Headed home

We've been in Las Vegas the past week. I'm in the airport right now, enjoying the free wireless (aren't you glad most airports have that now?). Roy took the kiddos for a walk. We've been up since 3:30 this morning to catch our 6:30 flight. Not fun. The kiddos have been super sick all week, so our "vacation" wasn't very relaxing. My in-law's new house is nice and big, so the kids had fun just running around. They started filling up their pool on Saturday, so by Monday there was enough water to swim in, but it was actually too cold to swim! Can you believe that? I definitely did not come to Vegas expecting "spring" weather. I even had to have Roy bring jackets and pants when he came a couple days after us. It rained on Friday and was windy the rest of the week. We swam a bit on Monday and Tuesday, but it was so cold!

We probably aren't going to have internet for a while (long story), so that's why I'm blogging now. Roy had a crazy week last week with two interviews and one phone interview. And then he had phone interview yesterday too. Schools are in a hurry to hire people now, so everything happens a bit faster than earlier in the job hunt. He doesn't have many more weeks left for interviewing, so hopefully he gets something good soon. He did get one offer but had to turn it down because it wouldn't have been a good place for him. More details on that later. We are trying to be a little more discreet with everything now, so that we don't have to explain or justify our choices to anyone.

Anyway, the kids seem to be feeling a bit better each day, so hopefully they'll be back to normal by the weekend. We are looking forward to Roy being done with interviewing and school! Graduation is on the 12th and my mom and in-laws will be here, so that should be fun! We are putting in our 6-week notice today, so that gives me 6 weeks to start packing...I don't like to think about that though!

This has been a random post. Hard to focus in here. Hopefully I'll get a chance to blog while we are without internet.

(View from Baerbel's back balcony)

Grannybaby

By popular demand:

Manbabies

Oh man.

Not so bad

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty decent day. Blaise never took a nap but made it till 6:30 without any "tired tantrums". Roy came home at 3 and helped me get the kids ready to go to the pool, but on our way out to the car I decided it was just way to windy and not warm enough. But our neighbor had set up her slip and slide so we went and played with her. Rae wasn't willing to get wet until I started getting wet first. That's right, I did the slip and slide! It was so much fun! I hurt myself the first few times, but then I became a pro and then Rae really got into it too. Blaise even liked it. It was fun to act like a kid! After we all got tired of that Rae played with the neighbor (who is a lot older than her - which I love, because they don't fight and she gets Rae to go along with her pretend games) and Blaise and I hung out on the grass.

So, the middle of the day was miserable, but it ended on a good note!

Yuck

It's hot and WINDY today. I can handle the heat, because at least we can go swimming, but really strong winds make it hard to do much of anything.

And I even turned on my air the past two days. Ugh...here comes summer!

As I type Rae is setting up the "sacrament" on the bed behind me. Roy prepares the sacrament every week and she's seen the "behind the scene" a few times.
Here are a few pictures - some from the other day when she did this and one from today. She usually covers the bread with a towel after she breaks it into pieces.

Why I love this time of year...

...lots of yummy fruit! In our house at the moment we have a watermelon, 4lbs of strawberries (thank you Costco!) oranges, bananas, cherries (yay, they are finally in season and only 99 cents a pound!) and yesterday we polished off a cantaloupe. It's easy to eat healthy when you've got lots of fruit for snacks instead of other junk.

Now I'm looking forward to the plums, nectarines and peaches! We live in a great part of the country for yummy produce!

Happy Birthday Aaron!

My lil' bro turns 23 today! He just graduated from BYU and is going to go to Law School now - pretty impressive resume for a 23 year old don't ya think? Happy Birthday!!

Duh

I can't believe I couldn't remember the other recommendation I wanted to make - it was the reason I wanted to write the post in the first place! I highly recommend the book:

1,2,3 Magic



Even if you don't want to follow the discipline plan that it lays out, it's a good book that gives a lot of good insights into a child's mind. For our current situation it is working really well. I think with all parenting you can't get too stuck on any one type of idea or method and you have to be willing to change it up when things are working.

But, for now, it is making life with Rae a whole lot easier. This is a good method for people like me who get way to emotional while trying to discipline and who tend to try to reason with their child which results in arguing and then yelling. Using this method you give no reasons and no explanations (unless absolutely needed). I don't know really how to explain it, but if you are feeling out of control with your child and you fight everyday, definitely read this book!

And, there's a second section about how to get your kids to do what they are supposed to do (getting ready for the day, doing homework, getting ready for bed, chores, etc) The other method is for getting your child to STOP doing what bad behavior they are doing, and the rest of the book talks about how to get you child to START doing good behaviors. I haven't read the second section yet. I'm really looking forward to reading it, because I get so impatient with Rae!

Anyway, the book is pretty short and is easy reading, so even if you don't think you need it, check it out and browse it a bit. (Oh, and it's for ages 2+)

Oh, and THANK YOU Rachel for telling me about this book!!

Happy parenting!

A few recommendations

Here are a few things I've been appreciating lately:

Huggies Overnight Diapers



Blaise used to nurse the entire night and would wake up sopping wet almost every morning. Now he drinks his water as he falls asleep and drinks it several times a night and used to wake up sopping wet. At Christmas my MIL gave me some Huggies overnights and we started using them recently (they are size 4, so he just got into that size) He has not had a leak since we started using them. He wakes up every morning with a diaper that weighs a ton but he never leaks! We only use them at nights, so they have lasted us a long time and when we run out we will spend the extra money to get some more - they are so worth it!

My mop. It's got a washable/replaceable head and it works really well. I don't mop very often (because I'm lazy, because the kids always spill something ridiculous right after I mop, and because my floor is crappy apartment floor that looks like the inside of a locker room and it looks dirty no matter what) and this mop can cut through all the grime and filth without a lot of effort. I really recommend it.

Immersion blenders. We use it for all sorts of stuff - pudding, soup, getting the chucks out of salsa for Roy, getting the chunks out of yogurt for Roy, getting the chunks out of healthy chunky spaghetti sauce (for Roy and the kids). It's quick to set up and quick to clean up. I got ours at Walmart for 10 bucks. Later on I found on on clearance with a few extra features, so I got that one for 15 bucks, and although the extra features were nice, it didn't seem to work as well, and now it's already broken. But our original one is still going strong! Love it!

Ugh, there was something else and now I can't remember!! I'll update later when I remember. Anyway, just some random stuff I was thinking about.

Life is good

Things are going pretty smoothly around here (knock on wood). No one is sick, the house is staying reasonably clean, Roy and I are continuing to lose weight, I'm starting to exercise more often, and even started riding my bike! I conquered my fear and hit the road with my friend's bike trailer last week and rode to the church for "music makers"! I am quite proud of myself. And then the next day I rode to a meeting at the church, and today I rode to my Weight Watchers meeting, which is twice as far as the church. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and I look forward to doing it again next week. Unfortunately, my friend with the bike trailer is moving this week, so that won't be an option anymore (unless I get one for myself) I probably should have jumped on the whole bike trailer thing when I first moved here, but I don't think I would have been able to do it.

Ummm, I got side-tracked and lost my train of thought. Here are some recent pictures:

Rae loves to read to Blaise. After a couple of times of reading a book she knows it well enough to re-tell it to Blaise. What a sweet sister.

We will often go into the kid's room to find them in odd positions. These two pictures were taken at the same time - weird kids!

Roy and I were in the bedroom and Blaise came in screaming and looking like this! Roy checked for cuts while I dashed into the kitchen to see what he cut himself on, only to discover he had gotten into some ketchup on the table (thank goodness) You sure fooled us Blaise, good one!

My love/hate issues:

1. I love our van. It's great to have extra space when we go on long drives and it's nice to be able to drive friends around. But sometimes I wish we still had our little car for the little everyday errands. Why? Because I spent $70 on gas today! And the tank wasn't even all the way empty! Ahhh! And it stinks, because all of the cheaper, better shopping is 10-25 miles away.

Which brings me to my next issue:

2. My neighbor found an old bike and enjoys fixing them up, so he fixed it up and gave it to us. Since then I've been wanting to ride my bike around town to run errands (especially now that I've realized how much gas is costing us!). But I'm terrified. Seriously scared to even hit the streets. And Davis is like "bike city of America", super safe and convenient to ride your bike, but I just can't do it. Today Rae saw that someone rode their bike with their bike trailer to "music makers" and she was like "that would be a lot of fun to come in one of those". And I've wanted to borrow my neighbor's bike and bike trailer, but if I can't even handle me on the streets, no way I can handle me and the kids. Sigh.

3. My hair. I like short, trendy, easy-to-deal-with haircuts, but they aren't as flattering on me as long styles, and I don't keep them trimmed and looking nice. I love my hair long right now because I can do a lot of things with it and it looks good. But, it takes a lot of effort to have it look nice. And now that it's starting to get warmer I find myself putting it in a pony tail more often. So what's the point of long hair if it's just in a ponytail? Oh, and sheesh, it's been so windy lately that there's NOTHING I can do with it. Which brings me to my next issue:

4. The weather. I love that it's starting to warm up outside. We've even been playing in the pool a bit. But most of the days it's pretty windy, which I've mentioned before that I cannot stand. But it's the wind that keeps it from being too hot. And when the weather is great we spend most of the day outside and never get anything done inside. When it's yucky outside I tend to get more done. I guess pretty soon it will be TOO hot outside, so we'll be inside more often. I guess I should just slap on some chap stick, pull my hair back and endure the wind!

I started this post like a week ago. I wasn't sure if I was going to even bother finishing it because it's so random and pointless! But here it is...no comments necessary, just venting.

Coupon

So I got this coupon in the mail for Shop Taste of Home (we ordered some cookbooks from there before). They have a lot of cool stuff, but nothing that we need right now (especially since we are moving soon and I don't want more stuff to move) and they have a lot of gadgets that I'd love but definitely can't justify right now. So, anyway, the coupon is good for 20% off your order and free shipping. It expires June 30th. If you go to the website and see something you want (maybe a good Mother's Day present) let me know and I'll give you the code. I just can't let 20% off and free shipping go to waste!

Rae's speech

Can you tell Rae's speech classes are really working?


Just kidding. She was just being silly. We really are enjoying speech classes and Rae seems to enjoy learning what words really sound like.

Race for the Cure

I'm going to be participating in the Komen Sacramento Race for the Cure in May. I'm being lazy and just doing the 1 mile walk/run so that Roy and the kiddos can come but don't have to hang around forever while I crawl the 5k. Anyway, if you'd like to make a donation, just visit my page. Any small amount will be appreciated!

Stuff

"The Office" was great :) Too short though! I wish it was an hour long! I just started watching The Office in September (when I visited my sis - thanks Katie and Chad for forcing us to watch) so I watched the first seasons in just a few months and now it's going to be hard to wait a whole week for another episode. I did the same type of thing with "Heroes" and it's been torture not having it to watch now.

It's kind of windy here today, and I hate being outside in the wind, so I'm trying to think of somewhere we can go indoors. I feel like Rae and Blaise are at a good age and I can take them out for the entire day without going crazy. When Blaise was a baby and slept a lot we'd go out and spend the day going to different stores and stuff. Then when he got older and didn't sleep so much I stopped. Then when he got a little older and was fascinated by sitting up in the stroller or shopping cart, we'd do a bit more. But then he started walking and wouldn't sit still, so he hated the shopping cart. Now he still can't sit still, but he's more willing to. And Rae is doing better with not wetting her pants (we had a bad week last week) so I feel like we can just go out and stay out for hours. Maybe we'll hit a mall with a play area or something. Our Sam's Club membership expired last week or else I'd go there. We want to get Costco this time, but we need to make sure there's one wherever we move. All the good shopping is a good 20-30 minute drive, so I always have to hit multiple stores to make it worth while.

Anyway, ramble post. I was just thinking about how, as the kids get older, how much fun we can have. We can do more crafts and cooking now, and do more "full day" activities. Kinda makes me less anxious to get pregnant. I'm just enjoying our life being so stable and quiet and I don't want to throw pregnancy in there! But I also want Blaise to have a sibling that is fairly close in age. Anyway, I don't really like to share so much about our decisions to get pregnant or not to get pregnant, so I'm going to stop now. :)

Oh, Roy had a phone interview yesterday for another school in Georgia. This one is even closer to you guys in Charlotte! It's about 15 minutes from Atlanta. We'll keep you updated.

Tonight is the night...

...that "The Office" returns! Am I pathetic or what? :)

Happy Birthday Daddy-o!

Today is my dad's birthday! Rae wanted to make him a cake and drive to Blythe to take it to him. I told her we were just there and that it is a long drive and she said "but I will just play with my toys in the van and then when it gets dark I'll just sleep". Ah, if only that drive were that easy!

But I do wish we could make him a cake and take it to him. My dad is amazing and Rae just thinks he is the coolest papa in the world. We love you! Hope you have a great day! (I read your comment on Katie's blog, and I'm sorry you are sick!) :(

There's no Georgia either

Valdosta chose someone else. I'll probably be taking a "visiting" (2-3 year) position; it'll help build up my teaching experience, which is really where I'm weakest since I'm teaching for the first time right now.

Not so much with the blogging lately

I don't know if I've lost interest in blogging or if there are just things I'd rather do, or if I got so behind that I feel like I have to catch up before I can move on!
But blogging is good journaling for me, so I'm going to try to get back into the habit. When the kids do/say cute things I can't remember them unless I write them down. They've been doing/saying a lot of cute things lately and I want to share them!

Blaise talks a bunch! He repeats a lot of the words we say and rambles a lot. We went to the Stake Center this morning to *try* to watch conference, and Blaise was so loud and talkative!! It was happy jabber, but it wasn't making the people around us very happy. We made it through the first hour okay but the second hour was torture. We are defintely not going back for the second session! Maybe I'll try to listen to it in the bedroom. We need the BYU channel!

Rae starts speech therapy tomorrow. Someday I'll write about the specifics of her problems, but to sum it up: she needs to go twice a week because her problem is severe. It's weird because I can't imagine in my head the way she pronounces things. For example, how does she say cup? I hear it as "cup" because that's what I know she is saying. But, she actually says it "tup". So I didn't realize how severe her problem was, because in my mind it sounds right. But there are words I can't understand at all, especially when she has never said them before. But the therapist said her vocabulary is good. Her grammar isn't always very good but she thinks that may be because of her speech problems (she just tries to get everything out as simply as possible). Anyway, I'm hoping all goes well and we see some improvements in the next few months!

I haven't cut my hair yet. I'm still thinking about it and deciding how exactly I want it done. Thanks for all the advice you all gave me! Very helpful!

Here are a few pictures from Easter. I'll send the rest out on shutterfly (really, I will this time!) plus some pictures from our quick trip to Blythe. Again, if you don't receive those pictures and would like to, let me know!

Rae is so happy about her yellow egg!

Roy gets really creative when he colors eggs. I've learned to make sure that there are plenty for him!
Blaise just colored.

At our ward Easter picnic. Rae was great at flying a kite!

Our Easter egg hunt after church. All hidden so carefully!

You know - the obligatory family picture! Please ignore the un-centered pictures in the background! I was working on re-doing them and then got side-tracked and then decided we were moving soon, so what was the point!?

Rae got lots of cool stuff in her eggs. She's stylin'!

Hanging out in the grass after church.

There are lots of pictures of me in a tree - so why not Roy too?

What do you think?

I'm getting tired of my current hair style. I don't want to go short like I usually do when it starts getting warm out. I just want something more interesting and flattering. I'm thinking of just doing some layering but keeping the length I have right now. But I'm also considering bangs. I know that bangs can be bothersome, especially when you want to grow them out, but I really need a change to my look.

So, give me your opinion on this look: