Girl Cousins Fun

Last weekend we had a girl-cousin get-together to do face masks and fingernail polish. Not all of the girl cousins were able to make it, but we had fun with those who did. I offered two types of face masks -- a cucumber one and a cocoa one. Every one of the girls wanted the cocoa one. Little did they know they were horrible-tasting ... just meant to be good for the skin. :)

Here are a couple of pics with the masks on. Camille didn't want anyone but Grandma seeing her like this, so don't look at her if you're not Grandma. :)


After face masks we painted fingernails and toes. Kimmie did such a great job on Shayla, who loved it:


Afterwards they played a Ninja game, and my boys thought that was a lot of fun. They were really bummed about this whole "girl" thing and asked when we're doing a boy-cousins get-together. I guess I better get to planning! :)

Miscellaneous Monday

We've sure been busy, so I'll make this as miscellaneous and random as I please. :) That's the joy of having my own blog -- I can do and say what I want to!

So, the weekend before last we went to see Becca's Shakespeare competition. We had planned to go down as a family and also visit my bro (who would then watch the kids while Paul and I saw the competition), but we ended up having fevers and weren't able to visit them. Paul and I drove down to watch Becca compete anyway. The three hours each way to watch her perform her 2-minute monologue twice wasn't too bad. But then this weekend when we went down to visit my bro (a four-hour drive each way), we got a little sick of driving. So, we're staying put for a while.

In any case, Becca did an excellent job! She got two superiors (out of three performances), and an excellent on the other. Her school got fifth overall in their division (out of 26 schools), which I thought was great considering none of them got an award and this is her school's first year to compete. Here she is in costume (which thankfully a friend loaned to her):


We're looking to refinance our home to drop our PMI, and I sure don't like the new laws and changes Obama has made. Now you have to get an appraisal up front before you can even start the process, and since it has to be a government contractor, it now costs more than $400 instead of the $200 it cost before. Sigh. We're hoping rates stay low so we can lock in at our current rate of 4.75, especially since we had to pay for the appraisal up front. In any case, if we can do that, it will end up saving us $85/month ... although in the long run it will end up being about the same overall. Funny how that works ...

I've lost five pounds on my fitness challenge. Hooray! At the beginning of the week I had lost more but gained some back this week. A road trip and a girls' night with the girl cousins just didn't sit well with my body or my challenge. In any case, if any of you are sad you missed the chance you can join in another we'll be doing starting in January.

Paul's work is changing health insurances. Supposedly this is to save us money. I am not looking forward to trying to figure out what doctors and hospitals are covered. Knowing our luck (and from the looks of it this is how it will be) we'll not be allowed to go to IHC hospitals. This would mean next time we have a baby we'd have to switch hospitals yet again! Can you imagine -- four kids in four different hospitals? Crazy! (Especially considering I've loved them all and would deliver in any one of them again. Our first one (GroupHealth in Redmond) closed their maternity ward before Zachary was born; then we moved away from the second one (Overlake Hospital where Bill Gates' wife delivered as well :); and the third one (Orem Community) is IHC. Gotta love insurance!) I guess at least we have health insurance, even though we pay for it. At least it's better coverage for cheaper cost than Paul's last company ...

Oh, along with the refinance we had an appraiser come last week. We're waiting to hear on that today. However, it motivated me to do all the touch-up paint that needed to happen. It was a stressful, short day (not enough hours), but I got it done. So happy with that, because now other than sealing the grout we're done with the upstairs. Hooray! Downstairs we still need finish work and outside we still need to put back up the fence ... but we're making progress ... and loving the space even though it's not 100 percent done.

I feel dizzy right now. What's up with that?

Shayla's potty training is coming along. The poor girl has been dry for weeks, but she holds it so long I'm worried about her bladder health! She won't even go when we put on a diaper or pull-up. I guess that's a good thing, but it's been a struggle to get her to actually want to go. So, we went to the dollar store and got about five things she can earn by going potty. She has a chart, and once she's gone 10 times on the potty she gets one. That seems to be working -- and a few times she's even said she needed to go potty. Before I'd just see her dancing and convince her she needed to go (or force her to go sit down anyway). Hopefully this'll work!!! I'm not worried about her wetting her pants/bed, because she's not having that problem at all. But where in the world does she get this type of bladder control?

I'm doing a digital scrapbook about our Disneyland trip and am trying to finish it by Wednesday so I can use a Shutterfly coupon for $15 off. I better get back to work, because I've got a lot to do!

Dustin and Heidi

Well, it's official -- my baby brother is engaged! He is the last of the eight children to get married, so we are just giddy. He is pretty shy, so we wondered how this would ever happen. Facebook to the rescue! He realized a couple of months ago that he wanted more Facebook friends, so he started thinking back to people he knows. He remembered this sister from his MTC district (who went to a different mission in Venezuela), so he decided to see what she was up to. Turns out they got together -- just to relive old mission times -- and viola! Now they're engaged! :) They both wonder why they didn't get together in the 10 years since, but are sure glad they did now. :)

I took their engagement pictures Saturday morning. It was cold and bright, but I think we got some good pics. My mom and dad can't wait to meet her at Thanksgiving, and in the meantime will have to enjoy pictures instead. Don't they emanate new love and happiness?!?

Soccer is done

I can't believe soccer is already over and I haven't even posted any cool pictures of my boys playing. This was Tyler's first year in a "keep score" league, so I was nervous. That meant he only got to play goalie once, and he stopped the one ball that came to him. Figures the one time he was goalie was when his team was the dominant team.

In any case, I love how he smiles so much playing soccer. He definitely loves this game. Here he is not about to lose out on any action because he fell down:


Here is the smile I have in so many pictures -- love it!


Getting a little more in the game. It was harder to get pictures of him this year because he played on a larger field:


Zachary did really well this year and really got in there some games. Other games he took it easy. They're so funny at this age. Here he is playing goalie:


Here he is on one of his more aggressive, get-in-there games. I love his face -- so serious!


Here he is in there yet again:


I don't mind soccer itself, just how it interferes with dinner! I've still gotta figure out some good on-the-go meals since we aren't about to spend money for fast food -- expensive and not very satisfying for the adults paying. :) In any case, the season is over and they had a blast as usual!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

We survived yet another conference weekend. (I think only a mom would say that. :) My kids actually did pretty well until the very last session, but 8 hours of sitting is a long time for any kid. We also had a few sickies, so that didn't add to the mix very well. But we survived and even got to listen to many of the talks.

One of my neighbors mentioned on Facebook that she followed Twitter throughout the Priesthood session and basically knew what each talk was about before her husband and son returned home from it. I told her I thought that was sad, because how much did these people miss while they were busy typing in attempt to quickly broadcast a message (that would be on the Website soon anyway!)? She said she thinks it helps you remember it more to re-tell or type it to someone else.

Really this just made me sad to think of all these priesthood holders twittering during what is supposed to be a spiritually touching and uplifting experience. Seriously? If you were in the same room as the prophet of God, would you pull out your PDA and start twittering? So really should it be any different if you are at a church watching via satellite? I think it's disrespectful and rude.

Which got me to thinking of this world and how much disrespect is shown everywhere. How do we teach our kids to respect authority, parents, the elderly and EACH OTHER when we are in such a world?!?

I had a friend who taught me early on as a mother the importance of using please and thank you with my kids instead of just requiring them to use it. I think that helps. Also, my kids are not allowed to call each other names, even sarcastically. I hope that helps. I try to show respect for authority and church leaders, as well as my parents, and I pray that my children learn to do the same.

I also limit the use of electronics -- no iPods in the car (valuable talking time), no cell phones until they're old enough to need them (Becca still doesn't need one at age 15, and I'm hoping that continues until college!), and no texting on a teen's cell phone should they get one. Not to say that electronics are responsible for disrespectful behavior, but really don't you think they contribute to it? I've seen way too many people in the middle of a face-to-face conversation stop it to respond to a text message. Or people on cell phones while they are at the pharmacy window or checking in at the dr. office. Must we be THAT attached?

Teaching respect is probably an uphill battle -- and I can't imagine it will get any easier with time -- but I'm not giving up!

To Grandpa and Grandma ...

Zachary drew this picture at school of the three of you. He is in the center. Grandpa is on the right with a heart. Grandma is on the left, and he said he forgot to draw your hair. Love you!

Deja vu

Five years ago I was making dinner when I turned to realize my helper was helping himself to the block of cheese I had gotten out. I thought it was so funny I did a scrapbook page about it long ago:


This week I was making dinner when I turned to realize my helper was helping herself to the block of cheese I had gotten out:


I can't blame them -- I can't grate cheese without snitching some myself. But I do refrain from biting straight off of the block -- that idea was purely their own!!! :)