The Todd Family

Alyssa's Blessing

2009-04-29T10:43:00.011-05:00

I can't believe Alyssa's already three weeks old! It really is true that the last month of pregnancy goes by the slowest, and the first month of the baby's life goes by the fastest! Alyssa is still a great sleeper and a very peaceful, content baby!

We blessed Alyssa on Sunday, and it was wonderful! Her daddy gave her the most beautiful blessing! We had lots of family here to celebrate, which was lots of fun. Kate and Luke had tons of fun playing with their cousins Caleb and Emma. We were very sad to see them go home!!!

We have yet to do pictures of just Alyssa in her blessing dress. When we do, I will post those. We got a few pictures on the day of the blessing, but it was a little crazy. Here are a couple of the decent ones. The wind was blowing really hard and the sun was bright. . . so not many turned out really well.
The whole group-- Luke wasn't too thrilled about not going to class. He made a mad dash for nursery as soon as Sacrament meeting was over. Randy had to go get him out and he was very mad!!!!

Awesome big sister! She was excited to hold Alyssa in her fancy dress.

The sun was a little bright. Luke only wanted Randy's phone, but was still screaming the entire time.

Two cute cousins picking dandelions together.

The closest to a decent family picture we got that day!

Another try at a family picture.

All the guys and one cute lady!

Grandma Thomason, Kate, Alyssa, and Amanda

Almost 2 weeks old!

2009-04-20T10:37:00.009-05:00

I can't believe Alyssa is almost two weeks old! We had to move her out of our room last night because she won't stop making her cute little baby noises!! She is SOUND asleep, but grunts all night long. So we moved her out (I really wasn't ready for it, but Randy decided we needed some sleep) and she slept almost the entire night! She didn't wake up until 4:30am, got up to eat, then went back to sleep until 6:30, ate, then woke up at 8:30! I can handle a schedule like that!!! She is growing SO fast. I wish I knew how much she weighed right now. I would guess somewhere in the 10 lbs. range. Her umbilical cord fell off last week (much earlier than my other kids, but that is because it got ripped when we were trying to figure out how to get the clamp off of it that the hospital had left on!), so she got a big kid bath!

The kids are doing REALLY well with her. I'll find Luke laying on the floor next to her talking to her or kissing her. He really likes her. Kate still thinks she's the best thing in the world. She is still trying to figure out this only milk diet. She asked me yesterday if Alyssa could drink water. She was really confused that Alyssa couldn't even drink water yet! She is very interested in looking in Alyssa's mouth to see no teeth (she and Luke are so close, she can't remember Luke without teeth). It's so fun seeing her figure these things out!

Luke loves to watch Kate play on starfall.com. I'm sure he could do the games about as well as she could!

Kate is learning how to climb trees.

Luke is all boy. He always has a stick and loves to poke things, especially ant hills. He is OBSESSED with ants. Walks are a bit of a challenge because he stops at every anthill. In Louisiana, that's about every two feet.

Alyssa and Dad all snuggled up.

Alyssa's first big kid bath.

Kate is always the mother; Luke's just in it for the cool toys. :)

Immediately after church both Kate and Luke ran in to find Alyssa. It is so cute to me how much they both love her!

Baby Alyssa

2009-04-15T12:11:00.037-05:00

It's taken me forever, but here she is!!! Alyssa Carolyn arrived on Tuesday, April 7th at 11:15am. My labor was short and to the point! Three and a half hours (only 45 minutes of hard contractions) after my pitocin started, she was born!!! She was 8 lbs. 7 oz. and 21" long. She is the best baby I've ever seen!!!! We are so happy to have her here!!!

Here are lots of pictures. I posted so many mainly for me, since this is my journal of sorts. Shows how great I am at keeping up a journal. Enjoy them! We're sure enjoying her!!!

One vernix covered little girl! I think she would have stayed in there for a really long time!

It was so fun, I'd never gotten to hold one of my babies this quickly!

This is the first one of our kids that Randy got to cut their cord.

One proud Daddy!!!

8 lbs. 7 oz. 21" long. If only they'd weighed her before she peed everywhere right after she was born. I would have gotten a few more ounces!!

Making sure there are ten fingers and ten toes!

Kate's first time to see Alyssa. She was more concerned about me being in bed and why I didn't want to get up. Alyssa was not quite two hours old.

She already knew what to do the second she got Alyssa in her arms: Give her lots of kisses!

Such a pretty baby! She was about two hours old and still not dressed yet. We really did bring clothes for her. We were just having so much fun holding her.

Kate was excited to take pictures of Alyssa with her own camera.

Truly the world's best big sister!

Our first almost family picture. Luke was taking a nap, so he didn't get to see Alyssa until the next day.

4 hours old.

Peacefully sleeping, as usual.

Daddy is already teaching us to make funny faces.

Alyssa's first bath-- almost 24 hours old. She slept through the night her first night!

Ready to go home!!

Luke's first look at her-- He said, "Oh, Alyssa's out of Mom's tummy" like it was just how he expected it.

Then on to more important matters, like watching whatever movie was on in the car.

All three kids together for the first time. Luke doesn't care about anything except the movie.

Randy trying to get everyone in from the car. It was nap time for Luke-- this is why we didn't interrupt his nap the day before to come to the hospital.

Kate was dying to hold her the second we got inside.

The three girls together. I'll be thrilled to lose the fat baby face!!!

Kate wanted to tuck Alyssa in with her own pink blankey.

A bit of a size difference with both girls in Alyssa's crib. She won't be sleeping there for a few months.

Two sisters, already the best of friends.

Kate was fascinated with Alyssa getting in her jamas. Kate is really sure Alyssa is the coolest doll.

Already the little mother.

The tail of the tornado that hit our neighborhood on Thursday night. The damage around our neighborhood is pretty impressive, although no houses were damaged.

Easter egg hunt on Saturday with Grandma Todd

Our attempt at Easter pictures. Kate and Alyssa have matching Easter dresses. I'm having way too much fun having two girls to put in matching clothes!!!

The closest we got to getting everyone looking in the same place at the same time. Even Alyssa looked!

We tried our best!!!

No news means nothing exciting

2009-04-05T21:14:00.002-05:00

So I'm 40 weeks today. Hurray, right? Wrong. I'm SO done being pregnant, I feel like I'm going to burst!!!!! Last Tuesday/Wednesday, after having 17 hours straight of regular contractions, I really thought that was it. Wrong again. I went to the doctor, had a non-stress test done, just to have him tell me I'm having contractions every ten minutes (really, I hadn't noticed. I only had been awake since 1am they were so uncomfortable!), but not dilating from them. I was very hopeful that I would have her this weekend. But to no avail, it's Sunday night, and no end in sight. I have an appointment first thing in the morning. She is still SOOOOOO high that I know nothing is happening soon. When I have her, I'm sure everyone will hear me yelling for joy. Until then, I would say I'm enjoying sleeping through the night, but I'm not doing that either. I'm resigned to the fact that she'll be born April 15th. That's the "no-later-than" date that Randy has given me before he wants me to get induced. Here we go! 10 more days until then!

Irony. . .

2009-03-25T10:02:00.002-05:00

We bought a new camera, because I was panicked about the idea of not having one this close to my due date with Alyssa. Then a couple of days ago I was cleaning out my car (which I had done multiple times to look for my camera), and there was my camera under an umbrella. Great, now what?! I guess this means lots of pictures at the hospital!

Here's our update. I was dilated 1 1/2 cm at my appointment last week. HURRAY! That is more than I've ever done, and to be there at 37 1/2 weeks was amazing to me. I have another appointment today, so we'll see if there has been any progress. Randy was supposed to fly a 10 hour mission today, and I just had so much anxiety about it! The idea of me not being able to get a hold of him for 15 hours was just a little much for me. So he got off the mission. I know nothing is going to happen today, but I still feel much better now!

Kate asks daily if today is the day that Alyssa is coming. Our house is all ready to go. I have her bassinet set up in my room, baby swings up, bouncy seat out, everything washed and clean. Now we just need the baby to decide to come! Kate can be found just about at any given time with a stack of paper, markers, glitter glue, scissors, stapler, and a hole punch. She is content for HOURS with her art projects.

Luke seems to have picked up the art bug as well. He is VERY into drawing these days. Amazingly, for a two and a half year old, his pictures are very clear! He draws snowmen, tootles (from Mickey Mouse clubhouse), and smiley faces VERY well. I am amazed with what new pictures he comes up with. Right now he is sitting next to me coloring on my iPhone (with a drawing app, not really drawing ON my phone). My kids are definitely little techies. If they get a hold of either of our phones, they know how to turn on movies, how to find the drawing apps, how to start a game. . . Needless to say, mine has to be put away, or Luke would spend his day watching movies on my phone. That's education for ya!

Hopefully today's doctor's appointment will bring good news! Since my sister Sarah had her baby yesterday, I'm ready to go! I keep telling Alyssa that her cousin Tessa decided to come, so now it's her turn! I'm sure she won't come until April 20th, which is my "no later than date" from my doctor. We'll see if he sticks to that same date at my appointment today.

SO FRUSTRATING!

2009-03-06T10:23:00.002-06:00

I'm really upset right now. . . I can't find my camera! I'm freaking out for two reasons: I can't stand the idea of being this close to having a baby and not having a camera! Plus, there were lots of pictures on it that needed to be put on my computer still (the danger of having a big memory card). So I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. I've just been getting things ready for Alyssa to come (our room looks more like a baby nursery than a master bedroom). We moved Luke out of his crib into a twin sized bed. He's doing really well with it. It was rough for the first couple of days, but he seems to be very adjusted now. We moved the crib into Kate's room (I'm not ready to give up my upstairs playroom yet-- it sounds ridiculous to have them sharing a room when we have an extra bedroom upstairs, but she'll be in a bassinet in our room for a few months still.)

So that's it for us! I'm on weekly doctor's appointments now. My doctor is going to start checking me at my next one. My next-door-neighbor is due four days before me. We go to the same doctor; he already checked her, and she's dilated to 1cm. I'm not getting my hopes up, but it would be nice if I was, too!!! I SO hope I'll go into labor. I know that I'll at least have her by April 20th (that's the very last day he'll let me go before getting induced). So there's at least some sort of light at the end of the tunnel!!! I'm actually feeling remarkably well. No complaints! I just wish I could sleep through the night. I keep waking up for like 2 hours at a time each night.

I'll at least post again after my next appointment (Wednesday) if there is any progress.

Kate's Birthday

2009-02-03T20:41:00.012-06:00

We had SO much fun at Kate's birthday party. I was absolutely worn out after our two days of celebration, but it was well worth it. She is STILL talking about her birthday party, now a week later.

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment, which is a good thing. Alyssa has dropped at least four inches. I started noticing something was funny when all of a sudden my pants didn't fit. I thought that was odd, but just put on a different pair of pants (I chalked it up to too many Super Bowl snacks!). Then I went to rest my hands on my belly, right on top of her bum, and it wasn't there anymore! I started pushing around, and noticed that it was almost even with my belly button!!! Randy thought I was crazy. Then when he went to give me a hug this morning, he realized that my belly was very differently shaped than it had been. Hmm, guess I'm not crazy after all! We'll have to see what the doctor has to say tomorrow! I'm headed to Arizona all week next week for a grown up week by myself! Randy is taking the week off work and staying home with Kate and Luke. This baby needs to stay in for a while longer. I know she isn't ready to come out yet!

Here's my future Elder Todd. He looks so cute with his new haircut. He looks like a little missionary!

We celebrated Kate's birthday as a family on the day before for Family Home Evening. She requested fancy macaroni and cheese and roasted broccoli for her birthday dinner. She ate more broccoli than pasta, which obviously I wasn't complaining about.

Her new dress from Grandma Thomason. She loves it!

What was Luke doing while Sissy was opening up all of her boring girl birthday presents? He was reading books. When he realized there wasn't going to be much he would care about, he was gone. All boy!

Kate is in love with her singing birthday card that Grandma Thomason sent to her. It has "disappeared" for a while, because I was done hearing it. Noisy toys don't bother me much, but I heard that one a lot. I'm sure it will resurface again soon and Kate will be thrilled.

Luke went to work right away putting together a puzzle that Kate got.

Here's Kate in her birthday princess skirt. It is the most gigantic, pouffy thing, but it is SO cute on her!!!

This is our pink castle cake that had to have pink sprinkles and pink candles. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to. . . but she LOVED it, so that's what matters! It was the last thing I did to get ready for the party, and I was already beat my the time I started frosting it. Oh well!

The girls all made princess hats and princess necklaces at the party. Here's my cute birthday girl!

Kate loved opening presents two days in a row. What a fun birthday!

I'm not dead. . . just nesting!

2009-01-22T14:16:00.009-06:00

Randy has been laughing at me because I'm "nesting" right now. We got iPhones for Christmas, so I'm RARELY at the computer, thus the lack of posting on my blog!!!! I check my e-mail on my phone when I have two seconds, then respond to important things (most of the time; I've been much worse about replying to e-mails since I haven't been at the computer very much!). I've even been paying bills, etc. while I've been waiting for Kate at dance or gymnastics. It's been very handy to have! Plus, my kids LOVE watching movies on it. It's saved my life a couple of times when I'm on a long shopping trip with Luke and he is just done!

With all my "extra" time I've had, I've been gutting and reorganizing my whole house, getting ready for Alyssa to come! We have about 10 more weeks!! I always love when I hit the 30 week point (on this coming Sunday) because then I know I have in the single digits of weeks left!! For me, it may be more like 12 weeks instead of 10, but I'm being optismistic. I'm also determined that I'm going to go into labor this time, instead of having to be induced like I was with Kate and Luke!!! I guess we'll have to see!

We had a wonderful Christmas break. We had a quiet, peaceful Christmas at home. The kids had a great time not having many places we had to be. They loved just getting to hang out and play with their new toys!!! It was quite the shock to them when life started again, Dad had to go to work everyday, Kate had to go to school, etc.

We are looking forward to Kate's 4th birthday next week!!! I can't believe that she's already going to be 4! She started Sunbeams in primary this year and is SO cute. My neighbor across the street is the primary chorister, and she said Kate was absolutely adorable on Sunday, because she knew all of the songs and would just sing her heart out! She said that she kept pointing out to senior primary, "Look at this brand new Sunbeam! She is singing better than you guys are!!!" Kate was very proud of that!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas to get us caught back up a little. I hope everyone had a great Christmas break. We are enjoying a BEAUTIFUL day here. It's almost 70 degrees! I have five kids all day today, so I'm trying to survive the day!! I'll be ready to crash when their dad comes to get them at 5pm tonight! I'm enjoying Luke and Bradley sleeping at the same time right now!

This is in College Station (we went there for a visit and to go to the Houston temple the week before Christmas) at a Christmas lights place called Santa's Wonderland. It is a drive-through light display place. We were all in the back of Randy's parent's truck.

Our attempt at our nativity scene on Christmas Eve. Luke didn't want to leave his Joseph outfit on.

Our family picture in our Christmas pajamas. I am SO happy this turned out! We used the timer on the camera with it set on our sofa. Can you believe that everyone looked in the right spot and smiled at the same time?! What a miracle!!!

My cute Kate in her Christmas nightgown that I made her. I didn't get the elastic in the sleeves in time. She took it off Christmas morning while we were waiting for Luke to wake up and let me finish the sleeves.

My handsome little Lukey in his Christmas jamas. He LOVES Mickey, so he was thrilled to have even more Mickey jamas.

Kate and her new Nellie doll in their matching nightgowns that I made them. Kate LOVES Nellie and would take her everywhere with us if I would let her.

You can see how much she loves Nellie by how snuggled they are together! This is a little grainy because Randy took it with his phone. It's so cute to see them sleeping together like that!

What a crazy month!

2008-12-03T13:34:00.002-06:00

This month has been so crazy, I haven't been on my blog in almost a month!!! We had a very fun Thanksgiving. Randy's parents, older sister, brother-in-law, two nephews, and younger sister all came to our house. We had a great time! The kids loved having everyone at our house, being able to keep a somewhat normal routine.

We are looking forward to a nice, quiet Christmas at home. Randy's squadron is on their GDF rotation (Global Deterrence Force), so we can't go anywhere more than 8 hours driving. We loved our quiet Christmas last year, and I know that it will be very relaxing again this year! Since I was released from my calling, I'm keeping myself busy with doctor's appointments, car pools, etc. and sewing doll clothes for Kate's new doll for Christmas! It will be a very busy month! I have my regular OB appointment this month, one more next month, then it's already time for me to start going every two weeks again! I thought that by Christmas time this year, I'd REALLY feel huge and pregnant. I'm feeling pretty big, but I don't think the reality has totally set in yet!

I am going to be making my blog private. Everyone that I'm aware of who reads my blog will be added to the list. If you don't get the invitation, let me know! I've just heard too many creepy things!

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! I'll get pictures up here sometime soon!

To my disappointment

2008-11-12T09:37:00.003-06:00

Quite a few people have asked me when my half-marathon is, which is this Saturday. Last week I had to go see a neonatologist for my level II ultrasound. The baby looks great, everything is healthy and growing like it's supposed to. I just happened to mention off hand to him that I was running a half-marathon in a week and a half. He was NOT happy with that. He told me that I couldn't do it! He said that my body will start sending all of my blood to my leg muscles, instead of the baby. So, no more 13.1 miles for me! I'll have to do it at this time next year. It will just be tough then, because any time I run too hard when I'm nursing, I lose my milk. At least I've had something to keep me in shape during the beginning of this pregnancy! Hopefully I will lose my baby weight even faster than I did with Kate and Luke! So, there's an update for anyone who was wondering. The race is on hold for now. I will do it! Maybe I'll do a full marathon since I won't be pregnant! I'm sure I'll start with the half then work up from there!

Our Halloween and our new baby girl!

2008-11-09T18:06:00.001-06:00

No, I didn't have my baby early, we just have ANOTHER new addition to our family. We had a very fun Halloween! Kate was Aurora from Sleeping Beauty (since the movie has newly come out, she was insistent that was what she would be), and Luke, well, he boycotted Halloween that morning. So he wore an orange shirt to be at least a little festive. We spent the whole morning helping out at Kate's school with their Fall Festival. Then we went trick or treating at 5pm (that's when base trick or treating starts, it was so nice to go so early!). For trick or treating, I was able to convince Luke to wear part of his turtle costume from last year (he was supposed to be a really cute lion this year, but he FREAKED out when I put the pants on him for the costume).

Here's Luke before his hair was done, but he's at least in his orange shirt. Kate was SO excited that she got to wear make-up to be Aurora.

Here's Kate at school waiting in line to start their parade.

We only got a few pictures with Luke in his "costume". It was WONDERFUL weather! It was about 80 degrees, sunny, and so comfortable!

Kate was getting annoyed that her hair kept sticking to her lip gloss. I told her to get used to it, that it happens all the time to Mom! Here's an inadvertent picture of my ever expanding baby belly, too! Luke didn't care at all about candy. He just wanted his cheddar bunnies.

Here's our new addition, Kathryn. Kate is the one that named her. She is the SWEETEST little kitty I've ever seen. We got her on Saturday afternoon about 5 minutes before we had 5 extra kids come to our house. As of yet, she hasn't scratched ANYONE! Not even accidentally. She is so cuddly, but still very energetic.

She lets Kate play with her claws, push her around in the doll strollers (although, that doesn't usually last long, she'll just jump out), put her to sleep in the doll beds, etc. She is SO nice!

Kate got a line from the first Madagascar movie, where Gloria says that a critter is so cute, she wants to dunk it in her coffee. Well, all on her own, Kate came and told me on Saturday, "Mom, Kathryn is so cute, I could just dunk her in my coffee!" I got a good laugh at that, then told her that we don't drink coffee, but she could dunk her in her hot chocolate. Kate and Kathryn were very disappointed when they couldn't sleep together last night. Dad wants to make sure Kathryn doesn't have any potty accidents first, (which she hasn't, I love how cats are so good at potty training themselves!) then told Kate they could sleep together. We love our new little baby!!!

We love Fall!

2008-10-29T13:01:00.006-05:00

I've been very delinquent in posting. Life has been crazy as ever here, as I'm sure everyone else's has been as well! Kate got to go on her first field trip at school. Luke and I were able to meet her there, and we had a great time! We went to a pumpkin patch and walked around. Luke thought that he needed to be a member of Kate's class. He didn't like it very much when I wouldn't let him in to listen to the stories, etc. because I knew he'd just be a huge distraction to the other kids.

We also went to the fair, which isn't very big here, but we still had fun. They have an exotic zoo with a zebra, two giraffes, camels, a kangaroo, pigs, goats, and more. We also took the kids to see the livestock, which they thought was interesting. Some people let the kids pet their animals: chickens, cows, goats, sheep. They thought that was cool. There was also a free little circus that was quite the experience for the kids to see.

We're getting ready for Halloween. Kate has a party at school on Friday, which Luke and I get to go to. Then we're crashing another ward's Trunk or Treat, because our ward isn't doing anything!! So, we're going to go take part in theirs!

Kate excitedly on the bus to go on her field trip.

Petting a giraffe at the fair

Waiting for the Circus to start at the fair

Kate on a ride at the fair

What a weekend

2008-10-19T22:37:00.010-05:00

Randy took leave this entire last week. It was really fun for us to have him around, but it went by WAY too fast!!

On Wednesday (after my shocking ultrasound) we drove to College Station. Early Thursday morning, Randy and I got up, kissed our kiddos goodbye and headed to Dallas for a long, VERY LONG day. While the kids were playing with Grandma and Grandpa, we went to the temple, did LOTS of shopping, and went to the BYU vs. TCU football game. Wow, was that depressing! It was a very sad way to end a great day! It was embarrassing to walk out of the TCU stadium with BYU shirts on. What a game. . . we were planning on staying in a hotel since we didn't get to our car until almost 11pm, but we decided that we were too depressed to spend anymore money on the day. So we headed back to College Station, arriving at 2am. Poor Randy. I couldn't stay awake on the way home! Luke had been up for an hour in the night, so I was VERY out of it by the time midnight rolled around. Plus, we stayed up late playing games with Randy's parents that night. . . so there were a couple of things working against me. Thankfully, he got us back to College Station in one piece, and we got to sleep in (all the way until 8:30! WOW!) the next morning, thanks to Grandma! The kids had a great time playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Kate was given Beary, her classroom Teddy Bear to take on our trip this weekend. He has a journal that you're supposed to fill out and bring back with pictures of the weekend's events. Here are a few of the pictures we took.

This is at the Fall Festival on base. I told Kate that had better be the only time I see her in a police car!

Firefighter Kate. Luke wouldn't climb up because he was so ready for a nap. It was really sad, because he LOVES firetrucks!

Our regular stop at the zoo in Tyler, TX on our way to College Station. Luke couldn't take his eyes off the tiger that was RIGHT against the fencing. I think he was a little nervous!

Kate LOVES the giraffes at the zoo. Here's a picture of my baby belly!

Us before the disappointing football game!

Kate and Luke making Halloween pictures with Beary.

Teaching Beary how to roast marshmallows.

Kate and Luke are enjoying the campfire.

The cruelest thing EVER!

2008-10-15T22:41:00.002-05:00

So, I had my OFFICIAL 15 week ultrasound today (the one on Friday was the nurse practioner doing it). . . It's a GIRL!!! Oh my goodness! Randy and I were in COMPLETE shock! We've been telling everyone it's a boy, calling it Jackson. . . poor baby girl is going to have a complex now! We were SO excited for Luke to have a baby brother/best friend forever. Well, now he'll have a little sister he can watch out for. :) So, SURPRISE!! It's a girl! We have to name her quickly now so she won't feel so upset! Now that I've gotten out all of the boxes of baby BOY clothes. . . what a mean thing to do to someone! In defense of the nurse practioner, the ultrasound technician looked at the ultrasound from Friday and said she would have said it was a boy, too. But she said today, there was no doubt that it was a girl. I have a level 2 ultrasound in a few weeks to check the baby for spinabifida (since I was born with it), so I'm not buying a single thing until after that! There was no doubt in my mind on Friday that it was a boy. I've felt like this was a boy all along; I was right about my other two kids! Randy described it well today, by saying he felt like he'd been hit by a truck. Not that we're disappointed, but just so shocked!!!

It's a. . . . . .

2008-10-10T16:05:00.003-05:00

I know I've already posted today, BUT! I had another ultrasound this morning, and it's a BOY! He was being SO funny! He even did a headstand for us at one point! He was sucking his thumb most of the time. That would be a change from the two paci babies we've had! I've been feeling all along like this was another boy-- he is just non-stop!!!!! So I thought I'd share the news with everyone. Hurray! Here is a cute video of my two boys together today. Luke thinks he needs to do EVERYTHING that Randy does. He even holds his hands the same way as his dad does during prayers, etc. It's short, so enjoy!

Twilight Trailer

2008-10-10T07:51:00.003-05:00

I've never done this before, so I'll give it a try. I love the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer, and here is the final trailer to the first movie! I have to say, I'm disappointed in the cast. . . . I would have chosen a different Edward, but no one asked me!

We are excited for our upcoming week. Randy is taking the week off and we're spending lots of time as a family before he has a Nuclear Surety Inspection (which means he won't have any weekends or anything for about a month or so). We're going to the BYU vs. TCU game together in Dallas, going to the temple, visiting his parents in College Station, AND having our ultrasound to find out our baby's gender! It should be a very fun week!!
Twilight HD Exclusive Trailer

Watch Day

2008-10-07T09:58:00.003-05:00

So yesterday was "Watch Day" at Kate's dance studio. The last 15 minutes of class, parents are allowed to come and sit in the studio and watch their dancers work. It was SO cute!! I was worried Kate wouldn't dance with me in there, but she was thrilled that I was in there, with a camera at that! Here's a little video clip I took:

I'm happy now to know what they've been working on so I can help her. Her class is a little bigger than I would like, so she doesn't get quite as much individual attention from her teachers, but she loves it SO much! They are starting tap next week, which I can't wait to see!

Luke's Birthday

2008-10-06T09:16:00.012-05:00

Since I'm a few weeks behind, I'll mostly just post pictures. We had a couple of fun birthdays right in a row. It was SO fun to have Grandma Thomason here for my birthday! Luke's birthday was a few days later. We celebrated it on Saturday so that we would have the whole day to do something fun as a family (we just told Kate that his birthday was Saturday so she wasn't confused why we weren't doing birthday stuff that day). We took the kids to Build-a-Bear, rode the carousel, and had a fun party! Kate got a BYU cheerleader outfit for a bear she already had (it's a blue and white cheerleader, and we just told her it was a BYU cheerleader. She LOVES the BYU cheerleaders. She watches the football games with us and is so excited at the tiniest clip they'll show of the Cougarettes or cheerleaders!). Luke got a cheetah, but we named it Baby Jaguar (from Diego). He carries it around everywhere with him at home! I'm a little nervous about when it will need a bath, because we had the roar sound put in it. . . oh well, I guess we'll see what happens.

Our new baby is growing well and being as active as ever! Instead of going every four weeks to the OB/GYN like a normal person would get to do, mine makes me go every two to three weeks because of how much running I'm doing it. I have to say, it's a really big nuisance! I can't wait to be done with my half marathon (less than six weeks!) so that I don't have to spend so many hours in the doctor's office. We have a big ultrasound scheduled in a few weeks with a neonatologist to check the baby for spinabifida, since I was born with it. I have to take 4mg of folic acid a day, instead of the regular 800 micrograms-1mg. It's a lot of pills!

Alright! Here are the pictures!

Grandma here for my birthday

I had great help with my birthday candles

Kate giving her older bear a bath, Luke giving Baby Jaguar his first bath.

You can't see Luke's face very well, but he was VERY concerned about the burning candle. For those who don't know Luke well, the cupcake is just a prop. He won't TOUCH anything that is sweet-- cake, cookies, candy, ice cream, whatever it is. He HATES sweet things. He'll usually throw it at you and yell, "No way!!" It's much healthier this way! Although, I'm ready to start potty training him, but I don't know how! I have nothing to bribe him with! Kate got a jelly bean every time she went potty. With Luke, who knows. A chip?

Andi and Brookelynn got back just a few days before Luke's birthday. We are so glad to have them back!!!

The giant firetruck that Grandma Thomason got for him. I didn't even need to get him anything else for his birthday. He would have been thrilled with just this, and his new rescue pack that he got. Those are his two favorites.

Here's Rescue Pack! Every morning he wakes up and says, "Where's Rescue Pack? Let's go find him!"

His cool trucks and tractors from Grandma and Grandpa Todd.

Carrying Baby Jaguar up and down the stairs. Doesn't he look so grown up?!

And yet, another hurricane

2008-09-13T18:50:00.011-05:00

Our lives have been inundated with hurricanes lately, or so it feels. I could tell how true this was when Kate was coloring a picture in church on Sunday and she told me, "Mom, this is hurricane Hannah and it is going to hit South Carolina". She is very aware of what is going on, especially in places she's been to. She is very good at listening to things that Randy and I say.

We've had a nice relaxing day, just hanging out at home while Ike has pounded away at us. It has been much worse that Gustav. We've had tornadoes in our area. We even had our tornado siren on base going off, which hasn't happened in the two years we've lived here. The young women were supposed to clean the church building today and I canceled it because the winds were so strong, Randy didn't want me out driving in it.

This week has been very busy. Kate is LOVING school. Luke is adjusting to having her gone some mornings. The first day she was at school, he was insistent that Sissy was sleeping. When it was time to pick her up, I said, "Let's go get Sissy!" He started heading up the stairs to her room saying, "Sissy sleeping! Wake up Sissy!" Now he understands and when he's feeling lonely, he'll come up to me and say, "Sissy, school?" Any time we're there to pick her up or drop her off, he wants SO badly to stay and play. Next year he'll be in Kate's class. His birthday is September 26th (I can't believe he's almost two!!!), and the school cut off here is September 30th, so he'll just make it in! I think he'll really enjoy it, and I'll enjoy getting to spend some one-on-one time with the new baby!

The next few weeks will be busy! We're really excited that Grandma Thomason is coming to visit us from Arizona over my birthday (I can't believe I'm going to be 25!), then Luke's birthday is on the 26th, then on the 27th, Randy is going TDY to Alaska for 3+ weeks. By the time he comes back, I should know if the baby is a boy or a girl! I am way too much of a planner to not find out. We need to clean out our garage, and at the same time I'll get out my boxes of maternity clothes, and whatever baby clothes we'll need! I'm excited to get out the boxes of either baby boy or girl clothes. Either way, it will be fun! It would be fun if this was another boy, just since it's next to Luke in age, but Kate is really sure she wants it to be a baby sister.

Alright, here are a bunch of pictures of the kids!

Randy took this picture of Luke. He was dancing around wearing this bib. We were laughing at how tiny it was on him. I got it for a present at my baby shower with him. It used to be GIANT! It's amazing how quickly kids grow up!

Kate was SO excited for her first day of school!

Luke needed pictures on Sissy's first day of school, too!

Kate's first day of school in her classroom.

The kids were really tired after church on Sunday. They both decided to lay down on the dining room floor for a nap.

Kate's first day of dance in her dance studio!

We went bowling as a family this week. The kids loved it!

The kids enjoying our nice, relaxing day during the hurricane.

I'm really not dead. . .

2008-09-10T17:31:00.002-05:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I've been on here. Life has been crazy! Kate started school last Friday and she LOVES it! The only problem is that she loves to sleep in, so some mornings we have a hard time getting her out of bed to get ready for school. She feels really big that she gets to go.

I've really enjoyed the one-on-one time I've gotten to spend with Luke while Kate has been in school. I haven't ever gotten any individual time with him, so we've had a great time.

We had quite the week last week. Hurricane Gustav was supposed to be this major ordeal. As I'm sure most people know, the entire coastal region of Louisiana was evacuated. A lot of evacuees came here. Randy spent the entire weekend working in a Red Cross shelter translating for them. There was a large immigrant population that was Spanish speaking. Then we had a lot of the week off because the storm was supposed to be gigantic (we've had regular thunderstorms worse than Gustav, it just stayed here for a really long time). On Tuesday, we were at the Honda dealership here in town and I slipped on their painted curb and fell HARD! It was not a good thing. I spent the night in the ER, was told I may lose the baby, etc. I went to the OB the next day, and he said everything is fine. Great! Major crisis averted. I've just had one giant headache ever since I fell.

Speaking of my OB, today I had a regular visit. My OB has this awesome little portable ultrasound machine. Instead of using a doppler to listen to the baby's hear beat, he just does an ultrasound every time. So today he was looking at the baby and it jumped SO high. My OB thought it was the funniest thing because he said he'd never seen a baby at my gestation jump so high. It jumped 3 inches! He said in comparison, it would be the equivalent of an adult doing a Michael Jordan sized jump. Needless to say, this is going to be one active baby! I told my doctor at the beginning of my appointment that I've already been feeling the baby move around. He looked at me like I was crazy, but then totally believed me once he saw how active it is! I had Luke with me and we were showing him the baby on the screen. I wouldn't be surprised if this is another little brother and he's just anxious to keep up with his big brother!

I'll post more pictures later. I need to go be a mom and fix dinner.

Tid bits from our trip

2008-08-20T16:21:00.010-05:00

We had so much fun on our trips. It's great to be home and getting back into a normal routine. I had a doctor's appointment on Monday, and to Kate's disappointment (and our relief!) there's only one baby! My official due date is April 5, 2009. Hurray! I'm so glad to not have to be huge during the dead of the summer like I was with Luke!

Here are some pictures from our trips to Spokane, Washington and Mesa, Arizona.

Karly's wedding reception. All night Kate just wanted to stand by her. She thought Karly was so beautiful in her dress.

At the end of the night, Karly gave Kate her bouquet. Kate was SOO proud of it!

Kate and Luke in front of the Spokane temple. Kate loved hearing about this being where Mom and Dad got married. He didn't want to hold still for the picture and she wanted him to.

Cat Tales (an exotic cat sanctuary) in Newport, WA. We had a lot of fun seeing all of the large exotic cats there! Here we are with Rachel, Luke, Hannah, Josh, Kate, and Zander. We had so much fun visiting with the Whites. They were so good to my kids!!!!!

The nostalgic Spokane carousel. I grew up going to this! It's very fun to me to take my kids there. The last time I took Kate there I was VERY pregnant with Luke.

My kids had SO much fun climbing all over these blocks for some reason.

Luke enjoying Uncle Spencer's pool in Arizona.

Kate giving Randy her treasured rock for his birthday.

Kate and Randy enjoying Spencer's pool.

Where did the summer go?

2008-08-10T12:36:00.004-05:00

Since we've been traveling the world (literally) this summer, I am finding myself saying, "Where did the summer go?!" I am dying that it's time for Kate to start school, dance, etc. I'm going to miss her this fall!! It will be really nice that Luke and I will get some individual time before the baby comes. Speaking of the baby. . . I can't believe how sick I've been!! I was puking my guts out at midnight the other night. Hopefully that's the only time that will happen this pregnancy. It was four times with Kate and none with Luke. . . is this a girl? If you ask Kate, she tells everyone that I have a boy baby AND a girl baby in my tummy. I'm already HUGE, so maybe it would stand to reason that there are two in there?! Randy would die, I think it would be fun. . . but wow. I have an ultrasound on Monday after I get home, so we will know for sure! I love that my doctor does an ultrasound on basically every visit. We'll be able to find out early what we're having, too! Anyone have any guesses boy, girl, both?

We get home on Wednesday, and it will be nice to be home and not living out of a suitcase! I'm anxious to get some of the pictures off my camera from this trip. We've been at two different temples and lots of other fun places. Randy will be in Guam when we get home, fortunately just for a week this time. . . then we get to resume regular life!! Hurray!

I finally finished Breaking Dawn. I really liked it. It took me almost a week to read it because Randy always wanted to be on the go while he was here with us. We've had lots of fun going and doing, but I was very glad to get to sit down and finish my book!

I'm a dork, I know!

2008-08-01T19:48:00.004-05:00

My niece Rachel and I are counting down until Breaking Dawn is released tonight. I pre-ordered it a month ago, and it is supposed to be delivered to my mom's house tomorrow (the kids and I are headed to Mesa, AZ tomorrow morning), but I REALLY want it while I'm on the plane. I sat and read SkyMall for 3 hours on the way here because my kids were glued to a movie (thank goodness for portable DVD players!). So, I think that Rachel and I are going to go buy it at midnight tonight. I'm so excited for it!!! It's fun to be excited about it with Rachel. It makes me feel like a teenager again (while fat a pregnant, nice!). Speaking of being fat and pregnant. . . my stomach is already HUGE! I'm sure part of it is that I've taken the week off from running, but my goodness. . . baby number three really wants to make itself known! I keep having dreams that I'm having twins. I did at the beginning of my pregnancy with Luke, too, so I'm sure I'm just psyching myself out. I have another ultrasound in 2 1/2 weeks, so I'm sure my mind will be put at ease then!

So early!

2008-07-29T09:41:00.002-05:00

I feel very fortunate that my pregnancies are SOOOO easy. I don't get sick (unless I don't eat often enough), just really, really tired. When I was pregnant with Luke and still nursing Kate, I would go to bed at about 8pm during my first trimester. Poor Randy never saw anything of me. This morning I was sitting and snuggling Luke (he rises with the sun in Washington around 6am) and I had to run into the bathroom. I didn't throw up, but it was one of those moments where I really wanted to because I hoped it might make me feel better. Moral of the story is. . . I'm really praying that I have the same kind of pregnancy as the past and that I feel well!! I'm a little nervous now!! I can't believe that it's starting this early!!!!!!!! So here's to early sunrises in Washington and early morning sickness! BLAH!

Coming home again. . . ?

2008-07-28T15:17:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I feel like I can't claim anywhere as "home" for growing up. I'm in Spokane, WA right now with my wonderful White nieces and nephews and we're having a GREAT time. It is just interesting to be back here. When people ask me where I'm from, I always tell them Washington. Spokane is the place I've lived the longest in my life, but since we left here when I was 11, it is hard to say this is still home. It feels like home to me, but it still doesn't feel quite right. I'll never claim Chewelah, WA as home (I lived there from 14-16 1/2); I wouldn't claim Provo as home (I lived there from 16 1/2-21 1/2). I went to my sister's ward yesterday, which is the ward my family would have been in had we still lived here. I also went to Karly's wedding reception on Saturday night (it was really fun to show Kate the temple that Mom and Dad got married in). It is so fun to see familiar faces. Most people thought I was my sister, Deborah, since I was with her daughter who was playing the harp at the wedding reception (she is EXTREMELY talented!). It's just kind of an odd set of emotions to sort through!

While I'm here in Washington, I feel like I have TONS of spare time, so I'm trying to freshen up my blog and give it some new life.

We're headed to Arizona from here, so we won't be back in Louisiana for a couple of weeks. I have to say, I LOVE the climate here in the summer. I love how much it cools off at night! I don't like how early it gets light or how late it stays light. I don't miss that part of the Pacific Northwest!

I'll get some more pictures on here soon!

Must. . . Keep. . . Eating. . .

2008-07-22T09:43:00.003-05:00

This was over the 4th of July weekend at Randy's parent's house. For those who know Luke, his FAVORITE thing is chips, especially when he can dip them in beans. He hadn't had a nap, and it was about 6:30 at night. This is the first time one of my kids has ever fallen asleep eating.

A Day for Gratitude

2008-07-22T08:39:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was a really hard day around here. We received many concerned phone calls, and I want to say thank you to every one! For those of you who don't know, here is a link to an article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/21/guam.crash/index.html

A B-52 crashed just off of Guam. It had six crew members on board, one of which was a flight doctor who was stationed in Guam. The other five crew members were stationed here at Barksdale and were deployed to Guam. Three of them were Randy's squadron mates, two of which he knew well. Our hearts and prayers are with the families who have lost their loved ones.

It was a day for us to be so grateful for what we have. That so easily could have been Randy there. It is his squadron deployed. The co-pilot was one of his peers in the squadron-- they graduated from pilot training together, did their B-52 training together. . . It just makes me SO very grateful for my husband's life. It makes me ache for those who have so much uncertainty right now. Especially since only one person (that we know of yet) has been identified. The other five are still listed as unknown. So please keep the family of those crew members in your thoughts and prayers. I can't imagine what they are going through.

Randy and I were talking last night. He spent his entire afternoon (for the second time) trying to get the alignment done on my van before I drive it to Dallas again. I spent the entire morning having new tires put on it so the alignment could be done. We were getting a bit frustrated about the whole situation, then Randy pointed out, "We shouldn't be so upset. We could be having a lot worse of a day today". I am grateful for the blessing of my family being in tact!

On a happier note. . . Kate has successfully slept 2 nights with no pacifier! HURRAY! I have felt so guilty for almost two years about her still having one. But first Luke was being born, so I didn't want to take it away. Then we were moving, so I didn't want to take it away. Then she finally started sleeping through the night when she turned two (She's only been allowed to have it in bed, so I didn't want to take away the allure of bed). Then we were traveling a lot. Then Randy was gone for a while, then we were traveling, then we moved again, then Randy got deployed. . . the list goes on. I just couldn't ever justify taking it. One night while Randy was in Guam, instead of a story for bed, she and I sat down at the computer and she picked out a toy she wanted the paci fairy to bring to her. I told her the paci fairy wouldn't come until Dad got home from Guam. The other day, she decided she was ready for the paci fairy to come (because she wanted the toy she had picked out). Randy wasn't very sure about her doing it. He was trying to persuade her not to. . . We tried it the first night with her going to sleep with it, then the paci fairy took it in the night. That wasn't a good idea. She was up for about an hour and a half in the night because she was so upset about it being missing. So the next night we went to sleep without it. Now she's SO proud that she's a big girl without it. She is proud that she can swim all by herself (with a life jacket) and that she has no paci. Last night was the first night of normal kid things. She was out of her bed about ten times before she finally went to sleep. It just made me laugh.

Hopefully our day will be a little brighter today. It's cleaning day for me!! I'm trying to get ready to be out of town for 2 1/2 weeks. The kids and I are headed to Spokane for a week, then we're going straight to Arizona for another week and a half. Hopefully we'll actually stay home for a while this fall!!!

This was seconds before he tipped backwards and smacked his head REALLY hard. It was so cute because he was playing in that basket for a good 15 minutes. That's a long time for Luke to hold still!
Kate wearing Randy's helmet. He was supposed to fly with the reserve squadron the next day, so he had to bring his stuff home to take it with him.

Hopefully she won't ever become a fighter pilot. Luke didn't have any desire to put it on.

Please, not yet. . .

2008-07-14T14:01:00.003-05:00

I forgot to add this funny little story to my blog earlier. I was reading my friend Natalie Plummer's blog (hey Nat, here's your shout out :) and seeing a picture of her little girl, Lydia, reminded me of this story.

This morning I was having a YW presidency meeting at my house. One of my counselors has two little boys, each four months younger than each of my kids. Our meeting was over and we were cleaning up all of the toys (also present was a 7-week-old and another two-year-old) and Heidi started calling for her son Brandon, but he wasn't answering her. I realized that Kate wasn't around either, so I called her. She promptly answered me that she was in her room. I went upstairs, and she and Brandon were snuggled in her bed (she has a queen sized bed), each snuggling dollies. I'm very open and honest with my kids, and don't beat around the bush about things (we use anatomically correct names for body parts, etc.), but I didn't think that I needed to have the talk with my 3-year-old yet about not letting boys in her bed. So, to copy the name of Natalie's picture. . . and so it begins! Randy and I both had talks with Kate about not letting boys in her room, especially her bed. So please, no headaches about boys Kate! Not yet!!!

Summers are the best

2008-07-14T13:17:00.013-05:00

I know I'm a little behind at posting 4th of July pictures, but I'm finally doing it. We spent the 4th in College Station, TX with Randy's family. We did fireworks on Thursday the 3rd at Randy's parent's land, then on the 4th we went to the George Bush presidential library in College Station for their huge firework show. On the morning of the 4th we went to a ward breakfast with Randy's parents. There was a parade that kids decorate bikes and strollers, then "parade" around the church parking lot. Grandma and Kate decorated our stroller, so Randy paraded with them.

We were all so worn out the next day when we got home to Shreveport. Our next adventure begins in a couple of weeks when I head to Spokane with the kids to hang out with the Whites for a week. We are VERY excited for that trip!! It is so sad to me that my kids only know very few of their MANY cousins. Fortunately, they will become better acquainted with four more of them!

My kids are excited that tonight is family home evening. Why? Because we get family home evening treats. My poor deprived children! Oh well, I guess that's what Monday nights are for!

Luke held still for a picture!!!!!!!!!!

Kate was helping Dad dig a hole to make the firework box level by Grandma and Grandpa's pond.

Manliness at its best. . .? They had been playing king of the hill on top of the log. Then they started doing arabesque's for Kate. I had to get a picture of that one. . . This is Randy and his younger brother Ryan.

Luke really didn't care about the sparklers. He just wanted to go to bed.

Kate was the only kid doing sparklers, so she got to do them two at a time.

Out of all of the fireworks that Grandma and Grandpa had, Luke was the most fascinated with Grandpa's flashlight.

A family to-do of Roman candles

Everyone parading around the church parking lot. Luke was mad because the sun was in his eyes.

Watching the fireworks at the George Bush library on the 4th.

This was the first time Luke had ever had an ice cream cone. We had been eating corn on the cob for dinner, so he was insistent that he needed to eat it in the middle like corn (I had to work really hard to teach him how to eat corn last summer-- that we eat it in the middle and not from the top). He ended up dumping his ice cream out, but he didn't care. He just ate the cone and was happy.

What a vacation!

2008-07-08T23:44:00.024-05:00

Ahh, I'm finally blogging again!

We had a great time these last few weeks. I just seriously need a vacation from my vacation! I came home Saturday night and felt like I hit the ground running. Girl's camp is this week in our ward, so I was running around Sunday morning having meetings, then all during church I was trying to make sure everyone had everything ready to go to camp! I am going up tomorrow night for their testimony meeting. I had to find someone to watch my kids though, because. . . Randy is already TDY again! Gotta love the Air Force. . . He volunteered for this one, but he called and asked first if it was okay with me and I couldn't say no. He is in Fort Worth, TX right now with a B-52 all ready to fly to England. He is the backup jet to fly to England for two airshows there. I didn't want him to miss an opportunity to go over there. He's been all over Europe, but never to England. I thought it sounded like a fun possibility for him. So, he'll know tomorrow if he's going or not. The reason he had to go to Fort Worth to do all of this, is because the runway here is closed for its annual cleaning. This backup jet was planned ahead of time, and was brought out to Ft. Worth before the runway here was closed. So, I was back to putting the kids to bed by myself tonight. It actually felt more normal than having Randy put them to bed (which he has done every night since he's been home!). So he'll either be home tomorrow night, or in a week. We'll see!

I'm putting vacation pictures in chronological order. Our cruise was AMAZING! I gained about 7 pounds on the cruise. I ate like crazy. I'm sure I consumed more calories in the week on the cruise than I did the entire time Randy was gone (no exaggeration!). We still worked out on the cruise (Randy was much more disciplined than I was. He ran every morning except two mornings, which were two of our three port days. I ran two days, and lifted weights on another day), but I still cannot believe how much I ate! As you look at the pictures, you can see I'm progressively larger!

It sounds like the kids did really well while we were gone. Randy's mom kept them so busy, I don't think they had time to miss us! Kate had oodles of craft projects to show me when we got back. She could do some sort of crafty project 24/7!

Luke has had a harder time adjusting. He has been throwing so many fits, I don't know what to do with him! Yesterday and today have been better as we've been getting back to normal life. Randy had to go back to work today. That was when we found out about his TDY.

Here are some details from our vacation. I'll put up as many pictures as Blogger will let me! It seems like there aren't very many pictures of Luke, which is because I don't have very many of him! He hardly ever holds still long enough for me to take a picture!!!!!!!!

Here is what our itinerary was:

Wed. June 17-- Randy came home
Sat. June 21-- Off to the zoo and College Station to drop of Kate and Luke
Sun. June 22-- Off to Galveston, cruise departing
Mon. June 23-- At sea
Tues. June 24-- At sea (our first formal night)
Wed. June 25-- Montego Bay, Jamaica
Thurs. June 26-- Georgetown, Grand Cayman
Fri. June 27-- Cozumel, Mexico
Sat. June 28-- At sea
Sun. June 29-- Back to College Station to see our babies!
Mon. June 30-- To San Antonio, TX
Tues. July 1-- Sea World!
Sat. July 5-- Home at last!
Caldwell Zoo, Tyler, TX--Sat. June 21, 2008

There is the cutest aviary there. My kids love to see the birds. One of the cockatiels bit Luke next to his eye when we has 4-months-old, so I'm a little wary to let him get too close!

Luke jst really cared about running and jumping (as usual)
Admiring some fish.

Galveston, TX-- Sunday, June 22, 2008

Right after we boarded the ship.

The best thing was having our swimming suits with us right away. We got to the ship really early, then just hung out all afternoon catching some sun. It was a very nice way to begin the cruise!

My hair was done for after being on the deck at sunset!

Our first formal night. I didn't end up with any pictures of our second one because Randy didn't like the dress I was wearing. He said it looked funny on my stomach, I know that was his way of saying it made me look pregnant (it was empire waisted with a fuller skirt).

Montego Bay, Jamaica--Wednesday, June 26, 2008

In the craft market in Montego Bay. It was VERY humid and the people were SO annoyingly pushy for you to buy everything. We were anxious to get out of there. Randy did get his dorky tourist hat. That was our goal for that stop.

After dirty Montego Bay, all I could think of was showering! I didn't mind saying good bye to Jamaica! We had quite the experience in the middle of downtown Montego Bay. It was a little scary! I was really missing the states at that point.

Georgetown, Grand Cayman-- Thursday, June 27, 2008

The only shore excursion package we bought was a snorkeling trip combined with a trip to Stingray City. Here is Randy holding one of the stingrays. He was very disappointed in the snorkeling overall on our entire trip. We went snorkeling every place we stopped. He got spoiled going snorkeling every weekend in Guam. He didn't get his scuba certification as he had originally planned. He was very busy in the beginning working on classes for his master's degree, then he was flying a ton at the end.

Wow, do we look like tourists or what? This is in Grand Cayman, that is our ship in the background.

Cozumel, Mexico-- Friday, June 27, 2008

We rented a jeep in Cozumel (I love that my husband is fluent in Spanish. . . he got us a great deal on it!) and found our own private beach. We were the ONLY ones there! It was beautiful! Now I'm wearing the dorky tourist hat. I think I was just holding it for him for some reason!

Randy on top of some ruins in Cozumel, Mexico. (He wasn't supposed to be up there)

Our favorite peaceful spot at night on the ship-- there were a bunch of plastic rocking chairs at the bow of the ship. It was fun to sit out there at watch the ship crash through the huge waves.

I don't have any cruise pictures past Friday night. The ship sped up and it was really rough water. I'd never gotten motion sick before. . . but I ran out of dinner and was puking my guts out! I had to take dramamine, which totally knocked me out. I slept basically for the rest of the cruise!!!!!!!

College Station, TX-- Sunday, June 29, 2008

Luke thought he needed a little piece of the dorky tourist hat action (at Grandma and Grandpa's house)

SeaWorld, San Antonio, TX--Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Randy and Kate on the miniature ferris wheel.

What was Luke's favorite thing at Sea World? The place where you can run and jump and no one is telling you not to! He could have stayed in there forever. It was QUITE the fit when we left!

Posing with the fish at Sea World

Kate's first roller coaster ride

Randy and Kate feeding the dolphins at Sea World

Adjusting is always hard. . .

2008-06-20T08:49:00.003-05:00

I've heard many horror stories about how difficult it is to adjust to normal life post-deployment. Fortunately, things have been fine for Randy and me with adjustments, but the kids are having a rough time, especially Luke. He is getting up SOOOO early in the morning, then just being rotten to Randy. Poor Randy, it makes him sad. I'm really worried how he's going to do while we're on our cruise. Fortunately, he's seen lots of Grandma and Grandpa lately, that it won't be such a shock to him. Luke walks around the house sometimes saying, "say Grandpa" (obviously he's heard that from other people lots, "Luke, say Grandpa!"). I am looking forward to sleeping a TON on the cruise. I functioned quite well off of 4-6 hours of sleep most nights that Randy was gone. Now that he's home, I think my body is saying, okay you don't have to do it all yourself anymore. I am SOOOOO tired all the time!!! So hopefully I can recharge my batteries a bit on the cruise and get back to normal life once we're home.

Randy had to go in to work today to do some inprocessing and make sure he's cleared to leave the country. I hope so! We're off to College Station tomorrow, then Galveston on Sunday!!! We have some awesome friends here who have done this same cruise twice, so they're giving me the rundown on things. We're very excited. This will be my last post until we get back from the cruise. Bon Voyage!

A stranger among us. . .?

2008-06-19T07:33:00.013-05:00

It is SO nice to have Randy home, yet odd! We moved into our house 10 days before he left, so he really hasn't ever had normal life with us in this house. We were unpacking, then packing him up to go. We have had so much fun just spending time together (the whole 13 hours he's been home. . .). Randy was the second deployed person off the plane, and we were the first ones in the crowd to get to see him. He called me right when they had landed so that we could line up. They kept us in this giant building until they escorted us out to the flightline to meet the jet. Since we were the first family to see our Dad, there were photographers ALL over the place. We had three or four reporters come up to us afterwards to get our information because they all gotten pictures of our reunion and needed caption information. We'll have to check the Shreveport Times website in a few days. One reporter told us he wants to write a story on us to be in the June 29th newspaper. I think the base newspaper is another one. . . we'll have to see where else we show up. I think another person said they were putting us on the Air Force website. Anyways, here are the pictures!

First off, here is Kate showing off her horse that she finished. She is SO proud of it. She came up with the idea all on her own that she was going to give it to Dad for Father's Day. He was thrilled.

Here's the jet as we were walking up to it.

We were anxiously waiting for them to open the jet up.

There were a couple of families who flew space-A on the plane, so they were let off first. Then Randy was the second guy off. Kate just couldn't stand it. She wanted to run to him SO badly, but he had to greet all of the squadron leadership first, then he was free.

How cute is this. She was so excited to see her Dad!

Our happy reunion-- you can see the photographers taking pictures of us. It seemed like there were several people with cameras in our faces right then.

Luke was a little unsure about what was going on

Our family, together again!

Kate had SO many things she wanted to tell Randy about. I love how much she talks with her hands. She's not related to me at all!!!

Home for some fun wrestling time with Dad. Everyone was having a great time!

He's in Hawaii!!

2008-06-18T07:45:00.001-05:00

For those of you who have been watching, Randy is now in Hawaii, the halfway point between here and Guam. He said they may be delayed a little bit because they left Guam late, but at least he can use his cell phone now!!!!!!!!!! It was very nice to wake up this morning to his cell phone number on the caller ID. I've only seen it once in the last 4+ months, and that was when they had to divert to Hawaii and stay there over night. We're on the downhill slope!! I just hope that I can get everything done that I want to and not go crazy!

24 hours and 45 minutes, but who's counting. . .?

2008-06-17T15:10:00.003-05:00

We are so anxious for Randy to come home. I'm trying to think of all sorts of fun things for Kate to do so that she doesn't have to think about it too much. I haven't talked about Randy coming home much today, just because I'm nervous about a delay or something. I'm not usually pessimistic, it just seems too good to be true, and I know the military!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've been swimming, we're going to see a movie in the morning, making posters to hang on our house for Randy, etc. I've been trying to clean up a storm. Not that my house is normally that messy, but it's been a great reason to get rid of all of the residual clutter from our move. That is my least favorite part of moving: the clutter that never seems to end!!!!! My to do list is a mile long. I had better keep working while Luke is sleeping. Hopefully my next post will have lots of fun pictures of us WITH our Dad!!!

My awesome husband

2008-06-15T20:51:00.002-05:00

On this Father's Day, although I'm celebrating it with a little loneliness, I'm remembering that my wonderful husband is on the other side of the world celebrating it by himself (although it's well into Monday there). I just want to brag about how wonderful my husband is. He takes more time than any other husband who is deployed over there to talk to my kids and me. The other morning, he wasn't upset when we called and woke him up because Kate wanted to talk to him so bad. She woke up and asked if he was home, then was very upset when I told her that he wasn't home yet. He wasn't grouchy about being woken up just to talk to her.

My husband is the kindest, most generous person I know. He doesn't ask for anything for himself. He hasn't gotten the least bit mad at me at my out of control spending habits since he's been gone :) I guess we'll see what he says when he gets home ;) He tries his best to take care of us from ten thousand miles away. . . He's the best, and I want everyone to know that he is!!!

Happy Father's Day Randy! We love you!!!

Father's Day. . . but where's our Dad?!

2008-06-15T19:12:00.007-05:00

Today was a sad Father's Day for me. We miss Randy so much, and it's sad that he just barely missed being here for Father's day. Oh well, only three more sleeps!!! Speaking of sleep, I'm planning on actually getting some tonight. I've only gotten 4 1/2 hours each night for the last two nights. I don't want to get sick just before my cruise. For the first time in my life, I was having a hard time staying awake during church-- Young Women's of all places!!!! My kids are in bed, and I'm off to go there myself. I fell asleep while I was rocking them tonight before bed. I had both kids on my lap and we were rocking in the dark and singing. I think all three of us fell asleep. Luke usually cries himself to sleep in nursery every Sunday, but today he didn't! So, he had NO nap today. Kate could have used one, too. We're all very tired. I hope Wednesday comes quickly!!!

Here are some cute pictures from the week:

Before church this morning (notice the domino in Luke's left hand-- he has my cell phone in his right hand. He was "talking" to Dad)

Kate is insistent that she is a cowgirl when she wears my red collapsible colander on her head. She thinks she's Jessie from Toy Story 2.

Kate thought we needed to take a picture of Randy while we were chatting online with him last night.

Luke always has to run up to the camera and say, "CHEESE!!!" as loud as he possibly can. It's frustrating when I'm trying to get some candid pictures. The second he sees the camera, it's Captain Cheese.

Kate has a horse she has been working on for almost two weeks now. It's one of those little bead ones that you melt with the iron once they're finished. It kept getting messed up last week, so this week she's actually almost done with it!

I'm summoned to come look at how well she's doing about every thirty seconds while she's working on it. It gets a little tiresome, but she's so proud of it!

We're on the countdown. . .

2008-06-14T21:04:00.003-05:00

Kate is well rehearsed on how many sleeps are left until Dad gets home. We are very excited, can you tell?! Randy will be home on Wednesday afternoon. Saturday we're heading down to College Station, TX to drop off our kids with his parents, then Sunday we leave on a week long cruise from Galveston. I could definitely use the break!!!! I only got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night. I'm try to finish all my projects on my house before Randy gets home, so tonight will be short.

I taught a class at Enrichment on healthy eating, so if anyone wants the packet I made up and handed out, let me know. I put together TONS of recipes. It'd be easiest to e-mail it to whoever wants it. I've had lots of people comment that they've already tried them and really like them. It's 14 pages long. . . so I won't post it on here.

I took the kids yesterday to have our pictures taken for Randy for Father's Day. That's all he asked for was a picture of the three of us. He also got a plasma TV, but that doesn't count yet because I've had it for a month, which he obviously hasn't seen it yet. I've sent him pictures of it. . . but still. So, I'll post the picture of us. I'm off to go do more sewing. I hope everyone has a great Father's Day for the men in their lives. I wish Randy was around for it. Only four more sleeps!!!!!!!!!

I'm not dead, I swear!

2008-06-12T22:53:00.002-05:00

Alright, I've been getting in trouble with lots of people for not posting in FOREVER. I've been so busy!!!!!! Our week started out last week with Berta, Cat, and Sarah coming to visit us from Arizona. We drove to Dallas to pick them up. We had so much fun with them! We miss them tons!! They went home on Tuesday, so we got home late that night from taking them to the airport. Tonight I taught a class at Enrichment for our ward. I feel horrible. . . I was supposed to take 15-20 minutes. I didn't look at the clock when I started. Then I looked at my watch, and it was 8pm!! I had talked for probably an hour! People were asking questions, making comments, etc. But I feel so horrible. I'm sure they'll never ask me to do anything for Enrichment again!

We are anxiously counting down the days until Randy gets home. Six more sleeps!!!!!! Poor Kate. I've been telling her that Cat and Sarah were coming to visit, then they would go home, then a few days later Dad would be home. Sweet thing. . . she woke up from her nap yesterday and called to me from the top of the stairs, "Mom! I'm up! Is Dad here now?" She was VERY upset that he wasn't here yet. I just hope nothing gets delayed or pushed back with him coming home. She would be heartbroken, not to mention the fact that I would be, too!!!!

Randy and I are VERY excited for our upcoming cruise. I know I am going to have a hard time being away from my sweet little people for a whole week. . . but it will be SO much fun for Randy and I to get to spend some time together. I just hope that our cruise adventure is not QUITE as exciting as our adventures in Mexico on our honeymoon. We still laugh about those, six years later.

I'm off to bed. I need to get some rest. I severely twisted/sprained my ankle tonight. I hope it's not a true sprain. I hope it will just feel better in the morning. I need to keep running!!!

I'm off to bed. I need some rest before I hit the ground running this weekend! The countdown is on for me to finish my projects before Randy comes home!

Here are a couple of cute tidbits from the kids: Kate told Berta after church that they had a "blesson in nursery". I think she got a little confused between a blessing and the lesson.

Kate asked me today if the guys were still out mowing the mulawn. She's seen the movie Mulan only once, so it made me chuckle.

Luke is obsessed with a Dora domino set. He always has to have one with backpack and one with map at all times. If he doesn't have one, he's constantly asking me, "where's map? Where's backpack?" It's cute. Instead of a blanket, it's Dora dominoes.

Fun in the sun

2008-05-30T23:00:00.007-05:00

On Wednesday the kids had a great time with this crazy water dancer sprinkler we had. The loved being on the trampoline with it spraying them all over!!

Kate got some early morning wading pool fun in before we had to go. She said it was REALLY cold, but she had a lot of fun. Grandpa went to LOTS of work to set it up for her and she was so excited to play in it!

Bubbles are always a hit!

Tuesday morning in the paddle boat with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids went in their pajamas so they could have a quick ride before we took Luke to the doctor. The picture is foggy because my lens fogged up when I opened the camera. It was SO humid outside! It rained so hard later on that day that it knocked the power out at the lake cabin.
Here is Luke at Caddo Lake with Grandma and Grandpa Todd. Luke kept bringing me those leaves (like the one in his hand) and saying, "Look! A starfish!" Poor little guy. . . he REALLY thought they were starfish. This was a pre-sick picture. He finally succumbed to all of the illness we have uncharacteristically had in our house lately and got REALLY sick on Tuesday morning. We had to cut the lake trip short to take him to the doctor where he had to have an antibiotic shot (because he woke up Tuesday morning with his eye swollen shut and it wasn't even swollen the night before. It was a pretty aggressive infection), blood drawn, then be seen the next day and placed on oral augmentin. Poor kid. . . it was a rough couple of days for him!

It has been a while since I've posted. I've been trying to spend every spare kid-free moment I have finishing up projects before Randy comes home. It's finally seeming like a reality!!! If all goes well, we only have 3 weeks left until he's home! We will be entertained by Berta, Cat, and Sarah coming to visit, which we are SO excited for! I have a short list of projects I still want to finish. Our days have been spent enjoying summer! The pools on base are open, and we have been trying to spend time there. I really was missing Randy today at the pool though, because it's the first Friday of the summer for us. Fridays are always a big deal in our house, because it's date night, and kicks off the weekend. Randy always has tried to go to the pool as much as possible with us, so it was kind of a double whammy to have him gone. We have a busy month planned for after he is home. We are going to College Station (basically as soon as he gets home!) and dropping Kate and Luke off with Grandma and Grandpa, then Randy and I are headed on a cruise for a week! When we get home from that, we're picking up the kids and heading to Sea World. Then back to Grandma and Grandpa's for the 4th of July and fireworks at their house and the big show at the George Bush library. After that, we're off to Corpus Cristi to take the kids to the beach. Once that's done, we'll FINALLY be back home together as a family. Then Randy will have to go back to work, and it will be back to life as usual. I know the vacations will be TONS of fun, but I'm pretty anxious for the normal life with Dad around. I'm off to work on a project some more. I'm working on curtains for Luke's room. I have the hardware all hung (hurray!! I HATE hanging anything in the walls in this house-- they're plaster and just crumble EVERYWHERE!!!), I just have to cut the curtain rods to the correct size (with a hacksaw, it takes forever!).

2008-05-23T12:20:00.003-05:00

Here is Kate playing with "little tiny baby Kaitlyn" as Kate calls her. We had another friend named Katelyn that we call baby Katelyn, so Kate all by herself started calling this Kaitlyn, little tiny baby Kaitlyn. She LOVES babies. If she ever gets any younger siblings, I'm sure she will be a HUGE help with them!
Kate getting a haircut! She was so excited to have it done!
We had a great time having a picnic in our back yard. It's amazing how fun it can be to just throw a blanket down and take lunch outside! I forgot the after pictures for Kate's haircut, so here is one!Everyone was SO messy (including me after Luke was climbing all over me) after watermelon, PB & J's, and chocolate chip cookies (the chocolate chips were TOTALLY melted), but we sure had fun!!

Kate tells everyone that we have a pirate ship at our house. She is sure that the fort in our swing set is a pirate ship, because her dad put a steering wheel in it.

Luke would swing all day long if I was willing to push him. I've never seen a kid who loved swinging so much!

Cleaning day!

2008-05-22T21:19:00.001-05:00

Today I was near a mental breakdown, so my friend took my kids for most of the day and I did nothing but CLEANED!!!! I cleaned from 8pm until 1am last night, too. Needless to say, my back aches and I have blisters on my hands from cleaning so much. . . but my house sure sparkles!!! I'm going to bed early tonight because I haven't been to bed before 1am in a week. Sigh. . . I want my husband home!!! Even though I haven't been running all week, I've still been burning my calories by cleaning!

Kate was SO excited because she got a hair cut tonight. She has been begging me to cut her hair for a long time (it was in the middle/lower 1/3 of her back). I had thrown away my hair scissors because they were cheap and old. She sees me cut Luke's hair and Randy's hair, but where is her haircut? So I bought some new scissors yesterday, and she was SO excited to have her turn. It even helped get some obedience out of her!! My kids are definitely suffering from all of my projects and my lack of sleep. With that, I'm off to bed!

Carousel

2008-05-19T16:21:00.002-05:00

I know that I already posted today, but we had a GREAT time at the Boardwalk, and found some FUN sales!! I had to post the funniest thing that Kate said. She was standing on a stool in the kitchen washing her hands. I left for a second then came back and she had her head in the cupboard under the kitchen sink. I asked her what she was doing, and she said, "Where does the water go? Does it go into the garbage can?" I did my best not to laugh, and showed her the pipes and that they take the water outside, under our house, then under the ground. She was content with that and went along her way. It reminded me from the scene in "Enchanted" where Giselle asks about where the water in the shower comes from. That just happens to be Kate's favorite movie. . . so I wouldn't be surprised if that's where the idea came from. Either way, it was still REALLY funny.

There is a fun carousel at the Boardwalk, and Kate was being a cowgirl like Jessie, saying "YEE HAW!"

Luke was ready for a nap at this point. . .

What a week. . .

2008-05-19T08:49:00.007-05:00

Luke loves cameras. He always says "Say click, CHEESE!" (He loves Click the camera from Diego)

Luke is really certain that Backpack and Map are his two bes friends from Dora. I think it's quite funny. This makes it sound like my kids are obsessed with the TV, which they love watching, but don't get to that often. I try to reserve it for the car. They are AWESOME in the car. Thank goodness for DVD players in the ceiling. I had the kids carseats in Randy's car the other day, and Luke was MAD! He was screaming "MOVIE! A MOVIE!" the whole 2 minutes we were driving.

Having a pajama morning on a Monday morning while Mom catches up from our last couple of weeks.

We had SO much fun with Grandma Thomason here last weekend, but we didn't get any pictures of her with the kids!!! I am SO sad about that!!! I feel like I was gone all weekend!! I went to the temple with the youth in our ward. It was a very fun experience!!! I was missing Randy a TON while we were at the temple. I was one of the only adults there without my spouse!!

Unfortunately, Kate got sick over the weekend, and so did I! I haven't been so sick in SUCH a long time. It was a good thing Grandma was here to take care of us! I took Kate to the doctor and she had a double ear infection and possible pneumonia. Great! But there was a chance it was viral, so I didn't want her on an anti-biotic. The doctor would only agree if I would get her back in two days later to have her ears rechecked and lungs re-listened to. Whatever virus we had hit me so fast. I had a sore throat, and within about 20 minutes of realizing that I had a sore throat (yes, realizing it. It's amazing as moms how little we stop and think, oh wait, my throat hurts) I was laying in the middle of my kitchen floor feeling like I was going to DIE! I crawled into the living room and laid on the floor. Kate brought us pillows and laid by me because she was sick, too. Luke just thought he needed to lay down because Kate and I were. Fortunately, he has stayed healthy through this whole ordeal. That night, two great friends came and gave Kate and I blessings. I needed to be healthy to take Grandma to the airport in Dallas the next day! During the night, Kate woke up complaining about her ears and Grandma helped her get in bed next to me. I knew I was burning up, and couldn't tell if she was. I had Grandma get the thermometer and I had a 104.6 fever. I didn't ever really find out what Kate's was, because my thermometer was being weird. I probably broke it I was so hot! Anyways, my fever broke and I haven't had one since and everything went REALLY well driving to and from Dallas.
On to the next ordeal of the week. I didn't go to mutual the night I took Grandma to the airport because I wasn't up to it, and I didn't want to leave Kate with her still feeling sick. I am SO glad I didn't go!!! We had 6 inches of rain in less than two hours that night!! In a 12 hour period we got 13 inches. EVERYTHING was flooding! Flash floods, slow floods. . . . . Randy's car was parked across the street from our house in front of another friend's house. She called me at about 9:30 that night and said, "Um, your husband's car us under about 3 feet of water. You might want to move it!" Well, I learned my lesson about moving cars in flooded water LAST spring when our last house had a flood in front of it and I moved my van out of it. Randy got really mad at me, but fortunately nothing happened to the van. This time I just left his car where it was and knew I just had to wait for the flood to go down. The next morning, I went out to a flooded car. It wasn't too bad, there was about 3 inches of standing water on the floor of the car. We have some friends who just moved into our old house and their car wouldn't even start (parked in the same place that my van was when I moved it during a flood and got in trouble). They had water up past their seats in their car! Needless to say, the insurance adjuster came to look at it and totaled their car. Randy's still drives, so I drove it to the dealership and it is being stripped down right now. The insurance adjuster is going there today to check it out. After all that car has been through. . . . goodness. I took pictures, but stupid me, not until AFTER we'd bailed all the water out of it. Hopefully it won't stink forever!!!

This last weekend Randy's parents came for the day in Saturday. They got here in the middle of the night Friday night and were here when the kids woke up in the morning. I didn't tell Kate they were coming, and she was SO excited to hear Grandma Todd's voice when she was walking down the stairs in the morning. It was SO nice to have them here!! They played with the kids ALL day while I finished painting Luke's room and did stuff around the house. I put Grandpa to work doing all sorts of things around the house. It was nice to have a guy here! I've been doing all those things by myself, but Grandpa was very handy to have around!!! They will be back next weekend to play with us again, then we're all going to the lake for Memorial Day and a few days after. It should be a fun weekend!!

We are counting down the days until Randy comes home!!! The problem is, we still don't know exactly when that is yet!!! We have lots of entertainment between now and then, with the lake next weekend and Berta, Cat, and Sarah coming to visit us. The time hopefully will go by quickly!!!! I have lots of projects I want to finish before Randy comes home. Fortunately, I'm narrowing the list down! I basically just have to sew curtains for Luke's room (he just has ugly white blackout shades right now), and finish painting my dining room. Everything is under plastic in there right now. My kids are eating at their little table that is normally in our upstairs playroom. They think it's great, I'm ready to have my dining room back. It takes FOREVER to paint it!!!! Our house has the thickest, biggest texture I've EVER seen!!! It takes SOOOOOO long to get down into all of the crevices, especially with the dark brown I'm painting in my dining room. It has ten foot ceilings, crown molding, two arched doorways (completely lined with molding), a set of French doors, and don't forget all of the baseboards!! I'm painting without taping, which I think will end up being faster in the long run. The room is gigantic as it is. . . but hopefully I can have it finished by tonight after the kids go to bed. I've decided to do all of the edge/baseboard work first, then just go to town with a roller. I painted last night (Sunday night) because my kids were both asleep by 7pm. I justified it by turning a couple of conference sessions on in the living room and listening to those. I know, I'm evil, I still hadn't finished listening to conference yet. I'll post pictures when I'm ALL done decorating the house (do you ever get all done with a house like this?!?!?!?!?!) I'm having a great time doing it. Randy just isn't thrilled to have to prime all of the painted walls before we leave. Oh well, I did the hard part, we can prime them together. :)

That updates everyone on our last couple of weeks!!! We're off to the Boardwalk for some .99 sales at Children's Place and to get Kate some new church shoes!

Biased Mama

2008-05-06T21:45:00.002-05:00

I know I'm completely biased, but my children blow me away on a daily basis with how smart they are and how much they comprehend. My kids both fall asleep every night to a CD that is primary songs made into lullabies. It's really a sweet CD. Luke was singing the first song to me tonight, then continued to hum the melody perfectly during an instrumental part. I just thought, wow. He really loves music!!! He started dancing before he could sit up. Kate is always making up new songs and telling me about the songs she learns in nursery on Sundays.

Those who know Luke know how much he LOVES shapes, especially stars!!! He is also getting into the moon. Anything that is a semi-circle, he brings to me and says, "Look! It's a moon!" Once again, I know I'm biased, but I think he's pretty smart. :)

I'm off to bed. There is a new family moving into our old house (in our back yard), and they're LDS! We're so excited! To top it off, he is here to be a co-pilot, and they have a baby girl named Kaitlyn. Kate loves her already. She was at our house a lot of the day today while her parents were working with the movers. Kate was begging to see Baby Kaitlyn the second she left, until they came back to eat dinner with us. We need a baby in our house! Luke could use someone who wouldn't let him rule the roost, and Kate would be such a little mother to a baby. It just hope it can happen!!! After having a miscarriage right after Randy left, I'm feeling a little frustrated about the whole baby thing! I think Heavenly Father knew that it wouldn't be the best thing for me to be pregnant and have my husband on the other side of the world!

So here's to smart, cute kids! They're the best!!!

Sanity on Sunday. . .?!

2008-05-04T22:22:00.003-05:00

Kate and Luke (with a newly buzzed head!)

Something is wrong with my camera, and I'm not quite sure what, but it won't focus. So, sadly enough, the cutest pictures from before church today are not even remotely in focus. Here is the best one I could come up with.

Does anyone have a secret for sanity on Sundays? Our church is at 12:30pm, right in the middle of nap time. . . I used to be able to trick Luke into taking a nap early on Sunday mornings (a nice warm bath at about 9:30am, big full bottle. . .he was a gonner), now he just plays in his bed until I cave and go get him, or until it's time to get ready for church. He has NEVER had separation anxiety until Randy left. He was the easiest kid EVER! He knew we would be back and never worried about it. Oh no. . . not now. He SCREAMS his head off in nursery until he falls asleep every week. One of the nursery workers walked him until he fell asleep, then she laid him down on the floor next to her, where he proceeded to take an hour nap today. That sounds awful-- the hard floor of the church. Poor baby. I felt so bad for him. Then my poor kids had to play at a friend's house for almost 3 1/2 hours tonight while I was at our standards fireside. Thank goodness that is over with. My poor kids are left way too often!! That was the 4th night this week that I've left them!!!!! They need their dad back. . .

I hope everyone has a great week up ahead. We are SO excited for Grandma Thomason to come visit us and see our new house!! Kate keeps telling me all the things she is going to tell Grandma when she is here. I'm sure Grandma is going to get her ear talked off then entire way home from the airport in Dallas (3 hours!).

Saturdays and sand

2008-05-03T21:08:00.005-05:00

I love watching those cute little bodies dig in the sand!

Luke is very sure that he can run as fast as Rogue.

We are fortunate enough to have a fun sand park just outside of our kitchen door (maybe 25 feet away). It has a playset on it, but my kids really only care about digging in the sand. We have a laundry basket full of sand toys that just stays outside under our gazebo. Our friends come over and play there with us quite often. It's really a lot of fun for the kids. We have been going out there to play more often than in our own backyard with our playset and trampoline. Today Luke decided that he would start throwing the sand. Fortunately, we've gotten away without him thinking that up (I knew it was only a matter of time). So, thank goodness we do baths every night before bed. We have enjoyed having a wonderfully mild spring this year!! There are flowers blooming ALL around our house (I can't decide of they're lilacs or jasmine) and they smell SO good!! I have been cutting some every few days and putting them in vases around my house. They make my entire house smell so yummy and springy!! I hope they stay blooming until Grandma Thomason gets here at the end of the week!

Luke got a major haircut tonight before his bath. Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow from before church (hopefully we'll be ready on time that I can stop and take a few!!). He looks so grown up with shorter hair again. He looks a lot like his cousin Kohl to me when he has short hair. It loses a lot of its red with this length!!!

Kate is begging for her hair to get cut, but I think that I'm going to take her somewhere to have it done. It is SOOO long, and I wouldn't mind having something cute done with it.

I'm off to more sewing projects. Enjoy the pictures!!

Bombs and kids

2008-05-01T09:46:00.000-05:00

So, Randy decided that there was a island in the Pacific that needed to be aware of our kids' names. He wrote our kids names on one of the bombs he was dropping on his sortie yesterday.
Randy on the ladder under his jet (I know, self-explanatory)
Our kids' names on a bomb. An interesting thing. . . . .

Luke throwing a fit because he still had his paci after his nap, but was absolutely positive he needed to swing AND have his paci. . . Some fights I'm not willing to make while Randy is on the other side of the world.

Kate is already learning that with our white skin, it takes a LONG time to get any color on our legs. She loves laying in the sun.

We just got home from going to lunch with a group of friends. We each had either one or two kids with us. What a zoo. We decided that instead of the smoking section of some restaurants, there should be the kid section in restaurants. We were getting some nasty looks from people, and all of the kids were being really good!!! It just took over 45 minutes for our food to come out after we had ordered, then two of our orders were wrong once the food finally got there!!!

Here's to insanity and trying to do something grown up and dragging your kids along with you!!

I survived the weekend!

2008-04-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that I actually survived this weekend. I'm SO tired!! I've been three nights in a row with five hours of sleep or less. I'm headed to bed, but I just wanted to say that I made it! We had a great BYD here tonight, our first with our new bishop. He really loves the kids, and they really respond to having a young, down to earth bishop. He is great to work with from the standpoint of my calling. We have a new stake president (which is what caused us to get a new bishop, because ours was called as the 1st counselor in the stake presidency), and he cut our ward budget by $2000 for the year. I was nervous about how much our budget was going to be cut, and shared my concerns with the bishop. He assured me that he couldn't make any difference in the amount of the overall ward budget, but that he would see to it that the YW had plenty of money in our budget. So, we JUST got our new budget today, (we were told it was being cut about 2 1/2 months ago. . . .) and what did our new bishop do? He took our budget from before, and gave us even more money!!! He REALLY wants to make sure that the YW have a great budget to work with. I'm thrilled about that!!!

We had a fun time hosting two girls from the BYU-Idaho symphony band. It was so fun to get to see them perform! They were all such amazing musicians! Kate thought it was too loud, but Luke was enthralled!!! He sat and danced the ENTIRE TIME!!! It was very cute. After the performance, some of the kids came down and were talking to the people in the audience. One girl came straight to me and told me how much she loved watching Luke dancing the whole time. She said she was so impressed that he kept time to the music during every song. I hadn't noticed that, but she said she kept watching him the whole time. I thought it was cute. He definitely loves music!!!

I'm off to bed so that I can do another long run in the morning. I've eaten more garbage this weekend with parties, guests, more parties and guests. . . I need to do at least another 5+ miles in the morning to get rid of this!

2008-04-25T23:57:00.000-05:00

Kate was into making goofy faces. I was trying to get pictures before church. We were actually ready early enough for me to attempt this! Berta, I love how we have similar tastes for our girls dresses!!!
Kate absolutely loves her tea set that her Aunt Angela spoiled her with!!!

2008-04-25T19:39:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I'm really not dead, it's just been a CrAzY last couple of weeks!!! I don't know where the time has gone!!! This weekend, I'm helping throw a baby shower, hosting either two or four girls from the BYU-Idaho symphony band (that's what it's really called, I've never heard of a symphony band before!), and hosting BYC and BYD at my house. I also am babysitting for our babysitting co-op tonight. . . I will be able to breathe a lot easier once this weekend is over!!!

Randy informed me this morning that his deployment has been extended. Fortunately, not all the way until December, but it's looking like closer to the beginning of July. So much for going on the cruise we had planned. I'm sure we'll find something else fun to do!!! We are SO excited for all of the visitors we are going to have in May!!! It will definitely help the time go by much faster until Randy gets home.

We are really enjoying the warmer weather, especially in the evenings. We have been spending a lot of time on the trampoline, tiring everyone our right before bed.

Kate is enjoying growing up more than ever. She is now absolutely insistent that she help me cook whatever it is that I'm cooking. Sometimes it's cute, sometimes it's a bit of a nuisance when I'm in a big hurry. I feel like we've been on the go so much the last couple of weeks that I'm constantly telling my kids "Hurry and eat! Hurry hurry hurry! We have to go now!" I'm really tired of having to tell my little people to hurry all the time. Will it ever end!?!?!??!

As for recipes. I fixed a HUGE Mexican feast yesterday. We had some friends over for lunch, and we had a cinco de Mayo celebration. I made two kinds of salsa (cabbage salsa-- the same kind as Mi Casita, for those of you who know where that is, and a fire roasted salsa), homemade refried beans, shredded chicken, shredded pork, grilled veggies, tostada shells, guacamole, flan, and strawberry pina colada pie. It was QUITE the feast!! We had so much fun eating it. I'll post the recipes another time. I just wanted everyone to know that I was still alive!!! I'm off to bed now.

Randy's Alaska Pictures

2008-04-11T22:36:00.001-05:00

I know some of you have seen these, but not everyone. Here are some pictures Randy took (or had taken) while he was on his Alaska sortie this week. Not only is he getting a tropical vacation, but an arctic one as well!!

I guess these are some mountains somewhere in Alaska-- there is a beautiful B-52 wing. That's his view out his window when he's flying.

And here's Randy flying; you get to see his whole "get up" of his mask, helmet, etc.

The weekend is here. . .

2008-04-11T22:01:00.000-05:00

I think the weekends are the hardest time for me while Randy has been gone. When he's home, I look forward to it for family time. Now, it just feels like one more day without a break. I'm even more tired than usual tonight. We're in a babysitting co-op and tonight was my night to watch kids. Actually, it was a make-up night because I traded with someone so that I could skip my turn while I was in South Carolina. I have co-op again in two weeks. . . really no break!! That's alright. It's part of life! I just need to prepare my lesson for Sunday. I'm teaching in Young Women's. Something I absolutely LOVE doing. I was supposed to teach two weeks ago since it was fast Sunday then, but I goofed and forgot to coordinate with the advisers who usually teach to tell them I was doing it the Sunday AFTER conference (I was just getting back from SC two weeks ago and wasn't prepared to teach a lesson). I'm such a flake sometimes! Who's idea was it to make me the young women's president?!?! Not mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the ideas on the standard's night. We had a presidency meeting about it today. We have a BRAND new Bishop (sustained two weeks ago, so we haven't had a real Sunday with him yet). Poor man. . . I was in his office at his work the day after he was sustained (he's a professor at a university here). Our ward has been treading water for two months-- our bishop was called into the stake presidency in the beginning of February, and we just got our new one sustained two weeks ago. It was really rough on us. . . so, poor needy me was the first in line to talk to the executive secretary. Fortunately, our new bishop has a very strong interest in our YW program (his daughter is a beehive, whereas our last bishop didn't have any daughters in our program), so he is very willing to help fill any gaps we have. I don't want our standards night to be dull or boring, but I don't want to go overboard either. The bishop is very specific that he wants strict guidelines for what is appropriate to be discussed with the girls. So, we'll see how it goes! We're going to try to put it together in three weeks, because May is packed! Mother's day, high school graduations, Memorial Day. . . That will be a little sad of a holiday for me. Randy and I met the day after Memorial Day six years ago! Go figure that we're about to have our sixth wedding anniversary. Wow, that went quick!

Tonight, I made BBQ chicken pizza for dinner. It's a favorite in our family! The pizza crust recipe that I use is Angela's, I've just changed it a little bit:

2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons yeast
2 tablespoons honey
1/8 cup evaporated cane juice (organic sugar)
2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup ground golden flax seeds
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups white flour
3-5 cups whole wheat flour (I really am not sure how much it is, I just put the dough hook on my mixer after I add the white flour, then put in whole wheat flour until the dough is a nice soft ball, pulling away from the edges of the bowl)

I let this knead for about 5 minutes, then split it into three pieces. If I'm using my baking stone, I will quite often bake the crusts individually for about 10 minutes each, then pull them out and put them on a cooling rack. That way, I put on the toppings when I'm ready to make the pizzas and it only takes about 10 minutes per pizza in the oven to finish baking and cook all the toppings on. I bake it at 350 degrees. If you roll the crust out and want to bake it all at once, spray the pan you're using, then sprinkle corn meal over it; put the dough on whatever you're using to bake it (cookie sheet, pizza sheet, baking stone), then let it rise for about 5 minutes before putting the toppings on. You can use this crust for any kind of pizza. I usually to a cheese, olive, pineapple and sometimes pepperoni one for my kids, then make a BBQ chicken one and alfredo chicken one for the adults. Needless to say, I haven't been eating any alfredo sauce since Randy's been gone since I've been trying to lose weight!

To make the BBQ chicken pizza, I try to keep BBQ chicken in the freezer. I will find quite often that I buy chicken breasts, then they will just sit in the fridge for a few days without me using them (my lovely phobia of meat, I'd rather not have to handle it. I wish it would just cook itself! I've taken a lot of microbiology and I know what grows on it!!!), so I'll trim them and throw them in the crockpot. I will often trim the chicken and throw them in with about half a bottle of BBQ sauce and some water, then cook on low for about 8 hours (be careful, the BBQ sauce has so much sugar it can burn easily and it smells really bad if it does!). Then I just shred it and put it in labeled freezer bags. You can also grill the chicken, basting with BBQ sauce while it's cooking. So, here's how I make it:

BBQ sauce all over pizza crust (my FAVORITE kind of BBQ sauce is Jack Daniel's. Randy doesn't like me using it because he says it's supporting a liquor company. If you live somewhere where you can buy Famous Dave's BBQ sauce, I highly recommend that, too)
Mozzarella and provolone shredded cheese mix (about a cup)
About 1 1/2 cups shredded BBQ chicken breasts
Thinly sliced red onions (just a few to give some flavor)
Finely chopped canned pineapple (the tidbits are already the perfect size, they just don't sell those at Sam's, so I chop up the chunks)
A sprinkle of bacon bits (I buy the precooked ones at Sam's; they have the nitrates in them, so they're really bad for you. . . but I only use a tiny bit. If I'm really on top of it, I'll have some uncured bacon cooked in the fridge and I'll cut that up with scissors over the pizza)
Bake at 350 until the crust is well browned and the cheese is all melted (about 20-30 min. if crust is not prebaked, about 10-15 if it is).
Once it's out of the oven, I like to snip some fresh cilantro over the top. It adds a really fun flavor twist!

Enjoy today's recipe! I love the responses I've gotten from people who have liked the recipes and my blog. On Sunday I'm making my crockpot nachos. I've had MANY requests for that recipe, so stay tuned for that, and I make it with my homemade refried beans. . . so I'll hopefully have the time to post that recipe, too!

What a crazy day

2008-04-10T21:23:00.001-05:00

My poor kids. . . I feel like there is RARELY a day that we get to stay at home, even for the majority of the day!! It seems like the only days we stay at home are when I'm watching someone else's kids, so even when we're home, it's not normal life! Today we went to someone's house so that I could help them dry pack can stuff, then we went to another friend's house for lunch and to play for a little while. We came home for REALLY late naps for the kids, and for me to clean the house a bit. Then as soon as they woke up, I rushed them to eat dinner, then we were out the door to Sam's Club and Enrichment at the church. We left that early to come home and have baths and go to bed. Where did the day go?! Needless to say, my children didn't get a fun dinner. Just leftovers.

I read in a magazine today that there are usually only two people who care about someone's blog: the blogger, and their mother. So, I figure, hey mom, if you like it, that's fun! Anyone else who likes it is just an added bonus! I guess in this case, I hope Randy likes it, too, since he's on the other side of the world!

A little update from him, he just did a 24+ hour mission from Guam to Alaska and back. It sounds like he had fun. I haven't really talked to him much since he finished it-- just basically enough to know that he's alive.

It is always nice to get away and have some adult interaction for a few minutes. Luke kept giving the poor people in the nursery at enrichment a hard time, so I'd have to go calm him down every little while. I did get about five minutes' peace here and there. That's a vast improvement over what I have been getting!!! I just hope Randy comes home in June, not December. I'm not sure if I can make it eight more months!! Two seems doable, but not eight!

Does anyone have any great ideas for a standard's night for youth? I'm putting one together right now, and could use any input available. I want to make a lasting impression on the kids. Quite a few of them need a good jolt!!!

Today's recipes

2008-04-09T15:40:00.000-05:00

Today for dinner we're having chicken noodle soup. I know, it's odd, when it's over 80 degrees outside. But, I was making bread, and thought that the two went hand in hand: fresh bread, yummy soup! So, here are the recipes for today's dinner:

Chicken Noodle Soup
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 of a chopped onion (yellow or sweet)
2-3 stalks chopped celery
1- 32 oz. box of chicken broth (I LOVE the organic free range chicken broth that Costco has-- it's cheap and it tastes SOO good! I have a huge supply of it, especially since I don't live anywhere near a Costco. You can buy the same broth in the store, it's just more than double the price of Costco's. I think the brand is Pacific Foods)
1 lb. chopped cooked chicken breast
3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2-3/4 cup carrot puree (steam carrots first, then puree in blender)
1/2-3/4 cup zucchini and yellow squash (steam zucchini and squash first, then puree in blender)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat egg noodles
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion and celery in butter on stove top just until tender, about 5 minutes. Add in broth, chicken, carrots, basil, oregano, and vegetable purees. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes before serving. In a separate pan, cook the egg noodles according to package directions. To serve, put cooked noodles in a bowl, then pour desired amount of soup over noodles. This works well for various reasons: some people like more noodles, less soup; storing the noodles aside from the soup keeps them from getting mushy when used as leftovers.

Tip for chicken: I like to cook the chicken in broth the night before. Then it's nice and tender and very flavorful. I trim the chicken of any fat before putting in the crockpot. Once it's cooked, I pull the pieces out and shred them, then I strain the broth (saving it) for any fat, then pour it into the soup. It sounds complicated, but it's very quick and makes the chicken SO good in the soup! If you don't think about doing this the night before, you can cook the chicken on high in just a few hours, or cook it on the stovetop in the broth just before making the soup. I always save the broth that I cook the chicken in, just make sure to pour it through a fine strainer to catch any of the fat that cooks off the chicken.

My bread recipe is a compilation of different recipes I've gotten from other people. I've had to tweak it just right for my climate. The only problem in me posting this recipe, is that I don't really know how much flour I use!! I just do it by watching the dough and the look of it!

Whole Wheat Bread

2 1/2 cups warm water (warm enough that it's warm to the touch, but not too hot that you couldn't hold your finger in it)
2 1/2 tablespoons yeast (I buy it at Sams because I go through so much yeast. I know this is a LOT of yeast, but I don't have very much patience for rising dough. You can use less, it just takes a lot longer to rise)
1/2 cup evaporated cane juice (organic sugar)
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons oil (I use organic safflower oil)
2 1/2 teaspoons salt (I use real salt sea salt, and just slightly less than a tablespoon)
1/3 cup ground golden flax seeds (I grind them in a coffee grinder-- don't try to grind in a wheat grinder, they will ruin it because of their natural oils!)
1/2 cup vital gluten flour (I buy this in bulk at Whole Foods)

4 cups of white wheat ground in my nutrimill wheat grinder (however much flour this makes is the exact amount I use for this recipe, but it will differ slightly by climate; I grind the flour on the very finest setting)

I mix all of this in my kitchen aid with the paddle attachment on until it is well blended. Then I add about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour and let it mix for about 2-3 minutes, until it is well blended. I then switch to my dough hook, and add 1/2 cup of flour at a time, making sure each time it is well incorporated before I add more. If you add the flour too quickly, your dough will be really stiff and lose it's elasticity. I usually am doing other things while I'm making bread, so I'll add a half a cup, go do something, come back add more, so by the time I'm finished, the dough has been kneading for a while. Once the dough starts forming a nice ball, pulling away from the sides of the bowl, I let it knead about another 5-7 minutes. The dough should still feel sticky to the touch, while still pulling away from the sides of the bowl. I spray a large plastic bowl with cooking spray, then flop the dough into it (it will still feel pretty sticky). I spray a piece of saran wrap with cooking spray and put it loosely on top of the dough. I let the dough rise about 30-45 minutes, until it's a little more than doubled in size.

Then I melt butter in a bowl and shape the dough, dipping in the melted butter before I put it in whatever pan I'm using. This dough works well for rolls, loaves, hamburger buns, etc. This recipe makes two LARGE loaves of bread (Randy likes the loaves big because he makes a sandwich on the bread everyday for lunch). The loaf pans I use are about 9x5 (I'm just guessing on size). Make sure to spray whatever pan you're using first, before putting in the rolls, loaves, etc. I let the shaped dough rise about another 30-45 minutes, then bake at 350 until it's done (the cooking time will vary- loaves about 30-40 minutes--I think, I usually just keep an eye on them after about 20 minutes, the rolls only take about 15-20; once again, I just watch them really closely).

Take out of the oven, then immediately turn onto a cooling rack-- if you don't do this immediately, the dough will sweat, then it will get dried out on the bottom. Use a pastry brush, and brush the left over melted butter. Then cover the bread with a clean towel until it's cooled.

If anyone has any questions, you can call me! I've taught lots of people how to make bread!!

By the way, does anyone know what to do with a three-year-old who puts herself down for a nap at about 4:30pm every day?!?! I won't hear Kate for a while, then I'll go looking for her, and find her asleep in bed late in the afternoon. I don't know what to do!! She usually won't take a nap during Luke's nap time, but then at about dinner time, she's tired, so she'll go lay herself down!!!!!! ACK!!!!!

Recipe for the day

2008-04-08T20:51:00.000-05:00

For dinner tonight, my kids just got grilled cheese sandwiches on homemade bread. Nothing fancy since I had to have them fed and in pajamas before I left for mutual. So, for today's recipe, I've had lots of people ask me what I eat for breakfast. Here is my breakfast shake recipe (it's what my kids eat for breakfast as well. They LOVE it!!)

1/2 cup Stonyfield Farms organic fat free French vanilla yogurt (any yogurt will work, but I especially prefer organic and fat free-- I'm not into the "light" thing, but I think as little animal fat as possible is the best-- meats, dairy, etc.)
1/3 of a golden sweet pineapple (Sam's club and Costco have the best ones, and yes, one third of the ENTIRE pineapple-- it gives it great flavor!)
2 cups organic spinach
15-20 frozen whole strawberries
1 cup triple berry blend (I've started making my own to use organic: blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries)
1 oz. super greens powder
1000 mg of vitamin c powder (you can use emergency; I've been using vitality c)

Blend the yogurt, spinach, and pineapple until completely blended. Then add the frozen berries, super greens, and vitamin c. Drink through a straw, or else this will stain your teeth VERY quickly-- especially if you eat it every day!

Day three

2008-04-08T11:47:00.000-05:00

Happy spring to everyone! Here are some pictures for today:

Some of you have seen this picture, but for those who haven't, this is Randy flying with his NVG's on (night vision goggles). Kate always begs to look at the picture of Dad wearing his funny glasses.

Luke was mad because he wanted the camera. This is the only picture I got of him on Easter. He was still puking. . . not a fun day. He screamed the entire time during sacrament meeting. Thankfully Jason came and relieved me and took him outside for a while. Thanks again Jason, that was a lifesaver!

Luke really is a pleasant little guy. I just hope he returns to feeling like himself. I really like it when he's nice. . . lately, I'm not sure where my sweet boy went. Instead, he's been replaced by a little grouch. I should buy him a trash can to live in. . .

So, at least I'm not writing today when I'm supposed to be on my way to bed! This is a vast improvement! For the first time in a long time, both kids are taking naps. Ahhhh. . . now, the question is, do I take a nap, or get stuff done? I have mutual tonight, so I need to finish preparing for that. As the YW president, I've been thinking a lot about Elder Ballard's talk in conference. I'm trying to decide if his counsel was meant for me, especially in talking to the ward council to make sure there are not too many responsibilities placed on young mothers. . . . I'm on the ward council! How do I make sure that there aren't too many things piled up on me? I'm trying to decide if I'm supposed to stay in this calling just to keep me insanely busy while Randy is gone? I just HATE leaving my kids every week, right at bedtime to go to mutual; especially at a different person's house almost every week. I don't want to ask the same person to watch them EVERY week, I feel like that is too much. . . but then it's inconsistent for my kids to be bounced around everywhere. Anyone have any ideas? I'd love some!!!

I was up at 6:00am this morning to run before I had to get myself out the door to a doctor's appointment at 8:15 (with dropping the kids off at a friend's house first). I think I'm going to go take a nap. Today is my arm workout day, but that may have to wait for tonight. I'm soo tired. I need to accomplish my goal of getting into bed by 10:00 every night while Randy is gone. So far, I think I've done that once!!! If I could just get all of the projects done that I have planned for my house, then hopefully I'd be better at getting in bed on time. But it's my only time to myself!!!!!!! One day, maybe my husband will be around again. Until then, single mom it is! I'm just glad I get to stay at home with my kids (that is, as long as I don't have mutual, presidency meetings, ward council, BYD, BYC. . . what a list!).

Day two

2008-04-07T22:25:00.000-05:00

Here it is, day two on my blog, and I've written in it. I'm so proud of myself.

Randy was giving me a hard time that I hadn't put very many pictures up yet. I know that most of you have seen these pictures, but for those who haven't, this is my life! My kids and getting settled into my "new" almost 80-year-old house. Kate and Luke are getting so big. I told Kate today that she was Miss Independent and she walked around all day calling herself that.

The weather here was SO nice today!! It was in the low 80's most of the day. I had all my French doors open (fortunately they're all screened in), and loved smelling the freshly mowed lawns and hearing the birds! I know this nice weather isn't going to last for long, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

Kate LOVES pushing Luke on our swing set. She acts like his little mother. I tell her all the time that she's not the mom, that I am. She always tells me back that she's the big sister AND the mom. . . that would be interesting.

Our fun historical house, built in the 1930's.

Here's our house! We love it so much! I don't know how I'll ever move to anything smaller!

I thought I would start something, we'll see if I can keep up with it. . . but I ALWAYS have people asking me for dinner ideas. I LOVE cooking, and try to do it as healthily as I can. So, I'm going to try to post what I make for dinner each night (it may not be too exciting, especially with Randy gone, but I still try to fix a few good meals each week, then we eat the leftovers the other nights).

Tonight, I made WONDERFUL meatballs. I am NOT a meatball fan. Having been a vegetarian the majority of my life, I've had to get used to eating meat (Randy was dead set on breaking me of that when we got married). I invented these meatballs, and they were SO good! When I cook, I just add a little of this and a little of that, so these amounts are NOT exact. I served it with homemade whole wheat rolls, and Greek spinach salad (Kate was even eating one, although hers didn't have as many veggies as mine, I loved seeing her eat spinach, feta, and cucumbers. I hope she'll be a well-rounded eater!).

1lb. ground chicken
3/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (I take my homemade bread and put it in my food processor when it's getting a few days old. I store the breadcrumbs in the freezer, and presto! Healthy breadcrumbs; far better than the ones from the store with hydrogenated oils and MSG)
1 egg
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 can Italian stewed tomatoes pureed (I just pureed the whole can, then saved the rest to add to a marinara sauce another time)
1 tsp. of Uncle Dan's ranch salad dressing/dip mix (it's from Costco and it's AWESOME! There is no garbage in it! It's MSG and dairy free!)
2 tsp. Italian seasoning

I mixed this all up, shaped the meatballs, then baked them on a foil lined baking sheet (I sprayed the foil with cooking spray first), then baked at 350 for about 30 minutes. They were SOOO good!!! I served them with marinara sauce that was leftover from the lasagna I made for Sunday dinner (which was really good! I'll put the sauce recipe below). My kids just GOBBLED these up!! They dipped them in the sauce, I just put a few in a bowl for myself topped with sauce and ate them that way.

Marinara Sauce
1 lb. Johnsonville bulk mild Italian sausage browned (out of all of the bulk sausages, this was the healthiest. There wasn't a bunch of artificial garbage in it. No MSG!)
2 cans Del Monte Five cheese spaghetti sauce (yes, I cheat, but I REALLY like this sauce!)
1 can pureed Italian stewed tomatoes
3 cloves garlic (minced, grated, or pressed)
3/4 cup pureed *lightly* steamed organic baby spinach
3/4 cup pureed steamed carrots
3/4 cup pureed steamed zucchini and summer squash mix
3 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. fennel seed

Brown the sausage, add all of the other ingredients and simmer for at least 45 minutes. This sauce is SO good!! It has a hearty, yet fresh flavor with all of the vegetables. No one ever knows they're in there, so it's great for picky eaters that you want to get more veggies into!! I use this for my lasagna, made with whole wheat noodles! My friend's kids always eat SO much of this, and they are some of the pickiest eaters I know!!!

2008-04-06T23:12:00.000-05:00

We had a great time going to South Carolina to visit the Nickerl family.

Kate and Anna had BEAUTIFUL matching Easter dresses.

Aunt Angela hosted a fun Easter egg hunt for the kids.

Luke wasn't as into collecting the eggs, as he was running around with just one egg.

Kate and Luke LOVED the beach!

We are so glad that we live driving distance to Angela and Jason. We had such a great time visiting with them. My kids miss the entertainment of their kids!!

We're finally in the 21st Century

2008-04-06T23:01:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!

After MANY comments from people that I needed to make a blog (and you know who you are), I finally have! Part of my aversion to one is the name (who came up with it, anyways?!). With Randy on the other side of the world, and me holding down the fort here in Louisiana, I thought it might be a nice way for everyone to see what's going on with us. We'll see how well I can keep it up!

The kids and I loved watching General Conference today. Kate is really into "testimonies". Anytime anyone said something about a testimony, she would say, "Mom, you have a testimony, and *I* have a testimony". She's learning what a testimony really is, but I feel blessed that she is so eager to be a part of the gospel, even just based on the good feeling that her little three-year-old heart gets.

Randy is ever enjoying his tropical vacation (he hates it when I say that, so I'm sure I'll hear about that one). I'll see if I can get him to post his flying and beach pictures on here. We're still keeping our fingers crossed that he will be able to come home in June; there is still a chance he won't be home until December.

Luke has accomplished catching every flu virus he's been exposed to. Hopefully I can keep him home for a few days, and we won't have any more fevers or vomit! The lovely life of a mother!

I am just continuing to run and run. Even though I'm staying in the same place (my treadmill), it is still fulfilling, and feels like I can run away for a while.

I hope everyone enjoys this. I'll try to get pictures up as soon as possible.