Family Visitors!

Earlier this month we had the GREAT privilege of having my cousin, his wife and two girls come visit the Oregon family members.  I hadn't seen my cousin Nathan in about ten years, since Michael and I hooked up with him at his hotel with my aunt  and uncle the day before he went into the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo.  Nathan is the son of my Uncle David who, as you can read about in my CA trip post, I love very much.  Goes for the whole family.  I was really excited to meet his little family of girls, too.  Their visit didn't disappoint.  I think they got a big overdose of family activity and not a lot of rest, but we sure enjoyed having them in Oregon.  Here are just a few highlights with a lot of pictures...

Day Two...trip to downtown Portland.  It was a hot day but we had fun.  Their girls are so cute and photogenic.

The kids eating lunch in the park.

          After Nathan got out of  the fountains, he showed us that diapers serve many purposes.

Day Four...the women and the kids took a trip to the berry farm while my brother and Nathan spent some time together catching up and enjoying each other's company.  Here the kids are checking out the chickens.  The picture on the right is of Nathan's daughter, Lucy, showing me what she thought of the chickens.

Lucy really loved Maren and Maren loved her right back.  Maren rarely lets kids hold her hand, but she and Lucy made great buddies.  It was so fun to see!

 

The kids LOVED picking the berries.  Well, I should say that they LOVED eating the berries, really.  I tried telling Evan he shouldn't eat so many and he said, "Mom, I just can't stop myself!"  Maren would've said the same thing if she could've.  She was chowing them down.  I ended up giving the berry farm about $5 extra to cover all the berries our six kids ate.

 

And here's what a little berry picking will do...make for very sleepy kids.  By the way, never give up your water bottle to Maren.  She will not let it go!!

Last day...so sad.  We met at a park to play and talk.  Here are four of my favorite guys...from left:  my brother-in-law, Matt, my cousin, Nathan, my brother, Brandon, and my dad.  Fun group of men.

Lucy on the left and my cousin, Nicole on the right.  Nicole had gotten baptized the day before.  I have some pictures of that day, but none that are any good, sadly.  Nicole holds a special place in my heart.  She was due a week after Dallin's due date.  Well, my Aunt Sherryl went into labor with her on Dallin's due date.  They went to the hospital, it was confirmed she was in active labor, and they told my Aunt Sherryl to walk around for a while to help things progress.  She refused.  She said she was absolutely not having her baby on that day because of what had happened to us.  She laid in bed and didn't move.  Labor slowed down and Nicole was born in the early hours the next day.  I look at her and can't believe that's how big Dallin would be (well, maybe not quite so tall, but still...). 

 

Wonderful women...my grandma, Nathan's amazing and beautiful wife, Anna, and my sister, Danica.

We tried to get a picture of all of the kids together (this would be my four youngest cousins and then my kids, Danica's kids and Nathan's kids).  The first picture is my favorite mess up.  I love how Devin, the oldest in the picture, has his hand over his eyes.  Ha!  The second one is the best I could find on my camera.  I don't know how anyone gets a decent picture with more than, uh, ONE child in it.

Me with Anna and Nathan and then me with Lucy.  I really miss all of them and wish they were closer.  It's so wonderful to see family.  Nathan is as wonderful as he's always been...and just as handsome, too.  He's a police officer in Phoenix and had lots of fun stories to share.  He's also an amazing pianist.  Anna is wonderfully loving, always prepared with snacks, fun, beautiful, and talented.  She and Nathan played a gorgeous rendition of "We'll Bring the World His Truth" at the baptism, with him on the piano and her on the cello.  I loved it!  Evan had wonderful things to say about both of them after they left...even going as far as to name his "pet" caterpillar Nathan.  I wish I had more pictures of their younger daughter, Mary.  She must've been hiding out somewhere every time I whipped the camera out.  Anyway, thanks, guys, for coming and bringing lots of smiles to your Oregon family!  We love you!

These Sweet Kids!

I've been dying to do a post about the kids the past month or more.  There is so much fun stuff going on in their lives and every day that passes, I'm afraid I will miss something, forget to mention it, and it will be forgotten forever.  Time has been my enemy, however...along with all the other things I need to get done on a daily basis.  Today I decided that I don't care what falls through the cracks, I'm getting this post done. 

First, about the kids together...I just love the stage they're at.  They really, really love each other and they show it all the time with spontaneous hugs and lots of kisses.  Is there anything better for a mother to witness?  I'm not sure!  The kids enjoy spending time together, playing, taking baths, or just cuddling up for a picture.  I love it!

Okay, now I'll do Evan.  He has been growing up so much the last few months.  He has quite the imagination.  He loves to play pretend about monsters, aliens and superheros the most.  He is newly intrigued by Star Wars because Michael showed him all of about 5 minutes of Yoda on YouTube.  Now he can pretty much tell you the whole Star Wars story and people assume he's seen the actual movies.  Silly guy.  Here are Michael and Evan playing "Inspector Clueso (sp?)".  I don't know how this got started, but one day they were on the hunt for the stolen gem.  Michael had put on this marker mustache.  Well, in the middle of the hunt, Evan disappeared for a few minutes.  I heard something going on in the bathroom and just as I was about to get up and check on him, he came out of the bathroom...with his own mustache.  I just loved it!  What a cutie.

 

I also love how he is getting to have new experiences lately.  Last term I signed him up for a tumbling class and a swimming class.  He was pretty much terrified of both but he came such a long way.  His teachers for both classes were wonderful and helped him along.  By the end of his tumbling class, he was doing headstands all over the house, working on his backwards rolls and he wasn't throwing near the fit that he had at the beginning (he's still in swimming and still says he doesn't want to go each time.  But once his feet touch the water, he's got a big smile on his face and has a great time.)  Tumbling was a lot more terrifying for him than swimming and I would have to talk him through his anxieties all the way there. 

One day I thought we just weren't going to be able to go.  In fact, I was telling him that if he absolutely hated it this time, I wouldn't make him go anymore.  He was just beside himself with fear.  I finally wizened up and suggested that we say a prayer to ask Heavenly Father to help him have fun.  I went ahead and said it at a stop light.  A few seconds after I was done, he said, "I'm still scared, Mom."  I assured him that it would go away and he would have fun because we asked for Heavenly Father's help.  In a matter of about two minutes, he was telling me, excitedly, about what he was going to work on in class that day.  And he ended up having the best time ever in class.  What a great lesson that was for him...that Heavenly Father does hear and answer our prayers.  A week later, on a swimming day, we were just about to eat lunch and I was telling him that swimming was that evening.  He asked if he could say the prayer for lunch and he proceeded to ask Heavenly Father to help him not be afraid of his swimming class that day.  I was so proud of him to be able to apply what he learned earlier to a current situation.  So, lots of character building activities lately.

The last thing I want to say about Evan is that he's just plain sweetness.  He says the most wonderfully loving things I've ever heard.  His prayers are incredible and are so humbling to listen to.  Sometimes he's asking that the Holy Ghost can "be around us".  Or thanking Heaven for Jesus.  All your normal things, just worded so eloquently and sweetly.  They are heartfelt and sincere.  We love you, Evan!

(with his cousin, Jaren, hugging "Grammy")

(really getting into his guitar jam session with Uncle Matt) 

Now for the Maren girl.  So much changes when you're only a year and a half old (officially, a week from today!).  The biggest, coolest thing about Maren is her talking.  I was counting all the words she says the other day and I stopped at 50 because I didn't want to count anymore.  All kids have their strengths, and talking is definitely hers.  Which makes it so fun around here.  My current favorites (subject to change at any time, of course!), are "all wiiii" (all right).  What's funny about her saying this is when she says it.  She'll climb up on the table and I want her to get down so she says "all wiiii".  Or she'll be yelling or screaming about something, usually happily, but she's being too loud so I'll tell her she doesn't have to scream.  So she says "all wiiii".  Ha!  The second one is "all wet".  I didn't even know she could say the word wet and we were at my mom's house about 2 weeks ago.  She and Evan were running through the sprinklers and, after a few times through, she came up to me and said, "all wet" just clear as can be.  Yep!  And she's been "all wet" quite a few times since then and just loves it.  My third favorite is "look, Mom!"  She uses "look, Mom!" to let me know she put her shoes on funny or to point out the dog in the park or so I watch her make a mess of her milk on the table.  So much to look at around here.  So, to say that the rest of us are in love with her talking would be an understatement.  She's just so cute!

Maren's current loves are:  me, Michael, Evan, Anton, babies, hats, swings, food, dogs, cats, baths, and copying anything that Evan does.  She has spent the last two Sundays in Nursery since both Michael and I have to teach and it's impossible with her.  She seems to really like it and is doing well.  Maren is really funny and is chalk full of personality.  She gives the most wonderful kisses (still...I think I've mentioned this in previous posts) and loves to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, The Wheels on the Bus, and I Love You, You Love Me.  We love her big blue eyes and the love she brings into our family.

(We were all outside one day after church and she just hopped on Evan's scooter and was trying to get the helmet ("hat") on.  That's one happy girl!)

Bring the Kids!

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

After seeing Jen's blog rating (ha! You must check it out!), I decided I'd see how I was faring. I was surprised and thrilled to be keeping it safe for the kids (heehee) with only one reference to the word "drugs". Considering how sick I was a while back and all the "drugs" I was taking, I'm pretty shocked. Anyway, that was fun. Back to work.

A Real Vacation!

So, finally I'm getting to blogging about my first vacation since having kids! At the end of May/beginning of June I went to California, thanks to my bless-ed friend, Lisa! I don't want to embarrass her or test her humility, but I must say that I would've never made it to California in the first place, gotten to eat a thing, enjoy anything I did, or fly back home without her funding it. I'm still working on her thank you card...this is not something you can just whip up on the fly for such a spectacular five days. Anyway, here's some of our fun.

Oh, first let me say that Michael started his job on Wednesday, 5/28 and I left on Thursday, 5/29. THANK YOU, MIKEY! He was amazing to start a new job and take care of the kids while I was gone. And thank you, too, to Danica, Rachel and Chris who took our kids during the day. I didn't worry about them for a second and I just focused on having fun! Yea!

So, our first day we went out to Santa Monica. The one and only reason for that trip was for me to get a haircut. Actually, needing to get a haircut is what starting this whole trip to California thing in the first place. I found out about this lady, Ouidad, who is the so-called expert on curly hair. She has a salon in New York where she charges $250 for a haircut. She developed a technique for cutting curly hair that you have to be certified in by spending two weeks with her (I think I'm getting these details right!). She has written books and has many high-profile clients. Anyway, there are only about 20 stylists in the whole United States who do her "carve & slice" technique, and one of them happens to be in Santa Monica. I made an appointment about a month before my trip and it was hard to get in even then. The lady who cut my hair was not too warm and fuzzy and probably used to pretty rich clients. The technique was super interesting...I had never seen hair cut that way before. I tried to memorize everything about it so I could show my sister (who cuts my hair, though she's not licensed), but it was very complex and I botched up my presentation to her. Anyway, when she was done with me, I couldn't stop staring at myself. My hair looked amazing! I was pretty sure when I walked out of there that I was going to be followed by paparazzi (only half kidding here, people!) and have people wanting to take my picture. I stared at myself in every store window we passed. Ha! It was worth the *#&)*@ amount of money I paid for a haircut. For those of you wondering why someone so very poor would pay *#^)* for a haircut, remember that this is pretty much the only thing I paid for the whole time and I decided that was something I wanted to do for myself with a little bit of tax refund money. Relax! :-)

The rest of the day we spent shopping The Third Street Promenade just down the street. We at yummy food (of course!) at PF Chang's and took a quick trip to the beach.

Just consider this my "before" picture. No, not before the haircut. Before the weight loss! :-)

For those who don't know, Lisa is my longest-running friend. :-) She moved around the corner from me just before 2nd grade started and we have been friends ever since. She moved from New York so she said a lot of words funny. I still tease her to this day. She is always, always laughing. Seriously. However, when we were teenagers, at the height of our hormone crisis, we would order pizza in the wee hours of the night, play sappy love songs on the tape player and cry over the boys we just loved so much and didn't get love back from. Ha!

On day number two, we started the day off just right...with a massage! With all the massages I've had (many of these thanks to Lisa, again!), I've never had one with a heated massage table. Now, that was nice and cozy! Afterwards, we drove to the Redlands temple, which was beautiful. I really enjoyed walking around it and taking in all the gorgeous flowers and Palm Trees! Yes, the palm trees. The only things I really miss about California are my family members who are still there, my friend Lisa, and the palm trees. As gorgeous and green as Oregon is, we will never have palm trees here and that is just a sad state of affairs. Some lovely pictures for you...

After the temple, we went to visit with my Uncle David, who lives in Yucaipa. What a wonderful time we had with this handsome guy! He is one of the most amazing men I know. He is loving and tender and I was brought to tears a few times while I was with him. One of the reasons was just because I love him so much and I miss seeing him more often. They used to live two houses down from Lisa and right around the corner from us growing up. It was great being so close then. Anyway, we talked for a long time, cried a bit, and then he took us out for lunch and frozen yogurt. Yum! After that, we stopped at his chiropractic office and he gave me an adjustment. Aaahhh... I was reminded about how important regular chiropractic adjustments are and have vowed to get the whole family in to the chiropractor more often. Thank you, my handsome, wonderful Uncle David, for the wonderful visit we had with you! I love you!

After a yummy dinner with Lisa's parents at their house, we set out for our hotel across the street from Disneyland. No, I could not go to California without going to The Happiest Place on Earth. It always was when I was growing up, and it still is. Though DisneyWorld also fits in that category. :-) We got to spend two days there, though it wasn't enough. One more day and I could've done all that I wanted to...although my feet would've never held out that long. As it was, I was limping through the airport the day I left. Ha! I loved getting to finally see California Adventure, which was under construction the last time I was there. I loved the California Screamin' roller coaster! We got to go on all of our favorites plenty of times, so that was nice. And we got to see Fantasmic!, which I just love. Here are a few pics from Disneyland.

Every time we're at Disneyland together, either I get a picture of her in her Autopia car or she gets a picture of me. Here I am.



Our first day of junior high (back in the day before they started making them "middle schools"!), we wore the same outfit that we had gotten from Miller's Outpost. A striped shirt with a zipper (red and white for me, blue and white for her) with coordinating shorts. We end up getting the same things a lot of times when we're together. Here we are in our twinner visors, courtesy of Lisa, of course!

Just a beautiful sight!

With our bug eyes after the 3D It's Tough To Be a Bug! show. Love that one. The bees stinging you in the back get me every time!

Gotta love Minnie! She's always so stylin'. It was a great trip. Great to relax after a year of lots and lots and lots of work, almost no breaks, and mothering, mothering, mothering. I got home and the kids were great. We all appreciated each other much more...for the first two days at least!

Girl's Camp!

Let me start of by saying that our Internet was down for TEN days! Luckily, I was gone for a lot of those days to Girl's Camp. But it's been a heck of a time getting caught up on work, emails, and checking everyone's blogs! :-) So, time for quite a few updates of my own. I'm going to start from most recent and work my way backwards.

Last week was Girl's Camp. This was a completely new experience for me. I had never, ever been to Girl's Camp. I do believe that every year when I was in Young Women, Girl's Camp fell on the same week that I was at BYU Ballet Camp. Even though I was working in YW last year, I couldn't go to camp because Maren was nursing. I really wanted to go this year so I could bond with the girls in my ward on a different level, outside of church and our normal activities. I wanted them to see that I was fun, interesting, and we could enjoy time together (though I'm not completely sure that that came across. Ha!)

Also of note is that I'm a lousy camper. I don't really enjoy it. I'd much prefer a fancy hotel. Happily, camp had cabins and we ate in the lodge and there were flushing toilets and showers. And I didn't even see one mouse, which I was delighted about since I was informed by the youth leaders in my cabin that it would be my job to "take care" of the mice. Eek! So, I don't know if you can count it because of all of the luxuries, but if you count this as a true "camping" experience, my five days at Girl's Camp would be, by far, the longest I have ever camped. Wow!

All things considered, I had a really great time at camp. The girls were a lot of fun and there was a lot less drama than I had anticipated with 160 girls! There was so much energy, so many silly songs, hooting and hollering, love notes being delivered to one another. I enjoyed meeting other women from the stake. We made a human pyramid, did fun crafts, had a StarWar (Starburst throwing "fight"), made up crazy flag calls, and enjoyed some good cries together. I felt the Spirit strongly quite a few times, including the night when the prophets of old came to visit and share their stories, when the Stake President, President Dalton (one of the most amazing men ever!) came and spoke, when we met with our individual bishops and they spoke to us, and when we were given Destiny lessons by the Stake YW Presidency. I saw deer, a baby raccoon and a baby rabbit. I only got three mosquito bites (truly miraculous) and not quite sunburned.

The only bad thing about camp was that my allergies were terrible! I had pink eye (or allergies or something) the entire time and I couldn't breathe very well (part of the reason why I don't enjoy camping...Mother Nature and I just don't get along so well!). That led to snoring which led to anxiety over keeping everyone in my cabin up, which led to me moving out. But it was fine. I would check on my cabin and make sure everyone was asleep and then go sleep in the lodge where there was heat and toilets just a couple of steps away. And I didn't worry about waking anyone up. I think those are all the highlights (a lot for you to read, if you weren't interested in the first place!). Here are some photos of the wonderful week (for anonymity sake, I will refrain from using names:

Me and an awesome woman from the ward. It was great spending time with her. She is one of the most smiley, laughing, wonderful people I know. Great fun!

The theme was "The Will to Win" and we used the Olympics to go with that. Each cabin was a country. The girl on the left is in my ward, our wonderful Beehive President. She's so awesome. She was in the Japan cabin. All the girls were so cute dressed up like people from their country.

This is some of our girls playing Red Rover. My niece is the third from the left. It was fun getting to spend some good time with her at camp.

Girls hanging from the monkey bridge. That thing was crazy. I tried it for all of about 20 seconds before it bested me and threw me off. It was fun while it lasted.

The YCLs (youth camp leaders) assigned to my cabin. They were so awesome. Every time I went to them with a potential issue, they cleared it up right away. They loved the girls and the girls loved them. Who needs an adult there when you have such amazing YCLs?!?! Just kidding!

I know this picture is not great, but it was such an awesome moment. After President Dalton had ended his talk, he said he felt prompted to do something he had never done before and he didn't know how it would go. He said he was just supposed to say two words. He then yelled, "GROUP HUG!" All the girls completely swarmed around him. I jumped up to do the same but then realized I was the only leader who was about to run up there so I pretended I was just jumping up to take a picture. Ha! It probably lasted a good five minutes because all the girls wanted their chance to hug him one-on-one. Can't blame them. That man is amazing, does amazing things for our Stake, and loves the youth so fiercely that nothing was going to hold them back. If you look closely, you may be able to see his head sticking out. I was standing on a bench...on my tippy toes...holding the camera over my head to get this good of a shot.

Last but not least, a huge THANK YOU to Danica, Chris, Rachel and Shanon for taking care of my kids during the week. And thank you to Michael for taking care of the kids in the evenings and getting them to where they needed to be in the mornings. It was his first week of work in his real office (done with training and working in Hillsboro now) so he definitely had a lot going on. Then Saturday morning he had his national certification, 300 question, 4 hour test. And I wasn't even there. He took on a lot for me to be able to go to camp and I'm so grateful. How could I successfully raise these kids without my "tribe"? I just don't have a clue. Hopefully Michael will forget about all the hard parts of the week by next year and I'll be able to do this Girl's Camp thing again. That is if we don't have to cook with Dutch ovens again. That was terrible!