Smiles of the Season!!!

My babies are getting too big too fast. These were taken just yesterday and I can already see the changes in the last little while from other pictures. Sure, they weren't too happy that I made them get all dressed up on a Wednesday afternoon, but you cannot tell from the pictures that they were less than thrilled with me. Plus, it helps having someone else taking the pictures rather than cranky big pregnant Mom.

I look at this huggy picture to the left and I'm so grateful Mikelle and Christian have this kind of relationship, despite repeated attempts they make to get on each others' nerves.

Here are more lovely shots of them. Mikelle is 10 and Christian is 6 1/2+.

We Survive Together

So Chris sent his Dad and Step-Mom a letter with some of our home news where they're serving their mission in South Africa. Chris's dad made a statement to the effect of:

I love you and appreciate what you are doing with your family. It's a wonder that our children survive considering the on the job training nature of being a parent. Keep up the great work.

Chris replied: When I read your statement on our children surviving I had to laugh out loud. That is so true. Sunday Christian rolled the truck into the street. He came running into the house screaming that he didn’t know “that” (the gear shift) was part of the break. I thought I didn’t have to explain the workings of a vehicle till he was 15 (he's 6!!!), I guess I was wrong. He had taken it out of gear and the natural slope of the driveway started it rolling into the street. No cars were coming and it stopped before it hit a neighbors car, thank goodness.

What's funny, is just before that happened, we sent Christian back outside to get something out of the backseat of the truck that he left there and was supposed to bring in the first time. When it was quiet and he was gone longer than he should have been, I had that "feeling" and told Chris to go check on him. Chris had a bad headache and wasn't really up to it (he was grumpy). Then, we heard the screaming. It was weird because Mikelle wasn't home, so there was no one to fight with. And our next door neighbors were putting up their Christmas lights, and Christian doesn't fight with them! Chris went outside and there was our truck in the middle of the street.

Later Chris said he remembered that I had that "feeling" just prior to it happening and mentioned he should go out there and check on him. I don't think he likes that I was right. But that's the mother's intuition for you.

And yes, the picture above isn't really a fair assessment of Christian's intellect. He's VERY intelligent, actually - to our detriment and stress level. It'll pay off someday. The picture is more indicative of a 6 year behind the wheel, no matter how smart he is.

Santa and the Reluctant 10 Year Old

So we took the kids to see Santa last night. Of all the years prior, this is the first year that Mikelle showed signs of growing out of this sort of thing. I'm not in total denial, but it still makes me sad. I told her that if she preferred, only Christian could see him, but she said she still wanted to. However, when the moment came, she was offish and had a hard time with it as her "tween"-ness is emerging from childhood.

Santa said, "What are you, 10?" (He pegged it) She nodded and he said, "You're not too old! Get over here!"

Here she is with her first Santa picture at age 3 1/2 months, back in 2000:

Later, when I told her that even Santa got it right (her age and that she isn't too old for Santa), she had to reply that he wasn't the real Santa. :cry: I knew my baby was growing up, but I still feel a little sad. Christian got into it of course, and I look forward to next year having he and the baby go and see Santa. In the meantime, I have a little girl who is a not-so-little-girl.

Typical Day: Drama and Hilarity

Well, I'm officially on leave now, and in true "me" fashion, I'm grateful and feeling terribly guilty. Yeah, my brain is an amusement park of chaos. I'm glad I can spend the mornings laying down and napping and after getting the kids from school, go back to laying down. Yesterday, despite resting a lot, I probably tried to do too much after getting the kids. However, life doesn't stop for my preggo issues and it's also Christmastime.

First of all, yesterday, after laying down all morning into the afternoon like I'm supposed to, I pick up Christian from school. There is about 45 mins in between getting him and getting Mikelle at the bus stop, so he and I went to Kohls where I *hoped* to use my Kohls cash for a new diaper bag.


ANYWAY, so we're checking out (they don't carry diaper bags! So I got a few baby clothes) and the two ladies in front of me have piles of Kohls cash (geez, how much did they initially spend to get that much Kohls cash? dayummm) and a crazy transaction dividing up their piles of crap into more than one transaction.

The store isn't busy, but the line starts to back up, thanks to the professional shoppers. I'm just chillin' as I have plenty of time before getting to Mikelle's bus stop, so I just chat with the lady behind me. They said there was no waiting in the Men's Dept at the other end of the store, but I wasn't waddling down there.

Then we see another employee go on another register next to us and start to tinker with the computer getting ready to open the line. Before the lady has a chance to say anything to relieve the line, Christian gets in between the two registers, looks at everyone in line, points to the new register and loudly goes (this is word for word) "THIS REGISTER IS NOW OPEN!!!!" The long line started laughing and I wanted to die. The lady who was checking out the professional shoppers says, "well, he's hired..."

I said, pointing to my big preggo belly: "And THAT is why there are 6 years between this one and him."

Mikelle's Flu Shot
Everyone but Mikelle had been taken care of with Flu Shots this year. When they were doing it at her school a few weeks ago, I forgot to do the paper work. So yesterday after I picked her up from the bus stop, I rushed to the doctor's office to get her one and they wouldn't let us sign in for one after 4pm, so I thankfully got her in there at 3:52.

What's unusual, is even though Mikelle is 10, she gets so worked up with things like this. Not only shots, but when she had strep in July, taking her to the doc to get her throat swabbed to confirm that it was strep was a dramatic production. She just gets us anxious and the worry builds up and her worry is worse than the initial shot or throat swab. Therefore, I wasn't looking forward to how this was going to be, but with a baby coming, I wanted to make sure everyone was protected as well as we could be.

Therefore, when the nurse got her in the seat, Mikelle started to panic. Christian was no help, saying, "Mikelle! You're 10 years old!" That didn't help. The nurse was to the point - telling her if she didn't sit still and calm down, they would have to have someone help hold her down. I asked Christian to go over there and hold her hand (and not say anything rude) and he was sweet and complied.

When they stuck her, Mikelle screamed and while holding her hand, Christian started to cry for her. Therefore, we had 2 crying kids and one shot. I am so happy he's a loving brother who doesn't like to see his sister in pain (unless he's the one giving it to her). As a result of the drama, both kids ended up with stickers and lollypops.

Turkeys, Bullies and Vegetarians
I have to end on this funny bit. So Mikelle likes to write and illustrate stories. Last week on Thanksgiving and into the weekend, she was writing one about a turkey that gets chased by the same bully every year. She drew the bully very streotypically: Muscles, Skull shirt, etc etc.

Then she wrote: But the turkey knew the bully's weakness... The bully's mom always looks out the window of her apartment and the mom is a vegetarian and doesn't like her son to chase meat.

It's Been Too Long

California Vacation Part II
You can tell the school year started, as my posts dropped off the planet. I promised to finish re-capping our vacation from the end of July, so here are the Legoland pictures. San Diego was AWESOME. It never got over 75 degrees and it was overcast (in other words, perfection). Being that I loathe the climate here in hell (I mean, AZ), I made us stay longer even though it obliterated some of our savings.

Pregnancy Update - Team Blue
This pregnancy is going better than we expected, but it's still one of my pregnancies. I am so happy it's the last one. Well, I'm relieved it's the last one, but sad that 3 is all we'll have. We always had "4" as a magic number, but it's just not to be. Not only can I NOT do this again, Chris certainly can't. Now we're dealing with elevated blood pressure, horrible rib and back pain, and in true fashion in how I carry high, I can't breathe. My last day at work is Tuesday November 30th, as I clearly need to be laying down a lot to keep my blood pressure down. I won't go back until March. Once my sick days are gone, that's it. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

Here is our precious little boy in an 18 week ultrasound on July 30th.
And yep - it's a boy.


Mikelle isn't too thrilled that she'll never have a sister and be flying solo as far as siblings are concerned, but I'm trying to let her know how lucky she has it. She gets Mom to herself in all our Mom/Daughter outings. No sharing clothes with sisters (well, except me! haha), and no sharing a room (except with her baby brother's changing table) and when she graduates from college and then gets married, her wedding will be quite the hoop-la with no other sisters to budget a wedding for. Hopefully, as time goes on, she'll see these perks. However, for now, she was really hoping for a sister.

August
Mikelle turned 10 in August, and Chris turned 40! We surprised him with a 40th birthday party and there's a really cute video of the kids from it that I plan to upload on here when my friend Mark finishes putting it on CD from my friend Nikki's camcorder. Yes, I know it's the end of NOVEMBER now, but that's how slow things are going - especially since I'm pregnant and just trying to get enough oxygen to go to the next minute.

I can't believe how big my babies are getting. Here are their school pictures from August. :cry:

Mikelle - 5th Grade - Age 10 It's just crazy, isn't it? What happened to my tiny baby girl?



No way is my baby boy in 1st grade. But alas, here he is. Age 6 1/2.

Halloween
I think this is the last year that I'll convince Mikelle to coordinate Halloween themes with her brother. No, I know it is. I barely convinced her this year. Christian and his little baby brother will have to coordinate next year.

After not being successful with my 2 ideas for Christian's 80s-themed costume, we got our 80s theme together with Mikelle as an 80s Valley girl, and Christian as the red Pac-Man ghost, Blinky.

And Christian, pre-costume:

California Vacation 2010!

Part I -Santa Ynez Valley (Santa Barbara-Solvang)
July 17-18

We returned on 7/21 from our vacation to California. We wanted to take the kids to Legoland, north of San Diego. But I wanted to start out in the Santa Barbara area. I had never been there, and I wanted to go somewhere I hadn't been. We stayed in Solvang, which is about 45 minutes from Santa Barbara. It's a rather quaint and authentic Danish town in the Santa Ynez Valley. Being that Chris's side of the family is rich in Danish history (Chris is close to being half Danish), this seemed more than appropriate to spend our first part of the vacation. And Legos and Legoland originated in Denmark, so it wall wrapped together!

The picture on the top left is where we had lunch in Solvang on July 17th. Yummy meatballs and other Danish food! Well, being that I'm pregnant and still not feeling too hot, I didn't opt for exploring foreign food. I stuck with a club sandwhich and fries.

Our cute little hotel in Solvang:
Across the street and down the way, in front of this little hotel, the kids got into the fun. You can see Mikelle's feet at the bottom of Christian's picture. Mikelle wasn't too thrilled that he had to stand on top of her for us to achieve the picture.

I had to laugh though. Solvang and Santa Barbara were experiencing a what they called a "heat wave", apparently (upper 80s at the most) and their papers referred to it as 'scorching' and 'baking'. Now that was funny. We loved the cooler weather (which was most of the reason we left town)! Sure, there were moments that I needed shade, but once in the shade, it felt great! Scorching and baking? Pul-leeze. Those people don't know how good they have it.

The Santa Ynez Valley is a beautiful place. It would have been nice to see more clouds there, but plenty of that waited for us in San Diego.

While in Santa Barbara, the kids enjoyed two of the beaches. The first one was Carpinteria, just east of Santa Barbara, and then East Beach in Santa Barbara. Carpinteria has calmer waves, thanks to an offshore reef. We opted for the kids to play at that one - especially since Mikelle had a bad and scary experience back in 2005 at an LA beach. She was apprehensive at first, but as you can see, she "accumulated" just fine to the fun!

Carpinteria Beach - 7/17/10

East Beach - 7/18/10

Since the next day was Sunday, we told the kids we were going to the beach, but not to really play around too much. We were eventually going to get down to San Diego that day. You can see the little bit that they got away with. I also wanted Mikelle to see the difference in the waves, so she could see how some are a little more "dicey" than others. East Beach waves were definitely more appropriate for surfing and had larger waves.


As we left Solvang, headed down Santa Barbara and then ultimately San Diego on 7/18, we stopped for this photo op near Solvang in Buellton. The night before we ate here:



Next destination? San Diego-Legoland! Stay tuned for Part II!

Independence Day 2010

Independence Day Celebration 7/3/10

Even though we don't have much family around anymore, we are fortunate that Chris's cousin Brandon lives nearby. His daughter graduated high school a month ago and we attended a big graduation party for her. Then just last Saturday (7/3) we attended their annual Fourth of July party. It's kind of surreal being there because even though I didn't know Brandon and his wife Amy in high school, they were just a year ahead of me and we attended the same HS (however, Chris lived in Tempe and I didn't meet him until after high school).

Therefore, at their big parties, I catch glimpses of familiar faces from high school plus Chris's other cousins and aunts and uncles at these parties. It's quite refreshing for our state of loneliness we often feel for having virtually our whole immediate family move away from the area, to have these gatherings to attend! Here are some snapshots of us from the party:

It's hard for me to write on the blog in the summer because I swear I have the summer equivalent of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). It mostly affects people in cold, gray climates and their winters are tough. The opposite is true for me. I welcome clouds, rain and cooler temps. The summers here make me depressed, angry and stir-crazy. It's for that reason I am not a big Independence Day fan. It just doesn't occur at a good time of year!

If I moved to Oregon tomorrow, I wouldn't be negatively effected by the grayer winters and frequent rains. I am certain. I crave the green and softer diffused light. And I crave crossing rivers and streams that actually have water in them. This AZ climate has never been for me. I feel so couped up in this "cave" during the summers and even if it wasn't so hot, the constant sunlight gets to me. I know I've covered this on other entries, so I'm not going to repeat it now.

7/14/10
16 Weeks
This week I make it to week number 16! That means I am almost done with Month 4! Month 1-4 are my least favorite. Well, months 1-9 aren't too fun either, but it's 1-4 that I'd like to forget forever. I'm feeling better now, which is unusual because with my other two, I didn't start feeling better until at least week 18. But I'm not complaining!