First of the Year

Yes, it has officially begun!

Shaved Ice!

Yummy!

We had a half of a block in the freezer from last year and we used it up but we filled our molds and plan to have a shaved ice party over memorial day. 

These were really good because at the bottom was a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I am sorry you were not there to enjoy it with us! 

We will have you over soon and you can enjoy the yumminess with us!

Joey Testing

Joey is getting closer to his Second Degree Black Belt and this testing put him even closer.

It was interesting to watch him in a new environment and how distracted he was.

He does so well most of the time that I forget about some of his challenges.  But this made me realize that we do the same thing so often and in the same place that a new place was a good challenge for him.

We decided we need to start making him do his form when we are in different environments so that he will not be looking around at all of the pictures and reading signs while doing his form and be focused on  his actions.

But really he did a good job, all things considered.

This is a video of combat weapon sparring. Joey is constantly being reminded in class to keep his arm up to block and he does not do such a great job of remembering in this video- hence my commentary. I love the boy and I am so thankful for the many things he is learning through Taekwondo.

Watching this made me think about  the whole: "Never hit a girl" thing.  That rule does not apply in taekwondo.

Jon's 1st Grade Program

Jon had his program last Thursday night. I had a Stake meeting to attend and so Peter, the amazing dad, took all of the kids and managed to capture some great pictures.

 This is in here for the beady light eyes.

He loved the songs in the program and the dances and rhythms they learned. 

We love our Jonny!

Zoo Trip

The Friday after I had surgery the kids did not have school. I decided to be brave and take them to the zoo. It was a short trip. 

There were a lot of schools there for field trips and I got tired really fast.

 We rode the train and loved seeing those animals.

 Picnic lunch.  We saw about half of the zoo.  It is kind of divided in half and so that made it easy to say we will just do this side.

 And of course we rode the carousel.  There is not a picture of Joey because he wanted to be in the bird's nest that spins and it was not by the animals these three wanted to ride and I could not leave Lily.

My cute BIG kids!

A little more soccer

We have two more soccer games that are make up games.

Jon is doing really well and seems to be catching on to the rules and the whole idea.

Joey is doing better as well, too bad I keep forgetting the camera when I go to his games.

So as you look at Jon, imagine similar images but with Joey in an orange and black uniform. 

I love the celebration poses!

Hitch?

Have you seen the movie Hitch?

He has an allergic reaction to something while at a cooking class on a date. 

His face swells up huge.

He drinks liquid Benadryl through a straw from the bottle.

  

 I considered doing just that.

 Not sure if I am having a late reaction to antibiotics or a reaction to some pollen I came in contact with while working in the yard Saturday.

The red spots on my forehead are not zits but hives/welts.  My eyes were not this swollen yesterday which is good because sharing time would have been a disaster.  The kids would have been distracted by my huge eyes and not learned about the restoration of the priesthood. 

Also my scalp is swollen which can not be captured in a photo.  I can not tip my head back fully due to the swelling at the base of my skull from my scalp.  And now my ears are starting to swell.

No need to worry, I am a medical professional.  The benadryl I took yesterday did nothing but make me drowsy and ease the itching for about an hour.  

These two lovely ladies just took a trip to the store with me so that I could buy more benadryl (I finished ours off last night) and some Zantac (yes, it can be taken for allergic reactions).  

Gratefully, I have a follow up appointment for my surgery today and I will be asking my doctor to prescribe me some steroids- it is time for some serious allergy treatment.

Stylish Girls

I don't know that there is too much to write-the pictures kind of speak for themselves.

 I will say that the white fur coat Arabella is wearing is a size 18 months I believe but gratefully it has silky sleeves and so she continues to wear it around.

Lily finally got her chance to wear the shoes. I apologize for turning the camera during the video. She thought she was the whole enchilada with those shoes.

The Alamo

Tuesday morning we headed to the San Antonio missions which includes the Alamo.

I was impressed with the work being done by the National Parks Service to maintain and restore these beautiful landmarks and significant pieces of history. 

 I was thankful for the chance that I had to share a different way of worship to my children. I was able to take the chance to reaffirm some things that I had just talked to my kids about that Sunday when we discussed the apostasy in primary.  It made me thankful for the gospel in a new and different way.

 The Alamo is an amazing story. The line was really long and so we did not wait to go inside the actual chapel portion but we enjoyed the grounds. I especially loved this huge tree- it is massive and they have poles holding up many of the branches.  The picture in the upper left is the inside of one of the chapels-it was so lovely. 

My kids know how to make park ranger uniforms look really good.  The older kids did it and so Lily had to do it too. And, I pretty much love the picture of Jon and Lily holding hands- precious! 

We headed out of San Antonio and to San Marco where there are a ton of outlets. We had a great time shopping. It rained while we were there and did not think to much of it.  Then, as we were driving through Austin-which was pretty much shut down traffic wise because the rain had caused significant flash floods- we had a new respect for the rain. It was a long drive home but the trip was worth it.

SeaWorld San Antonio

SeaWorld was amazing!

The weather was beautiful and thought it was crowded we were able to see all of the shows and most of the animal/sea life exhibits.

I am guessing it is because there have been so many accidents in the past but the trainers do not swim with the orca whales anymore. It was a good show but not my favorite.

 The comedy show with the GIANT walrus was funny but still not my favorite. 

 AZUL was my favorite and by the time it was over Jon had decided that he definitely wanted to work there when he grew up. The show has beluga whales that the trainers swam with. There were these beautiful black and white dolphins and macaws.  There were also all sorts of acrobatic, swimming and diving routines.  

Above you can see the black and white dolphins as well as the girl that did a routine in long pieces of material (whatever that is called, I am sure you a have seen it before).

 This diving was awesome and hard to capture in pictures.  They added more and more people to the swing and then when it was going really high they started to dive off.  In the last picture on the far left you can see the last man on the swing got it going so high he was upside down. If you go to SeaWorld San Antonio you must see this show. 

 This was the funniest part of the day. My dad and I had gone on this ride earlier with the Joey and Jon.  You get wet on the ride but not too bad.  In the afternoon, the kids wanted to go again so my mom took the older three.  While my dad and I were watching we realized that the spectators could get really wet if you stood in a certain spot.  The first two pictures above are my mom coming down with the kids and their boat's splash - notice the mother and daughter with their backs turned bracing for impact.  Well, we convinced the kids to stand and watch the next boat come down when they got off. They did not know what they were in for.  I stood by Lily and Joey and Arabella grabbed a  hold of the railing to watch.  Jon did not hold on to anything and was hit full force by the wave, it knocked him off of his feet and he floated backwards a few feet on the wave.  It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen and I wish so bad I had caught it on camera.  Jon was soaked from head to toe and the first thing he said was he would never believe grandpa or me again.  Well truthfully, we were as surprised as he was which is part of what was so funny. Joey and Arabella were soaked in the front but were not swept away. (For those of you who witness Mom on the slide in Las Vegas, it was that kind of funny.)

  Jon clinging for his life on the super fast, super high roller coaster was the second funniest thing of the day.  The third funniest thing was that Joey's hair, as short as it is, was actually wind blown from the intense speed of the roller coaster.

I am so thankful my parents came and took us on an adventure. We are sad Peter could not come but we are glad he will have the time to play with us this summer. 

Preschool Fire Station Visit

A few weeks ago I set up a visit to the fire station for our preschool. 

We invited a few others to come and Corbin ended up being our only extra but we had a great time.

 Check out the size of that tire.

 The firemen were so kind and answered all of our questions. We, the moms, had more questions than the kids did.  

 We worked really hard to get all of the kids to look at the same time but you know how that goes.

What cute little fire ladies!

We had the perfect finish to the visit, the bell rang and they had to leave in a hurry to get to a call. We all stood off to the side while the firemen loaded up in the above pictured fire truck and drove off with the lights going. It was great!

Post-Op

Today was an early morning, 4:15 wake up.

We left by 5:00 and my dear friend Amanda was here to get my kids up, dresses, fed, to school and preschool and to play with Lily until our return.

We made it to the hospital by 5:25 and were checked in by 5:45.

I was all decked out in hospital gown, blue gripper socks and IV in place by 6:30.

I said my good byes to Peter and was given some magical drug by 7:30 and do not even remember leaving my pre-op room.

Peter was given a page (yes, they give the family a pager so they can be updated during procedures) at 7:52 that the surgery was started.

By 9:25 I was in a recovery room and feeling a bit groggy and like the room was moving somehow in slow motion or underwater. Weird. But I was at least able to comprehend what my sweet and amazing doctor, Dr. Nazarian told me. She was able to remove what I was affectionately calling my BFF but was really a rather large and not going away ovarian cyst.  She also said that it was somewhat attached to my fallopain tube and in the end it was removed as well. She was concerned that if she left it there was a very high likelihood that it would lead to an ectopic pregnancy. I am good with her choice to take it. 

By 9:45, Peter was by my side again.

It took me 2 bottles of water, 5 small apple juices, and over a liter of IV fluid and 3 attempts to go to the bathroom which was my ticket to ride so to speak.  Finally, about 12:15 I had success. 

I was dressed and discharged and home by 1:10. 

I am so thankful to my friends that have helped me yesterday and today. I am thankful for a good home teacher who came to assist in giving me a blessing. And I am thankful for the prayers that were offered by more than a few people. You are all great. I have rested today and intend to rest tomorrow. 

The hospital I was at was one of the swankiest hospitals I have ever been to. If you would like to see some pictures of it go here. The staff were amazing and so very kind. It was clean and just an all around fabulous experience.  If I ever need surgery again (hopefully never) and can choose where I have it I would go there if I could.

(I did not go like this into it but I would have preferred not to have had to have it at all. But, since I did, I am so glad it was a good experience.)

Easter 2013

Saturday we picked up our visitors-my parents! 

That night we dyed our eggs

Jon took his shirt off so it would stay clean. 

Sunday morning we hunted eggs and baskets. 

Jon has been asking since talk of Easter started that we make a yarn maze through the house. I agreed that we would do it and there was very little talk of the bunny and I did not mind. I did not make a big deal of it but just let it be. 

Each child has a different color of yarn that is strung throughout the main floor and there basket is hidden somewhere along the way. 

 Lily felt it was more fun to take the candy and treats out one at a time. We did finally get her to take her basket out from under the table.  

 I felt like I was in the movie Entrapment  as I tried to make my way through the lines of yarn.

 Through the kitchen.;

 Arabella found her basket which had a girl skylander character in it. 

 Jon is shirtless again because he spent the night throwing up in our room. That was special. He was feeling better by morning but we limited the candy intake and he did not go to church.

 The boys each had a new skylander in their baskets as well as a skylanders shirt.

 Princess lipgloss.

When your husband and one of your sons is staying home from church you don't get the happy family Easter clothes picture but this was a good one of us girls. I made the girls dresses this year. I am pleased with how they turned out. Lily's had a white collar and tie and Arabella's has a white ruffle on the bottom.  They are so adorable! I love them.

I taught my first sharing time and it was about the apostasy and restoration. I thought of doing an Easter lesson but the provided topic fit well. We talked of Christ and the things he did while alive and then how he instructed his apostles to continue to teach after his resurrection. I am so thankful for the Savior, his life, his teachings, his atonement, and his resurrection. He is my hope and through that I have peace.