She wore a fancy headband and that necklace everyday this week.

I've already mentioned before that Alayna loves climbing the stairs. What's funny is that she knows we don't want her to do it (for fear of her getting hurt, of course) and she thinks it's a fun game. When I see her on the stairs and call her name, she squeals and giggles and tries to go up even faster till I come catch her. What a goof!

She loves the trampoline too. We don't let her on very often, but it was the perfect place to let her play around while the rest of us played bocci ball in the backyard one evening.

I got these chairs to go with my breakfast table in place of the folding chairs there before. I admit that a windsor chair wasn't my top choice, but since I got six of these chairs and a table (that I will turn around and sell) for $50 I decided to go for it. They were so filthy and gross. And rehabbing them was a MAJOR pain! But I am happy with the finished product.

I know, I need some flowers or fruit or something to brighten this room up. That's beside the point. Anyway, I'm not in a hurry to refinish chairs ever again, but I am so glad these are done. I really like the look of them with the table. At any rate, it's a huge improvement over the folding chairs.

That's all for now. Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend!

We have a 7 year old!

2011-05-21T11:51:00.003-07:00

This little girl turned 7 last Friday and we had lots of fun celebrating! Do you love the hat from Grandma Sandi and Grandpa Paul?

It's such a pain to try to get pictures where you really want them in blogger, so I'll just pretend this is what I planned all along. Madeleine had 9 friends over for a red themed birthday party on Saturday.

They ate pizza, strawberries, swedish fish, hot tamales, twizzlers and red velvet cake mix cookies. And they adorned their crowns with adhesive red jewels. Several of them let me paint their fingernails red. I had an assortment of red beads for making bracelets, but the cording was too big for the beads so that activity didn't pan out. The girls just jumped on the trampoline and ran around the house screaming and had plenty of fun!

Something you may or may not know about Madeleine is that she absolutely lives for dressing in beautiful gowns! The fancier, the better. Does it go all the way to the floor? Perfect! That is just her thing. So she really wanted to have a fancy new dress for her birthday. Although the theme was red, we agreed that all the fancy red dresses were much too Christmas-y for a May birthday and we went with this white one with the red sash. Only her fear of getting it dirty has kept her from wearing it non-stop.

Finally, here she is next to her cake that matched her dress. This cake looked a lot prettier in my head than it turned out in reality. But it tasted delicious! And actually, Madeleine loved it and went on and on about how beautiful it was. Sounds like a success to me!

Happy 7th birthday, Madeleine! We love you so much and are so grateful for all you bring into our lives!!

Nine Months Old

2011-04-18T04:51:00.004-07:00

Time sure does fly, doesn't it? When you have a new baby, people are always telling you to enjoy is because it doesn't last, and I know that it's true. I don't think I need to hear it, yet it seems like all of a sudden I have a nine month old, not an infant. It's crazy how fast it's happened. I guess as I've gotten older, nine months just isn't a very long time anymore.

But let's face it, a nine month old is a lot more fun than an infant. Alayna keeps us on our toes. A couple days ago she discovered the kitchen cupboards and all their contents. Happy day for her. All those newfound toys! I hope that I can pull one thing out for her and that it will keep her busy while I cook.

I don't have any nine months stats to post because we won't go to the doctor for that appointment for a couple more weeks. But just so we remember, here's what I can tell you:

At nine months, Alayna has 7 teeth. 4 on top, 3 on bottom. She is crawling everywhere, even on the stairs, and she pulls herself to standing all over the place. She hasn't mastered balance well enough to attempt any steps on her own, but I think she's fairly close. (Our other two kids walked at 10 months so we'll see if she's on par with that.) She babbles a lot and I like to think she's starting to know that "ma ma ma" is me and "da da da" is Spencer. That might be wishful thinking.

Did you know we live just a few minutes from the beach? I didn't realize it either till a friend took us to this sandy spot on the nearby creek. Madeleine and Spencer missed it so we will have to go back soon.

This is for Grandma Sandi who sent an Easter package that we all loved! We dived right into it! Thanks Grandma!

P.S. Sorry for the poor picture quality. Remember all I have to work with is the camera on my phone.

Update: Madeleine

2011-03-22T20:06:00.003-07:00

I'm pretty sure Madeleine and Ian loved the carousel as much as Alayna did.

This little sweetheart sure looks darling in the pink cowgirl hat.

One part at the rodeo they liked best was playing around in all the Fords on display. I must say, they are easy to please. One of her homework assignments this week was to make a list of her top 5 favorite things she did during Spring Break. We didn't do anything terribly exciting, but she had a hard time narrowing it down.

Patiently waiting her turn for the Euro Bobbles. She was doing flips inside her's. It looked pretty fun. Now, are you ready to hear about her cast? Wondering why I haven't mentioned it sooner? Here's the story. On Valentine's Day she hurt her hand doing a handstand at gymnastics. We didn't think too much of it because she seemed to be playing like normal afterward although it was too painful to finish gymnastics that day. The following week at gymnastics it was still hurting so we went to the doctor, got an x-ray, went to an orthopedist who said it was a stress fracture or bone bruise. Although it's not broken it still takes weeks to heal so the orthopedist suggested we put it in a cast so she would be forced to keep it stabilized. She gets it off on April 1st and we are all looking forward to getting rid of the stinky cast.

Update: Ian

2011-03-22T19:40:00.003-07:00

Ian is a very loving brother. He fights with Madeleine plenty, but he's super sweet to Alayna. Possibly not always as gentle as we would hope, but he loves her to pieces. Here he was trying to help her be still so I could get a better picture.

Have you heard of Euro Bobbles? We let Ian and Madeleine spend 3 minutes "walking on water" at the rodeo. Truthfully I don't think anyone was actually able to walk inside their ball. Our kids sure didn't. But it looked so fun! Ian loved it.

He had to try on a cowboy hat at the rodeo. This kid's so handsome no matter what. He is 100% boy. How is it that boys have this innate ability to make amazing sound effects? And his love for video games is unparalleled.

He's a very good sport. He let Madeleine paint a beard on him one day. One of his latest obsessions is Ben 10. He's constantly asking to watch the show and you'd be lucky to see him without his omnitrix (sp?) on his wrist. Another day Madeleine painted the words "Ben Ten" all over Ian's arms and legs and he told me today she'd made a masterpiece out of him.

Update: Alayna

2011-03-22T16:25:00.003-07:00

Alayna recently had her first experience with swings at the park and she was not disappointed. She has been a bit on the grouchy side lately. I'll go ahead and say that's because she is cutting 3 teeth right now. (She already has 4.) That's probably a good enough excuse, right? Well despite all that, she was all smiles in the swing.

And she is a speed crawler now. She was looking so cute on Sunday in her purple dress, sitting on the floor, so I tried to get a picture. Naturally she tried her darnedest to get over to me as fast as possible. Needless to say the camera on my phone could hardly keep up. I just love her in purple though. One other thing, she is already trying to climb up the stairs. Little trouble-maker.

This was at the zoo during Spring Break on the carousel. She loved it!

Finally, on another outing during Spring Break, this time to the rodeo. I think she was actually happier that day than this picture would lead you to believe.

Miscellaneous Stuff

2011-03-08T15:59:00.002-07:00

I know I have already posted this picture before. That time it was meant for you to see how nicely we were able to hide Madeleine's self-inflicted bad haircut with her hair parted just right. This time, I want you to notice the ottoman just behind her. What you don't see is that, sadly, the leather was beginning to tear and in the months since we took this picture, the tears got really big and embarrassing. Since we didn't have room in our budget to buy something new the rips just got worse and worse. I'll blame it on having a three-baby brain that it took me this long to realize I could just cover it with upholstery fabric and give it new life. Truth be told, I thought of making a slipcover but my friend Nicole helped me to see how much better and easier it would be to just staple the fabric in place. That Nicole is one smart lady!

Here's how it turned out. I must admit, I am in love. It has truly breathed new life into our dreary living room. I've been lamenting how boring our living room is (so plain, and brown and off white). Now, between this and our media console, things are definitley looking up. Plus, for a little while I've been feeling like we had a bit too much leather in here. I mean, really, four pieces in one room is kind of a lot. I will stop my cry-babying now.
Remember this table? Here's the finished product:

Please ignore the folding chairs that are by no means a permanent feature. I actually finished this piece before Christmas but I've been secretly hoping to get my ideal chairs before showcasing the table on my blog. Obviously that hasn't happened. If things go my way, I'll quickly sell my old table and chairs and then buy something more appropriate to go with the new table.

Oh, Alayna! You are so cute! This girl loves the bath. You may have noticed her crying face in the picture of the ottoman. She's actually been crying a lot lately. Is she already old enough for separation anxiety? If sees me, but I'm not holding her, she cries. It's making it hard to get much done. And don't I already have enough excuses of why I'm not getting everything done? Really. Oh, and she gives five now. And crawls. Did I ever mention that? She started that around 6 and 1/2 months. She'll be 8 months old on the 13th.

P.S. I hope you aren't getting too tired of all my furniture projects dominating my blog.

Cute Alayna

2011-02-23T11:04:00.003-07:00

Instead of diving right into all the cleaning and laundry that I have to do today, I spent a few minutes playing with the kids and my camera phone, you know, the only camera we have. Here's what I learned: it's really diffiult to get good pictures, but there are some fun settings with the color. I think this black and white one is darling, as is the sweet baby in the johnny jump up.

We're still here.

2011-02-13T11:28:00.009-07:00

I know you must be SO relieved to see that I haven't completely given up on this blog of mine! Life is just so busy and I haven't had a lot to say. And not that I have much to say now, but I do feel it's time to post something. I promise it will not be earth shattering. In January, Ian's preschool took a field trip to the Downtown Aquarium in Houston. It happened to be on a day off for Madeleine so we all got to go."We all" being me and the kids. The aquarium is pretty small but I thought they had really cool stuff to see even though there wasn't a ton of it. Then there were a few rides outside that were easily the highlight of the day. I lost count of how many times Ian and Madeleine rode this one. It's the kind that shoots straight up in the air and drops down a few times. Ian was just barely tall enough to ride it. There weren't many people there besides our group so they went on it over and over and over and over. They could have stayed all day!

Madeleine's cute face paint at a friend's birthday party recently.

Remember this ugly buffet I was going to rehab and make into a media table?

To go under the TV in place of the ridiculously tiny TV stand we were using before.

Well, here's how it turned out. What do you think?

I haven't appeared on here in a while, so here you go. I have bangs now. I am pretty lazy when it comes to my hair. I like to be able to just pull it back if I don't have the time or want to take the time to style it and bangs require effort. And I am not at all adventurous. Do you have any memories of me with short hair? I doubt many do. But after having Alayna and losing tons of hair that is now growing back, cutting bangs was the only thing to do to hide all the baby hair growing in along my hairline. Despite the extra effort involved, I actually really like my bangs. What a welcome surprise!

Quick Catch-up Post

2010-12-15T19:36:00.007-07:00

Just so that an entire month doesn't go by without a new post, here are some random pictures of stuff going on around here. First, I am so in love with this table! I neglected to get a shot of it before I sanded it so you'll just have to imagine its boring, old, stained oak finish. Stay tuned for the after shots. I am really eager to move it into my breakfast nook but I want to give the finish plenty of time to cure before subjecting it to daily use by our kids.

Spencer took the kids to a Santa breakfast at Madeleine's school and miraculously captured this wonderful photo. How cute are these three?? I can hardly stand it! Of course there are times I take all three to the grocery store and reality hits. Cute isn't everything.

Yet another furniture project. I am absolutely DYING to get started on this one!! But alas, there are too many other pressing items in line ahead of this. Anyway, this is going to become our new media console. Stay tuned for the after pics. Hopefully soon!

Upon downloading our most recent pictures, it appears that this is the last one Ian took before he broke our camera. Again. Second time this year. What are we going to do with that kid?

This is one sweet baby! We all adore her so much! I hope she is not getting too spoiled. Believe it or not, she is "skinny" for her age. I still can't quite wrap my brain around how this chunky little thing isn't big enough, but at her four month doctor visit we found that she had only gained 6 ounces in the past 2 months. So, although her weight itself is in the 50th percentile, in conjuction with her height and age she is too skinny. So she's eating cereal now (and loving it!) and nursing a bit more frequently throughout the day. I kind of liked having 4 hours between feedings but doing it every three hours instead is not only helping her gain weight, but helping me lose weight. It's a win-win!

It turns out Madeleine's even more far-sighted than Ian. We got her new glasses today. She picked them out herself and I think she looks quite stylish! I am trying to figure out where this far-sightedness come from. Any family members have any ideas? They say that it's possible to grow out of it so we are hoping for that for both our kids.

I love this picture! This was at the end of the Warrior Dash I did the weekend before Thanksgiving with my friend, Nicole. It was similar to the Dirty 6 I did in 2009, but way, way better. It was so much fun! If it happens to be coming to your area, I highly recommend it!

Console Table

2010-11-19T19:32:00.004-07:00

I saw this table outside a resale shop on Monday and it caught my eye because we have really been wanting something like this for our entryway. I jumped out and quickly inspected it but since my car was full of a few other pieces of furniture I had found on craigslist and I was in a rush to meet a friend, I decided to pass on it. I spent a good bit of time on Tuesday thinking about it and its potential so after school I loaded up the kids and went back to see if it was still there. Obviously, and lucky for me, it was. Upon further inspection, I have come to the conclusion that this table is pretty much awesome and was precisely what we were wanting. And it was a steal since I found it second hand.

After some TLC, here's how it turned out:

I'm not very patient when it comes to these projects I take on, so the paint is not perfect. I gave it a distressed finish so it will do for a while, but I may revisit it at a later date to see if I can get the paint done a little better. But don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it and I'm counting my lucky stars that I found this diamond in the rough.

Alayna update

2010-11-09T19:42:00.004-07:00

This girl loves her mama. This is the face that greets me most times I talk to her. So cute!

A friend let us borrow her Bumbo seat and we are loving it! It's so fun to see her hanging out so big all by herself.

We have so many pictures of Alayna in her carseat and they are all so boring, but she's cute no matter what so I'll throw it in. We took this when we went miniature golfing recently. Maybe I'll get around to posting about that sometime too.

Talk about being big and sitting all by herself, here she is trying out a highchair at Ikea. I don't think she was super excited to be in there, but it made for a cute enough picture to share.

She recently had a bit of a cold so she was sleeping like this with her mouth wide open since she couldn't breathe through her nose. Very sad, but kinda cute too.

She is almost 4 months old and unlike her cousin who is just days older than her, she is not rolling at all. When she gets upset doing tummy time she just cries and cries into the floor instead of flipping onto her back like her brother and sister did. I am trying to appreciate her immobility instead of wondering when in the heck she's going to roll over! Anyway, she has been missing out on the blog love lately so I thought I should catch up on her. There you have it!

Honor Roll

2010-11-09T19:16:00.003-07:00

We are so proud of Madeleine! She got all A's on her first report card so she made it on the Honor Roll. We let her pick out some sparkly shoes for her reward, which she is absolutley thrilled about, of course!

The school PTO put on a breakfast for all the Honor Roll students to celebrate their achievement. In addition to the breakfast, she got a coupon for a free pizza (I'm sure we'll be cashing in on that pretty soon!).

For good behavior that goes beyond normal expectations, students can earn Star tickets and the students who have earned a certain number of Star tickets (5 maybe?) each quarter get to be in the Hall of Fame. [sidenote: Spencer likened our first grader being inducted into her school's Hall of Fame to Pres. Obama being given the Nobel Prize. haha!] Parents were invited to come and watch as the Hall of Fame students took the Walk of Fame around the school to dance-y music. All the other students sat outside their classrooms to cheer the Hall of Famers as they went by. It was pretty cute.

Here she is holding the second tooth she lost last week. That's 8 teeth she's lost already! This girl is growing up way too fast!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-08T09:29:00.002-07:00

Madeleine chose the "Spanish Princess" costume this year. Her blonde hair might not totally go with it, but she loved it and looked super cute.

Ian as Batman. Very cool.

I'm not sure when Madeleine wrote this at school, but I thought I would throw it in with the Halloween post since she drew a picture of a graveyard. I love that the gravestones say R.W.P. instead of R.I.P. And I don't know who she feels ok for. I can't get enough of this first grade writing.

(In case you can't enlarge the pictures to read it, it says:

How I fele by: Madeleine
I fele bad for the peple who are dead.

I fele happy for the peple who are good.

I fele ok for the )

According to Ian

2010-11-08T09:00:00.002-07:00

Our conversation this morning went like this:

Ian: "Someday we're going to move back to Arizona."

Me: "Oh, yeah? Well, I guess if Dad gets a job there we will. But he has a really good job here. Did you know that?"

Ian: "Yeah, we get to go to good gas stations."

Apparently to Ian, the best perk about Spencer's job is the discount we get on gas.

Happy Birthday, Ian!

2010-10-13T18:31:00.004-07:00

Today we celebrated Ian's 4th birthday! In a way I can't believe he's already 4, but at the same time I can't believe he's ONLY 4. Does that make any sense? He truly is such a little man in so many ways. We didn't do a party with friends this year but we made the day special despite that. We played at his best buddy Ashlyn's house where he was welcomed with a homemade Happy Birthday banner. Then, over a decadent lunch of Lunchables and Doritos, the two of them made wedding plans.

He and I chose this cake recipe together off of food.com (formerly recipezaar), and Madeleine helped him blow out the trick candles.

He's been wishing and hoping for this Batman building set for weeks.

Madeleine enjoyed breaking in the SpongeBob Fishing for Clams game.

Spencer and Alayna enjoying the festivities.At his request, we had McDonald's for dinner. He was so full after he ate that he hardly had room for cake. Isn't it nice that he got the one bite he ate all over his face so it looks like he devoured his birthday cake? Such a sweetheart.

Happy birthday, Ian! We love you!!

Bubbles!

2010-10-09T11:19:00.005-07:00

Alayna is a very drool-y little girl. She is constantly producing spit bubbles that run down her chin. I usually wipe them off before she has a full on spit bubble goatee but I was a little slow in getting to this one.

Ian got a hold of the camera again. Can you tell what this is?

Galveston/Moody Gardens

2010-10-03T11:47:00.004-07:00

Spencer took a couple days off work the week of our anniversary and we spent them as a family down in Galveston. We went down there very briefly last year and we were not impressed. The parts we saw were devastated from recent hurricanes and we didn't see any beaches that interested us. We wondered what the appeal was to people who liked going there. Maybe it's because it's been so long since we've been to the beach in California, or maybe it was that we stayed in a pretty sweet condo, or maybe that we were desparate for a little break from everyday life, but this trip was fabulous and we now think Galveston is a pretty cool place. Moody Gardens was pretty fun. Unfortnately a bunch of it was closed so we couldn't experience it all, but we liked what we saw.

We went to a few 3D IMAX shows. They were good, but just a little too long for the kids to be interested the whole time.

This was on the paddlewheel boat ride. I'll be honest, it was kind of lame. It was long and boring. We thought that at some point someone would get on a speaker and talk about Moody Gardens or possibly the sights around the bay, but we were wrong. All we learned from the paddlewheel boat ride is that we don't ever need to do it again.

Here we are at the condo pool. It was on the 6th floor of the building overlooking the coast. The kids are sitting at the poolside bar and me and Alayna are standing in the outdoor kitchen. This place had it all.

We all loved the beach! The water was so warm! Even at hottest part of the year in L.A. the water at the beach was still pretty chilly so this was nice. Ian got in right away and just loved playing in the small waves. Madeleine was reluctant at first but quickly learned how much fun it was.

After playing in the waves for awhile they built drip castles while I fed Alayna.

She slept through most of the beach fun but we'll just assume she loved it too.

And just because I had this picture, here's Alayna sporting a mohawk. Gotta love all that hair!

Did you know...?

2010-09-28T21:26:00.002-07:00

Did you know that I gave Spencer a full body massage the first day we met? Sounds pretty intriguing unless you know that I was in massage therapy school at the time and was giving full body massages left and right.

Did you know that after that day we met, Spencer and I became a couple almost immediately? He probably thought he would keep getting massages. He was wrong.

Did you know that after dating exclusively for about 8 months and talking about getting married Spencer broke up with me just after New Year's? Yes, he did. All the best couples go through a break up, right?

Did you know that while we were broken up we really and truly became friends? None of that friends with benefits garbage. For real friends.

Did you know that Spencer confessed his undying love for me on a drive up to Salt Lake City from Provo? Five months after breaking up with me, he realized he couldn't live without me ;) and he concocted a plan to tell me so. The plan involved him and his roommates picking up me and my roommate to go hang out with a bunch of mutual friends but making me ride with Spencer without my roommate. Very sly. It completely took me by surprise and I didn't know what to think about it at first, but within a couple weeks we were back together.

Did you know that very shortly after getting back together we started planning our wedding? We just picked up right where we left off.

Did you know that on September 16 we celebrated our 10 year anniversary?

Happy Anniversary to us! The time we have been together has been wonderful and I wouldn't change a thing! Not even the break-up. Love you, Spencer! Thanks for being you!

It's the Most Wonderful Time...

2010-09-13T08:15:00.004-07:00

...of the Year!* I know, it's not anywhere near Christmas yet. It's football season! BYU football season to be more precise. *According to Spencer, as observed by Rachel.

Baby Blessing

2010-09-07T12:10:00.004-07:00

Spencer blessed Alayna in church this past Sunday. We missed not having any family here for it, but we had a few really good friends come and that was really great! We feel pretty lucky to have great friends from our college days nearby even though we have moved so far from where we've spent most of our lives.
We didn't get a picture of our whole family that day, but isn't one of the kids more important anyway? They were originally lined up oldest to youngest, but Madeleine was not on board with that idea. She insisted on being next to Alayna.

Shortly after the blessing, I had to take Alayna out to feed her so I missed a little excitement, including a little tiff between Madeleine and Ian which may or may not have ended with him telling her that he was going to cut her head off. And when Spencer whispered to Ian that Ian needed to whisper Ian said (definitely not in a whisper), "Your breath stinks!"

Spencer and his baby girl. Any thoughts on who she looks like now that she is a little bigger?

We neglected to get a picture with Jeff and Jeanette, but here is their litte girl, Laura. She seemed to really enjoy playing in Madeleine's dress up clothes. Both Madeleine and Ian absolutely loved having her over to play! They have already asked if we can go to her house and play sometime. Yes, we will definitely have to do that!

Preschool, Glasses and Cheerleaders

2010-09-03T10:04:00.003-07:00

Ian started preschool this week. What do you think of his new duds? He goes for a few hours two days a week and it is just what he needs. He has loved it so far! His teachers were very impressed with a blue/orange pattern he made yesterday all by himself. Alayna and I have enjoyed being able to run errands that I wouldn't attempt with more children accompanying me.

And our handsome little man got his new glasses. These ones seem to fall down his nose so we might be exchanging them. We'll see. Pretty cute, though, don't you think?

Spencer's boss gave him tickets to the Texans/Cowboys preseason game last Saturday. We were in one of the ExxonMobil luxury suites, hence the visit from the cheerleaders. What I really should have gotten a picture of is all the yummy food. There was a delicious spread of fajitas, pulled pork, taquitos, etc. Yum! That was easily the highlight of the experience for me. No surprise there. Alayna was ooh-ed and ahh-ed over by all the other people in our suite, which of course she deserves. I don't know when we'll make it to another NFL game so we are sure glad we could go!

First Day of 1st Grade, etc.

2010-08-26T15:09:00.003-07:00

School started for Madeleine on Monday. She is thrilled with her new school! It's directly across the street from us (behind us). A short and sweet walk there to take her and pick her up. Ian still complains about the long walk, but I think that's mostly because it's quite hot in the afternoon. Anyway, Maddie said her favorite thing so far is her new teacher. Get this: there are 9 first grade classes at her school. Is that crazy or what?? We know quite a few other first graders but they are all in other classes. Not surprising when there are that many classes, right?

Our days at home are much quieter now with Maddie at school all day and next week Ian starts preschool (on Tuesdays and Thursdays) so it will get even quieter. I'm excited for Ian to do preschool. I know he's going to love it! And I won't lie, I'm going to enjoy my time with just Alayna. Look at the chubby cheeks on that girl! She seems to be getting so big! Other people still comment on how tiny she is, but I think she is really getting huge. She's still such a good baby. Last night she only woke up once to eat in the night. Little angel!

Can you tell that Ian's eyes are dilated? We noticed recently that he seems to cross his eyes sometimes and one eye seemed to be kind of lazy so we talked to the doctor about it and she referred us to an opthalmologist. That's where we went today. We've had this appointment set for a few weeks and Ian has really been looking forward to it. He thought the doctor was really nice except for when she put the drops in his eyes to dilate them. She was really great. She agreed that he crosses his eyes sometimes. The reason is that he is very farsighted so at times when he is trying to focus, his eyes cross. Also, his vision in his right eye is a little worse than his left, so that eye gets lazy sometimes. He needs glasses and hopefully that will take care of all of it, but we'll go back in a few months to see how his eyes are doing. He picked out some very handsome glasses so be on the lookout for pictures of him in glasses.

Alayna

2010-08-14T11:05:00.002-07:00

There's not a whole lot of exciting things going on with Alayna. She's a month old now and while she is awake and alert a bit more, she still spends most of each day sleeping.

Madeleine built a wall of pillows around Alayna one day on the couch. There was very little chance of Alayna going anywhere, but Madeleine wanted to be sure her baby sister was extra safe.

And since this is what she does most, here's another picture our little sweetheart sleeping.

conversation with Ian

2010-08-13T13:44:00.004-07:00

Today we were watching tv and I was feeding Alayna when Ian came over. Here's how our exchange went:

Ian: "There's this kind of soap that makes babies sleep better."

Me: knowing what he was referring to (pictured below) "yeah, does it come in a purple bottle?"

Ian: "Um, yeah, it's from S.C. Johnson. They're a family company."

Hmmm, either he has a freakishly good memory or we've been spending a bit too much time in front of the television. He is really smart, but I suspect it's the latter.

about Madeleine...

2010-08-09T21:31:00.003-07:00

We recently started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone together. She loves the Harry Potter movies (the first three are the only ones she's seen) so we thought we would give the book a try. She is liking it and since she is such a great reader she decided to get the book out and read a little on her own. I came out from my room and saw this and I thought it was so cute!

It's no secret that this girl has amazing hair, but here's a picture to show it off.

And here is a picture to show the spot at her hairline where she cut some of her hair. Why, why, why?? I thought when she cut her hair at age 3 it was traumatic enough that she wouldn't ever do it again. Guess I was wrong on that. And this cutting was obviously so intentional! I really don't understand what could possibly have been going through her mind. Growing that out is going to be a long process.

Luckily a side part hides it well enough. Please ignore all the clutter in these pictures. Some day we'll be totally settled, but let's be honest, there will probably still be some clutter in the background then too.

One other thing about this child of mine: we have been working on teaching her the addition facts and she is doing so well! So far she knows them up to seven and this week we're doing the eights. She has been begging to get her ears pierced so we made a deal that when she knows her addition facts all the way to ten, then she will have earned it. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. If we stick to our schedule she will be getting earrings in just a couple weeks. Wish her luck!

Grandma Vickie

2010-07-28T20:07:00.003-07:00

My mom is wonderful! Have I ever mentioned that on here before? She is a great mom period, but I am especially thankful that she came out to help us adjust after Alayna was born. She came to help after we had Madeleine and Ian too and each time her help has been invaluable! It was so nice to be able to go take a nap when I needed to and not have to worry about the cooking and cleaning. We have had lots of homemade waffles the past two weeks--Grandma's specialty! I guess I'll have to perfect my waffle making skills. And by "perfect" I mean acquire since I don't know that I have ever made waffles before (you know, real ones, not eggos).

Looks like Alayna is giving her a bit of a smile, don't you think? Thanks for everything, Mom! We miss you already!

Picture update

2010-07-16T21:00:00.002-07:00

Do you remember Madeleine's Easter dress from earlier this year? (refresh your memory here, if you want) I loved her dress when I saw it at Marshalls and I'm sure I would have gotten it anyway, but I thought it was really darling that it came with a matching doll-size dress, pictured here on this teddy bear. But what do you think of it on Alayna?

How precious, right?! Of course it doesn't fit well enough that she could wear it for more than just a few pictures, but I couldn't resist checking to see if she could wear it and match her sister.

Then I decided I might as well put Ian in some coordinating dress clothes to capture these 3 sweet babies of mine. I love Ian's manly pose.

This is what Alayna wore for her pictures in the hospital. She was really loving that pacifier and actually ended up looking pretty mad in all her pictures from this little photo shoot since I had to take the pacifier away before each shot. Oh well, they're still cute. I have had to put her on restriction from her pacifier since she liked it so much. She seemed to be getting a little confused about what to do when it came time to nurse so we're taking a break from the paci. She doesn't seem to mind.

Labor and Delivery

2010-07-16T18:09:00.003-07:00

If you have spoken to me at all in the last nine months, you probably knew that I was very excited to not be pregnant anymore. From the beginning. I don't do pregnancy very well. No, I don't get really sick, just really grouchy and fat and I have a rotten attitude for almost the entire time. Of course I had to stick it out till the end, but thankfully doctors these days will schedule elective inductions at 39 weeks. I was all over that! I did the same with Ian and it went really well so I couldn't see any reason not to do it again this time. My doctor scheduled me for Tuesday, the 13th and Spencer kept trying to convince me that I should wait till the 15th since my mom would be here and we wouldn't have any issues with finding someone to watch the kids. Well, I had to put my foot down and say that I didn't intend to be pregnant a minute longer than I had to be and I made arrangements for friends to watch Madeleine and Ian. (Big thanks to Shelley and Amy for helping out!!)

In California when I had Ian, I went to the hospital at night to start my induction. Here they had me call at 5:00am to make sure there was room for me, and then I went in to get started. Rather than wake the kids to go to our friend's house at that ungodly hour, I got up and drove myself to the hospital. Kind of unceremonious, huh? The nurses could tell I wasn't there to have my first baby since I showed up without an entourage. Spencer let the kids sleep till their normal waking time, dropped them off and made it to the hospital around 9. He hadn't missed much of anything. I had gotten the IV around 7:00 so had been on pitocin for a couple hours, but wasn't progressing superfast. When the contractions were starting to hurt a bit but before I was ready to be confined to the bed by the epidural, they gave me something in the IV for the pain. I can't remember what it was called. I think it started with an 'N.' Anybody know what I'm talking about? That was an interesting experience! My nurse told me I would feel it come on suddenly, like I had drank a margarita too fast. Well, I didn't know what that would feel like, but there was no mistaking it when it happened. It did help with the pain enough that I rested and watched a movie while I waited for my contractions to get worse.

I ended up getting the epidural around 1:00pm, very shortly before my doctor came to break my water. (sidenote: The anesthesiologist put it in my back while I sat on the edge of the bed, which was SO much easier than trying to curl into a ball like I did with my other two kids.) I was dilated to a 5 at this point. She told me she would come back around 5:00pm to see how I was doing, to which I thought, "uh, I hope I need you to come deliver this baby before that!" After she broke my water, my contractions started really doing their job and I progressed quickly. Around 3:30 the nurse checked me and found that I was fully dilated and it was time to call the doctor. I could feel some pressure with each contraction but not very strong so I wasn't sure I was really ready. She suggested we do a test push to see how it went and then if I was ready we would call the doctor to come over. I couldn't feel what happened when I pushed but evidently I was ready and Alayna was ready to be born. So we waited till the doctor came back. Once she got there, I pushed through two contractions and our little angel was born at 4:15pm. I must say, it was pretty heavenly to not feel any of it. With Madeleine, I couldn't feel anything thanks to the epidural, but I also had never had a baby before so I had no idea how to push one out of me and it took over an hour of pushing and a vacuum to get her out. With Ian, my doctor and I didn't want a repeat of how Madeleine's delivery went so she let my epidural wear off before I delivered him. He was born after only a few minutes of pushing too, but it was painful and totally exhausting. This time, I was blissfully numb and I only had to push a few times. It was perfect.

I have to confess that a good part of my joy in giving birth is the fact that I am no longer pregnant. The majority is how wonderful it is to welcome another baby to our family, but I can't deny how happy it makes me to not be pregnant.

Introducing...

2010-07-14T10:52:00.005-07:00

Alayna Camille Rands. Born at 4:15pm on July 13, 2010. She weighed 7lbs. 14oz. and was 20.5 inches long.

Her sister and brother are so happy that she is no longer in my tummy.

Not quite as happy about that as I am though.

She is a beautiful, sweet baby and I really can't say enough how glad we all are that she is here! I'll recount my labor and delivery on another post later for anyone who is interested in that kind of thing.

Pictures, finally!!

2010-07-09T14:34:00.022-07:00

I have no excuses to put it off any longer. I'm getting a bit more settled each day and now that we have our internet connection, it is high time to post pictures of our new home. Plus, I'm supposed to have this baby on Tuesday so I better do it now before it's old news, right? We are so happy to be in here! The pictures hardly do it justice. You'll just have to come visit us and see it for yourself. Until then, let's take a little photo tour:

Dining room

View from entryway

Kitchen view 1

Kitchen view 2 (master bedroom through the door in the corner)

Breakfast nook

Family room (half bath and laundry room are off to the left)

I'll sneak this one in here. I'm SO glad I won't be looking like this for too much longer!

Guest bedroom

Game room

I didn't get pictures of the kids' rooms and our room that are worth sharing. An empty bedroom is an empty bedroom, right? I'll post pics when those rooms come together with decorations, etc. The kids's rooms at least.

At this point I am patting myself on the back for not still being completely surrounded by boxes, but we have a long way to go. Hopefully it won't take too much longer to be all the way settled, but I'm not expecting to be done before our baby girl arrives. Moving is a huge project and I am thankful I have had the energy to do all that I have done. My big task now is to transform the guestroom from the dumping ground for boxes it currently is to something that my mom will be able to sleep in when she comes next week. As long as I don't go into labor tonight, I think Spencer and I can get that done.

Now that we are Texans, we are missing all of our friends and loved ones from the places we have lived and hope you are all doing well!

Almost there!

2010-06-30T19:39:00.002-07:00

Do you love that song from The Princess and the Frog as much as I do? Truthfully I love some of the other songs from that movie even more, but that one's good. I was so pleased to find that on the 3 for $20 table at Blockbuster yesterday. But that is not the true subject of this post.

We closed on our house on Tuesday (yay!!) but our movers were booked until July 1st, so tomorrow is the big day! To be honest, the closing was a bit anti-climactic since we had to go back to our dumpy temporary apartment. I imagine it will all feel much more real tomorrow when our house is full of boxes of our stuff and we get to sleep there for the first time.

So where are all the pictures I've been promising?? I have a good excuse on that one. I need a card reader to upload them to the good laptop and amidst the move we don't know exactly where our card reader is. The rest of the bad news is that we will be without an internet connection at our house for about a week so we will all just have to hold our horses! But I gotta say, I cannot wait for you all to see it! I love, love, love our house and I am thrilled with how beautifully it turned out! I truly don't mean to boast. I would love this house no matter who it belonged to and it still almost doesn't seem real that it's ours!

Anyway, I'm hoping for a really good night of rest tonight because tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Stay tuned for pics!

Update from Texas

2010-06-18T20:42:00.003-07:00

Today the kids and I spent the day out and about and the highlight might have been the splash pad at the Woodlands waterway. It was either that or the furniture store we went to with Spencer after dinner. It definitely wouldn't have been the hour or more we spent in Marshalls, although considering how boring a place that has got to be for them, they were really good while we were there.

Since I am now 36 weeks pregnant (but looking and feeling more like 46 weeks along), spending a whole day out like that is not exactly ideal. Let me explain. Until we close on our house, we are not going to buy a much needed second car, so if we want to be able to be out at all we have to drive Spencer to work in the morning. And since we are in such a small apartment, not being able to go anywhere all day is even less desirable than spending the whole day out. And today we needed to be able to go check out some online classified deals (a baby swing for $50 and a Kirby Sentria vacuum for $280!).

House update: I am so tempted to post pictures, but I'm going to wait. We are SO close to the end! Our project manager said he's planning to have it finished by the 23rd and we'll most likely be closing a few days later. We are so ready!! And it will be extra sweet since we have been living in this temporary housing that is not nice at all. We are all very ready to be in a place that is ours with all of our own stuff. Of course the truth of it is that I'm going to have to hope that my nesting instinct kicks in nice and strong so I can get us as settled as possible before I have this little girl. I'd love to have everything in its proper place before the baby comes, but if it's not it will be fine. I'll have plenty of time to get it done later, right?

our house...again

2010-06-01T14:44:00.003-07:00

I am really going to try to make this be the last progress picture I post. Because I think that our house will be all the way done really soon and I cannot wait! They haven't given us an exact date of completion, but they have assured us (without putting it in writing) that we will be able to close by June 30 so we will qualify for the tax credit. The kids and I will be going to Houston in just a few days and we are planning to go visit our house as soon as possible. It's just so exciting! Spencer has sent me so many pictures but they are working on it so fast that I know there will be plenty of changes for me to see this weekend. Anyway, there you have it. Now I need to finish with my organizing/packing so we'll be ready when the packers come on Thursday. Next time I blog it will be from Texas!

Finished bedding

2010-05-28T08:27:00.003-07:00

I'm done!! Hallelujah! I am so happy with how it turned out! In fact, I think I like Madeleine's even better than the crib bedding. Don't get me wrong, the baby bedding is super cute, but what I love about the twin size is that it's not all hidden by the crib. Just had to show it off!

House Progress

2010-05-26T22:33:00.002-07:00

Now that Spencer is in Houston I have been able to see lots more of our house. But since they are really probably only interesting to me, I will only post one picture. Plus, he sent most of them to me by text and I don't know how to get them from my phone to my computer. I'm sure it's not hard, but I'm not doing it right now.

Happy Birthday, Madeleine!

2010-05-26T20:12:00.012-07:00

Madeleine turned 6 last week! To celebrate with our family, we had lunch with everyone after Spencer's graduation. She loved her cupcake cake, especially the tiara and wand that came on top. The wand broke yesterday and she was devastated.
We tried out trick candles (relighting) and that was pretty funny. We kept blowing them out, but ultimately we had to put them in water. Their relighting function worked really well!
If you have never gotten a cupcake cake before, I hope this picture can serve as a warning to you about what you are in for. Do you think there is enough frosting on that tiny cupcake?

On the day of her birthday she wanted to eat at Olive Garden again like we did last year.
Then we went out for frozen yogurt for dessert instead of having more cake (she had brought some to school earlier that day).
This one is for Grandma Sandi and Grandpa Paul.

Happy birthday Madeleine! We can't believe how quickly you are growing up!! And we are so proud of you and all you are accomplishing and what a mature little lady you are becoming! We love you!

Bedding Project

2010-05-26T20:12:00.008-07:00

Alright. I've been slaving away at this crib bedding since Saturday and today I've finally finished. What do you think?

I don't know why this next picture is turned on its side. It's not a great picture but I wanted to show a closer view of the darling fabrics and how they came together. I think the print on my bumper is much cuter than the white bumper on my inspiration bedding.
I also used some muslin that my mom had on hand to make a crib sheet. If you're ever interested, it was pretty easy. These are the instructions I used.

Now I am working on making a matching duvet cover for Madeleine's bed. After it's done I will post more pictures. I'm so excited to pull it all together in their room in our new house! (Which is coming along nicely. Cabinets were delivered today and texture was sprayed on walls and ceilings. So exciting!!)

Ballet Recital 2010

2010-05-26T20:11:00.009-07:00

This is the note Madeleine wrote to remind us of her ballet recital. I love her spelling. And I love that she put May secinte (second) even though it was actually on the 15th. She's hilarious.

Here's our beautiful little dancer! I'm pretty confidant that her favorite things about her recital are wearing make up and the fancy costumes. I don't think I ever posted about her losing her two front teeth, but you can see her permanent teeth front and center. I can't believe how fast she is growing up! This is her teacher Miss Melendie. She has been wonderful! We've loved having Madeleine at her little studio and we're not expecting to find quite the same thing in Texas. Madeleine is very eager to try gymnastics though so we may not have to worry about comparing one dance studio to another. I guess time will tell.

I wanted to post a video from that night but it wouldn't upload. Check back in case I can get it to work later. It's very cute!

MBA Graduation

2010-05-26T20:11:00.005-07:00

Finally! We are no longer students!! Can I say that even though I've just been married to a student and not actually a student myself? On May 15, 2010 Spencer graduated from the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU. He has had such a great experience being in this program, but he's also glad it's over. It's so wonderful to be moving on to the next phase of our lives. I am so proud of Spencer and how hard he worked in school and how hard he works at everything! He hardly knows how to relax. In fact, he is already in Houston working at his new job with ExxonMobil. Not much of a break, right?

This picture is of all the students who specialized in Real Estate so this was the crowd Spencer had the majority of his classes with. They spent a lot of time together!

Can you spot Spencer in this photo? I'll give you a hint: he's turned around and looking at the camera.
These are the other LDS couples we spent a lot time with over the past two years. They are so much fun and we are definitely going to miss hanging out with them. We are lucky though that one couple is moving to Houston too so we don't have to lose all our friends at once!

My mom and dad came to graduation too. They've been as involved in Spencer's schooling as I have been so they are well aware of how hard he's worked and how awesome an accomplishment this is.
Drew came out from California to show his support. It was fun to get to spend a couple days with him one last time before we move so much further from him.
The kids were so good at graduation. As far as graduations go, I think this one was pretty good. Only one speaker before they announced the graduates, but it was still pretty boring for a 3 and almost 6 year old. They were certainly glad when it was over and they had fun trying on Spencer's clothes.
Like I said, Spencer is already down in Houston and the kids and I will be joining him next Friday. We will be in an apartment until our house is finished, hopefully a couple weeks before we welcome the newest addition to our family. Can't wait!

Big Project

2010-05-14T15:09:00.004-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about how to decorate our girls' room and what type of bedding would be cutest. I was leaning toward doing a black and white damask theme, which I do still really like, but I wasn't 100% sure. Then my sister Olivia (check out her blog here) offered her opinion and it swayed me. I was feverishly looking for other ideas yesterday when I came upon this bedding set. What do you think?

I think it is so DARLING!! The problem is that is costs $600. Sorry, I'm not the kind of mom who can justify spending that much money on crib bedding. Or any other bedding set for that matter. I decided that it doesn't look like it would be too difficult to recreate and I could make a matching quilt for Madeleine's bed too. That would be even better. I then spent even more time scouring different websites in search of a cute printed fabric that would be just right for this project. I found lots of good options, but ultimately ended up at Joann's and found this:
The color's a bit softer than my inspiration bedding, but I think it's going to be perfect!! I am so excited!! I didn't sleep very well last night due to my mind racing over thoughts of this bedding coming together. And unfortunately this weekend is poised to be way too full of activities for me to be able to get started just yet, but soon enough I will get to work and see this thing take shape. It's lucky I decided to do this while I still live with my mom. Her help is going to be invaluable. Wish me luck!!

New Camera

2010-05-12T22:49:00.003-07:00

Neither of these pictures are anything amazing, but I decided to post them anyway since they are from our new camera. Which, also, actually is not super special, but the viewfinder works and it takes pictures, so now our blog will be able to have current pictures on it again (as long as we actually take them). Hallelujah!! I hope that sometime in the not-too-distant future we will be able to get a really nice camera (like a digital SLR) but for now we needed something functional and inexpensive. So for a combined Mother's Day and graduation gift to each other we got our new camera. Ian is eager to get his hands on it, but we have told him that is strictly forbidden. It's thanks to our kids that we needed a new one in the first place.

I look at this and think "yuck," but whatever. This was me last night curled up with Spencer's laptop catching up on my TV shows online. I have DVR so why should I have to watch shows online? Well, my DVR had a problem a few weeks ago where it wouldn't record anything on ABC. Really? Just ABC? Only 90% of the shows we watch are on that channel! So annoying. I finally decided to buckle down and catch up. You see, my DVR missed about a week and a half of shows but then we fixed it so there were all these subsequent episodes piling up and tempting me to watch out of order. I couldn't do that. Don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome that a person can see all the shows they want online. But I do not pay for DVR service so I can watch TV on my computer. If you have Tivo or DVR you know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't worry. I'm caught up now and all is right with the world.

Now, so you know what you have to look forward to thanks to our new camera: Spencer's graduation, Madeleine's ballet recital, our new house, our new baby. And I'm sure we'll find other stuff worth taking a picture of. All in good time.

Progress

2010-05-08T08:44:00.003-07:00

Here's the latest picture of our house. We have a wonderful salesman who goes by the property almost everyday and takes a picture to send us since we aren't there to check progress ourselves. It is the highlight of our day to see how things are coming along! Even though it will still not be done by the time we get down there, I can hardly wait to see it in person!

Another bit of progress: although we will have packers and movers come take care of getting our stuff to Texas, there is plenty to do beforehand so they don't pack up all our garbage and move it 1200 miles. Yesterday, my mom and I sorted through all the toys and packed up what we will take and left out things that she'll keep here and/or donate. It was quite a task. I'm lucky I have such a great, hard-working mom to get that project rolling and I am so glad it's done!

Next up: tackling the junk in our many closets.

Not a lot to say

2010-04-22T14:19:00.007-07:00

I wish my blog wasn't so boring, but I have just not been in the blogging mood. Is it being pregnant that just makes me feel so blah? I think so and it's rather unfortunate to have such a feeling for such a long period of time. I really wish that human babies didn't need nine whole months to get ready to be born, but obviously that is not changing anytime soon. Anyway, just to add a new post to my page and to give me something to do (as if I really need that) this posting will be compiled of a few random thoughts. Let's all hope it turns out to be something worth reading. :)

Spencer has just a few more weeks left before graduation on May 15. His time in school has really gone by fast. He'll be starting work a week and a half after that. Can you believe it?? Now we just need to find a perfect interim housing situation. What will make it perfect? Basically if it's cheap and not scary and not a terrible distance from his job. Oh, and if me and the kids can join him a couple weeks after he gets there without having to move into a hotel till our house is done. Then it will really be perfect. The less we have to spend on interim housing the more we have to put towards other things. And really, who doesn't want all sorts of new things when they move into a new house? Not only are there things we'll want, there will be some definite needs too. Like a washer and dryer. And a fridge. And a lawn mower. You get the idea.

Madeleine is a reading queen. For school they get to pick out books to take home and read 3 times before bringing them back to school to be quizzed on them. Our new favorites are the Pigeon books. So far she's read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Pigeon Wants a Puppy and The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. They are such funny books! If you haven't read them, you should check them out.

Ian is an obsessed Lego ship builder. Give that kid a handful of Legos and he can come up with all sorts of different ship configurations. It's quite a talent, I'd say. If I had a fully functioning camera I would post a picture of some of his creations, but since I don't you'll just have to take my word for it.

As for me, like I said, I've been feeling really blah practically for the last 6 months straight. Although I am very excited about all the upcoming changes for our family, I'm probably not expressing that excitement as well as I could. So what do I do with myself? Besides constantly looking online for different things I want to buy after we get into our house, I daydream about being able to workout like I used to and making measurable progress once I have the baby. Oh yeah, and I need to find an OB/GYN when we move down there and that might prove to be a challenge. I've never moved during a pregnancy before so I didn't know what to expect, but I talked to one doctor who doesn't accept new patients who are past 22 weeks. (I'll probably be around 34 weeks by the time we get down there.) Luckily I spoke with another doctor who will at least look over my file and determine if they will take me on. That sounds promising, right? I'm not too worried. I'm sure it will work out just fine.

I looked through the pictures on this computer to see if there were any old ones I could put on here to make this post a little more interesting, but no luck. Most of our pictures are on our other computer which is pretty much down and out right now. Too bad.

Easter, etc.

2010-04-05T21:52:00.008-07:00

I really, really don't want anyone to see this picture. I hate to see my pregnant self captured in photographs. Of course I can't blame it on the photograph. I really am as huge as I look and it's extremely depressing since I still have more than 3 months to get even fatter before I get to have this sweet baby girl. But I am posting this and the next one to stand as a reminder of what being pregnant does to me. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't forget anyway, but just in case. The good thing about this picture is you can see that Spencer is as handsome as ever. He's not even gaining any sympathy weight. Don't worry. I'm putting on enough for both of us.

Good thing Madeleine and Ian are so cute! They really save this picture! This was at the park this weekend at the fabulous Easter party my sister-in-law threw. It was complete with an egg hunt and pinata and tons of other goodies and candy besides. My kids were a little late in getting in on the hunt so they each only found a couple eggs, but thankfully they have some really generous cousins who shared their bounty. We ended up with way more than enough!
I just have to give a shout out to my sister, Maggie. She has been working out so diligently to lose weight and she is doing so good! And looking so good! You can check out her blog here if you're interested. She's hardcore.Sweet Madeleine on Easter morning. Yep, same dress as the day before. It is this year's Easter dress so I couldn't really make her change. I probably couldn't have forced her to if I had tried. In fact, I'm pretty sure she slept in her new dress Saturday night. Maybe she was just wanting to wake up prepared.
Our little man after their Easter morning egg hunt. My mom was a great Easter bunny. That morning, she hid all the plastic eggs we had restuffed the night before and all the dyed eggs so these two got to go searching for over 50 eggs. It was a good re-do since the hunt the day before was a bit of a bust for them. Hope you all had a great Easter too!

We found a house!

2010-04-04T22:43:00.002-07:00

This isn't exactly what our house will look like, but it is similar.

Spencer and I spent a week house hunting recently and this is what we decided on. For a lot of reasons, it was a better way to go than buying a home resale. One of the top reasons being that the cost is hardly different and we can have just what we want in our home. The location is great (not a bad commute from Spencer's work) and the timing should be just right for when we'll be ready to move. Once we are down there I'll post more pics of our actual home in all it's glory. I'm imaging there will be a lot of glory. Can't wait!

Give away!

2010-03-04T15:27:00.004-07:00

My incredibly talented sister-in-law has recently set up her own etsy shop and blog to promote the darling dresses and aprons she makes. Here is the link to her blog so you can sign up too:

http://polkadotcanar.blogspot.com/2010/02/polka-dot-canary-drawing.html

Here are some examples of what you could win:

And here's a link to her etsy shop in case you don't win but really want one of her wonderful creations!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/polkadotcanary

Good luck!

Now we know.

2010-02-24T20:34:00.006-07:00

I had my ultrasound on Monday, and found out we are expecting a GIRL!!

We are very excited to have another daughter and the kids are both looking forward to having a baby sister. Now we have the challenge of coming up with a name that fits our strict criteria. You know, not too popular, not made up, classy (like Madeleine), etc. And the clincher is that Spencer and I have to agree on it. Believe me, that is going to be the toughest part. I gotta say, I used to think that we were on the same page almost all the time, and for the most part we are, but between house-hunting (via internet until our trip to Houston next month) and naming a baby I am noticing how much our thoughts differ at times. I'm sure we will come up with a name we love and find a house we love, but I might have a few more gray hairs to show the stress of the process of both. Wish us luck!

P.S. If the text looks huge, it's not my fault. Stupid blogger is making me look bad.

Thanksgiving 2009

2010-01-17T16:53:00.006-07:00

I warned you that I was way behind so I hope you aren't terribly surprised to see that I am posting about stuff from two months ago.

As you already know from our family pictures, all of my family was in town. Admittedly the majority already live here, but it was a real treat to have Olivia and her new husband Gino come down with their family(pictured here with Erika and Ken and Emma who live here in Mesa). And Bob who came from Billings and Angela and Glenn who brought their family from Rancho Cucamonga. Back to Olivia and Gino. They got married in August and that subject deserves its own post. I'm telling you. Waaaaaaay behind.

I am a horrible picture taker, meaning I don't get the camera out and do it so I am lucky other people took some pictures that I can use for this. I wasn't in too many and that's because I was taking a lot of naps that week. My sisters kept complaining that I was boring, mope-y, etc. Olivia told me that I needed to eat more so I wouldn't be so tired all the time. Of course the truth of it was that I had just discovered I was pregnant and I couldn't get by without naps. Boring, but true. And I didn't tell anyone that I was pregnant because I knew if I did then I could just say, "oh, but I'm pregnant," as an excuse for everything and I didn't want to do that. I thought maybe I would have to try to seem normal if no one knew I shouldn't be acting normal. It didn't really go that way, but it was worth a shot.

Part of our Thanksgiving traditions is to make graham cracker gingerbread houses. I think Ian got a little help from Spencer. You better believe that half the fun is eating all the candy off of them once they are all built.My mom's birthday is early in December and this was her 60th so we wanted to surprise her and have a fun party in her honor while everyone was here. The festivities took place at the church and we schemed and concocted a plan to get her there unawares and while she was in the bathroom with my grandma, the rest of us waited just outside the door to yell "SURPRISE!" when she came out. It was all going according to plan until Ian slipped into the bathroom behind Erika. Erika was supposed to be there, Ian was not. Thankfully we still managed to surprise her. She did say, "What's Ian doing here?" But it didn't ruin anything. She was still totally surprised.

We hired this nice lady to teach us some dances. She did a great job and we all had a lot of fun. Especially the birthday girl!I wish this weren't true, but Spencer and I are not good dancers. We tried our best and still had fun, but we weren't wowing anyone with our sweet moves.

Here's Bob dancing with Marian. I didn't spend much time paying attention to how anyone else was doing, but I did have the chance to dance with Bob and he actually is a really great dancer and a strong partner. I'm sure he was glad to get rid of me. I was bringing him down.

OK. One down, I don't know how many old ones to go. I think I'm actually going to really like posting old stuff. That way I'll get to keep putting up pictures of me while I was skinny and I can forget about how much fatter I am getting in real life.

Official Announcement

2010-01-04T16:34:00.002-07:00

Many of you know this, but since I know some don't, here is our official announcement for our plans after school.

Spencer is currently enjoying a long winter break from his MBA studies. He has a trimester and a half left before graduating in May. After that, he has accepted a job with ExxonMobil, so we will be moving back to Houston at that time. We are very excited and feel really blessed with such a fabulous opportunity. Everyone always asks if we liked Houston and the answer is yes. OK, I hated the cockroaches, but I am pretty sure our particular apartment had more than its fair share. The hot and humid weather was totally livable and we are looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year is like.

So, that's the plan. Now you know. Oh yeah, one other thing. We'll be having a baby in July just to shake things up.

Family Pictures

2010-01-03T21:59:00.011-07:00

I've been neglecting my blog, I know. I'm resolving to do better. I have so many things to post about but I am not ready to tackle it all just yet. For now, I will post a few family pics (in addition to the header and sidebar photos) we had taken during the Thanksgiving break when all my siblings and their kids were in town. Our photographer was Jessica Drew and here's a link to her website.

This is my Grandma Koernig. She is so proud of her posterity! She had to be in a picture with each of her grandkids and their families. I absolutely LOVE how Ian and Madeleine are holding hands in this one. So cute!!

Love these two!

All the girl cousins.

All the boy cousins.

The whole gang.
And us.

P.S. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

one more Halloween picture

2009-11-14T14:50:00.002-07:00

We were in such a rush to get to the ward Halloween party that we didn't get a family picture with all of us in our costumes. Thankfully a friend at the party got this picture of me and the kids or we wouldn't have gotten any pics at all. I have decided that trick-or-treating is a very inefficient way to get loads of candy. No wonder people are doing it so much less. Our kids got so much candy from the different parties we went to. We went up and down our street for the true trick-or-treating experience but it was not necessary to get more candy. Give it another week and hopefully all the candy will be gone. Just in time to start overeating at Thanksgiving. Can't wait!

Rapunzel

2009-11-03T20:49:00.003-07:00

Here she is. Madeleine as Rapunzel. You may recall that this was her winning costume last year that she only wore to the gym and refused to put on again (see this post). Because it was such a great costume (in my humble opinion) and hardly anyone saw her in it (I didn't even get a picture of it for the blog), we agreed that she would wear it again this year. Some may say it's kind of rude to tell her what she would be instead of letting her choose, but thankfully she was really happy with her costume! In fact, she practically wore that braid in her hair for 3 days straight. And she's been begging me to put it in again. She wants to wear it all the time and tell people it's her real hair. I need to remind her that we shouldn't tell lies.

Carving Pumpkins

2009-11-03T20:39:00.003-07:00

Last week for family home evening we carved pumpkins. Grandpa Paul and Ian worked hard on their ghost.
Madeleine and I carved a cat. We added some permanent marker to make it more striking in the light.
Spencer took a break from his studies to prove his carving abilities. We got the kit with all the patterns and there were so many cool ones so he just had to do one. He chose the pirate skull.
And here's the finished product. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Crazy Hair Day

2009-11-03T15:20:00.005-07:00

The week of Halloween at Madeleine's school was full of fun activities. Each day had a theme and Crazy Hair Day was my favorite. Selfish, I know. If you have seen Madeleine you know she has amazing hair, and tons of it, so I knew we would be able to come up with something really awesome. This was the result:
Her's was easliy the craziest in her class, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't a competition. She wasn't actually all that happy about her crazy hair. Can you tell by her grumpy face in the pictures? Here's a video I happened to get since the camera was in video mode when I first got it out:

She was speaking quietly out of her frown, so in case you couldn't understand she was saying that she looked in the mirror and it doesn't look cool. Sorry, sweetie, but you are wrong. Your hair looked SO COOL!!

My new favorite workout

2009-10-25T21:25:00.005-07:00

Does your gym offer turbo kickboxing? If so, have you tried it? And if so, do you love it as much as I do?? You know I must be obsessed with it if it's making it to the blog! I fell in love with it this summer when we were in Houston. I didn't have much going on this summer so I had plenty of time to spend at the gym. Which I loved because I was able to trim down a bit since I worked out so much and began obsessively counting calories. Thankfully Madeleine and Ian loved going there too. They made some good friends at the kids club and were thoroughly entertained while I worked out. Anyway, our gym in The Woodlands had a fabulous TKB instructor who made it so fun! Even though I will be the first to admit it took me a good 4 or 5 times to feel like I was actually doing the moves at the proper times. It is so fast-paced! You really need to give yourself at least a time or two to understand what they are telling you to do.Even though I don't agree with her 100%, t his blogger gives a pretty funny account of her experience with TKB. I know where I'll be every Saturday morning at 8:30. And I know I'll be thinking about it in anticipation every Friday night as I fall asleep.

Field Trip/Sneak Peek at Ian's Costume

2009-10-25T20:58:00.007-07:00

Grandpa Paul took Ian on a "field trip" to the firestation earlier this month. Ian was thrilled! He is going to be a firefighter for Halloween this year so we decided he might as well be in uniform for their visit.
Isn't this picture cool?
Of course the real firemen thought Ian was pretty neat.
They concluded their outing with ice cream and playing at McDonald's. Pretty much a perfect day!

Halloween Party

2009-10-25T18:22:00.004-07:00

Can you believe Spencer and I were the first ones to attend a Halloween party this year and not the kids? I was kind of surprised too. Anyway, we got dressed up in our new used referee shirts and whistles to party it up with some of the other MBA students and their wives.

We always have fun with this crowd and this party was no exception. We started the night with a delicious spaghetti dinner eaten off of or out of random kitchen or hospital wares. My plate, for example, was a pink puke receptacle. I don't know what the proper name is, but that's what it's used for. One lucky person had a bedpan for their plate. Spencer's drinking cup was a urine sample collection cup. Sounds appetizing, huh? The really tricky thing was getting the food sucessfully into your mouth with the utensil at your seat. Spencer had an especially difficult time eating the salad with his potato masher. We also had a pumpkin carving contest. A 20-mintue time limit was imposed so it was a very high pressure competition! We managed to carve the skull despite our tools all breaking on us. I guess you can't expect too much from the $5 kit from Walgreens.

The highlight might have been when the wives finally won a round at Catch Phrase. We have played many times and the husbands always win, so we were very pleased with ourselves for a few minutes until the husbands came back and beat us again. Oh well! Thanks, Clarks, for putting on such a great party!!

Party, party, party!

2009-10-20T22:18:00.004-07:00

Our little man turned 3 last week!! We had a lot of our family over one night for his "family party" and then had another party with his friends a couple days later. He loved all of it! Here are some pictures:Blowing out his candle at the family party.

These are our kids' cousins, Jalen and Lizzie. They are so lucky to get to live near each other and play together so often! Ian loves playing with Jalen especially. He has learned to appreciate things like Spiderman and Star Wars thanks to his cousin. He has never seen Star Wars, but he told me today that he wants his next birthday party to be a Star Wars party. I guess we'll have to wait and see if that still holds true next year.

Here are some of the kids at the friends party. A couple more came later and Ian loved having all his friends over.
This is the bike we gave him. He is a little nervous since it's a bit big for him, but he'll get the hang of it soon I'm sure. Since we are on a tight budget as poor college students, we got the bike at a second hand store (which is my new favorite thing, by the way!). I cleaned it up pretty good I thought, though I didn't clean the tires very well. Who knows how to do that? As soon as we wheeled it out, Madeleine says, "It's dirty!" Luckily Ian didn't seem to mind that.
Second Costco cake of the week. I was crazy to get that much cake. I don't even want to think about how much I ate. Except that they were both so delicious! I just knew I didn't want to make cakes and why would I pay more for a regular store bakery cake when I could get one from Costco? You see why I had to do it. Thankfully there are a lot of people around this house willing to eat lots of cake!

Ian, you are such a sweet boy and we love you so much! Happy birthday!!

A bunch of pictures

2009-09-27T21:32:00.003-07:00

These two are so fun! Madeleine likes to put on her ballet clothes any old time, but this time Ian got to her slippers. It is just so funny to me to see a kid like Ian, total boy through and through, wearing the girliest pairs of his sister's shoes. Do you see the little stuffed toy Madeleine is holding? That's Chick Chick. She is obsessed with Chick Chick. It's totally dramatic and kind of annoying, but I am no dummy. I pick my battles, so Chick Chick accompanies Madeleine most places. Turns out we also have a stuffed horse named Horse Horse. Do you see a pattern?
Grandpa Paul took some pictures after church today. I don't know what face Ian was trying to imitate, but I like the way this one turned out.
Such a couple of cuties!
A family picture. It was super dark so I tried to lighten it and it doesn't look so hot. Oh well.

Reading

2009-09-27T20:38:00.004-07:00

Madeleine is becoming quite the little reader. She has known all the letters and their sounds for a long time and she has been able to sound out small words, but it seems like recently the whole concept really clicked for her and she is reading like crazy! She still has days when she is too tired and impatient to try to learn new words, but I'm sure that is to be expected. Last weekend, Grandpa Paul taught her all the words in The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree and she read the book all in one day. This is the first book Spencer read when he was her age.
I absolutely LOVE what Paul and Sandi have done with this book! First of all, they used this to teach the kids how to read, but then had the kids write their name in it the day they first learned it. And then saved the book so the grandkids could read it too!! How amazing is that?
Madeleine was just thrilled to be able to write her name in the book along with her aunt and uncles. I think Ian is hoping the book survives a few more years so he can put his name in it too.
Good job on all the reading Madeleine! We are so proud!!

I have some catching up to do!

2009-09-06T21:55:00.006-07:00

I am SO far behind in my blogging!! In my mind, I intended to do a post on each of these events, but now they have piled up to the point that I know I won't do individual posts so here they are lumped together. And they may or may not be in chronological order.
My Grandma Barb found her new love, Lincoln Raynes, and got married in the Mt. Timpanogos temple on August 8th. They are so cute and so in love! It's really sweet! I was lucky enough to make it up there for most of the festivities. It was so great to see so much family after being in Houston all summer so far from everyone. And pretty much all of my Lee cousins were there which was amazing! We all had so much fun together at family reunions as kids and it has been ages since we were all gathered in one place so that was extra special. Spencer and the kids stayed in Houston so they had to miss out. Hopefully the next time all the extended Lees get together we can really all be there, no one missing.
I can't lie. Spending time with Rozannah had to be my very favorite part. She and I were sidekicks for so many years, growing up and in college, and we haven't seen each other for over 2 years so it was a definite highlight to catch up with her again.

After I got back from Utah, it was time to pack up and head back to AZ. On our way home, we stopped in New Braunfels to play at Schlitterbahn one day. Schlitterbahn is an enormous water park and we knew we would be remiss if we didn't take the opportunity to visit there when we had the chance. I wanted to take a lot of pictures, but I really should have gotten one of the waterproof disposable cameras and since I didn't we got only these two pictures which are not a very good representation of all the fun we had there. Oh well. They are something. Anyway, it was pretty awesome! If you ever have the chance to go there, you must take it! Just make sure your kids are well rested before you go so you don't have to sit around holding a sleeping child for an hour. You could do that anywhere.

When we got back to Mesa, Madeleine started kindergarten. Here she is on her first day. She goes full day and while it is pretty tiring for her, I think she is handling it really well. She mostly seems tired when she has ballet right after school. She is having a lot of fun in school. She doesn't remember much about each day to recap, but I am hopeful that there is some actual learning going on. And so far her favorite class is P.E.

Then, I think to prove just how much she is really growing up, Madeleine lost her first tooth! It was loose on a Sunday and we freed it from the last little thread it was hanging on to on Thursday. For some reason, that makes her seem even older than starting kindergarten. She was SUPER excited about it! She is thrilled to be able to put a straw into her mouth where her tooth used to be. It really is crazy how fast these babies grow up!

Sick and Tired

2009-07-29T10:29:00.004-07:00

Poor Ian is a little bit sick. He threw up at the grocery store this morning so we are home taking it easy instead of out running errands. He jumped out of bed this morning declaring, "I had a good sleep!" but unfortunately between then and now he came down with a fever and an upset stomach. Unlike his sister, he has not thrown up very much in his life, so when I give him a bucket to puke in, he lays down with it over his face like this instead of stowing it safely by him so it's there when he needs it. Such a cute, sweet boy. Hopefully he feels much better soon!

Best. Show. Ever.

2009-07-23T17:43:00.004-07:00

Where to begin? Where to begin? Let it be known, to anyone who doesn't already know this about me, that I am a HUGE Coldplay fan. HUGE! I think when you go see a band you truly love, you are in for a great night, but I have not been to such an amazing concert in all my concert-going years! In the picture above, you can see the stage behind me. Our seats were not bad at all. We bought them on stubhub.com and we were pretty confident that they wouldn't be awful, but they ended up better than I imagined they would be. Scratch that. They turned out to be SPECTACULAR seats when the band came up and played on a small stage about 10 feet away from us.
See them in the background of this shot? SO close!!!
Here's Chris Martin getting ready to play a couple songs while the rest of the band took a quick breather. Just so you know how close he was to us, I got this picture on our crappy, point and shoot camera. The thing does not get good pictures, especially not at a distance. If only they had set the piano up facing us! Oh, and they had another small stage set up back on the lawn. They played a couple songs out there later in the show. That's real love for your fans when you get out there with them like that.

I'm going to take a moment to say how much I just LOVE British people. I love their accents and the way they speak. The phrasing they use just sounds so much smarter than the way we Americans speak. That's probably another reason why I love Coldplay like I do. Chris Martin had incredible stage presence. He's seemed so smart and funny and really engaged the crowd. When he came out for the encore, he was telling us that they had a CD available for everyone, "for the ludicrous price of zero dollars and zero cents." Funny and AMAZING! How cool is that to give everyone a free CD?!?! So cool.
It was such a great night! Big thanks to our friends in the ward who were willing to watch our kids till midnight. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And thanks to Spencer for deciding that this would be a good way to celebrate my birthday a little early. Love you!

When Dad's in charge....

2009-07-21T20:27:00.005-07:00

...things like this might happen. I went to the temple tonight, so Spencer stayed home with the kids. He took them to the pool for a bit and Ian took a nasty spill on their way back. Poor little guy. Other than Ian's fall, Spencer's night with the kids was pretty good. He fed them the "healthy dinner" they requested--corn, broccoli and bread and they ate all of it! And they were in bed by 8:15. All in all, not too bad. Could have been a little better (no-fat-lips better), could have been a LOT worse.

Roller Skating Adventure

2009-07-16T16:55:00.003-07:00

And what an adventure it was! If you are like us, you would think it would be a really fun little outing to go to the skating rink next door and have a great time skating as a family. You would know that it would be a little tough and the kids would need help, but it would still be fun. Well, if that's what you thought, you would be mistaken, as we were.
Both Madeleine and Ian were really looking forward to going skating. We had peeked into the place last Saturday but didn't go until two-for-one night on Tuesday, so we had time to anticipate the excitement. Spencer showed them the skating babies video so they could see some skating in action. I think it made them think they would be professionals right off the bat.Anyway, skating is much harder than it looks, especially to Madeleine and Ian. Before we went, Madeleine was telling me about all the tricks she was planning to do on her skates. By the time we were ready to go home, she was yelling, "Skating IS NOT fun!!!" Ian hated it just as much but he was not as vocal as his sister.

We are still glad we tried it and we now know that these kids need a lot more practice on skates to get comfortable enough to think it's fun. Better luck next time!

Where have we been?

2009-07-14T10:47:00.003-07:00

Honestly, there is not an exciting answer to that. I have just been doing other stuff besides blogging about life these days. But also, we haven't been having a ton of excitement. That, and I always seem to forget the camera or just not take any pictures when we do actually do something. Who wants to read a blog post without pictures??

For the 4th of July we went to Austin to check out that happenin' town. I guess that's fairly blog-worthy. Turns out that much of the cool stuff about Austin is live music and such, aimed at adults, but we managed to find some family fun too.

First of all, on our way there we stopped by the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham to take a tour and see how they make ice cream. That stop didn't go as planned. Maybe we are just really impatient, but there was a really long line that we would have had to wait in for about an hour (outside in the heat!) before getting to the tour, so we decided to swing into the Country Store they have there, buy our ice cream, and skip the tour. We told ourselves that our kids wouldn't have appreciated the tour anyway, but we all appreciated the ice cream. We tried four kinds and our (Spencer's and mine) favorites were the butter pecan and the cherry cobbler. Mmmmm! Madeleine liked mint chocolate chip. Ian seemed to love them all equally.

We got to our hotel in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day swimming before heading out for some BBQ for dinner. That was kind of a fiasco. Ian ended up throwing up right after they brought our food, so we hurried and left and took our food back to the hotel with us. Whatever Ian had didn't stick with him. He seemed to be fine just a little while later. Thank goodness. Since he was feeling better we took a little drive around Austin so we would know where were going the next day.

Saturday morning, we went out to breakfast and then found a parade. That was really fun! It was very small and I think we only caught the end of it, but they set up a bunch of activities in the school parking lot where the parade ended. The kids got to play games, get their faces painted and climb into a fire truck.

Later that day, we too a dip at the Barton Springs Pool which is fed by a natural spring. It was interesting. First off, it was really cold water compared to the 90 degree pool at the hotel. And there was a bunch of algae floating in the water and growing on the bottom and sides. Madeleine was very turned off by the slippery floor of the pool. I can't lie, I didn't love that part either. But she did love the diving board. I REALLY wish I had had my camera!! She was one of the smallest/youngest in line to go off the diving board and she did great. It was so cute! Spencer went first so he could be in the water to give her moral support (and help swimming, if she needed it, which she didn't). After his impressive dive, Madeleine took her turn and did a nice, graceful jump into the water. Up to this point she was complaining a lot about the cool water, but said she liked the pool much better when her feet didn't have to touch the bottom. Ian was really disappointed that he couldn't jump off the diving board too. He would have done it in a second if they allowed him to wear his floatie vest, but alas they did not, so I promised him he could jump off his aunt and uncle's diving board as much as he wants once we are back in AZ. Erika, I hope you and Ken don't mind.

For dinner, we found a new favorite restaurant for Madeleine. It's called La Madeleine. How could it not be her favorite? We had seen one near us in The Woodlands and they even sell some of their soups in the grocery stores, but we hadn't tried it yet so it was very exciting. It's a little French cafe, with soups, salads and lots of baked goods. Very good. Definitely recommend it.

For fireworks that night we pretty much followed the crowd to where we could see the show without going into whatever the venue was that put on the display. We ended up on the deck at a car wash and our view wasn't too bad at all. We love watching the fireworks and picking out our favorites, which are basically all of them.

Sunday we got up and headed home so we could make it back in time to get ready for 2pm church. It was a really great weekend. I hope you can imagine it since I have no pictures to prove it. I'm going to try to do better about that. More pictures is my goal!

Madeleine is 5!!!

2009-06-18T10:30:00.004-07:00

Just look at that face!!! This is my absolute favorite 5-year-old in the entire world!!

Here is our birthday girl in her very best dress (or very favorite anyway) on her big day. It wasn't the most exciting day since we spent a good portion of the day driving from San Antonio to Houston, but we did manage to squeeze in some fun. For breakfast, our hotel had delicious waffles in the shape of Texas. She still talks about those Texas-shaped waffles. When we made it to our new apartment and got keys, etc. the first thing she wanted to do was go swimming. We went for a little while to the pool at our building before going to an early dinner at Olive Garden, Madeleine's choice. Well, actually she said she wanted spaghetti for dinner and since we weren't prepared to cook at home we thought Olive Garden would be a good place to go. The kids both surprised us by totally chowing down on the salad. They don't eat salad like that at home, that's for sure. Then we shared some delectable desserts after the servers sang to her.

If this had been her only b-day celebration I might have felt bad, but this was the last in a string of celebrations she had had already to celebrate. Since we knew we weren't going to be able to have a party with her friends on her actual b-day (or very near it since we were leaving) we had a combined party with our friend Jack about a month before we left. All their school friends came and we all had so much fun!! I really shirked my duty though because I didn't take any pictures. Then, just before we moved we had a family party at Chuck E. Cheese complete with cousins, aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa, a Tinkerbell cake and lots of presents. Again, no pictures. I am such a slacker.
Finally, at school they make it "your special day" when it's your birthday, so this was one more chance for us to celebrate this wonderful little girl. This is Madeleine's teacher, Barbie. We love her!! She is the best and we are so, so lucky Madeleine was in her class this year. She has taught her so much and really helped her prepare for kindergarten in the fall.

We love you so much Madeleine!! You bring us so much joy and happiness every day and we are so blessed to have you in our family! Happy birthday!!

Quick update

2009-06-01T19:03:00.003-07:00

We got to Houston on May 2oth, (Madeleine's birthday which I will post about next) and I think I am sufficiently settled to give a brief update. I'm afraid if I don't do it now we will be headed back to Mesa before I do!

Anyway, we are thinking that Houston isn't so bad. Not that we thought it would be, just that it's not a dreamland, but it's not terrible either. We have come across some of the hugest cockroaches known to man (I'm guessing of course, but they were beastly), but other than that no major complaints. After living in Los Angeles I think we could handle most other big cities. We aren't turned off by traffic since we've seen worse. I'll tell you what about Texas. They know good food here!! If I'm not careful I'll be a couple sizes bigger by the time we get back to AZ from having to try out all the good restaurants.

Our apartment is nice and small, so it's easy to clean up quickly and since we didn't bring much with us there's not much to put away. We are living a simplified life, for sure.

Here are a few pictures from our adventures here thus far.

These two are at the Houston Arboretum. The kids love all the trees here! Everywhere we go they are pointing out "the woods" with great excitement.

The next two are from Space Center Houston last weekend with the Gannons, our friends from Mesa. They came through this way on their way to Alabama for the summer. We all loved hanging out with them for a couple days!

I know that our time here fly by, but we are planning to make the most of it while we are here.

Little Dancer

2009-05-18T00:39:00.004-07:00

Madeleine had her Spring ballet recital this weekend and it was one of the cutest things ever! This is her in her Pixies and Fairies costume for the first song her class danced to. And the video is from their second number, "I'm a Little Yellow Fish." She was a bit distracted by her fan club (her brother and cousins and friends) sitting right in front, so there was a little hiccup in her start. We are so proud of her performance! They put on a mini recital at Christmas time that didn't go very well for her. She was too shy/nervous/traumatized-by-our-car-having-been-broken-into or something to dance even one step. But she had a lot of fun with this and we are so happy! Anyway, the video is a little long (and I didn't get the whole song) but it's really fun. Spencer got better video on our camcorder so this one didn't have to be amazing (thank goodness because it isn't). And since it's small you might not be able to see the best part of her performance--she's singing along to every word. Just darling!!

The Necessities

2009-05-05T22:20:00.002-07:00

Believe it or not, we are headed to Houston in less than two weeks. It hardly seems real to me. Finding a place to live for such a short time wasn't easy, but we did find a place and I think it will be just fine. The clincher on choosing the apartment we did was that it has a washer/dryer in the unit as opposed to just having hook-ups. We'll be renting furniture to make things even easier. Now I just need to figure out what all the necessities are and get them packed. I just don't want to get down there and have to buy a whole bunch of stuff because I didn't think to pack it. I know I need bedding, towels, pots and pans, bath mats, TV, DVD player, clothes, toiletries, waste baskets, computer, dishes. What am I missing? What would you add to the list?

Dirty 6 Recap

2009-04-27T21:02:00.011-07:00

I know you are all dying for an in depth play-by-play of the mud run last weekend, so I will not deprive you any longer. Let's begin with a 'before' picture of me. Let it be known that somehow I didn't know a single person who would do this with me. Lots of people claimed they thought it would be fun and wanted to do it, but alas I trekked on alone.If you want to see a map of the course, I posted it here. Starting out, a short distance into the run we met our first obstacle which was the Xterra cargo netting (orange plastic cargo netting stretched between two Nissan Xterras). There were 3 or 4 nets to go over or under or between. This was closely followed by the Water Wall. It was craaazy!!! Beforehand, I couldn't really picture what the Water Wall would be like so I couldn't have expected it to be what it was. They had 2 water trucks parked parallel about 15-20 feet apart with their water sprays on pointed into each other. Can you picture it? Getting close to it I thought it would be misty but not too terrible. Wrong! It was an insane amount of water! I got soaked head to toe right off the bat. Here is a little something I noticed quite a lot on this run:

Water obstacle+running shoes=heavy feet+dirt trail=extra heavy feet

Next obstacle: Inflatable town. This one was kind of a joke. Only so many people could go in at a time, so I had to wait in line. Part of me was thinking it was sort of nice to take a little breather, but starting and stopping is not the most efficient way to run 6 miles. Not for me anyway. Well, after about 3 minutes in line, the inflatable town deflated and we all had to run on without going through it. Major waste of 3 minutes, but whatever.

Run along a mile or so, getting really thirsty, wishing there were more water stands, really wishing they were giving out gel energy bursts or something! I was not smart and had not eaten enough that morning. Finally come to another obstacle. Sheraton River Crossing which was running through a decent size stream on the property of the Sheraton resort out there. I high-kneed it across that baby in no time. Then experienced this again:

Water obstacle+running shoes=heavy feet+dirt trail=extra heavy feet

Surprise, surprise. Run a bit more and come to another Inflatable Town. I don't remember it saying "Adrenaline Rush" on it, but this was exactly what the thing was like.
Here's something you might not realize about these inflatable things. When they are full of adults, it is really hard to maneuver around without falling all over each other. First of all, I had to wait in line for a while before going in, and after getting inside it was really slow moving. In case you can't really see, you crawl in through a hole, then go over or under some bar type things, crawl through another hole out into a small spot with four pillars, then through another hole, climb up a wall, then slide down and out. It was fun, but super slow.

Run, run, run some more, then come to a giant slip 'n slide. I will confess, I didn't slide through. Like most of the other runners, I ran through. I did see one guy try to slide through, but he got caught half way through. I had already sacrificed precious minutes of my time to standing in line, so I was not about to lose more time trying to slide. Of course this let out into a pool of water, so guess what happened...

Water obstacle+running shoes=heavy feet+dirt trail=extra heavy feet

On the way to the next challenge there was a part of the trail that became deep, coarse gravel. Probably for a quarter of a mile. It wasn't listed as one of the obstacles, but I think it should have been. That was not easy.

Next up, Mountain Climb. Nothing really spectacular to say about this one. It wasn't much of a mountain, but it was still slightly challenging since by this point I had run 4 miles or so.

Go a mile more, another slip 'n slide. Keep going. Getting closer to the big finale. The MUD PIT!!
They didn't tell you that you had to crawl though this! And they also failed to mention that there was gravel at the bottom. I will be the first to admit that I took it pretty wimpy. I was really dragging by the end of this run, so unlike some of the other runners, I was not seen diving into the mud or going in like a cannon ball.

One thing that kind of bugged me about the description of this event was that they said it was a "6 mile, 9 obstacle run, and oh yeah, group showers!" They tried to make it sound all naughty and I have to admit that it made me think twice about doing it. But I can tell you all about the group showers without blushing. After the finish line they had two rows of beach style showers so you could rinse mud off your clothes and shoes. Nothing naughty about it.

Spencer and the kids met me at the finish. Madeleine doesn't have a history of being happy at these events, as I mentioned in this post. They were waiting pit-side to get video of me in the mud pit (my performance is too wimpy to share, sorry) and she got splashed so she was crying.
This was me in line for the showers, so happy to have finished and have my cute family waiting for me.

One last thing I have to share. You know you always get a shirt out of these races and this one is a good one. I have a love/hate relationship with my new shirt. It's a black tank top, nice and long, perfect for working out in. But this is the picture on it.
Need I say more?

Aspirations

2009-04-23T08:02:00.001-07:00

Lately, Ian has been telling us one of his reasons to look forward to growing up.

"When I get big, I am going to drink Red Bull."

We're so proud.

Easter 2009

2009-04-19T22:00:00.003-07:00

On Easter morning, we walked down the street to a reception center that hosted a community Easter Egg Hunt. There weren't too many kids, but they had planned for plenty. They let the little kids start and find five eggs, then the older kids had a few minutes to find five eggs. I think the plan was to let them all go for however many they could find after everyone had five, but we left before that. Spencer needed to get ready for choir practice and I didn't really mind that the kids got away without tons of candy. They wanted to find way more than five eggs though, so after church I put some more eggs out the in the backyard for them to find.

These two sort of tried to give me some nice smiles, but every picture was pretty silly. Ian was shouting "cheese!" in most of them, so you can imagine how nice his smile turned out in those shots. And in case you are wondering, I don't think Madeleine could be happier with her new dress. She has put it on (dirty or not) almost every day since Easter.

On a different subject, I got my stroller/trailer not long after I posted about it, but there was a problem with the front tire. It's angled slightly left so I haven't been able to use it yet. I emailed the company and they are sending the part I need, but now it is getting hot so I don't know if I'll get as much use out of it right away as I had hoped to.

And I have been training pretty faithfully for the Dirty 6 and I am getting really excited and a little nervous for it. I am looking forward to seeing exactly what the obstacles are and I hope I can handle them all without too much difficulty. I'll let you know how it goes!

Nests and Eggs

2009-04-09T23:45:00.003-07:00

Are these not the cutest things ever?!?! I went onto my favorite website for recipes, RecipeZaar, looking for steak tacos and this was on their homepage. I thought they were just so adorable and simple that I had to make them. If you are someone that my mom or I visit teach then you are very lucky since you will be getting some of these little guys. If not, you will have to make your own. Here's the recipe. I have to confess that I haven't tasted them yet. This recommendation is based solely on appearance.
And here's a picture from Monday night's FHE dyeing Easter eggs. The kids had so much fun. I soon realized that a dozen hard boiled eggs was not nearly enough compared to how fast they worked and how many they wanted to dye. A couple of them broke during the process which is why there is an egg cut in half and salt and pepper on the table. Madeleine really likes the hard boiled eggs and the whole experience is even better since they are decorated.

Hope you are all getting ready for a fun Easter at your house!

Story Box

2009-04-07T20:52:00.002-07:00

If your kids watch as much Noggin as mine, you know exactly what I am talking about. If not, you are missing out on Pinky Dinky Doo. A darling, pink-haired girl who is really good at making up stories in her story box, and every story ROCKS! All to teach kids vocabulary. And keep them entertained while their parents shower or clean or cook, etc.

Today our landlords replaced our dishwasher that was having some problems and it came in a wonderfully large box, perfect for transforming into our own Story Box. The kids haven't quite gotten that the point is to go inside and make up stories. So far they have used it to go into, get in each other's way, scream about who's stepping/sitting on who, or climb onto and jump off. I think they'll get the hang of it soon.

Two Things

2009-03-30T10:05:00.006-07:00

I am so excited to get this!! (I just bought it on ebay) It's a combination bike trailer/double stroller and I have been itching to get one and get out riding/running with the kids. We do so much "running" around right here in our neighborhood and it will be nice to get a little more exercise by using this instead of driving. So now maybe when I say I'm going to run to the grocery store a few blocks away I will actually run there! Next thing I need is a bike. I can hardly wait!!

This is a map of the Dirty 6, which is the next event I'm training for. Again, I am SO excited!! It's a 6 mile, 9 obstacle run including a mud pit at the finish. I think it sounds like so much fun and since I have been feeling pretty fat and lazy this will give me something to work towards. I basically haven't been running at all since the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. No wonder I'm feeling out of shape, right? Anyone want to do it with me?

How many...

2009-03-28T12:34:00.003-07:00

sheets of stickers do you think Ian put on this one side of his shirt one morning? If you said 9, you would be right. Most of the time, Madeleine and Ian get along really well, have a great time playing together and are basically best buds. But Madeleine was very upset by Ian's wasteful use of these stickers. She had wanted to take them to school to give to her friends, but since there weren't enough sheets for each kid to get their own I had told her no. After all the drama I thought, "Poor Maddie. She's really disappointed. But seeing all those stickers on Ian was pretty funny. And now they're all gone so I don't have to worry about them anymore."

The Little Mermaid...

2009-03-28T12:30:00.003-07:00

is Maddie's new favorite thing to draw. She's pretty good, don't you think? We are all very proud that she picked out all the right colors and she is perfecting her tail-drawing skills. If you look close you can see that she colored Ariel's painted fingernails. Three pink on one hand and three purple on the other. Oh yeah, don't miss the heart bubbles.

Sedona

2009-03-27T17:26:00.002-07:00

Spencer had spring break a couple weeks ago and unfortunately for him it wasn't much of a break. He had just started a new trimester in school and he had a huge project in one of his new classes. Such a big project in fact that he basically spent his entire break working on it. So, as a reward for finishing and an attempt at actually doing something other than homework on his break, we took the kids to Sedona.
Do you like how Maddie and I are wearing matching outfits? She totally copied me. She doesn't really like wearing pants except for these ones she calls her mom pants. We had a fun time seeing the sights and checking out some of the shops. Sedona is beautiful! It was a really nice little getaway.

On our way home, we drove through Oak Creek Canyon and found a little bit of snow. Maddie and Ian loved it! Sure it was the snow plowed in a little parking lot, but it was a nice mound that they could slide down. It was pretty much heaven as far as they were concerned.

In case you don't already know, we are headed to Houston in May for Spencer's internship with Exxon Mobil. We are really excited for the chance to see a new place and we are doubly excited that Spencer will be working hard but won't have homework all the time. Yippee!! I am hoping for lots of family time this summer.

Conversation with Ian

2009-03-23T08:33:00.003-07:00

In the car on the way to taking Spencer to school this morning.

Ian: "My finger is like a lollipop."

me: "Oh, really? What flavor is it?"

Ian: "Mystery."

A Week of Fun

2009-03-01T20:53:00.004-07:00

Spencer had this past week off between the second and third trimesters of school so we had a little fun. Actually, truth be told, he ended up still being pretty busy with school stuff with grading papers/conducting a study session/proctoring an exam for the class he's a TA for, but we managed to slip in a little fun too. Wednesday was the opening of baseball Spring training games so we headed over to see the Cubs play the Dodgers. We got tickets out on the lawn so the kids couldn't be convinced to try to watch at all. They were much more interested in running and rolling down the hill. And since they were doing that I got to watch them while Spencer watched the game. I honestly couldn't say if it was a good game or not. The only thing I can report for sure is that one of the Cubs hit a grand slam. If I had really been watching I bet I would have thought that was pretty cool! The bullpen was right down in front of the lawn so we did go down by the fence and watch the pitchers practice for a bit. The kids liked that. The highlight for them was probably the Italian ice.
The rest of these pictures are from Madeleine's most recent field trip. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE her school and teacher?) This time it was to the Children's Museum of Phoenix and it was amazing!! We loved everything about it and we didn't even get to see the whole thing!
This is a house in the art studio room. It had buckets of paint all around it and the kids could get an apron and paint away. They also had a few tables with different projects they could do. That day there were supplies for building robots or making masks. And there was a puppet theater and bean bags for lounging.
This was the play car wash the kids could drive their tricycles and such through. I love this picture with Ian driving and Maddie in the passenger cart. Ian couldn't reach the pedals to ride properly but when I suggested that she drive and let Ian ride you can imagine the reaction I might get from a princess like her. How could she, royalty, be the one to cart her brother around?? It's just wrong. Luckily Ian didn't mind driving around with his feet on the floor instead of the pedals.
I don't know what you would call these little vehicles, but they were super fun. Ian's on there with our good friend Jack. Our kids can't get enough of Jack and his brother Max! And Maddie might not know this, but Jack has a little crush on her. Even though he recently told her he likes her but he doesn't like her. He's such a sweet boy. Thankfully Madeleine doesn't seem to be thinking about boys like that yet. I won't mind if she waits 15 years to start thinking like that.

I'm pretty sure this museum might be my new favorite place. We'll be heading back there soon and when we are back here for school in the fall I think I'll get us an annual pass. To any locals who haven't been there, you have got to check it out!!