Just some pics and an update

Emily at her first soccer game. It was around 103 that day which means about 115 on the field. Doesn't she look super grown up? We're not sure soccer is her sport. It's funny. She never is overly excited about going but if we say, "OK, then we won't go" she then retracts and decides she does after all. And then during the first week of school they drew a picture of themselves and she drew herself playing soccer and went on to write how much she loves playing. I honestly think it's the heat during the fall season. We'll see how she does when it starts to cool down, if it ever does!

Emily is doing great academically at school. Her teacher is very impressed with how far ahead she is. She's reading 136 words per minute, and they need to read 50 by the end of the year. She also knows at least the first 500 sight words, which I guess there's 100 per grade. So she's doing well. The only thing is, I guess she's kind of become more, shall I say, outgoing at school. So she occassionally is having to be told to keep it down a little! Not our Emily! Keep it down?

Ally is doing sooo much better. We have an awesome allergy/asthma specialist now. He has been working at controlling her lung function and getting them to perform where they should be. They were saying she was hovering just about 50% and I think she's definilty above that now. I also notice she is more awake. She really needed naps this summer and bed on time. Now she just needs a little quiet time and is still energetic at bedtime. Kind of a mixed blessing there!

The above picture is today. She had to have another blood draw. This one to do a nut allergy panel. That way we can not have to worry about which nuts she can or can't have. So I let her do her hair pretty, wear a church dress, nana met us at the office to hold her this time, (which is special for her and mewe took the girls to lunch at Wendys. I tried to make this a fun time because she's been poked so much lately. She did really well, after the blood draw anyway.

Rylee is a talking machine. Her newest phrase is, "caaaan IIII?" Impretty sure she learned that from Allyson. It's super cute though. Recently she had an ear infection and cold so I took her to the doctor since she had been so sick all day with a pretty good fever. The above picture is her, happy as a clam and cool as a cucumber at the doctors. Why do they always do that to you when you take them in? So sick all day and then BOOM, totally fine? It happens everytime. But the nurse said it always happens, even with her kids. So that made me feel a little less ridiculous. Now she's better and happy. We all are for a change. It's so nice. Now to stay healthy!

30 Weeks

I'm 30 weeks today and so far we have discussed nothing except the fact that we're definitly not finding out. And I think we may have come to the conclusion that we're going to make our loft into a fourth bedroom. But when and how that is supposed to happen is up in the air.

Every once in a while I'll throw a name out at Mike. He isn't too interested in actually picking out a name yet. So here's the "maybe" list. Thought maybe I could get some votes.

Girls
Hadley (Mike hates this name, my fav. He said she'll be call Hagley LOL!)
Kennedy (one we both agree on)
Sidney (Mike also likes this one)

Boys
Andrew (call him Drew)
Nathan (call him Nate)
Any suggestions. Mike hates Quinton and Eli, boys names I like.

Ally Funnies

Ally is our heavy heavy sleeper and because of that, she still wears pull ups at night. We tried a while ago to give that up but she just didn't wake up until morning no matter what we tried. But she REALLY REALLY wants to wear underware. So every morning the first thing she tells us is whether she wakes up dry or not. So here's this mornings conversation...

Ally: Mommy, Mommy, I didn't wet my pull up last night!!

Me: Oh, you didn't. Good job!

Ally: Can I wear panties now?

Me: After a couple nights of being dry you can.

Ally: Ok.

Off she goes. She runs off and changes out of her favorite pj's into new pjs. This is really weird because these are the pajamas she has to wear all of the time. She just tells me it's because the other ones "fell into the toilet".

Later that day, Em finds wet panties on the floor, (BLAH!). and brings them to me. I then check her bed. Sure enough it's wet. This is what I pieced together....

Ally, getting ready for bed, completly ignores me when I tell her to put a pull up on, (she does that if I don't actually check). Has an accident. In the morning realizes, hmmm, this isn't good. So she quickly takes them off and puts on a dry pull up. Seeing a rare opportunity, she runs into our room and declares the good news. She then realizes her wet pajamas and takes them off, because remember, "they fell into the potty". So what does she say when I confront her with the bald face lie and evidence? just a quiet, "oh". And off she went.

I was pretty impressed with the planning and strategy that she put into that. Obviously she needs to learn a little lesson on deception but behind the scenes I was laughing.

Later that day, they were playing outside and Emily comes running in, declaring she needs to "go" now. She said to me, "Ally said I'm doing the potty dance and I need to go potty. She told me to come inside."

Ally is just too smart for her own good I think!

Random Thoughts

We're finally reaching a healthy state in our household. Mike is still getting over the cold but it doesn't seem as bad. He's been good about taking Zinc and he also gets to take all that wonderful cold medicine I can't take so it doesn't seem too bad. Ally had a great checkup at the doctor Wednesday and now only has to use her inhaled steroid for a few months. The combo of steroid and albuterol took 25 mins., not good with a 3 year old.

We've made it through the first week of school. It seems to be going well. I asked Em's teacher how she's doing this week and she responded, "She's been doing great, and boy, she knows A LOT!" Always a nice thing to hear as a mom. I guess she's been a good friend and is always eager to answer questions while she's teaching. Hopefully the enthusiasm will last. What I want to know is, where is that person when she comes home? I think she saves all that energy up for me.

Soccer started last week, taking away 2 of our nights and part of a Saturday. Emily is doing ok. I think she doesn't particularly like the heat. Can't blame her. She's not doing too bad skills wise, however, she wants to be the social butterfly on the field. Doesn't really work with soccer. I think Ally is going to be our sports girl, she is dying to get on that field.

Ally's dr. and I agreed that she should be allergy tested. Has anyone ever done that? I hear it's kind of painful. I feel guilty about the timing. The dr. she's going to is supposed to be a really good one and I figured it would be a wait to get in. Turns out they have an appt. open for next Friday. It's a two hour appt. I feel kind of bad because at the hospital she was poked and proded a lot while she was there. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

Monday I'll be 28 weeks pregnant. I seriously have no idea how I got so far along! It feels like I haven't been to that many doctors appts. but after the 31st I think I'm on two week appts. That is crazy to me. Life goes by way too fast. Emily is dying to know what we're having. This morning she was trying to talk me into finding out for her. Poor thing, she's used to getting to know ahead of time.

I'm ready for fall to be here. This morning, in an hour and a half, it warmed up 20 degrees. I'm ready for long cool mornings and beautiful afternoons. My girls caught on weeks ago that it's too hot to play in the backyard and I'm really ready for them to go get out some energy.

I think that's all for now. Hopefully I didn't bore too much!

First Day Of First Grade

This is the best backpack picture I got. Not sure why she wouldn't smile well with it on. It was kind of loaded down with the required supplies and lunch box. I'm not sure she's used to that.

We managed to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and brush hair and teeth without a problem this morning. I'm hopeful that it will be the norm but I have a feeling it has a lot to do with it being the first day and that she got a new dress to wear. Her teacher, Mrs. Henning, seems really nice. It took Emily a while to learn it only because with my cold I couldn't say it right. It took Nana saying it for Emily to understand it correctly. I'm excited to see what this year will bring to Emily.

As a side note, I was working with Ally on her ABC flashcards this morning and we got to the letter B and for some reason she couldn't remember it. Rylee walks over, looks at the cards and says "B". She then did the same thing when Ally struggled with D for some reason. I just pulled the flashcards out to work with Ally for the first time so I have no idea how Rylee knew what B and D were.

Ry's birthday and S.F.

Rylee turned two on Saturday but we had her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese on Thursday. We had a really nice time and the kids, (and adults), had a lot of fun.

Mike, Matt, Jed, and Johnny all getting ready to play basketball. I think they'er planning out their "tournament" here.

I took Rylee to the store and let her look through the book and pick out her cake. She pointed very confidently in Dora so that's what we got. I think we lit that candle for her 3-4 times before we actually sang. She thought it was hilarious to blow it out over and over and kept asking for more.

Dylan and Katelynn riding the fire truck, one of Katelynn's favorite things I think.

Rylee playing the ball game. She loved it, however her aim was far from good. She believed all of the lanes were hers.

Emily and Tessa, who have had far too little time together this summer due to being so busy, playing on the virtual roller coaster.

Rylee loved the clock ride. We taught her to put her hands up on this very scary ride!

Ally and Bella, always best friends!

The best part...opening presents. She had a ton of help but she seemed to get the idea without the help!

On Friday, Mike and I left for S.F. He had a Simpson reunion he helped with at the old campus there. So my mom and dad, Josh and Devon met us there Saturday to play at the pier. Unfortunatly Rylee woke up sick Saturday morning so we didn't spend too much time doing anything other than the pier.

Rainforest cafe.

Sitting at the Pier waiting for papa to visit the candy store, didn't want to take four kids in there.

Rylee after lunch, she really didn't feel good at all.

Mike and I at the Giants game on Sunday. We went Friday and Sunday and the only game they didn't lose during the weekend was Saturday. We've decided that maybe we jinx the Giants as they tend to have that outcome when we go.

Random Thoughts

Rylee had her 2 year checkup today. She looks great. She really put a show on for the doctor and made him laugh. That is unusual for her because she usually just stares when people other than family try to talk to her. She weighed in at 24 lbs which put her in the 25th% and I forgot her height, but she was in the 30th %. I found that funny since Em and Al were always at the top of the charts for height.

Sitting in a room at the doctors office for 45 mins with an almost 2 year old and 3.5 year old is not a lot of fun. I always seem to get scheduled the first day he's back from a vacation, it's never good!

Mike graciously let me drop Em off at his office so I could go with just two instead of three. Those rooms are very crowded with all of us in there. So I made her take her 1st grade prep homework to work on, gave her a goal and told her she was allowed to read after it was done. Not only did she do it but it was done very neatly and she did above and beyond what I ever expected. Including writing two of her 6 or 7 summer stories she is required to write along with drawing pictures for it. And again, I was shocked at how incredibly neat and well done it all was. I think the summer break has refreshed her for school again! School work got pretty sloppy the last few weeks of kindergarten.

I'm dreading the extreme heat this week. But had to laugh at the teenager driving behind me today. It was easily over 100 degrees and he was in a pickup wearing a winter snow hat, hooded sweatshirt and had his windows down. Made me wonder what he was hiding? LOL!

I've made it to 24 weeks pregnant, 6 mo., today. I'm feeling done being pregnant but not ready for the baby yet. How is that supposed to work?

Can someone explain to me why it is that when I order from Amazon that I always get the first book in the series delivered last? It's so frustrating. If it weren't so much cheaper online I would just go to our local christian supply.

Emily is very very into the Berenstain Bear books right now. We have a ton of them. Mike's mom always bought him the new one when he was growing up and brought home the Scholastic book order sheet and she gave him the lot after we got married. She literally reads them for hours.

Sunday was a great family day. We actually drove to church together, normally unheard of. Then went to a great pool party for the worship team. Then I actually got a solid nap while Mike happily played Tiget Woods 10 for 2.5 hours straight. Then we took the girls to Waterworks, Made dinner, gave the ice cream and put them to bed. It was a good day. Made up for not seeing much of each other on Saturday.

I think that's about it. You'd think with the blogging olympics I would have nothing to say.

Question...

Since Mike and I are on our second "surprise" baby and I've now doubled the amount of children I ever planned on having...Mike and I were discussing him going to the doctor. He "says" he wants more and I KNOW I'm done done done. I can't emphasize the word done enough. So here is our question for you...although just to say, it's all in fun.

If the wife is done having kids but the husband isn't and she wants him to get a vasectomy but he doesn't want one, who should have more pull on the decision.

If the husband doesn't want anymore but the wife does and he wants to get a vasectomy, who should have more pull on that decision?

Or should nothing be done until it is a mutual decision?

Just thought it would be fun to put out there and see what the male vs. female postion is. Don't take it too seriously!

Family Camp 09

We had a lot of fun at family camp this year. It was perfect weather for the beach on Saturday and we were there for 6 hours of fun.

I love this picture of Ally with her big life jacket and Barbie sun glasses!

Every year, Mike's favorite thing is building the campfire. I swear I have 3 pictures for 3 years of Mike starting a fire and they all look the same. He looks nervouse as he's starting this...as well he should! It's a while before it's low enough for anyone to even think about roasting marshmellows on it.

This last video is of Rylee taking her "bath" in the tent in a bucket. All the girls loved it. They went strait to bed after this, nice and clean. Mike and I have both realized that we are clean people. Having the kids that dirty is not ideal. But they had fun so that's what mattered. We can't say as were were upset to come home and have them clean though!

For the Olympics

Since Mike started the blogging Olympics, I figured I better post something. So here is a little bit of boring happenings in my life.

Last night Mike went to Trader Joe's and bought some of their Coffee blast ice cream. It's the best coffee ice cream out there. Unfortunately, it must be loaded with caffine. When he gave it to me at 8:30, I was so tired I was fighting staying awake during our movie. By the time we went to bed at 9:30, I was wide awake until 2 a.m. I guess no more coffee blast unless it's lunchtime.

This weather we're having is way too hot. We don't even venture to waterworks very often because it's so hot to get in and out of there. We might brave it today though, only 106. Yuck!

Is it bad that I still have 16.5 weeks of my pregnancy to go and I'm done being pregnant? Too bad it doesn't work that way, that you just have the baby when you are done being pregnant. I guess people would have a lot more kids though.

My dad watched the older two girls while I ran errands yesterday. It's so nice to spend some one on one time with just one. Mike even joined us for Walmart and Costco. Tonight is a couples date night for us so we get to enjoy and evening just for ourselves.

Over the last week, we've watched 4 movies. Taken, which was very good but our girls will never travel alone. Knowing, which was decent. I didn't like the ending. Gran Torino- that was very well done. Sad, but good. And lastly, The Killing Room. Didn't much care for that one. Thought it's plotline was kind of pointless. I don't recommend that one.

I guess that's it.

Probably not the smartest thing to do outside

Backyard fun

We have been really enjoying our backyard since we got home. I am sooooo much more relaxed during the day when they can get out and run off some energy. It especially helps during that horrible cooking dinner hour every mom dreads. I just send them out and cook in peace.

The girls favorite thing to do out there is to climb and walk along the retaining wall. They are all scratched up from the bricks though. I told Mike he might have wasted his time building a swing set, they're perfectly content on that wall! But they do occasionally make their way over to swing or slide.

Mike and I used the outdoor fire pit we bought last night. We put the girls to bed and made smores. We wanted to try it out before we started it with them. It was fun but we ended up going to bed at midnight waiting for the flames to get low enough to sleep without worry.

The best part of the backyard is that our girls are exhausted and don't usually wake up before 9 a.m. I don't know what I'll do when I have to get up for Em's school in August.

Here are some pictures of the girls playing...

Here's a picture of one of my flower pots while it's still alive. Just thought I would document it that way! It will never last.
Our patio all completed, however it was run over with toys at this point.

The 10 hour playset Mike and my dad built on the fourth. They love it though. Fearless Rylee. She also loves to hold on the the cross bars on the platform and swing. I don't mind her doing it over the slide but she does it above that rock wall and the other side that is just a drop to the grass. Scares me.

She wanted to pose for a picture. Love the hair? They all look like that after a while of playing outside.

They're favorite thing to do is swing. Rylee and Ally especially love to do it. Rylee has no problem being pushed high. She holds on really well thankfully.

Fourth of July bbq at our house. How many kids can you fit around one little kiddy table? Quite a few we found out.

Zach and Jack on the new kids jungle themed bench. Doesn't Jack look huge next to Zach? I thought that was funny.

For Stephanie

I updated my picture of the girls on the blog. I've pretty much resolved myself to having at least one of the girls not looking. So I just choose the one with the least goofy expression!

The highlight of the Fair

Since the rides were to expensive, we let the girls get their faces painted. The lady did an awesome job and did both of our girls in about five minutes.

Last Day of School and Backyard Progress

Emily had her last day at school last Thursday. It wasn't really a school day as much as a play day. They joined up with another class and had a water day with a slip-n-slide, water balloons and one teacher that was chasing them around with the hose which they all loved. Parents brought in fruit trays and healthy snacks and then for lunch they ordered pizza. So here are some pictures...

Emily taking her turn, but she won't ever slide, just runs. She's never been one to slide.

Mrs. Becky, the aid, I loved her and hope she's still helping in first grade next year.
We got lucky with a christian teacher and aid this year. Not bad for public school!


I just thought her stance was funny. What was she thinking about?

Water balloon toss. Her and her partner made on successful toss, then it was over.

Happy dance you think? Not sure, but it looks like one! Yay schools over!

Emily and Hunter on the swings. She's super sweet.

Friday and Saturday

And to our yard. Mike, my Dad, Joel, Jed, Josh, and Will all came Saturday to help finish digging out our backyard. But the day before, Mike and I ran around buying retaining wall bricks, gravel, shed, and "the rotatillar". This rotatillar turned out to be more work than it was worth. First, they give us a ramp to take home so we can unload it. This isn't just a small tiller, it's a pretty heavy duty one. Well, it's raining out and mike can't start it to get the wheels unlocked to get it down the ramp and it weighs too much to carry out. So he calls me out to continuously pull the starter line, (like a mower), because that momentarily unlocks the wheels. On my first pull, the handle falls off and the cord reels back into the machine, unreachable. Mike then realizes that there's a neutral setting and is able to get it down, but for what? We can't use it now. Luckily my dad comes over and is able to fix it. Jump to the next day. Mike goes to get it started, (and I'm so mad I missed it, but my mom witnessed the hilarious scene), and it is waaaaay more powerful than it looks. As soon as he clamps down on the handle to make it go, it shoots out of his hands and is jets across the backyard full speed towards the house. Mike is leaping over shovels, pick axes and wheel barrows trying to stop it and the other guys are leaping out of this powerful machines way trying to save their limbs. My mom said to have captured Mike's face on camera would have been priceless. It did finally stop itself just before our glass door. Mike finally figures it out, although he did jet across the yard a few more times, long enough for the blades to start falling off. So into the truck it went, back to Guy rents where they refunded us our money and sold us the excavator, (something tells me they got the better end of that money deal!). It ended up being a lifesaver, what we needed all along. So here are a few pictures of my dad driving it and the last picture I got of the progress of our yard.


This is what our driveway looks like after working every saturday.

The rotatillar broke, (see story above, hilarious), and so Mike got the excavator
He had a ton of fun running this, and he admitted it this time!

Sunday

Mike and I worked for 5.5 hours Sunday. He built the wall while I took dirt from one of our many tall piles and filled in behind each layer. A lot of work but it turned out so nice. We also leveled and laid out that pad for our shed, which I am very excited to see put together.

Tuesday's work

This is a truck that has a bed that tilts, Joel is kicking himeself for not realizing one of the youth dad's owned this after two weekends of shoveling dirt out of the back of 3 different pickups.

The youth worked fast today. They removed a ton of dirt and dug out the area for our porch.

A couple bumps!

This is where my dad ran into the fence with the scoop on the excavator. He was actually using a tool attached to the bottom of the machine that pushes dirt and he forgot that it was sticking out. It's an easy fix though, better than our house.

This is from last weekends bobcat hitting the side of the neighbors house. Good thing no one is renting there right now! Another easy fix.

This is the frame for our gate, good thing it's yet again another easy fix! Maybe you should have a license to drive these things.

Look how level that dirt is outside. It's amazing!

Anyone want to lay cement this Saturday?