Blankets

What would we do without our kids blankets?! They are there whenever the kids need it. Three of my kids had blankets, the other one had this ugly green dinosaur stuffed animal from the grab machine in Denny's

Lauren loved her blanket and always sucked her thumb while she had it. When she was about 5 she wanted to stop sucking her thumb, nothing worked, lemon on her hand, hot sauce, even charging her money. Then I asked if she would be OK without her blanket. Thumb sucking stopped. I gave her blanket back about a year later and even though she is 11 she likes to sleep with it.

When I found out I was having a boy, my first purchase was this blanket I saw at Pottery Barn. I saw them about a month before the ultrasound, but had to wait to see what color I needed. I went strait to the mall after the appointment to get it. Jacob still uses this blanket, though he does go to his grandparents to stay the weekend and can leave it home, so the attachment is no longer strong, just when he needs it when he is sick. The blanket has been with him for all his Dr. visits and hospital stays. The blanket is usually followed close by his dog.

The point of this whole post was that yesterday after I took the older girls to a movie (Soul Surfer, totally worth the money, makes me want to move to Hawaii) Bree was making her way in the house with assistance by an older sibling who shall remain unknown because I don't want this person to feel bad, when Bree fell. No big deal, happens all the time, but she would not stop screaming. I knew after looking at her elbow was out of joint. I did it to Taryn when she was little more than once. All she wanted was her blanket, and me. After calling the Dr. and they would not get me in, I decided to go to the ER. Every time I moved her she would scream. The Dr. in the ER put her elbow back in place, no big deal, but she still would not move her arm. After a few x rays, they ruled out any broken bones. The Dr. then looked at her shoulder, and sure enough that was the other problem. Once it was taken care of, Bree acted like nothing was ever wrong. Her blanket was by her side the whole time. I wish she could have picked a smaller blanket to carry around though.

This how we do it!

This is how we do general conference. I started this game a few years ago, and it just stuck. I was trying to find a way for my kids to watch conference, but for it to be fun, enter the candy game. At the beginning of each session everyone picks a word. The rules with the words are; no names, and no little words such as, and, but, a, the, and so forth. Some examples of some words that the kids pick are; service, love, faith, believe, church, temple, grateful, example, hope. So anytime you hear your word you get to get one piece of candy. Sometimes you can get a dud of a word. Just this morning, Taryn had honest, she was not rewarded with any candy. I had hope. I only received 2 candies. Laruen on the other hand had church and had plenty of candy, and Jacob had love and received a stomach ache from all his candy. The next session is in 2 hours and my kids are thinking right now which word will serve them best.

Bree ate one candy for every time someone went to get theirs, till nap time at least. And yes those are M&M's from Christmas. They don't go bad do they?

MMMMmmmm... Don't these look good? Some should taste really good, and others, well not so much.

My girls think they are getting pranked today since it's April fools day. I don't know why they think that. I have not done too many pranks in the past. Things like a plastic spider in a sandwich when they were little, turning the milk blue, telling them a little fib, but I have never been big on pranks. Maybe they need the attention, and this is a way for them to get it from me. So I have been racking my brain to come up with something, anything to trick them. This is what I came up with. The "candy " with the sprinkles on it is actually cotton balls dipped in chocolate. The ones without sprinkles are dipped marshmallows, so they do get a treat. Hope I pass. I did put salt on the toothbrushes also.

California trip part 2

The next few days were filled with the beach, Huntington beach, and Balboa island. Balboa island was a blast and will go there again. While there we saw dolphins, 3 of them. It made Taryn's trip who really wanted to get in the water with them.

This was the ferry to the island. It was a fun ride there. A very cold and wet ride on the way home.

Jacob had fun playing in the sand, then jumping in them like it was a pile of leaves. He also made sand angles.

We spent our time in Hollywood one day, went to the walk of fame, and to the temple. But what really overshadowed the whole trip was the ride home. It took almost 3 hours to get back to Anaheim. I had such a bad head ache by the time we got there. Never again.

As we were heading home, we decided to stay in Livermore for the night. There was a surprise party planned for a friend that night, and I made in time. I'm so glad I did. I got to spend a lot of time with all my wonderful friends. We had a wonderful dinner, and played boccie ball. It was fun. Then we spent time at the Bills house after so the kids could play. They had a lot of fun with plastic cups and playing cards.

In this picture, Julie, Me, Rebecca, and Gywnne.

This is the kids playing with the cups.

And this is proof of us going on vacation. Welcome home! I had sand everywhere!

California trip part 1

I think our whole trip revolved around going to Livermore to see our friends that we miss so much. We waited to leave till Saturday morning just so the girls would be able to spend the whole afternoon with friends. Most of Jacobs friends have moved away, but he got to see Sarah, with bangs. (That was one of the first things he noticed)

Here are the girls with some of their friends. We went to our old ward on Sunday. Taryn was sick so she stayed in the hotel. Poor girl, she was throwing up all day. The car ride to LA was not fun for her.

Luckily Taryn felt better on Monday. Good thing too, we had bought tickets for Disneyland for Monday. We ran through both parks to get it all in. I didn't want to go a second day. None of the kids really like to ride the rides, we did convince (manipulate) Lauren into going on California Screamin'. She said she liked it but didn't want to go on it again. As the bad parents we are, and we did the same thing 6 years ago with Taryn and Lauren, we tricked Jacob into going on some rides he would not have chosen for himself. The tower of Terror. He didn't cry, but he was terrified. Another kid ruined.

Bree is still to young to enjoy too much, and being the youngest she will probably never go back, cause that's just the way it is with the youngest. At least I got a picture of her as proof that she went once.

These next two pictures were taken towards the end of the night, and Jacob had had enough. He didn't want to be in anymore pictures. Overall the kids had a good time, and we spent a small fortune. Sorry kids, there will be a delay on your braces.

On Tuesday the kids, ALL of them, got to spend the day at the office with their dad. Thanks to everyone else in the office that helped take care of them, brought them lunch, went to the store to get wipes, and a sippy cup. The kids were well behaved as far as I know. They were troopers
and were very patient, all they wanted to do was go back to the hotel and swim.

Stay tuned for part two, when I get around to it.

Happy birthday Lauren, again.

This picture was taken 2004, the last time we went to Disneyland. We will be back there next week. You love the water and to swim, but sand is not your favorite thing to touch. The waves kind of scared you a little.

Lauren played softball when we lived in Livermore. She could hardly hold up the bat, but loves to play all sports, but I think she found her sport: soccer. She looks forward to playing in the spring. I don't look forward to being in the rain.

This picture sums up our last trip to Disneyland. Lauren was in awe of seeing all the princesses, but this was by far the best reaction. They had such a great time on this trip. Now it's Jacobs turn to be amazed, but I don't think this can be beat.

Lauren I hope you have a great day.

You have so much in this world to look forward too, and a lot you are going to say goodbye to this year. Last year of elementary school, last year of primary. Last year of not babysitting. I almost have 2 kids to choose from for babysitting.

You are a great helper to me at home, and are almost very willing to do anything. Although I am starting to get a little attitude from you every once in a while.

Happy Birthday Lauren

Picasa wouldn't let me put all the pictures on the same post, so this will be broken up into 2 posts. These pictures are what Lauren is to me. When I look back these are times I remember. Sorry about the quality, most of these were taken before distal cameras, so they were scanned from scrapbooks.

Lauren was born on Feb. 1st. at 1:30 in the afternoon. She took her sweet time getting here. She was 10 days overdue, and my doctor decided it would be best to induce labor. You broke my tail bone in the process. I was only in the hospital 24 hrs, and I asked to go home. You were a pretty good baby. At the time I thought you cried a lot, compared to Taryn, but after having a real colic baby, you just wanted attention. Everyone loved you and wanted to hold you. I loved to put you in clothing so that you and Taryn matched.

You have always loved bugs. You would want to keep the Roley poly's as pets, but didn't understand why they died. You would just go find some more. You could spend hours outside with them.

This is one of my favorite pictures of you. Your eyes are so big. You were about 16 months old and loved to be outside with your sister. Bree looks a lot like you.

This picture was taken at Aunt Melissa's high school graduation in 2004. Uncle Aaron was in the Marines, and was on leave. You have always loved him so much. He's a great uncle!