Monday, October 29, 2007

Thanks Grandma!!

Grandma sent the best package last week!! It was stocked full of Annie goods. My girls were in heaven, especially Mckenna! The favorite item is the dress. Mckenna put it on immediately, wore it all day, and cried when I made her take it off for bedtime, only stopping when I promised she could put it right back on in the morning. The next day she cried when she spilled cereal milk on it because I told her I needed to wash it. Emma wore it one day and I'm amazed Mckenna let her! Somehow they haven't fought over it yet, which is amazing. They each got an Annie doll and Emma took her's to sharing time at school last week, and apparently it was a big hit. Thanks Grandma, that package was perfect!!

(pardon my naked child)

Uh oh, we're in trouble...



David's just starting to pull himself up on things...and he hasn't even perfected crawling yet!! Yesterday I was playing with him and this little piano he has. I thought he was trying to take it out of my hands, but I started just holding onto it a bit stronger and he pulled himself up!! Like 5 times! Also, Shannon and Jed spent Saturday night with us and before we put the mattress away I caught him trying to pull himself to stand using the mattress. He also figured out a way to climb on top of it. And as far as his crawling, he's still slithering with his army crawl. However lately, he's gotten up on his knees and every now and then his toes(with his little bum sticking up in the air). He's 8 months as of yesterday and so much fun!! He eats just about anything you put in front of him. I've been trying really hard to keep our floor super clean, but regardless of how much I vacuum it, he still finds something to stick in his mouth! There have been times that I'll finish vacuuming, put the vacuum away, turn around, and see him with a raisin or something in his mouth! I don't know how he finds these things, it's like he has a secret stash somewhere. Good thing he's so cute...

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Fire Statistics

327,000 acres burned
1500 homes destroyed
560,000 people evacuated
$1,000,000,000 in costs
55 injuries
3 deaths

Most of the fires are at least 10% contained. We're now getting nasty smoke and ash outside and Emma's school was canceled today, so we're just staying inside as much as possible.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Fire Update

That picture is the sunrise view from our driveway this morning. The smoke has finally come this way. We've been lucky up till now because the winds have been blowing the smoke towards the ocean and there's been mountains and hills separating them from us. But last night, the winds died down(good news for the fires) and came over the hills. Ian saw one of them last night on his way home. (Yes! He's home! He came home early.)

As far as the firefighters' progress, the fires are still raging. The biggest fire (The Witch Creek Fire) is only one percent contained and last night it merged with another fire. There was one small fire in Temecula, about 2 miles south of us, yesterday. That gave us a scare! But it's completely gone, no worries. We almost housed some evacuees last night, but they wanted to be closer to their friends who'd lost their home.

So, really no good news. A few of the fires have been 10% contained, but they're still burning. We're still safe, and still very very grateful.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Holy Fire Batman


All of Southern California is on fire right now. It's insane. We're all perfectly fine and OK, and so is everyone I know. My aunt in Ramona has been evacuated, but according to the latest maps, her house hasn't burned. My sister's getting smoked out, but the fires aren't really close to her. There's one that's about 10-15 miles south and a bit west of us. There are 3 main fires in San Diego County. The largest (The Witch Creek Fire)has burned at least 145,000 acres and is still burning ferociously. That fire is actually creeping into Valley Center. It's 0% contained and the winds are picking up(as if they weren't bad enough yesterday) and are expected to change directions. Yesterday they were blowing from East to West, today they are expected to turn and go East. The wind is expected to continue until Thursday night.


I feel a bit helpless because Ian's in Bakersfield - about 3 hours North of us and there's a fire between us. But we're all safe and ok and so is our home. I've never been more grateful that my home is still standing than right now.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Sleepies



Last night David and I fell asleep waiting for Ian to finish printing some stuff off the computer. I love sleeping pictures.

WARNING

This post is not for those with a weak stomach. It includes pictures of bloody wounds. That said...































Ian hit a would be home run last night at our ward softball game... I say "would be" because it would have been if he'd plowed into the catcher a littler harder. Oh well, he brought two runs in. :) Poor Dawn, she's a sweet girl in our ward who's pregnant and she was up to bat before Ian...so when he hit, she had to haul tail to get to that home plate before Ian. And here are his battle wounds:
They're actually worse than they look. His left arm is red from his elbow almost all the way to his wrist. But he made me proud! His first hit he slid, and his last hit he had a rather entertaining game of "Pickle." All of the other wives were jealous. (totally joking)

28 cents

Ian wanted me to blog this pic...

And tell you that he got it all for 28 cents.

Mckenna-isms

Yesterday morning Mckenna and I were lying in bed as the sun was about to come up and she said, "Mommy! The sun's almost up! It's almost here! It just has to go pee-pee and poo-poo and then it will be up!"



And as these videos are in high demand lately, I present you the latest(for you Sundwalls):

I call it: Moshpewoe Sudiwt(as I was typing this I asked Ian how he would spell "sudiwt" and Mckenna said[pointing her finger] "su...diwt")

Who stole the cookie?

Last Monday for FHE we made Halloween cookies. Yum!! Most of these pics are taken by Emma (except the above)...

So a couple of nights later, Mckenna finished her dinner and asked if she could have a cookie. I told her she could go get one. A few minutes later Emma started yelling frantically, "David! He's-Hurry! David's - MOM!" She was so upset she didn't even put a coherent sentence together, so I ran into the kitchen, expecting the worst, and found this:

Notice how few cookies are left? He was eating them in fistfuls! And do you see how puffy his cheeks are? Full! He was super happy for the rest of the night. Oh...and yes Mckenna is sitting in the corner for leaving the cookies down on the floor. After the initial shock, I realized how absolutely silly the whole thing was and we had a good laugh.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Craft Fair

So I just signed up for my first craft fair...I'm so nervous! My friend Heidi and I are going to host a booth together with my bows and her tu-tu's. I totally forgot to ask when it is...I feel like such a dork. But I know it's not tomorrow because I'm meeting with the lady tomorrow to drop off a check and get more info - so I'll ask her then. Anyway...has anyone ever done something like this before? Any advice even if you haven't done it? Maybe you've gone to one before and saw something fun? And does anyone have any good ideas for what we should call our boutique/shop? I'm terrible at thinking up this kind of stuff. Everything I think of is either lame or super lame. But I can make bows! :) Yay!!

Monday, October 8, 2007

A few thoughts on Conference

I LOVED General Conference!! Some of my favorite talks were Sis. Beck's "Mothers Who Know" and Elder Oaks "Good, Better, Best." Also Elder Uchtdorf's was great, and didn't you just want to cry watching sweet Elder Wirthlin? What a dedicated, sweet sweet man. I'm so glad he was able to finish his talk and so grateful for sweet Elder Nelson for standing there the whole time. Also, I'm so excited that President Eyring is the new second counselor. I just love him. It seemed to me that the conference was geared very much towards new members or non-members. It was wonderful though and I'm glad I was able to watch all 4 sessions. What did you think?

The Stinker Strikes Again!

OK Ode to Katie part deux...

Ian went to Utah last weekend to translate for conference and when my sweet friend Amy found out I was husbandless she invited us over for dinner yesterday. It was so nice to get out of the house after sitting on the couch all weekend watching conference. Dinner was delicious and we had a great time...Mckenna had too great of a time. When we were just about ready to go home Mckenna came downstairs looking very... wet. She loves to play in the sink so I assumed that's what she'd been doing. If only that's all it was...

She'd gotten into the Vaseline!! She spread it all over her face, hair, neck, hands, bottom(because Spencer told her it was for bottoms...), legs, feet, shoes, and even on a bowl, towel, stuffed snake, and into the carpet!! And it wasn't even my house! I felt awful! Luckily one of their kids has done this in the past, so it wasn't too big of a deal. But I still felt bad! She is such a stinker!! Why is it that some kids just have a tendency to find and play with everything they should not play with?

Hope this helps you feel like you're not alone, Megan B.!!

Friday, October 5, 2007

Bittersweet

Yesterday I went down to Oceanside Harbor to try and find my dad's memorial bench(it's been a year). That morning I told Ian I wanted to go, but I didn't want to take the girls. The problem with that was that out of the people I usually ask to babysit - 2 had sports that afternoon, one was sick, and I'd already used the Crabtrees once that week. So I didn't think I would end up going. However, just as I was picking Emma up from school I got a text from Molly(Crabtree) asking what I was up to. She wanted to know if I wanted some time to myself. She must have been inspired. :) So I dropped the girls off and David and I headed down to Oceanside.

We parked at one end of the Harbor and walked all the way to the other end - and back - trying to find the bench. I finally called my aunt who said it was at the end I had parked by, but all the way at the end, by the hotel where my dad and stepmom were married in '96. So after over 2 miles of walking, we found it(it wasn't a total loss - I took a ton of pictures). It's in a very secluded spot, and the words on it were perfect. So David and I had a special day. :) Here are our pictures.








For all you readers

My sister-in-law Shannon let me in this great little gem: PaperBackSwap.com

It's a great website where you list all of the books you have and want to get rid of. Once you send them off to someone who requests them you then get credit so that you can have books sent to you. The picture above is of the first four books I just sent off yesterday. I also have two in the mail on their way to me. All you pay is shipping for the books you send. The only problem is that the really good books have really long waiting lists, but it seems to me that they would probably have a short turnaround time. I'll let you know. :)

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Kiddie Kam

The girls love to play with my camera and every now and then they take an entertaining pic. It's just so fun to see what they deem picture-worthy. Here are a few from the other day(this is 5 out of the 60 from one day):




Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Shan's blog

My family made some brief appearances on my sister's blog with some awesome videos. I think it's one or two posts down.

http://jedandshannon.com/shannon/

Thanks Shan. :)

Gratitude

(I wrote this yesterday but forgot to post it)

Shannon J. had a post that got me thinking about gratitude and some of the things I'm grateful for lately. So I thought I'd post them here:

=The RS broadcast Saturday night. I almost didn't go, but I was sooo glad I did. It was so great!! The few things that stuck out to me were Pres. Monson saying something like, "Don't pray that your tasks will be equivalent to your abilities, but that your abilities will be equivalent to your tasks." And Sister Thompson(wasn't she great??)said(paraphrasing), "Don't tell your children what to do, show them and do it with them." I feel a lot like the mom a few posts down, constantly telling my children what to do...over and over again. But I could definitely stop being so lazy and take the initiative more often.

=My sister. She and Jed came over yesterday and we had the best time making pizza and playing games on the Wii. She is so great with my kids! I am rather selfishly hoping she never has kids because she is such an amazing aunt. My kids absolutely adore her.

=Primary. I'm finally beginning to really love my calling. I still miss my YW so so so much, but the kids in our Primary are just so fun! Senior Primary was really hard yesterday, but Junior was awesome. They are so sweet and responsive. Some Sundays it's the Senior primary I enjoy the most, so it was nice to have a change. Although...Senior primary had some pretty stellar moves during "Book of Mormon Stories."

=The Crabtrees. We have a great family in our ward who we've just bonded with so quickly. They have two teenage girls, an 11 year old boy, and a 9 year old girl. They've had some tough stuff going on lately but I feel like instead of me helping them, they've been so helpful to me! Molly, the 15 year old, texts me about once a week to ask if she can take Mckenna and David for the morning(she's homeschooled). It is such a help and when I go pick them up we all visit for a while. I think she does it because she's bored but what a blessing! Hunter and Becca(the younger two) are having a sleepover here tonight while the rest go to Dancing with the Stars(I know...jealous!). And Hunter is amazing with Mckenna. He is so sweet and gentle and what a peacemaker! I could rave about them forever.

=A hard working husband. He's amazing, and I don't ever give him enough credit. He's constantly on the go.

=Shorter hair. I went from an hour and a half of blowdrying, straightening and curling to 30 minutes!! I love it! (although it's not as short or as thinned as I wanted it...it will be next time)

=Blogs. I love reading about everyone's lives. Hearing the struggles, joys, and random thoughts puts things into perspective for me. Plus you're all so dang entertaining!!

=My sweet children. Lately I feel like I can't hug them enough! They can be so tough and make me so frustrated, but my love for them has been and will always be my driving force. Being a mom is by far the most rewarding job ever.

What makes you smile today?

Oops!!



Mckenna had a bit of an accident Sunday, before church...I had just finished getting her all dressed and ready for church and we were waiting for Emma to finish her bath. I was sitting on Kenna's bed and she went into the bathroom. Just a few seconds later Mckenna starting screaming and crying. I ran into the bathroom (a whole 4 steps way), to find Mckenna(fully dressed, hair done and everything) crying and sopping wet IN the bathtub!!! Apparently she wanted to get the soap from the tub, so she climbed IN the tub and once she got in, started crying because she realized she was wet! It was SO hard not to laugh!


Monday, October 1, 2007

Hair cuts!

Mckenna before:

Mckenna after:
Emma before:
Emma after(just a trim):
I didn't take a before of me, nor did I take an after...but Mckenna was playing with the camera on Saturday so this is as good of an after as you'll get. :)
And in the same round of camera playing, she managed to catch this great shot:

Ballerina girl