Oceanside CA - Family Vacation 2009

I haven't posted since May, what is up with that? NO TIME. Always a messy house. 2 Owlz players living here. Coupon addiction. 4 Children under the age of 7 including 6 month old nursing baby - like I said no time.

here are some pictures from our family vacation. We had a wonderful time with all of Ray's family.

on the road.

family pictures on the beach.

The boys with Lego VADER

The finished sand castle

Ray's parents (who made the whole vacation possible, thanks guys!)

Mohey Tawa Reunion

Time flies when you are having fun!

On Saturday the kids played kickball at the park with some of the neighborhood kids and dads. The boys had fun. It brought back fond memories for me, we used to play kickball a lot at my grandma Grimshaw's with all my cousins.






This is Kyle pulling Meadow's hair. Really she just started crying, but he did grab on to her hair.



















Tyler graduated from preschool on Friday. They had a graduation program where they sang songs and recited some poems. Tyler is quite the little singer. He knew all the songs and his voice could be heard over all the other kids. I was a little surprised, I didn't know he liked to sing so much, I guess he takes after his dad. I guess I was surprised because he really doesn't sing at home much. He did a great job! These are his buddies from the neighborhood, Ryan and Ethan.









Ray celebrated his 34th Birthday. It was a lot of candles for him to blow out!

Last weekend we went with the Grimshaw's to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes.

We drove down to Kanab Friday afternoon and stayed in a hotel. We went to dinner that night and went swimming at the hotel. On Saturday we drove over to the dunes. The kids had a blast! Tyler and Trent loved riding the four-wheeler and going for rides in the dune buggy. We had a great day, we went over to the "corral" area and there were some large pine trees that kept it shady all day long. I loved that because if you know me I can not stand being in the beating sun for very long. When I was little we used to go to the coral pink sand dunes for Easter with my grandma, grandpa, aunts,uncles and cousins - good times. We would camp, which was fun, but it was nice to stay in a hotel, especially with 4 month old Kyle. We had a fun day and drove back home Saturday night.




This picture was taken on Mother's day. Apparently it was to sunny for the kids. They take after their mother and can't open their eyes if the sun is out. Kara is holding her mother's day present that she made in nursery ( a noodle necklace) she told me it was hers, so I let her open it and wear it. She is funny. She did the same thing at Christmas time. They made a wreath out of puzzle pieces painted green that had her hand print in the middle, she called it "her hand" she loved that thing, and of course it wasn't a present for me, it was hers.

Welcome to May

Over the weekend we went down to my parents house. Well, just Saturday morning we went down and came back Saturday night. Mitch graduated from SUU so we went down for the graduation. Go Mitch! Mike, Ashlee and Jensen were there too. After the graduation we had dinner then we headed for home. I wish we could of stayed longer, but it was a fun trip.

I haven’t been up to much. I have been kind of trying to work in the yard. I got some onions and peas planted and hope to plant more this week. I planted my tomatoes from seed again this year (inside) I did it a little bit later than last year (next year will do earlier) but they should be ready to plant in a week or two. I am excited, I love getting veggies from the garden, especially tomatoes, yum! I had some potatoes that I didn’t dig up last year and they spouted and were plants. The potatoes were where we were going to till so I moved them to a new location and they seem to have survived. I need to get my other potatoes planted too.

Kyle is just getting big big! I can’t believe that he is almost 4 months old. He is the best baby ever. He has been sleeping through the night which I LOVE! Just this last week he has discovered his thumb. I am against thumb sucking, only because I was a thumb sucker for way to long. I remember coming home from kindergarten and sucking my thumb on the couch. I also remember that it messed up the way I swallow (or that is what I blame it on) I would push against my teeth when I swallowed and the dentist said that I couldn’t get braces until I corrected it or it would mess up my teeth once I got the braces off. As far as Kyle goes, I think it is cute and it does sooth him. I still try to just give him the pacifier, but it seems to fall out and then when I check on him he has is thumb in his mouth. At least with the pacifier I can take it away when he is one. I guess if he is still sucking his thumb I might have to put a sock over his hand and pin it to his pj’s, that is what my mom had to do to Tennille when she was little. It got her to stop though.

Kara is still my little helper. She is a funny little girl. She always tells me when she is big like me then she can touch the ceiling, random.

Tyler is mister social butterfly. He has several friends in the neighborhood that he always wants to be playing with. He also likes to go everywhere barefoot, including riding his scooter.

We got out the bikes and Trent’s was to small, so we got him a new one and he has been riding it a lot. He is very thoughtful young man. A boy in his primary class had a birthday and so he came home and made him a birthday card and took it to him.

Well that’s our update!

The last few weeks

well, I think our blog is turning into a picture blog. We have been busy the last few weeks.

Tennille and I took the kids to an easter egg hunt the day before easter.

The boys didn't have school for the week after easter. It was nice for a day or two then it snowed.

On Thursday we spur of the moment decided to head south for the weekend. We stayed at my parents Thursday night and left Friday afternoon for sunny Mesquite. The boys and Ray had fun swimming and playing tennis. I got in the pool for about an hour, Kara wouldn't even put on her swim suit. We went with some of our friends and it was fun. We celebrated my birthday while down there too.

I am getting old!

On Wednesday some of my friends and I had our Ladies night out. We went to Provo for Gelato, it was fun.

And last but not least, Tennille had her baby. Here is a picture we took yesterday of her and Kyle. Kyle is so big compared to her. I think that it is cute that they are both sleeping.

more pictures

This one of Trent and Kyle makes me laugh. The angle of the camera makes Kyle look GIANT. Mostly like he has a huge head.

The ones at the bottom make me laugh too, because they were taken by Kara.

there are about 6 of these. Kyle's bottom half. I kept asking her if she could see his face, she would say "yes" as she snapped the photo. No faces, just feet.

this one I helped hold the camera up so it got his face.

not to much is new with us. I planted some onions and peas yesterday and worked in the yard. It was fun!

Kyle's Blessing

Ray’s parents and Brad came up this weekend. On Saturday Ray’s parents took the kids to Kangaroo Zoo. I think they all had a blast. It took Kara a while to warm up, but she had fun running around and jumping too. Kyle slept the whole time and Ray was at work.
That night we went to dinner at the Olive Garden with all of Ray’s family. It was just the adults and Kyle. It was a nice evening out. Thanks Ken and Louise!

On Sunday we blessed Kyle. My parent and Mitch drove up that morning and got here around 11 a.m. they helped me finish getting ready for the luncheon and helped get the kids ready for church. Ray gave Kyle a very nice blessing. We are so glad to have him as part of our family. All of my family (minus John) and all of Ray’s family were able to attend the blessing. We had a super yummy lunch after the blessing, thanks to all those who contributed, I ate way to much!
Tennille let me borrow her boys' little tux for Kyle. It is such a cute little outfit. Kyle barely fit into it.

The weather has been typical lately. Super warm/sunny one day and snowy /cold the next. Today we woke up to snow! I will be glad when in warms up and we can spend time outside. I am excited to get things going with my little garden.

Thought I would at least post some pictures, maybe sometime I will have time to write what we have been up to. I'm super busy trying to get ready for Kyle's blessing this Sunday, I got sick last week and that wiped me out for 3 days.

My friend, Precia, had her baby so we took some pictures of all the kids minus Trent and O.

Kyle is quite the chub at 2 months = 12 1/2 pounds

Check this out!

My friend Lizzy does an amazing job as a photographer, and she is having a giveaway for a FREE session. Check it out and enter to win!


http://lizzyphotos.blogspot.com/

Recipe for the bookclub ladies

This is a really good recipe! See below for my modification with Grands!


Cinnamon Orange Pull-Aparts
(Monkey Bread) from The Pampered Chef - modified by me

1 orange
1 1/8 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
18 frozen bread dough rolls, thawed - (1/2 of 48-ounce package)
1/3 cup light corn syrup, divided

Spray fluted pan with vegetable oil, or rub with butter. Zest orange to measure 1 tbs zest. In a bowl combine sugar, cinnamon and zest; mix well. Melt butter. Cut each roll in half. Dip half of the cut rolls in butter; roll in the sugar mixture to coat. Arrange in pan. Drizzle with half the corn syrup. Repeat with remaining rolls and corn syrup; sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over rolls. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until double in size, about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Uncover; bake 30-35 minutes or until top is deep golden brown. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Carefully invert onto serving plate. To serve, pull apart or slice.

To make ahead, after placing rolls in fluted pan, cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Remove from refrigerator. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes. Let rise and bake as directed. Yield: 16 servings

To make these with grands (all of you out there that got tons for free at Albertson's) I used a can and a half of the flaky layers variety. I cut each biscuit into 4. Then I dipped them in the butter, rolled them in the sugar mixture and put them on a cookie sheet. Then baked them at 350 for 25 minutes. I did NOT put corn syrup on them. They turned out really good,unfortunately I ate most of them.

do you like my photo editing? Ray took a picture of the ones I made last week with his cell phone, so it isn't the best quality. My stovetop is gross, so if you want to see it in person you have to come over.

update

I wrote this on Sunday and here it is Tuesday and I am just posting it.

So these last couple of weeks have gone good. I am getting used to having 4 kids I think. I pretty much am done working at SMD, I trained the wife of my boss and there are a few things I might help with now and then but I don’t have to worry about day to day stuff there anymore. It seems like I have a burden lifted off my shoulders, not that I spent that much time working there, but every week I had to figure out when I was going to go over and get my "mail" (bills) and enter it into the computer, and then it seems like a week would go by and it was time to go again and I felt like I was slacking. Anyway, I am still doing my payroll twice a month which won’t be bad. They pay me so well, that it is just SO worth my time. I still stress a little trying to figure out who will watch the kids, but they are also cool with me bringing the baby so I did this last week and I just had a friend watch Kara while Trent and Tyler were at school. We use these baby sitting bucks in our ward, (it’s fake monopoly money) and we just trade that. I have built up quite the stash. It has been a lifesaver.

Albertson’s had a sweet sale last week, I wanted to take a picture of all my stuff, but I didn’t want to take it all out of the bags put it on my table, take a picture then have to reload it to take it down stairs, so no picture. I ended up getting 15 boxes of fruit snacks for free, which just made my day, they will be handy for our summer time trips. All in all I got 60 items (ok most of it was junk like cake mixes, cookie pouches, frosting, granola bars and grands!) I figured each thing averaged 22 cents.

Kyle is doing good. His hair fell out on top so he looks like a little balding man, but it should grow back because Trent'’s did the same thing. He got over his cold and I am just trying to keep him healthy along with everyone else. We (Me, Kyle and Kara) haven’t been to church since before Kyle was born and I was thinking we would go next week but I have heard that RSV is going around big time, so we might just stay home a couple more weeks. My main concern is sending Kara to nursery, she seems to have an endless cold when she attends and what ever she has she will pass on to Kyle most likely. Plus because we live so close to the church (and I have connections with a certain bishopric member) I have a little receiver thing that I can listen to Sacrament and Sunday school on. It works the best while I am laying on Kara’s bed trying to get her to nap, or the rocking chair in Kyle’s room while I am nursing. Why go to church when I can just listen from home?

Here’s a good story for you (and just more evidence of the cheapskate / weirdo that I am). 2 weeks ago I went to a Shade warehouse sale. I was with Tennille and two friends. We were looking at the swim suits and they only had Small and Extra Small tops, they were only 3 dollars each piece and we thought they would stretch, plus I thought maybe by summer I could get into it. Anyway, instead of just getting one and being good with that I got two (a black one and a purple one) because we are going to California this summer and I need more than one suit. Anyway, I was so excited. I came home and pretty much could not get the top on. It was not as stretchy as it appeared. Once I did get it on I didn’t know how I was going to get it off and almost pulled some muscles getting it off. Anyway, I came to grips that there was no way that this swim top would ever, EVER fit me. I only spent $15 on two tops, 2 bottoms and a skirt so no big loss, right? Anyway (this is the evidence part) there was another sale on President’s day. Ray had to work and I wanted to go and see if they had any large tops. I took all 4 kids (I wanted to go that bad) and it was a MADhouse. There were so many people there it was insane. Anyway, I found the swim area and there were only Extra Small tops this time. There were tons of people getting them. One girl had a purple one and she said to her friend, I will just have to make it fit. So I told them that I had bought a small black one and a small purple one and wanted to know if they wanted to buy them. I told them that I only paid $3 each piece, and they wanted them. So the girl came with me and the 4 kids to the van. I was trying to be funny and I said, I feel like I am selling drugs out of my van, Trent heard me and he is like what? You are selling drugs, - - no just trying to be funny. Anyway, the girl said "since they are selling them for $5 inside I will just pay you that." So she gave me $20 and she didn’t even want the skirt because she already had one. So, not only did I get rid of the suits, I made 5 bucks. I was so excited! Anyone want to buy a small black swim skirt?

Over the weekend My parents came up for the day and Tennille, Brett and Jack came over too. We just stayed here and hung out.

Yesterday I went to the Health department to get Tyler’s birth certificate so I can register him for kindergarten. I figured since I was there I better get Kara’s and Kyle’s. They had Ray’s b-day wrong on Kara’s so I had to pay $5.00 extra for the lady to type on the back what needed to be fixed, then Ray and I have to sign it in front of a notary, and the take it back and the state will fix it and I will get the corrected one in 6 weeks. What a pain!

Last night the kids played with play dough, it seems to be the one activity that all three can enjoy together.

3 weeks old

Kyle is now 3 weeks old, crazy. I figured I better update my blog. Things are going pretty good. I came home from the hospital that Wednesday after I had him. I have felt so much better with this delivery, I think it was the fact that the doctor did NOT use forceps on Kyle. I was on my own for two days then my mom came and helped (a ton) for a week. It was so nice to have her here, she did a lot and kept my house clean and the laundry done plus more. The carpet down stairs finally got installed while she was here so we worked on moving Trent and Tyler’s clothing and toys down stairs to their new room. First we had to go through the toys, that took FOREVER because they have so many and most are items that have small parts (LEGOS, Legos , legos, trains, lincoln logs, tinker toys, more legos - etc.) and for the past who knows how long I have just thrown everything into the toybox. Anyway, we got that all organized and down in their new room. They have a huge closet down there so I am very excited! They have done really well sleeping down there. It also seems so much quieter up stairs when they are entertaining them selves down stairs. I need to take some pictures and post them.

Kara has had a little bit of a hard time with Kyle I think. One day when I was holding him and he was facing her she yelled at him "my mommy, not yours mommy!" Later I asked her who Kyle’s mom was and she said the doctors at the hospital. She is doing a little better now and will admit that I am his mom too. We moved her into Trent and Tyler’s old room and she has been sleeping on her big girl bed (Trent’s old twin bed). She keeps telling me that she had two beds, her big girl bed and the crib (which Kyle sleeps in). She also asks frequently to hold baby Kyle and take pictures. She also likes to put "hanitizer" on (hand sanitizer).

I took Kyle to his 2 week check up last week and he was back to his birth weight plus some. The doctor said he looked perfect. The next day he got a cold. I am sure he picked it up from Kara, the day I came home from the hospital she had a runny nose and a cough and it just went away the day before Kyle got sick. I feel so bad, my tiny baby is so stuffed up and congested. He sounds horrible. We have been running the humidifier, suctioning him out with the bulb thing and spraying saline solution up his nose. It seems to be the worse at night, he just sounds like he can not breathe! I called the nurse on Friday because he seemed worse and it looked like he was having retractions (sucking in on his ribs when he took a breath) Anyway, she said given his age and the fact that it was going to be the weekend they probably should look at him. So Precia watched Kara and Tyler and I took Kyle in. His oxygen level was fine and she said that it wasn’t in his lungs (yet) and she told me to just keep doing what I was doing. I hope he gets better soon, it can take like 10 days, he is still really stuffy. I was convinced it was RSV.

It seems we have just had sickies at our house. On Wednesday night, Tyler was up 3 times saying his ear hurt, he has been having hearing issues and Ray thought he needed his ears cleaned out, so Ray took him to the Pediatrician and it turned out to be an ear infection. Kara also has had a fever on and off yesterday and today. She had a vaccine on Monday, so it could be a fever from that or maybe she is getting something, we will see. I just hope Kyle can not get anything else!