The Gardiner Gang

Happy Birthday Callie!

2010-06-30T10:41:00.011-07:00

"Callie what do you want for your birthday?" "BALLOONS!!!" So she woke up to lots of balloons the morning of her birthday! She was so happy!!

I got her a super cute zebra/pink pettiskirt and made her a couple of matching tops so I had to make her an over-the-top bow to match! I had never made this type of bow but found them online for $16.95 for ONE, so I decided to give 'em a whirl! I also found a little boutique that had a bottlecap with the zebra and a pink "C" so I had to make adjustments to attach it to one. I think they turned out pretty good. She got lots of compliments on them, so I think I'm gonna start selling this style too!

Here she is sporting her new bows---I did her hair and she hadn't seen her bows yet but said "Where's my birthday bow??!!" So I went and got them and her eyes lit up so big and got a huge smile and was so excited about them---made all the work sooo worth it!

We had a little swim party at Grandma Gum's house with her cousins....here's Kate, Chloe, and Jocee waiting for pizza!

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

I don't know why Joc is sticking her butt out like that but I just love the joy in Callie's face that I had to post it. She kept saying "It's my birthday! It's my birthday!" all day long! She really did have a great day.
The party guests....
Opening presents! A tea party set from Chloe!

Her brother, the Rockstar!

Grandma Ellen and Callie

Her new outfit!! I think she's so freakin' adorable in this outfit!! She just loved prancing around in it at home!

A few modeling pics...

Twirling her skirt!

She had a super great day!

The next morning she said "It's not my birthday anymore."

Baby News

2009-12-15T16:20:00.002-07:00

I am behind on my blogging, sorry. But the biggest news is that Jordan will be getting his little brother!!!! All the kids are very excited for their baby brother. I happen to be on Craigslist last week looking for some gifts for the kids and came across a really cheap wooden toddler bed and mattress so I had to get it! I wasn't planning on that expense till after Christmas but I knew I wouldn't find anything as cheap so I went ahead and splurged. Luckily the boys (ok, young men) down the street were kind enough to follow us to the lady's house with their truck and bring it home for Callie. She was SOOOO excited for her new bed! That night and every night since she has had no problems going to bed. She now points to the crib and says "Baby brother's bed!" I will probably be moving her to Jordan's room and moving Jordan to her room, but we're waiting till after the holidays to do that. That way she gets one change at a time. She loves to kiss my belly and say hi to her brother. I took her to Once Upon a Child today and she saw a baby swing and said "Baby brother swing!"
No, we don't have a name picked out yet. :)

6 More Days!

2009-12-01T11:57:00.002-07:00

Okay, so we're just a bit anxious to find out what the baby is! We are going to take Jordan to his first ultrasound because he's very excited to know whether he's getting a brother or not. Whatever it is, we will be happy for a healthy baby!

Trip to Orthopedic Doc

2009-11-10T17:43:00.003-07:00

I went to the Orthopedic dr on Monday to see what was wrong with my knee. I signed in and sat down. A few more people came in and the X-Ray tech came out and said "Chad." So this guy got up and went to get x-ray'd. I didn't think much of it--Chad is a pretty common name. So on the way out, I was standing at the counter making a follow up appt and the sign in sheet was right there and my mom said "Why did you sign in as Chad?" I was like "What? I didn't." So I looked down at the sign in sheet and sure enough, 3 people after me was "CHAD GARDINER!!!" The odds of actually meeting someone with the same name (spelled the same too) are pretty low and then for him to be at the same dr at the same time as me I thought was incredible. My dad said "He stole Chad's identity!"
Anyway, the dr said that since I'm preggers, he wasn't going to do an MRI (which my ob today said was ok to do), but he did different movements with my knee/leg and felt around and asked what hurt and he thinks either 1. Partially torn medial collateral ligament that would heal on its own in 4-6 weeks OR 2. tore my meniscus which would require surgery to repair but couldn't be done till after I have the baby---and how will I have a newborn and 4 kids, then go have surgery and be down for days?????? So I'm hoping that it is #1 and I will be healed and not need surgery (and not continue to have knee problems as my weight increases with each passing day!) So that's the update on that problem. (I won't give details about my horrid evening last night but am thankfully feeling better than I was thanks to some meds the dr gave me today.) What else is going to happen to me this pregnancy? Geez!

Weekends are Weekends!

2009-11-06T21:46:00.002-07:00

Last week Chad got a page from his "duty officer" (boss) that said "call me." So he called him and he was offered a new position as an O2 driver, delivering oxygen tanks to patients and picking them up. One of the perks is that he works Mon-Fri and gets Sat and Sun off!!! Woo hoo!!!! We are all so excited to have Daddy back on Saturdays! He has been doing it for a week and says it is so easy and is the same pay that he was already making. What a blessing!

Pain Woes

2009-10-29T19:08:00.003-07:00

It hasn't been a good last couple of weeks for me physically. It started with nausea for the last 6 weeks or so. Then daily headaches for the last 3 weeks. Then a Sinus infection last week--still can't breathe through my nose which is awful and makes for chapped lips and a sore throat.
Then Saturday morning I woke up to my knee hurting really bad. So bad that I was limping on it at first, then it started throbbing really bad and I had to sit down and put it up and ice it. Of course with 4 kids at home, I could only do that for so long. The icing I did do, seemed to help with the swelling and I was able to do what I needed to to get thru the day. Sunday was okay--still bothersome but not throbbing like before. Then it seemed ok for the next couple of days. Wednesday was Kate's birthday so we went to McD's for lunch and it wasn't bothering me too much. But after I laid down for about an hour, I got up and it was killing me again!! Luckily my mom and dad were here so I could elevate it and ice it while they tended the kids. It was swollen again and throbbed so bad and I could barely move it. My dad left to go ref and my mom left with my sister to go to Brad's concert at about 6pm so I was left to bathe the kids and put them to bed all the while hobbling along. The icing helped numb it so I was able to make it through putting them to bed. (I forgot to mention that also over the weekend I developed another not-so-pleasant infection--that I won't name--that I had to deal with too!) By the time they were all in bed, it was throbbing SO badly!!! I was on the couch with ice on it and could not move. Finally about 9pm, Chad, my sister, and my parents came home and were so worried about me because I seriously could not move it an inch without it killing. I took some Tylenol that seemed to help just slightly, not nearly enough to relieve the pain.
Let's just say that I did not sleep very much last night and was in tremendous pain. Thank goodness Chad had today off so he could help out. Today I am able to limp for a bit but then when I sit down, it starts throbbing and paying me back for being on it when I was. I've considered going to urgent care but I think they will just say that I strained a muscle or something and to ice it and rest it. I don't know if they would prescribe me with any pain medication since I'm pregnant. So basically I'm icing it and elevating it as often as I can. I can't get in a comfortable position to sleep so I'm sure tonight will be another nightmare.

Sick and prego=overwhelmed Mom

2009-10-23T09:02:00.004-07:00

With being sick and pregnant, my house has been neglected for a while. This morning I am feeling a bit better and am just walking around the house thinking "I need to do this and this and this and this and this and this...." Now I'm completely overwhelmed and don't know where to start. Once I start one task, I get distracted and start working on something else. I feel like I'm making no progress and I still have to go to the grocery store with the 2 girls (which I'm not looking forward to). Not to mention that I still have 2 girls at home who constantly need my attention--give baths, clean poop off the floor, change diaper, feed, get drinks....
I'm hoping the "nesting" instinct will be coming to me soon and I'll feel like I can conquer the world and be somewhat organized again. Right now I just feel like I'm hangin' on by the skin of my teeth! And I hate that feeling.
If I could afford one, I'd definitely hire a cleaning person to come in the morning once the kids are off to school and then come again after dinner to clean up the kitchen (I never feel like doing dishes after eating dinner, who does?).
I know I'm not the only mom who feels this way, but it's nice to get it out of my system.

It's Official!

2009-10-19T15:04:00.003-07:00

Today I went in for an ultrasound that measures the fluid on the back of the baby's neck to find out if the baby could have Down Syndrome. The measurements were good and I got to see the baby! Still too soon to know the sex, but hopefully in about 6 more weeks!
My due date according to the ultrasound is April 27th.

You've Been Punk'd

2009-09-28T16:41:00.002-07:00

Let me first start off by saying that for any of you who don't know my dad, he is the biggest joke-ster I know. He's always looking for a way to scare, trick, or tease people. So on Saturday, my sisters, my mom, and I went to the Womens Broadcast. After dinner, we came out and the car wouldn't start! So we got it jumped and drove to Auto Zone and got a new battery put in (I'm sure it helped that we were dressed up!) for free! So we decided we would make up a story to tell my dad about how we had to pay $100 for the battery and for someone to put it in for us. We knew he'd be so mad that we paid because it was still under warranty so it should have been free.
So we went home and had our story straight and told him what happened. He kept saying "Yeah right, yeah right" but still wasn't completely sure whether we were lying or not. Then he walked out the back door and went to the car. We thought that he might be going back to Auto Zone to try to get "our money" back. We thought it would be hilarious to watch him go in and argue with the guy so we all jumped off the couch, grabbed keys and jumped in my van! As we were running out the door, Teddy said that he was going to Kohl's but we thought he still might go to Auto Zone first. Lexee sat in Katee's carseat--it was hilarious! So we went to both Auto Zones but he wasn't there. So we decided to go to Kohl's and see if he was there. We found his car and saw that he had found the receipt for the battery so he knew we didn't pay anything. So we felt the need to still get him back. We first though of moving the car to the other parking lot, but Trini didn't have a key to the car. Then we thought of taking something out of the car. Then Trini said "Let's hide in the car and scare him!" So she hid in the trunk with her cell phone and we were going to park inconspicuously somewhere we could still see the car and when he came out we would text her that he was coming. So we ended up waiting for him to come out about 40 minutes!
So he comes out, gets in the car, and Trini covers her mouth and starts yelling "HELP ME! HELP ME!!" He didn't hear her at first, then thought it was the radio. So he finally turns down the radio and can still hear her! So he stops driving (still in the parking lot), gets out of the car and looks under the car with this horrified look on his face!! My mom, Lexee, and I had gotten out of the van to see better and we are just cracking up! So once he realizes that there's no one under her car, he KNOWS there's someone in the trunk! He was so scared! He kept looking around like he was looking for someone to tell, but there was not a soul in sight! (Thank goodness) He stood like 10 feet away from the car and kept scratching his head like "What the crap am I gonna do!?? I don't wanna open the trunk!" So he remembers that there's a button inside the car that will open the trunk, so he pushes it and stands to the side of the car--still afraid of what's inside! So when the trunk opens, Trini jumps up and screams thinking that he would be standing there and she's thinking "Where is he??" He peeked his head around to see who's there and Trini is busting up laughing! He said he still didn't know it was her because he was so scared and it was kind of dark and she was covering her face. So by this time, Lexee,Mom and I are laughing so hard and we drive over to them. He still had this spooked look on his face and still isn't quite sure what just happened. So we get out and are like "We got you!!!!" So we're standing outside laughing and asking him what he thought was going on, and the whole time he was still spooked! It was like he was so in the moment of someone being trapped in his car that it still hadn't hit him that it was a joke.
So we came home and told Chad and Teddy what happened and finally Dad was laughing and joking about it. I wish we would have had a camera for the whole thing. It was one of the funniest things ever!!! We couldn't believe we actually pulled a prank on the prankster himself!! It was awesome!! He told us to watch our backs, of course.

Dbacks game with 6 kids!

2009-09-25T08:44:00.005-07:00

A friend of mine gave me 6 tickets to the Dbacks game but since Chad doesn't usually get home until late, I decided to take all the kids and 2 of their friends to the game by myself! Crazy, I know but I knew the kids would have a blast so I braved it. The older girls are such great help and my kids love them so much!
They had lots of fun cheering, clapping, and dancing. They lasted about 4 1/2 innings with all the food that I brought and only 2 potty trips. Once they were done with the food, we decided to go to the Sandlot play area and the kids played there for a while. They all had a fun time and I didn't go insane!

Jodan and Kelly dancing video:

Callie thought it was hilarious to push the chair up and Kelly made a funny noise. She was cracking up! By the time I got the camera out, she was getting tired but still funny nonetheless.

Kelly and Katie were squeezing eachother's faces saying "Go D-backs!" Kate thought it was hilarious!

Kelly and Katee were dancing but since I was so close to Kate you can't really see her. Kelly's a good dancer though!

Surprise Teacher Meeting

2009-09-18T15:57:00.005-07:00

So I went thru the drive thru to pick up the kids after school today and they got in and said "Mom, Jocelyn's teacher needs to talk to you right now." I was like, "What? Why? What did you do??! Why does she want to talk to me? Did you take something bad to school?" She looked all innocent and pulled out a paper from her backpack that had two lists of words on it. She said "She wants to talk to you about this." "Why? What about it? I can read the note on it without having to talk to her." " But Mom! She said she needs to talk to you!" "Okay, let's find a place to park."
So we walk to her room and the teacher is coming out in a hurry and I'm holding the paper with the lists and she shows me all the green dots next to 95% of the words. "Green dots mean she could read the word to me. As you can see, Jocee can read almost all of them. She's ready for the 3rd list! The most any other kid can read is 6 words! So I want her to start reading more difficult books every day and she'll probably be tested to see what reading level she's at so she can check out books at her level." So Franklin definitely helped her last year! Yay for Jocee!!!!

Cheer Bunny

2009-09-12T18:51:00.005-07:00

Friday night was Jocee's cheer performance at the football game. Since I didn't know what side she'd be at we just found a spot where there was room for us. Then naturally, they come out and we can't find her among all the little girls out there! Finally we see her on the other side of where we were! So I have some video of far away, then I made a quick decision to (while holding Callie) fight my way down closer to see her better. So here's the two videos I was able to get:

You can see her better in this one but I missed the first part of the dance while I was making my way down the bleachers through the crowd. She looks so cute and was SO excited to be there!

Here she is after I got her. She was on cloud nine and couldn't stop smiling.
The picture is blurry, I know-sorry.

This is her best friend Maria that she made at school this year! They looked so cute!!

I made the girls matching bows to wear for their performance that they were very excited about. After I took this picture I decided to spray it with glitter too! It looked awesome and Jocee wore it proudly!

Happy 8th Birthday Jordan!

2009-08-21T16:12:00.006-07:00

So this isn't in chronological order but at least I put the pics up! LOL!

Here he is checking out his new DC wallet. He loves it! Grandma Gardiner gave him a giftcard to Tartget so he immediately put it in his new wallet.

New sunglasses!

Lexee took him to Krispy Kreme to get his free 1/2 dozen birthday donuts and they gave him a WHOLE DOZEN!! Enough for the whole family!

New football!
I took the kids swimming while Daddy was still working.

Chillin' like a villain.

LOVE this pic of Callie!!

New watch!
He took this pic of himself!

I made him strawberries and cream pancakes for breakfast. He ate every last drop!

His Spongebob last minute (literally) cake! Not my greatest work, but he still loved it and that's all that matters!

The kids love playing with Uncle Brad!

Jordan modeling his new outfit from Whitcomb Grandparents. He LOVES it!! He wants to wear it every day to school. He's really into looking "cool" or his idea of cool anyway and he's somehow discovered brand names. Now that Mervyns is no longer, I have decided my new place to get decently priced clothes for the kids is Ross and they carry the brands that he likes.

Twinners!

Adventures in cute hair

2009-08-21T10:55:00.003-07:00

For some reason, the last two mornings I have been in the mood to do a little more than the usual with Jocee's hair and she actually sits patiently while I do it. When I'm finished she's SO happy she looks "so beautiful!" Even Jordan came in and said "WOW!! Jocelyn you look beautiful!" Made her feel like a million bucks!

Her model pose.

On the topic of cute hair, if you need ideas for your daughter's hair or just want to see amazing hair-do's, check out this blog: http://hair4myprincess.blogspot.com/ So cute!! I want directions to follow so I can do them too!

First Day of School

2009-08-19T15:52:00.002-07:00

Okay, so I have been busy with my bow business and am way behind on our family blog. But better late than never. So here's the kids on their first day of school.

Katee is going to the same preschool as last year and has the same teacher. She asks every day if she has school tomorrow. She LOVES it!! She takes the bus to and from school and does great!

Jordan is in 2nd grade at a new school, Robson, this year and so far is going good. Not nearly as much homework as Franklin and not so rushed on the academics. It's a good change of pace for him. He really struggled with it last year and got frustrated and would just give up and cry. Not ideal for a kid! So this school seems to be a better fit for him. I am so glad. He's already made friends and loves playing soccer at recess with the "big boys."

Jocee is doing Kindergarten again because she started Kinder last year as a 4 year old and at the end of the year, her teacher said she didn't feel like she was socially ready for 1st grade--academically, yes, but socially no. She said she wasn't very confident and didn't take the initiative to do things. So we decided to take the teacher's advice and put her back in Kinder. So far, a week into school, she already has "girlfriend drama!" They don't really do "work" like she's used to so it's a good time for her to work on her social skills. She's learning the dynamics of "girls" and all the drama that comes with it--"Today Brooke said she's not my friend! She's friends with Hannah now! She told me to be friends with Marie because we have the same color shoes and I don't like her!" It's unbelievable how early all the drama begins--the movie Mean Girls keeps popping in my head! Anyway, she's been a good little saleswoman for me too! All her friends want bows/flowers like hers! She handed out business cards to them today! LOL! She was so excited!

Jordan's Baptism

2009-08-19T10:59:00.007-07:00

Last Thursday, August 13th, 2009 Jordan was baptized! He was so excited to get baptized and had been counting down the days for a while. Since I had never planned a baptism before, I wasn't sure of all the details and whatnot and didn't have any checklist or anything to go by. So I looked online and found a program template and got that filled out. I just figured I'd conduct. Well, when we were waiting for people to arrive, a feeling came to me that I could not conduct. It occurred to me that possibly a Priesthood holder had to conduct. So luckily the Bishop arrived and agreed to conduct. I was so embarassed that I didn't know that little detail, but oh well--we live and we learn. It was a small, intimate baptism and I think everyone there felt the Spirit. His Grandpa Gardiner gave a good talk on Baptism and his Great Grandma Sackley gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.

Here he is anxiously waiting for people to arrive.

Great Grandma Sackley

Jordan and Daddy

Cousin Ryan
Garrett, Jordan, and cousin Kyle

All the cousins!
Uncle Teddy, Uncle Brad, Jordan, and Aunt Lexee

Jordan with his Grandpa Bear and Grandma Ellen. Grandpa Bear had just had knee replacement surgery a WEEK ago and was in lots of pain, but really wanted to be there for Jordan so he DROVE my mom and brother from Coolidge to Mesa. My mom had been having dizzy spells for the last 3 days and had been couped up in her room and didn't think she was going to make it. So we all prayed that she would be well enough for her to come and she was!! We were so happy and Jordan was pleasantly surprised because he didn't know they were going to make it.

Some of the group...

Grandpa and Grandma Gardiner with Jordan

Great Grandma Sackley and cousin Sydney

The girls practicing their piano skills before the baptism.

Callie practicing her talk...LOL!

Jocee and her modeling pose.

Jordan very excited!!

During the baptism Callie sat next to her cousin Chloe and they became best friends! Callie kept saying "Chwo-ie! Chwo-ie!" the whole rest of the night! It was so cute. She doesn't like to hold anyone's hand so this was priceless!!

Our Family

Jordan and Daddy

And the name is.......

2009-05-05T11:16:00.002-07:00

So after much brainstorming and several names already existing........the name of my bow business is.......Munchkin Bows! Cute, eh? I think it is anyway. I have created a website for it www.munchkinbows.blogspot.com. I am continually making new bows of different colors and styles so check back often! Tell your friends and neighbors! If you have a business and want to trade blogvertising, let me know!! Or if you will add my business blog to your family blog, please do!!! I appreciate all your help!

Baby Idol Contest

2009-05-01T13:40:00.004-07:00

Callie is a contestant in Mix 96.9's Baby Idol Contest! The voting started today! I don't know how long voting is for. For each valid email address you can vote once a day so PLEASE go vote for her!!!!!!!!! It's easy! Just copy this link

http://www.mix969.com/pages/baby-idol/vote-entrants.php?gid=2&id=18

and past it in the address space and it will take you right to her page. Click on "Vote for Me" then you just type in your email address!! Easy as pie! The more you vote, the better!!

Thanks Everyone!!

Business Name

2009-04-29T14:05:00.002-07:00

I have a name picked out, but I have to make sure no one else has the same name. Anyone know where to go to check?

New Venture

2009-04-27T13:34:00.011-07:00

I have recently become addicted to making hair bows and flower clips for my girls and have gotten many compliments on them. Chad suggested me selling them, but I wasn't sure. Well after much thought, I've decided to give it a try. I am still trying to come up with a cute and clever business name and slogan and would like any suggestions you can come up with. Until I have a business name, I'm not going to make a website yet. Let me know what you think of my prices. So until I get a Bow Blog, I'm going to put my bows up on this blog until then. Feel free to tell your friends with little girls or let me know if you want any! :) (SIDENOTE: Every clip is lined with grosgrain ribbon and each bow is heat sealed to avoid fraying.)

The set is $3, not each bow. Is the tag confusing? Or did you know it was for the set?

Stupid Cat

2009-03-19T11:58:00.002-07:00

WARNING: Animal activists (or whatever they're called) should not read this!

I noticed that Rocky, our German Shepherd/Lab, was barking like crazy at something inside our shed about 5 days ago. The kids said that there was a hole in the shed and he was barking at the neighbor's dog. Well, I was outside Tuesday cleaning up the backyard a bit (Daddy's never home to do it anymore) and he started barking again, but I noticed that the neighbor's dog wasn't barking. So I looked in the shed and there was no hole.....there were 2 eyes staring back at me!! It was a cat! I hate cats. I'm extremely allergic to them. Jordan was determined to try to help the cat get out but he wasn't budging. So finally today while the kids were playing in the back yard (I was inside cleaning, of course) I heard a bunch of commotion and kids screaming and Jocee came running in crying and saying that the cat came out and Rocky was chasing it. So I ran to the back door (didn't dare go outside! I know, I'm a bad mom) to see what was happening. Rocky had the cat by the neck in his mouth flailing it around! We were all yelling at Rocky but he wasn't listening. I thought food might do the trick so I got a hot dog and started throwing pieces at him but that didn't stop him either. After about 3 minutes, the cat was a gonner! The kids (okay, me too) felt so bad. I made them all come in the house and I called animal control. The lady said that they wouldn't pick it up on my property and that it had to be moved to the curb! Heck NO!!! I was NOT going to go near the animal much less put it in a box and take it to the curb!! I told the lady that and she said there would be at least a $50 fee for someone to come do it for me. I DON'T THINK SO! So I could either wait till Chad gets home late tonight and have a dead cat in my back yard and not let the kids play outside or find someone else who would move it for me. So I remembered that the Eyrings 4 houses down (they're in our ward, the kids are friends, and the oldest daughter is our amazing babysitter) have a couple of boys who might do it for me. Sure enough, Matthew came right away with a bag and a box, picked it up with his bare hands and took it to the curb for me!! Our hero for the day!! Yeaaa!!! So now I'm waiting for animal control to come get it! That will teach cats to come in our yard!! He catches birds that eat his food too! So that was our morning. Now all 4 kids are playing at the Eyring's house while I have a nice quiet lunch all to myself! Love that family!!! :)

Medical Weekend

2009-03-16T09:10:00.003-07:00

So on Thursday, Jocelyn was trying to jump up to reach a branch on a tree and missed and on her way back down, she slid her arm down the bark of the tree and got some splinters and a really big piece stuck in her arm. She let me try to get it out, but I just couldn't get a grip on it to pull it out. It was in there really good. When I said that we'd have to take her to the Urgent Care to get it taken out, she went nuts--screaming and crying. So I told her we'd wait one more day (she had Track and Field Day the next day) and see if I could get it out after school. Well, I tried, and I couldn't. It hurt her to move her arm certain ways. So I had to take her once Chad came home from work at 7:30pm. She was so upset. We checked in at 7:56pm and didn't leave the place until 11pm!! They put a numbing medicine on it first. Then the dr came in. He tried 4 different tools to get it out! She did very good at holding as still as she possibly could through the crying. I was almost positive they were going to have to hold her down while he dug in her arm, but they didn't! I was so proud of her. The dr. said it was in there pretty deep and that I couldn't have taken it out myself, so it was good I took her in. Afterward, she got lots of stickers and was so glad it was over with! (And so was I!)
Also on Friday, Callie had bad diarrhea ALL day. I didn't really think anything of it except that maybe it was from the juice she had drank--I don't usually let them have a lot of juice. Then when the kids and I went to rent a movie that night (before taking Jocee to UC), Callie had projectile vomiting in her carseat! She got the back of my seat! She was covered in it and the kids all felt so bad for her--as did I. It was sweet to see how concerned all the kids were fore her. So we rushed home and threw her in the bath. I decided that I would watch her the next day before taking her to the dr. What can they do about barf and diarrhea anyways? Not much. I already knew to keep her on the BRAT diet so that's what I did Saturday. She didn't eat much that day but still had diarrhea. But no throwing up. So Saturday night we had planned on going to a party at Chad's cousin's house and had a sitter lined up. Just before she came, I noticed that Callie was acting really clingy and was a bit hot. So I told Chad that I think we should take her and that I didn't think she was feeling so good. So I packed her stuff and got ready to walk out the door......about 5 feet from the door, she threw up all over me and the rug! We were already going to be late but now that I had a barfy baby, I told Chad that we should just miss the party and take her to Urgent Care. The dr said there was a stomach virus going around and that it was highly contagious and that the other kids are likely to get it too (and maybe even us!). So while we were talking to the dr, my phone rang and it was the sitter and she said that Katelyn had thrown up!! So I asked her how she was doing now and she said that she was fine and was in the bath. I asked her if she minded if Chad and I got dinner before coming home and she said it was fine. So we went to Applebee's and all seemed fine. Then about 10 minutes after getting our food, Callie wanted me to hold her. So I put her on my lap and what do ya know? She throws up all over me (and my purse and the table!) again! I got up and went to the car and got my food to go. We got home and Callie threw up 3 more times before going to bed!
So we knew that church was out of the picture. Thankfully Callie and Katelyn did not have any more episodes that day, but Jordan got sick though. They only ate bread, applesauce, water, and bananas. Now we're out of bread, applesauce, and bananas! LOL! Then as we were going to bed, Chad got sick! So me and Jocee are the only ones who haven't gotten sick so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Chad didn't want to call in sick after just starting a new job, but he was up all night and knew he wouldn't make it through work today. I'm hoping that everyone will be good to go by tomorrow. Jordan said he's feeling good today and so did Katelyn. But the dr warned us that a day could go by with no barf and then the next day sick again. So we'll see. Hopefully the week isn't as bad as the weekend was!!

Good News!!!!!!

2009-02-27T18:08:00.002-07:00

I haven't blogged for quite some time so I don't know how many of you are actually going to see this, but Chad finally found a job and started on Wednesday!!!!! He is now working at Moxie Pest Control in Phoenix. He doesn't have his own work truck yet, so I have been without a vehicle for the past 3 days. Hopefully soon he'll get a truck. Right now he's working on the west side, but they are working on selling in the east valley and hopefully he'll get that route once it's established. The only downside to this job, is that he has to work EVERY Saturday! Hey, I'm not going to complain too much---he has a job!! Yay!!!!

Midnight Twilight!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-22T13:13:00.003-07:00

My sister Trini came to town to go with me and my sisters-in-law. I got there a little after 8pm and there was already a line wrapped all the way around to the back of the theater!!! Trini came a little while later and then the rest of them came. The line went pretty quick and then when we were let in the theater, we booked it to get a good seat! We did get good seats and then chatted as we waited for the midnight hour.
Here we are waiting outside. (We don't look alike, do we?)

Me and Christy waiting outside in line.

All of us girls! Sydney, Trini, Christy, Hayley, and me!

Being silly while we were in the theater waiting.

The movie was good! If only I had felt better, I would have enjoyed it more. But I still had a good time.

Urgent Care

2008-11-22T12:35:00.002-07:00

After feeling like crud for most of the week, I finally took myself and Callie to urgent care (the dr's office was booked until Monday and I couldn't wait). I've had an earache since Sunday and it's gotten worse and I've had the worst headache that won't go away for like 3 days. I'd taken ibuprofen, Alieve, and Tylenol but nothing helped it. My head's all cloudy and hurts SO bad!
Callie has been really cranky for a long time and not sleeping well. She's also had a bad rash on her bum that won't go away either. I thought that since my ear was hurting that possibly that was her problem too.
Well, sure enough, Callie has double ear infection and an infection on her bum that could only be cleared up with prescription medicine. Poor girl!
As for me, the dr said I have fluid in my ear and that's why I have a bad earache. I told her about my other symtoms and she said I have an upper respiratory infection. For my headache she gave me Vicodin and Medrol. For my stuffiness she gave me Flonase. I'm taking 5 different prescriptions! She said that based on my sypmtoms I could possibly have Meningitis and if I wasn't feeling better by today, to go back to urgent care. So last night when I came home from getting them, I took the medicine. About 2 hours later, I was really nauseaous. I hate that feeling!! I thought crackers would help, but it made it worse. The kids were in bed and Chad went to get some Kleenex at the store so I was by myself. Well, I ended up....well, you know. I felt a little better but still kind of nauseaous. I tried to read my book but kept feeling like I had to throw up. So I just laid down, but then I couldn't breathe from being stuffed up. So I got another pillow and just sat against them in bed.
This morning is a little better. My head hurts a little and my stomach is uneasy. If I take a Vicodin, it will knock me out and Chad's outside working on the yard so I need to be awake.
There should be an unwritten rule that MOMS DON'T GET SICK!

Another birthday girl!!

2008-10-28T22:12:00.005-07:00

Today Katelyn is 3 years old! If you ask her though, she'll tell ya she's 4! Here she is waiting outside for the bus. She looked so pretty for her birthday. She kept saying "My bir-day! My bir-day!" Ever since Jocee's birthday, she's been asking when it is her birthday so she couldn't believe TODAY was the day! She's soo cute.

She was so jealous when Jocee got balloons for her birthday so we had to get her some for her birthday. I wish I would have taken a picture of her face when she got off the bus and saw the balloons tied to the basketball hoop! Needless to say, she was very excited! Callie liked them too!

She got some cool sunglasses, necklace, and bracelets! She put them all immediately. She looked so cute with her sunglasses on.

Jocee helping her open her presents.

More presents....... (Look at how shiny Jocee's hair looks! :) )

Grandma got her an adorable baby, some bottles and accessories, and this cool baby buggy!! She loved it! She was SO happy! It was funny to see her so giddy over it! Callie immediately wanted to push it and Kate was not having any of that!
We tried to give Callie another stroller, but she didn't want it. So Jordan and Jocee each got strollers and they all walked around with them. Jordan said, "I'll be the Daddy!" It was sweet.

Cake time! She was so excited that she blew out the candles before we were
done singing to her! LOL!

Then while we were cleaning up the mess and trying to get kids finished with homework, the doorbell rang, and we found this on the doorstep! A little pumpkin tin filled with candy and a cute poem. What a nice surprise! We got "Boo'd!"

Picture Problem

2008-10-22T08:14:00.002-07:00

Is anyone else having trouble uploading pictures onto their blog? I even tried to just upload 1 picture but it keeps saying that the connection timed out. It doesn't say that the file was too large. Maybe I have a slow internet connection.

Will it ever get better?

2008-10-21T17:34:00.003-07:00

I'm going to be totally honest--it is my blog after all, right? I am totally stressed out. Chad's been out of work for 3 weeks. Had one interview so far. Mervyns is closing so I will be out of a job by Jan 1st, if not sooner. My 5 year old is still not using the potty and is wearing pull-ups to school, then refuses to change it when she gets home. She's been throwing these huge screaming fits when she doesn't get her way and screams "I HATE YOU!" and "LEAVE ME ALONE!"at us when we try to talk to her. I feel like I need the Super Nanny. Callie has been really cranky probably because she's not feeling well so I have to do everything either holding her or having her follow me with her screaming at me.
With Mervyns closing, that means my Dad will have no job too. So he's asked me to find him jobs to apply for too. It sounds so easy, but believe me, it's not. You have to register for each website you find a job on that you want to apply for. It's so time-consuming.
My mom's still having dizzy spells and isn't able to do much without feeling sick. I have so many things I'm worrying about, that I get huge headaches every day. I feel like everything that could go wrong, is going wrong.

I think I'm gonna go eat some brownie dough now

Happy Birthday Jocee!!!

2008-10-15T21:22:00.002-07:00

Today is Jocee's 5th birthday! Her day started out with mommy's French Toast! Then she got to wear a new shirt to school. We let her open 2 gifts from us--bracelets and a necklace to match her shirt. She looked so beautiful on her birthday! When she returned, we had balloons and decorations up. We made her preferred dinner of nachos and had chocolate fudge cupcakes with pink-dyed cream cheese icing with Barbie candies on top! Yum! A couple of girls in our ward a few houses down came down to have cupcakes with us. (One girl is the kids' babysitter and they LOVE her and she was a good sport and came to wish Jocee happy birthday!) They were only invited an hour before and they still managed to make her a sweet card!! We weren't really planning on having a party with friends (enough things going on right now) but when she realized I hadn't invited her friends, she was SO sad! So I was really grateful the girls came and so did Grandpa Bear and Grandma Jen. She was really excited about all her presents too.
(My camera's battery is charging, so I'll post pics later.)

More Great Deals!

2008-10-02T13:00:00.002-07:00

K-Mart is having a Double Coupon Days until Saturday. They are doubling up to and including $2.00!! So using a $2.00 off coupon, you actually get $4.00 off!! So after Kate went to school, Callie and I went to see what we could get for practically nothing. If it wasn't almost free, I didn't get it (limited funds right now). So here's what I got for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! FREE!!! (The great thing is I really was completely out of shampoo and conditioner and really needed it! And this is the good stuff too!)

And here's what I got for ALMOST nothing....

The final price I paid was: Tylenol PM: $.79, Advil PM: $.79, Resolve Carpet Cleaner: $.50, Renuzit Air Freshener: $.50.

People may get annoyed by coupon users, but I DON'T CARE! To me, coupons are free money and I'm going to take full advantage of them!

Roll with the Punches, I guess

2008-09-26T16:27:00.002-07:00

So work for Chad has slowed since the weather isn't as hot. Last week, he only worked 3-4 days and not even full days and the boss still paid him a full paycheck. This week he only worked 3 days plus tomorrow morning and the boss cut his check in half (about) without even talking to him about it or telling him that he'd only be getting paid for the days he worked! I warned Chad that he wouldn't be able to pay him a full check when he wasn't working a full week but he was convinced otherwise. So this afternoon I got a phone call that started like this..."Well, I guess I need to start looking for another job..." If I had a dollar for every time I have had a phone call that started with that line, I'd be rich! (Okay, not rich, but I'd have quite a bit.)

I know a Photog Genius!!

2008-09-25T15:57:00.004-07:00

I'm so proud of my friend, Kaylea! Everyone who knows her, knows that she's a great photographer. But she recently entered a photo contest for Jones Soda and she WON!!! She received a box of 12 bottles of root beer with her photo on it!

On the back it says "Put some shrimp on the barbie 'cus you're a photog genius! Congratulations, Kaylea!"

You go girl!!!

SIDENOTE: Here's motivation for Clint and Natalie to enter and win a photo contest too! You guys are awesome photographers!

2008-09-25T15:30:00.003-07:00

I was tagged!

Husband Tag

1. Where did you meet? We met on a blind date to a D-backs game.

2. How long did you date before you got married? 5 months

3. How long have you been married? 8 Years

4. What does he do that surprises you? He (usually) makes sure the house is picked up, kitchen cleaned, and kids showered before I come home from work at night.

5. What is your favorite feature of his? His blue eyes

6. What is your favorite quality of his? He usually lets me have my way--not selfish.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? Honey, sweetie

8. What is his favorite color? Green

9. What is his favorite food? Cheeseburger and fries

10. What is his favorite Sport? Hockey

11. When and where was your first kiss? My grandparents backyard on our first date! (I know, I know...we're bad. That's the only time I kissed on a first date!)

12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Go to sporting events, dinner, shop, watch our favorite shows (it's free!).

13. Do you have any children? Yes--Jordan, Jocelyn, Katelyn, Callie

14. Does he have a hidden talent? Ummm...I don't know

15. How old is he? 32

16. Who said I love you first? He did

17. What's his favorite music? Rock and roll

18. What do you admire most about him? He loves to play outside with the kids. He also cleans up the house while I'm at work.

19. Do you think he will read this? Yes eventually

I tag Erica, Erika, Kaylea, Susan, and Corinne

Super Saver!

2008-09-25T13:57:00.004-07:00

Today at Fry's I got some awesome deals! Everything was either on sale or on clearance plus coupons! Here's what I got:

Kroger Jumbo Biscuits: FREE! (sale for $1 plus $1 off coupon)
Glade candle: FREE! (clearance for $.89 plus $1 off coupon)
Glade Wisp Flameless Candle: FREE! (clearance for $4.19 plus $5 off coupon)
Betty Crocker Cupcake mix: $.79
Colgate toothpaste: $.50 (sale for $1.50 plus $1 off coupon)
Betty Crocker Potatoes Pouch: $.20 (sale for $1 plus $.80 off coupon)
2 boxes Betty Crocker Potatoes Twin Pack: $1.00 (sale for $1 each plus $1 off 2)
4 Pillsbury Brownie Mixes: $2.00 (sale for $1 each plus 2 coupons for $1 off 2)
4pk Activia Yogurt: $1.00 (sale for $2.00 plus coupon for $1 off)

So the total for all of this was only $5.49!!!

I also got some other clearance items that were for a pretty good price.

4pk Magic Eraser: $2.25 (usually a 2 pack is about $2.50) I love these things--they get rid of almost anything!
St. Ives Face Wash: $1.50
Milkbone SteakChew (for Rocky): $.89
Children's Claritin (Jordan): $1.62
Suave Shampoo for Chad and 1 for kids: $1.67

There was a girl bringing out more stuff but I had to hurry home to get Katelyn off the bus or I would have waited to see what else she had that I could get for free! I love when I find stuff on clearance and I have a coupon for it and I end up not even paying for it. Especially when I wouldn't otherwise have bought the item. Like the Glade flameless candle, I've been wanting but it's like $9 and I just can't bring myself to buy it. This is the only reason I cut out some coupons--in hopes that I can find it on clearance and get it free or less than a buck. And right now that candle is smelling WONDERFUL!

2008-09-18T16:29:00.002-07:00

Our washer was only putting out hot water so a guy in our ward came to look at it on Monday. He found the problem and switched it so only the cold water worked until he got the part. Well, today he came to put the part in and when he pulled out the washer, I was SO embarassed!! It was SO dirty!! He assured me that he's seen worse but I was still embarassed. So after he changed out the part, I decided it was time to clean out behind, under, and on top of the washer and dryer. I'll spare you the gross details of what all I found, but it was sick. So I spent a couple hours vacuuming and scrubbing the floor and cleaning on top of the dryer. I don't know why, but the dryer is like the drop spot for things that don't have a home or just stuff that gets picked up. So as of right now, there's not a thing on it! It feels so good to finally do something that I've been putting off for, well years! Now when I stand in the kitchen and look over at the laundry "room" and don't see dog food and lint and everything else that was on the floor, I feel SOOOOO great!!!

A/C Problems--no not the van!

2008-09-16T22:11:00.002-07:00

So this morning after the kids left for school I noticed that I was sweating in the house and the a/c was running. So I got a chair and felt the air coming out and it didn't feel freezing like it usually does. Chad was leaving for work soon but he felt it and said that it wasn't working right. So he hurried up to the roof and said that the condenser fan wasn't on. I was like, "Great!! How much is a new one of those gonna cost??" He said he didn't have time to work on it right now so just leave it alone. It wasn't that hot this morning so I thought we'd be okay. Well once it was like noon, it was getting hot in the house and the girls needed a nap (their room is already the hottest room in the house). So they just slept with fans on them. Then much to my surprise, Chad came home from work at 1:30pm! He went up on the roof again and figured out the problem in less than 10 minutes!!! So he went to get the part (less than $20 bucks!).
While he was gone getting the part, Jordan and Jocee came home and I told them that the a/c was broken. Jordan immediately said "Daddy can come home and fix it!!!!" He was so sure of it (not to mention, proud!)!! A few minutes later Chad walked in and the kids told him about the problem. He told them that he already got the part to fix it and was going to put it in right then. 10 minutes later, COLD AIR!!!!! We were all SOOOO proud and thankful for Daddy!!!!

2008-09-11T12:08:00.003-07:00

Here's the list of Contractors we have to choose 4 from. If you know anything about any of them, PLEASE let me know! I need to get all the information I can get about them so we make a good decision. Thanks!

1. A.B. Davis Builders, Alma & Wes Davis
2. ABM Development Services, Joseph Moon
3. Barkley Construction, Scott Barkley
4. Coppersun Construction LLC, Robert Springfield
5. East Valley Services, Inc., Derron
6. G&G Specialty Contractors Inc., Christine Wang
7. Garnand Construction, Scott Garnand
8. JW Builders, Josh Weeks
9. Knucks Corporation, Perry Walker Jr.
10. Reid Development LLC, Ken Reid
11. Roylance Custom Homes LLC, Justin Roylance
12. Ryse Construction, Rob Ryse
13. Selfridge Construction Inc., Devin Selfridge
14. Sequoia Development Inc., Sean Shoucair
15. TAG Construction, Inc., Thomas Gunderson

I Knew She Was A Smart Little Cookie

2008-09-09T17:12:00.002-07:00

After talking with the teacher at the beginning of the school year about how she thought Jocee seemed lost in class, I was beginning to think she'd have to be taken out. When we'd work on her homework, she didn't seem to get the formation of the letters and wasn't motivated to try to do it right. I thought my easy days were over.
But for the past 2 weeks or so, she's made a complete 180!! She now knows at least 10 phonograms by sight and can write them, and can write her name! Her handwriting is improving dramatically and last week she had to recite a poem in front of the whole class! She brought back an award for doing such a great job on it! She also brought home 2 phonogram tests and she got 100% on both of them!!! I'm so proud of her!! I made up some flash card with all the phonograms and also math facts and I've been going over them with her and Jordan. I guess it's helping!!

Home Improvement Update

2008-09-08T15:51:00.002-07:00

I went to the Homeowner Orientation last Thursday. It went well. They explained the program and how the financial part of it works and what improvements they make. So basically the max amount of money you are allowed is $50,000. Then the total amount is divided in half. One half is due upon the sale of the home--no interest or payments! It just sits there until the house is sold. The other half decreases 10% every year for 10 years. So we get all these improvements done and it doesn't cost us a dime until we sell our house. And even then, the value of our house is increased by all of these improvements by at least the amount we spend! So it's a win/win situation for us! When it's all done, it will be like having a new house!! I'm SOOO excited!!!
Tomorrow morning I will turn in the information they need. Then they will give me a list of General Contractors to choose 4 from. I'm going to be researching them carefully before making my choice. I will also be asking friends and family if they know anyone on the list.
Because our house is more than 45 years old, we have to get approval from the state historical something or other and also we have to have a lead-based paint test done too. They said those things usually take about 4-6 weeks. Then we will have the 4 chosen contractors come through the house to write up a bid. A couple weeks after that, we will get the 4 bids and choose the best one. THEN they will start the work. They suggested that we clear out our house and just have the bare necessities until the work is all completed. It will just make it easier for the subcontractors to work when there's not a lot of stuff everywhere. So we are going to start downsizing, which will make us feel free from "stuff!" I'll update you as things progress and hopefully time will go by fast! I'm like a little kid waiting for Christmas--it seems like forever away!! :)

Why didn't we do this eeyons ago??!!

2008-09-08T12:28:00.003-07:00

On Friday, I was putting groceries in the van at Fry's and these ladies came over and said, "You know your car is smoking, right?" I was like, "What??!" So I put up the hood and I knew right away it was freon squirting out of a line. Sure enough, the whole drive home, the air was HOT!! So I got home and was furious! I called Chad and let him know and we talked about what to do. We have already taken our van in to the dealership at least 8 times in the last 3 months and they've never been able to fix it properly. Why buy an extended warranty if they can't even fix it right and you end up having to take your vehicle to a mechanic and paying him too? So I called my dad and told him what happened and he agreed to go with me and Chad's Mom to the dealership and just talk to the service manager and tell him our story. Jen (MIL) thought it would be a good idea to type up a timeline of when we took it in and how long they had it for and any information we could remember or had written down. So she was awesome and whipped up the timeline and also included how I had been treated rudely, how we never got phone calls from them (we were always calling to see what was going on), how they haven't ever fixed it right in the first place, never given a rental car but the very first time we took it in, etc.
So we went in and talked to the manager and he was immediately like "Well, let's get you a rental vehicle and get yours fixed!!" I asked that a mechanic who had never worked on my van be the one to work on it because obviously the guys who have been "working" on it, don't know how to fix it. He said that he used to work at Pinnacle Nissan in Scottsdale and asked if it would be okay with me to send it up there. "Of course!! That would be great!" He told us that whatever charges incur would be taken care of by the dealership and that we wouldn't have to pay a dime--for the rental car either. It was so amazing! My dad was like, "Why didn't we talk to you eeyons (sp?) ago??!!" We coudn't have asked for it to go any smoother than it did. So this is the rental that we got.....
2008 Dodge Grand Caravan!!
It is sooooo nice!!! We want to keep it!! It has automatic sliding doors and fold-n-go seats. The inside is so cool too! Of course the kids love it too. It drives perfectly! And best of all---it has freezing cold A/C!!!! Yeaaa!! So they can keep our van as long as they want now! Now we're just hoping that our van will be returned to us with air that works perfectly!

Fun Saturday

2008-09-07T14:21:00.006-07:00

A relative of the mom that my sister, Lexee, nannies for was moving out of his huge house and asked my Dad, brother, Lexee and Brad to hold a yard sale at his house to get rid of his stuff. We didn't have anything planned for the day so we went over around 11am. A lot of stuff was already sold but we managed to get some great deals!! Chad got a pair of snow boarding boots for $1!! He was sooooo excited. He said "I've never had my own pair, I always had to rent!" I don't know when he'll use them but it made him happy. For those of you who know Chad, he is obsessed with Christmas decorating. He puts up as many lights as he can (in and out of the house) and even kills the power sometimes! So at the sale, we got 3 boxes of Chrismas lights and also some cute Halloween decorations for almost nothing! The guy just basically wanted to get rid of the stuff and since it was so late in the morning, he was practically giving it away! And Callie got some toys too! She got this little chair that plays music and lights up. My friend's little boy has this exact toy at her house and every time we are over there Callie doesn't do anything but play with this little chair! I looked for it at re-sell stores but couldn't find it and at Wal-Mart it's like $30!! So I was SOOO excited to get it for free!! She is loving it just as much at our house as at my friends'! She also got this little table that also lights up, plays music, sings abc's and other stuff. We actually had this toy for Jordan when he was a baby and he loved it. Callie is liking it a lot too (the chair is her favorite though). What a great yard sale!!!

Then, after we left the sale, we went home to put the kids down for a nap. Then my dad and brother showed up and asked if we wanted to go to In-N-Out (Lexee's treat!). So instead of all of us going, Callie and I went and got a yummy chocolate shake! Callie had fun showing off in front of everyone. When a stranger would talk to her, she'd smile and run back to my lap and cover her face with her hands. It was SO cute!! My dad laughed and asked "Since when does she get embarassed??!" It was fun to just sit and laugh with my dad, brother, sister and her new husband. We haven't hung out and laughed for a while so it was nice.
Then after that we all went to Chad's parent's house to swim. And it just so happened that both of his sisters were there with their kids swimming too! So the kids got to play with their cousins. Brad and Teddy had fun throwing Jordan and Kyle in the pool too. And I got to enjoy talking with my sisters-in-law about our week and the great deals we found. We also were treated to pizza and lemonade for dinner! Thanks Mom!!
So even though we woke up with nothing to do for the day (except mow and housework), we had a fun and great Saturday!!

New Accomplishment!

2008-08-25T08:35:00.003-07:00

Chad called me on Thursday night while I was on my break and said that while he was reading the kids a story that Jordan started yelling "Callie's walking!! Look!!" They all watched her take about 8 steps and then fall, but then got up again and did it a few more times. I was so sad I missed it. Earlier that week I had been trying to coax her into taking steps but this time she did it all on her own! So the next day I saw her with my very own eyes!! It was so cute!!! So now she's officially walking everywhere! My little baby's growing up :-(

Hayley's Birthday/Girl's Night Out

2008-08-24T20:50:00.003-07:00

On Saturday night we celebrated Hayley's birthday (my SIL) (I won't tell how old) at the Cheesecake Factory. We had so much fun and were there for like 3 hours! We had to wait about 35-40 minutes, then we just enjoyed our food and each other's company. We shared fun stories and just had girl talk! It was so nice not to be in a rush or have kids to deal with. I think as mothers we need time out where we can just focus on ourselves and not worry about anyone else. We tend to forget about ourselves and focus on our kids, husbands, housework, bills, doctor visits, and everything else we do, and we leave ourselves out an awful lot. When we take the time to have "me time" we come back better Moms and wives.

WARNING: The picture quality isn't the best.

Hayley opening some gifts

Me and Christy (SIL) got the Chinese Chicken Salad and they were enough to feed an army!! Neither one of us finished even half of it. We should have totally shared one and been full--and saved money too!

SIDENOTE: I am totally white next to Miss Hawaiian Tropic! LOL!

Another Tooth!

2008-08-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Jordan's 2nd tooth came out tonight! I tied floss around it after church and he tugged on it all day until tonight he finally let Chad yank it out! He was SOOO nervous about it. So I put some Orajel on it before he pulled it out and it didn't hurt him at all! He was REALLY excited when it came flying out! We all had to search for it on the floor and couldn't find it until I stepped on it! His "grownup" tooth is already mostly in but it grew in behind the baby tooth so I hope it starts to move forward next to his other one.

Here he is all bloody.

And there's the tooth! He's so excited to see what the tooth fairy brings him!

Swim Party BBQ

2008-08-18T13:49:00.010-07:00

On Saturday we went to Chad's cousin's house for a family BBQ/Swim party. There were lots of cousins there to play with.

This is Kyle (Jordan's bud)

Here's Sydney and Zach contemplating jumping off the rock cliff.
This is Salinda. She's such a little fish!! She's so young and can swim so well!
This is Dallin (Salinda's brother) and he's an awesome swimmer too! Next to him is his Aunt Alissa.
There goes Jordan!
Here's Jocee posing for the camera before she finally decided to get in the pool.

Just us girls!

Jordan and Kyle hiding

Jordan learned how to dive this summer (thank you Sydney!!) and was so proud that he could do it off the cliff. Watch out Michael Phelps...this boy is a good swimmer too! LOL!
Zach doing a flip off the rock cliff. It looks like his legs belong to Jordan's body! A funny shot!

My nephew Ryan. He's soooooo stinkin' cute!!!!

My little Callie!!! She's soooooo cute too!!! :)
Cousin Chloe with her cute suit! (Look at that hot momma behind her!!)
(LOL!!! I know you're gonna kill me, but you really are a hot momma.) Jocee's best buddy Jillian

We sang to Hayley and Aunt Carolyn for their birthdays for this week.

Clint must be talking to Chad about computers.....LOL!

Nathan grilled up some really yummy ribs. The adults all loved them but the kids didn't touch 'em! They were all left on their plates. Jordan didn't want to eat when we were all eating so he came back later saying he was hungry so Chad gave him a rib. This is how it went down.... He LOVED it! He even wanted more!!
Callie playing with Uncle Bill with the cups. She thought he was so funny.

Then she crawled over and entertained Grandma Sackley for a bit.

After eating, they went back into the pool!

Jordan's at the top of the pic jumping off

Katelyn doing the "monkey walk" along the wall

The biggest rubber duck I've ever seen!

We had a scare towards the end of the night...Katelyn nearly drowned!!! She didn't have any floaties to wear so she mostly stayed on the big step area and occasionally monkey walked but not too far. Well, we were all not watching her for long enough that she ended up in the middle of the deep end!!! Luckily Jocee was on top of the cliff getting ready to jump in when she saw Katelyn just under the water and started screaming "KATELYN'S DROWNING!!!!!KATELYN'S DROWNING!!!!!" I ran over there and Uncle Bill swam quickly over to her and grabbed her and gave her to me. She was crying--not unconscious--so that was good! I was shaking and felt so bad that I didn't even see her. She kept crying "no mimming." What a blessing that Jocee was up there and noticed her and immediately yelled for help! She saved her life!!!! We were all so proud of her and kept telling her what a hero she was. She said that when Uncle Bill told her "thank you for saving your sister's life," her reply to him was "thank you for going to get her out of the water." I don't think she realizes the magnitude of what she did, but I DO!! I am SOOOOO thankful!! I actually was just going through the pictures and videos I had taken and I have video of Katelyn monkey walking over to the deep end where Bill and Jordan were on the step but then Bill took Jordan for a ride and we all focused our attention on him and forgot that Katee was still over there. At the very end of the video you can hear Jocee start to yell.....just watching it gives me chills.

Okay, so I tried to upload the video and it keeps telling me there's an error so it won't upload.

My little Chef

2008-08-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight Katelyn helped me make chicken strips. After she knew the process, she did it all by herself! She had so much fun and actually did a great job--they tasted great!

A Big Surprise

2008-08-13T22:26:00.004-07:00

The City of Mesa has a housing rehabilitation program designed to improve the livability of a home, to extend its life for a minimum of 10 years, and to meet the current minimum building codes. You have to qualify for the program and you are put on a waiting list. We got put on the list before Callie was born and she is now 13 months old!! So after much waiting, the inspector finally came to my house today!!!! I couldn't believe it!! We didn't have an appointment or anything so I was lucky I was home when they showed up. Anyways, he walked through the whole house and even went in the back and side yard. Here's the list of things/items that we talked about getting fixed/replaced. (NOTE: I know there's a budget for each home they do so I'm not completely sure that everything on the list will be done but I will be SOOOO happy with any improvements that are made!)
Here's the preliminary list:
--Fresh paint on the outside
--Block fence in the back and on one side--an RV gate on the other side
--Concrete poured on the side of the house for an extended driveway
--Re-wire the whole house and new electrical panel outside & relocate some so we can get c-fans!:)
--New windows
--New outside doors (3)
--New A/C unit
--New insulation (I think ductwork too, can't remember)
--New water heater and relocate to outside
--New kitchen cabinets and countertops (added cabinet space next to the fridge and extended countertop under the window--hopefully!)
--New refrigerator
--New stove
--Whole makeover for hall bath (tub surround, toilet, sink vanity, and medicine cabinet) Some of the lovely pink tiles finally fell off and the drywall behind it is totally rotted. I'm thinking there might be a leak or something.
--Same for master (I think--I had to change a diaper while they were discussing it so I'm not quite for sure)
--New closet doors in master (they broke so we took them off completely and currently have a decorative curtain), and in all the other rooms as well

I can't believe all of that!!!! It feels so surreal. Of course I don't want to get too excited about it until I see it in writing and things start to happen. But seriously, if only 2 of those items listed get done, I'd be so happy. We just can't afford to make any of those costly improvements. When we first bought our house we always had dreams of doing upgrades to it but we just haven't been able to afford doing any of them. So to have some things done and we don't have to pay is amazing. Of course there are guidelines that we have to follow....I don't have them in front of me but I believe the money that is spent is considered a "loan." If we were to sell our house in the next either 3 or 5 years (can't remember exact time), we would have to repay the loan. But if we stay in our home for longer than that period of time, we do not have to pay back the loan. We aren't planning on moving anytime soon so I think we will be okay! Plus, once all of those improvements are made, it will be like having a new house and we didn't have to move out of the city!! So now we just have to wait for the permits and he said it would probably take about 4 weeks. Hopefully it goes by fast!!

2nd Day of School

2008-08-13T22:03:00.003-07:00

So on the first day of school the bus driver didn't go after school to pick up the preschoolers! So the teacher called me to let me know that she'd be late. When she finally came home, she was totally happy and not a bit upset! The sub bus driver was a nice lady but not the regular driver. So on Tuesday the regular driver brought her home and when he opened the bus doors, I found Katelyn crying and very upset. I held her and asked what was the matter and she exclaimed, "NO BUS!!" The driver was an older gentleman and was very nice. I'm not sure why she was so upset. I know she doesn't fancy men right away (she cries at my grandparents when Pappaw talks to her) so it will just take time for her to get used to him. It was also a good break that she didn't have school today. So I've been trying to be positive about the bus so she won't cry again tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

I've been enjoying the quiet time immensely! I keep thinking that this is only a dream and that I will wake up soon and be back in my loud life. I've been able to get my house totally cleaned up by 9:00am then have time to go to the store if I have to! It seems so weird to only have one child in the morning! I know Callie is loving having her mommy all to herself!! It is nice to be able to give her all of my attention too--she's such a sweet little girl. Her new favorite show is Teletubbies. It's so cute to watch her watch it. Today she and Katelyn were sitting in the computer chair together and she would point to the tv and "talk" and look at me like she was telling me "Look mommy!" She loves to talk! She will most likely be talking very soon. She's still not walking. She can stand up on her own from sitting but is too chicken to take any steps. The most she's taken is 5 and that was with me encouraging her to walk to me.

Today we went to Albie's to get great deals on stuff my kids love. They are on sale for $1 or $1.50, then I used coupons for each item so I paid between $.50 and $.75 for each item (some were less, depending on the coupon). I got kids yogurt, cookie mix, Toaster Strudels, and Chex mix. It stinks because you can only buy 8 items in one transaction to get those prices. So I'm planning on going back as many times as I can--I have lots of coupons to use!! With 4 kids eating all the time I think we're gonna have to start shopping at Costco!

First Day of School!

2008-08-11T09:43:00.003-07:00

Jordan all ready for school! He was up and ready by 6:30am! I made them pancakes and he told me that he didn't want them because last year before school he only ate cereal! Funny kid.Jo

Jocee didn't get up till just after 7:00 and was excited to get her clothes on and get her hair done. She asked me, "Mom, do I get to go to school every day??" I said, "Yep!" To which she exclaimed, "Yeaaaa!!!" If only they kept that same attitude!

Katelyn was up by 6:45am and came in my bathroom to find me in the shower. She was so happy and said "Mommy, awake!!" (that translates into "I'm awake!") I asked her if she wanted to get in with me (she ALWAYS wants to take a shower), and she said, "No, (s)cool! Kwoes on!" She was so excited to go to school and ride on the bus like the big kids.

We all walked down to the bus stop for Jordan and Jocee. There was a lot of kids there! Jocelyn was so happy to be able to get on the bus this time. Last year she would always say "I can't wait till I get to get on the bus!" She got in line and walked right on up with them. No hesitations or anything! She is so ready for Kindergarten, despite her young age. I know she's going to do great this year.

Poor Katelyn had to wait for another hour after they left before her bus was coming. She was beginning to doubt me telling her that she was going to ride the bus. So about 7 minutes before it was scheduled to come, we sat outside waiting and singing the Wheels on the Bus and other fun songs to pass the time. Finally it showed up (late) and she walked right on up the stairs and got her seatbelt on (with help, of course) and waved bye to me! I couldn't believe it! My little 2 1/2 year old riding on a bus to school! What a big girl!! This is her on the bus. You can't really see her behind the tinted window but she's there!

Wedding

2008-08-10T21:57:00.006-07:00

On Friday, 8/8/08, my sister got married! Here are some of the pictures...

My First Pillow

2008-08-07T15:15:00.003-07:00

Jocee went shopping with Grandpa, Grandma, and Great Grandma Whitcomb at the mall on Monday. She got tired of walking around and kept having to use the bathroom so they told my Dad to keep her occupied while they kept shopping. So my dad said they kept going up and down escalators and said she was no problem! She even held his hand--which made him so happy (she's not usually so willing). They went into the toy store and picked out some presents for Jordan and she kept showing my Dad stuff that she wanted "on my next birthday...but I can't wait...I want it today..." He was cracking up. He did give in a little and bought her this Dora First learning how to sew pillow thing. So yesterday she talked me into helping her make it. She did about a total of 3 holes and she was done! She said, "You can do it Mom. You can just do it." So I did the rest of it and I think it turned out pretty good for someone who doesn't sew!

Finally! Lake Pictures...

2008-07-25T17:28:00.006-07:00

Here we are driving in the car.....the kids were really excited. Only Jocelyn has been to the lake so Jordan and Katelyn were a bit nervous.

You get one of these wheelbarrow things to put your stuff in to take stuff from your car to the boat dock. The girls hitched a ride too!

Jordan and Kyle checking out the scenery
Chloe checking out Kyle's bubble

Jocelyn and Daddy chillin
Kate loved going fast!
Mommy and Katelyn

Jordan got to go tubing first. He was so giggly and couldn't stop smiling!

Go Jordan!!! Wooooo hooooooo!!!

Chloe and Kate watching Jordan from the back of the boat.
This was him when he was done....pure joy!

Next was Jocee's turn. Her cousin Sydney was nice enough to go with her so she wouldn't be scared. She had a blast!
Then it was Katelyn's turn. She DID NOT want to go, but I thought that once we started going that she'd love it. So I forced her (mean mom, I know) to get in the water and get on the tube with me. She kept crying and saying "Poopy! Poopy! Poopy!" So I checked her but I didn't see anything. It was her way of trying to get me to put her back in the boat.....she's s tricky one! So we started going and she was still crying and still didn't want to be on it, so I let her get off. Oh well, it was an experience!
Then I got to have a turn all by myself! The kids had fun laughing at me from the back of the boat.
Cutie Kate!

Grandma holding Chloe and Katelyn. They both wanted her to hold them. They sure love their Grandma!

Uncle Chris doing a back flip off the boat! Go Chris!!
After hours of fun in the sun, we headed home. Here's what they all looked like about 10 minutes after we left..........

What a fun way to spend a Saturday!! Thank you Breretons for inviting us!!!!!

Nothing New

2008-07-16T13:14:00.002-07:00

So I haven't posted in a while....these kids have been keeping me busy. I can't wait for school to start!!
We went to the lake this past weekend...pictures to come!

Van

2008-07-05T13:33:00.003-07:00

On Thursday we finally went to pick up our van!! It wasn't as cold as it was before the thing stopped working, but it was better than it was the last time they gave it to us. So we went to the store and when we came out and started it up, Chad noticed smoke/vapor coming from under the hood. So we looked under the hood and a line connecting to the a/c was leaking refrigerant!!! While we drove home, the a/c was starting to get warm again. So we dropped it off at home and drove the Sienna to Chad's parents house for a 4th of July party. Chad called the dealership and left a message for the guy telling him what was going on. I don't know if they are open today either, but our warranty is up JULY 5TH, TODAY!! I think they dragged this on to wear out the warranty then we'd have to take it somewhere else. Either that or they are really stupid and don't know how to fix our vehicle.

2 kids is a piece of cake!

2008-06-30T21:25:00.004-07:00

So since the 2 kids are at Grandma's, I got a lot done today! It felt so good to clean a room and when I left and came back, it was still clean! The two little girls aren't as messy as Jordan and Jocee are. I cleaned up Jordan and Jocee's bedroom--even under their beds! Boy do they like to hide stuff under there! They don't think I know they put stuff under there--but Moms know everything!
I even had a little tee party with Katee and Callie! It was so fun! Katelyn was cooking and baking all kinds of pretend food. She had a blast. Callie wasn't quite sure about me eating nothing. She kept opening her mouth for a bite and then when I'd giver her a pretend bite she made a face like "uh Mom, there's nothing there!" They were so cute playing together.
My house was so quiet. No tv's blaring with Spongebob! Yeaaa!

We started out the day taking Callie to her 1 yr old well child checkup. She only weighs 17 lbs and is 27in tall. The dr was concerned about her weight because she's not gaining so she told me to give her Pediasure every day to help her pack on some lbs. That stuff's not cheap though! Maybe I can find a coupon. She had to get 3 shots, poor girl!

When it rains it pours!

2008-06-30T20:59:00.002-07:00

Just an update on our van situation: We dropped it back off to them 2 Saturdays ago because when Chad's Dad drove it home earlier on Saturday he said it was still hot. So he called the guy and told him what he thought it might be and the guy said to bring it back asap and they would work on it first thing Monday morning (last Monday). Well, we never received any phone calls. We always had to initiate the call to find out what was going on. He told Chad's Mom that they had run all the tests they could on it and couldn't find anything so they were going to take it to a Nissan dealership to see if they could run other tests that might find the problem. Well, they discovered the problem and back it went to the Mazda dealership for them to fix it. So that was Wednesday. We hadn't got a call from them at all, so Chad called on Friday to find out what was going on and when he asked for the guy who's been handling our vehicle he said that he no longer worked there!! So now we have a new guy who seems to be nicer than the other guy. Although he told Chad that it was almost done and we would be able to pick it up hopefully by the end of the day. Well, no call Friday. No call Saturday. So Chad called again today and the guy said that it was fixed and that we could pick it up today. I couldn't believe it. I called and arranged for Chad's mom to go down with me to pick it up. About 30 minutes later Chad called me and said he got a call from the dealership and they said that it wasn't working anymore so we couldn't come pick it up! Oh my heck!!! When are they gonna get it right?? I don't know what to do at this point. My van has been at that place for about 3 weeks now and they wouldn't even give us a rental car again after the first week. So if Chad's aunt and uncle didn't have an extra van for us to use, we would have been stuck at home for the last 2 weeks and counting.

Then, the truck's registration was due by today and it needed an emissions test. So Chad went today after work and it failed! So if we want the truck to get registered, we have to get a bunch of stuff fixed on it so it will pass emissions! When it rains it pours!! Then for some odd reason while I was figuring out what bills to pay today I totally forgot about one bill that gets automatically deducted at the end of the month! So we are probably gonna go over because I had already used all the money to pay other things. So we'll probably get some lovely fees to pay. Bills stink. Money too--it stinks not to have enough and from what I hear, it causes problems when you have too much! (I obviously don't know about that though. Maybe some day.) I know that we have experiences to make us stronger and to teach us. I guess I'm not a fast learner ;( LOL...

Callie's First Birthday Weekend

2008-06-29T20:57:00.012-07:00

It all started with a swim party at the Gardiner's house for Uncle Peter's birthday on Friday. The kids had a blast swimming with all their cousins. They swam the whole time!! By the end of the night, they were exhausted! There was tons of really good food and conversations with family we don't see that often.

Here's Jocee and Jillian playing on the Crazy Twister!

Jordan getting ready to jump in!

All the cousins eating their dinner. Katelyn, Jocelyn, Jillian, Chloe, Kenya or Kira (not sure which twin, sorry Susan!), and Bradley.
After dinner, we made ice cream in a bag! We had to shake the bag like crazy to get it to freeze the mixture. After a while, my arm was tired! But the ice cream was good though! We added chocolate chips to it too.
Daddy and Callie hanging out.
Katelyn enjoying her ice cream! Yummy!
Jordan and his best buddy (cousin) Kyle enjoying their ice cream in chairs in the corner of the yard. I went over to take their picture and Jordan said, "Mom, this is the greatest day of my whole life!!!" It was hilarious!
Here's me shaking my bag making some ice cream.
Then we sang to Callie and she got her own little cupcake (thank you Erika!).
She loved it!!

"Mmmmmmmmmm!!!"
"That was soooooo good!" She ate every last bite of it!
On Saturday, my mom and brother came in to town with my dad (he had to work) and we hung out and had a little party for her. I took Jordan to a party in the morning and didn't have to pick him up till 3pm! It was nice to have one less child to worry about for a while. So I hadn't had time to get Callie a present so my mom, Jocee and I went shopping while Chad worked in the yard with Katelyn and Callie slept. It was so nice to get out with only one child and get to hang out with my mom. Since gas is so high and she lives so far, we don't get out to Coolidge that often. And when we do, I don't get to just hang out with my mom with all the kids running around her house. It was a nice break from the every day mumbo jumbo. I think Jocee really enjoyed being with her Mom and Grandma by herself too. She was really good..

After we ate homemade tacos with all the trimmings I let Callie open her presents. She found us wrapping them in the bedroom and really wanted to open them. So I figured, "I'm the Mom. I set the rules. I can let her open her presents whenever I want!"

Grandpa got her some cute nesting toys.
Grandma got her some keys that had a little beeper thing on it that had buttons that play different sounds. She loved pushing those buttons! She also got this train that plays music, has games, and teaches numbers and even math! So it will be a great toy for all the kids! I'm gonna have Jordan play the math games on it so he will get better at math. I looked for toys at Wal-Mart and they were freakin' expensive! So we went to Once Upon a Child and got her some great musical toys for a fraction of the retail price!

This little phone book toy was so cheap and she loves it! I love a bargain!

Her beautiful birthday dress I got her to wear on Sunday.

My mom got her these adorable Levi's. They were on clearance at Mervyns and they were really cheap too!
She also got her this pretty pink dress for cheap too. We got some really good deals today, which is why she got so many presents. We are awesome shoppers!

After playing with her toys, she climbed into the little cubby in the entertainment center! She thinks it's so funny and she loves to climb in and out and just laugh at us! She's so stinkin' cute!!!

I got her these cute sunglasses at the dollar store. She thought they were so funny!

Katelyn helping her put them on upside down.

I love this picture of Katee. Look at her eyes underneath the glasses! So cute!

My adorable little 1 year old!!! I am the luckiest mom!!

Since I wasn't home much all day, I didn't make Callie's cake, my Mom made it for me while I was out picking up my dad from work and getting some last minute items. My sister came over too and she (along with some helpers) was kind enough to decorate the cake for me. The kids had so much fun 'writing' on the cake.

The final product! Isn't it pretty?!

After all the presents, Callie was really tired and wanted to go to bed. So she actually was asleep while we sang to her and ate her cake!! Oh well, at 1, she doesn't know the difference! Saturday wasn't really her birthday anyways!

Here she is in her new birthday dress with our dog, Rocky by her side.

Chad, Katelyn, and I sang to her and gave her a piece of her cake. (Jordan and Jocee went to Grandma's house for a while. Jordan's last day of summer school was Thursday and all he's kept wanting to do was "go on vacation to Grandma's house!" so she let them go home with her on Saturday night.)

Grandma Gardiner brought over some presents for her today. She liked these little bath puppets!

She also got her this cute My First Baby. She immediately hugged it and kissed it and held it. How can a 1 year old already have motherly instincts?

Then her finale present was this really cute farm toy that plays songs and sounds and stuff! She loves it! She and Katelyn played with it all night.

Katelyn was trying to sing along and repeating the words. So it's helping her with her speech too! Woo hoo!! Isn't she cute?!

Hair Day

2008-06-23T21:19:00.005-07:00

Today we went to our cousin's house for a hair cut. Jocee wanted her hair cut a little bit shorter and she went first.
Here she is sitting so still. Before:
After:

Katelyn's needed to be trimmed too. So she was next.
Before:

After:
Then it was my turn. Here's a couple of before pictures to show how long my hair was.

After:

A before picture of me and Jocee:

After:

I was in a rut and tired of my hair looking bland and boring. Plus it's so hot that I just put it up in a ponytail anyways so I was ready for it to be short and off my back. My cousin is going to beauty school and was willing to give me some highlights and a new style. She did the color first, then while it was processing, she did the girls' cuts, then washed out mine and cut and styled it. I think she did a great job! Thank you Aarin!! We all love our new hair!

Reward for hard work--and a chance to get out of the house

2008-06-19T22:33:00.003-07:00

So after they, I mean we, cleaned up the toy room, they thought they were going to their friend's house but it didn't work out, so they begged to go to the mall to play instead. So I went ahead and took them. I thought it would allow them to let some energy out and get nice and tired. Jocee and Jordan mostly ran around playing tag. Then Katelyn and Jocee had a lot of fun going down the slide together.

Here's Katelyn playing on the snake.

Katelyn trying to "help" Callie get all the way up.

Callie loved walking around the snake too! She climbed up it and almost did a face dive into the middle of it onto the floor--but Mommy caught her just in time!Jocee figured out how to do a back flip on it and thought it was pretty fun.

Jordan managed to climb up on this rock looking thing that's not actually part of the play area. It's just decor...but he didn't let that stop him!
Here he is posing for me...

Another favorite was this thing, whatever it is. They all four loved climbing up to the top, then enjoying a bumpy ride down! Callie is a little monkey...she climbs up everything at home, so she especially loved this!

The girls getting ready to go down!

I just love Callie's little feet. So precious!

When we came home, the two little ones went right down for a nice, long nap! Ahhhhh...sweet victory!!! LOL! :)

The Key!

2008-06-19T16:23:00.003-07:00

So when Jordan came home from school (thanks to Erika for picking him up!) I made him stay in the toy room until he found it. After about 30 minutes of searching......

He found it!!!!!! Yeaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone was so happy!!!

Except then we had to clean up the rubble.....

But at least we could leave the house now!

More than I can take

2008-06-19T10:59:00.003-07:00

Right now I have more than I can take. When will it stop?!!

1. My van's a/c is still not blowing out cold air. So it's back at the dealership. They didn't offer to give us a rental car while they have it for a long while, so Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Allen were generous enough to let us borrow their van (which runs awesome and has freezing cold a/c.). The guy who is dealing with our car is totally rude and has not one ounce of customer service in his body. Total jerk!

2. Callie has been crying almost non-stop for the last 6 days. All she wants is for me to hold her--which would be fine if I didn't have 3 other needy children or a household to take care of.

3. My head has been pounding for like a week from all the crying, whining, begging, arguing, fighting, and every other noise children manage to make.

4. The Lakers lost.

5. I cant find the key to the van!! I had a meeting set for this morning with the preschool to see if Katelyn gets to go or not and when we were all ready to leave, the key was nowhere to be found. I knew exactly where I left it, and it wasn't there. So I knew right away who took it and he was at school! So I called the school and the teacher asked him if he had it, and he said "It's on the floor in the toy room." So the girls and I searched the whole toy room and didn't find the key. So I had to call the lady at the preschool to let her know that I wouldn't be making the appointment. I'm almost positive he took it and hid it to get back at me because he got caught in a lie last night and lost his tv privelege (I can't seem to spell this dumb word for the life of me right now--my brain's not functioning with all the screaming right now--if only you could hear the noise level through this post!) for today so he was mad at me.

6. In the middle of telling my mom about my stresses, my phone died!!

7. Trying to get every document necessary to renew our application with DES and making sure the get it all on time or they cut us off (which has happened before--not fun).

8. Haven't been to the grocery store in a while so we have almost no food to make for dinner. (Can't wait for pay day!) Luckily my friend Erika came over and helped me come up with something yummy. She's awesome. She let me vent some frustration last night, which did help. (What would I do without my girlfriend?!) (Probably lose it!)

I work tonight--maybe it'll be good for me to get away for 5 hours!

Callie Update

2008-06-14T17:52:00.002-07:00

Okay, I LOVE this pediatric urgent care (on Cooper and Baseline by Kohl's)! It's so much easier for me to take the kids there than taking them to the dr's office because I don't have to make an appointment 2 days in advance and they are still seen by a pediatrician and get a prescription! I took Callie today and got there at about 12:55pm. I was in and out by 1:30pm!! And I was right, she has an infection in both ears! Poor baby! The doctor was really great with her and had a great time making her smile. So we went to Target afterwards to get her medicine and of course, as my luck would have it, it was closed for lunch! So we had to kill time walking around and after a while she was READY TO GO! When we got home she went right to sleep and she and I got to take a great nap while Chad and the kids played/worked outside. YEEAAA!!!

Friday the 13th

2008-06-14T08:45:00.005-07:00

WARNING: THIS MAY BE A VERY LONG POST!

The day started out good with a morning of swimming at Grandma's house. All the grandkids came and the moms hung out and talked. It was great. Then we ordered pizza for lunch and then the kids played in the house while we talked at the table. It's nice to get to socialize with other moms who understand me and my frustrations. I talk to Chad about stuff but he doesn't understand the pressures of being a Mom like other moms do. Then it was about time for the babies to have a nap so we all gathered up the kids (Chad didn't have to work so he came over later and ended up staying with the 2 big kids because they "weren't done swimming yet!") So after I left the house, I figured that the a/c would take about 2 miles before it got really cold. (When we picked up the van on Thursday evening, the a/c wasn't as cold as it usually was when Chad and Allen put refrigerant in it, but the guy told us to see what happened the next day and it should be fine.)
Well, after about 5 miles, it was still not cold and actually the back vents blew out warm air! I was furious. We just paid them all this money and it's still not working! So I called Chad and he told me to just drive it down there and take it in (even though Callie and Kate were exhausted from swimming and being up early in the morning and desperately needed a nap!).
So I spent 2 hours and 15 minutes at the stupid dealership with the two tired girls. When I got there the guy who had been dealing with our van was not courteous, nice, or at all apologetic to me (I looked like crap--no make-up and hair tied back from swimming. I know that if I came in dressed nice and looking nice, he would have treated me differently--I saw how he was with other people who didn't look like a drowned rat like myself!.) I was even more mad that he didn't even care that I had to drive my vehicle back to them (with MY gas) because it wasn't working like it should be and that I had two cranky babies who were missing their nap because of it and I had to entertain them for 2 hours!
So he came back about an hour later and said that sometimes the equipment they use to put refrigerant in vehicles doesn't put in the right amount so they were sucking out what was in there and putting in the right amount. (So how would they be sure this time that the machine was putting in the right amount?) So an hour later he came back, not looking like it was fixed, said "Well, we got it to read about 40 degrees in the front but the back is only going to get as cold as 60 degrees because you have the front blowing at full blast (the switch is broken and will only blow out on high). He also said that if the other low/medium settings were working that the air would be colder and that we needed to get it fixed as soon as possible.
So I took the key and carried out (by myself) the diaper bag, Callie, Callie's carseat, and Katelyn's booster seat, with Katelyn trailing behind, passing about 4 guys who work there, and not ONE of them offered to help me! So I drove off and it was cool, but not COLD like and air conditioner should be. I was so mad. They put in a new compressor, new condenser, new lines and it's not getting my air freezing cold????!!! So I called Chad and told him how I was feeling about this whole thing and how the guy was rude to me, and Chad was mad. So he called the guy and told him that I wasn't happy with his service and that the air is still not what it should be. The guy basically told Chad that once he fixed that switch that it should work perfectly. So we are ordering the part today and hopefully getting it put in (anyone know how to change out a blower resistor?) asap.
So I have a few questions: If, once the blower resistor has been changed out, the air is still not freezing like it should be (and was before it broke), what can we do about it? Anything? Isn't the dealership at all responsible for the work that they complete? If they say that they can't get it any better than it is, are we just stuck with a vehicle that doesn't blow cold air? The a/c is like the most important thing in your vehicle when you have 4 kids and live in Arizona. I know if we tried to trade it in to get a car that DOES have cold ac that we wouldn't get enough to pay off the loan we are currently paying on.

When I finally came home from the dealership I put the girls down for a nap (even though it was 4pm!), and got in the shower. When I got out, I heard Callie crying. I thought she'd sleep for hours since she'd been up all day! So I got her and fed her (thought she was hungry from not eating since lunch) and she stayed up. Then Chad called and said he finally got a phone call from his boss saying he could go pick up his check (we needed that check to get deposited before 7pm so we could pay the mortgage on time and not have a late fee), but he wasn't home when he got there so he came home. Well, at about 6:40pm, the boss finally returned his call, and said Chad had to go out to a building that wasn't cooling in the primary room because they were having a funeral viewing. So Chad was going to go pick up his check and meet me at Fry's so I could deposit the check but it was too late. So I decided that I would use my last 2 WIC checks before they expired today. So while I was in line to checkout, Chad called and said he was out front of the store and to send Jordan out to get the check. So I told Jordan to go get it (we were at the check stand closest to the entrance so I could watch Jordan go to the truck) and he took off running.....and so did Jocelyn and Katelyn!! I started yelling at them to come back but they didn't listen. So I grabbed my purse and Callie and went running out of Fry's while everyone watched and wondered "What is that woman thinking bringing 4 kids to the grocery store????!!"
Chad took Jordan with him and I came back in to get my stuff with the rest of the kids. While putting the groceries on the counter, Katelyn decided she wanted a candy (I just gave them a sucker before we went to the store) and when I told her no and to put it back, she had a full-blown screaming tantrum and flung herself onto the floor! Just what I wanted after just running out the door yelling at my kids! So with Callie under one arm and my purse over my other shoulder, I bent down and managed to somehow pick her up with one forearm and put her in the cart. That made her even MORE MAD and as I pushed her forward so the lady could put the groceries in the cart, she turned and looked at the lady and let out the loudest cry/scream I've ever heard!! The woman didn't mind, she was a good sport and kept talking to her in a nice tone and managed to calm her down. Then just as I thought I was done with that store (nearly out the door) I forgot to deposit the check in the ATM, so I headed back in to deposit the check without any further disruptions.
Later that night, as I was going to get in bed, Callie woke up crying AGAIN! She was all stuffy and couldn't breathe through her nose. I had noticed that for about the last week or longer she had been tugging on her ear and thought it was really hurting her. So I gave her Tylenol and put ear drops in her ear. Nothing calmed her down. I walked around and tried to rock her. I called the Nighttime Pediatric Urgent care and asked what I should do and she said to wait about 30 minutes to see if the medicine would help her sleep. She ended up screaming bloody-murder for about an hour. I felt so badly for her. I knew she was in a lot of pain. So I asked Chad to give her a blessing. He did and a short time after that she went to sleep. She slept for about 4 hours and got up again. After I finally got her back to sleep, she was crying again. So I woke up Chad and asked him to walk around with her while I tried to sleep. He eventually put her back to bed and she's been asleep ever since (it's now 9:45am). Unfortunately, we have 3 other kids and one who was up at 6am!! I feel like I didn't get hardly any sleep last night and after the long day I had yesterday, I was looking forward to a full night's sleep! If only things worked out the way we want them to.
I will be taking a trip to the pediatric urgent care to get a prescription for Callie today. Chad's planning on cutting down some of the other tree in our yard (I think he's also planning on me helping him). So I'm hoping today will be a better day than yesterday--maybe even a nap!!

Pimpin' New Ride!

2008-06-09T18:43:00.004-07:00

Here's the cool key to our hot new ride! You push the little silver button and the key pops out like a pocket knife. It's so cool. Seems like it could brake easily though.

And here it is.... A Mazda 5!

The front dash.....

The middle has two bucket seats and so does the back. Barely fits our huge family!

Here's the back row. As you can see, there's basically NO room for a stroller or much of anything for that matter! It's so tiny. It's definitely not a car for families with babies! The kids think it's cool though.

Oh yeah, there's also no vents in the rear either! Doesn't make any sense to me. It drives really well--Chad had fun zippin' all over the roads! He was flyin' down the freeway and I looked over at the speedometer and he was going 90!! I yelled "Chad!! You're going 90!!!" He looked down and was like "I am? I'm barely pushing on the pedal." You'd think someone who just went to traffic school 2 weeks ago would be more cautious, but--no. Anyways, so as you probably are guessing.......No, it's not our new car. It's a rental while our van's a/c is getting fixed. We've been without a/c for about a month! It has not been fun. So I called the dealership to see when our warranty was up and he said it was up in less than a month!! So Chad took it in on Saturday morning and the guy said that the compressor and the condenser were broken among several other things. He said all was covered except a "line" that has to do with the a/c was not covered. First he told Chad that it would only be like $30 bucks. Then he came back and said it would be 12 times that much!! I couldn't believe it! Of course he was making it sound like, you're gonna get this fixed and that fixed and all you have to pay out the door is X amount of dollars. Like we were getting a good deal! HA! Yeah right. That's why you pay for a warranty! So to get your money's worth on buying the warranty, you'd better get some things fixed or you gave them all that money for nothing! So he told Chad that we'd get a rental car for the weekend and I reminded Chad that we would need a vehicle big enough to fit 6 people and of course the guy said they didn't have a car that big and that we'd have to drive our A/C-less van for 2 more days and bring it back on Monday when they'd get a car big enough to fit our family. So we went today when Chad got home from work and got this car. They called it a van, but it's SO not a van! Compared to this little car, our van is SO roomy!! Oh well, it'll be fun to have a different vehicle for a while and to have AIR CONDITIONING! (And a CD player! Our van doesn't have one :( )

Kung Fu Panda!

2008-06-07T19:45:00.002-07:00

We have never taken the kids to the movies because it's so dang expensive but we had a gift card from Christmas so we decided to take them to see Kung Fu Panda! We left the 2 little ones with a sitter and took Jordan and Jocee and also their friends, Tanner and Taylor. They were so excited the whole day--asking me when it was time to go. The kids all liked the movie and it was pretty funny. Towards the end Jocee kept asking me when it was going to be over and when we were going home. But she lasted the whole movie and we had a great time with them all.

Bowling Fun!

2008-06-02T08:43:00.005-07:00

On Friday I got a free coupon from this lady for 2 hours of free bowling, shoes, and a pitcher of soda at the new Brunswick XL on Gilbert and Warner. By the time we got there it was already like 8:30pm and then there was a 45 minute wait. So we were there until about 11:15pm!! The kids had a blast bowling and dancing to the music though. Towards the end of our time, they were exhausted and just laid on the couches while we finished our game. Since there were so many little bowlers, we only got in 2 games, but it was free so who cares!! We had so much fun though.

Here's their little bowling shoes! They were so cute!
Jordan and Daddy watching the action!

Jordan excited about knocking down the pins! Jocee watching with her hands on her waist.

Daddy helping Katee. After about 3 turns, she did it all by herself!

Jocelyn showing off her dance moves!

Uncle Teddy loved playing with Callie while Mommy had a turn to bowl.

Katee had enough bowling....

She got Callie's blanket and plopped on the couch!

All 3 of the kids were laying on the couch. Just as I took the picture, Katelyn got up. They were so tired! But it was all worth it!

First Lost Tooth!

2008-06-01T23:03:00.002-07:00

Jordan finally lost his first tooth!! He's been waiting so long to lose a tooth because all of his friends teeth have been coming out. After a week of wiggling, it finally came out at Grandma's house!! He was so excited and couldn't wait to show off the hole in his mouth. While inspecting the hole, we discovered that the tooth right next to the hole, is growing in behind his tooth that hasn't come out yet and it's not that loose either. The one that's growing in is really crooked too. So we'll have to hope that that tooth comes out really soon or we'll be going to get braces!
Also while he was at Grandma's for a week, he was wrestling around with my brother and he banged his mouth (not how his tooth came out) on my sister's leg bone and I guess it hurt him pretty bad. So when he came home on Friday (for his Great-Great Grandpa's funeral :( ) I saw his mouth and his top lip was all swollen (you can see in the bottom picture that he can hardly smile and couldn't show all of his top teeth because his top lip is so swollen). My mom said this happened on Tuesday and that he would complain about his mouth hurting every once in a while each day so he would put ice on it but it was still swollen. The same doctor who glued my face back together is in the stake presidency and was at my Great Grandpa's funeral, so afterwards he took a look at his lip and said to keep icing it every day and that the swelling should go down soon. (He is the nicest man!)
Then Saturday morning he was trying to get laundry baskets down off the washer (so he could climb up it and get into the cupboards above the washer that are OFF LIMITS to kids!) and the hit his mouth again and started screaming and crying in pain! After icing it he was fine. Later that day he started saying it was hurting him again so I looked at his gums and right above his top tooth his gums were really swollen and drooping down his tooth and looked like it was full of fluid. Chad wanted to pop it but Jordan wouldn't even let us touch it. I've never seen anything like it before. It was the weirdest thing. I told him we'd have to take him to the dentist to see what was going on and he did not like that idea. He kept asking me what they were going to do to him and if it was going to hurt. I told him they would probably take x-rays to see what it was. I told him that if he kept ice on it for a long time that it might help it to get better and we wouldn't have to go to the dentist. So he diligently kept ice on it all night. This morning he came running in my room excited and said "Mom! Look at my gums! It's all better!" I looked at it and it looked a million times better and even his lip wasn't swollen anymore. He saw I was happy about it and asked "Do I still have to go to the dentist?" He must have prayed that it would get better and the Lord answered his prayer because he had been putting ice on it all week and didn't see much improvement and then overnight it looked so much better. I'm so glad he has faith in his Heavenly Father. What a good little boy.

Re-decorating

2008-05-23T13:00:00.003-07:00

My MIL and SIL are great decorators--I am not. So they offered to come help me with my house. I've been wanting some pictures hung up and the hall bathroom changed but I'm not good at it and I wasn't too motivated. When my house is a mess, I don't really want to make another mess on top of it. I really needed the help. So they came over on Tuesday and did most of the work while I was at speech with Katelyn, then at Jordan's school picking him up sick. They were busy little bees.
First they rearranged Jordan and Jocee's room and took out a dresser that wasn't being used. Now the room looks so much bigger and they have room to sit and play on the floor. I've been wanting that dresser out but haven't been motivated to actually do it because it's so big and heavy. They moved it out in no time! They were pros. I'm so glad they came. I totally needed this "lift". I was really feeling down and cleaning up my house and making it look great has really given me the boost that I needed. Thank you guys!!!

(Jordan came home sick and crashed on his bed.)
Jocee's bed and their clothes bins on a new wall really opens up the room.
I was so sick of the shower curtain that we had. It was old and stunk like pee (hmmmm...I wonder who missed the toilet?) So my mom bought this bright, cheery new curtain, matching towels, and a hook rack to hang them on.

My dad gave me this great black mirror so they hung it in there too. You can't see all of it, but there's also a brown shelf that used to be in the family room that I'm going to paint black too and put some pictures and greenery on.

Here's the living room with my awesome, new picture hanging in the middle. I'm going to paint the little white table a more earthy color. Mom also bought us three new beautiful lamps to go in there to create more light. They moved the rug to cover an ugly stain and I just love how it all turned out! The room looks so good and I love being in it. It's such a good feeling to walk around my house and it's all clean and organized and decorated! I can't thank them enough for what they did for me! It all looks awesome!

Yummy Chicken

2008-05-23T12:51:00.002-07:00

When Katelyn wasn't looking, Callie snatched one of her chicken nuggets right off her plate! It was so funny! She wanted it that bad, so I let her eat it. It was her first one ever! Lucky for me I had the camera to take her picture enjoying every last bite!
She went to town on that baby!!

Boys Night Out

2008-05-23T12:23:00.002-07:00

Last week the boys went to a Diamondbacks game. Jordan was so excited to go. He kept saying "I'm not gonna get bored. I'm not gonna ask to go home. I'm gonna have so much fun!" He was cute. After the game was fireworks but I guess they didn't start right away so they went ahead and left. But when they got to the truck, the fireworks started so they watched them from there. Jordan was exhausted and fell asleep on the way home. In the morning he told me all about it and how much fun he'd had. I'm glad they got to spend some one-on-one time together. Kids really need that, especially when they're amongst 3 other kids all needing mom and dad's attention!
Jordan!! The camera's over here!!
I know it's dark, but this was the view from their seats in left field. We usually sit behind the plate so it was cool to have a different view for a change.

Still not looking!

Love the weather!

2008-05-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

We are loving the rain!!!!!!!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-13T22:40:00.002-07:00

On Saturday, my MIL took all the daughters out to dinner and then shopping!! It was so fun! We went to TGIFridays for dinner and then to Ross and Mervyns. I got this cute skirt, shirt, and necklace! Chad thought I looked hot in my new outfit. I was so happy I found a new outfit to wear to church! And the shirt I can pair with other stuff too! We all had so much fun shopping with no kids. We wish we could do it every weekend!!

Chad and Jocee got me this beautiful bracelet and necklace that oddly enough, matched my new outfit!! Jocee said she picked them out for me. Good job!

I made this yummy dessert for my mom and me. It was soooo good!!

Cousin Ryan and Sick Kids

2008-05-13T22:15:00.004-07:00

Callie is just about the same size as her 2 month old cousin, Ryan! (Actually in this picture, his legs look like they might be a bit longer than hers! If I remember right, his mom said he weighs 13lbs and Callie weighed 16 lbs at urgent care yesterday! She's so tiny! Which I am enjoying because for the past month or so she's been so clingy and only wants me to hold her. I took the 23 girls to Urgent care yesterday (the Dr. office was booked for the day by 8am!), because they all had bad coughs. Callie has croup and strep throat, Katelyn had 2 ear infections (possibly strep too) and Jocee didn't have anything that needed a prescription. Callie also got a shot in the leg of some medicine to help her stop coughing. Her cough sounds so painful...like a seal barking. I feel so bad for her. She also got another top tooth to finally cut through so she's basically feeling pretty crappy these days...which means I've been pretty stressed out! I can't get much done and she just cries a lot even when I'm holding her.

Here's a picture of us after Ryan got blessed a couple of Sundays ago.

My cute little angel!
Jocee and her cousin Jillian. Jocee's a shrimpo next to her! And they're only 7 months apart!

Katelyn looking so cute!
My handsome boy wearing his new sports jacket.

Industrius Day!

2008-05-06T22:24:00.005-07:00

For some reason, Callie slept through the night last night and didn't wake up till 8:30am! So I actually got a full night's sleep with no interruptions! What a difference a full night's sleep makes! I got up and made waffles from scratch, then I cleaned the kitchen floor, then I vacuumed the house. Then I decided that since I haven't been to the store in about a week and our fridge is pretty empty, that I should clean it. So while Katee and Jocee played in the back yard, Callie and I cleaned the fridge! Callie was a great little helper! :)

She decided she'd climb in the drawer!

Here she is posing for the camera. Such a cutie!

The end result! A nice, clean, organzed, sanitized, and EMPTY fridge!

Then after I got done with the fridge, I decided I'd had enough of the messy back yard and patio. I've been asking Chad to clean it up, but it still wasn't done, so since I was on a cleaning spree, I tackled it myself! First I got a garbage bag and picked up the garbage (like empty wrappers, water bottles, junk the kids bring outside and chuck on the ground), and put the toys in order and also picked up dog poop! Then I figured I would mow the grass to make it look even better. I wondered if Chad would notice that I mowed with his precious mower! (I should have taken a "before" picture so you'd better appreciate the way it looks now, but I didn't. Oh well.)

Then.....after mowing (I was filthy because we have dirt areas so the dirt kicks up all over you while you mow, not to mention all the grass all over me that was making me super itchy because I'm really allergic to grass, but that's how dedicated I am!), I figured that since I'm already a mess, that I should give the dog a much needed bath! So Jocee helped me scrub Rocky and get him nice and clean and smelling great! She had fun...poor Rocky didn't like it so much though. After we were done, he posed with her for a picture. He's such a good dog.

All the while, Callie was hanging out in her swing. She didn't even fuss when I was too busy to give her a push. What a good girl!In the midst of cleaning up the back yard, I also cleaned off the patio and sprayed it down with the hose.

I had all that done by 1:20pm!! I was so proud of myself for being so productive. When Chad came home, the first thing he said to me was "Why did you mow the back yard???"

Then later this evening, I went to work at Mervyns for 4 hours!! Boy am I exhausted! Whoever says that stay-at-home Moms have it easy, obviously isn't one!

Cute and funny Callie

2008-04-30T11:59:00.002-07:00

Callie playing in her exersaucer.

Peek a boo!!
What a cute smile! Too bad the picture's blurry :(
Katelyn thought she'd be nice and feed Callie her food. (SIDE NOTE: Katelyn put that hat on all by herself.)

This is by far the funniest picture of Callie!

Father and Son Campout

2008-04-30T11:30:00.002-07:00

This last weekend the boys went on the ward's Father/Son camp-out. They were excited to go and have some dirty fun. They went up on Friday when Chad came home from work and came home on Saturday afternoon...and boy, were they filthy and smelly!!
I didn't sleep well that night. I was first greeted by a nasty roach in the hall bathroom, then later another one in my bathroom! So I kept thinking while I was laying in bed that another one was going to come out in my room and crawl on me in bed so I couldn't sleep. Then I kept hearing noises and freaking myself out.

Jordan and his friend Tanner crossing a creek.
These two have so much fun together. They have very similar personalities so they get along really well.
Trent Payne (Tanner and Taylor's dad) brought horseshoes to play so the boys had fun playing that.
Jordan was so excited to go on a hike with Chad. It's all he could talk about before they left. He packed his binoculars so he could see the birds up in the trees.

Laughing Baby

2008-04-30T10:52:00.003-07:00

Nothing's cuter than a baby laughing! Callie had a blast playing on my bed. It was so fun!

Lots of fun for a Monday

2008-04-30T10:31:00.003-07:00

My sister called and invited us to go with her and her "Nanny Kids" (for lack of a better word) to Chuck E. Cheese's! The kids were so excited! Here's Katelyn in the car looking cool.She liked driving the car in this game.
Callie liked playing by the school bus.
Here they are riding together. I put Katee on the train behind them in this picture and she thought it was so fun until...I put the money in and it started moving! She started screaming and freaking out and immediately got off! She did not like it one bit! It was so funny.
Callie wasn't afraid of the moving train though. She actually liked it!

It's nice to reap the benefits of my sister working for a rich family! The Mom gave Lexee enough money to buy food and get coins for her kids AND mine! Although, when Jordan came home from school and saw where we'd been (from the girls' prizes) he was not too happy. Now I have to take him. I felt bad but he was at school! Next time!

My Birthday Week!

2008-04-22T10:56:00.003-07:00

My birthday was last Tuesday, the 15th! My Mom-in-law had a luncheon party for me and Chad's sisters and aunts came. It was yummy and fun!! Then later that day Jordan had a baseball game. After his game, Chad and I went to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse (like Texas Roadhouse only cheaper.) They have a good deal where you get 2 dinners for only $13.99!! Plus they have YUMMMMYYYY rolls that just melt in your mouth!! It was so good. Then when we came home, we had cheesecake that Chad surprised me with. Mmmmm!! It lasted a few days til we scarfed it down. My dad came over the day before to give me my card and gave me some money to spend on myself (since I hardly ever do it) and Chad's mom gave me some too!
Then on Friday, my mom and sisters and brother came to town from Coolidge to take me to lunch and then shopping afterwards while my brother babysat the kids. We went to lunch at Gecko Grill then went shopping for clothes. I got some cute shirts and shorts and capris. It was nice to shop and not have to chase after kids or keep giving them food to keep them quiet or listen to them fight over who holds the bag of food. We did take Callie with us and had a poopy blow-out and she threw up twice, once all on my mom and herself so we had to get her a new outfit (she pooped on the extra one.) Aside from that, it was fun!
Then on Saturday night, I had a girl's night out with Chad's sisters and cousin. We had dinner at Olive Garden then went to the new San Tan Mall. It was a beautiful night! We walked around and had a good time with NO kids! What a great week it was for me!! I wish I had a week like that more often! (Don't all moms?!)

Hilarious Video of 2 cute kids on YouTube

2008-04-05T23:48:00.000-07:00

Fun at the Beach

2008-04-05T23:05:00.005-07:00

We went to Huntington Beach on Saturday after the kids got tired at Knott's but by the time we got there is was late in the afternoon and quite chilly. Chad and Jordan didn't let the cold stop them! They went right in the ocean!

Here he is trying to contain the shivers because he's freezing but having so much fun he can't stay out of the water!

Jocee and I preferred to have our fun in the sand!! Even then, I was still freezing my toosh off!

He came running back..... "I'm fweeeezing!!"

Then snuggled up with his towel to warm up!

Before he snuggled up with the blanket he had a run in with a wave....watch the video...it's hilarious! (It's obvious my kids don't know what's in ocean water!)

A short time later, we packed up and went back to the hotel. The kids said they wanted to get in the hot tub at the hotel so they could warm up.

The sun was almost all the way down...

More Knott's Fun

2008-03-28T14:59:00.008-07:00

(I don't know why this is blue and underlined!) Anyways...KBF was having a promotion for Spring Break called "Camp Snoopy" and they handed out maps to each kid and it had locations marked where they could pick up free gear, like a hat, bandana, wristband, and compass. The kids loved this! They looked so cute with their hats and bandanas on!

Me and Jocee had a blast on these spinning hats!! We went so fast that Jocee went flying out of her seat and onto my lap!! She couldn't stop giggling. She had too much fun!

Chad isn't much of a ride guy, but he agreed to go on the ferris wheel with Jordan. He was okay at first....
Here's me and Jocee having fun together... when we went down the first time, Jocee said "I feel like a tickle in my tummy!"
Then we both were stopped on the top while they load/unload people and I turned around and Chad looked a little worried.... I don't know if you can see, but he's got a death-grip on the lap bar and a nervous look on his face!! It was so funny!! Jocee and I kept yelling at them and trying to make them laugh.
Here they are on these semi-trucks they rode on. They wanted to be in the front, so me and Chad had to squish together in the back. They thought it was funny.
Peek-a-boo Jocee!!
Here we are in the back seat.

They are getting tired!! Good thing we took the wagon with us! I'm so glad we did. It was a very wise decision. It was much easier to pull around than pushing a double stroller! They really didn't even walk that much, they just let Chad pull them. Spoiled! I do admit--I even took a seat in it while the kids were on a ride. :)

Jocee also had a fun time on this Woodstock Air Mail ride! She saw this picture and said, "I'm sitting next to a cute little girl!"

This is me on the Sidewinder. It was so much fun! Each little compartment spun around while going on the roller coaster!! It was awesome!
I could hardly believe it, but Chad WANTED to go on this roller coaster!! He doesn't do roller coasters so I was shocked when he said he wanted to go on it. Unfortunately the kids weren't tall enough so I had to stay with them while he went by himself. He ended up going on it 3 times!!

Chad took this cute picture of Jocee.
Handsome boys!

Race Car Ride

2008-03-28T13:12:00.004-07:00

This was their favorite ride of all. They went on it so many times. It was the last ride that Jocee went on the last night we were there. We were all the way across the park and they were getting ready to close in like 10 minutes and she begged to go on it one last time (Jordan had fallen asleep sitting in the wagon). Chad wasn't up for running with them in the wagon so I ran across the park-- nearly killing people and not even waking up Jordan, and we made it in time for her to ride it twice!! We were both SO happy! She would have been so upset if she didn't get her last ride before we came back home.

Fun at Knott's Berry Farm

2008-03-25T19:15:00.007-07:00

Ahhhh!! Vacation is great!! We definitely need to do it more often! :) My mom was kind enough to take care of Katelyn and Callie so we could have a more enjoyable time with just the two older kids. I think she was mostly afraid of us losing one of the kids so that's why she changed her mind and agreed to watch the two girls. She kept telling the kids "Make sure you stay with Mom and Dad while you're there!! Okay!!??" She's funny. It was nice to just have the two kids though. I missed the other girls but there's no way we could have had a fun time with them all.

Here they are posing with Snoopy!! I was so happy they got to say hi to him!Here's the view from the front of our hotel. The park was just across the street! It was awesome. We could hear the screams from the roller coaster riders! This saved us money because we didn't have to pay for parking, plus we didn't have to buy food at the park either. We just walked back to our hotel and got in the car and drove down the street and paid the equivalent of a meal for 1 person at the park for our whole family! Plus when the kids got tired, we just went back to the hotel and rested for a while, then went back in to play some more!

We made it!!! Woo hoo!
This was the first ride we went on. (I know, it's blurry but oh well) Jordan was nervous about going on rides at first so I went on with Jocee. She was awesome!! She wanted to go on everything and wasn't a bit scared!! She's like a little version of me! Which I never would have guessed because when my dad swings the kids around and hangs them upside down, Jocee is usually the one who doesn't like it. She tells him to put her down. Katelyn on the other hand, LOVES to be thrown around! Maybe next time she can go have fun with us!
To get Jordan in the "riding" spirit, we all went on a little train ride around the kiddie area of the park.
Me and Jocee on the train.
Chad and Jordan in the hot air balloons. The kids really liked this one too. (And even Chad could handle it!)
Here's Jordan on a fun spinning ride. (Jocelyn's behind him.)
At first, Jocee wasn't too sure about this one because it goes up high and goes around in a circle. But I talked her into it and she loved it! (Can't see us in this picture but we're in there!)
Here's one up close on the bus.
Then we all went on this little kiddie roller coaster. Chad was brave enough to try it! (He HATES roller coasters!) He actually enjoyed it--mostly--besides the fact that the lap bar was jabbing into his stomach!

More pics to come....I'm going to bed for now!

Finally! A Vacation!

2008-03-09T22:07:00.002-07:00

The last trip we went on was the Gardiner family reunion 2+ years ago in Utah! So when we got our tax refund, we decided that we should take a family vacation. I got online and found a really good deal on tickets to Knott's Berry Farm (Disneyland is pretty pricey so we're waiting till the kids are a little bit older so they can remember going.) and I found a really good rate on a hotel right across the street (it took a while to search out all the different sites, but I found it!). I figured that the kids would be exhausted after a few hours so we would probably have to go back to rest in the middle of the day, then could go back in the afternoon so a hotel that close would be great. I wish we could take the wagon with us to pull around 2 of them while the other 2 are in the double stroller because I know Jordan and Jocee will get tired of walking real fast.
We are really excited about going. I know traveling with 4 kids is going to be stressful at times, but hopefully I can be well prepared with games, movies, music, and food to entertain them for 5 hours! If anyone has any car games or entertaining ideas, I'd love to hear them! The kids are excited to go but keep telling us they want to go "TODAY!" I think I'm going to mark it on a calendar so they can count down! We're going to leave Thursday, the 20th of March and come home on Easter Sunday. It will be good for us to just go and have a fun time as a family. We get so caught up with every day life, that sometimes we forget to "stop and smell the roses" per say, so we're looking forward to enjoying some fun with the kids! (Maybe some day, when Callie's old enough to leave with Grandma, we could take a trip with just "us!" Someday...

I made a funny

2008-02-28T22:03:00.003-07:00

Yesterday we were driving and Chad had on the song "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and it's mostly sung by a guy but in the middle of the song there's a part where a girl sings a bit and Jordan yelled out "Dad!! This is a GIRL song!!!" Chad told him, "No it's not." Then Jordan replied, "Yeah huh, there's a girl singing!!" Chad then told him, "It's okay. I like girls. Mommy's a girl and your sisters are girls." To which Jordan replied, "But Dad...You know I'm allergic to girls!!!" We laughed so hard!!! Then when he realized he'd made a funny, he said, "You better not tell anyone I said that!" That made us laugh even harder. Kids are hilarious!

Katee's busy Saturday

2008-02-27T13:17:00.010-07:00

Okay so about a week ago Katelyn gave herself a hair cut. So Saturday I took her to Great Clips to get it fixed. She had cut one side pretty short and she cut some of the top behind her bangs so she had to cut it pretty short.
This is one side of her hair before the haircut.

She sat in the chair just fine, but when the lady pulled out the cape to put on her, she went nuts!! So she ended up sitting on my lap the whole time. After that, she did great!
She even let the lady blow-dry her hair! She looked so cute.
Afterwards, we went to get frozen yogurt. Yumm!!

Then we went home and she played with Grandpa! Weeeeee!!! She has no fear!

She's going to be a roller coaster rider like her Mom!After all that fun, she went out back to ride her bike! 10 minutes later, she came in screaming!!

She crashed her bike and hit a wooden post face first!! It started to swell up so fast so I had to hold her down to keep ice on it for a little while. She DID NOT like that!! She wouldn't let me take a picture of it either. So I managed to get this one while she was laying on the couch.

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3 (tired of me taking her picture)

DAY 4

So today is day 5 (haven't taken her picture yet today) and it looks like she has purple marker under and around her eye. There's even a bit of yellow/green bruising up towards her eyebrow. So I know it looks bad. Every time I go anywhere, people constantly stop and ask me what happened or ask her "Did you get an ouchie?" and she just stares at them like "What are you talking about?" She doesn't know it's there except for when she walks by my mirror and then she sees it and touches it and says "ouchie!" Anyways, so we were at the Sprouts this afternoon and she was a very good girl (no tantrums or anything!). No one had asked me about her eye for some reason on this trip. THEN.....................................I was standing in line to pay when a POLICE OFFICER approached me and was looking at Katelyn (checking out the eye), and introduced himself and said "A concerned customer called me to come check out the situation with your daughter's eye. What happened to her?" I was totally stunned! I felt like such a bad mom at that moment. My stomach was in knots and my heart started racing and I was so nervous. I know I didn't do anything wrong, but the fact that someone is basically accusing me of hurting Katelyn made me so mad! I told him what happened and he was like, "When did this happen? How old is she? When is her birthday? Can she talk?" I guess he wanted to ask her what happened. I told him that she doesn't talk that much and actually we had just left the Speech therapy session!" Then he took my name and address and birthdate. I felt like such a criminal. How embarrassing! Everyone in the freakin' store was staring at me. I might understand why someone might call the police if I was in the store yelling at her and mistreating her, but she was so good, just sitting in the cart being good! He walked out of the store and walked with me to my car, then was like "Have a nice day." I am still stunned that someone called the police! I just can't get over it. I told the cop that I guess I should start putting makeup on it before going out because I don't want another visit from him. He laughed and said "Yeah, I guess so!" SIDE NOTE: Erika, you better hope that the same person doesn't read your blog about how Taylor's tooth got knocked out!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-02-20T22:14:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was our 8 year anniversary!!! I can't believe how time flies as you get older. I remember my mom used to tell me all the time that time goes by so fast and I used to think she was crazy!
So for our anniversary, we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then went shopping for a new camera, since Katelyn got her little hands on ours and broke it! We had bought one on Monday night but when I took it home to play with it, I just didn't like it. So we took it back and haven't found the "right one" yet. I've been looking up some on the internet and I will probably buy a Canon. Chad's brother, who is a great photographer, said he has one that he loves and works well so I will probably get one too. Now to find the best price on one! I'm also refusing to get one that requires AA batteries. I'm only getting one that uses a Lithium-Ion battery. Anyways, after we went shopping a bit, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. It was SOOO good! I saved a bit of it so I could have some for today when the girls went down for a nap. Mmmm!!!

(So, I won't have pictures to post until I get a new camera. :()

In other news....Katelyn got ahold of scissors that Jordan was using and didn't put away, and cut her hair!! It's really short on one side and the back is long on top and underneath is short. I'm waiting to take her to the beauty shop because I have to take a before picture and a during and an after! I know, I'm nuts. But I have to document this milestone!! I have pictures of Jocee's first haircut so I have to do the same for Katelyn. If I didn't have 3 kids at home all day, I could go shopping for one during the day, but since I do, I'll probably have to wait til Saturday unless I buy one online and wait for it to come in the mail.

Out with the old, in with the NEW!

2008-02-12T15:38:00.001-07:00

This is our old Lexmark printer that is also a fax. It doesn't work! The only thing that works on it is sending a fax! I liked that it was a printer/fax/copier/scanner, but the ink is SO dang expensive! Then once I finally splurged and bought the ink it still wouldn't print right. The letters had lines through them and smudges and it was just bad. Then the feeder (?) stopped working and the paper would get stuck. SOOOO...we got our tax refund and I bought this.....
The Kodak Easy Share 5300! I saw it on the Apprentice about a month ago and decided I was going to get it! It's supposed to print twice as many documents with one ink cartridge than other leading inkjet printers. Also, the ink cartridges are way cheap compared to the price of other brands. The black is only $9.97 and the color is $14.97 (or something close to that). I read about it on Wal-mart.com and saw that there were 3 models that were basically the same. The "lowest" model was the 5100 and it was $119.88 and the next up was the 5300 and it was $148.88. So I went to Wal-Mart today with the 3 girls and was going to get the 5100, which was marked $98.96. There was only one of the 5300 but no price on it. Then when I was walking out of the department, a saleswoman stopped me and asked if I got the ink because it didn't come with the printer. I said, "It doesn't come with the ink?? Are you sure? I think it does" She was like, "The next model up, the 5300 comes with ink but we are out of them." I said, "No you're not, there's one over there. I was just looking at it but there was not price for it." She said," Really? I believe it's the same price as this one, $98.96." I was like "ARE YOU SURE???" Anyways, it ended up being the same price so I got the better one!! I just now saw that it doesn't come with the USB cord though. Maybe I will find the one that I used with the old printer. I am SO excited to finally be able to print!!! Woohoo!!!
So after I got my printer I went to check out the vacuums and I got this.....
A New Eureka Vacuum!!! It has all these cool attachments like a self-cleaning duster that I used on my blinds today, and a thing that attaches to the hose that you use to clean curtains, couches and stairs. I just got done vacuuming my whole house and you wouldn't believe how much crap was in the container! It is embarrassing!! I had to empty it half-way through the house! The container isn't the biggest but still!! It did a great job picking up what my other vacuum didn't. I just hope it continues to work like this for a very long time.

This is the old Dirt Devil that didn't work........
This is the great job it did in the living room. I know, there are stains...I have four kids! There's bound to be stains. Next, I'd like to get a carpet cleaner. There's always a spill to be cleaned up that I'd love to have one.