California!

Barry and I were able to take the kids on a surprise trip to California this last weekend. Barry and I had been planning it for a few weeks, but never let it slip to the kids. It was SO much fun! We left late Friday night (much later than we'd planned of course) and drove the 5 hours to the beach house we were going to be staying at. Barry's sister, Heather, spends time to research and find the best place to stay every two years. She rents the house for a month using the few 2 or 3 weeks for her family, and then it's a free for all for the rest of us. Barry's parents went up before us and his sister Mandy's family also got to stay for a few days before we got there at 2 am Saturday morning. The kids woke up to find that they were at the beach WITH their Nana and Boopah. It was a great surprise. We all had a great time running around and splashing in the waves. Barry bought a wetsuit before we went out there to make sure he could make the most of his Boogie Boarding time.


He spent lots of time trying to catch waves and even talked Rory into trying a few.



Saturday night we took the kids to the Newport Fun Park off the bay side Pier. They had fun on the carousel and walking around. There wasn't much going on there, so we headed across the street the the "Original Ruby's Restaurant" off of the ocean side pier for some milkshakes. There was a ton of people lining the pier for night fishing. The kids got quite a kick out of watching people fish with glow-sicks.
We attempted to go to the local Sacrament Meeting on Sunday morning, but could NOT find the little side street we needed to turn on. After a very noble effort, we gave up and headed back to the beach. I even braved the brisk water to go boogie boarding for a bit myself!








Monday morning we took Rory and Brigham to Disneyland! When we'd decided to go to California, I'd told Barry that if is was less than and hour to drive we were going... it was about 20 minutes! My mother in law was kind enough to take Colton for the day so that we could have fun with the older two. (All reports back say that he was a very good boy and had lots of fun laughing with Nana and playing on the porch with Boopah.) The kids had a great time and it was really fun to see everything decorated for Halloween. There were a ton of characters out and about but with only 1 day to spend there we didn't spend very much time waiting for pictures. We did catch Mr Incredible, Snow White and Dopey and Goofy.


We saw lots of others including Mickey and Minnie but the kids seemed satisfied to at least see them from a distance. We could NOT talk Rory in to going on any of the roller coasters, but she loved going on the rapids ride with her daddy. Brigham was a really good sport about the rides he wasn't tall enough for and hung out with mom while we waited for Rory and daddy. We stayed for the fireworks and hit the Haunted Mansion on the way out. They redo the whole thing to be like the Nightmare Before Christmas, with everything from start to finish almost completely different than normal. I wish they could keep the Haunted Mansion decorated like that all the time, it was great! We headed back to the beach house as exhausted as we could be. Tuesday we let the kids play a bit more and tried to play in the water one last time. It was VERY windy and much colder than it had been the whole time we were there. Barry and his dad tried to go out into the water for a bit, but with the wind it was nearly impossible to make any headway in the water to catch any decent waves. (Pic of Brigham channeling his inner Michael Jackson!)

Then... we packed up and headed home. The drive home was intense and exhausting because it was VERY windy. It had been windy on the beach that day, but we fought it from the time we left until well into the Arizona border. My hands and back were wore and tired but we made it home safely. We also arrived home to find a VERY flat tire on the in-laws van. I changed it this morning and there was some sidewall damage. We don't know exactly when it went flat because we had no problems with steering or driving it. The wind was one thing, but it was fine when we got gas a few miles past Quartzite, which is also where the wind started to die down on the road, so we figure it must have happened somewhere near home. We were very glad that we'd made it home, no matter when the flat happened.

All the prep work and planning was well worth the effort! We had such a nice and relaxing time while we were there. Barry (and I) needed this trip SO badly. I am SO very grateful that we were able to make the trip and that everyone stayed healthy before we left and the whole time we were there. (Sadly, Barry's brother Matt and his family weren't so lucky and had to cancel their trip due to a sick Izzy and mommy! :-( )
The best part of this trip was watching my sweet, very over worked hubby get to spend some really great, quality time with our three kids. I love my little family so much!

Brigham turns 3!

How is it possible that my little blond mini-Barry is already 3?! Life goes by so fast sometimes. We had a great time celebrating with this little guy. We had a small family dinner party at the in-laws the Sunday before the big day. I made a Spider Man cake and he got a few presents from the family. The next Saturday we decided to celebrate with some of my family and went to Peter Piper Pizza for food and fun. He had a great time at both events and kept asking when his next party way. So cute! Happy b-day Brig-Brig!

7th Anniversary

Yes, if anyone is paying attention, this was over a month ago but I always seem to be playing catch-up with my blog. So, here goes. This year Barry and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary together. It fell on a Monday, so we went out the weekend before. We were actually able to go on two dates, and since we didn't do anything "big" we figured we could chalk them both up for this. First we were able to go out the eat an AMAZING dinner at Claim Jumper. I've only been there twice before this and had forgotten how delicous it was! We share THE BEST EVER soft pretzel with cheese sauce for an appetizer. I had a yummy macadamia nut encrusted fish (I have forgotten what kind by now...) with basmati rice and asparagus. Barry had the ribs and made a grand mess of himself. We got out the door late, so that was pretty much it for that night. Our second date was a little more off-beat. We kind of made a progressive dinner for ourselves. We returned to Claim Jumper for a pretzel, but this time, we each got our own! They really are so good! Then we went to Johnny Rockets and shared a sandwich, onion rings and a shake. We ended by picking up some Baklava at the Big Fat Greek Restaurant and going to see the movie "9". I was too full to really enjoy much of the Baklava that night, but it lasted for a few days after that. We had a fun and quirky celebration which was fitting for us. I can't believe that in seven years we have had THREE kids, went through med school, have survived 3 years at his job and have bought a house. Of course, there is much more to fill in, but that is what the last 7 years has brought us. I love Barry more and more everyday. It is amazing to me how when you really find someone that works well with you, your love can really grow more intense and deeper all the time. Looking forward to a few more 7x anniversaries with my man!

Rory's 1st day of school!

The heavens have parted and I've been shown the light! Of what life is like with a child in school. The first day was so chaotic at the school that I didn't even have time to get misty-eyed.
Parking is a joke and since it's her first day at school (and even now) I did NOT feel comfortable enough to just send her on her way... plus with her very first day, that's just now how things are done! We got her to her classroom, she found her cubby for her backpack and her seat at her table and could have cared less that I was standing there! This is what I get for having such an independent child. In a way it made me feel good that she was so comfortable and confident in her new surroundings, but like most moms, I was a little bit sad she didn't need me at all. We got a few fun pics of her modeling her new school uniforms, which she loves! Go figure.

I guess if you start them young, they don't know the difference and don't care as much. Accept, she did tell me the other day that I need to pick out her school clothes for her, because she "only knows how to pick out cute clothes to wear". Seriously... she's only 5.
Brigham and I have been having a great time hanging out together in the quiet solitude of our house. Colton is usually way past ready for a nap by 9 or 10 (!!!!) because of having to get up so early to get Rory to school on time.

This leaves Brig and I with lots of time to snuggle, play cars and watch Noggin together. He's the funniest kid. The other morning he was digging through the dress up stuff and found his pirate eye patch. He put it on and ran up to me saying "ARRRGH MATEY!!!" Melts my heart...

Colton's hair has decided to go curly on us in the last few months. Both my boys have been "cursed" with the curly hair, but I love it!

Barry is still working hard at being the world's most amazing PA. He has had to go to a 5 day work week, which I was NOT at ALL excited about! But in the long run, so far, it has turned out to be pretty good. He has arranged with the other PA to work the earlier shift on Tuesday and Friday so that he can pick up the kid from me at work (after my 2hour max) and take them home. No more worry about trying to find someone to watch the kids, or getting a call at the last minute that they can't help that day. Don't get me wrong... I am SOOO grateful to the people that were helping us out in this regard, it's just a huge relief for me not to have to worry about it anymore. I'm sure that Barry is frustrated with his ever mounting pile of paperwork, but this does allow him some time with the kids. I'm sure it also helps him to realize what I go through day in and day out.

We are very blessed, and I am trying every day to love life and all it's crazy twists and turns. Hopefully I will be better in the future about updating at least a little bit more frequently!

June (and a little of May)

Rory sustained her first black eye back in May. She was being a crazy kid while at the splash pad one day. I think she was trying to "slip-n-slide" on the table bench. She ran full speed into the table... with her eyebrow in the lead. Hopefully the pics do it justice. It was crazy how fast it started to swell up! Brigham had lots of fun thinking he was a big kid under the water buckets that fill up and dump out on their heads. He was so funny!

Sadly in May we held a memorial service for my cousin Jason who'd passed away at the end of February. His mom was in the middle of moving back from Connecticut and his younger sister was due to have a c-section and wouldn't be able to travel back for a while, so we had it the weekend of Mother's Day. My mom came in to town to help with everything. (This was also why she was around to help me out in going to Cali with Barry.) We decided to throw my cousin Lindsey a surprise baby shower for her and her adorable little boy Nico. It was a lot of fun to plan, and she was totally shocked!

My mom came back in town to help my sister out with her kids while she did a Diversity Camp with her Student Government kids so I got to hang out with her a little bit more. Brigham was pretty much potty trained in these months. There was quite the huge celebration in mommy land! Only one kid in diapers now!!!
Barry and I took the kids to a few movies. That is always an interesting challenge with an 18 month old, a 2 year old and a 5 year old. Rory and Brigham are really pretty well behaved except Brig's several bathroom trips. At least he isn't having too much fun to go I guess! Colton is always a crazy challenge at anything lasting longer than 20 or 30 minutes that isn't focused on him, leading Barry to loathe the entire experience even though I am the one to walk with him or take him out. Go figure. :-)

Rory was also on the Goodyear Sharks swim team this summer. She had so much fun swimming everyday with her cousin Kennedy. She was the 3rd place queen. I thought she did great for her first swim team experience. She seems to be really strong in the backstroke, just like her mommy before her.

July

We had a really nice 4th of July with my family. We went to Kasie's for a BBQ and swimming. At 7 we headed back to my house for desert and games. My brother's family and my mom and her hubby came over. We had a great time playing Settlers of Katan. We decided that rather than fight the crowds at any of the local venues we would stake out a spot near our house to watch the fireworks put on by the city at the baseball field about a mile from our house. We grabbed blankets and chair and walked down to the little tot park 3 doors down from us. BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE! We had a great view of the show and there was no one else around! I might do this for several years until the kids all get old enough to enjoy the chaos of a big event. Colton just isn't old enough to handle the loud noise yet... and neither is Brig really. Overall it was just a great night.

A few weeks later we got to go on a family reunion camping trip. We had just attended our ward campout, so we had the "drill" of packing down to a nice science. We had such a great time hanging out and playing volleyball with our extended family. We had a great testimony meeting that Sunday morning. We got to meet our cousin's new fiance and eat lots of great food.
Sadly, this was also the last time that we got to see our sweet little cousin Addie. As some of you may know, the Moore family lost their little Addie in a terrible car accident on the 28th while on vacation in Utah. Her youngest sister Lydia was severely hurt in the accident, and they lost one of their cousins in the accident as well. Lydia spend a week in SLC at Primary Childrens Hospital. Many miracles blessed their family during her stay. Although Liddy had 9 broken bones, a bruised lung, a punctured lung and covered head to toe in bruises, she so far has recovered remarkably. She had several surgeries to repair damage to a severely broken leg and some sutures in the hair line to repair a laceration on her forehead. At the funeral last friday she looked pretty good. The poor thing has casts on all 4 limbs, so she will be in a wheel chair for at least a month. David and Tracey are being so amazingly strong through the whole ordeal. Both spoke at Addie's service which is a feat I don't think I could manage. The spirit was so strong there and SO many people came to show their support and love for the family. The luncheon was beautiful as well. I hope that everyone that worked so hard to put this together knows how much the family appreciates the outpouring for them.
In the end, this has just really reaffirmed to me my testimony of the gospel. The Plan of Salvation was put in place for us because our Heavenly Father knows and loves us and wants us to be happy. I am so grateful to have this knowledge. I am so grateful to be married to such an amazing man who loves the Lord and lives his life to uphold his Priesthood.

The next day we were able to go to the temple for the endowment and sealing of a family in our ward. What an amazing "full circle" effect to the weekend. We had to sadness (and joy) of a beautiful funeral service for an amazing child, and then followed by the ordinance of the sealing of a family for all eternity! Unfortunately, due to crazy circumstances beyond our control, we didn't make it in to the endowment session itself, so we decided to do some sealings. We ran into a couple I knew at EAC and that had been in the Lookout Mountain Ward with us a few years ago. They decided to do sealings with us, so that was kind of neat to be able to do too. We asked to be escorted up to the Celestial Room so that we could still be there when they come out. It was so peaceful and beautiful. It always amazes me to see someone go through the temple for the first time. Right after we were whisked away to the sealing room. There was a great turnout from the ward to support them. It was so beautiful to see the couple and their two children be sealed. After the previous days events I had to fight the tears back pretty hard and watching the gospel in action. How amazing to see this family change from and earthly one to an eternal one. WOW!

Overall it has been an emotional month or so for the family. Love to you all! I think I only have one more short post in me! (I don't have ANY pics of these months because we couldn't find the battery charger for the camera! We did find it just in time to get some pics of Rory's first day of school. That update next!)

OK, so I'm a bum!

I haven't updated my blog for about 4 months now, so I have some catching up to do. I figured it would be easier for any readers if I broke them out individually rather than one hugely massive one.
So first off, at the end of May I was lucky enough to get to go with Barry to San Diego for five days. He had a medical conference he had to attend and I figured that if we were going to have to drop $500 for him to stay in a hotel... I was going too! My mom was wonderful enough to stay home with our three crazy kids. I got REALLY sick with some crazy stomache bug the day we were supposed to leave. NOT fun at all, but I managed to get us packed up and out the door on time to drive all night long. We got Barry there just on time to get registered and ready to go. I slept for a few hours in the car at the parking garage until he had a break long enough for lunch and to go check in to the hotel. Barry spend most of his time at the Conference Center and I did whatever I wanted. I shopped, read, laid by the pool, drove around and went to Balboa Park.
Balboa Park may have been my favorite place to go while I was there, and I wish I'd "discovered it" several days sooner. Barry and I spent Monday evening walking around the gardens together, but since it was Memorial Day all the museums were closed. :-(
I went back the next day armed with my camera. The architecture is so amazing throughout. I tried to get some interesting pics of everything around. Below is part of the walkway around the large outdoor organ stage... really cool.
This was how most all the walkways on either side of the street were. I thought they were amazing. Lots of Spanish influence in the sculptures around and on the buildings as well.
This was just a cool Monarch butterfly pic I caught in one of the beautiful gardens. They were all themed differently. There were Asian style gardens, rose gardens.... just beautiful!
This was Barry and I in our hotel room heading out to dinner and a movie. We usually met up for lunch somewhere near the Conference Center and spent the evenings "closer to home". We saw several flicks while we were gone and couldn't decide if that was a good way to spend out "free time" since we didn't have to pay for a babysitter, or if we should have done something more local and cool... We saw several movies. What can I say... we are movie buffs. We had tons of great food while we were there including a great Brazilian style steak house for lunch, gelato, stuff from Joe's Crab Shack, and so much more. Yum!
Barry and I snuck away to Disneyland for one of the days too. We had a great time together and were able to hit some of the newer attraction in California Adventure that we didn't get to see (or weren't there) when we took the kids 2 years ago. I had wanted to go to the San Diego temple since it was about 15 minutes from our hotel.... but alas, it never happened.
Overall it was a great trip. We had fun taking a break from the kids and missed them just enough to want to come home... Hopefully we will be able to save up and do something fun again later this year!

more to the update...

I got a group of friends together for a "girls night" for my birthday in February. It was a fun, crazy mixture of friends from so many different parts of my life. It was fun to see everyone get along like they'd always known each other. We ate a Cheesecake Factory and had a great time. Thanks for coming girls! And thanks to Barry for being home with our kiddos so I could get out.
This is just a fun picture of Colton playing with my mom while she was here visiting!
Rory and Colton being cute together at the little play area at Arrowhead mall. Apparently I don't know how to upload pictures that face the right direction, but you get the idea.. :-)
We chopped another 9 inches off Rory's hair and we are planning to donate it. It is really cute and much easier on both of us. She was very nervous at first, but has decided that she loves it and she likes "how it bounces and is poofy when she walks". Oh, five-year-olds!
I made creamed spinach with dinner the other night. My first attempt at it, and it was delicious. Even Colton was loving it. We got a lot of really funny pictures of him downing it, and he would get really mad if I didn't feed him fast enough for his liking. Our picky little guy is FINALLY starting to eat table food! YAY! The little munchkin also got his tubes put in his ears a few weeks ago and is doing great. No drainage at all which is a great sign. And he's even started to try to walk a bit more. Good news all around. Hope everyone is doing great!

Update Central!

So, I'm a bum and haven't posted anything in about two months. I keep meaning to, and then it gets so late at night I head to bed without doing it. So, here goes, lots of updates to catch up on. First, our little baby boy turned one at the end of February!




He started out okay with the cake, but things quickly progressed into a melt down. Here's a picture of the "spread".

I made a vanilla poppy seed cake with cream cheese frosting and a white chocolate ganache. The cupcakes were devil's food and yellow cake with cream cheese, or chocolate cream cheese frosting. I also put a dab of ganache on each of those too. It was a fun, simple and small party for him, but we all had a lot of fun. We tried to do the cake thing after a nap, but with much the same results. What kid of mine doesn't like cake!? I'm sure he'll grow out of that stage! :-) (I'm also still learning how to add pics in my blog... actually kind of annoying because it doesn't work like I want it to!)

I'll add more posts with their own pics so it isn't so crazy for me!

Dang it all!

So, without any intention of our own, we've had more excitement around here than we'd like. Sunday night our Camry was broken in to. It's obviously they were amateurs for several reasons.
1) They didn't steal it (the cop said that they are some of the easiest cars to steal... great!)
2) The idiots damaged the frame around the window/door trying to jack open the lock
3) They decided to just smash the window in.
4) There really isn't much to take in our car!!!

Both of our cars at 10 years old and slowly dying, although the Camry is still holding up better than the van. (Especially after the accident.) I was pretty stupid to have some cash stashed in the ashtray though. I NEVER ever leave money or anything in the car, but 2 or 3 times a year Barry will stop by the store for something and call me frantic because he doesn't have enough money on his debit card. This usually happens if he goes out to lunch and doesn't tell me or something of that nature. So, in my brilliance I decide to start stashing some of my tip money from work in there for him. I had just a few nights before all of this thought, "Hmm, maybe I should go through this (since I wasn't really keeping track of it) and just leave him $20 or so!" Well, as you might imagine, I ignored this little voice in my head. It's gone. It was about $100 at this point. And the biggest idiot award goes too.....!!!

Grrr! It just really frustrates me. Our house was broken into just about a year ago, then this. We do have glass coverage on our insurance, so it was replaced the same day, for free, but still! The cop that came and took the report said that we live in a pretty quiet area, so we must just have bad luck. Great! Never had any luck before, and I get bad luck... So, we are finally going to invest in some flood lights for by the garage...something that Barry has been opposed to up until this point.

Now, if we can just get everyone in the house healthy at one time, we might be doing okay. Colton is on he umpteenth ear infections, so now they are sending us to an ENT to see if we should put tubes in. They worry that having him on so many antibiotics so often and for so long that he will become immune to them. Yay! Luckily Barry knows a good one in his same building, so that helps me feel better about the whole thing. It's just kind of scary to think of putting your one year old under sedation! I am sure that things will go fine, but as a mom you just always worry about those sort of things!

Sorry to bore everyone with a complaint blog, but I just had to get it all out there!

Christmas!

We had a fun and busy Christmas! Barry's side of the family does a Christmas Fireside which includes a nativity acted out by the little guys. Both of my kiddos were chosen for angels. At least they get to act like angels once a year right?! They had fun and did a great job. Colton just hung out with dad while I played the piano accompanyment for the singing. Lots of good food and fun was had by all.

















Christmas morning was really great with the kids too. One of their favorite gifts was a music set I got for $10 bucks which included a trumpet, tamborine, maracas and a drum with sticks that they all can store in! Yay! Brighams favorite toy was this really cool race track with a set of Hot Wheels. It folds up into itself to make a case and sets up so easy he can do it himself! I also surprised Barry with an Xbox I got for cheap from a friend. It was really nice to replace the one that was stolen and he's already happily wasted away in front of it for many hours. :-) I am also going to past a "2008 in Review" to catch everyone up on us! Happy New Year!