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.
Publish Post

Cutie pie Blaise showing his frustration. Good thing I got it on video because he only did it for a few days and has now stopped.

Just some new pictures

Mother's Day
(I like the face Blaise is making)

Rae was so excited about this sucker-
it took her about 15 minutes to finish but she was very diligent


Does it get any cuter than this??


Yes, it does!

We went to "Fairytale Town" today with a friend.
They had a lot of fun....

....But Blaise did not.

Sick around here....

We actually missed church today - all four of us! Rae started with a bit of a cold on Friday and Blaise had it by Saturday morning. So neither one of them slept very well Friday night. Rae is much better now, but Blaise is really suffering, and now Roy and I have it too! We don't usually spread sicknesses around that much but I guess we managed to this time. Blaise is definitely suffering the most since he drinks all of his food and can't breathe out of his nose! I'm constantly sucking his nose clear but by the time he's ready to nurse and sleep he's all stuffed up again. He is finally getting some rest right now - he's been asleep for about 2 hours (I actually just went in and checked on him since I couldn't hear him wheezing!). Hopefully he'll be able to sleep better tonight, because we are all exhausted. Rae is bored out of her mind since she didn't get to play and see friends at church today. Roy has her outside right now and I took her out earlier, but neither one of us have much energy or patience. I sure am glad we don't get sick very often!

Aww man - sheesh. Rae and Roy just came in and Rae pooped in her underwear! She's been doing well with the potty training as long as we stay pretty close to home. Sigh. Better go clean it up.

Long time no post...

Things have been pretty good around here - I just haven't gotten around to posting lately. Rae is getting back to potty-training and is doing pretty well. She's learning so much and always coming up with new stuff to say and do. She has started making up songs of her own and she loves to sing to Blaise. We are enjoying the nice weather and trying to play outside as much as we can until it gets too hot!



This is Rae on the way to a water fountain that we drive by at least 3 times a week. When they first built it (not that long ago) Rae would constantly ask if we could stop and see it. Then they were doing some other work to it and we never got around to it. So the other day it was a little rainy and Rae needed to get outside so Roy took her over there. But Rae was freezing cold and also said the fountain was too loud. Now everytime we drive by she doesn't ask to go see it, she just says "we went there the other day - I was cold and the fountain was loud".




Blaise is growing up too fast. He rolls both ways and scoots all over the place. He is trying so hard to crawl and he does a really good job of getting his knees up under him. He chews on everything in sight but no teeth yet. His new obsession is water - from our cup, our water bottles, his sippy cup - he wants it. Also, if you are holding him and trying to eat something he will grab it! Today he was facing forward in the baby bjorn and tried to get my chicken sample at Sam's Club! I actually had to give it to Roy because Blaise wouldn't stop grabbing it. I'm trying to wait till he's 6 months old to start him on solids, but we might do it a bit sooner than that if he continues to show so much enthusiasm.



I've got a couple of pics and videos on the camera that are super cute and I'll post them when we get around to transferring them to the computer. Oh yeah, we've been busy selling our little car...finally got a buyer! Nice to have that done and have some extra cash! Oh, and we also got a cell phone! We probably could have gone a lot longer without one but we have found ourselves more and more often wishing we had one. So we got a Tracfone with "prepaid" minutes. So no one is actually going to get our phone number - just the babysitters if we ever go out. It's more for me to call Roy to tell him to come get kids and groceries out of the car and for Roy to call me at Walmart and remind me we need eggs. :) But yeah, we have officially entered the annoying cell phone world.

Anyway, I'll try to be more regular with my postings and especially try to get some videos of the kiddos on here.

Happy Easter! Here are a few pics and videos of the kiddos today.

We got his bike for Rae on Tuesday. It was like $14 at a used kids store here in town. She couldn't figure it out all day Tuesday, but Wednesday morning she got on and did a great job on it! She still hasn't quite figured out the brakes yet, but other than that she is great.

In other news - Rae has had a fever for about 24 hours now. She doesn't have much of an appetite, but other than that there aren't any other symptoms. I hope she feels better tomorrow, although she's pretty sweet when she's sick!

Blaise is constantly trying to bite on things and gets great relief from cold objects - so he is probably close to getting some teeth. He is rolling a lot now (a few weeks earlier than Rae did) and scoots a lot. He loves his sis and is usually easily entertained by her. I'll try to get a video of him doing some cute stuff and post it on here.




We had a momma duck on her nest right outside of our apartment. The eggs hatched last night and there are 8 (I think) ducklings. It's been fun to walk by everyday and Rae would always say "nope, the babies not come out of their eggs yet". And now of course she gets to see the baby ducks. We are lucky to live where we live. The creek is right there so Rae sees lots of different wildlife and plants. And of course she can ride her bike all around and I can just sit in one spot and watch her! I'll be happy when we are done here, but for now I'm just enjoying where we are.

One, two, three, nine, six, seventeen?

Whhhaaaa? I have a blog?! Oh yeah, I forgot :)

How can being a mom be so fantastic and so hard at the same time?!

I got home from Enrichment Night tonight and even though Roy thought Rae might still be awake in her room I just had to peek in and see her. I can't believe I missed her after only 4 hours - but I did! So I went in and she was asleep so I gave her a kiss and she woke up. I said "I love you" and she said "I love you. Have fun at your meeting mama?" She's adorable, just adorable. She's a pain the rear too.

And Blaise - sweet little Blaise. Here are some current pics of their cuteness. I'll blog more later...probably after I've caught up on "Heroes" .



At Granny and Papa's house in Blythe




Rae loves to have Blaise join her in bed in the mornings. Nice hair, huh?

What a cutie, huh? Blaise went to the doctor last Monday his 2-month checkup. He weighed in at 13lbs,10 ounces! And he's 23 1/2 inches long. Rae was only 11lbs,5 ounces when she was 2 months. We buzzed his head the other day because it was falling out in the back and on the sides and he had a mohawk in the middle. I think it looks a lot better buzzed.

Rae also had a bad mohawk at this age.

We got a van! It's a 2003 Chevy Venture.

It has a built in car seat for Rae :)

I don't have time to write a whole update (I'm just waiting for Rae to fall asleep for her nap and then it's off to sleep I go!) but here's a picture update! Blaise is starting to smile a lot and he sure loves his daddy. He's more willing than Rae was to just sit on our lap or cuddle. Rae still loves being a sister (a smothering one!) and she is starting to use mommy's excuses to get out of stuff. "No mama, I have things in my hand"..."no mama, I do that right now". Sigh, it's cute but annoying. Anyway, things are pretty good and I will go into some of the detail someday - I promise.

Maybe if I post a couple of pics each day I'll catch up sometime! Here are the kiddos the day before Christmas before church (or after, I don't remember).


Here's the gang in Vegas. Roy's sister and her family and his mom and her husband.

I realized that Roy has all of the Christmas pics on his laptop (which I am using right now) so here is a pic of us doing the nativity scene on Christmas Eve at my parents. No, Rae is not meant to be our daughter - I think she was a shepherd, but she wanted to be in the pics with the rest of the family. I'll post more later.

So we got back from vaction Monday afternoon. We went to Vegas the 29th-31st. We left Sunday afternoon but I got sick on the way home so we stayed the night in Bakersfield. I'm glad we are done travelling! And vacations aren't as relaxing when you have a newborn. I think I would have actually recovered better if I could have just stayed home. But it was great to be at my brother's wedding and see some family.

I got mastitis again - the day we got home - but it seems to be all cleared up now. But it really messed us up and we are still trying to get everything unpacked and back to normal. And Roy is really anxious to start going to his office everyday. I spent the morning alone with both kids today and I think I'm ready to do that everyday. I just got so used to having someone around all the time, so it's scary to think that I'll be alone with them all day. Blaise is napping right now and Rae is very happy to have a nice quiet house all to herself. I better get going on the huge list of things I have to do. I promise to post pictures soon and write a bit about all the other stuff that has been going on. Oh, one thing I must mention (because Rae was doing it just now) is that Rae is really into nursing her dolls. She even covers up with a blanket and lifts up her shirt. Unfortunatly she refers to nursing as "baby suck on my boobie". Sigh, we'll have to work on that.