On the move...

I know Matt's blogged and vlogged about it, but I haven't... In little more than a month, we will be moving. Matt has an internship at Disneyland as a Photo Pass, which is a fancy way to say he'll be a photographer. He's very excited! So he'll be going to Anaheim, but the rest of us will not. The kids and I are moving to Arizona, and moving in with my mother! I'm very excited about that. I haven't seen my mother since we left Arizona a year and a half ago. We'll be staying about 5 months. That should be enough visiting to make up for lost time, and maybe even enough to make her get tired of us... I'm kidding.

In other news, I have rejoined the Mary Kay Skin Care Company as a beauty consultant. There are many reasons, but to sum up, it's what is right for me. So if you'd like a free facial, or to buy products from me, call me or check out my website. And don't worry about not being in my area. I have ways of pampering you long distance. I can even do facials long distance, by phone or webcam. So let me treat you like royalty!

We've also decided to really start taking charge of our finances. As part of that I've finally decided on a goal. I want to start an insurance company that covers breakthrough medical technology like bioidentical hormones and such. I was inspired by a book called Breakthrough by Suzanne Somers. It's really an exciting book; I just finished it.

Well, that's it for now I guess. Off to pack and pamper.

Junie B. Jones!

I just finished reading the first Junie B. Jones book to Kael and Elizabeth. I think it's just what I needed to get them interested in reading! It's cute too, entertaining to read. It has some grammatical errors, but you can tell they're on purpose, because it's a kindergartner talking, and what kindergartner has perfect English? Anyway, I can't wait to read more! There are 26 books in the series so far. Wow! Who else has read these books?

Daddy-Daugter Date: Rockapella!

Last night, Matt took Elizabeth on a daddy-daughter date to see Rockapella! What? Who's Rockapella?! For you old fogies like me out there, they did the music for the Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego? television show. Kids these days; no sense of history! Anyway, they decided to get all gussied up. I curled and arranged Elizabeth's hair, gave her a little (no show) makeup, and she and Matt both wore purple. Apparently, they were head-turners and showstoppers! Matt tells me that one pair of older women had to stop and turn around to get another look at Elizabeth, and how she matched Matt! And when they met Rockapella afterwards, Scott, the blond guy, said spontaneously, "That is the cutest little girl I've ever seen!" Warms a mother's heart, that does. Anyway, Elizabeth had a fabulous time. You'll see in the pics below that she got her picture taken with the band, and they all signed both a poster and her program! She felt super special. I'm sure she'll be telling people about it all week! Enjoy the pics!

Sick, sick, sick...

Ugh, this has been a bad couple of weeks. Our family has had a year's worth of illnesses in two weeks. Matt's the only one who was spared, and thank goodness. We can't really afford for him to take a sick day, with him doing his internship and working and giving plasma for extra cash. It started two weeks ago, when Tristan got pink eye. 3 days later, Elizabeth got it. 3 days after that, Kael got stung by a bee, Elizabeth got heat exhaustion and a stomach flu (on the same day she taught herself to ride a two wheeler, see separate post). That day, my throat started to hurt. The next day, Kael had a very apinful stomachache that I was afraid might be his appendix, but it wasn't, thank goodness, and he also got pink eye. A couple days after that, I had a full-blown sore throat flu, Kael got an ear infection, and Elizabeth had a reaction to her antibiotic for her pink eye. A couple days after that, I woke up to everything sounding like it was underwater and an acute pain in my ear - another ear infection for me. Yesterday, Tristan started puking, and now the four of us have nasty coughs. I tell you, it's been rough. Hard on the pocketbook too, since neither Tristan nor I have insurance. I just keep praying this is the end.

Easter

Easter was pretty cool this year. It was Tristan's first time looking for eggs. First we went to the grocery store for an egg hunt there, but it was their first time doing it and it wasn't well-regulated. Kids were only supposed to get a few and then leave some eggs for the rest if the kids, but there was no enforcement,and I saw one girl come out of the aisle with a large bucket full of eggs, I mean, at least two dozen.

Luckily, we had our own hunt planned. We were also blessed with the presence of Uncle Rhydon, who helped me hide the eggs. We decided to have it at the theater, just for fun and variety. Tristan started, then Kael, then Elizabeth. Kael and Elizabeth finished at the same time with finding eggs. Everyone had a great time.

Spreading the love

{Lucky you!}
The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year.

4- You have no clue what it's going to be.

It may be a story. It may be a picture of myself, or a handmade piece of artwork for your living room. I may sew you something. I may bake you something. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch?
Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! LETS PLAY!

Kid updates

Elizabeth: is learning to read. She tends to guess a lot though, instead of doing the phonetics, but we'll keep trying. She's also starting to grow out of 4T and into 5T. Time to shop!! And she did the cutest thing last night. I was sleeping in the family room with Tristan, who was having a hard time, when I heard her crying. I ran out and comforted her while Tristan cried himself to sleep, and I told her how why I was in there, and that I would never leave her alone, when I just couldn't keep my head up any longer and laid it on the couch. She grabbed my hand, led me into my bedroom, pointed at the bed (as if to say, get in!), then climbed in after me and slept with me. So cute.

Kael: has taught himself how to burp on command. As I've said from the beginning, Kael is 100% boy. He's also behaving better since I stopped expecting him to be just like his sister, who continues to spoil me with good behavior (most of the time). Kael is different, and since I started respecting that, he's been better. We need to respect the fact that our children are different.

Tristan: finally has all his baby teeth in, and is done until around his 2nd birthday. Today he is sick with a cough, sneezing, and itchy eyes. He's getting better, though. He adds words to his vocabulary every day, and is always proving to us that his lack of words has nothing to do with his intelligence. He also knows how to put his own shoes on (and likes to put on everyone else's too).

Toothless

A week ago I got my wisdom teeth out. All 4. I was awake the whole time, but thoroughly numbed and medicated. I had the laughing gas (which did not make me laugh, just calm), and they put two shots of novacaine in each area, except the bottom left, which required an additional shot because the bottom right took so long. The top two came out very easy, but the bottom two were impacted and still in bone, so there was some drilling. And they put sutures in the bottom right. I looked like a chipmunk for a few hours, but there will be no pictures because I forbade Matt from taking any. I got an antibiotic and a very nice painkiller that makes me sleepy. I ran out of the pain meds on Saturday, but I still hurt, so yesterday I went and got the doctor to renew my prescription. I'm feeling much better now, and should be able to eat crunchy foods by the end of the week. I'm very happy they're out.

Finally!

I'm finally getting my wisdom teeth out and I'm so excited! Some of you might think I'm crazy for saying that, but they've needed to come out since I was pregnant with Elizabeth, and they're driving me crazy! My appointment is for next Tuesday, first thing in the morning. Yay!

Change is good

Okay, I better post a blog for my poll over there --->.

I want to change my hair color again. Most of this past year I've been a red head, and I think I'm ready for a change, or at least a touch up. So I'm asking your opinion! I've been blonde and brunette in times past, never black or anything crazy, but it's time for a change, and I promise to abide by the poll results, although if it's Other, I'll have another poll probably to determine what color that should be.

And to the person who already voted... please comment on this entry as to what color you'd like to see on my head.

The poll closes on March 15th. I will color my hair that week and post pics.

p.s. I've found, that if you'd like to vote more than once, you may, by using other computers, or sometimes, even just refreshing, if you're not logged in! If you really want my hair to be a certain color, that's the way to cheat.

Skirts for Elizabeth

Elizabeth loves skirts. No, she LOVES skirts. And I can't find a skirt ANYWHERE! So I went online, and found some patterns, and since my sewing machine is in storage, I'm going to pay a friend of mine with my awesome toffee and she will make them for me! I've posted a link to the blogs where I got them here so if any of you want to make some for your girls, you can!

http://www.kukyideas.com/journal/2006/07/tiered-skirt-tutorial.html
http://redcurrent.blogspot.com/2005/11/skirt-pattern.html

I can't wait!

Getting serious about FHE

So a few weeks ago, we decided to get serious about having Family Home Evening. We set aside some money to make a chart (which I'll describe in a bit), and assigned roles. A week ago I bought the stuff, and last night I made it. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures.



I really enjoyed making it! Everyone I've ever talked to says vinyl lettering is hard to do, but I didn't think so. The whole thing took about two hours, including painting. I decided that black and silver were good classic colors to make our family colors, and I chose teddy bears because there is already a teddy bear theme in the birth samplers I make for each of my children. Elizabeth has asked me to do something like that with her name on it, and I can't wait! I've already got a picture in my head of what I want! Woo hoo!

Spanking is...fun?

Okay, so today we were having trouble getting Kael to get himself dressed, and we had tried all the motivations we could think of. On a whim, Matt picked up Elizabeth and said he would spank Elizabeth if Kael would get dressed. It worked! Now, you all may be thinking, what kind of motivation is that? What did Elizabeth think? Well, after Kael was all dressed, Matt put her down and sent her on her way. Elizabeth chased after him, saying, "Can you spank me until Tristan gets dressed?" This was funny enough, but then I asked, "Elizabeth, you WANT to be spanked?!" To which she replied, "Yeah! It's FUN to be spanked!" I swear, that's what she said. I almost peed my pants laughing.

First talk! But so clingy...

So today, Kael gave his first talk in Primary. It was on family. It went very well, he did a great job. The only problem was, he didn't want to be left in Primary after while I went to Relief Society. Ugh. So he ended up going to Priesthood with Matt and I stayed in the hall with Tristan, who thankfully has only 3 weeks to go until nursery.

Anyway, why is Kael so clingy? Maybe I was just spoiled by Elizabeth, who all but pushed me out the door of nursery and hasn't looked back since. But about half of the time Kael was eligible for nursery, he didn't want to go (apparently there was some bullying in play there, in both locations, but still...), and now he freaks if he sees me in the middle of Primary. I can only hope Tristan isn't like that, although, it seems very likely. Tristan is slow to warm up to things in general. I don't know what to do about Kael... ah well, we keep on trudging.

A new bed... well, sort of.

It's been almost 7 years since Matt and I tied the knot. One of the wedding gifts we received was a bed set, from his sister, Vicki. It was a very nice set. The sheets never quite fit right, but it was pretty and comfortable. About a month ago we looked at the comforter, and were shocked to notice that it had so many stains you could hardly see the blanket for the stains. I may be exaggerating a little, but not much; it was looking pretty sad. So when we saw an ad for a bedding sale at Family Dollar, we jumped on it and bought a new one. The set from FD only had the dust ruffle, shams and comforter, so we went to Walmart and got coordinating sheets there: 300 thread count! Nice... I'm including a picture so you can see it. I'm already planning in my head what our bedroom will look like when we have a place we can paint and decorate. It's satin topped, with little green embroidered flowers, and a ribbed section on each side. I LOVE it!!!!