Beautiful San Diego

We just got back from a fabulous family vacation to San Diego. It was the first big road trip we've done as a family since Adelyn was 4 months old (almost 4 years ago). It was so much fun! We drove to Las Vegas and stayed over night at "Terrible's Hotel and Casino." Despite its ominous name, we had an excellent nights sleep and a delicious buffet breakfast before we hit the road again the next morning.

After more driving, we checked in at our hotel in San Diego and spent the evening at Sea World. We stayed late and got to see all the awesome night shows, including an amazing killer whale show. With help from a bag of cotton candy, we were able to keep the kids out until after 10:00pm. We returned again on Friday to see all the morning shows. "Circ de la Mer" was my favorite.

Adelyn loved the killer whales, that is until one splashed us and we got drenched. It took several hours to convince her to forgive the whale and that they were still nice--they were just trying to involve us in the fun.

We loved seeing the sharks, manatees, penguins, sea turtles, polar bears, whales, walruses, dolphins, and all the different kids of fish.

A lion fish: one of my personal favorites.

Addie posing on this cute little garden bench.

We braved the HUGE San Diego Zoo the next two days. We couldn't believe how much there was to see. Panda bears, koala bears, polar bears, hyenas, anteaters, etc., etc. We were so AMAZED at the variety. We could have spent a week there and not been bored.

My two favorite bugs.

A way cute picture of my three little rascals. :)

Me with my best friend.

I'm not sure what animal it is that we are on: saber-tooth tiger maybe?

The Wild Animal Park was also a treat. We got to go on a safari ride through what appeared to be an African plain. We saw a rhinoceros galloping over the grass, herds of antelope, an ostrich with her eggs, and so much more.

I just love this picture of Addie.

There were beautiful botanical gardens all throughout the park. I especially loved this tree with the striking orange blossoms.

These beautiful lorikeet birds would sit on your arm and drink nectar from a dish on your hand. It was really neat.

If you look close, you will see the most darling little baby elephant by its mother. It was born just this past March, but it had so much spunk and had to nearly run to keep up with the herd.

Ryan at Mission Beach with the kids. The water was a little too cold for my children's delicate skin. Just a few seconds after I took this tranquil picture, they were screaming in protest. But we had lots of fun playing in the sand.

We took a little drive to visit Old Town San Diego, which is apparently the birth place of California. There are rows of darling little shops, restaurants, and old houses. We ate dinner at a cute little Mexican restaurant called Fred's (I know, it doesn't sound very Mexican, but it was still really yummy).

We found a great park while visiting Coronado Island. We let the kids play for awhile, then watched the sun set over the waves while walking along the beach. It was pretty incredible.

How we all felt by the last day. After all the walking, it was definitely time to go home.

Backyard Makeover

We put in a fence last fall so that our kids could play in the backyard without worry, but then we realized our back yard was boring and they had nothing fun to do out there so. . .

We bought a swing set. I am most excited about the awesome deal I got on it: only $109.50 at RC Willey Outlet. They were sold out in one day, so I'm very glad I jumped on it.

The swing set happens to be my kids' favorite new toy.

Every fast Sunday in church, we have had a combined lesson on Provident Living. Over the last few months, we've been working like crazy beefing up our food and water storage, improving our budget, compiling our 72-hour kit, and although I thought our 1/10 acre lot was too small for one, Ryan decided it was also time to plant a garden. Besides a few perennials, we planted raspberry bushes, a few tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, cucumber, and some various herbs. Last night, we needed some green onions for our potato bar and so we just went into the back yard and grabbed some. Now that was a proud moment.

Raspberries...yum!

The rest of the garden.

Ryan also built the kids a sand-box out of the left over wood that was sitting on the side of our house when we moved in. We just need to fill it with sand and the backyard makeover will be complete.
Here is the prettiest addition to the backyard make-over. Lilies are one of my favorite flowers.

Happy VERY Belated Easter!!

I know what you are thinking. It is WAY too late to post about Easter. Perhaps you are not a miserable procrastinator like me. I apologize, but you will just have to put up with a quick post so I can share a couple darling pictures of my little egg hunters.

Grandma Rocque always puts on a HUGE egg hunt. Although she only had four grand kids come over this year, she hid enough eggs for 20 kids or more. Maybe that is her way of encouraging us to have more kids--so the sugar will get spread out over more little bodies.

Um...case in point. But it sure was fun!

Because at Grandma Ostler's, there was about 20 kids for roughly the same number of eggs, my kids think they need to get a little more creative to get their fill. You can see that Preston has abandoned the on-foot egg hunt and resorted instead to racing for the eggs in his favorite set of wheels. We also enjoyed dying eggs with the kids and eating a nice dinner. How grateful we are for our Grandmas' houses!

P. S. The following four posts are also the result of procrastination and I hope you'll forgive me for dumping them on you all at once. :)

Creative Obedience

This is the result of abandoning your daughter while watching "American Idol." I told her to quickly get her pajamas on and brush her teeth (while I remained absorbed in the TV). This was her very logical and creative alternative. Perhaps she thought I wouldn't notice that there were no children in this display of attempted obedience. :)

Slave Driver

I often get somewhat exasperated with the all too frequent pig sty I find when I come home from work. Ryan made sure that this time, the house was sparkling clean when I came home. His method: putting the kids to work. Imagine, if you will, Ryan sitting on the couch watching golf while he enforces his new genius design with a whip...

For the record, Ryan really doesn't own a whip (I'm sorry if I had you worried) and he actually does a pretty good job at keeping the house clean while I'm gone. More importantly, the kids are always happy and well cared for. They absolutely love spending time with their Daddy.

Dinosaur Encounters

It is no wonder that my kids have a sudden new obsession with dinosaurs. I realized that over the last month, their dinosaur exposure has greatly increased. Over Spring break, Ryan took the kids to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. They had a fabulous time.

Addie really enjoyed playing in the sand making dinosaur cities, coloring fossils, digging for dinosaur bones, and watching the movie about how dinosaurs became extinct. She frequently tells the story about the "HUGE meteor that struck the earth" to whoever will listen. Preston thought the dinosaurs were fun for awhile and he enjoyed practicing his growling and roaring noises for them. But after awhile, he just wanted to run through the museum as fast as he could. He also thought it was funny to tease Daddy by ducking under the ropes and becoming part of the exhibits. He is such a little pill!

The happy threesome in their paleontologist hats.

The following week, I took the little rascals to the small dinosaur museum at BYU. Adelyn enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with her good buddy Jaron.

Preston is always so busy making new discoveries that he won't ever pose for me anymore.

Addie and Jaron again, this time by the T-rex skull. Incidentally, after we wore out this museum (which only took about 20 minutes), we went to University Mall and let the kids run out some more energy at the dinosaur adventure play area. I personally am very grateful that there are so many fun and educational ways to spend the day with kids these days.

The Geyser in my Front Yard

It has been over a month since I've posted and over three weeks since this incident happened, but now that everything is resolved, it is all much easier to laugh about.

So, we got our water bill last month: $164.00! Of course, I was immediately on the phone telling American Fork City that there must have been some mistake. I demanded they come and recheck our meter. They came the next day, but unfortunately the meter reading was right...and it indicated we had a water leak...somewhere in our front yard. (Oh, is that why our grass was already so green?) Anyway, so we turned off the water for the day. Fortunately, I had my trusty 72-hour kit water (28 gallons worth) in my garage, so I was able to survive...barely.

I couldn't stop fretting the whole day. How in the world were we supposed to find where the pipe was leaking? And IF we ever found it, how were we supposed to know how to fix it? That night, Ryan called one of our neighbors over to help him figure things out. The next thing I know, Ryan had a glazed look in his eyes (with a hint of boyish excitement) and he told me they were planning to dig up the yard and fix the problem that night. Thirty minutes later, I peaked outside and noticed there was one of those Bobcat back-hoe diggers on my drive way. Yikes! Fifteen minutes later, while putting the kids to bed, I daringly looked out again and saw the back-hoe's huge metal claw hacking away at my front lawn!!! I stared speechlessly and within seconds, to my horror, I saw water spraying 15 feet into the air from a pipe they'd hit. I took a deep breath, shook my head in disbelief, and continued reading "Where the Wild Things Are."

Once the kids were finally in bed, I looked out again and saw that Ryan was neck deep in a HUGE muddy hole shoveling; our neighbor was holding a light so Ryan could see inside the hole. Our neighbor's friend, the one who operated the back-hoe, was at Lowe's getting the supplies to fix the pipe. It was POURING rain, dark, and VERY cold outside. I ventured out to join the fun and to find out if Ryan had any intention of eating dinner. He kept digging, so I decided to just feed him mouthfuls of chocolate chip banana bread between shovel strokes. After some questioning, I found out that the back-hoe had completely broken the leaking pipe (remember the geyser) and they were searching for the other end that they needed to reconnect.

Well, to make the rest of a long story short, Ryan finally came to bed around 1:00am, drenched and freezing cold, bless his heart. It never stopped raining, but they did fix the pipe. After another long day without water, we had a plumber clean out our pipe filter that had gotten filled with little rocks and we got our water back on again.

We are so grateful to our neighbor and his friend who helped us find and repair the pipe. I am amazed that they were willing to stay out there in such miserable weather until after midnight to help us out. I cannot imagine how much it would've cost to fix the pipe if we had hired someone else to do it. We feel very blessed that it turned out as well as it did.

I would never wish a lawn geyser upon anyone else, but this experience has taught me a great lesson about service. I have learned what a blessing neighbors can be during a crisis. It has renewed my determination to look out for and help those around me, even when the circumstances aren't the most convenient. I really hope that I will be someone that my neighbors and friends will call when they need help getting through a crisis. After all, isn't that what neighbors are for?

Addie's Prince and Princess Birthday Party

Adelyn had a very special 4th birthday! We celebrated by having a prince and princess birthday bash with lots of friends and family. Here's Princess Adelyn with her princess cake.

When the kids first arrived, we put crowns on their heads then played "The Prince and Princess and the Pea," where they took turns guessing which of three pillows a green ball was hidden under. Then we headed downstairs to the playroom for balloon volleyball.

After volleyball, we did a cake walk to Disney princess music, then had the children take turns hitting the princess crown pinate (Ryan had to finish it off). Next, we went back upstairs for a clue hunt: "The Quest to Find the Missing Cupcakes." We ate cupcakes, then finished the afternoon with Adelyn opening her presents.

Adelyn with her good friends Jaron and Jaxon.

One happy little princess.

Adelyn, surrounded by presents and friends. All the adults had a blast watching ten excited three and four year-olds having such a great time. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us. Adelyn had no idea turning four could be so much fun!

Adelyn's Favorites at Four

Favorite Foods: macaroni and cheese, stew, salmon, enchiladas, fish sticks.
Favorite Snacks: fruit snacks, pretzels.
Favorite Candy: Christmas Santa Claus chocolate.
Favorite Fruits: apples, oranges, strawberries, grapes.
Favorite Treats: ice cream, cookies.
Favorite Vegetable: carrots, broccoli, green beans.
Favorite Songs: I am a Child of God, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Jesus Wants Me For A Sun Beam, and I Love to See the Temple.
Favorite Flowers: "Pink flowers that are roses and red flowers and teensy purple flowers and weensy yellow ones."
Favorite Trees: apple trees, orange trees, and popcorn trees.
Favorite Insect: butterfly.
Favorite Holidays: Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, Halloween.
Favorite Season: Spring time.
Favorite Shows: Dora, Maggie and "Fergocious" Beast, anything on Noggin.
Favorite Movies: Madeline, Veggie Tales, Signing Time.
Favorite Colors: Pink, purple, and yellow.
What she wants to be when she grows up: "A mommy that feeds her children and puts them to bed and drives them to places like grandma's house."
Best Friends: Eliza (cousin), Amber (Ryan's sister), Kiley and Savanna (cousins), Preston, Daddy, Mommy, and Jaron.
Favorite Books: princess books and fairy tales, the scriptures.
Favorite Things to Do: dance, play with dress-ups, watch shows, sing, play with Pollies and Build-a-Bears, play at the park, make cookies, do preschool books.
Favorite Animals: Cats, horses, and lambs.
Favorite Disney Princesses: Ariel, Aurora, Belle, and Cinderella.
Favorite Sibling: Preston and baby sister in Momma's tummy.
Things She Can't Wait to Do: learn to jump rope, start school, go to Disneyland, learn how to read, ride bike down driveway by herself, drive.

Dying to go Digital

So for all of you scrap-happy mommies out there, I need some advice. I have been a devout scrapbooker for quite some time now and through much time and toil have managed to keep mostly up to date. . . until now. I try and try, but I always seem to remain 6-9 months behind. My kids just grow up way too fast and paper scrapbooking is a very time-consuming process. And with baby #3 on the way, I fear that things are only bound to get worse.

So, here's where you all come in. I need some advice on digital scrapbooking software. Tell me about the different ones you've used, how to get them, how much they costs, and WHY you love them (or hate them). I want a program that is easy to use, has LOTS of variety and lay-outs, and doesn't cost too terribly much. I am still having a really hard time letting go of my paper ways, so please feel free to present your most persuasive case. :) Thanks for your help.

We are Having a. . .

BABY GIRL!!

We had our ultrasound for baby #3 and found out she is a girl! We are SO excited for Adelyn to have a little sister. I am still in shock, though, because I have thought it was a boy this whole time. Adelyn has always been 100% positive that the baby was a little sister, but I kept reminding her that it might be another brother, just in case. She watched the ultrasound very confidently and intently, and after a little while the ultrasound tech was pleased to tell Addie that she was right--it was indeed a little sister. Adelyn just beamed with joy and pride.

More importantly, the ultrasound all looked normal and the baby looks healthy and is growing well. My due date is still August 6, so I am now officially half-way. The pregnancy has gone by really fast. I still have so much to do to get ready, but hopefully everything will work out well. I still cannot believe I will soon be a mother on three! It's crazy! Most days I can barely handle two, but hopefully things will get easier or I'll get tougher in the mean time. We cannot wait to meet our second little girl. We feel so blessed!

My Little Wonders

Preston: 18 months old. He looks like such a darling little man in this picture. I love it!

A nice close up of his cuteness.

Adelyn: 4 years old (almost).

Such a little sweetheart.

Nearly the same as the first pose, but she liked this one more and insisted I buy it too.

P.S. This week was MUCH better than last week. Ryan was able to go back to work on Wednesday and is even able to walk without crutches most of the time. The kids are also being a little bit more cooperative. :) Hallelujah!

Hard Week

This picture about sums up how I have felt all week. As most of you know, Ryan had surgery on Monday. It went well and he is recovering, slowly but surely, but he still needs a lot of help around the clock. The kids have also chosen this week to set some new records of misbehavior, whininess, and obstinance. I am seriously considering checking myself into the hospital (probably the hospital for the mentally ill). :) I'm really hoping next week will be a little easier.

Joy School V-Day Party

For the last several weeks, Adelyn has been helping me plan our Joy School Valentine's Day party. She made all her Valentines over two weeks ago. After working really hard and practicing her letters every day, she was able to write the names on each of the cards by herself. I was so proud of her persistence (it took a LONG time). She also helped me make the sugar cookies the day before. She's become quite the proficient "cookie cutter."

Rebekah, Amy, Adelyn and Dallin decorating their cookies. The kids had so much fun learning how to mix the red, yellow, and blue food coloring to make the white frosting match the bowls they were in. We made green, pink, purple, orange, and light blue. The kids were so excited as we stirred the frosting and watched it change colors.

Rebekah tasting her nicely decorated cookie.

A few of our cookie masterpieces.

After cookie decorating, we read "Olive, My Love," a clever little Valentine's story; passed out Valentines; and finished the party with a game of Valentine's Bingo, using conversation hearts to mark the spaces. Here's Adelyn with her bingo card and the Valentine's box she decorated all by herself at Joy School on Tuesday. All the kids were so fun and enthusiastic. The party was a great success!

Knee Surgery

Would you believe it?! Ryan has to have knee surgery--MAJOR knee surgery. Thanks to BYU indoor intramural soccer, my husband tore his ACL. But the really sad part is that he has been suffering from this undiagnosed injury for nearly a YEAR. Why, you might ask, was this injury not diagnosed? After all, he is married to a nurse. Well, I'll tell you. Did you know you can have a torn ligament in your knee and have no pain with walking, running, or anything requiring only forward motion. I didn't either. So after the physical therapist sent Ryan home after only one visit (saying he not longer needed any therapy at all!), we both thought he was fine.

That was until Ryan just kept getting injured. After jumping up to pull down his projector screen at work, he came down on it wrong and couldn't move it for over three hours. Then just recently, he reinjured it going up for a rebound in a ward basketball game. Needless to say, we had had enough and knew there was something more going on, so I arranged for Ryan to see an orthopedic surgeon. Within 15 seconds of the surgeon entering the room, he said he was 95% positive Ryan had a torn ACL, but would need an MRI to confirm it before doing surgery. And sure enough: a torn ACL and a VERY injured meniscus.

Ryan's surgery is scheuled for February 23. The sad thing is that he feels fine right now. Like I said, he can walk and run straight with no problems. So, it's pretty miserable for him to go into this surgery knowing he will have to be on crutches for about a month and then rehab the knee for 6-9 months before it is completely healed. Short-term loss, long-term gain, I guess. He is so active, it might just kill him to not play soccer for that long, but he'll just have to behave himself for awhile. :) Anyway, pray for him. We are pretty nervous about how everything will turn out.

Mullet Mayhem

So, as most of you could see from our Christmas pictures, my dear little Preston has grown himself a mullet. What many of you probably didn't know is that my darling little daughter (read this with clenched teeth) cut herself one. Yep, almost four years and scissors had never even touched her hair (I was TRYING to grow it out!). And then one fateful day, she pretty much butchered it. She cut it all the way up to her ears on both sides as far as she could reach. On first inspection, I was somewhat relieved to see that she hadn't cut it all the way to her scalp like most children do. But let's be honest, it still looked absolutely terrible because it was still really long in the back.

Anyway, after stewing over how to fix it, I finally had Ryan's sister-in-law (a hairdresser) give both my children their first real haircut, making our home once again a no-mullet household. It was almost a tragedy to see Preston's little ringlets fall to the floor, but Adelyn's haircut was such a relief. Although her hair is MUCH shorter now, at least it looks nice. And I know it will grow out soon enough and we can put it in piggy braids again (her favorite). I still miss Preston's darling little locks though, so I may have to grow his out again too. We'll see. As for my hair (not that you really care). . .well, pregnancy always brings on the bad hair day blues for me (I may as well have a mullet too), so I am getting it done next week--just in time for my hot date on Valentine's Day. :)

Gettin' ready to chop. Adelyn loved this part the best: putting it all up in pretty clips.

Another angle of the pre-cut. Sorry, no pictures of Preston. He was either screaming and moving around in the chair or having me hold him. And of course he wouldn't wear his drape, so we got completely covered in hair.

An "after" shot of Preston. Please don't ask what he is eating because I would NEVER feed my toddler homemade Oreos no matter how much he begged me. :)

Another little picture of his new hair-do.

Not the best picture of Adelyn's new hair cut, but a really great picture of her smile and her creativity. We cut out some hearts for Valentines Day, and the next thing I knew she had glued them all together in a chain (lots and lots of glue everywhere!) You can now see this lovely chain draped across my big front room window. I love it!

Oh, and I just threw this one in for my friend Amber. She gave me this beautiful trifle dish for Christmas and even gave me this recipe. It was delicious, Amber! Thanks so much for providing me the supplies and brains to make it.