The Wilson Fam

2009-05-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers Day everyone. We have had a great day relaxing. We keep days like this simlple and just encourage the person who's day it is. I have been talking about a pedicure for awhile so after church antonio suprised me and stopped by a salon and had me get one. It was great. Ashlyn and Kailyn stayed with me and the boys went to the grocery store. The chairs they had there gave the best messages, i was in heaven. My toes look so pretty and ashlyn also got her nails painted. She got flowers on her thumbs and i got them on my big toe nails. It is so nice to look down and see pretty painted nails!! The boys met us with lots of goodies. I got some potatoe soup from the deli and the cdrab legs for later. For dinner antonio made an old favorite of his from childhood, chicken and sausage gumbo. It was so yummy. Oh and i woke up this morning to ashlyn and devin chanting happy mothers day to me. Ashlyn made me a vase from and old playdough container. She cut pieces of construction paper and glued them to i and added a heart also cut from construction paper. Her friend Taylor helper her make a tissue paper flower and a card shaper like the leaves. I love homemade gifts they are so special. Then about 10 minutes later devin came running in and gave me a card he had whipped up really quick, so sweet.

Here are some pictures from about 2 weeks ago and a few from today

Ashlyn with her fresh relaxer and hair cut. So pretty and so much more managable!!

Devin humoring me for a picture as i interupt him looking for a game to play.

Kailyn from a couple weeks ago.

Today all dressed up!!

Oh ok mom i will open my eyes for a second

My beautiful family

Kailyn showing off her cloth diaper

Growing, Growing, Growing

2009-04-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we all packed up and went to the doctors office for physicals. Ashlyn is still my tall and thin little lady, in the 62% for hight and 50% for weight. She is quite thrilled that she is taller than "all the other 8 year olds" as she puts it. Devin is in the 90% for his weight and 80% for his hight. So he is very propotianal. I think he has put on some weight recently because he looks stockier to me, but usually that means he will be sprouting up soon too. Dr says they are both very healthy and in normal ranges. Kailyn has also put on some pounds, she was born at 6lb 5.3 oz and then dropped to 6lbs .4 ozs on day 2 and yesterday at 3 weeks she is 7lbs 8.6 oz with clothes on. All her other weights were without clothes so i estimate she is probably about 7lbs 8 oz. so she gain 1 lb 8 oz in 3weeks, yippee. She is still the size of a tiny newborn in my opinion and has yet to reach her brother and sisters birth weights. We also had the trauma of shots yesterday. I had been putting Devins off for a year or so cause we werent sure what route we were going to take on immunizations. But we decided to go the with the schedule the doctors recommend so yesterday everyone got up to date. They were not behind and would of had to get these at this age anyways so the 5 shots Devin had to get were the routine for his age. it absolutly broke my heart to see the shock of the pain on his face. i felt so bad and i almost cried. Ashlyn had to get 2 shots, and if any of you dont know her very well, she is terrified of pain. she is a very sensitve girl and needless to say she didnt like the whole experience much. Daddy had to struggle to hold her down and he is a pretty strong guy. But we got her to stay still and let the lady finish, the second one was hardest. But thankfully it is done and she seems to be feeling ok and not having any side effects. Devin is a little off today, not sure if its the shots or just one of those days for him. Thankfully kailyn didnt have to get any or i probably would of had an emotional break down, we have a couple months before we have to do that. I had read an article a while ago that recommend nursing your baby while they get there shots and i am going to insist that we do that this time around. When Devin was a baby I asked the lady if we could do that but she didnt see it my way, soi just nursed him right after. This time i am gonna be a little more insistent on it and we will see how it goes.

On another note, Antonio is going back to work on Monday. I am feeling better about it, not so nervous. I will miss sleeping in till 8:30 or 9:00. I am going to pray lots that baby start sleeping a little better. I have never been one to wake my babies up during the day so they will sleep better at night, but I am going to give it a try to see if it may help here sleep more soundly at night. She is actually pretty steady on when she wakes up to nurse, all day its every 2-3 hours, normal so i am happy about that. This week we have been trying to get back on our routines with housework. The key word here is try. We got some charts out and made up so the kids can mark down what they do and then we know what to giv ethem for allowance. Thats another new thing we started, allowance, I never thought i would pay the kids for daily chores but i like it. It helps them get excited about work and it also opens up opportunities for life lessons. For example Ashlyn wants this littlest pet shop daycare toy and it cost $22 and now she nows she need to save 1 months worth of allowance to get it. and she also gets the chance to decide on whether to save her money or spend it. They both love to give their money to people. Last week Antonio lost $20 while at Stater Bros (local grocery store) and he was really upset about it. After being upset for an hour or so he decided it wasnt worth it and let it go. Shortly after Devin walks into the kitchen with a dollar in his hand and says"Here Daddy you can have my dollar" melted both of our hearts right there. then Ashlyn ran to her room and got her change and brought it to him also. I love moments like this, you feel like your actually doing something right as a parent. So back to my original point, we are trying to get on our old routine. Each day of the week is assigned a room/rooms to clean. Not spastic deap cleaning just the basics and then hopefully each week we will be able to get a little deaper.. Then we also have the daily stuff laundry dishes and toys. For about the last trimester of my pregnancy i couldnt keep up with anything major. I waslucky to get the daily stuff done. I have noticed this last week that i have much more energy and desire to do stuff. I feel like i am getting back to normal,thank goodness!!! Well this is getting really long and I was just asked from the other room by my honey if i was almost done, hint hint, so i better go. Till next time....

2009-03-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020997&id=1156018079&l=7a3fdbe1ae

Here is a link to some new pictures. This is a trial thing, so if you dont have a facebook account and cant see them let me know.

A Few Pictures

2009-03-16T18:04:00.000-07:00

2009-03-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/editphoto.php?aid=2020516#/album.php?aid=2020516&id=1156018079&ref=mf

pictures for now.

She's Here

2009-03-14T10:58:00.001-07:00

For those of you who may not have received an email from me here are the details of the baby. Kailyn Danielle Wilson made her arrival at 8:02 pm on Thursday March 12th. She weighed 6lbs5.3 oz and is 18.3 in long. She is my tiny peanut after having an 8 lb + brother and sister. I will post my birth story after i catch up on some rest.

Appointment, another TMI Post

2009-03-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

I went yesterday to see my midwife and we are making more progress. I am dialated to 3 cm and 60-65% effaced. I have also been having bloody show since the appt. that easily could be from the exam or it could mean we are on our way. Her educated guess is i will go this week sometime. Today I since i got up from my nap my contractions have been stronger almost making me stop walking through them. But no consistency in time yet, so we will see what God has in store. Please pray for me to be surrendered to God's time and also to have completely drug free delivery. Thanks in advance.

Realization

2009-03-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

I have come to one, as I must at many points in my life. I was having some surrender issues with having this baby. I picked up a book that I really like, The Victory of Surrender" by Gordon Fergeson (SP?). Its a great book on being surrendered to God and his plans. So the other night while I had a nice soak in a hot bath I read one of my favorite chapters. It was just what I needed. When i start giving into my emotions of excitetment and wanting to control things i get unsurrendered. Not that being excited about a new baby is bad, but when thats all you think, talk, and daydream about then it becomes a problem. So I am trying to recognize when i am just being an excited mom and when it's getting a little over the top.

as far as baby and mom go , we are doing well. I am waddling big time now, she is definatly engaged in the pelvis. We see the midwife today and will find out if we have progressed any. I have actually felt a lot better since last Wed. not sure why but i am so we will just claim it and roll on.

Ashlyn is just bubbling with excitement over when baby will come. I think i gave her too much infomation today. she asked why she couldnt come to my appt with me and i told her cause i needed privacy with the midwife. I expalined how she would check my cervix to see how dialated I am. I probably shouldnt have, now that i look back. Ooops, too late now. Hopefully she will just forget, fingers crossed.

I will keep you all posted...

Anticipation

2009-03-03T17:13:00.000-08:00

It is really hard to not want to rush things along. I want baby to stay in as long as she needs to so she can breathe and eat and be healthy. On that note if she is ready to do all those things I am all for her coming 2 weeks early. We had another appt. with the midwife Monday and i dialated another cm so we are at 2 now, still 50% effaced and at station 3. but she said my cervix is super soft. I think last night she worked her way down into my pelvis a little more, i felt a weird pop/click and have felt a little weird since then. I feel really stretched in my belly today and I am really tired and need to stay off my feet. so with this new stuff its hard to not hope that the end may be near. I've been praying lots, trying to keep my mind right.

On another note, we have great new neighbors that we have been playing with a lot. THe little girl is 4 and all thekids enjoy each other. It's really hard to not spend the whole day playing, I am trying to be disciplined but i love to hang out and chat too. Well I honestly cant think of another thing to report so i guess i will keep things short.

Progress

2009-02-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

Well if any men are reading this, it may be TMI for them so beware. Went to the midwife Tuesday and it looks like baby is making some progress tword coming into the world. I am 1 cm diaplated, 50% effaced, and she is at station 3. It's small progress but its good to know these frequent contractions i have are doing their job. Yesterday and today they have been noticably stronger and I feel them more in the lower regions rather that just the top of my uterus. I could easily go to my due date and know that the above things dont mean anything in terms of when baby will come, but any progress is good progress. Now I am just wanting to be sure that i get to the hospitol in time for my round of antibiotics, i am such a worry wort.

I got a free changing table pad w/ a cover off of freecycle, I have never had one of the good ones with the high sides before, exciting stuff. Antonio thinks i am silly, i get excited ove the little things. I told him the other day that i am so excited to open the diapers to see how little and cute they are, and he said why she is just gonna poop in them. Silly guy, at least ashlyn is equally excited to see them. She ooohhhs and aaaaahhhs over everything like i do, love having a girl in the house to share my little moments with.

Speaking of miss ashlyn, yesterday was her birthday, sniffle sniffle she is 8. We had a low key day. She requested pancakes for breakfast so we did that. When i was a little girl my mom would let us pick our birhtday dinner, so i decided to start doing that with them. She picked turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. I think she actually wanted the whole turkey but i just did the legs and breast, she loved it and kept complimenting the potatoes and gravy. A couple days ago she decided she wanted to to get her ears peirced, so we went to walmart yesterday. She picked out her earings, sat down, but when it came time she was absolutly terrified. She was silently crying with big huge eyes. Ifelt so bad for her. So I held her down and forced her to doit while she kicked and screamed in the middle of Walmart, no i am just kidding i wouldnt do that. We decided to come back on saturday when there were two people there to do it at the same time. So Devin wanted to get her a present so we went and picked her something out, then we went to the pizza hut buffet for lunch. When we got home it was nap time and she kept telling me she regreted not getting it done. So we talked about it through out the rest of the day, a friend brought her over a present and we did her cake. We all worked together on it and ate it after dinner. Before we left for church she comes to me and says mommy i decided i dont want to get my ears pierced, i think i am beautiful just the way i am. I said ok honey its your decision. She was so precious. Tons of people at church told her happy birthday and she was just beaming all night and still this morning. I will post the little video that antonio took of her eating cake and all the pictures he took, thanks honey, later on.

Pregnancy Brain

2009-02-24T11:19:00.001-08:00

I realized today that i totally messed up what i was trying to say on my last blog. I put 35 weeks and 1 day till i am due, i think i ment to put a number of days there at the beggining of the post. Whoops, you all probably realized i made a whoopsy but it took me a few weeks. So today i am 36 weeks and 6 days, tomorrow we are officially full term at 37 weeks. I have an appt. today and 3 more scheduled till due date. I looked at the calendar and realized on sunday it will be March, yeah. I had the craziest dream this morning. I remember waking up in the dream and Antonio told me we had the baby. And I was shocked, i said i dont remember, did we do it naturally. and he said yes you were screaming like crazy. I was really disturbed and sad cause i couldnt remember and i felt like i was totally cheated cause i wanted that memory. hten he brought me the baby and it looked like plastic, but it was still moving and stuff. I said this isnt a baby. and i tried to nurse her but her mouth was filled with plastic. I was so upset cause we had a house full of people there to welcome the baby and they are all telling me congrats and stuff and i am like this isnt our baby its a doll. But then my belly wasnt big anymore and my abs hurt like i had just pushed out a baby. I kept asking Antonio to tell me what had happened during the labor and delivery. Then my dream switched to us weighing the baby, and this one was a real baby who was quite large, and she weighed 8 lbs 12 oz. I will freak if that is really what she weighs. i was really disturbed when i woke up from this dream, it was so real. The baby wasnt quite as active this morning and it kinda freaked me out. So i was really happy when she bounced around a little. I remember when i was pregnant with Ashlyn i had a dream that i gave birth to twins and one was doll, hmmm is there a common thing going on here with me having girls and dreaming they are dolls, crazy. My husband should get a kick out of this dream!!! i am trying to decide if we should start our little "vacation"from school now instead of waiting till baby is actually born. I am so tired and grumpy and the kids are really grumpy lately too. I cant leave them alone for a minute or they start arguing and it sometimes escalates into someone hurting the other or both of them. So i was considering doing some fun stuff over the next couple weeks, but then i have to consider there isnt much to do around here close. I would have to drive about an hour away and i definatly am not up for that. I guess i need to sit down and think of some things to do and ask Antonio what he thinks of that idea. I am just thinking that maybe i will be more up for doing school when baby is 3 weeks old or so. I dont know it could totally backfire on me. We will have to see.

35 Weeks and 1 Day....

2009-02-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

till my due date, but hey who's counting!! Obviously I am. We are ready as far as things go, we have been blessed with a ton of clothes. I think I spent about $15 on some second hand things and the rest we got from friends and freecycle. At my baby shower I got mostly 3-6 months and up, which was totally God cause we had no older girl clothes, and just a few days before the shower i was thinking that we needed to start stocking up on the next size. The shower was great, we had so much fun. There were a few games that I had never played before and the ladies from church really put their hearts into it and encouraged me.

It still seems so sureal (SP??) that we will be adding another child to our home. I am switching betweeen excitement and scared and the need to plan out life for after baby. i think the labor process is what is scaring me at this point, I need to stop watching baby stories and other shows with women laboring. I asked antonio why he though i was more freaked out this time and he said it's cause i have done it naturally and know how much its gonna hurt. I told him he was probably right! I have been praying a lot about it and asking that God make it that we do have a totally natural birth. Hopefully the 3rd will go fast.

Baby is really growing, she is very crowded in there now. i can feel her little feet in my ribs pushing out as far as they will let her. I definatly cry out in pain frequently these days as she pushes on other important and sensitive internal organs. I enjoy being able to play name that body part at this stage. Ashlyn loves to join me, it's great to have a girl in the house cause the boys dont get into it like we do. I will put Devins hand on my belly and ask if he wants to feel the baby hiccup and he will pull his hand away and then i will say you dont want to feel buddy and he'll say with a deep breath ok mom. He is training already on how to make his women happy. I cant wait to start putting all Kailyn's cute little clothes on her, I have dresses for days. She is going to be Ashlyn and I's little dress up doll.

Ashlyn's birthday is coming up in a couple weeks, I cant beleive it, she will be 8. Where does the time go. We are thinking of having a combined party this year. My Mom and Step Dad may come out in April and since they usually dont get to come to the kids b-day parties i thought we would combine Ashlyn, Devin, and Kailyn's and celebrate with them and all our friends. Ashlyn is already planning decorations and themes, she is so cute, she wants a lot of the to be homemade.

The kids are both learning lots of new things. Ashlyn is discovering that she can read a lot of words in most picture books and is getting more confident. She has been reading to Devin and it is really cute. devin has the stories memorized so as she is sounding some words out he is telling her what they are. She doesnt like that very much. And Devin has started a learining letters craze, to go along with his numbers which he has learned alot about. Our daily life is filled with Mommy how do you spell ______? And he tries to make words on the fridge magnets, he gets a little frustrated when he doesnt come up with a real word. Ashlyn and I also started some time telling, i figured we better start that soon. I can tell her brain is ready for it at this point, it wasnt a year or so ago, she picked up the hour and half hour with out a blink of an eye. Next we move on the quarter hours and getting the minutes down. I notice that her brain needs time to process things,if we do to much she gets overwhelmed. I would have to say that is one of the reasons i love homeschooling, we get to go at their pace.

Well thats all for now...i hope everyone is well.

Ultrasound

2009-01-28T16:44:00.000-08:00

I got my ultrasound today and my placenta has moved out of the way so we are clear for natural childbirth. I am relieved that i wont be getting cut open, at least planned before hand. She is so much bigger, she weights 4 lbs 7 oz so far and it looks like she is on her way to be about the same as her brother and sister who were both around 8 lbs. This time instead for being able to see her whole body on the screen you could only see one part at a time. We couldnt get a really good profile picture, but soon i willl be seeing her face to face so thats ok. I got relaly dizzy on the ultrasound table, i think because they have you flat on your back and it interfears with the blood flow. It was weird feeling though, luckily she was just finishing up when it happened. Well thats all for now, take care.

Much of Nothing

2009-01-21T09:18:00.000-08:00

I have been looking at my blog thinking i should write something, but then nothing comes to mind. Well, it is a proven fact that with each pregnancy you loose brain cells, so i will once again blame something on the baby!!!! Devin is still a maniac about math and numbers and he is also in t he beggining phases of learning to read. I had no plans to teach this child a thing until he was 6, but low and behold he wants to learn. Ashlyn is moving right along with her reading and math, i can look back a year or so and see how much she has progressed. and all we really do is have her read a little bit every day, well not every day but that is the goal, and she is really getting it. Too many words on one page freak her out a little so she is not ready for chapter books or anything to long. She is comfortable with her begginers bible and the books she knows she can read. We started reading The Secrets of Droon series, my husband picked it out for them at the library, they both love it. Ashlyn could sit and have me read to her for hours, she really gets into it. Devin can stand about three chapters of the above series and he enjoys it, but other than that he like short picture books. But he will sit in his room and "read" books for about 30 minutes, which is nice. This is new for him, he couldnt do it in the recent past.

I have been itching to get babies stuff ready. So i soaked those used clothes i got with the formula stains on them in oxyclean and almost all the stains came out. I am so excited cause the sleepers are all super cute. So after i soaked those i figured i might as well just wash a huge load of her stuff, so almost all her clothes are clean and ready. Then i gravitated tword the carseat cover, bouncy seat, and swing. They are all nice and clean now too. I think that is all i need to wash besides blankets and whatever I get at my shower. The ladies from church are throwing one for me on Feburary 7th and i am encouraged and excited. I cant wait for next week to get my scan and find out when i possibly may have this baby. last night I was telling Antonio of my back pain and he said "she is just ready to come out, and he added I am pretty done with this pregnancy" and i definatly had to agree. It has been a long hard one. Well i guess that is all i have to report for now, toodles.

Germs, Germs, Everywhere

2009-01-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

We are sick again. Seems to be one after another, ashlyn has mystery black/brown spots on her tounge. I am going to go investigate them on WebMD and see what they say before we go to the doctor. I am thinking it may be these vitiamin c/zinc losenges we got from health food store but i am gonna check it out. Hopefully after this round of illness we can be healthy for awhile. We need to cause we have a baby coming in 6-10 weeks. I have an ultrasound at end of the month and then we willknow if she has to come early or not. I cant wait to just know so i can prepare a little more mentally for a time frame.

Devin in all his slendor said to me today as i am making coffee,"hmmm....yumm mom looks good, well it looks kinda like poop but it doesnt taste like it though. Right? Its yummy" I laughed and had to agree with him it isnt the nicest colored beverage in the world. He cracks me up, so honest.

I got two boxes of free newborn/infant clothes off of freecycle. lots of cute stuff, some has formula stains but i found some little stain tricks on line that i am going to try. If not they will work just fine for at home. i sorted everything last night in her drawers and we are getting a good stash going. I am going to try and make some more diaper covers, but we are almost all set with those too. She is really moving a lot these days, i can feel little limbs and fists and feet. THey are strong and almost painful at times. Ashlyn gets a kick out of watching my stomach jump all over and last night she could feel kailyn's hiccups. Ashlyn is at a great age to have another sibling, she is super excited. Well i best be off to make lunch for my little ones.

Dont know what to call this post

2008-12-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

When i know i am just going to ramble and catch up it is hard to find a catchy title, so i kept it simple this time. We had a relaxing, yet germy christmas, the kids had a cold. It was a good t hing our plans were to stay home all day anyways, cause they needed too. They love all there gifts and they got 4 big boxes from the in-laws in South Carolina filled with lots of goodies. They got some great games and educational stuff that antonio and I were excited about and they were too of course. We had our fried chicken and mashed potatos and gravy, it was soooooo yummy. Antonio was laughing at me cause i was in heaven with the gravy.

On Friday I started to get sick so ever since then we have been taking it really easy. I have been sleeping in, i figured that I better take advantage of this while I can, the kids are old enough to not get into anything, with the help of TV, and soon i will have curious little one. I am feeling better, all that sleep must be helping LOL, and know everyone is just on the last stages of getting the yuckies cleaned out. Hope all of you have a great new year.

12 Weeks to Go

2008-12-23T18:37:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I will officially be in my 3rd trimester and today i found myself saying (to myself) i cant believe i am going to have a baby. I think that knowing about all the work, physical and emotional and spirital, that is required to raise children, frankly is freaking me out a little bit if i think to hard about it. I feel though in the last few days God has settled down some of my anxieties and i am feeling a little more at peace. It always gets figured out, there will be an adjustment period, but i will look back and not even be able to remember life with out 3 kids (not that i would ever want to). I never really thought i would have these fears, i wouldnt trade my life for the world. I love being home and raising them, i think i've just had the preshow jitters.

At my appointment last week we discussed the procedures if i do end up having placenta previa. If the scan at 33 weeks shows that the placenta is attached on top of the OS (opening of the cervix) then i will have to have a C-section at 36-37 weeks. They dont want you to dialate at all or there could be large amounts of blood loss, i guess it can be pretty serious. So that was a little bit of a shocker, her possibly being here in February. If the placenta is less than 2 cm from the OS then i get a C-section at 39 weeks, and if it has completely move out of the way then we are home free for natural birth. I've been trying to wrap my brain around the logistics of recovering from a C-section, nursing a baby after one, and the pain really is the biggest of my concerns. so we have about 4 weeks till we get the news and then we will see.

Kids are super excited for Christmas and me too. Ashlyn suggested decorating sugar cookies on christmas day, so that is going to be our fun. Other than that we are staying home and relaxing and enjoying antonio being home for the holidays this year. I've had a cut up whole chicken in my freezer that i've been avoiding frying, so i will do it for our dinner. i've also had this potatoe obsession this pregnancy and gravy too. I love gravy made from fried chicken so im gonna whip some up, yummy.

Oh and that snow storm we had ended up dumping 7.5 inches on us. It was really fun, the kids went out a couple times each day for about 30 minutes, cause we didnt have gloves or snow pants. We went through lots of clothes for about 3 days, but they had a blast. It's all gone now, sniffle sniffle, would have been great for Christmas day.

Desert Snow

2008-12-17T18:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, it snows in the desert. These pictures are from earlier today when if first started, the kids were so excited. Ashlyn said she woke up this morning and prayed for snow, she was very happy that God answered her prayer.

These last few were taken about and hour after the aboves ones were. it was really starting to stick.

It is now 7:00 pm and antonio and I guess there is about 5- 8 inches out there. The roads were terrible, antonio almost didnt make it home at about 12:00 pm, we live in the mountains as you know and getting up the hill wasnt easy. Church was cancelled and we are snug at home. I will take more tomorrow of the finished product. I think this is the first time we have ever had this much snow, in North Carolina we got maybe an inch once or twice so this is definatly exciting for us. Antonio also said that this is a little on the rare side, to get this much at least. It even snowed on base.

Sarah's New Toy

2008-12-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

Sarah is our cat by the way and she loves the christmas tree. She has always loved it every christmas and always climbs it. The kids think it is totally hillarious.

She also loves to hide under it and attack your feet as you walk by, i think it brings out her inner kitten or something. I love my cat!!!

here are some pics of the kids putting on ornaments. I am a little anal retentive about the lights and tinsel so i wouldnt let them help and the only way to hold them at bay was the promise of them putting on the ornaments by themselves and me not touching them. At the end when they were almost done i slipped and tried to tell one of them where i thought one should go and they promptly reminded me of my promise. Ashlyn, i believe, inherited my anal retentiveness ie controling nature and was trying to get Devin to put the ornaments where she thought they should go, he didnt like that so much so we had to put a stop to it. It was a little comical to listen to her.

and below is the finishe product pictures compliments of Ashlyn and her little posing man. Sor some reason the pictures would not move over to line up with the rest of them so i decided to just leave them alone.

Baby Projects

2008-12-02T23:20:00.000-08:00

I've had these pictures for awhile, as i have mentioned in previous posts, and since i dont seem to be tired at 1130 at night, despite the extreme exhaustion i felt all day, i thought this might be a good time to play catch up.

This is the first official "girly" hat i made for baby kailyn. The other two were gender nuetral, so when we found out she was gonna be a she i made this one. It is super tiny so it will be her hospital hat, unless i do something else in the mean time. I love it and cant wait to see it on her.

About a year ago i had contimplated making baby stuff and sellling it. So along with my serger I got a bunch of patterns. Low and behold the whole buisness idea didnt really turn out to be logical and i never did it, but i have some great patterns so i thought i would start whipping up some of the things that i need for our little bundle on the way. I love these gown things, i dont know the technical term for them, and my kids all lived in them for the first days and then wore them at night until they outgrew them. So this was my first one and i was really excited cause it turned out so cute, i think i only made about 5 mistakes that i had to fix and the project only took a coupe hours. Hopefully the more i do the faster it will go.

We Are Alive and Well

2008-12-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

I just havent felt like blogging, I think its the 81 pictures i have looming on my camera to be downloaded, yes i am avoiding putting those. Well I guess i dont have to, oh ya theres that huh. We had a nice Thanksgiving, we went over to a friends house from church, we had fun and played a cool bible game, cant remember the name but it was challenging and fun. Kids had a great time with their friends and everyone was ready for bed when we got home. Mommy is doing well, trying to manage life with GD. On those days when you just want to wolf down a chocolate cake it can get tough, or on thanksgiving when you wnat to eat the whole pumkin pie, but instead I gorged on the protien items so my sugars wouldnt go too crazy. I actually avoided checking my sugars that day, denial!!! Baby is doing well, jumping around a lot more. We have about 15 weeks to go, i was officially 6 months last week. Kids are good, Devin is still mad about counting and is showing some reading intrest. I have been trying to read books to him that are on his level, I had neglected this for awile due to all the other reading i do for Ashlyn. But he is really liking short books with lots of pictures, the chapter books bore him to tears. Him and Ashlyn sat down to play "school", it didnt really go very well, a certain 7 year old was quite bossy and didnt make learning so fun. But on the plus side she taught him how to write the big letter A. So he was really excited about that and him and Daddy sat down that night after dinner and practiced. Ashlyn has always and will always love drama, she love to act things out, give you the full story and spend a lot of time in imagination land. Its really cute the things they come up with when they pretent together. So thats our life in a nut shell for now. Until next month......LOL just kidding, i hope.

Math, Taranchulas, and Ultrasounds

2008-11-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

My son has all the sudden started counting. He can actually point to things and make it up to 11. He can count randomly up to about 17 then he starts to skip a few numbers. I am excited for a couple reasons, first that he is interested in something besides TV and Video games an the fact that he did it all by himself. I didnt teach him thing about numbers and actually i havent been teaching him anything "academic" lately. So I am believing more and more that they will learn it when they are ready, oh and he can also whistle which amazes me cause ashlyn has been trying for years and cant seem to get the tounge movement down. She asked me how did he learn before me and i just said that we all learn things at different times and to keep trying.

Now in reference to the taranchula, yes we had one at our house. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, i couldnt type enough ahhhs to fully express the creepyness of it. Luckily it was outside, although eversince i have been quite perinoind of finding one inside. The kids were playing by the garage and Devin stopped dead in his tracks and gave a littel scream when he saw the huge thing. It was easily the size of ashlyns palm. Thank goodness Antonio was home to kill it, I am not sure how i would have handled that one. Of all the wildlife i exp[ected to see in the desert, that large black furry thing was not one of them. I am tainted for life now,yuck!!!!!!!!!

Oh and about the ultrasound, in case any of you are interested we are some what sure the it is a..................................................................................................................................................................
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ok i will stop with the periods and stop being silly and just tell you all already, are you sure you want to know LOL sorry i will stop. The radiology tech said to her it looks like a girl, but that she would give us a definate. I asked her if it was safe to go buy some pink flowery stuff and she said just save the receipts. But then on the way out she said good luck with that girl. I thought it was girl and it looked to me like it was , not that i can distinguish much on those things. BUt antonio says he is still 50/50. i will have to go back at 30 or 32 weeks for another one cause my placenta was low lying, she wasnt sure if this was cause i was having a contraction the whole time i was in there or if it was actually low. I didnt feel like i was the whole time, but i was out of breath a lot. But Antonio made a good point that i was laying flat on my back and had to pee really bad. I have an appt on thursday and i am sure we will discuss it. I talked with a friend who also had this early on and hers corrected itself. So this is what i will be praying for, i really want natural childbirth. So i guess i am convinced that it is a girl, but am keeping it in the back on my mind that i could be wrong.

Fun in Prego Land

2008-10-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

I couldnt think of a title so i thought i would just be silly and put the above one. Partially due to the fact that I got the results of my Gestational diabetes test back and low and behold I am once again for the 3rd time out of my 5 pregnancies officially diagnosed with it. So on Monday i go to get all my supplies, glucometer, testing strips and all that fun stuff. I also get an appointment with the nutritionist at some point in the week. Like I said in my last post, its a good thing i eat or at least have the knowledge to eat better. Funny thing is (i may have mentioned this before) that i prayed before we found out we were prego that i would be able to be self controled and not gain a ton of weight especially since i had extrea "fluff" already. Well amen, here's to answered prayes, casue with this diet i shouldnt gain much. In my last trimester with Ashlyn i think i gained 5 pounds.

Today Ashlyn and I went on a date. Antonio took Devin and a preteen boy from church out bowling. We went shopping, she desperatly needed winter stuff and last weekend whent he high was 55 we were lacking some essentials. So i figured before we get our next cold spell , its 90 today, we better get some clothes. We had a really good time, she is really growing up. We went and had lunch at applebees and it was super yummy. Not a whole lot of resteraunts close by around here, you mostly have to go down the hill to Palm Springs for the good stuff. For some reason we hadnt went to applebees yet, not sure why, but it was good.

Not much else going on around here, i did take some pictures the other day but havent got around to downloading them yet and i really need to go sit in front of the TV and veg so i absolutly cannot do it right now. maybe Monday, we'll see LOL.

No Title

2008-10-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

Well, we have had an interesting week. Mommy and kids have all been a mess, not sure whats going on but I know it will work itself out. On Tuesday my belly kept getting really crampy at about 3:30 it really started to make me not feel so good, so i spent the night at home while the family went to bible talk. I was getting concerned that i was having real contractions, it was so hard to tell. Cause it wasn't anything timeable and it seemed to never go away. So I just layed on my left side drank some water and Gatorade and prayed God would make it obvious to me is i needed to go in. I ended up going to bed and woke up fine, but I noticed yesterday that i need to listen to my body and sit down often. I also noticed that my belly seemed to have grown over night so i am thinking that baby might be having a growth spurt. This being the third child you would think i would feel like a pro and nothing minor would concern me, but that is not the case, I actually feel more concerned this time around. And everything is more intense this time. My midwife told me that i need to make sure i get enough rest or when i get to the end i am going to feel like i have been hit by a truck (too bad i already feel like that some days). Seeing my belly grow is very exciting and I am feeling baby a little bit. They are very soft kicks at this point and they are very sporadic(sp?) it is exciting to feel it. I have been letting the kids feel my belly when i lay on my back, you can really feel the hardness of my uterus then, and they are really amazed. Ashlyn is really into the baby, she is at that age i guess. I told her that the baby can hear now so she loves to talk to my belly and kiss it, so cute. On Monday we had to go to the lab so i could do my glucose test, which i was supposed to do a long time ago but being sick and busy i put it off oooppps, i have to get it done early cause i had gestational diabetes with ashlyn and one of the pregnancies we miscarried. So the midwife called and i failed it, my levels were elevated so now i get to go back for a 3 hour test to see if i have GD this time around. I was telling Antonio that its a good thing i eat a lot better now then i did when i prego with ashlyn cause it wont be such a shock to the system when i have to eat the special way. I pretty much eat that way now with a few exceptions everyday so it wont be to big of a deal, but with the first pregnancy i ate a lot of carbs (and had the extra weight gain to prove it) so it was like being tortured eating the special diet. It was defiantly the start to learning how to eat better, so an amen is order i guess. Today we all seem to be doing better so hopefully today will be a turning point in our crazy week. Hope all of yours has went a little better than ours!!!

OB Appointment

2008-10-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

We had our 16 week appointment today. The kids joined me and did pretty well over all. Devin was very funny and silly, of course. When she was trying to find the heartbeat Ashlyn, I think, asked me to tell her the names we have, so I did and then Devin piped in with his choices on names. He said if its a boy it will be Doo Doo and when it gets older he''ll call it Captain Bones. and then he decided if its a boy it will be Stinky and if its a girl it will be Pinky. It was very funny, I told him when we got home (after he repeated the names to me for the 3rd time) that we are gonna stick with Dillin if its a boy and Kailyn if its a girl. He said ok i like Dillin. I guess he thinks he gets a say in all this, I will let him think that it's fine.

So as she was trying to find the heart beat she had troubles, she would start to get it and then baby would move. So she diecided to just get the ultrasound machine. The funny/ironic thing about this was that in the car right as we were pulling into a parking spot at the hospitol Ashlyn was trying to explain to Devin that we might find out what sex the baby is next time but that they wouldnt be able to go. Devin was a little sad and said he wanted to see the baby and i was like i know bud i am sorry but the room is little and only daddy can come. So fast forward to the room and getting ultrasound, God really gave us a little blessing cause the kids got to see the baby. It was moving around lots and even looked like it waved at us. Ashlyn was so excited she was right up next to the screen just a talking to the midwife, Devin instisted on sitting with me on the table. It's amazing how much baby has grown since the 8 week ultrasound. I definatly want to get as little procedures and ultra sounds as possible done and try to go about things as naturally as I can, but this was super exciting.

A Bunch of Nothing

2008-09-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been anything really out of the ordinary going on around here, so I thought i would just update on the norm. I think I felt the baby kick today, not totally certain but it really felt like a kick and not gas bubble. I was laying on the couch on my side and Ashlyn came and sat by me and was right up against my belly and there was a little pressure from her leaning and when she moved I felt this little thump right by my belly button. I don't know if it was wishful thinking or really a kick, but the time is getting about right for me to feel stuff. I will be 16 weeks Wednesday and i believe with Devin i started feeling stuff around 4 1/2 months so i guess in my mind i should feel it a little earlier this time. We have decided on a full girl name and part of a boy name, Kailyn Danielle (girl, obviously) and Dillin (boy). We have come to the tradition of "D" middle names, not on purpose it just kinda happened with the other two so we are keeping up the trend, so i am still on the hunt for a boy middle name. I was at candle party this weekend, yeah mommy time, and was flipping through my friends baby name book and saw a few that i like but my pregnancy brain took over and i cant remember them. So i guess I need to get that book from her. I have, for certain, come to the conclusion that i must stay away from wheat and tomatoes especially together. We had pizza the other night and i had 2 bread stick with sauce and only ate the topping off my pizza and i got super sick. But yesterday i had goat cheese on water crackers, which are made with wheat flour, and i was fine, I don't think i even got heartburn. So i guess tomatoes, which recently in last few years i also discovered i am sensitive to, are the kicker. So i am trying to listen to my body which is hard cause i love tomatoes although they don't like me.

Antonio had duty tonight so we have had a pretty lazy day. We did a partial day with school, kinda easing into it cause last week was our week off and this morning we were all a little groggy and grumpy. We started a new book, Homer Price, it is interesting so far. Ashlyn was dying to see what happens next but i was mean mommy and said we have to wait till tomorrow. Devin has gotten sick of his worksheets so I think i am going to start pulling out the 100's board and we are gonna do stuff with that together, and the ABC poster. I currently have it in the hallway by there rooms, but i think it just gets passed by there so i am going to move it somewhere more central so i can remember to talk about it more.

We did decide to use cloth diapers so i went on an ordering spree at diaperswappers, an online community where moms sell or trade there diapers they have been using, and got some great deals. I may still need a few more covers and another dozen prefolds but i am going to try and wait for awhile unless i get a deal that i cannot pass up (hint hint if anyone has anything they don't want or need LOL). A friend from one of our homeschool groups is going to come over tomorrow and we are going to serge some cloth wipes, i finally got it rethreaded (threading it is a pain), and whipped one wipe up yesterday in about 30 seconds. Flannel seems to be the fabric of choice at all the place you can buy them and the friend is done having babies so she is going to bring over a bunch of flannel blankets that we will make into wipes. I hadn't really had the sewing bug until we planned this and i got my serger threaded and now i cant wait. I also and knitting my first bootie/sock, it has really exercised my brain, i had to give up trying to use logic when reading the pattern and just do it cause it was frustrating me. But it all worked, proves that i guess you don't always need to know why your doing something. Well that's all the nothings i have for now. Ta ta

Theme Day

2008-09-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

One of homeschool groups that we are apart of started doing theme days. Yesterday, Thursday, we got to go to a goat farm. It is a family owned farm that was small and personal, it was so fun. One of the ladies from the group is good firends with them and set it all up for us. When we first got there they gave us some information on what a family farm is and talked about several different types of goats and which ones they had. Devin didnt have so much fun on this part, so he spent his time running aroing playing oh and lots of whining. Ashlyn really enjoyed just sitting and listening, she always wanted to be right next the owners, she was really cute. After the information we got to go milk the goats. The man did it first and showed them how to hold and squeeze, ashlyn and devin both tried, devin couldnt get it but ashlyn did on her second try. It got pretty stuffy in the little building so me and devin stepped out and he explored their garden and petted several goats. They were so friendly, if you walk up to them they flock to you to get some lovins. Then they got to watch that same goat be sheared and each child got to keep a little handful of hair, later they also got a little bar of lavender goat soap it smells so good. Then the group got to give the goats little treats, they would slurp them out of the kids hands with their tounges hanging out, it was cute and a little gross for Ashlyn cause one really lapped up her hand. Ashlyn was is heaven on that farm, I barely saw her all morning, she was exploring and hanging out with the owners. She seemed in her element, we have talked about one day getting a little farm, and i mean little, i think she would love it. After all that we got to go inside and get a class on making goat cheese and of course she already had some prepared so we got to taste it. Oh my it put the goat cheese in the stored to shame, it was sooooo good. I think i may try it with some store bought goat milk for fun one time. After we were done with that the kids just romped around and played for awhile and then we headed to Pioneertown.

I am so glad we followed poeple who knew where they were going cause i would have driven right by this town. It was a one road old western style town, all the buildings, except one, had wood siding like they did back in the day. It was so cute, the bowling alley had its oringinal paintings on the walls from the 40's done by a artist who worked for Hollywood. The owner whom is also apart of the group was so generous. She was giving us all money for the pinball machines, which were also older and very neat and only a quarter. All the kids also got free popsicles and she gave me two sodas. It was so great we had a ton of fun. Antonio and I and the kids are going to go back to one of the resteraunts, well it may be the only resteraunt besides the bowling alley, they have a bluegrass band on Saturdays, and its supposed to be kids friendly as long as its early. As you can see i have no pictures, uuurrg, i thought about the camera in the shower but spaced it off and forgot it. Hopefully someone got some pictures and maybe i can get a few and post them later. It was a great day.

Blogging Game

2008-09-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

I got this idea from my friend and thought it would be fun to play.

Blogging game:1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I (or any of my family members) had together. It doesn't matter if you knew us a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions (if you haven't done this already) on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Pictures

2008-09-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

I have been taking pictures randomly the last couple weeks and it is know time to post them. I have been forgetting that I had them until I would take another picture and then think oh i need to post these. So this morning the kids wanted a bath and knowing that could take awhile I am using my time wisely.

Devin being cute, he was cold after a shower I believe so he wrapped himself up. Notice his tounge is not sticking out, maybe that is the secret, get him when he is cold.

The kids pulled out the train tracks after not playing with them for awhile and they built this awesome track. It went under the trampoline and around, it was great.

Kitty wanted in the picture i guess

I cant remember why i took these, but here they are. Ooops devin wasnt fully dressed yet.

And we cant finish a picture blog without seeing devins tounge, goofy boy.

Ashlyn and I picked this puzzle from dollar tree (love that store) and put it together. We had a lot of fun.

This was our attempt to make clay whales for our ocean box that is apart of our science. Well they didnt put baking directions on the box and i tought i had remembered the temperature being about 180, but i guess i was wrong, obviously they melted. We were bummed.

another train picture the was out of order.

Pregnancy update, baby still makes me sick every no and then. I definatly feel like I am growing, the ligament pain has been pretty intense and yesterday I was just plain tired all day. I got a great deal on 20 maternity shirts and 2 pairs of pants only 70.00 with shipping. I also ordered some more pants from motherhood. I am still in that stage of just looking chubby and not really pregnant yet but soon my belly will be screaming Im pregnant. We will be 14 weeks tomorrow, 3 1/2 months . Well children are calling, till next time...

My Impact on Planet Earth

2008-09-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

I got this idea from another blogger, I cant figure out how to get the picture up here but you can just click the link. and you can also see what your global footprint is by doing the quiz. It didnt take too long and I thought it was kinda fun. If the world lived like me we would 4 and 1/2 planet earths. Intersting stuff.

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=calculator

Rock Climbing Adventures

2008-09-10T07:11:00.001-07:00

Antonio and I decided we have been watching way to much TV so on Monday night we made the short drive up to Indian Cove. For those of you not familiar with it, it is where we live at and up the road is campsites and mountains. So Monday we went up and the kids and Antonio climbed so small rocks, all with in my comfort zone. I, of course, stood patiently at the bottom watching. After about an hour we left and went and got ice cream from this little market also in our neighborhood, its a cute little place with a little of everything. Since everyone had so much fun Daddy said we would go again the next night. The kids talked about it all day and we prepared when daddy got home. So off we went again. This time daddy was a little more bold and adventurous and kept my heart rate and blood pressure up. And as he was at the top of his highest climb he calls down to me "where is the pictures for your blog now?!?!" so yes I forgot the camera, I was bummed about that cause they had a blast. No ice cream last night, although it was highly requested. They were tuckered out and fell asleep pretty fast.

Since it is cooling down around here, usually tops of in the mid 90's and by almost sundown its actually in the 80's, we will probably be having more out door adventures. This morning a little before 7:00 am i was outside with Antonio and it was 66, it felt so nice and cool, love it. Till next time......

Ashlyn's Turn

2008-09-09T08:24:00.001-07:00

She decided to be funny today, well at least I thought it was. If you haven't noticed I changed to appearance of my blog (not sure if I like it yet) and I also added some icons from Lillypie that track the kids ages and my pregnancy. Well I was looking at them and telling Devin about them and Ashlyn heard me and came in and I told her exactly how old she was and how pregnant I am, and she says where is yours mommy, and I said my what, and she said something like your age tracker. And I said why in the world would I do that. She looked at me kinda weird and I said I don't want to track how old I am that's no fun, its fun to know how old you are. Silly girl, not that I have a complex about my age cause I don't, could care less but I don't think I want it on display so I can see it everyday, we will just stick with the pregnancy.

The kids have been having such a good time playing today, it was hard for me to tear them away to take showers, and know I have to do it again so we can read. I am trying to stick to a morning schedule and have been for 3 weeks, yippee, I just function better if its written down for me and then I don't have that nagging guilt of am I missing something that they need to be learning. I also am getting back to daily cleaning schedule, like Mondays are bathrooms Tuesdays are kitchen, the poor house has not been getting much love since we moved here. And since this stresses the hubby out and I am feeling better these days (I guess baby got the message) I figured I better get on it before baby gets here and then we have a whole other set of things to deal with. Well that's my ramblings for today.... till next time.

Devin's Words of Wisdom

2008-09-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

The boy cracks me up. We were sitting at the table doing some school work and I was going to write Devin's name on his bat paper he was coloring. So I asked him"Devin how do you spell your name?" He said C and I said du du du (thats me sounding out d) D-e-v-i-n," and then he says to me"If you know how to spell it then dont ask me" It was so funny I couldnt help but laugh and he says" I'm serious I'm not joking" He is too smart for his own good.

I let the kids go on http://members.enchantedlearning.com/ and print out some stuff (thanks for the idea Jackie). Ashlyn chose a camping book, an armadillo, and a parrott coloring page (check the box for fine arts!!!). Great website with lots of stuff, it cost 20.00 a year but I think its worth it. We will post pics later on. Better get back to the kidos, I had to come post this before I forgot my sons witty comment.

Pregnancy Update

2008-09-04T15:50:00.001-07:00

This is my third new post today and they are long so make sure you dont miss them!!

I am home from my appointment with good news, we heard babies heartbeat it was 160 beats per minute. It's a relief. I am 12 weeks and one day and as soon as baby gets that message maybe I can start feeling better LOL. With the other two kids the nausea just seemed to dissapear at 12 weeks, whats going on here!!! I can tell my belly is growing and am looking forward to looking pregnant and not just overweight. So far bland foods are the best for me, i usually do ok with the basic seasonings like garlic onion and salt and pepper, but sometimes on the wrong day it just turns my stomach. Friut hasnt been so appealing to me lately, I think I am sick of eating it, but I will trudge on and eat it anyways. Well thats all the prego stuff I can think of right now. Toodaloo

This is Going to be a long one....continued

2008-09-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

more sunset

ok I know for sure this is Devin going down the hill. They had a blast.

Here's Antonio trying to ge the dog to jump in the back of the truck, she tried once but couldnt make it. After this they all went on a walk, I stayed home cause I was tired.

My first project for the baby. Super easy knitted cotton hat, I cant wait to put it on baby.

Picture #2 of hat

Ashlyn lost her third tooth, bottom left.

Her tooth in the jar, kinda hard to see.

kids washing Sally (evidently this is the name they chose for the van, the truck is Jack)

Antonio had to change the spark plugs on the van. Not his favorite things in the world to do especially on this van. It seems to be a conspiracy, they place everything in the weirdest places, almost like they didnt want you to be able to do the work youself. Notice he is under the van in order to get to three of the spark plugs. He literally had to force his hand up into the engine to get to them.

Here is Devin helping. After some persuasion Daddy allowed him to help. he was so cute, he told me "this engine is broken, but the other one is ok" so I asked how many engines are there and he said "forty eight". He is just to cute.

here they are together under the van. devin kept going to the tool box and getting new tools and pretending he was fixing stuff. He's say things like too much gas last night.

Ashlyn didnt seem to interested in being under the van, not that she is against getting dirty but I guess it want her thing. She did find a injured dragon fly that kept her busy for awhile.

Ok I am finally done, yeah. I will try to post later on today after we go to my 12 week OB appt. If we can here the heart beat with the doppler thing then I wont get the ultrasound, since the only reason for the ultrasound is to make sure everything is ok. So only a few more hours to wait, I am excited.

This is Going to be a long one....

2008-09-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

I guess I have to play catch up a little. I also took about 30 pictures this weekend and am going to try to get them all in this post, so here goes. Antonio had a nice long weekend due to Labor day, we didnt do anything out of the ordinary just hung out. I still cant travel far from home cause I get car sick and I also never know when I wont feel good. I have to say this has been the roughest pregnancy yet, but I will continue to remind myself how greatful I am and how much I am looking forward to having this child.

Devin working on his letter sheets.

Ashlyn doing Math. NOt sure if she really likes math or not. She likes it when she does it with Daddy, but I think some of the concepts are tricky for her.

Devin (notice the tounge and spiderman hand also the I love you sign)

"C" is for clouds. I am very pleased that he is enjoying these. I started hanging them all on the wall so he can see the whole alphabet. this is an old picture, today we did letter "F".

Ashlyn's favorite coloring book, it has really cute pictures of kitties in it.

These are some of the masterpieces out of the kitty coloring book

Devin's notebook, he saw one in walmart that had Spiderman on it and it was triple the price of this one, so I told him he could decorate it with spiderman himself. Whew he liked that idea.

here is the inside cover and first page (can you tell he likes spiderman). I have been pleasantly suprised how much he is enjoying stuff like this. I thought it wasnt his thing but now I am thinking it may have just been his age and he needed some gentle persausion. Coloring is not something he naturally gravitates too, but he's had fun with it so far and he says the cutest things while coloring his pictures.

There was a beautiful sunset the other night and I thought I would try and get pictures. They did not turn out very well, but if you can try to imagine it a lot prettier that this you may understand why I took the pictures.

Ashlyn pointed out the first star to me so I thought I'd take a picture of it.

more sunset

You cant see it well, but there is alittle hill going down to the neighbors house. The kids discovered that it would be really fun to ride there bikes down it. I think the black blur in this picture is devin, not totally sure though.

Ashlyn on her bike.

Ok I am going to start a new post cause it is getting irritaing to drag all the pictures to the bottom of this post.

School Work and Swing Set

2008-08-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we started our new routines and curriculum that we got. So far everyone seems to be enjoying it. I like it cause its a lot of reading and not a whole bunch on busy work that Ashlyn hates. The method of the curriculum is nice, it follows Ruth Beetchick (sp?) methods which i seem to like, and it talks a lot about not forcing them if there not ready or intersted but working with them. For example one of Ashlyn's read alouds is the Beginners bible and she can read most of the words but some are hard, so they suggest that the parent reads the ones that are above the child's level and the child reads the ones they are comfortable with. Unfortunately my first response at times is to push her too hard and try to force and it really backfires. As I read there suggestions I totally see that doing it gently and at her pace has always been my goal I just havent known how to go about it. So I am getting lots of great ideas and we are enjoying it so far on day two. I've got some stuff for Devin to do and I am greatfull that he seems to also be enjoying it. Lots of glue and cutting, the cutting was frustrating him so we put that aside, he worked on the letter B today. We tore up some blue paper and put out some beans and he glued them to the letter B. When Ashlyn saw him gluing beans she said that looks funner than this math I am doing. I told her she was welcome to make a picture when she was finished, we both forgot so not bean art work for her yet, but maybe later. Devin also did a sheet with a boat and letters Bb, he was really having fun with it he drew a dolphin jumping out of the water and going back in the water and then it died cause it got stuck on the beach (we learned out whales getting beached a couple weeks ago) then he got a different color marker (he was using lots ob blue) and drew poop cause all the animals in the water were pooping. Ashlyn thought this was quite gross and I thought it was funny cause it amazes me how his little brain works. So here are the pictures.

Ashlyn drew this very vibrant rainbow yesterday, she really loves rainbows and is wanting to get the colors just the way they appear in the sky when there is a real rainbow. I have no idea what the order is but this is her perception of how it goes.

This is a picture she started working on first thing this morning for Devin (totally her own idea) at the top it says I love you devin. sniffle sniffle she does love him (I wonder some times)

Devin and playdough. He loves smashing his action figures into the playdough. Amazing how different boy brains and girl brains work.

Ashlyn pretending, still her most favorite game.

At last we finally have a swing set. I've been wanting one for about 2 years. We had an old one from a neighbor at our house in Hubert, NC. But when we moved to Richlands, NC it didn't come with us and since Antonio was on deployment it didn't work out to get one and by the time he got back it was time to move. Since we decided to stay at this house we decided to take the plunge and get one. The directions were something to be desired and some of the whole were not drilled very well in the slide, but other than that it was too horrible. Now when it says it takes 3- hours to put together don't believe them unless you are either a master carpenter or a professional swing builder. I took us a couple days. But we are now reaping the benefits of our labor and sunburn(me cause I didn't put sunscreen on myself after getting everyone else). The kids are loving it, and me too. In the morning they go out for about an hour while I read through our schedule for the day and make phone calls. So far it is working well.

Ashlyn put kitty up there cause she didn't want to swing it so kitty just watched, cute!!!

Pregnancy Ramblings

2008-08-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well I spent another night home from church last night, think this is my third or fourth week in a row. I feel pretty yucky at night and am a little afraid of leaving the house, I don't really care to throw up in public, and I get car sick even more when I am pregnant so if you mix an already sensitive stomach and a 20 minute car ride that could equal not so much fun at church. So Ashlyn and I stayed home last night and hung out and watched TV. I actually felt really good yesterday until 4:30, then the nausea kicked in a little but not too bad so I cooked fettuccine Alfredo for dinner. I skipped the pasta due to my wheat thing and opted for my sauce over veggies and chicken. Well, I didn't suspect it wouldn't agree with me, was I ever wrong. I was pretty miserable last night. I guess I need to stick to really bland things like baked potatoes and [plain rice. But this morning i feel better, this seems to be the trend.

We are considering cloth diapers, again, I used them for about a month with Devin. I wasn't as prepared as I should have been and I was by myself, so I think that had a lot to do with it. Antonio didn't like it much, but we only had prefolds and covers, so if we do it this time I am going to have a stash of all in ones and pocket diapers for him to use. We aren't totally sold on the idea yet. I read a few articles about the chemicals in disposables, little scary, and I am trying to weigh the pros and cons. I tend to get excited about purchasing all the new stuff and the prospect of a new adventure but when it comes to reality time then its not always so fun. But on the other hand with a more realistic stock of diapers and a husband home it may not be that bad. So we will see, I am waiting to get a yea or nae from hubby so I can start stocking either way. But I do feel like I shouldn't purchase anything quite yet, wait till I pass the 12 week mark. Well I am being beckoned by the boy so ta ta for now.

Some Pictures

2008-08-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

We have been trying to incorporate Family night into our week. It didnt go exactly as planned on Friday last week, so we did homemade pizzas on Saturday. So here is the kids putting on the toppings, Daddy highly encouraged lots of pepperoni, i am not a pepperoni fan so next time I will have a slice of mine w/o it.

Silly Ashlyn with her taste of pepperoni that didnt make it all the way in.

And here is our finished product, it turned out reall yummy, especially after i took of my pepperoni LOL. My taste buds are super sensitive these days, so fruits and veggies taste the best to me. Antonio made a salad to go with the pizza and it was the best. The cherry tomatoes were so sweet and juicy, and everything smelled so good as he was cutting it. I cant wait to have him make me another salad.

Devin the master comedian

Since I had the camera out they wanted to take more pics.

He loves the silly faces

Here they both go

The Usuall

2008-08-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well there hasnt been a lot going on around here, besides the norm. We did go swimming on Friday at the base pool, we had fun and got some well needed sun. They have a little slide the kids could go down. Ashlyn could touch at the end and Devin had a life jacket on so i didnt have to catch them. They set up of the pool is very well though out, it doesnt go above 4 feet for half of the pool and then the rest is roped off and is 9 foot. Then they have a seperate toddler pool with mushroom, unfortunatly it was broken. So we had a good time doing that until we got rained or rather lightninged out. But at least this time we got to swim for about an hour and a half. On Saturday I dont think we did anything but watch TV, we got cable on Friday so we definatly enjoyed it this weekend. Of course church Sunday and a yummy breakfast lunch at a local resturaunt. Antonio has been great about getting groceries for me since I've been pregnant. Seems like anytime I need to go I dont feel good, so he went yesterday after he got done with a little weekend emergency at work, just downed network nothing serious. he suprised me with lots of groceries, so sweet. Unfortunatly I could not enjoy the wonderful seafood stuffed salmon he got cause my senses are in overdrive so the smell was too much. Fruit has been my friend and it tasted soooooo goood. I guess that is a good thing. we are also gearing up to get on a schedule for school. I think the four week on one week off method is going to be our choice and I think it will work well. We are off to WalMart to get school supplies today and we plan to get started on August 25th. I am trying to get stuff together for Devin if anyone has any ideas for little 4 year old boys i would love them. The idea of sitting and doing anything doesnt seem to appeal to him unless its his idea, so that can be a little dilema at times. Anyway thats all for know......

Appointment

2008-08-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

WARNING: I do talk about some things you may not want your younger children to read. nothing inappropriate but might just be to much information that you dont want them to have. Not sure if any kids read this or read behind Moms shoulder LOL

We had our appointment today and all looks well so far. They are really having a hard time getting around the fact that I had a period while pregnant, the Midwife called me back and said she probably wouldn't see me today cause according to the date of my last period I am only 4 weeks. So we discussed lab results and all that and got it figured our. So between that and the ultrasound it was determined that I am 8 weeks and 1 day and am due on March 18. Ashlyn got to come in for the ultrasound, she thought it was awesome. We got to here the heart beat and She couldn't believe how fast it was. I asked her if hers was that fast and she said yes and I said no its not honey and she said when I run really fast it is, so i had to agree with that one. we didn't have Devin and Daddy come back ,cause being that Devin is too smart for his or our own good, we didn't want o get into any explanations as to where the ultrasound probe was being placed LOL. He is already asking me if they are going to cut me open for the baby came out (a friend of ours had a c-section and we had gone to visit her and he had why she was in pain or something) and I answered him that I probably wouldn't get cut open and proceded to ask me how will the baby get out, aahhh I don't think I answered him directly but said we will talk about it when you are older. He is defiantly not ready for that info, he'll have it spread around the neighborhood before we know it. It was nice to see the babies little heart beat and see the little yoke sack that give the baby nutrition at this time and will turn into the placenta at the end of the first trimester, I didn't know that. I still am technically not out of our danger zone. We found out with the other 2 miscarriages around 12 weeks. I am not trying to focus on that, I am just trying to remain peaceful about it, but at same time be realistic. I appreciate everyones prayers and ask for them to continue.

Flash Flood

2008-08-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

When we were on our cross country trip to move here we kept seeing the road signes that said flash flood Areas in between Las Vegas and Twentynine Palms. You also see them on side roads and low lying areas. Well today I got to experience my first one, oh happy day(not). Very scary!!! Saturday I promised the kids we would go to the pool this week and yesterday I decided that Monday would probably be great, it looked cloudy on the mountains but I didn't think much of it. Plus it rains like once a month over here if that so I was thinking it very well may dry out by the time it reaches us. It did start to rain before we left but it looked clear tword base and once again i thought it may dry up lets give it a try. So we stopped at Subway and got lunch and headed on to base (big mistake). As soon as we get to the pool the lightning and thunder starts and poor Devin is devastated cause he couldn't get in. So we tracked back to the car and headed home. Well going against my gut instinct I took the back way. Well the end of the back way is straight up hill, so what does that mean, well sand doesn't absorb water when it comes down fast and hard, so before you go up hill you are down. I had water flying up on my windshield, dirty sand water, and i prayed and prayed God please just let me get threw this. My fan belt light kept coming on and I swear it seemed like a mile we had to drive in that water and when we finally got to the top they closed the road I needed to go on. Remember those pretty mountains I sent pictures of, well lots of water was rolling down them with lots of sand and that leaves a mess on the highway. So we sat there for about a half and hour. There were some daring people that were taking a little side road and they were getting thought fine from what I could see so I went for it. Scary, the whole road was tore up so i got threw that and then pulled over cause the water coming down the road I needed to cross was moving really fast. So I pulled over again and waited for someone else with a similar vehicle to make it across or for water to slow down. So after about 10 minutes I noticed some cars actually driving up that road so I crossed it and made my trek up to our house. Whew we made it safe and sound.

Birthday Fun

2008-08-02T10:38:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday and I woke up to Ashlyn wishing me happy birthday. She really loves birthdays, every ones. She was so excited to go shopping and buy me a present with Daddy, I think one of her love languages is Receiving Gifts cause she also loves to give them!! So I went to my appointment as stated in yesterdays post and after we went home and had a wonderful birthday nap, as I told Antonio today growing a baby is not easy business, I am tired. Ashlyn woke up from her nap and said "I will be right back!!" And she brought me a card that she made all by herself, it was red construction paper (she said cause my favorite color is red, so thoughtful) and she wasn't sure how to spell some of the word so she copied them off another birthday card a friend had sent me. I thought this was very intelligent of her,if you don't know something you go figure out how to do it, yeah. Antonio got off early so we headed down the hill, which is Palm Springs about 1 hour away. I think any trips over 30 minutes will be null and void until I have the baby cause I got a little ill. He took us to the Cheesecake factory, which was super beautiful. I am not sure if they all look like this or it was because it was in Palm springs. But with my nose all the sudden being very efficient, I got a little nauseous when we walked in the door. When the waitress came to offer us some bread and she got a very desperate "yes please" from me, she was very prompt with her return. I have been trying to stay away from wheat, it doesn't like me very much, and it gives me even worse heartburn than I already have. But I was desperate at this point and with the bread and Antonio's sprite (I've also been trying to stay away from that too) I was able to keep my stomach contents down. But I didn't get to eat, I ordered Mahi Mahi and it didn't smell too good to me at the time, but Antonio's french fries were awesome. I felt bad that I wasn't very good company at that very thoughtful and wonderful dinner, but I couldn't help it. So we left and I didn't begin to feel better, so we stopped at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and I got several dark chocolate covered strawberries. I've had one (I know i must be pregnant and ill) and they are wonderful. Then we went to Target, which is the closest to us, and got some much needed bookshelves. Antonio is slaving away putting them together, I tried to help but he said I looked pathetic and needed to go do something with myself ( I am a little tired and nauseous). The drive home was equally painful and then and there i announces I don't think we should drive this far while I'm pregnant. It was fun all in all and nice to get away. I was at the beginning of my pregnancy with Devin on my also and I think I had some similar issues, funny how you forget those things until you relive them. I did try my Mahi Mahi when I got home after a rest and some saltines and it was yummy. The broccoli tasted really good too.

Sorry No News

2008-08-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

I had my appointment today and it was just a general health history and stuff. Lots of handouts and information, but they wouldn't do a blood test or ultra sounds today. Thankfully I do have a ultra sound next Thursday which I will look forward to. They think I'm about 9 weeks, I think I am more like 8 but next week we will know for sure. So I am probably due mid March, I am a little crampy today, but it's hard to tell whether its just growing pains or what. Pregnancy is always a time of spiritual growth so i will just embrace it. Looking ahead to the end of the pregnancy, I am not wanting another hospital delivery and Antonio says absolutely not to a home birth so I think I may do some research into birth centers. Cost of course is another issue so I also need to do some research on this alternative insurance that the military provides and as far as I know will cover birth center births. But I am going to see. Well that's it for know.

The House

2008-07-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

We've been living in our house for about a month and a half so i guess its time for pictures. I finally got batteries for the camera and got them charged so the camera has been fired up and ready for use.

Here is the house from the street. I love the covered porch and when cools down in the fall hopefully we will use it more. There is a great view of the sunset from there and with the mountains it is beautiful.

Here is a view of the mountains from the front yard, its a great view I will try to get more pictures of it to share later.

These are pictures of out two huge ant hills in our front yard. The pictures really don't do them justice, they are big. And there are usually tons of ants. On the 1st picture there is white stuff around the outside that the ants have been carrying in their hole, it really cool to watch them. I would love to see the inside, I bet there are hundreds of chambers and tunnels. They start form the neighbors yard and come across our drive way and the yard from one hole to another. Who needs an ant farm inside when God gives you this in the front yard!!

Here is a picture of this innocent looking plant that looks fuzzy and cute...IT'S NOT. Poor Ashlyn, not knowing, touched it with both her hands and ended up with two hands full of splinters. That was interesting getting them all out. She was freaking out so we had to wait till she was asleep to pull them all out. We all learned a vital lesson, don't touch the foliage in California!!!!!

Here is the living room. I will soon be removing those curtains when the landlords put up blinds. They were a temp fix to fight the brutal sun that comes thought that window.

Here is the left side of the living room and the hallway back to the bedrooms and computer room.

This is the dining room and kitchen from the family room (picture below). I got this table right before we moved so I didn't get to use it till we got here. I really like it. I like the tile floors and counter tops, I have never had them before.

This picture is a dark, sorry. This is my favorite room, the family/school room. The toys and books and school stuff is in here. Antonio and I both got our hearts desire with this room. I like the house to be filled with learning so it can happen all the time and he likes is to have a home so with this room I feel like the kids are still with us and not tucked away in a bedroom playing and he get the stuff having a home.

Devin in the rocking chair getting ready to start a tea party with Ashlyn.

mmmmm...yummy tea

An update on me and baby. I am definitely feeling pregnant, got super nauseous and dizzy after taking my prenatal yesterday. I think I'm switching to chewables!! I feel like things are progressing, I have the lower ligament pain often and I get tired really easy. I nap almost everyday. I have and appt. on Friday and I think I get a dating ultrasound so I will let you all know the due date then. My guess is the end of March, which is funny cause that will give us February, March, and April birthdays and the last two will be with in weeks on each other. I guess its good to knock um all out at the beginning of the year, Antonio says it right around tax return time.

Slower Pace Around Here...

2008-07-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

Well for those I haven't spoken too since last Saturday, we've been on a emotional roller coaster around here. Most of you know we've been wanting to have another child and we didn't think that happened this month. But was having some weird stuff going on, spotting and cramping after my period and the cramping getting concerning on Saturday, I took a test and it was positive. So I spent 4 hours in the ER, got my hormone levels measured and an ultrasound. Baby was still in there and my hormone levels were nice and high, looks like I'm about 5 weeks. Then I went back and got blood drawn again on Monday so they could see if the hormone levels rose like they should be during pregnancy, and on Tuesday I found out they did rise. We've had two miscarriages in the past and the last one before Devin and this one have too many similarities for me to be set on the idea that everything is OK. The last miscarriage they followed me all the was till 6 weeks and it seemed everything would be fine and then I went for my check up at 11 weeks and they did an ultra sound and the baby's heartbeat had stopped. So I am defiantly taking care of myself like i should and praying to be peaceful and surrendered, cause we don't know what the outcome will be. God's will is always done and sometimes his will isn't the positive outcome and I know that I have to be patient and wait. That is really hard at times, its difficult not to look to much into things like today I'm not as tired or moody as I have been then last couple days so I keep thinking every now and then what if my hormone levels are dropping? I was reading in a book that being truly surrendered to god and it is a daily battle in dealing with this. This is truly out of my control and all we can do is wait. So we have been taking it east, trying to listen to my body if i feel tired or crampy. The beginning of the week was tough, the kids were having a hard time and so was I. Today seems better, like i said I don't feel so tense and grouchy. Having to rest more also showed me that I need to stick to my daily routine cause it looked like a tornado hit and i didn't have the energy to do anything with it and my poor husband, being the neat freak that he is, came home from work and cleaned everything. So today I am determined to keep up and not let it all go crazy around here and still rest.

We also decided that we are not moving. Housing can only hold our house for seven day past the available day and we were going to see if we could find a tenant, but decided that it doesn't seem worth it and after a small tid bit of advice (thanks Tracey) that maybe God didn't want us to move. Both me and Antonio probably had this in our brains but I guess sometimes it take a person or two to actually say it to you to get it threw. So we decided that we are gonna stay put for the next year and then see what looks like the best decision. After all the stuff happening around here with the baby I honestly do not feel like moving anyways. Well that's all for now...

The Latest

2008-07-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

We have been trying to get on a normal routine around here and we are getting there slowly but surely. Last Tuesday we were able to go to our first live children type performance. Sesame street is doing a new type of mini show for the military about deployment and homecomings and injured service men. It was fun, it lasted about 30 minutes and they had lots of literature and pamphlets and all that. It was free and is at each base they go too. The kids had a great time.

I am in the process of deciding on curriculum, and I am pretty sure we are going to go with Sonlight, for those of you who aren't familiar its a literature based program that involves reading a lot of older books. Not the greatest description but all i can manage at the moment. I was excited to see that they offer payment plans for a small fee, cause they are a little pricey.

Oh and we got offered a house on base today, I drove through the neighborhood and it is a new development. I looks really nice. Now we just have to get out of our lease, we didn't realize that this one where we live now wasn't a flexible one. Most of the properties this company has is and that why the base recommends them, so we will see what Gods plan is for us in the next few days.

Well that's all for now...toodles

Devin and the 4 Wheeler

2008-07-06T15:37:00.000-07:00

I found the pictures from our trip and will try to post as much as I can.

These are of Devin's first 4 wheeler ride. I was a little nervous about letting him ride one but with Daddy's gentle persuasion and a helmet I agreed. You should have seen this crazy child of mine, pressing the gas a hard as he could (it was on the handle) flying down grandpa's rode. I was freaking out. He has a very adventurous spirit. No timidity problems here, my goodness. he did look quite adorable and way too grown up. Where did these four years go?

Fun filled (Extended) Weekend

2008-07-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

Antonio got off around 2:00 pm on Wednesday so we have had an extended weekend. On Thursday we decided to skip homeschool group and hang with Dad. We went to the Joshua Tree National Park Visitors Center and browsed around. I am wanting to get some books that have pictures and information about the native wildlife and plants, I didn't really want to spend 20 bucks so i didn't get any. But they did have a cool coloring book of native plants and animals for $3.95 so we got that instead. Then we went to a local coffee shop next door and got some java and smoothies. It was a really cute place and I want to go back and get the Mediterranean platter. It looked so yummy, it had olives and some sort of lentil soup looking things and hummus and pitas, and stuffed grape leaves. I probably am not doing the poor plate any justice, i promise it did look really good. Then we went to the local health food store in search of wheat berries and yeah for me they carry them in bulk. I was excited. I had assumed no one really carried them around here and was going to order them online, but i found them for cheaper at that store and i don't have to wait. Later that night we all went to our first drive in movie, we saw Kung Fu Panda, which aside from the movie glorifying the pandas overweight problem (I am not putting down anyone who is overweight, I am in that boat, but I don't think it should be glorified either) it was a cute movie. It being our first drive in we were not really as prepared as some of the veteran drive in goers. Some people came equipped with air mattresses and pillows other had their folding chairs and some just pillows and blankets to lay in the back of their trucks with. We just sat in the front of our truck and watched, but the air mattress in the back with pillow looked like fun so we are going to try that next time.

On Friday morning I cant for the life of me remember what we did, but that night we of course went to the fire works. The base here really puts a lot of effort into family fun. They had jumpy houses and slides, a live band, and lots of local companies were giving away freebies. This event was open to the public so the food wasn't free, but I heard that normally when its just for military they just give the food away. The fireworks we awesome, the best I've seen as an adult, our church group met there together and we had lots of fun.

Saturday we got up bright and early and had a play date at the park with a lady i met at the commissary. It was a nice day not to hot only around 101 and there was a breeze that felt a little cooler. The kids had a great time, we brought bats and balls, soccer balls, and snacks and water. It was great. Then Saturday night we went to see Prince Caspian on base. We thought it was free but unfortunately we had to pay. I was so bummed cause it really broke our budget, he he he just kidding it was only a $1 per person and that included our drink. Like I said they have great stuff on base around here. Oh and the snack bar stuff was reasonably prices, we had our dinner there. The movie was pretty good, intense with more evil, but a really good movie. There was a kissing scene at the end, quick, but Ashlyn had noticed and had questions. Granted it was rated PG-13 but I thought that was for the violence. Anyways it was great, I do want to read all the books and I want to find out if Disney just added that part or if it was actually in there.

Whew my fingers are tired, so i shall go. As soon as i find our trip pictures i will post them and batteries are my list so hopefully soon there will be some pictures of the house.

New LInk

2008-07-02T15:16:00.001-07:00

I wanted to point out that I put a link on the side bar titled "Check out the temperature in Twentynine Palms" in case you were intersested what the temps get like in the desert. Bye

Recent Happenings

2008-06-29T18:29:00.002-07:00

We are settling in here pretty quickly. Our house is great, I love the extra living room it serves as a play/school room for us. We don't have everything unpacked, but the essentials are. We are actually praying and pondering whether to move on base. They wouldn't have a house for us till about August, so we would of had to move off base for those months anyways. The price of gas here is around $4.45 and Antonio drive about 30 miles total each day. There are several covered parks (108 degree sun and plastic don't mix) and 2 pools. There is free bowling on Mondays and of course living close to the commisary is a added plus. The down side is that we live closer to church and church members and a homeschool group that I really enjoyed last week. There is another group on base that I plan to check out and may go to both, so at this point me and Antonio don't know what to do. God will show us, I just need to be patient.

The kids have been a little out of it this week, and mommy too. But this morning we woke up and they did a magic show for me. It was so cute. Ashlyn put Devin under a blanket and said mommy close your eyes and she said alacazam alacazoo make Devin disappear (little scurry of foots steps and laughing) then open your eyes and KAZAM Devin had disappeared. It was really funny and cute. Then Devin did it and a few other tricks. Then we all went to make bread together. I decided maybe if I do it in the morning it wont make the house so hot. I've done a few things at night in the oven and the kitchen really heats up. I am trying to be frugal and plus i love making bread. The kids had lots of fun (sorry no pictures, camera out of batteries) and they tried some dough and said it was really yummy..

We have been enjoying reading lately. We just started book 5 in the little house series. Me and Ashlyn spent a couple hours the other night reading and the boys played football on the Wii. Ashlyn is getting more fluent in her reading, but I don't think i would put her in the category of reading lover. She really like to pretend and walk around talking to herself and singing (lots of singing). But she does like to be read to so we are going to try and do more of that. Devin isn't as much into reading, he likes all the physical things. He enjoys matching games and candyland lately, and I got an email from a website today with an idea for a matching game. You take bright colored index card and make cutouts of the alphabet (usually about 10 at a time) 2 of each and then flip them over and let them play the matching game with hem. Can be adapted for older and they can spell a word that starts with that word and maybe a sentence containing that word. So I think I am going to do this for him cause he seems interested in learning his letters.

Antonio is enjoying his job so far. He says the people he works with are pretty nice. Overall we like the area and cant wait till it cools down and we can go to Joshua Tree National Park and do some exploring.

Till next time....

4 Days and Counting

2008-05-26T18:35:00.002-07:00

Friday is coming quick, I cant believe Monday is almost over. We are having church at our house tomorrow and everyone is gonna pitch in and help move and clean, totally awesome. I get a little surge of panic every now and then when I think of the upcoming week and weeks after we are out of here. Oh if anyone has any great car games to share, especially for active little boys, I would love them. We have tenants for the house, we received the deposit on Friday so that is a relief and we have all the stuff that was filling up the garage in the moving truck. Well that's all I have for now, sorry about the choppy sentences (that's what my brain thinks like theses days) and no pictures. Take care and I probably wont blog again until California. Toodles

Pictures

2008-05-12T08:37:00.004-07:00

Devin's 4th Birthday was on April 9th. We kept both of their birthdays simple this year. They each chose to go to chucky cheese and have pinapple upside down cake. Then they got to pick a few presents. We had a good time enjoying Daddy home for a birthday.

Devin and his pinapple upside down cake w/ whipped cream. yummy

Ashlyn enjoying hers.

mmmmm...whipped cream

Antonio and I on our way to his Career Coarse dinner. We had fun with each other, just hanging out and chatting with lots of people. The kids got to go and play with friends, we all had a good time.

Till next time....hopefully not 2 months from now!!!!

19 Days till We Move

2008-05-11T18:06:00.002-07:00

Hi, I didn't realize it has been over a 2 months since I posted, I think i know what holds me back, it is the pictures. I am terrible about taking them and even more terrible about loading them on the computer, so I feel like I am cheating everyone if I don't post with pictures. Any who...what have we been doing the last 2 months. Well Antonio was in Career Coarse right after getting back so his homework kept us all pretty busy, but we got to end that with a formal dinner so that was fun and I do have a picture but it isn't downloaded so I will not be posting it LOL. After that he went on leave and has been and will be till Friday then he will go back for 4 days and he will spend them checking out and then he is on leave for 40 some more days. We plan to leave here on the 30Th (yes May) and will hopefully arrive in 29 Palms by June 15Th. So we have been spending most of our time, up until a few weeks ago, keeping the house presentable for showings. We have it on the market for sale or rent, but we have a couple of prospective renters one is supposed to be sending their deposit. I will be very happy to see that come in it has been a tid of a run around. But I think God is just helping me be a little more peaceful and patient. We have a lot of the house packed up and ready for the moving truck which arrives on the 23rd and will be picked up on the 29th and go on its journey to California. We will be driving across country, 1st Virginia Antonio's friend is graduating from The Basic School and they will be off to Okinawa. Then off to Iowa so my husband can finally see what the corn state is all about, yes 8 and half years of marriage and he has never been there. Then we are going down to Texas to see his cousin and Aunt and then we will cut over to California. I am looking forward to it, I have never driven across country so it should be fun.

Ashlyn and Devin have been well. Ashlyn is really growing in her reading and Devin is starting some lessons when he feels up to it. Ashlyn really enjoys art so we are going to be trying everything in lapbooks. We got a new science curriculum from the Apologetics and a labbook to go with that. Hopefully Devin enjoys art also or we will be in trouble. Take care till next time

Let's Play Catch Up

2008-03-04T07:33:00.002-08:00

It has been a few weeks since my last blog...sorry we have been busy. I had to take an unexpected trip to Iowa due to a death in the family. My step dads mother, Marie, passed away. I am really glad that I was able to go back, she was a big part of my life growing up, if Antonio wasn't here I don't think i would have been able to take the kids and go back. I went by myself for 4 days, it was really hard to leave them. I was a mess, first it was hard to make the decision to go and then when I made it and got my ticket and all that It was hard to be sure if I'd made the right decision,aahhh it was a struggle. But once I got home I new I made the right decision, there is no way I could have spent as much time at the funeral home as I did if i would of had the kids. It is just not a child friendly environment. I got to see a lot of family I hadn't see in a really long time, probably 12-15 years. It was a whirlwind, there was no down time. It was sad to see her go but she was really suffering in the end. She was diagnosed with altziemers and recently put in a nursing home and about three days before she died she refused to eat and drink and was struggling to breath.

It has been interesting since I've been home, I think we are all getting used to each other. Antonio started reading the book, Couples Who Pray, and it great praying with him everyday. God is molding us both. I am so glad Antonio is home and would trade the struggles we've been having for anything. I can see God helping me focus on the positive as I type this blog, LOL.

My little trip to Iowa was the first time I have left the family for that long. They really missed me and I felt very loved by all their phone calls and by Antonio repeatedly telling me that I could never leave him again. He said he wasn't used to this, he's the one that does the leaving and I do the staying. It was really cute!!! I got to experience Iowa winter, wow it brought back memories. We had a good sleet/rain/snow storm while I was there. I got to drive in it too, yippee. It wasn't horrible, but I don't think i will be wishing for wintry weather anytime soon. We wont be getting much of that in 29 Palms, that's for sure. Oh I am not sure who I told and didn't tell, but we are transferring to California in June. I think I sent an email, but I am not sure.

When Antonio was home for leave back in October he promised the kids when he got home that we'd set up the fish tank. So we did that and we all love it, especially the cat, Sarah. It is officially the best toy in her book. At first she was jumping up and batting the glass and scratching the stand with her back claws in the process. So while I was gone Antonio, being the proactive parent that he is, decided that instead of trying to make her stop he would simply put a chair in front of it so she could watch them and bat when necessary w/ out the jumping and scratching. She spends a lot of time on that chair. I will get a picture one day and post it. Thankfully the tank has a very secure lid and none of the fish have been eaten. Unfortunately one did die though, but the pet store guy told us to expect that some may since it was a new tank. But the other 6 are still holding on so i guess our stats are good so far.

Well that's all I have for now, and my fingers are getting tired, so I will quite typing for awhile. Take care

He's Back

2008-02-15T04:43:00.002-08:00

Antonio arrived Wednsday feb. 14 at around 6:00p.m. (sounds like I am announcing a birth, kinda felt like labor) we are doing well. It is so nice to have him home, it is still a little sureal. I have to say that this Valentines was full of special presents the first ofcoarse was him and then he brought me some beautiful roses and he bought himself a wedding band, sounds weird i know but he lost his a couple years ago. Actually the one he had he didnt wear much so it really meant a lot that he felt it was time to go get one. God has really changed his heart drastically and it is so awesome to see his power working right in front of your eyes. Please pray for us as we all adjust to each other it can be quite difficult. It is a huge adjustment especially for him. He loves us so much and is a great, but realistically leading Marines and your family is like day and night. Thanks in advance. Love you all

Out of the Mouth of....Devin

2008-02-12T05:44:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post this before I forgot, it was too cute. I was finishing up my serving of eggs at the stove and the kids were at the table and out of the blue I hear Devin asking Ashlyn, "Is God in my heart?" Ashlyn says, " Yes, he is." and Devin comes back with," is he all yucky in there?" It was so funny and so cute and innocent. I tried my best to explain that we have a physical body with the blood and "yucky stuff" and then there is a part in there that we can't see, but it doesnt get yucky, then i said I think cause i guess i really dont know technically. Anyways it was cute. The we were doing a timeline of new testiment and in devin drawing Adam did not disobey and he ate something he was supposed to, ahh what an optomist. Got to love it.

Two More Days and We'll Be Through

2008-02-10T16:16:00.000-08:00

Yeah....Antonio should be arriving wendsday during the wee hours just after Tuesday so I think two days is pretty accurate. We have been delayed once, he was supposed to be in Monday night at 1100, but there flight got delayed from Kuwait. I probably would have taken it a lot harder if I hadnt come down with a horrible stomach bug Friday night at my Pampered Chef party. Yes, I know crazy, and it was that sudden. I was fine until about 5:00 and I started to get a stomach ache and then it progressed rather quickly after that, by 9"00 I had to abandon my poor consultant and go to bed. It was horrible, My wonderful friend Missy took the kids for me Saturday night and took them to church today, I really needed to be able to recoup. So I got the call this morning from Antonio about the delay and we both chalked it up to more recovery time for me. I am feeling better, but my stomach is constantly gurggling and very sensitive. Please pray that the kids can not get this or at least a small degree of it, it was horrible, I felt totally helpless to help my self. And also a prayer for contentment for our family would be great. Sorry to not have pictures today, I will get some out soon.

Hello

2008-01-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

I know I go awhile between posts, but at this point in my life I have to prioritize my time and blogging seems to fall just about last on the list sometimes. Not that I dont love you all and want to keep you updated which I am sure you understand.

Well what has been happening around here is a slowing of our pace. Through some friends and many other events God has really been teaching me contentment at home. Not content about being a stay at home mom, but more the quality of life and the quantity of time I am offering my kids. I had to take a look at their behavior and why we were having some of the major issues we were having and God really showed me that I just wasnt putting my family second (cause He is first). It isnt something that comes natural to me, to be with the kids where they are in the house, to involve them in what I am doing. A big thing I am seeing is that being busy at home like Titus 2 says mean proiritizing things and having them help out. I have managed to blow it continually, but I feel my heart changing and God opening my eyes up to a slower paced life where I am home most of the time.

We also had another big event, Ashlyn got her hair cut short. Doing hair has always been, well challanging to say the least. It really hurts her and she can tend to get a little emotionally distraught over the pain (these are the nice words to use regarding the situation). So one day after a screaming crying mess from her I told her that she seriously needs to consider getting a hair cut until she is old enough to handle all this. I asked her a few days later if she had decided what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to do it. Then after getting daddy's approval we went for it. I almost cried before we left, this was a big step for us. BUt she absolutely loves it and she loves how easy it is and there is so little complaining and crying. The pictures are from the salon when the lady flat ironed it and all that. We wear it curly now cause she is terrified of the flatiron, at least when its in my hand cause i always manage to burn her (I swear its on accident).

Here is a picture of Devin in training at the salon, training to be patient that is....

Devin is my comedian...rarely is he serious. Usually its only if he is upset and then he turns in to the master debator. Two qualities that will be great in the future, but man, sometimes I dont know what to do with that boy.

We are on the countdown till Daddy is home. I cant wait, we have about 21 days left. Time is really flying, he is getting ready to start turning over his duties to the new people here in the next few weeks and the we get to play the waiting game. I am so excited that he is going to be home for Valentines day, our anniversary, and Ashlyn's birthday. He has missed Febuary a lot in the last 3 years so it will be nice to have him here. We are even planning on going away for a night by ourselves to celebrate our 8 years of marriage. I cant believe it and the fact that Ashlyn will be 7 really blows my mind. I think I officially announced to everyone that we got orders to 29 Palms, California. But if not then now you got the announcement.

Update

2007-11-24T06:58:00.001-08:00

It has been a long time since i posted, sorry. Life after Antonio left was challenging. The 15 days he was here were pretty blissful.Honestly the first few weeks after he left i was pretty certain that i would go over the deep end but thankfully God wont let that happen to me and I am feeling much better. I have lots of catching up to do on the blog so I will start with Our trip to The Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA.

Here is the entrance to the Hotel/Water park

This was our room. I didn't realize we were getting kid cabin room i thought it was going to be just 2 double beds and a balcony. I had originally wanted to get one like this for the kids but it was a pricey choice. Needless to say we were pretty excited when we got to the room.

This was is what made it the "kid cabin", inside that little area was a bunk bed and a twin bed with a TV hanging on the wall. So it was like their own little retreat. And notice the windows, the kids had lots of fun sticking their little heads out of them, and playing all sorts of games.

This was the living/sleeping area, on the other side of the room was a gas fireplace, TV, and table. It was a great setup and we really enjoyed it.

Here is Ashlyn on her way to the water park.

and me

and Daddy and Devin doing some push up's

This is picture of a huge wooden bucket that hold 1,000 gallons of water. Every five minutes it dumps and you can stand under it. Devin loved this one, he almost melted cause he missed the one before we left but Daddy came to the rescue and said we could wait for the next one.

Sorry about the focus on this one i was taking it through the big window in the lobby. But this was a big jungle gym climbing "thing" hat was super fun. ON the back side it had two slides you could go down that we a pretty nice size. It was only one at a time so the first time we all went everyone was a bit nervous about it, but the kids totally loved it (should have seen the terror in Devin and Ashlyn eyes on the first finish it was priceless)

This is the stairs to the bigger slides that you had to go down on the inner tubes. There were two slides that two people could go together on a two person tube so we took turns with kids and slides. There was one we could all go down on together but me and that ride did not get along well, me and backwards while going very fast in a tube is not a good thing. And one of the lifeguards was lucky I am a christian women cause i asked him not to put me where i would go backwards ever so politely and he looked at me smiled and then spun me around and did it anyway. I was ticked and very nauseous and had to stick to the wave pool after that.

Here is a rope bridge thing that you could walk across.

In the back of picture is the wave pool, couldn't get a really good view of that one. We liked this alot also. Ashlyn is maturing around water so much, this year she started putting her face in the water and that led to going under and actual swimming. This is huge for her cause she HATED getting her face wet.

Here is a view of the whole park, it was the perfect size water park for the hotel. Big enough to not get boring and small enough to do everything many times.

This is the tower in the lobby and restaurant area. Every hour it did this song chime i think and then it had two shows daily with the tree, Indian girl, moose and several other characters. We caught it our second night, when we were leaving to go back to the room Ashlyn said ever so politely, "that was weird" and i had to agree with her it was quite corny. I did appreciate the way they made the hotel and water park very family oriented though.

Here we are on our way out. We had a great time!!!!

Soon...

2007-09-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

Antonio has been gone for 233 days. It has been a blur, poor kids, I will have no memory of the last 3 years. Anyways, he will be coming home in just under 2 weeks for his leave. We are going to visit the Great Wolf Lodge in Virginia. I am excited, for those of you who live close to there, we love you but wont be stopping by this time. I know all of you understand. We also are going to have some time to ourselves, aaaahhhhh we wont know what to do with ourselves, well.....LOL. It will be over night, I am really excited and it will be very refreshing. Well thats all i have for now, i will attach a few picture for your viewing pleasure.

In school that day we were talking about the five senses and we took picture of them pointing to the body parts the we use for each sense. So here are two of them, sorry about the extreme close up of Devin's nose he was right next to me on the chair.

Knitting

2007-08-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I was trying to learn to knit. I watched a DYI video on the Internet that taught me to cast on and do the knit stitch. So i did that for awhile, but soon decided i wanted to do a project. So I went online and bought a knitting book with much excitement to start my first project. I soon got my books in and found a pattern that I liked and ran off to Micheals to get my supplies. As I stood in the yarn isle searching for the yarn i needed (not a sales person in sight mind you) I couln't find the right yarn. Really i found everything but what i needed. I was very discouraged needless to say. Then i signed Ashlyn up for dance class here in Richlands. I also discovered this great little yarn shop. Then lady is great who works there, she has been knitting since she was 5 years old and is a very wise and patient teacher. So i sat down with her and she showed me more about knitting in 10 minutes then i had learned in the past 3 months. I started with dishcloths/washcloths and then moved on to hats. I am currently on my second hat. Below is a picture of the first hat when i started it. I will post the finished product when i get a minute to take a picture. So i am really loving knitting, next i will learn to do mittens. Enjoy

Busy Busy

2007-08-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

Ashlyn has become the busy little bee this year. She is loving soccer and dance class. She started dance in June and is currently on her second week of soccer. She is one of two girls on the soccer team. The other girl is a fellow homeschooler we met at the dance school.

She gets pretty tired out there running around and being that it's 9:00 am and probably 85 degrees doesn't help matters. The heat seems much more intense this year and the bugs in Richlands would send the ones at our house scurrying in a hurry,eeech.

Here is my little clown, Devin, He is something else. He has officially entered the whiny three year old stage of life. I didn't have fond memories of it from the first time and this time definitely isn't leaving a positive lasting impression. We are currently trying to be on a school schedule and do all of our stuff daily, we are 1/1 so far. Hopefully we keep it up. Ashlyn is able to sound words out more quickly and even is recognizing words in her environment. I am so proud of her. Devin is starting the random counting that I remember Ashlyn doing, the 1,4,6,9,10. He actually helped me count to 20 in the car the other day, it was just me and him and i was very surprised at all the numbers he knew.

Antonio is due for a visit in about 36 days (not that i am counting or anything) and we are so excited. We plan to visit the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Va and then we are going to also have some time to ourselves overnight. The only time we left our kids overnight was when Devin was born so this will be interesting, I am excited. Take care everyone

My 5 Month Project

2007-07-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

When we first decided to move into our new house I knew I wanted the kids to have bunkbeds. Sop after we got moved out of the old house i went and bought new mattresses and a bunkbed. On the way home I was chatting with my friend and she told me she could make bunkbeds for much cheaper. So I went and cancelled my purchase and set forth on my adventure. You woldnt think it would be too much work to sand, stain (4 coats), and polyurithain (2 coats), but let me tell ya it is. So the project finally got finished about 2 or 3 weeks ago, only to be followed by a bat of hand, foot, and mouth virus that whipped throught the whole family. But that is another blog in and of it's self, so here is a picture of our finished beds.

The Adventures of FLower Girl and Spiderman

2007-06-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

Ashlyn and Devin or should I say flower girl and spiderman were posing for the camera. I know Devin looks like a little rapper but that was not the pose he was going for. They had so much fun

The rest of the photos are of Ashlyn tying her bunnies ears. I thought it was precious, and it is awesome to see her getting closer to tying her shoes!!

THe most beautiful part of this was, it was all her idea, I didnt have to force her to learn, and as you can see by this picture she is so proud of herself. I thank God for allowing me to homeschool.!!!!!!!

Not Much to Talk About...............

2007-05-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

I have a few friends who have made some comments on me never blogging (you know who you are VA and MD) so I thought I might really surprise them and blog twice in one week. Watch out now!!!!

We have had a really nice week so far. We've been gone from the house a lot, which is good cause i hate being lonely and with hubby gone there are a lot of the lonley's going on here. Yesterday me and a friend ran into each other in Richlands so we had dinner with them and didn't get home till bed time, perfect for us. And today me and another friend took our kids to the aquarium. It was a lot of fun. We got to see the river otters get fed. The workers fed them live gold fish, celery w/ peanut butter, and pine cones filled with banana chips. One of the otters was real partial to the celery and the other to the fish. It was really funny watching the one swim after the gold fish, aahhh nature (well man made) at its finest. We also got to watch one of the workers clean one of the fish tanks. Of course this was one of the highlights of the day for the kids. I touched lots of sting rays and picked up a lot of inhabited sea shells. There were a lot of staff around to explain things and give lots of info. It was a really nice day that ended w/ some Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Taco Bell for dinner. We were gone all day and it was fabulous. Tomorrow I am going for a facial, I actually meant to cancel it cause i wanted to go to the Chiropractor instead but i spaced it off and am to late to cancel. Maybe next pay check i will get my spine aligned. I know it seems like the priorities are a little backwards but hey i didn't write it down and therefore i spaced it off.

Anyways i will post some pictures of the aquarium when my friend forwards them to me, cause guess what didn't even think to bring the darn camera, aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh save me from the madness LOL.

Until next time folks.....................

Playing Catch Up

2007-04-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

The kids were looking extra cute this morning before church so i though i would take pictures. Devin is no longer capable of smiling like a normal child (not that i have ever considered nor wanted them to be classified as normal, LOL) he insists on the funny faces in all pictures.

It has been awhile since i blogged. Getting quiet time on the computer is near impossible unless it is 11:25 pm and i try not to be up this late, but usually fail cause something is needing to be finished. So here i am blogging, aahhh.

But we had a great visit it from great friends this week, it was so great not being the only adult in the house. The kids did good and really enjoyed each other. we are planning a trip up to Virginia to see them for a few days and also to Maryland to visit some other friends who we haven't seen in over four years. I have lots of planning to do between now and then, but i am so excited to get out and be gone for awhile.

What else is new.................oh Devin had a birthday in April so he is now 3 and Ashlyn had 3 loos teeth. I believe she will hang on to them for awhile cause they seem to hurt her a little so she doesn't want them messed with much. Tonight though i convinced her to eat her baby carrots with those front teeth and we wiggled them lots. I am really excited about seeing what she looks like toothless. We are trying to plug away at school, too this last week off of official studies, but i know they still learned a lot more than in they were sitting in a class room all day for 5 days. Any who i should get to bed before 1200 am sneaks up on me. Love ya all

It's Been Awhile....

2007-03-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

but we are here, alive and breathing. At times it is hard to keep my head above water and i may even sink for a moment or two, but God always pulls me back up just in time. At this moment as the little ones snore happily in their beds Ican say that we are doing well (and the times i am not, well I probably wont be on this blasted machine blogging anyways..............)

The days are flying around here. We are as settled as one can be at this point, still boxes to unpack but all the necessities are out, it is just daily life that I am trying to handle. I really like the new house, having the school room is wonderful. Not having to use the dining room table really saves me from having to try and get food stains off our books and papers, lol. Although I do want to integrate some educational toys and books into the down stairs so they get used a little bit more. The kids have been spending a lot of time outside, the weather is awesome. Well I am going to go veg in front of the TV for awhile and then hit the hay to get ready for another day. Take care

The Very Best Valentine

2007-02-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I hate to do it, but I have to brag a little about my valentine. I got a call last night from Antonio at 11:00 P.M. which isn't unusual. We chatted a little and then he asked me if i was dressed. I said,"Yes I am dressed, Why." Then He said,"Go put your shoes on and go look outside, and i got a little freaked out (I'm a little skiddish) and said"Why" and the added "Are you out there," He replied, " No baby but I wish I was, just trust me." I said" It's pouring rain out there" and he said "just go out there". So i stepped out on the porch and said "OK, there is nothing out here" and he told me to run my little happy bum to the mailbox. So here i am in all my glory at 11:00 at night in the pouring rain running to the mailbox and i open it up to find three beautiful roses placed there by his "secret friend." He is so wonderful, this has to be the top valentines gift to date. OK I am done now. I hope everyone has a fun day.

Same Old Same Old

2007-02-09T06:59:00.000-08:00

Well there is not much new going on here, but I thought I would just write about everyday life. This week has been a pretty good week. I have managed to get up at 7:00 am everyday and feel really good. I started reading Kevin Trudeau's book "Natural Cures they don't want you to know about". I started implementing some of his suggestions and feel as thought they are working well. This week we've also managed to do a little school each day. Ashlyn's brain is growing so much. She can read two of her beginning readers books and she recognizes several words. We were reading the other night and she was able to pick out the words she new from the story. It is great to see progress! She feels so proud when she knows words.

The house is not moving quite as quickly as I want it to, but I have never built a house so I might just be rushing it. The cupboards finally arrived. I stopped in yesterday and they were setting out all over the house, not yet installed. Unfortunately there was water damage on the backs of two. So the realtor is getting that sorted out. Hopefully it wont slow things too much. The good news is the appraiser said that it is worth about $13,000 more that we are paying for it. That was definitely encouraging. Please keep us in your prayers they get it completed correctly and efficiently. Take care

Our New House

2007-02-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

This is our new house in Richlands, NC. It's a new construction outside of town. I am really excited to get moved in. We are going over tomorrow to see how everything is going. They are supposed to have the kitchen cabinets installed by tomorrow and the plumber should be out next week. There is alot more space and a bonus room that has already been deemed "The School Room". Ashlyn came to me the other day telling me that she wanted to paint footprints on our walls. An idea popped in my head that we should do that to decorate the school room. The plan so far is that we will do footprints right above the base boards (cause i need all the other wall space) and handprints around the windows. I think it will be really cute. But we probably wont tackle that till daddy comes home. The thought of monitoring children w/ paint all over hands and feet really terrifies me at this time in my life. Anyways just a little glimps into our future.

Pictures

2007-02-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the family. The one of us all together was from Antonio's christmas party and the one of me and Antonio was when we were hanging out with him before he left (sniffle, sniffle).

Can the Second Time Be A Charm

2007-01-31T20:58:00.000-08:00

This is my second attenpt at blogging. It may make my life easier at keeping people updated. But i wont get my hopes up to high. Who knows? But, everyone feel free to comment (I like to know that people are actually reading this stuff) and post. Ta ta for now.