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Go to this blog and enter the "freebie of the month". I've won twice. They give away really cool stuff.

Cleaning

I love to clean. Well, I don't actually like the cleaning part, but I love the way I feel afterwards. I just my microwave super clean. I don't know how long it had been since I had cleaned it, but I think maybe my mom was the last to clean it back in Feb or maybe even in December when Blaise was born. Sorry to anyone who has used my microwave since then - that's pretty disgusting. But I read somewhere I really great tip for easy cleaning. Put some water and lemon juice in a mug and microwave it for a few minutes. Everything will wipe right off. After getting that done I looked around and decided I need to clean my cupboard doors. It's nice when the rest of the house is clean enough that you can do some of the deep down cleaning. I'm amazed at how much I can get done lately. Blaise entertains himself pretty well. It's really nice - and life is pretty stress-free (at least today) :) I'm no longer feeling so antsy about going somewhere. We'll be pretty busy around here and I'm going to keep finding little projects to do. Anyway, I got on the computer to look up a recipe and got distracted so I better go tend to the kiddos.

Forgot to post this one

I guess it can get cuter than that last picture!!

Videos for your enjoyment

Sometimes Blaise makes messes....




Sometimes he cleans them up....




He has been so much fun lately. He's really learning a lot and is beginning to communicate in his own little way. And he understands a lot more of what we are saying. He definitely knows what "no" means, but it just makes him crack up and try to be faster at whatever naughtiness he is trying to commit.

Rae is doing a great job with potty-training (we went a few steps backwards when she was sick). She's always trying to get Blaise to play games with her and can rarely get him to cooperate. It'll be so much fun when they can really interact (and a lot of trouble too).

Anyway, things are good. I'm antsy (very antsy) for a change of pace (IE: a trip to Blythe) but I haven't figured out a way for that to work, so I'll try to just stay busy around here and come up with things for us to do. Any ideas? :)

More pics

Do I look bored?











Rae "helping" Blaise down the hill.

The rest of the pictures

Okay, seriously, does it get any cuter than this? I don't think so!
Hmm, maybe he should be a fireman for Halloween!






Just hanging out with some heads.

Argh, more "errors" and Blaise is awake. I'll post a couple more later.

Quick update

Rae is still sick. No more puking, but lots from the other end. I'll tell ya, it is the worse smell I have ever smelled. She pooped sometime while she was sleeping. Roy checked on her around 5am and was stopped in his tracks by the smell. So I got to get up and change her and her sheets. We've been doing a LOT of laundry the past few days. I think I have earned my badge of motherhood! Enough already! :) The hardest part is not being able to hang out with other kids and moms and stuff. It was nice to just be home the first couple of days, but now it's getting boring. And I know we won't be able to go to Music Makers tomorrow...and I really wanted to go to the petting zoo/pumpkin patch this week too! At least she'll be healthy for Halloween festivities.

Anyway, just wanted to give everyone a quick update while Blaise is still napping. Here are a couple of new pictures for your enjoyment!


She was talking about her hand for some reason.
(By the way, anyone wanna get us a new couch?!
Nah, it doesn't always look like that - we usually have a sheet covering it)



ARGH - won't let me load anymore - it's having some sort of problem. I'll try again later.

Gross

Warning: The following post will contain graphic details :>)

The kiddos are sick. Wednesday night we realized Blaise had a fever. We gave him some Tylenol and he slept okay. Thursday he was pretty cranky all day and had a bit of diarrhea. Green bean, up the back stuff. Really really gross. Thursday night he had a little more trouble sleeping, but still okay. Rae struggled all day with his neediness and unwillingness to play with her. This morning he woke up even grumpier and would really only be happy if I was nursing him. Rae woke up and immediately pooped in her diaper - really runny, really disgusting poop all the way up to her belly button. She also seemed a little sick. By the afternoon we realized she also had a low-grade fever and a couple of times said she had to throw up. But around 3 in the afternoon both of the kids seemed pretty happy and un-sick, so I took them to Walmart (needed to get some Lanolin
because Blaise's constant desire to nurse made things raw) In Walmart Rae complained that she needed to throw up, so we made a mad dash to the bathroom. Of course, she didn't throw up. She again said she needed to throw up, so again we dashed. No barf this time either. I was tempted to go get a bowl from the kitchen section and carry it around, but I thought I better just hurry up and get done. Turns out that I should have bought a bowl - or at least given Rae a plastic bag for the ride home, because she puked just shortly after starting our drive home. She had a ton of mandarin oranges for lunch...really, really gross. She looked so sad to have that puke all over her. I decided that pulling over to clean her up wouldn't help much because I didn't really have anything to use...so I just sped home and called Roy to meet me in the parking lot to get Blaise and groceries. Poor, poor Rae. But she seemed like she felt much better. She took a nice bath and got all ready for bed and then asked for a tortilla for dinner....which she barfed up just minutes after finishing. (this time we had a bowl ready) At that point I said no more food and took her to bed - she fell asleep by 6:15. I hope she feels better in the morning. Blaise seems to be a lot better - almost normal temp and no more diarrhea. Sick kids are only nice when their sickness makes them sleep a lot. Other than that they are gross and whiny. Luckily Roy and I are healthy! (Knock on wood!!)

I'm off to go sit in my friend's house while her kids sleep. They are gonna do the same for us next week - Roy and I are already discussing what we are gonna do with our free time!) I'm taking along a movie tonight and might even take a nap :)

Wal-Mart pics

From a while back.

Fun shopping

At our local "SaveMart" they have a cool shopping car car thingy (you know, the ones like this)
but this one is a pretty pink butterfly one. Anyway, last week I realized that Blaise is now old enough to sit in one (and Rae has always been obsessed with this one). So they both sat in it and had a blast! They were both cracking up the whole time and Blaise was turning the steering wheel the whole time. People would pass us and just have the biggest grin on their face to see such a little guy in the drivers seat. :) We went there again today and he enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Really makes shopping easier! Wish they had them at Walmart!

Sigh. As I was writing this Rae was sitting on my bed watching a cartoon and eating some yogurt and I turned away from the computer to see her doing this:



In her words: "I was pretending it was makeup". She also likes to pretend markers are makeup. I don't even wear makeup - where does she get these ideas? Sigh. Sometimes I wish she still took the occasional nap!

I feel like a new woman

This morning I could hardly walk. At "Music Makers" I was struggling during marching time. I got home and just sat around letting the kids trash the house. I emailed Roy telling him how much pain I was in and how I HAD to go get shoes when he got home and he surprised me by coming home early. He's a terrific hubby. (He's getting Blaise to sleep right now - woot) Anyway, he came home and I did as little as possible to try to stay off my feet. But we had promised Rae we'd take her to the carousel at the Farmers Market (only open on wednesday evenings and saturday mornings) so eventually I had to leave the house. We ran a few errands and then I dropped Roy off with the kiddos at the Farmers Market and headed back to Big 5. It took me a while but I finally settled on two pair of shoes. One pair cost more than I wanted to spend and those will be my exercise shoes. The other pair were marked way down and will be my everyday shoes (to replace my unsupportive flip flops). I've been wearing the "everyday" pair all evening and I feel so much better already! It really made a huge difference. I'm going to have to start wearing them around the house (sorry downstair neighbors!). I'm so excited to be able to go walking again in a couple of days (Roy insists I take a few days off - he's so tired of my whining) :P But anyway, just wanted to share the good news. It's great to know that my feet apparently weren't seriously damaged - just wish I had gotten new shoes earlier!!

So my house is completely trashed (seriously, I was trying to clean up for the home teachers to come over tonight and Blaise took every single book off the shelf) but I have renewed energy and hope all from a pair of shoes. :)

I need me some chocolate

I need new shoes. Walking shoes. I've been trying to go walking every night lately, but the shoes I have are killing my feet. Really, really hurting them. So today I took the kiddos to Big 5 and started my hunt for new shoes. HORRIBLE experience. The kids were SO bad. But not bad like purposefully misbehaving kind of bad - just bad like bored and wanting to touch everything. I finally gave up and walked them over to Panda Express for a little "pick me up". I'll try going alone tonight or something. Ugh. I need to lose weight and to do so I need to walk and to do so I need shoes...but the process of finding shoes makes me stressed which makes me want chocolate which makes me gain weight. Oh yeah, and makes me want Panda Express too - whcih also makes me gain weight. Anyone want 2 adorable kiddos for a few days? :) Seriously, check out how adorable they are:

He fell into this bin last night and got stuck He was so ticked!

Rae took a pretend shower and then wrapped this blanket
around her and asked me to wrap the other blanket around her hair.
I guess she's seen me do that a lot - what a cutie!

Old Stuff

I've been meaning to post these pictures from earlier this month when we went to my sister Lindsey's house in Visalia for her baby's blessing.




The happy family: Seth, Lindsey and baby Lily


In the back: Roy, Seth and my dad
In the front, Me and sleeping Blaise, Lindsey and sleeping Lily and my mom and Rae.

And just for the sake of being random, here are a few pictures of the kids doing fun stuff around the house:

Rae loves to walk around in my church shoes, and
this time got a hold of my nylons as well!




Mom and Dad, this is part of what Rae bought with the Target card you sent her for her birthday...don't remember if I ever told you about that. :) Thanks!

Awww, he did NOT want those bubbles on his head!


I guess that's all for now. I have a couple of random things I want to write about, but we are supposed to have a "date movie" tonight after Roy finishes the dishes (no, I'm not just sitting here blogging while he does dishes - my job was to do the laundry and he'd do the dishes) and I think he's almost done, so I better go. More to come later!

Life is good...for the most part

There have been a few fun things going on around here. Blaise started taking his first steps a few weeks ago, and now he's up to about 15 steps at a time. He still mostly crawls, but he's willing to practice walking. He also likes to climb. Rae has a little chair that he likes to get on and today he used her potty chair to climb onto the couch. I'm gonna have my hands full with this kiddo.

Speaking of the potty chair...we are back to potty training again. Bleh. It feels like it's been such a long process because back in March we started and Rae totally had the hang of it and then we went on vacation and she lost it. And I should have let it go but I kept trying....and then there was a month being away from home...then NC....and now we are home for good and trying again. We've had one really good day with no accidents, but the other 2 days haven't been so great. I can't give up this time though, because she's going to think that every time we start this process it just ends up that she's back in diapers. But it's hard to not go very many places so that we are able to have easy access to the bathroom. Actually, I think what makes it so hard is that I know I can't go anywhere, and now I want to! Anyone out there have any potty training tips? We are doing a potty chart and she gets fruit snacks when she goes. She's just wearing underwear all day (pull ups are just like diapers to her) and because of going back and forth between training and not training at all, peeing in her underwear isn't much of a big deal to her now. Sigh. I try to just take it easy and not ask constantly if she needs to use the potty and that seems to be working better. Before we go somewhere or start a movie or game I ask her to please go and try to go potty and she does it very willingly and that's when she's being going. Only once so far (this time around) has she really gone on her own, but that was to poop (a big step since she usually poops first thing in the morning before I'm fully awake) so that was good.

Oh my word, this post is a bunch of unnecessary information and randomness. I'm going to bed now. But first, a few pics from NC


My brother Levi, his wife Audra and their 4 kids
(the babies aren't twins, one was born to them in November of 06
and they adopted the other when she was born in Feb of 07)




My brother Bobby and his wife Sabina and their two boys (ages 3 and 5) Roy isn't as unhappy as he looks! :)


My sister Katie and her husband Chad and their two boys (ages almost 2 and 4 1/2) We stayed at their house (the one in the background) I like Chad and Roy's pose




I had to post this one too so you could see that the other was actually the better of the two.

My mom's birthday is tomorrow (Saturday the 15th) She is an amazing woman and is always doing so much for her kids. When we were all together in NC we made this video for her.

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you so much!

Okay, I am really, really bad about updating this. Sorry.

I have some bad news and some good news.

Bad news:



We buzzed Blaise's head. I meant for it to look more like this, but Roy said we should do it without any attachments. I started crying when I saw how close of a buzz it was going to be. I'm a little more used to it now, but I still miss his hair. :(
(Oh, we buzzed it because it was doing the mohawk thing again and was tickling his neck a lot, and he had bad cradle cap again.)

Rae also got a haircut tonight. Just a little trim to make it easier to wash and brush. Hers turned out fine, thankfully!



Lots of good news though! We just got back from a week long vacation to North Carolina where my sister and 2 of my brothers live. It was a lot of fun. 10 of the 13 grandkids were together. There were two 5 year olds, a 4 year old, three 3 year olds, one almost 2 year old, a 10 month old, a 9 month old and a 6 month old! Crazy, loud stuff! Rae had so much fun with her cousins. Here are a bunch of pictures:

Rae, Gabe, Colin and Evan

All of the cousins - not a very easy picture to take.


Blaise and Jovie (she's just a couple of weeks older than Blaise)





Colin and Rae got along really well for most of the trip. We stayed at their house.

We also went and saw Roy's dad (he hasn't seen him since he was like 10 years old. Roy got to meet one of his half-siblings and some aunts and cousins. That was also a nice visit.





I'll post pictures of us with each individual family tomorrow - and I also have some pictures from my other sister's baby blessing to post. Oh, other good news - we got a new TV from our laundry room donation bin today! It's a lot bigger than our old one and works just fine - woo hoo!

I really stink at the whole blogging thing. Every time I think of something interesting to blog about I'm always too busy and by the time I have a chance the moment has passed. Sigh. Here's a pic of Rae sticking out of the sunroof of our rental car in Germany. Fun stuff.

As requested (by the one person who reads my blog) here are some more pics:






We are cruel to our children.



The church right next to our hotel.

We're Back!

It's good to be home, and I want to post about our trip but I'm so dang tired! Blaise was up so much last night and Roy has been going to a conference in San Jose everyday this week, so I just want to go to bed while I have the chance. Just wanted to let everyone know we made it home safely, had a good time, and will post pictures soon. Here's a few to tide ya over :)






Okay, too tired for more. Check back later :)

So we are in Blythe,CA visiting my family. It's about 100 degrees outside at 9:30 in the friggin' morning! We tried to go to the park at 8:30 yesterday morning but after about 15 minutes we were too hot and just went home. My parents have a pool but after 10 in the morning it's too hot to swim until 7 at night. Sigh. Every year that I come back after moving away it gets harder and harder to deal with these summers. And Rae is getting harder to entertain inside all day, especially since she's used to being able to play outside for most of the day in Davis. But she is enjoying it here for the most part and has been really well-behaved. And Blaise is having a good time too.... he loves all the room to crawl (he's really zooming now!) and is pretty intrigued with the cat and dog.

We leave on Thursday for Germany! I'm getting more excited and more nervous. On the drive to Blythe we tried Benadryl on Rae and it put her right to sleep, so if it's needed on the 11 hour (non-stop) flight we know it works! Wish us luck!

I'm hoping to meet up with some old high school friends today. One has a baby girl a couple of months older than Blaise. At the firework show on Wednesday I ran into a guy from HS that I hadn't seen in like 4 years (maybe even since HS actually - 5 years) ...he's going to TX to teach English. Another friend spent this past year teaching English here at the HS after graduating from UCLA and now she's teaching summer school before heading off to NM for graduate school. It's crazy that we are all grownups now doing real stuff. :) (Well, I'm a mom and Roy will be doing real stuff in a year when he finishes school) And then of course I saw many other classmates at the firework show who look like they are up to a bunch of nothing....stuck in Blythe not doing much at all. I didn't have any desire to talk to those ones...same as when we were in school together.

Being in Blythe makes me appreciate Davis and I've been thinking about a few of the things I really enjoy in life....that post will come soon...Blaise is waking up.
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