vacay journal entry

JonJon, Julian and their Uncle Mark.

Laughing on the way back from the Cheesecake Factory.

Cheesecake factory.

Mom and Dad's back yard.

Cheesecake Factory

My kids with cousin Emily!

Build A Bear fun!

Okay, I need to write this all down before I forget any of it happened.

Vacation:

Saturday morning 7am we pack up the van. We leave at 9:00.. ish... Nick drives until around 11am and I take over, we stop just north of Six Flags at a Carl's Jr for lunch, then we keep driving and stop at a Panda Express in Stockton/Lodi for dinner. Nick drives through the night and we arrive at my parent's house in Oregon at 7am. We hand over the kids and mom and Becca take over while Nick and I nap. Sunday night, my stomach not feeling so well but I manage to play a fun charade type game with all the adults in the house (Thanks BECCA!). Monday, still not feeling so well but we go to the mall where we eat lunch (I had a gyro- but I think its pronounced YEE ROH). Then my mom has the best day of her life! She bought each of her grandkids a Build a Bear. The kids have a BLAST! Nick snuck away from the bear store to buy Julian a lego set from the Lego store across the hall for his birthday! We also went to see the Portland Temple, which was closed so Sarah took our pictures on a nice piece of land next to the Temple. We also went to the local Harley Davidson dealership where Nick bought a souvenier t shirt and drools over the leather jackets. We then stopped by Costco and got Julian a birthday cake because it was his 7th (man I am OLD) birthday! We went back to the house, I made home made mac and cheese for the family and we have Julian a party. Cake and presents and in a rush we tell him the rest of his birthday day is to be spent having a movie night with his uncle Mark and aunt Jessica and Carmen while the adults leave them alone for two hours--- Mom, Dad, Sarah, Mike, Becca, Nick and I snuck out to watch "Inception." Wait, was Becca there or was I dreaming... hahaha. Such a good movie! So on Tuesday Nick and I went to lunch at the Sage. When Im at home, far away from Oregon, I crave their Marinated Mushroom salad dressing. Then Nick and I stopped by the hospital to visit my cousin Christina. She is dying of cancer. She is in her 30s and had two pre teen children. It was very sad to see her so sick. Even more sad than the fact she is dying is that her father and brothers havent gone to visit her. Her sister visited once, for an hour. My mom and grandparents visit her often so they are the rays of sunshine in her life. Then we went to my grandma and grandpa's house. We rode four wheelers, the kids rode miniature donkeys (burritos!) and we bbq'd some burgers. Then Nick and I headed out early to go watch the movie "Salt." It was probably a good movie but NO movie seems good after watching "Inception." Wednesday was my birthday! I woke up at 7am bright and early to be ready by 8 to go with Mom, Sarah, Becca, Jessica and Carmen to go get pedicures. We went to this awesomely cute spa and got pedicures and for my birthay present from Nick, he arranged for me to get a massage. I'd never had a real massage before, it was pretty relaxing. When I went back in to the pedicure area Carmen was green.... Becca and I rushed her back to my mom's house. Half way there Carmen threw up on her seat. I handed her off to Nick, cleaned up the vomit from the van and rushed back to pick up the rest of the ladies from the spa. Then we went to Panera for lunch and then to a mall, then another mall. Becca bought me sunglasses, Sarah bought me a wallet and a bag hook and Mom bought me a shirt and earrings. Then we met up at the Cheesecake Factory with Nick, Elias, Dad, Ryan and Justin. It was so good! Awkward when they came to sing to me, but good. Sarah, Justin, Becca, Nick and I had some good laughs on the drive back to Mom's afterward. On Thursday Carmen was still sick, so was my mom. Horrible sick. I helped take care of the kids and cleaned the kitchen. I think this may have been the day that Nick took the kids to see "Despicable Me." Not a whole lot going on Thursday because Carmen was sick. Friday we got up early and went to the beach. It was a lot of fun! The kids had fun playin in and eating the sand, the older kids climbed the big sand hill, Nick loved going out on the boat and when we were done at the beach we ate fresh crab then headed to the Tillamook Cheese factory. We bought cheeses, beef sticks and ice cream. The whole way to and from the beach Nick did a lot of talking about how much fun those roads woud be to drive on his motorcycle. We got back, showered everyone, started some laundry and then just hung out on the couch. Bryan Adams stopped by. Saturday morning, everyone thought we were going to leave but SURPRISE! We decided not to leave until night. We went to the park, my parents had all their grandkids together at the park and we took some cute pictures, then we went to the upper park to play some tennis. After that we left the two little boys at the house and Dad took the rest of us to pick blueberries. Free, all we could pick blueberries. Nick and I picked 15 quarts between us. They filled 4 gallon size bags. We only fit 3 into our ice chest. We also packed up crabs and fish to take with us. Then Dad took us all to Izzy's for all we could eat pizza and ribs. It was good to eat and be super full before bed time because once we said our goodbyes and left I, for the first time in my adult life, was able to sleep a night in the van. Nick drove throught the night and at 6am I took over and drove while he slept, handing the wheel back over to him somewhere in Southern California. We got home at around 6pm. The timing was perfect! We unloaded our stuff, got everyone ready for bed and we all were able to sleep at the same time, unlike previous years where we left Saturday morning, arriving home Sunday morning only to have one of us be able to sleep while the other stayed up with the kids. Not so smart. This trip, smart. On Monday we slept in, got some groceries and Nick rode his motorcycle. I miss my family. I am still waiting for the time the Lord reveals to us where we are supposed to settle, whether it be here or Oregon or somewhere else, I am just waiting to feel that feeling of, "This is where we are supposed to live" so for the time being, we live far away from my family. I miss my sisters so much. They are my best friends and no one understands me like they do. I had an awesome vacation. Melissa and Amanda werent there. Melissa was in Mexico visiting Gaby, Amanda is on her mission in Guatemala and just tonight Ryan opened his mission call, he reports September 29 to the MTC and will be serving in Lansing, Michigan. I love Ryan! I am very excited for him. On a heavier note.... this morning was the kids' Meet the Teacher day at school and we visited Julian's new classroom, then Carmen's. It hit me when I ran my hand across her name tag on her cubby that she is going to be in school and I almost started getting choked up but then I reminded myself that it's time, she's ready.

Oregon Coast Part 2

My grandpa and his boat.

While Nick, my Dad, Grandpa, cousin and uncle were out on the ocean I was with the kids, Sarah and my mom on the beach playing in the sand. Some of us were eating the sand.

Haystack rock, Pacific City, Oregon.

Isaiah isn't very good at sharing the baby spotlight. Sorry Emily.

And of course, the classic sand burial photos:

Oregon Coast part 1

So when I came across this picture I realized that this is my old camera, the one that Nick and Carmen use... OOOOH that explains the zhu-zhu pet pictures... So these are a few pictures from our trip to the Oregon Coast. My grandpa loves me! I know this because one of the last trips we took to Oregon my grandpa vowed to get me some crab because he knows that I love crab. He tried to find time to take us out to the beach but we never had the time so he paid $17 and bought me a crab but the day we were to leave to go back home my grandma and grandpa came by my mom's but had forgotten to bring the crab and he was so upset at himself and sad that he hadn't delivered. When he found out we were coming this summer he planned with my mom a day to take us to the beach. With the help of my cousin Anthony and my Uncle Brian they took the boat out on the ocean and pulled up a crab pot and did some fishing. Once ashore they stopped by the park to clean the fish and boil the crab, where my grandpa made sure I had plenty of fresh crab to eat. I am so grateful to have a grandpa that loves me. When I was younger we didn't see our grandparents much, from either side of the family, so I dont know how to have a relationship with grandparents. My grandpa was always buddies with my cousins but we were the odd ones out living so far away from them. Food does bring people together. AND now my grandpa can actually hear me speak thanks to his new cochlear implant!

My dad, on his cell phone, in the ocean.

Hi Grandpa Babb! Glad you read my blog! I dont have any pictures of you and grandpa to post but maybe next trip to Oregon Ill make sure to get some for the blog!

Summer Relaxing

This summer we did a whole lot of relaxing! We went to the movies every Monday for Summer Movie Fun and on top of that we saw "Despicable Me" two times and Nick took the kids to see it a third time in 3-D. After our movies we would take our movie ticket stubs next door to Yogurtland where they give us 3oz free per ticket so we never paid more than $4 for our family to eat frozen yogurt! Ive also spent the summer trying the best I can with four kids at home to work on developing my talents. I've been creating levels on Little Big Planet, which I love because it reminds me of my days designing web pages. I've also been doing some sewing. I made Julian some armor because that's what he wanted, he even picked out his own wolf print fabric. I made Carmen a dress using a pattern. My first experience with a pattern and I've decided that I hate patterns. It turned out so-so. Then I decided to make her an apron, from my own head, not from a pattern and it turned out TERRIFIC! I created it to look like a fancy dress. Carmen loves it, but not as much as I do! I should make me one next! This is not actually the finished product, the finished product is much better, I pulled the front middle seam tighter so that it doesnt droop, I just didnt want to have to stop blogging just to take a picture when I already have quite a few pictures to blog about :D

Carmen Photography

I REALLY need to hide my camera better before Carmen REALLY gets an embarrasing shot of one of us. When looking through my memory card for pictures to blog about, I found some that really stood out as pieces of Carmen Art.
This one I call, "Mom's Mess Sewing Carmen a Dress."" These next three pictures are part of a series I call, "The Zhu-Zhu Pet Photoshoot Collection."

(I think Julian may have taken this one. He is Carmen's apprentice)

And this next one I call, "It's Too Late, She DID Catch An Embarrasing Picture of Me."

this last month

Since Im doing a lazy hurry and catch up blog post, this is the last month. We went to the zoo and to the Gila Valley Temple open house (and to visit the Windsors!) I picked just a few of my favorites to post.

Julian, the Genius

Julian received an award, a trophy for getting on the Principal's Honor Roll this year! Here he is with the Principal.

Julian and his BIG trophy!

We are very proud of our smart, dedicated, hard working little man!

Hello! I feel happy! Had a wonderful mothers day! I recieved four boxes of chocolate, one from every child, and a new comforter set for my bed from my husband, and he did dishes for me and cleaned the house and made my day special. Its the little things that add up in a big way.

I love my family.

catching up

I too have been bad at blogging lately. Like most people I keep current from August until December then spurt out a post every now and then until August rolls around again. So I am going to at least post whats going on currently so that I dont forget what my life was like in May, come August.

My sister Amanda just arrived at the Guatemala MTC yesterday and will be there for six weeks before she is let into the field. I am very proud of her and love her very much.

Elias will be 1 in five day! He has been walking since he was 9 months and 5 days old so to me it seems hes been 1 for the last three months. He likes golfing, boxing, playing baseball, chef boyardee pastas and clinging to me. He still wakes up twice a night and I cant seem to get him to cry himself back to sleep until he has nursed :S

Carmen celebrated her 5th birthday last month! Her birthday decoration theme was black and hot pink and before the party Carmen and I prepared chocolate dipped strawberries and pretzels and made 4 mini pinatas. We played a toss game with the mini pinatas knowing quite well that 5 year olds cant catch- how else would we get candy out of pinatas without a stick? She had lots of fun and got a lot of cool stuff for her birthday. She passed her kindergarten assesment with flying colors and we are currently working on teaching her phonograms.

Isaiah currently isnt feeling well. His eczema is flaring up and he has been in pain. I need to be more consistent with his allergy medication and the 4 different creams we use on him. He also has a fever and stomach ache and this morning he said his head hurt. Illness aside he LOVES sports. All sports. He lives to play wii sports and even practices wii boxing on his little brother. Dont worry, they dont actually make contact, they just move their fists around in the air at eachother until one falls to the ground and then they start counting down to knock out. He is also still pretty good at knowing his letters and numbers and is talking a lot more.

Julian is in his last month of first grade! When did I get so old!? Last week we went to the Honor Roll Award Ceremony because he got Principal's Honor Roll! He has straight As on every report card! He is very kind, considerate, sweet and wants to always be and do his best. Today he asked for a Capri Sun. I told him that he shouldnt have another because he already had one. I said
"Julian, do you know how many kids are in our family?"
"Four."
"Do you know how many capri suns are in a box?"
"No. How many?"
"Ten. Now if each kid had two capri suns how many are left in the box?"
"Two. Can you put them both in my lunch tomorrow?"
"No because we need to share."
"Cant you buy like a lot of boxes of capri suns? Like 10 boxes? That would be 100 capri suns!"
"But Julian they cost $2 a box"
"That would cost $20! So next time you have $20 can you buy 10 boxes? I have some money from the tooth fairy I could give you to help pay for the capri suns!"

As for Nick and I we are doing well. I have been a little on the depressed side lately but I think its just an accumulation of lots of little annoyances adding up to one big headache. For one, I got mono last November. Nick didnt want me telling people because he was afraid people would start talking. I told him that no, people would understand that the "kissing disease" isnt always spread by kissing and that he and I know that I couldnt have gotten it that way. Despite being at the peak of my illness I put on Thanksgiving for my family and my inlaws, and made it to Oregon and back for Christmas and it took me months to feel back to myself, yet Im still always tired. Also, my sister Rebecca just moved her family back to Oregon so aside from my Guatemalan sister Amanda I am the only sibling not living in Oregon. I would love to live near my family. Every good woman with a good mother wants to be close to her. I want MY mommy and I miss my family so much. My sister sarah was by my side for 17 years and being apart isnt easy. And- now this is selfish of me, but I dont have a best friend. I see so many friends of mine put aside other friendships for thier "best friend." Now to clarify, my husband is my bestest friend but girls need girl time sometimes. I have lots of friends and friendships but when Im in my worst of days I have no one to call to vent to other than my mom or one of my sisters and Im starting to think they are getting tired of me always calling them. I know, selfish of me isnt it? But then again Nick says I just need to get out more :S I also have been having lots of family visit lately and it takes its toll on me. To keep my sanity I have to be in control of my surroundings and I have to make sure my home is clean and the home is running smoothly and on top of that entertain and cook and run errands.

Today things looked up for me. I woke up this morning and Nick had brought me three muffins from Starbucks. Then I went to the park and had a great time talking with the other moms. Later a delivery man brought me flowers (from my mom, dad and siblings) and then I made brownies and to top it all off the kids were all pretty good today! We all get in ruts sometimes and I know I cant be the only one that feels this way about life- its sad when we get sick, its sad away from family, its sad to feel alone even though we are not, but when the day is over and the sun rises again, there is love and hope.

Carmen Art

I decided it was about time I updated my blog so I pulled out my memory card from my camera and plugged it into the computer to see what I had to blog about. Then I realized that ALL of the recent pictures on my camera were actually taken by Carmen, most without my knowledge. These are some of Carmen's photography pieces:

She captured another photographer in training.

The Self Photograph